A Darker Shade of Red (Time Force/Power Rangers, T, Chapter 41: Kids and Parents)
I've been staring at this for awhile, in between glaring at the Timeline of Doom. Apparently I wrote it before I had my seizures, which is good, because it means I have something new to post! I still have absolutely no idea exactly what's going to happen next, but I do have a few vague ideas, so thoughts and requests for this story are both encouraged and politely demanded.
Fandom/: Power Rangers Time Force, slight crossover with S.P.D. (In Bright Skies universe)
Characters/: Alex
Pairings/: Alex/Jen, Lucas/Trip, Katie/OC, Wes/Eric
Rating/: T
Disclaimer/: Saban/Disney/Whoever sure didn't write *this* into the series. The plot comes purely from my own warped little mind, and the characters are merely borrowed from them for my own amusement. Lucky you.
Summary/: The legacy of Wesley Collins and Eric Myers didn't just affect the past - it affected the future. One thousand years after they became Rangers, one person is still struggling against the corruption of Time Force and the heritage he never wanted.
Warnings/: People used for scientific experimentation, corrupted Time Force, character with self-image issues
Author's Notes/: This chapter took me *forever* to write. First Alex didn't want to talk, then Eric didn't. And the Newtech Rangers were being as difficult as usual. But it's done now, and I don't entirely hate it, which is something.
Love to phantom_blue for beta! ♥
Chapter 41:Kids and Parents
Transporting, housing, and feeding fourteen Power Rangers was exhausting.
It wasn't that they didn't get along, or that the Newtech Rangers weren't polite, Alex reflected as he worked on the large pile of dishes left from dinner. It was that things were horribly, incredibly awkward.
The Newtech Rangers were in their forties. They were war veterans, parents, and had more inside jokes than Alex wanted to think about. They had a level of deliberate casualty with one another that was bizarre to see, even knowing what he did.
He, Jen, Lucas, and Katie were in their early twenties. Trip was nineteen, Ben was sixteen. Newtech had built a corporation up; they were in the process of tearing one down. They were officers, leaders, scientists and experiments. Newtech was a mismatched group of friends from various places and careers. The only thing the two groups seemed to have in common was their relationships to Wes and Eric.
But even they had changed. The Eric he'd last seen was snappish and brooding. This one was calm and patient, and frequently cracked jokes with a wry sense of humor. He was constantly behind, beside, or being leaned on by Wes. Wes, by contrast, was quieter than he remembered, more contemplative. He often just watched everyone around him as they talked, smiling softly. More than once Alex saw him with his eyes closed, but a soft laugh of appreciation at someone's comment would prove that he wasn't sleeping.
He'd thought Jen and the others had been very ... touchy, after returning from the past. It had taken time to get used to, and even now, their tendency to offer casual touches or hugs unnerved him. Ben openly complained when they tried to involve him, because he still wasn't used to being around anyone who wasn't Alex.
The Newtech Rangers draped themselves over each other. When he'd left them gathered in the den, Wes had been laying with his head in Eric's lap and one hand on his dog, who was laying on the floor in front of him beside the robotic dog. Vanessa was leaning back against R.J. and arguing back and forth with Justin across the table while playing some sort of hand game with Taylor next to her. Justin meanwhile, seemed to be in some sort of dogpile with Chip on top of Zhane, who for all intents and purposes, actually *was* asleep. And snoring.
The dialogue between them *seemed* open, and Katie and Trip had eagerly inserted themselves into the conversation. None of the Newtech Rangers seemed to mind. But the differences between technology that they knew and the technology that his team knew made things even more awkward when they couldn't follow along. There were smiles and hurrying the conversation along, but the strangeness was still there in the gaps and sudden silences.
Alex had finally been forced to excuse himself with the claim of cleaning up. He could have left it, or just quickly tossed them in the washer, but he needed an excuse for the solitude. He could look at Wes and his team and remember things about them he wasn't supposed to know. He could follow their conversation without needing an explanation, could probably even have explained some of the upgrades in the years between them and how they'd come to pass.
He could look at them, and see where and how he was supposed to fit and know that he didn't. And it hurt when it shouldn't have.
He set down the dish he was washing with a quiet groan, leaning forward to rest his head against the counter. Somehow he couldn't shake the feeling that he was making this all more complicated than it had to be. But he couldn't figure out how it could possibly be simple, either.
"Headache?"
He jerked upright, spinning around to see Eric watching him. "I'm fine," he said automatically.
