A/N: I can't believe this is chapter six already - half way through the story!

For those who have shared it with me, thank you again. There's more angst to come, before it concludes. But this chapter is purely for Trip, as he finds himself in a very significant place, with some even more significant company.

Enjoy!

Aftermath

Chapter Six - Seeing The Light

After the darkness had come the light that Trip had instantly recognized. If briefly, he'd welcomed it.

Oh yes, he'd recognized it, all right. He'd knocked on death's door enough times to have seen, and felt, what lay beyond. Perfect peace, and tranquil quiet. A whole world, an entire realm away, from the one he'd left behind.

Well, almost. He could still hear it. A familiar voice, that brought him as much pain as it did comfort.

"I'm here, Trip. I'm here. And wherever you are, Trip, I need you to come back."

Closing his eyes against the emotions this voice had provoked, Trip still felt tears well up within them. For every time in the past when he'd come to this place, he'd always had Jon with him, to guide him out of it. Now, though, he could only hear Jon's voice, and in his eyes… well, that meant he was on his own this time. The choice of whether he lived or died rested solely in his hands.

It was a terrifyingly lonely thought.

Except he wasn't alone. No, for reasons he still couldn't explain, he still had its presence beside him. It was still sharing this already incredible experience.

Now, come on, Trip, he dryly chastised himself. Practise what you preach now. She chose to take your name. You gave her identity. Use it.

Turning to face her, Trip quietly asked the question that had been burning in his mind, for - what? Seconds? Minutes? Hours? In this halfway stop between life and death, time just didn't seem to exist.

"Did you make me do this, Charles? Did you make me come here?"

Damn, that sounded weird. And with his finely honed sense of the crazies, Trip had to smile at it. An alien life form – no, make that a dead alien life form – sharing his name, if not his gender?

It felt even weirder to see her reaction to this use of her name. The smile that lit up her face, and the same pleasure that filled her reply.

\No, Trip. No, just as you taught me how to experience it, you're here of your own free will./

Reminded again of where he was, and what it signified, Trip just nodded. Glancing around him, he felt its isolation even more. This wasn't the peaceful beach he'd gone to before, or that breathtaking coastline. No, this was just… space. Aside from a tiny point of light in the distance, he was surrounded by dark, empty, featureless space.

Smiling again, if wryly, Trip shook his head. He'd take what he was given, of course, but even so. With his imagination, he'd just expected something… now, what did Jon call it? Ah, yes. Trippish.

"So, I'm dead, or damn close to it. In my own afterlife, and you're in it with me," he said at last, the curiosity that had landed him in this mess in the first place now replaced by poignant sarcasm. In Jon's absence – and God, he was feeling that absence now – he just hoped she understood its point.

"So, how does that work? How does an alien life form make it into my near death experience?"

To his astonishment, she smiled back at him, with a wisdom that he himself had allowed her to gain.

\Because you want me to be here, Trip. Because you need to hear what I have to say./

Okay, so she'd understood his cynical wryness. Good, because there was still plenty more to come.

"You mean, thanks for all you taught me, and showed me? All you did for me? That kinda thing?"

\Yes./

Again thrown by how well she'd understood him, Trip tried, and failed, to keep hold of his emotions. She must have seen his reaction, too, because her smile also vanished. Her eyes betrayed confusion. Hurt.

\Trip, I don't understand. Why are you so angry? Do you not understand my… gratitude?/

Freezing in mid stride – yeah, genius, where the hell are you gonna go? – Trip spun back to face her. God forgive him, but he just couldn't stop the surge of annoyance that now snapped through his voice.

"Your… gratitude? Gratitude for what? Giving you all that false hope, for dreams you could never hope to realise? Promising you the life you never got to experience?"

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than Trip bitterly regretted them, and… aww, damn it! Why was it that, as soon as he opened his big, smart mouth, he tried to fit his size ten boot inside it? And why did her response to his outburst, so calm and sweetly gentle, leave him feeling like he was the alien life form, and she was the human being?

\But I did experience it, Trip! For just those few days, I experienced knowledge. Freedom. Life./

If she was trying to reassure and thank him for what he'd done, then - well, for the life of him, Trip couldn't see it. Emotions that he still couldn't quite control now erupted back to the surface.

"That you ended! You took that life, and you ended it… because of me!" he railed back at her, again consumed so much by his guilt and anger that her attempts to dispel it almost passed him by.

\No, Trip. I ended it because of them. I chose to end it, to defy them. To defy the life that I would have had to endure at their hands. What they'd turn me back into./

Now the light dawned. Now he saw the connection that brought everything back into perspective. And wasn't it just incredible, that a distant part of his own world's history should now have a profound effect on one that was light years away from it?

"A life with no voice, no rights, and no freedom. Little more than a slave. The kind that took years of war on my world to set free," he said at last, his eyes growing wider as he started to understand the gift he'd given her.

Not the death that he'd blamed himself for, so bitterly. That had left him so crippled with guilt that he'd decided to kill himself. No, for just those few days, he'd given the gift of life. A life free of the servitude which she'd been forced to endure, and - damn! Was this how Lincoln had felt?

She must have sensed his thoughts somehow, because her smile grew even wider. The gratitude in her voice even deeper.

\Can you not see, Trip? I didn't die because of you. I learned to live, because of you. I learned to be free./

Pausing, she then reached to cradle his face in her hands. If it was possible, for the ghost of an alien life form to express love through its eyes, then Trip was certainly experiencing it now.

\And it was wonderful./

Still stunned by what she'd just said, and what he'd just realized, Trip finally managed to smile back. Still trying to find a reply, he then frowned instead, glancing more uncertainly beyond her. That distant point of light was growing brighter. Coming closer. In both relief and frustration, Trip knew what it signified.

He'd made his decision. He was going to go back.

There was still so much for him to say, though, but no time left to say it. It filled him with a crushing sense of sadness.

"So, what – what happens now? I – I mean, how do I live with this? Where do I go from here?"

For several moments, she didn't answer. She just smiled up at him, holding his eyes with her own. She stroked his face, his hair. Brushed away his now helpless tears, until dazzling light finally engulfed them.

\You know the answer to that already, Trip. You need to live. You need to live, for me./

A final smile. The softest kiss on his cheek. Then her face and voice changed, into another's face. Another's voice, that he'd recognize anywhere.

"…we'll face it together. But right now, Trip, I need you to wake up. I just need you to wake up."