[small chapter]
Later, during a routine check, another nurse stepped in.
"How's he doing?" she asked.
Mara shrugged lightly. "Stable. Quiet."
"Lucky," the nurse said. "Some of them fight."
Mara glanced at Elias's face. At the calmness that wasn't calm at all.
"He's fighting," she said. "Just differently."
The other nurse nodded and left.
Mara finished her tasks and adjusted the blanket again before stepping away.
"I'll be back," she said, like a promise she made to everyone.
Elias let the words settle into him.
Be back.
He wondered if that was how she felt about him now. Like he'd stepped away without warning. Like he'd left her holding a half-finished sentence.
As she reached the door, his eyelid twitched again. This time stronger. Almost intentional.
She turned.
"Elias?" she said gently.
His heart hammered.
She said his name like it belonged to him.
He wanted to open his eyes. Wanted to meet her gaze. Wanted to let recognition bloom naturally, disastrously.
But his body stayed loyal to its betrayal.
Nothing happened.
Mara waited a moment longer, then nodded to herself.
"Okay," she said softly. "Rest."
She left.
The door clicked shut.
And Elias, who had spent months chasing fate through coincidence and numbers, lay utterly still while the woman he loved walked out of his life again -this time holding his chart, not his hand.
If this was a test of patience, he thought dimly, the universe had taken it too far.
Even fate should know when a joke stops being funny.