As always, Dr. Bennett ran his morning checks with quiet efficiency.
"Still not up?" he murmured, more to himself than to the room. "With the data from last night and this morning combined, there should have been a response by now."
He hadn't slept well.
He'd spent half the night half-convinced that when he walked in at dawn, Kellan would simply be sitting up in bed, asking for coffee. What a moment that would have been.
He finished recording the last set of readings and slowly turned around.
He stumbled backward so hard he nearly knocked over the IV stand.
"What the—"
A pair of cold, sharp black eyes stared back at him. Unblinking. Fully alert.
Dr. Bennett's mouth opened. Closed.
"Kellan?" He approached carefully, like a man who wasn't quite sure the floor was still solid beneath him. "You're… awake?"
