Disclaimer: If only I owned this crew…
- -"I saw that," Jack commented idly, eyes never leaving the cards in his hand.
Z froze, thinking of the ace she had slipped up her sleeve. "Saw what?"
She, Bridge, and Jack had the rec room to themselves now. Sky had left minutes earlier, drawn away by some message delivered by a C squad cadet. That was the second interesting event to happen in one night, the first being Sydney's mysteriously well placed tumble. Actually, it wasn't that mysterious to Jack, who had seen the Yellow Ranger's hand reach out and grab Sydney's ankle.
"She could have busted her head open or something," the Red Ranger tsked, but his expression was hardly devoid of amusement.
Z heaved a mental sigh of relief. "She could not. I had everything under control."
The look she exchanged with Bridge did not escape Jack's notice, who glanced from one to the other warily. "What are you two conspiring about this time?"
"Who, us?" asked Bridge, completely unconvincingly. "We're not conspiring anything. For us to be conspiring something, we'd have to have a plan for something, and we don't. At least, not anymore. We did plan to make Syd trip and fall…and pray that Sky catches her like she wanted, but obviously that plan is done and we don't have another one, and that is why we can't be conspiring something."
Jack was mildly impressed that Bridge was able to bring his long-winded answer back to its original point. "How do you know that's what she wanted? She looked pretty embarrassed to me. I actually felt kind of bad for her."
Z rolled her eyes. "Trust me. It was a favor."
Jack grinned. "I'm not so sure Syd would agree."
"She was thinking about it," Bridge began, which made Jack raise his eyebrow at him. The Green Ranger hurried to explain. "Really hard. She was totally focused on the idea, and how that's how it always happens in stories? She was projecting her thoughts too, in that way that people do when they hope someone's listening. But, usually they're hoping someone like God or destiny is listening, and not…er, probably not me."
Z rolled her eyes, but smiled at him nevertheless. "I think you were the next best thing in that case. How long did you say they've been like this?"
"Since the three of us started training together."
Jack scrutinized the cards in his hand critically. "And nothing's happened yet?"
"A lot of sly glances," Z offered, while privately wondering how she was going to get the ace out of her sleeve.
"Usually when they think the other one isn't looking," Bridge added.
"So you're sure it's not a one way street?" Jack staked another comic book and tossed it in the winnings pile in the center. "Neither of them seemed too thrilled to be up on each other tonight."
Having nothing else of significant value left, Z tossed in her morpher. "Good acting on both their parts. I'll give them that."
The Green Ranger gave an unexpected scoff. "Syd would have melted if Sky'd been a little nicer."
"Melted, huh?" Jack's amusement was evident. "Romance novel much, Bridge?"
"Cookbook, actually."
"And how would you know about romance novels, Jack?" Z smirked at her best friend, who just scratched the back of his neck and glanced down quickly as his cards. "You know Syd isn't going to object to shows of affection. Remember her birthday party?"
"Mr. Straight-laced, workaholic Ranger by day and night and weekend…and holiday and special occasion and—"
"So are you two volunteering to play cupid?" Jack interrupted before the Green Ranger could go any further.
Z shrugged nonchalantly. "It was Bridge's idea."
At the same time, Bridge answered, "If the opportunity comes up."
The two glanced at each other, their gazes lingering plenty longer than was necessary, considering Z wasn't psychic. Still, an entire host of messages seemed to be relayed in that single look, not that this was the first time they'd done it.
Jack hid a snicker behind his cards. Personally, he thought the soap opera going on between the Pink and Blue Rangers wasn't nearly as interesting as the interplay between Bridge and Z—Z, his best friend since childhood, once a hardened street dweller with every intention of looking out for number one. He thought about how hard she would hit him if he teased her about getting soft, and decided that the moment wasn't worth interrupting. Not even to tell Z he could see the ace she'd filched peeping out of her sleeve.
x-x-x-x-x
Sydney sighed as she placed the fuzzy pink receiver back in its equally fuzzy cradle. Her parents were having a luncheon at the country club for her that coming Saturday, to make up for the birthday party she'd had to miss the week before. The idea didn't excite her very much because one, a luncheon at the club wouldn't nearly be as exciting as an evening party on the town, and two, she just wasn't in a celebratory mood. She hoped that would change by the end of the week, but at the moment, she wasn't very hopeful.
