AN:/ I know I should be working on Of Cinderella Slippers and a Deck of Hearts for a Con but I'm still trying to work out the kinks for the next chapter. Needless to say, I was really inspired by something the other day and just had to do this before it left me. Anyway on with the story. Disclaimer: Don't own Power Rangers.

Summer

In some different dimension, Summer Landsdown is adopted by her father's cousins when she is a child because both her biological father and mother are busy and feel an attack brewing. Never really feeling any paternal instinct towards her birth parents, she grows up calling the people who adopted her mom and dad. She's told that she has an older brother, fighting the good fight against anything left of Venjix's armies, in what is now the desolate city of New Tech but that he never wanted to part with his past and refused to be adopted. And just like that, Summer never gave him a second thought either. Life goes on. Summer gains humility and sympathy in becoming a ranger, Yellow, to be exact. She gains the best friends anyone could ask for and they grow into the closest thing to a family that Summer has ever had any semblance of. It's perfect.

When RPM gets an outward distress signal from the dimension over, Dr. K sends them all through, having now fixed the air problem, they can take off their masks and walk about freely as they please. Something itches in the back of Summer's mind though. Could she have been happier, knowing a world with her real parents in it? One that's not constantly on the brink of destruction. She intended to find out. It's easy enough to put two and two together.

When the battle ends and everyone disperses to give the current ranger team their moment of victory, Summer tosses the helmet aside and goes about her way. Dr. K said that once the battle is over they have 24 hours to get everything together before they are to be transported at the drop off point. 24 hours is all she needs. Summer makes the excuse of wanting to see the scenery and Dillon makes the offer to come with her but she whispers to him that it's a little bit like soul searching and before he protests Tenaya shuts him up by dragging him over to help her with something, sending a knowing wink to Summer. The yellow girl is grateful to the newly instated pink RPM ranger and sets off.

It's not that hard to get where she needs to go. However, she never thought that it would be so easy to just walk right in. When she rings the doorbell on the massive mansion, another yellow opens the door with a huge smile on her face. "RPM right? Where's the rest of your team?" She giggled giddily and Summer can't help but think that alcohol is involved at this party.

Summer shrugs with a small smile. "The couldn't make it, lots to pack. Sent me instead."

"That's cool! Well my name's Kelsey and come on in! Mr. Collins always love the company!" The Kelsey girl steps aside to let Summer in but she's later dragged away by some guy who strangely reminds her of Dillon, in the brooding looking sort of way. Taking cautious steps inside, Summer braces herself to be met with what could have been her past. She thinks in another life, this is where she'd have grown up and while it's not much different from her own place and no one could ever replace Andrews in warmth, the mansion has got to be filled with more laughs and love than she thought possible or maybe that's just the people that are sharing memories in the hundreds of rooms. Various teams are there, Summer waves to Lily Chapman who chronologically would have been her predecessor, and the girl waves back with a small smile of her own. That's the thing with RPM, while everyone else is welcoming, they're also very cautious at the idea that there is a world out there in which they failed, died even, and through their failure and death, some children took the helm. Over to her left is a various assortment of Ninja Storm and Dino Thunder, some smattering of In Space and Operation Overdrive and others she sees as well. Strangely, the own host's team is nowhere to be seen and Summer speculates that they have already traveled back to their own time frame.

She gets out to the pool table area and that's where she finds him. Joking around and shooting with his friends, trying to quell the obvious heartbreak he's holding in with the charm she's been told time and time again Summer had inherited from him. At side glance she sees the boy, now a man, who would have been her brother, leaning against the wall and drinking with the his team's past red ranger. Trying to be inconspicuous in watching their shared parent but not really doing so well. He keeps glancing over at the pool table as if to confirm that the man hasn't disappeared through thin air. Taking in his features, she thinks that both of them were the perfect mix of their parents but when he smiles it's their father's smile and their mother's expressive looks. Summer was graced with the opposite. They lock eyes and a moment of recognition passed over her once sibling's eyes. Summer's not sure what happened to her in this dimension but her and her brother must not be very close in this world either, if he sends her a questioning and peculiar gaze her way. She turns a bit and gestures with a look as she throws her head over her shoulder to show the emblem on her team's matching jackets, confirming that she is in fact the RPM Ranger Series Operator Yellow and not his little sister crashing a party she doesn't belong to. He gives a small nod of understanding and moves his eyes slowly back over to their father making a shot at the pool table. Obviously, her brother's not the type to be so open about past experiences but she wants to remember tonight. Remember and figure how things could have been. Hold an experience with the person that could have given her love too.

