Matchmaking Mishaps
What do you do when two people are so blindly in love that neither are fully aware of it so refuse to take action? Take action into your own hands, just like Ryan knows all about… Or in which Carter conforms and Ryan just can't be asked anymore.
CarterXDana/SOAverse/Lightspeed Rescue/ Fluffy, awkwardness and amusement.
Disclaimer: We wish we owned it but all rights belong to Saban, we only own the plot.
[A/N] Ryan is OOC for entertainment purposes. If you don't like the changes, please don't flame. If you don't like it that much than you can not read, we won't take offense with that. :)
CHAPTER SIX
Plan E- Education
"Someone needs to get out of their room more." Ryan groaned as he stepped into his sister's pristine room; there were three people on the base who kept their quarters ridiculously neat, so neat in fact that Ryan believed if you looked in their underwear drawer, you'd see everything colour coded and sectioned- not that he planned to check that theory in Dana's room, but he was sure that Chad and Carter did it. The only evidence that this room was lived in was a text book and notepad laying open on her writing desk and the bedside drawer being slightly open, giving Ryan the impression Dana had woken up late for school after a late night cram session and had grabbed her morpher in a rush, leaving a tiny mess behind her.
"Tut, tut." He smirked, opening said drawer to its full extent and began to root through it. Pens, notepad, stuffed toy, their mother's music box... Huh? He plucked a box from the back and opened it to reveal a tray covered in foil, round holes on one half, the other had holes that hadn't been opened yet with days of the week on. The box had 'Miss D. Mitchell' written on the front, along with a very long title that he couldn't even attempt to pronounce. He furrowed his brow, shrugging off the weird box and shoved them into his pocket.
"Back to work." Ryan wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for in Dana's room... Something to help him with his matchmaking plans? Something to help him understand normal people better? Something to help him feel closer to his sister and understand her better? All very good theories... He opened the top drawer in a set by the wardrobe and instantly wished he'd left that one alone... Gross! Underwear!
"What are you doing Ryan?" His head snapped to the doorway where Carter stood, looking unimpressed by Ryan's sleuthing.
"Just... You know..." He shrugged.
"You shouldn't be in her room Ryan."
"What you gonna do? Tell her?" He stepped in front of the giant, leaving Dana's drawer of unmentionables fully open, "Because she wouldn't be happy to find out you were in here too."
"But I'm-" before the sentence could leave his lips, Ryan had grabbed a fistful of fabric from Carter's thermal and violently pulled him into the room, letting the door close to stop any escape.
"You are now. So, if you don't want her to be mad at you- which I imagine you don't seeing as you like her~- it stays between us." He mentally noted that Carter, if he turned away from Ryan, would come face to face with Dana's most private drawer, a smirk crossed his face; that scene was one he would love to witness... "You can help me, I'm tryna find out more about my sister. You know her well... What do you know?"
"And you think looking around her room will help you?"
"Fool proof right? Besides, I found this strange box- I'll show it to you after we've ransacked the room. You take the chest of drawers, I got the bedside cabinets." Carter let out an exasperated breath before he turned to close the drawer behind him.
"Ryan, I'm serious, this is a bad ide-" His mouth fell open and blood surged to his face at an alarming rate, having caught sight of what he just knew were her underwear. He mimicked a fish, his face still red, before he swiftly slammed the drawer closed. He took a minute to compose himself and remind his brain that thinking about 'Dana' and 'underwear' together was extremely bad. Really bad. Carter decided a subject change was in order. "S-So um w-what's your tutor like? I think I've seen him a couple of times but I've never spoken to him." Carter watched the younger man pause before continuing to rummage through his sister's things.
"He... We don't talk much."
"Oh. Uh, what's his teaching like then?"
"He..prefers I do lots of work by myself." Carter noticed the careful way in which he said this, and his suspicions about Ryan's tutor grew.
"Does he help you out though?"
"Like I said, he tells me to figure it out on my own. Oh! I wanted to ask, what's this thingy?" Ryan swiftly changed the subject by pulling a box out of his pocket. Carter decided he was definitely going to check out this tutor but, for now, allowed the distraction. Ryan tossed the box to Carter, who caught it and instantly went a brighter shade of red than he had been moments earlier. Oh dear God, why Ryan? Why did you have to find these of all things?! "What is it? Is Dana dying or somethin'?"
"N-n-no." Carter stuttered, "Not dying. Wh-where did you find them?"
"In the drawer by her bed-"
"You don't go in a girl's drawer if it's by the bed!" Great, he now had not just the mental image of Dana's underwear, he now had her birth control pills in his hand! "Put them back!" Carter threw them back at Ryan- brilliant, he struggled to talk to Dana without getting tongue-tied, now he had to deal with knowing about her birth control pills and the contents of her underwear drawer! 'Oh, by the way, your brother and I were in your room whilst you were gone, I saw your underwear and contraceptives and I'm glad you're being careful in that department!' He knew it had been a bad idea!
"Not until I know what they are!"
