I...

[ This was why she'd asked, wasn't it? This was why she had come down to talk to someone, someone who knew what they were looking at and what they were looking for. She was getting her answers, although this was something she should've gone and had done as soon as the pain began to worsen. It was her own fault for putting it off for this long.

What Adrien was telling her was exactly what she needed to hear. And it was a bit of a wake up call. ]

Is it all right for me to sit up?

[ Assuming that it was, Elena began leaning up on an elbow. He could stop her if he wasn't finished. ]

I just have one question: does moving around make it worse? Will I still be able to do my classes, or will the climbing speed it up?

[ The worse case scenario going through her mind was that she would be in the middle of some kind of goofy field trip with some of her students, about to make a jump for a ledge, and that would be what does her in. The shrapnel shifting just enough that it punctures somewhere vital and she falls to her death.

Ah, the many nightmares she'd had of that exact scenario, but for other reasons.

Jesus, how was she going to tell Nate? And when he had zero idea of anything... ]