Nova [Tayvis Fanfiction]

TECTONIC

Five Weeks Post Accident
Taylor Swift's Point of View
I rest my head on Travis's chest, feeling the machine breathing up and down for him. I want to feel him again. The real him. I'll listen to his ridiculously loud snoring that I always found somewhat endearing. I miss the way he held me at night and told me how beautiful I was. He always makes me feel like the most amazing woman in the world.

Since meeting Jason, I've slowly gotten to know more of Travis's family. His mom, Donna, has been around a lot. But every time she's in the room, there's this unspoken distance between us. She barely looks at me, like I'm not even there. It's as if she thinks I don't belong, that maybe I'm intruding or disrupting her life somehow.

I can't quite figure it out. Maybe it's because I showed up unexpectedly in Travis's life. Or maybe she's just so focused on her son that there's no room for anything else. Either way, I give her space, hoping that over time, things might soften between us.

It's been six weeks now. Six weeks of hospital visits, waiting rooms, quiet conversations with doctors, and staring at Travis lying still in that hospital bed. And as much as it pains me to admit it, I'm starting to wonder if I should stick around. I care about him—I really do. But we were only three months into this relationship. We never even got around to saying "I love you." It feels like we were just getting started, figuring each other out.

And now, here I am, tangled in this sense of duty, this guilt that maybe it's somehow my fault he's here. I asked him to go out that morning. I wanted that coffee.

But it was just coffee. Just a morning like any other. And yet it left me tethered to this hospital room, putting my life on hold, feeling an obligation that goes beyond romance or love. Maybe if we had more time, or if he were my husband, things would be different. But he's not. He's still, in many ways, a stranger.

I look up at Travis, lying there in silence, my own doubts creeping in again. Is this all worth it? Am I wasting my time, waiting endlessly by his side for someone I barely know? The thought of being tethered to this hospital, to him, indefinitely—it gnaws at me.

Just then, the door creaks open, and Donna stumbles in, her face streaked with fresh tears. She looks like a woman shattered, barely holding herself together. I sit up, alarmed. "What's wrong?" I ask, my voice tense.

She doesn't respond to me; instead, she moves straight to Travis's bedside, clutching his hand as if her own life depends on it. Her voice cracks as she pleads, raw and desperate, "Please, honey. Please, you have to wake up. Don't leave us. Please!" Her voice rises, echoing painfully in the small room, and I feel her anguish ripple through me.

I stand there, frozen, unsure of what to do. Donna, who's kept her distance from me all this time, who has hardly acknowledged my existence, is falling apart right in front of me. Her strength crumbles, and I see her not as a cold, indifferent stranger, but as a mother, terrified of losing her son.

Just then, Jason steps into the room, his eyes rimmed red, as though he's been crying too. He barely glances at me before focusing on his mother, a hand on her shoulder to steady her. "What happened?" I manage to ask, dread pooling in my stomach.

He clears his throat, his voice low and thick. "Travis's will," he says, glancing at his brother's still form.

"What about it?" I press, my heart hammering.

Jason looks away, unable to meet my eyes. "Six months. If he doesn't wake up in six months..." His words falter, but I understand the implication. Travis had set a limit—a point where he didn't want to be kept alive indefinitely if there was no hope of recovery. Six months.

The reality hits me like a punch. This isn't just waiting—it's a countdown, a looming deadline. Six months to decide if Travis will come back to us, or if...