(no subject)
Fandom: Babylon 5
Pairing: Marcus Cole/Susan Ivanova
Theme set: Epsilon
Rating: PG
Notes: Written for
1sentence. Spoilers up to and including all the of third and fourth seasons, as well as the series finale.
Summary: It isn’t a gradual realization like she always thought it would be, quite the opposite actually; the fact that Susan Ivanova is in love with Marcus Cole hits her like a ton of bricks.
Motion - “I thought Rangers were supposed to be calm, collected, and never show nervousness,” Susan comments as she slaps a hand down on Marcus’ knee to stop his annoying twitching.
Cool - Wiping away condensation from the front of the cryotube, Susan lays her hand down over Marcus’ face, the closest she’ll ever come to touching him again, and speaks the words she never had the courage to say to him while he was still able to hear them.
Young - Sometimes, when Susan lies awake at night, shivering and alone, she wishes her younger self hadn’t been so foolish, always pushing Marcus away, always trying (but never succeeding) to convince herself that she didn’t care.
Last - Everyone said that Babylon 5 was the last best hope for peace; what no one ever told Susan Ivanova was that it would also be the last place she would ever be truly happy.
Wrong - “This is wrong,” she whispers, trying to pull away from his embrace, the rest of her objections dying on her lips as he pulls her close and kisses her again.
Gentle - Susan hates that everyone is treating her like she’s made of glass and wishes that Marcus was still around because he would treat her normally, but then again, if Marcus where still around, there would be no reason for her friends to be so gentle with her to begin with.
One - Marcus had vowed to live and die for the One, but when it comes down to it, it isn’t the One he lives for; it isn’t the One he dies for.
Thousand - As they stand together on the bridge of the White Star, watching Babylon 4 disappear to a place a thousand years ago, Susan can’t help the tears that come to her eyes, nor her relief when Marcus takes her hand in his own and doesn’t say a word.
King - Susan stares intently at her cards, contemplating her next move, and when she raises her eyes to her opponent and asks if he has a king, Marcus crows delightedly, “Go fish!”
Learn - “I didn’t know you even knew Russian,” Susan says as she reads through his hand-written note once again; Marcus just smiles and decides not to tell her that he learned just to be able to write her a love note in her native language.
Blur - “John’s gone and I’m supposed to run this station and lead the war and…” Susan trails off, her vision starting to blur, and the next thing she knows, she’s sobbing against Marcus’ chest and clinging to him like he’s her lifeline.
Wait - Marcus tells Susan that he’s waiting for the right woman; what he neglects to tell her is that he thinks he’s found the right woman and that the elusive ‘she’ just might be her.
Change - Susan normally doesn’t like change, but she has to admit, she likes her new uniform quite a bit; she likes it even more when Marcus sees her in it for the first time and his jaw drops.
Command - Even though Sheridan is the captain, everyone knows that Susan is really the one in charge and that Marcus is the one she relies on as her second, not Lieutenant Corwin.
Hold - Susan likes to think of herself as a woman who doesn’t need a man to make her life complete, but when Marcus holds her after a long day full of saving the known galaxy, she has a hard time remembering that.
Need - Delenn tells him that he needs to be strong for Susan, that she can’t afford the energy to be strong for herself anymore, and Marcus tries, he really does try, but he knows that Susan can see right through his act to his own need for her to survive.
Vision - He’s getting weaker and weaker by the second, his vision dimming rapidly and soon he can’t see anything at all, can barely feel Susan’s hand in his, but he is more content in this moment than he has ever been before, as if his whole life has been leading up to this final act.
Attention - “You wanted my attention Cole, well now you’ve got it, so speak,” Susan snaps, but suddenly Marcus can’t find the words so he does the next best thing to trying to explain himself: he kisses her.
Soul - If Susan believed in the Minbari philosophy that every soul is reborn in each successive generation, she would think that little David Sheridan (who is not so little anymore) possesses the soul of Marcus Cole, annoyingly cheerful and sarcastic and always able to see right through her; but Susan doesn’t believe in that sort of stuff, so it can’t be true.
Picture - When Susan retires to Minbar to take up the position of Entil Zha, the only thing she takes from her office in Earthdome is the little photo of her and Marcus dancing and laughing together after the defeat of the Shadows.
Fool - “He’s foolish and immature and a pain in my ass and-“ Susan rants to herself, not for the first time, but this time the end of her diatribe is different from before, “and I think I’m falling in love with him.”
Mad - “I must be mad, absolutely mad,” Marcus mutters to himself every time he thinks of Commander Ivanova in a way that is decidedly unprofessional, which happens often enough that everyone he comes into contact with must think he’s mad as well.
Child - “Must you always act like a careless child?” she demands, trying (and failing) to hide her amusement, and grabs his hand to inspect the damage done when he’d grabbed a macaroni noodle straight out of the boiling pot of water.
