Anyone you don't recognize is mine.
Rated T: language, violence, sexual content including m/m sexual relationships.
A/N: This is a response to the Power Rangers Slash Write 22 challenge, a slash-oriented romance theme challenge. A link to the challenge site on LiveJournal is in my profile.
Reviews are always appreciated.
"Bridge Carson."
"Look!" Wes grabbed Eric's arm in excitement as a figure moved in the ranks of new cadets standing at attention in the SPD Academy assembly room and came forward. "There's Bridge!"
"I know, I know." Eric was trying to sound cynical, Wes could tell, but his smile gave him away.
Bridge looked solemn and serious in the SPD uniform he was now entitled to wear, very different from the rather scruffy, occasionally brilliant, and more often very odd boy they had come to know over the years. They watched as Bridge reached the small dais and received his diploma from Commander Doggie Cruger himself, the kid they remembered emerging with the sudden flash of a grin and an awkward duck of his head.
"Man, brings back memories," Wes said with a sigh. "Graduation, your whole life ahead of you, everything about to change, starting to think about a career..." He stopped abruptly and added a moment later. "Umm... sorry."
"For what?" Eric asked. "Just because I never went to college doesn't mean I missed out on the important things. I think I've done okay for myself."
"More than okay." Wes reached to take his hand.
Sitting in the row just behind them as they witnessed the graduation ceremony for SPD's newest cadets, Alan Collins smiled at the sight. How long ago had it been, that night when Wes had said how he hated having to hold Eric's hand under the table? The phrase had stuck in his mind ever since, but now it was no longer true, thanks to years of effort by himself and many others.
But that wasn't the only memory this brought back. He could almost imagine himself in the stadium in Boston where Wes had graduated from college, so full of pride in his son. How long ago now? Close to thirty years. Amazing. Wes had been so young, so wonderfully, painfully young and full of dreams, and Alan had been so full of plans for him.
As with most plans, many of them had gone astray. No one would have imagined Wes ending up with Eric instead of the nice girl from a good family Alan had assumed he would find sooner or later. He had also assumed there would be grandchildren, and could admit - only to himself - that the lack of them was his only remaining regret about his son's orientation. Still, a few of those plans had eventually come true - since Alan's retirement eight years ago Wes had taken over Bio-Lab, with Eric as a full partner. Not exactly what Wes had dreamed of so long ago, but it had been his own choice and he seemed happy with it.
"Sydney Drew."
"There's Syd!" Wes exclaimed, and pointed.
"I never would have guessed," Eric said dryly.
"Who'd have thought that skinny little kid would grow up to be so pretty?" Wes asked. Eric grunted noncommittally. "I heard she's done some modeling. Even saw her picture a couple of times."
"Don't tell me you read those stupid teenager magazines."
Wes responded with a grin. "No. The last time I visited, Lyn showed them to me."
Eric's expression was unimpressed. "She's pretty, yeah, but too short to be a model. The only reason she got as far as she did is because her family's loaded."
"Cynic," Wes said.
"It's true."
"I guess it doesn't matter anyway, since she decided to go into SPD."
"Where her family and their money don't mean anything." Eric raised a skeptical eyebrow. "We'll see how she does now."
"You don't think a rich kid can possibly cut it as a Ranger?" There was another grin on Wes's face as he faced his partner.
"Didn't say that." Eric returned the smile. "Besides, none of them may get to be Rangers."
"Sky sure wants to be." Wes's gaze went back to the floor of the assembly room and the ranks of waiting cadets just as the announcer's voice said the name they had all been waiting for.
"Schuyler Tate."
They watched his tall form straighten and stride purposefully towards the stage. Sky accepted his diploma with a solemn nod and returned to his place as the role call of students continued. Wes turned his head to glance at Lyn where she sat further down in the rows of parents and relatives, looking every bit as proud as he would expect, her hand clasped in that of the man next to her. She certainly deserved some happiness after Nick's death more than ten years ago, more recently her brother Jake's attempt to murder his own baby son, the disappearance of that baby, Sam, and her own father's death not long after that. Yes, life at this moment must seem pretty good for her, with her son starting his career and her remarriage coming up soon.
The list of names and the parade of Academy graduates finally stopped, followed by a brief rustle of papers before the announcer's voice came again. "The following cadets have been selected as trainees for the SPD Ranger program, B Squad."
Wes could feel the tension around him as the soft babble that had broken out in the audience stilled into silence. The cadets whose names were called now would be on the fast track to becoming the second SPD team of Power Rangers, something he knew Sky had his heart set on, and had been working for with an increasing dedication that sometimes impressed Wes as excessive. He glanced at his partner again. Maybe it was only natural, when the kid had a hero father and two 'uncles' who were all Rangers - but he suspected Eric's influence as Sky was growing up, encouraging a natural core of drive and competitiveness, had probably also had a lot to do with it.
"In alphabetical order: Bridge Carson." There was a scattering of applause. "Sydney Drew." It grew louder. And finally, "Schuyler Tate." Wes let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding and joined in the applause as Sky came forward again, this time with a grin he couldn't repress, and accepted a few hand-slaps from the cadets around him.
