Chapter 11
Trust Fall
Tommy was never one that was extremely confident around girls.
Yes, he had those that said that he was good looking, he had been flirted with many times, and he had been told that he had a great smile. So how could that mean that he was shy? Even he didn't know, his and Kim's relationship had gone slowly because of that (not to mention all of the ranger stuff that got in the way) and thing were going pretty well between the two of them. Still, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do as a boyfriend, so he took cues from the movies and TV shows that she liked to watch as well as being a nice guy in general. It seemed to work in his favor.
But what of all of that was he supposed to do with an eleven year old girl? This wasn't even an ordinary eleven year old girl, she was as smart as Billy, as sweet as Kim, as playful as Zack…somehow a combination of all of his friends. And yet, he had no idea what to do to entertain her. The first time that Tommy had offered to watch after Bailey when Avalon went to go look for a job, the two of them ended up hanging around Ernie's and watching as Jason taught his martial arts class. They didn't really talk to each other. Then they had a monster attack against Arieselle once more and had been beaten again. This time they were beaten as badly as they had been before, and as quick. Avalon had managed to join into the fight at the very end, apologizing profusely for not being there in time.
Tommy had said that it was ok, but it was far from being ok. Arieselle was a strong monster, stronger than any of them had ever faced before and they were going to need everyone there that they could. It wasn't even that he didn't trust her; they had to learn how to trust everyone and he knew that from the way that Avalon continued to look at them and hesitate before speaking or answering a question that she didn't particularly trust them either.
Tommy smiled to himself as he watched Bailey busy herself with an arcade game. It was her idea that they went to the arcade, saying that she wanted something for him to do instead of just literally watching her. She doesn't seem to have a problem with trusting the rest of us. She's been really great in the Command Center as well. Earlier that day, Avalon had asked him to meet Bailey after school to look at her as she had to go somewhere.
"So just make sure that she doesn't go to the Command Center or whatever," Avalon said as she and Tommy walked to the doors of Angel Grove High. Her fingers fluttered on the straps of her backpack as she looked up and down the street. Tommy's eyebrows lowered as he watched her, it looked like she was about to jump out of her skin at every slight sound. "She likes to spend a lot of time there and I'm starting to get tired of having to go there and drag her out of there."
"I don't think that'll be a problem," Tommy said with a light laugh. "I mean, Billy's not there, so…"
Avalon turned to him, smirking. "You noticed the little crush too?"
"Actually, Kim was the one that point it out to me, but yeah." Tommy shrugged. "Anyway, don't worry about it. I'll watch her like a hawk."
"You better," Avalon warned. "She can easily get away from you if you don't pay too much attention." With that she turned and started off down the sidewalk. Tommy went in the opposite direction, over to Angel Grove middle school. It didn't take long for him to find Bailey; she was standing off to the side, by herself, pouting slightly.
"Hey Bailey," Tommy greeted her. He walked over and held out his hand. Bailey glanced at him for a moment before taking off her backpack and handing it over to him. He slid it onto his free shoulder and the two started to walk away from the school. "How was school today?"
"Ok." Bailey replied. She shrugged. "It's kinda boring really. It's not as challenging as I thought school would be." She looked up at him, her hair falling out of her face. "My Mum and Dad wanted me to skip grades, but I wasn't allowed to. Now I'm stuck."
"Really?" Tommy's eyebrows rose. "They wanted you to skip a few grades?" Bailey nodded. "So…what do your parents do?"
"My Dad's a captain of something," Bailey said slowly. Tommy laughed as her features scrunched up in thought. From what he had seen of her for the short amount of time that he'd known her, she always seemed to have that look on her face, always thinking about something. "I don't know really, he didn't say. My Mom used to be a nurse before she got sick."
"She got sick?" Tommy's eyebrows rose. At the concerned tone in his voice, Bailey bit her lip, looking at her feet.
"Yeah," she said slowly. "But she's OK now. She just…I don't know, it's hard to explain." She crossed her arms over her stomach, the pout coming back to her face. After a few moments she dropped her arms and looked up at him again. "So, what do you want to do today?"
"Um." Tommy scratched his forehead. This was the part that he didn't like; he knew what little boys liked to do for fun. They just wanted to run around and do whatever they could to get dirty. He was an only child, was never really around kids that much as it was, how was he supposed to know if the thing that he was interested in would interest her? "What do you want to do?"
