Post by nm4ever on Jun 15, 2008 23:41:04 GMT -5
Title- Memories
Author- nm4ever
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, I am not affiliated with them in any way, nor do I own the song and the lyrics. The song is “How do I live without you?” by LeAnn Rimes. Enjoy!
Summary- Sky gets wounded in a fight with an old enemy, and the outcome isn't good. The only person who can help him is Syd. Will she be able to help him or is it a hopeless cause?
Author Notes- It's been eons since I've touched this one! I wrote it SO long ago. I ended up listening to the song and came up with this idea that would not leave me alone. So I began to write it, and I'd drive Kim insane by sending her bits and pieces of it, which unfortunately, made her cry. Sorry, Kim! Anyhow, this is the story that I've mentioned in a couple of previous posts, promising this to her. Now as to when the next chapter is actually going to make an appearance: I'm still working on that, but thought that I'd submit this so I wouldn't forget about it.
The rating, for now, is a T, and may end up getting switched to an M rating later on. I want to dedicate this story to Kim, who is one of the best SS writers that I know and has been one of the best friends I could ever ask for! Love ya, hon! *hugs*
How do I,
Get through the night without you?
If I had to live without you,
What kind of life would that be?
Oh, I
I need you in my arms, need you to hold,
You're my world, my heart, my soul,
If you ever leave,
baby you would take away everything good in my life,
and tell me now
How do I live without you?
I want to know,
How do I breathe without you?
If you ever go,
How do I ever, ever survive?
How do I, how do I, oh how do I live?
Without you,
There'd be no sun in my sky,
There would be no love in my life,
There'd be no world left for me.
And I,
Baby I don't know what I would do,
I'd be lost if I lost you,
If you ever leave,
Baby you would take away everything real in my life,
Normally, patients would come in to the infirmary, they were seen, treated, and then they left. At the moment, the infirmary had had the same two people in it for the past thirty hours. Syd yawned and rubbed her eyes, looking at her watch. It was 10:45 at night, and the day hadn’t gotten any shorter as waiting went on. She had been in here since Sky had been brought in. She held back the tears that threatened to fall as she remembered what had happened.
Flashback
It had been two months since they had defeated Gruumm and the rest of the Troobian forces. They had been doing a routine sweep of the city when they came upon a building that had been broken into. Sky had entered the building first, with herself, Bridge, and Z right behind him. Sky gave them a silent nod to separate and search for the intruder. Syd continued her search silently, only to come up with nothing. She heard a yell echo from the other end of the building and knew immediately that it was Sky; he had found something or someone, and they were putting up a fight. She ran towards the place where the yell had been issued from. When Syd finally found Sky, she was shocked to see Sky fighting Mirloc.
“Mirloc? But how can that be? I thought we had him in a containment card,” said Bridge, his voice laced with confusion.
“What does it matter? We just need to get him back under arrest again,” Syd said, knowing that Mirloc was a tough opponent. Z and Bridge silently agreed with her, and they rushed in to join the fray. Mirloc swatted the three of them away as though they were flies. Syd felt the pain roll over her in waves upon her impact with the wall. She struggled to her feet and attempting to rejoin the fight, but it was no use. Mirloc had thrown up a wall of mirrors that wouldn’t allow her past, using the mirrors as shields. Bridge and Z rejoined her, and they had no choice but to stand by and watch as Sky traded blow after blow with Mirloc. The three of them attempted several times to break the mirror shields, but they might as well have been trying to knock down brick walls with their bare hands for all it mattered.
Syd watched in horror as the man she loved was struck down, Mirloc’s attacks hitting him with brutal accuracy in the chest. “SKY!” she screamed as she watched him fall in slow motion to the cold, cement floor. His head lifted to meet hers as he fell, and she watched as the eyes that seemed to stare into her soul when they fell upon her lost the intensity that was Sky. He was knocked out of morph as his body hit the floor, his uniform in slashed pieces and crimson blood gushing from some of the fatal-looking wounds. Tears fell from her eyes as she looked at him, wishing it were her.
“Pathetic! You’re weak, just like your daddy!” Mirloc taunted Sky as he advanced upon his prey.
Syd had finally had enough. “Bridge, Z, stand back!” she warned.
“Delta Max Striker! You’re going to pay for that!” she yelled.
“And who’s going to make me pay? You? As if you could defeat me, Pink Ranger!” Mirloc retorted.
He didn’t realize it, but his words were an insult to her. She growled under her breath and raised her weapon. She charged the mirror shields and in one slash, the shields shattered, the glass tinkling when it hit the ground. She ran up to Mirloc, her anger powering her. She slashed diagonally across his chest, pleased to hear him yell out in pain. She ceased her attack and moved to stand before him.
She pulled out her morpher. “Judgment mode! You are accused of having escaped your imprisonment and attacking the Red Ranger.” Sydney waited patiently for the answer. “Guilty! Containment mode!”
In a split second, Mirloc was once again stuck in a containment card. “I will escape again! I promise you!”
Syd shook her head at the card. “I seriously doubt that.”
“Syd!” She was pulled out of her thoughts by Bridge’s voice. She rushed over to where Sky laid, unmoving and bleeding profusely.
“Is he--?” Syd powered down with shaky breathing, praying for a good answer. She removed her outer jacket and used it to press down on Sky’s wounds, trying to stop the bleeding.
Bridge had already powered down. He pulled off one of his gloves and ran it over Sky’s unmoving form, releasing a shaky breath. “He’s alive, but barely. We need to get him back to Headquarters, immediately.” Z pulled out her morpher and called for an ambulance. The three friends sat around their leader, all of them trying to keep their emotions under control. The ambulance arrived a moment later, Sky was placed on a stretcher and put inside, which quickly sped off before Syd could get in.
Sydney stood silently in shock as she looked at the now empty street, tears silently coursing down her cheeks. She would have continued to stand there and cry had Z not pulled her into a hug, knowing that the Pink Ranger needed to know that she had friends who were there for her.
“He has to be all right! Please tell me that he’s going to be all right! He can’t die, not after all the crap that we’ve been through, not now!” Sydney sobbed hysterically.
