Not Quite the Fairytale I was Hoping For…
Disclaimer: (incert witty disclaimer message here)
It was childish, she knew this. But it didn't make it any less romantic.
She dreamed of being a servant girl who was granted her one wish of being able to go to the kingdom ball where she would meet the handsome prince and they would dance until the clock struck twelve. Then she would run away in the night leaving behind only a glass slipper which the prince would find and use to come looking for her. He would find her among the cinders and ask for her hand in marriage. And they would live happily ever after, sharing true love's first kiss.
She was a servant girl in a way.
But instead of washing her evil step-sister's clothes, scrubbing floors, and slaving over meals, she was a servant to the city. Cleaning up it's scumbags that dared to terrorize her city.
There were no grand, kingdom-wide balls only an officer's ball filled with ugly dress uniforms and stuffy mingling. And the only shoes she ever lost were the ones in her closet that disappeared behind her wall of purses.
As for handsome princes, the only man she would even think of calling a prince was a stoic, stick in the mud who was so oblivious to everything he wouldn't even know what a female was if he didn't serve with them.
But she continued to dream of her perfect fairytale in hopes that it would one day come true.
Once in a while she would fantasize that she was a naive princess who ran away from home only to find herself in the home of seven odd, but sweet little men. Despite the long journey from home she would still be found by her wicked stepmother who would trick her into eating a poisoned apple throwing the beautiful maiden into a deep slumber only to be awoken by the kiss of a handsome prince.
She did indeed reside with some odd men but her mother was most definitely not wicked and only time she was ever jealous was when Sydney bought the brand new Prada bag before it hit shelves. And unless someone hacked into the food replicator to spike the fruit selection, she didn't think she had to worry about any poisoned apples.
But once again her perfect prince was blissfully unaware of her fantasies and would probably only laugh at her childishness.
But she continued to daydream.
She wished she was a lovely maiden trapped in a tall tower with no doors or stairs and only a small window where should sing sweetly to the birds and woodland creature and rolling hills across the land. In her songs she sang of a handsome prince coming to rescue her from her lonesome fate until one day a prince heard her melodious songs and rode his gallant steed all the way to her tower. He would call to her to throw down her flowing blond hair so he could climb to her and they would share true loves first kiss.
Well, she did sometimes think of herself as trapped in her own tower of SPD, never connected to the outside world, but overall she loved her job and wouldn't change it for anything. As for her singing, her prince often made snide remarks about her singing calling it "noise" from her pop princess days.
He just never seemed to care about her striking blond hair saying she spent too much time caring and treating naught but dead cells.
All in all, her life was not a perfect fairytale, and she was far from a damsel in distress. But as much as she liked to muse about her storybook princesses, all she really wanted was the knight in shining armor. The handsome prince with whom she would share true loves first kiss.
Now of course she had had her share of kisses. Ever since she had been infatuated with her story book tales at the age of three had she wanted that first kiss. So she went off to preschool with every intention of getting one. And she did; an innocent peck on the cheek from a sweet boy in her class.
That was the first of many kisses. Some more serious, some more passionate, but never any true love.
These were the fleeting thoughts of Sydney Drew as she stared at herself in her vanity mirror.
"All rangers please report to the command center," came the slightly harried voice of the Dr. Kat Manx.
Sydney sighed as she raced out of her room to meet her teammates in the command center.
As all five rangers raced to the scene in the SPD issued jeep, Sydney thought about their current assignment.
Apparently, a known weapons thief had been caught stealing some pretty substantial arms machinery from a warehouse that was supposed to ship out to KO-35 this afternoon.
Hostages were limited to a few of the dock workers helping to unload the weapons from the ship onto the shuttle hanger.
Thankfully there had been no sign of causalities thus far but the thief, who went by Aires, was known for doing whatever it took to get away and receive his payment from his employer so there was no telling how far he would go to collect his dues.
Negotiations were not going well so the rangers planned to organize a surrounding strike and take out Aires before he knew what was happening. Sydney and Sky were to attack from the docks while Bridge and Z attacked from the hanger rooftops and Jack came in from behind Aires.
The plan was going well. Everyone was almost in position except for Sky and Sydney. They had one more fifty yard dash across the docks to a large crate where they would have a better position for a shot on Aires.
"You ready Syd?"
