An Inquiring Mind

Summary: Follow up to Reunions and Closure. Post PRDT. Kira decides to get to the bottom of Tommy's and Hayley's relationship and may just spur them to act on their feelings.

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

Author's Note: A Tommy/Hayley get together story because for me there simply aren't enough of them.

It had been a few days since they had defeated Mesagog and Kira was making her way to Dr O's house. She had volunteered to help clean up Dino Ops. Now wanting to clean up the mess was only half the reason she was here. The other half being the relationship between Hayley and Dr O. Truthfully she had been curious for months but fighting mutant freaks kept getting in the way. Hayley had said that she and Dr O met at college. Ok that Kira can accept but how did she find out Dr O had been a ranger. Its not exactly something you bring up in idle conversation. They were obviously close friends but what Kira really wanted to know was had it been anything more than that. Was it still something more that that? Kira knocked on the door

"Its open Kira" Tommy shouts

"Kira walks in to find Dr O grimacing slightly as he gets out of his chair "Dr O, you ok?"

"I'm fine. Its just the third time I've lost my powers and I'm 28 now, not 18" Tommy stood up. Had it hurt this much the other 2 times? His body ached all over.

Kira was slightly worried. She had ached all over at first but after a couple of days she was fine but then again as Dr O said he was older now. Maybe this is why rangers are usually teenagers. "So Dr O you up for this?"

"Yeah. I'm kind of surprised you agreed to help, Connor and Ethan came up with some quite inventive excuses to avoid this"

Kira rolls her eyes. Those two! She is going to have to sort them out later. "It has to be done and besides you are my favourite teacher"

Tommy smiles "Thanks Kira. Come on then"

They make their way down to the basement. Its still a mess after what Zeltrax did. "So how upset is Hayley?" Kira asks

"A little. She did create most of this. She's always been a genius, ever since I first met her"

"In college she said"

"Yeah" Tommy laughs

Kira looks at him "What?"

"Nothing. Its just we literally bumped into each other. I knocked her flat on her back"

Kira couldn't help but laugh "Really?"

"Yeah. I was in the library, turned a corner and knocked her over. Of course it was more her fault than mine" Tommy smiles wryly at the memory

"I have the feeling that's not how she would tell the story"

"Probably but I wasn't the one carrying a stack of books so high she couldn't see where she was going." Tommy laughs again "Oh those books went everywhere and the look on her face"

"That's not nice, laughing at her" Kira scorns

"I didn't laugh at the time. I was a gentleman and I helped her to her feet and helped her collect her books"

Kira just uh huhs in reply and moves some rocks and comes across a box. "Hey Dr O what's this?"

Tommy turns round. "Oh thank goodness you found that" He walks over and collects it. He sees Kira staring at him. "You want to see inside don't you?"

"Well I am kind of curious"

Tommy shakes his head and opens the box. "This is my original morpher and the Dragon Dagger"

Kira looks confused "I thought your powers were lost"

"They were. You know of Zordon and the command centre"

Kira nods "Yeah from your video"

"When it was destroyed I went up there and searched through the ruins and I found these. They are too dangerous to be just left lying around so I brought them back with me. In fact it was Hayley's study of my morpher that allowed her to create yours"

"Dr O I've been meaning to ask How…"

"did Hayley find out I was a ranger." Tommy finishes.

"Yeah"

"I was wondering when one of you would ask that. Funnily it was similar to the way you found out"

Tommy and Kira are back up in the house sitting down. "So where were we?" Tommy asks.

"You had just met Hayley"

"Right in the library. Well as I said, I apologised and helped her up. I went back off to my studying and truthfully never gave what happened much thought. After that we started to bump into each other more often, in corridors, shops, cafes. It was sort of weird now I think about it"

"Fate's way of bringing you together, perhaps" Kira supplied

"Possibly. Anyway at some point we started talking to each other and hanging out together, became my best friend honestly. In fact Hayley reminded me of an old friend from high school. She's just as clever as he is, perhaps more so but I'm getting off my story. So one day, at least how she tells it, she came over to my apartment to find me out so she let herself in."

