So, here’s the long awaited second half of ‘Discovering Her’. I want to apologize for the delay, since I had intended this story to have been posted long ago. Syd’s POV was much harder to develop than I thought and I had a lot of difficulty writing this piece. Eventually, I managed to come up with something that was remotely decent and taa-dah, here’s the final product. It’s not as good as Sky’s pov or my best work up to date, but I’m satisfied with it for the time being.

Much thanks goes out to Pink-Green-White-4Ever for helping me with this chapter. Couldn’t have done it without all her helpful suggestions!

Disclaimer: don’t own anything you recognize.

-x-

He’s watching me again.

And it’s sort of creeping me out a bit. He thinks I don’t notice, but I do.

Sky Tate, Mr. By the Book, the man with a giant stick up his butt, the person who follows the rules very closely, was watching me.

Me.

Sydney Drew.

I don’t get it. Okay, so maybe he did discover another side of me. And maybe it did change his perspective of me, so what?

Sigh.

Sky Tate was a person that was not fond of change. He was neat and orderly and had things planned down to the very last detail. I guess I disrupted his world of balance when he followed me to the orphanage.

And with the way he keeps looking at me, I’m starting to wonder if it’s a good or bad thing.

Three days ago, Sky had followed me on one of my many visits to the orphanage. Imagine my surprise when Terri pointed toward the doorway and there he stood, looking guilty but at the same time looking awed. Sky, of all people, discovered my greatest secret. I didn’t know what to do, I just reacted. I have no idea what possessed me to introduce him to the children, but I’m glad I did. It was probably one of the strangest but most memorable moments in my life. Sky Tate and Sydney Drew, playing with the children at the orphanage, who would’ve ever thought?

I know what you’re thinking. Sydney Drew at an orphanage?

The answer is yes, believe it or not, Sydney Drew does visit the orphanage. Regularly too.

I’ve been visiting the orphanage for more than two years now. I had discovered the rundown house when I was sixteen. I had been driving, on my way to my first SPD orientation, when I had taken a wrong turn and had gotten lost. I stopped at the orphanage to ask for directions when one of the children had come up to me, asking if I was there to visit them.

Terri, that little girl with bright red hair captured my heart.

I ended up missing most of the orientation. For once, I had found something that I had wanted to do. (Well, joining SPD was something that I had wanted to do, but I had been planning on joining for awhile.) Stopping at the orphanage had been completely unexpected and it made such a huge impact on me. It was like fate had stepped in, and who was I to argue with fate? The experiences meant something to me. I began to make it a point to stop at the orphanage every few days no matter how busy my schedule was, putting all my efforts into it. I donated money –something the orphanage definitely needed and I introduced everything I could think of to help the kids.

If you had asked for a list of my greatest accomplishments, I could name a whole bunch of things. Modeling, singing, acting, and becoming a power ranger at SPD are just some of the great things I’ve done, but I think the biggest achievement of all was teaching these children how to read. Because the orphanage ran on a low budget, (the money from the government was only enough to supply food and pay for the electricity) the kids didn’t have enough money to go to school and get an education. Seeing the looks on their faces as they discovered the joy of books, almost made me cry. I definitely had tears in my eyes.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. A couple of days after our encounter at the orphanage, Sky ambushed me. I was walking along the hallway, when all of a sudden someone grabbed me by my arm and hauled me into an empty, unused room that was reserved for some new cadets that were enrolling into the Academy. Sky stared at me, looking more serious than I had ever seen him.

And that’s when we had our first real heart-to-heart talk.

“Why Syd? I don’t understand why you’re pretending. Why do you let everyone think that shopping and clothes were all you cared about?”

Needless to say, I was pretty surprised at what he had to ask me. He wanted to know why I wasn’t being myself. For a minute, I thought about denying it, but then I looked into his eyes, into his piercing gaze. His eyes, they were so blue, and they were staring at me with such a deep intensity that I found I couldn’t lie, nor could I look away. So I spoke the truth.

“You really think it’s easy, pretending to be something I’m not?” The words suddenly flowed out and I couldn’t stop myself. I don’t know what made me do it, maybe it was the years of not being able to express myself to someone, or maybe it was the years of always being misunderstood, either way, I found myself pouring out my heart to Sky. “Ever since I arrived at SPD, everyone already saw me as this rich girl. They could never see me as otherwise.”

He was gaping at me. “That’s not true!”

Seeing his surprised gaze almost made me what to laugh. Instead, I just raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t it? Remember that day, I came back from shopping and Bridge asked if all the things I bought were for me? I said that it was for the kids at the orphanage. And what did you guys do? You all laughed.”

Now he just looked guilty and he immediately apologized after my outburst. But by then, I felt so relieved to finally letting all my feelings out that I just dismissed his apology and invited him to join me the next day for another visit to the orphanage. I was surprised, but a little pleased when he accepted.

