Faith
It's like there's a fire, a most powerful and wonderful disease. It spreads through his soul, infecting every cell within him. He wonders when it started. When the veil between friend and lover was parted. Taylor had been his commander from the second he laid eyes on the man. That single second in which Taylor had surveyed the new pilgrims and welcomed them home, Jim had seen a man he knew he would follow to the death.
There was a moment later, when they had stood upon the outcrop. The colony splayed out before them, so small from such a distance. And yet so large, even from so far away. No mistake could be made that this was their new world. And no mistake could be made that Taylor would ensure its survival, no matter the cost.
"This is what we're fighting for, Jim," he had said, and with those words he had sealed Jim's fate, even if neither had known it at the time.
Nathaniel Taylor knew the look on Shannon's face then better than he had cared to admit. He knew the fire, he knew the infection. But he had never wondered when it had started. He had known since the second Jim had saved his life - perhaps before that - that this man would change his life. Would change him.
The two of them had been in love from the beginning. With no rhyme, no reason, no semblance of sanity. They had been in love before either of them had ever truly known it. Everything that had happened since that moment, that first moment of meeting, had only shown them the truth of their affliction.
Taylor knew the truth of the fire, even if Jim could not yet realise it.
I may continue this story if there's interest, or if I find the inspiration. I've just been dying to write something Terra Nova.