"Do you think Dr. O is going to make it?" Kira asked as Conner and Ethan shrugged. They had honestly thought he would be back before they left, but he wasn't. Whatever was going on with Kim must have been more serious than anything they could imagine.
"I doubt he's going to leave Kim today," Ethan said as they nodded their heads in agreement. Last night had let them know just how hard Dr. O had fallen for this woman and they knew that he would protect her, even if it hurt him.
"But that doesn't mean he won't send a substitute," Conner said as Billy walked past them into Dr. O's room. "This is going to be cool."
"We don't know him, remember," Kira said as Conner nodded then walked into Dr. O's room. "Conner…"
"Just a simple question for him," Conner said as he walked in and Billy looked up and smiled. He had been warned by Tommy that the rangers might not take it well that he was not there. That was why he sent Billy in the first place.
"Dr. Oliver is taking a personal day, some emergency I'm told," Billy said as Conner nodded and they exited the room.
----------
"How'd you sleep?" Jason asked as Tommy stumbled down the stairs and poured himself a cup of coffee. He looked pretty rough, but Jason didn't think that he needed to mention that fact to Tommy. He was not going to be polite in his response if he dared to say that.
"I didn't," Tommy said as he took a gulp of the coffee and then shook his head to try to clear his thoughts. He had thought of so much in the past few hours and he had to straighten it out before he talked to Kimberly. If he didn't he was going to be in a lot of trouble.
"You're not going to be able to protect her forever," Zack said as Tommy glared over at him, then walked back upstairs.
"There's no use in trying to change his mind, he's determined to keep her safe at least until she heals," Trini said as Jason sat down next to her and placed his arm around her. None of them liked seeing one of their own like this, but there was not much that they could do about it.
"How long do you think that will take?" Zack asked as Trini shrugged her shoulders. There was no telling with that many wounds. "Tommy, hell none of us, have enough time off to wait for her to get back up to 100 percent. It's going to take weeks with an injury that severe."
"Well, he's been able to get in touch with her eye doctor and he's making her some new glasses right now. Once she can see again, it won't be as big of a deal, he'll be able to go back to work," Trini said as Zack nodded his head that he agreed.
"What about her job?" Zack asked as Jason and Trini both smiled.
"She's the boss and she's got a good staff that will take care of things until she is able to get back on her feet and they don't ask any questions, which makes things a lot better," Jason said as Tommy walked down the stairs with Kim in his arms.
"She awake?" Trini asked as Tommy shook his head no and then laid her down on the couch.
"She's bled through these too, will you go into town and get one of those ace bandages Billy was talking about and check with the doctor. He said he'd rush them through since her sight is so bad," Tommy said as Trini and Jason stood up. "Thanks, guys."
"Are you going to rewrap her?" Zack asked as Tommy nodded his head yes and walked over to get the strips of sheet and ointment Billy had left before he had gone in to be Tommy's substitute. Tommy had never thought that he would ask this big of a favor of his friend, but he did and he was so thankful that Billy was good at science. He would be some comfort to his young rangers, although he knew that it wouldn't be as good as him being there.
"As soon as I wake her up, I'm afraid this is going to hurt more this morning," Tommy said as he gently shook Kim's shoulder and she shrugged away from him. All she wanted to do was sleep, so she hoped that Tommy would just leave her alone. "Come on, I need to change your bandages."
"Not the words I wanted to here from you when I woke up," Kim murmured as she opened her eyes and propped herself up, although that was very difficult.
"You've bled through them, again," Tommy said as Kim just shook her head and grabbed his arms to pull herself into a seated position.
"Wrap me up good," Kim said as he undid the bandages and she grimaced as he tugged at particular pieces, some of it had worked it's way into the cuts and was clinging in ways that she never thought possible.
"It looks a little bit better, but I don't know why you're still bleeding," Tommy said as he cleaned the wounds again and she pulled away from him. "I know it burns, but we have to keep these clean to keep you out of the hospital."
"It hurts," Kim murmured as Tommy looked over at Zack and then handed him the ointment. Kim was going to need someone to hold onto during the next part from how she had reacted to the alcohol. "Ah!"
"I know it hurts," Tommy said as Kim wound her arms around him and pulled him closer. "Hey, it's okay, it'll all be over in a few minutes."
"Ah!" Kim cried again as she pulled away from Zack and Tommy gave him a sympathetic look, as Kim clawed the back of his neck. "Jeez!"
"You weren't this bad last night," Tommy said as Zack finished applying the ointment and Kim began shaking in Tommy's arms. "You want to let it air out some?"