"Let's go the arcade!" Bailey's eyes lit up as she raised her fists to the air. "I can sooo beat you at air hockey!"
"You're on!" Tommy replied. He held out his fist and Bailey bumped it. "Loser…has to buy the other one ice cream. Deal?"
"Deal!" Bailey gave him a thumbs up.
Maybe this won't be so bad.
Now here he and Bailey were, ten games of air hockey in, tied, and had decided to take a break and try a different arcade game. This one was of the Street Fight variety and she seemed to be really into the game, her fingers flying over the buttons and the joystick, "If this is how you act over a video game, I'd love to see what it would be like if you were in an actual fight."
"Ask Av," Bailey said, her eyes still glued to the screen. "She gets into fights a lot." Her face paled and she dropped her hands away from the video game, allowing her character to be beaten mercifully, resulting in a K.O. "I mean…she used to get into trouble and stuff…she used to get into fights. Mum and Dad didn't like it."
Tommy watched as she continued to look at her feet, chewing her lower lip. He studied her hard, noticing that her lower jaw trembled slightly. Sighing, Tommy crossed his arms over his chest. He didn't particularly believe her…there was something about the way that she continued to clam up or turn her gaze away from him that was starting to put him off. And here I thought that I was staring to make some progress with her. Tommy's eyes moved back over to the video game that Bailey was now absentmindedly messing with the joystick. He looked at the fighters on screen and a proverbial light bulb appeared in his mind.
"Hey, why don't I teach you how to fight?" He offered. Bailey looked at him out of the corner of her eye, her eyes narrowed in suspicion behind her glasses. "Just me and you. I do martial arts too…me and Jase spar sometime. And we can do it whenever Avalon wants me to babysit you," he continued.
Bailey finally turned to look at him. "Seriously?"
"Seriously." Tommy agreed. His eyes widened in surprise as a large smile slid across Bailey's face and she started to jump up and down.
"That's so ace! Oh my god, thank you so much! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She stopped jumping and clasped her hands together. "This is going to be so cool! Av never lets me do something like this! When can we get started? Today?! Please?" Each question came as soon as the last one ended, barely giving Tommy a chance to make sense of them. He started to answer, but stopped when a panicked expression slid onto Bailey's face.
Before he could ask what was wrong, she turned and raced to the girls' bathroom. Tommy hesitated, looking around the arcade, wondering what to do. There were a bunch of kids yelling, shouting, and laughing with each other, playing whatever games they could get their hands on. Adults were sitting aside, waiting for their kids to finish playing whatever games they were playing. They all sat back in their seats, casually talking to each other. Tommy looked around for a female worker or for someone that would be able to go into the bathroom to check on her. But he couldn't find anyone. Hesitantly, he walked over to the bathroom and knocked on the door.
"Bailey?" He called. "Are you ok?"
"No!" Bailey called back. There was a moment of silence before she spoke again. "Something's…wrong," she finally said. There was a shuffling sound and Tommy was sure that he could hear her sniffing. "I mean…it's not wrong….but….I'm….um…"
Tommy pressed his ear against the door and waited for her to say something. "Did you hurt yourself?"
"I'm….bleeding," Bailey finally said. There was a long moment of silence on both sides of the bathroom. Tommy's face and progressively turned a bit red. He now understood what was going on…but he had no idea what to do. He was a guy! He wasn't supposed to have this problem. Kim dealt with it herself and only brought it up around him once, just to watch him blush and stutter and try to figure out how to get the topic of conversation off of it. She teased him mercifully afterwards, but had otherwise dropped it. "Is…this your first time?"
"Yes," Bailey said quietly.
"Ok. Ok. Let me think." Tommy ran a hand over his face. A million thoughts ran through his head, he could try calling his Mom…but that would probably gross him out as much as he knew that she had to have gone through it too. Maybe Avalon….wasn't sure how she was going to react to it. "Ok, let me just call Kim and I'll figure out what to do, ok?"
"Ok…"
Tommy backed away from the bathroom and pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He punched in his girlfriends' number and waited for her to pick up. "Don't tell me that you're already throwing in the towel," Kimberly teased as soon as she picked up the phone. "I was just telling Trini that I was expecting you to call."
"Thanks for that vote of confidence, Beautiful," Tommy replied with a light roll of his eyes. He smiled when she started giggling. "Is Trini with you too?" He thought that he could hear her in the background and then placed a hand on his hip. "Don't tell me that you're at the mall again."
