Tests
After months of silence, Gio'd heard something. And not just anything, but the first sound he heard after nothing but silence, was his Elle laughing.
The sound was so low that had it been in the past, before he had been caught up in the explosion and lost his hearing, he would have dismissed it.
But Gio'd heard, and even though it had sounded like the laugh was coming from deep underground, he would know that sound anywhere.
After he'd told Elle and he had seen all of the she hope she'd had at first, he had been too scared to disappoint her. So he had been ready to just let it go, chalk it up to a fluke and just keep on going. Too scared to hope and then just let it all be shattered.
But Elle had insisted, the hope in her eyes clear. So for her sake, Gio was once again back in the hospital.
The doctors had swarmed around him the moment they had arrived, and now it was finally time for the tests to begin.