"I slept with Kira." Tommy began his confession. He immediately held his hands up defensively as he saw a look of shock and horror cross Hayley's face. "No, not like that! We just slept." Tommy sighed deeply as he took a gulp of wine and continued. "When she got back from the hospital, I put her in the guest room. She had a flashback and blew out the windows."
"Ptera scream?" Hayley asked.
"She set off half the car alarms in the street too." He continued, swigging more wine. "I took her to my bed, and was going to sleep on the sofa-bed, but she grabbed me and insisted I stay with her, but we only slept, I swear."
"I believe you!" Hayley remarked, needing some wine herself by this point. "How long did this continue?"
"A couple of nights." Tommy replied, staring at the ceiling.
"And you think that was a good idea?" Hayley asked sarcastically. "It wasn't all that long ago I was listening to you tell me how hard you'd fallen for her."
"As it turns out it wasn't." Tommy replied. He finished his glass and handed it to Hayley for a re-fill. "I had a dream about her on the third night. As strong as the ones I had before she left."
"While she was lying in your bed?" Hayley replied.
"That was the last night we spent together." He snapped back, accepting another glass. "She asked to move back into the guest room. I guess she'd stopped having the flashbacks and didn't need me there anymore."
"And if she hadn't?"
"I'd have thought of something." Tommy by now was close to collapsing under the strain of keeping his secrets. "I thought I'd gotten over this."
Hayley put down her glass and sat down beside Tommy, placing an arm around him. "I know how strongly you felt about her." He took another sip as she spoke to him reassuringly. "I know how hard it hit you when she left. I'd have been amazed if nothing had happened."
"I just don't want to take advantage of her." Tommy replied, still looking at the floor. "It's been a hard time for her. She shouldn't be making any decisions like that right now."
"Maybe not RIGHT now." Hayley shot back. "But do you not think it would be worth letting her know the situation?"
"But there's still the age and everything." Tommy mumbled.
"There's only seven years between you." Hayley replied, holding him tightly. "She's over 21 and it's been three years since she was one of your students. There's no reason to hold back."
"What if she laughs at me?" He asked, trying hard to fight the urge to break down into tears. "What if she says no?"
"Well how much fun have the last three years been?" Hayley shot back. Tommy sat, unable to answer. "At least if you try and she says no you'll know and can carry on with your life." Rubbing his back reassuringly, she got up to leave, only stopping at the door. "Of course, she might say yes." With that, she left him to his thoughts. Hayley knew that was always the best way with Tommy. Hit him with something to think about, and then leave him to it.
Tommy picked up the bottle of wine, casually slugging it from the bottle, that thought drifted through his mind. Should I take the chance I've been wishing for the past three years?
"I've had some pretty wild thoughts about Tommy." Kira finally relented to her tormentors.
"What kind of thoughts?" Ronny goaded. "What, like dreams?"
"Those too." Kira admitted blushing.
"I know you had a bit of a thing for him back in the day." Tori interjected. "Are you sure it's not just the whole, y'know, memorial service and everything?"
Kira tried hard not to show her face, allowing her hair to fall in front of her in a vain attempt to hide her embarrassment. "No. At first I thought it might be that, even Tommy warned me not to rush anything before we slept together…"
"Whoa there, back up five paces." Ronny interrupted. "You slept with him?"
"NO!" Kira spat back aggressively. "Well, yes, but only sleeping."
"Huh?" Tori grunted more than a little confused. "Please explain."
"The first night after I got back from the hospital, I had a seriously nasty flashback of the accident." Kira explained. "I woke up screaming and trashed the guest room."
Tori and Ronny looked at each other and began laughing.
"Glad you find it so damn amusing!" Kira screamed.
"Sorry." Ronny apologised, regaining composure. "How did that end up with the two of you together?"
"Tommy put me in his bed, since mine was covered in glass." Kira continued with her story. "He was going to leave, but I was so terrified I begged him to stay. I just needed to be in his arms, to know he was there and I knew I'd feel safe enough to sleep."
"Ok, so it was a comfort thing." Tori confirmed. "Anyway, when did you have the first of these thoughts?"
"I had a pretty intense dream on the third night…"
"WHAO!" Ronny interrupted again. "It happened THREE TIMES!"
"As I said, we were only sleeping." Kira snapped back.
"And knowing how you felt about him before, did you REALLY think being in his bed was such a great idea?" Tori asked, by now questioning her friend's sanity.
"What do you mean 'before'?" Kira asked, trying to fight the urge to begin crying. "I haven't been able to stop thinking about him since I left Reefside. He was the first one y'know."
"First crush?" Ronny asked. "Hey, those things come and…"
"First love." Kira whispered back.
Tori and Ronny stared at each other in disbelief. "Why didn't you say anything to him?" Ronny asked.
"I knew what everyone would say." She snapped, pounding the ground with her fist. "He's a teacher, he's too old for you, it's just a stupid schoolgirl crush."
"He might not have." Ronny replied.
"Please, look at him." Kira joked weakly. "Just about every girl in Reefside was crushing on him. He'd have laughed it off like all the others."
"Well, he isn't your teacher any more." Tori reminded her. "And the difference between 18 and 25 is very different than the difference between 21 and 28."
