Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or situations presented here and am not making any profit off of them whatsoever.
Story Title: Crazy Is My Middle Name
Rated: PG-13
Word Count: 3,511
Romance: Kelsey x Ryan
Notes: This takes place sometime after the end of Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue. Comments and criticism gratefully accepted.
Summary: Kelsey has a conversation with Ryou over something that she received in the mail.

It was easy to see why Chad loved the water so much. The way the waves crashed on the beach, the sharp cries of the gulls as they soared through the air a sharp taste of salt in every breath...it all combined to drain all of the bad feelings out of her.

Though Chad probably likes the water these days more for Marina than anything else. Kelsey couldn't blame him, either. The merwoman was beautiful, and the two of them obviously cared about each other a lot. She wasn't jealous of them, not the way most people would probably think she was.

She ran her fingers through the sand, feeling it briefly cling to her in small wet clumps before it dropped back down to the beach. The waves weren't all that far away, but she wasn't very concerned about them washing over her. She could stand up and get away before that happened, or even if she didn't, a quick morph would prevent anything really bad from happening.

Funny. A year ago that wouldn't have crossed my mind. It was a little hard for even her to tell if she meant not being afraid of being covered over by water, or the thought of just morphing to avoid certain troubles. I wonder if stopping myself from drowning would be a responsible use of the Power. She grinned to herself a little. Or should I just get up and walk away before I even have to worry about it?

Kelsey shifted a little as the wind rose around her a bit more sharply, the crinkle of paper coming from underneath her as she did so. She didn't bother looking; she knew was it was. The invitation to her high school reunion was right where she'd left it, shoved into a back pocket. I'd better toss that into a recycle bin. It's not like I'm going.

She watched the waves lap at the shore for a while longer, then started shifting. As beautiful and relaxing as this was, she did have things to do. I'm not even sure why I stopped here. She was supposed to be cleaning out her old apartment so she could make the permanent move to the Aquabase. They sure got that repaired fast. After all the damage it had taken during the last fight, she had been convinced it would take a miracle to get everything fixed.

Apparently miracles happened: in the form of the construction crews from Angel Grove.

I think I know why I'm delaying. It wasn't a very pretty thought, but it was there all the same. She didn't want to go back to the small and somewhat lonely place where she'd spent her time after her high school graduation and before being picked for Lightspeed. She'd almost been glad of the thought of letting the lease just expire, until she'd found out that Commander Mitchell had arranged for the rent for all their respective homes to be paid while they were working for him. Well, I guess I'd better go on and get this over with. The sooner the better. This was going to be the last trip, after all.

She had just started up the slope of the beach behind her to where her small car was waiting for her when she noticed a slightly familiar shadow standing near the yellow vehicle. For a moment she fell into combat readiness, then it sank in just who it was that was there.

"Ryan. What are you doing here?"

The Titanium Ranger looked up when she called his name, a faint welcoming smile on his lips. "Kelsey. Hi."

"Hey." She slogged her way up to look at him. "You didn't answer my question. What are you doing here?" Ryan didn't really make her nervous; she trusted him like she trusted all the other Rangers, but she had to admit, they didn't really know each other all that well. She couldn't imagine what he was doing here almost looking as if he were waiting for her.

"Nothing much, really. I was exploring the city and I saw your car." Ryan shrugged lightly, pointing to the motorcycle parked against a nearby tree. It was in the exact same shade of his uniform when morphed, and had the symbol for Lightspeed painted on the front of it. "I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. I thought your apartment was back in the city, not out here."

Kelsey flushed a little. "It is. I was just doing some thinking." She hesitated only for a moment. "I'm not exactly thrilled about going back there, you know."

He tilted his head slightly. "Why? I know you've been living at Lightspeed most of the time, but that apartment is your home, isn't it?"

The Yellow Ranger shook her head slightly. "No, it isn't. It's where I lived for a while, but it's not my home."

