Rated PG: mild sexual references.
A Valentine's Day assortment of romantic vignettes involving the Time Force Rangers. Not necessarily connected with my other stories.
Kindly take a moment to review...
Wes/Jen, realization
(Takes place during 'Jen's Revenge')
Jen's eyes opened and blinked foggily for a few seconds; her hand rose to her head. "What..." she mumbled, her voice slow and scratchy.
Wes leaned over her, smiling with relief. "You were hurt, Jen, but you're going to be okay."
"Wes...?"
"Yeah. You're back in the clock tower."
"Back home?"
"That's right. How do you feel?"
"I'm not - not sure."
"Trip said you'll be fine."
Just a hint of a smile softened the lines pain and fear had drawn on her face as her eyes met his. "You saved me."
"We all went to find you. Barely got you out in one piece."
"Thank you..."
"Jen, why did you go off alone like that? Why'd you take on Ransik and Fat Catfish all by yourself? I know you want to get back at them for what they did, but you could have been..."
He trailed off. Jen's eyes had drifted shut again, and her breathing was deepening. She was asleep, or unconscious again. Trip had said she would be okay, all she needed was rest, but still - wouldn't hurt to watch her. Make sure she didn't fall off the makeshift bed they had set up on their picnic table. The others had all gone off to sleep, but someone should stay with her.
Not that he minded. Wes studied Jen's face, so open, looking so young and soft and vulnerable as she slept. And so worn out. All those bruises and scratches. How could Ransik have done such a thing? He felt a stab of anger, and a pain as intense as if he were the one injured. Jen... What he had said was true. She could have been killed. Now a tide of fear swept through him. What if she died? What they were doing was dangerous. Alex had died. What if...
But there was nothing he could do. No way Jen would give up her mission, or let the rest of them take the risks for her. She was too strong for that, too much of a leader. If only you were different... he thought, if only you didn't have that stubborn determination, that fearlessness... but all the things I'd want to change are the things I love about you...
Love? Wes sat back, startled. How had love suddenly popped into his mind? But a another glance at Jen's face told him the answer. Even dirty and exhausted, her hair tangled, her face bruised and streaked with dried tears, she was beautiful to him.
"I love you..." It was only a whisper, and she couldn't hear him. But he knew it was true. Somehow, sometime over the last weeks of shared struggle and danger, he had fallen in love.
She didn't love him, of course; he knew that. Alex had died so recently, and she was still in pain over that. It would be a long time before she could think of another man. And even then, Wes wondered, could she ever look at him and not think of Alex?
Maybe it was hopeless. Maybe not. It hardly mattered. Somehow he knew this love would last, long after Ransik was gone. Probably after Jen was gone, back to her home in the future. He would never intrude his feelings on her; it wouldn't be fair and might even destroy their friendship. He'd let her make the first move... if she ever did... Until then, if that time ever came, all he could do was wait. And watch...
He sat on the bench next to the table, standing guard over her, fighting off sleep. Finally he took her hand in his, leaned his arms on the table, laid his head on them, and drifted into dreams of brown eyes smiling at him.