"If I knew you were going to be dragging me all the way to Reefside I wouldn't have come along." exclaimed Sky as he sat in the passenger's seat of his car. Chase had taken the driver's seat, knowing that if he hadn't there would have been no way he would have gotten Sky to come along.

"And your other option would have been what?" posed Chase. "...Getting into a fist fight with Z?" He turned to Sky, grinning slightly. "I'm sure Commander Cruger would have loved that."

"I wasn't going to hit her!"

"Didn't look that way from my view."

Sky crossed his arms against his chest. "…Maybe you need to get your eyes checked."

"Right." Chase rolled his eyes, as he made a left turn at the light. "What were you so pissed off at her for, anyways?"

"It doesn't concern you; it's between me and her." Sky darted his eyes towards Chase in annoyance. This had not been how he planned his day to go and he had a feeling it would only get worse before it got better.

"Are you two going to be like this the whole way there?" asked Megan as she leaned forward, glancing at the two. For the last half hour she had had to sit through the two returning each other's smart remarks and being anything but friendly. "Had I know this beforehand, I would have asked Sam to teleport me there."

"You can thank your brother for that." Sky turned his head to her, then glanced to Chase. "I didn't ask to come in the first place. And I don't like the idea of leaving the academy when there's work to be done."

"Oh lighten up, Sky, you could use a break from the academy," remarked Chase. "Besides, Cruger had already given me clearance for us to leave for a few days."

"I did have a break from it!" he exclaimed. "….Or did you forget?"

"Yeah. Still going to the academy to work out, while under suspension, is taking a break."

"Yeah Sky, some fun might do wonders to that charm of yours," added Megan.

Sky grumbled under his breath as he turned his head towards the windows, watching out of it as they passed by other cars, trucks, buildings, heading back to a place he really didn't care to visit right now. Not after what had happened the last time; the first few days had been fine, but after that was when it all changed.

"How'd it go?" asked Kat, as she looked up to see Commander Cruger coming into the Command Center after his visit to the prison where Mirloc was being held. But when she studied the look on his face, she didn't have to be a genius to know things hadn't gone as they would have liked them. "…..He was there though, right?"

"Yes," he acknowledged her question as he approached her. "…But something felt off. Something just didn't feel right…."

"What do you mean?"

"I can't explain it," he answered. "….Just in the manner that he spoke to me, what he said…"

"Did he say that it was him that attacked the Rangers?"

"No." He sighed heavily, bowing his head down. He hadn't expected to get much out of Mirloc, he knew the crafty criminal was smarter than that, but he'd had to try. "But he didn't say it wasn't him either."

"So you think it was him?" she questioned him, looking him in the eyes, trying to get a sense of what was going on in his head.

"I know there was something he wasn't telling me. He was hiding something…." And that scared him even more: the unknown of what was ahead of them, there was no telling what could happen next and he hated surprises.

"He said something else, didn't he, something that bothered you….?" She could see it in his eyes, something was troubling him and she knew it took a lot to stir up this old dog. And there was only one thing that Mirloc could have said that would have gotten to her old friend. "He said something about Sky…"

"Yes…." Mirloc had basically put a death threat on Sky's life, and what scared Cruger even more was how well Mirloc knew Sky from the inside and out, a dangerous advantage for an enemy to have. He looked to Kat. "….Is Sky here?"

"No." Kat shook his head. "….Chase left over an hour ago with him, they were heading to Reefside."

"Good." He was pleased that Chase had been able to get Sky to go with him and Megan; now all he hoped was that Eric would be able to talk some sense into Sky, because if his senses were right, Sky was going to need to be alert and fully focused for whatever was ahead of them. And he needed Sky to get a handle on all his issues, before he placed his young solider into the face of what could become a deadly battle.

"Do you think we should contact Eric, let him know what's going on?" asked Kat, knowing how Eric could be about things like this.

"No. I don't want to concern him, not until we know more." Yes, he knew Eric would be upset and angry with them for not filling him in on the details right now, but he really did not have much to say, other than that Sky's life could be in danger - which in a way he already had mentioned to Eric along with Sky's slow downfall. All he would have to add is the possibility that there might be something out to get Sky.

"Your funeral." Kat sighed as she walked past him and out of the Command Center.

