Chapter One: The Fourth Member for Kerberos

The infirmary went silent after it had been full of cadets coming to get injuries checked, permission slips signed and medicine for those who weren't feeling well. It had been a long day, but finally the nurse working in the infirmary was down to the last cadet who had come to get an injury looked at. The day had been slow, but there was enough work for her to still do.

"You should be fine now. Just take it easy and ice your foot before you go to bed tonight."

"Thanks Miss Hamilton. Sorry for causing you so much trouble."

"It's fine. It's my job to make sure all students are at their best. Just be more careful." Alannah Hamilton gave the young cadet a smile and then gave him a note. "This will excuse you from your class for a few weeks. I hope you feel better soon."

"Thanks again Miss Hamilton, but may I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"What happened to your arm? There's a giant bruise you have there." The cadet pointed to Alannah's forearm that was sticking out from underneath her doctor jacket.

"It's nothing to worry about. I ran into a door." Alannah put on a smile to reassure the young cadet.

"Alright. Maybe you're the one who needs to be more careful." The cadet laughed before leaving the infirmary.

Alannah continued to wear her smile until the cadet left. When the room was silent and empty, except for herself, she tugged at her coat sleeve to hide the bruise. She hoped that no one would've noticed so questions wouldn't be asked. Alannah gave the oldest excuse in the book for a bruise. When in reality, it wasn't a door she ran into. Unless a door looked a lot like a fist. Alannah's longtime boyfriend, Shane Wittmore, had hit her the night before for being late getting home. She tried to explain, but there's no reasoning with him when he's angry. Most would ask 'why wouldn't she leave him', and the truth is, she really wants to, she's just too scared to.

"Hopefully no one else noticed it. If word gets back to Shane, he'll get mad and blame me for it." Alannah was cleaning up the infirmary as she though this out loud. Just as she was about done the intercom suddenly buzzed.

"MISS ALANNAH HAMILTON, PLEASE COME TO THE MAIN OFFICE! MISS ALANNAH HAMILTON, PLEASE COME TO THE MAIN OFFICE!"

"What on earth? Why would they be calling me?"

Alannah placed her things down on her desk, opened the infirmary door and made her way down to the main office. Cadets were making their way back to the dorms or making their way out for a night of fun. Nights Alannah wished she could have if Shane would only let her.

"It must be nice to be a kid these days."

Alannah couldn't help but smile. Seeing the smiling faces of today's youth made her think that she was doing something to help them along. Alannah finally made it to the head office and as she stood in front of that door she let out a deep breath before her knuckles lightly knocked on the door.

"Come in!" A loud male voice sounded.

Alannah opened the door to see three men and Commander Iverson sitting at his desk. She didn't know what was going on or what they would want with a simple nurse like her.

"You wanted to see me Sir? Is someone hurt?"

"No, it's nothing like that Alannah. Please, take a seat." Commander Iverson gestured to one of the chairs that sat in front of his desk. The others took a seat as well.

"Miss Hamilton, as you might know the Garrison is sending a crew to the Pluto moon of Kerberos. These three here are the pilots, Samuel Holt, his son Matthew Holt and then we have Takashi Shirogane, Commander Iverson introduced the three men to Alannah. All three smiled at Alannah, and Takashi held out his hand to give her a hand-shack and Matt waved since he was furthest away from Alannah.

Alannah took the hand of the man she knew everyone called Shiro. As they shook hands Alannah noticed that Shiro's eyes were suddenly averted in another direction. She followed his gaze and noticed that he was looking at her arm, at the bruise to be more specific. When Alannah noticed this, she quickly pulled her hand away.

"It was an accident. I ran into a door." Alannah gave the same excuse to Shiro as she did to her cadet earlier in the lowest tone possible, so the Holt's couldn't hear. Shiro gave Alannah a rather sad smile but didn't press the matter due to it not being the time or place.

"As I was saying, the Garrison are sending these three to Kerberos, but with the sudden outbreak of cadets and staff members catching the flue, we found it best to send a medic on the mission as well. With so few medics we would like you, Miss Hamilton to be their medic for this mission."

Alannah's eyes suddenly widened. Going to the Pluto moon of Kerberos was so far away and she knew Shane wouldn't approve of her going, especially if all the other crew members are male.

"M-me? Why me?"

"Because Miss Hamilton, you're one of the best medics we have at the Garrison and the Kerberos mission is really important." Commander Iverson handed Alannah a file that said Kerberos in big bright red letters. "Read up on the file Miss Hamilton, you're going to Kerberos."

Looking down at the file she let out a heavy sigh. Her green eyes wore a look of worry. Not worry about the mission but worry about what Shane was going to do once he finds out. So many times, he's managed to keep her on Earth, so he could keep an eyes on her. An overwhelming obsession that her family told her about the moment they met him. Now, in her mind, it was too late for her to get out.

"Don't worry Miss Hamilton, space is a wondrous place and it may be a great experience for you since you haven't been to space yet. We're leaving out health in your capable hands." Samuel Holt tries to reassure the young female medic when he noticed the uneasy look on her face.

"Thank you, Mr. Holt. I'll go over the file and ready myself for the Kerberos Mission. Is there anything I need to know medically about you three?"

Alannah continued the conversation with the three men she was going into space with. It had been years since she had been able to talk to anyone (not alone boys) by herself since she started seeing Shane. Once everything was situated and Alannah knew what she needed to medically know about the three men, all four Kerberos crew members stood up to leave the main office. Mr. Holt and Matt made their way home for the night while Shiro stayed behind. He had a few words he wanted to say to Alannah.

