Fic: Family Ties; PG; TF/WF/SPD

[arytra]

While I don't mind the idea of Danny being Z's father, it annoyed me that people often forgot that she had other family as well if he was. All of Wild Force as well as Wes and Eric. None of them would have let her just disappear. So, I tried to write it in a way where Danny was Z's father, but the others were still involved.

“Yes, I understand. Thank you for letting me know,” Wes said, trying to keep the overwhelming emotion that was piling up out of his voice as to stay professional. He gently hung up the phone and put his head in his hands. He nearly jumped when he heard Eric slam his hand onto the desk in frustration. Wes glanced up at his former partner of the Silver Guardians and offered a small smile. “It was a long shot, Eric,” he said gently, trying to soothe the other as he rubbed his face tiredly. “We’ll just have to try something else. Maybe if we…”

“It’s been over 15 damn years, Wes!” Eric snapped, not about to be consoled. “And we still have nothing!”

Wes winced a bit at that, dropping what he was about to say. There was silence for a moment as Eric seethed and Wes allowed himself to know that their newest attempt had failed. He looked at the desk and then back at Eric. “Do you want to tell Danny and Max or should I?”

“I’ll tell them,” Eric answered.

“Can we wait until after Christmas?” Wes asked, trying to keep the pleading out of his voice. “Let them have hope?”

Eric nodded. “Yeah, we can,” he assured him.

It was silent for a minute before Wes finally broke and he swept the notes off his desk in frustration. “All the contacts of this company and still nothing! We still haven’t found her, Eric!”

Eric came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Is she dead?”

“No,” Wes answered, not about to consider that train of thought for a minute.

“Then we won’t give up,” he answered. Along with Wes, he’d ignored the fact that his once black hair was beginning to turn salt and pepper just as Wes’ was starting to grey. Neither of them paid attention to the fact that wrinkles had started on their faces or that they really were too old to be running around as Rangers in their forties. Colonel Taylor Eardarht was on her way home for Christmas, but she admitted that she wasn’t able to fly with Yellow Eagle as much as she had before which was as much as she was willing to give that maybe she was getting too old to fight as well. Max and Danny had never stopped looking, never having a steady job and devoting their time to looking. Wes had never said anything as he funded their trips and made sure that wherever they were staying was decent. He’d told both Eric and Taylor not to mention the money that poured out of the Collins’ estate either, one of the only times he was forceful about something. Cole and Alyssa had continued to search as well, but they’d at least settled into a semblance of a normal life when their son and daughter were born. Merrick had searched, sometimes joining Max and Danny, other times going his own way. It suited him.

Yet, like Wes and Eric, they’d aged considerably. Their hair had changed, wrinkles had formed, and their hope was diminishing. There was only so much they could do. Wes had even taken his father’s job, learning the ropes before the elder Collin’s death, to have all the resources of it at their command to help them find her and they still hadn’t. He felt Eric put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s late.”

Wes nodded and packed up, trudging home tiredly. Eric took the keys and drove, hoping that Taylor would be there to meet them instead of being late as she sometimes was on her leaves. He didn’t want to have to tell her on the phone that they still hadn’t found Elizabeth and he wasn’t about to let Wes call her. He parked their car and waited for Wes to get out before getting out himself. They headed into the house where a blond boy raised his head slightly before going back to his homework. “Hi Dad. Hi Commander.”

Wes looked over at him sternly. “Luke, you know better. You don’t call your mother Colonel, do you?”

“Nope,” the boy answered. He grinned over at Eric who was frowning back at him. “Hi, Father.”

Eric sighed. “Why do you have to be like your dad, Luke?” He asked and Luke shrugged.

“Because otherwise Dad would be outnumbered with cynics three to one?” He suggested cheerfully before motioning behind them. “Mom’s home.”

Both Wes and Eric looked up to see Taylor standing in the doorway looking back in amusement at them. “I can’t believe it took Luke for you both to notice.”

Wes smiled back a bit, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “It’s been a long day.”

Taylor looked at him and then over to Eric before her own hope dashed away. “Dead end,” she said, taking in their looks. They both nodded. She looked ready to swear, but glanced over at their twelve-year-old son and stopped herself. “You tell Danny and Max yet?”

“Not yet,” Eric answered. He turned to Luke. “Why don’t go take a break and go check on the birds?”

