Disclaimers and notes: In part 1, with a small note at the end of this part.

Over the Borderline
by Estirose
c 2006

Part 8 (36-40)

36. Worst Case Scenario

"See?" Katie said as the two of them wandered up into the top of the clocktower. "It could have been far worse."

Trip nodded, mouth opening as if to say something, but thinking better of it.

"Trip?" Katie asked. "What were you going to say?"

"It's nothing," Trip answered quickly. One step forward, two steps back.

"Trip... let's not do this again, please?" Katie pleaded, looking at her green-haired teammate.

"It's just... it's just... do you know what you're getting into?" Trip blurted out.

Katie looked at him. Looked at him hard. "No," she said. "But I know I can take it. Besides, what's the adventure in knowing everything?"

"The worst case scenario?" Trip asked. "Being around people who will never accept you, no matter what?"

She heard the horror in Trip's voice. Known he'd experienced it.

"So let's not let it get that way," she said firmly.

37. Mirror

"Katie..." Trip said hesitantly. "If we get involved... get together... my family won't like it. Or you." His voice was soft. No use scaring Lucas or Wes with the truth about his people and family.

"It's okay," Katie said soothingly, drawing him to the couch. "Who said we had to care about your family anyway?"

Trip sighed. Human families seemed to be far different from Xybrian ones; he doubted she'd understand how little chance he had of cutting himself from his family completely. Yes, he'd be a family black sheep, as humans here put it, but he'd always remain teathered. His family couldn't help but keep track, and there was always the hope that the family outcast's kids would turn out better than their outcast parent. "Xybrian families aren't like that," he said, not wanting to explain. "No matter how far away we get, we're still family."

"It's funny," Katie said, "that it's like that in my family too. But my family - my parents - would accept you, just for who you are. They wouldn't care at all what planet you came from, if we were in love."

Trip thought of how carefree and loving and forgiving Katie was, and guessed that it was love, more than anything else, that had made her the person he'd fallen for. She was so lucky to have a family like hers, a mirror of his own, but his family reflected in love.

Not that his family didn't love him too in their own way, he reflected, but Katie's... Katie's would be the one he wished he had.

38. Darkness

"You aren't telling me everything," Katie said. "Is it really that bad?"

She wanted to know. She wanted to cushion Trip from what he'd been through. True, he was a Ranger, tough, willing to fight, but family was one of the toughest things to deal with.

Trip was ducking his head again. "Xybrian families... Xybrian parents and children... we have bonds that are hard to break. You have to do something really bad to have your family break them completely." He shuddered, and Katie didn't ask what that something was. He'd either tell her some day, or he wouldn't. "It's like being plunged into darkness, when someone cuts you out."

"Well, then, let's not let them cut you out," Katie said. "You can't help who you fall in love with."

"They won't see it that way," Trip said, sounding miserable.

39. Closer

"So what?" Katie asked. "You can form new bonds, can't you?"

"New... bonds?" Trip said, looking at her. "With who?"

"My family," Katie told him.

Trip couldn't help but stare. Form a bond with a non-telepath? Did she have any telepaths in her family, he wondered.

But her family was close, it sounded like. Closer, and in ways far better than his had ever been.

No, they wouldn't be telepaths, no, it wouldn't be as close. But Trip had a sense that they'd be there for him. He could break with his family. He could be who he wanted to be and his new family would accept him.

Was that what he really wanted? To be with people who were mindblind, accept a family that was that way, in lieu of his own?

Looking at Katie, there could be only one decision, one choice.

Yes.

40. Home

Katie could see Trip's acceptance written all over his face. She was relieved that he'd made his choice. Knowing Trip, once he made up his mind, it was likely made up for good.

And when they returned back to their own century, Katie would make sure he didn't regret his choice. Sure, there would be rough spots - his family's rejection, it sounded like, among them. But they'd make it through.

Katie drew Trip close. They'd make it through the twenty-first century. They'd become closer. Bond in the human way. Bond in the Xybrian way, if needed.

And then they would go home. To her home. Their home.

-Their home.-

She gave Trip a gentle hug.

End

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Well, that's it, folks. 40 romance challenges done. I see Vespera's posted up 20 more, but that's the end of this story. Hope all of you enjoyed it!

Thanks to Chris Funaro and Beth Epstein (Tptigger) for reading these over and making sure they made sense before I posted them. And thanks to everybody who's stuck through all eight parts of this UC couple fic.