Susan.

Shifting restlessly in her bed, Susan Ivanova was reluctantly dragged from the deep, dreamless sleep that she could only achive on those nights from which she was well and truly exhausted.

Susan.

There it was again. Half-asleep, she sat up in bed, pushing her dark hair out of the way.

Susan.

"Marcus?" She calld out, before coming fully awake. Once she heard her own voice, full of longing, calling out his name, that woke her up very quickly.

She bit down hard on her lower lip to keep the tears from coming. Marcus was gone. /Not gone,/ she chastised herself, /there's still a chance./ It only been a year and a half since the chain of events had led her to this point, to this bed, fighting the proverbial wolf nightly. On the whole, most of her crew didn't know why she had been captained on a ship rather than stay at Babylon 5. Only the ship's counciler knew about Marcus, and that was only because John had wanted to make sure that she was okay. She rubbed a hand over her face and looked at the clock. 0430. She could easily get started on the mountains of paperwork a captain aquired.

Climbing out of bed, her journey towards her desk was interrupted. Sighing deeply, she drew out an oval pendant from a box. Running her fingers lightly over the two figures on either side, she couldn't feel any lingering wetness or the sticky residue of dried blood. She snorted lightly. Practical Susan Ivanova believed that if Marcus died, his Ranger pin would shed tears of water and blood. If anything, she would know in her soul that he was gone. She wouldn't be far behind him if that ever happened.

She had caught up on the most pressing matters at hand, and she was now serving a shift on the bridge. Since they were traveling through hyperspace, Susan let her mind drift, thinking of absolutely nothing at all. She had almost slipped into a light trance-like state when she heard it again.

Susan.

Her nails dug into her palms as her eyes screwed shut tightly. Hell, she missed him so badly, her mind was hallucinating that she was hearing him whisper her name.

"Captain?"

Her eyes flew open. "Yes?" At least her voice didn't shake.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she answered her first officer, Commander Yates.

Silently, he pointed at her hands, which were still balled into fists.

One of Marcus's favotire curses slipped past her lips, bringing home once again his absence. Growing even more angry at herself, she turned the bridge over to her first officer and stalked towards MedLab. Most of her crew jumped out of her way when they saw her coming, recognizing one of her mysterious black moods.

On the bridge, the liutenant manning communications suddenly looked up. "Commander? Communication coming in from Babylon 5."

Yates practically ran to communications. "Put it through."

John Sheridan's face appeared on the screen. An eyebrow quirked. "Commander Yates, where is Captain Ivanova?"

"In MedLab, sir."

"Is she okay?" Now both eyebrows were furrowed with deep worry.

Yates hastened to relieve the probably already stressed-out President. "Yes, sir. It's just a cut."

He was still worried, but once he knew that her injury was non-life threatening, he could relax a bit. "Commander, I'm rerouting your ship to Babylon 5. Don't worry about the rest of your patrol duty, I've already sent the Juno to cover for you."

"Yes, sir. Is there a particular reason why, sir?"

"The reason is currently in MedLab," Sheridan replied with a ghost of a smile.

"Yes, sir. Would you like me to give Captain Ivanova a message? Or would you like her to call you back?"

He hesitated for the barest of a second. "Tell her the Entil'Zah has good news. Sheridan out."

Yates had no idea what that cryptic message meant, but he mentally shrugged. If Ivanova wanted him to know why they were being diverted to B5, she would tell him. Something also told him that he would need to deliver his message while she was still in MedLab. Turning over command, he left the bridge and made his way down to MedLab.

Susan frowned when she saw Yates enter. The doctor had told her to stay put until she came back. He looked like he had news that was going to make her stress level shoot through the roof.

"What is it?" she asked wearily. One would think that by now she would be used to operating on little or no sleep.

Yates paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. "President Sheridan just diverted us to Babylon 5," he stated simply. "The Juno will cover for us."

"Why?" She was trying very hard not to show the pure anxiety that shot through her. Dear God, she prayed, don't let it be for what I think it is.

"The president didn't say exactly, but he did want me to give you a message. He says that there's good news from an Antilza person."

Susan frowned. Antilza? Her face drained of all color. "The Entil'Zah?" she repeated with the correct pronunciation. "What exactly did he say?"

