Disclaimer: If I owned Power Rangers, any of their canon characters or merchandise, I would be a very lucky person...
Special thanks go to my amazing beta-reader Hunter10600, for working even though their laptop's been confiscated! They've put their reputation on the line to steal a computer and edit this! So, thank you!
Also, a huge thanks go to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, people who've published stuff on this site know how much reviews mean to us writers, and how after publishing a new chapter you start to refresh the page over and over until you get your first review...or maybe that's just me...Thank you regardless!
Also, today is Armistice Day (11th November) which is a pretty big deal in the countries of Europe (not so much in the USA) so today if you live near a graveyard try and find your town's war memorial...I live in a tiny village but even so our memorial has so many names, most of them being related to one another; fathers and sons who never came home...
Anyway, on to Becoming Bridge! ENJOY!
The first few years with Bridge were pure bliss.
Well, as much pure bliss as being a first time parent would allow between the uneven sleeping patterns, the constant wailing, and the unimaginably atrocious mess babies made that is.
When Dan and Lily merged accounts after marriage, Lily quickly discovered that Dan was being, in her humble-yet-not-so-humble opinion, far overpaid for doing what was essentially blowing things up and plotting results tables under controlled conditions for a living; with him earning twice as much as she was. Thus, after looking over the accounts and making the necessary calculations, she decided that they would be stable enough financially on simply Dan's pay-check and their joint savings for Lily to take the first few years of Bridge's infancy unemployed.
In truth, before she had Bridge, she had detested the concept of housewives. Her grandmother had been one, and according to her mother, she had never been happy with her situation. Her grandmother, from what she remembered, had been a naturally sociable creature; she would have adored working in a small shop or a florists. But, rather tragically, her grandfather had pretty much dictated what she did after marriage; if he wanted her to stay at home and raise Lily's mother and uncle, that's what she would do. Her grandfather was rather controlling in that manner; being an executive businessman did that to you, her mother always said.
However, this matter was different. For starters, originally, Daniel had been against the notion; he didn't want Lily to feel caged, she supposed. Truthfully, she had been on the fence about the idea up until the moment Bridge was finally born. Unsurprisingly, having your child born prematurely and facing the concept of him not surviving the month made you a protective parent. In a way, she was scared. Scared of not being there for those 'landmark' moments parents always bragged about. Scared of not being able to hold him, like when he was put in that incubator. Scared of not feeling like a real mother. She far more introverted than her grandmother ever was, so staying home didn't seem like that much of a struggle for her. She could still read, so she was content.
As such, Lily went to work on the apartment. Files that were previously filled to the brim with unfinished manuscripts and the odd fully published book were chucked out and replaced with piles of baby-books and chests full of toys. Despite how much she hated cleaning, her conscience urged her to vacuum the apartment once a week, in case Bridge ended up sick due to her negligence. Dan was still unhappy about Lily's new-found status of housewife; but after a few months he came to accept it and, in all honesty, was rather content with being the breadwinner for the family, though he'd never say it aloud.
Maria visited often, becoming Bridge's unofficial aunt; she had the perfect amount of energy and high spirit to deal with the toddler when Lily was feeling under the weather and needed some time for herself. Alongside Lily, Maria taught Bridge how to read and write before he could even walk on two feet. Maria had been there was Bridge said his first word, which unfortunately Lily couldn't recall, but Maria proclaimed it was in fact 'Deoxyribonucleic Acid' and joked that Bridge used the same mumbo-jumbo as his father, she was there when he first wrote out his name in full, even when he took his first steps. Bridge was always the kind of child to emulate the emotions of the people around him, so having Maria, who was always positive and upbeat, was a great influence for him, Lily thought.
It was when Bridge began walking that it appeared Dan's clumsy nature was, in fact, genetic. It was a nightmare trying to keep the toddler in check, since he proved to be not only running into walls frequently, but at a surprisingly fast pace. In the first week he learnt to walk, he had crashed into the TV a total of three times, into the doors eight times, and solid walls six times. When asked why, Bridge couldn't explain it. He simply told them "Blurry colors!"
That's when the problems first started to show up.
Originally, Lily thought it was a simple problem with his sight. Without telling Dan, she took him to three separate opticians, all of with found no abnormalities with his vision. She then proceeded to get worried and anxious, which of course only made Bridge get worried and anxious, which only make Lily even more worried and anxious…the cycle goes on.
