For Helena, the world felt muted, as if she were moving through a dream. Her pulse still thrummed from the whirlwind in Pierce's office, where Devon's audacious stand had not only saved her career but catapulted it to heights she hadn't dared imagine.
Clinical Nurse III.
The words felt foreign, like a title bestowed on someone else. She trailed Devon as they made their way to the ICU, her steps automatic, her mind a tangle of gratitude, awe, and something far more complicated.
They paused at the patient's room, the glass door offering a clear view of the man Devon had pulled back from the abyss. He lay propped, his chest rising and falling with steady breaths, an oxygen cannula nestled under his nose. The monitors sang a quiet hymn of stability.
