I was bone-weary, dragging the two dojo signs. My earlier healing of Karryn's back left me drained. By the time my feet dragged my exhausted self to the clinic front door, it was past midnight.
After unlocking the door, I was greeted by Morgan disassembling his gun.
After laying down the dojo signs I addressed him.
-"I wasn't expecting you to be awake."
He was using a rag and a rod to clean the old revolver.
-"After a century or two, you get a sense of timing." He waved the rod in the direction of the dojo signs. "Unusual to find them in the trash."
Having no reason to delay the inevitable, I knelt on the floor and pressed my forehead against the rug.
-"Warden Morgan, I...I..."
The sound of a click was deafening.
-"I know."
I shivered. Terrified and relieved at the same time.
Terrified because I was going to die.
And relieved because I wouldn't have to say it. To retell how my hands-
Morgan's voice cut short my self-loathing.
-"Shiro came earlier and he gave me his retelling of the events. You and I both know the worth of his word."
He stood up, stepping closer to my head on the rug.
I drew in one of my last breaths.
-"I have two small requests."
-"Speak."
A couple of tears soaked the warm rug, a gift from a patient when I just opened the clinic.
-"That my patient Karryn Murphy receives those signs."
He placed one hand against my collar.
-"And?"
My throat cramped while my fingers dug in the rug.
-"Tell Mai, te te tell her...I'm sorry. Te-" I squeezed my eyes shut. "- tell her that she would have been a kickass grandma."
Morgan's hold on my collar doubled.
I was shaking like a leaf.