Trini hadn't suspected, but Jason had plans for their evening together... starting with a sunset walk around their old haunt, the Angel Grove park. It was a sweet gesture, she thought. She had visited the park briefly during the whirlwind tour they had taken on her first night back in Angel Grove, but she hadn't had a chance to get out and wander around.

Visiting it now was almost like meeting up with another old friend - at once nostalgic and strange. So much was the same; it felt comforting, but at the same time like she had changed so much since she was last here. It was even weirder to have Jason beside her, but not have to worry about the next Putty attack or wonder what Rita would turn into her next monster.

"I could get used to this," she murmured.

"Yeah, it's been peaceful lately." There was a wistful tone to his voice when he spoke.

"You miss it, don't you?"

Jason shrugged, understanding without asking what she was referring to. "Don't you?"

"Sometimes. It was an important part of my life... but I think I when I left, it was meant to be. There were other things I needed to do." This... was not how she had thought this would go, at all. It was a topic she disliked thinking about and would much rather have avoided in the first place. Then again, her reluctance was probably due to the fact that she had never managed to actually find that magical something she had spent so much time looking for.

"Yeah, you're right," Jason agreed. "There's a lot more to life than wearing spandex and fighting giant monsters..."

"Like playing mentor to a bunch of starry-eyed teenagers?" She couldn't resist teasing him about that.

"Hey, don't knock it. And I'll have you know I teach classes of all ages."

"Yeah, well those kids looked like they thought you were about the greatest thing ever, at least when I was there."

"You mean I'm not?" He stopped walking and turned to look at her. His expression was stern but his eyes were glittering with mirth.

She pretended to be taken aback. "When did you develop this ego?"

He looked thoughtful. "Probably about the time a certain long lost friend of mine called me up and turned me into a celebrity..."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, so it's my fault? Kim warned me about this... She said I'd turned you into a monster."

"Me, a monster?"

They had been drifting closer over the course of the conversation, almost without realizing it. It felt... comfortable to be so close to Jason. And she had to admit, with just the two of them... and the perfect weather, the soft sounds of the breeze rustling through the trees and grass, and the warm light reflecting off the pond beside them... it was a lot more romantic than she had thought this outing might be.

Now, Trini, you're really reading way too much into this. She hesitated a moment, torn between wanting to hold his hand, and thinking she ought to back off lest she freak him out by suddenly becoming clingy.

It turned out to be a moot point.

There came an awful sound of breaking metal from not far away, accompanied by the rush of wheels and a shouted, "Look out!"

A contraption that looked like it had once been a bicycle with a small carriage attached came barrelling down the hill and up the path toward them. Somewhere along the line it had lost one of its pedals and its handlebars, which were trailing alongside it, still attached at the brake lines, but not its oddly familiar driver or two frightened passengers.

Trini and Jason barely had time to step out of the way before the thing would have run them over.

They stepped apart, one to each side of the path, to let the whatever-it-was pass between them. It was an instinctive movement, but calm and easy from long practice, although Trini had hoped they could have left such hi-jinks behind them when they left for the Peace Conference years ago.

Jason had plenty of room on his side, because it bordered a grassy field. Trini realized immediately that she should have followed him. The path was very close to the pond at this point, and the only place she could go was onto the rocks lining the side of it.

Which should have been fine. She was light on her feet and had pretty good balance.

She also had really bad luck.

She made it onto the rocks without making a fool of herself, and that was where her luck ran out. The stone under her left foot shifted precariously. "Oh no."

She stepped back with her right foot, trying to catch her balance, but the saturated earth gave way easily beneath her weight. The stupid broken bicycle-thing with its three screaming passengers whipped past, finally beginning to lose momentum. Jason saw what was happening as soon as it passed, and even though he was too far to catch her in time - just barely - he still tried.

But it was too late. He missed by about an inch.

With a shout and a graceless flail, Trini toppled into the pond.