A Long (Short) Day...

Complete, and utter, silence.

For upwards of fifteen minutes, Malachi and Celeste had been sitting in medbay without saying a word to each other.

Though, this wasn't intentional on Malachi's part.

But every time he tried to say something, Celeste would stuff a plastic glove into his mouth while claiming that she needed to concentrate.

However, she had underestimated the difficulty she would be facing when it came to this task.

Not only had she never performed a surgery on her own before, but she had also never done a surgery where her patient was awake and staring at her the whole time either.

If she was feeling the weight of Mal's gaze while she was just working on his finger, she couldn't imagine how she was going to feel once she cracked his chest open.

"Are you... sure you don't need anesthesia...?" Celeste finally asked. "Luna stocked us more than enough for a long time, so you don't have to worry about rationing it."