“I fed Trip and Katie when I got home,” Luke told him. At his father’s look, he quickly shifted thoughts. “But you can never check on lovebirds too often.”

He dashed away from the table as the three adults stood there. After he was gone, Taylor hit the wall with her palm just as frustrated as the other two. Wes walked over and gently took her hand. “We’ll find her.”

“We’ve been looking for over fifteen years, Wes. She was two when we lost her,” Taylor reminded him. Wes looked at her.

“It was an accident, Taylor. Danny never blamed us and Max forgave us a long time ago,” he reminded her. He felt Eric’s hand on his own shoulder and saw the other around Taylor as quiet support.

“Unca Wes! Look!” Wes turned his attention to the little girl as she climbed up onto the swing. The park was a favorite time for him to spend time with her as she seemed to have a lot of Daddy Max’s energy.

He headed over to her, smiling a bit as he did so. “Did you want me to push?”

“Uh huh! Push Unca Wes!” She begged. He grinned and pushed, seeing Taylor and Eric talking to each other over by the bench. Eric looked bored or busy, though Taylor would wave over at Elizabeth every once in a while. Wes liked to get hands on with her more often and pushed her on the swing or helped play in the sand.

At first he thought the explosion was an accident considering that they hadn’t had any problems since after Taylor finished being a Ranger. Eric and Taylor were quick to their feet as they recognized an attack. Eric morphed and headed out into the fight, but it was already started to go bad. Wes scooped up Elizabeth and looked to see Eric fight off the thing by himself, but he couldn’t see Taylor in the mob. Wes glanced around and found a space inbetween a couple of walls that was just big enough for Elizabeth to crawl into. “Elizabeth, crawl in the space.”

She did, but started to cry. Wes glanced out, knowing he needed to help Eric before his lover died and the city was destroyed, but he still couldn’t see Taylor anywhere in the chaos. “Shh. It’s going to be okay,” He assured her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a necklace with a Z attached that he’d planned on giving her for her third birthday. “Here. This is for you.”

She quieted a little as he gave her the necklace and a quick kiss on the cheek. He didn’t want to leave her, but if he left Eric to keep fighting alone and Eric didn’t make it, then Wes wouldn’t have much of a chance to fight it himself and they’d probably all get killed anyway. Completely between a rock and a hard place, he looked around frantically for Taylor again. As the only one of them who couldn’t morph, she was their best bet. He watched Eric demorph as the monster flung him away and had to stop himself from running after. “Wes!”

He looked up in relief to see Taylor. “Thank god! Elizabeth’s here!” He said, pointing to her. Taylor nodded and Wes took off. Together, Wes and Eric were able to fight the monster off and kill it.. They demorphed, grinned, and headed back to where Wes had left them. No one was there.

“Taylor? Elizabeth?” Wes asked, looking around. The two men began to look frantically. “Taylor?!”

“Eric! Wes!” She called back. They turned to look at her. They all spoke at the same time.

“Where’s Elizabeth?” All three of them looked horrified as Wes looked at Taylor.

“I gave her to you,” he said, beginning to feel sick. She shook her head.

“I got separated over there,” she told them. “I haven’t see either of you since Eric morphed!”

Too late they realized it had been a decoy and that Elizabeth was gone. Max had yelled, Danny was inconsolable, Alyssa tried to mediate, Cole tried to insist that it wasn’t anyone’s fault, Merrick stayed silent, Eric had yelled back at Max, Taylor had been horrified, and Wes had been distant. All of them had decided to go after her. None of them had completely given up.

Yet, years later, they still hadn’t been able to find her. They’d found out she’d been fostered at one point, but by the time they could catch up to her, they’d found out she’d run away. Before they could say anything else, Luke stuck his head back in for a minute. “Sorry to interrupt, but Dad? Did you tell Uncle Max and Uncle Danny you found Elizabeth?”

Wes turned to his son. “Luke, we didn’t. Didn’t you hear? It was another dead end.”

“Well, yeah. That’s because she’s with SPD,” the boy answered with a shrug. All three adult turned him. “What?”

It was Wes who looked sternly at their son. “Lucas Daniel, what are you talking about?” He demanded. The boy pointed toward their communicator.

“Uncle Merrick called and said that one of the new Rangers can replicate, but they won’t let him in,” Luke answered. “I was going to tell you, but you told me to go look at the birds.”

