Kai waited.
"Dr. Harlen says the reduction is consistent with sustained pharmaceutical intervention and — " she paused. She was reading from the document now, but he could tell she had already memorized it — "and what he called ’active environmental support improving baseline nerve function.’ He thinks the trajectory is positive."
"That’s good," Kai said.
"He recommended the electrical stimulation program," Shira said. "Three sessions per week. He said the reduction from seventy-four to seventy-one over seven months is slow but real and that the current trajectory could push recovery to the forty to fifty percent range with sustained treatment."
She was looking at the folder.
Kai said nothing.
"Forty to fifty percent," Shira said again. Quieter this time.
"Yes," Kai said.
Shira closed the folder.
"That’s not walking," she said. "At forty percent nerve function that’s — it’s some sensation. Maybe some limited movement in controlled conditions. It’s not walking."
"No," Kai said. "Not at forty to fifty. But it’s not seventy-one percent blocked either."
Shira looked at the window across the room.
"He said the Gift channel is showing a trace flicker," she said. "0.3 seconds. He said it’s not clinically significant. He said he’d seen it once before in a recovery case and it didn’t develop into anything."
Kai said: "What did you say?"
Shira looked at him.
"I didn’t say anything," she said. "I wrote it down."
Kai nodded.
He didn’t tell her about the W.I.A. scan. He didn’t tell her the system had logged that flicker too. He didn’t tell her the system classified it as real and measurable and the beginning of something.
He just said: "The trajectory is positive. That’s what matters today."
Shira looked at the folder again.
The line of her jaw was tight in the way it got when she was managing something large.
"Yes," she said. Very quietly.
Then Mira’s cane tapped into the consultation area.
===
Mira came to where they were and stood with her whiteboard.
She had her own folder.
She wrote something and held it up for Kai.
Dr. Tessa said the vocal cord function is at fourteen percent. Higher than discharge assessment.
Kai read it.
"That’s an improvement," Kai said.
Discharge said nine percent, she wrote. Five percent increase in seven months.
"Yes," Kai said.
She wrote: She said the optic nerve damage is stable. No deterioration. She said stability in this type of injury is significant because regression is the common trajectory.
She lowered the board.
She wrote one more thing.
She said the audio reader is probably helping. Sustained sound exposure is creating low-level stimulation in the residual nerve pathways. She wants me to use it more.
Kai looked at that line for a moment.
’She hummed,’ he thought. ’The pathway is alive. The doctor just confirmed it from the outside.’
He said: "Good news then. Both of you."
Shira said, from beside him: "Relative good news."
Mira wrote: Relative is still good.
Shira looked at the folder on her lap.
A long silence.
Then she said something Kai hadn’t expected.
"Fourteen percent," Shira said. To Mira. Directly. Not through Kai. "That’s higher than I thought it would be."
Mira turned slightly toward Shira’s voice.
She held the board up.
Seventy-one percent nerve damage is lower than I expected for yours.
Another silence.
The two of them in the consultation area of Creston Recovery Institute, having a conversation through Kai’s reading of the board and Shira’s voice, about things neither of them had said out loud to anyone since the accident.
Kai sat very still between them.
He felt like moving would break something.
"Dr. Harlen said the trace Gift flicker is not clinically significant," Shira said. "He’s probably right."
Mira wrote: Dr. Tessa said the five percent improvement in vocal function is small but statistically unusual for this injury profile. She didn’t explain that.
Shira looked at the window.
"Unusual how," Shira said.
Mira wrote: She said most injuries like mine don’t improve without surgical intervention. Mine improved without it.
The room was quiet.
Kai said nothing.
’I know why,’ he thought. ’I know exactly why. The specialty ingredients. The audio reader. The investment. It’s working. Both of you.’
He didn’t say any of it.
Some things belonged to them.
====
They were quiet in the cab home.
Not the heavy quiet. The full kind — the kind after something large has been received and is still being processed.
Shira looked out the window.
Mira’s fingers rested on her cane.
Halfway home Mira wrote something and held the board between the seats.
Same time next week.
Not a question. Not really directed at anyone. Just a statement.
Shira looked at it from the corner of her eye.
"Same time next week," Shira said.
====
Back in the apartment Kai made lunch.
Specialty ingredients. Shira’s rotation today — the spinal blend. He kept it separate from Mira’s bowl the way the market woman had shown him.
They ate.
Afterward Shira went to her room.
Mira went to hers.
Kai washed the dishes.
He pressed his palm to the counter when he was done.
Shira — in her room. The deliberate rhythm. She was doing something with her hands again. Small. Practiced. Private.
Mira — the audio reader was on. And then, very faint, shorter than last time but cleaner —
A note.
Half a second.
Clear enough that this time it wasn’t ambiguous.
Not a breath escaping. A sound. Intentional in the way that things are intentional when the body decides something before the mind catches up.
Kai stood at the counter with his palm flat on the surface.
He felt it through the floor.
’There it is,’ he thought.
He stood there for a while.
Then he dried his hands and went to his notebook.
He wrote:
Shira — 71% nerve damage. Down from 74%. Trajectory positive. Mira — 14% vocal function. Up from 9%. Audio reader working. Both of them: improving.
He looked at the page.
Then he added one more line.
Mira hummed. On purpose this time.
He closed the notebook.
He was smiling.
He sat on the couch and pressed his palm to the cushion and felt both of them in their rooms, both of them quietly working on things they hadn’t told him about, both of them slightly less broken today than they were yesterday.
The system chimed softly.
『 DAILY INVESTMENT SUMMARY. 』
『 ▸ Rehabilitation clinic: attended. Both wives assessed. Data acquired. 』 『 ▸ Specialty ingredients — Day 2: Mira rotation, 290 coins. 』 『 ▸ Transportation (accessible cab, requested in advance): 420 coins. 』 『 ▸ Emotional investment: clinic facilitated. Both wives communicated directly with each other for the first time. 』 『 ▸ Host did not interfere. Sat still. Let it happen. 』 『 This was the correct investment. 』
『 Bond Level — Shira Voss: 1.4 / 10. 』 『 Bond Level — Mira Elys: 1.4 / 10. 』
『 Queued returns: pending next breakthrough. 』 『 Projected return at breakthrough: substantial. 』 『 The system will not give the exact number. 』 『 It would distract you. 』
Kai read the last two lines.
’Fair enough,’ he thought.
He put the phone away and sat with both rhythms through the wall until the afternoon light changed to evening and it was time to start dinner.