The freshman girl didn't make it. 

 

 

 

 

This isn't surprising, it was pretty obvious what direction things were headed in hours ago. Marian's seen enough people die. She knows what dying looks like. It...probably wasn't even a close thing; it was probably already too late by the time they brought Sophie in. 

If she had a full ICU worth of resources and backup... But she didn't, and doesn't, and Marian keeps trying over and over to remind herself that it's not her fault she can't replace all of that singlehandedly and with void-scrounged supplies and it's - not her fault, she keeps chewing on it and she still can't think of anything she could have done differently... 

It doesn't feel that way. It feels like she failed. 

 

 

Marian formally pronounces Sophie Hara dead at 8:29 pm according to her watch, about five minutes after the last sign of efforts to breathe. It's a ritual that lets her hold herself together, while she listens for two minutes and confirms the absence of any heartbeat. Sophie's skin is still warm to the touch, but her color is already the yellowish-grey of the recently dead, mauve around the lips and eyes.

Marian says - something, the words are gone from her head ten seconds later - to New York, and she kicks everyone out. 

...It doesn't feel like anything, at first. The tears will come, but not yet. 

She takes out the IV and nasogastric tube. She's very gentle with the tape, and apologizes under her breath, even though Sophie isn't there, anymore, to feel pain. She undresses her, and hacks off a corner of blanket to dampen with water poured from her jug and wash the body. 

She starts crying, then. Keeps going, for a minute or so, until she can't see anymore and her chest feels too tight to breathe, and then she hunches over the gurney and sobs, pointlessly, and she's crying for Sophie but not just her. She knows the survival statistics, for this school.