Sorry this one's taken so long, but it's finally here! Enjoy and review if you find anything worth reviewing
I knew when Sky returned, but I didn't visit – Xav said she needed her space, and I agreed. So I stayed at home and listened in when I could, went to school and put up with all the looks from everyone else. I had made friends in Sky's friends; even Nelson made an effort to be friendly when he heard what had gone down. But I could still feel their concerned glances – I appreciated the care, but just wished to be alone. No, not alone alone – alone with Sky. She didn't go to school – she stayed at home. One day Mum and Dad went round to offer their help. I knew before they had even turned into the drive that the visit had been counterproductive.
"No go, Zed." Dad thought "They're being very protective – says she's not going to be around much longer. Simon's very angry, Sally's very scared." I stayed in my room, which had become my sanctuary since Sky returned, and nodded to myself. It was understandable; if I was in Simon's position, I would do just the same thing.
"Where is she going?" I responded.
"He didn't say, but I took a peek." Dad replied guiltily "They've got an offer from a woman in Vegas. Simon's seriously thinking about going there with Sky and Sally." I let in info stand in silence. That was bad – but if only one cell in my body was Sky's soulfinder, I would stop her from going or chase after her until I couldn't run any more. And every cell in my body was tuned to her, and were hers; they responded to her touch and hummed to her tune.
It was far later that evening when the red light went off in my head. We all knew what it meant even before the message came through:
"Someone's breached the shield!" Trace punched into all our minds, and we were immediately downstairs.
"Step into the light so we can see you." Trace was shouting, pointing a handgun at a small, child-like figure in the shadows. It stepped into the dim light and it only took half a second to recognise her as Sky.
"And I said 'hands up'!" Trace bellowed threateningly.
"Trace, it's Sky!" I yelled, bursting from the house and into the snow. She looked freezing, with flimsy soft shoes on and no coat. She must have walked from her house.
"It might be a trap," Trace warned, not relaxing his stance. Idiot! Didn't he know what guns did to her? Vick stepped out from the shadows behind her – he had circled round to block her exit.
"Let go of me!" I didn't know who was holding me back, but I clawed against their arms and tried to stamp on their feet, anything to get free.
"Why aren't you using telepathy, Sky?" Dad spoke calmly, helping Yves restrain me. Sky swallowed hard and shook her head.
"Can I come in? You said I could come." She called shakily, uncertainly.
"Is she alone?" Trace asked Victor.
"Seems so." He nodded.
"You ask her, just to make sure." Trace said, lowering his gun "We can't risk a mistake."
"Don't you touch her, Vick! Leave her alone!" I broke free from Yves' arms and leapt down the steps.
"Zed!" Dad called to stop me. I didn't stop. I reached her and trapped her in my arms. She was so cold, and her arms were shaking.
"Oh, baby, you're freezing!" I said, holding her close to me, giving her my warmth.
"I. . . I'm sorry to come like this." She stuttered, and I suddenly wanted to laugh. Typical Sky.
"Stop being so damn British about it – you don't need to apologise. Ssh, it's fine." I rubbed her arms to try and get them warm. Dad came up behind me, but I could tell he didn't have the heart to break us up.
"It's not fine, not until we know why she's here. She walked right through our security perimeter. She can't have done that without help. Her powers aren't that strong." Dad said lowly. Victor pulled her away – I knew I had no choice but to let her go.
"Tell us why you're here. Did someone send you?" we all heard the power that layered his voice "Sky, you must tell me."
"Stop it, stop it!" she screamed, pulling away and stumbling backwards, shaking her head "Get out of my brain, all of you!" she tripped over a tuft of grass and landed on her back, her hands covering her ears. I shoved Victor out the way and picked her up, hugging her close to my chest. I was shaking with rage, and the edges of my vision were turning red.
"I'm taking her inside and I don't care what you say." I yelled furiously "She's mine – my soulfinder – and you'd better not stop me."
Silence. Several jaws even hung open.
"Look at her – she's blue with cold." I shouldered my way past my immobile family and headed straight for the kitchen. Xav and Will were checking the CCTV cameras around the perimeter.
"She walked in," Will said, checking a video of the cable car compound "No sign of anyone else."
