A/N: This is for the lovely Laura and Kim who have made me very welcome on the TV Talk forum and also because we need more Edelaide fics in the archive! Using the name Kate for Adelaide's daughter just like in my other fic :) Completely non-Doctor Who/Water of Mars related apart from it being another possible reason for Adelaide not being able to forgive Ed.

Disclaimer: Own the storyline. Nothing else.

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Forgiving

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Ed and Adelaide were alone in the main dome of Bowie Base One, it was the middle of the night so everyone else was in bed. Adelaide was reprimanding him over an incident that had occurred earlier in the day: Ed had childishly pulled out a few of the rarer species of plant that Andy had been trying to grow in their man-made Eden. He had killed the plants because Andy had made a joke about none of them having had sex in two years. No one had understood Ed's reaction and Adelaide had spent about an hour trying to get it out of him while getting increasingly more irritated by his non-responsive state.

"Why can't you just grow up Ed?! Be an adult for once and don't act like an arse, or is that just too difficult for you?" She said with a venom that he did probably deserve and then turned and began to walk away. She had tried to keep her voice calm but he never listened to her when she was using a soft voice and she didn't care if she woke up the other members of the crew by this point.

Ed grabbed her arm and pulled her back, pushing her back against the wall and he placed his hands on either side of the wall so she was unable to get away from him or his stupidly attractive, and exceedingly close, face and body.

"You never could forgive me for kissing Kate, could you?!" On one of their trips back to Earth a couple of years previous, Adelaide had found Ed kissing her daughter, Kate, when they had all been together in the Brooke household. Adelaide had always hid her pain at what he had done while Ed hated himself because he had been the person that Adelaide had trusted above anyone else and he had severed that bond by getting drunk that one night.

"Oh don't start this up again Ed!" She rolled her eyes and tried to escape from his imprisoning arms but failed in her attempt so looked back into his face. She knew deep down that if they were to continue with this topic of conversation then she would end up breaking down in his arms because it hurt her so much to think that he would rather have her own daughter than herself.

"Do you want to know why I kissed her?!" He had never given or been asked to justify himself, everyone had just ignored him for weeks then tried to act as though nothing had happened.

"I'm guessing it had something to do with you wanting a quickie before flying back to Mars."

"No that's where you're wrong Adelaide," she closed her eyes to try and stop her brain from accepting the fact that she always loved the way he said her name, "You see the reason for it was because I have looked at so many pictures of you when you were younger; you and your daughter look so alike anyway but add in the volume of alcohol I had and I thought it was you. And since I've wanted to kiss you for three and a half years I couldn't think of anything else that night."

"Why have you wanted to kiss me?"

He took a deep sigh and stepped away from the wall, turning away so Adelaide couldn't how scared he was to admit this, "Because you are the single most beautiful and intelligent woman I have and will ever meet... And I think I fell in love with you sometime over that time."

Adelaide raised her eyebrow, finding it difficult to comprehend what he was saying, "So let me get this right: you got drunk, kissed my daughter because you thought it was me, and now you say you love me?"

He pressed his lips together in a smirk, "That's it in a nutshell, yeah."

Adelaide bit her lip, hard enough to stop a smile from appearing and also enough to taste a little blood. He took a step forward and put a strand of her loose hair between his thumb and forefinger before wrapping it round his finger and tucked it behind her ear. She looked up and into his dark eyes. She was unable to think of a reason not to move the tiny fraction of a centimetre so that their lips would be touching but managed, by some miracle, to restrain herself.

"This can't work Ed,"she whispered.

He ran a finger down the side of her cheek, "Look, I know you're going to use the 'I'm your captain blah blah blah' excuse so don't. I know that I'm putting you in an uncomfortable situation but I can't help it. Del, I love you and don't feel as though I can go on without you." She couldn't help but let a little grin through her defences as he said that.

"Sorry, but do you think that time travel is possible or something because how the hell would you have thought that you were able to kiss thirty year old me?"

"You've known me for years and still don't realise that I don't think of reasons before carrying out my actions?"

Adelaide gently shook her head in disbelief and smiled, lighting up her face. Ed slowly put his arms around her shoulders and into a hug. She gave in as she felt his lips kiss her hair and her hands instinctively went round his back. She racked through her brain for a sensible next action but couldn't come up with one so gave into her deepest desire and did what her heart wanted. She rolled her head back and ran her hands up over his chest and up to his face. "I love you too Edward Gold," she said with a small smile.

Adelaide gently placed her hands on each side of Ed's face and pulled his lips down on to hers. Ed responded slowly at first but when he was sure that Adelaide knew and meant what she was doing he got more passionate.

As they broke it off for air a few moments later they touched their foreheads together as Ed apologised,

"I'm so sorry for hurting you back then but it was truthfully a drunken mistake and I told Kate the whole truth the next morning so I have no idea why she didn't tell you."

"It doesn't matter Ed, it's in the past now." She stood up straighter and softly kissed his lips.

"Okay Del, and we are each others' future?"

She smiled and bit her lip again, "Obviously and stop calling me Del!"

"Adelaide it is then." She shivered against him as he said her name and kissed her.

"Would you stop biting your lip so hard. I mean, I love everything to do with you, including the taste of your blood, but it's not good for you."

She mockingly glared at him, "I have never bit my lip, because I'm nervous, happy or otherwise, before tonight but you've brought it out in me!"

He teased her by saying, "Oh so this is all my fault now?!" She let out a throaty laugh and he laced his fingers through hers and led her in the direction of the private quarters.

The End.