His leather soles hardly echoed on the overly waxed floors of Nebula University. Bounding up another set of stairs like a man half his age, Antony made his way down the hallway of the commons, of the classrooms, and finally emerged in the Administrative wing.

Around a corner and three doors down, he stopped before the wooden door with frosted glass, glancing at the words etched there. She had done it herself, if he recalled correctly. Glass etching...Or had paid for it to be done. Regardless, it was the only door with such intricate designs.

Raising his hand, he rapped four times in quick succession, then stood in waiting, his hands behind his back.

Elise Dawson. How long they had been friends, and their histories, so similar, if only with minor variations. She had loved openly; he had loved in secret. She had lost and over comes; so had he. She had aspired to a better life; he had hoped for a better world.

Now, it seemed that all either could do was watch the world go by and grab onto the coattails of a passerby every now and then.

Elise chewed on the top of her pen, reading a letter from one of the teachers she'd hired. The teacher had seemed like the type to take her job seriously, but had decided instead to abandon her work and run away with some man she barely knew.

Alright. So life went. Elise would find another teacher.

She heard someone tap on the door and jumped just a little, taking the pen top from her mouth. It wasn't something she liked anyone to see her doing, chewing on pens. She dropped the offensive pen onto her desk and raised her chin, straightened her black blazer. "Come in," she called. If it was that teacher, oh, Elise was going to have words with her...

"Come in."

Granted entrance, Antony turned the knob and pushed the door open with remarkable ease. He caught sight of her straightening her attire and had to smile, glancing to the pen on her desk...She'd been chewing it again.

Stepping inside and shutting the door behind him with hardly a sound, he crossed his arms over his chest and regarded her with a warm glance. "Elise..." he greeted, taking a step then and making his way toward her.

Had he noticed the pen? He noticed everything. She could remember taking tea with Antony once and he'd asked her about the man sitting across from them and she had to admit she'd never even noticed him.

Elise

Elise had to smile at the sound of his voice. It was good to hear it again. She nodded to him and stepping out from behind her desk. "I didn't expect to see you here or I would have straightened up a little... or something." She wasn't sure if she should shake his hand or just stay where she was or even- of all things- offer him a quick companiable hug. She finally settled on waiting to see what he did first. She'd rather not make him uncomfortable or send him back out the door. No, a visit with Antony was much too refreshing for that...

"I didn't expect to see you here or I would have straightened up a little... or something."

"No you wouldn't have..." he told her, a slight smile taking his features once again. "And if you had, I wouldn't know what to do..."

He watched the way she stood and chuckled softly, finally stepping forward and reaching out, first taking her hand, and then tugging her closer to him. "What's this? Years of companionship and you stand there as if we've just met..."

What's this? Years of companionship and you stand there as if we've just met...

Elise laughed. "We've just met everytime I see you. It's always that exciting, and I have just as little idea of what to do." She planted a quick kiss on his cheek. "You look quite good, have those girls been keeping you winding like usual?"

She has more than a little idea of how much Sir Antony loved his girls; he'd do anything for them, even if he would still look like a military man while he did it.

Returning the gesture that had long since died away, he placed a kiss to her cheek before sliding into the chair before her desk, hoping she would sit as well. So often, when they met, it was for a flurry of information, a quick exchange of formalities and then the bustling world passed them by again...

Today, while he did have his reasons for coming, those obligations already taken care of, he had more than enough time to wait for her, to join her for just a moment in consideration of their long bond as friends...

"Those girls...They do keep me quite active," he answered, and even as he did, a wistful smile crept into only his eyes. A full smile never reached his lips, but for anyone who knew Antony Piers, they could see clearly that he adored the woman of whom she spoke. "Danae's off here and there, training and recruiting, and Raelin is traipsing across the countryside with Trellan on one mission or the next...It's exhausting, just keeping up with them most days. I've considered attaching beacons on their person, but well...You know how they'd both detest that."

He had fallen into an old speech pattern, comfortable as he sat with her...It was a strange change in his demeanor. While still remaining reserved and nearly resigned, he was able to loosen the tension he held, if only for a moment...

Elise smiled at his words, sitting down in front of him and just watching his face. "You taught them well, though... you've taught them to be responsible and independant. They're fighters, but even more than that, they're thinkers, like you. I'd say you've raised them well enough... no need any more to have beacons on them. They'll come back when the time comes."

