A/N: Well, I was going to update a few nights ago, and then fell asleep in the middle of writing. Then I got roped into nanny-ing a couple toddler cousins of mine. Enjoy this next chapter I wrote while they were taking a nap earlier today!
Chapter Two – What am I?
"So not only was I worried about nothing, it turns out one of my best friends is so freaked out over me getting hurt that he doesn't understand that his worrying is what causes my pain!" Sky growled in frustration, pacing back and forth across the hanger. Sparky and Skipper alternated between listening to Sky and playing their chess game, having heard the entire report from Sky just a few minutes before.
"Sky, there's nothing wrong with Dusty being concerned for you." Skipper said as he moved a pawn one space forward. "You know we get worried when you go into races. Injuries are commonplace in professional sports, especially racing."
"Yeah, but he's letting it affect how we race." Sky said. "That's so not okay. It's what will get me really hurt if he isn't careful. I know my limits."
Sparky and Skipper exchanged a look (one Sky didn't see), and continued their game. "You and Dusty seem to have quite the problem when it comes to communicating about your problems." Sparky noted. He captured Skipper's last rook. "Every time one of you has a problem with the other and try to talk it out, you end up in screaming matches."
Sky sighed. "I know. I don't like it either. But I feel like he has a problem with some part of my personality, some part of who I am. Heck, I'm not sure I know what the real problem is. He keeps dodging questions and he won't be direct with me."
"You have a habit of doing that too, young lady." Skipper said. "You like to fix other people's problems but you have a hard time confronting your own."
"But I don't see how this is a problem about me." Sky protested. "It's just a disagreement about racing styles. That's not a problem Dusty or I may have. It's just…" Sky ran her fingers through her hair. "I don't even know. You're right. We don't communicate well about problems."
"Why don't we change the subject?" Sparky suggested. "You remember that pit crew member from that race in Chicago? He gave us a call the other day. His team is heading to Minnesota and he wants to know if you two can meet up."
Sky rolled her eyes. "I'm not interested."
"Why not?" Sparky asked. "He seems to like you."
"Don't care." Sky said. She plopped down onto a chair and picked up a magazine.
"Everyone needs someone, even you." Sparky said.
"It's not a bad idea to consider settling down a little, Sky." Skipper said.
Sky raised an eyebrow, not tearing her eyes from her magazine. "And here I thought you would be most against me bringing a boy home."
"There's nothing wrong with considering it." Skipper said. "Dusty and Ishani are trying to start a family, and they're still keeping up with their racing. You could do the same if you want."
"I don't think so." Sky said.
"Why not?" Sparky asked curiously.
"Because I have yet to meet someone who likes me for just being me." Sky said. "Every guy I meet is through racing, and they want to get close to me because I'm one of the best psyche human racers around. And all they want to talk about is racing. I enjoy racing as much as the next racer, but that's not what I want to talk about all the time. Besides, racing is not the only part of me." She stared off into space. "Is it so much to ask for someone to like the other parts of me that aren't related to racing?"
"Of course not, kiddo." Sparky said. "But it wouldn't hurt to get out there."
"Sure it would." Sky said stubbornly. She set her magazine down and stood up. "I need some air."
Skipper and Sparky watched her leave. Once she disappeared, Skipper finished capturing Sparky's queen. "You notice how she's been so on edge lately?"
"It's just because of all this business with Dusty and the boy issue." Sparky said. "But have you noticed the date?"
Skipper glanced to the wall calendar, and it dawned on him. "Oh."
Sky went out to her favorite spot near the cliff and sat on the rock there. She stared out on the horizon. If it were just about the boys in the racing world constantly asking her out, this wouldn't be an issue. Eventually, she would learn to talk to Dusty about their little problem. Neither one of those things really bothered her right now. Sky pulled out her phone and checked the date in her calendar, as she had three times already today. There was nothing planned today. No birthdays or anniversaries. No parties or other events planned. Nothing really officially special was today.
Today was the one-year anniversary of the incident at the Academy for Psyche Students.
One year ago, Sky found out why her parents gave her up. One year ago, she discovered she was related by blood to a madman. One year ago, she activated her second Soul Connection. One year ago, the former dean George Waller tried to kill her, and was arrested.
