Everything that happened after that seemed to happen in slow-motion.

Starbug flew through the cargo bay doors and landed on the pad. They disembarked from the ship. They made the long trek back to the main deck where they tended to hang out mostly. They'd rode the shuttle bus, the ship metro, had a conversation with Holly before she went back to her duties, they'd rode the Xpress Lift up to the appropriate floor, and they'd gone their separate ways as they headed for their appropriate quarters.

Lister said he was going back to his quarters to get something. She had nodded in acceptance as she headed for her own quarters. She watched him and Rimmer walk off together towards the double doors at the end of the corridor. So they were still bunking together? Something she had accepted long ago that she would never understand.

Kochanski slowly wandered down the corridor to her own smaller quarters. She remembered that day she had first picked it out. After the party they'd thrown after taking Red Dwarf back from the resurrected crew, she'd picked this one out specially.

Mainly because it was the first one she saw when she drunkenly staggered in and collapsed on the bed.

She walked through the opening double doors and took in the place and was surprised by how well-kept it was. Obviously whatever possessions she had taken when she left were gone forever, but everything else was exactly as she'd left it. Silk bed sheets, a few framed photos, and even her old plastic plant was still in it's place without a speck of dust on it.

She sat on her bed and took in the place. She couldn't help but glance at a framed photo to her right on the nightstand. It was a picture of her and the others. It was taken shortly after their reclaiming of the ship. Lister had insisted that they all get together in the corridor and have a picture taken to commemorate their new start. They weren't drunk in the vertical sense yet, so they were all able to agree and take the photo with some degree of ease.

Cat was on the far left, giving what he considered to be a cool grin. Kryten was next to him, grinning his plastic grin. She was in the middle, standing proudly. Lister was grinning his chipmunk grin and had an arm around her waist, and next to him was Rimmer, who was for once smiling a full-on smile, and he and Lister had arms around each other like brothers.

In that one moment that Holly had managed to record on film, the five of them were without inhibitions or tension. They were all friends. Slightly inebriated friends, granted, but friends nonetheless.

Then, of course, things got back to normal.

Well, sort of.

Lister went back to slobbing around, winding Rimmer up and being their unspoken leader. Rimmer went back to studying his Astro-Navigation for some ungodly reason. Kryten continued to iron clothes and cluck like a hen. Cat continued to find ways to make himself look pretty sort of marvelous. Holly was back at the helm steering the ship and making everyone roll their eyes.

But things couldn't really go back to normal for her. She couldn't find a purpose.

The others had fallen back into their old habits and lifestyles easily.

Even Rimmer, who technically hadn't even been a part of the crew before her time, was able to keep going rather easily.

But she'd just sort of wandered around, waiting for the next adventure to start. And although they had a few here and there, eventually the boredom of it all got to be too much. She had to escape.

And she had.

And look where it led her.

She was just reflecting all of this when the doors hissed open, and in stepped Kryten carrying a laundry basket full of her clothes.

"Ah, Miss Kochanski, ma'am!" he said cheerfully. "I've just brought your clothes up from the laundry room. They're all nice and clean!"

Kochanski smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Krytie, it'll be nice to get out of these robes."

"What would you like me to do with them, ma'am?"

Kochanski paused and looked at herself in the mirror. The gowns were a symbol to her now. They showed her what would happen if she lost faith in Dave Lister again.

Dave Lister.

The man who'd followed her into Hell just to get her back.

"Hang them up in the closet, Kryten. I'll leave them there for now."

"Yes, ma'am."

Kryten set about putting her clean laundry away while Kochanski set about getting out of the robes. She was slow and quiet as she went about it. Kryten noticed she was rather sluggish and fished through his database to find a solution to her problem. It came to him rather quickly.

"Would you like me to run a bath for you, ma'am?"

"Yes, please, Kryten."

Kryten abandoned the clothes and headed for the washroom in Kochanski's quarters. But she stopped him before he got all the way there.

"Kryten?"

"Yes, ma'am?" he asked, turning to face her.

He was reasonably surprised when she embraced the mech in a huge hug.

"God, I've missed you all," she said, starting to weep.

Kryten wasn't very good with crying women, but he ignored the corrupted file to administer the Heimlich and set about gently rubbing her back in response.

Kochanski completed her bath about three hours later, once the water had become unbearably cold and the suds were all gone. She slowly clambered out and wrapped a towel around herself and headed back into her quarters, exhausted by the day's events.

No, not the day's events.

The past year's events.

The past three year's events.

