Chapter 23: Aftermath

"what?" Bridge looked at Sky, shocked as hell. "Z broke up with you?" he almost yelled, just as his downtrodden roommate, looked up, with teats clouding his eyes. He was holding them back, but recounting the terrible feeling was just too much for him, and he wondered how long he'd be able to hold back.

As for Bridge, when he asked Sky what had happened when he had returned early from his date with Z, Sky told him everything. Bridge just couldn't believe it. When he had read their aura, weeks ago, they had been in love… ABSOLUTELY in love with each other. It hadn't been one sided, Z loved Sky back, just as much as he loved her. This was why when Sky had been rehearsing his confession in front of the mirror, instead of warning him against it, he had encouraged it. Bridge had just not imagined a scenario where Z would reject his best friend…. Or was it her best friend? Did Sky have two best friends? No wait he loved her in a different way than he loved him, he was like his older brother… and besides Sky was straight, and even if Bridge wasn't it wasn't Sky he liked… ever! Sky had always been like a big brother to him, and seeing his 'big brother' just broken like this made Bridge mad!

How dare Z break his heart?

She would have to answer to him! But for now, he had to console Sky.

"Sky, relax," Bridge said, placing a hand on his shoulder, "maybe she was taken by surprise! She'd come around! I know she loves you, and you know it too!"

"Bridge what if she doesn't? What if she just leaves and never looks back?" Sky was literally hysterical.

"Z wouldn't do that, Sky," he said, reassuringly, but Sky knew, that Bridge had been wrong before, when he had said that Z felt the same thing as he did.

But before Bridge could reply, the boys' conversation was interrupted by someone else, "I thought you guys were on a date?"

Daniel Masterson was standing in the doorway, looking a little… uneasy.

"I was" Sky replied, "I'm back now"

"but Bridge said that you were going to stay the night" he was visibly confused.

Sky looked at Bridge, a grin of amusement spreading over his face as he realized what happened in this room when he used to be in his sex-friend-slash-best-friend-maybe-girlfriend's room.

Daniel realized something had gone down between Sky and Z, which meant that he was upset, and it was more important for him and Bridge to console him.

"what happened Sky?" he asked, worriedly, and Sky, instead of telling him everything like he had told Bridge, just told him that he had said told Z that he loved her, and that she had replied that she didn't.

To Daniel, the solution was clear enough.

"buddy, it's simple! You gotta fuck!"

Sky and Bridge both looked at Daniel, confused, wondering what the idiot was saying.

"see, when you go through a break-up, the best thing to do is a one night stand with any random person!" he said, and well, he kinda sorta had a point. That WAS what Sky Tate used to do. Right now, he sighed, as if he was tired.

"so man up," Daniel slowly got to the point of his 'plan' "and clal every girl in our contact list till someone agreed to have sex with you!"

Sky couldn't help it; a short chuckle escaped his lips,

"DUDE!" he said, amidst his snorts, "that is a terrible plan!"

Bridge nodded, "agreed…." Then added, "you can call girls in our contact lists too!"

"what?" Sky looked at the two idiots, and well, what could he do? They were idiots, but they were his idiots. He gotta do wut he gotta do!

"yeah man, whatev you decide we're with you!" Daniel agreed.

"I'm not just gonna call some random girl and ask her to have sex with me!" he said, and then added, "but thanks guys, you tried, and it means a lot to me!"

"should we play board games?" Daniel asked, "it'd be kinda like a boys night"

Sky shrugged, he had to put up with them… Z wasn't going to wanna see his face anytime soon was she?

X-X-X

Meanwhile, back in Z's room, she entered, just a little before Sky had, because he had chosen to wander around a little bit in his heartache. The first sight she was greeted by, was that of her roommate, and frenemy Sydney Drew, whom she was not at all in the mood of talking to. They had seldom talked in the past few days, a side effect of Syd's bitchy behaviour, and she was the last person Z wanted to talk to about her falling out with Sky.

"broken up?" Syd asked, predicting how the date night had gone between her and Sky. She seemed oddly pleased about it.

"no!" Z replied indignantly, and she had a point, because well, they had never technically gone out.

"what did he say?" Syd asked, getting up, sitting to face her roommate, taking pity.

"he said that he loved me"

Syd figured that if he said that, then the break up is because of something Z must've said, so she asked, "and what did you reply?"

"that we agreed to keep it casual, and that I don't want my heart broken"

"and in the process, you broke his" Syd rightly pointed out.

"oh come on" Z was in no mood to think that everything that had happened, she was at fault.

"oh you come on" Syd mocked, "this guy, literally the hottest, most well built, and the most PERFECT guy of the whole SPD academy tells yo that he loves you, and you say that?!" she was incredulous.

"I already said I don't want my heart to be broken"

"oh come on Z! You really think Sky Tate is going to break your heart? He tells you that he loves you after what? Sleeping with you ONCE!"

