Work Text:
“Listen, Ms. Tran...” Sam’s voice echoes, fades away. She’s fading away. Time fades away, slows down and back.
Back to the hospital lights that made it looked like heaven was shining down on her little angel. Bright and alert from the beginning, translating the world around him.
(Of course, this was before she learned the reality of angels, the uselessness.)
The sunny day when she taught him how to ride a bike. When he scraped his knee, she held him like she did when the doctors first laid him on her chest. She held him until his pain dissipated into her, until his tiny tears stopped flowing.
She held him as she raised herself up, so he had no other choice but to rise himself.
It was some engineering camp thing. She was being worn down. Life demanded that she be everything at all times. When it came to which wire connected to the source, which they were supposed to clip first, she was sure it was the blue. Her need to be the best for her son deafened her for a while, and all she could hear was herself.
”Mom.” Kevin’s voice barely registers.
Mom, yes. I’m your mother. Yes, I’ll always be there for you. Yes, I’ll always protect you. Yes, I'll always love you.
“Mom!” That was Kevin’s loud voice. It was a man’s voice, a man who was self-assured and confident in his answer. The wire he was holding looked like a blade of grass between the shears. Snip.
The green wire.
“It’s the green wire.”