"And that's it," said Rimmer. Lister sat in silence,

"Wow" he said finally, "that explains you being a prize smeg head then" Rimmer didn't reply. It had all started with an argument, which ended up in Rimmer telling Lister about Elizabeth.

All day Rimmer and Lister had been getting on each others nerves, then they started arguing, neither of them could remember what the argument was originally about, both of them dragged up the past, started off fresh arguments and then Lister said something that pushed Rimmer over the edge.

"You've never loved anything or anybody in your life Rimmer, and no body loves you back!"

"Elizabeth loved me," Rimmer blurted out. He'd never mentioned Elizabeth to anyone, he'd kept her a secret, and now it was out in the open, Lister had pushed him that far that he was willing to relive the painful, heart aching memories.

Lister, realizing he'd stumbled across something interesting, asked Rimmer who Elizabeth was. Rimmer knew that he refused to tell Lister, he'd have the scouser following around for days, weeks even, asking him questions, trying to catch him unaware and just basically annoying him.

So Rimmer took a deep breath and began to tell him, all about he and Elizabeth. The memories weren't as bad as Rimmer had imagined, throughout his life he'd only remembered the bad ones, like not telling Elizabeth that he loved her when he had the chance. He'd forgotten all the good times, okay there weren't many, but there were some.

Lister was very well behaved during Rimmer's story, for years he'd been wondering what had happened to make Rimmer so cruel, and bitter, he was beginning to think it was just the way Rimmer was. Lister found himself feeling sorry for Rimmer, especially when he asked Lister to read the letter he'd kept hidden from everyone. Lister could tell Rimmer really loved Elizabeth, when he described her his eyes glazed over and, despite the great sadness inside him, he smiled.

"Why didn't you just go out with some other girl, that'd get you over Lizzy?" asked Lister

"Elizabeth" Rimmer corrected, he laughed at his naivety "every girl I met, she was nothing compared to Elizabeth, and she said she'd find me one day, so I intended to wait for her..." Rimmer's voice trailed off, he laid his head into his hands and groaned,

Lister bit his bottom lip and wondering what he could possibly say to comfort a dead, love sick, lonely man.

"do you ever think about her?" he asked,

"yes" Rimmer wanted to say, "all the time, she's tattooed on my brain, every day and every night I think of her, her and me together, I imagine what would have happened if we'd found each other again, I still love her, even after all this time. He shook his head "no, never"

I've always felt sorry for Rimmer whenever he describes being bullied, I'm bullied and I hate it. If you've never been bullied, you'll never understand how it feels; sometimes you feel that everyone is against you. I feel like that, hell we all do, but I take one look at my great (although wacky) mates and the feeling vanishes. I bet your wondering why the heck I'm waffling on like this, but if I don't get this off my chest I'll have to write a song about it (imagine how hard that would be). I didn't intended to finish this story, Chapter 1 was actually the whole story, but after receiving some lovely reviews I wanted to carry it on, because if I had left it like that, that wouldn't explain Rimmer's character. I hope you enjoyed it, because I enjoyed writing it. As a finish i'd like it if you to take note of Elizabeths words of encouragement to Rimmer, "stay strong, be brave" because if you do, you'll come through and you'll be happy :)