Disclaimer: We don’t own what we don’t own, including but not limited to Power Rangers.
Full Summary: Set shortly after the end of Power Rangers: Dino Thunder. When Angel Grove announces another Power Rangers Day to honor the original Power Rangers team, Jason, Trini, Billy, Kimberly, Zack and Tommy return to Angel Grove… and Tommy brings the Dino Thunder Rangers along. Plenty of romance and comedy.
Author’s Notes: “Of Love and Bunnies” is co-written by Freyja SilverWillow (Freyja) and CrazyGirl47 (Rain), with the exception of some of the first few chapters (Freyja left the project for a while, but she came back eventually). Around chapter 49 we corrupted Brynhild GoUrL (Bryn) into loving PR, and she started contributing ideas to the fic and became our third co-author. This will be a Tommy/Kimberly fic, but throughout the story, we plan to explain how Jason and Trini got together told through flashbacks and similar methods. Trent and Kira are also a couple in this story, though we’re not focusing on building their relationship; the show did that well enough.
And… if you enjoy angst-ridden, drama-filled, blood-dripping etc. Power Rangers stories, now would be an excellent time to hit the button with the arrow and the word “Back” on it. This fic isn’t going to be filled with battles and monsters; it’s about the Ranger’s actual lives. It’s about relationships—both romantic and platonic—plot, and humor, not fight scenes. There might be a few battles and whatnot, but this fic isn’t really about that. We’re more concerned with making people laugh, having a blast, and putting the characters in wonderfully psychotic situations. Reviews are greatly appreciated, but if you flame us, we’re probably just going to roll our eyes.
Last updated: 7/19/07
On the first Saturday of summer vacation, Tommy sat in Hayley’s Cyberspace with Conner, Kira, and Ethan, listening as they discussed their plans for the upcoming months before moving on to college and whatnot in the fall. Tommy couldn’t help but feel a twinge of nostalgia, a wistful longing for the old days back at Angel Grove Youth Center with Jason, Trini, Billy, Kimberly and Zack, chatting away over smoothies or while working out, talking about what to do with their free time. It had been over a decade since he’d done anything in one big group with his first real friends, but it seemed like only a week ago.
Tommy was so lost in thought that he nearly jumped out of his skin when a newspaper hit the table in front of him; he whipped around to see Hayley grinning down at him.
“I think you’ll find page two rather interesting,” she told him, nodding at the paper before heading off to the sweep the floor behind counter.
Curious, Tommy looked down at the paper, wondering what could possibly interest him. He never read the paper anymore, not now that it was no longer filled with stories about the Power Rangers. Once Mesogog had been defeated, the paper had become quite boring to him; he only read the sports page and the comics now. He had entertained himself with the major stories for a few days after the last battle, reading the coverage of Mesogog’s downfall and then the speculation on what had happened to the Rangers (most of the town was wondering if they’d ever be seen in Reefside again). Now, however, it was mostly politics and such.
Tommy flipped to page two, his mouth dropping open at the photographs. One, which was relatively small and done in black-and-white, he recognized immediately as Angel Grove Park. To the right of the photo was a rare photograph of his old Power Rangers team, of the White, Black, Pink, Blue, Yellow and Red Rangers, and above both pictures was the headline, “Angel Grove to celebrate Power Rangers Day.”
Tommy stared at the headline, wondering if he was having some freakish sort of flashback. A Power Rangers Day? Again? …When there was no Power Rangers team?
He skimmed over the article, which was relatively long and talked about the original Power Rangers Day more than a decade ago, when Rita Repulsa had kidnapped the citizens of Angel Grove. There was also a good deal of speculation about whether the old Rangers would actually show up. The story continued to another page, and Tommy flipped to it, intrigued as he read through quotes from Angel Grove residents talking about how hopeful they were to see the old Rangers. He smiled when he saw a quote from someone in Reefside, who hoped feverishly that the Dino Rangers would put in an appearance as well. That explained why something like this was in the Reefside paper—the town was missing its heroes.
“‘…Angel Grove’s mayor has announced that, to celebrate the anniversary of the original Power Rangers Day, another ceremony will be held in Angel Grove Park, to once again thank the original Power Rangers team for protecting the city and for all their good deeds.’”
Tommy jumped and looked around; Conner, Ethan and Kira were now standing behind him, reading over his shoulder. He closed the newspaper. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you that it’s rude to read over people’s shoulders?”
“We tried reading it from where we were sitting, but that was kind of hard,” Ethan said cheerfully.
“‘The mayor is confident that the Power Rangers will put in an appearance; after all, they have never let Angel Grove down in any way,’” Conner continued, then looked up at Tommy expectantly. “Are you going?”
Tommy sighed; he was sure he had never been so annoying at seventeen. He turned back to the paper, staring down at it. Did they have to put it like that? As if it was their sacred duty to show up for Power Rangers Day?
“I don’t know,” he said absently, considering it. On the one hand, he wasn’t sure if he was invited or not. He knew the others would want him there… but he would feel quite stupid if the town meant the five original Rangers, and not him. Still, he might as well head for Angel Grove, see if they had a poster of the White Ranger up there with the other posters… and it’d be cool to see the gang again, regardless of whether or not the town planned on honoring him. He could spend some time with the old gang, provided they came… Jason and Trini, Billy, Zack… and Kimberly…
“Can we come?” Kira asked eagerly.
“What?” Tommy looked up again, startled.
“Come on! We want to meet them!” Ethan exclaimed. “The original Rangers… they’re legends!”
Tommy suddenly found himself surrounded by young hopeful faces with puppy-dog eyes. Realizing he was now in dangerous territory, he schooled his features into his best Teacher Look. “I don’t think so, guys,” Tommy said firmly.
“Why not?” Conner whined, nearly pouting.
Think, Tommy, think… “Because… it’s too dangerous.” Oh, THAT was smart. The first thing that pops into your head is danger and you spit it right out. Smooth move. Surely they’ll buy THAT— “honoring the original Rangers with a simple ceremony is too dangerous for superheroes that fought evil on an almost-daily basis.” Riiiiight.
“But we thrive on danger!” Ethan exclaimed.
“If there’s danger, you’re gonna need us,” Conner added.
“Yeah, fighting evil is our job,” Kira joined in. “At least, it was…”
“The original Rangers will be there,” Tommy reminded them.
“And they might need help,” Conner said, nodding emphatically.
“You can’t morph anymore, remember?” Tommy pointed out. He decided to omit the fact that only three of the original Rangers still had Power Coins; he couldn’t morph himself, except as Zeo Ranger Five.
“But we can still fight,” Conner insisted stubbornly.
Tommy sighed and decided to switch tactics. “Trust me, guys, you don’t want to go. All that traveling just for some dull ceremony—you’ll be beyond bored.”
“And you won’t be?” Kira asked.
“Um… of course I will be, but—”
“That’s why you should take us with you!” Conner interrupted. “We’ll liven up the place! You’ll have us to keep you company and hang out with you—”
“Conner, you’re not helping,” Ethan cut in quickly.
Before Conner could reply, Trent came over and sat down, shortly followed by Hayley. “This place is dead today,” Trent said, looking around at the café, which was empty, save for the five ex-Rangers and Hayley. Shrugging, he looked around at his friends and former teacher. “So what’s going on, guys?”
“Dr. O’s going back to visit Angel Grove because they’re honoring the original Power Rangers including him and he’s gonna take us with him,” Conner replied promptly.
“That’s a great idea, Tommy,” Hayley told him before Tommy could deny Conner’s statement. “I bet Jason and Billy and everyone would like to meet them, and I’m sure they’d all love to see Angel Grove—”
“Yeah, that sounds awesome,” Trent jumped in eagerly. “When do we leave?”
“We don’t,” Tommy said flatly. “I’m going alone. IF I go.”
“But Dr. Oooooooo…” all four teenagers whined.
“Why?” Hayley asked.
“Because the last thing I need is these kids asking Jason and the gang what I was like in high school,” Tommy muttered, low enough that only she could hear.
Hayley fought to suppress a laugh. “Oh. I see.”
“Hayley,” Kira said pleadingly, “if anyone can convince Dr. O to let us come—”
“Oh, look, there’s an invisible customer over there. I better go help him,” Hayley said quickly, retreating.
Tommy stared after her indignantly. She was supposed to back me up, not run for it, he thought irritably.
“Come on, Dr. O,” Trent said. “It’d be so cool to see Angel Grove. You could show us the sights.”
Ethan nodded. “Yeah! ‘That’s where I fought a monster, and that’s where I fought a monster, and look over there! That’s where I fought a monster!’”
“Ethan, you’re not helping,” Kira said.
“Guys, I can’t afford to take all four of you all the way to Angel Grove,” Tommy replied, struck by sudden inspiration. “I mean, the drive all the way there, the drive all the way back… and I might actually stay a few days, if my friends come—”
“We’ll hitchhike and sleep in a tent!” Conner exclaimed, as though this was the most logical solution in the world. Everyone turned to stare at him. “What?”
“Or we’ll pay our own way,” Kira said, shaking her head at Conner.
“Yeah, what she said.”
“Actually, my dad told me that he said he’d pay for me to go on a vacation if I wanted,” Trent spoke up. “He said I could bring some friends, too. You know, it’s a reward thing.”
“For saving the world?” Ethan asked.
“For getting good grades.”
“Oh.”
“I couldn’t ask him to do that,” Tommy said quickly, racking his brains for a way out of this.
