Tenaya came into the main room after her training session, just as Ziggy came back into the Garage. He could see that she had been working hard. He crept up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist as she made her way to the kitchenette.
"It looks like you've had a rough day." He commented, kissing her cheek gently.
"Dr. K's laser cannons pack quite a kick." She told him. "I'll be fine."
She opened the fridge, but frowned as she saw that there was no milk. The carton was missing.
"It looks like I'm not having that shake." She grumbled. "I thought we had a full carton."
"I just bought milk yesterday." He replied. He gave a little shrug. We can pick up more milk in a little while."
Ziggy noticed that she wasn't really paying much attention and felt a little guilty. He hadn't really had much of a chance to talk to her since he had inadvertently blurted out the fact they had spent the night together. As she poured herself some juice, he grabbed her wrist gently.
"Tenaya, I want to talk to you." He told her. "It's about the other night."
She nodded gently and sighed, thinking about it. She didn't really want to talk about it. She was still completely confused and conflicted over what had happened. She loved Ziggy, what had happened between them seemed like the most natural thing in the world. After being Venjix's prisoner for as long as she could remember, she had no desire to ever allow anyone a measure of control over her. However, when Ziggy placed his hands on her shoulders and pressed her to the bed, she found herself with no wish to stop him.
Of course as much as she loved what they had shared together, she hated the fact the others knew. It was something that she wanted to be shared between her and Ziggy. The others regularly teased and belittled him. She knew that it was mostly good-natured ribbing, with no malice intended, but she still hated it when they called him names or made fun of him.
"Tenaya, I'm really sorry." He told her. She looked at him a little curiously.
"You didn't like it?" She asked him. She held her hands in his, looking into her eyes deeply.
"No, it isn't that. What happened was easily the most amazing experience of my life." He assured her, cupping her cheek with his hand. "I love you more than anything. I was just worried I had ruined it for us by...well..."
"Ziggy, I can't help being disappointed that the others found out." She told him. "What happened, it felt right. I really wanted it to stay something special between us."
"It was, it always will be." He assured her. "I'm sorry I blurted it out, I wish that hadn't happened. Please, forgive me."
He led her to the couch, sitting down with her and sighed, holding her hand gently.
"I'm a little new to all of this, I really didn't know what to feel or what to think, I was just so overwhelmed by it all." He admitted. "It was..."
"Ziggy, I understand." She assured him. "It was my first time too."
"I'm sorry I ruined it." He told her. She smiled at him, before running a hand through his hair softly.
"You couldn't have ruined it." She said softly. "It was with you that made it perfect."
She drew him in, kissing him passionately. At just that moment, Summer came into the room. She paused as she saw them together. As Tenaya turned into Ziggy, settling into his arms, she felt a sharp pain in her chest. Tenaya noticed her and pulled Ziggy's arms more tightly around herself, smiling.
"Sorry to interrupt." She told them. "So you've voted?"
"Yup, one more vote for Chas." He told her. "There was a huge turnout. It looks like everyone in Corinth turned out."
"Well let's hope it turns out well." Summer mumbled as she made her way to the kitchenette.
"There's no milk." Tenaya told her as she reached for the coffee pot. "I checked a second ago."
"Yeah, that's my fault I'm afraid." Summer told her. "I spilled it earlier. I'll replace it later."
As she poured herself a cup of coffee and left the room, Tenaya watched her go, before looking up at Ziggy with a curious look on her face.
"Did she seem alright to you?" Tenaya asked him. "She's been pretty quiet lately."
"Can you blame her?" Ziggy asked in response. "She's been through a lot."
"I guess so." Tenaya commented. "I just wish there was more we could do for her."
"Summer knows we're all here for her." Ziggy replied. "She'll talk to us when she's ready."
Just then, Dr. K and Scott came back in. Dr. K looked to Scott for support.
"Hey, guys, what's happening?" Ziggy asked them.
