Disclaimer: I lay no claim on Walker, Texas Ranger or any of its characters.
A/N: For those you who may be confused, Cooper is from "Deadly Situation" in the final season of the series. Also the italicized part of the story is just a recap of everything that happened during the six weeks that lapse between chapter 8 and chapter 9
Chapter 9
Six Weeks Later
Today was Sydney's first day back at work. She had successfully completed her physical therapy and aside from being in a wheelchair, she was back to her old self.
There had also been some change in the living arrangements. Gage had picked out a new apartment for the two of them. It was completely handicap friendly which was something Gage was intent on finding because he knew that Sydney would never be dependent on anyone even now that she had a disability. Now it was fine for them to have a relationship even though they worked together. There was no chance of them making poor judgments when conducting arrests because that wasn't part of Sydney's job anymore.
Gage had his new partner now as well. He was a fairly new ranger who, when Walker found out he'd became a ranger, had been immediately placed in Company B. Cooper, the young officer from Sage City who had busted some dirty cops, gotten himself shot and lost his partner, reached his goal of becoming a ranger. Sydney, true to her word gave her opinion in the matter and greatly approved of Gage's choice for his new partner.
Lastly, the rangers were relieved to know that they never had to deal with the Raptors ever again. Every one of them had been in the abandoned mill and they had all been found dead some time after Sydney had been rushed to the hospital.
Now as everyone waited in the Ranger's office for Sydney to arrive, they heard the common sound of her and Gage arguing down the hall. "Gage," she protested, "I can wheel this thing myself. I don't need you to push me."
"Syd, humor me. I want to be the one who pushes you into the office for you first day back." Now they were at the door and Alex told everyone to get ready as Gage opened the door and pushed the wheelchair inside.
"SURPRISE!" everyone shouted.
"You guys!" was all Sydney could manage to say.
"Welcome back Sydney," Trivette said warmly, "I can't believe I'm actually saying this but I've missed you and Gage fighting all day, everyday." Everyone laughed.
"Thanks Jimmy," Sydney replied, "It's great to be back." She looked around the room. "And thanks to all of you guys too. I probably should have expected something like this."
"Well it was Alex's idea and she arranged it all. We just showed up and yelled 'surprise' when she told us to," Walker told the junior partner, smiling
"Well I'm grateful. To tell the truth, I was a little nervous about coming back. I didn't know what to expect but now that I'm here, I feel like life is finally back to normal."
"We're all glad that you feel like that. Even though everyone's been here and I've seen you at home, I've missed you Syd. I've missed having you here to talk to about cases or anything really. It hasn't been the same but now that you're back, things can finally get back to normal."
"I know what you mean. It's a miracle that we all lived through the explosion. If just one thing had been different, we could have died."
"Syd, you know that I would have never let you off that easy and I know you wouldn't let me either. I told you, you're stuck with me forever."
"I have no problem with that," Sydney said smiling as Gage leaned down as kissed her. Everyone else looked on thinking about what Sydney had said. The rangers really could have all died and it's just a miracle that they lived. As they looked around the room at all their friends, it made them really glad that they had this moment to share together, safe and sound.
THE END
One Last Author's Note: A few of my readers wanted Sydney to miraculously recover from her paralysis but I just wanted you all to know that I wrote this story with the intension of her NOT getting well. In every episode of almost every show I've ever watched, especially WTR, things have turned out perfectly okay for the good guys. Any injury that plagued the good guys (more specifically the main characters) was gone by the end of the episode and that gets really boring after a while, not to mention predictable. I think my story still kind of shows this trend but it also shows that things don't always work out like the main characters would like it to.
Please leave me a review and tell me what you think about my story.