Now - “Why now?” Susan asks when Marcus kisses her, to which he replies in all seriousness, “Why not now?”
Shadow - “You will see him again in a place where no shadows fall,” Delenn assures her, and Susan wants desperately to believe.
Goodbye - He got to say his goodbye, but he robbed Susan of hers in the process and she resents him for this until the day she dies.
Hide - She thought she had hidden her feelings well, but she has never been able to hide from Marcus, so when he finally confronts her about it, she can’t help but feel relieved that he knows.
Fortune - Susan doesn’t believe in destiny, doesn’t believe that her future is written in stone, but she can’t help herself when it comes to reading her horoscope every day, a fact that Marcus will never let her live down.
Safe - “How are you feeling?” Marcus asks, his voice anxious and uncertain, and Susan, who can’t muster the strength to be sarcastic right now, squeezes his hand as best she is able and replies weakly, “Safe.”
Ghost - She hears him everywhere, can almost swear she saw his billowing cape disappear around a corner in front of her once; his ghost is the reason she has to leave.
Book - “I didn’t know you could read, Marcus,” Susan calls out as she peruses his book shelves, laughing when she spies The Complete Works of Dr. Seuss sitting prominently on the middle shelf.
Eye - Marcus once sees Susan longingly eye a set of hand-carved and painted Babushka dolls in the Zocolo and he can’t help but wonder if she will ever look at him the same way she looks at the beautiful nested doll.
Never - It never occurs to Marcus that Susan will be the one of them to be hurt so badly during their war against Clark; she has always seemed so invincible and it hurts so badly to see her accept her death so calmly.
Sing - “I suppose that, as your suitor, it’s my responsibility to serenade you--“ Marcus begins, only to be cut off by a pillow smacking into the side of his head, “but I suppose Stephen warned you about that, too?”
Sudden - It isn’t a gradual realization like she always thought it would be, quite the opposite actually; the fact that Susan Ivanova is in love with Marcus Cole hits her like a ton of bricks.
Stop - Marcus is rambling on about Minbari civil holidays or something like that, not that Susan cares, but as much as she doesn’t care, she doesn’t want him to stop speaking because there is something she finds quite alluring about his voice.
Time - Time stops, and Marcus is frozen in place, unable to move, to shout, to breathe as he watches Susan go down when the White Star is hit.
Wash - The bruising underneath Susan’s eyes looks a little like smeared mascara and Marcus has the insane urge to try to wash the bruises away like so much makeup.
Torn - When Marcus makes his interest in her clear, Susan finds herself torn between her almost instinctual need to protect herself and her very human need for companionship and love.
History - “History will turn us into legends, into myths,” Susan thinks, wanting nothing more than for history to remember Marcus Cole in the best light possible, truthful or not.
Power - Susan wonders everyday if she really is the best person to be leading the Rangers and she knows that she’s not, but the best person for the job died nearly twenty years ago and no amount of tears and grief will change that, so she will continue to put on the mantle of Entil Zha and lead them as best she can in his stead.
Bother - “Why do you let him bother you?” John asks after another one of Susan’s rants about Marcus, and she lies and says she doesn’t like his lack of discipline because she can’t tell John the real reason, the one she barely lets herself think about.
God - Marcus had stopped believing in God when his family was killed, but when Susan proclaims herself the right hand of God, he finds himself thinking for the first time in years, that, yes, well, maybe there is a God after all.
Wall - Susan isn’t sure who’s more surprised by her actions: Marcus, who she has pinned against the wall or herself when she leans in and kisses him.
Naked - “Picturing you naked,” was the last answer Susan expected when she asked Marcus what he was doing staring at her.
Drive - “Cole, get the hell out of my seat,” she demands the one time he makes the mistake of sitting in the captain’s chair on the White Star.
Harm - “Ranger or not, if you don’t quit annoying me, Marcus, I will have to shoot you, and then I’ll have to fill out all that paperwork, which might just annoy me to the point where I’ll have to shoot you again, and I know you don’t want to be shot twice, so be a good boy, alright?”
Precious - Before Susan leaves Babylon 5 for her new duty post, Delenn pulls her aside and presses Marcus’ most precious possession into her hand, telling her to treasure his sacrifice; when Susan takes up the position of Entil Zha many years later, she pins the decades old brooch to her cloak and wishes not for the first time that Marcus was there with her.
Hunger - “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse,” Marcus proclaims, rubbing his stomach a little for show, to which Susan replies sarcastically, “You’ll just have to settle for something a little smaller since it’s a little difficult to get a horse through customs these days.”
Believe - Ever since her mother’s death, Susan has had a hard time believing that anyone cares for her, but when Marcus tells her that he loves her, she doesn’t doubt.