Z bit her lip, trying to curb the dam of tears that was threatening to burst. She gently stroked Syd’s hair in a sisterly way, thinking of what to say. “I can’t tell you that he’s going to be all right, Syd. That would be a lie, because I don’t know for sure if he will be all right, and I can’t tell you that.” Syd looked up at one of her best friends, her eyes silently begging Z to take back what she had just said. “But I can tell you this much: Sky’s strong, and he’ll fight to come back. He won’t go unless it’s his time, that much I do know.”
Hearing the honesty in Z’s voice and knowing that what she had just said was true only made Sydney cry harder. She didn’t care if she caused a scene or how she looked. Bridge walked over to the two of them, enveloping both of them in his arms. They stood there for a few minutes until Bridge pulled away. “We should head back to SPD headquarters. We need to get out of here, and we can see how Sky’s doing. How’s that sound, Syd?”
Sydney pulled away from Z’s embrace and wiped her eyes with a sniffle. Her eyes were bloodshot and she had a headache. “Yeah, let’s go.”
End Flashback
Sydney had found Sky in the infirmary, laying in a bed with pristine white sheets. Kat had informed her that he had three cracked ribs, multiple contusions, bruises and minor cuts all over his body, not to mention the several large slashes that were on his chest. One of his ribs had nearly punctured a lung, but thankfully, Kat and Dr. Felix had stopped that from happening. Sydney had taken up residence in the armchair that sat beside Sky’s bed, and she had barely slept or eaten.
Z walked up to her comrade and handed her a cup of coffee. “How’s he holding up?”
“Okay, I guess. At least he’s breathing, so that’s a plus,” Sydney pointed out, attempting to stifle a yawn and failing miserably. Z inspected her friend closely, noticing that there were bags and small, dark circles that had started to form on the rims of Sydney’s eyes. Z took a guess that her adopted sister hadn’t slept since she had been told she could see Sky.
“When was the last time you slept, Syd?”
“Not that long ago,” she lied innocently.
“Uh huh. You haven’t slept at all, have you?”
Sydney grimaced, knowing that she’d been found out. “No, I haven’t. Would you be able to sleep if it was Bridge?”
Z shook her head. “Probably not, but I do know that he wouldn’t want me to deprive myself of sleep and food just so I could stay by his side, and neither would Sky.”
Sydney looked at Sky with tears in her eyes. “Why did this have to happen to him? He shouldn’t be lying in this bed, fighting for his life! It’s not fair!”
Z sat silently as she listened to Sydney rant. She knew that Sydney just needed to get it all out of her system and that this was the only way to do it. Once Sydney had finished, she composed herself and looked at Z. “Did I tell you that we’ve been going out?” Sydney asked.
Z’s mouth fell open. “Did I just hear you right? You and Sky, Mr. By-The-Book Ranger and the SPD Pink Princess, are going out? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted to, but Sky and I promised each other that we would tell our friends’ when we were both ready to. We didn’t want to jinx anything,” Sydney replied as she looked forlornly at the man that had stolen her heart.
Z nodded, understanding how Sydney and Sky were feeling. She and Bridge had been in the same situation when they had started dating. She sighed softly and moved to stand by Sydney. “Come on, you need to get some food and some rest.”
“But I don’t want to leave and then for Sky to wake up and I’m not here,” Sydney confided.
“How’s this? You go get some food and some sleep, I’ll stay here with Sky. Should anything change, I’ll come get you, okay?”
Sydney pondered over her choices. She could either do as Z had asked, or Z would make her do it. She shook her head in submission. “All right, you win. But you had better come and get me if anything should change.”
“I promise. Now go get some rest,” Z mothered.
“Yes, Mom,” Sydney teased.
--
Sydney laid on her bed, tossing and turning as she tried to get some sleep. It seemed like every time she closed her eyes, her thoughts and dreams immediately focused themselves on Sky. She clutched Peanuts tightly to her chest, wishing that it was him that she could be holding. She had managed to fall asleep, but she had been revisited by memories of the two of them together. He had let the walls down that he had erected around his heart and he had let her in, surprising her. She remembered their first kiss so vividly that she felt as though it had just happened.
Flashback
Sydney sighed contentedly. She and Sky were on a date, just the two of them. The entire evening had been absolutely perfect. Sky had taken her out to a private, romantic restaurant and then to the beach for some alone time and dancing. She snuggled her head into Sky’s chest as they slow danced to the song “How Do I live without you” by LeeAnn Rimes. It was a classic song and it just happened to come on the radio when they were dancing. This was one of her favorite songs ever.
“Syd?” the chest beneath gently rumbled.
“Hmm?” She pulled back to look up at him and caught him staring down at her. She loved how when she looked into his eyes they held so much love for her, as if he would give everything that he had up just to be with her.
“I had a great time tonight. Thank you.”
Sydney blushed. “I just came along, I didn’t do anything.”
“That was all that I wanted you to do was just come with me, so you made my night.” He reached down with one hand and tucked some stray curls behind her left ear.
“You’re welcome. Thanks for asking me.” They continued to dance until Sydney noticed that Sky was staring at her. “What? What is it? Do I have something on my face?” she asked, getting flustered.
“No, you’re beautiful. Just perfect,” he said as his gaze landed on her pink lips. He moved ever so slowly, giving her the chance to push him away. She swallowed in apprehension and nervousness, half anticipating what was about to happen. When Sky’s lips touched hers for the first time, Sydney felt a jolt of electricity run all the way down to her toes. Before the kiss could get out of hand, Sky pulled away, a smile on his lips. The words never left his mouth, but she could see them in his eyes. ‘I love you, Syd,’ they told her. A shock of realization hit her when she realized that she was hopelessly in love with him as well.
