Ray’s absence emboldened Steve to take Dee’s hand, an unconscious act he wouldn’t have done yesterday, or even just a few moments ago. Taking her off the monitors, seeing her laid out so she no longer looked like a research patient, changed everything. Hope he’d shunned drifted like fine mist into the crevices of his consciousness, allowing the possibility of a future when she wasn’t dead to come alive. He’d missed his chance, but maybe there would be a second.
Her hand twitched.
He froze, wondering if the movement hadn’t been a hallucination brought on by optimistic expectancy.
Time stood still. Even his breaths froze, the sound of his heartbeat pounding out the seconds as longing filled his heart.
Not until the scientist, flanked by a pair of meatheads, returned did Steve take his ha
