B5 Triple Drabble: Almost Love
Apr. 12th, 2026 06:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badly_knittedTitle: Almost Love
Fandom: Babylon 5
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Susan Ivanova, Marcus Cole.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 350
Spoilers/Setting: Rising Star.
Summary: Susan is grieving for what might have been if she’d only taken the chance.
Written Using: The prompt ‘Heal’ from my B5 prompt table.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Babylon 5, or the characters. They belong to J. Michael Straczynski.
A/N: Triple drabble and a half, 350 words.
Career had always come first for Ivanova. She’d known what she’d wanted, to join Earth Force, to hopefully someday captain her own ship, and she’d gone after it, no holds barred. She’d done well, served with distinction, risen through the ranks thanks to her single-minded dedication to duty.
Relationships though, that had always been her problem. Wrong person at the wrong time, a whole series of people who didn’t fit with what she wanted her life to be, who got in her way, demanded things of her that she simply couldn’t give. Not if she wanted to pursue her career.
And then there’d been Marcus, who might, just possibly, have been the right person, just at the wrong time. Story of her life. There’d been so much going on, everyone so busy, no one ever sure of what tomorrow might bring, whether they’d even be alive in a month, a week, a day…
That had only been part of the problem though. Most of it had been her. After all her failed relationships, she hadn’t had the courage to try again. She’d been too afraid to open her heart, to give that irritating, infuriating, ridiculous man a chance. He was so stubborn, but so was she, and how could that possibly work out? Would she even want it to? Would he?
He loved her. He’d told her that in so many ways, and she’d known she could depend on him, that he’d always be there for her, that he’d never hurt her, that he’d probably take whatever she threw at him without complaint, and yet she’d hesitated, justifying it by telling herself it was a bad time to be starting anything, they both had too many responsibilities, and now…
Now the idiot had really done it, sacrificed his life to save her, and she hated him for that, hated him for dragging her back from certain death, hated him for leaving her alone, because against her will she’d begun to rely on him being there, and now he was gone… What would she do without the man she’d almost loved?
The End
Relationships though, that had always been her problem. Wrong person at the wrong time, a whole series of people who didn’t fit with what she wanted her life to be, who got in her way, demanded things of her that she simply couldn’t give. Not if she wanted to pursue her career.
And then there’d been Marcus, who might, just possibly, have been the right person, just at the wrong time. Story of her life. There’d been so much going on, everyone so busy, no one ever sure of what tomorrow might bring, whether they’d even be alive in a month, a week, a day…
That had only been part of the problem though. Most of it had been her. After all her failed relationships, she hadn’t had the courage to try again. She’d been too afraid to open her heart, to give that irritating, infuriating, ridiculous man a chance. He was so stubborn, but so was she, and how could that possibly work out? Would she even want it to? Would he?
He loved her. He’d told her that in so many ways, and she’d known she could depend on him, that he’d always be there for her, that he’d never hurt her, that he’d probably take whatever she threw at him without complaint, and yet she’d hesitated, justifying it by telling herself it was a bad time to be starting anything, they both had too many responsibilities, and now…
Now the idiot had really done it, sacrificed his life to save her, and she hated him for that, hated him for dragging her back from certain death, hated him for leaving her alone, because against her will she’d begun to rely on him being there, and now he was gone… What would she do without the man she’d almost loved?
The End