The second Sky, Chase, and Megan entered into the Myers household Sky took himself and his bags down the hall and towards the right, heading towards a bedroom, wanting to avoid all the commotion of the reunion. The room he headed into had been made up for him years ago, back when both Eric and Hayley thought that Sky would come home to them during breaks instead of staying at the academy, but he had never actually ever stayed in the room until those couple of weeks he had come to stay with them when he was on medical leave several months ago.

Once inside the room, Sky plopped his bag onto the ground and closed the door behind him. The room was just as he had remembered it, everything was in its own place, the picture of his parents on the nightstand, a picture Eric and Hayley had provided him with. He sighed heavily as he lay down on the bed, turned on his stereo and put on some headphones to block out the homecoming of Chase being reunited with his family.

It wasn't that he wasn't happy for Chase, he really was, but he couldn't help but feel envious and even anger, feeling as though he was losing everything around him and there wasn't a thing in the world he could do about it. He grabbed the picture of his parents, just staring at it for a long moment, no smile on his face, no emotion, just a blank stare. Nothing seemed to matter to him anymore. He set the picture faced down on the nightstand and closed his eyes, just wanting to have a few moments to himself before someone would come looking for him. He wanted to avoid whatever conversation he knew Eric was planning on having with him for however long he could.

About ten minutes later there was a knock at the door and after a second the door slowly opened and Eric walked inside, closing it behind him. "Hey. Everyone was wondering where you had taken off to. You feeling okay?"

"I'm fine." Sky opened his eyes. "Just was tired from the drive, is all."

"Yeah…." Eric answered, not really buying it. He had known for a while now that Sky was anything but fine, he was far from being fine. And it seemed that the more time that passed with Sky not dealing with his problems the worst things got. "So how's work been? Any of the cadets given you any problems?"

"Work's been fine. And the cadets know better than to give me any problems," answered Sky, looking Eric sharply in the eyes. He couldn't know for sure, but he suspected that Eric probably had heard about his suspension; whether it been from Cruger or Megan or both he didn't know. But at the moment he wanted to avoid that conversation for as long as he could, or not have it brought up at all if he could help it.

Eric sighed heavily as he licked his lips. His talk with Cruger had been a big eye-opener. Something needed to be done, otherwise one day soon Sky would lose all control and wind up getting himself killed. But he knew he couldn't just jump into a conversation about that with Sky. He needed to work his way in, hoping that Sky would think enough of him to talk to him. "Good…." He nodded his head, as he leaned up against the wall. "So how are things with you and Syd?"

Sky could see where this was going. Eric wasn't one to back down from anything. He would eventually get what he wanted, one way or another. "…..Things are perfect with us."

Things are never that perfect. He was beginning to wonder if Hayley had been right about her theory on Sky and Syd's relationship, if Sky was using his relationship with Syd as a way to avoid dealing with his problems. But he wouldn't bring that up just yet, knowing that if he did he would never be able to get through to Sky. "That's good. I'm happy for you. Syd's a nice girl." While he wasn't a fan of her father, Eric did like Syd and felt in some ways she was good for Sky.

"Yeah. She is…." Sky answered softly knowing that he hadn't handled things with Syd well this morning.

It might not be his place; he knew Sky was an adult now and could make adult decisions, but he still felt the need to ask. He knew the last thing Sky needed was to be getting himself into a situation that he wasn't ready for. "You two being…." He beat around the bush, trying to be as subtle as possible.

Sky raised his eyebrows. "I'm not an idiot, Eric…"

"Didn't say you were." Eric bit his lip, not sure if it was too early to bring it up or not, but knowing that it needed to be said, given the present situation that was around them. "Things with you and Chase okay? Megan mentioned that you two have been on edge with each other for a while."

"Megan says a lot of things…."

"That she does." Wasn't exactly the answer he was looking for, but it was enough to know that he knew part of Sky's problem had to do with Chase. He smiled faintly, as he stared at the troubled young man before him. He knew Sky was hurting, he recognized the look and the attitude, but Sky would never admit it. Just as he himself never would have admitted it to Wes back in their prep school days. Wes had tried so hard to reach out to him, but he had been too stubborn to listen. Eric just hoped that Sky would he would not do back then and hear him out. "You know Sky, just because Chase turned out to be Hayley's son doesn't change things. You're still a member of this family."

