#dr bell

⸻

The first real breakdown happens three weeks in.

You walk into the living room to find Bob sitting on the couch with all your test results spread out around him. Dozens of papers. Ink-stained folders. His laptop screen glows with open message boards and rare illness forums. There are numbers highlighted in yellow. One page has the word “sclerosis” circled four times.

He doesn’t look up when you walk in. His voice is low.

“This doesn’t make sense. It’s not adding up. Your bloodwork is fine but you’re falling apart—why are you falling apart if you’re not sick?”

You sink down on the couch beside him, and he buries his face in your shoulder like he’s trying to disappear.

You hold him while he cries.

“What if I lose you before we even know what we’re fighting?”

⸻

He starts booking appointments in other cities after that.

“We’re not waiting anymore. We’re not waiting.”

He flies you to Chicago Med first.

Dr. Halstead is kind. Young. Smart. He runs a full cardiac panel and refers you to Dr. Charles, who does a cognitive screening.

They say they’re stumped. They tell Bob you “present unusually.” That it might be a combination of minor things. They’ll keep your file active. They’ll follow up.

They never call.

⸻

Seattle is next. Grey Sloan Memorial.

You’re walking down the hallway with Bob’s arm around your waist when your knees give out again. You’re vomiting in a garbage can before you even make it to the neuro wing. Bob carries you the rest of the way himself.

Dr. Amelia Shepherd examines you. Her eyes darken when she looks at the scans. She doesn’t say anything at first, just leans in close and touches your wrist.

“If it’s what I think it is, we’ll need more imaging. Don’t be scared. We’re going to do everything we can.”

That’s the first time someone says “scared,” and Bob goes white. You grip his hand so tightly that your knuckles crack.

But the MRI results come back clean. No tumors. No lesions. No clear trauma. Just noise. A little inflammation. Some fog.

You seize in the machine on day three. They pull you out shaking.

No answers.

⸻

The Mayo Clinic is cold and sterile and full of specialists who look at you like you’re a puzzle they’re already bored of. They run more tests. They take a lumbar puncture. Your back bleeds. Your vision goes black for a full thirty seconds and no one panics.

Bob nearly punches a doctor when he suggests your symptoms might be psychosomatic. They put a note in your file. Bob leaves claw marks in the steering wheel on the way back to the hotel.

That night, you wake up at 3 a.m. and find him in the corner of the room, sitting on the floor with his head in his hands. He’s whispering. Over and over.

“Please. Please. I don’t know what else to do.”

You kneel down and fold yourself into his lap.

“I’m sorry,” he breathes against your shoulder.

“Don’t say that.”

“But I’m supposed to protect you.”

“You are. You are.”

You hold him until the sun comes up.

⸻

You don’t feel like a person anymore. You feel like a case file. A clipboard. A question.

You haven’t worked in weeks. You can’t drive anymore. You can barely eat.

Bob never complains. He carries you to the bathroom. He does your laundry. He cuts your food into tiny pieces even when you say you’re not hungry. He reads to you when your eyes are too blurry. He holds your hand in every waiting room like he’s bracing for impact.

You’ve never loved him more.

And it’s never hurt more.

Because one morning, when you wake up coughing blood, and you look over to see Bob already holding the tissue box in one hand and the car keys in the other—

You realize: he thinks he’s already losing you.

It’s their last hope in the States.

Chastain Park Memorial Hospital. Atlanta. The place people whispered about when they had nowhere else to go. The one that had been called a miracle machine. The hospital where medicine bent the rules, where doctors made impossible calls and patients walked away when no one else believed they could.

Bob had heard stories from a pilot friend—someone’s wife had flatlined twice there and still walked out breathing.

So he booked the flights. Didn’t ask. Just did it. Told her they were going to Atlanta. Told her it was going to be different this time.

She didn’t argue.

She didn’t have the energy to.

⸻

The flight was bad. Her body doesn’t regulate temperature anymore. She gets cold without warning. Then overheats. Then passes out.

Bob has to carry her off the plane while she apologizes under her breath. He keeps telling her not to. He doesn’t let go.

⸻

Chastain is everything people said it was.

Sleek. Quiet. The air smells sterile but somehow warm. They’re seen almost immediately. Bob flashes the file he’s been building for months—two inches thick now—and explains everything in the kind of voice that’s been ground down into nothing.

Dr. Bell himself comes to meet them.

He reads the notes, flipping pages fast but absorbing every word.

“We’ll do everything we can,” he says quietly. “We have some of the best diagnostics minds here—Dr. Devi and Dr. Pravesh will run the first round. Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”

Bob nods like a soldier taking orders.

