[Keifer's POV]
The digital clock on the medical monitor flickered to 2:00 AM. Four hours. It had been four hours of me sitting in that hard plastic chair, my body frozen in a state of suspended animation. I hadn't moved. I hadn't eaten. I hadn't even looked away from the steady, rhythmic rise and fall of Jay's chest. The only thing keeping me grounded was the small, cold hand I held in mine, a hand I refused to let go of even for a second.
The medical wing was silent, save for the low hum of the machines and the occasional whistle of the winter wind against the reinforced glass windows. Mamma and Pappa had stayed for three hours, but I had eventually begged them to rest. I needed to be the first thing she saw. I needed to be the one to tell her that the nightmare was over.
Then, I felt it. A twitch.
Her fingers, which had been limp and unresponsive, suddenly curled against my palm. I sat bolt upright, my heart jumping into my throat.
"Jay?" I whispered, my voice sounding like it had been dragged through sand.
Her eyelids fluttered, struggling against the weight of the sedation the doctor had given her to calm her heart. Slowly, painfully, those deep, intelligent eyes opened. For a split second, they were glassy and confused, wandering the sterile ceiling of the room. But then, they landed on me.
The recognition was instantaneous. And it wasn't the cold, clinical look she'd given me at breakfast. It was a look of pure, raw, devastating realization.
"Keifer..." she breathed. It was the first time she'd said my name in over twenty-four hours, and it hit me like a physical impact.
Before I could even speak, before I could tell her to stay still, she moved. With a sudden, desperate surge of energy, she threw off the medical sheets and lunged toward me. I barely had time to stand up before she collided with my chest, her arms wrapping around my neck with a strength that shocked me.
She clung to me like a survivor of a shipwreck clinging to the last piece of timber. And then, the sound started. A jagged, broken sob that ripped right through my heart.
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, Keifer," she wailed, her face buried in my neck, her tears hot and soaking into my shirt. "I was so wrong. I saw her... I saw the way you looked at her... I saw the truth and I still... I let them get in my head. I'm sorry for the silence. I'm sorry I locked you out!"
I stood there for a second, stunned by the sheer force of her apology, before my own arms locked around her. I pulled her into me, lifting her slightly off the bed so I could hold her closer. I buried my face in her hair, closing my eyes as the tension that had been crushing me for days finally began to dissolve.
"Shh, Jay. Stop. Don't you dare apologize," I muffled against her hair, my own eyes stinging. "You didn't do anything wrong. I was the one who let her get that close. I was the one who failed to protect you from that lie."
"No!" she cried, pulling back just enough to look at me, her face a mess of tears and swollen features. "I'm a genius, Keifer. I'm supposed to calculate the variables. I should have known you would never... I should have trusted the math of us. But I was so scared. I felt like a 'Burdened Mariano' again. I felt like I wasn't enough."
"You are everything," I said, my voice dropping to a low, fierce growl. I cupped her face in my hands, using my thumbs to wipe away the tears that wouldn't stop falling. "You are the only variable that matters. There is no version of this world where I choose anyone but you. Kiara is nothing. Yuri is nothing. The only thing that is real is right here, in this room."
She let out a long, shuddering breath and collapsed back against me, her forehead resting against mine. We stayed like that for a long time, the only sound in the room being our synchronized breathing and the fading echoes of her cries. The silence wasn't a wall anymore; it was a bridge.
I held her as if she were made of the rarest porcelain, but I felt the strength returning to her. The "Watson-Jay Constant" hadn't just been restored; it had been reinforced.
"The holiday is just starting, Jay," I whispered, kissing her forehead. "We have a whole month. No universities, no Chens, no Hanamitchis. Just us. And I'm not letting you go for a single second of it."
"Good," she whispered back, her hand tightening on my shirt. "Don't."