Never Enough
Reason 6: Distraction
(Season 5, Episode 14, Meditations on the Abyss)
"Delenn, I don't understand why you needed to see me alone down here. I could have met you in your quarters or Council Chambers-"
"Someone would have seen you and asked about you. We need to be discreet. I couldn't even risk a coded transmission."
"Does Sheridan know?"
"He's probably the most important reason I'm keeping this meeting just between us."
"Delenn . . . what is it you want from me?"
"Your help. Following a trip to the Drazi Homeworld . . . Mr. Garibaldi returned with several compelling reasons to believe that the Centauri are behind the recent attacks against of the shipping lines used by the other Alliance worlds."
"Well, then, confront them."
"I said we had reason, not proof. We can't go public with what we expect until we can prove their involvement. Many of the Rangers are patrolling the shipping lines . . . but none of them have the experience with the Centauri that you and I have. So, I need you on patrol along the Centauri border . . . watching for anything suspicious. You know how they think, how they fight. If anyone can get the evidence we need, it's you."
"But why not tell Sheridan?"
"Since the death of Marcus . . . and given the danger involved . . . I think John would be reluctant to send someone close to me on a mission like this. As a friend, he would want to protect you. As my husband, he would need to protect me from anything that might happen to you."
"I think, in that respect, he does not know you as well as he should."
"He knows me. But he also loves me. And sometimes the one gets in the way of the other."
"Yes, I imagine it could do that."
Delenn replayed her conversation with Lennier over and over in her head. She had just sent her very good friend on a most dangerous mission. It was for the greater good, she knew, but Delenn didn't want to even entertain the thought of something awful happening to Lennier. A cold shudder went through her and she stoically pushed the foreboding thought from her mind.
He'd told her that Morden had come to him during the Brakiri Day of the Dead ritual. Morden, a Shadow puppet, had apparently convinced Lennier he would betray the Rangers. Delenn shook her head, refusing to dwell on that impossibility either. And it was impossible. Lennier represented the best of Minbar-loyalty, dedication, bravery.
Delenn entered her quarters, absently unbuttoning and removing her hooded cloak, the one that kept her identity a secret when she'd made her way to meet Lennier in Down Below. The very last thing she needed was to be recognized and have John find out. It was bad enough some foul man had dared touch her, thinking his superior size gave him privilege over a woman he'd believed to be his inferior. But Lennier was there, as she knew he would be, and he'd proven his loyalty to her once again.
He was indeed the perfect Ranger for the job. And while Delenn knew his leaving and joining the Anla'shok was motivated for all the wrong reasons, even she couldn't deny how naturally he'd seemed to adapt to his training, how much he'd accomplished in only a few short months.
But still . . . he was indeed pushing himself too hard. And a part of her, a selfish part of Delenn, wished he was still the timid acolyte who'd first arrived on Babylon 5 nearly five years ago. But no, that Lennier was long gone, and Delenn could never deny Lennier his growth, his desire to be more, to define himself on his own terms.
So with little choice, she'd let him go, praying for his safety, while lamenting the inevitable altering of their friendship. And it had changed, as she knew it would when she'd decided to take John Sheridan as her mate, her husband.
Delenn slipped out of her shoes, and walked as softly as possible as to not awake John. It was still early, but not quite time to begin the day.
She opened the sliding bedroom doors, expecting to see John asleep. Instead, his nightstand lamp was on and he was sitting up, wide awake.
She should have known.
"You've been gone quite a while, Delenn, I was beginning to worry."
She had been. And she would've been away even longer if Lennier had stayed and talked as she'd requested. Valen, she truly did miss his presence in her life, his easy friendship and quiet, dignified strength.
Delenn placed her shoes in the closet and looked at her husband. She felt a pang of guilt for her deception. She hadn't lied to him when he'd asked where she was going. She had, in fact, left paperwork in her quarters she needed for today's Council meeting. But she had done so deliberately, giving herself a convenient excuse in case she needed one. And while it wasn't quite a lie, according to Minbari standards, Delenn understood humans well enough to know that, as they say, she was splitting hairs. Lies of omission they called it. And so it was.
"I didn't mean to worry you."
Delenn joined John in bed, and the way his mouth quirked up at the ends, she knew he had more questions. Questions she had no intention of answering. A lie of omission was one thing, but outright lying was something different entirely. She would not do that, however . . .
She straddled his legs. "It pleases me that you decided to wait up for me instead of going back to sleep."
He raised one questioning eyebrow at her deliberately seductive tone, then a slow, masculine smile began to form, spreading from his lips, up his cheeks, and settling in his sparkling, knowing eyes.
"We should've gone together. I don't know what I was thinking letting you go out so late by yourself."
She gave him her most sensual smile and began a slow glide down his solidly pleasing body, pressing all of her against all of him. "But we're together now, John."
He gasped when she slipped her hand in his boxers and began to stroke him the way he liked.
"Ah, that we are, honey. Are you sure you w-want to do this now?"
"As you humans say, there's no better time than the present."
"Oh-well, if you in-insist."
And she did; now being the perfect time.
Then hand gave way to mouth, finding and sucking pleasure center number one.
"Good, god, Delenn, you drive a man to d-istrac-tion."
Exactly.
TO BE CONTINUED