“He offered, Dr. O. And I know he’ll be cool with me going to Angel Grove, especially if you’re going—”
Tommy shook his head. The last Power Rangers Day hadn’t exactly gone smoothly, and he didn’t really like the idea of taking the former Dino Thunder Rangers back to Angel Grove. It wasn’t really about the teasing both groups of former Rangers would inflict upon him like he’d told Hayley; he was worried that something might happen… and if truth be told, he wasn’t too sure he wanted anyone else along on a trip to go see the old gang. Now that the opportunity had presented itself, he was suddenly aching to spend some time alone with his first and best friends. He hadn’t actually spent time with all five of together at once since Trini, Zack and Jason had left for the Peace Conference, he’d only gotten to see Billy twice since Billy had left for Aquitar… and he hadn’t spent time with Kimberly at all since The Letter. He didn’t know if she’d come or not, but he knew that if she did, he’d be a basket case the whole time, though he was looking forward to seeing her. One thing he regretted about Kimberly was that he’d never patched things up, never contacted her and tried to at least stay friends. Still, whether Kimberly came or not, he had a strong desire to fly solo, if he even did fly at all. “Trent,” he said after a long pause, “go somewhere fun, okay? This is going to be a complete drag, and I don’t even know if the original Rangers will make it. I mean, Billy’s on a completely different planet, for crying out loud. This will be a lot more work than fun. I wouldn’t even go if I didn’t have to.”
“Why do you have to?” Conner asked.
“…Because the last time Angel Grove had a Power Rangers Day, the entire town got kidnapped,” he admitted reluctantly.
“Really?” Kira said, looking alarmed.
“We should definitely go, then,” Ethan added. “I mean, what if it happens again? What if the original Rangers aren’t enough?”
Tommy squirmed a little in his chair. That WAS a fair point… but Rita was destroyed, and so were all other evil entities with grudges against the original team. Surely nothing bad would go wrong? That’s what they always say right before a big evil comes along, he reminded himself.
“Guys, you can’t morph, and you know it.”
“But sometimes powers recharge, just like you said some of the Red Rangers’ did when you had that mission on the moon,” Kira reminded him.
“That doesn’t mean yours will. Besides, there’s not going to be any big evil battle,” Tommy said firmly, trying to convince himself as much as the Dino Rangers. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
“What happened to ‘it’s too dangerous’?” Ethan demanded.
“Dr. O, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Conner whined. “I’ve always wanted to meet the first Rangers.” He put on his best pleading look, and Tommy sighed, his resolve weakening… and then returning full-force when Conner added, “I hear the Pink Ranger is especially hot.” Kira glared at Conner and smacked him upside the head, hard. “OW!”
Tommy stood up quickly, filled with a sudden intense annoyance he couldn’t control. It took all of his willpower not to bite Conner’s head off. Instead, he snapped, “Conner, you are NOT going.”
Conner stared up at Tommy’s glaring face in surprise. “Um… please?” he asked nervously.
Tommy stood up and began to walk over to Hayley. “I said NO, guys. That’s final.”
“Come on, Dr. O!” Kira exclaimed, standing up. She and the three guys followed him across the café and he stopped, knowing they would follow him all over town if he tried to escape. “We may not be Rangers, but we still have skills. If something did happen and we stayed here, it would take us ages to get to Angel Grove to help, if we even heard about it at all.”
“Kira, you’re not helping,” Trent warned, realizing the flip side of her argument.
“And if you come, you’ll be leaving Reefside open and vulnerable, with no one here to contact you.” Ha! Take that! Score one for Dr. Oliver! Tommy gloated mentally.
“Except Hayley,” Ethan pointed out. “And Dr. Mercer.”
Curses, Tommy thought, resisting the urge to strangle Ethan. Thinking fast, he shrugged the comment off. “And if all of us were in one place, and there was an attack, then there wouldn’t be any backup—”
“I thought you said there wasn’t going to be an attack,” Conner said, looking confused.
“That’s not the point,” Tommy whined. That was the problem with teenagers—and Rangers, really. They never gave up.
“Come on, Dr. O,” Trent cajoled. “Nothing’s going to happen. My dad’s no longer evil, and unless something freaky happens to turn him into a killing machine again—”
“Trent, you’re not helping,” Conner interrupted with a smirk.
“Guys, I said no. You cannot come. Get it through your thick skulls, okay?”
“Never! Nothing gets in our thick skulls!” Conner declared, striking a tough-guy sort of pose.
“Conner, you’re not helping,” Ethan said dryly. He looked at Conner, Kira and Trent in turn, and then all four of them turned to look at Tommy. Something about the gleam in Ethan, Conner and Kira’s eyes made Tommy take a nervous step backward. “Guys—” Ethan grinned in an almost maniacal way— “I think it’s time we tried a little something called teamwork.”
Tommy’s eyes darted to the door, not knowing what they were planning but knowing he didn’t want to be around for it. Just as he decided he could make it to the door if he dodged between Kira and Trent, Conner shouted, “Everyone grab a limb!” and Conner, Kira and Ethan leaped at him.
“What the—ARGH!”
Ethan seized Tommy’s right arm, hugging it to him tightly, while Conner and Kira each grabbed a leg and held on like two year olds trying to prevent Daddy going to work and leaving them at day care.
“You’re not leaving without us!” Conner yelled, wrapping his arms and legs around Tommy’s right leg and sitting on his foot.
“Let go!” Tommy commanded indignantly. “You’re crushing my foot, Conner!”
“And I’m gonna keep crushing it until you agree to take us with you!”
“And I’m going to keep crushing your other foot!” Kira added.
Tommy looked down at the slender girl, who weighed next to nothing compared to Conner, and sighed. “Guys, I’m warning you—”
“Give it up, Dr. O. You’re beat,” Ethan told him smugly.
“And we’re out of school so you can’t give us detention and extra homework!” Conner exclaimed.
“One day, Conner, remind me to explain the meaning of the word ‘priorities.’” Kira snorted, rolling her eyes.
“Let GOOOO!” Tommy fairly screamed, shaking the leg Kira was holding so hard that she went slightly cross-eyed.
“What is going ON over here?”
“Hayley!” Tommy cried in relief as she hurried over. “Hayley, help!”
“What are you doing?” Hayley demanded, staring at the three teenagers glomped to Tommy, who had begun attempting to dislodge Ethan with his remaining free arm.
“We’re persuading Dr. Oliver here to take us to Angel Grove,” Conner said cheerfully.
Hayley stared at him, then glanced at Trent, who was standing nearby and watching in amusement. “Hey, don’t look at me,” he said defensively. “I’m still sane.”
“Hayley! A little help, please?” Tommy begged.
The corners of Hayley’s mouth twitched in amusement. Behind them, two local teens entered the café and approached the counter. “Sorry, Tommy,” she apologized unconvincingly. “Even if I had the strength to pull the three of them off of you, I’ve got customers to serve.”
“Hayley!” Tommy yelled. He turned to Trent as Hayley hurried away. “Trent, come on, help me get—”
“No!” Kira yelped at Trent.
“Don’t be swayed by the dark side, man!” Conner insisted. He paused. “Well, again!”
“Yeah,” Ethan added, trying to dodge Tommy’s left arm. “Give us a hand! You want to go to Angel Grove, don’t you?”
“Um… I think Hayley needs me,” Trent muttered, giving them all a weird look and edging back towards the counter.
“Trent! Come on, buddy, we need you!” Ethan yelled. Tommy had now grabbed Ethan’s forehead and was trying to push him back.
“If you’re not with us, you’re against us!” Conner proclaimed, glaring at him.
“What he said!” Kira agreed, narrowing her eyes.
“…You realize you’re all acting psychotic, right?” They all nodded, save Ethan, who gave a thumbs-up as best he could while clutching Tommy’s arm with his head forced back at an uncomfortable angle. Trent shook his head. “I’ll be over there. Trying to explain to the customers why you guys have attacked Dr. O like toddlers.”
“You do that, traitor!” Conner yelled after him.
Tommy growled and let go of Ethan’s head. “You know what? I’m an adult. I have a longer attention span than you three. And I’m NOT changing my mind. AT ALL. So go ahead, sit on my feet and pin my arm! I am not taking you with me!”
~*~
About an hour later, Hayley’s Cyberspace was far busier, filled with teenagers playing on the computers, talking over drinks… or simply staring, pointing and laughing at Tommy, who was still standing in the middle of the café with Conner on one foot, Kira on the other, and Ethan on his arm. The café’s patrons were becoming quite used to the sight; several people had come over talk to Kira, Ethan or Conner for the moment, and some had even said a few words to Tommy. Whatever Trent had said about the situation, it must have sounded good; everyone seemed to think that there was a perfectly logical reason for the strange sight, and no one really questioned it, though they did think it was amusing.
Tommy was about to lose his mind. He had never been much for holding still, and the three teenagers weren’t helping. Ethan was now holding his right arm and the end of his left sleeve, preventing him from using either arm (not surprising, considering how often Tommy had spontaneously started hitting him). Kira had scooted around so that she was sitting behind his foot with her arms and legs wrapped around the front of his leg and her head resting just behind his knee. Conner occasionally poked him in the leg for the fun of it, which wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t keep poking the same spot often enough that Tommy was wondering about bruising… and there were also several other annoyances.
“Are you gonna take us now?” Ethan whined. He’d been asking the same question every two minutes for the last hour.
“No.”
“Are you gonna take us now?” So had Conner.
“No.”
“Are you gonna take us now?” And Kira.
“The next person who asks me that is going to accidentally fall off a cliff onto extremely sharp rocks and their mutilated corpse will be washed away into the ocean and never seen again.”
Silence.
Just as Tommy was starting to think that they’d let it go, Ethan cleared his throat.
