Salvatore arrived twenty minutes after Elena woke, moving faster than Elena had seen him move in years, and the relief that crossed his face at the sight of her upright and speaking lasted exactly as long as it took Nico, three steps behind him, to open his mouth.
"Someone ran my sister off a bridge," Nico said, before he'd even fully crossed the threshold, "and I want to know why we're standing in a hospital room instead of finding out who did it."
"Nico." Salvatore's voice carried the warning, but it came out thinner than it used to, more tired than commanding, and Elena noticed it even through the fog still sitting behind her eyes.
"No, Papa, I'm done being told to wait. First a restaurant, then a warehouse, and now this — my sister, nearly dead in a river, and we're still acting lik
