"It must have been something though, otherwise you would have told people," Garibaldi reasoned.

"And how come you know, Stephen, and no one else does?" Sheridan asked.

This question elicited a chuckle from the doctor.

"Remember how we got Marcus so drunk at his bachelors party that he could hardly walk? Well, I took him to Medlab afterwards to sober him up a bit, and on the way, he was feeling... talkative."

"Hey, I was sober the whole time, and the way I remember it, Marcus wasn't really in any condition to explain anything towards the end of that party," Garibaldi said, grinning at the memory.

"Well, you're right, he wasn't making much sense at that point, but, you see, I'd already had a hint of what happened, so I pieced together what Marcus was mumbling about and figured the details out myself."

"So what actually did happen?" Lise demanded. "We still don't know!"

Marcus and Susan exchanged a glance.

"Come on, Love, may as well tell them. It's not really all that bad - you're just blowing it way out of proportion."

She hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. "Ah, hell, may as well. But I'm not going to tell the story."

"Well I don't want to tell it," Marcus said.

After some further deliberation on the couple's part, Sheridan finally broke in with "Will one of you please just tell it?"

"I'll tell it," Stephen said to end the argument. "Now, let's see," he said, getting into "story-telling" mode. "It all started when the war with Earthforce was ending. We all know how Susan got injured, and Marcus, being the love-sick idiot that he was, almost got himself killed saving her life."

The group became sombre as they remembered those dark times.

Dr Franklin entered Medlab at a run. He'd only gotten the message a few minutes ago, and it took nearly all the strength he had to suffer through the interminably long tube ride before he got there. Marcus was unconscious, still connected to the machine. The other medical staff hadn't wanted to touch anything, since Franklin was really the only one who knew much about the healing machine.

With a glance he took in the situation. Susan's brain activity was normal again, and her lifesigns were stable, while Marcus, it seemed, was now the one on the brink of death. He hadn't even realised the Ranger was back on the station - and if he had known, it probably wouldn't have occurred to him the state Marcus would be in. So much had happened recently, and was still happening, that even the feelings of a friend had slipped into obscurity and irrelevance.

It was a hard fought battle, but finally Marcus too was in a somewhat stable condition. He was in no immediate danger anyway. Soon even that threat passed, and the two made dual recoveries, and attracted a lot of attention towards Medlab.

Susan had wakened first, very confused and disoriented, but alive nonetheless. She didn't remember anything after being fired upon, but obviously she had been expecting death - she almost couldn't believe she was back on Babylon 5 at first. Stephen had been the one to tell her what Marcus had done for her, and it took a while for it all to sink in.

"This is so romantic!" Heather couldn't help but exclaim.

"Stupid is the word I would have chosen," Susan threw in cynically from her reclined position against her husband's chest.

"I didn't hear many complaints at the time," Marcus reminded her.

"That's because you were still unconscious," she told him flatly. Then, to Stephen, "Are you going to get on with the story or not?"

Marcus didn't regain consciousness for another two days after Susan did. His body had been literally drained, and it took some time for him to rebuild his energy levels. If he had been anyone else, Franklin concluded, he mightn't have made it. But Marcus had always made startling recoveries in very short periods of time, which probably turned the odds in his favour.

After a time of enjoying simply being alive again, Susan was beginning to wish she'd stayed unconscious. She had to suffer through twenty people a day telling her how lucky she was, and what a wonderful thing Marcus had done for her. Not to mention all the speculation going around. Most people hadn't even known they were friends, and then he turns up and virtually gives his life for hers. It all started to get to her.

"At first I was just annoyed," Susan broke into the Doctor's narrative soberly, "Angry and annoyed. I mean, I didn't ask him to save my life did I? He wasn't under any obligation. And that was the worst part - I'd always suspected that... that he might have felt that way, but it never occurred to me that it ran that deep. It was creepy."

"Thank you, Love, you don't know what that means to me," Marcus drolled sarcastically.

Susan looked up at him exasperated. "Oh, you know what I mean. I got spooked. So there I was, stuck in Medlab, people pestering me non-stop, feeling angry, annoyed and spooked. Then I felt guilty because I realised I should have been more grateful. So after I lay there feeling angry, annoyed, spooked and guilty for a while, I started getting... irritable. And then I started yelling at people."

