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Slowly, hurting, he turned his head to look at her

She stood poised in the doorway, one sli tentatively on the jamb As always, she stood perfectly erect, her chin upthrust just a little, her hair combed into a series of honey-brown curls around her face

He wanted to smile at her, cockily, as if none of this mattered, and he tried “Hiya, Doc”

“Hello, Angel Are you ready?”

He was staring at her so intently that it took a second for her words to register When they did, they hit with the force of a blow “Ready?” he whispered, blowing how pathetic he sounded He was lying there, shaved from chin to ankles, his skin discolored by antiseptic solution, his veins riddled with intravenous needles, his hair covered by a paper cap

He was going to die, here and noith his chest cut open and his heart taking its last feeble beats in another loved hands

Madelaine let the door shut behind her anddown beside him “Dr Allenford is on his way to Tacoma to check out the donor heart”

Donor heart

The words reverberated through his skull, echoing, echoing One heart cut out, another sewn in

“I don’t know if I can do this, Mad,” he said softly

She leaned toward hi on his damp cheek “You never did have much faith in yourself,” she said with a sined it

He gave a laugh that ended in a rattling cough “When you’re lying around waiting to die, you tend to think about what your life means”

Another s philosophical”

He wanted to sht now There was only that yawning fear and the loneliness “Don’t look so surprised I almost qualified for ‘Jeopardy’ in 1986 It was the ory that screwed me”

“It would be”