Save himself.
He sat with the envelope in his hand.
The lab test had been printed...
She never read her results.
He always did.
He loved her more than life itself.
She was the one thing that he went home to.
She had been diagnosed so many times.
With so many things.
Since 2006.
So many things took a toll on her body.
He held her through them all.
He loved her through them all.
He sat with the envelope in his hand.
She walked into the room nervously.
As she always did.
As he had expected her to.
He readied himself to catch her.
Her heart.
Her mind.
Her spirit.
He readied himself to rescue her once more.
From the grief.
From the imminent knowledge.
From the dream that can come with these sorts of things.
He readied himself.
She spoke first.
He sat with the envelope in his hand.
She wrung hers together, trying to squeeze the words out.
She stood, never sat.
She struggled to look him in the eyes.
She spoke the words that he couldn't have possibly readied himself for...
"I am..."
She said.
"I am in love with someone else..."
He swallowed.
He sat with the envelope in his hand.
Ready to box up the pieces of her crumbling world...
Ready to be anything that she had needed him to be.
She stood there with his heart in her hands...
He had been ready to save her.
He had no idea how to save himself...