Burnt to Ashes, Chapter Six

Okay, here we go, the actual last chapter. Thanks to everyone who reviewed this story, especcially: Troll99 for reviewing every single chapter and jenben for reviews and grammatical stuff! I hope you all liked reading the fic and I did enjoy writing it. So here is the last chapter, enjoy!

"I have to give myself up"

It was the best thing to do, the only thing to do. Rommie was almost frozen with shock, why did this have to happen now?

"You can't give yourself up Rommie, remember you were once the most powerful warship in the known worlds, you must have a lot of information the Dragans really shouldn't get their hands on."

Benn's words brought Rommie back to her senses. He was right, she couldn't afford to be captured.

"Then we have to get out of here, now"

Rommie went into her and Benn's room and from a locked drawer took out her force lance which she'd kept because there was always a danger of her ship being hijacked.

Benn had grabbed some of Bridget's, his and her stuff, warm coats, some food, money, anything small and valuable. He stuffed this into a bag which he slung on his shoulder and he scooped up Bridget into his arms.

He looked at Rommie and nodded.

"Lead the way"

. . .

The corridors were packed with panicking people, not knowing where to run, where to go. They struggled to make their way through the crowds. They passed by friends, acquaintances but they were all just faces, blurred now.

They made it to the bay where Rommie ship was docked. There were people crowding into their ships, trying desperately to escape the station. Rommie couldn't take any of them on board, she was already a target.

They made it on board as another explosion rocked the station and another message appeared on the com-screens.

"This is your last warning Andromeda"

Rommie manoeuvred the ship out of the docking bay and on to freedom. The Drago-Katsov ships were attacking all exiting ships, it seemed as if there was no escape. But Rommie was a skilled pilot, she managed to evade them in her small and manoeuvrable pod.

They were free, but for how long?

She made her way to the nearest, safest planet she could think of.

. . .

"You'll be safe here, they won't find you."

"Then you'll be safe here too, with me and Bridget."

"If I'm here you'll never be safe, they'll never stop looking for me.

I have to go back. Once they know I'm on the Andromeda, they'll stop looking and you'll be safe."

She was determined. She couldn't let anything happen to them. Benn sighed, he turned away looking to the horizon, searching for something, a light, an end to the seemingly endless darkness.

"Will you ever come back to us, to me?"

"One day, maybe. When it's all over, when I'm no longer a warship. When it's safe. Then I'll come back."

She began to cry, the tears, so many tears. He took her in his arms, her face buried in his chest.

"You're not just a warship, you're not a warship at all, you're a woman, a wife, even a mother."

Rommie looked up into his eyes and saw tears there also, but something else an understanding, an acceptance of some kind. She knew what to say now.

"And a mother will do anything to protect her family, even if it means dying for them or letting them go"

She looked towards the sleeping figure of Bridget, so small and innocent. She spoke through tears.

"And I have to let you go"

Benn held her close though there was no comfort he could give her, no magic words he could speak that would take away the pain.

"But you'll come back to us?"

"One day, when it's safe. Then I'll come back"

She slipped the ring, her wedding ring, off her finger and Benn did the same. They interchanged the rings, Rommie putting Benn's on the chain around her neck. Benn did the same with hers. It was a custom of Nullarbor. That when a wedded couple would be parted for a length of time they would interchange their rings. As a promise that they'd one day be back together.

Rommie knelt down beside Bridget, who, hearing her, opened her eyes.

"Are you really leaving?"

She had been awake, Rommie realised. She had heard the whole conversation.

"I have to, I have to go. But I'll be back. Maybe someday soon, maybe someday later. All I can tell you is that I will come back and we'll be together again. I love you very much and I will always love you."

Bridget seemed to contemplate this for a while before replying.

"Once you told me that warships couldn't love, that they could only kill. If you go back there, back to being a warship, will you forget how to love me?"

Bridget's innocence and hurt was so openly portrayed. Her face like Rommie's was shining with tears reflected in the light. Rommie didn't know how to reply, because she didn't know the answer. But Bridget answered the question for her.

She took the bracelet she was wearing off her wrist and tied it to Rommie's.

"Every time you look at this bracelet, you will remember me and Daddy and how you love us. If you always keep the bracelet then you'll never forget, ever."

Rommie knew the time was approaching for her to leave. She hugged and kissed a tearful Bridget goodbye. She reaffirmed her promise to return to them, to her family.

Her family. She had never thought that her family would mean people like these and she remembered how she had once had a very different family.

And she'd left them behind but now she was going back. Back to the life she had run away from, to protect the life she'd ran straight into. The life she now loved. It seemed ironic or maybe just bad luck.

She turned to Benn. To say goodbye. She recalled an old earth song that one of her former 'before the fall' crewmembers had listened to. What were the words again? 'Goodbye to you, goodbye to everything I thought I knew. You were the one I loved, the one thing that I tried to hold on to' and she recalled the line at the end. She spoke this one to Benn.

"And when the stars fall, I will lie awake. You're my shooting star"

Her kissed her and they shared a last embrace. She hugged both Benn and Bridget. He scooped Bridget into his arms as she picked up her pack. The colony was behind them, where Benn and Bridget would seek shelter for the night and the next morning Benn would find work.

As she turned back to the pod, turned to leave, she noticed the fires out on the desert had gone out and as she piloted the ship upward, tears streaming down her cheeks and all she could see was darkness.

"But the fires burnt to ashes

and it's darker than before,

but I can see as clear as day"

. . .

Beka was on the bridge when they got the hail, when Andromeda told her who it was, she couldn't believe it.

"Rommie?"

"Requesting permission to come aboard, the Drago-Katsov are following me"

"Welcome back, we missed you Rommie"

Beka was in shock, she had to tell Dylan, the others. Rommie was back!

. . .

Things very quickly returned to normal. Well almost normal. Harper was very quickly back to his old self, though still quite hurt and Rommie was still trying to make it up to him, to all of them. She had abandoned her family, her home. Even the other Rommies were upset with her, they blamed it on her emotions.

Beka, Tyr and Trance were mostly just glad to have her back, though they were all curious as to where she'd been. She didn't tell them because she thought it would be too much of a risk for Benn and Bridget.

Dylan was the only major difference in her life. He used to be so much of her, to mean so much to her, he still did, but now, she realised she was no longer dependant on him. She didn't love him anymore.

Before he had been her heart, now her heart was all her own, and Benn's and Bridget's. And someday, when she was no longer needed for the cause, she would return to them. Her family.

But until then, she had another family who needed her and who were glad she was back and very determined to keep her here.

And when she needed to remember, when she was afraid of forgetting, she had a ring and a bracelet, two reminders of love, the love of a child and the love of a husband. But she herself felt two loves - the love of a mother and a wife.

"If I'm not here in the morning,

I'll cry a river of tears,

I'll learn to live in a new town

But my heart is staying here"

The End

. . .

It does turn out okay in the future, in case you are wondering. I can't be too specific about this but yes, it does end happily.