"They're birth control!" Carter blurted out without thinking, almost instantly wishing he'd lied and said they were vitamins.
"Birth- control?" Ryan cocked his head and looked at the box a little closer, "What's that?"
"It doesn't matter Ryan-"
"I'll ask Dad then-"
"Nu-nu-no don't do that!"
"Then tell me!"
"Girls take them... To stop themselves getting pregnant."
"What?"
"You know what pregnant is, your mother was pregnant with Dana when you were two."
"Dude... All I can remember is mom going into hospital one day with Dad, then him coming home without her and having a stupid, noisy baby with him... Why does Dana have birth control?"
Oh boy. A lump formed in Carter's throat as he battled to think of a suitable way to break it to the woman in question's older brother. "I- i- I suppose she doesn't- doesn't want to have a baby yet."
"Well duh, they're noisy and- but why does she take them? What's she doing that involves babies?" No. That was out of Carter's comfort zone; he gathered a girl like Dana had to have a boyfriend, even though he hadn't actually seen the person yet, so it hadn't surprised him... But he was not going to explain to Ryan that his sister was doing things that Ryan had yet to even learn about- if the demons and his father hadn't given him the birds and the bees talk, Carter would be damned if he had to do it.
"You know what, put them back and ask Dana when you see her. Its her business, not mine."
"Touchy..." Ryan reopened the door and put them in, "Someone's jealous if you ask me."
"I'm not jeal-"
"Hey! Dana has a diary! Wanna read it?!"
"Shut the drawer Ryan."
"You're no fun." Ryan groaned childishly as he did as instructed, "Is it because you saw her underwear? I thought you liked her!"
"You knew what was in that drawer and you still made me- why?!"
"Because I knew your reaction would be hilarious."
Carter clapped his hands to his face, "Okay... I've had enough of this. Out of her room now." He grabbed Ryan by the shoulder and forced him from Dana's room, "As for your tutor, tell your dad. He's paying for the guy to teach you and he's not doing a thing-"
"Dad doesn't care unless it's about his angel child or Power Ranger business." Ryan bluntly answered, glaring over his shoulder at Carter, "In case you haven't noticed, my father and I are not at that stage in a father-son bond where we can sit about talking. He doesn't know how to act and I don't know how to be."
"Then talk to Dana, she'd care. She wants what is best for you." He dropped his grip from Ryan, softening his voice, "Your dad just needs time to adjust."
"Whatever." Ryan leant against the wall, eyes dropping to his black combat boots, "He doesn't have time for me, that's how its going to be- I hear having a missing child for fourteen years does that to a parent."
"Ryan..."
"Dana has some science project to bring home, can you get her? Its too big for her to carry... She asked me to ask you." Carter looked at the angst-ridden fair haired man with empathy; he would've asked why Dana didn't just ask him, but he felt guilty for touching a nerve with Ryan- the man needed time on his Dana up from school wasn't a big deal (underwear and birth control pushed to the back of his mind) as it would give him a chance to mention to Dana about Ryan's distant tutor and isolation from the Captain.
"Sure..." Carter turned to walk down the bridge connecting the Ranger quarters to Rescue Ops, pausing long enough to look back at Ryan, "You okay?"
"I'm fine." Ryan answered monotonously and unreassuringly... Time on his own, that was all he needed.
Ryan sank down to the floor after he heard Carter's heavy footsteps disappear off into the distance, dropping his head to his knees. He didn't care that he'd sent Carter off on a wild goose chase with his lie, the man shouldn't have asked him so many personal and prying questions. There was no use to them, this was his life- distant fathers, perfect sisters and people who hated him or just didn't care about him. Plain and simple. Talking and fussing wasn't going to alter reality. Ryan didn't know how much longer he stood there, only that he was broken away from his thoughts by the voice of his sister.
"What are you doing?" Dana asked, head slightly tilted.
"Nothing. What are you doing here? Don'tcha have school?"
"Not today."
"Then where'd you go?"
"The library and then the smoothie hut," she gestured to the half-full plastic cup of strawberry and mango smoothie. Ryan stared at the beverage blankly as the information processed.
"Oooh..no..."
"Hey! Carter!" Carter stopped in the hallway on the way to his room as he heard Dana's voice, turning to that direction as she came out of her room, "Where were you earlier? I was looking for you!"
"Really? Because I was waiting for you outside your school for over an hour." He aggitatedly retorted.
Dana paused just next to him, head tilted in confusion, "It was a training day- I was at the library and the smoothie shop." A smile graced her lips, "You were waiting for me?"
"We-we-well yeah, I mean, i- I thought that you wanted help so I- Ryan told me you were there."
"Sorry you wasted your afternoon for nothing then." Dana told him sincerely, to which he just shrugged; hey, it was better than what he had been doing before- okay, maybe that was a lie, Ryan needed to admit the truth to his father... But Carter could talk to Dana for him. "Look, did you speak to Ryan today? I'm really worried about him." Her brow furrowing as she spoke, nose crinkling up from deep thoughts, "I found him crouched on the floor and he looked so upset! But I went to ask him what was wrong and he ran away."
