Chapter 9

Family Reunion

The woman just stood there and stared in disbelief without saying a word. It was an awkward silence, something Elsa had become familiar with over the course of the last several days.

"I don't know who you are, but this isn't funny," she finally spoke.

"You have no idea who I am? How is that possible?" Elsa asked as she started to panic.

Sasha mumbled something to himself beneath his breath, then leaned in closer. "You do not recognize your own daughter?"

The woman's eyes started to mist over as she shook her head. "No. No, it's impossible."

"Why is that?" he asked.

"Because my daughter is dead!" the woman shouted.

There was more silence as the woman dropped to the floor, her hands covering her face. She didn't want to believe it. Refused to believe it. Yet there Elsa stood.

"Mom, it's really me," Elsa said soothingly as she knelt down to comfort her.

"How?" the woman asked between sobs.

"It's a long story, one that you probably won't believe," Elsa replied. "Why don't we go inside and talk?"

The woman nodded and allowed Elsa to help her to her feet. Her mother led them into what was supposed to be the living room, though it was barely furnished. It smelled of mold like the rest of the building, and was warm from the summer night air. The rain had let up a bit, though the thunder could still be heard. The walls muffled the sounds of the gunfire, which was good in Elsa's opinion.

"Please, make yourselves at home," her mother told them as she tried to calm herself. "I know we don't have much. Hardly anyone does these days."

Sasha chose to lean against the wall that led into the kitchenette, and Elsa threw her arms around her mother in a tight embrace. The older woman began crying again into Elsa's shoulder, but Elsa herself didn't feel like crying. The tears just wouldn't come. She was overcome with joy to have found her family, especially so easily, but she couldn't get as emotional as she had anticipated. There was still some resentment deep inside her heart.

Once they were finally done, Elsa's mother sat in one of the only chairs in the room. "I'm sorry. I never thought I'd ever see you again, sweetheart. After the war started, we didn't have much of a chance to come see you. But you have to believe me when I tell you it tore us apart. We never wanted to leave you behind."

Elsa wanted to scream at the woman, but couldn't bring herself to do it. She wanted to yell at her for abandoning her there, for keeping her locked up for thirteen long, miserable years. There was so much she wanted to say, had planned on saying, but couldn't. Instead, she chose to remain silent and not voice her feelings.

"I believe you. I just wish you hadn't put me in that horrible place to begin with," Elsa replied harshly. "You have no idea what they did to us there."

Her mother blinked in confusion. "What are you talking about? You told us they took good care of you."

"Mom, they forced us to lie to you in order to protect us and our families," Elsa said in frustration. "They tortured us, experimented on us, put us through horrific surgeries." Without warning, she stood up, removed her coat, and showed off her arms. Then she lifted her shirt, displaying all her scars from over the years. "This is what they did to us. We didn't stay in the rooms inside the building. There was a whole underground complex with prison cells. We were taught how to read, how to write and speak, and how to do basic math. They kept us completely ignorant of the outside world. Then, a few years ago the Russians took over, but left Doctor Harvey in charge. Oh, by the way, he is a sadistic son of a bitch.

"I managed to escape about four and a half days ago. You can imagine my surprise when I reached the surface and saw all of this. I had no idea what the hell had happened. The world was not the way I remembered it. So I entered the city so I could search for you, but was chased down by some soldiers until I found a place to hide. Then some man that pretended to care about me rescued me, and without being given a choice, he dragged me into the city where he said he had friends that would help. These friends of his ended up being smugglers and human traffickers. He handed me over to them for payment. A couple hours later, Sasha," she said, pointing to her friend, "managed to rescue me. We've been traveling together ever since. He promised to help me find you. We wouldn't even be here right now if the rebels hadn't attacked one of the outposts outside the compound. We sneaked in while everyone was busy shooting at each other.

"Once we got inside, we found a warehouse where a bunch of people were living. We asked around and found a woman that used to work with dad. If it wasn't for her, we never would have found you. But the hell we have gone through just in the last four days to get here has been like nothing I had ever imagined. I've been shot at, betrayed, sold off, almost blown apart, and had to kill to get here."

Her mother's mouth hung open. She didn't speak for several seconds. When she finally did, her voice was quiet. "I... I have no idea what to say. Had we known any of that, we would have taken you home immediately."

