Severed, Part V
By Jaclyn
(musicnotej@aol.com; http://www.geocities.com/tlwmr)

Disclaimer: In a shocking turn of events, it has been discovered that I DON'T own these characters! Can you believe it?! Sources have been whispering that The Lost World and all characters/places/stuff contained therein actually belong to Telescene, New Line, and all the rest. Oh yeah, and yesterday I read on the internet that I'm not making any profit off this story! Isn't that absurd?!
PS: But the nameless thief belongs only to me. And so does Lady Roxton's characterization.

Author's Notes: I just want to take this opportunity to thank all those lovely, kind people who have read and reviewed this story from the beginning, even though I'm awful about updating in a timely manner. I'm soooo incredibly sorry about that! Like really, REALLY sorry! It's just that I really have absolutely no time anymore....I NEED THE SUMMER. NOW!

I also want to send a HUGE 'thank you' in Zakiyah's direction. She did an INCREDIBLE job betaing this chapter. And she's a fun email buddy too, hehe ;-)


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It started out like any other day.

Marguerite had just finished washing her breakfast dishes, and after wiping the remaining suds from her hands, she turned to go retrieve her book from her room. Halfway there, however, the scraping sound of the elevator punctured the silence, and Marguerite stopped in her tracks.

Her face darkened, and she resisted the urge to stomp her foot petulantly.

"I thought I told you to stay away!" she yelled wildly, still not turning. I won't give him that dignity.

This had not been the reaction Lord John Roxton was expecting.

"What?!" he asked, bewildered, taking a step forward. The word sounded strangled; he could barely breathe. The sight of her....long, dark hair wild and curling....the smooth material of her clothing hugging her curves in a gentle caress....the way she still, after all this time, stood in the same manner: holding herself straight and proud....

At his befuddled exclamation, Marguerite's spine had gone rigid. He remained silent, speechless. He'd been waiting for this moment for so long that now that it had come, all he wanted to do was soak it up....

The only sound was her sharp, gasping intake of breath as she recognized his voice immediately. How could she not, when it was all she had dreamed of ever since they'd parted?

"J-John?" she queried tremulously, staring fixedly at a spot on the horizon, afraid to turn and find nothing. This could be a hallucination, she lectured herself. I could have inhaled something....

"Marguerite," he whispered, his voice breaking. "My god, Marguerite!"

"John!" she shrieked, whirling around and breaking into a run. He caught only a glimpse of her wide-eyed, tear-streaked face before it was buried against his neck. Her body pressed tightly against his as she swept her hands over his clothes, feeling the reassuringly-solid muscles underneath. "Are you real? Are you real?" she whimpered frantically, over and over.

With gentle fingers, he eased her face out of the hollow where his neck and shoulder joined. Their eyes locked. She blinked once, twice.

"John," Marguerite began incredulously, yet she sounded remarkably calm now - more sure of herself. "I'm not dreaming, am I." It was a statement, not a question.

"No," he murmured euphorically, holding her tightly. "Although I have to admit, I've had this dream before....the one where I'm finally united with my beloved."

"I never got to tell you," she said softly. "But I love you too, Lord John Richard Roxton."

Roxton's eyes glistened with tears, and he didn't bother blinking them away. The hunter brought a hand up to gently caress her cheek.

"Oh Marguerite.... this is all I've thought about every day since we were separated," Roxton said sincerely, locking his gaze with hers. His eyes were bright with both remembered pain and a newly rediscovered joy. "I love you, with every breath in my body, I love you!"

"John!" his name tore from her throat and she surged up to meet the lips that were descending on her. Coherent speech became nearly impossible at the prospect of finally being together again, in the truest sense of the word. "Missed you....love you love you love you...."

And then their worlds exploded, bursting into something more spectacular than either would have believed possible. Neither had ever experienced a joy, a love, as strong as this one. Their kiss was fervent, wild, and tender all at once. Time seemed to stop as it simultaneously stretched into forever.

But amid the frenzied embracing and the blissful whimpering....both Marguerite and Roxton finally experienced something that they had never thought could exist for either of them.

Peace.


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Finally, breathless, Marguerite broke the kiss. It hadn't been the first time she'd cried over him, but it had been the first time she cried in front of him. His gentle fingers reached out and caressed the trail her tears left.

"Oh Marguerite, Marguerite! Oh my darling, my beautiful....I...." Roxton wasn't really surprised to find that his own eyes stung. "I'm never leaving your side for the rest of our lives."

Marguerite couldn't tear her gaze away from his face, the face that had haunted her dreams and filled her thoughts during the day. "I knew you'd come....I knew....but it was so long...." Her whispered voice cracked painfully. "I'm never letting you out of my sight...."

The elevator creaked. They both knew they had only a moment more before they were no longer alone. Roxton kissed her forehead. She rested her head against his chest, listening to the steady, reassuring pulse of his heartbeat.