Eric rolled his eyes, shaking his head. "Headache," he repeated. "Wes gets the same look."
Alex scowled at him. "I don't have a headache," he retorted sharply.
Eric raised his hands submissively. "Fine. You don't have a headache. You just wanted a better look at the floor, right?"
Now Alex was the one rolling his eyes, turning back to the sink. "Did you need something?"
"Do I need a reason to talk to my son?"
The words sent a chill down Alex's spine, and he fought a shudder, grabbing another dish. "I'm a little busy. Can it wait?"
There was a long silence as he scrubbed at the plate for longer than he needed to. He wondered if Eric was glaring at him. If he was hurt. Did he care? Should *he* care about how Eric felt?
Probably.
But he couldn't. Acknowledging Eric meant caring about how he felt. About how Eric felt about him. It meant awkward moments, getting to know one another, trying to get along and find something in common. It meant the chance of *not* being able to find anything likeable about each other.
Or even worse: finding something in common, something to build a relationship from, and actually getting along. Knowing and liking Eric as more than a historical figure from the past. From his past.
And then watching him leave, and knowing he'd most likely never see the other man again.
Wes was different. He didn't have a choice with Wes. And now that Wes knew who he was, knew *him*, he just ignored whatever attempts Alex could make to push him away. He read between lines Alex wasn't even aware he was drawing and did what he decided was best.
It was incredibly annoying, yet somehow endearing at the same time.
But it didn't change the fact that at some point, they'd be gone. They couldn't stay in the future, and he couldn't go to the past. Getting close to them now meant having something to lose later. And he wasn't sure he could handle that.
On some level, he was already grieving for what he was about to lose with Wes. He didn't want to go through that with Eric, too.
The silence continued, and he found himself glancing up to see if Eric had actually left the room.
He hadn't. He was staring at him.
Alex frowned slightly. "What?"
The corner of Eric's mouth lifted. "You remind me of your brother when you do that. Sky," he clarified, as Alex continued to stare at him. "He does this too. Ignores the things he doesn't know how to deal with." Then he paused, looking thoughtful. "Or he confronts it, which usually gets him in worse trouble."
"Why do you keep doing that?" Alex asked irritably, for lack of anything else to say.
Eric frowned slightly. "Doing what?"
"You and Wes. All of you. You keep comparing me to people. Wes says I look like you. Jen and the others say I'm like Wes. And now you're trying to say I'm like Sky?" Alex glared at him. "Make up your mind. Am I me, or am I someone else?"
The look Eric gave him in return was considering. "Issues much?" he asked dryly.
Alex's eyes widened, and the plate slipped from his hand. "Who do you think you are?" he demanded incredulously. "Are you *trying* to make me mad?"
To his surprise, Eric only shook his head, looking amused. "Alex. Relax, kid. I'm trying to hold a conversation. You're the one who's freaking out here. Take a few deep breaths and calm down, all right?"
"Don't call me kid," he snapped back, fists clenching.
"You're *my* kid."
This time the words made him pause, staring at the wall above the sink for several moments. "I've never been a kid," he said finally. It came out softer than he'd have liked.
A hand settled onto his shoulder, squeezing gently. "You're *my* kid," Eric repeated quietly behind him. "You could be fifty years old and you'd still be my kid. You could be the greatest supervillain Earth's ever seen and you'd still be my kid. You could be the biggest wuss I'd ever met, and I still wouldn't care. You're my kid, and that's just the way it is."
He closed his eyes as his throat tightened.
"And for the record," Eric went on, "I say you remind me of your brother because you do. You remind me of Wes, too. Just like you remind Wes of me. That's what parents do. We look at our kids, and see the work that went into making them. It's not an insult that you make me think about two of the people I love most in the world. That's another one of those things you're gonna have to get used to."
The hand was still on his shoulder, patting him gently now. "Now stop hiding in here and come spend time with your family. I haven't had a chance to embarrass you yet."
Alex cracked an eye open to look at him. "And that's supposed to make me *want* to join you?"
Eric smirked slightly, and Alex tried not to look startled at how familiar the expression was. It was the same smirk his brother had. The same as the one he saw in the mirror. "No," he answered, dropping his hand from Alex's shoulder to grip his upper arm lightly. "But you seem to think I was giving you a choice." And he proceeded to drag Alex - still protesting - back into the living room.
Eric stopped in the doorway as Alex tried to pry himself free, letting out a loud sigh. "Astro, stop pretending to be asleep and just go to bed already," he ordered. "And take your pillows with you."