He doesn’t blink until they wheel her away.

⸻

The tests start immediately.

Bloodwork. Imaging. An echo. Neuro scans. Cardiac rhythm analysis. Leela takes lead on neurological markers. Devon tracks internal inflammation patterns.

It’s organized. Efficient. Bob paces in the corner, watching their coats blur past him.

He prays this time will be different.

She falls asleep during a scan. Her skin is too pale. Her hands are freezing.

⸻

Dr. Leela Devi comes in first. Her eyes are kind. She sits beside Bob in the empty consult room.

“She’s… unique,” she says. “Her case. Her presentation. There’s clear systemic degradation, but it’s not following any known autoimmune or neurovascular pattern.”

“So what does that mean?” Bob asks, voice tight.

“It means we don’t know. Not yet.”

“But you will, right?”

She looks at him, and that’s when he knows.

She doesn’t say no.

She doesn’t say yes, either.

⸻

Bell returns that evening.

Bob’s been sitting at her bedside, rubbing circles into her hand with his thumb. She hasn’t opened her eyes since noon.

Bell looks tired. A little older than he did this morning. His shoulders are heavy.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I know you were hoping to see Dr. Hawkins. He’s… no longer with us.”

Bob looks up sharply.

“What do you mean he’s not with you?”

“He was let go. Temporarily, we hope. But he’s not on staff right now.”

“But he—he’s the best. You’re the place people go when no one else can figure it out.”

“I know.” Bell’s voice is gentle. “We’re still good. We’re still going to keep looking. But right now, without him—this kind of case… We’re limited.”

Bob doesn’t say anything.

Just nods.

Then turns back to you.

⸻

He stays quiet all night.

Nurses come in, offer food. He doesn’t move. Just sits at your side, holding your hand.

You stir at some point, eyes flickering open.

Your lips are cracked when you whisper:

“This was supposed to be the one that worked.”

Bob presses his face into your palm. It’s cold again.

“I know, baby. I know.”

He doesn’t cry until you’re asleep.

⸻

By morning, they discharge you.

Still no answers. Still no name for what’s eating you alive.

Leela gives him her personal number.

Devon squeezes his shoulder.

Bell walks them to the elevator himself.

“Please keep us updated. If anything changes—if we get more staff—come back.”

Bob doesn’t answer.

Not until the doors close.

Then he presses his forehead to the metal wall and says—

“We’ll come back when we’ve got nothing left to lose.”

⸻

They go home.

That night, you whisper:

“I don’t think I want to do this anymore.”

Bob swallows so hard it hurts.

“Don’t want to do what?”

“Hospitals. Machines. Tests. All of it. I just… I want the time I have left to be mine. I want to feel the wind before I can’t walk. I want to see the stars before I forget what they are.”

He doesn’t answer at first.

You’re expecting him to fight. To argue. To beg.

But he just wraps his arms around you. Pulls you into his lap.

And says, very softly:

“Then tell me where we’re going first.”

The bucket list isn’t written with tears in your eyes.

It’s written on a quiet morning, in your softest robe, with Bob’s hand curled around your hip in bed.

He’s still asleep. Dreaming, maybe. His breath is warm against your shoulder, and the window is cracked open just enough to let the summer morning in.

And you’re dying.

Not loudly. Not suddenly. Just… inevitably.

A little more each week.

A little quieter each hour.

You already know.

Even if no one has said the words yet, you know.

So you open your journal to a blank page. You click your pen. And you write, at the top:

“If I Go Before You”

And beneath that, you list places you’ve never been.

⸻

That afternoon, you show it to him.

Bob reads the title and doesn’t say anything for a long time.

Just presses his thumb against the edge of the paper until it smudges.

“We’re going to do all of it,” he says.

“You don’t have to—”

“All of it,” he repeats. “Anywhere you want to go. I’m taking you.”

⸻

🟣 1. The Lavender Field Wedding – Provence, France

It’s not a real wedding. But it feels like one.

You’re both already married. You eloped after Top Gun graduation, courthouse style, two rings from a pawn shop and champagne in a paper cup. You’ve never cared about dresses or flowers. But on the list, you wrote:

“I want to stand in a lavender field at sunset and promise to love you again.”

So Bob flies you to France.

He rents a small private plot. Buys you a dress from a secondhand shop. It doesn’t zip all the way in the back. You laugh so hard you start coughing.

He stands in front of you in a white shirt and suspenders and reads his vows with tears slipping down both cheeks.

“You’re the bravest thing I’ve ever known. And I’ve been in fighter jets.”

You exchange the same rings. You kiss until your knees give out.

