Abundant Uncertainties

Sky's fears had still not been eased.

Jack was doing an awful job with Sydney. He should be getting her to open up, figure out who the father was.

Instead she was lifting heavy boxes, driving huge trucks, and living alone.

In any case, if Jack wasn't going to find out who the father was, Sky would.

It really wouldn't be difficult, just a simple matter of checking the entrance log to see who requested to see Syd about six months ago.

Really, why didn't he think of this earlier?

So Sky set to work.

With his status as Red Ranger it was easy enough to get the documents without too much eyebrow raising. Now just came the tedious work of combing through them without mistakes.

A simple task for one such as himself.

Sky continued to look through the files for a couple of hours. Looking for anyone that had come to academy asking for Sydney. He even extended the time period a bit.

No one out of the ordinary ever came to see her; a few visits from her mother, father, some of her spoiled rich girl friends, no one that could be the father of her child.

Well maybe the guy didn't come to the academy. Maybe she went to meet him. Yea, that sounded plausible.

Every time SPD personnel came or left the academy they had to use a card and swipe that through the system as well as provide a hand and retina scan.

This was to make it harder for intruders to infiltrate SPD.

It also made it easier for Sky to see when Sydney left the academy.

So after retrieving some more files he set to work.

Searching, once again, for any signs of Sydney's name.

It proved to be futile as well because even after double and triple checking his work, he could find nothing out of the ordinary.

Every departure or arrival coordinated with times that friends or family had stopped by.

There had been a few others but after a closer observation, proved to be times that he and Sydney had gone out together.

Maybe she had snuck out. It would be difficult but do-able.

But when he looked back at what she had said she told him that she hadn't expected it to happen. It had just been a date with an old friend and they just went back to his place for coffee.

Why would she need to sneak out for that?

Unless she lied.

Maybe it wasn't an old friend at all but someone she knew.

She had been shady about the entire father thing in general

Who was to say she didn't make up the entire "old friend" thing altogether?

Well the only people that she really knew that she wouldn't have to leave the academy for were SPD personnel.

She didn't seem overly close to any cadet in general lately.

And she hadn't acted weird around any cadet or vice versa.

After an incident like that you would assume that someone would act differently around the other.

So that just left the people she was closest too.

Him, Bridge and Jack.

She had already established that it wasn't him.

Bridge would never bend his allegiance to Z plus he was very bad with guilt and would have cracked by now.

That left Jack.

It had been odd that she ran to Jack first and was still basically living with him.

But if it was him wouldn't it be weird with Aly around?

But who else could it be?

Jack had been to the academy to get some stuff for the shelter six months ago so something could have happened between them.

Would they both betray him like that?

Jack had always known that Sky had liked Sydney.

But there was no doubt that Sydney was a knockout.

Every guy at the academy had wanted her at some point in time. It wouldn't be surprising to find out that Jack liked her too. They did have that mission together on her birthday.

Every second that went by had Sky convinced that Jack was the father.

And every second that Sky thought Jack was the father had Sky's anger getting closer and closer to boiling over.

Suddenly he lashed out and punched the nearest wall. A large dent was apparent the second he pulled his hand back and his knuckles now had a thin coat of blood covering them.

The blood was strangely calming.

To see the dark red substance dripping through his fingers had a euphoric effect on him.

He couldn't understand the feeling and he wasn't sure he wanted to.

He just knew that he didn't want to clean up the blood just yet.

Instead of cleaning the blood up or punching anymore walls out, he decided on a walk.

Sky wasn't really sure where he was going he just decided that his feet would take him where he was meant to go and that would be that.

He ended up at the park.

A favorite spot of his and Syd's… when they were together.

He knew he was getting delusional when he saw a petite blond at the foot of the creek they often sat at.

She was even sitting under the leaning cherry tree that they would always sit against.

Syd use to always fit so perfectly up against him as he sat with his back against the tree just talking or sometimes just sitting in silence, enjoying each others company.

As he drew closer to the famed spot he realized that he wasn't delusional and that it really was Sydney up against the cherry tree.

As he approached her she smiled and blushed, still uncomfortable around him despite their long friendship before her pregnancy.

It was then that she noticed his bloody hand. It was no longer freely bleeding but the blood was still there having not been washed off or taken care of in any way.

"Oh my God Sky, what happened to your hand?"

"Oh, well, I, uh, ran into a door."

Sydney looked at him with a look of obvious disbelief. Everyone had their moments of klutziness but Sky was an exception. He never even tripped over his own feet.

"You shouldn't have left it go like that." She replied and immediately took his hand and began to drag him down to the creek.