Elise folded her hands on top of the table and shook her head gently. "And don't we all? Come back to you when the time comes?"

His gaze locked with hers and for a brief moment in time, Antony shared her quiet smile. But then, it faded just as subtly as it had appeared, leaving one to wonder if it had ever existed at all.

Settling back into the seat, Antony watched her with a careful eye, though discreetly. Elise Dawson was a beautiful woman, and perhaps the youngest Dean he had ever witnessed in all of his worldly travels before the earth had been swallowed by the sea. And in all his days, he had never quite met a woman like her.

Antony knew of her past and the trials she had faced, just as she knew his secret that none had ever heard before. "Come back to me? Surely there is a far more fitting destination than that, Elise..." he said with a sigh, shaking his head in negation. He could not see why those he had taught would come back to him, though often times, they did...But Danae and Raelin? Would they be the same? Would Raelin return is the Alliance fell and Drake was freed to love her? Would Danae return if she knew the truth of him, of Muriel?

Running a hand back over his shorn locks, Antony sighed, forcing back the rushing thoughts once more..."So, tell me, Elise...What springs up new in your world?"

So, tell me, Elise...What springs up new in your world?

"Oooh, loaded question," she joked and did something quite rare for her. She laughed freely. "Let's see... Just yesterday morning I actually got up without thinking about the past. There you are, a revolution. Next I'll be staring at flowers and writing about the stars but for today, I'm basking in this wonderful world."

Elise cocked her head to the side, considering him. "I didn't know when I'd see you again but just seeing you renews a little of my faith in the here and now. Dare I say in the future?"

There had been a time when she had looked on him with admiration and more than a little attraction. Actually, it was every time she'd looked at him. She'd kept it to herself, stood up straight and nodded, done her job. Elise had done the whole school girl crush thing once and the man she loved ended up dead. That's just how it was.

But that didn't mean she didn't look every time. And it didn't mean she didn't hope in the back of her mind. Just a little.

Her implications did not go unnoticed, though Antony could not force himself to recognize the words she said as more than musings in her mind. A hand brushed over his lower jaw, before a smile setteld into place, brought on by the free melody of her laughter than rang out in the office in which they occupied.

"Do not let me be your hope, Elise, or you'll find yourself sorely disappointed," he warned, though goodnaturedly, and shook his head in mild amusement. "Find another patron to lay your wishes upon...I am no saint and no bringer of good news. If anything, let the coming sun renew your faith and the rising moon question your judgment...but base nothing on me...."

Antony never knew what day would be his last. Though he had been granted long life by the Gods that had blessed his grandfather from years gone by, and every generation thereafter, he knew that someday, his end would come...Perhaps decades, or even centuries later, but it would come...He was far too mercurial and uncertain to be a constant, and yet, there were two young women that held him in their hearts as if he would always, always remain...

Staring off, Antony became lost in quiet consideration, his eyes averted toward the window just behind where she sat before him...Constants and changes and patterns and life and...It all had seemed so trivial until he had learned the bundle of a little girl resting in his arms with the dark hair and her mother's eyes had been his own. A father, and he had never even basked in that paternal glory. Shaking his head, brushing the thoughts away, he turned back to Elise and offered an apologetic smile.

"Forgive me...I must grow old, indeed...My mind has gone off on its own stroll once again."

Elise watched the quietness come over his face, watched his thoughts flow slowly away from the room, from her.

My mind has gone off on its own stroll once again

"Antony... I could forgive you for anything, and that's the truth," she said and sat back in her chair. "And you're not old. You never will be. I think you're one of those people who will just up and disappear in a cloud of smoke someday. I don't think even the harshest of years could change you."

He must have been thinking about one of his girls... the one that was truly his, the secret he'd been harboring for so long. "What if you told her, Antony?" she whispered.

A quiet smile slid into place as she forgave him once again...There had been a time during the early years that they had known each other when he had lost his temper and even then, she had forgiven him. A short nod acknowledge her statement and he stood from the chair with a sigh, folding his hands behind his back. If anyone were to know both Danae and Antony, they would see so easily the mannerisms that they shared...Most would say it was only because they had been so close for so long, but there were those select few that knew the truth.

The next whisper may as well have been a shout, stopping Antony in midstep as he turned pale gray eyes to Elise. That woman...For all the years he had known her, she had always been so insightful, offering advice even int he days he did not ask. But now...Sighing, he eased down onto the edge of her desk beside her, glancing down to where she sat just a short distance below him.

