Missing a Lost Love – Jared Stone

Personal Log Entry

I can’t believe that I never wrote about what happened to Jared.

Looking back on my entries, though….I see I never did. Maybe it was simply too painful. Maybe I tried to deny it really happened. I’m not sure.

In any case….he’s been on my mind a lot lately, so….it’s time I should update my entries.

*deep breath, then slowly exhales*

Jared and I served on the original Liberty.  I saved his life, and…we fell in love. We were engaged to be married.

But then the Liberty crew went our separate ways. I wasn’t ready to get married. Jared and I lost touch.

Then I found out he was in trouble – a slave on Altori.

With the help of a number of friends, we rescued him.

As time progressed, we rekindled our romance. Took things slower than we did before.

He proposed again. I accepted. We had a private ceremony on Dantoonie, eloping soon after I accepted his proposal. He’d had everything arranged ahead of time. We beamed right down and got married within an hour or so of the proposal.

*a long pause in the recording, voice hoarse with emotion when she resumes*

Jared was shot right after that. We came back to the ship quickly, but….there was nothing I could do. He died on the biobed….and a part of me died, too.

*another long pause, soft weeping is heard, then sniffling as she composes herself*

I’ve lost people I love before. Many, many of them. It hurts.

But I don’t know why the loss of Jared hurts so much more deeply than others. Maybe because I knew him for so long? Because being with him reminded me of a simpler – and happier – past? When I wasn’t tied down with this contract to Navaar?

Maybe it’s because I lost so much when I lost him. My freedom. My possessions. My income. My… *sighs* So much lost, never to be gotten again.

I love Dash. I always will.

But…. would give anything just to see Jared one more time. To say goodbye properly. Or to just see him….alive and happy, even if not with me.