“Report where? Which cliff?” she asked gently, but whatever answer he had dissolved. His grip slackened; monitors calmed into a fragile pattern. Helen stood there, his half-formed sounds looping through her mind, the way a half-remembered dream insists on meaning even after it slips away.
Later that night, she reopened his file. “Trauma: cranial impact, exposure.” Rescue logs revealed he’d been discovered miles inland from where a storm had torn through a mining zone. With no ID and damaged facial features, he’d been filed as Patient Unknown, transferred between long-term facilities, and returned to Memorial only recently for renewed observation.