Sparing a Life - A soldier's story

She sighed in acceptance as my lips brushed the delicate skin of her collarbone, a tender exploration in a world hardened by hate. My tongue circled the nipple of her breast, round, and round, as if mimicking a childhood game. She held her place, not breathing. I smelled the sweetness of her milk and remembered the soft suckling of her child now asleep in the crib.  
 
The woman I embraced was tangled in the chains of military might neither of us understood. The quiet of her apartment was a sanctuary but battles raged in the distance. In another life, we might have met in the whirl of a dancehall, partners in a waltz of chance encounters. But on this night, one of us sought sexual release. The other sought to save the life her child.  
 
Ah, but what a grand bargain it was! She gasped as I entered her. She and her child would be spared in exchange for her gift. Her writhing seemed almost sincere, and I wondered if she felt some sympathy for me, a soldier caught up in circumstances not of his making. Her spreading acceptance was that of a quiet defiance, a testament that even in the darkest of times, hope could overcome hate in the face of death.