Before
Deslea R. Judd
Copyright 2003


DISCLAIMER: Characters not mine. Interpretation mine.
ARCHIVE: Yes, just keep my name and headers.
RATING: PG.
SPOILERS/TIMEFRAME: Some years after NIHT II.
CATEGORY/KEYWORDS: Knowle. Shannon.
SUMMARY: It seems to her that her life is divided into before and after. 155 words.
MORE STORIES: http://fiction.deslea.com
FEEDBACK: Love the stuff. deslea@deslea.com
AWARDS/ELIGIBILITY: Spooky Awards 2004 eligible.




It seems to her that her life is divided into before and after.

She hasn't seen Knowle in years. The last time, they came to blows, but she misses him anyway. In her darkest moments, she comforts herself with his memory. His arms around her are an afterthought, but she misses being known.

He was just another soldier to her once. He might have stayed that way had her life followed its predictable path. There was no attraction - just the shared satisfaction of a job well done. They high-fived one another, cheered each other on. Nothing more.

But that was before. Afterwards, he was the only one who knew her. The only one to understand. Coupling was inevitable. The alternative was silence in a world of walking dead.

It occurs to her that she loves him - after a fashion - simply because he was there.

She loves him because he knew her before.



END

---

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I don't normally write 155-word pieces, but this one - originally meant to be part of a larger work in progress - just seemed to work on its own. There is a longer Knowle/Shannon backstory in the works revolving around the same basic idea, but that probably won't be finished until after XFVCU is done.