For a heartbeat, both forgot how to move.
Saffi's palms sank into the sheet on either side of his chest. Her cut breath hit his cheek. The monitor kept its calm metronome, steady green after a huge spike.
Raizen stared at the ceiling and then at her, close enough to smell her pleasant flower scent. Everything held still.
Then pain woke up. Not a knife - a bright flare that rolled across his ribs like heat off iron.
He winced. It was small, but she felt it.
"Oh no-"
She pushed herself up too fast. The chair clipped her shin, the rolling table nudged left, a pencil skittered to the floor and made a noise bigger than a pencil should.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean - are you - did I hurt you again?"
Raizen tried to say no but it came out as a cough. Two coughs.
"Water - I'll get - "
