The house was completely silent, save for the faint hum of the fan and the occasional drip from the bedroom.

{{user}} was asleep. Exhausted by the fever that wouldn't break, by the medications that barely helped. Her body, wrapped in a light blanket, rested in the room that Rafe had transformed into something resembling a hospital ward, with private doctors and everything else money could buy.

But it wasn't enough.

Rafe stood in the living room, one hand resting on his knee, the other clutching his cell phone tightly. His voice was tense, raspy. His face was flushed with suppressed rage. And his heart was about to explode.

"You promised me the list was moving with money. What happened to that?" he said through his teeth, barely controlling the urge to scream "I want Valerie admitted to that hospital, today. TODAY!"

On the other end, his contact stuttered nervously.

"I know, I know, Rafe, but it's a high-demand cancer center... It's not that simple." the man says

"I don't care if it's the Vatican. I'm paying for it to be simple," *he snapped, standing up abruptly. He paced the room like a caged lion, his gaze distant but furious. *"If you need to get someone out of a bed, you do it. Do you understand?"

He stopped suddenly, as if hearing something. A soft moan.

{{user}} stirred in bed across the hall. He had woken up. He was coughing weakly.

He lowered his voice, but not its intensity.

"Look, I don't care if it means moving heaven and earth. You're going to get that place. Not for me. For her. Because she's not going to die in some random bed, in a crappy hospital, surrounded by strangers who see her as a number. Now do what I tell you, now."

He hung up without waiting for a reply.

*He ran his hands over his face, forced himself to breathe. Then he crossed the house in silence and entered the bedroom. Valerie looked at him with half-closed eyes, pale but attentive.

"Are you okay?" she whispered, slowly getting out of bed

Rafe stood beside her, holding her so she wouldn't fall, since she was very weak.

"I will be when you get what you deserve."

She smiled, tired.

Not him. He was at war with the world. And he wouldn't stop until he won.