Kate slept the rest of the day and into the night. Waking just after midnight, Kate heard a young woman speaking to her, "I'm sure you remember me, Kate." When Kate looked at her with a slight frown, she said, "I'm Diana, remember?"
"From the desert bunker?"
"Sorry to remind you of that bunker, Kate, but yes."
"Is Joe with you?"
"Yes, he's up there, on watch, in the Bridge with the captain." Turning on the bedside light, Diana said, "They sent soup a while ago. It's still warm. I'll help you with it."
Assisting Kate to sit, she put an extra pillow behind her back and spooned the thick liquid into her mouth.
"That's really good soup, Diana. I'm so pleased you're here. How... but..."
Blotting Kate's mouth with a cloth napkin, Diana put her forefinger on Kate's lips, saying, "I'll tell you all about it later. Finish this first. Richard asked to be told when you're awake. He said he's not sleepy and he's gone up top to be with Joe."
Flicking her pager open and tapping a key, Diana said, "He'll come down as soon as he gets this." Removing the extra pillow so Kate could lie down again, she continued, "I'm so glad I'm here too, Kate. It's an answer to my prayers that you're alive and well, soon to be back in full health. You, my friend, are really amazing; definitely one of a kind!"
Remembering her journey in the jet boat, Kate asked, "How did you get here?"
"We came by air. They've got new flying crafts on this ship, so new that they're still figuring out a name for them. Something like 'SFPs' as in Super Fast Pods. They're gizmos an inventor down in New Zealand made... they have incredible speed like nothing that's ever been invented before, advanced safety, speed, flight and cloaking systems. The professor on board here believes he can make a chip containing the same cloaking technology to implant in your feet. You will be able to cloak and uncloak yourself whenever you choose."
Kate had closed her eyes while Diana was speaking...
"Are you awake, Kate?"
"Yes," she replied, blinking, saying, "that light, on the arm thing up there is too bright for my eyes..."
Diana switched it off and the area around Kate's bed was much less illuminated.
"Could you bring my back pack over. I've been dreaming and thinking of a letter I wrote Richard, one I never sent. I'd like to read it as I've forgotten much about it. I forgot I even had it until he told me about it."
Richard rushed into the hospital room the moment Diana opened the letter to read it.
"Is that my letter?" he asked, dropping to sit in the chair opposite Diana.
"No, it's mine," Kate said.
"It's addressed to me."
"Shall I read it aloud?" Wendy offered, her eyes wide at the word battle between this pair...
"NO!" both Kate and Richard said this word in unison.
"All right. You need alone time, or, together time. I'll go see Joe."
"Come back soon, Diana, please... please..."
Kate's voice and eyes contained anxiety, so Diana promised, "I will. I will."
Richard took Kate's hand and sat down, picking up the letter with his other hand. "I believe everything you said in the letter, Kate. I'm on the same page as you are..."
"You are?"
Kate frowned, not wanting to admit that she couldn't recall all that had been in the letter.
"What?" Richard asked.
"I need to read it... it's a bit blank to me... must be one of those memories I've lost..." She closed her eyes, asking, "Is it that important? —I mean, is it that important for me to read it right now? —Do you want me to read it?"
"Not if you don't want to, Kate. What do you want me to do? —Go, or stay?"
"Please stay, please. I'm feeling... lost. I'm pleased Diana is here. Did you have her brought here, and Joe?"
"Yes. They sent a petition to be reassigned to your personal care and protection and I agreed that it was a good idea. They think very highly of you Kate."
"I like them, love them too; like a sister and a brother." She looked up at him with the coy look that he had come to like in her, "You're like a brother, Richard. I would like a brother like you."
"That's what you said in your letter, Kate... how did you word it? —Kind of like poetry..." He smiled at her.
"What?" she asked.
"You wrote, 'I'd rather have you as a brother than as a lover' and there was more, much on that track."
"You're not unhappy about that?"
"Well, we're already brother and sister in God's family, Kate, so I can live with that if you can."
"But I really, really want to always stay friends with you, Richard. You and I have history, maybe not very far back, but you and Amma have been the most important people in my life. I think those we choose as friends become very important to us, rather than family that are thrust upon us with no choice of our own, don't you agree?"
Diana slipped back into the room with Joe in toe. Bringing another chair to the bedside, they sat on the other side from Richard who left Kate's question unanswered.
Kate lifted her hand out to Joe. He stood and, taking it, kissing the back of it, then leaning further forward, he kissed her forehead. Sitting again, he sighed, saying, "I'm so glad you allowed us to join you here, Richard. We want to help in any way we can in protecting Kate and you."
They looked from one to the other, smiling before each one of them seemed to be lost in their own, individual thoughts, as though, as one, they felt agreeable, acceptable to one another...
"There are many unspoken words between us," Kate said, "but I can hear them all, well, most of them; perhaps they are the ones I want to hear. Your friendship is like medicine to me. We understand each other because we have faith in the same Lord, our God."
"I have an amazing song, I think it must be quite old, but the singer sings a lot of beautiful songs and hymns," Diana said, "shall I play them for you? It's a really old song and a singer I didn't know sang gospel until Joe played him one evening..."
"Who?"
"Elvis Presley."
"Oh, please let me hear him. I've heard of him as everyone has. He was, like, famous, a half a century ago. I've not heard him sing not ever..."