At first, it's just one of the Slightly Less-Bad Days. Sam's asleep, mostly, but even then there are tight lines of pain around his eyes, the meds not doing quite enough to block it out. Rowena visits, dressed to perfection, as always, and you do your best to smile when you let her in. You've never liked her as much as Sam does, but she's been around a lot lately, and you're grateful for that.

She has some book in her hand (you don't see the title) and she starts reading it to Sam, even though he's sleeping. It's something he's always found comfort in since he became too tired to focus on the words himself, and Rowena never seems to mind doing it. You tune her out after a while and focus on Sam's face, noticing with a start that his eyes are cracked open, trained on Rowena. And he's smiling.

Sam drifts off to sleep again about ten minutes later, and Rowena leaves not long after, promising to return in a couple of days time. She puts her hand on your arm and squeezes, and you don't brush her off. Sam would have been proud of you for that, you think.

It wasn't a great day, none of them are anymore. Those days were over before you even started tracking which were good and which were not.

But Sam smiled.

And it was a good day.