"No, you wouldn't have. Because Doctor Harvey wouldn't let that happen. He was willing to do and say anything to keep his pet projects right where we were," Elsa informed her. "Besides, right now he has the Russians looking for me. He wants me returned. I don't think he cares if I'm alive or dead either."

"Well, at least for now you are safe. You're home now," her mother said.

"How is this safe? We're right in the middle of the Russians' controlled districts. If they find me, I'm fucked."

Her mother looked down at her lap and fidgeted with her hands. There wasn't much she could really say. Her daughter was home, but was being hunted. She posed a danger to everyone.

"What about your abilities?" she decided to ask.

"What, my ice powers? I still can't control them. I was never able to learn how. That's something Harvey loved torturing me over," Elsa admitted.

"It doesn't matter. Your father and sister would love to see you."

"Where are they anyway?" Elsa asked, looking around as if they would magically appear.

"Your sister is with her boyfriend. Your father... He isn't here right now. Won't be for a long time," her mother said slowly.

Elsa furrowed her eyebrows and looked at her mother suspiciously. "What do you mean? Where is he?"

Her mother, hesitating, refused to look her in the eyes when she spoke. "...He was taken into custody a few days ago."

"What!? Why?" Elsa was shocked and angry.

"Because he was involved with the resistance. He was a contact or something. I don't know," she said sadly.

Turning around in her chair, she looked to Sasha for help. He shook his head and frowned. "If he has been taken prisoner, then he will likely be executed. The Russians do not like those they consider traitors. I know of only one prison camp, and it is closer to the center of the city. But he will be tortured first before they kill him. They might not even kill him. If they think he has any information they can use, they will beat it out of him in horrible ways."

"Is there any way to get in?" Elsa asked earnestly.

"What? You want to break into the camp and try to find your father? That will be suicide," he told her.

"Yes, that's exactly what I want to do. You know we can do it. Look at everything else we've accomplished!" she exclaimed.

Just then, the front door opened and they heard the shuffling of feet. As the door closed, they heard a voice call out. "Mom, I'm home! Kristoff walked me because of the rebels causing problems again, so you don't have to worry about-" It was a girl with red hair tied back in a ponytail. Her face was lightly freckled, like Elsa's, and she had turquoise eyes. "...Elsa?"

Elsa 's face brightened by the sight of her sister. "Anna! It is so wonderful to see you again."

Anna simply blinked with her mouth hanging open. After several moments, she shook her head to bring herself out of her stupor and shock. "Elsa, what the hell are you doing here? We thought you were dead!"

"Yeah, that's what mom said. Surprise!" Elsa said joyously.

"This isn't fair. You can't just come walking back into our lives without us being prepared for it. I mean, you're dead! This can't be happening!" Anna exclaimed in bewilderment.

Stifling a chuckle, Elsa walked to her sister and threw her arms around her, much like she did with her mother. "I'm glad to see you too."

Sasha found the whole ordeal amusing. These people truly believed Elsa was dead. For some reason, that made him inwardly laugh. But, at the same time, he was rather disgusted with her parents. They left her abandoned at the facility at the worst possible time, when they could've pulled her out of there and taken her with them. They honestly sounded cowardly to him. It was almost as if they didn't truly love her the way she deserved to be loved. He could see how emotionally scarred she was from it – though she would ever admit to it - but she definitely deserved far better than what she received. As far as he was concerned, her mother should have thrown herself at Elsa's feet and begged for forgiveness.

"Elsa, I missed you so much. But I had come to terms with the idea of you being dead. How did you get here? When did you get here?" Anna asked rather speedily.

"I got here thanks to the rebels, and we just got here a little bit ago," Elsa said with a toothy smile.

That was when Anna noticed they had a guest. Sasha simply nodded at her. "Who is this?"

"Oh, I should probably introduce him properly. Mom, Anna, this is Sasha. He helped me find you guys," she said as she introduced him. "Sasha, this is my mother Sarah and my sister Anna."

He didn't say anything. That was his way normally. Elsa somehow was the exception to the rule. He usually never talked unless it was important, but she managed to get him to talk a lot to her. He didn't know why either. She just had that effect on him.

"Your friend doesn't say much, does he?" Anna asked.

