We stayed in the office a little longer, finishing the food slowly, the quiet between us comfortable and warm. When Phoenix finally pulled back and made sure I had eaten properly I felt genuinely steady in a way I had not expected. He had a way of doing that, of taking the scattered and frightened pieces of my thoughts and arranging them into something manageable without making it feel like he had forced anything. By the time we stood to leave and go out to greet the participants and guests, the nerves had not disappeared entirely but they had moved to the background where they belonged.
As we approached the field I thought about everything that had already happened, everything I had already survived and come through. These women were fighters and they were here with purpose, but so was I.
