Thanks for the review T18.
This chapter is pretty weak, but I felt that Catherine had to come back for a bit.
Next chapter will be the last
Please, please, pleases review – I appreciate the feedback.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The door frame felt smooth under her fingertips, the coated wood cool beneath her palm. Her fingers were curled around the harsh shape, tips and nails out towards the hall where hurried people walked by, their shoes squeaking on the floor despite their attempts at quiet. The realms of the sick and dying had long been deemed a realm of silence, of stillness. Looking into the room these traits unfolded before her as her eyes beheld the sight; frozen figures in a tableau of emotion.
Her breath released itself through the half smile on her face, the quiet look of wonderment that lay on her visage. A warm pool appeared concentrated in the depths of her being, a warmth she attributed to the sense of contentment that was flowing through her. She remembered a saying from a greeting card she once bought from a gas station; a cheap paper thing that bore the creases of neglect and undesirability. "Smile and the whole world smiles with you" the grinning flower on the front had beamed despite its faded colours and lack of an envelope. Her own grin spread as the feeling of contentment, of peace spread from the confines of the stark room and its still figures to herself.
She lay pale upon the bed, a wealth of technology encircling her, embracing her. He sat slumped in the ratted chair, his form half on her bed; his head by her thighs, his hand grasping hers. Linked palm to palm. In his wilted form, the figure by the door read the relief, the pain, the exhaustion that was coursing through him. His rhythmic breathing was remarkably in time with that of the ashen beauty. As one in sleep.
The harsh, brittle noise from some where down the corridor shattered the moment and she turned from the scene in front of her for a moment to stare in its direction; fearing it would break the spell over her two companions. She needn't have worried. Their still forms remained frozen, like etchings in time. Their breath interchangeable, their hands linked, their hearts beating.
She had come with uncertainty. Come with a need for clarity. Reassurance. That one, no, both would live. From her vantage point on the threshold she could hear the mechanical pulse as it echoed around the room, measuring not one but two hearts. Two lives. Two survivors. Two people linked by more than the pursuit for truth, more than the insufficient title of friend. Two people, two comrades, two – dare she say it, soul mates.
With an almost silent chuckle that jerked her copper locks into her eyes she chastised herself for her flight thoughts and focussed once more on the scene. Then, having seen all that she needed, she silently backed out of the room not knowing how long she had stood watching two healing souls in a room of unbridled white. Perhaps a minute. Perhaps an hour. Long enough to find her reassurance, her clarity. Long enough to clear herself of all uncertainty.
And as the door latched behind her she turned her back on the room with its fairytale like occupants and walked squeaking down the corridor, secure in the knowledge that all would be well.