Sky's entire world changed after that. She found out the extent of her powers and just how strong they were. She solved the greatest mystery of her family life, and she got a good relationship with her blood sister out of it. She practiced her powers almost constantly since the incident, both with Skipper and Blade, to find out just how much she could do with her abilities. Yet everything she did only gave her so much satisfaction. She wanted more. She wanted to understand more about her powers and why hers were so powerful. There had to be a reason for it. Just because she was related to Amelia Earhart—a psyche human herself—doesn't inherently mean she is going to be strong. It was rather ironic that she would be related to a psyche human pilot, and she would follow in those footsteps. But her parents weren't psyche humans. Was it normal for non-psych-man parents to produce a strong psych-man child? If not, then why is it that she seemed to be the strongest psyche human in the world?
"What am I?" Sky murmured to herself.
Life at Piston Peak became much more interesting when the ghost moved in.
After the events at the Academy for Psyche Students, Nick decided he wanted to feel more a part of the Piston Peak Air Attack life. He spent so much time haunting them—along with watching over Blade—that he already knew the team so well. But if he was going to be known to Blade and Sky (and Dusty, since he had the ability to see ghosts), he might as well tell the rest of the team so they knew their coworkers didn't talk to open air.
Little by little, Nick began revealing himself to the firefighters at Piston Peak until Blade gathered his team together and formally confirmed the presence of the ghost of his old partner. Naturally, the other firefighters were shocked to see an actual ghost; and not just any ghost, but the ghost of Nick Loopin' Lopez himself! As the months went by, the firefighters at Piston Peak grew accustomed to seeing a ghost around the base.
Fire season kept everyone busy, and they looked forward to having Dusty and Sky return to base in a few weeks. In the meantime, Nick kept the Smokejumpers occupied when Maru was too stressed out to deal with them. The male Smokejumpers and Nick had great fun passing the soccer ball around until the fire alarm rang. Nick waved the firefighters off as they went into action. He floated off to the garage.
"Hola Maru!" Nick greeted.
"You steal my wrench again, Lopez, I'll have you exorcised." Maru droned, tinkering with something on his workbench.
"If I were gonna steal a wrench, you wouldn't find it for a week." Nick teased.
"Yeah, yeah." Maru tightened the screws of the thing he worked on. "So what do you want to talk about?"
"What?" Nick asked, blinking in surprise and confusion.
"I can see that something is bothering you, kid." Maru said.
"Since when am I a kid?" Nick scoffed.
Maru turned and crossed his forks, staring at Nick. "I ain't always the best with my people skills, but I can see when something is bothering someone. I'm a pretty good listener if you need someone to vent to."
Nick stared at the ground. "Uh, I don't know. It's a little personal."
"I promise I won't tell a soul, now let's hear it." Maru said.
It was likely that Maru would argue this until the tractors came home. So Nick caved. "I miss Sky."
"We all miss Sky and Dusty. But they'll be here soon." Maru shrugged.
"Yeah, but I've missed Sky the most lately." Nick explained. "I'm really glad both she and Dusty are coming, but I'm most excited to see her again. I've shared good conversations with Sky that I couldn't share with other people, sometimes not even with Blade."
"Interesting." Maru mused. "You ever tell her this?"
"Sometimes I try to." Nick said. "But when I do, my tongue gets stuck to the roof of my mouth. My stomach churns like I just ate a bunch of rocks. I don't know why it's so hard to tell her that she's such a good friend."
"Is she just a good friend?" Maru asked with a rather sly smile. "Or is she a little more?"
"Huh?" Nick asked, blinking a few times.
"You're in love with Sky, Lopez." Maru said. "It's painfully obvious."
"I am not in love with Skylar Riley." Nick huffed.
"You sure about that?" Maru smirked.
Nick opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He couldn't be in love with Sky, could he? "Sky's just a really good friend who's a good listener and cares about other people and smells really nice and likes to play soccer and—" Nick froze. "I said 'smells really nice' out loud, didn't I?"
"Yep." Maru snickered.
"You are not to breathe a word of this to anyone." Nick ordered.
"No problem, Lopez." Maru laughed. "But don't you think you ought to tell her?"
"I don't know." Nick sighed. "I never wanted to get serious with girls I dated while on "CHoPs", and none of those girls really liked me for me. They never treated me the way Sky does. She's my friend because she likes me for just being me. She sees that there's more to me than my fancy loops."
"Sky's pretty good at that." Maru mused. "She sees people for who they are. Very perceptive, that kid."
"Not really a kid anymore." Nick said with a smile.
Maru went back to tinkering with his project. "You know, you should talk to Blade about your little love dilemma. Not just because he's your friend, but because he and Sky have that Soul Connection. That bond they share is very strong. He knows her better than she may even know herself."
