Authors Note: This is the Last segment of the Alternate Babylon 5 Universe. Two Long years, and we see the end.
The Lost Tales
Chapter 1: Lochley's Love
"Do you know who I am?"
The voice was so familiar and yet so far away. Elizabeth Lochley couldn't help but smile at it, even if her eyes were closed. She rolled over in bed, feeling the emptiness of the bed next to her. She opened her eyes, the tired balls that through she saw the world fuzzy and unfocused.
"David?" she asked, pushing herself up slightly. Her hair was a tangled mess, and as she looked around the room, goosebumps appeared on her arm as the bare skin of her arms feeling the chill air from the air recyclers. "Where are you?"
"Here in the kitchen," he called out, and she could see a very faint outline of David Corwin's silhouette as he moved about the kitchen. "You have a very poor selection of breakfast food out here Elizabeth."
"I know that," she called out, dropping back into bed.
The voice she had heard asking 'Do you know who I am?' had not been Davids'. No, it had been her ex-husband, John Sheridan. Her ex-husband and her lover's commanding officer. He had asked that question when they had first met. He had been a snarky cadet from the military Academy on Earth, looking to score with a burnet. She had obliged him, and soon it became obvious that the relationship that had formed was simply not to be. It had only taken roughly three months.
It had been impossible for the two. They had both been career officers, and both with a dire need to be in control. So it wouldn't have been possible to live together, even if they had remained cordial friends.
That hadn't been the case with David Corwin. The only thing he wanted control of was sex. Beyond that, everything else was up for grabs. She had never been this comfortable with anyone before. No one seemed to make her happy like David did.
"You want anything?" he called back from the kitchen.
"What do I got out there?" she asked, not really in the mood to decide anything. David could decide and make breakfast.
"Let's see," she heard, drawers and fridge opening. "We got three eggs. Two oranges. Half a loaf of bread. Something that looks like milk but I shudder to think what it is. And something that looks like my grandmothers toe jam."
Lochley laughed. "That's butter, you idiot!" she chided him, throwing the blankets off her and rising to her feet. It was 800 hours, later than she usually slept. But David was going away on a mission soon, and she wanted to be with him this last few days. No command, no worries of any kind. Her XO could carry the ship's operations without her watching her every movement.
She stopped outside of the bedroom, watching Corwin as he pulled a pan from a peg over the stove and turning on one of the burners began to prepare food. She smiled at his proficiency at this job. Perhaps she would keep him around.
"I'm taking a shower," she remarked, turning and heading towards the open door to the bathroom.
"Really?" he asked with a frown, cracking open an egg and letting the yolk fall into the hot pan. "This shouldn't take too long to cook."
"I prefer being clean," she retorted,, stepping into the room.
Corwin muttered about liking her dirty under his breath but focused on the task of cooking breakfast.
John Sheridan stood in a corner of the room, arms folded and looking remorsefully at the tender scene. This was how it should have been. Right here, there was no looming war with the Minbari. No Centauri oppression of the Human survivors that made the Human Remnant what it was. Just two people in love.
And he had crushed it. Had he not gone out on that mission, if he hadn't of accepted the assignment that the government had made him take, he never would have been captured by Deathwalker. He wouldn't have meet Mr. Morden. He wouldn't have become an agent of evil. And David wouldn't have been knocked out. And he would have married Elizabeth.
"Sulking are we?" a voice asked from behind him.
He turned to see a figure walking through the wall, as a ghost. He didn't know the man, but he knew what he was. A Technomage. A wizard order that relied on technology to give the illusion of magic.
"I'm not sulking," he retorted, "I was just thinking about happier times."
"Aren't you happy dead?" the Technomage asked. Sheridan started to laugh, until he saw the man was serious. It turned his mood sour and he looked away from the man, back at the memory he had not actually seen, but could visit now.
"Now I have time to see my mistakes and ponder them," he replied, "And I don't like it. Not one bit."
"There is more than one tale in your life you didn't witness but had influence over," the Technomage said, "Some good and others bad. Let me show you."
With that, he waved his hand, and dark clouds surrounded them. The image of David cooking melted away, the entire image being sucked into the void of darkness that swallowed both Technomage and Sheridan whole.
