Page 61 of Vital Signs
“She’s off shift,” she said carefully. “But I can let her know you’re asking for her. If she’s able, she may come back to check on you.”
Relief moved through me instantly. Subtle. Like a knot loosening. “Tell her I’m not… mad,” I added, suddenly concerned. “Just — tell her I’m better when she’s here.”
The nurse nodded slowly. “I can tell her that.”
“Tell her,” I said, eyes already growing heavy again, “that I’m waiting.”
Waiting.
Not for pain meds.
Not for test results.
Not for answers.
For her.
The morphine tugged me back toward sleep, thick and warm and inescapable. But even as my eyes drifted closed, the thought stayed clear:
She said she wouldn’t go far, and I believed her.
And somehow, in the middle of everything I’d lost, that belief felt like something I still got to keep.
Chapter 38
Anya
The nurse found me exactly where she hadn’t officially been told to look.
Not in the staff lounge.
Not in the locker room.
Not on my way out.
I was just… sitting on the floor in a quiet corner of the hallway, back against the wall, knees drawn up, arms wrapped loosely around them like I was holding myself together by muscle memory alone.
My clothes were wrinkled and my pants blood-streaked. I looked like I had been plucked straight out of aDoctor Sexy Romance Series.
I hadn’t changed because I hadn’t left.
My badge was clipped crookedly, like I’d tugged at it too many times without realizing. My hair was pulled back, but loose strands had fallen free. And I knew I had to look tired in a way that sleep wouldn’t fix.
I looked up when I sensed someone near me, stopped a few feet away.
For a moment, neither of us spoke. It was one of those momentswhere the truth was already in the room. “Dr. Volkov,” the nurse said gently,finally.
I swallowed, steeling myself. “I’m off shift,” I said automatically. Like a defense. Like a rule I could hide behind.
“I know,” the nurse replied.
And my jaw tightened. I glanced back toward the ICU doors without meaning to. My eyes did it before my brain could stop them. “He’s asking for you,” the nurse said.
I closed my eyes. Just for a second. Not in relief.
In surrender.
“What did he say?” I asked quietly.