"Normally he talks a lot. He must be shy," Elsa teased. "But he's helped me a great deal. He's taught me how to survive on my own, how to shoot a gun, and started teaching me how fight with my bare hands. We're still working on that though. Anyway, the point is he's become a very good friend. You can trust him. I do."

A knock on the door interrupted the chatter, and everyone fell extremely quiet. Sarah approached the door, looked through the peephole, and then spun around. "It's a patrol! You two, hide!" she whispered hoarsely, indicating Elsa and Sasha.

Anna showed them to one of the bedrooms and closed the door. Sasha immediately grabbed his gun, catching Anna off guard, and stood by the door and listened. There the three of them waited as the muffled conversation took place. They waited several tense moments for any sign of trouble. Once the conversation had died down, they could hear the soft thud of the front door closing and the mechanical click of the locks. Shortly thereafter, Sarah entered the room and heaved a heavy sigh of relief.

"They said they were checking on a disturbance in the area, and warning us of harboring rebels," she said, still shaking from the conversation.

"Why would they bother coming here for that?" Elsa asked in confusion.

"Because the Russians like to spread fear and panic," Sasha answered. "In the old days, they used to brainwash the children to report their parents for anything that seemed suspicious or anti-communist. A lot of mothers and fathers went missing in those days. The Russians' tactics have not changed much over the years it seems."

"Wait," Anna interrupted, "you sound Russian. Where are you from exactly?"

"I am Ukranian. Many of us dislike the Russians," he said adamantly. "Especially after the bullshit they pulled in 2014. They tried to stick their hands into a divided Ukraine."

"I remember that," Sarah replied. "The media made it seem like they were terrorists."

Sasha scoffed at that. "Do not believe everything the media tells you. The whole situation was complicated, but there were no terrorists. The UCF came around after, thanks to Putin."

"What's the UCF?" Elsa asked.

"The United Commonwealth Front. A terrorist group that was founded and funded by Putin's administration to try and cause more unrest in Ukraine, all so Russia could swoop in and save us. It was Putin's plan to strengthen and reunite the Eastern Bloc, much like in the days of the Soviet Union," Sasha informed them. "Unfortunately, he lost control of them and they went rogue. But he had no problems with selling them nukes."

"That's what started all of this," Anna added. "I was too young to really know much of what was going on, but when the terrorists got their hands on nuclear weapons, the world was terrified."

"Anyway, I want to welcome you home sweetie," Sarah said as she dragged Elsa into a hug. "Your friend is also more than welcome to stay with us as long as he needs. Only, we don't have any food. Haven't for over a week. We weren't lucky enough to get any ration tickets this time."

"Mom, it's okay. Sasha and I have plenty of supplies. We can go grab our stuff and bring it here," Elsa assured her as she managed to pull herself free.

"Come on then," Sasha told her as he headed for the front door. "We do not want to get caught by any patrols, so we need to move quickly."

00000

The fighting was still going on on the other side of the district, which hopefully meant that the patrols were too busy to deal with late night stragglers. The streets were mostly empty except for the occasional drunk vomiting on the sidewalk, or stray dog that was heavily emaciated digging through piles of garbage. It wasn't pleasant, but it was better than dealing with Russian soldiers bearing down on them. The last thing either of them wanted was to be found.

It didn't take them long to reach the office building where they had hidden their gear. The area was quiet, with the exception of the snoring bum in the alley. The rain was still pouring down, and the night sky was still utterly dark in spite of the burning outposts beyond the compound walls. The complete lack of light left the building in deep, oppressive shadows.

Sasha scanned the street for possible trouble, he returned his attention to Elsa when he found none. "Wait here and keep an eye out for patrols. I will grab our things and be back in a few minutes."

He didn't wait for a response, becoming enveloped by the darkness and disappearing as soon as he entered. Alone, Elsa propped herself against the brick wall of the building, folded her arms, and tried to look everywhere all at once. Slowly she slipped into thoughts of her sister and mother, trying to remember more of her childhood. She suddenly realized she never really had any friends when she was little, even at school. She had always been shy around other people, and it depressed her that, besides Anna, she was alone.

While she was lost deep in thought, Elsa didn't notice the bum was no longer asleep. It happened fast and without any warning. The man grabbed her from behind, covered her mouth, and dragged her into the far end of the alley. She was kicking and flailing as hard as she could, but he had a strong grip on her, and once he had dragged her far enough, he threw her to the ground and kicked her in the side of the head. Her vision blurred and her head throbbed. She couldn't think straight.

