Willow had expected pain to be the dominant sensation that evening. Pain had dictated every breath for days; sharp, dragging, insistent. She assumed it would drown out everything else, especially now that she was out of the hospital and away from the constant pulse of monitors. But instead, as the hours unfolded inside the quiet luxury of the suite, something gentler began to take space beside the pain.
Comfort.
Not the sterile kind administered by machines and medication, but a human kind; warm, and attentive, almost startling in its simplicity.