"Ok, I won't tell you," Kimberly replied.
Tommy laughed quietly to himself. "Ok, so, Bailey and I are at the arcade and…uh…something happened."
"Don't tell me you lost her!" Kimberly gasped. He could a smacking sound and was sure that she had dropped her hand onto the table. "What?" He could hear Trini over the phone. "Did he lose her? What's going on, Kim?"
"No, I didn't lose her." Now it was Tommy's turn to bite his lip. "I…well…she….she's bleeding," he finally said. His face enflamed once more when there was a silence on Kimberly's end. She then started to laugh uncontrollably. "Kim, it's not that funny! I need to figure out what to do!"
"Ok, do you have a quarter or something?" Kimberly asked. "If you do, give her one and tell her to put it in the machine that's in the bathroom, all girls' bathrooms have one, so she knows what it's for. Just tell her to use what's inside and wait. Don't rush her or pressure her or anything. This is a delicate situation."
"Ok," Tommy said. "I guess I can handle that."
"Do you want me to come by and-"
"No! No, I can handle this," Tommy said. He tightened his grip on his cell phone. "Don't worry about me. I'll see you later, ok?" He said 'bye' to Kimberly before hanging up the phone and turning back to the bathroom door. "I have a quarter that you can use," he said, digging in his pocket. Once he found it, he lightly knocked on the door. "So you can get…what you need from the bathroom." The door opened a second later and Bailey's hand shot out. Tommy placed the quarter into her palm and she brought her hand back, slamming the door shut behind her, barely moving her fingers out of the way in time. "I'll just wait out here, OK?"
Tommy walked over to an empty table and sat down, crossing his legs at the knee as he waited for her to appear once more. His mind wandered, going from topic to topic, landing on Rita and Zedd and Arieselle. There had to be something to be able to defeat the monster…it always ran around, gaining speed and power each time it took a lap, and then it had that energy blast form its horns. He had to admit that Rita and Zedd had outdone themselves on this monster. And this isn't going to be the end; they're going to do all they can to make sure that they take over and we're going to do everything we can to stop them. He looked up as Bailey shuffled over to him; once again, her gaze was on her feet.
She pulled herself into the seat across from him. For the next few minutes, the two would look at each other and then look away, not sure who was going to be the first one to speak. Things were going so well, too. Tommy cleared his throat, sitting up. If things were going to progress, he was going to have to be the one that stepped up.
"Do you still want that ice cream?"
Bailey eyed him critically. "I'm too old for bribes, Tommy," she said. Sitting up, she laced her fingers together and placed them on the table top. She looked him directly in the eye, her face as blank as a professional poker player's. "So why don't we just cut to the chase. None of us will bring this conversation up again. We'll act like it never happened and I won't kick your butt in air hockey." She smiled sweetly.
Tommy raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry; I believe I was the one that was beating you." He pointed at her. Bailey reached out and slapped his finger away.
"I don't think so," she replied. "From my calculations, I have the upper hand due to being young. I've got the better hand-eye-coordination, the better reflexes, and I'm smarter than you."
"And you're not modest," Tommy added dryly. "You forgot that part."
Bailey smiled again. She rested her chin in her hands and blushed a little. "Thanks, Tommy," she said quietly. "For…not making a big deal about this…" Her face turned redder and she started to twirl her hair around her fingers.
"No problem, Bailey," Tommy replied. "That's what friends are for."
Bailey blinked in surprise, smiled, and nodded. "Yeah," she agreed.
Billy chewed on the eraser to his pencil for a moment before leaning forward and scribbling in his notebook. He paused and leaned back, lifting the notebook in his hands. Equations and notes and formulas stared back at him. He frowned, not able to make heads or tails of any of it. They were just ideas that he had ever since Avalon and Bailey had first come over to explain what had been going on with her. She was hearing things that no one else could hear, that would be said later, she could run fast, could lift a lot of weights, and was strong. None of that had happened with the other rangers, so he wasn't sure how she was different, apart from her becoming a ranger after the others had.
Billy leaned forward once more and wrote down in his notebook: Direct link between new powers? Corrupted morpher?
That mixed in with other notes, one that was circled was new power source? Others had been looked into, but then crossed out. Billy groaned in frustration, taking off his glasses and holding his hands over his eyes. Why was this one thing that was giving him the most trouble? He came up with the communicator with no problems? He could fix it in a matter of hours if there was a malfunction. He could tap into the morphing grid, the teleportation unit, and could create weapons to stop Rita and Zedd with whatever they threw his way.
