He walked up to the receptionist's desk, waiting behind a few latecomers to sick call. Once they had been dealt with, the receptionist looked up to him and asked, "What brings you here today, sir?"

The receptionist had to take a second look at his uniform.

Before Matt could say anything, he saw Lydia unsteadily walk up to the receptionist's desk, lean onto the desktop like a bar patron and say, "Checkin' ow'."

The receptionist looked at her blankly for a moment, glanced at Matt and then back to her.

Matt also looked at Lydia somewhat dumbfounded.

Lydia looked at him in dull surprise.

Lydia had a bit of a silly smile on her face and talked lazily. Her eye started to drift upward before she shook her head to get herself at least halfway back in sorts.

The receptionist interrupted them, saying, "Okay, Lieutenant Han, you're free to go. Don't forget to stop by the dispensary for your prescription and we'll be seeing you again next Wednesday at zero-seven-hundred."

Lydia gave the receptionist a sloppy left-handed salute.

She started to walk away from the desk, but then turned back and asked, "Hey, can I see Curly, I mean, LT Trifkoveesh. 'N' don' gimme no lip 'bow' chain o' command neither. I'm 'er fligh' leader."

The way Lydia was slurring her speech concerned Matt a bit.

The receptionist interrupted them again.

She slung her arm around Matt's shoulder and leaned into him. Matt couldn't help blushing a little, but he reached around to her other side to help stabilize her.

Embarrassing as it was, Matt complied and moved his hand down along the crest of her hip.

Matt had his doubts, but he had to trust that her doctor would not have discharged her before it was safe to do so. With a nod to the receptionist, he guided Lydia over to the dispensary to get her prescription filled. While they were standing in line, two MAs came into Sickbay and walked up to them.

Lydia glanced over one shoulder, then the next, before whispering to Matt, "Coun'erclockwise forry-five, Cav. I can' see."

Even though it sounded more like 'can', Matt knew she meant 'can't' and turned her so she could see the MAs better.

Once she realized who it was, she grimaced and mumbled, "Wha's i' abou' seein' you tha' th' MAs come fer me, Cav?"

Lydia groaned. Matt looked at her and then to the MAs.

The lead MA sighed.

Matt nodded to them and the two MAs left. Lydia was mumbling incoherently to herself. When it was her turn, the pharmacy tech gave the two of them a critical look before saying, "Name and last four."

The pharmacy tech played around with his terminal a bit before disappearing briefly and returning with a bottle of pills.

Lydia reached into her pocket, presumably for her wallet, but stopped halfway.

The pharmacy tech gave them a funny look. Lydia glared at him and shot and accusing finger at him from over Matt's shoulder.

While Lydia continued to ramble, Matt pulled her wallet out of her pocket, reaching in no deeper than he absolutely had to. Taking out her ID card, he handed it to the pharmacy tech, who swiped it and gave it back with a sack containing the bottle of medication.

The pharmacy tech snapped his fingers to get Lydia's attention.

She was a bit slow and plodding and fairly wobbly as well, but she was still supporting most of her own weight, so it was not all that trying for Matt to walk her to her room. The fact that the air wing's berths and Sickbay were on the same deck also helped. He kept Lydia's ID out so he could swipe her into Officers' Country and her room.

Male personnel were prohibited from entering a female berthing space unless it was absolutely necessary. While the situation may not have qualified as absolute necessity, Matt had no intention of just abandoning her at the door. It was a fortunate thing he was conscientious enough to ring the door chime first because when the door opened, he was met by an Indian woman wrapped only in a towel. Matt could feel himself turn bright red and though she had a fairly dark complexion, she noticeably blushed as well.

The door immediately shut between them and the speaker squawked, "Who the hell are you!?"

Matt pressed the button to answer, but Lydia interrupted him before he could even open his mouth, "Lemme in, Bollywood, ya damn Tweedy!"

Matt tried to shush her before she brought out everyone in Officers' Country. Through the speaker, he said, "I'm terribly sorry about that, but Nyx—Lieutenant Han—was just discharged from Sickbay and I'm just bringing her to her room."

After a moment, the speaker replied, "Alright, give me a minute to get dressed first."

While they waited, Lydia went back to babbling incoherently, though 'damn Tweedy' seemed to come up a lot. The door eventually opened and the woman was now fully dressed in a flight suit and had her hair pinned up.

Surprisingly, the woman did go to attention.

Lydia eyed Lieutenant Bhakta and mumbled, "Damn Bollywood thinkin' yew can seduce mah wing buddy wi' yer bony ass." She chuckled to herself. "Ah, who'm I kiddin'? Ya got a decent ass, Bollywood. No' as cu'e as Xiaoxiao's, though. Lil' munchkin's so goddamn cu'e..."

Lieutenant Bhakta looked at Matt curiously.

Lydia made a feeble punch at the air with the arm slung over Matt's shoulder.

Lieutenant Bhakta clearly had no interest in prying any further and said, "I'll take your word for, sir. I need to get going now, so by your leave, sir."

Matt stepped aside so the Lieutenant could leave and then walked in.

