With the influx of new memories recently, Octavia felt like it had been so long since she'd seen Lincoln. Since she'd kissed, touched, or been held in his strong arms that felt like she was safe and at home. No mat what happened or who she may or may not have been with, she'd never had that feeling again since. On the other hand, it felt like yesterday when she watched him fall to the ground after being executed by Pike. She couldn't believe he was actually here.
Becker had given her the day off, so she immediately left for Intake to find him. A lot had happened between his death and now, and that didn't even count the memories she was still sorting through. Memories that had left her feeling jaded and confused.
Once she'd arrived, someone pointed her in the direction where Lincoln was waiting, and she tried to compose herself before seeing him. She shouldn't have been nervous, she should have been running into his arms, but for some reason she hesitated. Octavia wasn't the same girl he'd known. She was older, sure, but she was also harder. Atlantis had helped a lot with that, but she still wasn't who he remembered.
“Lincoln?” she said when she walked into the room. His back was facing her, and when he turned around, her heart leapt in her chest. “You're here.”
The last thing Lincoln remembered was kneeling down on the wet ground, the image of Octavia on his mind, knowing and wanting her to be the last thing he saw before Pike pulled the trigger. Embracing for the end, a look of confusion came over his face when the sight all changed to a room with people all around. Standing up quickly, the wetness from the ground could be felt on his knees, telling him everything had been real. He never heard the gunshot or felt anything close to death, but then how was this possible? Where was he?
Reaching out for answers had seemed like the best course of action, proving right when Octavia was somehow here as well. With her coming to find him, Lincoln took a moment to try and take in what was going on, and finding it was a lost cause. Tensing up when someone bumped into him only nodding when they apologized. His thoughts of the place and analyzing it went away the second he heard a voice he knew quite well. Turning around, he could see a difference from the Octavia he had seen only a little while ago; however, she was still just as beautiful.
“Octavia,” the name brought a small smile to his face, “I don’t know how, but I am here.” Part of him wanted to pull her close and never let her go, knowing it could be the last time he could touch her. With her seeming different, he wanted her to make the choice since he didn’t know if she was mad for what he did or what was going on in her head.
The moment she heard his voice, Octavia felt that warm pull of home start to wrap around her. Not the physical part of their world but the feeling of belonging. Ever since she’d known him, she’d felt that with Lincoln. Her people, his people - none of it mattered. They were each other’s through it all.
Without much of a second thought, she walked over to him and stood just in front of him, looking up into his dark eyes. He still wore traces of their world - the dust and the dirt from the earth. A moment later, Octavia wrapped her arms around him and breathed in his familiar scent. She could feel his arms wrap around her body, and she never wanted him to let go.
"Ai mema we yu," she said into his chest. “It’s been too long.”
For him, he saw Octavia only a little while ago, but it felt like ages, especially when Lincoln could see a difference on her. The woman he loved, the only person who accepted him for who he was without trying to turn him into someone else. He could be himself something he could never do with his people and most of the Sky people didn’t see him as an equal, no matter what some of them said, but the only person whose thoughts mattered to him was the woman in front of him.
Feeling her wrap her arms around him made the confusion of this place vanish for the time being. Wrapping his arms around her, holding her close as his eyes closed, and enjoying this moment. Lincoln wanted to question her about this place along with many other things, but right now he only wanted her close.
Lincoln gently ran his fingers through her dark hair, feeling like she needed this without any questions. He had no idea how long it had been for her, but that phase had him believing it was longer than he realized. “I don’t know how long it has been, but I’m here now, and I’m not going anywhere,” he told her, not even knowing if he had a choice in the matter or not. He pulled back slightly, taking her face into his hands, brushing his rough thumbs across her cheek gently, “I promise I’m not going anywhere.”
Octavia looked up into Lincoln’s eyes when he held her face. Tears threatened to fall, but she forced herself to bite them back. He was making promises that she knew he couldn’t keep no matter what his intentions might have been. He wanted to stay, she wanted him to stay, but it wasn’t always up to the person. Sometimes Atlantis made the decision for you.
Leaning forward, she kissed him. Octavia wanted to stay in this moment and block everything else out around them. Even without the added six years of memories, it had still been a long time since she’d been this close to him. She’d missed this so much. Missed him.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said a moment after pulling away from him. She didn’t want their reunion to be in the middle of Intake.
