Challenge: Sacrifice
Last Revised: April 9, 2007
Summary: One can’t survive with
only half a heart and soul…
Disclaimer: I don’t own ‘em, wish I did.
Genre: General
Rating: T, for now.
Ship: Sydney/Sky
AN: Set AFTER Impact, this is how Syd and
Sky deal with the sacrifice Jack almost made, and the one Sky would have
probably made if he’d had to.
You sheltered me from harm.
You kept me warm, you kept me warm
You gave my life to me
You set me free, you set me free
The finest years I ever knew
Were all the years I had with you
And I would give anything I own,
Give up me life, my heart, my home.
I would give everything I own,
Just to have you back again.
You taught me how to love,
What a time, what a time
You never said too much,
But still you showed the way,
And I knew from watching you.
Nobody else could ever know
The part
of me that can't let go...
...Is there someone you know,
You're loving them so,
But taking them all for granted.
You may lose them one day,
Someone takes them away,
And they don't hear the words you
long to say
-- NSYNC, Everything I Own --
--
The stars
were so bright to her weary eyes. They
were beautiful and made her ache for the days of her childhood when things had
been oh so simple. And then the memories
of the day’s events came crashing down on her, causing the stars to blur in her
sight from the tears that welled in her eyes; tears she viciously swiped away
with the back of her hand. She hadn’t
wanted to send him on his mission with tears, but she had. She’d promised herself during that fight,
when she felt her heart break at the emotion in his voice when he told them of
Jack’s sacrifice, that she would be brave, that she wouldn’t cry for what
hadn’t happened.
A gust of
wind caused her to curl further into the blanket she had draped around
her. She was on the roof of the academy,
hoping to find a little time to let her own fears out without everyone bugging
her for being a cry baby. She felt
horrible, not just scared. She’d been so
relieved Sky was fine, that the fact that Jack had made a sacrifice hadn’t
registered until much later. And then
they’d learned he was safe, and yet, all she could think about was what if Sky
had made that sacrifice? Would he have
lived as Jack had, or would she be getting ready for the funeral of the man she
loved? Would she have been the one to go
to Sky’s mother and tell the poor woman her son had died in the line of duty,
just like his father?
Sometimes,
she briefly considered whether the sacrifices they made as Rangers were worth
it. She knew they were, because
ultimately, even if they gave up their lives, at least the world would be
safe. It was hard to argue the logic
behind the needs of many out weighing the needs of the few. It was also hard to argue with the heart that
was inside of her, the one that screamed its discontent at the thought of
losing not only her friends, but of losing Sky.
She
shivered briefly, and thought about heading back in, but she wasn’t ready, not
just yet. No, she needed a few more
minutes to calm down before the others ended up barraging her with a million
questions. She was just starting to fall
asleep when she heard the door to the roof shut. Carefully, she turned her head in its
direction and saw a familiar figure heading toward her, dressed in gray sweats
and a blue t-shirt. “You’re still out
here?” he asked when he sat down next to where she was curled in a ball.
“Yeah.”
“Since I
don’t think you’re ready to talk about whatever’s bugging you, would you like
some company?”
“I don’t
care,” she murmured, then shivered again when the wind made itself known
again. “Stupid wind keeps picking up.”
“Come
here,” he told her, motioning for her to come to him. Syd sighed and pushed up before crawling over
to him. She was surprised when he pulled
her into his lap and then wrapped her blanket around them both, so that she was
between it and him. He didn’t mind the
wind making his back cold, so long as he had Syd in his arms.
The sat together,
quiet, for a long time. Sydney finally
turned just enough that she could lay her head on his shoulder and fisted a
hand in his shirt while he leaned his head on top of hers and the two looked up
at the brilliant shooting stars that were still in the sky from the destruction
of the meteor earlier that day. “I kept
my promise.”
“And still
managed to scare the life out of me, thank you very much,” she told him. “Not to mention Jack’s little stunt scared
ten years off my life.”
“You know
its part of being a Ranger; we all knew that the day we accepted our morphers.”
“My mind
understands that, it’s just my heart that doesn’t want to accept it, not when
it means losing my friends or my family.”
The pair
of them quieted again after that. There
was an unspoken ‘I don’t want to lose you either’ between them. “Would you have done what Jack did, if the
roles had been reversed?” he asked softly.
“Yes,” she
answered without missing a beat. “Just
like I know anyone of the other members of our team would. You were right, in the fact that we all
understood what we were doing when we took up being Rangers. Any one of us would sacrifice our lives for
the good of Earth and the billions that live here.”
“Doesn’t
make accepting that sacrifice any easier though,” he murmured, his lips finding
her forehead.
“Then why
are you up here brooding about it?” he teased.
Syd looked
up at him, glaring. “Because I didn’t
want to deal with everyone calling me a cry baby when I needed some time to let
my fears go.”
Sky
reached up and brushed her hair from her face.
“You aren’t a cry baby, and as much as you like to whine about stupid
stuff, I’ve never known you to whine about the important, get down and dirty
stuff. Are you about ready to go
inside? It’s colder than crap out here.”
“I want to
watch the stars,” she sighed.
“We can do
that inside, by the window, where it’s warm and I can be drinking something hot
and still holding you,” he hinted.
“Will you
carry me down then? My legs are asleep,”
she giggled.
“I’m
willing to make that sacrifice, so long as I get warm out of the deal,” he
teased, standing up with her in his arms, the blanket draped over her, and
carried her inside of the academy.