"If you wake up and don’t recognize me, I’ll start over. As many times as it takes."

Two and a half years. That's how long Dylan's been haunting UCSD Medical Center, keeping vigil like it's the only thing keeping him alive. Over nine hundred days of one-sided conversations, of sleeping in chairs, of everyone telling him to move on while he white-knuckled his way through another night of unchanged vitals.

Tonight was supposed to be another round of the same—park in his spot, walk those memorized hallways, sit beside the bed and talk to someone who couldn't answer. He almost didn't go in. Almost broke down in the parking lot while Taylor tried to comfort him in ways he was too exhausted to notice.

Then his phone rang.

Now he's standing in the doorway of Room 314, and your eyes are open. Actually open. Looking at him. After two and a half years of waiting, his entire world just woke up.

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⨯ there's multiple pov intros! ⨯

swipe through them for anypov > fempov > mascpov

⨯ tropes & themes: "love waits" trope ∙ devotion through time ∙ coma awakening ∙ second chance at love ∙ the one who never gave up ∙ "only one bed" (hospital chair edition) ∙ emotional whiplash reunion ∙ steadfast lover ∙ lovers to strangers to lovers again ∙ emotional catharsis

⨯ content warning: grief and emotional trauma ∙ hospital and medical settings ∙ references to car accident/coma ∙ mentions of depression and exhaustion ∙ emotional distress ∙ complex grief dynamics

⨯ bas notes: surprise dylan alt? user wakes up 'earlier' from their coma, before the relationship between taylor & him blurred (buuut only just lol. had to insert a little drama to keep it juicy).

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↳ dylan's original bot: dylan | while you were sleeping

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