"As ready as I'll ever be."
Sky shot Sydney a reassuring smile. The one smile he seemed to only reserve for her. It was more than his usual upturn of one side of his mouth that he gave the others when he was amused, it was a true smile. Sydney sometimes liked to think that he only really smiled when she was there, just for her. But she pushed that thought aside as she gave him a smile of her own and added a wink.
With a deep breath and a count of three, both took off at a sprint to the large weapons crate.
A shocked gasp from one of the hostages was all it took for Aires to turn around and take aim. With his new supply of firepower it only took a few shots to take out the peppy pink ranger who was only a step behind her blue counterpart.
Her body was thrown back by the force of laser and she was thrown off the dock into the waiting waves of New Tech Bay.
As Aires attention was occupied by his short lasting victory, Jack, Bridge, and Z immediately open fired on the man and he was unconscious and incapacitated within seconds.
Sky too had reacted quickly. As he watched in slow motion, it seemed, as Sydney was blasted of the dock and it only took a moment before he jumped in after her.
The water was murky and dark as he searched frantically for the beautiful pink ranger. His eyes searched for anything that might seem familiar, a flash of pink, a soft hand, a blond curl… and that's when he saw it, not ten feet away was a sinking head of soft blond hair.
She was unconscious, falling silently into the clutches of the waiting sand below.
Sky quickly had to suppress his anger. There was no way he would allow his best friend to die, there was so much more she could do with her life, so much more they could do, together.
He swam as fast as he could. With each pull his lungs screamed for oxygen, with every kick his muscles pleaded for rest, but he couldn't stop. Not until she was safe. Not until he knew she would be okay.
Just as he thought he wouldn't be able to get to her, the current allowed her petite hand to float up just close enough to him to grab her to him. He held on to her waist as he furiously used his other hand to swim the seemingly never- ending course towards the blessed oxygen.
Just as his lungs were about to collapse from exertion his head broke the surface.
He took in frantic breaths all the while still dragging an unconscious Sydney across the surface of the mockingly calm waters.
He reached the ladder to the dock with relatively no difficulty and despite his screaming muscles, hoisted the tiny women over his shoulder to make the climb up the algae ridden rungs.
Sky vaguely heard his teammates yelling for him but nothing mattered in this moment, nothing mattered but Sydney. He gently laid her down onto the wooden dock and checked for a pulse.
Nothing.
He tilted back her head and opened her mouth to see if she was breathing.
Nothing.
Sky wasted no time in starting CPR.
He could feel his own heart beat racing inside his head, thumping against the rhythm he had set in his chest compressions.
He tried to breathe life in her. With each breath he prayed that she would be okay. He made promises to every god he had ever heard of that he would do anything should she be spared.
His teammates were near him now. They were yelling at him to take a break, let someone else take over. Couldn't they see he was busy? He was trying to save the most important women in his life.
He checked her pulse again.
Nothing.
Her breathing?
Nothing.
He wouldn't give up. He couldn't give up. She needed to smile. She needed to laugh. He needed to tell her!
Again he started his chest compressions.
Please… this team is nothing without you… I'm nothing without you…
He tilted her head back again and their lips touched.
And she started coughing.
She was alive!
Sky quickly rolled her to her side to spit out any water still in her lungs.
The entire team sighed in relief. Z hugged Bridge, who blushed and hugged her back. Jack patted Sky on the back but pulled away when Sky winced from the strain. Despite the strain Sky managed to maintain a smile. Sydney was okay.
As her coughing fit subsided Sydney laid back and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them she saw Sky staring at her intently with a sad smile. Sydney gave him a reassuring smile and a wink, just like normal. He merely reached out and touched his hand to her face, tracing her cheek and
smile with his thumb. For that one moment no one else existed, and it was in that moment that Sydney realized something. Sky had kissed her.
It wasn't the result of a steamy confession, it wasn't a death defying experience where in a moment of weakness a kiss is shared to convey relief that the other is okay, not really anyway.
It wasn't quite the fairytale true loves first kiss she had often dreamed about…
But it was a start.
And she could wait a bit longer for her prince charming.
Authors Note: (cause you knew it was coming) So basically, I thought it was cute but I want to know what YOU think! So press that cute little blueish purplish button, you know you want to... don't ya? don't ya?... please... pretty please...