Hey everyone this is Satori Blackthorn, sorry about the lapse in chapters, I've been beyond busy and tomorrow I leave for a three week cadet camp. Go me!

I'll try and speed up the updates, as people have been complaining.

Satori

Chapter Nine

A New Outlook?

It was nearing noon when Jen and Katie finally awoke, though nothing unusual for Katie, who regularly slept in until 12:00, it was a new record for Jen.

"Morning sleepyheads." Lucas teased when he saw their bed-headed forms come slowly down the landing.

Not surprisingly the first thing out of Jen's mouth was – 'Is Wes up yet?'

She didn't see Lucas smirk before he answered her question.

"I didn't check on him yet, he hasn't shown himself yet, maybe he fell off." He shrugged then went back to the paper he was reading.

Jen frowned but the expression was wasted, no one could look intimidating with their hair poofed out around their head and standing, arms folded across their chest, in pyjamas with flying purple cows, looking all the world like a deranged anime girl gone horribly wrong.

Katie giggled and flopped down opposite Lucas, "Why don't you just go and check on him if you're so worried, you sound like a mother hen!"

Jen bristled, "I am not a mother hen!"

Katie laughed and waved her off, taking the paper from Lucas and turning to the entertainment section.

Mumbling about sadistic, super-strong people with sick senses of humour (say that five times fast…) Jen went over to the window to the roof where she'd left Wes last night.

"Wes? Wes?" she called out in a whisper, thinking that maybe he was still asleep and not really wanting to pester him if he was. "Wes, are you still there?"

She caught sight of him around the corner of the roof, near the windows on the other side of the building. He was sitting near the edge, one foot dangling down and the other knee tucked up under his chin, looking deep in thought and apparently not hearing Jen's calls.

She smiled in relief, seeing that he was still alive and that her dream-filled night of Red Ranger pancakes had been in vain. She needn't have worried, she chastised herself, Wes was made of stronger stuff than to fall off the roof in his sleep and let that do him in.

Jen stepped out onto the roof, intending to sit with him and see if he had slept better last night, under a blanket of stars, when she felt something tugging at her mind.

She sat down on the window ledge quickly, wondering what this feeling was that prevented her from talking to Wes, who still hadn't moved, reminding Jen of the stone gargoyles that guarded the Silver Hills Library. Shaking her head she decided she was just being silly, sleeping in for so long was doing funny things to her mind.

'Just like Katie,' she thought absentmindedly, 'when she told us that cock and bull story of the guy who owned the clock tower.' She steeled up her determination and walked over to Wes, putting a hand on his shoulder. She waited for the feeling to rear its ugly head again, but all traces of it disappeared when Wes looked up at her with a warm smile on his face.

"Jen, good morning, or is it good afternoon?" he teased.

"You'd be tired too if you were up half the night wondering if a certain Red Ranger was going to fall to his death from the clock tower roof…" she teased back, shoving him gently as she sat down.

"You didn't stay up all night worrying about me did you?" he said, with a concerned look in his eyes.

"No, I just waited until you fell asleep, then prayed I wouldn't hear any thumps in the middle of the night." Jen gazed over the horizon of Silver Hills; everything was awake and buzzing, wide-awake now. She had missed seeing the first businessmen and women hit he streets because of her extended slumber. The streets were filled with people moving along, doing their business and making as much noise as possible in the process. She could see from her perch that traffic was backed up along one of the main roads into the city.

'Probably the result of someone's foolish driving.'

The cars behind were making all sorts of rude noises, ranging from beeps to unintelligible shouts, wanting to get back to their lives and not be stuck behind whatever nutball had started the mess. She sighed.

'Wait until flying becomes the daily routine that'll be the highlight of their lives…'

She snapped out of her reverie.

"Did you sleep alright Wes?" she asked, not wanting to ask outright about his dreams yet, lest she provoke another outburst like the one she had witnessed yesterday. Also she did not mention it for another purely selfish reason, if he were to get mad at this point in time, she would not be able to sit beside him in this ever so comfortable arrangement. She felt she could wait awhile before hitting him with what she wanted to say.

"Yeah," he said, shrugging his shoulders, "It was okay, Circuit woke me up when he went on his early morning flight though."

Jen regarded him quizzically, "Is that all?"

Wes looked down at the petite brunette who was sitting beside him; Jen could feel her heart speed up as she realised just how close she was sitting to him, though the mood was quashed when she remembered she was still in her pyjamas.

"Yes, I slept fine."

"You didn't have any… nightmares then?"

Jen looked at him, expecting another explosion, but received none.

"Nightmares?" Wes laughed, "No, I think those are old news now."

She narrowed her eyes, something was off. Yesterday talking about these nightmares as if they were the weather was Jen's role. Now Wes thought they were dead and gone?

"Are you sure Wes? You seemed to think they were pretty serious yesterday…"

That elicited another chuckle from Wes, "I guess I just realised how stupid I was sounding, come on, I mean, me? Turning on you guys? That's insane! Don't tell me you believe it still?" he asked looking at her pleadingly.

"I – I don't know…" This was crazy, what had happened to all the talk of doom and all of Silver Hills being destroyed? Where was the talk of the rangers dying before Wes' very eyes? She couldn't deny that this was a far happier and at ease Wes than she had seen in weeks, but the way he shrugged off these premonitions as if they were nothing… it made her feel uneasy.

"Come on Jen, I thought you trusted me further than that…" Wes sounded hurt.

"I do believe you Wes, I believe that there was something behind what you were saying yesterday about the dreams you've been having."

"I'm sorry if I made you doubt me Jen, I was just in a weird mood yesterday, I was stupid for thinking that I would hurt you guys, I guess loosing all that sleep finally got to me…"

Jen shook her head again. "Wes, the reason you'd been loosing sleep is because you believed so much in what you were seeing… I admit when you told me about them yesterday I didn't believe you and thought that it was only a side-effect of your sleep deprivation, but after I thought about it I remembered something that I'd read in the Time Force journals in the year 3000…"

Wes' eyes narrowed minutely but the look was gone before Jen noticed it.

"I did some research last night and…"

"Jen? Wes? Do you guys want something to eat for lunch? Trip 'accidentally' ordered Thai again…" Jen heard Katie's voice drifting out from the window. She sighed; there they go – interrupting again. And here she was trying to make sense of Wes. It looked like their discussion would have to wait.

"Be inside in a minute." Jen called in, forcing her voice to sound bright and pleasant, despite the way her thoughts were churning in turmoil. She looked back to Wes who had stood and was waiting for her to join him for lunch. "We can talk about this later, unless you want to discuss it with the team?"

She watched his expression, if it changed in the slightest, she would know that he had been lying to her and that he was covering up his thoughts about his dream. Maybe yesterday's discussion had made him feel guilty about laying it all on Jen, or maybe she was just reading too much into it.

Nevertheless he remained smiling.

"I think we'd better just keep it to ourselves, besides if my dreams have gone away there shouldn't be any need to tell them anything, right?"

She smiled in return, glad that the old Wes was finally back where he belonged.

"It'll probably be for the best." She agreed. He took her arm and dragged her to the window.

"Come on, I didn't have anything to eat since lunch yesterday! I'm starved!"

"You're always starved!" she fired back, but let him pull her to the window ledge.

She didn't notice the cool, ice blue glow coming from his once pure green eyes.

End Chapter Nine