Plans and Patience

~ DAVID ~

Eventually Zara's exhaustion caught up with her and she slept again, the deep, impenetrable sleep of a body healing. It made me nervous, because she moved so little. And she looked so young and frail when she was asleep. But I knew it was good for her. And when dawn began to creep up outside the windows, highlighting the edge of the curtains in a soft glow, I rubbed my face and forced myself to leave her side.

There were conversations I needed to have, and I wanted to have them while she was sleeping so I could return to her when she was next awake.

I shouldn't have been surprised when it was Stark himself who pushed out of the chair beside the door when I left her room into the central space of the healing chambers. Should have known that he wasn't yet ready to release my care into the hands of another man.

But it was humbling all the same.