End Flashback
They went on several more dates after that, but they never said those three words that both wanted to say and hear. Then this whole mess with Mirloc just had to happen. She looked at her nightstand and saw that the clock said 10:00 p.m. Sydney looked at Z’s bed and saw that her roommate was sound asleep. She crept silently towards the door, opened it, and began making her way to the infirmary, being careful to avoid being caught. She snuck towards the double metal doors, wincing from the noise that was emitted. She slowly walked over to Sky’s bed, looking around. She was so confused. She wanted to hit him and kiss him at the same time. “Why did you have to go and play the hero? Why couldn’t you have waited until the rest of us got there?”
“Because that’s not who he is,” a voice whispered. Sydney spun around, dropping into a defensive stance. She was shocked to see Jack standing there. She dropped her stance and crossed the room in three strides, throwing herself into his embrace.
“Why did he have to do it?” she repeated in a choked up voice.
“You know how Sky is, and Mirloc will always be a bad thing when it comes to Sky. How’s he doing?” Jack asked as he consoled the crying blonde who was like a sister to him.
Sydney sniffled and wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. “They’ve managed to stabilize him, but they’re not even sure if he’ll make it, he had so many injuries. He has to make it, he just has to!” Sydney cried out as a fresh wave of tears poured down her cheeks.
Jack sighed and pulled Sydney in for another hug. She just needed to know that he was there for her above all else.
Sydney sniffled and remembered something that she had wanted to ask him. “How did you know to come here?”
“Bridge and Z called me, told me what happened. I figured that I’d find you here, no matter what time it was. Aren’t you supposed to be in bed?” Jack asked.
“In bed? Nope, not me,” Sydney said innocently. Jack shook his head, laughing. The Pink princess hadn’t changed one bit.
“He’s gonna be just fine, I know it,” Jack assured her.
“How do you know that? Even Kat said that she’s not sure.”
“I just do. Besides, he’s got you here waiting for him to come back; trust me, he’s gonna come back.”
Sydney smiled gratefully at Jack. She looked down at Sky, who was starting to regain a little bit of his color, despite looking very pale. The monitor next to his bed starting beeping erratically. She leaned forward and gently grasped Sky by the shoulders. “Sky? Sky? SCHUYLER!”
When the monitor started beeping, Jack knew exactly what was happening. He slammed down repeatedly on the button that was on the wall behind the bed. Kat came rushing in, noticing Jack and looking at him oddly before shaking her head.
“Jack, I need you to get Sydney out of here, please! I can’t help him with her in here!”
Jack nodded in understanding. He got up and moved to the other side of the bed, his hands reaching out and grasping Sydney’s shoulders gently. “Come on Syd, let’s get you out of here.”
“No! I don’t want to leave him!” she sobbed, tears streaking down her cheeks. She struggled against him as he tried to lead her away from Sky, her fists beating against his chest.
“I know, Syd, I know. But if you want Sky to get better, you have to leave so Kat can help him,” he said quietly. Sydney stopped struggling against him and let Jack lead her out of the infirmary. Once they reached the waiting room, she buried her head in his chest, crying openly.
“He promised that he’d always be here for me! He promised, and now he won’t be!” she sobbed. Jack patted her back soothingly, as a big brother would, hoping to calm her down. Before long, Sydney had calmed down and she was breathing shakily, with tear stains on her cheeks.
Nearly a half hour later, Kat came out of the infirmary, a grim look on her face. Sydney stood up from her chair shakily, hoping for good news. Jack stood with her, one arm around her shoulders.
“Well? How is he?” Sydney asked worriedly.
Kat bit her lip, not wanting to give Sydney the news. “I’m sorry, Sydney. We did everything that we could. Sky’s… Sky is dead. I’m so sorry.”
Sydney shook her head disbelievingly. “No, he can’t be! He promised! Please tell me that this is just a joke, Kat, please! Put him on life support, anything!” Unbidden tears started pouring down her cheeks once more.
“I can’t do that, Sydney. Sky had it written down in his medical file that he didn’t want to be put on life support if that should happen. I contacted his mother and she said the same thing, that he wouldn’t have wanted to be on any kind of support. She would be here now, but she’s out of the city and won’t be back for awhile. I’m so sorry,” Kat repeated, feeling upset for the heartbroken girl in front of her.
While she heard Kat’s explanation of why she couldn’t help Sky, inside she was numb with disbelief. ‘He can’t be dead. He just can’t be. Let me open my eyes and find out that this was all a dream.’
--
Sky’s eyes fluttered open as he groaned. He shook his head, hoping to clear it of the fog. He looked around trying to regain his bearings. He saw that he was in the infirmary, wearing a pair of black pajama bottoms and a red SPD t-shirt, and he was… looking at himself? Sky did a double-take, making sure that he wasn’t seeing things. He looked down at himself and then at the hospital bed. There was his body, laying there motionless. The last thing he remembered was that he had been fighting Mirloc for a second time when Mirloc had taken him down brutally. ‘Come on, Tate. Think. There has to be a way out of this, a way to get yourself back in your own body.’ Before he could come up with any ideas, the infirmary doors slid open and Sydney walked in. Sky walked over to her.
“Syd! Can you hear me? It’s me, Sky!” He was standing right in front of her when she passed right through him, and there was no look that anything bizarre had just happened to her. His shoulders sank with the realization that she couldn’t see him or hear him. He watched as she sat on the side of the bed, taking his right hand in hers.
“Hi, Schuyler. I know that you probably can’t hear me right now, but I just wanted to come and talk to you one last time before…” Sydney’s voice broke up as she tried to control her emotions.
Sydney took several, deep breaths to try and calm herself down. Once she knew that she would be okay, if even for a short time, she began to speak again.
“Kat says that you asked to not be put on life support, and even though I don’t want to, I know that I’ll have to live with that. Living with your decision will mean a lot of things will happen though. It’ll mean that I’ll never get to hold you again or feel you kiss me. I’ll never get to talk to you again or catch you staring at me. But the one thing that I’ll never get to do is have a future with you. You don’t know how badly I want that, Sky. I can’t have that now, and that’s the worst feeling in the world.” At this, Sydney began to cry again. ‘He’ll never be here to hold me when I’m hurting.’
As Sky listened to her heart-felt words, he wanted to do nothing more than to pull her into his arms and hold her forever. God, he wanted that. It killed him to see her cry and to know that there was nothing that he could do about it.