“Can we come with you now?”
A scream was threatening to burst forth, building inside his throat and attempting to fight its way out. Just before he let out his frustration, however, a familiar buzzing started in his back pocket.
“ARGH!” Kira shrieked, pulling back from his leg as far as she could without letting go.
“What was that?” Ethan asked, alarmed.
“What was what?” Conner said, unconcerned. “Kira just randomly screamed—”
“Something just started vibrating,” Ethan interrupted, noticing it too.
“On Dr. O?” Conner asked, wrinkling his nose in disgust and looking rather horrified at the implications.
“I think it was something in his pocket,” Kira said, breathing heavily from the start she’d been given.
Tommy glowered at Conner, the only one in his direct line of sight. “It was just my cell ph—HEY! GET YOUR HAND OUT OF THERE!”
The entire café turned to stare, but Tommy was too freaked out to care. Someone had just put their hand in his back pocket, and that was not exactly something he had expected to happen (much like the rest of the day).
Kira removed her hand, her fingers clenched around the cell phone. “Trini, eh? Who’s that, Dr. O?”
“Dr. O’s got a GIRLFRIEND!” Conner declared gleefully.
“Give me the phone, Kira,” Tommy said in his best no-nonsense voice.
Ethan grinned. “Dr. O seems a little busy to me. What do you think, guys?”
Tommy heard the sound of Kira flipping his phone open. Panicking, Tommy jerked his arm up out of his sleeve and down and out of his shirt, freeing it and making a wild grab for the phone. Kira yelped, ducked, and tossed the phone to Ethan, who released Tommy, snatched the phone, hit the send button and ran for it.
“Run, Ethan!” Conner yelled.
“We’ve got him—ARGH!”
Now that his arms were free, Tommy was able to grab Kira and pry her loose, freeing his left leg easily. He reached for Conner, but Conner, in a rare moment of intelligence, figured it was time to run also, and took off.
“Dr. Oliver’s cell phone,” Ethan said pleasantly into the microphone as Tommy chased him around the tables, his shirt riding up as he stretched out his arms to try to grab Ethan, one arm and half of his chest uncovered.
“…Who is this?” asked a deep, masculine voice, which wasn’t at all what Ethan was expecting. He had, after all, thought he was about to talk to Tommy’s “girlfriend.”
“You’re a GUY?” Ethan said, so startled that he stopped—giving Tommy the chance to catch him. “AUGH! CONNER! Go long!”
The cell phone flew across the café. Tommy let go of Ethan and spun around just in time to see Conner leap forward and catch it. Various customers clapped and cheered at the move.
“CONNER!” Tommy bellowed.
“Hello?” Conner said.
“Hello?” said the voice at the other end.
“Trini is a guy’s name?” Conner said in surprise.
“That’s my wife’s name—who is this?”
“I’m one of Dr. O’s students. Who’s this?”
“GIVE. ME. THE. PHONE!” Tommy roared, running full-speed at Conner.
Conner leaped away and ran for it. “Ethan!” he yelled as Tommy chased him back to the other side of the café.
Ethan caught the phone and took off once again. “Was that Tommy I heard in the background?” the caller asked.
“Yeah, he’s here,” Ethan said, jumping over someone who had crouched down to tie their shoe (and scaring the person half to death). “He’s just a little busy at the moment.”
“When I’m through with you three you’ll only WISH I’d still be able to give detentions!” Tommy shouted, leaping over the shoe-tying person as well. Conner’s sudden burst of laughter didn’t improve Tommy’s mood.
“Busy doing what?” the caller asked.
“Um… exchanging words with a few unruly former students, is all.”
“ETHAN!”
“Hold please,” Ethan said pleasantly, and faked a pass to Kira; as soon as Tommy ran at her, Ethan threw the phone back to Conner.
“So, who is this?” Conner asked, crouching down behind a table in the corner as Kira distracted Tommy.
“Tommy’s friend, Jason Scott,” came the amused-sounding reply. “How did you get Tommy’s cell ph—?”
“Jason Scott? THE Jason Scott?” Conner hissed, glancing around to make sure no one was in earshot. “The original Red Ranger?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jason said, a little too quickly.
“Dude, it’s cool. This is Conner McKnight, the Red Dino Ranger!”
“Oh,” Jason said. “I’ve heard about you from Tommy.”
“Same here! Dude, you’re a legend! THE Red Ranger. The first Red Ranger, the original leader of the Power Rangers—”
“Um, you’re not in public, are you?” Jason asked worriedly.
“I’m whispering,” Conner replied. “And no one’s really paying attention to me.”
“Um… right. Is Tommy—”
“I can’t believe this!” Conner shouted ecstatically, standing up and knocking the table over in the process. “THE Jason Scott! THE FIRST RED! Ethan! Kira! GUESS WHO THIS IS!”
“It wouldn’t be Jason Scott, the first Red, would it?” Kira said dryly. Glancing around casually, she searched the customers’ faces for signs of realization, but no one appeared to have connected “the first Red” with the Power Rangers.
“How’d you guess?” Conner said, disappointed.
“RAWG!” Tommy growled, diving at Conner from the side. Conner looked over in surprise, having forgotten their game of Keep Away From Angry (Former) Teacher, and threw the phone just before Tommy crashed into him, sending them tumbling into the overturned table in a painful heap.
Kira caught the phone, stunned and suddenly terrified. Jason Scott, the original Red Ranger, the first person to ever lead the Rangers, was on the phone. What was she going to SAY?
“Hello? HELLO?” came Jason’s voice.
Shakily, she put the receiver to her ear. “H-hello?”
“…Hi. Who’s this?”
“Th-this is Kira,” she said, backing away from the crowd, attempting to get over her nerves at talking to a legend like Jason while getting out of the onlookers’ listening range and Tommy’s direct line of sight. “Kira Ford. I’m, uh, I mean, I was Yellow. I mean, you know, THE Yellow, not yellow as in chicken. I mean, as in cowardly, not as in actual chicken… is this really Jason Scott?”
Jason chuckled. “Yeah, that’s me. Listen… what’s going on over there? I keep hearing Tommy shouting—”
“Oh, uh…” Kira wrinkled her brow, thinking fast. “He’s excited. We just heard about the celebration, and he’s going to take us to Angel Grove to meet you guys!”
“Oh, really?” Jason said, surprised. “That sounds great. We were all so surprised to hear that he had created a new Ranger team. I look forward to meeting you.”
“Are you all going to be there?” Kira squeaked.
“All of the old team? I hope so. I’ve talked to—”
“KIRA! Look out!”
Kira, so star struck by the thought of actually meeting Jason, had forgotten about Tommy much like Conner had; he came barreling from out of nowhere and snatched the phone, his loose sleeve whacking her in the head as he turned away from her. “Jason?” he gasped, out of breath from anger and exertion.
“Hey, Tommy! How’s it going? Kira was just telling me that you’re bringing the new crew down for Power Rangers Day.”
Tommy sighed long-sufferingly and looked around him. At least four tables and six chairs were knocked over. Several overturned drinks were being mopped up by Trent. The customers, who’d been cheering throughout the game of phone tag, were lining the walls in an attempt to avoid getting hurt. Hayley was staring at him with murder in her eyes. And only half of his chest was still covered by his shirt. Shrugging his shirt back on, he could have sworn he heard a few sighs… and one female whisper of “No, you shouldn’t think about teachers like that… ohhh nooo…”
“Yeah,” Tommy told Jason sadly. “You’ll finally get to meet the four wonderful kids who made up the team.” Before they die slow painful deaths, he added silently. “Hang on a second; let me go somewhere… that’s not here…”
He turned around to find Hayley glaring up at him. “You go anywhere NEAR that door before this place is clean, and I’ll make you wish Mesogog was back.”
Tommy stared down at her blankly and slowly blinked. “On second thought, Jason, let me call you back.”
Jason grinned broadly as he set down the phone; from the sounds of things, Tommy had never achieved that dream of settling down and living the quiet life. Tommy’s life was never very calm, orderly or normal. Jason hadn’t really been very surprised to hear that Tommy had formed a new Ranger team and gotten back into uniform; in fact, Jason had just shaken his head and remarked that Tommy would probably end up as a sixty-year-old slightly arthritic Orange Ranger at this rate.
Jason sat back on his couch, glancing absently around the living room. After college, almost three years after he’d broken up with Emily, he’d returned to Angel Grove to open his own dojo, which had been very successful; there were a lot of martial arts fans in the original home of the Power Rangers. His life since the Ranger days hadn’t been anywhere near as exciting as Tommy’s, but it had been comfortable, and happy—even more so when Trini had come back into it.
He’d gotten together with Trini back in high school, shortly before leaving the Rangers, and he’d stayed with her during the Peace Conference. They’d decided to cool it after the conference and just stay friends; Trini had been bound for MIT, and Jason had wanted to go back to California. They’d kept in touch and remained close while Jason worked on a business degree (he’d wanted to have a fallback, another job opportunity in case his plan of running a dojo had failed, and he’d figured business management would help his school more successful and give him other options if it didn’t work out), and Trini studied to be a software designer. She’d gotten a job with a computer company in Louisiana, but she’d missed Angel Grove, and was able to transfer to Angel Grove within a year. She and Jason became inseparable again, spending every spare moment together, and before long, they were a couple again. They’d been married for a little over two years now, and they were thoroughly happy.
