“You already said your goodbyes.”  They had cleared the quarantine room from restrictions and allowed Jordan Reid to sit beside Ambrose, who was lamenting the moment with tears in his eyes.  She had enveloped him in a gentle, comforting hug on the table, her eyes equally filled with water of joy and sadness.

“It was a wonderful service, ‘Brose.  Everybody came to say goodbye.”  She wiped the tears from her eyes.  “I’m sorry this happened to you.”

There was so much to say, he realized.  So much he wished he could have said before going down to that planet where his life ended.  So much he wished he could have done.  The regret pooled in his stomach, a sickly weight pulling on his conscience.  “None of us had control of this…thing.”  He flexed his fingers, the sensations of his body returning to him slowly.  “She did this…and she has to answer for it eventually.”

Reid sat back, “We’ve talked about what will happen when we finally run into her.  Some of us think she’ll make us kill her.”  She clicked her tongue, “She’s escaped custody once…she might find a way to do it again.”

Ambrose shook his head, “She has to face justice, Jord.  We don’t just…kill people.  Self-defense is one thing, but…we value life over revenge.”  He winced at a trickling of pain in his back, “I watched someone who hated me enough to find a way to kill me do just that – it was an ugly look on his face as he pulled the trigger.”  That image was burned into his memories, dead or alive.  He felt his toes tingling, a sign of more motor control returning.  “What do you think I should do?”

Reid felt the tightness in her throat swell again.  “I…I’m biased, Brose.  There’s so much of me that’s missed all of you…I’d be selfish and ask you to live for the rest of our lives.”  She wiped more tears as she confessed what she felt.  She knew what would be required to keep him alive.  Her mind was swerving in and out of the possibility that that somehow would be found to restore his ability to live as he had before.

He haltingly pushed his arm to touch hers, a sad smile crossing his lips, “I know.  I wish I could feel the same.”  He felt his heart warm as his skin brushed up against hers.  He had missed that feeling.  “It feels like I’d be cheating death.  Eventually, it catches up with us.”  He could see in her eyes she understood, even if she didn’t like where he was going.  He continued, “I lived my life, Jord.  I served with incredible people…and I don’t regret any of it.”  Memories of his crew from Erigone to Edinburgh to Mackenzie floated through his mind.  “It’d be selfish of me to believe I deserved a second chance…a second chance at what?  That first run of life was pretty damned good.”

She smiled through the tears. “Saying goodbye to you a second time isn’t going to be easy, ‘Brose.”

He replied, sadness filling his voice, “Nothing is easy, Jord.  Life, death…it’s the hardest thing we’ll ever do.”