"Dr. O, is your wife feeling any better?" Cassidy asked as he walked into his homeroom the next morning and just shook his head. He had not thought that that would be the first thing asked of him when he walked in. He also had not thought that Principal Randall would tell them exactly why he was out the day before.
"Yeah, she just had a rough day yesterday. So what did the sub cover?" Tommy asked as the class looked around at each other and he folded his arms across his chest. He did not like he was seeing and hoped that they would find an answer quickly, but none came. "I take that as nothing."
"Nothing you'd ever teach us, but it was interesting. It was an odd theory about Power Rangers and where their powers emanate from. It seems like there has never been just one source," Cassidy said as Tommy glanced and Kira and Conner who were rather pale. They had no idea how Dr. O might get them out of this without revealing too much, that was why they had sat in silence yesterday while the others asked question after question from the substitute.
"The suits show the difference in powers, what they are based on can sometimes be affiliated with the suit as well, I can remember some Ninjetti rangers from my junior year of high school and some dino rangers before that, but you learn more about rangers from their zords than their uniforms," Tommy said as the class stood enthralled, even Kira and Conner had never put the connection together until now. "And before you ask, I lived in Angel Grove for about eight years, so I know a thing or two about the Power Rangers."
"So the current rangers have dinosaur based powers?" Cassidy asked as Tommy saw an odd light in her eyes and decided to answer this question carefully.
"Probably, but only the rangers know for sure, even when I was your age, we could only speculate by what we saw," Tommy said as Cassidy nodded.
"Do you think there is some sort of science to how ranger teams are formed?" Cassidy asked as Tommy smiled. He knew the answer to that, but he couldn't answer her honestly in order to get out of this without anymore suspicions.
"I think it is more luck than anything else you will ever hear about, but that's only what I think. You'd have to find out the identity of one of the real rangers to know for sure," Tommy said as Cassidy nodded. She didn't see how that would be hard, investigative reporting was her specialty.
"You know Cassidy is going to try to find out who we are now, right?" Conner said, that afternoon as Tommy sparred with him in the basement. The kids had just accepted that he wanted to be closer to home in case Kim needed him. He had other reasons, but until the kids asked, he was not going to tell them. They definitely did not need to know that there was a chance that he might die.
"I know, but we're pretty good at keeping ourselves hidden, all of you just have to learn to tell a truthful lie," Tommy said as Kim walked down the stairs and he put up his hands to call a time out. "Hey."
"Hey yourself," Kim said as she gave him a hug. "We've got a problem."
"If it has to do with Mesogogg…" Tommy trailed off as Kim shook her head that that was not the case.
"Your cousin is getting married tomorrow, I have nothing to wear and we haven't got them anything. Your mom is going to kill us," Kim said as Tommy just shook his head. He did not know how he could have forgotten the wedding, it was only the sole event that his mother had been talking about for weeks. He was not too excited to go to it and by the sound of Kim's voice she would rather have taken on a hundred Lord Zedds than go to this particular wedding.
"You take Kira and go shopping, I'll take care of the gift," Tommy said as Kira looked over at him in shock. One, she hated shopping and two, shouldn't he be going with his wife?
"I don't want to," Kira said as Tommy glared over at her this was not so much a suggestion as it was an order, "but I can."
"Tommy, they need to practice, I'll be fine, I should only be out a couple of hours at the most," Kim said as Tommy looked between her and Kira. Kira was desperate to work out because she needed it. She was constantly struggling just to keep pace with Ethan and Conner during the fights and from what she had seen of the older rangers, the female rangers had never had a problem with that before. "I'll also have my phone on if that makes you feel any better."
"Okay," Tommy said as Kim gave him another hug.
"What do you want to get them?" Kim asked as Tommy looked over at her.
"A box of…" Tommy started as Kim laughed. He had momentarily forgotten the kids were there and they didn't know his cousin. This was her third marriage and she had had two children so far. He just didn't want this poor guy to get caught up in the mess.
"I'll throw a couple of those in as well," Kim said as Tommy covered his face. "25?"
"Yeah, at the most expensive place you can find," Tommy said as Kim laughed and then forced herself back up the stairs.
"She's getting bigger," Kira commented as Tommy nodded and a smile crept onto his face.
"It's just getting to where I can feel the baby move, we didn't know if we would be able to have kids for awhile," Tommy said as Conner gave him a confused look. It was obvious to him that they could have kids, so why had they ever wondered about the fact that they might not be able to? "They were afraid that the chemo would affect her ability to have kids, maybe it did, but we didn't really start trying until around April."
"How are you going to keep on doing this?" Kira asked as Tommy shook his head. He didn't really know, but he found it useless to say that to the kids.
"I don't have much choice about it, we've been rangers or worked with rangers for years. Kim doesn't like it, neither do I, but someone has to do it," Tommy said as he stood in front of Conner. "Come on, I want to have supper ready for her by the time she gets back."
"I doubt that you can cook," Conner said as he kicked toward Tommy, who merely dodged it before laughing. He was definitely not the only person that had doubted his culinary skills in the last few years, but according to Kim, he was actually a decent cook.
"Well I guess that I'll surprise all of you, if you wish to stay for supper," Tommy said as he swept Conner's feet out from under him. "You have to learn to concentrate, even when someone is talking to you. The monsters like to taunt you and I doubt that you'll keep your mouth shut while they do that."
"I never said that I was going to be great at this," Conner said as Tommy just shook his head.
"No ranger ever thinks that they are doing a good job while they are actually doing it, it's not until years down the road, when you sit down with your friends that you realize that you actually did a decent job," Tommy said, speaking from personal experience as he continued to hammer the red ranger. He knew the responsibility of being a red and did not wish to ever be in those shoes again. He had been the red ranger for awhile, but it had never really suited him, he had always been more comfortable when he wore white.