"It isn't?" Ryan looked puzzled. "But you lived there, doesn't that make it a home?"

She shook her head quite firmly this time. "No. There's a real difference between a place where you live and a home. A home is where the people who care about you are, and people who you care about."

"Oh." Ryan thought it over, then nodded. "Like being with my dad and Dana and you guys is for me. That's home."

He's kind of cute when he's clueless. And when he gets a clue. Kelsey would never think of Ryan as stupid; no one who had lived through what he had would be, but sometimes he seemed to miss out on the simplest concepts that she had grown up with. She'd never really asked him about his past beyond what he'd chosen to reveal, but there were times when a fiery curiosity ate her alive about their teammate. "Yeah, that's it." Kelsey blinked for a moment, as something else seemed to spring into her mind. "I guess Lightspeed really is my home too. You guys are about the only real friends I have, that I see regularly anyway."

Ryan nodded, then glanced at the car. "Are you going to go to your apartment at all? Aren't there things you need or something?"

She had to admit he was right. "Yeah. I got just about everything I really needed when I went back there the first time, after we got tapped for Lightspeed, but there were still some things I left behind." She glanced at him for a moment. "Want to come along? I could use the company."

"Sure." There had been the slightest pause before his reply, and she had the feeling he hadn't really been expecting her to ask him along. "Where is it? I can follow on my cycle."

Kelsey grinned at him. "If I told you where it was, you wouldn't have to follow me, now would you?"

He laughed, and she laughed, and Kelsey felt a faint shiver going all through her at the sound of it. She couldn't remember ever having heard him laugh before, and it sounded so nice. I think I should spend more time with him. The thought wandered through her mind for a moment, then she shoved it aside. It wasn't a bad idea; she just didn't have the time for it right now.

"Why don't you just jump in?" She motioned towards the car. "We can stop back by here for your cycle later. I don't think anyone's going to mess with something that belongs to Lightspeed after all." She indicated the very distinctive markings on the cycle.

"Well...just a second." He headed over to his property and did something she couldn't quite hear, murmuring under his breath. When he came back over to her, he looked fairly satisfied. "No one's going to bother it now."

Kelsey blinked a little in confusion. "What do you mean? What did you do?"

"It's just a little spell Diabolico taught me. It was how they could walk around in Mariner Bay and not be noticed by anyone, and it works pretty good for protecting property too." He seemed to be looking for a way to describe just what it was that he'd done. "I guess the easiest way to say it is that people who don't already know it's there won't be able to see it. Or they won't really pay that much attention to it. They'll just ignore it and figure they have better things to do than figure out why their eyes keep sliding off of that one little spot."

She grinned at him. "Sounds pretty useful. What else did you learn?" She slipped behind the steering wheel and fastened her seat belt while she waited for him to get in, then reached around to yank the invitation to the reunion out of her pocket. "Stupid thing."

"Not much, really. Just small stuff." Ryan glanced over to see what it was she was looking at. "What's that?"

"Just some junk mail." She stuffed it down beside her and started the car, heading for the apartment. Should I break a couple of speeding laws so I can get this over and done with, or behave myself so I can talk with Ryan longer? That was an easy question, once she gave a little thought to it. She pulled neatly away from where she'd been parked and headed into the city at a sedate, legal pace.

Things were quiet until they reached the first stoplight. "You know, I kind of expected you to go tearing off at top speed, the way you were talking about not wanting to go there in the first place. You know, get it over with."

Kelsey glanced over at him in surprise. "How'd you know that's what I was thinking?"

"You were?" Ryan looked just as surprised, then shrugged. "Lucky guess." He leaned back into the seat's embrace, watching the cars around them. "So, what was it like to be picked for Lightspeed?" He seemed to be fishing just for something to talk about right now.

She thought for a couple of moments before answering. It might be small talk, but it was a question that had been going through her mind at least once a week since it had actually happened. "Confusing at first. I was climbing out in the mountains when they found me, and they didn't actually explain anything then, they just told me to come with them."