The snoring coming from Zhane stopped immediately as the man opened his eyes to blink at Eric, not looking the slightest bit groggy. "But I was having fun," he complained.
"Pillows?" Justin repeated, eyes narrowing dangerously.
"Pillows," Eric repeated firmly, glaring back. "You're laying on him like puppies. Go to bed already."
"Who put you in charge?" Taylor demanded.
Eric raised his eyebrows.
There was a long moment of silence that seemed to be filled with some sort of unspoken communication, but for all his inside knowledge even Alex couldn't follow it.
"Fine," Vanessa grumbled, forcing herself upright.
There was a pause, and R.J. quickly stood up, helping her up and kissing the back of her hand with a sweeping gesture. "Anything else I can do for the lovely lady?"
"You can stop calling her the lovely lady," she informed him dryly, narrowing her eyes.
R.J. smiled pleasantly. "As you wish, Minx."
She rolled her eyes and socked him in the shoulder.
Trip scrambled to his feet with a bright smile, quickly followed by Katie. "We'll show you where you guys can sleep," he offered. "It's not much, but we've got lots blankets and pillows."
Zhane grinned at him. "Sounds like paradise."
Chip nodded eagerly, looking wistful. "You never think about just how amazing blankets and pillows are until you have to go without them."
Justin shoved his shoulder as he got up. "Thanks, Mystic. I was hoping to avoid the nightmares for one night," he groused.
Alex frowned after them as they all slowly began to follow Trip and Katie up the stairs, still bickering. From what he knew of Justin through Wes, he was usually a fairly cheerful person. But since he'd actually met him in person, Justin seemed to be incredibly surly. "Is he all right?" he asked warily once they were out of ear shot. "Justin, I mean," he added belatedly.
"No," Eric answered him, shoving him onto the bench the others had just vacated before moving to the other side. He carefully lifted Wes' head as he sat down, lowering it into his lap. Wes didn't even open his eyes, and Alex wondered if he finally *had* fallen asleep, and why Eric hadn't sent him off as well.
He frowned. "No?" he echoed.
Eric sighed. "I asked too much from him today."
Jen frowned, moving from her chair opposite the table to sit beside Alex. "Will he be all right?"
"Eventually. It's gonna be a rough night, though."
Lucas gave him an odd look. "Why's that?"
"Because he'll be having nightmares all night." Surprisingly, Eric didn't seem bothered by this. Instead he was looking down at Wes with an oddly soft expression. "We all get them, but Justin's got some of the worst."
There was an awkward silence as no one really knew what to say to that.
Alex sighed quietly as Jen leaned against him, absently wrapping an arm around her waist and staring down at the table. More inside information they didn't have, more things he wished he didn't know. More gaps. More silences. Why was Eric trying to talk to them now?
He glanced up as Trip and Katie returned, Trip plopping down next to Lucas, only to flush as the other man pulled him closer. Katie looked amused, leaning back on her hands on the floor across from them near Ben, who was reclining against the opposite wall. "So?" she asked, pausing to steal one of the pillows Ben was hoarding and ignoring his squawk of protest. "What's so important that you had to oh-so-subtly ask to talk to us alone?"
"I don't do subtlety," Eric dismissed, still looking down at Wes. His expression seemed more contemplative now. "And they did need to get some rest. None of us have slept since Wes went missing yesterday."
Alex tried not to wince. While he really hadn't had anything to do with Wes' kidnapping personally, he was the main reason Wes had been brought to the trial. And he'd agreed with Trip that Wes would be returned before his team would miss him. He probably should have known better.
"I was thinking that you all have questions," Eric went on, entwining his fingers with Wes' in a way that was deliberately casual and somewhat disturbing to watch, even knowing what Alex did now in comparison to before. "About Wes. Me. And I figured you should ask me while we have the time."
Jen looked startled. "You're willing to do that?"
Eric finally looked up, his eyes unexpectedly serious. "Wes wants you guys to know. He just can't talk about it." He shrugged. "So I'll explain what I can for him."
There was an awkward pause.
"Wes was in a coma?" Trip spoke up hesitantly.
Eric closed his eyes briefly. "Yeah." He sighed, taking a deep breath. "It was after ... after we split up. After he told me the truth about the boys and what Time Force was doing." His eyes flickered first to Alex, then over to Ben, who looked startled. "I didn't want anything to do with him after that, so Wes joined S.P.D. to help Vanessa with raising Sky - "
"Wait, Sky's not your kid?" Lucas sat up a little straighter, frowning in confusion.
