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Unreliable moonlight couldn't penetrate the hazy air. Which cabin was hers?

A car's headlights briefly lit the snow, speeding downhill - revealing footprints that had to be Nancy's.

Her face at the door. "What are you doing, why'd you come up here?" Voice filled with anxiety, anger, desperation. Hope?

A reasonable question; she'd asked it herself.

She didn't find an answer until the words were spoken. "I came because you're here."

"Sophie, I'm sorry, I know I was wrong, I shouldn't..."

She stepped inside as another temblor rattled the windows. "It's okay, I understand now. But we have to go." A heap of belongings waited by the door.

"I can't. I tried, there's too much to leave. My pictures, all this work."

Sophie grasped her by the shoulders, found a calm she never expected. "It'll be okay. We'll have each other, we'll work together."

Nancy stared back in confusion. "We will?"

A nod. "I love you. I know that now, and I'm not afraid anymore."

By the time they'd filled the truck, its wipers could barely clear the ash from the windshield.

A cop at the evacuation area said they were the last to get off the mountain; everything behind them had been obliterated in the eruption. But everything before them was new, and that's what mattered.