::Dar lies hooked up to a respiratory apparatus and various other items of equipment which measure her vital statistics. A drip runs fluid into her body and currently a physician is bent over her, shining a small torch into her eyes.::

::A nurse leads Ozymandias to the room.::

"She's in here."

::He gives the whitelighter a grim smile, knowing that there's a tragedy behind this door. He opens it for Ozy and they walk inside.::

::Ozy's eyes flick over the sight before him and he instantly picks up on one thing.::

"N- nobody told me she was having trouble breathing."

::He sounds confrontational because he feels it.::

"It's more precautionary than anything else, sir. Just in case."

"In case what? In case she stops breathing? Is that what you're saying to me? She's gonna stop breathing?"

::The nurse looks anxious.::

"It's just a possibility we want to be prepared for."

(Not that she's better off alive than dead in that state.)

::Ozy doesn't seem satisfied with this at all, as indicated by his sarcastic response.::

"Right."

::He turns to the physician currently peering into Dar's eyes.::

"What're you doing to her? Hasn't she been through enough tests already?"

"I have to get back to work..."

::Leaves!::

::The physician ignores Ozy for a while until he finishes. Still unresponsive. The woman's pupils refuse to react in any way to light. He stands up and pockets the torch, then turns to look at the distraught whitelighter. He's an older man, his face lined with experience. His voice is slow and deep when he speaks.::

"I wouldn't worry about that, young man. We're trying to determine a change in her condition, and I presume it's been explained to you that she's quite unaware of them."

::The man's voice is friendly rather than patronising, and Ozy finds his anger dispersing somewhat. He walks over to the bed and tries to get himself together. He still hasn't looked at her yet. Not properly. The breathy sound of the respirator pulling and pushing at her lungs is more than enough. The beep of the pulse moniter. The path of a lazy bubble rising in the IV fluid bag.::

"However, I'm finished for now."

::The doctor writes a few notes on Dar's chart, hooks it onto the edge of her bed, then leaves.::

::Ozymandias stares at the wall for a long time. He breathes quickly, frustrated, through his nose with his lips pressed tightly together. Suddenly he turns and walks away from the bed, over to the door. He stops. Pauses, then puts his hand on the handle. He bows his head and lightly knocks his forehead off the smooth wood of the door. Then he turns around and looks at her.

Dar lies asleep, her face blank, while her breathing is aided and her mind is dead. Ozy stares at her for a long time. A very long time. Then he walks over to the bed and stares at her some more. Minutes could be hours. Hours could be seconds. It doesn't make any difference. Whenever the whitelighter moves, it's sudden and before he's even made the decision to do so. He's at the bottom of the bed now, picking up her chart and paging through it. Every other word is unresponsive or ceased. They begin to jumble into one another, apart from those words. All negative. No CNR. Unresponsive to pain stimuli. Caloric reflex - none.

In many hospital tests, the answer people wait for is negative. But in this case, it's the worst one. Ozy puts down the charts, wondering when the time will come that they ask him if he wants them to stop her food. It's not quite euthanasia. The whitelighter knows that, medically and legally, his girlfriend is dead.

He returns to her side and touches her hand. There's a huge needle sticking out of it. She'd hate that. He wonders if they know she's opted back in for organ donation. She'd hated that too until he convinced her otherwise. She was a good person really. And here he is, thinking about her in the past tense as if she wasn't lying in front of him with a strong pulse and full lungs. He thinks grimly about her family, or lack thereof. Dar's mother died when she was a little girl. Cancer killed her in three short months. Dar was too young to understand and her father made up for the absence by spoiling the girl rotten. But he, too, died - only last year. He was pretty old. Heart attack. Dar was severely cut up about it, and Ozy was the only one she cried to. The only other person she told was Sharon, but even then she didn't tell her. Not like she told Ozy. Not like those nights she'd wake up crying before she even remembered why. Not like when he'd find her staring off into space while the eggs burn and the tea is left to stew until it's like disgusting soup. She was really bad for a while, when he'd died. On reflection, Ozy considers, perhaps it was a blessing. For the father, at least. No parent should outlive their child.