After a few more months of these 'blurry colors' blocking her son's vision, Bridge told his mother that he could see more clearly now; that the colors inside the house had faded so he could see; so they stopped going to opticians. He no longer ran into walls daily; just weekly as his father did in a rush. As the weeks went by, and more abnormalities appeared, Lily had come up with a theory:
Bridge had a way of expressing himself, Lily concluded, by describing people using colors. Unless it was someone he knew, like Mommy or Daddy or Aunty Maria, he would simply call them by their color. The most common ones he used were orange, yellow and orangey-yellow. It seemed to Lily that he could pick up if someone was feeling off, and no matter how hard they tried to hide it, he would say they're blue, grey or even, if they were hung-over –such as she had been one night following a party with Maria, the human alcohol tolerance machine - green. No amount of happy smiles and false expressions of joy could get past him. It was as if he could see any attempt to pull the wool over his deep blue eyes.
She didn't tell Dan though. For her, it didn't seem like an issue that needed to be brought up. He was simply good at seeing if people were upset. No need for alarm. Many children could read adults' pure emotions; so what if he expressed it through colors?
Still, she couldn't stop herself from feeling anxious. As he grew older, under a slightly concerned Maria's guidance she began taking Bridge to a local day-care centre and spending her afternoons chatting with the fellow mothers. They all thought young Bridge's personality was slightly odd, but like Lily, brushed it off as simply a toddler's strange quirk and happily let him engage with their own children. Bridge was a sociable child, spending plenty of time play fighting with the boys, but equally happy to spend time reading stories of spaceships and princes of distant planets with the girls. He eagerly told the other children what colors he saw around them, and they in turn happily told him that he was strange; but didn't mind. He was popular with the day-care children, and made friends easily.
For a while, everything was fine.
But, as the famous saying goes; 'All good things must come to an end'. It was when Bridge turned three that his behavior became truly worrying. The Carson household had decided to celebrate Bridge's third birthday by throwing a small party in their communal garden, shared with all the other tenants in their apartment block; all the neighborhood kids were there, some of which Bridge knew from his mornings in day-care, but many of which Bridge had never seen before. The atmosphere was light and exultant, with small children running all over the place and toddlers crawling around their mothers, staining their clean knees a dull green from the fresh grass. Brightly colored balloons were sprinkled into the corners of the cramped garden, giving the square compound the typical party image as seen in Hollywood movies. There was even a foldable table in the centre of the chaos bestowing a large, rainbow-covered cake which Daniel had made himself in the late hours of the night, as a surprise to both wife and son.
The couple were in the middle of a conversation with Maria and a slightly pudgy mother of three when they heard it; Bridge's scream. It cut through the atmosphere of the party like a knife through paper. The heads of every adult in that garden instinctively turned towards the source of the shrill cry. The noise had only been there for a second before there was silence. Lily ran.
She ran to the centre of the garden, the crowd surrounding her son parting like the red sea. In the centre of the crowd lay Bridge, clutching his head, his fingers woven between the locks of his messy light brown hair. His breathing was rapid and uneven, and every few seconds Lily heard a light sobbing hiccup. There was a small girl standing next to him, her pale green eyes wide with panic as she looked down at the boy who was barely bigger than she was, looked up at Lily standing over the two of them, then back to Bridge.
"I-I just," she stuttered, fighting back tears as she looked up at Lily's equally panicked expression once again before turning back to the boy. "We we're p-playin' tag…I j-just touched h-his hand…and then he-" the girl was unable to finish her sentence. She burst into tears.
Lily stood there, paralyzed as she watched her son's continuous sobs. She didn't even move an inch when Dan moved through the crowd, picked Bridge up and began walking back inside. She flinched when Maria walked up to her, placed a gentle hand on the woman's shoulder and took her back inside the apartment block. Lily vaguely recalled Maria's sugar-coated voice muttering countless apologies as her soft push guided the brunette to the door. It was only once they were inside that she had processed what had just happened.
Bridge has ceased his sobbing, and was now asleep in his father's arms. Holding the three year old awkwardly in an effort to balance both him and the apartment's keys without disturbing the boy's slumber, he eventually managed to open the door and let the group of four inside.
"Let me take 'im Dan," Maria began, already transferring the young boy into her arms. "Don't ya' worry, I'll put the little man ta' bed," as she finished her sentence, the blonde was already entering the child's room, leaving the couple alone.