Carter leant against the wall to create a little more distance between him and the blonde, turning his gaze from her blue eyes to his morpher, "I found him in your room."
"What was he doing in there?!"
"Going through stuff, I told him not to and-" Oh God no, the memories of what he had seen came back and was making him flustered! Focus on what you're saying! Be careful not to- "He was going through your drawers- I tried to close them but- you know. He was- he doesn't listen and- I got him talking but- he was... And the drawers... And underwear-"
"Underwear?" Her voice reflected the confusion running through her eyes before Dana's cheeks flushed a red that could have easily rivalled Carter's jacket as she realised what he was saying, "What was- Carter!" She exasperatedly gasped, "Why the hell were you-"
"And birth control-" She silenced. Smooth Carter, smooth. Seriously Grayson, you could write a book about how to piss off the girl you like. Chapter One, Turn her down. Two, avoid her. Three, be sleep deprived when taking her on a drive and go past the cliff that harbours awful memories for her. Chapter Four, confess being in her room and seeing her underwear and contraceptive pills. In stores this December. Idiot.
"They're for cramps-" Apparently she was just as flustered and embarrassed as he was, "What did you tell him?!"
"The truth!"
"You couldn't lie and say they were vitamins?!"
"I'm sorry, I kinda didn't expect to find that! I panicked! I thought your dad would've given him the sex talk- I thought he would've known!"
"They're for cramps!" She repeated as if trying to justify herself to Carter.
"Sure they are." A sarcastic tone lacing his voice which appeared to only annoy Dana some more, "Look, anyway, he's upset because he feels your dad doesn't care. He thinks your dad only cares about you because you're perfect and Ryan is that unwanted child."
"That isn't true!" Dana protested, "Dad loves him! He just doesn't know how to show it without making Ryan uncomfortable. Besides, I'm far from perfect." Carter could argue against that point, even when she was mad, like seconds before, she still was perfect to him- Stop! Dana being perfect was not what he should be thinking about, he'd thought about her enough today after the fiasco in her room! This is about Ryan; Ryan and his shifty tutor.
"His tutor leaves him to do things on his own and doesn't help him. If he isn't motivating Ryan or willing to explain things to him, how can Ryan learn?"
"That ba-" Anger flickered across her face before she caught herself, closing her eyes and taking a calming breath, "And Ryan told you, not me?"
"He thinks you have enough on right now Day."
"He's my brother! I'd do anything to help him! He should be able to tell me these sorts of things, not someone he's known all of-" Carter could see the truth behind the words etched on her facial features, the way her eyes appeared adamant in helping Ryan, "I suppose he's known us both for the same amount of time." She sounded disheartened at that thought, "At least he trusts someone enough-"
"He didn't exactly tell me, he hinted and I put together pieces. I think I upset him earlier."
"At least you were observant enough to know something was wrong!"
"Hey," he spoke gently, resting a hand softly on her shoulder which brought her eyes to meet his, "You would've noticed, you've just been busy." She smiled at him and sighed,
"I suppose so... At least now something can be done. Why pay someone when you can do it yourself? I better find Dad and let him know to cancel Ryan's tutor, at least if I do it then I know he's getting the help he needs." Dana reached up and gave Carter a hug, burying her head into his neck. He was surprised by the embrace and took a second or two to respond but by the time he did, she had let go.
"Thank you for telling me. I told you he trusts you." She started up the corridor toward the Captain's office in Rescue Ops, calling back over her shoulder, "Go in my room again without my permission and I'll kill you Grayson!" He laughed, watching her turn into the bridge... At least Ryan was getting the help now, even if Dana thought he was some kind of underwear pervert...
Sam: Hey guys! How you doing?
Greg: Long time no see! Sorry, we've just finished our first term at uni.. It was brutal.
Sam: We may not survive. Moving on from that harsh reality! Carter just can't catch a break can he? Birth control pills, underwear drawer...
Greg: Oh! And thank you to CarterlovesDana... She wrote a oneshot which is similar to this and we had already planned our chapter when we saw it. We checked with her and she was fine to give us the go ahead... So thank you! If you haven't checked out her one, its so adorably awkward so make sure you do!
Sam: Yup thanks! But what did you guys think of this chapter?
Greg: We hope you liked it as much as we liked writing it... I think this chapter and the next one have been my favourites to write to date.
Sam: Also, thank you to the followers, favers and reviewers for your support.
Greg: Hopefully we'll post again soon before the new year... We'll be in the swing of things again soon... If Sam finds time to write :P
Sam: Yah sorry ^^" But I will try :) Here's hoping second term will be simpler than first.
Greg: If not... I can always force her to on a train ride... Hold her lunch til ransom until she does... Im a good friend like that
Sam: She's the best.
Greg: I really am :) anyway, Merry Christmas/ Happy Holidays! And Happy New Year if we don't see you before then!
Sam: Ditto guys, she said it already but the sentiment is there! Ciao!
Greg: Bye!