Wes’ dropped his stern expression, reached over, and pulled his son into a hug. Taylor grabbed her coat while Eric started to get his shoes back on. “Finish your homework and you can stay up an hour later than normal,” he told him and pulled out a twenty. “Here, order a pizza.”

“Thanks!” The boy answered and headed back to the table.

“And Luke?” Wes said as they headed out the door. “Don’t tell Max and Danny.”

“Got it, Dad! Father, you better drive. Dad’s over excited again,” Luke informed him. Eric held up the keys as they raced out, leaving Luke to look very proud of himself.

***

The ride there seemed to take forever. Wes was pleased, not for the first time, that they’d put money into the SPD base, the prototype for the morphers, and had just enough of an influence that they were able to get in easier. The fact that the name “Wesley Collins” tended to carry more than a little weight definitely helped.

They were led to Commander Cruger and Dr. Manx soon after. None of them said anything, but instead seated themselves around a table. They were quiet for a minute before Wes spoke up. “Merrick said that one of your two new cadets has Elizabeth’s power.”

Cruger nodded. “She does.”

“Is it her?” Eric demanded.

Dr. Manx nodded. “She is Elizabeth,” she answered. Before all three of them could protest, she raced up a hand. “You have to understand, she’s been living on the street. They caught her for stealing.”

“So you decide not to tell Max and Danny?” Taylor asked. “For god’s sake, we’re been looking for over fifteen years! They haven’t worked, they haven’t moved on. They’ve just been looking!”

Wes quickly put a hand on Taylor’s arm and looked back at Cruger. “Anubis, we want to see her,” he said softly though firmly. He glanced over at Dr. Manx. “Please, Kat. It’s almost Christmas.”

“She’s not going to just jump at the chance, you know,” Kat answered. “She’s still hurting.”

“So are we,” Wes answered. “But she deserves to know what happened. Max and Danny deserve to know she’s okay so they can stop looking. Cole and Alyssa deserve being able to look at their daughter and not feel guilty that they still have her.”

Kat sighed, but nodded. “The rest of them aren’t going to do this easily,” she warned him. Wes shrugged.

“I’ve dealt with worse,” he assured her. “If the other four want to protect their teammate, then I’m proud of them.”

Cruger nodded and headed to their room to get them. Wes squeezed Taylor’s hand and gently cover Eric’s when the other man began to drum his fingers on the table. The five of them came in, glancing at the newcomers. Sky nodded to them, which Eric and Wes nodded back to. After the death of his father, and with the request of his mother, the two men had mentored Sky afterward so that he didn’t become too angry and accidentally hurt people with his power.

“Commander Myers, Mr. Collins, Colonel Earhardt,” Sky said to each of them in turn. They each nodded back. “Is there an emergency?”

“No, Sky,” Wes answered. “We just… we had to come.”

Taylor looked at the young woman that Elizabeth had become. The distrust in her eyes for certain things, and her confusion caused Taylor’s guilt to start to rise again. Eric was looking between all of them before he stood up and looked at the girl. He held out a hand. “Eric Myers.”

She tentatively took it. “What’s going on?”

Eric looked back at Taylor and Wes before turning back to her. He wasn’t stupid. If he just said it, she’d run off and it might take another 15 years to find her. “If I answer that,” he told her. “You’ll run. Ask Wes.”

She glanced over at the other man, then at Taylor, and finally back at Eric. “I don’t want to hear if from him,” she told him. “I want to hear it straight out. No hiding anything.”

“Okay,” Eric answered, bringing himself up to match her. He didn’t even notice that he was doing it. “When you were little, we lost you. We’ve been looking for you for over fifteen years. Your dads still are. So, we came to see you now that we’ve found you.”

Z’s eyes widened and she back into Jack, who looked defensive. Wes groaned, Taylor shut her eyes and Eric looked calm, though less snide than normal. There was silence for a minute before chaos erupted. Besides for every cadet asking a different question, Eric having it out with Jack, Taylor having it out with Cruger, and Wes trying to restore some semblance of order, they almost missed Z’s statement. “Who says I want parents?”

Wes quickly came to that defense. “If you didn’t want parents,” he said quickly and motioned to her necklace. “Then why do you still have that?”

She moved away, but her hand still touched the necklace and she looked at him. “How do you know about that?”