"Chase is blood," he answered, giving a hard look to Eric as he tossed off his headphones. "I'm just an obligation." He got off the bed and started towards the door, only to be held back by Eric who wasn't letting him go without a fight.

"You are not an obligation ….not to me…" He knew Sky was angry, angry because of a lot of things, and he had every right to be. But he wasn't going to stand for while Sky gave him this kind of bullshit. "Damnit Sky! Do you think this is easy for me?" he exclaimed to the young man wanting Sky to know he wasn't the only one struggling.

Sky sighed heavily as he turned his head away. It hadn't really occurred to him how this made Eric feel, with Chase turning out to be Hayley and Tommy's son. He had been so caught up with his own problems that he had forgotten how Eric must be feeling right now, having his life get turned upside down. ….A feeling he knew all too well.

Eric sighed heavily; the last thing he wanted to do now was start an argument with Sky. He knew Sky needed him right now, a lot more than he thought he did. He gripped his shoulder. "I was going to go out to the bar and have a beer. You want to come?"

"Shouldn't you be interacting with your family?"

"I think they'll be okay for a little while. Besides, it will give us a chance to catch up." He stared Sky in the eyes, hoping to get through to him, knowing that he was the closest person Sky had to a father. Wes had been his best friend, like a brother, and had always made sure he was okay. He owed it to Wes to make sure that Sky would be okay. "What do you say?"

Sky knew he might end up regretting this, with the way Eric's conversation had been going. But it would get him out of the house for a couple of hours, where he wouldn't have to deal with the drama here. …Not to mention the fact that after the day he'd had, he could go for a drink. "All right… Fine."

They had been at the bar for a little over thirty minutes. Eric had been trying to get through to Sky, trying to get him to open up to him, like he once had all those month ago before they had dumped the biggest secret of Sky's life onto him. But Sky kept on insisting he was fine and that everything was great, while the whole time Eric knew Sky was lying to his face. "Who are you trying to fool here, Sky?" He wasn't going to leave this bar until he got Sky to talk about what was going on. "I talked to Cruger. I know about everything." He watched as Sky turned his head away. "With Chase… The suspension, your disrespectful attitude."

"Yeah. Well, Cruger's a pain in my ass." He announced as he finished off his drink and looked Eric sharply in the eyes. "And don't tell me you never felt the same way." It was no secret to anyone that Cruger and Eric had never been on the same page with each other. The two had been known to bump heads with each other. "The way he orders us around like we're his damn puppets. You never agreed with him."

"This isn't about me or my past with Cruger," Eric answered just as sharply. "This is about you." He grabbed a hold of Sky's wrist. "You're better then this, Sky. I know what SPD and being a Ranger means to you, and your attitude has been throwing it down the drain."

"Hey guys…." Conner announced as he joined the two.

"You don't know a damn thing about me!" Sky yanked his arm out of Eric's grip as he stood up and started stomping away from the table.

"Was it something I said?"

Eric ignored Conner's remark and started after Sky, grabbing a hold of the young man and pressing him up against the wall so he couldn't get away. "What is it with you? I take two steps forward, you're taking ten steps back. I thought we were over this, Sky. You said you wanted things to be different between us, that you didn't want us to be strangers anymore."

Sky shoved Eric off of him and looked him straight in the eyes, his face burning with fury and anger he had been holding in for months. He could feel everything he's been holding in for months coming out in full force. "But that's what we are." Sky cleared his throat. "We're strangers! My whole life has been one big lie after another…."

"It has not been a lie. …Your father loved you-"

"My father? I didn't even know my father!" he exclaimed. He clenched his fists tightly together. "Two years, that's all I got. And that whole two years, he lied to my face every day." Everything he had been holding in for months, ever since he learned the truth about his life and where he came from, just started coming out and he didn't care how hurtful or demeaning it sounded. "Everyone who supposedly loved me lied to me. Everything about my life was a lie!" he exclaimed. He just shook his head, staring Eric in the face. "…And you expect me to just accept that? Accept the lies he told me?"

Eric wasn't about to let Sky tarnish Wes's memory like that, not when he knew Wes loved Sky too death, that he would have done anything and everything for him. "Don't you dare talk about him like that." In his anger he shoved Sky once again up against the wall, causing one of the framed pictures on it to drop to the ground. "You're really pushing your luck with me, kid…."

