The Decision

Callista's POV:

I start waking up from my small nap after crying on dad's shoulder. I truly miss my Grandpa Snake, for the only thing I have to remind me of him is one of his dog-tags and a silver locket that use to be his mother's, with a picture of him and his mother. I also have a dog-tag of fathers too, along with one of mine, of course. But I gave a copy of my dog-tags to both grandpa and dad as an exchange.

Once I am fully awake, I notice that both Doktor and dad are in my room. Dad notices that I am awake and moves to stand on my right side. Doktor stood beside me on my left side, putting his hand on my left shoulder and asks me, "So it is true you are awake, that is good. I have some good news for you, Callista, that is if you would count it as good news."

"What is the good news, Dok?" I asked with a little bit of hope in my eyes.

"Well with your permission, I can put some up-gradable limbs, like your fathers, on the missing areas on your body." He says. That pretty much gave my eyes their shine back completely and with even more hope.

"Since I know that dad has given you his permission then go right on ahead and do it, Doktor. For I want to be back on the field with dad. But without those limbs, I am more of a newborn wolf pup that can't do anything for the pack than a warrior of Justice." I tell him with a straight face.

"You are right and since you are in a rush then I can do the procedure in two days. But you have to rest your body for eleven days, so that way your body can get use to the new limbs." He said.

I nod in agreement. Then I grab dad's hand, Doktor notices this and nods his answer to the unasked question. He looks over to dad and said, "Seems like Callista wants you to be in the room for when I do this."

Dad looks to me and squeezes my hand twice telling me that he agrees to my request. At the same time dad and I say to Doktor, "Let's do this."

Raiden's POV:

Doktor then leaves the room for a few seconds and come back with some disposable scrubs for me to change into. I grab them, then he leaves to go get changed into his scrubs for the procedure. I went into the bathroom which is connected to Marie's room and change into the scrubs.

Once I come out of the bathroom, I place my original clothes on the movable table beside my daughter's bed. Then I move over to Marie's bed and hold her hand until Doktor comes back. I look at Marie and right before I could say something, she speaks up.

"Dad, the reason why I want to do this is because like I have said before I do not want to feel like a newborn wolf pup anymore. I want to feel like I am a part of the pack which you are in dad, along with everyone else. I do not care what the consequence is in the end, as long as I am doing it for Justice that is all that matters. I am your daughter, blood related or not. I am part of this family." She say with a confident voice.

"I am proud of you and like you said blood related or not, you are my daughter. I am proud to be your father. No matter how difficult life will bring us, we will get through this together as family." I said to her as I bend down a little and give her a side hug.

I hear sniffles coming from the doorway and see Doktor, in his surgical scrubs, wiping tears away from his eyes. "That is so precious about the bond between you two. It almost makes me jealous that I don't have a daughter of my own or a family at the same manner. But enough of this for we have a procedure to go underway." he said.

I agree with Doktor, I put one hand under Marie's legs and the other behind her back. I lifted her up in my arms and follow Doktor to the surgical room with her vital machine. Marie puts her head on my shoulder, I look down at her face and kiss her forehead. She looks up at me and smile, then lay her head back on my shoulder. I looked back up and continue to follow after Doktor to the surgical room.

Once there, Doktor has got a bed ready for me to lay Marie down on. She then grabs my hand with her only one. I squeeze her hand to let her know that I am going to be here for all of it. I give Doktor the the signal to start the procedure. While we are having our moment again, Doktor scrubs with chlorhexidine scrub. After he finish scrubbing in, a nurse help him get a sterile surgical gown on, then he gets sterile surgical gloves on. Both Marie and I nod to Doktor that we are ready for this procedure.

The first thing Doktor does is take off the bandages on the left arm. I had Marie look at me, while Doktor did this, for her not to pass out from how gruesome the area looks. I am just thankful that it is not infected. He then grabbed the necessary tools then starts the procedure. I know that my little girl has been through worse and the best part is that she didn't scream throughout the whole procedure. All he did was putting the main base of the prostatic and connecting the nerves to it. He does the same thing with the right leg that way tomorrow he would just need to be able to then attach the limbs need in those areas.

Callista's POV:

The attachment of the base on my arm wasn't so bad. But I did sort of almost jump from how cold the metal base was when Doktor put it on the open wound. Dad had felt my hand squeeze his a little tight for that part. He grabs my chin and moves my head to look at him and he smiles at me so that I can keep my focus away from the procedure.

After Doktor completely fuses the metal base into my arm and made sure that the part won't come off when he releases his hold on it. He then moves onto my right leg. I got to say that this one hurt more than when he did my arm. This one I actually did scream almost bloody murder on how much pain I am going through. I squeeze dad's hand a little too tight for he had started to wince. Again I nearly jump at how cold the metal base was on my leg.

Another thing was that I didn't even notice, until after Doktor finally finished working on my leg, was that I was crushing dad's hand and making him wince. I loosen the death grip on his hand for which he was completely grateful for.

Doktor re-wraps the limbs but not before swabbing with povidone iodine because they were a little bit of bleeding and also so it can help make sure that no infection could get into the limbs before tomorrow's procedure to connect the limbs to the base of my stumps.

Dad picks me up bridal style again but being very careful of the rebandaged areas and move me back to my recovery room. I let my head land on dad's shoulder and I let myself go to sleep but I kept a tight hold on dad's disposable scrubs, even when we got into the room. Dad had to pry my hold on him, just so he can get changed out of the scrubs and back into his normal clothes that he came in today, but I didn't know that he is doing this at the time.

I wake back up immediately because dad's warmth has left me and I start to feel cold. I then started to get a little scared and whimper like a little wolf pup because it is either the pain is starting to get to me or I just wanted to have the feel of being safe in dad's arms and to remind me that I am not in Liquid Snake's hands again.

Raiden's POV:

I hear some whimpering coming from the other side of the bathroom door. I quickly finish getting changed and wash my hands before opening the bathroom door. After I opened the door the whimpering starts to get a little bit louder. I quickly put the scrubs down and notice Marie is the one who is whimpering. Her whimpers sound either she was starting to feel the pain or she was seeking out for warmth and comfort.

I quickly came to the conclusion that she is just seeking out for warmth and comfort because when I had moved her a little so that I can lay underneath her. She completely stops whimpering and snuggles into my warmth.

This just reminds me of when she was younger and during her nap times, she would do the same thing as what she just did. But there was a few times where I was either out of the house doing something, and she would wait until I had came back. She would jump into my arms and while I was hugging her, she fell asleep in my arms. Rose would get so mad when Marie would do this, but she understood that Marie is defiantly a daddy's girl.

Another memory I have of Marie is when she first started to go on missions with me, when we were in the helicopter and Snake was with us, she would always sit between me and Snake. She would always lean on Snake and fall asleep, but I would be the one to wake her up for when we get to the location of the mission.

Just listening to her even breathing makes me want to go to sleep myself. I start to feel my eyelids grow heavy and I let myself get comfortable with my little girl on top of me. Everything is now going dark as I let sleep come to me.