"The way I remember it Susan, you started yelling at people as soon as you woke up," Stephen said.

"Yes, but I didn't really start yelling until that point. Anyway, pretty soon Marcus woke up..."

Franklin smothered a smile as Susan took over - she hadn't even realised she'd done it.

She didn't see Marcus till another couple of days after that. The only real indication she had of him was visitors saying things like "Hi, I've just been to see Marcus," or "Well, I should probably go look in on Marcus now." And even after she was allowed to get up for a little while at a time, she was reluctant to go and visit him. Finally Stephen told her that Marcus had been asking about her.

"Actually, I believe I told you to get over there and see Marcus, or I was going to move your bed next to his and leave it there permanently," Stephen corrected her.

"Pot-ate-oh, pot-ah-toh, whatever. May I continue?"

The doctor nodded his consent with amusement.

After some effective persuasion tactics on the Doctor's part, she managed to hobble in to where Marcus was lying - still hooked up to various machines, but apparently sleeping naturally. She watched him from the doorway for a few moments, then quietly moved to a chair by the bed. Not quietly enough, though, or else he was only pretending to be asleep, because he opened his eyes and smiled at her.

"Hello, I was wondering when I would get to see you."

His voice was still slightly weak and raspy, but he appeared to be physically alright, if a little pale. Susan didn't know quite what to say, so she sat there feeling awkward for a few seconds. What the hell were you supposed to say to someone after they'd just saved your life?

"I - I guess I should thank you," she finally managed.

He spoke before she had the chance to continue. "Susan, the very fact that you're sitting next to me is all the thanks I need."

Susan sighed irritably. She'd had a feeling he was going to come out with something like that. Biting back a retort and somehow managing to keep her face neutral, she decided to ignore the comment.

"Ah... Is there anything I can get you? Anything you need?"

"No, thank you, I'm fine. Speaking of which, how are you? When are they letting you out of here?"

"Probably tomorrow. Stephen said I've made a full recovery -" she hesitated, and ducked her head, unable to meet his eyes. "- Thanks to you," she finished. "Really Marcus, that was ah... An amazing thing you did for me... I'm afraid to ask why, because I think I already know the answer."

"Is it really so surprising then?"

She found the courage to look up at him.

"No. No it's not. I ah.. I guess I've always known in a way."

This was one of the most difficult conversations she could remember having. It rated right up there with handing Jeff her notice of resignation when she thought she'd have to submit to a telepathic scan. She didn't need this. She found herself angry at Marcus for putting her through this. Why didn't he just let me die? she asked herself desperately, while Marcus watched her from the green Medlab pillow. He opened his mouth to say something, but she stopped him before he could make a sound.

"Look, Marcus, I just wanted to stop by and tell you - well, you heard what I said. Um, I'm going to go now. That offer still stands - if you need anything, let me know. There are benefits to being a Commander every now and then," she said, trying to keep her tone light as she moved towards the door.

He didn't reply, but merely watched as she left the room without another word.

She was released the next day, and was eager to return to duty. Though Stephen restricted her from doing any official work for another three days, with the old Earthforce government in shambles, and the ensuing mayhem that was spread throughout known space - all of which was channelled in one way or another through Babylon 5 - there was plenty of work to keep her busy without ever reporting officially to duty.

So for the next week or two, while Marcus was still recovering in Medlab, Susan was as busy as she had ever been. Feeling an overwhelming sense of obligation, she dropped by every couple of days to see him, but never stayed very long. Then when he was released, she was always polite when she saw him, made sure that whatever he and the Rangers needed to help retain some sense of order on the still-chaotic station was supplied to them, and generally kept herself as aloof from him as possible.

"That all went on for about a month," she told them. "I felt awful. Whenever I went out of my way to avoid him, I felt guilty because I would be thinking - this is the person who saved my life - but then when I did see him, I could hardly talk because, even though I wanted to be nice to him, it was hard because he was just so..."

"Annoying?" Stephen supplied.

"Irritating?" John added with a grin.

"How about - "Major pain-in-the-ass"?" Garibaldi suggested.

"Exactly. It was terrible."

Marcus, who had listened to all this with an amused expression, decided he should add something.

"It was great," he announced.

Everyone turned and looked at him.

