A Final Message

by Loui

Earth: Final Conflict and its characters belong to Alliance Atlantis, SciFi, Tribune et. al. Not me.
"A Final Message" is copyright © Loui.
Warnings: Still not over my angst phase.

Renee sighed heavily but finally inserted the micro-disc in her home console. Moving back to her seat on the couch, she hugged a cushion close and murmured the command for the disc to play. A familiar face filled the screen and she bit her lip to stifle the cry of loss that threatened to escape her lips.

Liam.

The package had arrived that morning, Liam's distinctive hand-writing on the packaging initiating another mute cry of loss in her soul - there had been a lot of them in the last few months. They'd left so much unfinished... they'd thought they had more time. Fate, the Taelons and Jaridians, and that damn volcano had spun things completely beyond their control.

Liam's message was simple, yet full of the love that they had shared.

"Renee,

"This message for you was left with a trusted associate. Their instructions were to deliver it only after my death - or six months after my presumed loss.

"If I know you - and I do - then you probably spent today half torn between rage and sorrow. Stop it, love. Please. For me?

"However you lost me; please, please, remember that you had me. You owned my heart a month after our first meeting and I never regretted a second of the time we spent together. Not the desperate fight against seemingly overwhelming odds, or our own fights. The joy you brought me as both friend and lover made my life worth living. Our engagement was the single best day of my life - even if it was a secret that only you, I and Street shared. I'm so sorry that we never got our life together that we planned on.

"That's the reason for this message... that, and to say goodbye. I know better than to ask you not to grieve, I would never have been able to do that had this situation been reversed.

"What I am asking you to do is move on. I never doubted that you loved me. I pray that you never doubted my love for you. That is enough for me. Above all else, I want you to be happy. Don't close yourself off from the world, love. You're too bright a light to hide in shadow.

"Live your life. Be happy... and... should you find someone who you could love, you have my blessing... not that you really need it. I know I'll always hold a place in your heart, I also know that it is capable of more love than anyone else you know ever dreamed of.

"Be happy, Renee. That's all I ask for you, that's all I ever wanted. Now then, take the first step. Stop this message. Stick it in that keepsake box your Grandma gave you.

"Keep the memory of us in your heart, my love, but live in the present.

"Goodbye, Renee."


Tears streaming down her cheeks, Renee honoured her fiancée's final request. With fingers that trembled, she took the disc and walked to her bedroom. Opening the lid of the wooden keepsake box, Renee took a shaking breath and raised the disc to her lips, kissing it softly. She then put the disc away, murmuring, "Goodbye, Liam."


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Last modified August 18th, 2002.
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