"Ziggy, have you read the newspaper?" Scott asked him. Ziggy shook his head in response. Scott handed over a copy of the paper, allowing Ziggy to read it. His face drained of colour as he read it, realising that Fresno Bob's condition had gotten much worse.
"Is it hopeless?" Ziggy asked them. "I thought you said they couldn't find a donor."
"Ziggy, there might be a way. We think you might be able to help him." Dr. K told him. "I'm afraid I have something to tell you, something which may be hard to hear, but you must believe me."
"Tenaya could you give us a minute?" Scott asked her. Tenaya just held Ziggy's hand, refusing to leave him.
"I want to hear this." She told him.
"What's going on?" Ziggy asked them. "You think I can help him?"
"There is a chance you will be a viable donor." Dr. K told him. "I would need to take a sample, but there is a chance you are a match for his blood type."
"You think I might be a match?" He asked her. "Dr. K what are you trying to say?"
"Fresno Bob is your father." She blurted out. Ziggy just looked at her a like she was insane, and gave a small, weak laugh.
"Ziggy, it's true." Scott assured him. "Dr. K wouldn't make up something like this."
"No, it's not possible." Ziggy said, shaking his head. "I was abandoned; Fresno Bob took me in..."
"He gave you away to the orphanage shortly after you were born. He was worried that someone would hurt you as a way to get to him." She informed him, finding it hard to look at him. She had known about the true nature of their relationship for some time now, and she had kept her promise not to tell Ziggy. Now that she could see how upset he was getting, she could understand why Fresno Bob didn't want him to know. "When you were too old to stay at the orphanage, he brought you into the cartel where he could keep an eye on you."
"This is insane, it can't be true!" Ziggy screamed, rounding on her. "I don't believe you!"
"It's true Ziggy, Dr. K found a match on the genetic database." Scott told him, handing him a printout from the computer. "He's your father."
Ziggy held the paper in his fingers, looking at it in disgust, like it was contagious. Tenaya held him in her arms as he felt a horrible pain in his chest, like he was being slowly crushed. He had always longed to know who his family really were, but in getting what he wanted, his world, everything he thought was true was gone. The one man he thought had cared for him, looked after him had lied to him for as long as he knew him.
"It says here there's another person who shows a genetic match." Ziggy told her. "When did you find this? Why were you checking my DNA?"
"I wasn't checking your DNA, I was checking Chas'." She informed him. "It was when he was being accused of being an addict. I ran some blood tests to find out if anything was suspicious, and found a genetic link to Fresno Bob. That was how I got Mr. Winchester to stop printing libellous stories about him in the press. I blackmailed him, threatening to reveal that Chas isn't his son. He's the result of an affair Bob had with Mrs. Winchester."
"Fresno Bob's his father?" Ziggy asked her, standing up glaring at her intently. "Chas is my brother?"
"He didn't want you to know because it would upset you." Dr. K told him.
"Upset?" He shrieked. "I was upset when Flynn backed into my scooter; this is a million miles from upset!"
"Ziggy, I know this is a shock, but we have to get to the hospital." Scott reminded him. "Fresno Bob needs you..."
"Forget it!" Ziggy snapped.
"Ziggy, you can't..."
"Why the hell should I help him?" He yelled, throwing the paper aside. "He betrayed me! He abandoned me!"
"He..."
"He's my father and he abandoned me!" He interrupted Dr. K, his voice beginning to break with the strain. "I don't owe him a thing!"
With that, he turned and stormed away. Tenaya looked at Dr. K and Scott regretfully before following him. They knew it would hurt for him to know the truth, and his reaction was understandable. Now though, he needed time to himself to get over the shock.
Over at the Central Command building, Chas came into the main hall as the guards started closing down the voting booths. It would now only be a few minutes until the system finished tallying the votes and they would know who had won. Chas paced the stage nervously.