Jason had kept in touch with all of his old friends, especially Tommy, Zack, Billy, and Kimberly—which wasn’t surprising, given that, with the exception of Tommy, they’d all known each other for most of their lives. At the moment, Billy was the only one who wasn’t in California; he was still on Aquitar with Cestria. It was rather silly to ask Billy to come home from a completely different planet just for a short ceremony, but Trini had decided she’d let him know about it; Billy had been thinking about returning to visit anyway. They had all missed Billy, though it helped that he’d sent communication devices to keep in touch with all of his friends (which came with long instructions that no one but Trini could interpret; she’d spent a good long while calling everyone who’d gotten one and helping them figure it out). Trini was especially excited at the thought that Billy might actually come to visit; the two of them had always been very close. Billy had only been back to Earth twice since leaving, and both times had only been for a few hours—once to collect his belongings (only the Zeo Rangers had gotten to see him that time) and once to attend Jason and Trini’s wedding.
Trini and Jason had already called Zack, who was working as a fight choreographer in Hollywood. Zack had always made it a point to take some time off each year and visit his friends and family, and he’d immediately warmed to the idea of getting the old crew together for a few days. He was already making plans to spend about a week in Angel Grove, regardless of whether Tommy, Billy and Kimberly came for Power Rangers Day; even if it was only Trini, Jason and Zack who made it, they were all looking forward to it. Zack had booked a local hotel room for the week before Power Rangers Day; they’d offered to let him stay at the house, but he’d pointed out that four extra people might be a little cramped in Trini and Jason’s home, and at least Billy was going to have to stay with them, since Billy no longer had American money, or any other form of currency used on Earth.
Now that Tommy and Zack had decided to come, and Trini was talking to Billy, the only person who didn’t know about Power Rangers Day was Kimberly. Kimberly, who’d had a long career as a gymnast and even won two Olympic medals, now lived in Los Angeles and ran a gymnastics center. Jason was sure she’d love to come… but she would probably be quite awkward around Tommy. They’d only seen each other once since Kimberly had left for the Pan Global games, and that had been when she and Jason got kidnapped by Divatox, roughly seven years ago. Kimberly and Tommy had barely spoken then, and they’d both seemed very strained. Ever since Jason had heard about the letter Kimberly had sent Tommy, he had avoided asking her about Tommy at all, and she hadn’t offered any information. Jason didn’t want to take sides, to sacrifice one friend for the other, so he’d just kept his mouth shut about it. Kimberly and Tommy hadn’t been hateful or angry with each other when they’d met up during the kidnapping thing, but they hadn’t exactly chatted away. Jason couldn’t recall them saying a word that wasn’t tense small talk or something to do with Divatox. Kimberly would definitely want to get together with Trini, Zack, Jason and Billy, but Jason wasn’t sure what her reaction to Tommy would be. He knew Tommy regretted not staying friends with her, or fighting to get her back, but Jason had no clue what Kimberly’s thoughts were. Perhaps Trini would know, though; she was just as close to Kimberly as Jason was, if not more so.
Jason was startled from his thoughts by Trini, who emerged from the basement with a huge smile on her face. “Billy’s going to come!” she exclaimed, nearly shaking with excitement. “He said it won’t be a problem, the Aquitians can teleport him straight here—he said he’d stay as long as Zack planned to, maybe longer, but he didn’t want to impose too long. I told him that was silly, of course, because he could never impose on us even if he tried, but I think he feels bad about not having any money, at least not money usable on this planet, and that he can’t stay in a hotel or buy his own food—”
“Whoa, slow down,” Jason interrupted, grinning.
“Sorry,” she said, sitting down on the couch beside him, “I’m just so happy he’s coming back. I miss him like crazy. I bet he’s learned loads about the computer systems used on Aquitar—”
Jason chuckled. “Yes, you two discuss alien computers; I’ll try and figure out just how to use my e-mail and program the microwave clock. Sounds like fun.”
Trini laughed. “Don’t worry, Jase. Even while Billy’s here, I’ll help you use your e-mail, and no amount of time with Billy is enough to make me let you go near the microwave clock.” Jason gave her a mock-glare. “What did Tommy say?”
“He’s going to call me back,” he replied. “He was… in the middle of something, but he’s going to be here. And he says he’s bringing the new Ranger team.”
“Really? How interesting,” Trini said, raising her eyebrows. She giggled. “I really can’t picture Tommy as a teacher. He’s so… well…”
“Disorganized?”
“Well, yes, but that’s not why. I just can’t see him placing himself in a role like that, teacher to student. He’s a leader, but he’s usually on even ground with those he’s leading, one way or another. I can’t see him controlling a bunch of teenagers and not acting like a teenager himself. He’s more King Arthur than Julius Caesar.”
“Tommy’s been shocking us to death for years,” Jason pointed out. “Who knew he’d end up with a PhD in paleontology, of all the things?”
She giggled again. “That’s another thing I can’t see—Tommy sitting still long enough to study something that deep.”
“The race car thing, I could see that,” Jason agreed. “Examining fossils? That was a shock.”
Trini nodded, then gave him a thoughtful look. “Think Kimberly heard about Power Rangers Day?”
Jason shook his head. “I doubt it. She’s not much for reading the paper or watching the news, and I’m not sure an Angel Grove ceremony is interesting enough to make L.A.’s news anyway.”
“Think she’ll come?” Trini asked.
“I don’t know. I think I’ll drive out there and talk to her about it, actually. She’ll probably come. It’s not like she and Tommy can’t be civil; Tommy’s not even mad anymore, really.”
“He’s the one who ended it,” Trini said. “But I don’t think Kim is m—”
“What do you mean, ‘he’s the one who ended it?’” Jason interrupted. He and Trini had never spoken much about Tommy and Kimberly’s relationship, both feeling that it wasn’t for them to judge, but he was rather shocked that she thought it was somehow Tommy’s fault when Kimberly was the one who’d dumped Tommy in a letter.
“Just what I said,” Trini replied, giving him an odd look. “Tommy’s the one who ended it.”
“No, he isn’t,” Jason argued, confused and not a little defensive. “It was Kim.”
Trini’s expression darkened, but her tone was still diplomatic. “Just because she went to Florida doesn’t—”
The phone rang, and Trini stopped. “That’s probably Tommy,” she said.
“Yeah.” Jason glanced at the caller ID; sure enough, it was Tommy’s cell. “Look, let’s not take sides, okay? They’re both our friends, and what happened isn’t our business.” It was the same thing they had said eight years ago, back when the breakup had first happened.
“True,” Trini agreed. She nodded at the phone. “Put it on speaker, okay?”
Jason hit the button. “Hello?”
“Hey, Jase.”
“Hey.”
“Hi, Tommy!”
“Hey, Trini. How’s it going, guys?”
“Good,” Jason said. “What was going on earlier? Why’d you let Conner and Ethan and Kira have your phone?”
“‘Let’ is a strong word,” Tommy replied, sounding a tad irritated. “It’s a long story.”
“Jason said you’re bringing the Dino Rangers?” Trini said eagerly.
“…Yeah,” Tommy said, the annoyance in his voice increasing slightly. “Is that all right with you guys? Because if you’d rather I didn’t, I totally understand—”
“Nonsense. It will be great to meet them,” Trini said pleasantly. “I’d love to see them.”
“Yeah, any protégé of yours has got to be interesting,” Jason said, trying to stifle a laugh.
“Oh, ha, ha,” Tommy said, sighing. “Are Billy and Zack coming?”
“Yep. Zack’s got the time—”
“And even Billy said he could make it home,” Trini said, smiling happily.
“Awesome!” He paused; when he spoke again, his tone was carefully casual. “What about Kimberly?”
“We haven’t talked to her yet,” Jason said, exchanging a glance with Trini. They hadn’t often heard him mention Kimberly; the moments when Kimberly came up in conversation with Tommy were few and far between.
“Oh. Well, let me know when you do. This Power Rangers Day… it’s in two weeks, right?”
“Two weeks from today, that’s right. Zack’s coming into town next Saturday, and so is Billy.”
“I’ll try and come down Saturday, too,” Tommy said. “We’re all on summer vacation, and I haven’t really made too many plans yet. It’s the best part of being a teacher—you get your summers off, but you still get paid.”
“Lucky you,” Jason said. “So… will you all be staying here?”
“Trust me, the last thing you want is four teenagers running amuck in your house,” Tommy said dryly. “I’ll get a hotel.”
“Zack’s going to stay at Angel Grove Inn,” Trini said. “Billy’s staying here, though.”
“I’ll probably stay at the Inn then, too,” Tommy said. “I’ll have to make some calls, think a few things over… it’s been a while since I had an actual vacation. It’d be nice to hang out around Angel Grove and all. Go to the beach and the park and stuff… but I guess you two will have to work, won’t you?”
“We’re both going to try to take off as much time as we can,” Trini said. “I have some vacation time, and Jason’s going to talk to his students, so we should be able to get time off.”
“That’s great. I think I’d better go and call up Conner, Ethan, Kira and Trent’s parents… they might not be allowed to come…” He sounded distinctly hopeful.
“I’m sure they will,” Trini said, missing Tommy’s tone.
“Well, give us a call when you know more,” Jason said. “Can’t wait to see you, Tommy.”
“Same here, guys. Bye.”
Trini and Jason said their good-byes and hung up. Jason set the phone down. “I think I’ll just go surprise Kim,” he said, knowing that Kimberly was far more easily persuaded in person, as she was often hooked by pleading looks and smiles and had a tendency to make up an excuse to get off the phone when she was being asked to do something she didn’t want to do.
“I’m sure she’ll come,” Trini said. “She wouldn’t miss a chance to hang out together; we haven’t done that since high school.”
“Yeah,” Jason agreed, hoping Trini was right.
