--:Aries's POV:--
The hallway was a graveyard of silence. We waited for hours, watching the red "In Use" light above Jay-jay's door. Keifer hadn't moved. He sat on the plastic bench, his head bowed, still covered in the mud and blood of the forest. He looked like a statue of a fallen king.
Finally, the heavy doors swung open. The doctor stepped out, rubbing his tired eyes.
"Is she stable?" I asked, stepping forward.
"She is alive," the doctor said cautiously. "The heart is beating on its own, but she has fallen into a deep coma. Her mind isn't responding to any outside stimuli right now."
Keifer stood up, his voice a low growl. "Can I please...please go in??"
"Only one person at a time," the doctor warned, holding up a hand. "And talk to her. Sometimes, the sound of a familiar voice is the only thing that can pull them back. But don't expect a miracle tonight."
--:Keifer's POV:--
I didn't listen to the rest. I pushed past them all.
The room was freezing. The only sound was the rhythmic hiss-click of the machines keeping her alive. I sat by her bed and took her hand. It felt like holding a piece of porcelain—fragile, cold, and white.
"Jay," I whispered, my voice breaking. "I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."
Angelo came to the door an hour later. He didn't come in with orders or demands for the district. He stood there with his arms crossed, his own face pale and filled with a rare, heavy worry.
"Keifer," Angelo said softly. His voice didn't have its usual authority; it sounded tired. "You should sit down. You've been on your feet since the forest."
"I'm staying right here, Angelo" I said, not even looking at him.
Angelo walked further into the room, his eyes fixed on Jay-jay's pale face and the tubes connected to her. He looked at her with a protective, pained expression—the look of a man watching someone he cared for slip away.
"The doctors... they don't know when she'll wake up," Angelo whispered, almost to himself. He reached out, briefly touching the edge of her blanket. "I've seen a lot of things, Keifer, but seeing her like this... it's not right. She's too loud, too stubborn to be this quiet."
"Then tell her to wake up," I snapped, my eyes stinging. "You're the one everyone listens to. Tell her to come back."
Angelo let out a long, heavy breath, his hand lingering near hers. "I wish I could. But right now, we're just two men waiting for a miracle. I'm staying in the hallway. If she even blinks, you tell me. I'm not leaving this hospital until I see those eyes open."
I looked at him then, seeing the raw fear in my brother's eyes. "Let the district burn, Angelo. We aren't moving."
"Let it burn" Angelo agreed, his voice a low, dark promise. "Nothing matters until she breathes on her own."
DAY 1:-
The first twenty-four hours were a nightmare of red emergency lights and the rhythmic, artificial hiss-click of the ventilator. Once the doctors moved Jay-jay to the private ICU wing, Keifer became a statue. He sat in a hard plastic chair, his mud-stained hands gripping her cold ones. He didn't look at the doctors or the nurses; he just stared at her pale face, counting every mechanical breath. When the nurses tried to move him so they could change her IV, he growled at them like a cornered animal until Angelo had to step in. The silence in the room was heavy, broken only by the hum of the machines that were doing the work her body couldn't.
DAY 2:-
By the second day, Keifer's eyes were bloodshot and sunken. He hadn't moved to eat or sleep. Angelo entered the room at noon with a tray of food, his face set in a grim, unyielding expression.
"Eat, Keifer" Angelo commanded.
"I'm not hungry, Angelo" Keifer rasped, his voice sounding like it had been dragged over broken glass.
Angelo didn't back down. He set the tray down and blocked Keifer's view of the bed for a split second. "You think she'd be proud of this? Look at yourself. If she wakes up and sees you looking like a corpse, she'll blame herself. Do you want her first thought to be guilt? Eat. Now. For her, if not for yourself."
Under the pressure of Angelo's voice—the only person Keifer still listened to—he finally forced down a few bites, though he looked like he was swallowing stones.
