Sarah wakes

You sat waiting, lost in thought with the silence of the room broken only by the beeping of the monitors.

A little later Sarah began to stir. "Jim?" she muttered weakly, blearily looking at you.

"I'm here, honey," you told her, taking her hand. "Doctor, she's awake!" you called out.

"Wuh...what happened?" she asked. "We were in the car and..." her voice trailed off.

By the time a nurse showed up she had already fallen back to sleep.

Sarah floated in and out of consciousness over the new couple of days so your conversations were limited. She was aware of the accident and understood your explanation that she had survived only due to experimental surgery. But you avoided elaborating on the precise details - you wanted to wait to explain about Dianna and the transplant until you had to.

Finally when she was ready to try getting out of bed to go to the toilet, you knew you could no longer avoid it. You asked for Dr. Saunders or Dr. Kerry to come to the room.

Sarah could sense your ****. "What's wrong, Jim? Am I scarred? Disfigured?"

"No, nothing like that," you assured her as Dr Saunders walked in. "You're perfectly healthy. It's just that...well, the they had to do a new type of transplant to save you." You looked at the doctor helplessly, not sure how to explain.

Doctor Saunders could be incredibly technical but still had an excellent bedside manner. He dismissed the nurse from the room and began to explain exactly what had been done to Sarah. Sarah's eyes widened in disbelief. You nodded, adding "I know it sounds like scifi but it's true." Eventually the news started to sink in.

Sarah asked for a mirror. Having anticipated this, you handed her one you'd brought in. She stared at her reflection for several minutes, touching her face with her hands in wonder at first, and then with an expression of shock.