"Well, it was," he said defensively. "It was the most hilarious situation. Think about it - She went out of her way to avoid me, so I went out of my way to run into her. When we did see each other, she was so awkward and formal. You could see what she really wanted was to yell at me, but of course she wouldn't let herself. She wouldn't even look at me. I'm glad she didn't, otherwise she would have seen me laughing at her. Oh, I suppose it was cruel of me - but really, in a situation like that, I couldn't help myself."

Susan was, at this point, visibly preparing for a firm retort. Heather, seeing this, jumped in.

"So, okay, you're both mincing around each other - but nothing has actually happened yet. When do you start making some progress?"

"Soon, soon, I promise. Let me get on with the story. So it's about a month after we're both out of Medlab. During that time things have started to get back to normal. By this point I'd been promoted to Captain, and John here had taken on the role of professional celebrity..." Sheridan opened his mouth to reply, but Garibaldi cut him off.

"Don't start, you two," he warned.

John shut his mouth, while Susan made a smug face.

She was about to continue the narrative, when she paused, wondering which of the next parts of the story she was willing to share, and which would be best left unsaid. She thought back to that day...

Susan jerked awake at the sound of her alarm. She muttered an expletive or two, and groped blindly for something to throw at the monitor. When she couldn't find anything to throw, she decided to yell at it instead. The computer thusly quieted, she fell back onto the pillow, and tried to talk herself into getting up. Mornings had never been easy for her, but they were even worse when she was jolted out of such a vivid dream as this one had been.

It had been confusing, to say the least. Images had surfaced in her mind all night, memories mixing with actual dream fragments to form a convoluted sequence with one overlying theme. She had been dreaming about Marcus. Bits and pieces of the time they'd spent together had been hashed over in her sleep - that very first mission when he'd presented the White Star to John; searching for the Walkers of Sigma 957, and later for the other First Ones; on Babylon 4; waiting together for the Shadow fleet to arrive; watching as the final confrontation between the Shadows and the Vorlons took place; and so on. A faint smile crossed her features as she stared up at the ceiling of her quarters. They had been through a lot together, and there had been some nice moments mixed in with the tense, adrenaline-filled days of the war.

The smile faded, though, as she remembered just what exactly she'd been dreaming about when she'd been so abruptly woken by the alarm. She realised that, as the night had progressed, her dreams of Marcus had turned rather intimate. What the hell was she doing dreaming like that about Marcus? She sat up and threw the covers back roughly. Greatly irritated with herself, she stormed into the bathroom to shower. It was going to be one of those days.

"Hello, Susan. Babylon Control to Susan."

Marcus' voice startled her out of her reminiscence, and she smiled. She decided that that particular part of the story could go untold.

"Alright, I was just getting my thoughts straight," she replied.

Captain Ivanova sank wearily into her chair and leant her elbows on her desk. It had been a long day already, and it was still only 1330. There had been nothing but trouble all day - a brawl had broken out in the Zocalo between some Narn and Centauri, then there had been an accident in the docking bays that put one of the dock workers in Medlab. Not to mention the usual hustle and bustle of normal station life. It had just been one of those days, and it was a miracle she hadn't physically harmed anyone yet. Still, the day wasn't over yet.

She checked her schedule for the afternoon, and paused when her eyes fell upon the two o'clock appointment. 1400hrs - Ranger Briefing she read. Great. Marcus. That was all she needed. She wondered briefly if she could cancel. Things with Marcus hadn't been getting any easier. There was still the awkwardness and the tension between them, even if she did suspect that it was, for the most part, one-sided. Maybe I should talk to G'Kar about life-debts. The Narns have ways of dealing with this kind of thing she thought, before glancing at the time again. He would be here soon, and just as she finished the thought, he strode through the doors of her office, his long cloak flowing behind him.

She stood to greet him.

"Marcus, how have you been?"

"Oh, can't complain. And yourself?" he replied.

"Fine, fine. It's been a hell of a day so far."

"Yes, I heard about the fight in the Zocalo." Then, after a pause, "Well, shall we get started?"

At Susan's affirmative nod, he began the tedious job of delivering reports of Ranger activities. They had gotten through the majority of information and were discussing minor details when Corwin's face appeared on the monitor.

"Captain, you better get to C&C fast. Omega Squadron is on patrol and there's a problem."

His obviously worried face disappeared as the communication ended, but the two were already out the door.

end part two

go to part 3

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