The man was grunting and groaning, telling her stop fighting and to lay still. When she tried to scream, he backhanded her across the face, causing her to whimper. Once he had her pinned to the ground, he started unbuttoning her pants and ripped them off. He began to chuckle and grunt some more, and he sounded utterly deranged to Elsa as she struggled against him.

She finally managed to get her feet up enough to kick him away, though her pants were around her ankles and made it difficult to move. It didn't deter him any, as he was back on top of her and had his own pants down enough to expose himself to her. The tears and rainwater were blurring her vision more than when he had kicked her, and all she could see was shadows moving around, toying with her.

Then she noticed her underwear was removed, and she did her best to flail and keep her legs closed, but he had her held tight to the ground. She could feel his breath on her face, telling her it'd be over with soon. Suddenly, he was no longer on top of her. Quickly she scrambled to sit up and wiped away the tears in time to see Sasha punch the man in the face several times before bashing his head against the brick wall. He was relentless, and didn't stop until the man laid still.

As soon as he saw her, Sasha ran to her, knelt down, and tried to comfort her. She cried into his jacket, heavy sobs wracking her body as she clung tight to him. He managed to pull himself free long enough to wrap her in his coat, then sat down and drew her to him, and rocked her back and forth while trying to sooth her. He kept telling her that she was alright and that the man wasn't going to hurt anyone ever again. But still she cried, and kept crying until the tears would no long come.

Once she had calmed down, he urged her to get dressed so they could get out of there. She quickly did as she was told, and once she was dressed she threw her arms around him and gave him what was possibly the tightest, strongest hug she had ever given in her life. Finally, he was able to urge her to grab her things so they could actually leave, then they were on their way.

Still sniffling, Elsa refused to look anywhere other than the ground. She was too ashamed to look Sasha in the eyes, but still had enough strength to speak to him. "T-thank you, Sasha. I don't k-know what I would h-have done without you."

"Do not worry about it. It has been taken care of. He will not ever do that again," he assured her.

"I hope he's dead," Elsa angrily admitted.

Sasha frowned a little, knowing that this was not Elsa's usual self. She was typically more upbeat once she was comfortable around him. She wasn't as shy as when they first met either. But this was not her. Of course, she was just attacked by a very sick individual, and she had every right to be angry and hurt. But it pained him to see her this way.

"You do not have to worry about that either," Sasha said grimly. "As I said, he will not be hurting anyone ever again."

"Please don't tell my mother or sister," Elsa suddenly pleaded. "They don't need to know."

"Okay. I will not say a word."

"Thank you."

"I do think we need to continue your training so this does not happen again," he said. "You could have overpowered him if you had focused. I know you could."

Elsa finally looked up at him, her eyes red and puffy from crying. "I tried. I really did. He was just stronger than me."

"Strength has nothing to do with it. It is all about technique. With proper training you could have easily freed yourself and gotten away. Tomorrow, we will begin training you more seriously," he stated.

They didn't say anything more as they walked back to the apartment. Elsa tried her best to not think about what had just happened. It was horrifying and disgusting, and turned her stomach in every direction at once. The worst part was the shame. For whatever reason, she felt ashamed and humiliated that it had happened to her. That Sasha had to see her so weak and vulnerable. So exposed. It was something she could never make go away. She didn't think she'd ever fully recover from it. Another scar to add to what she already had.

00000

That night, Elsa and Anna shared a room together while Sasha slept on the floor in the living room. They didn't fall asleep for a long time, choosing instead to stay up talking and catching up on what had happened in their lives. Elsa told her sister all about her time at Langdon's and what had happened. She told her about her escape and everything that led up to her ending up on their doorstep. It was a long story, and Anna hung on to every word of it.

"I am so sorry, Els. I wish I could have done something," Anna said, remorsefully.

"I don't blame you at all," Elsa reassured her. "I still hold some resentment towards mom and dad though. They never should have put me in that horrible place. Hell, they could have at least visited more often than they did. I only saw you guys a couple times a year. Who does that to their child?"

"Trust me, I gave them hell about it when I got older," Anna said as she propped herself up on her elbows. They were sharing a bed since that was all they had. "I pestered them constantly to take me to see you. Of course dad always said that it was important not to bother you while you were receiving treatment. I thought that was such bullshit."