"She broke in?" Kira asks with some amusement

"Yeah, she has her own set of lock picks. Now where she got them from even I don't know."

"Why did she break in?"

"She claimed she had left her purse."

"She claimed?"

"I have no reason to doubt her but still it was odd. I think she may have had her suspicions I was hiding something, after all I do have to glaze over some of my teenage years for obvious reasons"

Kira nods in understanding. Heck in fact she'll probably have to do the same about what happened this last year. "So how did she find out?"

"She read my journal. The one I had hidden very well I may add. Hence why I don't quite believe the left her purse story" Tommy is now using sarcasm. He never really believed that purse story at all.

"You wrote a journal about being a ranger. Why?"

Tommy shakes his head "I just needed to get it off my chest. It had been my life for years. I suppose I just wanted to record it while my memory was still fresh. What really surprised me is that she believed every word and didn't dismiss me as insane"

Flashback

Hayley is fiddling with Tommy's lock. Part of her knows she shouldn't be doing this but there is just something about Tommy apart from he is way too good looking. She tries to push that thought aside. He's never going to look at her like that. The lock clicks and in she goes. He knows far more than any palaeontology student should, especially about science. He claims he had a really clever friend at school who helped him with that stuff but for some reason Hayley just doesn't buy it. "So if I was a secret diary or something where would I be?" she says out loud. Without trying to disturb too much Hayley searches through the apartment. She opens the wardrobe and looks. She notices the bottom is slightly askew. She bends down, taps on it and gets a hollow echo. Ah-ha. She lifts it up and finds several books. She picks them up and opens the top one. Inside it is full of hand written entries in Tommy's handwriting. She goes and sits on the bed and starts to read.

Tommy gets back to his apartment to find the door unlocked. Funny, he was sure he had locked it. He opens the door and hears what sounds like someone crying coming from his bedroom. He walks over and opens the door "Hayley?"

Hayley looks up. Oh god. "Tommy! I…"

Tommy sees what she's reading. He doesn't get mad, he rarely does. He finds her a tissue and hands it to her. She wipes her tears "Now Hayley what are you doing here?"

"I left my purse" The first thing that pops into her head.

"And stumbled upon my journals in the process?"

She doesn't answer. Tommy sits on the bed next to her "What do you want to know?"

"Is all this true?"

"Every word"

"You were really a power ranger?"

"Yes now why were you crying? I hate to see you upset" Tommy puts his arm round her shoulder.

Hayley gathered herself for a moment. Wow her best friend had saved the world like 100 times. "I know I shouldn't have read these Tommy.."

"Hayley I'm not angry, so tell me what is so upsetting?"

Hayley looks at his face. His eyes are so full of kindness and compassion, exactly why she's fallen in love with him. "I was reading the bit where you broke up with Kimberley. I didn't know you could write so passionately. It sounded like you hurt a lot"

"I was hurt. She was my first love. That stays with you a long time"

Hayley looks down "I wouldn't know"

Tommy looks at her "Everyone has a first love"

"They were people I cared about but I don't know if I could ever describe it as love" Hayley still isn't looking up.

Tommy puts his hand under her chin and lifts her head up and round. He leans forward and gently kisses her on her lips. For a few seconds after they break apart Hayley sits there almost in a trance. "Hayley?" Tommy says

She snaps out of it. "Sorry. What were you saying?" She now has a smile on her face.

Tommy is also smiling "I'm kind of surprised you aren't having me hauled off for being nuts. Most people wouldn't believe what I wrote in those books"

"I'm not most people"

"No your not" Tommy loves that about her, how unique she is. He pulls her into a hug. "Hayley"

"Yes Tommy"

"Weren't you upset at the part where I was evil."

