Turn Out The Light And What Are You Left With (Sydney/Derek) PG
Title: Turn Out The Light And What Are You Left With
Rating: PG
Word Count: 300
Summary: Here's the thing: Sydney Bristow? Not exactly a damsel looking to be saved.
Terminator/Alias crossover
Characters: Sydney Bristow, Derek Reese
A/N: For choco_cherries, week 12. Prompt hum.


Here's the thing: Sydney Bristow? Not exactly a damsel looking to be saved.

It doesn't make him want to be the one to do that any less appealing.



He finds her the way he always does: downcast eyes and a man that meant everything not so long ago ghosting the space between.

Michael Vaughn died the day the world ended, all that's left of him a watch she kept by accident and memories that barely serve to hold her in the same vicinity of sane.

He never asks if she wants to talk about it. He doesn't pretend to know what it feels like though he can probably deduce the gist.

He's lost enough people to know that there are no words to ease the heartbreak that comes with burying another friend beneath the rubble that once was home. (Sometimes, he wakes up calling his brother's name, forgetting where he is. A fist to a wall when he remembers.)

But there are arms and hands, his fingers against her wrist, the band of leather sliding across it and to the floor, a soundless descent.

There's the sigh she allows herself right before the sum of her parts collapse against his.

"I don't love you." But above all there's this, always after and never before, her cheeks aflush, nails snapping for skin and finding it. (He wonders if leaving him black and blue is her way of saying i need you even if i don't love you, i need you.)

In the din, she's staring him down, no doubt waiting for the retort he's not giving her tonight, but he just smiles.



He's not her hero; she's far from being his salvation.

The world ended, but they're still here, fighting for tomorrow.

And on the battlefield, it’s her name he hums.