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She recognized him at once. Of course she did. He had not changed one bit since she had seen him nearly sixty years ago thanks to the wonders of time dilation. Still in his prime at the age of 53. A “silver fox” she remembered calling him in her youth.
Now she was the older one; aged while waiting for him to come home to Earth, to her. He had been the first to volunteer when the call had gone out for a doctor to join the crew on the possible suicide mission through the newly discovered wormhole. Of course he had. He had donated blood while leading the Red Zone during the PittFest MCI. He had volunteered as a SWAT medic and gotten shot at while intubating his friend. This was entirely his MO, putting others’ needs ahead of his own.
He had once proclaimed her “the future of medicine”, and it had become a self-fulfilling prophecy. She had been recruited to work with him in those crucial months prior to his mission, developing protocols for trauma medicine in zero G, in lesser G, higher G, and even the highly improbable situation of being trapped in a black hole.
They had fallen in love. Of course they had. The sparks that had been there when they worked together at PTMC had never died and were only fanned by the dire circumstances they found themselves in.
“Come back to me,” she had begged.
“I’ll always come back to you,” he had promised.
She had never given up hope, believing in him. He had never broken his word to her before, and she had no reason to believe he would now. Even as the years sped by, long after they should have returned, she maintained her belief in him. She continued her regular video calls to him, sending them out into the void, never knowing if he was receiving them.
Then finally one day, a blip. Victoria’s grandson had been the one to tell her.
“We think it’s his ship, Auntie! It’s giving all the right readings according to our scans. Can you believe it? After 59 years, they’re back!”
She had thanked him for the good news. Of course she could believe it. After all, he had promised her he’d come back.
And now, finally, he was here, smiling that same smile she remembered.
“You came back.”
“Of course I did, I promised you I would, didn’t I?”