The red light above the operating room doors remained on.
Hours passed in agonizing silence.
Hospitals had their own rhythm. Monitors beeped somewhere down the corridor. Nurses hurried between rooms with practiced urgency. Doctors spoke in low voices that rarely carried far enough to understand. Every few minutes, an elevator chimed, someone laughed quietly in another waiting area, and life continued as if the longest night of their lives hadn't just ended.
For Aiden, however, time had stopped.
He sat in the same chair outside the operating room, elbows resting on his knees, staring at the closed doors. He hadn't changed out of his torn clothes. Dried blood stained his sleeves and jeans, while the bandage wrapped around his forehead had already begun to loosen.
He barely noticed.
Matthew watched him from across the room.
"He's been sitting like that for three hours."
Vinny nodded, holding two paper cups of coffee.
"I don't think he's blinked."
Lily sighed.