"it's not like that Sydney!" Z realized she didn't know anything about her and Sky's whole friends with benefits thingie.

"well?" she demanded to know whatever she didn't know.

"okay, Sydney" Z said, sitting down finally, "here's the deal, Sky and I have been friends with benefits since last year… since Jack left" she slowly explained.

"uh what?"

"yes"

"you mean, like you have been having SEX with Schuyler Tate? for a WHOLE FUCKING YEAR! And you didn't have the courtesy of telling me about it?" Syd had completely flipped out.

"give me one reason to" Z said, and she kinda had a point.

That was when Syd realized that there's no point in her trying to get to Z. She needed someone she could trust, and somehow, Syd had a person in mind…

X-X-X

"Z?"

Z turned around a little surprised to find Dr. Manx sitting on her bed. She hadn't even realized she had entered the room, much less that she was sitting right behind her.

"Kat?" she asked. She wasn't in the mood of anything.

"We need to talk" she said, a little glumly.

"Go away Kat" she said,

"not before you listen to me"

"say whatever"

"Syd told me what happened"

"she's a bitch"

"she sent me to help you out, because you're not going to listen to her"

"who says I'll listen to you?"

"Z, I know what happens when you fall in love with someone you planned to be casual with" she said, and with that, she caught Z's attention, and she turned around, Kat asked, "you're listening?" and Z nodded.

"Commander Cruger and I, are in a very… complex spot. Something you might not know, but we were, have been, friends with benefits, or a casual relationship, for over four years now." Z nodded, she knew of it already, but decided not to point it out, Kat continued, "I was his friend, companion, confidante, and even loves, despite us being from different planets, different species, it did not stop us. after all, if one starts believing everything that people who don't matter, say, it just holds us back."

"as it happened, I fell in love with Doggie." There was sorrow in her voice, "and I was, am, pretty sure, that he did too. But he could never admit it. He had spent 43 years pining for his wife, whom he loved a lot, but falling in love with me, was hard for him. Admitting it, even more so. Why?" she asked, realizing Z's lost expression, "because that would mean that he didn't love Isinia anymore. She was his wife, and though she was lost, as an honor to her memory, he tried to keep me away. For him, admitting he was in love with me would be a treacherous betray of his love to his wife."

"but Isinia came back" Z rightly pointed out.

"exactly! Which was what made my position all the more obsolete." She could see the pain in the cat alien's eyes, "when Isinia came back, Doggie knew that there was no point in 'us' anymore. We 'broke up'. But his love for me drew him back to me. And I still loathe myself of this, but this fatale attraction led to us having an extra marital affair, as humans call it."

"That's so SAD!" Z was overcome by sympathy for Dr. Manx.

"Z, you still have a chance! Your Sky doesn't have an Isinia; he completely admits that he is in love with you! There is nothing that is in the way of the two of you being together. Why do you want to run away?"

"I don't want my heart to be broken again!" she said. This was her final decision.

"Elizabeth listen to me, get some sense! What are you going to do? Never love anyone ever again? that isn't possible!"

"it is for me!"

"give him a chance!"

"why should I?"

"because he loves you and you love him!"

"I don't love him!"

"yes you do!"

"who says?"

"anyone who has ever met either one of you!"

"oh yeah?" Z asked with scorn,

"I've known both of you for over three years! Sky for five, and I know that he isn't the type who would just break your heart. He'd keep you safe, he'll love you, he'd respect you. I know him!" then she paused, "and I know YOU Z, you're not the type to judge people, and you're not someone who would run away from someone you know you love! You're someone who faces challenges, always up for something bigger! Where is that Z?" Kat asked, in a sad voice.

"I'm done with you too" Z said, getting up, she was getting sick of people siding with Sky and telling her she was the one who was wrong here.

"Z you have to tell him what you feel! You have to give him a chance!" her voice was raised, very raised, as Z neared the door of her own room, "Z STOP! HOW WOULD YOU KNOW WHAT COULD'VE BEEN IF YOU JUST RUN AWAY?"

"I don't WANT to know" Z replied, bitterly.
"GIVE HIM A CHANCE! HE WOULDN'T BREAK YOUR HEART! TRUST ME! I SAW HIM. HE IS LIKE A DEPRESSED PUPPY RIGHT NOW!"

"Good!"

"ELIZABETH DELGADO IF YOU WALK OUT OF THAT DOOR RIGHT NOW I'M NEVER SPEAKING TO YOU AGAIN!"

"Sounds good to me!" Z said, coldly, and walked out.

Kat sat dejectedly on the bed, having failed. Feeling miserable about herself, as telling Z had stirred up her own feelings, and hidden anxieties. She was nothing but an extra for Cruger. It made her depressed. She was pretty sure her ears were hugging her head, rather than standing up straight.

A/N: Notice the subtleties? (Skip night shift, *wink wink*)