“I just wanted you to know that I’ll always love you, Schuyler Tate. I’ll never stop, no matter what,” she told his lifeless body through the tears.
“I love you too, Syd! Please don’t give up, keep fighting for me! Tell Kat to put me on life support!” Sky practically pleaded although he knew that it was useless. She couldn’t hear anything he was saying.
She pressed a soft kiss to his cheek, surprised that it was still warm. She shook it off as her hopes being high and stood up from the bed. She walked out the infirmary doors to call her friends and let them know what was going on.
--
Nearly forty-five minutes later, Sydney, Bridge, Z and Jack stood around Sky’s bed. Sydney had stood there and listened while each of her friends said their speeches and told Sky goodbye. Tears silently poured down her cheeks yet again. It would be her turn next, and even though she knew that she had to say goodbye to him, the only thing that she wanted was for him to wake up. It didn’t matter if he yelled at her or kissed her, she just wanted him to be alive. Telling him goodbye meant that she would be accepting the fact that he was dead and never coming back; that was one thing that Sydney didn’t know if she would be able to bring herself to do so.
“You’ll always be one of my best friends. Thanks for that, Sky,” Bridge finished. He stood back, and with tears in his eyes, he gently nudged Sydney forward, indicating that it was her turn.
She stepped up uncertainly and took a big breath, steeling herself for what she was about to do. Her heart pounded furiously as she prepared herself for what she was going to say. “Hey. I guess it’s my turn now to say goodbye, but the truth is, I can’t say goodbye to you. Saying goodbye to someone means that you’ll never see them again, and I can’t say that. I know that, deep down, we’ll see each other again. So this isn’t a goodbye, Schuyler Tate. This is more like a ‘until we see each other again’. We’ve been through too much together, and there is no way that I’m going to say goodbye to you. So, until we see each other again, Sky. I love you.” Tears had continued to stream down her cheeks in rivulets. She reached down and put her arms around him, giving him one last hug. She gently laid on her chest and wished that he was alive so he could wrap his arms around her. Her sobs echoed throughout the room as she laid with her head on his chest. She had been initially surprised to feel that his chest was warm, but she had paid no attention to it. Kat had just unhooked all the machines that had been keeping him alive only a half hour before. She continued to hold him as she cried, her sobs dying down slowly. She laid there for a few moments, not wanting to let go. To her utter shock and surprise, she heard the best thing she’d heard in a long time and sat up to look at her friends.
“What is it, Syd?” asked Z.
“It-It’s S-Sky. He-he’s alive. I don’t know how, but he is. I could hear his heart,” she told them.
“I think that you might have just been imagining it, Syd. We all know how badly you want him to be alive,” Jack told her softly.
Bridge frowned, not knowing what to think or believe. He absentmindedly pulled off one of his gloves, figuring that it couldn’t hurt to check. He waved the ungloved hand over Sky’s body, a smile and a look of shock appearing on his face as well.
“She wasn’t imagining things, Jack. He’s really alive, check his pulse if you need to, I’m gonna go get Kat.” Bridge hopped down from the bed and raced out of the room to find the feline scientist. At Bridge’s words, both Jack’s and Z’s hands flew to check his pulse, feeling a slight pulsing at his neck. Sydney had started crying again, this time they were tears of happiness and joy, not sadness. Bridge quickly returned with Kat, who had a look of utter confusion on her face.
“I need you guys to move away, quickly.” At Kat’s words, everyone backed away from the Red Ranger. Kat began by checking his pulse, finding the same thing that everyone else had. “All right, you guys have to leave for a few minutes, all right? As soon as I’m done, you can come back in.”
The four nodded. Bridge took Sydney gently by the shoulders and led her out of the infirmary with Z and Jack trailing behind them.
--
Kat exited the infirmary a little while later, a small smile on her face. “He’s alive, but I’m not sure as to how long he’ll be that way. If you want, you can all go in and visit him.”
“Thank you, Kat,” Sydney replied. She strode forward quickly, happy that the man she had fallen head over heels for was alive. She walked over to his bed slowly, happy to hear the beep of the monitor. Bridge, Jack, and Z walked behind her, watching her as she moved toward the bed.
Sydney stood by his bed and looked down at him. He was alive, just as she had wanted. Her shoulders sagged with emotions, even though they were happy ones. She looked at his visible injuries, seeing that they were healing nicely. She looked up in surprise when she heard a groan.
“Sky? You’re awake!” she said with happiness. Bridge, Jack, and Z rushed over at Sydney’s words.
Blue eyes opened up slowly as Sky tried to gain his bearings. He looked up to see a beautiful blonde with blue eyes staring down at him. He looked behind her to see two dark-haired men and a dark-haired woman. He groaned again, gently shaking his head.
“Where am I?”
“You’re in the infirmary at SPD headquarters. We brought you here after you were struck down by Mirloc,” Sydney explained.
“That explains how I got here, I guess, even though I don’t remember. Who are you guys?” Sky asked, confusion laced in his tone.
“It’s us, Sky, your friends. You know, Bridge, Z, Jack, and Syd? Don’t you remember us?” asked Bridge worriedly.
Sky laid there quietly, wracking his brain. He tried and tried, but he couldn’t remember. Rather than tell them ‘yes’ in the hopes of placating them, he told them the truth. He told them one tiny word that would sadden them more than anything, and break the heart of the petite blonde that was in love with him.
“No.”
And tell me now,
How do I live without you?
I want to know,
How do I breathe without you?
If you ever go,
How do I ever, ever survive?
How do I, how do I, oh how do I live?
Please tell me baby,
How do I go on?
If you ever leave,
Baby you would take away everything,
I need you with me,
Baby don't you know that you're everything,
Real in my life?
And tell me now,
How do I live without you,
I want to know,
How do I breathe without you?
If you ever go,
How do I ever, ever survive?
How do I, how do I, oh how do I live?
How do I live without you?
How do I live without you baby?
