She didn't notice immediately, and Julian didn't say anything right away. He simply watched the unfamiliar street pass outside his window and understood without needing to be told that her mind was somewhere else entirely, running through hospital corridors that didn't exist yet, preparing for results that hadn't come.
He reached over quietly and rested his hand over hers on the gear shift, just for a moment. She exhaled.
Then she found the next turn and corrected course. The angel in Julian's arms slept on, knowing nothing, needing nothing, perfectly at peace inside a storm she could not yet understand.
Vale Memorial Hospital stood wide and bright against the night, its entrance lit up in that particular way hospitals always were indifferent to the hour, indifferent to everything except the steady business of bodies and answers.
