They head back down for dinner not long after, both of 'em a little too quiet and careful with each other in front of everybody, trying to act normal while their eyes keep finding each other across the table anyway.
It doesn't really raise alarms tho since Alex is still doing her silent treatment and Lev is just naturally quiet. a few people still notice something's shifted, even if they can't figure out what. Luckily Niki and Seb aren't here, neither are any of his family cause they'd catch on immediately.
After dinner they linger near each other for a minute in the hallway, neither one wanting to be the first to walk away.
"I gotta go check some emails and texts from ur siblings," Alex says, not moving, just a reason to exist near him a second longer.
"I've got calls," Lev says but doesn't move either. They just stand there a second too long, close enough that it'd be so easy to just close the last bit of distance, but they don't. They Can't rn. Not with half the house still watching for exactly this.
"'kay, Night, Dante," she finally says, soft.
"Night, Willa." He watches her walk off before he lets himself head the other way.
⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎
Alex gets a text late that night, close to midnight, Emine's name lighting up her phone in the dark.
Lev's Doctor's back from holiday, were having a meeting first thing tomorrow in Santiago's office.
She barely sleeps after that, replaying every second of that fever night over and over, the allergy list, the ingredient stacked against the poison, none of it looking or feeling like coincidence to her no matter how many times she turns it over.
By morning she's in Santiago's office early, she was the first one here. She's sitting near the end of the table, arms crossed, leaning back, glare set right on the doctor while everybody else does the talking.
Santiago, Dilara, Emine, Sebastian and Niko are seated around the table and the doctor is sitting across from Santiago's desk looking mildly confused about why this suddenly feels like an interrogation and not a welcome-back.
"We just need to understand the timeline," Santiago says, calm and measured. "Who had access to Lev's chart while you were away?"
"My assistant and Lev's assistant handled everything," the doctor says, still not fully realising the weight in the room. "Standard procedure, he's covered for me plenty of times before." Alex stays quiet through all of it, jaw tight, listening, watching the doctor's easy, unbothered posture, and the anger and frustration in her just keep building the longer this goes. The others aren't putting enough heat on him.
"Where is he now?" Niko asks. "Your assistant."
"Should be back from his own holiday by now, honestly. He requested time off for a family issue right before I left, I approved it, didn't think much of it." Silence settles over the room a second too long. Sebastian and Niko exchange a look.
Nobody had actually confirmed the assistant went anywhere authorised, nobody had actually checked, they'd all just assumed the doctor knew, assumed it was cleared, and the second the doctor says "requested" instead of "assigned," something clicks across half the room at once.
That's when Alex finally speaks.
"With respect," she starts, voice tight but civil, "I don't think you understand what almost happened here." She keeps it together for maybe four more sentences before it starts slipping. The man almost died due to ur assistant recklessness" she says pointing her hand down on the table like she's setting out the scenery.