While the creek water certainly wouldn't be the best thing for a wound, it needed to be washed up.

When they got to the edge of the small creek Sydney sat down on her knees and began taking off her white cotton jacket, revealing the blue maternity short sleeved shirt.

She wet the sleeve of the jacket and began to wipe the blood off of Sky's hand. He resisted at first to her touch but soon came to enjoy the small ministrations and feel of her soft hand beneath his.

The excess blood was soon gone and his hand now clean. Sydney dropped his hand placing her own in her lap and looked down. Talking to him used to be so easy. Now she was even afraid to bring up the weather.

"You could have just told me who the father was."

Sydney snapped her head up at this comment.

"…What do you mean?"

She was suddenly scared.

Jack couldn't have told him. He promised he wouldn't tell.

"I wouldn't have gotten mad, I just wanted to know."

"Sky, I, who told you?"

Sky looked at her, pain clearly written in his eyes.

"No one told me, Syd, I figured it out on my own. I just wish you would have told me."

Sydney's heart started to race. Her breathing becoming ragged. He was never supposed to find out.

"Sky, I'm sorry, you never supposed to know, I was just trying to protect—"

"Does Aly know?"

Syd was confused at this statement. Why would Aly care that Sky was the father.

"I mean that's got to put a strain on her and Jack's relationship, now that he's going to be a father."

Sydney closed her eyes and smiled. Her heart and breathing rate returning to normal.

Finally she looked up at Sky, shook her head still smiling.

"Sky… Jack is not the father of my child nor will he ever be the father of my child. Jack's one of my best friends and in a serious relationship, I would never want to ruin that."

Sky sat there contemplating for a moment.

Jack wasn't the father.

While relieving as that information was it also posed more questions. Who else could the father be? And if she didn't want to ruin Jack and Aly's relationship by starting her own relationship with Jack, then why did she ruin her own relationship with him by cheating on him with an unknown stranger?

Sky suddenly remembered something she had said.

"Who are you trying to protect by not telling me the father?"

Syd looked startled by the question but quickly composed herself.

"Sky, please let it go, let me handle this."

Sky sighed.

"Syd, you can't do this alone, you need someone to help you and not just Jack and Aly. This baby needs a father and I want to know that you'll be taken care of."

Sydney closed her eyes to repress the tears.

Why couldn't he hate her? She had done one of the worst things you could ever do to Sky Tate. She betrayed him. Not only that but she betrayed his heart. He trusted her to faithful and she had gone and stabbed him in the back.

At least that's what he thought.

She had been sure, so utterly sure that she would tell him he wasn't the father and he would leave, not SPD but her. He would be polite in social situations but nothing cordial, nothing that could ever be confused with affection. And yet here he was telling her that he wanted her to be happy, comfortable, even after everything she had done.

He was being too wonderful for his own good.

She was doing this for him, damnit and he wasn't making it any easier!

"Who's the father Sydney? Please tell me. Tell me and I'll leave you alone."

He was quiet for a few moments before he continued in a whisper.

"I just need to know who will look at your beautiful face every morning and get the life that I wanted."

She wanted to tell him.

Wanted to shout at him that he was the father. That she would never betray him by cheating on him with another man. Other men didn't even come close to what she had sitting right in front of her.

She wanted to tell him.

But he had a job. An amazing job that he had worked his entire life to get to. He did not deserve a dishonorable discharge at her expense.

He might say that he didn't regret his decision but he would. He would regret getting his fling of a girlfriend pregnant and needing to quit his job to be a father.

She didn't want to see that look of regret aimed towards her, and especially towards her child.

She couldn't let anything deter her from her plan, she would only regret it in the end and she planned to live her life with no regrets.

"Sky, I can take care of myself and that's what I plan to do. Please move on, you deserve better. Just forget about me, forget about the baby, and move on."

She hated walking away from him and it was getting harder each time she did it. She seemed to be walking away from a lot of people lately.

Why could no one understand why she was doing this? This was the best thing for everyone and yet everyone was trying to change her decision.

She was doing the right thing.

All for him.

And those were her thoughts as she once again stood up and walked away from the only man that had ever been for her.

Authors Note- Sorry, little writers block for this chapter. I kinda like how it turned out though. I needed a filler chapter. This story shouldn't be that long, a few more chapters at most.

Will Sydney ever tell Sky? Will Jack break his promise to Sydney? Will Z and Bridge ever enter this story again? Will Syd move away? Will summer really be over this month? Will it be a boy or a girl? All important questions that have no answers thus far but I'm working on it.

Smiles and Sparkles!