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English
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fan_flashworks
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Published:
2022-05-13
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532
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1/1
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11
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13
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142

One Last Time

Summary:

John Sheridan’s life is almost over, so his friends gather together one last time.

Notes:

Written for Challenge 340: Reunion at fan_flashworks.

Spoilers: Sleeping In Light.

Work Text:

It was the prelude to the end, and they all knew it, although none more so than Sheridan and Delenn.

Truth be told, they’d all been waiting for this moment, anticipating the day the messages would be sent, summoning them to Minbar and one final reunion, but when the Rangers arrived, handing them those sealed envelopes, it still felt wrong. It was too soon, they weren’t ready. How could anyone ever be ready to say goodbye to a friend, someone still dear to their hearts even after so long? The last twenty years had passed like no time at all.

Inevitably, not all of the messages had reached their intended recipients. Zack had moved on without leaving word, nobody knew where to start looking for G’Kar, although the Rangers tried their best, and as for Lennier… Well, his absence, while regrettable, was perhaps not so surprising. Minbari remembered too well, and Delenn was aware that despite the passing years, Lennier’s shame still clung to him. She could only hope that a day would come when it would no longer torture him so, and their friendship might resume.

For now, it was enough that most of their friends were present to share reminiscences and laughter, a last celebration of her husband’s life, surrounded by those who knew him best. Time, before the end, to look back on past achievements and wonder at how far they, and the Alliance, had come. To share the warmth and comfort of friendship that had stood the test of time.

It soothed the heavy weight on Delenn’s heart to look around the table and see the familiar faces, older now and yet still much the same. Michael Garibaldi, Dr Stephen Franklin, Susan Ivanova, a respected General now, and Vir, matured almost beyond belief since his inauguration as Centauri Emperor. He was the one who had perhaps changed the most, and yet the gentleness that had always been his most notable characteristic remained unaltered. For that, Delenn was glad. After everything he had seen, beneath all the trappings of his position, he remained essentially himself.

This would be the last time the six of them would gather together. Like the sands in an hourglass, John’s time was fast running out. At best he had no more than a few days left; Lorien had promised twenty years, and no more. Soon, all that would be left of him would be the memories; that knowledge tinged the festivities with sadness, but did not detract from the joy, merely added a poignancy, an urge to hold on to every moment while it lasted, to cherish this one night and commit every word, every smile, every gesture to memory. It would be something to hold on to in the long, lonely nights that lay ahead.

The universe would continue without John, and so would Delenn, but that was not just yet. So she smiled, and listened, and remembered, and if her eyes strayed most often to John’s face, drinking in his laughter, the sound of his voice, the warmth of his smile, that was as it should be, until, on some distant day, they would be reunited, perhaps in another life.

 

The End