"That must've been strange." Ryan watched as the car moved forward. He was almost certain he'd seen a couple of the occupants of other cars watching them in awe. This must be why other Ranger teams didn't publicize their identities. He wasn't entirely certain what Lightspeed had released about his own background, if anything, but they obviously weren't scared of him, and that was good enough for him.

"To say the least. At least I wasn't pulled away from a job, like the others." Kelsey took a turn and drummed her fingers lightly against the steering wheel. "Though that's always kinda confused me."

"What?"

She shrugged. "Well, Carter, Chad, and Joel all had jobs, jobs that they really liked and were good at. Carter's a firefighter, Chad trained whales, and Joel had that whole 'Sky Cowboy' thing going on. I'm the only one of the five of us who didn't have a regular job. I used to pick up work wherever I could. It wasn't all that great, but it kept food on the table, and I could usually count on winning some sports contest or something when things got really lean."

"I've never had a job myself." Ryan mused out loud. "I've heard the others talking about it, but the only thing I really know how to do is fight. Always wanted to be a fire fighter, though, like dad."

"I never could figure out why anyone would want to do that." Kelsey kept an eye on the road. She knew that turnoff to her apartment complex was around here somewhere, and if she didn't pay attention she would miss it. "I know it's something that needs doing, but I don't think I could do it. Too risky, even for me." She grinned over at him for a heartbeat. "Too crazy even for me."

Ryan chuckled. "Well, I always used to think it would be great to save people's lives."

"It is." Kelsey couldn't help the grin, both because of what he'd said and because she'd just found the turnoff on her first try. Not bad for someone who hadn't been back here in months. "That's what we do as Rangers, you know."

"Yeah, I know. It's just different this way." Ryan looked around at the complex. It wasn't a very bad looking place, surrounded by trees in several places, the buildings themselves reaching up two and three stories all around, reached by stairways. "This is a nice place."

Kelsey pulled into her parking spot and nodded absently. "I don't really mind it, it's just not home, like I said. Besides, I haven't really come by here since we got picked, so it's really best that I do move now that we're going to be working Lightspeed permanently. Having two places isn't all that great."

"Do you think Joel's going to stay on?" Ryan wondered, thinking about something he'd seen earlier. "The way he and Miss Fairweather have been dating, they might want their own place someday."

Kelsey shrugged. "I don't know; it's possible." She grinned a bit. "I'm kind of surprised they really hit it off that well. Joel's had it bad for her ever since they met, though. He's done everything he could to get a date with her."

"So I've heard. I guess he finally wore her down." The two of them headed towards a second floor apartment as Kelsey fished her keys out of her pocket. Ryan glanced here and there as she fiddled with the lock, and realized that he was doing what he'd been doing all the time they were fighting the demons: watching for some kind of threat. Guess old habits die hard.

The door swung open and Kelsey went inside, flicking the lights on in the same motion. Ryan peeked inside curiously; he wasn't exactly certain what he'd been expecting, but he was fairly sure it hadn't been an almost bare living room with a couple of hallways and a door leading out of it. "Nice place." It was the only thing that he could really think of to say.

"It's just a place." Kelsey looked from one place to another, trying to decide just where to start. "I think the only thing I really need to do is get out the box."

"The box?"

She motioned for him to stay where he was then headed to the door he'd noticed. He could hear a few odd sounds from the other side, then she came back in, carrying a large, carved wooden box under one arm. "This is the box. My grandma gave it to me when I was ten years old, and I've kept it ever since."

"What's in it?" Ryan couldn't say he was expecting her to answer. Human interaction and contact wasn't something he was that familiar with, but from the things he'd learned hanging around Lightspeed, he suspected she wouldn't be that eager to say anything. He found himself pleasantly surprised.

"Just a few memories. My high school diploma, a few trophies and things."

"High school?" Ryan couldn't quite reconcile the mental images he had of the brave Yellow Ranger with someone young enough to go to school. "What about college?"

