It took nearly a week before her condition had finally stabilized- and remained stabilized.

Even the doctors who had been working around the clock to keep her alive admitted that they were surprised by her turn of condition. Faced with damages to multiple vital organs, along with the brain injury, the doctors had been less than optimistic about her recovery.

They had even gone out of their way to remind everyone that just because her condition had stabilized, it didn't mean she was out of danger just yet. They still had no clear idea of the possible damages that could have resulted from the gunshot.

Her brain still showed signs of activity though, which was promising.

The following week, the doctors carefully took her out of the induced coma and told everyone the best they could do was wait and pray.

"Be honest, what do you think?" Joseph asked.

Sebastian sighed and ran his fingers through his hair as he stared at the bumper of the car in front of them- traffic was absolute shit today. He wasn't surprised that the question would come up at a time like this, but he hadn't exactly worked out an answer for it. In some way, he guessed he didn't want to think of one; he didn't want to give himself the possibility of over thinking something or only thinking of the worst things that could come from this. The situation was stressed enough as it was... and he'd only be making it even more difficult for himself. But the question was out there now and... he couldn't just ignore it. "I don't know. She could possibly understand that we're not here to demand answers and that, we honestly want to know if she's okay."

"Or?"

Of course his partner would press him for another answer.

"... Or she only agreed to see us just so she can tell us to fuck off and leave her alone."

Joseph shook his head and gave a brief chuckle. "Sadly enough, both of those options seem pretty plausible."

Four days later, after being released from the induced coma, she regained consciousness on her own.

There were no serious side effects.

No lingering damages.

In fact, somehow, her partially-ruptured liver had caused more issues than the bullet in her head did.

She was an incredibly rare statistic- thankfully.

Asides from mild irritability and annoyance, she was fairly lucid and coherent- at least, that was what the nurses had reported. Although, she didn't remember much of anything, which was of no surprise to anyone. The doctors were just surprised at how quickly she had recovered from the induced coma; she had recovered far better than they had anticipated.

The staff joked that there must've been something special about her brain.

Needless to say, neither of them found it funny.

Still, the doctors kept her under close watch for nearly a week more, before they finally allowed for a limited number of visitors. They were quick to state that too many visitors or any unwanted visitors would do more harm than good. And, despite protests from the department, the hospital refused to allow any sort of questioning or interrogations to happen during any of the visits. They, once more, stated that she was still in a delicate condition and she didn't need to be pressured to remember something.

But, she had the power to choose who she did or didn't want to see.

So he was surprised to find out that she had approved their request.

And, after they were hassled by the hospital staff and swore an oath that they weren't going to interrogate her either, the hospital approved them as well.

"Just... don't be an asshole, okay?"

"Why would you automatically assume I would be?" Sebastian asked in return.

Joseph sighed and briefly rubbed at his left shoulder, a gesture he had seemingly developed ever since the stitches came out. It still left a pretty sizable scar that didn't exactly heal cleanly, and there was talk about having a second procedure done to try and fix some of the lingering nerve pain. "Because, ever since Beacon, you've said some less than appropriate things about her."

Right.

"I didn't say that much in bad spirit." he started, although knowing well that he did say quite enough.

"No, you didn't. I suppose you could've said much worse, but still."

Joseph always had to make some kind of lingering comment.

"You'll have to excuse me then- it's not like she put a bullet into you or anything."

"And yet, you don't hear me saying anything about it."

Somehow, he figured he knew the decision couldn't have been easy for her to make and, more than likely, she was just trying to get them out of her way. There was a lot for them to talk about, but he certainly wasn't going to bring it up now. Sure, he still had a lot of conflicted feelings about what had happened back in STEM and at Beacon, but... he wasn't a complete asshole.

He wasn't going to start demanding answers while she was in the hospital. Not while she was nursing a bullet to the head given to her by the same company who had roped all of them into this from the beginning.

And again, maybe she understood that.

...

He was beginning to hate hospitals with how many times he had been here in the past month or so. When he wasn't the one actually committed as a patient, then he was the one visiting- and God knows how many times he had dropped by after leaving the office.

Still, he wasn't surprised to find himself actually hesitating to walk into her hospital room.

They had set up the visit like it was some kind of appointment; there was no randomly showing up at any given time, instead they were to be here at two o'clock sharp. He assumed it was so the visit would be between the nursing rounds and they wouldn't have to worry about being interrupted. And despite having a week's notice, he still hadn't worked out exactly what he was going to say. Then again, at this point, it didn't really matter- it was too late for him to back out.

He half expected Joseph to make a comment on what was taking him so long to go in, but he didn't- he was probably feeling the same way anyways.

Half forcing himself to, he pushed the door open and slowly stepped inside- pausing just long enough to give the room itself a brief look over.

Asides from the standard hospital bed and a few machines, it looked like every open surface in the room was covered in flowers. There had to have been at least thirty vases all over the place- with most of them crammed rather dangerously together on small surfaces. There were a few sympathy arrangements in one corner and a few wreaths that had been haphazardly hung up on the wall closest to her bed.

