Set post "Burning at Both Ends"
PoV: Hayley
I enter the command center and sigh as I see Tommy asleep in his chair again, or at least I think he's asleep, with him stuck in morph it's hard to tell. The rangers have no idea what their teacher has been through in his life. If I were to be honest I don't fully understand it either he doesn't like to talk about his past, even to me.
Learning of the new evil ranger had been bad enough for Tommy to handle then learning his situation had made it even worse for everyone involved. Trent was a kind teenage boy not unlike what Tommy had been as a teenager before his life had been forever changed by the spell that turned him against everyone and everything he held dear.
The rangers are aware that he has scars on his mind and heart from being Rita's puppet but they aren't aware of the other scars on his heart, from Kimberly leaving, from Kat deciding it was in her best interests to cheat on him. They don't know what he has been through, I do. I know a lot of things that no one else does about him, things I gave him my word I would tell no one.
Tommy doesn't wear his scars on the outside where the world can see them, in fact he has very few scars marring his skin the most obvious one having nothing to do with combat, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have any scars at all. His scars are just harder to find, harder to see but just as painful especially since so many have just been ripped open violently and now bleed brightly once again.
Being stuck in morph didn't help matters any for Tommy, actually I think it makes it worse for him. No ranger has ever gone through this situation in all of ranger history, as far as we are aware, so we're winging it and carefully monitoring his vitals. It seems the suit is keeping him alive and healthy the gem's power providing energy to keep him going without the need to eat or drink but I can't help but worry about his emotional state. He hates knowing that another teenager is living the nightmare he lived through all those years ago.
He claims he doesn't remember everything that happened during those dark times, maybe consciously he doesn't, but I know it haunts his nightmares. I know the scars are there I see them in the haunted look that sometimes crosses his features; I see it in the way he acts toward his rangers. I know he carries those scars, those wounds and I wish he would let me in to that part of himself, let me get to those wounds, let me try and do what none has been able to do, help him heal. Maybe like them I wouldn't be able to heal them, but at least then I could say that I tried.
The End