Author's Note: I don't know about you guys, but that ball drained the heck outta me. These characters, they just won't behave! What am I gonna do with them?
To Emie Mac - Keith does know that Morgan's married; Len told him back in Chapter 18 ("Paradise"). I don't get the NickToons channel either, but I watch the episodes online on the NickToons website. And yeah, I think there'd definitely be some subscription cancellations if the last chapter was made into an episode.
To Sally On - Much like in life, even good people can sometimes make poor choices. A Voltron hero or two can sometimes make a not-so-nice decision, especially after a few shots of Ciroc vodka. ;)
To Wade Wells - SPOILER! Romelle's finally gonna grow a spine!
Title Song: "The One That Got Away" by Katy Perry (LOVE this song!)
She'd only been living in Paris for a year, but the city had already claimed her. She may have been a New Yorker at heart, but she was definitely a Parisian in her last life.
It was only because of Jonathan James Hawkins, commander of the disbanded S.S. Explorer and current second-in-command to Sky Marshal Wade, that she was even there. Or, for that matter, anywhere - she was quite sure that Wade wanted her dead. Hawkins must have been sure of that as well, otherwise he wouldn't have skirted her away from the Alliance as quickly as he did.
Though she was grateful to be alive, she missed her friends; they were her family. Her twenty-ninth birthday was just about a month away, which meant that she hadn't seen her friends in roughly two years. Which meant that Morgan and David had celebrated their second wedding anniversary. Which meant that Jeff and Lisa were probably engaged, and maybe Kelly and Modoch were, too.
Which meant that Aidan had probably found himself another girlfriend.
Because he was the one hiding her, Hawkins was the only person she spoke with and the only person who knew her whereabouts. So, basically, he was the only friend she had. He was also her lifeline, since she was living in his properties on money he'd deposited in accounts for her.
Now he was in Paris for five days to celebrate his birthday.
They had been sitting in some little café for ages, simply enjoying each other's company. And wine. They had already gone through two bottles of vin de pays, which was easy to do when they were just sitting back and talking. It had been a while since she'd had a friend to talk to. It also helped that he spoke English. Not that her conversational French was awful, but she was far from fluent in it.
"Let's get out of here," he said to her after he'd paid the bill. "I know it's such a touristy thing to do, but I'd like to see the Eiffel Tower. I visit it every time I come to Paris."
She shrugged. "Sure." She'd seen it more than a few times since she'd been in the country, but whatever the man wanted, he could have. "Let's go."
She thought that a man of his caliber would be above taking the Metro, but he wasn't. That was good, because she actually preferred public transportation. The drivers in Paris were insane, but the Metro was clean, relatively comfortable, and easy. And the monthly pass was way cheaper than cab fare.
At the École Militaire station, Hawkins exited the train, grabbing Lenora's hand so they wouldn't get separated. They walked out of the station and onto the street, where he placed his hand on the small of her back. As they stood side by side on the Champ de Mars, staring at the Eiffel Tower, Lenora could distinctly feel a tingle of...something...run up her spine.
"Hawkins, what are you wishing for on your birthday?"
He laughed. "For you to call me Jon?"
"Seriously."
"Seriously? Hmm." He furrowed his eyebrows in thought, and Lenora turned to look at him. At ten years her senior, this was his last birthday in his thirties, and yet he still looked pretty good. And he was a man, not a boy, much unlike many of the guys her age. "I want things to improve for the Alliance. I want Wade out of power. I want Vehicle Voltron and the Explorer up and running again." He turned to look at her, and the gravity in his dark eyes was unnerving. "I want you in power as the Space Marshal."
"Boy, you don't want a lot, do you?"
He broke away from her gaze and stared back at the Tower. "Let's walk over, shall we?"
"Sure."
As they started to walk, he removed his hand from her lower back, where it found its way to hers. Without breaking stride, he interlaced his fingers with hers, and she didn't protest. It felt nice. They walked the length of the Champ de Mars in silence, holding hands the entire way.
As they stood below the Eiffel Tower, he turned to face her, releasing her hand. He then reached for her necklace and pulled up the three pendants for a closer look. He was quiet as he studied them. "I've been meaning to ask you, what do these mean?"
"My cross was a graduation gift from my mother, and the cornicello is the good-luck charm Aidan gave me."
"And the ring?"
