Author: X_tremeroswellian

Email: X_tremeroswellian@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: Sliders belongs to Universal, Tracey Torme, Fox, and others, I'm sure. Not my show, not my characters, but please don't sue anyway.

Rated PG-13.

Spoilers: "This Slide of Paradise" and 4th season Episodes

Category: Quinn/Wade angst...very depressing...was depressed when I wrote it...Can't be happy and optomistic all the time.

Author's Note: This is actually the first of a 2-parter. The 2nd part Is called "In Your Heart."

Regret

He had been praying since he had pushed them into the vortex. And then they had found Remmy and rescued him from the awful encampment.

But she was gone.

And for a long time he pushed all thoughts of her out of his mind. But he couldn't stop the nightmares.

Every night, he saw her, huddled in a dismal cage, cowering in fear of the Kromagg's beatings and rapes. She was crying, alone, terrified. He would call out to her, but she couldn't hear him. Then they would come back for her and she would scream for him to come and rescue her, begging, pleading, but he couldn't reach her in time.

He would wake up to find himself shaking uncontrollably, his heart racing, wondering where he was. That he would remember that it didn't matter anymore. Because no matter where Quinn was, Wade wasn't with him.

She was gone.

The only reason he was still alive was Rembrandt. He was certain they would find her eventually. Quinn wasn't nearly so hopeful. He knew the chances of her even being alive at this point were slim to none.

And it was because of him. If only he hadn't shoved her and Remmy through that vortex she would still be with them - with him. He had seen the hesitation in her eyes-she wasn't about to step through that gateway without him. If only he hadn't pushed her through.

He didn't deserve to be alive. It should have been him to be the Kromagg's prisoner. Not her.

Anyone but her.

She was so good, so pure. And she loved him more than anyone ever had. So why couldn't he see it until it was too late?

Too late to tell her he felt the same--too late to hold her in his arms and kiss her under the moon. To tell her she was the only one he wanted to be with for eternity.

It was too late because she was gone.

He'd wasted so much time. Time he could never get back. His only hope was to find his doubles and warn them about making the same mistakes he did--a mistake that he would regret for the rest of his life.

The End