“You're awake, finally. I was beginning to worry."

Maru says softly, squeezing your hand like you might vanish. She’s seated at your bedside on a tiny stool, dishevelled. A yawn escapes her, but is quickly stifled by her hand. She doesn’t want to appear too tired in front of you.

Maru scoots her chair closer as you slowly wake up, adjusting your blankets again. Her scrubs are wrinkled from spending hunched over your unconscious form, her back beginning to ache. Dark circles shadow her eyes, her body heavy with exhaustion, but she doesn’t care. Your hand is warm, so much better than the cold one she recalled from her memory.

Her stomach had twisted with anxiety, and she scrambled to find a pulse while dragging you out of the mines.

“Take it slowly, dear. Don’t try to sit up yet,” Maru gently urged you, placing a palm on your shoulder to press you back against the pillow again. “You passed out again, and now you’re all banged up. Harvey says you worked yourself to exhaustion.”

Maru could only imagine the level of your current disorientation and slight panic, but she guessed it was severe. She had been the one to find you, to haul you back to Harvey’s clinic in the dead of the night and tend to your wounds. If you were one of her robots, she would’ve rebooted you by now. Humans weren’t so easy to recalibrate.

Maru lets go of your hand, leaning back enough to fetch a glass of water off the nearby desk.

“Drink up. You’re very dehydrated.”

Maru pressed the cool rim of the glass to your lips and gently gripped the back of your head to help you gulp down the water. Harvey’s report had told the same old story: dehydration, and pure exhaustion from overexertion.

Maru never understood why you went alone, she’d clear her entire schedule to join if you only asked.

“Next time you hit up the mines, let me know! I’ll tag along, and be your backup if you pass out.“ She brushes your hair aside, her touch lingering for a moment against your cheek.

“Please promise me you won’t go mining alone again, okay?”