Spoilers: Relatively major for The Things We Cannot Change
Author's Note: I had officially been ordered to drop this story, but my muse popped up last night around midnight and wrote this chapter, and now that it's written, I'm not sure if it's going to stop. So please, feed my muse and maybe my muse'll be willing to write another chapter!:D And for those of you reading Let It Be, that'll be written soon too!
D. Lerious, Dylan didn't fake his own death. I'm sorry if I didn't make it clear, but he was stranded on a planet for a week.
Oh, and a cautionary note: Give it a chance. It all has a purpose.
Paradise
Chapter Six: Sometimes, Love Isn't Enough
"I think we should end our relationship."
"You think we should...that we should...what?" Beka was taken by complete and utter surprise. When Dylan had said those annoying words, 'I think we should talk,' she would have guessed that he would try and talk to her about her feelings, about what she had felt when he was gone...But she had never expected this. Not from Dylan.
"You don't want it, do you?"
"I-Dylan, I'm not sure, you know that," Beka said, confused.
"Well, I'm tired of waiting for you," he said, and she couldn't detect anything but sincerity in his voice.
"But...what was the dinner?" she tried.
He laughed, and Beka shuddered. "I wanted to give you one last chance, Beka. To see if maybe you still wanted to be with me. But..." He looked into her eyes. "It's time I don't have."
"You said you'd give me as much time as I needed. You promise. You said you'd still be there," she whispered.
"Beka, when I was crashed, stranded on that planet, I had nothing to do but think. And I realized that I'm getting older, Beka, and I need someone to carry on after I'm gone. I know you can, but who comes after you? After Harper? I need someone, Bek, and I can't wait for you," he told her. After a moment, where she could not think or breathe, he continued. "I know I never told you what happened when I was stranded near the black hole, out in space, I...dreamed I had a son...and a wife. I miss them, Beka. I want a family. And if you're too scared to have one, I need to look for someone else."
"But...you love me...I love you..."
"Sometimes love isn't enough, Rebecca." He was so cool. So calm. Like he didn't know he was breaking her heart.
"Dylan, I-I-please stay..." she begged at last.
He smiled, whether cruelly or sadly, Beka couldn't tell. "I gave you a chance, Beka."
He left for the second time, only this time was worse. Yes, Dylan Hunt was like every other man.
Beka lay limply down on the couch and started crying, and once again, Dylan wasn't there to hold her.
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That was where Harper found her the next morning, curled up on the couch staring blankly at the wall.
"Beka?" He waved a hand in front of her face, assuming she was tired. "Bek? Hey, how'd dinner go? What did you think of the bot, huh? Where's Dylan?"
"He left," she whispered hoarsely.
"Where'd he go?" Harper inquired without a clue.
"He left me."
The addition of that one little word made Harper realize what had happened. "Oh, no, Beka, he wouldn't do that! You misunderstood him or something, Bek, he never would have done that, he loves you too much!"
"Sometimes, love isn't enough," Beka said dully.
Stroking her hair because he didn't have anything else to do, he asked, "What happened?"
"He said I was taking too long. He said dinner was my last chance. He said he needs someone who will carry on his line. He said love wasn't enough. And he left me," Beka said without any emotion, although tears slipped down her face.
Harper stood up angrily. "Rommie, have Trance come down here and stay with Beka. And where's Dylan?"
"On Command."
"Good," Harper said, and marched to the room. "Dylan, what did you do to her?"
"To who?"
"Don't you dare ask to who! To Beka! She's over in the rec room, crying, because you left her last night!" Harper yelled furiously. "Crying! Beka doesn't cry!"
"No need to shout, Mr. Harper," Dylan said all too calmly. "Now, as for Captain Valentine, it's her own fault."
"Like hell it is! Dylan, you know Beka! You know how hard it is for her to trust people! Hell, it took her two years to trust me enough to stay on the Maru alone while we were docked. And she trusted you enough to love you, and enough that when she told you sheneeded time to straighten things out in her head, she knew that you would give it to her! And you promised you would, Dylan, she told me. And then she was getting things all worked out, but then you died, and then you came back to life and her whole world was upside down again, and now you go and tell her that she taking too much time to think about a relationship that's so abnormal for her too even think about, she even talked to me to try and work it out? I don't know what kind of sick game you're playing, but you aren't the DYlan Hunt I know," Harper finished, glaring at Dylan and daring him to respond.
Dylan did respond. He started to clap. "Bravo, Harper. Predictably defending your beloved Rebecca. If only we could all have such a stalwart champion, like a faithful puppy."
Harper looked at him with the same hurt confusion in his eyes that Beka had before. "Dylan, what's gotten into you?"
"Nothing, Harper. As I told Beka, I had a lot of time to think on the planet. Some of my ideas have...changed, that's all."
"You broke her heart, Dylan," Harper all but pleaded.
"We all grow up sometime, Harper," Dylan said absently, poking at a few buttons, then turned to look at Harper. "Maybe I went about it in the wrong way...I just wanted to see if she had decided to be with me, to have children with me, perhaps, or even just to eventually work up to that. I never meant to hurt her."
"Well, you did, and I was dead wrong about you," Harper said quietly into the following silence, then turned his back and walked stiffly out of Command.
To Be Continued...