"Besides, I'm the last girl to rag on anyone for an age difference in a relationship." Ronny interjected. "After all, technically Mack's my toy boy by 16 years!"
The three enjoyed a relieving laugh at this realisation, before Tori and Ronny got up to leave Kira with her thoughts.
"In all seriousness though." Tori concluded. "You know how bad the last three years have been. You really want to do that to yourself again just to save yourself having to tell him how you feel?"
Kira sat alone on that grassy verge simply pondering. Would it make a difference? Would he ever see her as more than the wierd girl who used to sing in the quad?
Hayley saw Tori and Ronny return to the cafe and quickly waved them over to a quiet corner of the room.
"So what did you find out?" Hayley asked, checking to make sure no one was listening in.
"That girl has it bad." Ronny replied, shaking her head with a sigh. "She said she had a dream about him…"
"On the third night they slept together." Hayley interrupted. "Tommy said the same thing."
"So he likes her too." Tori stated, leaning in closer. "Well isn't that mission accomplished? I mean, we know they both want to be together."
"It's not that simple." Hayley sighed. "They were like this three years ago, and if experience has taught me one thing, it's that the one person Tommy won't talk to about this is Kira…"
"And Kira won't talk to Tommy." Ronny interrupted.
"So now we just have to let them know how the other feels so they can work it out." Tori stated. Hayley just gave her a withering look. "Ok, bad idea. No doubt we'd end up getting caught in the crossfire."
"We need to get them to talk about it with each other." Hayley responded. "Any ideas?"
"Lock them in the café and don't let them out till they figure it out?" Ronny suggested as a joke.
"Subtlety, look it up." Tori replied sarcastically. "Maybe we send some flowers, each claiming to be from the other."
"They'd see right through that." Hayley stated, waving off the idea. "We need to convince each of them that there's a POSSIBILITY that the other likes them back, without letting them know that we KNOW they do."
"Well I'm sure I could think of a few stories to remind Kira how much Tommy's been there for him over the years." Tori responded. Maybe I can build up her confidence enough to get her to take the chance."
"I'm sure I could do the same for Tommy." Hayley answered back. "She did do a lot of things to have excuses to be around him back in the day."
"I still say lock them in a room together." Ronny piped up, gaining her a look of disbelief from the other two. "Alright, we'll try it the 'subtle' way." She remarked, miming the quotation marks as she said subtle. With that, they all split off to return to their individual projects.
Kira's thoughts were interrupted as Ronny and Tori returned.
"Back to badger me some more?" She asked, idly tearing up grass and tossing it aside.
"Of course not." Tori answered, sitting down. "We just wanted to see if you'd thought about saying something."
"Not really." Kira shot back as Ronny sat down on the other side of her. "I mean, what if he isn't into me? Why would he be? He could have anyone."
"Don't sell yourself short." Ronny replied. You're smart, funny, you always think of other people." She began counting off Kira's personal qualities on her fingers. "And in case you haven't noticed, you're pretty hot! Especially in that dress."
Kira blushed as Ronny complimented her. Tori put a reassuring arm around her shoulders. "What my less-than-bright friend over there is trying to say is that there are a lot of reasons he would want to go out with you."
"And some men need a woman to make the first move." Ronny replied. "If I'd waited for Mack, he really WOULD have been 18 by the time he plucked up the courage."
"How did you pass science?" Tori asked, knowing the answer, but asking Kira to remind her of her past.
"Tommy tutored me when I was failing." She answered.
"And who talked to Hayley about putting your band on at the cyber café?" Tori asked again.
"Hayley denied it, but I know Tommy did." She smiled at the recollection. "He admitted he heard me singing in the quad before Principal Randall gave me detention and thought I should be on stage."
"And who talked the school board into letting you play at the Prom?"
"Tommy did."
"I think there's someone you should talk to." Ronny whispered in Kira's ear. "And it isn't the two of us."
Kira got up and strode purposefully towards the cyber café as Tori and Ronny high-fived each other behind her back.
"Mission accomplished." Tori stated with a smile.
"Shame really." Ronny replied. "I reckon Dr O's pretty hot myself."
Tori stared at her in disbelief, and shoved her, laughing out loud.
"What?" She replied. "You're the one with the rock on her finger. Haven't you heard of 'look but don't touch'?"
"Thought about it yet?" Hayley said, re-entering her office. Tommy just waved her over, not even bothering to get out of the chair.
"I'm still not convinced." Tommy replied. "What if I scare her off? I'd rather have her as a friend than nothing at all."
"Hayley looked at him with an unconvinced look in her eye. "Have you ever known Kira to be scared?"
"I suppose not." Tommy laughed. "I mean, she did hold her own when Mezagog kidnapped her."
"Didn't she also jump into Zeltrax's Zord to help you out in the final dino-ranger battle?" Hayley asked.
"She did." Tommy reminisced. And she helped me destroy him once we got out of the Zord."
"Sounds like she spent a lot of time at your side." Hayley replied, as a light knock came on the door. Kira poked her head round to see what was going on.
"I don't think I'm the one you want to be talking to. Do you?" She continued as she got up to leave. Tommy couldn't take his eyes off Kira as Hayley left.
"We need to talk." They chorused together, each trying to break the silence first. They laughed a little, realising they had been set up.
"You want to go first?" Tommy offered.