*******************

     At this hour, the dining hall was all but empty.  T'rell leaned
back in 
his chair and regarded Jason coolly.  "All right...what did you want to
talk 
about?"

     "About Mari, mainly," Jason replied.  "I don't understand why you
forced 
her to choose between us."

     "She'd have had to choose eventually," T'rell said.  "No point in 
prolonging it, was there?"

     He stared down into his empty cup, then looked back up at Jason.
"And 
do you know who'd have been the one hurt if it *was* prolonged?  Mari,
that's 
who.  I didn't ask for this situation...and I don't like it now...but we
all 
have to deal with it, don't we?"

     "I know I'm saying this in hindsight," Jason said as calmly as he
could,
"but I don't think you fully realise how much you hurt her. At least,
not until
now. I didn't want this to happen, T'rell. In fact, it was the furthest
thing 
from my mind."

     "I believe you."

     "Do you?" Jason looked at his companion quizzically. "That look you
gave me
at training today. You don't like the idea of me being with her instead
of you."

     "Would you?" T'rell asked bluntly. Jason shook his head.

     "No, I wouldn't, but thats not the point. The fact is no matter
what I might
feel towards Marialla, I am still unsure whether what she feels is only
a 
reaction to what you said or not. If it is, then me encouraging her will
make the
choice she made all that much worse."

     "Somehow, I don't think thats going to happen," T'rell said sadly.
"Anything
that Mari and I had is over."

     "How can you be so sure of that?" Jason asked him. "You've known
here for 
longer than I have. Whats to say she doesn't just need some time to
recognise
that you didn't mean what you said?" T'rell looked at Jason for a long
moment,
perhaps searching to see if the young man was being serious or making a
bad joke.
But it was clear that he wasn't joking.

     "Jason," T'rell replied, a faint smile on his face, "when you've
been around
a little longer, you will find out that women rarely make decisions and
then take
them back." He shook his head. "No, Marialla made up her mind as soon as
I made
that comment and no matter what she might think afterwards, nothing can
change it.
Don't compromise what happiness you might have with her by trying to
change her 
mind." 
 
     Jason raised an eyebrow in question, but said nothing.
    
     T'rell leaned forward.  "Look....Marialla is *not* the type who can 
be in love with two men at the same time.  She had to choose, for her
own
well-being, whether she realizes it now or not.  So, I forced her to
choose...not because I didn't care about her, but because I did care.  
Maybe I cared too much...but that's neither here nor there.  She had to
choose
between us in order to keep herself from being torn in two.  She chose,
and
I'm not going to complain about it now."

      Jason nodded slowly.  "And what about me?"

      T'rell raised an eyebrow.  "What about you?" he asked.  "Are you 
asking if you need to watch your back anytime I'm anywhere around?"

      "I just want to know how this changes things between us."

      T'rell frowned.  "Look, I'll level with you...I don't *blame* you
per 
se for what's happened here...maybe I should, but I don't.  Still in
all, 
every time I see you I'm going to think of her...and I don't suppose I
need to 
tell you how that feels."

     Jason shook his head.

      "But I'm going to tell you one thing, Jason," T'rell said,pointing
a
finger at the younger man. "Despite what's happened, I do still care
for Marialla...I'll probably never care for another person as long as I
live,, but I will always care about her.  Take care of her, you
understand?
If you don't, I'll know about it!"

     Jason suppressed the retort that came to mind. T'rell was only
telling
him how he felt and Jason knew he had to respect that. Quite a few other
people
might have had a go at Jason for what had happened, but to T'rell's
credit he
hadn't. That told Jason a great deal about T'rell and made him feel very
happy 
that it hadn't escalated into violence.

     "I'd much rather have you as a friend than an enemy, T'rell," Jason
said. 
"I know it's going to be hard, but I hope we can stay friends for some
time to 
come." He extended his hand across the table to his companion, who took
it and 
gripped it hard.

     "So do I, Jason. There aren't many others I would trust with her."
A pained 
look came suddenly over his face and he abruptly stood up from his
chair. "I'll
speak to you later." 

     Marialla came and sat down next to Jason as T'rell walked out of
the room,
a concerned look on her face.

     "What was that about?" Jason shrugged lightly.

     "T'rell and I decided we needed to clear the air between us, so we
sat down
and talked things out.

     
     "And?"

     "Well he didn't hit me," Jason said lightly, "so I think things
came out
pretty well."

*********

A joint post, submitted by

T'rell and Flerrion aka John Pepper

and

Jason and Starfire aka Michael Turek

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     /       "o.  |o }            
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                   ',
        \_         __\
          ''-_    \.//		Michael Turek
            / '-____'		mdt02@uow.edu.au
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