A/N- PLEASE don’t kill me! I promise that there will be a second chapter, and then we will see about that being the end! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Author- nm4ever
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, I am not affiliated with them in any way, nor do I own the song and the lyrics. The song is “How do I live without you?” by LeAnn Rimes. Enjoy!
Summary- Sky gets wounded in a fight with an old enemy, and the outcome isn't good. The only person who can help him is Syd. Will she be able to help him or is it a hopeless cause?
Author Notes- It's been eons since I've touched this one! I wrote it SO long ago. I ended up listening to the song and came up with this idea that would not leave me alone. So I began to write it, and I'd drive Kim insane by sending her bits and pieces of it, which unfortunately, made her cry. Sorry, Kim! Anyhow, this is the story that I've mentioned in a couple of previous posts, promising this to her. Now as to when the next chapter is actually going to make an appearance: I'm still working on that, but thought that I'd submit this so I wouldn't forget about it.
The rating, for now, is a T, and may end up getting switched to an M rating later on. I want to dedicate this story to Kim, who is one of the best SS writers that I know and has been one of the best friends I could ever ask for! Love ya, hon! *hugs*
How do I,
Get through the night without you?
If I had to live without you,
What kind of life would that be?
Oh, I
I need you in my arms, need you to hold,
You're my world, my heart, my soul,
If you ever leave,
baby you would take away everything good in my life,
and tell me now
How do I live without you?
I want to know,
How do I breathe without you?
If you ever go,
How do I ever, ever survive?
How do I, how do I, oh how do I live?
Without you,
There'd be no sun in my sky,
There would be no love in my life,
There'd be no world left for me.
And I,
Baby I don't know what I would do,
I'd be lost if I lost you,
If you ever leave,
Baby you would take away everything real in my life,
Normally, patients would come in to the infirmary, they were seen, treated, and then they left. At the moment, the infirmary had had the same two people in it for the past thirty hours. Syd yawned and rubbed her eyes, looking at her watch. It was 10:45 at night, and the day hadn’t gotten any shorter as waiting went on. She had been in here since Sky had been brought in. She held back the tears that threatened to fall as she remembered what had happened.
Flashback
It had been two months since they had defeated Gruumm and the rest of the Troobian forces. They had been doing a routine sweep of the city when they came upon a building that had been broken into. Sky had entered the building first, with herself, Bridge, and Z right behind him. Sky gave them a silent nod to separate and search for the intruder. Syd continued her search silently, only to come up with nothing. She heard a yell echo from the other end of the building and knew immediately that it was Sky; he had found something or someone, and they were putting up a fight. She ran towards the place where the yell had been issued from. When Syd finally found Sky, she was shocked to see Sky fighting Mirloc.
“Mirloc? But how can that be? I thought we had him in a containment card,” said Bridge, his voice laced with confusion.
“What does it matter? We just need to get him back under arrest again,” Syd said, knowing that Mirloc was a tough opponent. Z and Bridge silently agreed with her, and they rushed in to join the fray. Mirloc swatted the three of them away as though they were flies. Syd felt the pain roll over her in waves upon her impact with the wall. She struggled to her feet and attempting to rejoin the fight, but it was no use. Mirloc had thrown up a wall of mirrors that wouldn’t allow her past, using the mirrors as shields. Bridge and Z rejoined her, and they had no choice but to stand by and watch as Sky traded blow after blow with Mirloc. The three of them attempted several times to break the mirror shields, but they might as well have been trying to knock down brick walls with their bare hands for all it mattered.
Syd watched in horror as the man she loved was struck down, Mirloc’s attacks hitting him with brutal accuracy in the chest. “SKY!” she screamed as she watched him fall in slow motion to the cold, cement floor. His head lifted to meet hers as he fell, and she watched as the eyes that seemed to stare into her soul when they fell upon her lost the intensity that was Sky. He was knocked out of morph as his body hit the floor, his uniform in slashed pieces and crimson blood gushing from some of the fatal-looking wounds. Tears fell from her eyes as she looked at him, wishing it were her.
“Pathetic! You’re weak, just like your daddy!” Mirloc taunted Sky as he advanced upon his prey.
Syd had finally had enough. “Bridge, Z, stand back!” she warned.
“Delta Max Striker! You’re going to pay for that!” she yelled.
“And who’s going to make me pay? You? As if you could defeat me, Pink Ranger!” Mirloc retorted.
He didn’t realize it, but his words were an insult to her. She growled under her breath and raised her weapon. She charged the mirror shields and in one slash, the shields shattered, the glass tinkling when it hit the ground. She ran up to Mirloc, her anger powering her. She slashed diagonally across his chest, pleased to hear him yell out in pain. She ceased her attack and moved to stand before him.
She pulled out her morpher. “Judgment mode! You are accused of having escaped your imprisonment and attacking the Red Ranger.” Sydney waited patiently for the answer. “Guilty! Containment mode!”
In a split second, Mirloc was once again stuck in a containment card. “I will escape again! I promise you!”
Syd shook her head at the card. “I seriously doubt that.”
“Syd!” She was pulled out of her thoughts by Bridge’s voice. She rushed over to where Sky laid, unmoving and bleeding profusely.
“Is he--?” Syd powered down with shaky breathing, praying for a good answer. She removed her outer jacket and used it to press down on Sky’s wounds, trying to stop the bleeding.
Bridge had already powered down. He pulled off one of his gloves and ran it over Sky’s unmoving form, releasing a shaky breath. “He’s alive, but barely. We need to get him back to Headquarters, immediately.” Z pulled out her morpher and called for an ambulance. The three friends sat around their leader, all of them trying to keep their emotions under control. The ambulance arrived a moment later, Sky was placed on a stretcher and put inside, which quickly sped off before Syd could get in.
Sydney stood silently in shock as she looked at the now empty street, tears silently coursing down her cheeks. She would have continued to stand there and cry had Z not pulled her into a hug, knowing that the Pink Ranger needed to know that she had friends who were there for her.
“He has to be all right! Please tell me that he’s going to be all right! He can’t die, not after all the crap that we’ve been through, not now!” Sydney sobbed hysterically.
