For a moment, a single moment, possibly even shorter than the moment she had grabbed his tie, Liliana allowed her forehead to rest against his, her eyes closed. Just a moment, to take comfort in him, in the strength of his arms around her, in the ways that he understood what no one else alive could.

And then the moment was gone as if it had never been, and she was laughing, low and soft. "Well, I suppose then it is I who is lucky to be here, no? As the one benefitting from all this serendipity."