Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on "Walker Texas Ranger", I'm just borrowing them for the story.

Title: A stranger's opinion

Sydney and Rebecca spent an hour walking around in the park, just talking. It took her a while but Sydney finally got Rebecca to talk to her about what had been going on at home for the past years.

She's confiding in me, I think that's great considering this is the first time we've ever talked. It's gotta be´

"Rebecca?..." she started.

"You can call me Becky, my friends call me that. Not that I've ever had that many, but the ones I have call me that." She looked at Sydney and smiled a beautiful smile.

"Becky, do you want to go back to your father and...........and your mother?" she asked, not sure what she wanted the answer to be. She glanced at the girl who now looked very sad. Her smile had been replaced by tears. Sydney stopped and knelt to face her daughter. She took her small hand in hers and wiped a tear away from her cheek with the other. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"I don't know." She answered in a shaky voice..

"Do you miss your parents?" she asked, but actually hoped the answer would be no. Becky thought about it a few seconds and then raised her head to answer her new friend.

"I'm not sure." She said and wiped a few new tears away with her sleeve. "When we have company, they are really nice to me, then they love me, in front of them. But when I'm alone with them they are different." She took a deep breath "I'm afraid of being alone with them."

When Sydney saw the little girl's tears and the sadness on her face she couldn't control herself any longer. She hugged her daughter for a long time, until she knew she had stopped crying. The girl gently pushed away from her mother and looked into her eyes.

"I don't want to go back there again." She said and this time sounded very sure. She wrapped her arms around Sydney's neck and held on tight. She felt herself being lifted off the ground and onto the Ranger's shoulders for a ride.

They stayed in the park for another half an hour, playing and talking some more. Then they left for the restaurant to meet the others and get a meal. They had stayed in the park a bit longer than Sydney had planned but she hoped Alex and the rest would still be at the restaurant, waiting for them.

Standing outside the building, Becky reached for Sydney's hand before entering.

Alex looked up from her menu to see them enter. Sydney and Becky approached the table where the others were seated, ready to order lunch.

"Hi guys, we were starting to think you had gotten lost on your way here." Gage said and offered Sydney a seat next to him at the table. Becky giggled at his joke and sat down next to Alex. They placed an order from the waitress and when they received their food they all ate while discussing different things. The Rangers talked about work and Alex discussed a TV-show for kids with Becky that they had watched the other night at her and Walker's house. It was about where kids wanted to work as adults.

"So, Rebecca. What do you wanna be when you are a grown-up?" Gage asked her and took another bite of his burrito.

She didn't need time to think about that, she already knew the answer. She had known ever since the first time she had entered Ranger Headquarters.

"You can call me Becky, my friends do. I want to be a Texas Ranger just like you and Sydney and Ranger Walker and Ranger Trivette too of course. Do you think I can?" she asked and looked directly at Sydney when she asked the question.

"Sure you can, honey. You can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it." Sydney assured her.

"Thank you! Is it dangerous?" she asked, excited. The Rangers looked at each other, not sure what to tell her.

"Sometimes." Sydney said trying to be honest. She didn't want to frighten her or to take away that enthusiasm but felt she needed to be honest when Becky asked about being a Ranger. But her reaction was not what she had expected.

"Great!! Then I'm definitely going to be a Ranger one day." She said with eyes sparkling like stars in the sky.

After they had all finished their food, they decided Becky was going to stay with Sydney during the night. That she was thrilled about but since she was disappointed she hadn't gotten to see much of Gage, Sydney agreed he could spend the night at her place on the couch.

"So when are you going to tell her?" Gage whispered as they walked down the street behind Trivette, Walker, Alex and a chattering Becky.

"I'm getting around to it. Sort of." He gave her a sceptical look. "I'm going to tell her, I just don't know how to put it. I can't just say "Hey, I have something to tell you. I'm your mother." I guess I'm afraid of how she'll react, that's all."

"Are you kidding? Haven't you noticed how she looks at you? You two really bonded in the park earlier, she loves you. She talked for fifteen minutes of how she got to ride on your shoulders all the way to the restaurant." He said and watched a smile spread across her face. They picked up the pace a little to catch up with the others.

"I haven't really thought of it that way, but maybe you're right." She said.

"Of course I'm right, Syd. Am I ever wrong?"

"Yes."

To be continued