- Andrei has been making surprising progress, shocking his doctor by wanting to eat and drink a little bit and sitting up by himself.
- Still, the pain is severe, and he drifts in and out of consciousness all the time, hallucinating.
- In his hallucinations, he can only focus on one thing at a time. He tries to get back to the feeling of universal love that he experienced when he saw Anatole lying wounded near him, but he keeps being distracted by a feeling like needles flying into his face or flies landing on him and burning him.
- Suddenly he sees some kind of white thing floating in the room and assumes that this is also a hallucination.
- He thinks about Natasha, picturing how much he loved her and deeply feeling the love.
- But then, suddenly, the flies are back again.
- Then, again, he sees Natasha's face and slowly realizes that this is the real Natasha, actually kneeling next to him in the room, not a hallucination.
- He tells her he loves her.
- She asks his forgiveness.
- Shmoop wipes a tear from our eye.
- From that day on, she stays by his side day in and day out, taking care of him.
- No one talks about the idea of them getting re-engaged, because everyone assumes that Andrei will die really soon.