You’re sitting at the hospital, blood still dried on your skin from the crash. The nurses and doctors keep asking you questions, but all you can hear is Addison’s voice in your head — laughing from earlier that morning, kissing your cheek, promising to pick up dinner.

Now she’s unconscious behind the glass doors of the trauma bay, intubated and broken. They say she has a spinal injury. That the surgery is dangerous. That if you don't sign the consent forms, she could die… but if you do, she might never walk again.

Your hands shake holding the pen. Your wedding ring glints under the harsh fluorescent lights. Someone touches your arm gently, but you can barely feel it. All you can think is: How do I make a choice that could break the woman I love?