Spoiler: The Death of Hope, I think…

Author's Note:
Yeah, I have a not-quite-fitting statement in here, I know; but I had to tie up that loose end. I think Tahl knew Qui-Gon well enough to know what her death would do to him, and would've been… Oh, you'll see how I think she would've been.

(I have a few paragraphs on her in his dying moment. Ask, if you're interested.)
Enjoy! :)

Dashed Hopes

She was dying. She'd known it all day. She was so cold…
Her dear Qui-Gon piloted the speeder with a vengeance, keeping himself strong, for her sake. She never had revealed to him what she knew of Yoda… As if that mattered now. She had to speak with him… to tell him what she'd discovered about the mission, before it was too late… She could not bring herself to tell him the dreadful truth: they would never be together.
And she would never be complete…

· · ·

She was beyond all help. Saving her strength for his consolation, she tried to give the medics a hint as she directed her sightless eyes longingly at the door. After what seemed like ages, she heard the doctor shake his head sorrowfully, and go to get him. It did not bother her. She knew she was nearly gone.
Qui-Gon had hurried in. Her heart broke. He didn't understand yet. He took her hand. Slowly, painfully, she turned her head towards him, not letting herself cry. She never cried.
It was time to tell him.
He leaned close to hear her, his hand on her bare arm. "Wherever I am headed, I will wait for you, Qui-Gon. I've always been a solitary traveler."
He still didn't understand. He didn't want to understand. "Not anymore. Remember? We will go on together. You promised," he teased her. "You can't back out now. I'll never let you forget it."
Ignoring the pain as her bodily systems failed from the paralyzing agent she'd been given far too many times, she smiled and pressed his hand weakly, for his sake. He must remember her as emotionally strong. To see her weep would break him more than her passing was about to. If not for him, she would have sobbed.
She would never be complete.
She sensed the panic race through her dear Qui-Gon as reality hit him. He leaned forward, putting his forehead against hers. Gathering all he had, all he knew and believed in about him, he tried to give it to her. The Force… their love… his own bodily strength and warmth…
She sighed, pressing his fingers in gratitude. He could not help. That he tried was noble. May it not haunt him; may he not believe he failed.
Never had they been this close… Never had she been so attuned to his every thought and feeling…
She was complete.
"Let my last moment be this one," she sighed, at total peace for the first time in her fifty-plus years of life. Savoring the feeling while she could, she drew a feeble breath and slowly released it.
She never did so again.