Underneath It All: Sky and Syd
Disclaimer: Not mine until I take over the world.
Challenge: Memory
Timeframe: Post Endings
She was gone now. It hurt to breathe without her. It hurt to be the one still breathing, when he knew that she couldn't. He wanted to just curl up in a ball in their bed and stop dealing with the world. He wished it had been him who had died in the battle. He wished that she hadn't loved him enough to take the hit for him.
Sky was alone now. So terribly alone. No one understood what he felt, his mother told him that she understood; she tried to console her son. But she didn't know. She didn't hold her husband in her arms as he died. He didn't tell her to be strong for her and not to cry. His last word wasn't her name.
But Sky went through all of that. Syd was cradled in his arms as she died in agonizing pain. Sky's tears dripped down onto her lovely heart shaped face. Syd told him to stop crying and to please, please, be strong for her. To be strong for their baby girl. Syd's very last word had been Sky's name.
And Kristin. His poor little motherless baby girl. Explaining to her what had happened to her mommy was the hardest thing Sky had ever had to do in his twenty-six years. To watch Kristin's sweet little face (still chubby with baby fat, as she was only three years old) crumple up and turn red as tears poured out of her blue eyes was too much to bear. He'd pulled his daughter into his arms, holding her close, crying with her.
"It's OK, baby. Daddy's here. Daddy's here," Sky had whispered to his little girl. But he knew it wasn't OK, that without Sydney in their lives nothing would ever be OK again.
So he did the only thing he could do: he retired from active ranger status. He retired from SPD end of story and set about learning the secrets of how to run a multibillion dollar conglomerate. He had to be strong for his daughter now. He was all Kristin had now. And his poor baby girl didn't like to leave his side now, she was so afraid of losing him too.
And she was here at his side now, visiting Sydney's grave. It had been almost a year, and Kristin would be starting kindergarten soon. He gave her a bouquet of roses to put by her mother's tombstone, and she did. She was crying now, and so was he.
Sky knelt down beside his baby girl. "Honey," he whispered to her, hugging her close. "Mommy wouldn't want you to cry. Mommy would want you to smile and be happy. You know that." He wiped her tears away and then she gave him a faint smile and did the same to him.
"Come on Daddy." She tugged at his hand, reminding him of her mother. Sydney always did that with him, ever since they were children.
Kristin didn't know it, but she was keeping her mother's memory alive, and for that Sky could not love his baby girl any more than he already does.