Delenn dies at sunrise.
"I'll never leave you, Delenn, not if the whole universe stood between us," he once said to her, and she believed him. And as always, he was right.
He never does leave her. His laughter is in her mind, his smile in her heart, his touch burned into her skin. On Minbar, as dawn touches the sky, she feels a ghost of a touch long gone on her hair, and she knows that he is with her, even now.
It is some small comfort in the face of living without him every day. The chasm is never filled, the pain never gone, but that ghostly touch on her hair is enough to dull the agony.
She has lived a long, full life. She has regrets, of course, but none of them involve John. Twenty years was not long enough, but it was something. She has waited, patiently, for it to end, knowing that to do otherwise would dishonor the memory of the man who only wanted her to live.
And after all, he is with her, in some small way.
But it is over now, and she faces death without fear or regret. She has stood between the candle and the star for so long. Now, it is time for the place where no shadows fall.
She sees him in the sunrise, his form rippling in golden light. He looks as he did when they first met, eyes crinkled with laughter, a boyish smile on his face as he greets her at long last.
"Delenn," he says in the way he always did, and she melts. In his voice, as always, is pure love, unconditional and unswerving. Her memory of her name on his lips has been a shadow, all these years, of the reality.
He extends a hand.
"Hello, John." She takes his hand and goes to him. She wants to throw herself into his arms, cling and never let go, but they have no bodies now, and when his fingers merge with hers, a kiss and a caress, it is the most profound intimacy, the most indescribable joy, she has ever known.
She would like to learn how to make love this way, she thinks, and then lets the thought drift away as the joy of being with him again erases everything else. He has never really left her, but their reunion leaves her breathless still as the ache she has lived with for far too long vanishes for the last time.
She doesn't look back at her former shell, seated lifeless on the bench behind her.
Instead she looks into brilliant blue. He smiles at her and says, "Welcome home, my love," and she beams back because she cannot do anything else.
Together, they walk beyond the Rim and into the sunlight.