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Eve sits in the waiting room, watching the hands on the clock slowly spiral. It’s been hours since the last update. Her hair is still slightly damp, her clothes likely stink, but she can’t force herself to leave. Not yet.
There’s a nudge at her shoulder and she startles, looking up frantically. Yusuf holds a cup of coffee out to her. A peace offering. A thank you. An apology. She accepts it and he sits down next to her, the plastic chair squeaking slightly.
“I’ve always hated hospitals.” Yusuf starts. “they’re always cold.”
Eve just nods. Can’t bring herself to speak, afraid that the floodgates that she’s finally precariously closed will bang open again.
Yusuf sets a bag in her lap. “I brought you some clothes from your suitcase. Thought, you might want to change into something clean.” He nudges her shoulder again. “You smell like a sewer.” A laugh bubbles up before she can stop it, her lower lip wobbling at the unfiltered emotion.
“Go change in the bathroom. It’s okay, Eve. She’s not going anywhere.”
Eve nods, clutching the handles of the bag tightly and standing up, her knees protesting at the movement. She leaves the coffee on the little side table, she’ll drink it when she gets back.
She goes into the single occupancy bathroom. It’s nearly the middle of the night, no one else is going to likely need it. She sets the bag on the counter, zipping it open with shaking hands. A pair of sweatpants, socks, underwear and a sports bra, a t shirt and jacket, a new stick of deodorant, and baby wipes. Her sandals. She closes her eyes and takes a deep stuttering breath.
She strips out her clothes, wishing she could burn them. Villanelle’s blood stain seems too bright in the dim blue light of the bathroom. She hastily wipes herself down with the baby wipes, wishing she could scrape her skin raw.
Her head breaks the surface, and she gasps for air. Her breaths shuddering out in broken off screams. She sheds her jacket and kicks off her shoes. She sucks in a lungful of air and goes back down, kicking as hard as she can, searching through the dark murky water for Villanelle. Her phone flashlight swiping back and forth.
She finally sees Villanelle’s hand and reaches for it again, this time able to make contact. She grasps her wrist and tugs as hard as she can, swimming back to the surface.
She makes her way back to the shore, fumbling with her phone to dial 999.
“Please, my wife,” she says thinking quick, “she’s been shot and fell into the river. I don’t think she’s breathing. I’m swimming her back to the shore and-“ she doesn’t remember what she says after that. Answering the dispatcher’s questions, giving Villanelle’s condition, saying when she makes it to the shore and starts CPR. It passes in a blur.
At some point the paramedics arrive and they take Villanelle off her hands and load her into the ambulance.
One of the paramedics asks her if she’s the wife and she can only nod, and they let her ride with them.
She tosses the old clothes in the trashcan, zips the duffle bag closed, and makes her way back to the waiting room, avoiding her own gaze in the mirror.
She collapses back into her chair next to Yusuf.
“Feel better?” He’s playing some sort of puzzle game on his phone.
“Yeah,” she says, throat scratching. She clears it, wincing at the rawness of it. She grabs the coffee, the warmth seeping into her.
The next few hours pass in silence. At some point Yusuf gets up and goes the vending machine, bringing back a packet of gummy worms for Eve, but she doesn’t eat them.
The rising sun is peaking through the windows when a doctor finally walks into the waiting room. “Eve Polastri?”
Eve jumps up. “That’s me. Is she okay?”
The doctor smiles warmly at her. “She’s going to be fine. She lost a lot of blood, but she managed to pull through. We want to keep her a few more days to monitor her vitals, but she should be cleared to return home by the end of the week.”
Eve buries her face in her hands, tears slipping down her face. “Oh, thank god.”
“You’re lucky you brought her in when you did. A few minutes later and she might not have made it.”
A choked sob pulls itself out of her throat. “Can- can I see her?”
The doctor nods, motioning for Eve to follow her.
They enter Villanelle’s room, she’s out cold, hair haloed on the pillow underneath her head.
“We’ve taken her off the anesthetic about a half hour ago, she should be waking up soon.” She says, noting something on her chart.
Eve just nods. She sits gently in the chair next to the bed, itching to grab Villanelle’s limp hand between her own. Wishing to press her lips to the bruised knuckles.
She’s shivering in the back of the ambulance, watching the paramedics do their jobs. A shock blanket is wrapped around her shoulders, but it feels like its doing nothing. She can’t even follow what’s happening, just knowing that Villanelle isn’t going to make it.
She’s not going to make it and it’s all Eve’s fault. If she hadn’t let Villanelle come with her, if she’d held back on her own feelings, then none of this would have happened.
The ambulance pulls up in front of the hospital and the paramedics rush Villanelle out, doctors taking her from there. One of the paramedics comes back and guides Eve out slowly. Her hands are shaking, gripped around her phone.
“Is there anyone you can call?” they ask her, and Eve thinks. Who could she even call right now? Carolyn is clearly a no go. Yusuf pops into her head and she nods. “Do you think you can make the call?” Eve shakes her head, biting her lip and blinking back tears. “If you pull up their contact info, I can call for you if you’d like.” She nods, pulling up Yusuf’s number and handing her phone to the paramedic.
She doesn’t hear what’s spoken, tuning out after “your friend’s wife was in an accident, would you be able to-“.
Villanelle’s hand twitches in hers, and Eve startles. Villanelle slowly peels her eyes open and then clenches them shut, groaning.
“Ugh, too bright in here.” Her voice slow and scratchy with unuse. Eve lets out a sob and Villanelle smiles slightly at the sound. She lets her head fall the side as she cracks her eyes open again. “Hello, Eve.”
“I hate you. Never do that to me again!”
“I can’t promise that.” She squeezes Eve’s hand back as tight as she can. “How did they even let you in here?”
Eve chokes out a laugh “I told them I was your wife,” she finally brings Villanelle’s knuckles up, pressing gentle kisses to them. Villanelle smiles, the corners of her eyes crinkling.
“You lied? Very naughty, Eve.”
Eve just presses another kiss to her knuckles, cradling her hand gently in hers.
“You saved my life.”
“Well, it’s not like I had a choice. I couldn’t just leave you.”
Villanelle just lifts her head up expectantly and Eve leans down to meet her in the middle, sealing the unspoken promises with a kiss. Whatever happens next, Eve knows Villanelle will stand with her. Always.