"Oh." She bit her lip as he singled out the platinum wedding band. "It belonged to someone I loved."
He raised an eyebrow curiously. "Someone you might have married, then?"
"Yes." What could she even possibly begin to tell him about Sven? That she hadn't seen him in over seven years? That he was severely injured on Arus and sent to Ebb to heal? That Doom forces had attacked the peaceful healing planet and took its patients as slaves? That she hadn't heard a single word about him since he was captured by Zarkon, and she feared he was dead? "In another life."
Hawkins examined the wedding band a little more closely, then dropped the necklace back to her chest. "Do you want to know what my real birthday wish is, Lenora?"
She cleared her throat. "For me to call you Jon?"
He smiled sheepishly. "Well, yes. But my real wish is for you to get rid of that necklace. So you can be happy."
"What are you talking about?" She tucked the necklace back underneath her shirt.
"Those three pendants remind you of your past. Of people you loved and lost. Am I right?" He looked at her with such sincerity that her knees buckled. Of course he was right, but she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that just yet.
"So why would that matter to you?"
"Because I've been waiting to do this." Taking her face in his hands, Hawkins leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. It was warm, and he tasted sweet, better than he had any right to. Lenora stared back at him in shock.
He laughed at her confused expression. "Do you get it, Lenora? If people had ever told me that the most compelling woman I'd ever meet - the only woman who'd ever hold my interest for more than a few nights - would be the Academy classmate of some of my Voltron Force crew members, I would have thought they were crazy."
"How do you know you aren't crazy? Don't you know that only bad stuff happens to the people who love me?"
"Not on my watch." He kissed her again, just as gently as before. "Lenora, I'd love to keep doing that. Maybe even for a lifetime. But I can't get serious with you, not if you keep clinging to the past in hopes that it might return. Because history cannot be changed, and the past stays in the past."
She thought about his words. Maybe he was right.
They began to walk away from the Eiffel Tower, and his hand found its way to hers again. Fingers entwined, she asked him, "Jon, when exactly is your birthday?"
She noticed the pleasure dancing around in his eyes over the fact that she used his first name. "Tomorrow."
"In honor of your thirty-ninth birthday tomorrow, I'm taking off the necklace."
As Keith slowly opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was that he wasn't in his bedroom. The second thing he noticed was that he wasn't alone.
Allura laid next to him in bed, still asleep. Her cobalt-blue dress was crumpled on the floor at the foot of her bed, but she wasn't naked; she was dressed in a pink camisole and matching underwear. Her blond hair, still in waves from the night before, was a frizzy bed-headed mess.
The third thing he noticed - a distant third - was that he too was in only his boxer briefs, with his black pilot uniform haphazardly tossed on the floor next to the bed.
Rubbing his eyes, he tried to remember what had happened during the ball. He remembered the situation with Sven and Lenora, and he wanted to stick around to make sure things didn't get too out of hand. But his life changed the moment Allura came into his arms and told her that she had been waiting for him. He was not the same man last night, and he was not the captain of the Voltron Force that he should have been.
He hoped that things hadn't gotten too out of hand after they left.
Allura. He'd waited a long time for Allura, too. It took him ten years to move beyond Morgan, ten years to find himself. So much had changed and so much had hurt in those ten years. Yet it was all worth it. He was there in her bed, she was next to him, and last night...
Last night.
There was no way she would ever close the deal on the first date, she warned him, and this wasn't even technically a date, so he was already behind the starting line. But that hadn't kept her from kissing him, from exploring his body with her hands and her lips and her tongue and...
How did a princess know how hard to use her teeth?
Never mind. He was sure that there would be plenty of time to explore other options now. He'd have to officially ask her out on a date, of course, and he would wait until she was ready to close the deal. Smiling to himself, he tried to remember that far back to the Academy days when the phrase close the deal was coined. It might have been Lance who started it, but then again, it just as easily could have been Aidan.
Funny how they were still using that term after so many years.
"Are you getting up?"
The words came drowsily off Allura's tongue as her eyes fluttered open. She focused her sights on his chest, where her fingers automatically went to his scar. "I wish I could make this go away."
"Well, it's not the worst thing in the world. I could be dead instead of scarred."
She nodded. "True enough."
He began to pull his flight suit on. "I'm going to Castle Control. I suppose someone has to maintain some sense of security with all these guests."
