Title: So simple- Part 2.

Summary: Dylan thinks about his feelings for Rommie (Dylan/Rommie) Short one-shot

Genre: Romance/General.

Rating: K (Alright for any age. No profanities or sexual/violent acts.)

Disclaimer: Alright, lets go over this one more time shall we? Do I own anything Andromeda related? No. Did I say I own anything Andromeda related? No. Will I ever own anything Andromeda related? I hope so!

A/N: OK, so I know this is amazingly delayed (2 years!) but there's only so long you can ignore the bunny biting your ass right? Hehe. So anyway, here it is. This chapter is slightly longer than the first one so… enjoy and remember to review!

---

He dismissed the question to begin with, what kind of question was it anyway? "Do you love her?" Of course he did, she was his ship, every captain loved their ship. However, Dylan knew that that wasn't what Beka had meant when she asked. She was asking him if he was in love with her, if he was in love Rommie.

He thought he knew the answer as soon as she asked, yes, he loved her but not in the way Beka had meant and he told Beka just that. In hindsight, his answer came far too quickly for it to be entirely convincing. He rushed the final words out as though he didn't want to say them. It was like removing a bandage stuck to your skin, it hurt less if pulled quickly.

This, on the other hand, was not what he had expected when he had time alone with his thoughts. He didn't expect to be sitting in his quarters mulling over the very thought that he had so quickly brushed aside earlier that day. Did he love Rommie?

He thought back to the years they had spent together, so many long years before the black hole. They had been together almost 10 years by the time of that fateful battle and over that time Dylan had come to care for Andromeda more than he knew he probably should. She was his ship yes, and it was obvious that the visual representation of herself was amazingly beautiful. Anyone could see that- they would have had to be either blind or stupid to not recognise her stunning features and so a certain level of… he was unsure how to put it… a certain level of what? Feelings? Admiration? Yes, admiration sounded similar to what he felt for her before they got stuck in the black hole. Not exact, no words could express the exact feelings he held for his ship back then, even now as he thought about it. He was in love with Sarah, he was going to marry her she was the one woman he wanted to spend his life with and he was more than ready to take that step with her.

He didn't regret asking her to marry him because he was in love with her more than he thought possible, but Andromeda would always hold a special place in his heart. Both he and Sarah knew that and they both knew that it did not interfere with the complete love he felt for Sarah. He admired Andromeda, he was attracted to her visual representation and he loved her but not in the way that he loved Sarah. That much he was sure of. Back before he lost it all.

Then, as a second of his life ticked by, his entire world crashed down around him. In a mere second from his perspective passed Sarah lost him, she aged, she married another man, she had children and she died of old age. The Commonwealth fell in a spectacular show of defiance and his entire universe died. Yes, it was still there but it was changed, it was different. People had to fight for their lives on a daily basis and there was no all powerful force of good protecting the people of the known galaxies. Everything he knew was gone, everything except his one constant over the past ten years of his life.

Andromeda was still standing at his side, he was still encased within her protective skin and as he looked at her hologram once he found everything gone, he knew that she was still there and that made everything seem just a tiny bit brighter.

He lost the love of his life, but she who held a special place in his heart was right beside him, as it had always been. Still, he was able to keep a professional distance between them, he couldn't touch her and so anything going beyond the professional was kept very easy in his mind. If he couldn't touch her, he couldn't kiss her and take things past the barrier that he had erected in his mind.

In the space of a minute that barrier shattered. Andromeda strolled onto command oh so very there. His mind ceased logical thought in those few seconds as he looked at his beautiful ship. His gorgeous ship made flesh. In that minute he both thanked the Gods for Harpers genius, and cursed the very same Gods for the very same thing.

He couldn't take his eyes off her as she saved dozens of galaxies and his and his crew's life. "Dylan may not be a God" she had said in the voice he had thought of in his dreams "But on this ship, I am." In a single sentence and with a solitary look she had saved everything.

From that moment on everything he had held up in the way of developing feelings for his ship had been smashed down. She was there, he could touch her, laugh with her, hold her, teach her everything it meant to be human. He could be her friend and, he found, he could be so much more. If only he could allow himself to.

He thought of the many times he wanted to kiss her with every fibre of his being, he wanted to kiss her and whisper words of love to her as she cried in his arms. He would kill The Balance of Judgement for hurting her.

He wanted to kiss her when he saw her after the incident with the Ceitus. He was so afraid of loosing her. Trance reminded him of his 'other options' but he wouldn't and couldn't think of the option she gave. Yes, if the Ceitus had consumed Andromeda then the planet may well have been saved, mission accomplished, but when he said they would have lost the universe if the Andromeda was gone, he meant it in more ways than one. The relief he felt when he saw her on command was unimaginable.

He wanted to kiss her when she came back from her incident with The Balance yet again. Yes, Hector was fine but she meant everything to him. Without her he wouldn't be able to breathe- she was his air. He couldn't live without her.

Thinking about all of these moments it became clear to him, it amazed him how much he was able to deny his feelings and believe himself when he told Beka he didn't love Rommie in the way that she meant, because as of this moment, it was clear to him that he loved her in the exact way that she had meant. He loved her with his every breath and with every beat of his heart. She was his universe.

Nothing is ever easy. He realised that he said this far too much but in this case it was true. Yes, he loved her. He loved her more than anything but love alone was not enough to be able to make being with her right. It was against everything he was taught to believe as he trained to become captain; you must not fall in love with your ship. If you did you would face the consequences and be removed as captain. The love a captain felt for their ship may cloud the judgement.

However, as he thought about it, he realised that there was no Commonwealth, no High Guard beyond that which he, along with Rommie had created. There was no one to tell him that he was wrong to feel as he did. No one to make him face the consequences of loosing her.

Yes, he loved her. He loved her with his everything but was it that simple?

---

OK, there you go folks! Chapter 2, finito! (eventually heh)

This is the end for now… far too much work to do for Uni for this writing lark. :p

I do have an idea for the third chap so… we'll see if I can manage to shake it off or if I have to write it to stop the bunny from biting. :D

Thanks for reading and remember to review:)

Just Breathing (previously known as The Twilight Writer)