Z bit her lip, trying to curb the dam of tears that was threatening to burst. She gently stroked Syd’s hair in a sisterly way, thinking of what to say. “I can’t tell you that he’s going to be all right, Syd. That would be a lie, because I don’t know for sure if he will be all right, and I can’t tell you that.” Syd looked up at one of her best friends, her eyes silently begging Z to take back what she had just said. “But I can tell you this much: Sky’s strong, and he’ll fight to come back. He won’t go unless it’s his time, that much I do know.”
Hearing the honesty in Z’s voice and knowing that what she had just said was true only made Sydney cry harder. She didn’t care if she caused a scene or how she looked. Bridge walked over to the two of them, enveloping both of them in his arms. They stood there for a few minutes until Bridge pulled away. “We should head back to SPD headquarters. We need to get out of here, and we can see how Sky’s doing. How’s that sound, Syd?”
Sydney pulled away from Z’s embrace and wiped her eyes with a sniffle. Her eyes were bloodshot and she had a headache. “Yeah, let’s go.”
End Flashback
Sydney had found Sky in the infirmary, laying in a bed with pristine white sheets. Kat had informed her that he had three cracked ribs, multiple contusions, bruises and minor cuts all over his body, not to mention the several large slashes that were on his chest. One of his ribs had nearly punctured a lung, but thankfully, Kat and Dr. Felix had stopped that from happening. Sydney had taken up residence in the armchair that sat beside Sky’s bed, and she had barely slept or eaten.
Z walked up to her comrade and handed her a cup of coffee. “How’s he holding up?”
“Okay, I guess. At least he’s breathing, so that’s a plus,” Sydney pointed out, attempting to stifle a yawn and failing miserably. Z inspected her friend closely, noticing that there were bags and small, dark circles that had started to form on the rims of Sydney’s eyes. Z took a guess that her adopted sister hadn’t slept since she had been told she could see Sky.
“When was the last time you slept, Syd?”
“Not that long ago,” she lied innocently.
“Uh huh. You haven’t slept at all, have you?”
Sydney grimaced, knowing that she’d been found out. “No, I haven’t. Would you be able to sleep if it was Bridge?”
Z shook her head. “Probably not, but I do know that he wouldn’t want me to deprive myself of sleep and food just so I could stay by his side, and neither would Sky.”
Sydney looked at Sky with tears in her eyes. “Why did this have to happen to him? He shouldn’t be lying in this bed, fighting for his life! It’s not fair!”
Z sat silently as she listened to Sydney rant. She knew that Sydney just needed to get it all out of her system and that this was the only way to do it. Once Sydney had finished, she composed herself and looked at Z. “Did I tell you that we’ve been going out?” Sydney asked.
Z’s mouth fell open. “Did I just hear you right? You and Sky, Mr. By-The-Book Ranger and the SPD Pink Princess, are going out? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted to, but Sky and I promised each other that we would tell our friends’ when we were both ready to. We didn’t want to jinx anything,” Sydney replied as she looked forlornly at the man that had stolen her heart.
Z nodded, understanding how Sydney and Sky were feeling. She and Bridge had been in the same situation when they had started dating. She sighed softly and moved to stand by Sydney. “Come on, you need to get some food and some rest.”
“But I don’t want to leave and then for Sky to wake up and I’m not here,” Sydney confided.
“How’s this? You go get some food and some sleep, I’ll stay here with Sky. Should anything change, I’ll come get you, okay?”
Sydney pondered over her choices. She could either do as Z had asked, or Z would make her do it. She shook her head in submission. “All right, you win. But you had better come and get me if anything should change.”
“I promise. Now go get some rest,” Z mothered.
“Yes, Mom,” Sydney teased.
--
Sydney laid on her bed, tossing and turning as she tried to get some sleep. It seemed like every time she closed her eyes, her thoughts and dreams immediately focused themselves on Sky. She clutched Peanuts tightly to her chest, wishing that it was him that she could be holding. She had managed to fall asleep, but she had been revisited by memories of the two of them together. He had let the walls down that he had erected around his heart and he had let her in, surprising her. She remembered their first kiss so vividly that she felt as though it had just happened.
Flashback
Sydney sighed contentedly. She and Sky were on a date, just the two of them. The entire evening had been absolutely perfect. Sky had taken her out to a private, romantic restaurant and then to the beach for some alone time and dancing. She snuggled her head into Sky’s chest as they slow danced to the song “How Do I live without you” by LeeAnn Rimes. It was a classic song and it just happened to come on the radio when they were dancing. This was one of her favorite songs ever.
“Syd?” the chest beneath gently rumbled.
“Hmm?” She pulled back to look up at him and caught him staring down at her. She loved how when she looked into his eyes they held so much love for her, as if he would give everything that he had up just to be with her.
“I had a great time tonight. Thank you.”
Sydney blushed. “I just came along, I didn’t do anything.”
“That was all that I wanted you to do was just come with me, so you made my night.” He reached down with one hand and tucked some stray curls behind her left ear.
“You’re welcome. Thanks for asking me.” They continued to dance until Sydney noticed that Sky was staring at her. “What? What is it? Do I have something on my face?” she asked, getting flustered.
“No, you’re beautiful. Just perfect,” he said as his gaze landed on her pink lips. He moved ever so slowly, giving her the chance to push him away. She swallowed in apprehension and nervousness, half anticipating what was about to happen. When Sky’s lips touched hers for the first time, Sydney felt a jolt of electricity run all the way down to her toes. Before the kiss could get out of hand, Sky pulled away, a smile on his lips. The words never left his mouth, but she could see them in his eyes. ‘I love you, Syd,’ they told her. A shock of realization hit her when she realized that she was hopelessly in love with him as well.
End Flashback
They went on several more dates after that, but they never said those three words that both wanted to say and hear. Then this whole mess with Mirloc just had to happen. She looked at her nightstand and saw that the clock said 10:00 p.m. Sydney looked at Z’s bed and saw that her roommate was sound asleep. She crept silently towards the door, opened it, and began making her way to the infirmary, being careful to avoid being caught. She snuck towards the double metal doors, wincing from the noise that was emitted. She slowly walked over to Sky’s bed, looking around. She was so confused. She wanted to hit him and kiss him at the same time. “Why did you have to go and play the hero? Why couldn’t you have waited until the rest of us got there?”