And for once—for once—you don’t faint.

⸻

🌠 2. Rooftop Stargazing – Tokyo

You don’t even remember writing this one. But Bob circled it and put three stars next to it. You’re too weak for long excursions by then, but he finds a hotel with a rooftop observatory and a private terrace.

The city glows beneath you. You sit curled in his lap, blanket tucked under your chin, your fingers tangled in his.

He points out constellations with a flashlight and a guidebook he’s been studying all week.

“That one’s Andromeda. That one looks like a spoon, but it’s not.”

You’re too tired to stay up long, but he keeps his arms around you all night—even after you fall asleep.

You don’t dream.

But when you wake up, Bob is crying quietly behind you.

Just watching the stars fade into dawn.

⸻

🪂 3. Skydiving – Sedona, Arizona

This one’s a fight.

“You’re not jumping out of a plane, baby, you can barely stand—”

But you look at him, smile that tired, wild smile, and say:

“Bobby. I’m dying. Let me fall out of the sky while I can still fly.”

He relents. He calls a medical specialist. They make a harness to support your body, strap you in with a professional skydiver, monitor your vitals. He signs five waivers with his hand shaking.

You scream when you fall. Not in fear. Just in release. You laugh. You cry. The world explodes around you.

Bob throws up watching from the ground.

You land on your back in the red dust and whisper, between coughs:

“Okay. That one almost killed me.”

He nearly chokes trying to laugh and cry at the same time.

⸻

🎠 4. A Night in Venice – “Just One Gondola”

By the time you get to Venice, your legs barely work. You’re mostly in a wheelchair now. You sleep through the afternoons. You forget what day it is. Sometimes you forget Bob’s name until you see his face.

But you remember this.

The water. The sound. The candle in the gondola. The way he holds your hand like it’s the last thing keeping you tethered to this side of the river.

He doesn’t say anything about how quiet you are. How hard it is for you to keep your head up. He just presses his mouth to your temple and whispers:

“Still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

You cry, just a little, and whisper back:

“You’re gonna love someone else someday.”

His arms stiffen around you.

“No. I’m not.”

⸻

You write more entries every day, even when your hands tremble.

Some you don’t make it to.

Some Bob crosses off anyway, saying:

“You dreamed them. That’s enough.”

⸻

He carries you through the Florence museum when you can’t walk anymore.

He wraps you in five blankets during your last beach sunrise.

He tells strangers on every plane that you’re the love of his life.

And slowly, you start to drift.

Not all at once.

But you know it’s happening.

Your body is forgetting how to stay.

And that’s when the phone rings.

⸻

It’s late. You’re in bed, wrapped up in his arms. Bob has just turned off the light. You’re barely awake. He kisses the back of your shoulder like he’s saying goodbye and goodnight in the same breath.

His phone vibrates on the nightstand.

He almost doesn’t answer.

UNKNOWN NUMBER

ATLANTA, GA

His thumb hovers.

Then he swipes.

“Hello?”

A pause.

Then:

“Lieutenant Floyd? This is Dr. Bell at Chastain Park Memorial. I know it’s late. I wouldn’t be calling unless it was urgent.”

Bob sits up slowly.

You stir beside him, eyelids fluttering.

“What’s wrong?”

He mouths “Bell” at you.

“We just re-hired Dr. Conrad Hawkins. He’s already reviewed your wife’s file. We’d like you to come back. We believe we may have a path forward.”

Silence.

The hotel room goes cold.

Bob doesn’t speak. Not at first. Just closes his eyes, presses his hand against his mouth.

“Is this real?” he whispers.

“I know you’ve been through a lot. But yes. This is real.”

“Don’t give me false hope.”

“This isn’t hope, Lieutenant. This is a shot. A real one.”

Bob stares at you.

You’re watching him through half-lidded eyes. You’re so thin now. So quiet. But your hand slips toward his across the sheets.

He grabs it like a lifeline.

“We’ll be there,” he says. “Just… please don’t let her die before we get there.”

The hospital doors open like a memory.

Bob carries you inside, one arm hooked under your legs, the other bracing your back. You’re barely conscious. Your head is on his chest. You haven’t said a word since they landed.

The cab driver asked if he should call 911 when he saw you. Bob just whispered, “No. We’re here. This is where the saving happens.”

⸻

Bell is waiting for them at the entrance. He looks ten years older than he did the last time they saw him. Grayer. Quieter.

“She doesn’t have time for paperwork,” Bob rasps.

“She won’t need it,” Bell answers, already holding open the triage door. “They’re prepped upstairs. We’ve been ready since I called.”