"Hey, could you settle down?" Brie asked him. "You're making me nervous."
"Sorry, I guess I'm just anxious." He replied regretfully. "I really just want this to be over."
"It will be soon enough." She reminded him. Just then, she noticed a commotion from the door as press started to take pictures and crowd around the door. She rolled her eyes as she saw her father-in-law.
"It looks like your dad's attracting attention as usual." She muttered. "Doesn't he know the polls are closed?"
"Dad always loved the press, even when he wasn't running for office." Chas reminded her. "To him this is fun."
"I see my opponent is here for the result too." Mr Winchester stated, coming over to Chas. "How are you?"
"You might know if you visited once in a while." Chas said a little coolly, refusing his hand. "Like my wedding for example?"
Mr. Winchester just turned back to the press, ignoring his comment. Colonel Truman came into the room, carrying handheld console.
"The results are in; the time is here to announce the new mayor of Corinth City." He began, looking out over the crowd. "Votes for Mr Charles Winchester the second, 189,473."
"Thank you one and all!" Mr. Winchester shouted, waving to the crowd and shaking a few hands. Colonel Truman smiled though as the final result came up.
"Votes for Chas Winchester the fourth, 189,628. Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to announce that the new mayor of Corinth is Chas Winchester!" He declared happily. Brie shrieked happily as Chas picked her up in his arms, kissing her passionately. Mr Winchester just pushed his way through the crowd, storming from the command centre in a foul mood, while photographers and journalists tried to catch him for comment.
"I guess this means I'll be accepting your resignation." Colonel Truman stated, smiling at him. "I doubt you'll have much time for us now you're in office. Congratulations Chas."
"Thank you sir." Chas replied. "I can't believe I won."
"You'll do well, I'm sure of it." He assured him.
A little way from the Garage, Ziggy was sitting on a bench in a public park, watching the kids playing happily, running around and laughing with their parents. Tenaya found him and sat down beside him, patting his leg gently. He longed for a family so much growing up, that he often came here, or went to the orphanage when he was upset. She had already called Ms. Foster to see if he had gone there after storming off, and so she knew he was here.
"You had me worried." She told him. "I lost you over an hour ago."
"I'm a big boy." He replied quietly, thinking about the events of the day. "Of course my dad knows that already."
"Ziggy, I can't begin to imagine what you're going through." She said sympathetically.
"All I ever wanted was a family." He told her. "I used to think about them all the time, imagine that one day they'd come back and explain why they abandoned me. Now I find out I've known my dad for years. He just never bothered to tell me."
"I know you care about him a lot." She sighed, patting his leg gently.
"I just wish he cared half as much about me." Ziggy replied bitterly. "I used to talk to him about it all the time. I always used to talk to him about my childhood. He used to listen to me all the time; he knew how much it would have meant to me. It feels like he was laughing at me all that time."
"I'm sure he wasn't." She told him gently. "For what it's worth, I think he loved you a lot more than he was willing to admit."
"Then why wouldn't he give me the one thing he knew would have meant the world to me?" He asked her.
"He knew how upset you'd be about all of this." She told him. "But look at all he's done for you. He took you in when you needed a home. He assigned Benny, the man he trusts more than anyone in the world to protect you."
"He abandoned me..."
"I can't defend him; I don't know why he did it." She told him. "All I can tell you is what I do know, and that is that he risked his life to save his son."
"He stopped De Winter from killing Chas." Ziggy recalled.
"Ziggy, you have to save him." She told him. "If you don't..."
"I'll never get the answers from him." Ziggy interrupted her. She shook her head gently.
"No, I was going to say you'll never forgive yourself for letting him die." She corrected him. "That's not the man I fell in love with."
He turned back to the play park, watching as a young boy started crying, he had fallen and hurt his knee, but he was quickly joined by his father. He inspected the child's injury, setting his mind at ease that it wasn't serious as he soothed him. The little boy's cries died down to a small whimper as his father hugged him.
