Skye meets him on the first day.
His hair is brown and cut short
in typical military fashion,
and he has freckles
and smiling eyes.
She doesn't know how his eyes can smile,
but they can, somehow.
He seems nice,
but he is a little taller than her,
which she hates,
even as he says pleasantly,
"I'm Jeffrey Tifton."
"Skye Penderwick." she replies shortly
eyes daring him,
inviting him to say
exactly what she knows he is going to.
"I thought this was an all-boys school."
Ah. There it is.
He waits for her reply,
and she knows he is observing
her delicate features
and practical short hair
and wondering what a girl like her
is doing at a school like this.
Well, he could keep wondering.
"It is." she replies,
an eyebrow lifted,
waiting for the typical respone of
"But you're a girl."
Golly gee, are you sure?
But "okay" is all he says,
and he turns away,
eyes twinkling with amusement
and something else she can't quite place,
and she thinks for the first time that maybe,
just maybe,
military school won't be so awful after all.
.
.
.
Skye finds him one night,
slumped over a pile of papers,
his head in his hands,
shoulders heaving.
Despite the fact that she goes
to an all-boys school,
she has no real experience with boys,
let alone crying ones.
So she stands there quietly
eyes looking anywhere,
everywhere but him.
"Hi." she manages after a while,
and Jeffrey lifts his head
so she can see his tear-stained cheeks
and sorrowful eyes.
"They found out. About Cagney."
Oh, Cagney.
Jeffrey's sweet, loyal best friend.
"He's gone? They made him leave?"
Jeffrey nods.
God-damn military and their homophobia.
"Does Ross know? About – the way Cagney feels?"
Skye is almost afraid of the answer.
"I think that's how they found out."
Oh, Cagney.
"I'm sorry." are the only words
Skye can think to say.
"Me too."
They sit there together,
heads bowed in a silent vigil,
until the sun rises
and a new day comes with it.
.
.
.
"Skye!"
Jeffrey is smiling,
such a rare occurance
that Skye hates herself,
despises herself
for having to ruin it.
"Happy birthday, Jeffrey. I, uh, need to talk to you."
"Oh, okay. I'll be right back!"
His roommates don't even look up from strategizing,
and Jeffrey rolls his eyes good-naturedly.
"I swear, they never stop studying. So, what's –"
"I'm leaving." Skye blurts out
and Jeffrey is absolutely still,
eyes searching her face
for god-knows what.
"You're kidding, right? You've got to be –"
"I got kicked out, Jeffrey. I punched Admiral Kruger."
Jeffrey looks like he's going to have a seizure,
or at least throw up.
"You – punched – Admiral – Kruger?"
"Right in the nose." Skye says evenly.
"You stupid idiot." Jeffrey says,
laughter so plain in his voice
that Skye can't help but giggle.
Just a little.
But Jeffrey's face is suddenly serious again
and Skye already misses the parabola of his mouth
as it curves into that near perfect grin,
and Christ, could she really leave him?
No.
But she has to.
Their goodbye is too sad,
too sad for tears,
too sad for anything, really,
except blank faces and stiff hugs.
But as the car pulls away
from the wrought-iron gates
and the last five years of her life,
Skye cries.
Just a little.
.
.
.
Ten years later.
The news is on
in her small apartment,
and Skye is brushing her teeth
in front of the screen
when a picture of a man appears,
and Skye nearly chokes on her toothbrush.
Jeffrey Tifton.
War Hero.
Currently missing an arm,
all because he saved his friend,
Tommy Geiger,
and countless others
from a grenade
by stopping the grenade.
With his own arm.
.
.
.
That night,
Skye cries herself to sleep,
and she is so glad she left the military,
not because she doesn't want her arm blown off,
but because she couldn't live with herself
if Jeffrey took a grenade,
or a bullet,
or got hurt in general for her.
He is too precious,
and she just isn't worth the trouble.
I've been doing a lot of Penderwicks writing lately, have you noticed that?
this started out as an AU ficlet for my collection and turned into something a bit too long to be a ficlet. I hope you liked it, and I hope the characters aren't too OOC.
I feel really insecure about this one, actually, so please review if you happened to like it. I just feel like it's not very realistic.