Otter's Rock

My other Not Prime Time treat! B5 was one of my first fandoms, and it will always have a special place in my heart. I love that show. I had never considered Susan and Stephen together,* either platonically or romantically, but as I thought about it the obvious hook would be his work on the Underground Railroad for telepaths escaping the PsiCorps, and Susan's hatred and fear of the PsiCorps for what they did to her mother and other telepaths who won't toe the line. Then I watched the episode about the underground railroad, and a) Susan doesn't find out it's Stephen behind it and b) the plotholes. Why the heck does Stephen tell Sheridan ANYTHING? He wasn't about to find out on his own, and Stephen doesn't need his help with anything, and with something like that each new person in the know is a possible way for the PsiCops to scan you and find something! It's a huge breach of security for no gain.

*Stephen and Marcus, oh yes. Come to think of it, that would be a great poly triad: Marcus/Susan/Stephen. Someone should totally write that.  I headcanon Marcus as ace romantic whereas both Susan and Stephen are very sexual people, and Marcus and Stephen had chemistry but would need a buffer, and Marcus loves Susan but she finds him a bit too romantic and much for her so she and Marcus would need a buffer too, and if you balanced it right it could be really good.  Maybe a poly V?

Title: Finishing the Race
Author: Beatrice_otter
Fandom: Babylon 5
Characters: Susan Ivanova, Stephen Franklin
Written for: deservixen for Not Prime Time 2018
AN: Episode coda for A Race Through Dark Places.

At AO3.  On tumblr.

( It was a dangerous thing to speculate about, Susan knew. What she didn't know, she couldn't betray. )