There were moments when you saw the people you loved for who they really were, separate from the baggage of projection and shared histories. When you saw them with fresh eyes, as a stranger might, and caught the feeling of the first time you loved them. Before the tears and the armor chinks. When there was still the possibility of perfection. He had never had a clearer picture of his wife, had never loved her more--not even in the beginning--than in this moment, in this cold, dark place, as he imagined her holding him.