She dreams. Hazy images, floating and blurring together. She is in Henry's room, watching him sleep with his Star Wars bed sheets wrapped tightly around him. She can hear her mother's voice, distant, but warm and comforting. Then all of a sudden she is in Zhukov's office. She turns around and sees Philip walking towards her. He's so young, the way he looked when they first met all those years ago. He has his hands in his pockets and he's smiling at her, blue eyes crinkling. She wants to smile back, but she can't. Every muscle in her body feels frozen.
Then darkness washes over her. The dream is over and consciousness starts to creep in. She struggles to breathe.
Before she can even open her eyes, she feels his presence. She knows it's him with every fiber of her being. Her partner. The father of her children. The man who never left her side for a second, even though she has kept him at arm's length for so long.
"Philip," she whispers. She tries to lift her hand because she wants, no, needs, to feel his touch.
His head snaps up. "Shhhh," he whispers. He clearly hasn't slept. He's not the young man from her dream anymore. He's older, with laugh lines and slightly graying hair around the sides. He's no less handsome though. How did she not notice how handsome he was for so long? He manages a smile that can't mask the worry and concern, and takes her hand in his. And at this moment she feels so much love for him it is overwhelming. She wants to wrap her arms around him, to tell him all the things she's wanted to tell him. But she doesn't have the strength, and her thoughts are all jumbled up. So she says the first coherent thing that comes into her head.
"Come home."
The words are out before she even realizes they are in Russian. She can't remember ever speaking Russian to him in the nearly 20 years they've known each other, yet it feels like the most natural thing in the world.
And as the shock and surprise on his face turns into that familiar look of tenderness she has missed so much, she knows he's coming home to her. Her husband.