"Okay, got it. Now, how about a shot of Wes and Eric with Sky, Syd, and Bridge?" Lyn waved a hand at them. "That's great. Now smile!"
After the ceremony a tide of uniformed cadets and happy families had spilled outside onto a wide expanse of lawn and separated into eddies of chatter, hugs, and the inevitable picture-taking. Lyn, along with the Carsons and the Drews, had managed to collect the three new B Squad members for a few group pictures.
"Thanks, guys. Now - just the kids. I shouldn't call you kids anymore, should I?" Lyn held up the camera again. "Get closer together... Sky, Bridge, why don't you put your arms around Syd? Don't stand there looking like you never met each other before."
Rolling his eyes and sighing impatiently, Sky draped an arm over Syd's shoulders as Bridge, on her other side, did the same with a much more pleasant expression.
"Sky, you look like you're being tortured," Lyn complained in a wry voice. The camera clicked just as he plastered a smile on his face.
"Are we done yet?"
"I guess that's enough for now." Lyn lowered the camera as her fiancé - Eddie something, Wes remembered - stepped forward and clapped Sky on the shoulder.
"Congratulations, son," Eddie said warmly. "How's it feel to be chosen for the B Squad?"
Wes saw Sky's eyes darken, and his voice was a little sharper than necessary as he said, "I'm glad I'll have a chance to be a Ranger like my real father."
Lyn's face tightened a little, but her smile was still in place as she took Eddie's arm. "Come on, let's say hello to some of the other families," she said, and led him away with only a cool look back at her son.
"Sky, that wasn't very nice," Syd said, nudging him in the ribs with her elbow.
"What?"
"Eddie's a good guy. You should be happy your mom's getting married again."
Sky scowled. "He's okay, I guess. But they've only known each other for less than a year."
"Your mother's pretty smart. I guess she knows him well enough to be sure," Wes said.
Sky's frown deepened as he shrugged. "Just saying." He took in Wes and Eric with a quick glance and smirked slightly. "Hey, if anyone should be getting married around here, it's you two."
"Us?"
"It's legal in the whole country now. You've been together like forever. So why not?" Sky raised a brow as Wes and Eric only gave each other an uncomfortable glance and then looked away. "Anyway, I'm going to pay my respects to Commander Cruger. Bridge, Syd, you coming?"
"He's not really that much like a dog, is he?" Bridge remarked as he looked in the direction of the tall blue alien under whose command they would all be soon. "I mean, he's got the nose and the eyes, but the ears are wrong. And the scales. And dogs aren't blue, except this stuffed dog I had when I was a kid. Of course it didn't really look like an alien, but-"
"Never mind, I'm better off talking to him alone," Sky muttered, and walked away.
"I wonder where the food is?" Bridge said absently, and wandered off in the opposite direction.
"Men are weird," Syd stated with all the wisdom of her twenty-one years, and headed for her parents and the Carsons, who had moved a short distance away during the picture taking.
"That was kind of a weird comment, huh?" Wes ventured after a moment. "I mean about us getting - you know. I guess Sky was just trying to distract us."
"He did a pretty good job of it, too." Eric seemed to hesitate, and then jammed his hands in his pockets, staring at the ground.
"Well... maybe we should find Dad," Wes said after another pause.
"You go on ahead. I'm going to the can."
Wes knew it was just an excuse, but when Eric got into one of his moods it was best to leave him to it for a while. Still, he couldn't repress a sigh as he made his way between the families scattered over the lawn. Marriage. It was something he knew they should at least talk about sooner or later, now that it was legally possible. Or maybe not. If Eric wanted to do it, he'd bring it up himself eventually. That was one thing Eric was very good at: going after what he wanted. And apparently he didn't want marriage, so there would be no point in even discussing it.
And what do I want? Wes asked himself as he spotted his father and waved. Despite all the changes of the past decades, marriage to Eric still seemed like a strange concept, and yet he had to admit that no matter how many times he had firmly put the idea aside for another day, it kept returning - and looking more like something he wanted every time.
Eric took as long as he could, but beyond a certain point hanging out in a men's room began to look strange. All too soon he was standing outside the SPD building doorway, trying to see if the crowd was thinning out. With any luck he could just stay in the shadows of the trees and wait it out. Social functions like this had always been a chore to him, and then Sky had had to make that stupid remark...
"Might have known I'd find you standing somewhere by yourself."
It was Alan Collins' voice, and Eric turned to find his former employer approaching from deeper in the small clump of trees and shrubbery he had taken refuge in. "Yeah," he replied after a moment. "Got tired of the small talk."
"I understand. As one gets older, one has less and less patience for talking about nothing to people one hardly knows."
"I never had much patience for it to start with," Eric said with a shrug.
"I hear that." Collins smiled and turned to look back out across the lawn.
"Nice ceremony."
"Yes, it was. Sky must be happy to have gotten a spot on B Squad. And he's teamed with Syd and Bridge. Quite a coincidence."