Eric sighed. "Why don't I start over from the beginning? This is gonna take awhile."
Fandom/: Power Rangers Time Force, slight crossover with S.P.D. (In Bright Skies universe)
Characters/: Alex
Pairings/: Alex/Jen, Lucas/Trip, Katie/OC, Wes/Eric
Rating/: T
Disclaimer/: Saban/Disney/Whoever sure didn't write *this* into the series. The plot comes purely from my own warped little mind, and the characters are merely borrowed from them for my own amusement. Lucky you.
Summary/: The legacy of Wesley Collins and Eric Myers didn't just affect the past - it affected the future. One thousand years after they became Rangers, one person is still struggling against the corruption of Time Force and the heritage he never wanted.
Warnings/: People used for scientific experimentation, corrupted Time Force, character with self-image issues
Author's Notes/: This chapter took me *forever* to write. First Alex didn't want to talk, then Eric didn't. And the Newtech Rangers were being as difficult as usual. But it's done now, and I don't entirely hate it, which is something.
Love to phantom_blue for beta! ♥
Chapter 41:Kids and Parents
Transporting, housing, and feeding fourteen Power Rangers was exhausting.
It wasn't that they didn't get along, or that the Newtech Rangers weren't polite, Alex reflected as he worked on the large pile of dishes left from dinner. It was that things were horribly, incredibly awkward.
The Newtech Rangers were in their forties. They were war veterans, parents, and had more inside jokes than Alex wanted to think about. They had a level of deliberate casualty with one another that was bizarre to see, even knowing what he did.
He, Jen, Lucas, and Katie were in their early twenties. Trip was nineteen, Ben was sixteen. Newtech had built a corporation up; they were in the process of tearing one down. They were officers, leaders, scientists and experiments. Newtech was a mismatched group of friends from various places and careers. The only thing the two groups seemed to have in common was their relationships to Wes and Eric.
But even they had changed. The Eric he'd last seen was snappish and brooding. This one was calm and patient, and frequently cracked jokes with a wry sense of humor. He was constantly behind, beside, or being leaned on by Wes. Wes, by contrast, was quieter than he remembered, more contemplative. He often just watched everyone around him as they talked, smiling softly. More than once Alex saw him with his eyes closed, but a soft laugh of appreciation at someone's comment would prove that he wasn't sleeping.
He'd thought Jen and the others had been very ... touchy, after returning from the past. It had taken time to get used to, and even now, their tendency to offer casual touches or hugs unnerved him. Ben openly complained when they tried to involve him, because he still wasn't used to being around anyone who wasn't Alex.
The Newtech Rangers draped themselves over each other. When he'd left them gathered in the den, Wes had been laying with his head in Eric's lap and one hand on his dog, who was laying on the floor in front of him beside the robotic dog. Vanessa was leaning back against R.J. and arguing back and forth with Justin across the table while playing some sort of hand game with Taylor next to her. Justin meanwhile, seemed to be in some sort of dogpile with Chip on top of Zhane, who for all intents and purposes, actually *was* asleep. And snoring.
The dialogue between them *seemed* open, and Katie and Trip had eagerly inserted themselves into the conversation. None of the Newtech Rangers seemed to mind. But the differences between technology that they knew and the technology that his team knew made things even more awkward when they couldn't follow along. There were smiles and hurrying the conversation along, but the strangeness was still there in the gaps and sudden silences.
Alex had finally been forced to excuse himself with the claim of cleaning up. He could have left it, or just quickly tossed them in the washer, but he needed an excuse for the solitude. He could look at Wes and his team and remember things about them he wasn't supposed to know. He could follow their conversation without needing an explanation, could probably even have explained some of the upgrades in the years between them and how they'd come to pass.
He could look at them, and see where and how he was supposed to fit and know that he didn't. And it hurt when it shouldn't have.
He set down the dish he was washing with a quiet groan, leaning forward to rest his head against the counter. Somehow he couldn't shake the feeling that he was making this all more complicated than it had to be. But he couldn't figure out how it could possibly be simple, either.
"Headache?"
He jerked upright, spinning around to see Eric watching him. "I'm fine," he said automatically.
Eric rolled his eyes, shaking his head. "Headache," he repeated. "Wes gets the same look."
Alex scowled at him. "I don't have a headache," he retorted sharply.
