Her hands clasp her Lakshmi, feeling over her waist, her hips, grasp her shoulders. Her fingers map along her collarbones, gently rest against her neck, thumbs brushing her jaw. She leans down, resting their foreheads together only briefly, kisses her brow, her cheekbones, the corner of her mouth, mumbling against her lips. "Nothing could keep me from you."

She was her guiding star, her compass. She felt a draw back to her that was as certain as the force of magnets, of the pull back to the earth, as the tides of the sea. Just as when the cold had shocked her and threatened to force all the air from her and the thought of Lakshmi kept her able to move, so too had she ensured that she did not, could not give up. And now there was not only her beloved, but their little one.

"My heart beats for you."