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She didn’t know how long she’d been asleep when the doctor woke her up. She’d fallen asleep sitting up again at Cave’s bedside. Cave was asleep too.
Caroline half-smiled at the doctor, adjusting her hair and rising to her feet. The two of them slipped out into the hallway, softly closing the door into Cave Johnson’s hospital room.
"Enough is enough," the doctor said.
A heaviness hung onto her chest, as if she’d been pinned under a massive boulder. “What?” she said.
"There's nothing you can do to save him," said the doctor. "No miracle cure. No new treatment. There never will be."
The last lightbulb of her hope burst, shattering into glass shards inside her body. She could almost feel the pain of the slicing of the glass in her feet, the prickling at her heart, the ache in her body, all over. It hurt more than she thought it might.
There was no way that she could save him.
The heaviness lifted just as suddenly as it had settled.
“Thank God,” she whispered.
"Excuse me?"
"Sorry," Caroline said. "Nothing." She was so tired of all of these miracle cures, of all of these false hopes. She trusted this doctor to tell it to her straight.
"He stopped eating," said the doctor.
Caroline didn't answer.
"Apparently he hasn't been eating for a while, but no one noticed. We weighed him today and he's down to 87 pounds.”
"How did you not notice?"
The doctor shrugged. "Changing shifts—he usually takes a while to eat anyway, with all the coughing, and there's a trash can right beside the bed."
"So," Caroline started.
The doctor sighed. "Well, we could start a feeding tube," she said.
"No," said Caroline.
"With him at such a low weight, and having troubles eating, we're going to have to—"
"No feeding tube."
The doctor checked something off on her clipboard. "I'll ask him when he's awake again," she said.
Caroline sighed.
"Miss Caroline—" the doctor said, meeting her eyes for a moment. "I think it's his time."
"What do you mean?"
"I think it's his time to go," she said, gently.
Caroline paused, but before she could reply, they heard an awful moaning coming from the hospital room.
"That's him," said the doctor, checking her watch.
"Really?" said Caroline.
"He doesn't make these sounds when you're around," said the doctor, with the seasoned face of someone that had been through a lot. Cave Johnson just wanted her to think that he was gonna be okay, even when it was a lie to both of them.
Then they heard shouting. Screaming. Howling. Other noises that made Caroline want to turn and run the other way. She paused and thought about going in there, but stopped herself. She couldn't do it. She couldn't face him like this—what was he going to do? Just yell at her more? She had already had her fill of that today.
The doctor caught her look of fear. "You don't have to go in there," she said. "I'll be right back." She disappeared for a moment, heading over to the nurse's station and talking to the on-duty nurse for a long while before coming back with a paper cup filled with a couple of pills. "Here," she said. "For when you're ready. He's due for them."
Caroline took the pills and cupped them in her hand. For a brief moment, she considered taking them herself. What use would that do? But she couldn't help but think that Cave Johnson wasn't the only one in pain. He might not be the only one sick, either.
She moved to the door and took a breath before putting on the same smile she'd done a million times. "Mr. Johnson," she said, opening the door. "I have your pills."
Cave looked at her with tears in his eyes. "You left me again," he whispered.
Caroline looked away. "The doctor wanted to speak with me. I was just gone for a minute," she said.
"What did the doctor have to say?"
"She told me you stopped eating," said Caroline.
Cave Johnson merely shrugged. "Haven't been hungry," he said.
"The doctor recommended a feeding tube."
Cave shook his head. "Force me to eat?"
"That's what I told her, too," she said. "You're a big kid. If you don't want to eat, you don't want to eat."
"Exactly," said Cave.
"She also told me," she hesitated. That it's almost your time. That you're gonna be fine. That you need to gain weight if you're going to survive. "That you're doing great," she settled on, a lie.
"I had a nightmare," said Cave Johnson. "Strangest thing. I was just a kid.” He hadn't dreamed he was a child in years. “And they cut my hair,” he said. “They stuck me into machines and I tried to tell them not to, but nobody listened to me. I almost died,” he said, taking a few calming breaths and wiping the tears away with his hospital gown.
Caroline just handed him the pills and a glass of water she'd grabbed on the way. He took them, one, two, and handed her back the empty little pill cup. She threw it away.
"Reminded me of when I got sick," said Cave. "When I first got sick. You know," he said. "When everyone thought I was crazy."
Caroline winced.
When he had first gotten sick, she had dismissed it as a simple cough, nothing to worry about. And then when it didn't go away, she figured it was just one of those illnesses that a test subject must have brought in. Just the office cold—just one of those bad ones that didn't go away for a month or two. She reassured him again and again that it was nothing, even when he became more and more convinced that it wasn't a simple cough. It had only been when he started to cough up blood that they had sought medical attention, and by that time the lunar poisoning had taken deep root inside of his body.
Did he blame her for this? For not catching it as early as they could have?
"I wish I could just pack up my bags and leave," said Cave. "Just leave all of this behind me." Caroline wanted to reach out to him, to touch him. He'd threatened to do this before—to pack his bags and leave, to go hit that bucket list hard and do all of the things he'd been meaning to do before he died. Leave Aperture behind. Leave Caroline behind. Leave it all behind in hopes that something new would be his salvation.
"I need you here," said Caroline, softly. He needed her. She needed him. It was that simple.
"I know," said Cave. "You know I'd come back anyway. This is my home." he reached for her hand, and she caught a glimpse of a glint of metal. She felt like gasping.
"You're wearing it," she said. The ring. Their rings.
"Course I am."
"Thought you didn't like yours," said Caroline. She looked down at her own hand. On her ring finger, a dingy silver ring with an icon in the shape of the old Aperture logo.
"I was feeling sentimental," said Cave. He stared at his for a long moment, twisting it around his finger. "Remember when I gave you yours?" he said, giving a small laugh. "I thought for sure you'd never wear it. That you'd think I was being too forward or something, giving you a ring."
Caroline blushed. "Well yes, I was a little embarrassed to wear it at first, but it sure stopped people from asking," she said. She'd never been married—that was the point. After her ten year anniversary at the company, Cave had given her the simple silver ring. She's married—to science! And she'd never taken it off since.
She stopped and looked around the room for a long moment.There was a long pause. "It's always just gonna be us two, isn't it?" said Cave.
Caroline squeezed his hand, nodding. No other witnesses, just those two. Two ways to tell the story. Two people living in one small room. Two people with two different dreams for Aperture. Two people who had been with Aperture from the start.
Two partners in science.