“Because I’m the one who gave it to you,” he answered gently.

“You’re my dad?” She asked and Wes shook his head.

“No, I’ve just known you since you were born.” He took a breath and began. “We were watching you. Taylor, Eric, and I. Baby-sitting for your dads. There was an attack. Eric went to fight it and I had hold of you. I found you somewhere to hide and gave you the necklace to stop you from crying. You were so little and scared. I thought Taylor had come over, it looked like her and… and I left.”

His voice completely choked up and Taylor’s wasn’t doing much better. Both of them more than Eric had blamed themselves everyday for losing her. Z waited for him to continue, not sure what to do. Wes took a breath and continued. “I got back and it wasn’t Taylor. You were gone. I swear I thought it was her,” he continued, his voice breaking at the end of it. “I am so sorry, Elizabeth. I’m sorry.”

“We never stopped looking,” Eric informed her. “Wes took over his father’s business to help look for you even. Max and Danny, your dads… they’re still looking.”

Z looked at all of them, not sure what to say. Finally, she shook her head, took a breath, and looked at them all. “I need to think about this.”

Wes nodded and motioned to Cruger. “Take your time. Cruger has our number,” he assured her. She nodded.

“I can’t just…” she started, not quite sure how to fix this. Wes sighed.

“It’ll take time,” he told her, remembering the reconciliation with his father. “We’re not expecting you to do anything.”

“Thanks,” she answered, headed to Jack. Wes couldn’t blame her. He doubted that he’d handle it well either. He just smiled and nodded to her in response. It was a beginning.

***

Of all things that Wes swore he would never do again, it was tell Danny and Max that he’d found anything of theirs: children, animals, objects, nothing. He decided this after both men had practically tackled him to the ground both wanting to know and see their daughter. Eric had fortunately threatened to shoot them if they walked out the door and Taylor hadn’t told him to knock it off as she usually did when Eric threatened with firearms. Yet, even two weeks later both Danny and Max were still pacing and anxious, though the rest of the family was back together.

Christmas Eve was a time for family which Wes, Cole, and Alyssa had all been pushing heavily since they’d all met. The others had more or less easily gone along with it. Cole was on the floor, wrestling with Maxie, his young son while his older daughter, Taylin, watched in amusement. Merrick was watching as he leaned against the wall, having followed the wind back for the holiday. Max was pacing around while Danny was talking with Luke quietly at the table to keep himself distracted which Luke was happy to help him with. Wes was attempting to throw both of his lovers out of the kitchen so that he could finish the meal and even encouraged them to go check on the birds since it was his easiest distraction tactic.

When the phone rang, Wes nearly burned himself trying to answer it, cursing before it was fully on. “Hello?”

“Mr. Collins?” Wes nearly dropped the phone, burned himself again, and pulled the food off the burner so he could talk better.

“Elizabeth?” He half-whispered. He wracked his mind for a different name, trying to remember what they called her now. “I’m sorry, Z?”

There was silence for a minute and Wes thought for a minute that she’d hung up. He waited as patiently as possible. “Jack and I… we don’t have anywhere to go for the holidays, so… I can’t promise anything but…”

Wes’ heart soared and he glanced into the living room. “You’re welcome to come. Both of you,” he told her. “There’s plenty of room.”

There was silence again before she spoke up. “I don’t know how to get there.”

“I can come get you both,” he offered. He glanced around, remembering where they were from and winced. “Uh… just so you know…”

“Sky already told me. You’re loaded,” she told him. “Can you come get us now or...”

Wes looked at the food on the stove, then out into the living room. In less than a minute, he made his decision. “You bet!” He told her cheerfully. “I’m leaving now!”

“Okay,” she told him and they hung up. Wes looked at the food again and stood up, heading into leader-mode.

“Listen up!” He called out, not really surprised when everyone turned to look at him in shock. He normally didn’t take control since he was just naturally more laid back. “We’re going to have a couple of more guests. Luke! Take Taylin and Maxie to fix up two of the rooms. Go! Alyssa! Watch my stove, please. Don’t let Taylor or Eric anywhere near it. Hurry or it will burn! Cole, Merrick, try to get Max to calm down. Max, stop pacing. Danny, why don’t you mess with the floral arrangements for the table. I’ll be back.”

“Where are you going, Wes?” Cole asked, still trying to figure out what was going on. Wes grinned at his friend.