But he couldn't figure this out?
That's what being a scientist is all about, Billy, he reminded himself. Things aren't always going to jump out at you every time. It takes a lot of hard work. He turned around at the sound of a ranger teleporting into his garage. "Oh, Avalon, you're here!" He greeted her, standing up from his chair.
"Yeah, you said that you needed my help, so what's up?" Avalon took off her leather jacket and tossed it aside. She reached an arm up to rub her neck and Billy's eyes moved over to the inside of her forearm. A bruise was forming and from where he was standing, it looked pretty nasty. Avalon followed his gaze and quickly lowered her arm, shuffling her feet. "What's up?" She repeated.
"I wanted to see if there was anything else that I could figure out about your new abilities," Billy explained. He walked over to his work bench and picked up a clipboard and a pencil. "Any new developments that you can tell me about? Any side effects? Trouble sleeping?"
"What with Rita and Zedd being about, I don't get a lot of zeds as it is," Avalon said slowly. She eyed him up and down as he started to scribble on his clipboard. "Um…" she scratched the back of her neck. "Nothing else that I can think of…oh, I can run really fast," she added. "Like…if I can get home from here in a matter of seconds."
Billy raised his head to look at her. "You mean by-"
"Not teleportation, mate, no," Avalon denied.
"Hmm." Billy finished writing down on his clipboard and then motioned over to a chair that he had set up in the middle of the room. Next to it was a complicated looking machine that seemed to only be used in the doctor's office to monitor the patient's blood pressure, but there were a bunch of wires with suction cups attached to it as well. The monitor was blank, but Avalon eyed it warily. "Would you mind if I attached you to this machine? I want to check your power levels."
"It's not going to electrocute me, is it?" Avalon took a step back from him. She tilted her head to the side. "I mean, the monster and ranger powers I can deal with, death by electrocution, not really."
"No, you're not going to be electrocuted," Billy reassured her. Not that I think, anyway. "This is a prototype of what Alpha and Zordon used when they were creating the White Ranger powers. I thought it would come in handy if there was ever a time that we couldn't get back to the command center if something went wrong," Billy explained. "It can measure your vitals, as a human, as well as measure your abilities as a ranger." He held up a hand. "It's secure as far as I'm aware of."
Avalon turned to him with a skeptical look. "And you think I'm just going to willingly get into that thing?"
"I hoped that you'd trust me enough to help me, yes," Billy said calmly. He crossed his arms over his chest. "Avalon…what you can do…it might be something that can help us with Rita's and Zedd's new monster. You might be what we can use to tap into a new power source that the rest of us have the ability to tap into as well."
"So why haven't Alpha and Zordon done something about it?" Avalon asked slowly.
Billy saw something flash across her face-maybe guilt-when she mentioned the robot and mentor that the rangers looked up to. She turned her head to glance at the bruise on her arm and briefly closed her eyes before turning back to him. Billy studied her face for a long moment, wondering if there was something else she was going to say. When she stayed quiet, he continued. "Zordon and Alpha have entrusted me to work on this-"
"They don't even know do they?" Avalon interrupted. She threw hand up in the air. "As much as they can't, considering they're probably watching our every move."
She sounds bitter, Billy realized. That look across her face was of bitterness, not of guilt. It was evident from the way that she had said it. Was she still having doubts of being a ranger? "Do you trust me or not?" He repeated. "Please. This could really help everyone. You said that you wanted to be part of the team, so act like a part of team."
Avalon looked at him in surprised before nodding. Billy motioned to the chair once more and Avalon sat down, dropping her hands into her lap. Billy started to walk around her, placing the suction cups on to her forehead, neck, and collar bones. Once he was sure that they were all in place, he turned on the monitor. A smile tugged at his lips as Avalon twitched for a second and glared at him.
"You said I wouldn't get shocked!" She spat, accusingly.
"No, I said you wouldn't get electrocuted," Billy reminded her. He picked up his clipboard and pencil, looking at the monitor. Different colored lines squiggled up and down the monitor as it continued to run. Billy wrote down a few notes before turning to address Avalon once more. "These are your vitals." He pointed to the right corner of the screen. "Your blood pressure, internal temperature, and the like are in good health."
"So what are the squiggles?" Avalon crossed her legs at the knee.
