Chapter 7
When Sky finally woke up a few days later, much to the relief of everyone else, Jack thought he probably should have come up with something witty to say, not wanting Sky to know quite how worried he'd been when 48 hours came and went with no sign of change. Cameron had even tried reversing the ritual which had put Sky under in the first place, with no success, and while Doctor Felix hadn't said anything, practically everybody knew that the longer Sky was unconscious the less likely it was he'd wake up.
Cleared for light duty once more, Jack had spent as much time as he could spare in the infirmary and he was beginning to hate the sight of the stark walls that surrounded them. When Sky got out of here Jack swore that he'd sit on him if he had to, to keep Sky out of this place. He was tired of seeing Sky like this and hovering over him when he had nothing else to do, tired of the helplessness the place made him feel, and yet he couldn't leave; part of him certain that the moment he did so something would change, and not necessarily for the best, either.
"Hey," he said in greeting as Sky forced his eyes open, waiting until the doctor was finished and making sure Sky saw him before he attempted conversation. "How you feeling?"
Sky's mouth worked silently for a moment until eventually he managed to get out "Lousy."
"I'll bet," Jack replied, with a faint smile. "You remember what happened? In the infirmary?"
Sky opened his mouth, then frowned and shook his head.
"Figures," Jack muttered before briefly giving Sky the rundown of what happened. Throughout the recitation Sky's expression remained unreadable but when Jack finished Sky sighed and his head thumped against the pillow in frustration.
"I just want this to be over," he whispered. "Why can't it just be over?"
"Because we don't get that lucky," Jack replied quietly, fingers twining with Sky's. "Did it help at all, the ritual thing?"
There was a tense moment when Sky's expression went distant, as if he were no longer seeing Jack and the infirmary, but something else entirely, then he flinched and paled slightly. "Yeah," he managed eventually. "I think it did."
"Well, that's good, right?" Jack said brightly, fingers tightening around Sky's. "At least now you know something instead of driving yourself crazy over not knowing."
"Yes, because knowing is so much better," Sky snapped back.
Jack simply shrugged. "If you can bitch about it, you can handle it," he pointed out. Sky's snarking was much preferable to his tight-lipped silence so Jack could put up with a bit of complaining and the random insults that were likely to pop up if it meant that Sky was starting to deal.
"Jack-logic. Wonderful," Sky muttered and Jack grinned. Definitely a step in the right direction.
-----
By the time everyone was finished with him Sky was more than ready to throw them out the room so he didn't have to deal with them anymore. He hadn't minded Jack's presence, he'd actually felt better while the other man was there, but Jack couldn't stay with him all the time, even if only because it would eventually grate on both their nerves if that was the case, and having to deal with everyone else was tiring. His teammates he could handle, listening to Bridge's convoluted theories in contentment, while Z entertained him with all the regs violations he'd missed (some of which he dearly wished he'd seen - such as the D-Squad cadet who'd got locked out of his dorm in nothing but his underwear. Extremely colourful underwear at that, apparently) and Syd brought him up to date on base gossip, whether he wanted her to or not.
It was the other visitors he had trouble with, the people he wasn't close to and the fussing left him impatient and seriously considering a breakout. His teammates would hide him, right? He just needed to get away from everyone. At least he was starting to get a handle on everything now, despite that. Sure, he still had nightmares, and if anything they were worse now that he remembered them when he woke up, but paradoxically that was part of what was helping; at least now he knew what he was facing. Huh, he thought, Jack had been right after all, who'd have thought?
When he was finally discharged from the infirmary Sky couldn't wait to leave, apparently much to the amusement of everyone else. There was an awkward conversation with Cameron Watanabe which he'd been glad to cut short; apologies weren't his thing, either his own or from other people and he'd been happy not to have to deal with it longer than was necessary. Then there'd been a talk with the commander which had been even worse: Cameron had been hard enough, Cruger was worse, although he did take a certain amount of satisfaction from knowing Cruger felt guilty and that he'd screwed up; it made up for some of the attitude they'd had from him since they'd outed themselves.
His first day back on duty was quiet, disappointingly so. He'd hoped for some action that would take his mind off everything, but apparently he wasn't that lucky, the day had passed quietly, more so than was usual actually, even in a post-Gruumm SPD. Sitting on the couch that evening, flipping through the pages of a book he'd brought back from home while Jack lay sideways on the couch, ostensibly sleeping, back propped up against Sky's shoulder. When he'd heard about Jack being taken off duty for bruised back muscles Sky had felt incredibly guilty; much of the damage had been his fault after all. Jack, however, wouldn't hear anything about it and when he tried to apologise Jack had glared at him and told him it wasn't his fault so just shut up already. He still felt guilty anyway, he just didn't bring it up again.