"Sky, what are you playing at?" chastised Xav, turning away from the monitor and towards Sky – his eyes widened when he saw her "Sheesh, Zed, didn't you notice she's bleeding? Put her on the counter." I complied with Xav's order – he was the best thing for her wounds at the moment. Xav eased off her ragged shoes and Sky winced as he placed his hands on her bloody feet. A loud clatter alerted me to Victor's entrance.
"Will, Xav, there's something little brother's forgotten to mention."
"Yeah, meet his soulfinder." Trace said, shaking his head. Xav jumped before going back to healing Sky. Will whistled.
"No kidding?"
"That's what he says." Trace glanced at Dad for confirmation; he nodded.
"Well, what'd'ya know." Will grinned at Sky "Got any older sisters, Sky?" I smiled gratefully at him – Will was good at setting people at ease.
"Not that she knows – but we'll try and find out for you."
"Don't forget the rest of us," butted in Trace – he smile looked slightly forced "Some of us are running out of time."
"Patience, son." Dad said, clapping his shoulder briefly "You'll find her."
Selfish as it was, I didn't care about Trace and his absent soulfinder – I cared about my soulfinder.
"You walked here all on your own?" I asked gently, my eyes unable to move from her bloody feet – the gashes were steadily healing, and if I didn't know what to look for I wouldn't have seen it, but the blood remained were it had leaked from her torn skin "Why?"
"I need help," she whispered, shrinking in towards my chest fearfully – I hugged her closer, willing all my warmth and strength to go to her instead "I needed you." Was it wrong that I was happy with those words? But Sky needed me – she needed me. I could feel Trace and Victor's suspicion, their tense bodies too close to me and Sky, and bit off a protective growl. Sky didn't need arguments and verbal battles right then.
"I want your brothers to know I'm telling the truth." She spoke to me; I knew she didn't want to talk to everyone else, so I was acting as her bridge "You don't think I'm here because someone sent me to hurt you, do you?" She rubbed her cheek against my shirt, clinging to me tightly.
"No, baby." I cooed, pushing my nose into her lightly scented hair.
"Your Dad said I could come."
"I know." I glared at everyone in the room: Look at what you did, my eyes roared, are you happy? You did this to her.
"What's her number?"Dad said, picking up the phone.
"They don't know I'm gone." She mumbled quietly.
"Better to wake them up to tell them you're safe than to let them discover your empty bed and worry." Dad reasoned and I reeled off the number. Dad had a quick, quiet conversation with Sky's parents. There were angry replies from the other end, but Dad calmed them down with his cool logic and eventually they settled into a less hysterical tone of voice.
"I want to stay," Sky whispered so low I could barely hear her, then louder "I want to stay." Dad glanced at me and nodded.
"Yes, Simon, she's OK, a little cold but we're looking after her." I looked at Sky's almost-healed feet and acknowledged that Dad was lying for us – not something he did very often "She's sure she wants to stay. Why not come and collect her after breakfast? No point turning out in the middle of the night when there's no need. Yep, will do." He set the phone down "He'll drive over in the morning. He says that you were to get some rest and not worry."
"Am I grounded again?" I ruffled her hair lovingly with a small smile.
"He didn't mention that." Dad smiled
"I bet I am."
"Until you're fifty." I butted in.
"I thought as much." She sighed dramatically. Xav released her feet and wiggled his fingers stiffly.
"I've done what I can for your soulfinder." Xav said, using the word soulfinder with as much relish as I took from hearing him say it "She needs to keep warm and sleep it off now. The cuts are pretty much healed." Sure enough, when I looked down her feet had only a handful of tender, pinkish marks that would fade and heal on their own.
"Thanks." I lifted Sky, keeping her close to me "I'll put her in my bed for tonight. Mom's going to lend her some dry nightclothes."
Mum disapproved about us sharing a room. She clicked her tongue unhappily and skewered me with that 'you really think I'm that stupid?' look that only a mother can give. I leaned forwards and lent my forehead against hers – I got a flashback of when I was a kid and she was so much taller than me when she did this. Now I had to bend down so she could reach.
"Tell me what you see, Mom." I said, eyes closed "I've dropped my shields." Mom sighed, and I knew she had given up.
