ARIA’S POV

The first thing I noticed was the ceiling. It was white, clean and not concrete.

My brain took a moment to catch up with my eyes, and for a few seconds I just lay there, blinking at it, trying to figure out why it felt so strange to look at something so ordinary.

Then everything came back. It wasn’t all at once, rather it came slowly, like pages turning in a book.

Sarah. The rooftop. The weight of the vest on my chest. Andrew’s voice. The shot. I closed my eyes again.

My body felt heavy in a way that had nothing to do with tiredness. Like something had been wrung out of me and not put back.

My throat was dry, my limbs were sore, and there was a dull ache behind my eyes that pulsed faintly with every heartbeat.

But I was alive... I was actually alive.

I opened my eyes again, slower this time, and let the room come into focus. The soft beeping of a monitor somewhere to my left.

The cool feel of stiff sheets beneath my fingers. The faint smell of antiseptic underneath something warmer, something that felt familiar in a way I couldn’t name yet.

I turned my head. Olivia was tucked in the corner of the room, fast asleep.

Kael was sitting beside the bed.

He wasn’t asleep. Of course he wasn’t. He was on his phone, the screen casting a faint blue light across his face, but the second I moved, his eyes were on me. Like he’d been watching me from the corner of his eye the whole time and was just waiting.

He set the phone down without looking at it.

"You’re awake," he said. His voice was quiet, careful, like he was afraid too much sound might break something.

"Yeah." Mine came out rough and small. I barely recognized it.

He leaned forward immediately, his elbows on his knees, his eyes moving over my face the way they always did when he was checking for damage and pretending he wasn’t.

"How do you feel?"

"I don’t know yet." I shifted slightly and winced. "Sore. Tired." I paused. "Confused."

"You passed out," he said. "In my arms. Right after they got the vest off you."

I remembered that. Vaguely. The way my legs just stopped working and the world went sideways and the last thing I felt was his hands catching me before I hit the ground.

My eyes dropped to my stomach almost before I knew I was doing it.

"The baby," I said. "Kael—"

"Is fine." He said it before I could finish, and the certainty in his voice, the steadiness of it, made something in my chest loosen just a little. "The doctors checked. Everything is fine. You’re both fine."

I let out a breath I felt like I’d been holding for days.

He reached over and pushed a strand of hair off my face, his fingers brushing my cheek in the process, and the touch was so gentle it almost made me want to cry.

This man who had torn a building apart with his bare hands to get to me was now sitting here touching my face like I was made of something that could shatter.

"Does anything hurt?" he asked.

"Everything a little," I admitted. "But not like, not anything serious." I looked down at the IV taped to the back of my hand. "How long have I been out?"

"Long enough," he said, which was not really an answer, but the way he said it told me enough. Long enough that he’d been sitting here watching me breathe for too many hours to count.

I looked at him properly then. Really looked at him.

He looked exhausted. The kind of tired that sleep couldn’t fix, the kind that came from inside. There were shadows under his eyes and a tension in his jaw that hadn’t fully let go even now, even sitting here with me awake in front of him.

His shirt was clean, which meant someone had made him change at some point, but his hair was a mess and there was something hollow in his eyes that made my heart hurt.

He’d been so scared.

He would never say it that simply, but I could see it all over him.

"Hey," I said softly.

He looked at me.

"I’m okay," I told him.

Something in his face shifted. Just slightly. Just enough. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

And then it hit me, not gradually this time. All at once, like a wave I didn’t see coming.

It was over.

It was actually over.

No more running. No more threats. No more waking up and wondering what today would bring. No bomb. No Andrew. No cold room, no zip ties, no gun pressed to my temple.

Over.

The feeling that rose in my chest was so big and so sudden that I didn’t have time to prepare for it, and before I even understood what was happening, my eyes were burning and my throat was closing up and the tears were already falling.

"Aria." Kael sat up straight, his hand immediately going to mine. "What’s wrong? Where does it hurt—"

"Nowhere." My voice broke on the word. "I’m not hurt, I just—" I stopped, tried to breathe, couldn’t quite manage it. "I’m just happy. I’m just so glad we’re alive. I’m glad the baby is okay and I’m glad you’re here and I’m glad I’m not—" I laughed, which came out wet and completely embarrassing. "I’m glad I’m not in pieces on a rooftop."

Kael looked at me for a long moment.

Then he pulled me into his arms.

He didn’t say anything. He just gathered me against his chest and held me there, one hand cradling the back of my head, and I buried my face in his neck and I cried.

Really cried. The ugly kind, the kind with snot and gasping breaths and no dignity whatsoever, and I didn’t care even a little bit because his arms were around me and I was warm and safe and alive.

He pressed his lips to the top of my head and kept them there.

"You’re safe," he murmured. "You’re safe. The baby is safe. We’re okay."

I held on tighter.

And then Sarah came back to me.