"Eric, maybe you need to-" started Conner, wanting to make sure things didn't get out of hand anymore then they already have.

"Not now, Conner." Eric eyes narrowed onto Sky, he took a couple of deep breaths to calm himself down. Yelling at Sky wouldn't help matters, it would only make things worse. "…Your time with him may have been short, but I swear to you, the moment he laid his eyes on you he loved you from the start." Eric knew that the day Sky entered into their lives that was one of the greatest days of Wes's life.

"….You sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I was all that was left of the woman he loved more than anything?"

Eric bowed his head as he sighed heavily. He bit his lips and as he looked back to Sky his eyes softened a little. "I won't deny that your mother had something to do with it. They loved each other very much and it broke both of their hearts to have to be apart, but you are what held them together. He loved you more because of that."

"If he loved me so much, then why did he lie to me?"

"It was for your protection. He didn't have a choice, Sky-"

"Didn't have a choice!" Sky's eyes widened as he shoved Eric off of him, this time with full force, shoving him right into Conner knocking the two to the ground. He stood above the two, staring down at them, filled with so much anger and hurt that he didn't know what to do with it. "Does it look to you like I need protection?" Feeling there was nothing left to say, Sky stormed off out of the bar.

All Eric could do was watch as the son of his best friend stormed off. Now everyone in the bar was staring at him. Conner glanced at all of them. "There's nothing left to see here, people, go back to what you were doing." He turned to help Eric to his feet. "You, going to go after him?"

"No. I'll let him blow off some steam." Eric slowly made it back over to the table he and Sky had been sitting at, with Conner following behind him. "Besides, he's right." He took a sip of his beer. "His whole life was a lie. Everything was a lie…."

"You did it for his protection. What choice did you have?"

"To leave well enough alone….."

"Yeah. And how do you think he would have turned out then? Given the age he was, if you guys hadn't done what you did; he would have never adjusted. He could be worse off than he is now."

But Eric wasn't about to buy it just yet. Sure, back when it first happened it seemed they were doing the right thing, but now looking back he wasn't so sure anymore. There had been so many lies, told to protect him, starting with why his last name wasn't Collins and then what happened to Jen. He turned to meet Conner's eyes. "Do you know what we told him, why he and Wes were living with his grandfather? How Jen died?"

Conner sighed heavily as he shook his head no. He and Wes had rarely seen each other during those two years. Wes had been busy with the starting of SPD and he had been busy himself, going to school and playing college soccer. "No. I don't."

"We told him that his house had burned down and that Jen who had already been very sick died in the hospital from too much smoke intake. And the reason he didn't remember a whole lot was because he had hit his head and was in a coma for a couple of days." He slammed his beer bottle onto the table. "What kind of bullshit is that to tell a little kid?" He was disgusted with himself in that moment.

"You did what you had to do back then, right or wrong." Conner knew there was little he could say or do in this situation. "…You can't keep beating yourself over this, Eric, what's done is done."

"Someone sure has grown up."

"Marriage and kids will do that to you."

"Speaking of kids." He smiled faintly, wanting to turn the conversion into something more uplifting than his troubles with Sky. "How are the tykes?" It had been a good couple of months since the two and their families had gotten together. A couple of years ago Conner had moved back to Reefside with his family, taking a coaching job at the high school. With his soccer program on the rise and the money coming in, he wanted to settle in one place and spend more time with his family.

"They're good. Walker and Erica are both doing real good in school, getting better grades than I ever could." Conner had to laugh at that; back when he was in school he was more of the jock than the bookworm. "And my little angel, Kara, is growing up just too fast." Kara was his four year old daughter and the spitting image of him, as his wife always said.

"That's great. And the boys, how are things with them?"

"Jeff and Jarrod are doing well; they've finally adjusted to having me at the school every day." Jeff and Jarrod were his wife Jena's fifteen year old twin sons from a previous relationship, he had been more of a father to them than their real father had ever been. "They just can't wait until they get their driver's licenses next year."

"Fun. I have a good year and half until I get to look forward to that."

"Yeah. Speaking of, the boys have been asking about Megan." Conner grinned in a winking sort of way.