The clock on her phone read 7:35 am. It was a little earlier than she preferred to get up on a day when they had no morning training session, but not that much earlier. Maybe she could use that extra time to do something a little elaborate with her hair. She just knew she wasn't going to go back to sleep; she was no less restless than she'd been the night before.
Grabbing her shower kit and bathrobe, Sydney headed for the bathroom. Just as she was about to go in, she heard the door to the men's bathroom open and was surprised to see Sky walk out. His uniform jacket was absent, he had a towel thrown over one shoulder, and his hair was damp. He also had the tiniest spot of shaving cream left on his chin, which became a point of fixation for Sydney.
"Good morning, Sky," she said with a pleasant smile, a lot more pleasant than she actually felt.
"Morning, Syd."
"Aren't you up a little late today?"
Usually the Blue Ranger was finished with his mile jog, breakfast, and some morning chore by this time.
"I was up late last night."
"Doing what?"
"Helping a C squad cadet with a project."
Sydney raised an eyebrow. That struck her as a very unusual activity for Sky. "What kind of project?"
Sky shrugged. "Just something."
"Oh." She didn't have the energy to pry for more details. Her gaze wandered back down to the spot of cream on his chin, and to the place above it where she knew a dimple appeared the rare times he smiled. "What are you doing this weekend?"
She could honestly say she'd asked that without thinking at all.
"I'm on duty," Sky answered, and after a pause, "Why?"
If work was involved, it didn't matter what she said next. "Just wondering," she could feel her false pleasantness fading, and she decided it would be best to retreat. "I'll see you later."
She hurried into the bathroom, heading straight for a shower stall and turning on the water full blast so it would heat up faster. Up until her birthday party the previous week, she'd been sure that Sky felt about her the same way she felt about him, even if he never acted upon those feelings. In reality, Sky wasn't behaving any differently this week than he usually did, and it was probably her own frustration that made her less able to tolerate his stoic attitude.
She wanted something to happen; she wanted it so bad she was getting cranky. If she was cranky, people would notice and ask her what was wrong. Then she'd have to tell them and they'd either laugh or offer some useless advice—useless because normal relationship advice just didn't work in Sky's case—and then she'd get more frustrated and want to use her iron fist on someone.
A girl with a fat crush and a metal fist is a force to be reckoned with, she thought in rueful amusement as she stripped and stepped beneath the soothing hot spray of water. Unless of course, you're the object of that crush.
The steaming shower made her feel a little better, and for the rest of her morning routine, she was able to distract herself with ideas about how she wanted to style her hair.
I wonder if I should go brunette…
x-x-x-x-x
"Jack?" Z stuck her head in his room. "You're not doing anything this weekend, right?"
The Red Ranger was standing by the window, holding a silver memo-gram. He held it up with a wry expression. "Not anymore. I just got assigned weekend duty."
"I know. I had Bridge switch yours and Sky's shifts this month."
Jack gave the Yellow Ranger an 'oh really' look, and placed his hands on his hips. "Why thank you for asking me first, Z. Why on earth would you do that?"
Z rolled her eyes and leaned against the door jamb. "Syd's parents are having a birthday lunch for her on Saturday, and she was bugging me this morning to go with her. I told her thanks but no thanks, I'm not really cut out for the country club scene."
Jack shrugged. "Why not? Bet the food's good."
Z just snorted in response.
"So what's Syd's birthday lunch have to do with me working the weekend?"
"I told her to bully Sky into going with her."
"What makes you think he'll give in?"
"Better chance if he doesn't have to work."
"Point." Jack cocked his head at her and folded his arms, an amused grin on his face. "I was sure you were going to let those two run circles around each other till kingdom come. Why the good Samaritan act now?"
The Yellow Ranger looked exasperated "Please! If I thought dealing with a perky Syd was bad, try dealing with one that can't get what she wants."
"Ouch," Jack deadpanned, tossing the memo-gram onto the desk. "I'm so glad I could help you out then."
Z smiled sweetly at his dry tone, "You're a prince among men, Jack," and disappeared from his doorway as quickly as she had appeared in it.