6

Sighing Darren broke their embrace and getting up retrieved his jumpsuit from under the bed.

'I'm sorry.' He said as he zipped it up and then pulled on his boots

Daniel waved him aside. 'Go, duty calls.'

He was still unsure what to make of the whole episode.

'At least think about it.' Darren placed a gentle kiss on Daniel's lips. 'I meant it. I want to be with you, whatever it takes.' And then he was gone, the doors hissing gently shut behind him, leaving Daniel still sat on the bed, his mind a mass of confusion and conflicting emotions.

Much as Daniel loved Darren, and he had finally admitted to himself that he was still in love with his former lover, he knew that it could never work. There were just too many obstacles in their way.

Lying back flat he linked his hands behind his head. Why had the fates deemed that Darren should re-enter his life and why now?

Once upon a time he would have moved the entire galaxy to be with Darren but that was before. Before Darren had become power hungry, desperate to gain promotion after promotion. Daniel preferring to remain in the background as they were posted to one star station after another. Always supportive, always there for him but soon it had all become too much for him. Gone were the carefree early days when they were both young lieutenants eager to explore the delights and wonders of outer space. Exploration inevitably gave way to diplomatic missions, meeting and greeting various dignitaries, always having to perform and project the Corps' image. Daniel hated it and as time went on felt that somewhere along the line they had lost sight of what was important, what had initially attracted them to each other.

Darren changed.

He changed.

And they had parted ways. Seemingly amicably, seemingly accepting that they just wanted different things from life, from their careers but everyone around them knowing that it went much deeper than that. To put it bluntly they had just drifted apart.

The past was just that, past and there was nothing he could do to alter that. He wasn't even sure he wanted to. Yes, it had been rough towards the end but they had also had some very good times together yet was there still enough there to try and recapture those times?

Letting a moan of frustration and unknowing slip from between his lips, Daniel levered himself up and straightening his clothing made to leave the suite. At the end of the day he still had a ship to run and a UNSC search team to see safely off his vessel.

'Computer end program.' He called out and the Venusian room along with it's intimate furnishings disappeared to be replaced by the bland, white visage of the holodeck in stasis. He stepped through the doors and paused by the control console. His fingers hovered over the keyboard and then tapped in a few lines of command.

'Are you sure you want to delete program DV_5?' the screen enquired.

Daniel resolutely hit two more keys.

'Program deleted.' The screen confirmed in stark black lettering.

Daniel turned his back on it and entered his living quarters. A shower and a change of clothing.

It was time to return to the present and be a Captain again.