"You hear the man," he said. "I heard him. It wasn't your fault and you didn't have to be this tough. Cole, say it. I'm not going to Emily.
He leaned down. I have watched you all afternoon apologize for taking up space on this earth. You apologized for the ambulance. You apologized for the leg. You apologized for making it a big thing right after you told me you saved a whole unit and gave up two years of your life fighting a system that spat on you.
I'm not asking you to say it because I need to hear it. I'm asking you to say it because I think it's about time you heard it come out of your own mouth. So say it."
Emily's eyes filled. She fought it. She lost. It wasn't my fault, she whispered. And and I didn't have to be this tough.
There it is, Cole said quietly and squeezed her shoulder. And for just a second, something in her chest that had been clenched shut for 3 years, maybe longer, loosened by a fraction of an inch. It wasn't fixed. It wasn't anywhere close to fixed, but for the first time, the door on it had cracked open and a little light had gotten in.
The imaging confirmed everything Portoris had suspected and worse. He laid it out for both of them, honest and unsparing. It was fixable, but it was serious. And it was going to mean surgery, real surgery, and months of recovery and physical therapy, and time. Time she couldn't work.
Time she couldn't earn. And Emily lay there and listened to the number of weeks and the number of months. And she felt the old familiar panic rise up in her throat because every one of those weeks was a week she wouldn't be paid. And she lived close enough to the edge that a single bad month could put her under. Cole could see her doing the math.
Cole said, "I can't afford to be off my feet for 3 months." Cole, I can't. I don't have there's no cushion. There's no Emily, you don't understand. If I don't work, I don't make rent. And if I don't make rent, Emily.
Cole put both hands on the edge of the table and leaned down so they were eye to eye. And his voice was quiet and absolutely immovable.
"You still got your job. You understand me? You got your job the whole time you're laid up. You get paid the whole time. Head mechanic doesn't lose her spot because she got hurt saving my life."