~*~
Kimberly slid into the driver’s seat of her car, stretching her head from side to side. She’d been teaching all day—Saturdays were always her busiest—but, while her body was tired, she also felt… ready. She felt as though she could kick some serious butt. Part of her still expected to hear the beeping of her communicator and go rushing off to battle; after all this time, she still felt the urge to fight.
Her life was going quite well. Her studio had grown at an exponential rate; everyone wanted to train with an Olympic medalist, especially one who was also the girl next door and a native Californian. Kimberly now had three other instructors working for her and dozens of students; it was a wonder she remembered their names. She had a nice house, a nice car, and—naturally—a wardrobe and shoe collection to rival most actresses. Still, something felt off. She was no longer competing, and it had been the only thing that had taken the edge off of her love of being a Ranger. She didn’t like the danger, but protecting others and fighting for a good cause had always been something she’d enjoyed. Now, she felt like there was nothing spectacular left. There were no high beams above cheering crowds, there were no monsters to fight. She had money, and a job she enjoyed, but she had nothing to excite her anymore.
Except the ringing of her cell phone, which made her jump so badly her head hit the windshield.
“OW!” she yelped, rubbing her head as she picked the phone up. “Hello?” she grumbled sourly into the phone.
“Was that a greeting or a death threat?” came Jason’s voice.
“Jason! Hi!” Kimberly exclaimed. “Sorry, had a minor injury.”
“You okay?” Jason demanded worriedly.
“Yes, Dad,” Kimberly teased. “What’s up?”
“I’m driving. I’m about an hour from L.A.”
“Why?” Kimberly asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I thought we could hang.”
“Any particular reason for this visit?” Kimberly asked suspiciously. Jason rarely surprised her when he came to visit. When he did surprise her, he never called halfway there, enjoying the look on her face when she saw him on her doorstep. If he was already on his way, he probably wanted something, had something serious to discuss, or had news that she didn’t want to hear; those where the only times when he started driving before giving her a heads up. His leaving first meant he wanted to be too far away from his home for her to feel right about telling him to turn around.
“Do I need a reason to visit one of my best friends?” Jason replied. “I miss you, is all.”
Kimberly smirked. Jason was a horrible liar, especially when it came to his friends. “Do I need a reason” and “I miss you, is all” meant “You’re not going to like it.” If his motives had been innocent, he would have simply said no, and rambled off something he wanted to do with Kimberly while visiting her.
“Isn’t that sweet,” Kimberly said dryly, starting her car and putting it in reverse. “An hour, eh? Want me to order pizza?”
“Yeah. Sounds good.”
“Right. See you soon.”
Kimberly pondered over what Jason could possibly have to say as she drove home, showered, dressed and called the local Pizza Hut. The last time he had done something like this had been when he’d come to convince her that the guy she was seeing was bad news, and the time before that, he’d wanted to propose to Trini and ask for Kimberly’s advice. For some reason, she felt particularly nervous about this visit; the word “divorce” was flashing through her mind, as were things like “monsters,” “death,” and “broken bones.”
She was just handing the pizza delivery boy his money when she heard a car door slam; she practically knocked the pizza guy off the porch as she rushed forward. “Jason!” she exclaimed, flinging herself at her friend as he climbed out of his pickup truck.
“Hey, Kim!” Jason said, picking her up and swinging her around. “How’ve you been?”
“Same old, same old,” Kimberly said cheerfully as the pizza boy stalked passed, giving her a disgruntled look as he returned to his beat-up car. “You?”
“Great!” Jason replied enthusiastically. “In fact, I’ve got some good news.”
“What is it?” Kimberly asked, wondering if she’d been wrong about Jason’s motives for coming.
“…Let’s get inside,” Jason said, glancing around casually. Kimberly arched an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.
Kimberly led the way up the walk and to the porch; Jason grabbed the abandoned pizza from the railing before following her inside. A few moments later, they were sitting down on Kimberly’s couch with their food. Jason picked up his slice but didn’t bite into it. “So…” Kimberly began, “what’s the news?”
Jason smiled, but something about him seemed nervous. “They’re holding another Power Rangers day. One to honor the original team.”
“You’re kidding!” Kimberly exclaimed. “After what happened last time?”
“You save people a few times and they no longer fear mass kidnapping,” Jason joked.
Kimberly giggled. “So… are you thinking of going?”
“Yes, of course,” Jason replied. “Trini and I are gonna go, and Zack’s getting time off from work. Even Billy said he could make it.”
“That’s awesome!” Kimberly gushed. “He hasn’t been back to Earth in years!”
“Not since he left,” Jason said, nodding. “So… we were hoping you’d come down to Angel Grove too. Billy and Zack are arriving next Saturday; they’re going to stay the whole week, maybe longer.”
“I suppose I could make it,” Kimberly said thoughtfully, trying to figure out how to work it. Her classes wouldn’t be hard to cover for a week; the people she worked with were always looking for more hours. She could afford it, and a vacation would be nice—especially a vacation with her four closest childhood friends. She’d known Trini, Zack, Jason and Billy for most of her life, and it still felt strange to her that they hadn’t all gotten together in roughly more than a decade. While she got to see Trini and Jason fairly often, Zack was usually busy with his job, and Kimberly hadn’t seen Billy since she’d left Angel Grove to train with Coach Schmidt. She was suddenly desperate to see them all again.
“That’s awesome,” Jason said casually. He hesitated, and Kimberly rolled her eyes, exasperated.
“You know, Jase, the Mystery Man thing doesn’t work so well if you can’t lie to save your life. Why don’t you tell me the reason you felt you couldn’t tell me this over the phone?”
Jason opened his mouth with an expression on his face that said he was clearly planning to deny that he had bad news, but a no-nonsense look from Kimberly made him decide to come clean. He sighed and put down his pizza.
“All right,” he said. “Look, when I said ‘original team,’ I didn’t exactly mean you, me, Billy, Zack and Trini…” He frowned, struggling to find the right words. Without warning, he suddenly blurted out, “Tommy’s coming.”
Kimberly blinked, staring at him. “Oh.”
Jason seemed to be in suspended animation, waiting for some sort of explosion. When none came, he forced out, “Are… are you still going to come?”
Kimberly looked even more startled by this question. “Of course I’m still going to come,” she said, “you know—” She broke off. She had been about to say “You know that,” but she didn’t really think Jason did know that. They had never talked about Tommy, not once. This was the first times she’d ever heard Jason—or any of her friends—mention Tommy’s name since they’d broken up. “You know I would never miss the chance to hang out with the gang,” she amended after a long pause.
“Being around Tommy won’t upset you?” Jason asked anxiously.
Kimberly sighed. It would upset her. Tommy wasn’t just some jaded ex-boyfriend; he was her first love, and you never forgot your first love, as the saying goes. She still thought about him, often. She still wished that it hadn’t ended, that she’d done something to repair their relationship, or at least to remain friends. When she’d been released from Divatox’s spell, she’d been horrified at the memory of what she had done to Tommy while evil. She had always imagined a thousand things she would say and do if she ever saw him again… but she had never imagined she would get her first shot to reconcile right after being under an evil spell, during which she’d ignored his attempts to get through to her by removing his helmet, then urged Jason to throw Tommy into a lava pit. For a moment when they’d been talking aboard the Megazord, she had looked at him, and they’d just stared at each other for what seemed like ages. She’d tried to tell him everything with that look, and for a moment she’d thought he’d understood… and then Tommy had turned back to Jason and said something about the Liarians.
“Kinda,” Kimberly said noncommittally, with a half shrug. “But I’m not, like, going to spit fire if I see him. He might, though—have you talked to him?”
Jason nodded. “He asked if you were coming. He didn’t sound upset or anything.”
Kimberly nodded. “Look, what happened with Tommy is in the past. If he’s willing to be friends, I most certainly am, too.”
Jason smiled, looking as relieved as a person who’d just been told their puppy wasn’t going to die after all. “That’s great, Kim. I can’t say for sure, but I think he feels the same way.” He looked like he wanted to say more, but thought better of it. After a long pause, during which Kimberly’s mind swirled with thoughts about Tommy and the past, he said, “Oh, he’s bringing his Ranger team, too.”
“Tommy has a Ranger team?” Kimberly repeated, looking astonished.
“Oh, yeah, the Dino Rangers,” Jason said, surprised. “Haven’t you heard of them?”
“Yes, but I didn’t know Tommy was one of them!” Kimberly said, rather exasperated with her friends. It appeared that their reluctance to mention Tommy around her ran deeper than she’d thought. “Which one was he?”
“Black.”
“Really? Is his life’s aspiration to fight in every color known to man before he dies?”
Jason laughed long and hard, suddenly seeming far more at ease. “I think so. Of course, to do that, he’d have to be Pink, too.”
Kimberly snorted. “Wouldn’t surprise me, at this rate. Wow. He’s back in uniform?”
“Not anymore, no. Their powers were drained in their last battle.”
“Happens a lot, doesn’t it?” Kimberly mused thoughtfully. “Odd.”
The two friends were soon engaged in a light-hearted discussion of Rangers, past and present, and their conversation and laughter drove all thoughts of awkward reunions with her ex from Kimberly’s mind.
Over the next week, Tommy prayed for some sort of resistance to the teens’ evil intentions to butt in on his vacation. Once or twice he even found himself plotting a fake monster attack just to have an excuse. Unfortunately, no resistance came.