"The wavelengths are the enhanced abilities from your powers," Billy explained. He point to a bright pink one. "This is your brain wavelength…which would directly correlate to your being able to read people's minds."
"I can't read their minds," Avalon said hesitantly. "I can…hear what they say before they say it. Clairvoyance, remember."
"Some believe that it's a direct link to reading minds," Billy corrected himself. He tapped his pencil against his chin. "Which is really fascinating, especially because the brain is directly connected to every central nerve and muscle of your body, giving them messages to move when they need to be moved." He crossed his arms over his chest. "It's also what brings you the sense of pain, that little message. So something must be going on with your central nervous system…that would explain your increased strength and speed."
"That still doesn't explain anything to me," Avalon said. She gave a sheepish smile, running her hand through her hair. "I'm not great when it comes to science and biology."
"Has anything…ever happened to you when you were a kid?" Billy held up a hand when Avalon scowled with impatience. "I know that you said that you haven't…but I really need you think about it. Something that was weird to you…something that was unexplainable." He watched Avalon's face go from a scowl to pensive. As she thought about it, he continued to watch the wavelengths as they moved across the screen, each color representing a different part of her powers.
"Wait…" Avalon said slowly. Billy turned back to her, watching as her face contorted into concentration. "There was this one time…I was really young…I was going to the garage…to ask Dad a question…and there was this flash of light…I don't know what it was…" she shook her head, gripping the ends of her hair. "He was working on something and when he saw me, he made me leave the room. He never mentioned anything after that."
"Well, is there any way I can talk to your father?" Billy asked.
Avalon's face darkened once more. "How do you plan on doing that without revealing everything?"
"Trust me," Billy replied. "What's your father's name?"
"William," Avalon said slowly. "But don't bother calling him now; he's on a business trip. He's always out of town for some part of his job." She shrugged. "But I can let him know that you want to talk to him…he'll get back to you when you can."
Billy had the feeling that she was giving him the runaround, but had no way to prove it. He just wrote her father's name out on the clipboard and continued to take notes from what was happening on the monitor. When that was finished, he turned it off, pulled the suction cups off of her and picked up a cotton swab. "I need a bit of your DNA too."
"Why don't you just take some tone nails or something?" Still, Avalon obediently opened her mouth wide, lowering the back of her tongue so Billy could rub the cotton swab on the inside of her cheek. She held up a hand. "Let me guess, something about getting DNA easier from saliva than a toe nail or a piece of my hair, right?"
Billy smiled at her. "You do pay attention in science."
"No, I just hear Bailey go on and on about stuff like this and something was bound to get locked up here." She tapped herself on the forehead then moved her arms behind her back, gently twisting back and forth, much like a little kid could. When she caught Billy's gaze, she quickly looked away from him. "So, are you done or…?"
"For now," Billy said. He sighed heavily, dropping the q-tip into a plastic baggie and marking it with a sharpie. "Now that I have all of this…there's still going to be a lot of work that I need to do." He walked over to his work bench and placed it amongst his other findings. He was going to have to clean up a little if stuff was going to get done. "Then again, a scientist's work is never complete." He laughed to himself. "Thanks for your help, Avalon."
"No worries." Avalon picked up her jacket and started to walk to the garage door. She grabbed onto the doorknob and pushed it open, then paused. "Hey Billy." Avalon stopped at the door, turning back to him. She rested her hands on the doorframe, a peaceful expression sliding on her face.
"Yes?" Billy pushed his glasses up his nose, putting down his clipboard. He had moved over to the computer that was sitting on the desk in the corner of the garage and started to type on it. When his name was called, he turned to face her.
"You can call me, Av," she said before disappearing from the doorway.
A/N: This chapter was more about Tommy and Billy bonding with Bailey and Avalon; the next one will be more about Jason, Kim, Trini, and Zack. You're going to see/hear more about Avalon's and Bailey's parents as the story goes on. So far Zachman777 was the only one to correctly guess/notice the little twist I had put into them so congrats to him.
Please let me know what you'd like to see as the story goes on? More monster fights? More background on Avalon and Bailey? More with Rita and Zedd? More Zordon and Alpha? I always like your guys' input. I'm only asking because as it's my first PR story I'm really anxious about what you guys think of it; I'm trying to make it as good as I can.
Thanks for all of the favorites and alerts and reviews so far, your guys' support means a lot.
-Avalon
