Birth of a Pilot

Expecting one person, Angelo is surprised to see three enter, along with Roxie. The first is a woman with shoulder-length, brown-ish hair. Angelo doesn’t recognize her at all, but her badge suggests that she’s a corporal. Wait. The patient begins to remember something. Is she the first lady from the video? Maybe? I think so. The next is a younger girl with slightly longer, darker hair. Something about her strikes Angelo as strangely familiar, even though he doesn’t remember seeing anyone like her in Romero’s video. The third person is a man with white hair, red eyes, and a mustache. 

“Are you… Karl?” Angelo wonders aloud.

The staff major laughs. “Yep. And you’re Angelo, I assume?”

“Yeah…”

“Nice to meet you. Alive.” He shakes Angelo’s left hand.

“Nice to meet you too. Th-thank you for trying to help me… I would’ve ran from the Starwalker if I saw it walking near me, too.” Angelo doesn’t know why, but he feels like it was important to tell him that.

Karl laughs some more, embarrassed. “Oh goodness, you saw that… I just wanted to apologize for leaving you back there. I did call for help, just to let you know.”

“I know… And also, you don’t have t-to apologize or anything. Thank you.”

Karl nods toward Angelo with a smile, and retreats past the end of the bed.

“I’m Corporal Engel.” the brunette introduces herself. She doesn’t move from her spot near the wall. “I mainly just wanted to get a look at who piloted the robot… the Starwalker.”

“It’s a really cool name, by the way!” Roxie compliments.

The corporal smiles a little. “Thank you.” She looks back at Angelo. “But I also wanted to say… I’m deeply sorry for what happened. Romero may be the most at fault, but I have to take some responsibility for building it… and defending it.” Her eyes narrow toward the patient. “By the way, how old are you?”

“Ei--Nineteen. I just turned nineteen in August.” Angelo tenses up. He had just gotten used to claiming he was 18, now he has to keep up with a new lie.

Engel looks a little wary, but seems to accept it. “You look way younger, but… I suppose you’re still too young to die.” She glances between him and the girl beside her. “This is Rachel, by the way.”

“Rachel…” Angelo repeats. “I feel like I should thank you for something…”

“You already did.”

Everyone stares at her in confusion. Despite her odd familiarity, Angelo is certain he’s never met this girl before. He looks around the room, and suddenly the orange juice jumps out at him. She’s the girl from the orange juice dream. Still, he doesn’t remember seeing her before he got admitted into the hospital. Does that mean that the dream wasn’t a dream? Has she visited him before?

“Ah..” She glances at the ground. “You don’t remember… How embarrassing.”

“I-I’m really sorry!” Angelo feels horrible for not remembering whenever he met her.

Roxie clarifies things. “Were you the one who snuck in?”

Rachel nods. “I’d apologize again, but you told me not to worry about it.”

“I… said that?” Angelo tries to contain his concern. I said things? Oh my gosh, what did I tell her? I hope I didn’t say anything weird! Why were you in my room?

“Yep.”

“I-I-I’m sorry for anything I said to you if it was weird!”

“Don’t be.” She smiles knowingly, but what does she know? 

“O-Okay…” Angelo has a quiet internal crisis.

“How understaffed is this place if people can just sneak in and out?” Engel looks back toward the door, then to Roxie. “By the way, you’re Roxie, right?”

“That is I.” Roxie answers.

“Jun told me you had to haul Taji’s butt back here. If I knew he hadn’t been discharged yet, I would’ve done it myself. Thank you.” She smiles, firmly shaking Roxie’s hand. “He freaked out when we told him about what happened today--”

“You told him??” Roxie places her hands on her head. “Oh no, his poor blood pressure!”

“He calmed down after we told him Angelo was okay.” Karl reassures Roxie.

Roxie exhales. “Oh… good. I guess he would’ve found out sooner or later anyway, but I was trying to avoid the conversation while everything was still happening.”

“You did a fine job of that. He didn’t know a thing…” Engel glances at the ground, then at Roxie again. “You seem like you really care about your job. You’re gonna do great! I’d invite you to lunch with us, but it seems like your partner left you here to dry.” She shakes her head in disgust at the mention of Aiden. “Speaking of which, we’d better not keep him and Jun waiting for much longer.”

Engel pats Rachel on the back. “Let’s get you something to eat, Rache.”

Karl waves. “Get well soon, Angelo!”

Angelo waves them goodbye even though he’s left completely and utterly confused. He hopes whatever conversation he had with Rachel doesn’t come back to haunt him. Though… something about her telling him not to be sorry fills him with content. In fact, it prompts something in his brain. 

...Could apologize a thousand times and… Sorry doesn’t do anything, but... Don’t be sorry… ...Change?

The patient can’t remember if he said those things, thought them, or if the context of those phrases made him sound like a complete loser. Remembering that doesn’t make the embarrassment go away; it makes it worse, actually. Maybe it’s better if he doesn’t know what he said back then.