"Tell her? Elise...It would destroy her. All these years, I've been her uncle, her guardian...She took comfort in the fact that her parents lived together, remained together, and died together...Who am I to destroy that dream, the illusion that gives her sanity in this world of uncertainty and evil?" His heart ached to tell her, but each time the words rose up, he could see the crestfallen look that he knew would cross her face and it silenced him...Always.

Elise watched Antony sit down, so close to her, and she reached out and put a hand on his arm before she could stop herself. Surely he wouldn't mind. Maybe this was a moment unlike any other when she could actually do something like that.

"You're right... she did take comfort in her mother and... in them being together, in having a family. But when they were taken away from her, she found an even stronger comfort in the man who cared for her, who taught her and spent so many years loving her. I think a father is the one who loves us more than another man. More than any other man." Elise paused there and shook her head a little, some of her dark red hair spilling into her eyes. "You've been her father all along, Antony. And she knows that very well."

Antony glanced down at the small hand that lighted on his arm before laying his own over it, squeezing with a tenderness that only Danae knew the man could possess, and even then, in an entirely different context. He had held his daughter when she cried, rejoiced with her during her years under the tutelage of Elise Dawson and from time to time, he had danced with her, but only when none were watching.

Taking Elise's hand in his own, he raised it to his cheek, pressing her palm there and shutting his eyes, only for a moment before he opened them again, blue-grey orbs staring into her own.

Her words held reason, sustenance, and he knew that Dnaae would never shun him, never judge him...but would she hate him? Would she hate to know that all those years, she had a father, had not been an orphan, or would it change nothing? Would he still be the father that had tucked her in and kissed her forehead on dark and stormy nights that she had loved?

"I do hate your ability to always be right, Elise," he told her quietly, fondly, and finally, he released her hand. "Perhaps someday soon I will find the strength to tell her, to claim my daughter...but until that day comes, however soon, I will hold this secret within my heart, just as always...Only you know. You and I and her mother watching over us..." He paused for a moment, glancing down at the carpet beneath their feet in consideration. "Come to think of it, I'm not even certain that Muriel's husband ever knew..." Not Danae's father. Muriel's husband. Danae's step-father...Nothing more.

Elise barely stopped a quiet gasp of surprise from leaving her lips. Not only had he touched her hand, but even more, lifted it to his face. Even as he held it there, she could do nothing but wonder what Muriel must have felt in those few hours and days of freedom. How her heart must have pounded to be given the right to touch his face, to be loving or tender with him. She must have known how lucky she was to look in his eyes for any period of time. Just doing so was some kind of strange blessing, because anyone looking into him knew he was looking back. He read people faster than they could read him. Such intimacy must have been treasured.

"No," she whispered finally. "I-I suppose not. Why would she tell him? Her secret was too precious to share with anyone." She started to say more but stopped. Not really her place to say. But surely Muriel had known her daughter and those quiet, sacred days with Antony were a fire all of their own, not to be seen by anyone. Not even the man she was married to.

Antony did not miss the shock that passed over Elise's fair features, and as he watched her, he tilted his head curiously. He had denied anything for her, knowing that she had endured far too much suffering, and yet, now, something caused him to take her hand again, marveling again at the delicate nature of it as it rested in his own.

Lifting his eyes, he watched her, offering a subtle nod as she spoke. No, Muriel would never tell her husband of the torrid affair with the man she had always loved. Antony closed his eyes for a moment, turning his head away as his heart pained him once again. Years ago, he had found Muriel and he had loved her...Time had torn them apart and now, as she watched from above, he wished somehow that she could come back, if just for a moment, to hear those words she had uttered only once.

But she was gone, a figment of the past, and all he had was the daughter that had been born of one secret union. "OF course...Right again," Antony finally said as he looked back to her, then stood to his feet, still holding her hand. "I'm sure you have much to do...I'm sorry for delaying you."

As he stood up, still holding her hand, Elise couldn't stop herself from standing up too, maybe just to keep contact with him for a few seconds longer. "Not really so busy..." she said and sighed. "[B]Just the same things... I love this job. I really do! It's just that sometimes I get this feeling that no one's ever going to love it as much as I do and none of these people care as much as I do[/B]." Elise shook her head.

"It's good to see you... you inspire people, you know. You change their minds for the good. You've inspired me enough times."

