Without Her

By Stephanie
February 21, 2004

He watched the two of them leave the room, smiling at each other, holding hands. They looked like the characters from the old French fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast, but he was not liking the beast one bit. He wanted his Beauty back and never wanted to let her go.

He had asked her to have a late dinner with him in Ten-Forward and she had politely declined, explaining that she had made other arrangements, that possibly she would join him for breakfast the next morning. He felt as if he had been struck, the air knocked out of his lungs, his heart constricting with disappointment and jealousy.

He went to Ten-Forward and took a seat at the bar, his eyes falling on the table where they sat talking, laughing, the table where he use to sit with her.

The awful words the captain had said began to echo in his head. His Imzadi was going to die in the future and it would all be on the account of him and the grudge the two men would hold against each other over her.

He gulped down the drink that was placed before him, continuing to watch the couple. A dark gaze was suddenly on him and his heart skipped a beat as he looked back into those beautiful large ebony eyes, eyes he had lost his soul in countless times. He smiled at her causing a smile to light up her angel face. Then it was gone, her attention drawn back to the man who sat before her, the man who was taking her small hand into his large one and squeezing it affectionately, the man who was telling her things to cause her to laugh that musical laugh of hers.

The man who had stolen her heart away from him.

He took another drink, nursing this one instead of tossing it down like the other, his head full of thoughts on how empty and incomplete his life was going to be without her.

END