Pairing: Marcus Cole/Susan Ivanova
Theme set: Epsilon
Rating: PG
Notes: Written for
1sentence. Spoilers up to and including all the of third and fourth seasons, as well as the series finale.
Summary: It isn’t a gradual realization like she always thought it would be, quite the opposite actually; the fact that Susan Ivanova is in love with Marcus Cole hits her like a ton of bricks.
Motion - “I thought Rangers were supposed to be calm, collected, and never show nervousness,” Susan comments as she slaps a hand down on Marcus’ knee to stop his annoying twitching.
Cool - Wiping away condensation from the front of the cryotube, Susan lays her hand down over Marcus’ face, the closest she’ll ever come to touching him again, and speaks the words she never had the courage to say to him while he was still able to hear them.
Young - Sometimes, when Susan lies awake at night, shivering and alone, she wishes her younger self hadn’t been so foolish, always pushing Marcus away, always trying (but never succeeding) to convince herself that she didn’t care.
Last - Everyone said that Babylon 5 was the last best hope for peace; what no one ever told Susan Ivanova was that it would also be the last place she would ever be truly happy.
Wrong - “This is wrong,” she whispers, trying to pull away from his embrace, the rest of her objections dying on her lips as he pulls her close and kisses her again.
Gentle - Susan hates that everyone is treating her like she’s made of glass and wishes that Marcus was still around because he would treat her normally, but then again, if Marcus where still around, there would be no reason for her friends to be so gentle with her to begin with.
One - Marcus had vowed to live and die for the One, but when it comes down to it, it isn’t the One he lives for; it isn’t the One he dies for.
Thousand - As they stand together on the bridge of the White Star, watching Babylon 4 disappear to a place a thousand years ago, Susan can’t help the tears that come to her eyes, nor her relief when Marcus takes her hand in his own and doesn’t say a word.
King - Susan stares intently at her cards, contemplating her next move, and when she raises her eyes to her opponent and asks if he has a king, Marcus crows delightedly, “Go fish!”
Learn - “I didn’t know you even knew Russian,” Susan says as she reads through his hand-written note once again; Marcus just smiles and decides not to tell her that he learned just to be able to write her a love note in her native language.
Blur - “John’s gone and I’m supposed to run this station and lead the war and…” Susan trails off, her vision starting to blur, and the next thing she knows, she’s sobbing against Marcus’ chest and clinging to him like he’s her lifeline.
Wait - Marcus tells Susan that he’s waiting for the right woman; what he neglects to tell her is that he thinks he’s found the right woman and that the elusive ‘she’ just might be her.
Change - Susan normally doesn’t like change, but she has to admit, she likes her new uniform quite a bit; she likes it even more when Marcus sees her in it for the first time and his jaw drops.
Command - Even though Sheridan is the captain, everyone knows that Susan is really the one in charge and that Marcus is the one she relies on as her second, not Lieutenant Corwin.
Hold - Susan likes to think of herself as a woman who doesn’t need a man to make her life complete, but when Marcus holds her after a long day full of saving the known galaxy, she has a hard time remembering that.
Need - Delenn tells him that he needs to be strong for Susan, that she can’t afford the energy to be strong for herself anymore, and Marcus tries, he really does try, but he knows that Susan can see right through his act to his own need for her to survive.
Vision - He’s getting weaker and weaker by the second, his vision dimming rapidly and soon he can’t see anything at all, can barely feel Susan’s hand in his, but he is more content in this moment than he has ever been before, as if his whole life has been leading up to this final act.
Attention - “You wanted my attention Cole, well now you’ve got it, so speak,” Susan snaps, but suddenly Marcus can’t find the words so he does the next best thing to trying to explain himself: he kisses her.
Soul - If Susan believed in the Minbari philosophy that every soul is reborn in each successive generation, she would think that little David Sheridan (who is not so little anymore) possesses the soul of Marcus Cole, annoyingly cheerful and sarcastic and always able to see right through her; but Susan doesn’t believe in that sort of stuff, so it can’t be true.
Picture - When Susan retires to Minbar to take up the position of Entil Zha, the only thing she takes from her office in Earthdome is the little photo of her and Marcus dancing and laughing together after the defeat of the Shadows.
Fool - “He’s foolish and immature and a pain in my ass and-“ Susan rants to herself, not for the first time, but this time the end of her diatribe is different from before, “and I think I’m falling in love with him.”
Mad - “I must be mad, absolutely mad,” Marcus mutters to himself every time he thinks of Commander Ivanova in a way that is decidedly unprofessional, which happens often enough that everyone he comes into contact with must think he’s mad as well.
Child - “Must you always act like a careless child?” she demands, trying (and failing) to hide her amusement, and grabs his hand to inspect the damage done when he’d grabbed a macaroni noodle straight out of the boiling pot of water.