"Just wrap me back up and get me the strongest medicine that you have. I should be all right after that," Kim said as Zack passed Tommy the bandages and he began wrapping them around her body. Kim then began laughing, for no reason, which caused Tommy and Zack to stare at her. What could possibly be funny about this situation?
"What could you possibly be laughing at?" Tommy asked as he secured the bandages and looked down at her, with a confused look on his face.
"It's really stupid, to be honest, Tommy," Kim said as Tommy and Zack exchanged a glance and then Tommy nodded that she should go on, which she was just barely able to see. "I just never thought this would be how you'd see me topless."
"I'm not enjoying this, at all," Tommy said as Kim smiled up at him and Zack just shook his head.
"You two can have your little, whatever this is, later, when I'm not here," Zack said as Tommy and Kim looked over at him and he shrugged. "We have things to do besides take care of her, working on the teleportation system being right up there on our list. If she had been worse off, we would have had to break about a million ranger rules, namely revealing a Command Center."
"Come on, why can't we have some fun? We need to after yesterday," Tommy said as Zack gave Tommy a stern look and he nodded that he understood. "Let's get breakfast before we do anything else. We're all going to need our energy."
"At least that's productive," Zack said as Kim sat up and held out her hand, which Tommy took and gently pulled her off the couch. "I'll go on downstairs."
"Okay," Tommy said as Kim sat down and he began searching for something they'd both eat for breakfast.
"What are we now Tommy?" Kim asked as he set a glass of orange juice in front of her and put some eggos on a tray and placed it in the oven. He was going for what was easy; he didn't feel like really cooking.
"Whatever you want us to be," Tommy said as Kim motioned for him to come and sit down next to her.
"No, you tell me because I'm not in control of this relationship anymore," Kim said as Tommy sat down next to her and placed his arms around her.
"I'm yours," Tommy said as Kim looked over at him and then pulled his face closer to hers.
"So you'll have me back?" Kim asked as Tommy's hands worked their way up to her neck and hair, just barely touching them.
"Yeah, I'll have you back," Tommy said as he gave her a gentle kiss and then kissed her on the tip of her nose. "All you ever had to do was ask."
"But you needed time," Kim whispered as the buzzer on the oven sounded and Tommy stood to pull out the eggos.
"That was more for me to get my thoughts together than anything else," Tommy said as he placed a couple of eggos in front of her and she grasped for them, then cut them with her knife and fork. "You're pretty good at that. Have you been fooling me all this time?"
"I go through about four pairs of glasses a year, with my run-ins with Mesogogg and them falling off my face when I do gymnastics. I'm kinda used to having sometime without them. I always wind up breaking my back-up pair before I can get another pair made," Kim said as she rubbed her torso against the table and let out an involuntary groan.
"Well the doctor is rushing them through. We can't exactly leave you alone until you can see," Tommy said as Kim gave him a mock glare. "I know, you're not a kid, but I don't want to risk anything else if I can help it."
"I agree with you there," Kim said as Zack popped up to see the two of them eating breakfast. He had thought pop-tarts, but they did have sometime to waste. "I don't know what I'll do if anything happens. My body can't take much more right now."
"Yeah, I can't go through another day like yesterday anytime soon," Tommy said as Kim nodded her head in agreement.
"How do you think your rangers are doing? I mean, they didn't see you after you saved me and you know what that used to do to us," Kim said as Tommy shrugged his shoulders.
"They know that I'm alive, so they shouldn't be too worried about me. They don't need to see me to be able to hear my voice," Tommy said as Kim gave him a skeptical look.
"They're new to this, alive may not be good enough for them. You know we had to see each other at first," Kim said as she pushed her plate away and Tommy took both of their plates to the sink.
"If they had seen the way you looked, they would have second guessed being rangers; we can't really afford that right now," Tommy said as Kim nodded and he came over and grabbed her hand and pulled her out of her chair. "Can you make it down the stairs?"
"As long as you tell me when I'm on the last step, I should be fine," Kim said as Tommy opened the trap door and they started into the Command Center.
"Whoa, Tommy," Jason said as he came in and could see Tommy descending into the Command Center.
"Just follow us down Jason, unless you have my glasses, I can't do this alone," Kim said as Tommy looked at the bags Jason held u and smiled.
"Trini has your glasses, I have the ace bandages," Jason said as he walked down behind them and then Trini came in.
"I'll wrap you up," Tommy said as Kim nodded, then pulled off his t-shirt so Tommy could wrap it around her.
"Here you go," Trini said as she passed Kim her glasses and she slipped them on.
