Christine's stopwatch app counted down, the decimals flickering by, each second feeling like an hour. That painful two and a half minutes already felt longer than eternity, and he was only halfway through. The EKG let out a long, high pitched beep, announcing that Stephen's heart was asystole, but she kept it on. She needed to monitor it so she could get his heartbeat back in a minute or so.
She bit her lip and her face flushed with anger. She hated him so much for making her do this. It didn't matter what he'd told her, how much he reassured her, she'd never forgive herself if she couldn't get him back. There were so many things she needed to say that she'd never be able to express if he stayed dead. He always kept her in his orbit, like an asteroid circling a planet over and over. At first, she'd taken that behavior for desperation, but it felt like something more, now. They trusted each other with their lives instinctively. They always had. It had to mean something in the grand scheme of things, more than friendship, maybe more than romance, like there was a metaphysical connection between them that refused to break.
Her thoughts were cut short as she and Mobius heard it at the same time: footsteps walking briskly down the hall. They didn't bother moving, since Stephen's spell had stayed fast even after he'd died, but they looked up and tensely watched the door, like deer frozen in headlights.
"Dr. Palmer," whispered Mobius from behind, startling her.
"I know, Mobius," she hissed, surprising herself, getting the airway box, defibrillator, and epinephrine ready at her side.
She turned down the sound on the EKG slightly, listening, while keeping one eye on the stopwatch quickly counting down the seconds until she had to revive him.
The footsteps stopped abruptly outside the window, a shadow hovering there like a curious ghost. The shadow moved forward until it disappeared, but the footsteps didn't return. Someone suspected something, and they were waiting right behind the door.
"Dr. Palmer?" whispered Mobius, "Did Dr. Strange's spell only work with sight? Can they hear anything?"
Her stomach dropped. She had no idea, and they were about to find out in less than a minute.
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Stephen flew close next to the Ancient One--Sorcha--as they sped above the barren wasteland, a rocky, dry landscape below them, nothing on the horizon but endless spheres of color in the sky.
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Strange Nightmares
FanfictionA stranger bursts into Dr. Strange's life begging for help for his dying friend, but can he--or his friend--be trusted? Stephen Strange and Christine Palmer find themselves fighting a battle they barely understand, one that explores the brink of dea...