Bob doesn’t thank him. He can’t. He’s already biting the inside of his cheek to keep from breaking.

⸻

You’re stabilized in a private ICU suite on the fourth floor.

Dr. Voss is there. So are Leela, Devon, and Irving. They’re quieter than usual. You’re not a case anymore. You’re a clock ticking out its final seconds.

Until the door opens—

—and Conrad Hawkins walks in.

Bob doesn’t recognize him at first.

But then Bell says:

“Conrad. This is Lieutenant Floyd.”

“And this,” Bob chokes, “is her.”

Conrad looks at you for a long time.

Then he nods once and says,

“Give me four hours.”

⸻

Bob waits alone.

In the hallway.

Head pressed against the cool plaster.

He prays again.

But it’s not like before. Not pleading. Not bargaining.

Just—

“Don’t make me survive this.”

⸻

At 3:47 p.m., Conrad returns.

His eyes are bloodshot. His hands still have ink on them from marking charts.

“I know what it is.”

Bob’s knees buckle.

Leela catches him by the elbow. Devon steadies his shoulder.

“Her immune system is attacking her vascular tissue. Capillaries. Arterial linings. Nerve sheaths. It’s so rare there’s only one recorded case—ten years ago, in Brazil. Same degradation pattern. Same loss of motor function, cognition, everything.”

Bob can barely breathe.

“Is it treatable?”

Conrad doesn’t answer right away.

Then:

“Yes.”

Bob slumps to the floor.

“But—”

He looks up. Cold.

“No. No fucking ‘but.’ If you say that word again—”

“The treatment will likely kill her first.”

⸻

They show him the regimen.

Conrad is walking him through the protocol while Bob clutches the edges of the printout so hard it crumples.

“We have to suppress the immune response first. Shut down the system. Then reboot it with a series of tailored proteins—ones her body doesn’t recognize as a threat.”

“How long?” Bob asks.

“Minimum eight weeks. She’ll go into shock. We’ll have to intubate. Induce a coma. She may lose motor function. She may lose time.”

“Will she come back?”

Silence.

Then:

“She might.”

⸻

Bob doesn’t cry until he signs the consent form.

He finds your hand, lifts it to his lips, and says:

“I know you’re tired. But if you can hear me—just fight. One more time. I’ll do the rest.”

You don’t respond.

Your fingers twitch once, like a yes.

⸻

They sedate you within the hour.

You code once during intubation. They bring you back.

By morning, you’re on a ventilator, nonresponsive, your heart rate dipping in and out of safety. The machines breathe for you. The nurses speak in hushed tones outside the room.

Bob doesn’t leave.

He sits in a hard chair for three straight days. He doesn’t sleep. He doesn’t shower. The nurses start bringing him warm towels, coffee, painkillers.

One night, Mina Okafor sneaks him a second blanket.

“She wouldn’t want you turning into a ghost while she’s gone,” she says.

“She is gone,” Bob chokes.

Mina looks at you, still and pale in the bed, and says:

“No. She’s just figuring out how to get back.”

⸻

Day 12.

She spikes a fever. They drop her into deeper sedation. Bob screams at the wall.

Day 19.

Conrad adjusts her meds again. Leela holds Bob’s hand while they explain her kidneys are weakening.

Day 26.

Bob finds a dried petal from the lavender field in the bottom of his wallet. He folds it into her pillowcase. He whispers:

“Don’t make me live in a world where you’re just something I remember.”

⸻

Day 37.

Bob collapses in the hallway and cries so hard he can’t stand. Devon holds him. Irving calls Phoenix.

“She’s not dead,” Bob whispers. “She’s not. She’s not. She just… she just hasn’t come back yet.”

⸻

Day 46.

No change. No worse. But no better.

Day 51.

Bob tells her about the gondola again. He talks to her for three hours. Her monitor spikes slightly when he laughs.

Day 59.

He falls asleep holding her hand.

And for the first time, you move.

It starts at 3:12 a.m.

Bob’s asleep in the ICU chair—curled over like he’s guarding you with his whole body, hand locked tight in yours. He hasn’t slept for more than ninety minutes at a time in weeks. But this moment is still.

Until—

Your thumb moves.

Just a twitch. Barely there.

But enough.

Bob flinches in his sleep.

Freezes.

Then lifts his head and stares at your hand like it’s glowing.

“Do it again,” he whispers. “Baby… please.”

Nothing.

Silence.

And then—your thumb brushes over his knuckle. Again.

Like something ancient inside you is clawing its way back from the dark.

⸻

Hour One.

Alarms ping. Nurse Hundley rushes in. Bob’s already on his feet, eyes wild, one hand on the call button, the other wrapped around yours like a lifeline.

