At least Rebecca's head didn't hurt anymore. That much she realized as she started to open her eyes — but why did the back of her hand sting? It took a few seconds to blink her vision clear and focus on her surroundings, but she could focus. So that was a plus.

But then she looked around and wondered what the hell kind of Wizard of Oz not-in-Kansas-anymore shit she'd woken up to. The room was familiar, even as dark as it was, lit only by a few LED desk lights across from the... hospital bed?

WTF am I doing in Broadway's infirmary?

She must have mumbled something to go with that thought, as someone sitting at a distant table stopped tapping rhythmically at a handheld tablet and turned around. Again, oddly familiar, but out of place.

She frowned and peered at the face before she spoke. "Trent? What the hell?"

Her old settlement's line cook turned Head Chef switched on another small LED light next to the bed. "Hey, Bex. Been a while. I promise everything will make sense in a minute, okay?"

Rebecca looked at him skeptically. "Okayyy... I'll hold you to that."

"I'll be right back, hang tight."

She looked down at her left hand atop the two blankets layered across her, concluding the IV attached to her was the source of her discomfort. It was accompanied by a couple of pulse and oxygen monitor thingies clamped loosely onto her fingertips. Her eyes followed the tubes and wires to one of those pole carts with a drip bag and vital sign recorders on it.

Trent slipped out while she was doing that, so she just mumbled to herself. "Doesn't look like I have much choice."

It wasn't too surprising that her helmet wasn't on anymore, and a quick pat around her forehead with her right hand confirmed she didn't have any new bandages, stitches, or what-have-you. She looked down and realized she was in a different shirt, but at least it was hers. That was encouraging, since she could feel she definitely was in sweatpants instead of leggings now. A quick peek under the covers confirmed they were her older pair that had been relegated to cold-weather sleepwear. Moving her right arm around to do that drew her attention to a loosely attached patch of gauze over the inside of her elbow.

Oh, right. Shooting fools. We won, and then there was the radio conversation... followed by woo, spinny world and stabby skull then thud, apparently. God, I hate that white-out sensation. Whoever invented the term "blacking out" is guilty of false advertising.

She was the only person in the infirmary, which was another nice reassurance. Hopefully everyone else was okay. It was more than a little weird though, the last time she'd spent the night alone in one of Broadway's dark basements was before things kicked off with a certain redhead.

Her dwelling worries about Sam were put to rest when the door banged open and she entered, followed by Laura. Sam rushed to the left side of the bed and immediately slid her hand under Rebecca's, using her other to caress her face. "Hey, sugar. You're awake? Trent said he came to get us right away."

Rebecca smiled and leaned in to her hand. "Rosie. Hi." Sam grinned at something, then laughed. Rebecca lifted an eyebrow. "What?"

Sam nodded towards the machines next to them with her impish smirk. "Your heart sped up when you saw me. There's scientific evidence."

That made Rebecca smile bashfully and look away. Laura was a convenient sight to divert to, but she was shaking her head with a wide smile. "Oh, you two."

Sam lowered her hand to Rebecca's shoulder. "You better settle down, or you'll get me in trouble with the nurse."

Rebecca reached up with her untethered hand and rested it on Sam's. "So what happened? How'd we get here?"

Sam's cheek twitched, and she and Laura looked at each other for a moment.

Rebecca squeezed her hand. "Hey. What's going on?"

Sam sighed. "You've been in and out since after the fight. We talked twice before this, here and in the car. Sandy said your memory might be screwed up for a bit, but that it would hopefully settle out soon."

Rebecca blinked in confusion. She had no reason to believe Sam would mislead her but didn't remember anything since the fight. "Like I didn't have enough trouble remembering new names before..."

That made both of the other women laugh, but Rebecca saw Sam give Laura another troubled look afterwards.

Her mother drew her attention with a pat of her foot. "Sam here is threatening to drag Epstein over to the hospital and fire up the generators just to put you into a CT machine. As it is, if that poor car had nine lives, she probably just used three more getting you here."

The notion of the damaged vehicle moving wasn't helping the confusion much. "But... it was still drivable?"

"Mister Epstein said the radiator was cracked, but we had the cabin heater on full blast anyway. I believe Sam said he could 'rebuild the goddamned engine later after you were okay'."

Sam made a quiet amused noise and Rebecca looked back at her. "Well, thank you. What happened with the wheels?" She also glanced at Laura as an afterthought. "And Sue, is Sue okay?"

Laura nodded. "He's fine. Patrick and Christine are keeping an eye on him in a well-fenced-in yard now that the rain let up."

Sam's eyes had a hint of their old mischievous twinkle in them when she interjected. "I hope all of Rufus' old poop is gone, it's one of the spots I used to take him. As for the wheels..." Sam shrugged. "Those assholes had some kind of cable and spike net across the road that popped and entangled them. But hey, run-flats. Epstein said they were good under fifty miles an hour for fifty miles, so I stuck to forty to forty-five on the straights. Even with the the damp roads, it still handled better than my mom's old piece of shit."

Sam glanced at Laura while Rebecca chuckled. "That's another way I'm jealous of her, Mrs. C. Her own car? And then a good one like her little hybrid?"

"Hah. Well, sweetheart. Stick around and have the intrepid Lance Corporal teach me to hotwire, I'll see what I can find for you."

"See, it's okay, Sam. I guess you really must be part of the fam if she's willing to commit grand theft auto for you." Rebecca sighed and leaned to nuzzle Sam's hand.. "Thanks for getting me here, Rosie. Always taking care of me." A flash of something passed over Sam's face and Rebecca frowned slightly. "What?"

