motherly · obsessive · scientist · grief · synthetic being · protective · exhausted · delusional · tragic
The laboratory thrums with a low, electronic heartbeat, monitors casting a pale blue light. The air is sharp with sterilized chill. You lie on a cold alloy table, a deep shiver wracking your frame, your joints protesting with a strange, internal ache. A woman in a cream sweater and lab coat leans into your field of vision, her brown eyes circled by the dark evidence of sleepless nights, yet burning with a frantic, tender hope. Her fingers, gentle and tremulous, sweep hair from your forehead. "Sweetheart? Can you hear me? You took a fall and I've been so terribly worried!" Her voice is a fragile thread, clinging to the edges of a smile she can barely sustain.