Still no ball of light [Re-arrival; OTA; fwd dated to Wednesday]

[soldier_reese]

Kyle was out there somewhere. An unmarked grave with a burial not at all fit for a soldier like him -- a hero. It was just like dying in the future. No burials, no ceremonies. No time to remember. There were more important things to do than grieve. You let go. You keep movingJohn and Sarah had walked on ahead, Derek following but he took one last

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[end_them_all]

From the bench where he'd been sitting, Aidan saw the man appear. He was one of the ones who'd pointed a gun at him. Unfolding himself from the bench, he walked over, looking down at him without saying a word.

[end_them_all]

"Did you?" Fight? Protect? Was he able to do what Aidan had failed to do?

[soldier_reese]

Derek sighed. "I don't know." He made a sweeping gesture. "I'm suddenly back here." He shook his head. "John's all I got. He's all we've got. He's-- important -- in the future." And to Derek.

[end_them_all]

John was like Harry, Harry had said. A hero. "Did you. Before you came back here."

[soldier_reese]

"Faught?" Derek thought of running after the turk, Andy. Wisher. His brother and he loved him and he killed him. And Jesse, God. Jesse. Their baby. Unborn never to see a future. A different timeline. Fuck! It was all a mess in his head.

John.

It always came back to John.

"Yeah. But that's the thing. We just keep fighting. I still don't know how it ends." But he'd fucking die first to make sure they secure a different, better future. He swore that on his life. Just like he swore that he'd protect John. We all die for you, and he meant that.

[end_them_all]

"You might not be meant to know how it ends."

It seemed simple enough to Aidan.

[soldier_reese]

Derek nodded his head. Yeah. Aidan was right. "I was meant to fight and die for John." He was a soldier, first, a soldier last. Uncle was lost somewhere in between.

[end_them_all]

"Maybe that's what you did." Aidan just kept looking at him.

[soldier_reese]

"Maybe." It was only luck that he was still alive, Derek knew. He came so close too many times.

"I wish you'd met him," which would have been interesting given any other situation. They look so much alike only Aidan was lanky, his eyes haunted. Staring into it made Derek shudder. He knew that look, had seen it in the eyes of his soldiers, those people they protect in the barracks.

"How long have you been here?" Derek changed the subject, delaying the inevitable, knowing he'd have to face going back to his room -- no -- their room eventually.

[end_them_all]

"Ten days." Eleven days. Something.

John is here, he could say. But still, something stopped Aidan. Maybe it was resentment; that John had what Aidan wanted. Maybe it was that he wanted to have something someone else didn't. In this case, knowledge.

[soldier_reese]

"Ten days?!" Wait... "But I saw you -- the day John disappeared..." That would mean he'd only been gone a few days even if in his head he knew over a year had passed. How the fuck did that happen?!

[end_them_all]

"If you left after I saw you, you weren't gone very long." Derek had an interesting face.

[soldier_reese]

Fuck! He needed to lie down, a luxury in the future but not here. "I gotta go." Derek knew he'd have to face going back to the room and postponing it would only prolong the agony. Besides, he needed to let Kyle and Sarah know he was back... If they were still here, that was. But that could wait until later. Much, much later. After he'd had the proper time to think and wallow in his overwhelming mixed up emotions.

[end_them_all]

Watching him stand, Aidan stayed sitting. This is when he could say it, he's back, just like that.

He didn't say anything.

[soldier_reese]

Derek stood and walked slowly toward the hotel, a sense of dread surrounding him. He wasn't sure what he'd find there but whatever it was, he was sure of one thing. It won't be John.