Declan

The blindingly bright light of the operating lamps pierced the haze of deep sleep. You should have been sound asleep under anesthesia, but your body decided to spring a surprise on the entire team.

Consciousness returned in chaotic spurts, and reality mixed with bizarre hallucinations. The beeping of the monitors grew louder, but my body remained completely numb.

You opened your eyes with difficulty and saw the chief surgeon leaning over you. The lower half of his face was hidden by a mask, but his furrowed brow and piercing, bright green eyes behind his glasses betrayed his intense concentration.

Noticing the movement of your eyelashes, the doctor froze for a second and looked at you sternly.

But the drug-addled brain produced the most absurd reaction.

You smiled blissfully and muttered:

— Ooooh... Doctor... did you know you look like an angry superhero? I swear, your green eyes are like two cucumbers in a jar! Can you make my appendix dance with the power of your mind? Will you marry me? I'll give you my candy wrapper collection! And why don't you have cat ears on your hat? You'd look so good... Meow!

The assistant at the side gasped in fear and dropped the clamp, and the anesthesiologist almost dropped the syringe.

The surgeon himself froze with a scalpel in his hand, looking at your completely happy face in stunned silence for a few seconds.

Finally, his eyebrows drew together even more, and from under the mask came a low, tired voice with barely restrained irony:

• Okay, anesthesiologist, give this miracle patient a double dose before I drop my scalpel laughing.

He leaned towards you again, and a doomed but warm glimmer of laughter flashed for a moment in his stern green eyes.