"Yeah, it is." Eric frowned. A little too much of a coincidence, that Cruger would have selected the only three cadets who happened to be the children of Kat Manx's old research team, who had extra powers because of that, and who were already friends. No, the old dog knew what he was doing, or thought he did. Rangers who had their own inborn superhuman abilities on top of what the Ranger suits would give them - it wasn't a bad idea at all.
"Wes said you two would probably be leaving soon," Collins said after a pause. "Too bad we can't go back to Silver Hills with you, but Lina and I are flying to Sacramento for an Alliance function."
The Alliance for Equality, the gay rights group Collins had started and still helped fund. "I thought you got out of that."
"I've handed over management of the organization, yes. But this is a dinner for everyone who helped get the Equal Marriage Act passed. I couldn't turn down the invitation even if I wanted to."
Marriage again. Somehow that simple statement sounded like an accusation to Eric. How much of that was imagination and how much was guilt, he didn't know and didn't feel like figuring out. Why should he feel guilty, anyway? If he didn't want to get married it was nobody's business but his own, and maybe Wes's. And if Wes wanted to get married he would have asked, wouldn't he? But why would Wes want to; there was no advantage in it for him; they were already living together and sharing everything - why would either of them want to?
Still, Collins had done so much for a cause that really wasn't his, and Eric couldn't help wondering... "Does it bother you that Wes and I haven't - you know...?" he asked.
"Haven't what?"
"Well, that we haven't decided to get married after you got it legalized and everything."
"Eric..." Collins' lined face was both understanding and slightly amused. "First, a lot of people besides me were involved with this effort. Second, as I tried to tell Wes years ago, I didn't do all this just for you two. Third and most important - the decision to get married, or not, is a very private thing. I don't expect you and Wes to do it. I don't expect you not to do it. It's entirely up to the two of you."
"But you think we should, don't you?"
"No, I wouldn't say that."
"Then you think we shouldn't? Why not?"
"I didn't say that either."
Eric had the uneasy feeling the older man was laughing at him, which did nothing to take the edge off his increasingly annoyed mood. Unfortunately, Mr. Collins was one of the very few people he hesitated to take his temper out on, even now. "Why should we get married, anyway?" he grumbled irritably. "I mean, I'm fifty years old, for Christ's sake. Wes will be too in a couple of months. We're too old."
"Some people marry late in life. Lina and myself, for instance."
"That's different."
"How?" Collins asked mildly.
"Because - because we don't want to. We're doing just fine the way we are."
"As long as you're both happy, that's the important thing."
"You think Wes isn't happy? Did he say something?"
"No, he hasn't mentioned the subject at all." Collins reached to clasp his shoulder. "But I get the feeling this is something you need to talk about with Wes, not with me. And you'll have your chance soon. Here he comes."
Eric swung around to see the object of his dilemma approaching, along with Commander Cruger and another familiar face - Kat Manx, back from fifteen years off-planet researching advanced weaponry and helping establish additional outposts of SPD. Cruger greeted them with a majestic nod of his large, dog-like head. Eric hardly noticed as he blinked in astonishment at Kat, but not at the furry ears that emerged from her hair or her disconcertingly bright green eyes. "Dr. Manx?" he asked.
"Good to see you again, Commander Myers. It's been quite some time."
"You - uh - haven't changed a bit." He meant it quite literally; the humanoid woman standing before him looked no older than twenty-five, exactly the way she had when they first met about twenty years ago.
Kat smiled, baring the tips of delicately pointed fangs. "My people do not age at the same rate as humans. I'm-" She tilted her head slightly, thinking. "Approximately 147 Earth years old."
"She doesn't look it, does she?" Wes said cheerfully. "Shook me up, too, when I saw her."
"Yeah," Eric said, eyeing her and feeling a distinct twinge of envy as he recalled the last time he had looked in a mirror and seen gray hairs, a middle-aged face, and an aging body.
"We're glad to have Dr. Manx back," Cruger was saying. "Especially now."
"Now?" Collins asked. "Why now?"
"The A Squad Rangers will need her expertise as they prepare to face more formidable enemies, and the new B Squad will need to be trained. They and all the SPD troops must be armed as soon as possible with the best of the weaponry she has been working on for the last several years." Cruger paused as they all stared, and turned his head to look out at the lawn. It was a pretty sight, dappled with sunshine and still dotted with the remaining cadets and their families, the faint sound of happy voices carrying to them on a warm breeze. "Gruumm will make his move soon," Cruger continued softly. "The storm is coming and we must be ready, or all of this - this world of yours and everyone on it - may be lost forever."
There was no good way to answer that. They stood in silence for a few seconds, until Wes stepped to Eric's side and took his hand. "We should head home," he said.
It was only later, after they had said a few subdued goodbyes and walked to the parking lot with Eric's arm over Wes's shoulders, that he found himself thinking about it again. As he sat in their car Eric took a quick look at Wes's profile, serious and unsmiling for once, concentrated on driving - and undoubtedly on the much more important matters they had been reminded of.
No, this was no time to bring up something like marriage. The whole idea was stupid, anyway. Wasn't it?
TBC...