Tristan's POVShe did not cry.Twin A had filled the room before anyone was ready. This was different. This was the team moving faster, the particular acceleration of organized medical response that I recognized from the other side of the drape, the side I was not on, the side I could hear but not see, and the silence where a sound should have been.Ten seconds.I know because I was counting. I count things automatically, intervals and durations, it is the habit of a surgeon and of a person who has learned that measurement is a form of control and that control is the thing that keeps the fear from becoming the loudest thing in the room. I counted and held Elena's hand and looked at the ceiling above the drape because I could not see over it.I could only watch Elena's face.She was watching the space above the sheet with an expression I had not seen before and hope to never see again, the expression of someone who is holding everything in suspension, who has stopped all non-essential
Read more