One Last Time

[Red Ranger 1]

Well, they say writing's a form of therapy and these days watching the show leaves me needing a lot of therapy.I was unsure about writing and posting this.For a start, it's rather on the short side.Also, I've got an idea bubbling in my head for a full-length fic based around a similar theme, which may or may not happen.But I think in the end I needed to write it so hopefully people will enjoy reading it.

Story Title: One Last Time
Type of story: One Shot
Main Characters: Maddy, Oscar
BTTB rating: G
Genre: Angst/Friendship
Does story include spoilers: No
Any warnings: No
Summary: The conversation they never got to have.

***

Maddy slowly woke up, taking in her surroundings and the feel of the room, the hardness of the bed at her room in the rehab centre, the numbness of her one remaining arm from where she’d been lying on it. She rolled over and saw a figure sitting in a chair by the window, turned towards her as though he’d been watching her sleep.

  Somehow she wasn’t surprised that it was Oscar.

  As though suddenly aware that he was being watched, he gave a curt nod.“You’re here then.”

  Maddy struggled to sit up.She looked down at the stub of her left arm, feeling suddenly self-conscious. “Most of me is, anyway.”

  Oscar shrugged.“You can pull it off.”He got up and came over to the bed, sitting down on it.Maddy pulled him into a hug and his expression changed to one of amusement.“Wow, keep this up and I’ll think you love me more now I’m dead than you did when I was alive.”

  Maddy released him, feeling embarrassed.They were close enough that she could see every detail of his eyes.“You remember dying then?”

  “It was a bit hard to miss.”

  Maddy lowered her gaze.When she looked up, she gave a sad smile and took his hand.“I miss you.”

  “I’m…actually kind of surprised to hear that.”

  “More than I can bear sometimes.I’m looking at this last year, all the opportunities I had to spend time with you and didn’t.When I…ended up like this, I wished you were there, I knew you’d have said the right thing, made me feel better, stopped me making stupid mistakes.I think…in a way you helped anyway.Because I’m going to have some sort of life.Maybe even a great life.And that’s what you deserved.What was taken away from you.”

  “I had a life,”Oscar answered,“Not a long one but not a wasted one either.I got to fall in love and be loved.Got to come to Summer Bay and make loads of friends.I had all those years with Mum and Dad and Evie, before it all went wrong.And who knows?Maybe along the way I managed to help a few people, make their lives better.”

  “I was one of them,”Maddy said quietly.

  “I wish I’d got to see the new Star Trek film though.Bummed about that.”

  Maddy smiled at him fondly.

  “So that’s my life sorted out, what about yours?You had any thoughts on this great and hopefully long life you’re going to have?”

  “Finish rehab, go travelling.”

  Oscar nodded.“Yeah, I remember you talking about having a gap year.”

  “I just want to see everything.”

  “You’ve given up on nursing then?”

  Maddy sighed.“A one-armed nurse?Not going to be much use.”

  “Well, you’re not going to work in emergency but maybe palliative care?Might give patients some hope, knowing they’ve got someone looking after them who’s been through the hard stuff herself.”

  Maddy considered this.“Maybe.”

  “Or you could be a counsellor?You always were good at bossing people about.”

  Maddy gave a mock gasp of offence but soon smiled.

  “And somewhere along the way, you’ll meet a guy who realises that even with one arm you’re still pretty fantastic.And he’ll marry you and you’ll have a ton of sickeningly beautiful children.”

  Maddy looked at him sincerely.“And I’ll tell them about the sweetest, kindest boy I ever knew.Someone who was always there for me when I was at my lowest, even when he was dead.Someone who went way before his time.”

  Oscar stared at her seriously.“I’m not really dead…not as long as you remember me.”

  Maddy’s face turned into a bemused frown.“That was from Star Trek, wasn’t it?”

  Oscar looked embarrassed.“Wrath of Khan.”Then his expression became serious again.“Goodbye, Maddy.”

  Then she woke up.

  She turned over and looked at the chair by the window.It was empty.She pulled herself out of bed, holding the sheets around her one-handed.Then she stood, looking out the window.

  She would see the world.Maybe she’d try and make that world a bit better, just a bit, just for a few people.She’d try and live that wonderful life, the life that he should have lived.

  She’d never forget him.

 

 

 

Comments