Matt guided Lydia to her rack and eased her down. Once she was seated on her rack, Matt let go and straightened himself up.

He helped her lie down on her uninjured side. For some reason she insisted on lying backward in her rack. When she was settled, Matt looked around the room and found a little trash can near one of the desks and set it down on the deck near Lydia's head.

Matt interrupted her before she could go off on another tirade against the MAs.

Matt could only sigh. Sometimes it really did seem like Lydia resented his efforts to help her more than anything else. This was probably his cue to leave. As he started to walk to the door, Lydia spoke up in a low voice.

Matt realized she was talking about Commander Joachim, more or less quoting something he had said. It seemed like ages ago since they went undercover with him. Matt then realized that the last time he saw the Commander was back in June after the Seven Deadlies were captured. He looked so terrible then. Matt wondered how he was doing now.

His thoughts were interrupted by a petite Chinese woman walking into the room from the side door, which was apparently the lavatory because like Lieutenant Bhakta before her, she was clad only in a towel. Seeing a strange man in her room, it was little surprise when she screamed. Unfortunately, in her surprise, she forgot to hold onto her towel.

Matt quickly averted his eyes, feeling himself flush in embarrassment. Lydia burst in raucous laughter at the scene, but it did not last long. Side-splitting humor becomes less amusing when you have an actual split side.

She walked into Sickbay and went right to the reception desk.

She pulled out her ID card and the receptionist swiped it.

Handing back Lydia's ID, the receptionist gestured to the waiting area and said, "Wait here a moment and a nurse will escort you."

She took a seat in the waiting area and fiddled with her PersCom until a nurse called out, "Lieutenant Han?"

Lydia stood up.

The nurse motioned for her to follow.

They went to Sickbay's Alpha Wing, where Lydia herself had been a patient for a month. In fact, the single Trifkovic was being treated in was just next door to the one Lydia had stayed in.

The nurse peeked into the room first, saying, "Lieutenant Trifkovic? It's Nurse Rodrigues. Is okay for me to come in? I have a visitor for you."

The nurse motioned for Lydia to follow her in. Trifkovic was lying in bed, looking pale and weak, though not as bad as when Lydia found her in the shower room. Her neck was heavily bandaged, of course. She seemed only half-awake, no doubt on even better pain meds than Lydia was.

It was kinda hard to see her like this, but Lydia tried to be as upbeat as she could.

That didn't make a lot of sense to Lydia.

This surprised Lydia. Trifkovic was willing to have her own vocal cords cut out just so she could get back in the fight?

Trifkovic pointed to the nightstand beside her bed.

She handed Trifkovic her PersCom. Trifkovic typed out a text message that she sent to Lydia.

Lydia stared at the screen a moment.

Trifkovic started typing again.

Trifkovic managed a feeble smile and Lydia was hard-pressed not to return it.

Trifkovic closed her eyes and sank into her pillow. Concerned, Lydia went to her side and shook her shoulder.

Not even bothering to open her eyes, Trifkovic started working the keys again and a new text message popped up.

That would have to do.

Lydia leaned in and told Trifkovic, "I'll be checkin' up on ya, okay? If there's anythin' ya need, jus' lemme know."

Trifkovic nodded, which was enough for Lydia. She'd let her rest, go take a happy pill and do some resting herself. The Madcaps didn't need to be down two pilots any longer than they had to.

When Lieutenant Wallace showed up, he dispensed with any pleasantries and immediately asked, "Are you sure you want to know this, sir?"

The Lieutenant shrugged.

Lieutenant Wallace held up his PersCom, displaying a personnel file.

The Lieutenant adjusted his visor and said, "The whole thing felt a bit off, so I did some extra digging. Turns out Ensign Iwata wasn't born Shoutarou Iwata. His birth name was Kenshirou Mishima."

Matt was certain he had heard that name before.

He pressed some buttons on his PersCom and then held it up to show a new file. The file photo showed a scowling thirtysomething Japanese man with long hair and what Matt had once heard described as fox eyes.

Some pieces were falling into place, but there were still some gaps that needed to be filled.

Even allowing for that, it was still a highly unlikely scenario. Matt shook his head.

Matt's thoughts turned to the shadowy conspiracy around Lydia and how precarious their position was.

Matt had only heard rumors about what happened on the Ticonderoga. He was not especially surprised that Lieutenant Wallace knew more about the incident, but what was the connection between the sabotage of the ship and Lydia's attack?

Lieutenant Wallace shrugged.

Matt shook his head in disbelief.

It was a grim reminder of the risks he faced, but it was something Matt accepted when he first got involved with Lieutenant Wallace.

Although the gesture came somewhat unnaturally for Matt, he rested his hand on Lieutenant Wallace's shoulder and said, "Keep up the good work, Lieutenant."

Matt did not like to think he was the type to seek out trouble, but it certainly had a way of finding him regardless. As Lieutenant Wallace said, the deeper he got in, the harder it was to get out, not that he had any attention of getting out now. He had little choice but to stay alert and on target, for his own sake and for Lydia.