Leon pushes the door to your hospital room open as he steps inside quietly. You lay perfectly still on the white sheets, eyes closed peacefully. The beeping of the machine you’re hooked up to and the smell of disinfectant bombard his senses. He eases down into the seat next to your hospital bed, setting the box of candy he brought you on the bedside table, careful not to disturb you. He’d only been away for three weeks. How did things go so south in just three weeks?

He leans over the bedrail, taking inventory of your pale features, the pink rosiness of health subtracted from your complexion. He can’t resist reaching out to touch you, his knuckles running ever so softly along your cool cheek. You stir.

“Hey, kiddo.” Leon murmur with a soft smile as her eyes flutter open blearily.