“She moved,” he chokes. “I felt it. I felt it.”

Hundley calls Conrad. Leela. The whole team. The lights come on. The room smells like antiseptic and adrenaline.

Your eyelids flutter once.

Not open. But not still either.

“Keep talking to her,” Hundley says softly.

“I haven’t stopped,” Bob whispers.

⸻

Hour Three.

You track light.

Only for a moment—but your eyes shift.

Bob sees it. Drops into the chair beside you, forehead pressed to your hand.

“That’s it. That’s my girl. Come back slow, baby. I’ll be here the whole time.”

Conrad enters with new labs. Adjusts meds. “If she’s responding to stimulus,” he says, “we’ll begin waking her more intentionally. But slowly. The body’s coming back. We don’t want to burn out the brain.”

Bob nods.

“I just need her to stay.”

⸻

Hour Seven.

Your breathing improves.

No longer labored. Shallow, but yours.

The vent stays in for now, but Conrad gives the green light to begin weaning.

Bob’s voice cracks when he says:

“She’s fighting. I can feel it.”

⸻

Hour Eleven.

You open your eyes.

For half a second.

Then close them.

Bob drops his face into your mattress and sobs.

Not loudly. Just… like something finally broke loose after weeks of silence.

⸻

But you don’t speak.

You don’t move again that day.

The vent stays. Your eyes stay closed more than open. And when they’re open—they’re glassy. Unfocused. The light’s on, but you’re not fully in the room yet.

⸻

That night, Bob asks Conrad the question he’s been holding in his chest like a blade.

“What if this is it?” he whispers. “What if… she woke up, but she’s not really back?”

Conrad doesn’t answer right away.

Then:

“Then we give her time.”

⸻

The Next 3 Weeks.

You’re awake.

But barely here.

⸻

You can’t speak.

Your mouth opens, but no sound comes.

Your lips try to form shapes that don’t make it past your teeth. You cough against the vent tube. Try to fight it. The nurses hold your hand. Bob tells you it’s okay.

“You don’t have to talk. I remember everything for you.”

⸻

You don’t move much.

Sometimes your fingers twitch. Sometimes your head shifts half an inch on the pillow. Your legs don’t move at all. You’re in diapers. Bedbound.

Bob holds you like you’re made of glass dipped in fire.

He reads to you every night. Brushes your hair every morning. Uses lotion on your hands to keep the skin from cracking.

He’s the one who notices when you start following the sound of his voice.

“Hey,” he whispers one morning. “That’s new. You’re watching me.”

He smiles like it’s a sunrise.

“You remember me, don’t you?”

You don’t answer.

But your hand curls the slightest bit in his.

⸻

Day 5.

The feeding tube is reinserted. You aspirate on water. Your eyes fill with tears. Bob strokes your back and says, “It’s okay. We’ll try again tomorrow.”

Day 9.

Conrad brings in a memory specialist. Bob makes you a photo board. Gondola in Venice. Lavender fields. A scribbled postcard. A receipt with your name on it. You stare at the photos but don’t react.

Day 13.

Your eyes close when Bob reads from your journal. The one with the bucket list. You cry. He kisses your temple and cries harder.

⸻

Speech Therapy – Week 4.

You’re still nonverbal.

But you follow commands. Track penlights. Try to mirror mouth movements with glacial slowness. You get tired after three minutes.

The first time your lips shape the letter “B”, Bob falls to his knees.

“That’s me,” he whispers. “That’s my name. You remember me.”

⸻

Physical Therapy – Week 5.

Two nurses and Leela lift you into a tilt chair. You hold yourself up for nine seconds.

Your heart monitor goes crazy.

Bob cheers like you won Olympic gold.

You sleep for ten hours afterward.

⸻

One night, your eyes stay open longer than usual.

Bob reads you the Venice story again. The one where you told him he’d love someone else someday.

He stops reading when he sees your fingers twitch.

On the blanket. Slow. Trembling. Like you’re spelling something.

Bob leans close.

“What is it, baby? You trying to tell me something?”

Your fingers scratch slow letters onto the blanket:

“Where?”

Bob blinks fast.

“Where are you? You’re in Atlanta. You’re at Chastain. You’ve been here almost three months. But you’re safe. You’re alive.”

Your eyes flicker.

“You scared the hell out of me.”

More shaky letters.

“How…long?”

Bob curls forward and presses his forehead to your arm.

“You’ve been gone a long time. But I waited. I told them not to let go of you. You were always still in there.”

⸻

You don’t cry.

But you don’t stop staring at him, either.