"What exactly did they tell you happened?"

Anna shrugged nonchalantly. "Basically that you shoved me out of the tree and I hit my head. They said that it was supposedly an accident, but I honestly don't remember. We were so little that it didn't matter."

"You know that's not true, right?" Elsa asked. "About shoving you, I mean. I tried to grab you as you fell. But then my powers acted up and I shot you in the head on accident. It froze your head from the inside."

"Is that how I got this white stripe in my hair?"

"Possibly," Elsa chuckled. "I don't remember you ever having it before."

Without warning, Anna made a face like she just had the greatest idea and changed the topic. "Tomorrow I'm going to introduce you to Kristoff. He's a really great guy. We've known each other for a long time, and he finally had the nerve to ask me out last year. Which, yeah, I know, now is probably not the time to be starting relationships, but I mean-"

"Anna, it's fine. Really. I'd like to meet him," Elsa interrupted. "Just know that we can't stay here long. I have training to go through with Sasha, plus we have to get dad back. I don't now how we're going to do that though. But the longer we stay here, the more we put your lives in danger."

Sitting up, Anna folded her arms and looked a bit irritated at her sister. "So what? You come waltzing back into our lives just to walk back out again? That's not even remotely fair, Elsa."

"I'm not walking away. I'm talking about bringing you and mom with us."

"Where? Where are we going to go? It's nothing but a wasteland outside the walls, and we have no real way of getting there anyway. The Russians have the whole place locked down tight. It's been that way for three fucking years. Besides, I'm not leaving Kristoff behind," Anna told her.

"Then bring him with us. But I came all this way to get you guys out of underneath the Russians' thumb. Kristoff and his whole family are more than welcome to come with us. Just please, think about it," Elsa pleaded.

"And what do we do once we're out of here?" Anna asked. "There won't be anywhere to go. We have no electricity or running water here, plus food is scarce because of the Russians and their greed. Things will be no different out there."

It was Elsa's turn to sit up, but she wasn't annoyed or angry. Her eyes were pleading with her sister to listen. "There is a church that is to the southeast of here. It's not that far. The nuns there are very nice, and have food, shelter, and clean clothes. We can go there, get more supplies, and then figure out our next move. From what Sasha has told me, our best chance of getting out of this nightmare is heading east."

"Elsa, there is nothing to the east. The Russians pushed as far as the Midwest. The fallout from Canada and Mexico leaked into the rivers and caused a lot of problems. Everything is sort of cut off and irradiated. Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, about a third of Texas... They took that much land. The front line is so far away that we likely would never make it," Anna informed her.

"Look, let's at least discuss it tomorrow with mom and Sasha, alright? I am not leaving you guys behind. I am going to get you all out of here somehow. And who knows, maybe the rebels will have made some good progress by morning and push the Russians out," Elsa said with hope in her eyes.

Anna caved and nodded to her. It was obvious that Elsa wasn't going to give up, and Anna had to admit that it sounded nice. Getting out of the compound was something she had been praying for since they first got placed in one. Maybe her sister was on to something. If there was help on the outside, then it was possible that survival wasn't so far-fetched after all.

With a sigh, Anna flopped back down onto the mattress and stared at the ceiling. "If you really want us all to go with you, then we'll have to make sure we can all move without getting spotted. Luckily, it's just Kristoff and his brother Adam. His brother isn't likely to go with us though. He got pretty heavy into drugs. He gets them from one of the soldiers. Don't ask how."

"What do you mean?"

"As far as I know, he's into heroin and popping pills. I don't know if he's into anything else. Kristoff may not leave without him, but Adam isn't likely to go with us either. He'll lose his supply if he does, and he's not about to do that." It was clear that this frustrated Anna simply by the tone of her voice. Then she turned her head to the side and looked at her sister with a frown. "I forgot, you probably have no idea what I just said. About the drugs, I mean."

Elsa rolled her eyes at her sister. "Please, I'm well aware that drugs are not something you want to get into. After all the drugs I was on back at Langdon's, I can tell you firsthand that you don't want to get involved in that. Besides, I've heard of heroin before, because they said that some of the drugs they were experimenting on us were very similar. There was a period of time that I went through heavy withdrawals as they kept changing the drugs I was on. They'd put me on one thing for a couple weeks, then take me off immediately to put me on something else. I was always shaking and vomiting, among other things. It was horrible. Eventually they stopped with the drug trials because they proved to be ineffective."

