Read Chapter 18: — RACHEL RETURNS

Rachel Quinn entered Lakeshore in a military convoy.

By then, the city had stopped feeling like a place that might return to normal next week. Streets were quiet. Hotels housed medical workers. Schools were closed. Food deliveries happened through lobbies and doorways.

The Canadian Armed Forces medical contingent helped staff a newly expanded respiratory facility beside St Joseph’s.

Rachel requested assignment there.

Her father had died inside the same hospital.

Peter met her in a parking lot because they were not permitted to share a home while working in different high-risk units.

They stood six feet apart wearing masks.

For a married couple, it felt absurdly formal.

“You look terrible,” she said.

“You too.”

“I crossed half a country for this romance.”

“Still worth it?”

She laughed, then cried without warning.

Peter’s first instinct was to step forward.

He stopped himself.

Rachel noticed.

The distance between them became unbearable.

“I wasn’t there when Dad died.”

“I know.”

“I wasn’t there for you either.”

“You’re here now.”

“That has been our excuse for twenty years. We always arrive eventually.”

Peter had no defence.

Rachel looked at him.

“When this is over, I’m done living somewhere else.”

He stared.

“I don’t know what my job looks like yet. I don’t know if I transfer, retire from regular service, teach, work emergency here. But I am tired of being married to you by calendar notification.”

Peter’s eyes burned.

“I was going to ask you the same thing.”

“No, you weren’t.”

“No.”

She smiled behind the mask.

They could not touch.

So Peter placed his gloved hand over his heart.

Rachel mirrored him.

It was enough for that day.