"I see you standing guard over her and behaving like a perfect gentleman." She said grudgingly, but with a delighted twinkle in her eyes. She was just as happy about this as I was.
"That's right." I looked over at Sky and winked at her "Sometimes having a Mom who sees the future is a blessing." I was suddenly struck by Sky's beauty; sitting there, drowned by my Mom's nightclothes, with her hair wild and loose around her pixie face, her eyes lit up by the night sky behind me, she looked like the only thing I needed in the whole world; food and water? Nah. A big house, money, fame? I'll pass, thanks. But Sky, just plain old Sky with her cruelly funny jokes and wicked streak? I'll take all I can get.
"I love you, Zed," she said softly, and I froze "I don't need to wait to sort out my memories; I know I do." Everything was still for a second, then I spoke.
"Well, now." I cleared my throat and started again, not quite sure what to say "That's the first time you've said it to me face to face like this."
"I've told you before; I'm sure I have." She said, screwing her eyebrows together.
"No, you've hinted but you've never just come out with it." I grinned back. Oh, this is what I had been waiting for! All these months, helping Sky to adapt, come to terms with everything; new powers, new school, new country, new accents, new house – even me. Everything. All of that I thought I'd lost when she looked at me in the warehouse, fear screaming from every inch of her face when she set eyes on me. I thought it was over, destroyed, only to have it be the catalyst for our relationship. Funny how things turn out.
"I do, you know – love you, I mean. I'm a little shy so I don't say it easily."
"A little shy?" I laughed "Sky, you're possibly the shyest person I've ever met."
"I'm sorry." I walked over and sat on the edge of the bed next to her.
"Don't be." I said "It's part of what I love about you. You never think anyone's going to like you and have this vaguely surprised expression when we all fall for you. It's cute." I poked the end of her nose and she wrinkled it, smiling.
"I don't want to be cute." She replied grumpily.
"I know, you want to be taken seriously." I said levelly, but I couldn't keep the laughter from my eyes "And I do – I swear."
"You don't – not about this." She disagreed, crossing her arms defiantly, her lip set.
"You don't believe me?"
"I can read emotion you know." She said, shaking her head.
"I may not have a pokerface but I can't believe that I'm transparent." I said laughingly.
"You don't understand." She said sombrely "It's my gift – I really can read what you're feeling. My gift – it's unlocked." I looked at her in shock, trying to process what she had just said; that night seemed to be one of ground-breaking moments for us; first I accidentally reveal Sky as my soulfinder to my whole family, then Sky says she loves me, and then she talks about her powers without flinching, frowning or even looking uncomfortable in the slightest. The more I thought about it, the more I got used to it, the more it seemed to just fit. It was just so – so – so Sky. So perfect.
"That's OK then, so you know that when I say I love you, I really mean it. You know you're my soulfinder." Can this night really be that perfect? For everything to click together just like that?
"Yes." YES! "But I can tell if you lie to me too about other things. People have a shifty yellow cloud to them when they tell a fib." Ah, and the other shoe falls! But I don't care; because this is all I had ever hoped for, all of my dreams coming true in one perfect go.
"Oh, well now, that isn't fair." I said, but couldn't keep the grin from my face, the excited, elated wobble from my voice.
"You can see the future." She pointed out.
"Not all the time – and not so much with you now." I shot back. Sky smiled sheepishly.
"Then you'd better watch your step with me."
"You're enjoying having the advantage for once." I murmured, trailing my hand over her soft cheek.
"Yeah, I'm ahead of the curve, or whatever you say here." She rolled her eyes, once again seeming very British.
"God help us all." I nudged her over with my shoulder and stretched out beside her "When did you discover this?"
"In the warehouse. It was how I knew that you hadn't hurt me even though my brain was telling me you had." She paused, then took a deep breath and continued "Are you sure I never shot you – not even make-believe like that fake knife?" I groaned and turned my head away.
"Don't remind me of that. And yeah, I'm sure. It's not something I'm likely to forget now, is it?"
"I'm crazy, Zed." She said, and a scared waver made her voice tremble. She looked at me fearfully, like she was afraid I was going to run away. But for once, I had the right words to reply with.
"Uh-huh. And I'm crazy too – about you."