From Newsprint Straight to the Heart

By: PernDragonrider

Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers; they're owned by BVE, Disney, Toei Entertainment, Saban, and Ranger Productions. I'm just borrowing them for some angst and romance then I'll give them back. No money being made off of this.

A/N: Well something got past the steel wall of writer's block that's been hitting me for nearly two months. I want to thank the people at Live Journal who run the AWDT for this because their prompt for this week's challenge actually inspired this. The prompt was that the character(s) had to have something to do with a newspaper advertisement, like a personals ad. This is what my muses came up with and since it's the first thing that slipped past the writer's block. I ran with it. This will eventually contain a slash (male/male) relationship. Enough with the notes for now.. on with the tale:

Chapter One – Classifieds and Conflict

William "Billy" Cranston stumbled down the stairs half-asleep. His blond hair tousled and tangled, rubbing his barely open green eyes sleepily, and his blue pajama bottoms twisted low on his still trim hips while he attempted to straighten the red t-shirt that was twisted around his body. The wiry built former Power Ranger made his way to the kitchen on autopilot and still half asleep went through the chores required to get his coffee maker to produce his morning brew. While the ten-year-old coffee maker wheezed and gurgled as strong black liquid dripped into the warming pot below, Billy shambled to the front door and opened it. His eyes scanning the front porch and lawn for the paper that always managed to be there no matter how early he rose from his nightly slumber.

He spied the paper laying just a step or two from the front door and smiled slightly. Five o'clock on a Sunday morning and his paper was already on the porch. It never ceased to amaze him that the pimply faced teen who came by every Friday evening at precisely six thirty to collect the money he was due for the previous week's papers, would be so dedicated that his paper would be on his porch waiting for him at five in the morning on a Sunday. "Sheesh, he must have as much time for a private life as we had back in high school with Ranger duties." Billy thought as he retrieved the paper from the porch and went back into his home. He went to the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee, some of his friends had called it "Zord fuel" because it was so strong, and sat down at the battered table to read the paper. He read everything from the front page to the last, including all the advertisements and classified ads.

Working his way through the large Sunday edition of the Angel Grove Gazette, Billy sipped coffee and eventually made toast, buttered with citrus marmalade and strawberry preserves mixed on top. He finally arrived at the classified advertisements and started skimming through them, reading quickly. He was almost to the end when a new classification caught his eye. "Personals?" He thought and a shudder passed through him as he read down the column of small ads. He read between the lines and decided that placing a personal advertisement in the local newspaper was not how HE wanted to go about finding someone to share his life and home.

He continued reading, fascinated and revolted simultaneously, the personals column of the newspaper and was stunned when he read the final advertisement in that area. It read:

Reefside male, 27, brown hair, brown eyes, physically fit, scientist seeking males or females age 25 to 30 interested in martial arts, science, companionship, and romantic liaisons. Interested parties should send reply by fax: 555-835-9875, attention Personals Box 774477. E-mail – Box774477 personals. Or letters mailed in care of this newspaper and marked attention: Personals Box 774477.

"Absolutely preposterous." Billy said as he tossed the newspaper into the garbage can, the personals section missing and falling down between the can and counter. Billy went about his usual Sunday routine not knowing that that small advertisement in the Angel Grove Gazette would come back to haunt his life in the days and weeks to come.

---------- BEEP BEEP, BEEP-BEEP, BEEP BEEP ----------

While William Cranston, Billy to his friends and Will to his colleagues at work, was reading the Angel Grove Gazette that Sunday morning. The person that the classified advertisement was placed for was sitting gloomily in his basement looking at the destruction of years worth of work that still needed to be seen to even two years after it had been trashed and destroyed.

"I've got to get this mess sorted out." The wiry-built good-looking man thought as he sat near the bottom of the stairway and simply stared dejectedly at the mess before him. His short hair, spiked up with gel in placed was in complete contrast to the rough growth of overnight beard, the scruffy looking green and white checked pajama pants and worn out, stretched out, oversized red t-shirt he sported. "Face it Tommy, just look at the destruction. The grants from Mercer were all you had and on your teaching salary replacing this stuff is out of the question. Just shovel everything into the city dump and let it be. Time to teach, not fight in spandex. You're nearly thirty years old. Time to pass the mantle onto other younger shoulders and rest on your laurels."

