Disclaimer- I do not own Power Rangers or profit from the use of its content.

40 Moments to Where We Are

Take My Hand

The night had started off awful with the prospect of being the worst first date in the history of the term.

When they arrived at the restaurant, a ritzy, well-to-do Mediterranean grill on the north side of town, Sky gave the host his name only to find the reservation he had made the week before to be non-existent. Neither he nor Z willing to wait the next two hours for any possible cancellations, they decided to leave and head south on empty stomachs and unfortunately an empty gas tank.

"I can't believe this is happening."

"It's kind of funny if you think about it."

Sky lifted his head off of the steering wheel to shoot Z a disbelieving look. "Funny? Us being stranded on the side of a country road in the middle of the night with no gas and no functioning cell phone is funny?"

Z shrugged, not as agitated as her counterpart. "Alright, maybe not funny, but ironic."

Leaning back against the leather seat in defeat, Sky cursed the dead cell phone in his hand. "How do you not have a cell phone? Everyone has a cell phone. Piggy has a cell phone."

"Awww," Z cooed cheekily, "do you two call each other every night before you go to bed, talk about how your day was, and swap corny 'an alien walked into a bar' jokes?"

Sky didn't laugh.

Had he not been in such a sour mood, Z would have teased him further, but instead she squelched her smile and said more seriously, "Who would I call? Practically everyone I talk to on a regular basis works at SPD, and I can just use my communicator."

"Jack."

Z suddenly found the woodwork of the dashboard very interesting. "Jack and I stay in touch in other ways…"

Sky's look of curiosity quickly melted into one of suspicion. "Wait, you don't mean…"

Z refused to meet his eyes.

"Jack kept his com link! That's SPD property! Property we had to replace when it went missing, or, as it turns out, got stolen."

"He just wanted to be able to keep an eye on us in case something went wrong and we he needed to help," she explained calmly to a riled Sky.

"Of course you would defend him." For his part, Sky was disconcerted, and not just because Jack has stolen an expensive piece of technology, but because Z had known all along and hadn't said a word.

It was Z's turn to be affronted, and she cocked an eyebrow in surprise. "What's that supposed to mean?"

After taking a calming breath, he looked out his own window at the surrounding darkness. "It's just, you and Jack have a history. You grew up on the streets together and because of that you have this…bond." He emphasized the word with a vague hand gesture between the two of them. "He knows so much more about you than I do, and you'd do anything to help one another." Sky glanced nervously at her. "It bothers me."

Turning back around so she was facing forward and could look thoughtfully through the windshield, Z allowed her eyelids to fall partly closed as her breaths began to deepen and slow. She took time to consider Sky's words and concentrated on the sound of him breathing next to her. In the past week she had learned more about Sky Tate than she'd ever expected to discover, and the content proved to be more and more surprising.

Reaching out, she brushed her long, thin fingers across his clenched hand until she felt the muscles relax and she could loosely entwine their fingers while massaging a thumb against his skin. "Jack and I do have a history," she admitted without opening her eyes, "but you and I have a future, a good one I think."

There was a pause in which the only discernable sound was the hum of a passing car overwhelming the chirping cricket chorus sounding from the tall, swaying grass outside her window. Then she could hear the material of his shirt rustling against the seat as he raised their joined hands to his lips. His warm breath against her wrist made her smile. "I think you're right."

To be continued...