Ozy eventually realises his face is soaked and sits down beside the bed. The world does not exist outside this room. Not anymore.::

::The desperate call of a charge pulls Ozy's head up. He automatically responds by orbing out.::

::Ozymandias walks in and pauses only for a fraction of a second when he sees that she's still the same. She'll always be eternally the same. It's been a long time now. He swallows. Visiting hours are over, but the whitelighter sneaked in. What was he meant to do? Party at the mansion? Go home? While the love of his life was lying in a cold bed without a thought in her head?

He bends down and kisses her on the cheek.::

"Hey."

::Heavily, the whitelighter sits down.::

"So much crap just happened you would have a fit if you knew about it."

::He takes her hand and watches her. Just... watches her.::

::Paige walks in quietly and gives Ozy a brief smile.::

::Ozy sits back, nodding at Paige.::

"Hey. Everything okay?"

::The whitelighter nods.::

"Yeah. Fine. I just came to see how she's doing."

"Same."

::Ozy swallows and returns his gaze to Dar's blank face.::

"Just... nothing."

"I'm sorry."

"I keep trying to heal her."

::The whitelighter has a trace of bitter mirth in his voice.::

"But it doesn't work."

::Not knowing what to say, Paige just stands there.::

(Poor Dar. She didn't deserve this. Nobody does, but she was trying to protect Melinda.)

::Sniffing, Ozy leans back and turns to look at Paige properly.::

"You had your wings clipped."

::Paige lets out a small laugh. Typical.::

"Yeah. I did."

::She sits down now, on the other side of the bed.::

"What've the other said about it?"

"Uh, nothing."

::Paige pauses for a moment.::

"I've not really told them. Most of them."

::Ozymandias frowns.::

"What? Why not?"

::Paige sighs, frowning. She didn't come here to talk about herself. But she sees Ozy probably needs the distraction. She'll grant him that, at least. It's for a good cause, right?::

"It's just hard. I mean, as if things haven't been going bad enough already, now The Elders think so too? I don't... I don't think I can take that kind of public disapproval, Ozy. It's only so long before one of them realises I'm really not cut out for the jobs I do, for, for the responsibilities I have."

"Is that really how you feel?"

::Paige frowns at Ozy and shakes her head a little. Is that not how she's supposed to feel?::

"You think everybody's out to get you?"

"I didn't say that!"

::Paige is quickly taking a defensive tone.::

"I don't think that."

"That's what it sounds like. You're paranoid. Like... extremely. How long have you felt like people are waiting to take you down?"

::Paige just goes silent. Ozymandias' way of saying what's in her head in the crudest way possible has really turned her off talking about it.::

"Paige, these people are your friends. They wanna help you. But if you push them away, eventually they'll stop resisting. And then you really will be on your own."

::Ozy looks back into Dar's face now. He reaches out and takes her hand.::

::Now Paige just feels guilty.::

"Do you want me to hang around so you can go shower? You kinda look like crap. No offence."

"No offence, but I want you to go home and fix things."

"No offence, but..."

(...)

"Fine. But if I get torn limb from limb, I'm so blaming it on your crappy advice."

::She gets up and walks around the bed, kissing Ozy on the cheek.::

"Get some sleep."

::She walks back to the front.::

::Ozy frowns and tries to imagine what he looks like. Probably a mess, yeah. He has been wearing the clothes for three days now. It wouldn't take much to go home, eat, wash, dress... but he can't leave Dar's side. Not unless in emergency.::

::After a long, long time, the whitelighter grows restless. He's curious to see how Paige has got on, so orbs to her - at the kitchen of the manor.::

:: Azura enters the room with Jasmine and stops short. This is the first time she has seen Dar like this, hooked up the machines keeping her body alive and... she can't even begin to process how it makes her feel.::