"You just said that a minute ago. Right before asking about the wheels. Did you mean to repeat yourself?"

I did?

Rebecca closed her eyes. Like they needed this. Her turning into an invalid amnesiac. "Shit."

Sam moved the hand from her shoulder up to Rebecca's head again, stroking her hair. "Hey. We'll get through this. Do you remember who was sitting here before we came in?"

This time, Rebecca was pretty sure her vision was just blurry because she was tearing up. She blinked the tears away and managed to keep her voice from cracking. "Trent. Good ol' bartender, cook, and resident wiseass, Trent."

Sam smiled. "That's right. Top of the class. He offered to stay with you for a bit while we tried to sort out everything that we just threw in the back of the SUVs on the road. We thought it would be good if you saw a familiar face when you woke up."

There was a sharp rap on the door, and they all looked over to see Sandra, the nurse who'd ended up at Broadway after all the madness, entering. She shooed Sam to the foot of the bed with Laura, and after greeting Rebecca, poked several buttons on the monitoring devices with only a couple of disapproving noises.

When she looked back down at Rebecca after checking the drip bag's level with a small flashlight, Sandra smiled kindly. "I seem to remember when you couldn't help flinching so much there was no way I'd ever find a vein, until Sergeant Ellis calmed you down and did it for us."

Rebecca started to chuckle, but looked at Sam partway through. "Did you talk to Ronnie?"

"Yeah." Sam nodded. "She sends her love and a thorough lecture. She was about to drive over here herself, but I assured her we'd be home once Sandy cleared you. It also sounded like she was ready to call down an airstrike on that entire area if she had one."

As she walked around to the other side of the bed, Sandra chuckled. "That sounds about right. Please give her my regards when you talk next."

Rebecca grimaced when Sandra first lifted the flashlight to check her eyes, but steadied herself and focused on Sam and Laura at the end of the bed. Sam smiled and winked playfully, which must have made Rebecca smile subconsciously, because Sandy looked over her shoulder exasperatedly. "If you could stop making her eyes dilate wider because she sees something attractive for one minute, please?"

Everyone laughed, even the nurse, and Rebecca studiously stared at a distant corner of the ceiling during the eye check and subsequent blood pressure reading. After a sigh of relief as Sandra removed the cuff, Rebecca looked at her searchingly. "So... what's the prognosis?"

"I want to keep an eye on you at least until tomorrow, and the only way I'm letting you out of here is with the very clear understanding that you will resume activity slowly. No heroic nonsense. Short, gradually lengthening windows of reading or screen time. Once you finish that IV, your friends can roll you around in a wheelchair if you need some air, but if it makes you dizzy, you stop immediately and lie the heck back down."

Rebecca looked back at her mother and Sam sheepishly while Sandra continued. "I don't even want you climbing stairs for a while."

Rebecca shared a concerned look with Sam before replying. "But Sandy... we live up on the fourth floor. I swear I don't even get winded until the third, and it takes going up to Five before I need a break on hot days."

Her protest was met with narrowed eyes and a sigh. "Fine. One floor at a time, slowly, with a five minute break at each floor or until your pulse is back at the baseline it was on the ground floor, whichever one is longer. You've already got your mom here to enforce that, I'll call Ronnie if I have to. After a week's worth of near-zero activity, you can build your way up through gradually more intense cardio over the next three weeks, but back off the instant you get any more symptoms again."

Rebecca sighed. "I'm not getting away with anything with all the people who will be watching me."

Sam nodded. "Don't make me sic the pregnant woman on you too. God help you if her nesting hormones are up that day."

Sandra smiled. "It's always nice when a patient has a sizable enforcement— I mean, support, network. I'll leave you to catch up and will be back to check on you periodically. Sounds like Sam is determined to spend the night in here even if she has to sleep on the floor, so at least I won't need to wake up every hour."

They all thanked Sandra as she left, and Rebecca's eyes settled on Sam — who was endearingly defensive. "Look... don't even start. You shouldn't be surprised."

Laura patted Rebecca's foot. "She even found me somewhere to stay, in her old workshop. It's a little odd — sorry Sam, I just mean it'll take some getting used to the different kind of surroundings. I'm sure Sue will enjoy exploring it all night while I'm trying to sleep, however."

Rebecca saw Sam cringe — probably at the realization of the kind of damage he could do to any semblance of organizational system she left behind. She chuckled, and lifted her free hand as Sam came around to that side of the bed.

Sam took it, gently folding Rebecca's fingertips over and kissing her knuckles. "Hey, sugar. Now that the big meanie nurse is gone, do you need anything?"

"Maybe Allie's blanket? Once I've got this fricking needle out of my hand, having something to do might help. And, I dunno." She sighed. "I have this harebrained theory that it'll somehow help me remember the passage of time, be a tactile record of some kind."

Sam nodded. "Of course, Remy."

Rebecca smiled appreciatively, but then her stomach grumbled loudly enough for Sam and Laura to hear. She realized she had no idea what time it was or how many meals she might have missed.

Sam giggled. "Right. Infinite tangly yarn thing, and I'll go find Trent and see if we can come up with something close to hospital food." She leaned in to kiss Rebecca's forehead, then let her fingers linger on her hand as she started to walk, until her arm was fully extended and she moved out of reach. "I'll let your mom keep an eye on you. Best person for the job, I reckon."

Rebecca smiled and waited until Sam left, then looked at Laura.

"Mom... I'm scared."