“Tessa.” Dimitrov reached out, hesitated, let his hand rest gently on her shoulder. “We have to go.” He paused, swallowed. “We’ve been overrun. The Admiral has ordered the activation of the self destruct.” Hesitation crept into his voice again, stalled sound. There was a tenseness and stillness that hovered over Tessa, a bristling to the hairs on the back of her neck that reminded him of a wounded wolf, terrified him into momentary silence. “If we’re going to get out of here, we need to go now.”

“You go.” Tessa breathed, pain turning to iron in her voice. “I’m not leaving Izzy.”

“She’s gone, Tess.” Dimitrov tried, offered the gentlest smile he could. “Let her go.”

“Fuck you.” She said softly. “I’d rather die.” Dimitrov looked away in the pause, absently met Murphy’s blank, uncertain eyes. “I can’t...” Tessa squeezed her eyes against the tears again, bared teeth in a silent cry of vicious, burning pain.

“Tessa...”

“Dammit, leave me alone!” She snarled, throwing his hand off, eyes vicious, lit and hard with hate and misery. “Go save someone else, you son of a bitch! I don’t need your help!”

“Woah there.” Dimitrov backed off visibly, blinked, hesitated. Murphy stirred uneasily beside him, uncertain, disturbed by her broken outburst.

“Just leave her, Ben. We don’t have time for this.”

“Wait.” Dimitrov said quietly, carefully, his tone amicable, almost friendly. “Tessa, don’t do this.” He hesitated, ignored the violence in her eyes, the way she stared at him, stabbed at him with her glare. “Trust me, I knew Izzy. She wouldn’t have wanted this for you.”

“How the fuck do you know what she would have wanted!?” Tessa snarled back. “You hardly knew her, Dimitrov! Don’t give me that horse shit!”

“Maybe I barely knew her, but I knew her enough know she wouldn’t have wanted you to die.” He shot back, tone picking up steel, firming smooth, level, determined. Tessa looked away at his words, couldn’t meet his eyes, couldn’t meet Izzy’s dead and sightless stare. Fresh tears broke from her eyes, ran wide and free across her cheeks. “She would have wanted you to live, Tessa.” He continued, softer this time. “You’re her commanding officer, her LC, her friend.” He swallowed. “She would have wanted you to live.”

“How can I...” She looked up again, met Dimitrov’s stare with tear-blurry eyes, her features broken, weak, open, no longer hard and strong. “She was...” She shook her head, broke down again, blubbered. “She was...”

“Shhhh.” Ben crossed the distance between them, gently folded her into his arms, held her as she wept. Burying her face into his uniform, she cried out again, poured the agony that had rent her soul into his shoulder, let it soak through to supportive skin. “Don’t think about it.” He rocked her gently, tucked his chin onto her shoulder, pulled her closer. “You’re Galactic Navy, remember? You’re strong, you’ll tough it out. We all do.”

“I hate this fucking war.” She sputtered. Dimitrov smiled reflexively, just a soft curve of the lips to hide the moistness that haunted his amber eyes.

“We all do.” He managed. “We all hate it, we all want it to end.”

“So fucking stupid.” She shot back. “So fucking pointless.”

Murphy glanced at his watch, glanced away again, opening his mouth in uneasy hesitation for a moment before he managed to seize the nerve. “Ben, we’re–”

“I know, Murphy.” Came Dimitrov’s firm, immediate response. He looked up, smiled softly. “It’s okay, I know.”

“How much time’s left?” Tessa managed, words wet and choked with tears.

“About ten minutes.” Dimitrov glanced up, caught Murphy’s quick, affirmative nod. “Give or take about thirty seconds.”

“That’s not much time.” Tessa breathed.

“It’s enough time.” Dimitrov smiled softly again. “We’ll just have to run most of the way to the hangar bay.”

“Yeah.” Tessa sniffed, gave the edge of a laugh, a smile. “You’d better get going.”

Dimitrov swallowed, pulled back a little, met her searching, moist eyes. “Tessa...”

“I’m staying here, Ben.” She offered the traces of a smile, a curve softened by tears. “I– I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I can’t leave Izzy.” She shook her head. “You should go. I– I’m sorry.”

Dimitrov closed his eyes, breathed a tired sigh, then met her gaze again, nodded once.

“Okay.” There was a crackle to his voice, a sensitive break that tugged at Tessa’s heart, made her want to go with him, to yield and run with him, leave everything behind. She watched as he stood, swallowed, staring back down at her with wetness clinging to his eyes.

“It was a pleasure serving with you, Eisenherz.” He saluted crisply, swallowed again, trying to clear the knot forming in his throat. “I’m sorry it had to end this way.”

“Yeah.” Tessa breathed, glanced down at Izzy, glanced back as fresh tears began to wash across her eyes. “Same here, Ben.”

“Murphy.” He said simply. The other man glanced at him, nodded as Dimitrov’s eyes broke away from Tessa’s, his back turning toward her, shoulders high and tense. “Damn I hate doing this.” He shook his head. “Come on.”

Tessa glanced up again, watched as Murphy glanced at her once more and then looked away weakly, turning to follow Dimitrov back down the corridor, back toward the hangar bay. Tessa’s eyes dropped to Izzy’s face, studied the dark and dull cloudiness in her sightless stare. There was something more there, something more to life, something more to say. Lips moved absently, whispered sounds, found words.

“Hey Ben?”

Dimitrov stopped, turned back, found Tessa’s eyes staring back at him, full of need, meaning.

“Take– take care of yourself, okay?” She managed. “Live through this, okay?” She swallowed, glanced away for an instant. “Get back home to that wife and make some kids or something.” She laughed a tiny, broken laugh, smiled in spite of herself. “Hell, name one after me, if she’s a girl.”

“Ah, well, we’re... just engaged so far, and uh, she’s already settled on Courtney, if we have a girl... that or, uh, Debra.” He scratched his head absently, smiled back, eyes wavering painfully but never leaving her gaze. “She gets her mind locked on these things... can’t really change it.”

“Remind you of anyone?” Tessa’s smile widened a little.

“Yeah,” Ben smiled back, swiped the bud of a tear out of his eye, “actually.”

Tessa closed her eyes against the smile spreading across her lips. “I wish things had been different, Ben...” Tessa shook her head, swallowed, let her gaze rise to meet his again. “Your fiancé is a damn lucky woman.” She paused, swallowed. “Maybe it’s just impending death that’s making me talk this way, but I wish I could have gotten to know you better. I wish...”

“Come with us, Tessa.” He managed, tone soft, veiling desperation.

“I can’t.” She closed her eyes again, shook her head. “I’m tired of this war.” She glanced up again, eyes sharpening with a clarity that transcended the moisture in them, conveyed a strength of spirit more unyielding than steel. “I won’t lose anyone else.”

“Ben.” Murphy swallowed, reached out, put a hand on Dimitrov’s shoulder. “We gotta go.”

“Goodbye, Tessa.” Dimitrov blinked at the wetness in his own eyes, nodded once. “Maybe, in another life...”

“Go.” She said softly. “Don’t make this any harder than it already is.”

Dimitrov bit his lip, nodded once again, turned and started down the corridor, Murphy a scant few steps behind him. She looked on as they picked up speed, broke into a full on run, disappeared past a vein-choked corner. Swallowing one last, final time, she reached out, gently closed Izzy’s eyes, took one of her lover’s cold hands in her own.

“Not long, Izzy.” She whispered as she lay down beside Izzy, gently rested her head on her friend’s chest and closed her eyes. “Not long now.”

Not long.