Wakefulness came, in spite of how much Radek wished it wouldn't. He tried holding it at bay by keeping his eyes shut, even as he heard footsteps moving about his room, and voices speaking in an adjacent room. His hopeless prayer was that it would all fade again, and he could
somehow slip away...
But it was not to be. The one set of footsteps retreated and soon another, heavier and more deliberate, entered.
Radek knew whose they were even before he spoke, and shrank before the simple seeming request.
Look at him? Radek couldn't even face opening his eyes. How could he face Carson? How could he face the pity, and the disappointment in his friend's eyes? He rolled onto his side instead, curling himself away from the kind, pitying voice.