Note: This is it. The end.
Beta-reader: Bardicfaerie.
Chapter summary: A new beginning.

Epilogue

The moment that all of the luggage was in her hotel room, Garcia got a little tearful. As he straightened up, Morgan rubbed his hands on his pants and tilted his head at her. "That's it," he announced. "Everything you had in the room in Varna."

"You're leaving," she complained softly. "It took me years to finally get to meet you face to face, and now you're leaving."

"Not forever, doll face," he assured her, pulling her into a hug. "Reid's still got to go see his mother. That's what I was hired for. And he's really worried about her."

"I know," she sighed, and let herself be led outside to the small courtyard where all of their little group of friends had gathered. "I just wish you could stay."

"I'll come back," Morgan promised. "We'll go see Reid's mama, he'll stop fretting, and we can come back and visit again." He reached the doors and they slid open automatically.

Once outside, he let go of her, but she caught his sleeve and pulled him closer to whisper in his ear. "That blonde first mate, JJ," she paused, hesitating. "She's a total bombshell. You think I have a chance?"

He straightened and grinned widely at her. "Ah, baby girl," he said, "you are one absolutely gorgeous woman, inside and out. You've saved us all, remember? You're a hero. One drop-dead gorgeous hero. How could anyone resist you?"

She punched him lightly on the arm. "Heroine," she corrected, though she looked embarrassed and happy all at once. She turned from him and went to join the others. He followed after her, grinning to himself.

When he joined the little group, Spencer, who had been sitting cross-legged on top of a low wall like a child, got up and walked over to him. Clooney had been lying at the young doctor's feet. He jumped up, ran to the two men and started circling around them, wagging his tail excitedly. Morgan affectionately wrapped an arm around the back of Reid's neck, leaning into him a bit. After a moment, Reid leaned into him too.

"I can't believe you're leaving already," Ashley said, looking really sad.

"They'll be back," Rossi answered before Derek could. He took a step closer to the petite blonde and nudged her gently. "You'll see, you'll barely have time to miss them."

"Was good seeing you again," Prentiss told the smuggler with a grin.

Jordan tilted her head. She had an arm in a sling due to the injury sustained in the battle above New Nevada. "Next time we meet," she said, "you had better not have some psycho with an army on your heels."

Morgan laughed. "I assure you, I don't make a habit of that."

"Could'a fooled me," Emily muttered, loud enough to be heard, which got her a few chuckles.

JJ waved to them. "See you in a while," she said easily.

Reid gave them all a rather shy wave, which prompted Morgan to ruffle his hair, just to make him a little less stiff and awkward. "Morgan," the younger man whined, "did you have to do that?" He tried to get his hair back under control, but the curls seemed to have a will of their own and stubbornly stuck in all directions.

"All right, all right," Prentiss scoffed. "You two lovebirds should stop flirting when we're trying to tell you goodbye."

Reid went beet red and looked so horribly embarrassed that Morgan laughed. "Yeah, sure. After all, we'll get plenty of time alone together, right Reid?"

"Shut up," the young doctor muttered, hiding behind his hands. Their friends laughed and teased and finally, it was time to leave.

"Say, Morgan," JJ called out just as the smuggler was turning to lead Reid back to the Aurora, Clooney at their heel. They both paused and turned towards her. "I was thinking," she said slowly, "with all that's happened, well," she hesitated. Then, at length, she asked, "You're that Derek Morgan, aren't you?"

Derek and Spencer exchanged a glance. "Really, now," Morgan said slowly, smiling toothily, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Final note: So this has been an amazing journey, and although I'm sad to see it end, I'm excited about what the future may hold for me. As you might have heard, I've been contacted about getting this story published as an original (after much editing I'm afraid, but out two heros will still be together because this is the 21st century, damn it). So now that we've reached the end, I would suggest to people who want to keep reading it over and over again to head over to ArchiveOfOurOwn (just google AO3) and download it as a document. You know, just in case my spiffy new editor gets her way and I have to take the story down.

Now, a few of you might wonder how this entire story began. (If not, hey, thanks for reading! See yas!) Well, it was because of my friend (the same friend who got me into the show - all of this fic is entirely her fault). We were playing around with another storyline (yeah, I might publish it eventually). And she mentioned that she liked AUs. I'd never read AUs before - always scrolled right past 'em - so I asked her why. She said she just liked seeing how a change in setting influenced characters differently. Then that was that. Then a few days later, she went, "I know I'm way late on the bandwagon, but have you seen Firefly?" My mother had threatened to disown me on my return from Japan if I didn't watch it, so I had. Then I asked her (the friend, not my mum), "Reid likes science fiction, right? If he were in a scifi setting, what do you think he would like?" To which my friend replied, "Science fiction, of course." And then I wondered what would be considered science fiction in a science fiction world, and the Aurora was born.

If I have to cite my influences, I'd have to admit that my dad is a huge Star Wars geek (I remember watching Empire Strikes Back in his room with him when I was a kidlet - on Star Wars covers, hugging a Star Wars pillow, surrounded by his collectibles). So although it's not really what started it all, I guess it did play in. He also loves Red Dwarf and of course, Firefly. My mother, on the other hand, is a huge Trekkie and Doctor Who fan - we used to watch the marathons on PBS when I was a kidlet. So yeah, lots of science fiction geekery about, and I can't pretend it hasn't has a great impact on this storyline. As for the whole Reid in disguise thing, I got that from The Rose of the Prophet, which I read something like 12-13 years ago. Some books just stick with you, I guess.

Now, I /might/ write a sequel, but for now I have other projects - such as the aforementioned novel. I also have a non-AU CM fic in the works, which is a collab with a friend (same friend mentioned before) called Limerence. Problem is I left my notebook at my uncle's a while ago and I still haven't got it back. So it could be a while before you see that fic.

In any case, thanks for sticking with this to the end, I hope you liked! Thank you for all of the wonderful reviews. They have made me very happy and helped me through the tough half-year I just had. I hope to see you all soon in another fic or any of my other projects. Cheers!