Jade saw her name in the consent box before anyone gathered the courage to explain it.
The screenshot came through Caelin's emergency tablet with frost clinging to the image edges. Freezer B-3. Removal form. Ty's old Earth name. Right hand digit specimen. Emergency contact consent.
Jade's name sat in the signature field.
The shelter basement went quiet in a way that made every body too loud.
Her hearing still reached her in broken pressure. Chairs scraped through the floor. Someone coughed into a sleeve. Waddell's boots made dull thumps near the service door. Everything else came from mouths, hands, screens, and the way people looked at her before looking away.
At the table, Waddell leaned close and shaped a careful question with his mouth.
Jade stared until he remembered careful was only useful when it came with spine.
He wrote the question instead, asking whether she had signed the form.
Jade took the pen from him and answered on the pad.
She had signed papers that night.
