would never show her what he was looking at.
Now it was way past the time for talking.
Rene had his head bent over a petri dish when she entered his lab. His blue-black lock of hair was too long and unkempt. His body was bent over as if he was hundred years old, and when he looked up at her, she knew she would see the dark circles under his eyes and the tired lines that made him look years older than a man in his early twenties.
For a few minutes, she stood silently watching him. He knew she was there, but had not acknowledged her presence. After an insultingly long time, she finally cleared her throat and spoke.
‘Why are you hurting me like this, Rene? What have I done to deserve this treatment?’ she said softly.
That got his attention. His head shot up, and the wildness and pain she saw in his blue eyes almost broke her heart.
‘I am sorry. You have done nothing wrong. I am just struggling with … fate.’ His voice was a tired growl. But at least he was talking to her. That gave her hope.
‘Do you want our last weeks together to be as strangers? Shouldn’t we be spending every moment together, building more memories to carry us through the lonely times to come?’
He shook his head in exhaustion. ‘I cannot. Every time I look at you, I feel my failure. It is taking everything I have just to get through these last days. Please do not ask me for more…’
‘Your failure?’ she challenged him angrily. ‘How have you failed? Your work has been a brilliant success, and promises to be more so, in the years to come.’
‘Damn the work,’ he snarled furiously, sweeping his arm across the top of the bench, and sending all of the equipment, including the petri dish, flying.
‘Rene, my beloved, talk to me! I want to understand. Seeing you like this is destroying me.’ She couldn’t hold back the little sob that fought its way out. She wanted to go to him, hold his head against her breast, and take away his pain. But she could do none of it. So she stood and waited for the answers she so desperately needed.
Rene glared across at her, his chest rising and falling, as if he had run a race. ‘Yes, I am destroying you. Or my inability to find a way to save you will destroy you. A man protects what is his. A man fights the dragons for his damsel. I cannot do that for you, Liv, no matter how much I want to. I do not know how to save you…’ He suddenly realised what he had said. ‘I mean… save you from the loneliness of life when you go back.’
‘Rene, I know. You do not have to hide the truth from me. I have seen my death records. I know I will only have a few months left when I get back. To be honest, I will be glad. The idea of living a long life without you seems like torture.’
‘A torture I will be condemned to!’ he yelled at her, reaching out for the glass beaker that had missed the sweep of his arm. He grasped the beaker tightly for a second before throwing it across the room. Liv jumped at the sound of it shattering.
‘You cannot save me from my fate, my love. Please stop torturing yourself like this. It hurts us both, and solves nothing,’ she begged, as the tears began to fall from her eyes, blurring her vision.
Through the blur, she saw him move toward her, and draw her gently into his arms. For several long minutes, they clung to each other like children in a storm. Liv could hear his heart beating desperately in his chest. She wanted to reach in and still its frantic pace. Her beautiful husband was falling apart, and she didn’t know how to help him. It was far worse than thoughts of her own approaching death.
‘You are right. It solves nothing. I knew right from the start that our time would be short. And I shorten it further by treating you thus. Come home with me now, Ma Chere, let me try to build more pleasurable memories for you to cling to after… after I have gone.’
She felt her heart lift for the first time since they had received notification of her return date. They still had two weeks. It wasn’t nearly long enough, but it would have