“Because that’s not who he is,” a voice whispered. Sydney spun around, dropping into a defensive stance. She was shocked to see Jack standing there. She dropped her stance and crossed the room in three strides, throwing herself into his embrace.
“Why did he have to do it?” she repeated in a choked up voice.
“You know how Sky is, and Mirloc will always be a bad thing when it comes to Sky. How’s he doing?” Jack asked as he consoled the crying blonde who was like a sister to him.
Sydney sniffled and wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. “They’ve managed to stabilize him, but they’re not even sure if he’ll make it, he had so many injuries. He has to make it, he just has to!” Sydney cried out as a fresh wave of tears poured down her cheeks.
Jack sighed and pulled Sydney in for another hug. She just needed to know that he was there for her above all else.
Sydney sniffled and remembered something that she had wanted to ask him. “How did you know to come here?”
“Bridge and Z called me, told me what happened. I figured that I’d find you here, no matter what time it was. Aren’t you supposed to be in bed?” Jack asked.
“In bed? Nope, not me,” Sydney said innocently. Jack shook his head, laughing. The Pink princess hadn’t changed one bit.
“He’s gonna be just fine, I know it,” Jack assured her.
“How do you know that? Even Kat said that she’s not sure.”
“I just do. Besides, he’s got you here waiting for him to come back; trust me, he’s gonna come back.”
Sydney smiled gratefully at Jack. She looked down at Sky, who was starting to regain a little bit of his color, despite looking very pale. The monitor next to his bed starting beeping erratically. She leaned forward and gently grasped Sky by the shoulders. “Sky? Sky? SCHUYLER!”
When the monitor started beeping, Jack knew exactly what was happening. He slammed down repeatedly on the button that was on the wall behind the bed. Kat came rushing in, noticing Jack and looking at him oddly before shaking her head.
“Jack, I need you to get Sydney out of here, please! I can’t help him with her in here!”
Jack nodded in understanding. He got up and moved to the other side of the bed, his hands reaching out and grasping Sydney’s shoulders gently. “Come on Syd, let’s get you out of here.”
“No! I don’t want to leave him!” she sobbed, tears streaking down her cheeks. She struggled against him as he tried to lead her away from Sky, her fists beating against his chest.
“I know, Syd, I know. But if you want Sky to get better, you have to leave so Kat can help him,” he said quietly. Sydney stopped struggling against him and let Jack lead her out of the infirmary. Once they reached the waiting room, she buried her head in his chest, crying openly.
“He promised that he’d always be here for me! He promised, and now he won’t be!” she sobbed. Jack patted her back soothingly, as a big brother would, hoping to calm her down. Before long, Sydney had calmed down and she was breathing shakily, with tear stains on her cheeks.
Nearly a half hour later, Kat came out of the infirmary, a grim look on her face. Sydney stood up from her chair shakily, hoping for good news. Jack stood with her, one arm around her shoulders.
“Well? How is he?” Sydney asked worriedly.
Kat bit her lip, not wanting to give Sydney the news. “I’m sorry, Sydney. We did everything that we could. Sky’s… Sky is dead. I’m so sorry.”
Sydney shook her head disbelievingly. “No, he can’t be! He promised! Please tell me that this is just a joke, Kat, please! Put him on life support, anything!” Unbidden tears started pouring down her cheeks once more.
“I can’t do that, Sydney. Sky had it written down in his medical file that he didn’t want to be put on life support if that should happen. I contacted his mother and she said the same thing, that he wouldn’t have wanted to be on any kind of support. She would be here now, but she’s out of the city and won’t be back for awhile. I’m so sorry,” Kat repeated, feeling upset for the heartbroken girl in front of her.
While she heard Kat’s explanation of why she couldn’t help Sky, inside she was numb with disbelief. ‘He can’t be dead. He just can’t be. Let me open my eyes and find out that this was all a dream.’
--
Sky’s eyes fluttered open as he groaned. He shook his head, hoping to clear it of the fog. He looked around trying to regain his bearings. He saw that he was in the infirmary, wearing a pair of black pajama bottoms and a red SPD t-shirt, and he was… looking at himself? Sky did a double-take, making sure that he wasn’t seeing things. He looked down at himself and then at the hospital bed. There was his body, laying there motionless. The last thing he remembered was that he had been fighting Mirloc for a second time when Mirloc had taken him down brutally. ‘Come on, Tate. Think. There has to be a way out of this, a way to get yourself back in your own body.’ Before he could come up with any ideas, the infirmary doors slid open and Sydney walked in. Sky walked over to her.
“Syd! Can you hear me? It’s me, Sky!” He was standing right in front of her when she passed right through him, and there was no look that anything bizarre had just happened to her. His shoulders sank with the realization that she couldn’t see him or hear him. He watched as she sat on the side of the bed, taking his right hand in hers.
“Hi, Schuyler. I know that you probably can’t hear me right now, but I just wanted to come and talk to you one last time before…” Sydney’s voice broke up as she tried to control her emotions.
Sydney took several, deep breaths to try and calm herself down. Once she knew that she would be okay, if even for a short time, she began to speak again.
“Kat says that you asked to not be put on life support, and even though I don’t want to, I know that I’ll have to live with that. Living with your decision will mean a lot of things will happen though. It’ll mean that I’ll never get to hold you again or feel you kiss me. I’ll never get to talk to you again or catch you staring at me. But the one thing that I’ll never get to do is have a future with you. You don’t know how badly I want that, Sky. I can’t have that now, and that’s the worst feeling in the world.” At this, Sydney began to cry again. ‘He’ll never be here to hold me when I’m hurting.’
As Sky listened to her heart-felt words, he wanted to do nothing more than to pull her into his arms and hold her forever. God, he wanted that. It killed him to see her cry and to know that there was nothing that he could do about it.
