Chapter Text
Cryostasis pods don't use the ships main power.
She's older now. She knows more.
She's stopped torturing herself by counting how long it's been.
(Six years and four months since he left. Five years and three months since he should have been back.)
(Five years and two months since she got his last message.)
His room is caked in dust now. She couldn't bring himself to enter his space. He hated people being in his room. It was his mancave. It had been his mancave.
It doesn't smell like him anymore either.
Nothing does.
it's just her and her grief, in a house fit for a family of four.
But she can't lose anything else of his.
But the cryostasis pods don't use the ships main power.
So there's a chance. For the first time in close to six years since the power went out, she has hope.
Her baby might be alive. He could still come down.
He could have another fifteen years in him, waiting to get rescued.
Daisuke could still be alive.
Five people. Four pods. There wasn't enough food or air to survive this long. Four people remaining.
She still doesn't know if any people were injured in the crash. If anyone died. If any pods were damaged beyond repair.
She doesn't know anything. Except that there's a chance.
There's a chance that her baby can come home.
Fifteen years.
Fifteen years.
It's all she can think about.
Her baby could be fine for fifteen years.
She could still save him.
Her baby could come home.
She shifts away from the Pony Express. Starts looking at search and rescue companies. Even if she has to declare bankruptcy, her baby coming home would be worth it. Anything and everything would be worth it.
And then she waits.
Another year. Then two, three, five, seven, nine.
He's running out of time. She's running out of time.
Fourteen years since she's seen her baby. the stress and guilt are aging her more than the years.
Another year passes. no news.
Three months more pass, and she isn't around to hear the news.