"I wait, Sassenach. Fer God to realize he made a mistake in sending ye back to me." He sniffs, pushing the tears back though his shoulders do let go of some of their tension under her hand. His entire life, the good things he had to hold onto, he never kept, not for long. Their first daughter, never breathing air into her lungs, Willie, his but not. Brianna, his but his eyes have never laid upon her face. Even Claire, gone from him for so long only to return and nearly drown, to be met with violence and danger.

He'd said so many things in front of that fire, that death was nothing between them. But there are worse things than dying, and it would be the cruel trick of only being able to have his wife for a little while again.

"I woke and the bed was cold. As if ye were never there to begin with."