“To get the last member… sorry members… of our family,” he answered. “Taylor, Eric, make sure to let everyone know how both Z and Jack are. I don’t want the kids running back out the door because we scared them off.”

Both of them nodded, but he never saw it. He was out the door before he could. There would be protests later, but it was worth it for now. He barely even realized he was there by the time he arrived. Z and Jack were waiting outside, both of them looking a little nervous, which Wes couldn’t blame them for. He stepped out of the car and headed over. After a few minutes, they were ready to go and Wes was driving back down the road, out of Newtech.

“What are they like?” Wes nearly jumped at Z’s question considering how quiet both of his passengers had been. Jack was just suspicious and Z had been quiet.

“Well, Max is loud, obnoxious sometimes, talks a lot, but has his heart in the right place. He was the one who insisted that you were named after Alyssa. Danny is the opposite. He’s shy, loves plants, and doesn’t mind when Max talks for him. He used to sing to you, take you with him when he was gardening and handled it when you first cloned,” Wes answered. Z’s eyes widened.

“He wasn’t upset?” She asked and Wes shook his head.

“It surprised us,” Wes answered. He looked at little embarrassed. “We didn’t know that your biological mother was involved in the experiment until after that. Other than that, we dealt with trying to figure out which was the real you which you thought was hilarious.”

Z was quiet again and Wes dropped the subject for a minute before trying to pick it back up. “‘Make sure it’s the real Elizabeth’ was just added to Danny’s rules.”

Z looked up again. “Rules?” She asked, seemingly amused.

“Yep,” Wes said with a sigh. “There were a lot of them that he had to make after one of us screwed up. Let’s see… Taylor wasn’t allowed to take you up to see Yellow Eagle until you were older, you weren’t allowed to do anything outside with Cole without supervision, Eric wasn’t allowed to watch you on his own after he took you on a drug bust, I wasn’t allowed to take you anywhere that had sugar, Alyssa wasn’t supposed to teach you any martial arts until you were at least four, and Max wasn’t allowed to take you bowling with him. Merrick didn’t have any rules, but that’s because he didn’t do anything wrong. Other than let you play with the wolf pup, I mean.”

“What kind of people are you?” Jack finally asked. Wes smiled a bit. At least they were talking.

“We were excited,” he answered, as if that made everything make sense. “She was the first baby. Here we are!”

He pulled into the drive, not surprised to see Eric standing in the doorway. Taylor could deal with Max and Danny better than he could and she had more patience for them. Eric looked at Wes. “They’re calm. Dinner is done. And the kids got the bedrooms ready,” he told him and motioned to Z and Jack. “They’re shell-shocked.”

Wes headed over to them. “Hey, you guys okay?” He asked. When he was given a half-nod in return, he smiled. “Good. Come on.”

Eric looked at them and waited until Wes was out of earshot. “I didn’t feel comfortable here either,” he told them. “You get used to it.”

They nodded and followed him in. Danny and Max stayed sitting down as they entered, though anyone with eyes could tell that they wanted to rush to her. Danny finally stood up after a minute. Other than Max, everyone backed off as he headed over to Z while Jack stayed right behind her. Danny looked at her for a minute or two and she stared back at him. “Hi Elizabeth.”

“Z,” she corrected him. “Everyone calls me Z.”

Danny nodded. “Z,” he agreed. “I, uh, I’m Danny.”

For once, Max stayed silent, letting Danny do this. Z looked at Danny carefully and then nodded. “Nice to meet you,” she answered and motioned behind her. “This is Jack.”

“Nice to meet you both,” Danny said and reached behind him grabbing up and giving her a yellow lily. Z reached out and tentatively took it. “Merry Christmas.”

Max came to stand beside Danny and looked at her. “I’m Max,” he told her. “Welcome home.”

There was silence again for a minute before Z spoke up. “I’d like to get to know you,” she said. Tension temporarily broken, Max began telling her everything that had happened in their lives while Danny managed to get in barely a word, though he didn’t seem to mind. Both of them were equally ecstatic, and furious, to hear of everything that Z had gone through. There would have to be a lot more time and patience as they needed to be careful they didn’t scare her off, but it was a beginning. Wes felt Eric and Taylor next to him and he smiled. Even tentatively, this was the best Christmas they’d had in a very long time.