Silver Hills, 2001
Leaving home was supposed to be a good thing. Exciting, happy, full of plans and expectations. Not when it happened like this. True, there was the prospect of a better future, leaving behind a life he had never really wanted, but right now most of what he felt was depressed, sad, even a little scared.
Wes Collins looked around his room one more time. In this first quiet moment after a long and eventful day, it was only now starting to sink in. He was leaving the home he had grown up in, the room he had spent almost all of his life in, the house where his father lived. Philips, who was almost like a second father. The few dim memories he had of his mother.
But what choice did he have? How could he keep on living here when his father still treated him like an untrustworthy child? And after tonight - Wes frowned at the uncomfortable memory of what had happened that day. What he had done hadn’t been exactly honest, taking that money and using it for ransom, but it wasn’t like he had done it just to get back at Dad. No, nothing like that; there just hadn’t been any other way, not if he wanted to save those kidnapped kids. He had returned the money, but still his father had been furious.
No, it just wouldn’t work any longer. Not now; not when he had something much more important to do with his life than be in training to take over Bio-Lab someday. Wes raised his arm and studied the large oval device strapped to his wrist. His morpher. He had struggled to win it, to keep it, to prove he was worthy of being the red Ranger and being on Jen’s team. It had been the first really difficult thing he had done in his life; and the first really important thing, the first thing that was about other people, not just himself and his father - and it felt good.
Thanks to Jen. Trip, Lucas, and Katie too, of course, but mostly Jen. From the moment they had met he had admired her. She was pretty, of course, but that was only part of it. She was also strong, determined, and so focused - all the things Wes knew he was not. But maybe he’d get there someday, with her help.
With that thought, Wes closed the duffle bag he had stuffed the most important of his belongings into, and again surveyed the room. Had he forgotten anything? Clothes, a little money, his toothbrush and shaving kit. He took a few steps to the closet for a last glance inside, and stopped as his eyes fell on an old, dusty backpack lying discarded on the floor in the back, only visible because he had pulled out most of the clutter which had covered it. After a moment’s hesitation, he bent to pick it up.
It had been a long time... A little over nine years now, since Eric had handed him this same backpack and gone walking off. Nine long years. Yet suddenly Wes was back in that schoolyard, the sun in his eyes as he watched his former friend disappear. Strange, how clear and sharp the memory still was, with all its regrets.
If only I’d gone after him. Asked him to keep in touch, write, call, something, just so I know he’s all right. But Eric wouldn’t have. No, he probably would have laughed at the idea. By that time they hadn’t even been friends anymore.
The thought brought Wes another, more disturbing memory, of the strange feeling he had gotten around Eric, a feeling that still returned sometimes if he wasn’t on guard against it, when he saw a good-looking man - especially one with black hair and Asian eyes. Not that it meant anything. There had been girls, a few of them, in college and after, but he had just never met the right one... until now.
He pushed the image of a harsh male face from his mind and replaced it with softer, feminine features, framed in brown hair. Jen’s face. She was the one he should be thinking about now. After tonight, hopefully, he’d be spending a lot more time with her - and with Lucas, Trip, and Katie, of course - as well as fighting by their sides when there was a crisis. That was where his future lay. No way he was going to waste time regretting the past or getting all obsessive over a man he hadn’t seen since he was a kid and would probably never see again.
Wes shook his head in disgust. Why was he even thinking about this? Abruptly he tossed the backpack back into the closet. Not like Eric ever thought about him, after all.
New York, 2001
“Aren’t you excited?”
“Sure I’m excited.” Eric smiled before kissing him again. “Can’t you tell?”
“That’s not what I mean.” Nick chuckled, his hands sliding down Eric’s bare back to pull their bodies closer together on the hotel room bed. “I mean about tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow... I guess.”
“You guess? You’re getting out of the Army after nine years, and all you can say is ‘I guess’?”
“Sorry to disappoint you.” Eric ran his tongue behind Nick’s ear.
“Cut that out, you know it drives me crazy...”
“Yeah, that’s kinda the point.”
“We should talk.”
“Mmm?” Eric moved lower, kissing his way over Nick’s throat. “‘bout what?”
“You know, about what you’re going to do now, after you’re out.”
“I’m a big boy; I can take care of myself.”
Nick grinned. “You’re a big boy, all right... Come on, stop that... Where are you going to live? Where are you going to work? What happens when I get out too? What about-”
“Not now.” Eric silenced him with another kiss, moved a hand between them, and reached down. To his relief, there was no more talk.
An hour later Eric opened his eyes to the ceiling of a darkened room, listening to the soft sound of Nick’s breathing, unsure of why he wasn’t sleeping himself. Must be the sounds of traffic which were so different from the silence of his room on the base. Or the feel of the big, overly soft bed. Or maybe it was the fact of sharing that bed. Despite their nearly year-long affair, he and Nick had never spent an entire night together before.
Would it happen again? It would if he wanted it, Eric knew that. If Nick had his way they’d be together every night. That was the problem; they wanted very different things from each other. Nick was a nice guy, but when Eric allowed himself to think about it he knew he was not in love and never would be. Not with Nick, anyway.
It was inevitable they would split up, and the letter Eric had gotten that morning in answer to a job application only meant it would happen sooner rather than later. In two weeks he would be back in Silver Hills while Nick would stay here to serve the last six months of his enlistment. The separation didn’t have to be permanent, but deep in his gut Eric knew it would be. Better that way, trying to stay together would only make both of them unhappy.
He turned onto his side, propping himself on an elbow. Dim light filtered in through thin curtains over the windows, enough for him to make out Nick’s face turned slightly towards him, soft and youthful in sleep. He could almost pass for the seventeen-year-old blond prep school student Eric had known nine long years ago... Tonight, it was so easy to see the resemblance that had first attracted him.
Wes. Eric frowned slightly, but he knew exactly why he was thinking about his former high school friend. The letter he had gotten was from Bio-Lab, the company Wes’s father owned. The job he had been offered was in Silver Hills, as a member of a new elite private security force formed to combat the attacks that had been going on there recently. A perfect job for someone of Eric’s background and temperament - as a soldier in a good cause, in an organization small enough for him to have some hope of being recognized, and promoted, and becoming important and successful.
Too bad it was in Silver Hills, the place that held so many memories for him. Or was it a bad thing? A part of him wanted to return, this time as an adult who could consider himself the equal of any of them. Let those kids from prep school try to look down on him now; he’d show them.
Yes, there was the chance he’d run into Wes again. Maybe even find himself working with him, if Wes had gone into the career at Bio-Lab his father wanted for him. Would that be a problem? Would Wes remember that almost-attempted kiss from more than nine years ago, and turn away from him again? Maybe even say something to his father? No, Wes wasn’t like that. Or at least he hadn’t been back in school. By now, who knows? People change.
Eric rolled onto his back again, looking up at the ceiling. No point in worrying about something that might never happen. First, finally face Nick and make sure he knew it was over. Better for both of them. Then the move back to Silver Hills, the new job, and whatever challenges and opportunities it would bring.
The image of Wes’s face floated to the top of his mind again, and just as quickly was shoved back into the past where it belonged. This wasn’t school; Eric was no longer a kid imagining himself in love for the first time. No more obsessing over a teenage crush, a man he might never even see again. Not like Wes ever thought about him, after all.