Elise found a smile back on her face and shrugged. "Anyway, you didn't come here to listen to a bunch of sob stories." She looked down at her hand in his and reached her other hand to his shirt collar, straightening it. Companionable. Always companionable.

"You look very handsome today, Sir Antony," she said, the smile just getting bigger. "If I haven't said so yet."

Antony glanced down at the hand that toyed with his collar before looking back to her again. Each time he met her eyes, he wondered why nothing more had passed between...Ah, but they had both shared too much heartache to care for trying again.

A ghost of a smile slid into place as he finally released her hand, nodding in acknowledgement to her compliment, one of many he had heard uttered from her lips before. "Nonsense...I'm merely a man, Elise, but you..." he said, stepping back and nodding toward her with a smile that passed for somewhat genuine, "You...are as lovely as ever. Enchanting, one might say."

He heard her words that spoke of inspiration and knowledge, but he could not believe that he inspired anyone. He merely pushed the right buttons and set the right course. Anything that they wished had already begun stirring within their minds long before he stepped into view.

You...are as lovely as ever. Enchanting, one might say

Elise laughed quietly. "You're going to have me smiling like a school girl, for the first time in years." She could remember days when people said she could light up like a firefly, days when people smiled at her and complimented her. Back before all of the sadness. "I don't know, Antony," she whispered and shook her head. "Sometimes I wonder things that I shouldn't." Even as she said it, she wondered if she could ever dare kiss him. Such a crazy thing that would be to do. But could she?

He would walk back out of that door and she wouldn't see him again for who knew how long. They would run into each other eventually and he would bow his head to her as always and she would drink in his words and presence and ever and ever they would be like waves of the ocean, coming, going, coming, going, never staying.

Elise leaned closer than she should have and didn't care if a thousand people were watching, didn't care if Muriel in Heaven was watching, didn't care if this was completely crazy. She might never see him again and she'd seen enough of life to know that it could be cruel.

She pressed her lips to his and closed her eyes and hoped she glowed as much as she once had. Hoped that she spilled warmth and light and love over on Antony and made him as happy as he'd been once, years ago.

He cast a soft smile at her, shaking his head mildly, only to cease all movements when her lips pressed to his. Antony knew that it could not be, that he would not do such a thing to a woman who had lost so much. He was not steady, not certain, and though he knew that his life would last well past her own because of secrets and gifts his forefathers had been blessed with long ago, he still could not hurt her in such a way. Antony feared himself far more than any other, and so, as he laid a hand to her cheek, he did become lost for a moment, returning her kiss with fervor, with a desire that had sprung up the first time he crossed paths with the stately dean of the University.

A regretful sigh passed his lips as he gently, carefully pushed her back, his hand trailing through her dark locks of hair. In his eyes, there was a longing seen clearly, but on his face, no emotion showed. Fingertips trailing down her cheeks, he stepped back from her and the words he wished he could say remained forever locked away.

Finally, clearly his throat, Antony found the will to speak, and carefully, he shook his head. "You'll regret me someday, Elise..." he whispered, his hand trailing lightly along her jaw before he pulled his hand away, his eyes sweeping over her slowly, once more. "Forgive me...I should go."

And yet, he found his feet rooted in place, making it hard to leave, even harder to run as he had found himself doing all the more as time came to pass.

You'll regret me someday, Elise

She scoffed quietly. "No, that's just it, Antony. You know me... I'm too damn stubborn for my own good. I don't know how to regret." She felt no wish to take back that kiss, no desire to send him away before something else happened. It was what it was and it was a gift she'd stolen.

As they stood there, opposite pillars who couldn't come too close or risk collapsing everything on their heads, she could do nothing more than smile at him again. "And you've never done anything for me to forgive. I'm the one who crossed the line this time but... I don't feel sorry," she whispered the last and shook her head. "You know I'm right here if you need me for anything. Ever."

Antony watched her, amazed on a lesser level of the way she carried herself, the way her eyes seemed to glisten, though even now, he could not begin to tell if it was because of the past of unshed tears or because of what had just passed between them.

A slight shake of his head and Antony did take a step back, closer to the door, closer to the barricades that he hid his heart and soul behind. Bowing his head to her in goodbye, he turned on his heel and reached for the door, pausing in turning.

"For what it's worth...I regret nothing that's passed between us, Elise..." He did not face her, but for Antony, it was perhaps the greatest admission he had made in her presence. A heavy sigh and he opened the door, stepping through it and shutting it silently behind him. Another tale that could never be told...