Anna's jaw dropped as she listened to her sister and became rather furious that Elsa had to go through all of that. "Elsa, I am so sorry that you were stuck there for so long. You should have said something to mom and dad. They would have taken you home right away."

"Doctor Harvey wouldn't have let me leave. He'd find some way to convince mom and dad to keep me there. Besides, he threatened all of us that if we told our families that they'd be hurt and we'd be in serious trouble. What was I supposed to do?" Elsa asked.

"I don't know. But something should have been done. Do you know how painful it was to lose my sister for so long? I looked forward to every trip that mom and dad let me go on to see you. They didn't let us talk much though, which always pissed me off," the redhead said. "I so desperately wanted to talk to you about what happened, about what was going on there, and why you weren't allowed to leave. But every time I asked about it, mom and dad would tell me to stop asking questions. That you were where you needed to be. Whenever I asked if you were getting better, they said that eventually you would be. They were so sure that whatever the fuck those people were doing to you was going to work, and it blinded them and clouded their judgment. They never listened to me, and I hated them for it. But then the war started, and after Europe got attacked, we prepared ourselves just in case Russia or China tried to do anything. That's when they started evacuating the cities, but there were so many people that refused to leave that it became chaotic, and we couldn't visit you anymore.

"Then the bombs hit. First it started with a bunch of EMP blasts that took out the entire western seaboard. All of our power was down. The terrorists were somehow capable of smuggling in the materials to make these things, and built them without anyone knowing about it. It made our intelligence agencies look stupid as hell. After that, most of our defenses were down. All of the electronics were out and fried, so none of the military's hardware worked. That's when the first nuke hit. They targeted Canada and Mexico, then they hit parts of California. We were somehow spared.

"The fallout from the bombs leaked into the rivers from both sides, creating irradiated barriers all along the Midwest. Our radio towers still worked here surprisingly, so we were able to hear the news on any device that wasn't completely fucked from the electronic blasts. The Russians stormed Oregon and here a few days later. Our troops were pushed back east, and we civilians got left behind. Mom and dad were one of the ones that were too stubborn to leave, so we got stuck here when the invasion started. Then they rounded us all up and divided us into these compounds, which are basically internment camps but by a different name. Each one is called a different district. This one is District Four."

It was Elsa's turn to be shocked. Anna's story didn't leave much hope for them. "Mom and dad really thought that I was better off there? They didn't question it at all?"

"If they did, they never verbalized it to me. I think mom was against the whole thing, because I often caught her crying after her and dad talked about you. I vaguely remember them arguing and fighting a bunch when I was little, and I think it was usually about you," Anna said.

"I guess it doesn't matter anymore. I'm here now, and I don't plan on leaving. At least, not without you guys."

Anna was confused by Elsa's stubbornness. She was so determined to get them out of the district. "Why do you want to rescue us? We left you to rot in that horrible place. I mean, I tried like hell to get them to go back and get you when this all started, but they said there was no time. So you should at least be royally pissed and hurt about that."

"I don't know. I wanted to scream at mom when I first saw her, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. She genuinely looked hurt when she saw me. But I still resent her some," Elsa admitted.

"And what about dad?" Anna asked.

"I'll probably do the same thing with him. I'm a little angry at them, but I still love them. I can't bring myself to hate them no matter what. But we have got to get you guys out of this place. It's not safe here for any of us."

Returning her gaze to the ceiling, Anna thought about what they were going to do to escape. "I have no idea how we're going to do this, Els. You should at least get a tour of the place, which we'll do first thing tomorrow. I'll introduce you to Kristoff and his brother, show you around, and let you determine what to do next. You and your friend were crazy to get here like you did. But hey, maybe the rebels will actually win and get rid of the Russians. We've heard stories of them doing it before, so maybe there's hope for that."

In the darkness, Elsa had a crooked grin on her face. She was finally home, and was really going to get her family out of the hellhole they had been stuck in for the last few years. After wishing her sister a good night, she laid her head down on the one worn, filthy pillow she had been given and closed her eyes. It didn't take long before sleep consumed her and brought her the first good dreams she'd had in a long time.