Like something in you knows him, even if you can’t say how.

⸻

Later that night, he watches you fall asleep.

He sits in the chair, holding your hand, brushing his thumb over your skin like a rosary.

And he says, softly:

“You chose to stay. You didn’t have to, but you did.”

He kisses the back of your hand and whispers:

“I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure you’re never alone again.”

It takes seven weeks before anyone mentions the word bath.

You’ve been sponge-wiped, catheterized, shifted by nurses with practiced hands. But you haven’t stood up. You haven’t felt water in months.

Your skin aches with absence.

⸻

Nurse Hundley wheels in a portable bath chair. It reclines. It has straps. There’s a gentle pump system and warm water and privacy screens. They schedule it for a quiet evening. No other patients in the hallway. No shift changes.

Leela leads.

Hundley assists.

Bob’s supposed to leave the room.

“Spouse boundaries,” Leela says gently.

But then your fingers twitch against the sheets—one of your only consistent movements—and spell:

“Stay.”

Bob doesn’t say anything.

He just squeezes your hand. Once.

⸻

They wheel you into the bathing bay in a soft blue hospital gown.

It takes two people to shift your body into the chair.

You whimper once—not from pain. Just from the feeling of being held.

Bob stands behind the privacy curtain until he hears Leela say:

“You ready, sweetheart?”

He comes around slowly.

And stops.

⸻

Your body is not the body he kissed under French sunlight.

It is not the body that ran down lavender hills or bounced on Venetian canals.

This body is paper-thin.

Bones and hollow places.

IV bruises.

Surgical lines.

Collarbone sharp enough to cut glass.

Hair patchy at the crown.

A feeding tube stitched in place.

A healing trach scar low on your neck.

Fingers that tremble just from being lifted.

And you look at him.

And you know.

Even without a voice, your eyes scream:

“Don’t look at me. I’m not who I was.”

You start to cry.

Silent. Shameful. Fragile.

Bob drops to his knees.

He doesn’t reach for you at first. Just presses both hands to his mouth and lets himself cry too.

Leela excuses herself.

Hundley gives him a small nod and pulls the curtain tighter.

⸻

He takes a washcloth from the tray.

Kneels in front of you.

And starts with your hands.

“Hi,” he says, voice hoarse. “It’s me. I’m gonna help now, okay?”

You blink. Twice. Your hands twitch in his.

He dips the cloth in warm water and begins.

Fingers. Wrists. Elbows.

So slowly. So gently.

“You’re still my girl,” he whispers. “You still look like my wife.”

Your breath hitches.

He moves to your shoulders next. Then arms. Wipes around the ports, the lines, the bruises.

“They tried so hard to save you,” he whispers. “I’m not mad at them for what they had to do. But I am mad at the world for making it hurt you so much.”

⸻

He pauses at your ribs.

Sees how each one casts a shadow.

He almost loses it again.

You flinch.

He notices.

“Hey,” he says, softer. “You don’t have to hide. I still love every inch of you. I love this skin. These scars. This you.”

Your eyes stay locked on his.

He kisses your temple. Then your jaw. Then that trach scar you tried to hide under the towel.

“Thank you for coming back to me,” he whispers.

⸻

He washes your legs next.

One at a time. Atrophied. Weak.

But when he reaches your ankle, your foot twitches.

It lifts half an inch.

Bob laughs out loud—wet, wild joy—and says:

“You just kicked me.”

You smile.

Tired. Faint.

But a smile.

⸻

He wraps you in warm towels.

Carries you back to bed himself.

Hundley tucks you in and adjusts the monitors. Leela nods in quiet approval.

You fall asleep an hour later.

Warm. Clean. Held.

And loved so deeply it might bring you back in pieces.

It happens on a Wednesday.

Almost two months since you opened your eyes.

Almost one month since your bath.

Six weeks of speech therapy.

And still—not a sound.

You’ve been trying. God, trying. Your lips form shapes. Your tongue moves. Your eyes scream what your voice won’t carry.

But your throat won’t catch.

Your lungs won’t push.

You’ve forgotten how.

Until today.

⸻

The room is warm and quiet.

Leela just finished a PT session—your first attempt at sitting up on your own.

Bob’s arm is behind your back. You’re shaking all over. Your head keeps tilting forward like gravity is too loud. But you’re upright. Weak, but upright.

“You’re doing so good, sweetheart,” he murmurs. “Look at you.”

You stare at him—sweaty, exhausted, drained—and your mouth opens just barely.

He thinks you’re going to mouth something.

He leans in, ready to read your lips like he always does.

But then—

You breathe in. Just a little.