He knew the KPD had sent flowers, but... it looked like just about everyone in the damn city had done so as well.

And he couldn't help but remember how she had once, off-handedly, remarked that she wasn't a big fan of flowers.

They had to mind their steps as they slowly walked over to her bedside- careful to not accidentally bump into one of the bouquets. All it would take was one small bump and he was certain the rest would go down in a domino effect.

Kidman looked like she was sleeping- probably exhausted from whatever medication she was on.

And she looked terrible.

There was hardly any resemblance to the woman he had last seen at the top of Beacon, standing across from him with her gun trained on his every movement. He would've considered her looking almost weak in that one moment, and yet... she hardly looked as though she could even hold a gun now.

Her skin was almost a sickly pale and she looked thinner now- no doubt the induced coma had something to do with that. Her left arm was bandaged and in somewhat of a sling that was pulled across her abdomen, more than likely from the surgery that was done to correct her shattered collarbone and forearm. There were healing bruises that covered the entirety of the right portion of her face, and it was evident that her nose had previously been broken and her lips had been split apart; in fact, she still had a few stitches present across her upper lip.

Her right eye was heavily bruised, but there were little signs of swelling- so, at least, it too was on the healing end.

But, perhaps the most damning part, was the bandage that was still partly wrapped around her head.

Even after a three-week healing period, it still looked like she was barely surviving.

And he couldn't help but to feel a quiet sense of anger at the entire situation. Because despite everything that had happened, despite what she had done... she didn't deserve this kind of treatment.

It almost made him want to hunt down the people who had put their hands on her.

"Did you come to finish the job?"

He heard her voice first, as faint and exhausted as it was, before he watched the way she slowly opened her eyes; her right eye, which remained partly closed, still had blood filling in the white space around her pupil. And, in her usual fashion, she showed nothing. There was no emotion, no facial movement... just nothing.

Still, he was taken back by the question- of all the fucking conclusions to jump to.

"No." Sebastian answered, hearing his own tone come out more stiff than he would've liked. He was still caught up on the anger and disbelief over this whole situation- and he almost hated this feeling of protectiveness he had towards her. Before, at least before anything to do with Beacon, it was just a mild feeling that he had that he used to keep the other officers in the department from uncomfortably hitting on her. But this... this whole situation... he couldn't protect her from any of it- and he hated it. "Believe it or not, Kid, we actually wanted to make sure you were okay- or at least alive."

She didn't seem to believe him in the slightest sense, but said nothing in return.

He felt Joseph briefly grab his arm and pull him back, as though silently to say that he had started them both off on the wrong foot.

Which he couldn't deny that he had.

"How are you feeling?" Joseph asked instead- attempting to break the set tension and pull the conversation back around.

For just a brief, split second, Kidman looked surprised to notice that the other man was there with him. A short sigh escaped her as she lightly touched at the bandage that was wrapped around her head. "... Well, with the exception of the bullet that went through my brain, I'm feeling better than I thought. A little tired, but... that's all."

Her answer seemed to be a bit of an understatement.

Sebastian silently sighed and tried to keep himself calmer this time before he spoke. "So it's not worth asking who did this, right?"

"This is not the time for that-" Joseph started.

"No, no, it's... it's fine." she slowly assured, as she briefly moved herself into a more comfortable position- which seemed to be a little difficult to do with one functional arm. Not to mention, with the still healing head wound. "Great use of your Detective skills though." well, at least the bullet didn't damage her overly welcomed sense of sarcasm. Then again, if she was in the mood to be sarcastic then... at least that meant she was healing just fine. "But no, you're not wrong. I failed my assignment and there was no recovering from it, so... I had to be taken out. Simple as that."

Christ.

The answer was still hard to believe even when it came directly from her... but it confirmed everything that he had had suspicious about before.

And it was almost sickening how calmly she had answered with it.

"So this company, or whoever you worked for, had you beaten and shot?" Sebastian questioned, still not wanting to believe that that was the entire story here.

"And unfortunately, I survived." Kidman finished, giving him a brief shrug.

This whole situation just... didn't seem to phase her in the least bit. She looked as though she could just casually brush the whole thing aside and continue on with her life as it was. The thought that she could've possibly died didn't even seem to phase her- if anything, it seemed like she was disappointed that she wasn't killed.

He damn well knew that she knew what his next question was going to be and yet... she made no attempts to stop him.

"... Why?" he pressed. "Because you didn't get Leslie?"

A rough sigh escaped her this time as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "It's more than just that-"

"Then what's the whole story here?"

"Calm down." Joseph interrupted, as he pulled him by the arm again. "Give her some space, okay? I know we all want answers to this, but this is not the time or place. She needs to focus on her health first and the last thing we need to do is bombard her with questions- this isn't an interrogation." he paused briefly before he let go of his arm, giving out a tired sigh as he did. "And if the staff finds out that we were asking these kinds of questions, they'll have us removed."

