Characters/Pairing: Richard/Cara, implied Richard/Kahlan
Length: ~450
Lost in Time
"I'm in love with someone else," he says, as if that can keep him safe. Richard won't look at Cara—she wants something from him, they all do. She's just like Denna, a Mord'Sith who will take his very soul if she can.
"I'm not talking about love," she whispers. Her skin is warm next to his. "I'm talking about pleasure."
Richard turns resolutely away, telling himself he's going to get Kahlan back, he has to...
In the morning, he wakes with Cara curled in his arms, her hair tickling his nose, and for a moment, he's so comfortable he doesn't ever want to get up.
They go on, of course; days turn to weeks, searching for the last vestiges of civilization, to tell them what happened to this dead world.
Part of Richard, a secret part that he keeps locked away in his heart, is furious with Kahlan for leaving him this mess. Is this the best legacy she could give to the world? Even if she was lost, Rahl's prisoner, alone...how could she destroy everything she and Richard and Zedd had ever worked for? How could anyone let this desolation happen?
Only Cara is immune to this fury, because she is as lost in time as Richard is.
She doesn't offer Richard the comfort of more than shared blankets again, but sometimes he catches her watching him...
Kahlan is dead.
And one night, when they are very near to the abandoned ruin that was once the People's Palace, where the last bits of the whole sordid story of Kahlan's marriage to Rahl will doubtless fall into place...
Richard kisses Cara.
"I thought you were in love with someone else," she purrs, rolling him over so she is on top of him. Her gold hair makes a cocoon for their faces.
Richard doesn't really compare Cara to Denna anymore—there's no point comparing her with anyone. The two of them might as well be the last people in the world.
Besides, Cara has stayed by his side, fighting when they have to, letting him teach her to forage for food, never tiring...
He's always admired a strong woman.
But bitterness makes his voice harsh when he replies, "Do you see her anywhere?"
And then Cara tosses her hair and pulls Richard to her, a tangle of lips and blankets and sensation...
Later, when the world is right again (for all they hover on the brink of total annihilation at the hands of the Keeper), and Kahlan lives, laughs and kisses Richard, and Cara watches, eyes unfathomable, mischievous, and deep...
Richard looks away, and they never speak of it.
It was another life. An eternal moment, lost in time.