"Alannah, can I speak with you for a moment?" Shiro lightly tapped Alannah's arm. Just Shiro's small touch made Alannah jump, due to her relationship with Shane.

"Sorry, did I hurt you?" Shiro slightly panicked.

"No, I'm sorry. You just startled me. I'm sorry, what is it that you need to talk about?"

Shiro cleared his throat as if he was nervous about what he was going to say next.

"The bruise on your arm, did you really get it from a door, or did something else happen?"

"R-really Shiro? It's nothing to worry about. It was an accident."

Shiro suddenly, but carefully, grabbed a hold of Alannah's arm. Pulling up the sleeve of her doctor jacket. The bruise that covered the forearm took on the perfect shape of a hand. Unless doors suddenly developed hands, there's no way Alannah got the bruise from a door.

"That's not from a door Alannah. It's obviously a hand mark. Is he hitting you? Shane's hitting you, isn't he?"

Alannah quickly pulled her arm from Shiro's grip and hid the bruise once again.

"I'm sorry Shiro, but really, everything's alright. It was my fault anyways. I made Shane mad, so he--"

"Please don't say he had every right to hit you Alannah, because he doesn't. No one does." Slowly Shiro took Alannah's arm once more and rolled up her sleeve. This time when Alannah saw the hand shaped bruise she couldn't help but break into tears.

"No one, especially someone who says they love you, should lay a hand on you this way. Remember that Alannah." Shiro pulled Alannah's sleeve down and with a smile wiped the tears that were streaming down Alannah's face with his thumbs.

"Th-thank you... Shiro." Alannah suddenly embraced Shiro in a tight hug, but just as she did her phone went off. Flashing on its screen was Shane's name. A slight panic about set in when she saw what time it was, but maybe if she explained then it wouldn't be too bad.

"S-Shane! Sorry I'm a bit late. I was called to the main office by Commander Iverson. He wanted to talk to me."

"I don't give a flying rat's ass for your excuses. I want you here in ten minutes, or... well you know."

"Ten minutes!? That's impossible! It takes about twenty to get there!"

"Then I suggest you better hurry."

The buzzing of the line being cut off terrified Alannah. She didn't want to go home now. There is no way she could make it there in ten minutes, which meant she would get into serious trouble. Tears started to pour from her eyes as she fell to the ground.

"Alannah!? What's wrong?!"

"I won't make it in time. He's going to be angry with me. I-I don't want him to be angry with me, not again." Alannah clenched her hands as she started to rock back and forth. "I don't want him to be angry with me."

"Alannah, you don't have to go back there. You can walk away."

"No! No, you don't understand. I can't walk away. I'm sorry Shiro, I-I have to go." Alannah quickly got a hold of herself and rushes to get to her car to make it home. She had already wasted a minute or two with her breakdown. Now she only had eight minutes to get home.

Shiro watched Alannah rush off. A worried look printed all over her face. He knew he couldn't force her, but he hated seeing her like this. He's noticed it for a while, that she would come to work with a bruise or two somewhere on her body, and that when Shane would be around he would keep her in his sights at all times. This was just wrong.

"Alannah, you don't deserve to be treated that way."

Shiro thought as he watched Alannah run off. Suddenly he heard his name being called from behind him.

"Takashi is everything alright?"

Shiro turned to see his partner Adam. It looked like he had just finished his class and had come to pick Shiro up.

"I'm fine. Just worried about the newest member of the Kerberos mission."

"The Kerberos mission? Are you still thinking about being part of that? I thought we talked about this Takashi. With your health, the mission is too dangerous. You need to think about your health and us before this mission."

"Adam, I have to do this while I can. We'll talk about this later."

Shiro put an end to the conversation before it could get out of hand. There was something that wasn't in the file that was given to Alannah. It was something he didn't want her to know at the moment. Shiro had to go on the Kerberos mission, it could be his last chance to before he was grounded. He just had to.

Alannah drove as fast as she could. Getting back to the apartment in ten minutes is pretty much impossible to do from the Garrison. It takes twenty minutes at best to get there.

"I have to get there. I have to get home on time, or he's going to... I don't want to even think about what he might do." Alannah looked back and forth between the clock and looking at the road. She wasn't going to make it. She was going to have to face his wrath once more.

Quickly she parked her car and made her way to the fourth floor to where their apartment was. Right when she opened the door it felt like she ran straight into a wall. The feeling of pain shot across her face as she looked up to see what she had ran into.

"I said you had ten minutes. You're late."

Alannah looked up to see Shane standing over her. His hand balled up into a fist.

"I-I'm sorry Shane. Commander Iverson wanted to see me." Alannah quickly tried to explain through a fat lip and a now bloody nose.

"About what?" Shane scowled as he threw a towel at Alannah to clean up her bloody nose.

"They want me for the Kerberos Mission as the medic. I had a meeting with the rest of the team. That's why I'm late. I'm sorry Shane." Alannah placed the towel on her nose and right away it turned the color red. Shane really got her this time.

"We'll talk more about this later. Go clean up and get started on dinner. I'm hungry."

"Y-yes Shane."

Quickly Alannah made her way to the bathroom and when she saw herself she couldn't help but breakdown into tears. Her nose was bleeding with no sign of stopping and her left eye was slowly starting to swell up.

"I-I don't knowwhat to do anymore. Shiro... you're right, I deserve better, but I don't knowhow to get out of this."