"Nice game." She announces, flouncing on over to grab a pool stick with a charming smile. "How far in are you?" She asks to the two guys playing, hoping that she'll hear his voice for the first time and feel some tethered familiarity.

"Not far." Eric answers gruffly, obviously annoyed at how long it is taking his best friend to make every single shot.

Wes laughs and for a moment Summer gets queasy butterflies, telling her that it's kind and there is always going to be a longing for something like him and her mother (though she's not here now anymore) in her life. "Don't mind Eric, he's just sore that perfection takes time. Want to join?" He smiles right at her. It's just an invitation, one she had planned for him to make and what she had been gearing up for the moment she put on the bravado and grabbed the pool stick but the moment he smiles at her, that slips. Just for a second mind you, but still she feels like she's 5 again and that it's not her mom and dad (or aunt and uncle really. The more time she spends in this world the more she wishes it were true.) that are bandaging up her scraped knee from climbing that tree, it's Andrews. But Summer's a ranger, she's taken on monsters 50 times her size and danced with the best of them, hell, she almost got married to someone she didn't care about and still she wasn't scared. Right now though, that small invitation was the scariest moment of her life.

"Sure." She finally breathes out with a small chuckle and Wes makes room for her to join. And that's how she spends her 24 hours, playing pool with her father, making jokes, having a good time, and getting to know that this life would have been fine.

Summer finds out a lot of things. They both share a love for cookies (even if both their teammates scold them, saying that the carbs will make them slow and fat, Eric for him, Dr. K for her), both learned to ride a motorcycle at the same age too (12!), and both try and make there own path as opposed to the ones laid out by their parents. They share a lot and Summer is sad when it starts to come to a close. When she finally begins to head to the door, grabbing her jacket from the chair she tossed it on, Wes says he'll walk her out. Summer doesn't want to give the sickly wrong impression and though she's for sure that he's still in love with her mother, she still can't help but think that walking Summer out the door has some underlying meaning to it. But it's the last time she will see him again in who knows how long, so Summer will cherish what she has and allow him to do so.

As they walk towards her bike in silence, Wes breaks it with a revelation. "Sky told me who you were."

Summer is speechless but when she finally finds her voice she can feel it cracking and tears welling up, something so foreign to her now, something that she hasn't done since Venjix took Andrews from her. "I'm um not the same Summer he knows...I uh…" She runs her hair nervously through her hair, another trait that they share as he scratches the back of his. "You weren't in my life where I come from." She states, licking her dry lips, feeling the tears slowly slip down. Great, she thinks to herself first time meeting him and already I'm a mess. "I don't know where you went but you left me and never came back. I think you're gone now. So that's why I-" At that, a sob broke through and, crushingly so, Wes engulfs his arms around her and all at once Summer feels as though she can't breathe and everything is clear; so heavy and so light as well. Her knees buckle under her and she's staining his red t-shirt with her tears as Wes holds her soothing with quiet whispers, telling her that he's right here and rubbing her back with small comforting circles. It's a breakdown. She hasn't had one in a very long time, in where she comes from and their line of work, breaking down is not a luxury that they can afford. It's nice.

So that's how Summer spends her 24 hours and only in the last few does she do it in full fledge truth. When she leaves, she makes a promise that every time she comes back she stays with her father Wes Collins. And every time she breaks down. And every time she thinks life would have been better.