"This is so much better," Kim said as she could finally see all of them again and could finally see some of the damage done to her body. "I need to go by next week and order a back up pair, since I broke them already."
"Do you want to see how bad it is?" Tommy asked, as Kim shook her head no. She could fee just how bad it was without seeing it. "Hopefully this will help stop the bleeding."
"If not, I've been through worse," Kim said as Tommy tightened the bandages around her torso, then wrapped on the ace bandage.
"Okay, Billy left us directions for the teleportation system and the materials we need to get it to work," Trini said as Kim pulled on Tommy's shirt and stood to go help them.
"Kim, sweetie, you need to rest," Tommy said as Kim placed her hands on her hips and glared up at him. "You can't tell me that you're not sore and worn out."
"Yeah, but I can help," Kim said as Trini looked over at Tommy. They had to talk her out of helping, somehow.
"You can't crawl around and that's what we need you to do. Please just sit down and rest," Tommy said as Kim nodded her head and sat down in a chair in front of the computer.
"Can I actually use this as a computer?" Kim asked as Tommy nodded his head yes, then walked over to help the others. He knew that a teleportation system was extremely complex, but with Billy's directions and Trini's skills, they'd be able to figure out a way to do most of it.
----------
"We're going back to Dr. O's," Conner said as Kira and Ethan nodded. They had a lot of questions to ask him and they had to be answered this time.
"What I want to know is why is Billy still here?" Kira said as Ethan gave her a confused look. "He doesn't live here anymore, at least that was what it sounded like."
"Talk about that somewhere else," Billy said as he walked by them and they nodded. They didn't know why it was so important to keep quiet, but they were sure they would learn more as time went along. They were still too new to be scared of being discovered by the outside world and they didn't know the repercussions of something like that happening, the older rangers did.
"Are you all like this?" Kira asked as Billy smiled over and shook his head no.
"Some are worse," Billy said as he walked over to Zack's car and they watched as he climbed in and drove off.
"Who could possibly be worse?" Kira asked as she climbed into the passenger's seat and Conner looked over at Ethan, he could think of one right off the bat.
"Dr. O," Conner said as Kira gave him an odd look. "Come on, he got us out of there so fast it's not even funny. He knows how much is at stake if we are revealed. He may even be more fanatical than we can even imagine."
"I didn't think you know what the word fanatical meant," Ethan said as Conner glared into the rearview mirror at him.
"I heard it in a movie and I actually do pay attention in English class, even if I don't act like it," Conner said as Kira quickly jumped in to stop the brewing argument.
"You can fight later, more important things are going on than Conner's knowledge of the English language," Kira said as Ethan and Conner spared each other one more look before nodding.
"Do you think Dr. O is actually starting a new relationship now?" Ethan asked as Kira shrugged her shoulders. She only cared about the relationship if it affected them.
"I don't think it's a new relationship, did you see the way they acted around each other," Conner pointed out as Ethan and Kira stared at him. This was snot the same Conner McKnight that they had gone to school with for the past two years.
"I didn't know that you had this side to you," Kira said as Conner shrugged his shoulders.
"It doesn't help in soccer, but I guess it helps that I notice these things somewhere in life," Conner said as he pulled into Dr. O's driveway and parked his car. He was sure that Ethan and Kira were shocked, but he wasn't the asshole that he acted like all the time. He couldn't even stand himself if he was like that all the time.
"Hello? Dr. O?" Kira called as she walked in the front door with Ethan and Conner right behind her.
"Downstairs, Kira," Tommy called as they turned and headed for the trap door. "Billy was just telling me about school. How were your days?"
"The best part is that it is over," Conner said as Kira and Ethan nodded their heads in agreement. None of them had had a great day today. They had had a bunch of crap piled on them by a couple of their teachers and all they wanted to do now was get home so that they could do their homework and sleep.
"I honestly agree with them, for once school was not a pleasant experience for me as well," Billy said as Tommy could only smile over at him. "You're still not looking so hot."
"You wouldn't either after having your chest slashed," Kim said, grumpily, as she slowly sat up and looked over at Tommy and the others. The soreness had definitely had a chance to set in and she did not enjoy it at all. She just wanted to get back to sleep, but the noise down here had even kept her awake upstairs.
"Can we see?" Conner asked as Tommy glared at him and Kira smacked him hard on the back of the head.
"Nice try Conner, but not only would seeing my boobs turn you off; you can't really tell where they are because of the swelling," Kim said as she stood up and walked over to him. "Plus, Tommy might have to kick your ass."
"So, the two of you did have something in the past," Conner said as Kira smacked him again. "What did I say that time?"