"Thomas Oliver!" Hayley pulls back so she can look him in the eye. "You were not evil. Your mind was being controlled. You are the most caring man I have ever met even if you're a little slow on the uptake"

"Was that an insult or a compliment?" Tommy says in a rather amused tone of voice.

"It was both. Women are great at multitasking"

"And you're great at everything" Tommy adds

"I don't like to boast" Hayley says with a shrug

"Yes you do, all the time. Miss Genius who is so going to MIT"

"I don't think so"

"You're not?"

"It's what my parents what and I don't what to disappoint them but…"

"Hayley you have to do what makes you happy whatever that is. You know I'll support you"

"Yeah I know" Hayley leans forward and kisses Tommy. After they break apart "So come on tell me all about being a ranger, how does that morphing thing work, and the weapons and the zords and the…"

"Whoa Hayley slow down" Tommy puts his finger to Hayley's lips. "I'm no expert on that although…" Tommy gets up and goes to his wardrobe. In the false bottom he picks up a box and sits back on the bed. "I picked these up on my trip to Angel Grove last month" Tommy opens the box and pulls out his morpher and the Dragon Dagger. "Here, this is my morpher. The power's long been drained so feel free to look at it"

Hayley takes the morpher from Tommy. Oh wow, what she wouldn't give to take this apart. "What's that?" She refers to the dagger.

"The Dragon Dagger"

"Oh you used that to control the DragonZord. I read it in your journal"

"That's right. I should pay him a visit one of these days"

"Huh" Hayley says rather lost.

"The DragonZord, he's still there beneath the waves, asleep, waiting until he's needed again"

"Really. Are you serious?" Hayley can barely contain her excitement.

"Yes Hayley. Although with the green ranger energy gone, its probably impossible to wake him" Tommy sighs. He was really like an old friend, he did miss him, well as much as one can miss a machine. Tommy puts the dagger to his mouth and plays the tune on it.

"Wow how does it do that?" Hayley looks like a little girl in a candy shop

"As I said Hayley I'm no expert". He sees the look in her eye "You want to take them apart don't you"

"Well you know me Tommy, I have to know how things work"

Tommy shakes his head in rye amusement. "Ok I'll tell you what I know"

Flashback ends.

"I spent the rest of the week explaining what I knew" Tommy explains to Kira. "Once she's onto something she never lets go so in the end I allowed her to carefully examine my morpher. I suppose that was the start of Dino Thunder even though I didn't know it at the time"

"You hadn't found the Dino Gems yet?" Kira asks.

"No I found them when I began to work for Anton"

"Did you and Hayley date because you mentioned kissing in your story" Kira wanted to know.

"For a little while but we got pulled in different directions, me to Anton and Hayley did decide to go to MIT so we ended it. We're still friends to this day though"

Ah-ha they had dated. Kira had suspected that. Tommy stood up. He had been sitting too long and his joints had gone stiff. He involuntary groaned, he still ached all over.

Kira watched Dr O get up obviously in pain. "Dr O, you should rest. I mean cleaning up Dino Ops can wait. In fact I will personally drag Connor and Ethan up here to help tomorrow"

"Kira…"

"No arguments. Now does Hayley know you're in pain?"

"No I don't want to worry her Kira. It'll pass, believe me I've endured worse."

"When?"

"When I was losing my green ranger powers. They didn't disappear overnight, they were drained slowly battle by battle. Every battle the hits hurt a little more, in fact by the end I was fighting even though my powers could give out at anytime" Tommy didn't dwell on those memories. Lord Zedd had correctly identified him as a weak link and targeted him again and again until his powers finally gave out.

Kira shook her head. She never doubted Dr O's bravery but that sounded close to stupid. She was a little worried about him. Perhaps she should talk to Hayley about this and get her side of their relationship while she's at it. "Right I'll go and hunt down Connor and Ethan, you rest" she point at Dr O.

"Yes mother" Tommy replies

Kira lets the comment slide and goes off to the Cybercafé.