The silence in the elevator was so thick it felt physical, broken only by the hum of the emergency ventilation. Kei remained on the floor, her fingers brushing her throbbing cheeks, her eyes fixed on the back of Fay's head. She had said it. She had finally admitted it and the response was a wall of cold, clinical indifference.
Suddenly, the elevator groaned with a mechanical shudder, the overhead lights flickered back to life, blindingly bright after the intimate dimness. The lift lurched upward for a few seconds before the doors chimed and slid open.
Fay didn't wait for the doors to fully retract. She stepped out with a stride so purposeful it was practically a march.
"Fay! Wait!" Kei scrambled to her feet, grabbing the discarded bouquet from the floor. She rushed out, she walk rapidly against the polished linoleum of the hospital hallway.
Fay spun around, her eyes flashing with a vitriol that made the nurses at the nearby station freeze. "Do not follow me. Do not speak my name and for the love of God, stay away from my department."
"I just wanted to…."
"You wanted to what? Play another game?" Fay stepped into Kei's space, but there was no warmth this time only the sharp, biting edge of a surgeon's scalpel. "You think a few skewers and a bunch of half-dead flowers make up for a decade of silence? You're a ghost, Kei and as far as I'm concerned, you should have stayed dead."
The words hit Kei like a physical blow. She flinched, her grip tightening on the flower stems until a thorn pricked her thumb. A small bead of crimson appeared, but she didn't let go.
"I know I messed up," Kei said, her voice dropping to a desperate, soft register. "I'll do anything, Fay. Anything to make you see that I'm back for good."
Fay let out a harsh, dry laugh. "Anything? Fine. Leave. That's the only thing you're actually good at, isn't it?"
With a final, icy glare, Fay turned and disappeared behind the double doors of the Surgical Wing a restricted area where Kei couldn't follow.
Kei stood alone in the hallway, the center of a dozen curious stares from hospital staff. Her face was still flushed, a mixture of the earlier blush and the sting of Fay's rejection. She looked down at the flowers in her hand bright, hopeful and completely ignored.
"Step one didn't go great," Kei muttered to herself, wiping a stray tear before it could fall. She straightened her clothes and tilted her chin up, a spark of stubbornness igniting in her chest. "But I've always liked this woman."
She walked toward the exit, passing the same nurses who had witnessed the blowout.
"Excuse me," Kei said to the head nurse, flashing a charming, albeit tired, smile. "What's Dr. Sterling's favorite coffee? And does she still take it with exactly two grains of sugar and a splash of almond milk?"
The nurse blinked, startled by the shift in energy. "Uh… yes. But she usually throws away gifts from… well, from anyone."
"That's fine," Kei said, her eyes dancing with a newfound determination. "I have plenty of time to buy more."
If Fay Sterling wanted to treat her like a haunting, then Kei would be the most persistent person the Sterling Hospital had ever seen. She wouldn't stop until the ice in Fay's veins melted back into the fire she remembered.