"SHIT!" Tommy Oliver spat out angrily as he tossed the now empty coffee cup that had been cradled in his hands violently across the room and stormed back up the stairs and to the telephone in the kitchen. He snatched the handset off of the charging base with such force that the base wobbled before settling back against the wall with a creak and squeak of tortured plastic that did nothing to help calm the angry man that was jabbing the buttons on the phone with such force that the handset shuddered violently every time his finger made contact with a button. Dialing complete, Tommy stabbed is finger into the 'on' button and waited, impatiently, as the call was placed.

"Haley's Cyberspace, Haley speaking." Came the happy, cheerful greeting out of the earpiece.

"It's me." Tommy barked into the phone his anger at himself and the destruction of years of hard work welling up to where he couldn't control it anymore. "I can't deal with it, Hales. I want the shit gone, yesterday."

"Calm down, Tommy." Haley said her voice going from happy and cheerful to soothing and calming in a heartbeat. "We've talked about this since it happened. The computers are salvageable and the rest we can rebuild as we go. It's going to take time, patience, and money, but it will be up and running again, soon."

"Money I don't have and can't get, Haley." Tommy spit angrily into the phone. "Shit even the red tape I had to jump through for some of that can't be done again without corporate backing and I'm not going that route again. It's what got me into this mess again in the first place."

Haley sighed quietly as her brain worked on a way to calm someone that couldn't be calmed lately. "Tommy, come in for some caffeine and company. You staying cooped up out there without anyone around is not good for your disposition. You need to find a girlfriend, boyfriend, or someone to spend time with. It's your summer vacation you shouldn't be doing more than planning your next year's teaching syllabus or going away to some exotic location for a much deserved rest and relaxation. It's been two years and nothing has come close to Reefside, Blue Bay Harbor, Turtle Cove, Mariner Bay, or Angel Grove. Relax for once. Even Rangers get time off don't they?"

"No they don't." Tommy snapped into the phone as he paced his spacious living room with a scowl marring his handsome face. "What was all the crap over in Briarwood just this past year, huh? It had to be Ranger related; nothing like that happens that doesn't involve some kind of Power Ranger team. I can't drop it and I can't live without knowing what's going on. I've never liked being in the dark about anything to do with the Rangers and I'm not going to start now. The last time I woke up feeling like this was two days before Zedd unleashed that damned Green Crystal on me and siphoned off those powers into five other kids he'd turned evil. Something is coming. I don't know what, but I can feel it all the way down into my soul."

"I don't know about that, Tommy." Haley said quietly as she remembered the anger, the agitation, and the anxiety that Tommy had before he went off to do more research with Anton Mercer and came back without him and the island lab they'd worked on blown to bits and Mesogog running around on the loose. "Come into the Cyberspace and we can work on it from here. Conner, Kira, Ethan, and Trent will be home from college day after tomorrow. We can all get together and do some more work on the lair then. Just come in before you destroy your house, all right?"

"All right!" Tommy groused into the phone even as he had stopped his pacing and was storming up the stairs toward his bedroom and the clothes he'd need for going into Reefside. "I should be there in about an hour or so, Haley. Talk to you then and I'll try and calm down before I get there. Maybe I'll take a few minutes to meditate or something before leaving."

"You do that, Tommy." Haley said cutting the connection with a heartfelt, "See you in an hour then." She sighed as she hung up the phone and turned back to the mostly empty café she owned and ran. "I hope that personal ad I ran in the Angel Grove Gazette nets one of his old friends up this way; even if it's just to ride him about placing it in the first place. He needs someone here for him and that's the only way I could get their attention without him knowing immediately."

---------- End of Chapter One ----------

Notes: I'm going to continue this, hopefully working from the prompt for next week's AWDT into it. Feedback is welcome and appreciated at all times.