a.k.a. Katana

Chapter Fourteen

It was dark inside the room and except for the sounds of the medical machines, quiet. Katana could hear a t.v. on but the volume was low. The room was much larger than Katana had thought.

She had already taken her shoes off outside the door. Inside, there was a curtained off section with a sink for hand washing and robes to change into. Katana frowned at the similarity between the one she took off and the one she replaced it with. This one was actually warmer, though, and longer.

When she was finished, Kokin wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him, burying his nose in her hair and breathing her in. He held her there for a long moment and she relaxed in his embrace. He felt so good she almost started crying again.

They entered the room and Katana met Kokin's mother for the first time. She embraced her and smelled like Kokin's soap. There were few words exchanged, as J'Adok was asleep, and they didn't want to wake him. She introduced herself as, "Neema" which meant mom. It was an honorable title on a planet where conception was so difficult and actually raising children to adulthood was an even more incredible feat.

J'Adok was under a mass of blankets from top to bottom, with wires coming out and connecting into different machines. It wasn't much different from a hospital bed on Earth.

The rest of the room was well equipped. There were floor to ceiling cupboards for the family members' personal belongings and clothes, plush couches covered in a plastic like material, and a separate sleeping area behind a curtain. It was expected that the family would stay and take care of most of the patient's needs such as feeding, bathing and simple things like changing out the ice packs.

Everyone stayed together in J'Adok's room for a while discussing who would take which shift and what would be for breakfast tomorrow. Katana noticed Kokin slip one of the shiny pieces of money into his mother's hand.

She gasped, "Kokin! Where did you-?" "Shhh. Don't ask questions, Neema, just take it, yes? Let me do this. And don't tell Pete." Kokin interrupted her hastily. Pete happened to be in the bathroom at the time. Neema nodded and pocketed the money. Katana saw the look of distress that creased her brow, but it disappeared quickly.

"Anyway, I just got here, today, so let me take the night shift, yes? I just have to go set Katana up." Neema's long silver hair shined in the dim light as she nodded again.

There wasn't enough room for all of them to sleep in the room so Kokin told everyone that he and Katana would take an outside cube. This was a very small place within the hospital with tiny rooms only big enough for sleeping. It reminded Katana of a storage shed with a cheap mattress on top of a box. They didn't even provide blankets, but it was free, quiet and clean.

"Kokin? Do you think that people ever beat up their relatives so they have to go to the hospital and they can sleep in the cubes for free?" Katana mused out loud. Kokin gave her a horrified look. "Shit, Katana." She shrugged, "People might get desperate. I bet they would do it on Earth." "I don't think people do that here." He muttered staring at her intently.

He didn't think she would do such a thing, but it did make him wonder about her. Maybe she was right about him not knowing her all that well. Or maybe she had just been drifting around for too long. Now, she was one of those desperate people she had just mentioned.

He laid the blankets and pillows he had brought with him on the bed. "Katana, I'm not trying to tell you what to do...but may I strongly suggest that you stay in the room?"

Katana raised a dark eyebrow at him, "What if I have to go to the bathroom?" "Well, you can do that, but really go to the bathroom and then come back...please." He said trying to be patient with her.