Chapter Six
Doggie groaned inwardly as Jack's eyes pleaded with him and he determinedly told himself not to give in. Jack wanted in on interrogating Dr. Kennedy, but he was the last person that should be in there, given his emotional involvement. He wasn't even letting the other members of B Squad in on this interrogation, for much the same reason, among others. Anyone who hurt one of his rangers as badly as this miserable excuse for a life form had, had to face the consequences, one of which was facing him. He'd get the answers he needed one way or another and B Squad was too close to the problem.
"Permission denied," he said firmly.
"But--"
"No, Jack!" Doggie snapped. "You are the last person I want in there. In fact, whenever Dr. Kennedy is in the interrogation room, I don't even want you in the same wing of the building. That way there's no chance of molecular 'accidents'. Am I making myself clear, Cadet Landors?"
He watched as Jack struggled to get his emotions under control, until finally his red ranger's expression went unreadable. "Yes sir," Jack replied tightly.
He nodded. "Dismissed, cadet."
Jack pulled off one his crispest salutes, then walked off down the corridor, his head held high, and when he was sure the young man was out of range, Doggie sighed. Jack's salutes only got that sharp when he was extremely upset. Or angry. Or both. It wasn't hard to realise it was both at the moment, but there wasn't really any other choice to be made. Jack was usually good at interrogation. Put him and Sky in with whoever was being interrogated this time and they pulled off the good cop/bad cop routine to perfection. The only person who came close to their success was Cadet Carson and that was mainly because he talked and talked until the criminal had had enough and was begging to confess, if only the constant stream of rambling chatter would just stop already. He had to admit though, that the relationship between the two didn't seem to have adversely affected how they worked together. If anything, their working relationship had improved, becoming smoother, more confident, the pair of them working together as if they'd been doing it their whole lives.
He'd talked about this with Isinia and his wife was firmly of the opinion that he was being ridiculous. At first it had seemed that her time as Gruumm's captive had changed her, and at first it had. Her first few of weeks of freedom had been trying for both of them - him in having to adjust to having her back, her in getting used to being free again - and she'd been more dependent than was normal. Slowly though she'd become accustomed to breathing fresh air, having the freedom to go wherever she wished and as she adjusted to that her independence reasserted itself, the independence that had drawn him to her in the first place, and now, after a year of being together again, she clearly felt able to tell him in no uncertain terms when he was being a fool.
He, of all people, couldn't begrudge two hearts finding each other and Isinia had gently suggested that perhaps it wasn't the relationship itself that bothered him, but it was the suddenly being confronted with it out of nowhere that upset him. He hated to admit it but he was beginning to think that maybe she was right. Since the fall of Sirius he'd had to be in control at all times, and even now not being in control, having things happen outside of his awareness, left him deeply uneasy. Unfortunately, it was starting to look like his attitude had damaged the relationship he had with his rangers, Jack in particular, and he didn't know how to fix it. It was just that whenever the subject came up, the things he'd meant to say didn't come out, or came out wrong, and it was pushing Jack further and further away. Hopefully when Sky returned to the base they could work on that. He just hoped that it wouldn't be too late by then.
-----
Jack bounced on his heels outside the house, waiting for the door to open. While technically he'd known where Sky lived (when he was off base, anyway) he'd never been here before and he felt a little out of place among all the suburbia. He didn't think he'd ever been in this part of town before either, he and Z sticking to the inner areas of the city, so it was something of a new experience.
The door opened and revealed a blonde woman in probably her early forties or so. Sky's mom. "Can I help you?" she asked politely, expression neutral.
"Ah, hi. Yeah, I was looking for Sky, is he in?"
"Who's asking?" The neutral mask had slipped, replaced with what looked like suspicion.
Jack opened his mouth to respond but he was interrupted before he could even get his name out.
"Jack?" came Sky's voice behind his mom. "What're you doing here?" That was when the man himself stepped into the doorway.
"Hi Sky, nice to see you. I'm fine, thanks for asking."
Sky rolled his eyes and turned back inside. "You coming in or not?" came floating back before Jack could protest the casual dismissal and he glared at the other man's back before raising his eyes to the sky, silently asking for strength.
"Why me?" he muttered as he cautiously stepped past Sky's mother, giving her a charm-filled smile that appeased her not at all. Although it seemed like she'd relaxed with the realisation that he was one of Sky's friends and he wondered if her reaction had been normal or if it had anything to do with the call she'd made to base this morning, demanding to know what had happened to her son. Cruger hadn't been able to placate her and Jack had been concerned enough that he'd defied the orders to give Sky space to recuperate in and come over. Sky seemed fine though, at least from first impressions and he followed his boyfriend upstairs, into Sky's room.