DAY 3:-
Keigan and Keiran arrived on the third day. They stayed by the door, shifting their weight from foot to foot. Keigan looked especially haunted. He kept looking at Jay-jay's hands, then at his own.
He walked closer, his voice barely a whisper. "I'm sorry, Jay" he muttered, his eyes stinging. He was thinking of the "Glue" incident—the way he had treated her, the jokes that had gone too far, the times he had made her feel like an outsider. "I shouldn't have been such a jerk. I thought I was just messing around, but you're the one who ended up taking the hit for all of us. When you wake up... I'll make it up to you. I won't let anyone mess with you again. Not even me."
Keiran stood behind him, silent, placing a hand on Keigan's shoulder. They weren't just losing a teammate; they were realizing they had almost lost a sister they hadn't finished apologizing to.
DAY 4:-
Ci N sat in the corner on the fourth day. He wasn't typing with his usual clinical speed. Every few minutes, he would look up from the encryption on the silver drive to check her vitals.
"The pendrive is a mess, Jay-jay" he murmured. "I keep waiting for you to wake up and tell me I'm looking at the code upside down. This team doesn't work right without your brain. We're a disaster without you. Come back and fix us."
DAY 5:-
On the fifth day, Keifer finally reached his limit. His body simply gave out. He fell asleep with his head on the edge of her mattress, his hand still clutching hers.
Suddenly, the heart monitor began to spike. Beep-beep-beep-beep. The nurses rushed in, and for a moment, panic flared. But as they checked the readings, they realized something strange. Jay-jay's heart rate wasn't failing—it was climbing to match Keifer's. It was as if her subconscious was reaching out to his.
Angelo saw the toll it was taking. He didn't force Keifer to a different room. Instead, he pulled strings with the hospital board. By evening, a second medical bed was moved into the ICU room, positioned right next to Jay-jay's.
They laid the exhausted Keifer there. Even in his deep sleep, his hand never let go of hers. The two beds were pushed so close together they were practically one.
DAY 6:-
The doctors performed more tests on the sixth day. The room was quiet, save for the synchronized, heavy breathing of the two people in the beds. Keigan and Keiran stayed longer this time, sitting on the floor in the corner. They weren't brothers, but they shared the same heavy sense of realization—that the "nerd" they had spent so much time dismissing was actually the heart of their group.
"If she doesn't wake up" Keigan whispered, "who's going to stop Keifer from turning back into a monster? He's only human when she's around."
DAY 7:-
The seventh day was a graveyard. Keifer was back awake, sitting on the edge of his own hospital bed, his eyes never leaving hers. Angelo was leaning against the doorframe, his eyes hidden in shadow.
"One week, Angelo" Keifer whispered.
"I know," Angelo replied, his voice thick. "But she's still breathing. As long as that machine is clicking, we stay."
THE DAWN OF DAY 8:-
--:Keifer's POV:--
The sun was just beginning to peek through the blinds when I felt it.
The fingers in my hand didn't just twitch. They squeezed. I froze, my heart stopping. Then, a sharp, sudden intake of breath broke the silence. She wasn't breathing with the machine anymore-she was fighting it.
"Angelo!" I yelled, my voice cracking the silence. "ANGELO! SHE'S MOVING!"
The door burst open. Angelo, Aries, and the Section E scrambled in. We watched, breathless, as her eyelids trembled. Slowly, she forced them open. Her eyes were cloudy and pained, but they were open.
"Kei...fer?"
The sound was tiny, but it was everything. I sank from my bed to my knees by her side, burying my face in the mattress as the tears finally poured out. "I'm here, Jay. I'm right here."
Angelo leaned over, a massive smile breaking across his face."Welcome back, kid. You kept us waiting long enough."
Jay-jay looked at the room full of tired, messy men and gave the faintest, weakest ghost of a smile. "You... stayed."
"We weren't going anywhere" Angelo replied, his voice thick. "Not without you."
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