A/N: And so Andromeda ends, not with a bang but a whimper...sigh.
Vee07: Thanks for reviewing! As I posted on EI, this story is a total of six installments.

Enjoy.

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When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of these years
But you still have
All of me

Old Earth Song Lyrics
Evanescence
circa 2000AD


Well, it's not really that simple, Trance. Flash is a synaptic enhancer. It makes you stronger, better, faster. Dad always said it made a great solution if you don't make it your...problem.

Capt. Rebeka B. Valentine
circa CY 10087


At the end...that was the worst.

He was sick for months before he died, you know. It was awful.

He cried sometimes. Sometimes he cried about what a bad father he'd been to me. Sometimes he cried out for Rafe, who had been missing in action for years. Sometimes it was my mother's name on his lips.

Sometimes he cried out for one more hit, Rocket, please, please, just one more hit…

And through it all, I sat beside him and tried to comfort him.

He had hallucinations, at the end. Magog. Nietzscheans. Drug dealers he owed money to, quite possibly. More than once I found him shooting up his room in a terror, convinced he was surrounded by enemies trying to gun him down.

And each time, I would gently maneuver him back to his bed, take the gun from his fingers, and promise him that he'd be safe.

I took care of him. Me, a skinny little teenager who fancied herself a pilot, no medical training beyond basic first aid, and I was completely responsible for him as he became more and more incapacitated in his illness. I took care of him and I took care of the Maru and I took care of the business. My first experience with being a parental figure was mothering Daddy through his sickness.

I grew up real fast.

Not fast enough.

I couldn't fix him.

Nobody could. I get that now.

There was too much wrong with him. He was too sick. The years of Flash abuse had taken too much toll on his body. It was too late for him.

I know that now.

Now.

But then? All I knew was that my dad was sick and I couldn't heal him, he needed me more than ever and I didn't know how to be there for him.

All I knew was failure.

And I loved him so much.