And try.

It sounds like nothing at first.

Just a crackle.

Like a wire shorting out.

But Bob freezes.

“…What was that?” he whispers.

Your lips move again.

This time you push.

From the chest.

From the ribs.

From the part of you that still remembers who he is.

“…B—”

It’s air. Just air. But shaped.

“B-b—”

Bob drops to his knees.

Leela stares, wide-eyed.

“Say it again,” he breathes. “Baby, please—say it again.”

You try.

Your whole body strains.

You’re crying now, lips trembling, breath shallow—but you try again.

“B-B…ob-b—”

And then, so faint it barely exists:

“…Buh-bby.”

⸻

The silence in the room breaks like glass.

Bob makes a noise no one’s ever heard from him.

He curls into your lap like a man who’s been starving and just tasted sunlight.

“You said my name,” he chokes. “You said my name.”

You try to nod.

Your head barely moves.

But it’s there.

Leela wipes her eyes and whispers, “I’ll get Conrad.”

Bob doesn’t even hear her.

He’s got your hands in his, pressed to his mouth.

“Say it again,” he begs. “Please, baby. I need to hear it one more time. Just once more.”

You’re too weak.

Your voice is gone again.

But your lips form the shape.

Your eyes shine.

And your fingers curl around his like a promise:

“I remember.”

⸻

That night, Bob writes it down in your journal.

June 18th – she said my name.

He underlines it three times.

Then adds:

“She came back for me. I know it now. No one else could’ve pulled her through the dark.”

He doesn’t sleep.

He just lays beside your bed, hand in yours, listening to your breath and repeating your name back to you.

“You’re here. You’re here. You’re here.”

It’s been a week since you said his name.

Bob’s still talking about it like it just happened.

“You said my name, sweetheart. After all this time. I knew you’d find your way back.”

You can only speak a few words at a time.

Short, clipped. Barely louder than a whisper.

But you try.

Every day.

“Wa…ter.”

“Hurts.”

“Cold.”

“Stay.”

And his name.

Always his name.

“Buh-bby.”

⸻

This night is quiet.

No machines beeping. No interruptions. You’re propped up in your bed with three pillows and a weighted blanket. Bob’s sitting beside you with your journal, flipping through pages.

It’s the lavender field page.

You look at it for a long time.

He notices.

“You remember it?”

You don’t speak.

Just blink.

“We went at golden hour,” he says softly. “You said the sun made everything look like it was soaked in honey. You picked lavender for your mom. Remember?”

Silence.

Your hand twitches.

“We stayed ’til the field closed. You tucked some in my pocket.”

You whisper:

“Purple… sun.”

Bob looks up.

“Yeah, baby. That’s right.”

⸻

He flips the page.

Venice.

Gondola photo. You smiling. The first day you kissed him without warning.

He starts to turn it—but your hand covers his.

Weak. Trembling.

But definite.

You’re still looking.

“You like that one?” he murmurs.

Your lips part.

Nothing comes out.

Then a shaky breath.

Then—

“Tell…me…”

Bob freezes.

You blink slowly. Try again.

“Tell…me…Venice.”

⸻

He breaks.

Just folds forward with your hands in his and sobs against your legs.

“You remember that?”

“Tell…me.”

So he does.

Through tears.

Through laughter.

Through everything in him that ached thinking this memory might’ve been lost forever.

“It was hot. But you didn’t care. We ate gelato before dinner. You got mint chip, I said you were a criminal. You kissed me in the gondola just to shut me up.”

You smile.

Soft. Slow. Tired.

“Kissed you.”

“You did. Then I told you I was in love with you and you said, and I quote—‘Took you long enough.’”

You let out the smallest sound of a laugh.

More breath than voice.

But it’s real.

⸻

That night, Bob writes:

June 25th – she remembered Venice. Her laugh came back with it. I would’ve waited a hundred years for that sound.

It’s raining the morning they tell you:

“Today’s the day. We’re gonna try to stand again.”

You’re terrified.

Your hands shake. Your stomach turns. Bob’s thumb brushes over your wrist as he kneels beside your wheelchair.

“I’ll be right here,” he whispers. “You fall, you fall into me.”

⸻

You’re barefoot in the PT room.

A harness is strapped around your waist.

Leela adjusts the walker. Devon nods from across the room. Bob stays behind you—arms ready, breath held.

Your legs are trembling before you even lift them.

“We’ll count to three,” Leela says. “You just try. Don’t push. Just try.”

“One…”

“Two…”

Your hand tightens on the bar.

“Three.”

You push.

⸻

Your knees buckle immediately.