Now - “Why now?” Susan asks when Marcus kisses her, to which he replies in all seriousness, “Why not now?”
Shadow - “You will see him again in a place where no shadows fall,” Delenn assures her, and Susan wants desperately to believe.
Goodbye - He got to say his goodbye, but he robbed Susan of hers in the process and she resents him for this until the day she dies.
Hide - She thought she had hidden her feelings well, but she has never been able to hide from Marcus, so when he finally confronts her about it, she can’t help but feel relieved that he knows.
Fortune - Susan doesn’t believe in destiny, doesn’t believe that her future is written in stone, but she can’t help herself when it comes to reading her horoscope every day, a fact that Marcus will never let her live down.
Safe - “How are you feeling?” Marcus asks, his voice anxious and uncertain, and Susan, who can’t muster the strength to be sarcastic right now, squeezes his hand as best she is able and replies weakly, “Safe.”
Ghost - She hears him everywhere, can almost swear she saw his billowing cape disappear around a corner in front of her once; his ghost is the reason she has to leave.
Book - “I didn’t know you could read, Marcus,” Susan calls out as she peruses his book shelves, laughing when she spies The Complete Works of Dr. Seuss sitting prominently on the middle shelf.
Eye - Marcus once sees Susan longingly eye a set of hand-carved and painted Babushka dolls in the Zocolo and he can’t help but wonder if she will ever look at him the same way she looks at the beautiful nested doll.
Never - It never occurs to Marcus that Susan will be the one of them to be hurt so badly during their war against Clark; she has always seemed so invincible and it hurts so badly to see her accept her death so calmly.
Sing - “I suppose that, as your suitor, it’s my responsibility to serenade you--“ Marcus begins, only to be cut off by a pillow smacking into the side of his head, “but I suppose Stephen warned you about that, too?”
Sudden - It isn’t a gradual realization like she always thought it would be, quite the opposite actually; the fact that Susan Ivanova is in love with Marcus Cole hits her like a ton of bricks.
Stop - Marcus is rambling on about Minbari civil holidays or something like that, not that Susan cares, but as much as she doesn’t care, she doesn’t want him to stop speaking because there is something she finds quite alluring about his voice.
Time - Time stops, and Marcus is frozen in place, unable to move, to shout, to breathe as he watches Susan go down when the White Star is hit.
Wash - The bruising underneath Susan’s eyes looks a little like smeared mascara and Marcus has the insane urge to try to wash the bruises away like so much makeup.
Torn - When Marcus makes his interest in her clear, Susan finds herself torn between her almost instinctual need to protect herself and her very human need for companionship and love.
History - “History will turn us into legends, into myths,” Susan thinks, wanting nothing more than for history to remember Marcus Cole in the best light possible, truthful or not.
Power - Susan wonders everyday if she really is the best person to be leading the Rangers and she knows that she’s not, but the best person for the job died nearly twenty years ago and no amount of tears and grief will change that, so she will continue to put on the mantle of Entil Zha and lead them as best she can in his stead.
Bother - “Why do you let him bother you?” John asks after another one of Susan’s rants about Marcus, and she lies and says she doesn’t like his lack of discipline because she can’t tell John the real reason, the one she barely lets herself think about.
God - Marcus had stopped believing in God when his family was killed, but when Susan proclaims herself the right hand of God, he finds himself thinking for the first time in years, that, yes, well, maybe there is a God after all.
Wall - Susan isn’t sure who’s more surprised by her actions: Marcus, who she has pinned against the wall or herself when she leans in and kisses him.
Naked - “Picturing you naked,” was the last answer Susan expected when she asked Marcus what he was doing staring at her.
Drive - “Cole, get the hell out of my seat,” she demands the one time he makes the mistake of sitting in the captain’s chair on the White Star.
Harm - “Ranger or not, if you don’t quit annoying me, Marcus, I will have to shoot you, and then I’ll have to fill out all that paperwork, which might just annoy me to the point where I’ll have to shoot you again, and I know you don’t want to be shot twice, so be a good boy, alright?”
Precious - Before Susan leaves Babylon 5 for her new duty post, Delenn pulls her aside and presses Marcus’ most precious possession into her hand, telling her to treasure his sacrifice; when Susan takes up the position of Entil Zha many years later, she pins the decades old brooch to her cloak and wishes not for the first time that Marcus was there with her.
Hunger - “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse,” Marcus proclaims, rubbing his stomach a little for show, to which Susan replies sarcastically, “You’ll just have to settle for something a little smaller since it’s a little difficult to get a horse through customs these days.”
Believe - Ever since her mother’s death, Susan has had a hard time believing that anyone cares for her, but when Marcus tells her that he loves her, she doesn’t doubt.