Friends?
By: theunknownvoice
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
A/N: Takes place after the End of Lightspeed.
Chad stared at Captain Mitchell. Lightspeed Rescue was over. He could go back to training his whales. He could go back to his normal life.
He thought about all he was giving up. He would no longer be the blue ranger. He would go back to being simply Chad.
The goodbye party was this afternoon. He had gone to the ocean in order to sort his thoughts. He had experienced so many things as the blue ranger. He met his best friends through the program. He had met Marina.
He knew that he was never going to see Marina again. It would never work between him in the mermaid. If he admitted it to himself then he knew that Marina was a distraction.
She was a distraction from the real love his life.
They had spent the entire day together. He had spent all day trying to teach her to fight. She had never learnt any martial arts before. It was the most challenging afternoon of his life.
She was his friend but she could drive him up the wall. Eventually, she did learn and exchange for lessons she taught him how to talk to girls. She didn't know that she was the only girl he wanted to talk romantically to.
Even after they defeated the monster attacking the city, he still felt that she was his most challenging opponent.
"Kelsey, I think you're awesome. You're... adventurous, uh... totally fearless... but sometimes you get a little overexcited," he told her later.
"What? I'll show you 'overexcited'!" she yelled.
She was definately the reckless wild child of the rangers. He loved that quality the best about her.
Now he was about to leave behind this amazing woman. He loved Kelsey for her crazed behavior. He had grown so used to her behavior that he shouldn't be shocked. Yet everything she did was a shock. She was the only person who could sneak up on him and nearly give him a heart attack. Not even Ryan could manage to get behind him without him noticing.
He remembered her fear as the Aquabase was sinking. He could have told her then that he loved her but he didn't. He didn't want to make her do something rash. He didn't want her to lie to him because she thought they were dying. He turned around to head back.
He didn't hear the sound of roller blades whirling down the dock. He didn't hear the yell of watch out. He didn't see the out of control skater dressed in yellow come increasing towards him. He did, however, feel the crash and the impact of being knocked on to his back.
He stared at the woman on top of him in shock. Kelsey grinned like a maniac. She had gone looking for adventure and she had found her best friend.
"I said watch out. What were you doing cloud gazing?" she teased as she scrambled upwards.
"I was just thinking. When are you so klutzy on skates?" he asked as he got to his feet.
"This coming from the guy who was a skating disaster. I taught you everything you know. You should bow down to my skating expertise."
"Alright, Grandmaster of all that is Extreme, what happened?"
"Lost my balance. Decided to go skate to think out what Captain Mitchell said. You?"
"I was doing the same. I can't believe that we'll be telling everyone goodbye."
She spun around to look at him.
"You don't think that this is goodbye between us?" she asked unnaturally calm.
"I guess it is. I mean, we'll return to our respective lives. We won't see much of each other anymore," he answered seriously.
"You think that's going to stop me. You're my friend, Chad. You're my best friend. I'm not giving you up," she said fiercely.
He nodded though he felt the world ending around them.
The party was over quickly. A little too quickly for Chad's taste. Goodbyes wree exchanged. The party ended with promises to meet up soon. Chad made his way back towards his car, his head still spinning from all those goodbyes.
He was surprised to find Kelsey waiting for him.
"What adventures do you have planned?" she asked casually.
"I'm just going back to my job," he answered.
"As your best friend I demand that you go see Marina. She'll cheer you up."
"Kels, Marina and I ended a few months ago."
Her eyes widened with shock.
"Carter and Joel assumed that you were lovesick," she whispered.
He bit back his lip. He hadn't been that obvious or at least he had thought.
"Not for Marina," he muttered.
"Who's the lucky girl?"
"Well, she's awesome, adventurous, totally fearless and a little overexcited."
She glanced up at him slightly shocked.
"Kels, I didn't want to tell because I know you don't feel the same way. I don't think that you would want me to—"
She leaped up and kissed him with full force.
The End