She remembered when she had been in the hospital for just over two months,  they decided she was strong enough to take her off of the machines, removed the drain from her side, and the wires from her chest. Two days later, Sam had paid her a visit for the first time, pushing a wheel chair with that devil-may-care grin on his face.

“Wanna get outta here?” he asked, grin growing wider.

“What?!” she had only stared at him “We can’t do that…can we?”

“Oliver and Celery are creating a diversion. Come on Peck, no one is going to miss you if I have you back, safe in your bed, in less than an hour.” He smirked

He had lifted her easily, like a child, out of the bed where she laid prisoner to her own body for so long, placed her gently on pillows, and wrapped her in warm blankets. As she clung to his neck with her good arm, she could see the thick pink scars on his body too. With her secured as comfortably as possible, he nearly ran down the hall, and out a door that lead to an outdoor patio on the roof, out into the open air. In spite of her weakness and pain, she had giggled like a school girl on a carnival ride all the way there. That feeling of Grace as the first rays of unfiltered sunlight struck her face and a warm early spring breeze had caressed her skin and ruffled her hair made her cry. She had breathed in fresh air in gulps, as if desperately trying to fill herself with it’s cleansing sweetness and felt gratitude she was still alive for the first time since the blast.