Past: Break the Sky

"This is the last place you need to sign."

After a momentary hesitation, Shepard scrawled his name at the line Red pointed to. "Can you believe that we can travel faster than the speed of light, but still have to sign legal papers by hand? In person? On paper?"

"Are you trying to tell me that you don't want to be here right now?"

"Do you want to be here?"

Red smiled. "Part of me is sad, yeah. Mostly though, I'm relieved. I think we'll do better as friends."

"I don't know. We had a pretty good run."

"All good things come to an end." They stared awkwardly at each other across the table. "Do you feel different?" Red asked after a moment. She twisted her face into a simper and batted her eyes.

"Should I? Do you?"

"Oh yeah. I feel like I've dropped about… how much do you weigh?"

"About eighty-seven kilos."

"I feel like I've dropped about eighty-seven kilos of dead weight."

"Funny."

"Aren't I?"

Shepard stood up and slid the divorce papers across the table. "You'll give these to your lawyer?"

"First thing tomorrow," Red promised. "Do you and the kids want to get dinner together?"

"Of course."

Red smiled. "Really?" Shepard nodded. "Shouldn't you be more focused on trying to make them hate me?"

"It's all right," Shepard laughed. "They already love me more."

"Yeah, I know," she said sadly.

"What? Red, I was joking. The kids love you, of course they love you." To his horror, rather than being reassured, Red started crying.

"I—I know. It's just—I barely saw them when we were married, and—and now—"

"Hey, hey, hey." Shepard crossed to Red's side of the table and hugged her. "Now what? Now they'll live with you in Elysium for three whole months every year. You'll still call them every day, the way we've always done. And you can come home—come back to Avilion and see them whenever you want. You're their mother, Red, they're going to want to see you."

"I know," Red said finally. "I know." She thumped Shepard's shoulder weakly with her fist. "Let go of me, Kiss. I'm divorcing you; it's harder when you're being nice to me." After a moment, Shepard let her push him away.

"Do you know—do you remember the day I told you we were done?"

Shepard frowned. "We'd just had another fight about moving."

"That's right," Red nodded. "Artie was just over a year old? Just starting to talk? I never told you this, but before the fight, I'd been watching him and Kate play in the yard. He—he fell, and he started crying. He called for 'Mama,' and I ran over to him, but," Red took a shuddery breath before continuing, "he kept calling. He kept calling for his mother until Kate got there.

"He didn't think of me as his mother. It was too much."

"Why didn't you tell me that?"

"I did! How many times did I tell you that they barely know me?"

"We could have worked something out."

Red sniffed loudly, and patted Shepard's cheek. "Not without one of us giving up something we weren't willing to change. This is better. This way we don't have to resent each other."

"I guess."

Taking a step back, Red wiped her face with the backs of her hands. "C'mon, Kiss, tell me that there's not a little part of you that's relieved to be out of this marriage."

"Do you want me to be happy about this?"

"I plan on being happy. Why shouldn't you be happy, too? Go find someone—Go find a way to be happy." Red managed a watery smile. "But hey, this is just some free advice from your ex-wife. Take it or leave it. C'mon. Let's pick up the kids. Where do you want to eat?"

Author's Note: I have to make it count, because this is the last note, but thank you, thank you, thank you, one thousand times to Telemachus78 and Tryvozhna for beta'ing this piece. It was a concept that was bouncing around my head that wouldn't have ever made it into the world without you guys!

Chopper1111: (couldn't message you about your review) Hadn't heard that Adele song, but now I can't stop listening to it. A song with a similar vibe is "Happy" by Saving Jane, though the Adele song is much prettier.