Conner, Kira, and Ethan’s parents all granted them leave to take a graduation trip, especially when they found out that it would be financed by Anton Mercer and supervised by Tommy; they seemed to think it was some sort of post-graduation field trip. (When he talked to Kira’s mother—the last parent Tommy called—Tommy had been so desperate that he’d nearly screamed that he was a pedophile and that no responsible mother would allow their daughter to go traipsing off to another city with him. His reluctance to get arrested and lose his job was the only thing that held him back.) Before Tommy had gotten a chance to call Trent’s father, Anton Mercer had showed up on his doorstep with his checkbook in hand, rambling about numbers and how good it was of Tommy to take Trent and the others and how much it would mean to them to have one last adventure with their mentor.
Tommy seriously considered setting fire to the Angel Grove Inn.
He wasn’t sure what was making him hate the idea so fiercely, but he suspected that part of it was that Conner, Kira, Ethan and Trent left him trapped between two worlds—adulthood and theirs. Now, he was going back to relive his childhood, and while he greatly anticipated the chance, he thought he was going to have enough problems going back without bringing the four biggest reminders of his new life into his old life. Angel Grove and the gang were a sacred part of his life, a private part, and he didn’t really want to remember how much things had changed, which he would be forced to do if he brought along the kids.
Then, too, there was Kimberly, and all the questions the four recent Rangers were going to ask—Conner in particular was not known for his tact—and then there was the teasing. Jason still wouldn’t let Tommy live down the fact that he’d once sported a mullet, for crying out loud. None of his ex-students were ever going to listen to him again once they knew that his chronic lateness and absent-minded-professor habits were not “products of old age.”
Still, as he listened to Conner, Kira, Ethan and Trent ramble on about how cool the trip was going to be, a small mutinous part of him agreed with them. That part of him couldn’t wait to impress them all with stories about his early Ranger days, make them laugh and stare at him with wide-eyed respect.
Tommy longed to beat that part of him with a sledgehammer.
But, as he couldn’t figure out where on his person that part was hiding, and he couldn’t find a way to keep the teenagers from coming along without crushing their spirits, he forced a smile to his face as they all assembled at his house early on Friday, all looking like six-year-old kids on Christmas morning. (Tommy had decided to leave the day before, in the hopes of actually making it on time.) All of them were traveling rather light, which Tommy was glad for, as he very well couldn’t. In the back of his Jeep rested a long black wooden box, almost as long as he was. Inside were all his clothes and toiletries and so on, but, more importantly—
“GUYS! LOOK! IT’S HIS WHITE RAN—mmph!”
Tommy surged forward and clamped his hand over Conner’s mouth. While Tommy had been talking about their route with Ethan and Trent, Conner had snuck over to the Jeep and peered inside the box to investigate. Inside, under the clothes, cushioned carefully by his belongings, was the White Ranger suit—helmet, boots, shield and all. It was the same one that had once stood on display in the back of the Power Chamber; as his Power Coin was destroyed, this suit was the only way he was going to be attending Power Rangers Day as his former self. “Quiet,” Tommy hissed, glancing about uneasily, though he didn’t see anyone but them in the general vicinity.
“Sorry, Dr. O,” Conner said in a muffled voice from behind Tommy’s hand.
“Wow,” Kira said in awe, gazing in at the helmet until Tommy closed the case’s lid. “How come you have the suit lying around?”
“We kept them as souvenirs,” Tommy explained. “Well, Jason kept the Blue one for Billy, and Kimberly kept the Pink, but the Red, Yellow and Black went to Rocky, Aisha and Adam, since they can’t morph into the original suits anymore and Jason, Trini and Zack can.”
“They can? Then why don’t they?” Ethan asked, startled.
“Well, for one thing, there’s not much need,” Tommy said. “For another, we agreed, a long time back, that we shouldn’t let anyone know that three of the originals still had Power Coins. That way, if any current Ranger team was defeated, there would be others who could finish their work. Few of the Rangers have their powers still, but those that do don’t go around parading it. Like the Zeo Rangers—Tanya, Kat, Adam, Rocky and I still have our powers, but we haven’t used them since we became Turbo Rangers.”
“How come they still have Power Coins?” Kira asked. “Didn’t you say your Coins were destroyed?”
“They were. But it was Rocky, Adam and Aisha who lost their Coins, not Jason, Zack and Trini; they were already long gone by then. The Sword of Light gave Rocky, Adam and Aisha their powers, and it didn’t completely drain Jason, Trini and Zack’s powers. You’re all familiar with the theory that energy can’t be created or destroyed? Energy can only be converted into matter, and matter into energy?” They all nodded. “Well, the Power Coins were simply a channel for the energy. Like a remote for a television. The Sword of Light siphoned most of the power out of the three original Power Coins, and transferred them into duplicates the Sword created. Jason, Trini and Zack kept their basically powerless coins; they could still transform into the suit and summon their weapons, but most of the power was gone. Apparently our powers weren’t destroyed, simply scattered without a way to harness them. But Rocky, Adam and Aisha’s powers had a container to go to—Jason, Zack and Trini’s old Coins. So they’re now at nearly full power again. They even still have their Blade Blasters,” Tommy added with a touch of envy in his voice.
“Cool!” Conner exclaimed, looking as though he was itching to reopen the box, pull out the helmet and jam it on his head.
Tommy forced down an exasperated sigh and asked, “Are we ready to go, guys?”
“Shotgun!” the four of them yelled simultaneously, followed immediately by shouts of, “I called it first!”
Tommy groaned as a heated fight broke out; he gazed at his backseat, wondering if he could fit all four of them in the back. Maybe if Kira sat on someone’s lap…
Just as he was about to suggest this idea, Ethan turned the tide of the argument, though not in his own favor.
“We’re gonna be stuck in that car for hours,” Ethan said heatedly. “There’s no way I’m spending that long sitting next to Conner!”
This seemed to hit home with Kira and Trent; they realized that even if one of them claimed the front seat, they’d be condemning the other to hours of being trapped in close quarters with Conner. Looking horrified, they both turned to Conner.
“You can have the front seat, man.”
“Yeah, you… uh… deserve it.”
“Whoo!” Conner pumped his fist in the air, apparently not the least bit perturbed by their lack of enthusiasm to sit next to him.
Tommy stared at Kira, Trent and Ethan with a look of absolute horror. He would rather have sat next to Lord Zedd than Conner.
“Sorry,” Kira said weakly. Trent and Ethan gave him apologetic looks of deep sympathy as Conner rushed to the Jeep and climbed in, settling his bags around his feet.
With another groan, Tommy followed them to the Jeep.
The journey was not an easy one. It was cramped in the Jeep, what with five people and their duffel bags and knapsacks and Kira’s guitar case. Conner kept bugging the crap out of Tommy, keeping up a steady stream of chatter. Worse, none of the four younger Rangers did a very good job of navigating, which was proving to be quite a problem. Tommy had made the trip to Angel Grove quite a few times since Jason and Trini had taken up residence there, but that didn’t make it easy. Tommy had an uncanny knack for getting lost; it was part of the reason why he was frequently late. Near-constant highway construction didn’t help matters, nor did the dozens of exits and interchanges and the need for many extra rest stops that Tommy wasn’t accustomed to—to use the bathroom, to buy snacks, and fill up on gas lost on “side trips.” Tommy had expected this, but not to the extreme that he was forced to endure. It seemed that every five minutes a different occupant of the car would snatch the map from one of the others, study it for a moment, proclaim, “I know where we are now!” and proceed to get them even more lost.
Tommy eventually did what any good-natured, mild-mannered man would do—he avoided bursting into tears by jerking the car onto an onramp so suddenly that everyone screamed and slammed painfully into something as he sped into a nearby drive-thru. When asked for his order, he promptly spilled the last week and a half of his life story to the poor McDonald’s cashier and begged for directions to Interstate Five before ordering, in a rather pathetic tone of voice, one girl’s and three boys’ Happy Meals and the largest chocolate shake they could possibly sell him.
Ten minutes later, they were finally on the right track and everyone was silently munching on French fries, occasionally shooting meek, nervous glances at Tommy. Things were much better after that; while Tommy had a splitting headache, everyone was blessedly quiet and he was nursing a milkshake that appeared to have been put in a small bucket emblazoned with the McDonald’s logo.
This didn’t last long, however. It started with Conner (naturally), who decided to play with the toy at the bottom of his Happy Meal. The next thing Tommy knew, Ethan, Trent and Conner were holding some sort of car chase with little Hotwheels toys on the back of Conner’s headrest, complete with loud, annoying sound effects that he supposed represented revving engines and squealing brakes. Kira snapped before Tommy, however; as the three cars crashed together, she suddenly brought the bottom of her tiny Barbie figurine down repeatedly on the tiny cars’ hoods, punctuating each collision of badly-painted plastic and cheap metal with some sort of furious Amazon yell. The boys quickly yanked their cars away and stowed them safely in their pockets. Kira waved the Barbie figurine at them threateningly one last time before dropping it in her lap and folding her arms huffily over her chest.
When Tommy finally found the right road and turned on it, he was cheered so greatly that he let out a whoop of triumph. Right around then, the bucket of chocolate ice cream caught up with him… and hyperactivity set in.
Now, it was Conner, Kira, Ethan and Trent’s turn to be driven up the wall. Tommy suddenly wanted to play I Spy, the Alphabet Game and Spot the Out-of-State License Plates, at which he was very good, mostly because his mind was moving at double speed thanks to the sugar rush. So the four teenagers were not only forced to play boring games, but they always seemed to lose spectacularly. When the fun wore off for Tommy, he began to sing what he called “travel songs.”
Tommy was not a good singer.
