Episode 1110: Wake Me Up

“Maybe it was a twitch, something involuntary,” Ava said, simply because after so much time spent waiting for him to wake up, it didn’t feel wise to let her hopes soar.

“No, no, look,” her father said, hurrying closer and pointing to Sebastian’s face.

Avalon had been so focused on staring at his hand, on questioning what seemed an impossibility, that she hadn’t seen his eyes, she hadn’t seen that they were slowly, intermittently, fluttering. Not quite open but… trying?

“Sebastian,” she said. “Sebastian.” His hand went from squeezing to gripping. She placed her free hand gently on his cheek. “Take your time, Sebastian, I’m right here. I’ll always be right here.”

“Ava,” she was pretty sure Sebastian said though it was hard to decipher.

“I’m here. Don’t strain yourself, okay? If you’re too tired to fully wake up right this minute don’t push beyond what you’re ready for,” Ava instructed, though in truth she wanted nothing more than for him to simply snap out of it and for their lives to go back to the way they used to be.

But it all felt so tenuous, on the edge of falling right back off the cliff if Sebastian didn’t take this easy. She could only imagine how fragile a person must be after months in this condition.

Her emotions were all over the place from elation to fear. “Dad, maybe you could go tell someone that he’s waking up. They’ll know best how to handle this, I’m just, I’m afraid that if everything isn’t done just right-”

“The call button should do the trick,” her father pointed out.

“Right, I forgot that exists, that’s how frazzled-”

“Ava,” Sebastian mumbled again, albeit clearer that time. And just like that, his eyes opened.

Tears streamed down Ava’s cheeks while her dad pressed the call button.

A doctor came in and Ava amazed herself at having it together enough to realize she should move out of the way, give the doctor room to examine her husband. But when she tried to step to the right, Sebastian wouldn’t let her free her hand from his which had to be a good sign didn’t it? Certainly more heartening than the last time he’d looked at her and stormed out of the bookstore into traffic. He didn’t want to let go of her. Maybe this meant that everything would be okay.

Episode 1111: Starting Over