I dunno, maybe it's the fics I've read lately, but I think some sort of comfort is needed to balance out the hurt. It also makes the hurt seem that much more intense. That's the biggest problem I have with some of the fics about the Year That Wasn't--you can't just beat on characters without some sort of catharsis. Well a person *can*, but that's a completely different dynamic than what we've come to expect from drama.