“Come on, guys!” Tommy exclaimed, greatly pleased at their pitiful expressions. “Sing with me now! Conner, Conner bo Bonner, banana fana fo Fonner, mi my mo Monner, Con-ner! Okay, let’s do… Kira! Kira, Kira, bo Bira—”
“ANGEL GROVE NEXT RIGHT!” Conner shouted, the way one would shout their thanks when they were rescued right before the swing of the executioner’s axe.
“YAY!” everyone else yelled.
Though they’d left before noon, night had already fallen on Angel Grove, but Tommy had no problem finding the Angel Grove Inn. While the road there was a tad confusing, he still knew most of the town like the back of his hand.
“Everybody out,” Tommy said cheerfully. This was completely unnecessary; Conner had jumped over his door to land on cramped legs before Tommy could put the Jeep in park, and the others were close behind.
“So when do we get to meet the Ran—your friends?” Trent asked, glancing around casually to see if anyone else in the parking lot was listening.
“Tomorrow afternoon,” Tommy replied, carefully lifting his box from the backseat. “Let’s go check in, eh?”
They all grabbed their stuff and followed Tommy, yawning widely, their legs stiff. They approached a weary-looking woman sitting behind the front desk, who looked up at them blandly. “Can I help you?”
“We’d like three rooms, please,” Tommy said, setting his long case down carefully.
“Do you have reservations?” the woman asked.
“No,” Tommy replied. He hadn’t bothered; Angel Grove enjoyed brisk tourism because of the Power Rangers and the beaches, but Tommy couldn’t recall the hotels ever being full.
The woman frowned and typed something in on a nearby computer. “We only have one available.”
“What?” Tommy spluttered.
“It’s the first weekend after graduation here,” the woman said, somewhat apologetically. “Party after party. Plus they’re having an event to celebrate the first Power Rangers next weekend, so a lot of people have come in from all over the place—”
“There’s no way we could get two?” Tommy whined. He had planned to put the guys together, get Kira her own room, and have one to himself. He didn’t mind making Kira stay in the boys’ room too much, but any last traces of sugar highs were rapidly disappearing at the thought of staying in the same room as Conner, Kira, Ethan and Trent. A hotel room, after all, wasn’t much bigger than a Jeep, and there was no chance of popping the door open and shoving Conner out if need be. “Do the windows open?” he added as an afterthought.
The woman shook her head. “No, they don’t. I’m really sorry. However, if two people cancel reservations, I can get you two rooms by Sunday, when the graduation parties clear out, but that’s not definite.”
“What about another hotel?” Kira asked, thinking along the same lines as Tommy.
“Most of them are already booked,” the woman said. “It’s been over a decade since anyone has seen the original Power Rangers, and add that on top of graduation, summer vacationers pouring in, college students coming back to visit and the usual travelers…”
“We’ll take it,” Tommy said glumly, not wanting to lose the last available room in town while calling other hotels just to end up sleeping on Jason’s living room floor with four rowdy teenagers.
Tommy paid for the room, accepted his keys, and headed up to room 603, his former students in tow. The room was very nice, equipped with the standard hotel furniture—a chest of drawers, on which sat a TV; a table and four chairs; and a nightstand between two double beds. A microwave sat on top of a mini-fridge in one corner, near the small closet and the door leading to the bathroom. Moments after they arrived, someone came by with a spare rollaway cot; this prompted an argument over the beds, and, as there wasn’t room for more than one cot, Tommy was quick to give the cot to Kira, claim one bed for himself, and give the other to Conner. Ethan and Trent immediately began to argue over who would have to share with Conner, who told them helpfully that he liked to toss and turn and had a habit of snoring. After a long debate, it was decided the three boys would rotate nights on the free bed, the other two taking the floor. Tommy, feeling another headache coming on, seized the ice bucket and left to find the vending machines (not that they had anything they needed to put on ice, but Tommy found this a better excuse than “I’m going to strangle you all if I don’t get out of here”). He handed Trent some money to order pizza and gratefully shut the door behind him as the others argued over pizza toppings.
Tommy filled the bucket with ice just down the hall, thinking absently that he could at least chuck the cubes at his former students if nothing else, and turned to head slowly back to the room, having no where else to go. When he reached the room, however, he heard a dull thud, a muffled shout, and a burst of maniacal laughter… so he continued on until he hit the far wall. Then, wondering how long he could continue aimlessly walking around, he reluctantly turned around and promptly crashed into someone.
“ARGH!” the person shrieked, in a familiar female voice. Ice flew everywhere.
“I’m sorry, I—”
Tommy stopped dead. Before him stood a short but lithe woman in a pink tank top, her brown hair pulled back in a casual ponytail. Startled brown eyes stared up at him, no doubt just as shocked to see him as he was to see her.
“—didn’t see you,” Tommy finished softly, staring down at Kimberly Hart.
Kimberly had finally finished unpacking her numerous clothes, hanging them carefully in the hotel’s small closet or folding them neatly in the drawers of the hotel dresser in an attempt to keep them from getting too wrinkled and smelling like her suitcase. She’d decided to come into town on Friday rather than Saturday like she’d originally told Jason, so that she could be rested from her trip when she met up with the gang tomorrow morning at Angel Grove Park, and have some time to herself to think and enjoy being back in Angel Grove on her own.
Stretching, Kimberly picked up her purse and headed for the door, intent on getting some dinner. She heard someone walk past and looked around curiously when she stepped out the door, wondering if Zack had come early also, but it was a stranger, a tall man with short, dark spiky hair clutching a full ice bucket. She assumed he’d just gone to stare out of the window a few feet away—her room was at the end of the hall—and therefore was unprepared when he turned around and ran right into her. She yelped, ice pelting her upper body and face and sliding down her shirt or bouncing off.
“I’m sorry, I—”
Kimberly looked up sharply, recognizing the voice immediately. It was Tommy; though he looked a few years older and his hair was short, there was no mistaking him.
“—didn’t see you.” Tommy stared at her with recognition, shock and what could have been fear; she was sure her expression was similar. Kimberly was at a loss for words, unable to stop staring at him. It had been ages, years—how many? Five? Six? Eight?—since she’d seen him last. Her eyes kept darting to his hair, amazed that he would cut it; he’d always loved his long hair. So had she, come to think of it.
“Tommy,” she breathed, and her voice sounded strange to her own ears, unsteady and high and nervous.
“Hi,” Tommy said with obvious difficulty, his voice slightly high-pitched as well.
“Hi,” she said shakily, feeling rather stupid. She suddenly became aware of the fact that she was now covered in streaks of cold water and there were chips of ice inside her tank top; wincing, she picked up her shirt and shook it. Several cubes fell to the floor, but a few had settled most uncomfortably inside her bra, and she wasn’t about to go digging them out while standing in front of her ex-boyfriend.
“I’m really sorry about that,” Tommy said, cringing. “I didn’t… you came out of nowhere.”
“Not your fault,” she said, forcing herself to smile, then hurriedly stopping, knowing the unnaturalness of the expression would look odd. Her eyes kept flicking almost involuntarily up to his hair. “So…”
“So,” Tommy agreed uncertainly.
Kimberly struggled to come up with something to say, but she was still quite shocked and the ice in her bra was distracting. “You cut your hair,” she blurted out.
Tommy reached up to run his hand through it self-consciously. “Yeah.”
“It looks good,” she said truthfully. “Surprising, but good.”
“Thanks,” he replied, smiling slightly.
They lapsed into silence, which became more and more uncomfortable as the minutes stretched. Kimberly didn’t know what to say, couldn’t even begin to think of something. She hadn’t expected to see him here, now, alone. She had expected to see him while surrounded by her old friends when she wouldn’t have to worry about speaking directly to him. When she’d seen him after he rescued her from Divatox, she’d been able to hide her awkwardness under the cover of the battle; Kimberly suddenly found herself praying for some disaster she could use to distract herself from the situation.
“So,” he said at last, startling her with the sudden sound even though his tone was soft, “how’ve you been?”
“Great,” she told him. “I, uh, I’ve got my own gymnastics studio in L.A.”
“That’s awesome.”
“Yeah. I love it.” She cleared her throat. “What have you been up to?”
“Teaching science.”
Kimberly looked surprised. Tommy had taught a few martial arts lessons as a teenager, but the science part seemed to come out of nowhere. “Science?”
“I went back to college, got a PhD. I’m a paleontologist,” he explained. Seeing her raised eyebrows, he chuckled. “Yeah, I know; the others were all shocked, too. But I really like it. I spent a while working in the labs and on digs and stuff, but there was an accident at a lab and everything pretty much went up. So I decided to try teaching for a while. I really like it, though. It’s a lot of fun.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “I love teaching gymnastics. The kids are great.”
Tommy nodded, though he glanced down the hall with a look on his face that suggested he wanted to add, “Not all the time.” He didn’t, though. Kimberly felt like even more of an idiot. Here she was, face-to-face with her ex after ages of never seeing him, despite their mutual friends and their common hometown, and they were telling each other what they did for a living like strangers meeting in a bar. They might as well be discussing the weather.
A few more minutes of silence ensued. Kimberly wasn’t sure what to do. Part of her wanted to run, and part of her wanted to keep talking. She was confused, and shocked, and it wasn’t exactly easy to concentrate with a bunch of ice slowly melting against her chest. It suddenly occurred to her how unprepared she really was for this. She had missed him, to be sure, but over the years she’d forced it to the back of her mind and told herself that she was pretty much over it. Then, the moment she saw him—older and wiser and somehow hotter—she felt like bursting into tears. It suddenly occurred to her that the only way she’d gotten through her last meetings with Tommy was to hide behind the battle, focus on Jason in the tournament, and avoid eye contact at all costs.
“I… I miss you,” she said suddenly, jerking her head down to stare at the carpet, not wanting to see his reaction.
