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When Dr. Carmella had come across a mass grave on the moon during a massive war she realized that she really was in desperate need of a new assistant to help with her experiments (or be the subject of them). Ever since Jonny had thrown her out of that airlock on the Aurora she hadn’t had anyone to help her in the lab, so of course the only logical solution was to sort through a pile of bodies, searching for the most intact one to mechanize and bring back to life.
Eventually she found a young man who seemed to have stepped on a land mine. She hauled him back to her ship and quickly replaced his leg, although it took him a good few hours to revive once he did he told her that his name was Bertie and that he had to get back to the moon in order to reunite with his boyfriend and a man who he soon hoped to be his boyfriend. She explained that he was to be her new assistant in the lab, that he was now immortal on account of his leg, and that it was likely that whoever the people he wanted to return to were they were likely dead and so it was best to get over them as soon as possible (she didn't want a mopey lab assistant). She didn't really have much sympathy for him but she did try to make his living accommodations at least comfortable.
***
Bertie had tried to explain to the vampire who had brought him back to life that he had people that he had to get back to, he had his lovely Tim, and a new person to love, Jonny, who was so much smaller than him but twice as fearsome. Jonny whose face he had never truly seen on account of the darkness of the moon, and whose voice was constantly raspy from the gas attacks. He pleaded with Carmella that he had to go back for them, that she had to at least let them come with him on her ship, but Carmella held firm that she would not go back to the moon. And when they received news that the moon had exploded Bertie mourned his two loves on his own.
Of course, what Bertie did not know was that his lovers were alive (although not necessarily well).
***
Back on the Aurora, after Tim had been mechanized Jonny hadn’t told him that he was the same Jonny that Tim had loved during the moon war. Despite the other members of the crew telling him otherwise, Jonny had convinced himself that if Tim ever found out that Jonny was the reason he had been mechanized, then somehow Tim would take it all back he would take back every comforting word, every ration shared because he said Jonny didn't eat enough, every time they had cuddled with Bertie. It would all be lost, tainted by the fact that Tim would no longer mean anything he had said.
Meanwhile Tim woke up almost every night his mechanical eyes clogged with tears. You see, when Tim had gone on his rampage, he never considered how Bertie’s death had affected Jonny. He ignored his only remaining love in hopes of somehow avenging his first one. Then after he was mechanized, all he could picture when he thought of Jonny was the last time he’d been with him. Jonny had been in the corner of their tent, curled into a ball and crying silently. Tim hadn’t seen his face, and he thanked whatever the hell was up there that he had never seen Jonny’s face. Because if he had, Tim knew that the only thing he’d be able to see when he closed his eyes, was the image of his love, crying as Tim walked away, or dying alone when Tim had blown up the moon.
***
And this went on for many decades, with Bertie helping (however reluctantly) with Dr. Carmella’s experiments, Tim unable to deal with the guilt of having killed Jonny, and Jonny forever mourning the fact that he would never again be held in the arms of either of his loves.
That is, it continued until Carmella decided that it was high time she visited her old crew.
***
Nothing much happened the first few seconds after Bertie and Carmella had stepped on board, until of course Tim practically crushed Bertie in a hug. “Bertie, sweet pea, darling, is it really you?” Tim had tears in his eyes and was holding Bertie like the second he let go he would disappear. “Y-yes it’s me. Oh Tim I’ve missed you so so much. I’m never going to leave you alone ever again.” Bertie clung to Tim and the fell to their knees in relief
While all of this was happening Jonny was there, trying not to break down into tears. Because now even if he managed to tell Tim that he was the Jonny from the moon war, what was the chance that Tim would ever forgive him for not telling him sooner, for letting him mourn Bertie alone. Hearing all the pet names Tim used to call him and Bertie had brought back a wave of memories and grief. No he couldn’t tell Tim or Bertie who he was now, better to just go lock himself in his room until he was able to stop feeling things like guilt and sadness. So that’s exactly what he did, he went to his room and stayed there until Carmella left, leaving Bertie behind after saying something about romantic fools. The others just assumed that Jonny didn’t want to see her and so they left him alone, and Tim was to caught up with Bertie to do his usual ‘concerned crew mate’ routine he saved for whenever Jonny got like this.
***
Meanwhile Bertie and Tim had moved to Tim’s room, in order to cuddle with more privacy. “Hey Tim, what happened to Jonny after I ah you know? Did you manage to get him off the moon? Did you guys settle down on a farm like we always used to talk about?” Tim has an expression of pure guilt and he spoke quietly when he answered. “No, after you died I-I lost sight of what was important, I was so focused on getting revenge for you that I completely ignored Jonny, and now- now it’s to late, I’ll never be able to apologize for how I treated him those last few months. I’m sorry Bertie.” Tim looks down with shame as Bertie processes this information. “Tim… I- I’m not going to say that it’s okay, because it’s not, but I think- I think that Jonny would forgive you.” He squeezes Tim’s hand “I love you Tim, and I know that Jonny did too. Now come here because I haven’t been able to have my Tim time in decades.” Tim lets out a wet laugh but snuggles closer to Bertie.
Of course while Bertie and Tim were happy being reunited after all these years Jonny was still quite a bit panicked figuring out what he should do. On one hand he really didn’t want to go tell Tim about his identity after lying to him for so many years, but on the other hand Bertie was back, and oh how Jonny wanted to be held by them. He still remembered how it felt to be smushed between them in that small tent they had shared. It was wonderful, and Jonny really wanted it to be something that could happen again. Ultimately though he decided that he wouldn’t say anything, even if there was a chance that it would work out well, and make him extremely happy, he just couldn’t risk seeing the love for him die in Bertie and Tim’s eyes, and so he didn’t, Bertie and Tim lived happily together for over fifteen years, never knowing that their lost love was right there on the ship. Drowning in his own guilt.
***
But of course Jonny’s little scheme was bound to fail eventually. And so one day when they were visiting an incredibly polluted planet, Jonny came back with a raspy voice.
He walked past Bertie and Tim in the kitchen and Jonny asked Tim to pass him a lemon (he liked to eat them like apples), he realized that his voice sounded almost exactly like it had during the moon war. He froze as Tim dropped the lemon and Bertie started to tear up. “J-Jonny? Pumpkin is that you?” Tim said it with so much emotion in his voice that Jonny very nearly collapsed onto the floor right at that very moment. “Yeah,” he swallowed and his voice went back to normal “It’s me Tim.” Bertie shook himself out of the shock of knowing that Jonny was still alive and had been with them on the very same ship this whole time, he scooped Jonny up into a princess carry before he started crying. “Why didn’t you tell us?” “I wanted to! I really did, I wanted to tell Tim back when he first got mechanized, but then I wasn’t sure how he’d react, and when you showed up I thought that I had just waited for too long. I’m sorry Bertie, I’m sorry Tim, I’ve put you two through a lot of pain and I understand if you don't want to talk to me anymore.” When Jonny had finished speaking Tim walked over to his boyfriends and hugged them with Jonny smushed between him and Bertie and it was just as wonderful as they all remembered.
Eventually they all would talk about what had happened, and there would be a lot of questions and tears, but for now the three lovers just held each other, they held each other and they knew that nothing could ever separate them again, because if they could find one another again after almost one hundred years. They knew that they could never truly be separated.