After convincing the Rangers she knew who they were and insisting she needed to speak to Kendall, Cammy rode the secret slide in her friend's office. Once at the bottom, she found herself in what appeared to be an underground lab. In the middle was a work station, much like what Cammy had seen on TV. Cammy didn't have time to admire it or anything, though, when she saw Kendall was there working.
"You're okay!" Cammy called out and rushed over. Kendall stopped what she was doing to catch the little girl in a hug.
"How did you get down here?"
"The Rangers let me in," Cammy said. "I know all about it."
"Cammy..."
Cammy looked to the bandage on the side of Kendall's face, where she had been struck by the shovel. She remembered seeing all the blood and Kendall lying limp and looking very pale on her front yard and tears filled her eyes.
"I was so scared you were going to die," Cammy said. "And that you thought I hated you. But I get it now. I get why you won't adopt me! It's too dangerous."
Kendall sat Cammy down in her chair then leaned against her desk. She wasn't sure what to say or do at this moment. Cammy offered her the card in her hand.
"I made this for you," she said. "I couldn't sleep last night. I was so worried you were going to die."
"I wasn't going to die."
"You obviously didn't see all the blood," Cammy muttered. She looked up at Kendall, "I'd rather you not adopt me and you stay alive for years and years, than for you to adopt me and some evil monster murders you because you're trying to protect me."
"You're talking about last night?"
"I'm talking about forever," Cammy said, then pointed around the lab. "This is why you said no, right? Not because you don't want me. But because you're scared something's going to happen to me?"
"That's... the main reason," Kendall nodded. She knelt before Cammy, took the girl's hands and looked her in the eyes. "What happened last night, I can't let it happen again. Fury and Sledge, they're after the energems. We've found five, but there are still five more out there. The Rangers, they're out there looking for them, but Sledge and Fury... they know about me."
"What do you do?"
Kendall gestured around the lab, "Finding energems is my specialty. It's what I'm usually working on when you visit. The Rangers, they do most of the digging and the field work while I... I tell them where to go."
"You're the brains?"
"You can say that," Kendall nodded her head. "And Sledge and Fury, they know that too. They know what I do for the Rangers. That puts me in just as much danger as the rest of them."
Cammy's eyes started to water. She shook her head, "I don't want you to die..."
"And I won't," Kendall promised her. "I stick to working here, in the lab, where it's safe. I get out sometimes. Usually the Rangers have my back. And if I do run into trouble, I can get myself out."
"Like last night?"
"Last night was different," Kendall said. "Last night, getting myself to safety wasn't my concern. Keeping you safe, getting you back to your parents, that mattered more to me than my life or the safety of the energems and... Cammy, that's just not something the world can afford."
"I get it," Cammy whispered. "I'm a distraction."
"If I adopt you now, I'm afraid what happened last night will happen again. And we might not get so lucky, then."
"Lucky?" Cammy asked and gestured to the side of Kendall's face. "You call that lucky?"
"You're alive, safe, and the energems are still in our possession," Kendall nodded. "Last night, we won. Next time... next time, I might be forced to choose again... and if it's between you and the energems..."
"You'd pick the energems..."
"I'd pick you," Kendall stated. "Cammy, it's not... it's not that I don't like you, or don't want you. It's that... I care about you more than I care about all this, and right now, that's dangerous."
"Maybe later you'll adopt me?" Cammy asked. "When this whole thing is over? Once you're done saving the world?"
"I'm not making promises," Kendall said. "I'm not really mother material. But we'll figure this out because whether or not I do adopt you, I'm always going to be around."
"And that's what I want too," Cammy smiled. She pointed to the card, "So... are you going to open that now, or what?"
Kendall nodded as she looked to the cover of the card in her hands. She smiled, seeing Cammy had written 'Get well soon' on the front and had drawn a picture of the museum. Then she opened the card and that was when her eyes started to water. Inside, Cammy had written, in big, "I love you," and framed the words with hearts. Just below, Cammy had done her best to draw Kendall as a Power Ranger.
"I know you're not one," Cammy said. "So I made you purple, because you're still a hero. Despite what Riley says."
"I'm a hero?"
"A hero is a good person. Someone who does the right thing, no matter what. Someone you can depend on. You're... um... my hero. So that's why I made you a Ranger.
"I love it," Kendall smiled and pulled Cammy in for a tight hug.
"I made you purple because I know it's your favourite colour," Cammy said. "And your dinosaur is the plesiosaur. I know it's not a dinosaur but... well, close enough, right?"
"Yeah, close enough," Kendall nodded. She set the card on her desk, then took Cammy's hand, "Energem stuff can wait for today. The doctor said I should take it easy anyways. What if we just went out for some ice-cream or something?"
"Two scoops?"
"Can you even finish two?"
"We won't know unless we try," Cammy said. Kendall chuckled as she nodded her head.
"Alright. Two scoops. But this time only."
-Dino-Charge-
The day passed quickly for Kendall. She had spent a lot more time on her feet than the doctor had recommended. In fact, he had told her to take the day off entirely and stay in bed. But Kendall couldn't imagine any better medicine than spending time with Cammy.
The adoption issue had been a big scare. Kendall didn't want to lose Cammy over the fact that she couldn't afford to lose her. Just the thought of Sledge and Fury using Cammy as bait, or against her and the Rangers, terrified Kendall more than anything. Fortunately, Cammy had come around. She was smart, and seemed to understand Kendall's reasons for turning her down. Better, even, was that she picked up on the fact that Kendall had rejected her out of love.
In the end, it worked out, and Kendall felt closer than ever to Cammy, and she was sure it worked the other way around. After all, their stories were quiet similar. Cammy never had parents she could depend on, and felt rather abandoned by the world – just like Kendall. Yet, for the first time in what was surely a long time, both felt comfortable enough to utter the three words they never imagined hearing or saying genuinely: I love you.
As Kendall returned to her lab, she picked up the card Cammy had made for her and read those three words over and over again. They made her smile, and filled her with more joy than anything had before.
Then she looked down at the image Cammy had drawn of Kendall as the purple Ranger. The plesiosaur Ranger – it had to be a coincidence. Kendall's eyes strayed over to her table, where an empty charge for the purple energem sat. Kendall closed the card and kept it in hand as she picked up the charger.
"It's got to be a coincidence," she muttered to herself, then set the charger down. She put the card in her bag as she got packed up to head home.