Yates was growing more worried about his captain. "'Tell her the Entil'Zah has good news.' Captain?"

Susan's eyes grew wide as she heard the insistant whisper again.

Susan.

Suddeny, she *knew* where and who that whisper was coming from. Her vision narrowed to two pinpricks of light just before everything went black.

"Doc!" Yates yelled, catching her as she started to slide off the table. Doctor Raven ran over, her black braid trailing behind her.

"What the hell just happened?"

"I just was telling her a message that the President wanted to give her, and then..." he trailed off, waving a hand at Susan's still form. "Is she okay?"

Raven waved a hand in the air. "Aside from being overworked and overstressed? She'll be fine, provided she can get some rest and food."

Yates raised an eyebrow. "We'll be arriving at the B5 jump gate in less than five hours, Doc, and I get the feeling that Sheridan will want to see her asap."

Raven sighed and shook her head, with a rather stubborn expression on her face. "Commander, no one, not even the president can override my authority as CMO, and I am telling you that she needs more than five hours of sleep." She quickly injected Susan. "I've given her a mild sedative. When she wakes up naturally, that's when she can go see the president."

Yates inclined his head, knowing that she was right. "Inform me of any changes."

Raven nodded.

Two shuttles lined up and gently drifted through the awating portal on the large ship. Once the airlocks had been sealed behind them and the small docking bay pumped full of oxygen, Yates stepped through the airlocks along with most of the other high-ranking officers. They all saluted as Sheridan and his wife Delenn stepped down out of the shuttle and quickly returned the salute. He had seen plenty of vids featuring the two in interviews, but vids didn't fully capture the energy and purpose surrounding them. Both of them were dressed in greens, Sheridan in a light green shirt and a cream suit, while Delenn wore a tight dark green dress with silver trim and a dark brown cloak with a Ranger pin affixed to the right breast. A third person, dressed in Ranger clothing, but not wearing the pin stepped out of the shuttle. His facial features were concealed by the hood pulled over his head, but no one paid him much mind, since he stayed near the shuttle. Most just assumed him to be an anonymous Ranger, there to protect Delenn should the need arise.

The airlock opened once again, and a slightly annoyed Susan Ivanova stepped through, straightening her uniform. Before it shut, Doctor Raven stepped through as well, looking even more annoyed than Susan. Yates shot Raven a confused look. Raven just shrugged in confusion, which would explain just why she looked so annoyed.

Susan was practically shaking and was trying to control her reaction. John returned her salute, but he could see straight past the controlled exterior. Delenn could see it as well.

"It's about Marcus, isn't it?"

Delenn smiled and nodded once. "Yes. About six months ago, Dr. Franklin did a routine check on those still in cryofreeze. When he checked on Marcus, he noticed that his wounds were smaller, and appeared to be healing themselves."

"How?"

"Dr. Franklin doesn't know. It's like his soul was healing his body," Delenn said softly, for Susan's ears only.

Susan thought she knew why, but she needed confirmation. "Why?"

The mysterious man walked forward, drawing his hood back when he was almost face-to-face with her. Marcus smiled. "Because I knew I had to get back to you."

The sound of flesh striking flesh echoed around the bay.

"What the hell was that for?" Marcus worked his jaw around. The area where her hand had struck was stinging like hell.

"For putting me through a year of hell," she hotly informed him. Grabbing both sides of his face, she brought his face down until their lips collided like two ships going full speed. Once they broke off the kiss, he laid his forehead against hers, trying to regain his breath. "That was for being alive," she whispered.

"I do so like being alive," he whispered back.

"Me too," she told him before he re-ignited the violent sensuality of their previous kiss.

A whitsle, sliding from high to low, brought them back to reality. Both John and Delenn looked like cats that had just snagged a twenty-pound turkey, while her crew wore different degrees of astonishment.

"Can I have it back, please?"

Susan shook her head, wondering how he knew that she had it with her. Pulling the pin from her pocket, she flipped open the fastening and pinned it on the right breast of his clothing. Looking back into the green eyes that had seen much more of her than anyone else, she smiled.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Marcus."

"It's good to be back, Susan."

"Stay with me?"

"Always."

They were both smiling as they kissed once again.

The End