Her book lay open in front of her, clearly forgotten even before she dozed off. Her backpack lay to one side, tossed there when she sat down perhaps, and rummaged through several times since. Her sandals perched in the grass next to it, their careless arrangement a testament to her distraction.

She herself leaned back against a tree, one hand on her book and the other in the grass beside her. Her dark hair fell in waves about her shoulders, unbound and shining where the sun touched it. Her bare feet were tucked to one side, while her head rested trustingly against the tree's trunk.

He knew it was foolish, but he wished that he could be the one she leaned on. He wished he could hold her while she slept, and sit with her while she studied. He wished he had the courage to drop his invisibility cloak and let her *see* him.

He couldn't, of course. He had thought about it, dreamed about it, considered every possible outcome of such a scenario in his mind. But in the end, even the good outcomes were bad, because it came down to one thing--the two of them could never work.

She was an Earth Ranger, one of a team, a unit, that she could never leave. He was not even of her world, let alone her team, and he had uncountable light years to go before he found peace. She couldn't wander, and he couldn't stop. There was no way for them to be together.

And so he watched her, yearning for something--anything--to change. He did not reveal himself, for he was afraid of what she would say. If she told him she loved him, he might not have the strength to leave. And if she told him she hated him, he would no longer have the heart to go on.

It all depended on her, and he couldn't even tell her. The power she had over him was one that he couldn't let her use, or his mission, his very identity, would be compromised. And if anything at all changed between them, for better or worse, his heart would never be the same. It was an unthinkable risk in the midst of a no-win situation.

She shifted a little in her sleep, but her eyes did not open. A breeze stirred the leaves above their heads, and the delighted laughter of children made the perfect setting complete.

He glanced down at the flower in his hand, made transparent to visible light for as long as he held it. For all his rationalizations, for all the fear that being so close to her evoked, he could not bring himself to simply leave.

He knew full well what roses meant to humans. He had enough acquaintances, visitors of Earth or of Earth themselves, to understand their significance. As he laid the deep pink rose at her side, he thought with no small amount of regret that it was probably as close as he would ever come to confessing his feelings.

"Remember me," the Phantom Ranger whispered, reaching out to touch her cheek before his own teleportation summoned him back to the stars.