Afterlife Romance on a Train

By: The Bubbles

Summary: Once upon a time there were two people. They were very much in love. However, due to an unfortunate string of coincidences, they never knew it at the same time.

Warning: Spoilers. If you don't know how season two ends, DO NOT READ THIS FIC.

A/N- Ok, I totally ripped off Harry Potter for the afterlife scene, but mostly because I enjoy that idea. Anyway, this is a different take on the whole "Owen and Tosh Romance" thing without going against Canon in any way. Unless of course we find out later that they were together all along, in which case it will go against Canon. Okay. So. As of "Exit Wounds" it doesn't go against Canon, and I do wish that they'd get a move on making season three.

Oh yeah, credit goes to Tocxica for the title, because the one I had was crap.

Disclaimer: "Where I come from, you don't cut off someone's head if you wish to cure their ankle!"

(o.o.o)

Once upon a time there were two people. They were very much in love. However, due to an unfortunate string of coincidences, they never knew it at the same time.

Love is funny like that.

At one point, a little while before our story begins, one of these people died. This was unfortunate, because the other person thought that she had lost all chances to be with him.

He got better though, so it was ok.

After the whole "death" ordeal, she tried to tell him how she felt. Unfortunately, though, he was still technically dead, and so he pushed her away, which broke her heart.

Finally though, he died again, and as his body decayed this time we must assume that it was permanent. In another part of the city, in an only slightly related situation, she died as well, at more or less the same moment.

It was all rather poetic, if you stopped and thought about it.

Love is funny like that.

(o.o.o)

Tosh opened her eyes and immediately closed them again to block out the light. She heard movement off to the side and then something came between her eyes and the light. She opened them again. It was Owen, his hand up to shade her eyes.

"Are you all right?" he asked, then shook his head. "Listen to me. Of course you're not all right or you wouldn't be here. Why didn't you tell me you'd been shot?"

"I didn't want you to worry. Where are we, anyway?"

She sat up and looked around. It looked like they were on a train. Outside the window, everything was dark, but lights kept their compartment lit up nicely so she could see the thoughtful look on his face.

"We're on the train, making our way ever closer to the end of the tunnel. Nice to have a bit of company this time." He leaned back in his chair. "Mind you, I'd rather go through this alone if it meant you got to live your life."

She laughed. She didn't know why, but somehow it was so funny. He looked at her, bewildered.

"I'm sorry. It's just that you've just said something totally unselfish for the first time since I've known you, and you're dead."

"Yeah. So?"

"Well the phrase 'over my dead body' comes to mind."

He laughed at that. She was right; it was funny.

They spent the next few hours of their train ride talking and laughing, almost as if they were still alive and had just popped out for lunch. It was so different, being on the way to the afterlife together. Outside, in the tunnel, things were dark and dreary, sort of morbid and sad, but inside, they were having the time of their lives, or, well, afterlives. After a while they fell into that rare thing known as companionable silence, and sat there, each in his or her own thoughts.

Tosh remembered what he'd said about having a bit of company and tried to imagine what it had been like for him to ride to the afterlife alone. What had he been thinking about? Had he thought about her? She doubted it, but then maybe he had. Surely he'd at least given thought to what and whom he'd left behind.

"I love you, you know," he said after a while, breaking her out of her thoughts with a nice jolt.

"What?"

"I said I love you. I was going to tell you before, when Jack brought me back, but I didn't know how long I was going to be undead and I didn't want to tell you and then re-die. Thought it might be a bit of a nasty shock."

"Still would have been nice to know."

"Yeah well, I was always a bit selfish. You're also my best friend," he added as an afterthought.

"Tell me something, Owen. Why is it that I had to die to hear your most innermost thoughts and feelings?"

"Because I no longer have the convenient excuse of being dead."

She laughed again. "So what happens now?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I was still on the train when Jack brought me back. From here on out, it's the unknown."

"I think I like it like that. Into the unknown together."

He smiled, and they fell into silence again.

"I love you too," she said after a while.

He took her hand and squeezed it, then leaned in to kiss her.

As they shared their first kiss in the afterlife, the train finally shot out of the tunnel into brightness.

Neither of them noticed.

Love is funny like that.

(o.o.o)

A/N- I'm not normally one for romance, but this particular plotbunny kept biting me and I had no choice but to write it. Anyway, hoorah for impromptu romance stories that write themselves!