Fati's eyes widened in utter shock as she looked at Jaguar. She felt that kiss ignite her not just from the heat of his breath and lips against her skin, but from the sudden, frantic racing of her heart. She raised her hand and pressed it against her chest, as if commanding her heart to stay silent and not betray her. But the pounding exceeded all reason, so she stood up abruptly, trying to gather her composure.
- I'll go change,
she stammered.
- Your grandfather will be out shortly. Wait for him, but please... wear a mask.
Jaguar gave her a weary smile as he watched her retreat, noticing the blush of embarrassment that painted her cheeks like ripe peaches. He whispered to himself with an unfamiliar sincerity,
- I don't know how to reward you, my dear Fati.
That word "dear" was so spontaneous it startled him. It was a foreign term in his vocabulary, one that had never crossed his mind until he realized it had struck the long dormant strings of his heart. As a husband who had never uttered such a word to his wife, he suddenly felt a resolve to change everything. He had to change his ways, to speak to her about a true reconciliation... they had to live as a real couple from this moment forward.
Fati reached the doctors' changing room, placed her surgical scrubs in the locker, and headed straight home without returning to Jaguar. She knew she needed hours of rest before the next call would inevitably come. As soon as she reached the bedroom, she collapsed onto the bed, setting a six-hour alarm on the old phone Jaguar had brought her, and put her entire world on silent. Though sleep eluded her at first the adrenaline still coursing through her veins exhaustion finally claimed its victory, and she fell into a deep, coma like slumber.
At the hospital, Jaguar waited nearly an hour until his grandfather was stabilized in the ICU. Fati never reappeared, and he found every excuse for her; eight continuous hours of intense focus on such a delicate surgery were enough to drain anyone's soul. He left the hospital with his secretary, and as they passed the building, he glanced up at his apartment window. The lights were out, confirming that Fati had surrendered to the darkness of rest.
Jaguar decided to grant her that peace. Turning to his secretary, Dam Dan, he said,
- Go and get some rest... as for me, I will return to my hospital suite to complete my treatment
Before the secretary could walk away, Jaguar added in a calm, uncharacteristic tone,
- Thank you, Dam Dan.
Jaguar went up to his suite, summoned the nurse to set up a nutrient IV, and lay down, attempting to escape into sleep. He tossed and turned for two full hours, his eyes fixed on the IV drips falling slowly, as if counting the seconds of his restless waiting. As soon as the nurse arrived to change the bag and give him his medicine, he took it and apologized firmly:
- I'm sorry... but I need to be somewhere else right now.
He left the suite, hurrying through the hospital corridors toward the apartment. He opened the door with cautious silence and entered the bedroom to find Fati curled up beneath the covers. She looked so small it seemed as if the bed were empty, save for the wild, beautiful strands of her hair scattered across the pillow. He slipped into bed beside her, keeping a distance between them, but his rebellious hand would not obey; it reached out to grasp a lock of her hair, pressing it to his chest. In that instant, an abrupt tranquility washed over him, and the first signs of sleep began to cloud his weary eyes.
Suddenly, Fati turned toward him in her sleep, resting her hand on his chest as she whispered in a choked voice,
- Don't...
He couldn't see her face in the dark, but he knew from the tremor in her voice that she was drowning in a bitter nightmare, before she uttered the words that froze the blood in his veins:
- I will never forgive you...
Those words made him flinch. "I won't forgive you." He admitted to himself that she had every right; he had failed her countless times, leaving her to face her grandfather death alone. And yet, here she was, with such nobility, saving life of grandfather's of the man who had once crushed her. He longed to pull her small frame into his arms, but he restrained himself so as not to wake her, settling for a tender kiss on the crown of her head peeking from beneath the covers.
Then, in a way that stunned his senses, Fati shifted from rejection to clinging. She embraced him tightly, as if she were drowning and he was her only lifeline. He wondered bitterly: did she refuse to forgive him for the years he was gone, and was that why she held him so fiercely now, fearing another disappearance? Uncertain of what to do, he let go of the lock of hair warming his palm and turned around, giving her his back so she could cling to him.
He wanted her to wake up as the "guilty" one in this closeness, not the victim collapsing into his embrace from the front. But Fati wouldn't grant him the peace he sought. He felt her press closer against his back, her lips brushing his skin as she whispered in a faint voice that pierced his defenses
- Don't leave me...
A few words that made the very idea of sleep an impossibility for the rest of the night.
After some time had passed, Jaguar found himself slipping out of bed. Her overwhelming presence was becoming too much to bear; the urge to pull her into his arms was nearly suffocating him. He retreated to the living room and collapsed onto the sofa, trying to calm his inner storm. However, when he finally woke with the first light of dawn, Fati was already gone headed to the hospital to check on her patient.
Jaguar rushed after her, panic gnawing at his heart. Had his grandfather's condition worsened? Had something happened in his absence? He reached the ICU to find Fati standing before the glass partition, gazing inside with her hand resting gently against the cold pane. A clear smile of satisfaction graced her face.
He stood beside her in silence and looked through the glass. There, he saw his grandfather, regained consciousness, looking back at them with half-open eyes that shimmered with a new spark of life. It was a moment of profound silence, anchored by a gaze that united the grandson who was beginning to change, and the grandfather granted a new life at the hands of the woman once wronged.
unstable, her mind raced with questions. She waited to see how much he remembered of that final phone call between him and her grandfather, and what lay behind the piercing gaze he had cast her way before collapsing. For years, she had found no answers to the questions that haunted her.
Relieved that he had finally regained consciousness, Fati let out a long sigh and turned toward Jaguar. She looked into his eyes and saw a radiance there a "lover's glow" she hadn't seen before. In a voice as calm yet sharp as a scalpel, she said,
- There... I have returned your grandfather to you.
But suddenly, before Jaguar could even process his gratitude, her expression transformed. The warmth vanished, replaced by a cold frost that froze the very blood in his veins. She added the words that shattered every hope he held
- And now... return my grandfather to me