"Victor, are you sure you don't need any morphine?" Victor nodded in response to Ferris' inquiry, his teeth clinched. He forced his jaw to relax so he could speak.
"I don't want to take any more than I have to," Victor struggled to get out.
"Alright, it just looks to me like you're in a lot of unnecessary pain," Ferris stated before lapsing back into silence. Victor took a few slow breaths to dissipate the tightness in his chest and revealed his reasoning.
"I want to be off of any medication and out of the hospital. It just . . . brings back a lot of bad memories." Ferris struggled to find something comforting to respond to Victor's disheartened comment. He ended up saying nothing, instead glancing discreetly at his watch. Two hours had passed since Ferris had crossed into the room, and the sun had all but vanished over the horizon.
"You don't have to stay," Victor murmured. "I'll just go back to sleep. Then I'll be able to heal sooner and get back to work."
"Don't worry about GothCorp," Ferris sighed before forcing a smile. "You have plenty of time to take off. Take as much time as you need."
"Okay," Victor soberly agreed to Ferris' beaming grin. He settled back into the pillow. As Ferris was gathering his belongings, Victor made a last request of him for the evening.
"Will you . . . let Sarah know she doesn't have to take time off to come tomorrow. I mean, if she doesn't want to. I feel like I'm forcing –"
"I'll tell her, Victor, but you should expect her anyway," Ferris cut in with a knowing grin. "She can be pretty stubborn." Victor smiled a little and was left alone for the evening.
"I'm glad to see you up and about," Sarah pulled up a chair next to his by the mediocre window that overlooked the equally pitiful hospital garden.
"They wanted me to start moving around some. They're pleased that I could walk some, but it's tiring."
"That's good progress, though. How are you feeling otherwise?"
"Honestly, a bit light headed, just from being up. Otherwise . . . I guess, I don't know. Calm? It's hard to say."
"That's alright. I just hope that you keep talking with someone. We all want to help you." He turned away from the meager garden stories below and met her eyes.
"Thank you. I just . . . don't want to trouble anyone. I'm seeing somebody, like you suggested, so I just don't want to be a burden on you."
"If you were troubling me at all, I would not bother with you. You're not a burden at all," she assured him seriously.
"But you're missing so much work to see me," Victor insisted with more urgency.
"I think you're more important than a few hours of managing my business. You know you're starting to pick up too many GothCorp traits," she smiled warmly.
"Maybe, but work was the only thing that helped me get this far."
"Is that why you worked so many hours?" He nodded stiffly with a frown. "I had Ferris go through some of GothCorp's old security feed. You were in the building almost twelve hours a day the last month. There was a few times you worked for sixteen hours straight."
"I know," Victor admitted, his cheeks tinged red. "I just . . . couldn't stand to be home. It was too painful. I thought about moving, but I couldn't bring myself to go through everything to pack up and leave."
"At the time, I saw no reason to take time off when Nora passed away. She . . ." he trailed off hopelessly, passing a deep sigh.
"We don't have to talk about this now if you don't want to," Sarah rested her hand on top of his. He expressed his gratitude at her understanding with the remnants of a smile.
"No, my therapist said it was best to talk about it . . . and I-I think I can. I'll try." He paused to gather his thoughts.
"Nora was always practical," he began at last, staring out the window as he spoke. "She was great with people and knew how to plan things out. She had had her will in order and all the funeral arrangements made well before she was on hospice."
"I think she always knew what to do with me as well. I insisted I could stay home from work in the last few weeks, but she would hear none of it. She has always been the stronger of the two of us, and knew how much it hurt to sit by her side as the illness slowly consumed her."
"I tried researching the cure at the first mention of the illness, but I found nothing. I wanted to give us more time, a fighting chance, so I started spending hours designing a cryogenics chamber for her. Every waking moment at home was dedicated to her or working on the design. I started going for days on end without sleep, using my lunch break at work to try and get an hour here or there. I guess that was about six months before . . . anyway, it took about two months for the designs, but in retrospect, she would not have wanted me to ever implement them anyway. So I kept researching the cure."
"Finally, the illness took a turn for the worst that last Friday, and she wasn't expected to make it much longer. She was home for a week and a day, and refused that I be at her side the entire time. She knew I would lose myself in work for eight hours each day, and she wanted me to have that break." Tears steadily fell from his hollow eyes as he recounted the last few days.
"I was at her side when she passed. It was slow, quiet. Very peaceful. She told me she loved me and . . . she passed away a few hours later. So I went to work on Monday and never told a soul. There was . . . she had taken care of everything, and there was nothing I needed to do. So I worked."
He stopped speaking and stared blindly ahead. The corners of his mouth quivered as he held in a sob. Sarah had taken his hands in hers, and now gently traced her thumb over his clinched fists. Victor pulled one hand away to wipe the tears from his face.
"Are you alright?" Sarah whispered. He opened his mouth, but the words came out as nothing more than a squeak filled with sadness and pain. Instead, he pursed his lips and nodded, eyes closed tight as he cried.
Sarah swept away his tears and stroked his head as he calmed. His harsh sobs gradually subsided. He leaned back heavily in the chair, his face seeming to sag in exhaustion.
"Thank you for talking to me," she ran her fingers through his hair lovingly. "Let's get you back to bed, shall we?"
