Chapter Two Hundred And Fifty Six

Her name on his lips was a soft whisper, a breath of pure relief that brought him back from the peak of his exhaustion. Ryan murmured, "Hmm, it's me," his voice a low, raspy sound, thick with a sorrow he could no longer contain. He tried to smile, to reassure her, but he knew it was a hollow, broken thing.

Suzy, now fully awake, immediately sensed it. Beneath the weariness, beneath the relief of his safe return, was a current of profound, unshed grief. "What's wrong, Ryan?" she asked softly, shifting in the bed to face him completely, her hand coming up to rest on his arm. "You're crying," she said, her voice filled with a gentle concern as her thumb brushed away a single, stray tear that had escaped to trace a path down his streaked cheek. The sight of it, the sign of his inner turmoil, made her own heart ache. "Did something happen out there? Something terrible?"