"Aren't you supposed to be in class right now?" Sky asked as he sank onto his bed. The room was quite different to the one he shared with Bridge back at base. Just as tidy, this room was nonetheless full of stuff; bookshelves lined the walls in neat layers and there was a music stand with various albums on it - all the personal items that were missing from his room on base.
He shrugged. "Class was cancelled." Coincidentally it even happened to be true. "Lieutenant Shavin's got the flu and there was no-one else available to teach the advanced surveillance class, not with Lieutenant Maxwell off on maternity leave, so--" he shrugged again, "class cancelled." And it just happened that he was off duty anyway so he'd skipped out before the Commander could find him something else to do instead. "So, what about you? Enjoying your time off?" he asked with a grin, knowing exactly what Sky thought about this whole 'medical leave' thing.
It was Sky's turn to shrug. "It's okay I guess. Got a chance to catch up on some stuff and mom seems to have decided that since I'm home for a month now's the perfect time to redecorate."
"Keeping you busy, huh?"
Sky nodded with a small smile. "I think she's worried about what will happen if she leaves me to brood."
"You? Brood? Whyever would she think that?"
Jack found himself on the floor with a sore backside after Sky shoved him off the bed and he stood with as much dignity as he could muster, ostentatiously dusting himself off and Sky smirked at him before his smug expression sobered. "Why are you here, Jack?"
"What, I can't just come visit?"
Sky didn't grace the comment with a verbal response, simply looking at him instead and waiting for his answer.
Jack sighed. "Okay. Firstly, because I wanted to and this is the first chance I've had and secondly…" He hesitated. "Did you know your mom called the base this morning?"
Sky's eyebrows drew together in confusion. "No. Why?"
Jack shifted uncomfortably on the bed. "Apparently last night was… not a good one," he said cautiously, but Sky's expression remained confused. "You remember anything about last night? After you went to bed?"
Sky shook his head. "No. Why? What happened?"
Jack winced a little. "I didn't get too many details, but the words 'shaking the house' came up."
"Shaking the house?" Sky repeated incredulously, staring at him as if he was expecting to be told it was all a joke.
"'pparently," Jack replied. "Look, we know your powers have gotten a little freaky since we got you back. Maybe this is just more of the same, a kind of reaction to whatever happened back there."
Sky sighed. "Great. As if I didn't have enough to worry about."
"Hey, it's not the end of the world, you know," Jack retorted sharply, not about to let Sky start feeling sorry for himself. "So maybe your powers are growing, you can handle it."
There was a brief flash of uncertainty before it disappeared under one of Sky's blinding smiles. "Your bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired," he teased and Jack wrinkled his nose at him.
"I never said I was good at tact, you know."
"This is true."
Mock-scowling, Jack pounced him, straddling his waist and gently pinning Sky to the bed, ready to let go if he needed to. "No respect, Tate, that's your problem."
"There's things about you to respect?" Sky retorted with a raised eyebrow and a grin threatening to break through. His fingers flexed reflexively in the grip but he didn't seem overly concerned. A little more tense than usual maybe, but not on the verge of freaking out. Whether he was recovering faster than anyone expected or whether he simply trusted Jack that much, Jack wasn't sure. He also wasn't stupid enough to think that Sky's issues would simply go away, the events of the previous evening a more than able demonstration. Still, for the moment Sky wasn't freaking out and he had the taller man all to himself and exactly where he wanted him.
Leaning forward, he gently brushed his mouth against Sky's, deepening the kiss slightly as Sky responded easily. Unfortunately his grip on Sky's wrists tightened automatically as he did so and Sky flinched away. "Sorry," he whispered, letting go and sitting back on his heels, giving Sky the chance to relax and catch his breath. A minute or so later the tension eased from Sky's body as he relaxed, eyes that had been tightly closed opening again and looking over at Jack, full of too many emotions for him to read. Much to his surprise, Sky held out a hand to him and when he took it Sky tugged him back up the bed so they were lying next to each other, Sky's head resting against his.
Reluctantly leaving about an hour or so later, Jack quickly scribbled down the number to the phone in his room and gave it to Sky's mom on his way out. "If you need to, call that number," he said and left, not giving her the chance to respond. He hoped she wouldn't need it. He was afraid she would.
In the early hours of the morning Jack was jerked awake by the shrill ringing of the phone and he groped round for it until he found it. "Landors."