"I guess I owe it to him to give him a chance to explain." Ziggy told her. "I owe it to myself too."
"I'll be there with you." She told him, holding his hand. "No matter what happens, I'll be there for you."
"You don't know how much that means to me." He replied, smiling at her. He let her rest her head on his shoulder, holding her closely. "I love you."
"I love you too." She replied as she drew into him. "I love you too."
Back at the Garage, Summer was lying in her bed, staring at the ceiling, unable to really motivate herself to do anything. All she really wanted was to have Dillon in her arms again. She missed him dreadfully, without him, things just seemed to matter less to her.
She picked up her cell phone, muttering under her breath as she realised it was yet another message from her parents. They had called and messaged her a few times since they had found out, checking up on her to make sure she was alright. She just opened the drawer on her bedside unit and threw the phone inside, slamming the drawer shut. She knew they only wanted to help, but she just couldn't put up with their sympathy. All she really wanted was for everyone to leave her alone. Of course that was something that never happened. With four girls and four other guys in such a small building, privacy was something of an issue. She was constantly tripping over Flynn's half-finished projects, or being disturbed by the twins training, or worst of all, walking in on Ziggy and Tenaya mauling each other in a sickening display of affection or another.
She felt her frustrations building a little as she thought about it. She knew that Ziggy and Tenaya were together, but it was all getting a little old. It seemed like they were super-glued to each other the way they were carrying on. If anything they were becoming more than a little more open and obvious in their displays of affection now that Dillon was in stasis. Ziggy would never have had the guts to manhandle her the way he did in the open while Dillon was around.
Tenaya also seemed to be constantly in her face. When she wasn't with Ziggy, making out with him like a drunken prom date, she was training and showing off her skills in training. While she was a powerful warrior, and she was indeed making impressive headway, it was almost like she was gloating.
She was breezing through her shield training far more quickly than the other Rangers got accustomed to their own suits special abilities. Summer knew that she would master the invincibility shield almost any day now, getting it under control faster than even her brother had accomplished it.
She was also constantly getting praise from the others. They would always talk about how she had saved Summer and Gemma, rubbing her face in the fact that she had almost failed in her duty as second in command, or how quickly she was finding her stride. Ziggy wouldn't shut up about how great it was she was stepping up to help them. Even Dr. K had almost called her Dillon's "replacement". It just felt like they had forgotten everything he had done for them, that he didn't even matter. It felt like she was steadily losing him, and the others didn't seem to care.
She got up from her bed as she felt her heart aching for something, anything that reminded her of Dillon. She couldn't help thinking about him hearing his voice, or thinking about the times he'd talk about the fragments of memories he had. The times he just stared at the watch and listen to the tune it played, she had heard it so many times that she had memorised it.
That was when she got a thought. She held the key on the chain around her neck as she thought about him, just as she had so many times. Tenaya had taken the watch from him just before they sealed him in the stasis pod. Summer made her way to Tenaya's bedside table and pulled open drawers, searching through the few meagre personal effects she had gathered in the time since she had come to the Ranger base, finding it. She took the key and put it into the hole in the side of the watch, beginning to turn it, but feeling no resistance. The key just spun uselessly in the mechanism. Tears of frustration formed in her eyes as she remembered the key Dillon had given her was the one they had found in the factory, the one that didn't do anything.
She went back to the dresser, rummaging through it again in search of the other key. Finally the frustration overtook her as she pulled the drawers out, throwing them and Tenaya's possessions around carelessly in her frantic search, before overturning it with a savage yell. She ran her hands through her hair, wringing it tightly just to feel anything as she tried to think, before coming to the conclusion that Tenaya had to have the other key with her. She sat on the edge of her bed, holding her head in her hands. The one thing she wanted, the only thing she was looking for to give herself some measure of respite from her loneliness, to feel anything of Dillon, and it seemed Tenaya had taken that too.