24)

It's Friday evening and Sky is sitting on his bed with his legs crossed and his elbows resting on his knees and his face completely sunk in his cupped hands, as he sees Z rushing here and there like a headless chicken trying to pack her suitcase. When he couldn't take it anymore he lets out a deep breath and says calmly "Z come here. Come on."

Z who is completely flustered looks at him confused and goes to him, he pats the seat beside him and she sits like a puppet plastered with a confused face, he then pulls her into him as he lies down and she whines "Sky! I can't sleep! I haven't even packed! I..."

She was cutoff when Sky started shushing her and simply cuddled her tightly and put off the lights to sleep. After a minute he found her sleeping deeply, he chuckled slightly as he thought 'I can't believe I'm taking this clown to meet my mom.' as he kissed her adoringly and slept off holding her in his arms.

The next morning, Sky is sitting on his bed with his legs crossed and his elbows resting on his knees and his face completely sunk in his cupped hands, as he sees Z rushing here and there like a headless chicken trying to pack her suitcase. When he couldn't take it anymore he lets out a breath and says calmly "Look over here Z."

Z who was flustered looked at an exasperated Sky pointing his morpher at her "You are charged of bullying the D-squad cadet what's his name... Patrick Bob."

Z whined "But I didn't! I was like only asking for...!"

"Guilty." said Sky with a satisfied smile.

Z glared, pointing at him "Don't you dare Sky."

Sky grinned "Why not? Containing criminals is an easy way to take them anywhere! Now that I think of it I'll take you to mom in a card!"

Z glared "Skyyyy Tate!"

Sky chuckled "Ok ok let's make a deal. If you do not finish packing in 10 minutes, I'd have to take you in."

Z scoffed "Fiiiine!" and Sky sighed happily seeing her pack her suitcase calmly and said "Don't forget your black bikini."

Z made a show of rolling her eyes but put it in anyway. Once she was done, she came to Sky and kissed him "Thanks Sky for making me calm..."

Sky kissed her back "Thanks to you Z... you break so many rules everyday anyway I can blackmail you whenever I want!" and gave her his half smirk.

Z glared "You. Are. A. Jerk." poking his chest, and went to change, as Sky simply laughed.

Sky waited in his car for Z, feeling anxious leaving SPD for two days, but he kept Bridge incharge, so he was a little less tensed. He then saw Z walking towards him in a off shoulder navy blue full sleeved dress which hugged her body and ended over her knees with white heels and her silky long hair open. As she came and sat inside, he kept staring at her and she chuckled as she cupped his face and kissed him. As they drove, Sky told her various stories about him growing up and many stories about his bond with his late father.

Z simply amazed by his stories said "Hey I never knew you were so crazy for being the red ranger from when you were a kid. No wonder you got so pissed when Jack and I joined from nowhere!"

Sky chuckled "Yeah! But now in hindsight, I think Cruger was right about making Jack red, I learnt a lot from him about leadership."

Z smiled and nodded.

Sky then said "Tell this to Jack and I will kill you." causing Z to laugh.

As they reached, Z saw a well off three storied bungalow, and said "Wow Sky you have a really nice house!"

Sky smiles at her and parks his car inside the gate. As they came out of the car, Sky holds Z hand tightly and kisses her "Don't be so tensed Z."

As Sky rings the bell, a very pretty blonde lady in her mid 40s answers the door with the same sapphire eyes as her son and exclaims "Sky!" and hugs him as Z watches them adoringly.

She then wipes his lips saying "You got a bit of gloss honey." as Sky and Z become bright pink and Sky chuckles and introduces Z to his mom "Z this my mom Abigail Tate."

Z smiles shyly as she shakes Sky's mom's hand and says "It's lovely to meet you , I'm Elizabeth Delgado, but everyone calls me Z."

Sky's mom was impressed by her bright eyes, natural beauty and genuine smile, the one which she couldn't find in his previous partners, and pulled her into a hug "It's lovely to meet you too Z."

Z who felt instant love from the hug simply hugged her back, resting her head on her shoulder like a child would do. Once they broke apart, Sky and his mom could see tears flooded in Z's eyes as she tried to appear strong.

Sky gave her a comforting side hug and she said chuckling "I'm fine I'm fine... Sorry , I don't cry a lot generally."

Sky's mom chuckled "It's okay my dear. Sky told me a lot about you on the phone the other day..."

Z looks up at Sky who nods at her and she smiles at Sky's mom.

Once they were settled in, Z looked at the well furnished house, with many flowers and plants here and there and says "You have a wonderful home ..."

Abigail smiles back "Thank you dear... I just love gardening and since it's me alone, I like to prep the house the way I like it."