"Does it have to be you?"
"Yes." He leaned over to kiss her. He was never going to get tired of that. "That's what happens when you're the captain of the Voltron Force." He stifled a yawn. "Also, I should probably go find some coffee."
"Coffee." She shot him a sleepy half-smile. "You want to wake up, and I want to go back to sleep."
"So go back to sleep. I'll see you later, and we can discuss where we're going to go on our first official date."
She dropped her head back to the pillow and closed her eyes. "Sounds good."
Once he was sure she was asleep, Keith finished dressing and stealthily slid out of the princess's quarters towards Castle Control. He was careful not to let anyone - specifically Nanny and Lance - catch him performing the Walk of Shame. Smiling to himself, he thought, If either one of them saw me right now, I'd catch at least a couple of those seven hells.
They hadn't slept yet; there was too much catching up to do. The first waves of early-morning sunlight came creeping in through the window, so early that they were sure that only Keith would possibly be awake right now. They settled into the bed, nestled into each other. He might fall asleep now, but she couldn't. Not when she had to leave for Earth.
It had been quite the night. Above her, below her, beside her. Inside her. They had closed the deal so many times she lost count, busy making up for the ten years they'd lost. Each time, she felt greater joy than before. She fell more and more in love with the man she'd been missing for ten years. And then...
And then he told her.
He told her about everything. His marriage. His Haggarium infection. His son.
He had a child. A child.
He was going to divorce his wife. He hadn't seen her in months, anyway, and her people - Of all things, he married a princess? - were afraid of him. She'd apparently chosen her people over him, and his brother-in-law had snuck him and the baby off the planet in the middle of the night to avoid a trial and, more of a surety, his death. He had made all of the arrangements for the boy's care - He has a son - and he was going to seek full custody. With lowered eyelids, he asked her how she felt about being a stepmother.
Being a stepmother wasn't her problem. That part was easy; she would love it. No, it was taking the boy away from his mother that left her with an uneasy feeling. She told him just as much.
Having lost her father at the age of fourteen, she of all people could not condone ripping a child away from his or her parent. Not for a reason like this. Taking the boy away from his mother went against everything she believed in, and she couldn't condone it. Not even for their love or their bond could she make an exception.
Lenora could admit that she was flawed. She had far too many weaknesses, this man being at the top of her list. But she was not so flawed as to let her love for him blindside her from seeing that, no matter how nicely he tried to phrase it to her, he was essentially removing the child from his mother.
This could not continue.
And then there was...Oh, Jon. She felt incredible shame and guilt over cheating on him. Last night, in Sven's arms, she knew with an unmistakable certainty that she was going to leave her fiancé. Now? She still felt that if Sven had not been a father, she'd leave Jon for him. But the child changed everything.
She felt him shift in the bed to remove his wedding band. "I know you have to leave today, Elskede," he told her, placing the ring down on his bedside table, "but I'd like for you to meet Erik before you go. Then I'd like to discuss other arrangements with you." He kissed her left hand, still bearing the platinum band. "I love you, Lenora. Always and forever."
"Always and forever, Sven. I love you, too."
Within moments of closing his eyes, he was asleep, and Lenora gingerly lifted herself off the mattress. Quietly, she dressed herself, somehow fumbling with the backless dress enough so she didn't look indecent. Then, with a strange hollowness in her chest, she slid her wedding band off her finger and left it on the bedside table for Sven.
She was going to leave both of the rings there for him, but suddenly she changed her mind. She remembered how she'd gripped his ring during the countless moments of her life when the pain and sorrow were so overwhelming, they threatened to swallow her. Like the night she found out that Sven had been injured and he might die on Ebb. The night on the floor of the Explorer, back when she was only a Lieutenant under Graham, staring at Ebb from her window. The night her mother died. She figured that her flight home to Earth was going to be just as tortured, and she would need the ring to grip for comfort.
With his ring loosely hanging on the middle finger of her left hand, she looked back at his beautiful sleeping form before slipping out the door. She moved silently down the hallway and towards the elevator, which arrived almost immediately to rescue her. She pressed her floor button and let the doors close her in. Then, once she was safely tucked away inside the elevator shaft, Lenora dropped her head and lifted her left hand to her breast, over the hollow spot in her chest where her heart used to be.
