========================================================================== FUTURES Angela Haughey ========================================================================== Timeline: Years later Author's E-Mail: haughey@ihug.co.nz ========================================================================== AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is just a _short_ thing that sprung to mind. (Jessi..read it again..are you happy now? ) Apologies..but i'm pretending that the second and third seasons didn't exist. Please forgive me..but working it out otherwise was giving me a headache. So just take it from the end of season one. :) If you feel like commenting (please please please!) my address is :) DISCLAIMER: The characters involved in this piece do not belong to me..(i wish!), they are the property of Amblin Entertainment. I mean no harm, and will put them back when i'm done. :) Non-canon characters are my creation. ========================================================================== She looked happy, that much was obvious. It shone from her, contentment, and peace. He shifted slightly, in the crowded room, people greeting him as they entered through the dark panelled door next to him. Partners, children, had been invited - and there was barely room to move. Not than anyone minded. Waiters circulated with nibbles, but few if any paused in their conversations to accept them. Dr Westphalen - wearing a smile that coated her face - gave his arm a fond pat as she walked past, and he smiled at her, but his attention was elsewhere. She was across the room, and he knew he should walk over and greet her. It had been a long time. Six years had flown before he'd even noticed the days flitting past, and now memories threatened to pull him under. He hadn't expected the reunion of Bridger's first tour on the seaQuest to invoke such feelings in him. What feelings? He couldn't categorize them, they washed through him as face after familiar face moved around the room, laughing and chatting. But it was her face that struck something deeper. He spotted Lucas in one corner with current girlfriend, looking tanned and every bit the confident 23 year old he was. Catching his eye, Lucas nodded a greeting and gave a grin, one arm around his girlfriend's waist and the other on the wall for balance. He was doing well, Lucas. Not that anyone had expected anything but. They were all there, friends from the past, come to share their futures with each other. He'd always hated these things, feeling certain that he was the only one who hadn't changed, the only one whose life wasn't moving, despite knowing rationally that he was wrong. He was talented, and had what he aimed for now. At least as far as career went. He pushed down such thoughts, and raked his eyes over the room again, matching smiles and rhetorically repeating 'hellos'. She had moved closer, pausing to momentarily greet Miguel Ortiz who clutched his young curly-headed son to his hip and introduced his wife with his free hand. He stepped forward to accept the glass of champagne that the nearest waiter offered him, and turned as Tim O'Neill engaged him in cheerful conversation. Who would have thought that Tim could be so chatty, so animated? One son, twin daughters, the seaQuest's former comtech beamed proudly. He gestured across the room and his wife Jessi caught his gaze with a warm and loving smile. Tim bent to lift the nearest toddler as the little girl wrapped herself around his legs. Love had changed him. **Doesn't it everyone**? She moved a little closer, one arm around her five year old stepdaughter, her husband trailing a little behind - deep in conversation with Nathan Bridger. She touched the little girl's arm again, holding onto the small blonde child who gazed with the curiosity of the young at the milling people around them. Austin stepped graciously away as Nathan's attention was demanded elsewhere. He came up behind his wife, catching one arm around her and lovingly patting the six-month swell of their child-to-be. She turned at his touch and gave him a smile. He looked around the room once more. Children, milling in noisy delighted circles, officers whose faces he knew well now matched in tandem with wives, husbands, bending to reassure children. Families, something he'd unwitting passed by as he climbed up the career ladder he'd tied himself to. Of course it wasn't too late, he was 37, not too late at all. Nathan rang a bell on the farmost table, and directed the merry crowd to the hall on the far side of the complex, for speeches. Carefully he stepped away from the door as people began to gather children to make their noisy way past him. Lucas gave him an affectionate whack on the arm as he passed, talking animatedly with the pretty redhead at his side. Ortiz's son let out an squeal of childish delight as a bright balloon floated from its place on the wall. Tim wrapped an arm around Jessi's waist, and tried to collect all three children at once. Ben Krieg's toddler daughter rubbed jam into the carpet with one hand, giving her father an angelic smile as he lifted her up and carefully pulled the nearest rug over the jammy spot. She spotted him then, and her face melted into a happy smile. She let go of the child who was swept into Austin's arms and out the door. "Jonathan! Hi! I tried to find you earlier but with so many people to talk to.." "Everyone seems to be here." He agreed. Katie accepted his hug with warmth, and he held her for a moment, noting the pressure of her child against him, and the soft smell of her hair. Katie stepped backwards, and gave him a bright grin, sincere and happy. "I'd better catch up with.." She gestured after her husband. "Coming..?" "I'll come and find you later on." He nodded. She smiled, and moved away, following the last of the crowd into the warm Florida night air. Jonathan paused, as the door swung shut with a bang. The conference room was empty, but warm, with the haphazard look of sudden desertion. He looked after her, after the giggling five year old, the protective husband and the gentle glow of pregnancy. What could have been. *She never thought of you like that.* *You never tried. Why think of this now?* He opened the door slowly, and stepped out, shutting it carefully behind him. Some questions weren't meant to be answered. -The End- ========================================================================== ******************************************************************************** Copyright Angela Haughey. (creative input from Jessi, who owes me M&M's..) ********************************************************************************