@bridgc
Sky was utterly exhausted, both from all of the cleaning that Crueger had assigned to him and from the emotional toll that the latest series of events had taken on him. He slowly made his way to his room, his wrist throbbing with pain as he attempted to ignore it. True to his word, Jack had stayed with him the entire time and had helped him clean all of the cement surfaces, despite Sky repeatedly telling him not to. About halfway through, the Blue Ranger realized that the reason that Jack was doing it was to keep him distracted. He’d learned that, if left to his own devices for too long, Sky would completely retreat into his own mind and become broody and hard to talk to. As much as Sky complained about Jack being there, he was grateful for it.
But now there was no Jack and no distractions to keep Sky from falling into the darkness that was his insecurities. He kicked off his shoes and crawled into bed, half collapsing face first into his pillow. After a moment, he turned to his side so that he faced the wall. Memories that he had once tried to fight began washing over him, drowning him in tidal waves of old feelings and images that he’d spent the last few hours trying to forget.
He had no idea how long he laid there, drowning in memories and sickened by the realizations that crept up on him. It was true what they said: hindsight really was 20/20. Dru’s betrayal had taken him by surprise, but now that he looked back, he realized that it really shouldn’t have. He could now see just how much of a manipulative shit that Dru was, how he’d so easily wrapped Sky around his finger, how he’d kept the now Blue Ranger under his thumb.
“Am I stupid?” The words escaped him almost unconsciously as Bridge entered the room, his voice barely above a whisper. “Am I really so fucking blind, Bridge?”
