Chapter 13: I Just Want to Run Again

Élidora Hospital — Emergency Room, 7:42 a.m.

Dana walks in, file in hand.

Name: Jain Lucett
Profession: Class B urban hero
Alias: Stormline
Power: hyper-speed (electric form)
Condition: injured
Fractured legs, torn ligaments, nerve damage.

He's lying down a young man, barely 23 athletic body, dimmed gaze tears dried on his cheeks she enters quietly.

“Doctor Noctielle…”

“That's me you can call me Dana.”

He swallows hard.

“They told me i’ll never run again ever I lived for that to feel the wind, the air, the vibrations he sobs. A little broken.

“Please help me i’m begging you let me live again.”

She steps closer places her hand on his shoulder.

 “I won’t lie to you it won’t be easy but we’ll try together and you won’t just run again you’ll fly.”

He looks at her, tears glowing operating room silence focus lights above, gloves tight.

“I could heal him with a single word but that wouldn’t be fair he wants to rise
not be lifted.”

She adjusts the tools.

“We open, we repair, we weave the nerves, we rebuild.”

But during the operation as she touches the damaged spinal cord she whispers barely audible, only in her mind.

“Connection.”

A tiny wave passes through the tissue Invisible pure three hours later sutures stabilization regeneration system activated she steps out removes her gloves breathes Rae is waiting.

“Who’s the guy?”

“A fallen runner and maybe soon a hero who’ll learn to fly.”

Later, in the rehab room Jain opens his eyes he feels his legs wiggles his toes.

Dana walks in, calm, tablet in hand.

“You’ll walk in a week and run in a month.“

He cries again.

“It’s a miracle.”

She replies, softly:

“It’s the will of a man who still wanted to run i just repaired what you never gave up on.”

“But I felt… something else like… a warmth a call.”

She lowers her gaze, hiding a smile.

“Sometimes the wind answers when you truly love it.”

That night, Dana stands alone on the hospital rooftop her hair drifts in the breeze she closes her eyes she listens and far away across infinite universes speedsters run legs leap trails of light slash across worlds and all of them, unknowingly run because of her the source the momentum the heart the opens her eyes.

“Run, Stormline the wind heard you.”

End of Chapter 13 – I Just Want to Run Again.