Eric raised his hands submissively. "Fine. You don't have a headache. You just wanted a better look at the floor, right?"
Now Alex was the one rolling his eyes, turning back to the sink. "Did you need something?"
"Do I need a reason to talk to my son?"
The words sent a chill down Alex's spine, and he fought a shudder, grabbing another dish. "I'm a little busy. Can it wait?"
There was a long silence as he scrubbed at the plate for longer than he needed to. He wondered if Eric was glaring at him. If he was hurt. Did he care? Should *he* care about how Eric felt?
Probably.
But he couldn't. Acknowledging Eric meant caring about how he felt. About how Eric felt about him. It meant awkward moments, getting to know one another, trying to get along and find something in common. It meant the chance of *not* being able to find anything likeable about each other.
Or even worse: finding something in common, something to build a relationship from, and actually getting along. Knowing and liking Eric as more than a historical figure from the past. From his past.
And then watching him leave, and knowing he'd most likely never see the other man again.
Wes was different. He didn't have a choice with Wes. And now that Wes knew who he was, knew *him*, he just ignored whatever attempts Alex could make to push him away. He read between lines Alex wasn't even aware he was drawing and did what he decided was best.
It was incredibly annoying, yet somehow endearing at the same time.
But it didn't change the fact that at some point, they'd be gone. They couldn't stay in the future, and he couldn't go to the past. Getting close to them now meant having something to lose later. And he wasn't sure he could handle that.
On some level, he was already grieving for what he was about to lose with Wes. He didn't want to go through that with Eric, too.
The silence continued, and he found himself glancing up to see if Eric had actually left the room.
He hadn't. He was staring at him.
Alex frowned slightly. "What?"
The corner of Eric's mouth lifted. "You remind me of your brother when you do that. Sky," he clarified, as Alex continued to stare at him. "He does this too. Ignores the things he doesn't know how to deal with." Then he paused, looking thoughtful. "Or he confronts it, which usually gets him in worse trouble."
"Why do you keep doing that?" Alex asked irritably, for lack of anything else to say.
Eric frowned slightly. "Doing what?"
"You and Wes. All of you. You keep comparing me to people. Wes says I look like you. Jen and the others say I'm like Wes. And now you're trying to say I'm like Sky?" Alex glared at him. "Make up your mind. Am I me, or am I someone else?"
The look Eric gave him in return was considering. "Issues much?" he asked dryly.
Alex's eyes widened, and the plate slipped from his hand. "Who do you think you are?" he demanded incredulously. "Are you *trying* to make me mad?"
To his surprise, Eric only shook his head, looking amused. "Alex. Relax, kid. I'm trying to hold a conversation. You're the one who's freaking out here. Take a few deep breaths and calm down, all right?"
"Don't call me kid," he snapped back, fists clenching.
"You're *my* kid."
This time the words made him pause, staring at the wall above the sink for several moments. "I've never been a kid," he said finally. It came out softer than he'd have liked.
A hand settled onto his shoulder, squeezing gently. "You're *my* kid," Eric repeated quietly behind him. "You could be fifty years old and you'd still be my kid. You could be the greatest supervillain Earth's ever seen and you'd still be my kid. You could be the biggest wuss I'd ever met, and I still wouldn't care. You're my kid, and that's just the way it is."
He closed his eyes as his throat tightened.
"And for the record," Eric went on, "I say you remind me of your brother because you do. You remind me of Wes, too. Just like you remind Wes of me. That's what parents do. We look at our kids, and see the work that went into making them. It's not an insult that you make me think about two of the people I love most in the world. That's another one of those things you're gonna have to get used to."
The hand was still on his shoulder, patting him gently now. "Now stop hiding in here and come spend time with your family. I haven't had a chance to embarrass you yet."
Alex cracked an eye open to look at him. "And that's supposed to make me *want* to join you?"
Eric smirked slightly, and Alex tried not to look startled at how familiar the expression was. It was the same smirk his brother had. The same as the one he saw in the mirror. "No," he answered, dropping his hand from Alex's shoulder to grip his upper arm lightly. "But you seem to think I was giving you a choice." And he proceeded to drag Alex - still protesting - back into the living room.
Eric stopped in the doorway as Alex tried to pry himself free, letting out a loud sigh. "Astro, stop pretending to be asleep and just go to bed already," he ordered. "And take your pillows with you."
The snoring coming from Zhane stopped immediately as the man opened his eyes to blink at Eric, not looking the slightest bit groggy. "But I was having fun," he complained.