"Jack? It's Shauna Tate. Sky, he's--"
"I'm on my way," he said, cutting off the frantic voice and climbing out of bed. Throwing his uniform on he frowned in concentration and the floor beneath him slid through him, followed by the next two floors until he was in the parking lot. Turning the ignition key on his bike he grabbed a spare helmet, not even realising as he did so that it was Sky's, and sped out into the night.
Reaching Sky's house he was dismayed to see the blue light behind the curtains and his gut clenched as he ran through the closed door and up the stairs. God, please don't let this be happening again, he thought as he took the stairs two at a time. If there was a god, he wasn't listening as Jack ran into Sky's room only to find Sky almost completely covered in the eerie shadow-light and ghostly armour from before, nothing Mrs. Tate had done had had any effect. Not stopping to think, Jack grabbed Sky's hands and ignored the unnatural chill emanating from them.
Come on, Sky, don't let this beat you.
-----
Shauna Tate watched helplessly as the young man took Sky's hands in his, holding onto them tightly as he urgently tried to talk Sky out of whatever it was was happening. She couldn't deny that she was afraid. She had no idea what was happening to Sky and less idea of what could stop it, if Jack knew and could do something she was more than willing to let him try. She just hated feeling helpless.
Her hands clenched at her sides as Jack paused, took a deep breath and forced the tension out of his body and his voice. She watched as he let of go of one of Sky's hands, reaching out to where Sky's hair would be if it wasn't hidden by the ghostly helmet covering her son's face. His hand passing through it, the young man appeared to be stroking Sky's hair and that, along with the softly murmured words, set everything tumbling into place. Once she'd made the connection between this Jack and the Jack who was red ranger she'd felt better about him turning up out of nowhere to check on Sky, reassured that he wasn't one of the people who'd hurt her son in the first place and even when he gave her his number to call when he'd left that afternoon it hadn't seemed so strange. Nick had been the same, had taken his responsibility as red ranger so seriously that what would have seemed like excess concern from anyone else didn't even register. But now it looked like that wasn't the case.
Jack cared a lot for Sky, more than just a friend and team-mate should, it was obvious from the way he touched him, looked at him, the endearments falling from his mouth as he tried to bring Sky back to them. What she didn't know was if Sky knew. Finally though, it seemed to be having an effect as the armour faded and the light dimmed, leaving Sky tossing restlessly on the bed. Jack sat back, still holding one of Sky's hands, and she could see how much it taken from him to get Sky back - he looked exhausted, physically and emotionally.
"Is it over?" she asked and Jack nodded tiredly.
"Yeah. For now, anyway."
She nodded to herself, then looked across at Sky who'd settled now, sleeping easier. "What happened to my son?" she asked, determined that this time she'd get an answer. No amount of evasion would stop her getting to the bottom of this.
"We don't know," Jack replied, his exhaustion evident in his voice. "By the time we found him he was already freaking out big time and he doesn't remember any of it."
"What do you know, then?" she snapped, her frustration leaving her ready to snap if she didn't find out something.
There was a soft sigh in the darkness then Jack started talking, filling her in on the things they knew, and some of what they'd surmised. By the time he'd finished she wanted to take apart the people who'd done that to Sky, even though her rational side told her she couldn't.
-----
Jack twined his fingers around Sky's absently as he filled Sky's mom in on what he knew, not leaving anything out. She had the right to know, if anyone did.
"One last question," she said and he barely managed to stop the groan before it came out. God, he wanted to sleep.
"Shoot."
"How long have you been involved with my son?"
He choked. "Excuse me?" He couldn't have just heard what he thought he had.
"How long have you been seeing my son?" she repeated and yep, he'd heard right the first time. A quick glance didn't give him anything so he sighed and braced himself. "Almost a year. And please tell me you knew he was gay before this."
"Yes, I knew." If he didn't know better he'd swear she sounded… amused. Kinda.
"Oh, thank God," he sighed in relief. Sky kept so many things to himself that he wouldn't have been surprised if he hadn't told his mother he liked guys. It definitely wasn't a surprise that he hadn't mentioned he was seeing someone, although it did hurt more than he'd thought it would. He briefly sketched in the basics of how he and Sky had started dating - while Mirloc's escape and subsequent recapture had dealt with some of Sky's issues it hadn't dealt with them all and a quiet conversation had somehow turned into Sky kissing him and him kissing back. They hadn't looked back from there and they were still going, almost a year on. That was quiet an achievement.
By the time he'd finished talking Jack felt himself nodding off and a pair of hands was gently lying him down. "Go to sleep, Jack," came the quiet voice just before sleep won the battle with his conscious mind and tugged him down into oblivion.