Tommy stared at her. Unbeknownst to her, he couldn’t help but remember the first time he’d heard her say that—right after he’d lost his Green Ranger powers. Right before their first kiss. She’d said it occasionally in her letters and phone calls after leaving for Florida, but she’d tried to avoid it, always wanting to ignore the fact that they were so far away from each other. She hadn’t said it in person since that first time. It hurt like hell to hear her say it that way, all tentative and sorrowful, just like that day by the pond.
“I miss you too,” he said with a sigh, throwing his back against the wall and shaking his head. “We should have stayed in touch.”
“Yeah, we should have,” Kimberly said shyly, biting her lip and staring at Tommy’s shoes as he leaned on the wall. A sudden recklessness came over her, bringing courage with it. She jerked her head up to look him square in the eye; Tommy looked back at her uncertainly, startled but eager, nervous but hopeful. “Listen, I’m gonna go grab a bite to eat. Do you want to come? We… we could catch up.”
Tommy started to nod and opened his mouth, then stopped. “Actually,” he replied reluctantly, “the gang’s ordering pizza and… well, I’m kind of not too sure it’s a good idea to leave them alone in a hotel room in a strange city. They’ve got a lot of pent up energy after the nine-hour car ride, you know, and I’m responsible for them…”
“Nine hours?” Kimberly repeated. “I thought you lived in Reefside.”
“I still get lost a lot,” he said sheepishly, with a boyish smile that reminded her forcefully of the Tommy she’d once been so close to. She felt a pang in her chest and searched for something else to say.
“Gang?” Kimberly inquired, confused. “Oh!” She glanced around to make sure no one else was nearby. “The Dino Rangers?” Tommy nodded. “I heard you were bringing them.”
“Do you want to come meet them?” Tommy asked, sounding half-eager and half-uncertain. “Hang out, eat some pizza?”
Kimberly thought about it, but she was suddenly reluctant to meet Tommy’s team. They’d probably ask who she was and a lot of other questions, and Kimberly wasn’t sure what he’d told them. For all she knew, they thought she was “the bitchy ex” or something. “Um…” She swallowed, suddenly scared and horrified at the thought of spending more time with Tommy. Did he really want her to come? Was he just being polite? Was she mistaken when she thought she’d heard eagerness in his voice? Did he really hate her?
“It’s all right if you’d rather not,” Tommy said, watching her closely.
Kimberly’s heart constricted. So he didn’t really want her to come. At least, probably not. She sighed inwardly. “Actually,” Kimberly said slowly, “I’m kind of craving a Greek salad from Diana’s Diner. No one makes them like she does. But… but I’ll see you tomorrow, right?” she added, unable to keep the hopefulness out of her voice.
“Yeah,” he said, smiling at her widely. “Of course you will. I’m looking forward to it.”
Kimberly nodded, no longer sure if he was disappointed or relieved. He seemed sincere—but then, she hadn’t spoken to him in years. Maybe she wasn’t the best judge of his emotions anymore. “I… it was great seeing you, Tommy.”
“You, too,” he said emphatically, and Kimberly’s spirits lifted. For a moment, she considered asking if she could come after all, but she needed more time to think, to recover from the shock of seeing Tommy—and to get the freezing cold ice out of her shirt.
“Well, until tomorrow, then,” she said.
Tommy nodded. “Bye, Kim,” he replied.
Kimberly entered the stairwell as calmly as she could, her mind and heart racing.
~*~
Tommy watched Kimberly go, his head still reeling from their meeting. He’d just seen Kimberly. It seemed so surreal, to bump into her in a hotel corridor and to act so outwardly calm, as if she was anyone else from high school, someone he hadn’t known all that well and was just trying to be polite to. But he’d seen her, and he thought it had gone okay. He’d seen her, had a conversation, and dumped a bucket of ice down her shirt.
He smacked his forehead. Of all the things he’d planned to do when he saw Kimberly again, throwing ice at her was not on the list.
He headed back for his room automatically, in a sort of daze as he thought hard. She hadn’t seemed cold-hearted towards him or anything. She’d seemed genuinely glad to see him.
There wasn’t a ring on her finger, either, a small voice inside his head said hopefully. Looks like things didn’t work out with Mr. Wonderful Florida Boy.
Tommy told the voice to shove it. He wasn’t looking to get back with Kimberly. She’d moved on, and so had he, and there was no way he was going to hope, as he had done many times in the past, that she was going to up and say that she never should have dumped him and beg him to come back to her. She had a new life now, and he did too. But they could be friends, and that would be enough for Tommy.
Oh, stop being such an idiot, the same small voice said scornfully. You want her back and you know it.
Oh, shut up, he thought irritably, knowing it was true but refusing to admit it, not even to himself.
Still, he couldn’t help but think about it. Memories of the fantasies he’d had for years after Kimberly broke up with him flooded his head. Getting back together with her. Marrying her. Having kids and having sex and just hanging out together, just being with each other. He’d tried to stop thinking about her, but it had never really happened. Every so often something would make him think of her, or she’d just pop into his head for no other reason than to startle him and make him all nostalgic. Once, he’d confided in Hayley about it, fully expecting her to call him a sentimental idiot, but Hayley had just shrugged and said that was natural, that she still thought a lot about her first love, too. Knowing that it was normal had made him feel like less of a moron and made him realize that dreaming about her didn’t mean he was still pining away for her. He had never stopped thinking about her every so often.
For a while, after he’d started seeing Kat, he’d thought he was over Kimberly. He’d let Kat take Kimberly’s place the same way she’d taken Kimberly’s spot as a Ranger. It was after the Divatox thing that he’d realized he was fooling himself into thinking he was fine. After the kidnapping and the rescue, he’d ended up having endless nightmares about it, nightmares where Kimberly and Jason tried to kill him, where Kimberly said all sorts of hateful things while Jason laughed. He’d always wake up with a sick feeling in his stomach, seeing the cold look in Kimberly’s eyes when he’d taken off his helmet to try to reach her and sometimes remembering how Kimberly and Jason had hugged in the cockpit of the Megazord and how she’d held his hands and grinned at the following tournament. It had taken him a while, but he’d figured out eventually that the dreams just meant he still cared about her, that it still hurt that she’d left him. Much as it hurt, he’d stopped lying to himself.
Lost in thought, he walked back into the hotel room, setting down the mostly empty ice bucket. He barely noticed that Ethan, Trent and Conner were involved in a huge wrestling match in the middle of the room and Kira was sitting on the edge of Conner’s bed singing, “I got the trapped-in-a-hotel-room-with-a-bunch-of-psychos blues” and strumming her guitar.
Unable to get to his own bed because of the wrestling guys, Tommy flopped back on Conner’s bed and lay there next to Kira, staring at the ceiling. He was completely oblivious to everyone around him as he thought of Kimberly, what they might have had if she’d never gone to the Pan Global Games, if she’d never met that guy in Florida, if he’d just gotten in his car and driven off to Florida and drowned that guy in the Gulf of Mexico like he should have.
“Hey! Dr. O! Ya dead?” Kira’s guitar whacked him on the leg, and Tommy, startled back into reality, looked up and saw Conner standing over him, Kira behind Conner, looking furious as she snatched back her guitar.
Tommy smiled. He might not have Kimberly, but what he did have wasn’t all that bad.
~*~
Kimberly called Jason and Trini on her cell phone to let them know that she was already in Angel Grove, declining their offers to meet up before the morning. She didn’t mention Tommy; she wasn’t ready to talk about it.
Leaving her car in the lot, Kimberly wandered the streets, allowing herself to concentrate on her nostalgia rather than on Tommy. Occasionally she ran into someone she knew or someone who’d seen her in the Olympics or other gymnastics competitions. By the time she reached Diana’s Diner, she couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to all her former classmates and neighbors. A grin spread over her face as she thought of Bulk and Skull, the two bumbling idiots who’d tried and failed to bully their way through life. She still wondered what had happened to them; Jason had introduced her to the Space Rangers, so she’d gotten to hear about them sticking up for the Rangers and helping battle evil, but she just couldn’t picture it, no matter how hard she tried.
Diana hailed Kimberly jovially; Kimberly had frequented the diner from an early age and thought of Diana as a surrogate aunt. As Kimberly dug into her food, her mind wandered back to Tommy.
“A PhD in paleontology,” she muttered. “Who knew?”
Kimberly suddenly felt like crying again. All the things she’d missed in his life, all the things they hadn’t share together… why hadn’t they at least tried to remain friends? Jason, Trini, Billy and Zack had probably known all about Tommy’s life, what he’d been doing—the girls he dated, the careers he pursued… she hadn’t even known he was the most recent Black Ranger, for crying out loud! Why hadn’t she tried to patch things up, even platonically, after the letter?
Sighing, Kimberly forced herself to get control. She knew why. She had tried to write him and call him after that stupid letter, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to do it. Then the thing with Divatox had come along, and Kimberly had been horrified at her actions while evil, too ashamed to even talk to him. Days had turned into weeks, and she still hadn’t gotten in touch. Suddenly it was too late; what was she going to do, call him after years of no contact and say she wanted to be friends? She’d half-convinced herself that he didn’t even remember her name.
She turned her thoughts to their conversation in the hotel hallway, trying to picture his reactions to her words and think them over. He’d seemed like he’d wanted to put the past behind them. Did he? Or was it just wishful thinking?
Kimberly stabbed viciously at her salad. “Gotta stop torturing myself,” she said firmly, resolved to put it out of her mind until the morning. She’d see him again in the afternoon, and then she’d just have to take it from there.