"Just what my little girl needs, a licensed McKnight…" He took a sip of his beer. "Besides, she already has a sort of boyfriend."

"Yeah, so I've heard. Sam, right?" Conner took a few swigs of his beer. "He has teleportation powers, doesn't he?"

"Your point?"

"Nothing." Conner shrugged his shoulders back, giving that childish grin of his. "I'm just saying that cars run out of gas, but teleportation, boy, well who knows just how far he can go before he runs out of gas."

Eric rolled his eyes and shook his head. "I take back what I said earlier, you haven't grown up at all."

Conner had to laugh at that, sure he had changed a lot over the years, and a lot of that had to do with being a Ranger, starting the soccer program, and meeting Jena and her boys, but every so often he would let a little bit of his old goofy-charming self come out. "…...So, Tommy and Hayley, how are you dealing with that?" Conner had always thought there was more to Tommy and Hayley, but he never imagined it would be something this big.

"It's hasn't been easy, but I probably could be taking it a lot worse."

"….So what's he like, Chase…."

"Seems like a good kid, very sure of himself, knows what he wants." He smiled faintly. "Reminds me a lot of Hayley. And then there's that fighting soldier instinct of his, that reminds me a lot of Tommy." He really couldn't say anything bad about Chase, at least from the short time he had spent with him and the way Megan just raved about him.

"How are the kids dealing with it?"

"Surprisingly well, a lot better than I would have thought…."

"Hey." Hayley stirred awake as Eric climbed into bed. "How'd it go?" She didn't even have to wait for an answer, the look on Eric's face said enough. "That well, huh." She gave him a comforting smile, knowing that he took Sky's problems to heart. It had always been a difficult thing for Eric.

"…..He didn't come back with me, if that says anything."

"What?" Hayley sat up in bed. She had known that things were bad with Sky, but she didn't think it was that bad. "Did you go look for him?"

"Yeah. Conner and I searched for two hours, called his cell. Nothing." He moved closer to her, drawing her into his arms. "…..He is so angry, Hayley. …..The things he said…."

"Reminded you of yourself?" For a while now Hayley had known that the reason why Eric took things so hard with Sky was because he was reminded of himself, from a long time ago.

"….Yeah. I was just like him, angry and pissed off at the world, never letting anyone get in my way." He sighed heavily. Even to this day his past at times still haunted him, but he had for the most part gotten over it and learned to live with it. His childhood and growing up had not been glamorous by any means, but he had somehow survived. "…Back then I thought I was on top of the world and I didn't need anyone, that I could get by just fine on my own, and then I met Wes …. but I didn't want anything to do with him. I thought he was crazy for wanting to hang out with me and not the other kids, who were just like him, rich and popular … I didn't get why he was hanging out with the charity kid." There were days when he wondered how things would have turned out differently if he had allowed Wes to be his friend back then, instead of pushing him away.

"Maybe it was because Wes saw something in you that you refused to see in yourself…."

"Yeah. He was such a pain in the ass back then, but a good one." He smiled faintly as he let out a heavy sigh. "It took me a long time to get over my anger and my pride, because for a long time my motto was 'It's better to be alone than to be disappointed.'" Back then he truly did believe that Wes would let him down, come to his senses and stop wanting to hang around him. It was just easier to push him away then risk getting hurt.

Hayley kissed him on the cheek. "….Maybe that's why you're not the right one to be helping Sky through this, because you two are so much alike. Maybe he needs what you had, another Wes … to be a pain in the ass."

Though he hated to admit it, she was right. Sky and he would clash when they got into a heated argument. He could tell Sky what he had gone through, but knew that it wouldn't matter; he knew that for a fact because he didn't care what sorry-ass story someone would tell him. "….Wouldn't know where we can find one of those, would you?"

"I'm sure the right person will come along, if they haven't already." She eyed her husband in the eyes, smiling. "….Just don't beat yourself up over not being able to help him …. after all, you turned out okay. I know Sky will too."

"I'll try not to." He learned in and kissed her lightly on the lips. "So how'd things go tonight with Chase…?"

"Better than I ever could have imagined. He went home with Tommy for the night, but the two will be back in the morning for breakfast."

"That's great." He pulled her closer to her as they settled down for the night.