"Pillows?" Justin repeated, eyes narrowing dangerously.
"Pillows," Eric repeated firmly, glaring back. "You're laying on him like puppies. Go to bed already."
"Who put you in charge?" Taylor demanded.
Eric raised his eyebrows.
There was a long moment of silence that seemed to be filled with some sort of unspoken communication, but for all his inside knowledge even Alex couldn't follow it.
"Fine," Vanessa grumbled, forcing herself upright.
There was a pause, and R.J. quickly stood up, helping her up and kissing the back of her hand with a sweeping gesture. "Anything else I can do for the lovely lady?"
"You can stop calling her the lovely lady," she informed him dryly, narrowing her eyes.
R.J. smiled pleasantly. "As you wish, Minx."
She rolled her eyes and socked him in the shoulder.
Trip scrambled to his feet with a bright smile, quickly followed by Katie. "We'll show you where you guys can sleep," he offered. "It's not much, but we've got lots blankets and pillows."
Zhane grinned at him. "Sounds like paradise."
Chip nodded eagerly, looking wistful. "You never think about just how amazing blankets and pillows are until you have to go without them."
Justin shoved his shoulder as he got up. "Thanks, Mystic. I was hoping to avoid the nightmares for one night," he groused.
Alex frowned after them as they all slowly began to follow Trip and Katie up the stairs, still bickering. From what he knew of Justin through Wes, he was usually a fairly cheerful person. But since he'd actually met him in person, Justin seemed to be incredibly surly. "Is he all right?" he asked warily once they were out of ear shot. "Justin, I mean," he added belatedly.
"No," Eric answered him, shoving him onto the bench the others had just vacated before moving to the other side. He carefully lifted Wes' head as he sat down, lowering it into his lap. Wes didn't even open his eyes, and Alex wondered if he finally *had* fallen asleep, and why Eric hadn't sent him off as well.
He frowned. "No?" he echoed.
Eric sighed. "I asked too much from him today."
Jen frowned, moving from her chair opposite the table to sit beside Alex. "Will he be all right?"
"Eventually. It's gonna be a rough night, though."
Lucas gave him an odd look. "Why's that?"
"Because he'll be having nightmares all night." Surprisingly, Eric didn't seem bothered by this. Instead he was looking down at Wes with an oddly soft expression. "We all get them, but Justin's got some of the worst."
There was an awkward silence as no one really knew what to say to that.
Alex sighed quietly as Jen leaned against him, absently wrapping an arm around her waist and staring down at the table. More inside information they didn't have, more things he wished he didn't know. More gaps. More silences. Why was Eric trying to talk to them now?
He glanced up as Trip and Katie returned, Trip plopping down next to Lucas, only to flush as the other man pulled him closer. Katie looked amused, leaning back on her hands on the floor across from them near Ben, who was reclining against the opposite wall. "So?" she asked, pausing to steal one of the pillows Ben was hoarding and ignoring his squawk of protest. "What's so important that you had to oh-so-subtly ask to talk to us alone?"
"I don't do subtlety," Eric dismissed, still looking down at Wes. His expression seemed more contemplative now. "And they did need to get some rest. None of us have slept since Wes went missing yesterday."
Alex tried not to wince. While he really hadn't had anything to do with Wes' kidnapping personally, he was the main reason Wes had been brought to the trial. And he'd agreed with Trip that Wes would be returned before his team would miss him. He probably should have known better.
"I was thinking that you all have questions," Eric went on, entwining his fingers with Wes' in a way that was deliberately casual and somewhat disturbing to watch, even knowing what Alex did now in comparison to before. "About Wes. Me. And I figured you should ask me while we have the time."
Jen looked startled. "You're willing to do that?"
Eric finally looked up, his eyes unexpectedly serious. "Wes wants you guys to know. He just can't talk about it." He shrugged. "So I'll explain what I can for him."
There was an awkward pause.
"Wes was in a coma?" Trip spoke up hesitantly.
Eric closed his eyes briefly. "Yeah." He sighed, taking a deep breath. "It was after ... after we split up. After he told me the truth about the boys and what Time Force was doing." His eyes flickered first to Alex, then over to Ben, who looked startled. "I didn't want anything to do with him after that, so Wes joined S.P.D. to help Vanessa with raising Sky - "
"Wait, Sky's not your kid?" Lucas sat up a little straighter, frowning in confusion.
Eric sighed. "Why don't I start over from the beginning? This is gonna take awhile."