"It's none of our business if they did or didn't. The only thing we need to know is that they're good terms now," Kira said as Kim and Tommy looked at the two of them.
"Have you taken anything for the pain?" Billy asked as Kim nodded her head yes and then pulled off Tommy's shirt. She was pretty sure the bandages needed to be changed again. "I'll change the bandages, the rest of you need to keep on working."
"He gets to see her?" Conner asked as Jason, Zack, Trini, and Tommy looked over at him and Kira held up her hand.
"He's the closest thing we have to a doctor and he'll take better care of her than the rest of us," Jason said as Tommy's fists shook and he could only shake his head.
"Do I need to smack him again?" Kira asked as Tommy nodded his head yes and Kira smacked him one more time.
"Why'd you come?" Tommy asked as they went back to work on the teleportation system. Nothing had happened today, so he didn't understand why they would stop by.
"We have some questions," Ethan said as they all heard Kim let out a moan and Tommy put down his tools and walked off.
"What about?" Trini asked as she crawled under the machine and began installing various parts.
"Everything, we've only heard the rumors of how you formed. We have never heard the actual story," Conner said as Jason walked over to the computer and pulled up a file.
"Sit back and watch, it should answer your questions," Jason said as he then went back to work.
"I don't understand why you're not healing," Billy said as Kim shrugged her shoulders. If Billy didn't understand it, then she sure as hell was not going to be able to understand it. "I'm afraid to let you air these out because of the risk of infection."
"It'll just take sometime Billy, we're not on Aquitar where everything heals in mere minutes," Kim said as she looked up at the screen and saw the rangers' story being told.
"I left out the letter," Tommy whispered as Kim leaned back against him and smiled. She was definitely thankful for that. These rangers did not need to be exposed to the real reason that she and Tommy were only dating right now. "What do you want for supper?"
"How about you come to my place?" Kim whispered back as Tommy merely nodded his head that he liked that idea.
"Lovebirds, come on, teleportation system to finish here," Zack said as they both blushed then walked over.
"Are you going back to Aquitar when this gets done?" Kim asked as Billy shook his head no. "What made you decide that?"
"It's just time for me to come back. I can't have the life I want there and I think I'll be able to find that here," Billy said as Kim gave him an odd look.
"Kat's still single, isn't she?" Tommy asked as Kim gaped over at Billy as he nodded his head yes.
"She doesn't know I'm back yet," Billy said as Kim continued to blatantly stare at him. "You okay?"
"When did this happen and where was I when it happened?" Kim asked as the rangers finished their video and looked over at their predecessors in awe. They could not believe half the things that they had done, that no one knew about.
"Let's just say we were only friends because it made things easier on us," Billy said as Kim's mouth dropped open and she stared up at Tommy.
"You knew," Kim said as Tommy nodded his head yes.
"First words out of her mouth when she broke up with me," Tommy said as he smiled. "It wasn't really so unexpected, not after what I had seen."
"You know that this deserves more of an explanation," Kim said as Billy just shook his head, then booted Trini out of the crawl space.
"All of that is true," Conner said as Tommy nodded his head yes. In the one place that he could be honest about his ranger history, he was going to be. He had needed the stress relief when he made the video and he had felt so much better to actually do that.
"Please tell me that you only get seriously injured as a freak thing," Kira said as she looked over at Kim.
"For old pros like us, it's a freak thing, but you'll have some ugly injuries at first, but as you get better the injuries will go down…well, usually they do," Tommy said as Kira nodded her head. It was not a blanket statement no, but it was better than him saying it was a guarantee with the job.
"No one can be more superficial than me when I first became a ranger," Kim said as Jason and Trini laughed. They could all remember her complaining that her hair was going to get messed up by the helmet. "Trust me, an injury like this is extremely unusual and I honestly doubt Mesogogg will take his time to do something like this to you. He wants to get back at me and he's figuring out what the best way is."
"I think we might as well call it a day. My brain is too addled to honestly be able to finish this correctly. If I can bunk down somewhere, I'll finish this tomorrow," Billy said as Tommy nodded and the young rangers took this as their cue to leave.
"My room's free, I'm taking her home," Tommy said as the others gave them a suspicious look. "It's not like that."
"Sure, Tommy," Jason said as Kim just shook her head.
"Go get you some clothes," Kim said as they all looked at her. "He is spending the night, but I honestly doubt we'll do anything more than watch a movie."
"All right missy, but the two of you be careful," Jason joked as Kim gave him a hug then walked out to Tommy's car. She knew that nothing would happen and so did he. Neither of them was that willing to jump into their relationship. In all honesty a nice dinner would be most appreciate by both.