"W-what just-" Lily began, sitting down slowly as she looked up at her husband. Daniel looked like he was in control of the situation, but if she had to describe it his expression was disturbingly unsurprised considering what just happened, if anything he looked frustrated with the situation. It was as if he'd expected something bad to happen. That couldn't be right though. Why would it be?
"Someone touched him," she said, relaying the information as she tried to make sense of it. "He made skin contact and he…broke down. Dan, what does this mean? What happened to Bridge?"
"I'll tell you what happened," Dan replied, his voice laced with irritation and frustration as he remained standing, pacing back and forth. "Bridge – our son…something's wrong with him!"
"Nothing is wrong with him!" Lily declared; her voice rising uncontrollably, before catching it last minute and bringing it back to a harsh whisper.
"Then, please," Dan replied, his the volume of his voice rising as Lily's had done before, until she raised her eyebrows at him and he lowered his voice once again "explain to me why our son just had a mental breakdown when a little girl tapped his hand? Do you have an explanation? Please, feel free to share; because I sure as hell don't!"
"Erm…" Maria trailed off, entering the room to come face to face with the scene of the couple's argument, silencing the both of them as she shuffled awkwardly towards the front door. "Maybe this is a bad time…Well um…Bridge is sound asleep. I'll let m'self out."
"Thanks, Maria." Dan said, an expression of true gratitude on his features. "You've saved our asses yet again."
She chuckled, not bothering to reply formally as she shut the door. "Don't I know it," she muttered to herself.
Once Maria had left, the couple resumed their argument. However, neither of them were nearly as fired up about it than they were before Maria walked in.
"Lily," Dan eventually said, his tone of voice far softer than before, with an underlying tone of something – perhaps guilt? – which she couldn't identify. "I've been keeping something from you.
Back when we first met, years ago; I was working on the development of new ranger technology for SPD…it was classified information so I couldn't tell you…my team were pretty successful though at achieving our goal. That's why you can see our SPD team fighting alien mercenaries today. But…we were being exposed to a lot of unsafe chemicals…maybe, that's our explanation."
Lily remained speechless.
"I'd heard from the others that there were complications from the research," Dan uttered as Lily's eyes began darting back and forth, putting all the pieces together. "No-one could have possibly thought that there would have been a genetic defect that would affect our children. Something that would-"
"Make Bridge…like Bridge?" Lily finished; her voice meek.
"Yeah," he replied, dejected. There was a moment of utter silence between the two of them, before Dan spoke up again.
"I know someone," Daniel explained, sitting down beside his wife gently as he took her slender hand in his. "I know her from back when I worked in SPD; her name is Doctor Manx…she's the best genetic researcher I've ever met. She's…a genius when it comes to this kind of thing. I'll make some calls. She can-"
"She can what, Dan?" Lily asked, swallowing back her panic. "Run some tests? Hook him up to a bunch of monitors…for god knows how long, for what? Just so we can-"
"Understand what's going on with our son," Dan finished, silencing Lily's hysterical moment as she looked up at him. His eyes were showing her absolute conviction; an expression she rarely saw on her husband's face. "Lily, something's wrong with our son. We have to face that. But, if there is something, anything, we can do to help Bridge, no matter what it is; I'd do it in a heartbeat. And I know you would too."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because I know you love him," he told her. "Just as I know you love me."
The SPD headquarters was huge. The building itself was less than a year old, so the windows shone brightly and the entire structure seemed to glow with pride. It stood in the centre of New Tech city, and already in the space of a year became a symbol of security and pride for the planet. As Lily stood before the enormous double doors of the command centre; she couldn't help feeling nervous. Even with her husband and child beside her, her instincts were still screaming for her to turn around, leave everything behind and run. Still; she'd made her decision.
"You ready?" Dan asked, studying his wife with calm green eyes.
Taking in a deep breath, Lily took Bridge's tiny, bandaged hand in hers. She'd never felt his hand to be as small and fragile as it had been in that moment. Even with the layers upon layers of cloth between her skin and his, she still worried that she was affecting him. Thinking the most positive and calming thoughts as she could, she turned back to her husband.
"Ready as I'll ever be," she replied, taking the first steps, opening the large door and walking inside.
"We're here to see Kat Manx? We have an appointment."