The light sleep that had come over him while she was singing almost immediately turned darker once her voice died down. When she entered the bedroom and tiptoed past where he sat against the wall, he heard her footsteps in his dreaming and smelled the sea. The tiny little sounds she made while getting ready for bed woke him completely, though he kept his eyes closed until he was certain she was clothed. And then, rising from where he'd dropped, he rubbed his metal hand over his face and gestured with his splinted one toward the door.
"I'll be back," he said. And then he paused in the doorway. "Could you..." He looked over his shoulder at her. "Could you keep singing while I'm away? I will be able to hear you over the water, and I'll know that you're all right."