Finally, that unspeakable chapter of her life was over.

She found that Kryten had finished his duties and had departed, leaving a dressing gown waiting for her on the bed. Smiling lightly, she went over and slipped into it, tying it tightly around her waist.

She tried to think about what she should do next. Sleep came to mind.

Tomorrow, she would talk with the others. They'd figure out what to do next. Then she'd eat. She'd eat like never before. After those pathetic rations on the Legacy, she was looking forward to eating until her pants busted.

Then she'd just go with the flow and figure things out as she went.

Just like them.

She was one of them.

And for the first time, it made her smile.

She heard a knock at the door.

"Come in," she called.

The doors slid open and Lister stood in the entryway.

Of course. He would do this.

Not that this was a bad thing.

"Hey," he said quietly.

"Hey."

Lister paused for a minute. He looked like he had no clue what he was doing. Then he seemed draw inspiration from something and entered completely, his hands behind his back.

"I thought I'd bring you something," he said.

"What's that?"

Lister brought his arms forward and held out a stuffed animal.

Kochanski's face lit up. "Boo-Boo!" she cried, snatching the bear away and hugging him tightly.

Lister grinned. "So, what? You're hurtling towards forty and getting all gushy over the bear, eh?"

She smiled sheepishly and held the bear around her waist. "Thank you. I've missed him."

"Yeah… I think he missed you too."

There was a silence.

But not an awkward or uncomfortable silence.

Just a silence.

"So…," she said, deciding it was time for answers, "…what happened to Rimmer?"

Lister stared at her, as if not understanding.

"He's a hologram."

Then he stared at her with some remorse. "It's not the same Rimmer," he said sadly.

Kochanski felt dread setting up camp in her stomach. Oh god, something terrible happened. I wasn't here for them. Oh dear god…

"What happened to the Rimmer I knew?"

Lister shifted uncomfortably. He hadn't had to explain this to anyone since he explained it to Cat and Kryten.

"It's a very long story…," he said slowly, mentally preparing himself for what was probably both the best and worst day of his life…

Kochanski held onto Lister's every word, totally enraptured by the very sad story. She felt herself close to tears by the time it was over.

"We've settled quite nicely now, though. Everything's finally back to normal around here."

She couldn't help but smile, knowing he was addressing her.

"Dave, I'm sorry."

"I understand why you left," Lister assured her. "I've already worked it out."

"You did?"

"I was a mess. I was falling apart. I was drinking, being daft…"

"…I couldn't stand to watch you die…," she filled in.

"And I wouldn't listen… So you took Blue Midget and legged it."

Kochanski nodded, shame-faced.

"Krissie, I'm sorry for all that. But it's different now. We've had a few adventures since you've been away. I've been waken up. I'm not dead anymore! I'm sure there's plenty more adventures coming! We've still got over two million years worth of space to burn through before we get back to Earth…for real, this time."

"I'm sorry too, Dave…," she said quietly.

"You've got no need to be sorry. I should've paid more attention to you."

"No, I'm sorry for more than this."

He looked confused, so she elaborated.

"When I first arrived in this dimension, I was horrible. I bitched, I sniped, I screamed, a beat Kryten over the head with a wrench, I threw steak knives into the walls…"

"It was only the first week. You were acclimatizing."

"But I wasn't letting myself. I did everything I could to not stand this place, and believe me, Kryten helped a bit."

Lister couldn't help but smirk.

"But then things got better. Ironically, being in the Tank helped. I got to know you all. I started to feel comfortable. I just wished I'd let myself feel that from the start."

"It's not your fault. It's my fault you're stuck here."

"No, Dave, it isn't. It was nobody's fault. It was just dumb luck. But I was angry, so I took it out on you guys. I'm surprised you didn't throw me out of an airlock. I was just so angry about being taken from my perfect life. My perfect fairytale life…"

Something about the way she said that made Lister frown.

"But this place… It's so incredibly imperfect! Everything's so inadequate! Nothing ever goes right around here! And yet…I love how real this place is… It's just so much more real… And that's what I needed most of all: to wake up from the dream and find reality."

Lister smiled. He was so glad he'd woken up.

"So…," he said quietly. "The question is…where do we go from here?"

Author's Notes: Yeah, that's a nice even place to leave it, eh? ;)

Yeah, no worries. One more chapter to go. That question will be answered before this story is through.

I hope this was remotely good. I'm a comedy man. I don't really do this emotional stuff all that well. Hope it didn't suck more than a Dyson 4000.