Summary:

They call it a Lucid Interval. A brief moment of clarity after a traumatic brain injury where the patient appears fine. Awake. Alert. Happy.

After the hit, Shane Hollander wakes up. He jokes with the nurses. He smiles at Ilya. He makes plans for the summer.

Ilya Rozanov just outed himself to the entire world on live television to save him, but he can't save him from this. Shane isn't getting better. He is dying. And these are the last conversations they will ever have.

A story about the hit, the confession, and the long, slow silence that followed.

They weren't saying goodbye to each other; Ilya was too confident that Shane would win.

Shane loved winning.

He lost, the first lost that Ilya didn't enjoy.

Because he only left Ilya to suffer more.

(finished, all done)