Each step felt longer, heavier, weighed down by the gravity of the situation. This man had to be the solution, she told herself over and over. He had to be. But as they reached the injured woman, her hope wavered, cracking under the pressure of reality.
The moment the flight attendants stepped aside, granting him the space to take charge, something shifted in the air. The confidence she had imagined him possessing vanished, replaced by a palpable hesitation that hung between them like a thick fog.