Nick nodded in understanding. "Thanks, Maru."
It was nearly dusk when the firefighters returned covered in ash and dirt from their work. Blade hosed off and went right to his hanger to do some paperwork and then get some sleep. Windlifter would handle spot fire patrolling that night since Blade hadn't gotten much sleep lately.
Nick didn't want to bother Blade if he was so tired, but Blade could see something bothering Nick just as Maru did. So Nick spilled the beans. Blade reacted with surprise, but also happiness.
"You haven't told her yet, have you?" Blade guessed.
"How am I supposed to?" Nick asked. "And what if she doesn't feel the same way?"
"Then you'll just have to accept that." Blade said. "And maybe she won't feel the same way. But you'll never know unless you ask."
"I guess." Nick said half-heartedly.
"Also, consider this: are your feelings actually love?" Blade asked.
Nick stared at the ground. "I don't know. But I'll think about it."
"You'll have better luck thinking about it when you're with her." Blade suggested. "She'll be flying in a few days from now."
Nick finally started to smile. "Thanks, Blade."
Nick waited excitedly for Dusty and Sky to fly in the day they were supposed to arrive. Once he got to talking to Sky, he would know for sure if he was actually in love with her. He spent almost two hours scanning the skies for the racers. When he finally spotted that spot of red and white, he began jumping around and exclaiming in Spanish.
"Hey guys!" Nick greeted the racers after they landed.
"Welcome back, Champ, Raven." Blade nodded in greeting.
Sky dismounted off Dusty as the two of them made their way towards the hangers. Nick noticed both of them had irritated frowns on their faces. "What's up with you two?"
"I'm not speaking to him." Sky snapped, walking towards Blade's hanger.
"I'm not speaking to her." Dusty snapped, taxiing towards his own hanger.
Nick blinked a few times in bewilderment. "Uh…..okay…"
"Oh great." Blade groaned.
"They just need to blow off some steam, it looks like." Nick said. "Give them some time."
"We don't have time." Blade protested. "Dipper's out of commission thanks to yesterday's incident with the tree. We need every flier available and undistracted."
"Just go easy on them, partner." Nick requested. "I think they're going through some serious issues right now."
"Which means they need to work through it as soon as possible." Blade said. "So….." He raised his voice loud enough to be heard not only by Dusty and Sky, but the rest of the base too. "Crophopper! Riley! Front and center!"
Sky bolted upright from her hammock on Blade's porch. Dusty reversed suddenly and hit a shelf. The two racers bolted from their spots and approached Blade. They stood straight and tall before their chief.
"Uh, bye!" Nick made his escape before things could get ugly. I'll talk to Sky later.
"Yes, Chief?" Sky and Dusty said simultaneously.
"What's the problem?" Blade demanded.
"Nothing." Sky shrugged. "There isn't a problem."
"You're a bad liar, Raven." Blade said. "Especially to me."
Dusty cast a glance to Sky. Maybe she'll be more reasonable with Blade around. "Can we talk about this in private, Chief?"
"Talk about what?" Sky hissed, trying to convey how much she didn't want to share this with Blade.
"In the main hanger." Blade ordered. "Now."
The three of them headed for the main hanger and shut the doors behind them. Sky shot irritated glares at Dusty. Blade noticed this.
"Do we really have to do this?" Sky demanded.
"Sky did something dangerous during our last race." Dusty said. "She's been taking too many risks lately and I'm worried for her."
"And I hate that Dusty is so freaked out over such minor things." Sky snapped, glaring at said plane.
"What exactly are you doing that's so risky?" Blade asked, partly out of concern for Sky's safety.
"Nothing that Dusty needs to freak out over." Sky assured.
"You call jumping off me nothing I need to freak out over?" Dusty demanded.
"You jumped off him?" Blade stared at Sky. "In the middle of a race?"
"I was dodging a racer who almost hurt us." Sky said. "It wasn't any dangerous than the other stunts we pull on a regular basis."
"Like what?" Dusty demanded.
"Like almost everything we do when we race, Dusty!" Sky snapped. "Those radial-G turns, the obstacle courses we do. I mean, come on! I'm strapped the back of a plane speeding at a hundred and forty miles an hour! That alone is dangerous. Professional sports are not exactly for the faint of heart."
"She has a point there." Blade mused. "And you two are in one of the most dangerous professions in the world as firefighters."
"At least she isn't trying to kill herself by jumping off aircraft." Dusty muttered.
"What is your deal?" Sky's voice went up an octave and rang with irritation. "I'm not going to get hurt, you know. I'm going to be just fine. I'm not weak!"