"Marguerite!" Veronica cried.

Heart wrenching at the thought of letting her go, Roxton's arms fell to his sides with one last caress of her back. Marguerite whirled around, her face breaking into a smile so large she thought it would just fall off her face and be done with it.

"VERONICA!" The two women raced toward each other at breakneck speed, throwing their arms around each other's necks. At this point, Marguerite lost all powers of intelligible speech, merely shrieking along with Veronica for a few moments as they danced around, spinning in circles, still wrapped tightly in their hug.

"Marguerite, I never thought I'd see you again!" Veronica squealed, her voice high and excited. The feel of Marguerite's shoulders was reassuringly solid, and the wondrous reality of her survival suddenly sank in, robbing Veronica of breath. "You're alive...."

"Of course I am....you didn't think I'd give you back your treehouse that easily, did you?" Marguerite felt as if her knees were on the verge of buckling. A few minutes ago she had been giddy with excitement; now she was almost weak with it.

Veronica pulled away slightly so she could look the other woman in the eyes. She looked a little worse for wear with some new scars, but her eyes looked the same, if only a little sadder around the edges. "Oh Marguerite....it's your treehouse too. We're family."

Marguerite hugged her tighter. "I never told you, and I should have....I've thought of you as the sister I never had for a long, long time."

"Me too...."

The two women squealed again like little children, laughing and crying.

Challenger, meanwhile, watched this exchange happily. He'd never been so glad to have been wrong in his entire life!

Veronica finally regained a bit of her sense. "Marguerite, Challenger's here too."

"Cha--" Then she caught a glimpse of him over Veronica's shoulder, standing out of the way near the elevator. "CHALLENGER!!!" She ran over, squeezing him tightly in a hug he returned with equal zeal.

"Oh my dear girl....I'm so glad you're safe. Things were so bleak for a while."

"Don't I know it," she muttered.

"Oooh, I'm just so happy!" Veronica burst out suddenly, practically singing the words. "Marguerite, I knew you were tenacious, but how on earth did you manage to survive?"

Marguerite's smile froze. "The Zanga saved me," she said in a rather strained voice.

Roxton watched the excited joy on Marguerite's face flicker for a moment as she remembered those hellish months. He quickly went to her side and wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders. "We can deal with the serious issues later. For now, let's have some lunch and just enjoy each other's company."

Marguerite leaned into him, a contented smile on her face. "Sounds wonderful. The company around here has been seriously lacking - raptors have horrible table manners, and the apemen just flat-out try to destroy the table!"

"No one has a sense of humor quite like yours," Challenger chuckled, shaking his head.

"But Challenger....that wasn't a joke!" Marguerite deadpanned. "Once a week, I host an open feast at the treehouse....it's become quite popular. Creatures from all over the plateau come and-"

Roxton found himself unable to tear his eyes away from her. "God, how I missed you...." he murmured into her hair, pulling her closer.

Marguerite abruptly cut off her tale in favor of voicing a more important sentiment. "Me too. All of you. You know, it's funny, my whole life, I've always known immediately what to say, but now...." She started to sound very frail, very fragile. The explorers looked at her and at each other worriedly.

"There's just so MUCH...." Marguerite mumbled vaguely as she sagged against Roxton, letting him support her. She still hadn't regained all of her previous strength, and now that the adrenaline rush had abated, Marguerite was feeling very weak.

"We brought things back for you, Marguerite," Veronica said abruptly into the awkward, anxious silence that had developed. "From Harrod's."

"Ohhh," Marguerite breathed happily. "That's wonderful....I've been running awfully low on-" She sobered. "But for the record - the fact that you've returned makes me a lot happier than the fact that you brought things with you."

Everyone smiled widely at that.

"And....you'll be pleased to know that I've actually taught myself to cook rather well in the absence of what every household needs - a Veronica!" Marguerite shook her head. "Necessity does strange things to people. I actually enjoy it now!"

"Now there's something I thought I'd never hear!" Roxton remarked dryly.

"And here's something everyone else probably SHOULD hear...." Marguerite said, drawing herself up. She squeezed Roxton's hand, felt her strength returning in waves, and then held up their clasped hands for all to see. "Roxton and I are in love. I just thought you all should know."

And with that rather obvious revelation dropped, Marguerite strode into the kitchen area, Roxton in tow. The other two followed, varying degrees of delight and amusement on their faces.


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The End!

For now, that is. A sequel dealing with the effects of the separation is in the works. I just wanted to take a break from this storyline and post some of my other fics that are currently lounging around on my hard drive. (For those keeping count, the total is now 105. Yes, you don't have to say it; I know.)

Thank you all for reading and reviewing....and for dealing with the annoyingly long time it takes for me to update! But now that the summer is coming, I'm going to have a lot more time! *dances around* So don't be surprised if you suddenly find FFN flooded with fics with my name on them.... :)

And remember....I always return the favor of reviews! *hint hint*