“I just wanted you to know that I’ll always love you, Schuyler Tate. I’ll never stop, no matter what,” she told his lifeless body through the tears.
“I love you too, Syd! Please don’t give up, keep fighting for me! Tell Kat to put me on life support!” Sky practically pleaded although he knew that it was useless. She couldn’t hear anything he was saying.
She pressed a soft kiss to his cheek, surprised that it was still warm. She shook it off as her hopes being high and stood up from the bed. She walked out the infirmary doors to call her friends and let them know what was going on.
--
Nearly forty-five minutes later, Sydney, Bridge, Z and Jack stood around Sky’s bed. Sydney had stood there and listened while each of her friends said their speeches and told Sky goodbye. Tears silently poured down her cheeks yet again. It would be her turn next, and even though she knew that she had to say goodbye to him, the only thing that she wanted was for him to wake up. It didn’t matter if he yelled at her or kissed her, she just wanted him to be alive. Telling him goodbye meant that she would be accepting the fact that he was dead and never coming back; that was one thing that Sydney didn’t know if she would be able to bring herself to do so.
“You’ll always be one of my best friends. Thanks for that, Sky,” Bridge finished. He stood back, and with tears in his eyes, he gently nudged Sydney forward, indicating that it was her turn.
She stepped up uncertainly and took a big breath, steeling herself for what she was about to do. Her heart pounded furiously as she prepared herself for what she was going to say. “Hey. I guess it’s my turn now to say goodbye, but the truth is, I can’t say goodbye to you. Saying goodbye to someone means that you’ll never see them again, and I can’t say that. I know that, deep down, we’ll see each other again. So this isn’t a goodbye, Schuyler Tate. This is more like a ‘until we see each other again’. We’ve been through too much together, and there is no way that I’m going to say goodbye to you. So, until we see each other again, Sky. I love you.” Tears had continued to stream down her cheeks in rivulets. She reached down and put her arms around him, giving him one last hug. She gently laid on her chest and wished that he was alive so he could wrap his arms around her. Her sobs echoed throughout the room as she laid with her head on his chest. She had been initially surprised to feel that his chest was warm, but she had paid no attention to it. Kat had just unhooked all the machines that had been keeping him alive only a half hour before. She continued to hold him as she cried, her sobs dying down slowly. She laid there for a few moments, not wanting to let go. To her utter shock and surprise, she heard the best thing she’d heard in a long time and sat up to look at her friends.
“What is it, Syd?” asked Z.
“It-It’s S-Sky. He-he’s alive. I don’t know how, but he is. I could hear his heart,” she told them.
“I think that you might have just been imagining it, Syd. We all know how badly you want him to be alive,” Jack told her softly.
Bridge frowned, not knowing what to think or believe. He absentmindedly pulled off one of his gloves, figuring that it couldn’t hurt to check. He waved the ungloved hand over Sky’s body, a smile and a look of shock appearing on his face as well.
“She wasn’t imagining things, Jack. He’s really alive, check his pulse if you need to, I’m gonna go get Kat.” Bridge hopped down from the bed and raced out of the room to find the feline scientist. At Bridge’s words, both Jack’s and Z’s hands flew to check his pulse, feeling a slight pulsing at his neck. Sydney had started crying again, this time they were tears of happiness and joy, not sadness. Bridge quickly returned with Kat, who had a look of utter confusion on her face.
“I need you guys to move away, quickly.” At Kat’s words, everyone backed away from the Red Ranger. Kat began by checking his pulse, finding the same thing that everyone else had. “All right, you guys have to leave for a few minutes, all right? As soon as I’m done, you can come back in.”
The four nodded. Bridge took Sydney gently by the shoulders and led her out of the infirmary with Z and Jack trailing behind them.
--
Kat exited the infirmary a little while later, a small smile on her face. “He’s alive, but I’m not sure as to how long he’ll be that way. If you want, you can all go in and visit him.”
“Thank you, Kat,” Sydney replied. She strode forward quickly, happy that the man she had fallen head over heels for was alive. She walked over to his bed slowly, happy to hear the beep of the monitor. Bridge, Jack, and Z walked behind her, watching her as she moved toward the bed.
Sydney stood by his bed and looked down at him. He was alive, just as she had wanted. Her shoulders sagged with emotions, even though they were happy ones. She looked at his visible injuries, seeing that they were healing nicely. She looked up in surprise when she heard a groan.
“Sky? You’re awake!” she said with happiness. Bridge, Jack, and Z rushed over at Sydney’s words.
Blue eyes opened up slowly as Sky tried to gain his bearings. He looked up to see a beautiful blonde with blue eyes staring down at him. He looked behind her to see two dark-haired men and a dark-haired woman. He groaned again, gently shaking his head.
“Where am I?”
“You’re in the infirmary at SPD headquarters. We brought you here after you were struck down by Mirloc,” Sydney explained.
“That explains how I got here, I guess, even though I don’t remember. Who are you guys?” Sky asked, confusion laced in his tone.
“It’s us, Sky, your friends. You know, Bridge, Z, Jack, and Syd? Don’t you remember us?” asked Bridge worriedly.
Sky laid there quietly, wracking his brain. He tried and tried, but he couldn’t remember. Rather than tell them ‘yes’ in the hopes of placating them, he told them the truth. He told them one tiny word that would sadden them more than anything, and break the heart of the petite blonde that was in love with him.
“No.”
And tell me now,
How do I live without you?
I want to know,
How do I breathe without you?
If you ever go,
How do I ever, ever survive?
How do I, how do I, oh how do I live?
Please tell me baby,
How do I go on?
If you ever leave,
Baby you would take away everything,
I need you with me,
Baby don't you know that you're everything,
Real in my life?
And tell me now,
How do I live without you,
I want to know,
How do I breathe without you?
If you ever go,
How do I ever, ever survive?
How do I, how do I, oh how do I live?
How do I live without you?
How do I live without you baby?
A/N- PLEASE don’t kill me! I promise that there will be a second chapter, and then we will see about that being the end! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!