"You guys busy?" Z asked dryly, standing in front of them with her arms folded.
"Oh yeah," Jack replied promptly, not moving so much as a muscle. "Real busy."
"Good, you won't mind coming with me then."
"Go where?" Sky asked, closing his book and looking at his teammate with interest.
Z shrugged. "Oh, nowhere much. Just where the person who tipped off Kennick Labs about Sky is."
Jack sat bolt upright, belying the tiredness he'd been complaining of earlier and Sky felt his heart rate speed up. "He's here?" Jack demanded. "He's SPD?"
Z nodded. "Yep. He's also the one who outed the pair of you." She grimaced. "It seems he got surveillance duty a lot."
"Who?" Jack wanted to know, wound tighter than Sky had ever seen him.
"Sergeant Everson," Z replied and Jack swore profusely, causing Sky's eyebrows to shoot up, stunned; Jack wasn't given to casual swearing and his newly discovered vocabulary was colourful, to put it mildly.
"…sonofabitch," Jack finished. "He was blocking me the whole time! Sonofabitch," he repeated for good measure.
"Want to go get him?" Z asked casually, as if the outburst had been nothing more than a calm statement of displeasure.
"Where is he?" Jack responded grimly and Z shrugged.
"Parking lot, as of right now. We've had him under surveillance for the past hour or so. Ready to bring him in?" Sky wasn't sure whether or not he was imagining it when her eyes flickered to him for a moment, but whether the question had been aimed at him or not he was more than ready to put this behind him.
Following Z down to the parking lot, it was to find Sergeant Everson surrounded by Bridge, Syd and two replicants. "Well, well, what have we here?"
Sergeant Everson was actually an older man who'd come to SPD late. Thin, with wispy blond hair and washed out blue eyes, Everson was probably what they had in mind when they came up with the term 'nondescript'. He was the kind of person who would be overlooked by everyone, blending into the crowd. "I could say the same thing," Everson sneered. "After all, they do let anyone into SPD these days."
Sky stiffened, but Jack simply eyed the man coldly. "Yes," he said distantly, "they do, don't they."
Everson's face went a dull red and he made an aborted lunge at Jack before Z's replicants kicked his legs out from under him and pulled him back to his feet.
"Sky," Jack said evenly, not looking at him. "I think this one's yours."
Sky nodded and pulled his morpher out, opening it to judgement mode. "Sergeant Everson, charged with betraying SPD, abetting kidnapping and obstruction of justice, judgement."
The morpher switched rapidly from innocent to guilty and Sky carded the man with ease. Picking up the card he stared at the figure hammering against the confinement shield. Strangely enough, he felt numb, none of the satisfaction or relief he'd expected.
"Do we know why?"
"The usual," Syd replied in distaste. "Money. They were paying him pretty well to spy for them."
"It's always money," Sky whispered. "Grow up, Sky," he heard again. "You're so naïve. You think being a ranger is everything." Why did it always come back to that?
He looked up as Jack rested a hand on his shoulder and for once he didn't balk at the understanding he found there. "Come on," Jack said, "let's go hand this guy in."
Sky nodded and handed the card over. Jack looked down at it, expression one of contempt, then shoved it in one of his pockets.
-----
"So," Jack said, when Everson was safely locked away and he'd wheedled his way into getting Sky into his room, "glad it's over?"
Sky shrugged. "Don't know. I don't think it's sunk in yet."
Jack raised his eyebrows. "Fair enough," was all he said though, sitting down on his bed while Sky lay there, staring up at the ceiling. "At least you know it's over now," he added. "No more waiting and wondering whether there's more trouble on the way."
"True," Sky agreed. "I guess it is good to know it's over."
"Don't sound so enthusiastic," Jack replied dryly. "I can't stand all the excitement."
Sky glared at him until the glare softened into a smile. "Thanks," Sky said softly. "You know, for--" he waved his hand in a vague gesture and Jack shrugged, uneasy with the thanks.
"Yeah well," he muttered. "What else was I going to do?"
Sky's fingers brushed against his cheek and he looked down to find the other man watching him seriously. "I mean it," Sky said quietly.
"I know," Jack replied.
There didn't seem to be anything either of them could say to that and the awkward silence was only broken when Sky muttered something under his breath and tugged Jack down to his level. Caught by surprise, it took a moment for Jack to register the warmth of Sky's mouth on his, Sky's fingers curled around his wrist and tangled in his shirt collar. It wasn't an earth-shattering kiss, not one of their hungry kisses or even the lazy ones they'd been indulging in before all of this had happened; this one was barely more than chaste, but Jack didn't care.
Finally, they were making some headway.
END
