The peace that had settled into the north coast's medical suite was pulverized with the arrival of Tuesday's dawn. Outside the large wood and stone window, the morning frost coated the gravel paths and the coastal pines, but the true freeze entered the room in the form of a printed official document that Venka dropped onto the coffee table, right beside the empty tea cups from the night before.
Jake and Bek remained seated on the sofa, their fingers intertwined, enjoying the final minutes of an isolation they believed to be permanent after the night their love had blossomed in complete freedom. Noticing the hollow gravity written across the faces of the newcomers, Bek felt a stab of cold in his stomach that entirely numbed the residual warmth of his rehabilitated ankle.
