Title: A Good Thing.

Author: Hawkeye

Rating: PG-13

Summary: can’t be bothered to write one. It’s only short, go read it :D

Harper sat in his darkened quarters, his back pressed firmly against the bulk head; his legs stretched out and pondered the object on the floor in front of him.

Old tears stained his face even as new ones built up in his eyes. He felt a twinge of pain in his stomach and instinctively reached for his medicine….only to find it gone. He closed his eyes and felt tears roll free down his cheeks. The Magog larvae were gone, finally. And this was a good thing.

The last 24 hours had been pretty confusing. It had started out with blinding pain then things had pretty much nosedived.

He still couldn’t believe Hohne was dead. Hohne, the technological mastermind behind most of the last 20 years great innovations had died to help him. Harper couldn’t take the guilt

Which wasn’t to say he hadn’t tried to save him. He looked down at his hand and remembered the feeling as Hohne slipped out of his grasp and fell to the bottom of the slipstream core. Hell, he was probably the only person in history who had tried to save someone from dying after they were already dead. He’d made his decision, and it had been the right decision. He was going to sacrifice himself for Hohne, for the good of the Perseid’s, for the good of Universe. For once in his life he was going to do a good thing.

He’d also figured out tesseracting. He’d figured out space and time and bent them to his will. The technology he’d created could help millions upon millions of people. Well it would if he could fix a few of the teething problems. That was another good thing.

But then she’d come. His best friend had saved him. Only she wasn’t his best friend. She didn’t look like her, she didn’t act like her. He couldn’t accept….he wouldn’t accept that this person was his friend. She said she’d changed places to come and change the future. She’d made mistakes she needed to fix. She was doing a good thing.

Harper picked up the object in front of him and ran his hand along it. He thought back to when he’d had the Magog eggs. At the time, he couldn’t think of a worse fate than dying from the infestation, he’d wanted to end it then, to cheat them out of killing him. But he’d found a fate worse than death, and ironically it was living. Living with the knowledge that he’d been responsible for the death of one of the universes greatest minds. And living without his best friend. And this was supposed to be a good thing?

He’d known Trance since back before they’d found the Andromeda. They’d hit it off immediately, squabbling like brother and sister one minute, holding hands and giggling like young lovers the next. They’d stuck together through everything, through thick and thin. He’d never minded her being mysterious and secretive because she was a good thing. His good thing.

He rested the object in his hand against his chin. More tears welled up and spilt over his cheeks. He’d give anything to see his purple pixie skip through the doors, sit next to him and give him a big hug, to tell him he was going to be all right. And everything would be back to normal. But that wasn’t going to happen ever again. Never Ever again. That wasn’t a good thing.

The words ‘never ever’ bounced around his mind for a few seconds. So that was why he was here. The Magog were gone, but so was Hohne and so was Trance. The universe was a darker place because of him. And what was he? A simple engineer. He had no right to make the universe a darker place. There were enough people trying to do that without him sticking his nose in. So what he was going to do would be a good thing.

Harper closed his eyes and slipped his finger around the trigger. A good thing.