"I'm not saying you're weak, Sky!" Dusty practically screamed. "I'm saying you're human!"
Sky's eyebrows raised, and her jaw dropped a little. Blade looked back and forth between the two racers. For the first time in a long time, he actually didn't know how to respond.
After a moment of silence, Sky scoffed in indignation. "And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"
"It means—like it or not—you break easier than I will." Dusty growled.
"I am a psyche human, Dusty." Sky said, her eyebrows now furrowed in a deep glare. "I am not as weak as you think I am."
"Being a psyche human affects you psychologically." Dusty protested. "Physically, you're still a human, and you are fragile."
Sky glared at Dusty for another minute before she turned on her heel and marched out of the hanger. She passed Nick on her way into the forest, but either didn't hear him greet her or ignored him completely.
Dusty looked to Blade. "You know I'm right, don't you?"
"I understand your concern." Blade said. "But that doesn't mean you're right."
"How?" Dusty demanded. "I mean, she is a human, even if she is a psych-man. She's going to get hurt someday and all I want to do is protect her!"
"And she hates that." Blade reminded him. "She hates it when people fuss over her like that."
"Look, I understand she doesn't really need someone to look after her." Dusty said. "She's pretty tough. But—"
"If you know she's so tough, why are you so worried?" Blade asked.
"Because it's like she thinks she has to prove herself." Dusty said. "She shouldn't have to prove anything to anybody."
"Bingo." Blade said in a sing-song tone. He made his way out of the hanger.
Dusty followed him quickly. "What do you mean?"
Blade came to a stop near the garage. "You know, several years ago, a friend of mine over in Colorado decided she wanted to adopt a foster kid. She asked me to do a little research on helping orphans adjust to a new home. One of the more interesting things I found was that orphans who have a clear recollection of their abandonment, given those were the circumstances of their situation, develop this mentality of 'I have to prove myself to everyone.' Orphans who remember seeing their parents willingly give them up often feel like they have to prove themselves to everyone because it's like the ones who were supposed to love them treated these kids like they were worthless."
"And Sky has this same mentality?" Dusty guessed.
"You haven't noticed it?" Blade cast Dusty a skeptical look.
"Well, I did a lot more before our first Wings Around the Globe." Dusty admitted. "Proving herself to her birth parents became her motivation for winning."
"Exactly." Blade said. "Sky is still motivated by that to some extent."
"But she severed all ties with her birth family except for CJ." Dusty protested. "She doesn't care about her birth parents."
"The mind is a strange thing, Champ." Blade said. "Sky lived with that mentality for a long time. That doesn't mean everything changes overnight just because she let go of that burden. Her psychology won't be so easily changed. It takes time to truly change oneself."
Dusty listened carefully, rather awed by Blade's wisdom. He sighed softly. "How do you know her so well? I've known her since she was a kid. You've only known her for less than half that time."
"Honestly, I credit the Soul Connection for that." Blade said. "Raven and I are able to understand each other because that connection bonds us. Sometimes I even catch her going through my memories when I'm in a bad mood, so she can cheer me up."
Dusty stared off in the direction Sky left. "I wish I could do that with her. I have such a hard time understanding her, and all I want to do is help when she needs it."
"Don't beat yourself up so much." Blade said in almost scolding tone. "You and Sky have a pretty special bond yourselves."
"Not as great as a Soul Connection." Dusty scoffed. "I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm still jealous of that."
"The bond you and Sky share is special in its own way." Blade assured. "It's because you chose each other instead of Sky's powers choosing you for her. Sky and I have our bond in part because of her powers. But you two made your bond."
Dusty shrugged a little, but he began to smile. "Makes me wonder how Soul Connections came to be. Why bond a psych-man and a vehicle so closely when a psych-man can already bond herself or himself to any vehicle?"
"Who knows?" Blade shrugged too. "A mystery for another day, I suppose. Now, I'm not going to interfere any more than I already have. But I want you to promise me two things."
"Anything." Dusty agreed.
"One, that you and Sky will find a way to work this out, and soon." Blade said. "And two, don't let this affect how you work on this base."
"Yes, sir!" Dusty nodded firmly. Blade nodded back in satisfaction and taxied off to talk to Maru. Dusty certainly felt better after that talk. It was great to know that Blade could handle the situation so well.
Now came the tricky part: how to talk to Sky about all this.
A/N: Can't say when I'll update again. Going on vacation and I can't guarantee wifi access. Until next time!