Lincoln could see the look on her face, and it broke his heart to see the woman he loved was hurting, and he didn’t even know how to make it better. He didn’t know what he was missing or even what Octavia had been dealing with other than she looked different than when he saw her last. All he knew was that he didn’t want to leave her again. Lincoln wanted to stay here with Octavia. It allowed him to stay alive, but also he could be here with her again without the threat of Pike around.
When Octavia kissed him, Lincoln’s arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer to him. Losing himself in the moment with his only focus being on the woman in front of him. Even forgetting how he was somehow in a strange place like nothing he had ever seen before. Only releasing her when Octavia started to pull away.
“Where are we going? I’ll let you make the choice, you seem to know this place better than me.” He allowed her to lead the way to the exit, following her. Lincoln wasn’t at all surprised on her knowing the area well even ignoring how long she might have been here. Octavia had learned quickly about the ground, and he was sure she learned quickly the ways of this place faster than most.
“Home,” she said with a smile. “I’ll get us some food and we can go out and I’ll show you everything later, alright? This place is so much different than anything you know from home.”
Would he stay? Maybe. Maybe not. She knew he would want to stay, but Atlantis has a mind of its own sometimes. If he left, the pain of losing him would likely tear her apart, but she was still going to keep him close while he was here. Besides, she was pretty sure he wouldn’t mind. There was also a lot that she was going to have to tell him about what all happened at home, but that was a conversation for another day and definitely not one she was going to have with him right now.
Taking his hand, Octavia led the way. There were so many places she wanted to show him and people she wanted to introduce him to, but right now she was selfish. All she wanted right now was to keep him all to herself for a while and wrap herself up in his strong arms so that she really knew and believed he was there with her.
A smile came over his lips for a moment at the comment of home until the food part, which changed the smile to a confused look. A look he was having quite often since Lincoln found himself in this strange place. From what he could see, he had a feeling the food wasn’t exactly what he was expecting or used to back in his world. He had seen someone walk by earlier eating something he had never seen before. “From what I’ve seen so far I already guessed that. Everything about this place is different from back home, especially with how people are to one another.” Even though he had never quite been like his people, the fact no one wanted to kill him when he showed up here had him confused. When the sky people had come down, his people saw them as a danger.
This was the world he kept hoping for back where they were from. One where people weren’t jumping right to violence or going on the defense because someone new came around, but in his world something was always preventing them from reaching that goal, Recently, that something was Pike, but Lincoln had hope even with knowing his death was waiting for him on his return. He had hope one day everything would change for the better with people from his world even if he wasn’t around to see it.
Lincoln allowed her to lead him out, walking behind her while looking over the various people around as they passed. Everything about this place felt like a weird dream. If it wasn’t for Octavia, he’d probably think this was what really happened after death, but he hoped Octavia was very much alive in their world. “How do you feel about this place? Do you trust it? The people?” Lincoln hadn’t quite had time to adjust to the situation, making him feel rather on edge with not knowing what to expect. Only person he trusted was Octavia, making it where if she said this place was safe, then he’d believe her. Focusing his eyes back on her as they walked instead of on the people around them, sizing them up for if any trouble came about. He knew Octavia could hold her own, but he wanted to know his surroundings if it came to having to deal with trouble.
Hah, good question. The answer wasn’t as easy as a yes or no, but Octavia just shrugged at first. “Parts of it and some more than others. It’s safer than home, and I trust some people as much as I could trust anyone, but not everyone. And even if it’s not as obvious as what’s going on at home, we’re still in a war. Just a really different sort of war than either of us have ever fought.” It was so much different than a hand-to-hand type of battle that they were used to with power plays and battling the elements of an earth that had been through hell and back.
Sometimes she considered going back home, but without Lincoln there, she didn’t feel like there was much of a home left for her. There were people she missed, but Octavia was selfishly staying here for reasons other than just the fact that she was helping fight. When she’d first shown up, Lincoln had just died and she didn’t see a point in going home. Now that she was here, there was also the chance he’d show up again. Like now.
Not really wanting to get into all of those past memories, she smiled up at him, and pulled him along by the hand. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to pizza.” She squeezed his hand and they headed back towards her apartment.