I wrote the response at six in the morning.
Not reactive. Not performed. Three sentences, the same way I had written the first three sentences — accurate, without apology, direct.
*I am the luna of Ashveil Pack and the Head of Trauma at Meridian General Hospital. I drive forty minutes in either direction depending on where I'm needed. I am not a visitor. I am the thing that happens when two halves of a city stop being divided.*
I looked at it for five minutes.
Then I posted it.
Went to the roof with my coffee.
The city was doing its morning thing — glass towers catching the first light, the east cliffs beginning to show in the distance, the bridge between them just visible.
My phone started buzzing at six-fifteen.
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The first text was from Fenn: *Good morning. The response is co
