A soft, comfortable warmth enveloped Delenn's body and she clung desperately to sleep wanting to remain in that familiar comfort for as long as possible. She drifted for a while in that timeless world between sleeping and waking, until she gradually became aware of the light penetrating her closed eyelids. She frowned with confusion: there shouldn't be any light. She and G'Kar were trapped...

Delenn opened her eyes, blinking to clear away the remaining sleep-induced confusion. The soft, diffuse light of a lamp filled the room. Of course: they had been rescued. She was no longer trapped in the cold, dark wreckage.

She became aware of her surroundings, trying to place the familiar feel. It wasn't her own quarters - they had been destroyed in the blast. It was...

John.

She turned her head on the pillow and saw him sprawled bonelessly on top of the bedclothes beside her. Her eyes traveled over his familiar features, noting with concern the heightened pallor, the dark marks of exhaustion under his eyes and the rough stubble covering his jaw. She squinted at a mark on his shirt... the brown-rust colored stain from where she had bled on him as he had held her following the rescue.

Lifting her head from the pillow, she realized for the first time she was lying on a partially slanted bed in John's quarters. She didn't know how he had managed to do it, but was grateful for the thought. Smiling, she turned back to him to be confronted by a pair of grey eyes.

"Hello." His voice was raspy from exhaustion and sleep.

"Hello." Her smile widened.

"Delenn..." Anguish, fear and relief mingled undisguised in his gaze.

Without saying a word, she opened her arms to him.

Slowly, gently, as if he thought she'd disappear or break, he wrapped his arms about her. Reassured that she was real, he tightened his grasp around her, burying his face in her neck. Infinitesimal tremors coursed through his body that grew in intensity until he was shaking.

"John," she whispered, cradling him closer - trying to wrap her spirit around his wounded soul to heal him.

The shuddering became more pronounced, bursting into low, gut wrenching sobs and hot tears soaked her smock. She stroked his hair and rocked him back and forth as she murmured words of comfort - her own face wet.

"Delenn..."

His hands slipped around her back, half lifting her off the bed as he pulled her closer.

After many long minutes the sobs tapered off to the occasional choked breath, and he relaxed his grip on her enough to let her lie back down. They remained entwined about each other, too emotionally spent to move.

"What happened?" Delenn asked quietly, still running her fingers through his short, soft hair. After the rescue, she and G'Kar had been whisked to med-lab, John adamantly refusing to budge from her side despite the Doctor's protests he was getting in the way. The whole area had been filled with wounded aliens from a wide range of species, but Delenn had not been told anything before she had lapsed into drug-assisted unconsciousness.

"Bomb," John said shortly, his breath brushing her collar bone. "Some Centauri Lord tried to have Londo assassinated then blame it on human extremists so he blew up green sector. Killed twenty and injured another fifty or sixty."

Delenn's hands froze as she felt fear grip her. "Lennier?"

"We pulled him and Vir out just before we found you and G'Kar... Or more correctly, before you signaled to us."

John smiled against Delenn's neck. With her concussion, Delenn had been attached to a cortical stimulator as soon as reaching med-lab, but G'Kar had remained conscious long enough to give them a report. He was still amazed. Not only that they'd survived the explosion, but they'd actually managed to climb up through two levels of twisted wreckage - she with a broken wrist, concussion and severe bruising and G'Kar with a fractured hip.

"Lennier had a broken leg and some crest damage." His hand wound around her head to lightly stroke the bone at her temple. "Lucky he's fully Minbari - otherwise he probably would have had a nasty concussion."

Delenn smiled, enjoying his gentle touch.

"And Londo?"

"Oh, he wasn't even there - apparently he was spending his evening being 'entertained' in some club. We didn't find out for hours he was still alive - he ignored the calls for everyone from Green Sector to report in. Said that the alerts must have come at 'inopportune moments.' Now he's alternately complaining about the fact that Vir is too injured to assist him and moaning about the temporary accommodation not being fit for an animal let alone the Centauri Ambassador."

That was typical of Londo, Delenn thought.

"Anyway, until we can manage repairs on Green Sector, accommodation is going to be scarce all over the station. You..." he fumbled, "You can stay here... if you want to, that is," he hastened to add. "I can go and bunk in with Garibaldi. Or on the couch in my office."

She was not exactly certain what 'bunk in' meant, but she understood the general meaning of his statement.

"I could not turn you out of your quarters," she protested. "I am sure we can share."

John stopped breathing for a moment, then let it out with a weak laugh. That would certainly give the rumor mill a work out: the Minbari Ambassador and the Commander of Babylon 5 sharing quarters... But then again, who cared what people thought? Still, there was Delenn... and the reaction of her people to such a situation.

"Yeah... well... I didn't... I don't want to make you uncomfortable or anything by suggesting that," he said, trying to give her a way out if she wanted it.

Delenn frowned. "Why would I be uncomfortable?"

She felt him shake his head and thought she could detect some amusement in the gesture.

"Doesn't matter."

He lifted his head. His eyes were red-rimmed and he still looked exhausted, but the terrible anguish had lifted from his soul. She softly traced his rough cheek and he closed his eyes, turning in to the gentle caress.

"Yeah... well... I'll let you get back to sleep, I guess. The doctor will flay me alive if I don't look after you properly. He only released you from med-lab into my care on the strict injunction that I make you rest and don't let you exert yourself." He gathered himself to pull away. "I'll be out on the couch, if you need me."

Her hands held him in place and he turned a questioning gaze upon her.

"John... would... would you stay? I... when we were trapped, it was cold and dark. I... I would like to sleep, knowing you are close by."

He smiled, brushing the hair back from her face with his fingertips.

"Of course."

Kicking off his boots, he climbed under the covers and tentatively wrapped his arms about her.

Sighing, Delenn snuggled into the embrace, already drifting back to sleep feeling warm, safe... and loved.

END: Strange Bedfellows