It was odd how strangely protective he had become as well.

But he had a point; they had basically sworn an oath that they weren't here on department business. And while, technically, this was far from being involved with the department, they should still refrain from asking too many questions about it.

Kidman hesitated for a moment and awkwardly seemed to tug at the collar of her hospital gown. "It's fine." she repeated. "I only agreed to speak with the two of you so I could go ahead and get this conversation over with."

He figured as much, but it was still better than her telling them to fuck off- although that was still a possibility.

"I was instructed to kill Leslie before Ruvik reached him." she started. "What you didn't understand was that Ruvik could use Leslie as a means to escape STEM himself. And we... we couldn't risk Ruvik getting out. However, because I ran into some unexpected opposition, I wasn't able to kill him in time." she took a brief pause, as though to let him know that that portion had been his fault. "You were able to destroy Ruvik and ultimately destroy the STEM world, but... it was too late."

"Too late?" Sebastian repeated cautiously.

"Ruvik was able to implant his consciousness into Leslie. When you destroyed STEM and successfully managed to release us... Ruvik was also released."

It suddenly felt like someone had punched him square in the gut.

"... You mean to tell me that Ruvik's in this world now?" he asked.

Kidman nodded. "Something like that."

Perfect.

Just fucking... perfect.

This was the kind of information he would've been glad to have beforehand.

If Ruvik escaped then... that meant that that entire nightmare had been for nothing. It essentially meant that he had never destroyed Ruvik in the first place- just a shell of what physical form he had left. And even then, that probably did more good for Ruvik than anyone else- Christ.

Kidman seemed to tug on the straps of the sling for a second or two before she spoke again- and when she did, she almost sounded reluctant to bring it up. "Not to mention... they weren't exactly happy with me lying about the two of you."

"What do you mean?" Joseph queried.

The man had been rather quiet during this whole interaction- which seemed a little odd for him.

"When my team and I were departing... I lied and told them that the two of you had died before STEM disconnected." she answered, slowly at first, as bruised fingers now moved to tuck aside a straying lock of hair. "I had wiped out the data from your monitors beforehand, so no one even questioned it. If Mobius knew that the two of you had lived, they would've had the both of you killed to prevent knowledge of this incident from getting out." she paused for a moment to catch her breath and rubbed at the back of her neck. "I knew the lie wouldn't last, but I figured by the time the news came out with the update, we would be so far away that it wouldn't matter. Obviously... that wasn't the case. The fact of the matter is, I failed on two fronts and that makes me a liability for them now."

To say that he was stunned by her admission would be an understatement.

He vaguely remembered her when he woke up and he remembered how she gestured for him to keep quiet, but... he had been too out of it to understand what she was doing. And he remembered her calling out to someone he couldn't see and telling whoever it was to leave them behind. At the time, he didn't really know what to think about it all- he just knew that she was keeping them there for some reason.

...

But, in the end, she had been trying to protect them.

And, for a moment, he was flooded with guilt- realizing now that they were partly to blame for the condition she was in now. While that was a bit of a jump considering that they had no say in the entire STEM situation... it was still enough to plague him.

"So what happens now?" Joseph asked. "Will this 'Mobius' come back once they've realized that you survived?"

It looked as thought it took her a moment or two to think her answer over, and in the meantime, she tugged on her collar once more. "No." she quietly answered at last. "I'm not worth their time now."

After all of that work... she was nothing?

"You can't be serious." Sebastian remarked.

"Unfortunately I am." Kidman replied. "I don't have to worry though... in due time, they'll come back around."

Her words were enough to cause him to pause briefly. Was she insinuating that she would go back to them? That, despite putting a bullet in her head, she would willingly go back to working for them? That, despite the hellhole of going through STEM and dealing with Beacon and Ruvik... she would just push all of that under the rug?

"... Why the hell would you go back?" Sebastian pressed.

Again, he knew he was letting his temper slip, but she had to be smarter than this.

She almost glared at him in response, but said nothing- at least, not immediately.

When she did speak though, her voice was firm, but low.

"It's not like I have anywhere else to go." Kidman stiffly answered, fingers briefly curling into the thin hospital gown. "... The only parts of my life that I can remember are with Mobius. I don't know anything else, but Mobius."

... Shit.

He had pushed her a little too hard with that one, he knew that now.

...

She had remarked a few, very rare times before about her lack of memory. She always aligned it to some kind of traumatic experience that she had forcefully made herself forget about in some way; although, once, she had somewhat tossed around the idea that maybe someone had made her forget it.

And right about now, that second option didn't seem as far-fetched as it had before.

Maybe these Mobius people had something to do with her lack of firm memory.

"So... what happens now?" Joseph asked.

She gave a brief shrug once more, suddenly looking more exhausted than she did before. "I don't know." Kidman answered. "I guess I'll just have to take it one day at a time and see what happens."