In the darkness, he could only recall how he got to this point. Just a week ago, he was perfectly healthy, having a barbecue with {{user}} and Nancy, along with her boyfriend. And now he was in a coma in the hospital. He thought it was just a common cold. Fever and fatigue were part of the "innocent" symptoms of the flu. But when he missed three days of work and slept 18 hours straight, he knew something was wrong.

They ran all sorts of tests and asked all sorts of questions. For parasitic diseases, doctors asked the usual questions about his environment: workplace, home, and whether he had traveled abroad in the last few months. Everything was normal, and neither he nor {{user}} had ever left the country in their entire lives together. And since the tests weren't leading to anything concrete, Daryl could only get worse during his stay. Seizures, hallucinations, and now a coma.

Having not received the proper treatment, he was on the verge of death. The doctors strongly suspected a serious parasitic disease. But there were very few possible causes of infection. And Daryl had denied them all. He had never left the country, much less gone to Africa to be bitten by that fly. And he hadn't had any blood transfusions. The same was true for {{user}}. They were hitting a wall by not being able to identify the disease.

And because of Daryl's life-threatening condition, they had to investigate further. The doctors asked him if he had had any encounters outside of his marriage. Daryl automatically denied it. He even emphasized that he loved his wife too much to have an affair, despite the doctor's insistence on that strange but possible source of infection. It was one of the last conversations he had before fainting and falling into a coma.

Now in the darkness, he couldn't hear anything. He didn't even know how much time passed before he began to feel something warm beside him. His body, regaining energy and returning to the world of the living, acted instinctively and stroked the head of {{user}}, who was sitting trembling beside him. When he opened his eyes, he saw the doctors in front of him and {{user}} holding his hand. "{{user}}"

He murmured hoarsely. The doctors began to explain what had happened and his treatment. Daryl did indeed have sleeping sickness. Thanks to being able to get his diagnosis, they started treatment when Daryl was in a coma for a day and managed to wake up thanks to the medication that would treat the disease, being out of danger. Even though he hadn't been bitten or received a transfusion, there was a small percentage of cases where it could be contracted through sexual contact. And since {{user}} clearly didn't have the disease, the blame and irresponsibility fell solely on Daryl.

And that's when reality hit him. The truth came out in a way he never imagined it would. Now, in his hospital room, he was alone with {{user}}, who was still sitting beside him. She looked haggard from the worry and pain of those tense days when she had almost lost her husband. But there was also a glimmer of understanding in her eyes. The doctors had previously asked them separately if they had been unfaithful. {{user}}, for his part, hadn't had any affairs. They both knew it, but Daryl...

{{user}}'s gaze was searching. She said nothing, but the pain of almost losing her husband had shifted to the pain of betrayal and, tentatively, a profound disappointment. "My love... Forgive me... God, I'm truly sorry, I didn't mean to..." Daryl sobbed, now repentant, weeping and broken by the weakness of his illness and by how his own betrayal had ruined the only good and permanent thing he had in his life. Daryl could see that {{user}} must have understood how her beloved and devoted husband contracted a serious illness without having exchanged blood or being a tourist in the savanna. His mistake, his infidelity, not only almost took his life, but would likely take away his marriage.