"I never really bothered." She shrugged a little as she looked at the box. "There was never anything I wanted to do that they were offering. That's why I got into climbing and roller blading. They were fun, and that's what I wanted. I'd spent twelve years being told where to go and what to do, and I wanted to finally do something I wanted to do. My grandma could've sponsored me into any college in the world I wanted, but I wasn't going to leech off of her money."

Ryan nodded; he could understand independence and a desire to be free. "How long has it been since you graduated?"

She grinned a little. "About a year and half. I think I'm the youngest one on the team: nineteen."

"I think you're right," Ryan ran the numbers through his head, and it seemed to come out all right. He grinned teasingly at her. "You'll catch up to the rest of us...eventually."

He laughed as she whacked him on the arm, then hefted the box a little more firmly. "This is the only thing I really need, but I'm going to get some of the clothes I have stuck down in the back and a few other things. I don't want to leave them here. Could you take this out to the car? I won't be too long, you can just wait for me if you want."

"Sure." He carefully took the box she handed to him and headed out the door. He could hear her rattling around elsewhere for a few moments, then the noise faded as he got too far away. She'd left the car unlocked, and he carefully put the box in the backseat. As he was about to pull out, he noticed the crumpled piece of paper she'd stuffed in there, and eyed it for a moment. She said it was just junk mail, but I don't believe her. He'd seen something that looked like an official seal, and he was fairly curious about the way things worked here. He glanced up quickly to see if she was anywhere around, then tugged the paper out and smoothed it so he could read it.

I was right. This is something important. Her high school was having an informal reunion. It hadn't been that long since her graduation, and he'd always understood that this sort of thing happened at five or ten year or more anniversaries, but perhaps this was different. It was obvious she didn't want to go, and he couldn't imagine why.

"Ryan?" He jumped at the sound of her voice and looked over at her. "What are you doing?"

"I was just..."

"Looking at that." She didn't really sound upset, just disappointed. "I told you it was just junk mail."

Ryan shook his head. "This is a reunion notification, Kelsey. Why aren't you going to go?"

"Because I don't need to." She told him. Neither of them said anything for a few moments, then she sighed. "Look, the school I went to...no one really liked me. The guys all thought I was too weird and the girls figured I wasn't enough like them. They're probably all in college or with jobs their parents gave them or both. The only reason they're even having this thing now instead of in five or ten years is because they want to gloat about how much more money they're making since when we all graduated. What have I done?"

Ryan couldn't believe his ears. "Kelsey, what have you done? You've saved the world, that's what you've done. You've made it possible for them to do the things they are. It's not like you have to keep it a secret, you know."

"I know. I know being a Ranger is really great, but, Ryan...I went to school with these people. They aren't going to see me as a Power Ranger. They're going to see Kelsey Winslow, the girl who tried out for the football team and made it, the girl who won just about every athletic trophy there was to be won, and who wasn't going to school just to look pretty and wiggle my hips at the guys." She blinked a little, then shook her head and laughed. "I'm being stupid, aren't I?"

"No, I don't think you are." Ryan grinned at her. "Being nervous is natural, at least that's what I'm told. You know you don't have anything to worry about, and you can wow them all just by existing."

She looked at him for a moment, then grinned. "That does kind of sound like fun, now that I think about it." She paused for a moment, thinking. It would be crazy...but I've always been crazy. So who cares if I'm just a little weirder one more time? "Ryan, would you like to go with me?" Her eyes flashed with amusement. "If I can wow them just by being me, imagine how much more I could wow them by showing up with you!"

Ryan's eyes widened in surprise, then he grinned. "I think I'd like that a lot. Dad's always saying I should get out more, anyway."

"Great!" Kelsey bounced up and down with joy then shoved him a little. "Get in! I've got everything I need from here, and I just need to talk to the landlord. Then it's back to Lightspeed."

Ryan nodded and headed for the other side of the car. This promised to be really, really interesting.

The End