BLOOD AND ABSOLUTION
She pressed harder, called for the kit's clamp, worked with the particular, focused calm that had carried her through a thousand worse scenes at Saint Agnes, and around her, the warehouse held its breath —
Marco standing very still a few feet away, Nico crouched close enough to hand her whatever she reached for, Leo silent now, watching, his hands finally still in his lap for the first time since she'd arrived.
"Come on," she said, low, not quite to the patient, not quite to herself. "Come on."
The bleeding slowed. Not stopped, not yet, but slowed, the particular shift she'd learned to recognize as the difference between losing someone and buying time to keep fighting for them.
She looked up