𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬, 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐮𝐩. Yelena is blissfully floating in painless unconsciousness during this entire endeavor, which is how she fails to note the fact that the police had been alerted to her condition and that officers were digging through her things to try and figure out what happened to her, a common practice for gunshot wound victims. Slowly she starts to climb back to consciousness as the sedatives and anesthesia wore off, the sound of constant beeping is what cuts through the haze first. Next is the muffled voices of people in her room and the more she joins the land of the living, the more she’s able to understand what’s being said. They’re questioning the nurses on how she ended up there, if she said anything at any point, if they could tell how she sustained all of her injuries. Yelena’s smart enough not to let on that she was awake and aware of what’s happening and instead, waits for the sound of footsteps retreating before daring to blink her eyes open.
faina too waits for retreating footsteps, having used the stolen swipe card to enter a staff locker room, change into a stolen pair of scrubs, so that no one in the busy emergency ward would look twice as she made her way through the halls. still, at the sight of police officers, she decides to hold her position until the coast is clear.
once the line of sight to yelena’s room is clear, faina pads lightly across the hallway and into the hospital room, now empty but for the blonde woman in the contraption they call a bed. hospitals, medical centers of any kind, the smell of antiseptic -- they all dredge up a sense of dread as the ex-widow stands at the foot of the bed. the steady beeping of the heart rate monitor is confirmation that yelena survived her brush with death.
after a moment of watching the cadence of her breathing, faina whispers. “ i know you are awake. ”