-x-

For some reason, I didn’t think he was going to actually come. So it surprised me a bit when I found Sky waiting for me at approximately 2:00 the next afternoon. It was a little strange seeing him wear a pair of faded jeans and a simple blue t-shirt, but the look completed him well. He greeted me with a casual grin and held up his hand, the keys to the jeep dangling from his fingers. “Lead the way,” he said.

I didn’t respond and just grinned. I snatched the keys from his hand and got into the driver’s seat, while Sky went around to the passenger side. I waited until he got in before starting the ignition. The drive to the orphanage was quiet, and for some reason, I was nervous. I didn’t have a reason to be nervous, after all, it was just Sky. But I was nervous, my hands were shaking but thankfully Sky didn’t notice.

All my anxiety faded when we finally reached our destination. As soon as I stepped out of the car, the door of the orphanage slammed open and all the kids came running out.

“Hi, Miss Sydney!” Terri ran up and wrapped her arms around my waist, giving me a big hug.

Terri’s cheerfulness made me smile widely. “Hi, Terri!”

“Can you braid my hair, Miss Sydney?”

“Of course, sweetie. Anything you want!” I turned and greeted the other kids, before remembering that I had forgotten about Sky. “Hey kids, do you all remember my friend Sky?”

Terri detached herself from my waist and then ran over to Sky. The little girl beamed at up him and then gave him a hug as well. Since Sky was so tall, and Terri was still a tiny little girl, she was only able to hug Sky’s knee. “Hi, Mr. Sky!”

I had to laugh. It was just an adorable picture. Can you just imagine little Terri hugging Sky’s knee? It was at times like these that I really wished I had a camera. It was a moment to remember.

It was when I was braiding Terri’s hair that I really began to question myself on how well I really knew Sky. Watching him interacting with the children, it just warmed my heart. To put it mildly, I never knew he could be such a class clown when he wanted to be. Watching Sky play a hopscotch game with Dawn and ‘Capture the Flag’ with Joey and Matthew and the other kids, I suddenly realized how little I knew about Sky. And I found myself wanting to know more.

-x-

It was about a month after that day, when Terri really brought up the subject of my new ‘relationship’ with Sky. He and I had become close, but I hadn’t really realized just how close we had become.

“Miss Sydney?”

I was playing with Terri’s hair while we were watching Sky play with the other children. “Hmm?”

“Are you sure Mr. Sky is not your boyfriend?”

I had to laugh. “I’m sure Terri.”

“If I tell you something, will you promise to keep it a secret?”

“I promise.”

“Me and Dawn think you and Mr. Sky should get married.”

Terri’s boldness startled me. I didn’t think a five year old even knew what the word ‘married’ meant, but apparently, Terri was a lot smarter than I thought. I managed to control my surprise though. “Why do you think that?”

“Mr. Sky makes you happy, Miss Sydney. And you make Mr. Sky happy too,” Terri wrinkled her nose in a cute child-like way. “He used to be grumpy and would be scared to play with us. But now he’s not scared anymore.”

“I think the word you’re looking for is ‘uncomfortable’ Terri,” I explained patiently. “Sky was never scared of you guys, he was just uncomfortable.”

“Okay,” the little girl nodded. “But, Mr. Sky laughs a lot now. And you make him laugh, Miss Sydney.”

“And that’s why you want us to get married?” I asked, amused by Terri’s sharp perception.

“Yes!” She emphasized. “Then I can be the flower girl!”

I couldn’t help it, I laughed.

-x-

After that day, things really began to change between Sky and I. I took Terri’s words to heart, and I saw that Sky and I have changed since we began confiding in each other. It was a little strange; I never thought the person that would understand me the most would turn out to be Sky. It makes me smile when I think about all that has happened and it makes me really glad that he followed me to the orphanage that day. He listens, really listens to me when I talk, and that it’s really a refreshing change. It’s…

Different.

Things are different when I’m with him. He laughs and smiles more. He’s talkative and jokes around. Sometimes I see the others giving us strange looks because the things we do. They find it strange how Sky and I had suddenly become so close –always partnering up for training and night duty. We spend a lot of our lunch breaks and free time with one another too. I’m sure the others are probably wondering why we’ve become so close all of a sudden. Bridge had even asked us a couple of questions –which we avoided.

And to be honest, I preferred things this way. It was as if Sky and I were sharing a secret that only we were allowed to know. It was in Sky that I found a kindred spirit. And as long as I’m being honest with myself, I’m falling in love with him.

I really am.

-x-

Not the best I’ve ever done, but at least it’s out of my hair for the time being. I may come back later on and do a total rewrite. Anyway, let me know what you think!