The hospital waiting room was too cold. Too quiet. Too clean for the chaos still ricocheting through Elias's head.
Cassian was in surgery. Crushed. Bleeding. Unmoving.
And Elias hadn't even been able to say goodbye before they wheeled him away.
The door creaked open.
Damien entered like a shadow. No noise. No announcement.
Elias didn't move.
"You're awake," Damien said softly.
Elias didn't even blink. "Why are you here?"
A pause. Damien's voice stayed gentle. "Because you're not safe."
"Oh," Elias said bitterly, standing, "so now you care about my safety?"
Damien flinched, but said nothing.
"Where were you," Elias asked, "when someone tried to kill me again?"
"I came—"
"After. Always after. After I'm bleeding. After someone's dead. After the glass breaks. After everything is already f***ing ruined."
"I was trying to protect—"
Elias cut him off, loud now. "Then why does it feel like you're the one dragging the danger in with you every time you walk into a room?!"
Damien stepped forward. "Elias—"
"Cassian could die!" Elias snapped. "He did nothing. And now he's in there on life support! What the hell did he ever do except be nice to me?!"
"I didn't touch him," Damien said.
A moment of cold silence. Then Elias's voice went low and trembling.
"You didn't have to."
Damien's face cracked. "You think I would—"
"I don't know what to think!" Elias shouted. "You keep showing up with half-truths and riddles, like I'm supposed to just trust you because you saved my life twice was it!. It's quite odd that you do show up on time to save me like you knew I was going to be in danger or something bad was about to happen to me. It's suspicious, Damien"
Damien's tone stayed calm—too calm. "I didn't just save your life, Elias. I gave up everything for you."
"You gave up Noah," Elias spat. "You loved him, didn't you? That necklace—the one you broke over like it was your own heart…"
Damien's voice broke through a whisper: "He wasn't just someone I loved."
Elias stared, breath catching.
"He was your father," Damien said.
Elias stumbled back like he'd been struck.
"No. He was my brother—he—he—"
"He was sixteen when you were born," Damien pressed, stepping forward. "Your grandparents took you in. Called you theirs to protect him from the shame."
"You're lying."
"I'm not."
"You're—!" Elias slammed his fists into the wall, face red and wet with fury. "You let me believe he was my brother. You let me—DAMN IT, DAMIEN!"
And Damien finally snapped.
He shouted—roared—so loud the windows seemed to tremble:
"BECAUSE I WAS TRYING TO KEEP YOU SAFE! BECAUSE EVERY TIME I GET CLOSE TO SOMEONE, THEY DIE!"
He was trembling now, voice cracking, chest heaving.
"I LOVED NOAH! I LOVED HIM MORE THAN I EVER LOVED MYSELF! And he LEFT! He LEFT ME! He left you! And I couldn't stop him, and I sure as hell couldn't stop myself from falling in love with you, too!"
Elias froze.
"What did you just say…"
Damien was wild now, pacing, hair disheveled, eyes wet and wild. "I've been trying to protect you from the world, from the truth, from ME—because I knew. I knew the moment I looked at you, it was already too late!"
Elias's heart thudded in his chest.
He didn't speak. Couldn't.
Damien collapsed into a chair, running both hands through his hair, jaw clenched to keep from shattering.
"You don't get it," he said. "If I lose you too... I'll have nothing left to lose."
_____
Cut to: Outside Cassian's ICU Room
The doctor exits the room and nods solemnly. "He made it through surgery, but he's in critical condition. We've put him in a medically induced coma to stabilize swelling around his brain."
Elias grips the wall to stay upright.
"Can I see him?" he asks.
The doctor hesitates. "Briefly."
Inside, the room buzzes with machinery. Cassian lies pale and still, bandaged, unconscious. Tubes everywhere. He looks nothing like the charming man who once made Elias laugh so effortlessly.
Elias walks closer. Whispering.
"I'm sorry," he says. "I dragged you into my world. And now it's eating you alive."
He brushes Cassian's hand with trembling fingers.
"I don't even know who the villain is anymore."
---
Damien Alone
Damien sits in his car, parked outside the hospital. Rain hits the windshield in steady sheets.
He dials a number.
A voice answers. "Did he suspect you?"
Damien's jaw tenses. "He doesn't trust me. Not anymore."
The voice replies, "Then you know what you have to do."
Damien ends the call.
Looks at the hospital windows.
At Elias's silhouette in Cassian's room.
His hand grips the steering wheel so tightly it creaks.
"You don't get to leave me too."
---
Elias steps into the hallway for air.
A nurse brushes past him—something about her feels off.
She drops a piece of paper as she turns the corner.
Elias picks it up.
It's a note, scrawled in messy ink:
You're being watched. Room 503 isn't safe.
Trust no one. Not even the man who says he saved you.