Well here is chapter nine despite the fact that I didn't get my traditional 3 reviews for the last chapter :( Thanks to my splendiferous beta gypsie rosalie for reviewing and just being brilliant and putting up with my Lucas/Skye obsession. Anyway chapter 10 is almost ready to go. There will be some more tup soon I promise.
Chapter Nine
"Commander Up, as you know you sustained severe injuries. You should have died however somehow you survived. When you arrived back here there was only one way to save you. We had to replace the entire right side you your body. Commander Up, you're half robot. "
Up was in shock, how could this have happened to him. He brought his hand up to his face. It was wet with tears. He vaguely remembered this feeling of crying. He hadn't cried in so long and now here he was sobbing like a baby. The he thought of her. She could help him.
"Where's Taz?" he sniffed.
"She's gone." The doctor replied. This was when Up really lost it. He lay there sobbing for everything he had lost, the right side of his body, his dignity, Taz.
Taz finally stopped running and collapsed in the hallway. She sat there ashamed of herself, willing the tears to go back in. She couldn't believe that she was sitting in the hallway crying. Taz and Up were the toughest rangers in the G.L.E.E. yet here they were crying over each other.
Taz thought back to how Up had looked in the hospital bed, so helpless. It scared her to see him like that. He looked so vulnerable. He was her rock, the person she could always count on. Seeing him so weak really terrified her. She wanted her old Up back. She wanted to go back to visit him but she didn't think that she could handle seeing him like this. That was when she did the second thing that she would regret for the rest of her life. She left.
Taz sat huffily in the Space ship as it flew further and further away from the base. Putting more and more distance between her and Up every second. Taz was angry at Up for crying but mostly she was angry at how weak she was. Too weak to see Up. Too weak to stay with her best friend.
Taz stormed out of her room and through the hallways to the cafeteria. She saw the other five members of her team. Fate had seen that she would constantly be reminded of Up as two of his team from the last mission, Michael and Stella, were assigned to this mission.
Taz walked over to where the food was. She could hear the rangers talking. Today's topic was Up's injury. It seemed as though this was the topic of the day every day. Taz grabbed and apple and bit into it angrily as she stormed back out of the cafeteria. She continued walking and soon found herself outside the gym. She stepped inside. She was instantly reminded of all the times that she had worked out in the gym with Up. She was reminded of how she and Up would challenge each other constantly, to see who could run the fastest, who could lift the most weight. She remembered the way that Up had helped her train back at the academy, the way he helped her become the hop of her class. She remembered that Up used to sit there and lift weights. She remembered the way that he would take his shirt off mid workout when he got too hot. She remembered the way that the sweat would glide down Up's naked torso as he lifted the weights. She remembered the way that her eyes would follow one bead of sweat as it travelled down his sculpted chest before disappearing down his pants...
Taz shook her head and tried to banish the images from her mind. She couldn't stay in the gym, it reminded her too much of Up. She turned and stormed back to her room.
Up sat in his room. It seemed like he was permanently crying these days. It was a week since he had woken up and each day was just as hard as the last. Every day he would ask the doctors for Taz and every day they would tell him that she wasn't there.
"Time for your exercises." said Doctor Isabelle as she walked into Up's room.
Up sighed as the doctor helped him stand up. Every day Up had to do exercises to help him get used to his new robotic side. The current goal was five consecutive steps. The doctor let go of him and he began to step away from the bed. One step. Two steps. Three steps. He tried to move his right leg to take a fourth step but his leg wouldn't move. He fell to the ground and made no move to stand up. He sat on the floor, tears streaming down his face. He couldn't believe what he had turned into. Here he was half robot and crying. As they say; oh how the mighty have fallen. Doctor Isabelle came and sat down next to Up. She put her arm around him gently and let him cry on her shoulder. Up vaguely registered a voice in his head telling him to get back up. It was Taz. He ignored the voice. She wasn't here now. She had left him.