Z smiles "It's lovely."

Abigail looks at the way Sky looked at Z adoringly and how not once did they leave eachother's side.

After talking for hours, Z and Abigail were laughing on Sky's expense as he sat on the corner frowning.

Abigail then mocks "Oohh the commander is angry now, that's enough of embarrassing childhood stories for now, let me prepare our lunch."

Z says as she gets up "Let me help you..."

She shakes her head "No no dear, it's already prepared, I just need to present it."

Z smiles "I know but I never got the opportunity to cook alongside my mother, I was hoping to share the experience with you."

Abigail smiles as she holds her hand "Sure my dear."

As they leave, Sky straightens himself on the sofa smiling, thinking about Z.

Once they were seated in the dining table, Sky said "This is awesome mom, I missed it."

Z nods "I agree, this is delicious!"

Abigail smiles as she sees both of them gobbling down the hot home cooked meal, as she served them more.

The next morning, Z got up early in the morning on hearing a pelican, and she saw Sky sleeping like a baby beside her and kissed him. There was no point in sleeping back as she saw the clock showed 6:30am so she got up. After coming out of the shower, she wore sky blue jeans and a black fitted top with cap sleeves and dried her hair. She then didn't feel like waking Sky up, so she went down to the kitchen to get some coffee.

She saw Abigail was already making some and greeted "Good morning !"

She looked back and smiled "Ahh.. good morning Z, I see you are an early riser! Please call me Abby!"

Z smiled "Actually I'm not, I got up on hearing the pelican outside..."

Abby chuckled "Yeah... I can understand. Here you go." as she passed the coffee to Z.

Z smiled "Thanks... Abby!"

Sky walked down to the kitchen on smelling bacon frying and his stomach growled. He saw Z making breakfast and Abby just overlooking.

Sky smiled "Good morning ladies!"

"Good morning!" said both as Abby now started pouring Coffee for him as well.

As she gave the cup to him she said "Z here is making eggs Benedict."

Sky raises his brow "Z you can cook fancy stuff?"

Z said "Ofcourse I can!"

Abby nudges his shoulder and he smiles at her.

After their breakfast, Sky saw Z standing on the beach with her arms open taking in the sea breeze. Sky smiled and walked up to her and held her from behind "Mmm enjoying yourself?"

Z let a breath out "Yeah..."

Sky kissed her shoulder "I'm glad."

After standing like that for sometime, Sky who was staring at the sea, said "I need to go." and leaves her and starts walking away.

Z who gets a bit shocked looks back and holds his arm "What? Where?"

Sky sighed "I just..."

Z waited for him to say something but when he didn't she said "Skyyy... tell me."

When she saw Sky getting fidgety and uptight like he was before, she sighs "Ok don't tell me... Take me with you."

Sky stared at her, as she looked back at him with a slight smile and squeezed his arm. He smiled and held her hand "Let's go."

They walked silently on the road, hand in hand, Z could see they were approaching a burial ground and understood his tense behaviour. Sky bought flowers and as they reached his father's grave, Z let go of his hand and stood a few steps back to give him a moment with his dad.

After a while she saw Sky sitting down and could see by his slouched posture that he was crying, she felt like comforting him, but thought what if he wanted to be alone, she decided on the former and walked up to him and sat beside him putting a strong hand on shoulder. Sky, normally would have tensed up and acted strong but he didn't he simply pulled her into one of the tightest hugs he could manage. Z was completely squeezed but she knew this hug wasn't for her, it was for him so she obliged. After a while, Sky and Z broke off and Z saw Sky's eyes were dry and he had a slight smile on his face. He got up and so did Z and they walked back in comfortable silence. Once they passed through the park, Sky saw Z walking beside him holding his arm, looking around and smiling at the kids who were playing.

As they reached home, Sky shouted "We're home mom!"

Abby shouted from the garden "Okay hon!"

As they reached Sky's room, Sky went and sat on his bed, Z came and sat beside him facing him and said "Sooo you ready to talk?"

Sky sighed as he looked at her, and hugged her. Z smiled "Sky..." and as he pulled out of the hug and leaned foreward and as his lips met hers and they started making out as he held her close to him. They heard a knock on his door and broke off immediately and Sky said after he regained his breath "Uhh yeah mom?"

Abby said from the other side of the door "I just came to tell you that coffee's ready."

Sky answered "Yeah we'll be down there in a bit mom." and pulled Z for another kiss.

After they broke out, Z who was panting said "This is a nice way to not talk about your feelings."

Sky chuckled and kissed her swollen lips and got up "Let's go for coffee."