Bob lunges, catches you around the waist—his chest against your back.

“It’s okay. I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”

You’re crying.

Not from pain. Not from falling.

From how badly you want to do it.

Bob kisses the side of your face.

“Try again.”

⸻

Second try, your left leg locks.

Only for a second.

But it holds.

Devon gasps. Leela beams.

“That’s it. You’re doing it. You’re up.”

You’re shaking so hard you might fall again.

Bob keeps one arm wrapped around your stomach, steadying you.

“One more second,” he whispers. “Just one.”

You hold for five.

Then drop.

He catches you like you’re made of starlight.

And kisses your temple over and over:

“I’m so proud of you. You just walked back to me.”

⸻

That night, you mouth four words:

“I want… more… steps.”

And he smiles.

“Then we’ll take them. Together.”

Your handwriting is messier now.

Shakier. Loopier. Still re-learning.

But it’s yours.

Bob finds the open notebook on your lap one afternoon, just before sunset, as you sleep curled under a blanket—finally strong enough to nap withoutmachines keeping time.

The bucket list page is full of fresh ink.

You’ve scratched out a few lines:

✘ “Go skydiving.”

✘ “Learn Italian.”

✘ “See the Eiffel Tower.”

In the margins, in crooked, soft pencil, you’ve added:

✔ “Come back from coma.”

✔ “Say Bobby’s name.”

✔ “Make him cry from joy.”

✔ “Walk to him.”

And then below, four new goals:

➤ “Kiss him in the ocean again.”

➤ “Thank the doctors.”

➤ “Go home.”

➤ “Stay alive.”

Bob covers his mouth with his hand.

His eyes blur.

“You did all of that,” he whispers. “You did everything.”

⸻

He stays like that for a while.

Quiet.

Holding your hand, listening to your breathing.

Until there’s a knock.

Low. Hesitant.

He turns, startled.

It’s Conrad.

⸻

“I can come back,” the doctor says. “Didn’t know she was sleeping.”

“It’s okay,” Bob says, voice rough. “She sleeps better now.”

Conrad walks in quietly.

Pauses at the edge of the bed.

He looks down at you like someone looking at a painting they thought had been lost.

⸻

“She’s healing fast now,” he murmurs. “Faster than any of us expected.”

Bob nods.

“She wants to go home.”

Conrad gives a small smile.

“We’ll get there.”

There’s a long pause.

Then Conrad pulls one of the visitor chairs closer, sits down, and does something he’s never done before:

He talks. Personally. Not clinically.

“I’ve had a lot of patients,” he starts. “Thousands, over the years. Some I remember. Most I don’t. There’s just… no time. No space to carry all of it.”

Bob watches him. Quiet.

Conrad’s voice gets softer.

“But I’ve never had someone stay this long. I’ve never had a patient who I had to check on every morning and night. Who I… worried about, not just charted.”

He looks at you again.

Sleeping so peacefully.

IV-free. Breathing without help. Bandages mostly gone. Scars softening.

“There were nights I didn’t think she was going to make it,” Conrad admits. “She came in too late. Too sick. I didn’t want to say it out loud, but every time I walked into this room, I thought: God, she’s not going to last through the week.”

Bob’s throat works hard.

But he says nothing.

Conrad’s hands tighten.

“I’m not sentimental. I don’t get sentimental. But she’s under my skin now. I watched her fight when her body gave her no reason to. I saw you—how you talked to her like she could hear you. Every day. For months.”

He breathes out hard.

“She didn’t just survive. She chose to. I think she stayed alive for you.”

Bob’s hand tightens around yours.

Conrad’s voice cracks—barely.

“You don’t know what it means, seeing her like this now. I don’t usually get to see it. I discharge them and move on. But you’ve both been here four months. And now she’s walking. She’s talking. And she’s writing new dreams.”

He gestures to the notebook Bob was holding.

“She rewrote the bucket list,” Bob says, voice raw. “The new version just says… Stay alive.”

Conrad covers his face for a second.

Like it’s too much.

“She’s the bravest patient I’ve ever had,” he finally says. “And you’re the only reason she’s still here.”

⸻

They sit like that for a long time.

Doctor and husband.

Two men who saw death knock and decided not to open the door.

⸻

When Conrad finally gets up to leave, he lays a hand gently on Bob’s shoulder.

“You should start packing,” he says. “We’re gonna be talking discharge soon.”

Bob’s breath hitches.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Conrad says, and glances at you one more time. “She earned it.”

⸻

Bob doesn’t move for a while.

Just watches you sleep.

The notebook still open.

His hand still holding yours.

And the newest line scribbled quietly at the bottom: