I continue endless attempts to create a small form of communication between the two of us while performing her checkups but to no avail. She simply stares at me the way a mother does once she has had enough of her child's reckless behavior.

Her phlegmatic persona troubles me. I sense a death glare and fear she would snap at any given second and attack me. Too much? I doubt. Her zombified state is frightening enough to scare off the greatest, most feared predator. With her check-up completed, I place her file in the top drawer of the desk.

"What happened to you in there? In that room?" I ask with yet another attempt to get her to speak before returning to my seat. 

Despite it being a serious question, she doesn't answer me. Her eyes, un-flinched, as if frozen in time, are locked onto the wall on the other end of the room.

"Vivian, you do know that you can trust me right?"

As the words escape my lips and reach her ears, her eyes snap towards mine. Her head slowly rotates and she begins to tilt her head sideways. Her eyes grow narrow and intense as she examines my face. As if silently questioning whether or not what I just said is true and I hope that she realizes that it is. I need her to know that she can trust me.

I shift uncomfortably under her sharp gaze as it carries on for much longer than I expected it to. "Why are you looking at me like that?" I ask, wanting to break the silence along with the tension in the room. Yet again, she doesn't respond. It's as if I'm battling to revive her all over again. Previously it was her heart I had to save, now it's her head.

She slowly softens her eyes and rotates head back towards the wall. Her empty stares and silent treatments are getting us nowhere. This is not what progress looks like. 

"Fine, if you're not going to speak, let's get you to your room," I say as I stand up from the chair and walk around the bed to help her get off. 

As I reach for her arm and gently grab at it, she rips it away from me. Her features grow with pain and anger and feel a slight pang in my chest that she doesn't trust me enough to simply guide her off of a bed. It's not like I'm going to hurt her. She should know me better than that by now. 

"Vivian, I'm just trying to help you. I promise I won't hurt you and I won't allow anyone else to either... Especially Steven." 

At the mention of his name her eyes grow wide and her head snaps in my direction. Tears begin to fill her eyes and a look of fear is plastered all over her face.

As quickly as it came, is as quickly as it left. 

She shuts her eyes for a few seconds and I hear her take in a deep breath and exhaling before reopening them. A neutral look overtakes her features yet again and her eyes become soulless. I start noticing the heavy bags under her eyes as she yawns with exhaustion.

"Maybe it's best you spend the evening here. You need the rest to regain some strength. I'll take you to your room tomorrow," I inform her.

Then I remember that I sent Frank on an errand, which he gladly handed over to the nurse. I have to tell her to leave Vivian's meal for tomorrow. Besides, what on earth was I thinking!? She can't eat any solids now, her throat is swollen. I'll have to organize for some fresh orange juice. She needs the vitamins.

"I'll be right back. I just have a few things to deal with. Don't go anywhere or try to get up on your own. You'll only hurt yourself," I tell her as I slip out of the room.

Once I've dealt with all that needed to be dealt with, I head back to the room with the orange juice. Vivian is surprisingly still in bed. I walk to her and bring the juice up to her lips, but she refused to part them. "It's orange juice. Trust me, you need it," I say as I put the straw in her mouth. She reluctantly starts gulping each and every drop of it.

When she's done, I place the glass on the bedside table. Since my touch seems to burn her delicate skin, I instruct her to shuffle her body down so that she's able to lay comfortably. It would be a far easier task with my assistance, but I'll rather allow her painful struggles to guide her than to have her fight me off. She needs the rest.

"Sleep well, Vivian." With that said, I turn, exit the room, leave the light on, pull the door close and head off to catch some sleep of my own.

-₹៛₹៛¤៛₹៛₹-

Rays of sunlight beam through the opening cracks of the cambridge blue curtains, baking my face and forcing me to awake after a rather pleasant dream, my eyes opening way too soon for my liking. In an attempt to continue my fantasy world, I shut them and force myself to fall back into a deep slumber, sadly the alter universe betrays me. 

After thirty minutes of failure, I reluctantly sit up in bed, questioning on whether to start this forsaken day. My eyes travel across the room on their own accord, the sun shining brighter than before and land on my uniform placed neatly on the dresser.  Vivian suddenly pops to mind and I hurry off to get done.

As soon as I finish in the bathroom I change into my uniform, then grab an energy bar and juice bottle before exiting the apartment. I climb in my car, drive to base camp and arrive at her room as fast as humanly possible. On arrival, I push the door open to see no one else but the imbecile himself lingering in the room around her bed. 

Steven.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" I whisper, not wanting to wake Vivian up, as I near him after placing the juice I brought along with me on the bedside table.

He casually turns to face me and responds in the most nonchalant manner, "Hell cat wasn't in her room this morning, so I came here to look for her. And well... found her."

"Okay, smart ass, you found her. Now, why are you still here?... And you're supposed to fetch her every morning at 8:30 am." I remind him. 

"Yeah and..?" His left-hand motions for me to continue speaking.

"And it's 6 in the morning! Why are you looking for her so early!? What were you going to do to her? Steven, I swear if you so as to lay another finger on her, I will end your miserable life! You leave her a-"

"Holy fuck. Can you breathe! I wasn't going to doing anything to her. I woke up early and couldn't fall back asleep. So I decided that I wanted to see how she was doing."

"Since when do you care about anyone's well-being besides yourself?" I question, my fists clenching into tiny balls.

"Listen, Peggy. It's early. I'm in no the mood to argue with you. And if you yell at me one more time, we're going to have some serious issues. So quit while you're at it." 

He brushes his way past me and reaches for the chair.

"What are you doing?"

"Taking a seat. Or do you want to make a record of everything I do? That's a waste of time, wouldn't you agree? But go ahead, suit yourself," he says as he plops his mangy behind on the seat of my chair. 

"Oh no you don't. Get out!" 

I march over to him and drag his behind off my chair. Well, tried to at least. For a built man, he sure ways a ton and my noodle strength cannot move mountains.

"But I just-"

"GET. OUT!" I yell louder than what I should have and quickly look over to Vivian to make sure I haven't woken her up. Thankfully she's still asleep. "Women, they're all the damn same." I hear Steven mutter as he reluctantly stands up from the chair and all but throws it away from him.

My poor chair.

Vivian begins to stir in bed and panic rises in my chest knowing she will freak out if she sees him. Just as all hope is lost when I see her eyes open up, I look to where Steven is and find his presence no longer lingering.

He's gone.

Hallelujah!

"Morning," I greet with a smile, "I hope you slept well. How do you feel?" I ask in hopes that she'll speak to me today. Instead of answering, she blinks a few times and forces herself to sit up in bed. I offer to assist her, but she pulls herself away from me. "Vivian, this is becoming ridiculous. Allow me to help you. In fact, let's get you to your room. You can have the day off." I end off with a smile, trying my best to make her happy, but nothing seems to work.

I decided against speaking to her any further and rather take this moment in an attempt to aid her off of the bed. I can tell that her body is excruciatingly brittle and frail as her limbs seem to rattle with each movement, all the while she tries to control them. I reach my hand out to place on her arm and she actually allows me to touch her. She swings her legs to the side of the bed and I further guide her off of it.

Her body rejects the ability to hold itself up. She suddenly becomes flaccid and shifts all her weight onto me as her feet hit the ground. Despite her stench, I tenderly wrap my left arm around her body while swinging her right one across my shoulders.

We sorely begin making our way to her room.