(Reader's POV)

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'It's quiet. I don't hear any beeping sounds anymore.'

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'Am I dead?'

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'Never thought I'd say- er, well, think this, but, I almost missed the sound of the beeps.'

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'I hear footsteps coming...'

"...So, Dr. Richards, what exactly are we doing?"

"We're studying a series of patients in a single intensive care unit who have acute brain injury from a variety of causes and who are unresponsive to spoken commands. This patient is among the 104. Some of the other patients also include those with the ability to localize painful stimuli or to fixate on or track visual stimuli. Now, machine learning has been applied to the EEG recordings to detect brain activation in response to commands."

"And what's the point of all of this?"

"Brain activation in response to spoken motor commands can be detected by electroencephalography in clinically unresponsive patients. Some patients in a coma or vegetative state after brain injury show signs of hidden consciousness. That may predict their chances of getting better and help us improve their care."

"How do we know this tool is accurate in predicting such outcomes? Why not just do a routine GCS?"

"Well, to answer the first question, we don't. At least not yet. So far, the data seems to indicate that those who've shown indications of hidden consciousness have improved compared to those who didn't. We're still in the early stages of this, but it has potential."

"And what about the usual protocol?"

"The Glasgow Coma Scale is used to assess a person's level of consciousness after a head injury, but we grade them based off of what we actively see when we give them commands or apply painful stimuli. It doesn't grade them from what we see on the EEG. That's where the machine-learning algorithm comes in. I'm going to give this patient a series of commands over a span of 25 minutes. During that time, the machine will record the data."

"And then?"

"And then we'll see if anyone's home in there."

'Holy shit! I hope this works. I don't know how much time I have left if they don't think I'm in here.'

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"Can you open and close your left hand?"

'I'll try. I don't know how, though. Maybe if I just think really hard to move my hand, it'll work? Here goes nothing...'

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"Can you open and close your right hand?"

'I'm trying, dude!'

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"I'm not seeing any movement, Dr. Richards."

'Goddammit! No...'

"That's not the point of this test."

'Huh?'

"Remember, this isn't a usual GCS assessment. We're not aiming for visual results. We're looking for hidden consciousness."

'Thank Christ. That's reassuring, I guess. I hope this machine algorithm thingy can hear or see me now. I have a feeling this will be a long test, but I can't give up. They need to know I'm here.'

"Can you wiggle your left toes for me?"

'Here we go...'

***

(Aizawa's POV)

Her skin gave off a radiant glow as the sun touched our entwined bodies on my bed. She felt smooth to the touch as my fingers traced her skin, leaving a trail of goosebumps. God, how could I be so lucky? She stirred and let out a contented sigh, as her eyes slowly began to open. I smiled and moved a strand of hair out of her face.

"Good morning, beautiful." I said, feeling absolute bliss knowing she was here and she was mine.

A soft hum came from her as she leaned in closer to me, cupping my face and placing a soft kiss to my lips. The feeling sent a surge of lust through my veins, making it impossible for me to stop. I pulled her closer to me, letting my hands travel everywhere they could as I deepened the kiss. I don't know where this sense of urgency suddenly came from, but the thrill was too overwhelming to ignore.

Just then, I heard her let out a gasp of shock.

I stopped and looked at her. Her face was filled with absolute terror as she trembled in my arms. The same expression she had when she awoke in the infirmary.

"Doe, what's wrong?" I asked, wanting to help her in any way I could.

But nothing came out of her lips. She just looked at me, scared to death. I went to touch her cheek in an effort to try and calm her, but I noticed her body was beginning to evaporate. Bit by bit, I saw tiny particles of her slowly fade away into nothingness. I tried to grab onto the pieces as they floated away, but they disappeared within seconds.

"No no no no no NO!" I cried out, "Please no!"

I looked into her eyes, tears streaming from my face. All I could do was watch as she began to disappear.

"Please don't leave." I begged as my voice broke, "I love-"

But before I could finish she was gone, the last of her faded away. I was alone. Completely, and utterly, alone.

My eyelids immediately flew open. My heart raced as I looked around in a panic, but it hit me. I wasn't in my room anymore. I was in the infirmary. I looked down and saw Doe, still unconscious on the infirmary bed as she was before. I touched her hand, just to check and see if she was really here. Much to my relief, she was.

'Thank God. It was just a dream.' I thought as I tried to slow my heart rate down.

I let out a sigh as I buried my face into my hand, keeping the other one her hand. Even though I knew I was dreaming, the paranoid side of me was afraid she would still disappear.

Suddenly, I felt her hand move under mine.

I looked up at her. Nothing had changed.

"Doe?" I asked.

No response.

'Maybe it was a twitch?' I thought.

Then her right hand moved in the same fashion as the left. I scooted my chair closer to her and watched, trying to figure out what was going on. After a few minutes, I then saw her wiggle her left toes. Then, her right toes.

I had no idea what was going on. Why were parts of her moving? Was she in trouble? Was she being prompted to move? I was so confused. She didn't look to be in any pain, but we made that mistake before when we did the first test with Recovery Girl's quirk. I wasn't about to assume she was okay again.

I held onto her hand.

"Please. Please come back to me." I quietly pleaded into her ear, hoping she could hear me somehow.

***

(Reader's POV)

'It's been a long time. Where are they? They should have the results by now.'

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'What if I failed? What if nothing shows up? What will they tell my parents? What will they think? Will they pull the plug?'

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'I don't wanna die. I don't wanna leave. Not yet. There's so much I want to do. So much I want to say.'

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'I wish I was with Aizawa now. He'd know how to calm me down.'

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'What if I never see him again? I didn't get the chance to tell him how I feel. I didn't even get to say goodbye.'

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'I hear footsteps again.'

"Go ahead and turn off the EEG. We won't need it again for awhile."

'...Awhile?'

"I take it the results were sufficient?"

"Yes, very much so. This is still the first run, and we'll need to do this again at some point to confirm the results. But as far as this one went, the machine algorithm detected strong brain activity in response to all of the commands."

'YES! Yes!'

"If this continues, her odds of a full recovery are greater than those who did not show any signs of cognitive-motor disassociation. Around 50% of those who did, showed improvement over time. So she's not entirely out of the woods just yet, but she's on a promising path."

'Oh thank God. I'm going to be okay...at least, for now.'

'Please...please come back to me...'

'...Shota?'

'Please...'

"We'll keep her in the ICU for now. Have the other nurse on the primary team do their rounds and run diagnostics. Have the intensivist take care of the rest until we..."

'Please come back...'

"Yes, Dr. Richardson..."

'Everything's fading out...'

I slowly opened my eyes and was welcomed to a darkened room.

"Doe?" I heard Aizawa whisper to me.

I looked over and saw him sitting next to me, his hand on mine. Though the room was dark, I could see the heartache on his face.

Without a moment to waste, I sat up on the bed and we both immediately held onto each other. I've never felt more relieved than I did at this moment, not only because I was okay in my world, but I was back in his arms. Soon after our embrace, our lips collided into a passionate and desperate kiss.

"I thought I lost you." he whispered in between kisses.

"I'm here." I whispered back before continuing to kiss him more urgently.

Author's note: INCOMING SMUT!

Also, fun fact: The study/tests performed in this chapter by the doctors were actually a part of a real study performed last year by Jan Claassen, M.D., Kevin Doyle, M.A., Adu Matory, B.A., and Caroline Couch, B.A. The article can be found in The New England Journal of Medicine if you're interested to learn more about it. I obviously took some liberties in order for things to progress here, but I thought that this was amazing to research.