This time, Steve didn't have to come creeping into Maggie's room under cover of darkness to find comfort and companionship. Tonight, she was there waiting for him when he came out of the bathroom, sitting up in his bed. A storm was raging outside, and in the strobe of the lightning, she reached out to him, and he took her hands. She pulled him down to her and gathered as much of him as she could hold in her arms. He slid down in the bed, wrapped his arms around her waist, buried his face in her lap, and wept as she threaded her long fingers through his hair again and again.

After a while, Maggie lay down beside him. He snuggled back against her, and she wrapped her arms about him as she had done the two previous nights. He pulled her arms tightly around him, seeking a stronger embrace, and felt her soft breath stir his hair as she whispered to him lovingly in Spanish, trying to soothe him. He could not hear her words over the boom of the thunder, but the rise and flow of her murmur calmed him. Slowly, his sobbing ebbed away, he sighed once, and drifted off into dreamless sleep.