The Heart That Wouldn’t Surrender
"I'm still here. Still fighting."
"Always fighting." He kisses my forehead. "That's my girl. Never surrendering."
The title of our story, I think hazily. The Heart That Wouldn't Surrender. Even when bodies break and hope feels dangerous, we keep choosing each other. Keep choosing to fight.
A nurse appears, checking vitals, adjusting IVs, explaining things I'm too drugged to fully process. Pain management. Infection risk. The seventy-two-hour window where rejection is most likely. Immunosuppression medication that will make me vulnerable to every virus and bacteria in existence.