Note: This consolidates parts 13 and 14 of the story as posted on AO3. The AO3 part 14 starts after Summer's parents leave.

The Dreamt-of Call
by Estirose
c 2011

Part 13

Angie Landsdown gazed at her daughter and wished Summer would just understand. She and Ben were doing what they had to do, but Summer had become so stubborn, so resistant ever since she was chosen by her morpher. She wondered how it had happened, why her baby daughter would choose to live a life like she was living.

She'd take her little girl away from it, but she didn't want what was left of her world to end, even if it felt like her world was ending, really.

But at least that had answered the question she and Ben had been asking themselves. A garage full of men, some of which had very… questionable backgrounds, from what she'd heard. At least Summer was on birth control, because Angie didn't see herself being a grandmother to a criminal's child. Or an amnesiac's. The other two were all right, and if Summer did lose her virginity, she did hope that it would be with someone with some social standing, like Scott Truman.

She and Ben had been gentle on Summer because she was their only child, and they hoped that she would give in and marry Chaz Winchester. There were considerations that Summer didn't understand, and she doubted she ever would. The Summer that had wanted to marry rich, handsome Chaz was long gone, and this Summer was in her place.

It said something about how much Summer had changed when she praised them for getting jobs.

Angie wished she could share with Summer how terrible a mundane job was. The callers had no patience, her coworkers talked about things that didn't make sense to her, and the girl next to her, Maria, just didn't know when to stop talking. Angie now knew more about Summer's teammate Ziggy than she ever had wanted to know.

At least there was the small comfort that he'd had no choice in the matter, just like Summer hadn't, and she was sure that all she and Ben had to do was have some quiet words in the young man's ear about not even thinking of dating their daughter.

Maybe, she realized as she looked at her daughter, Summer and Chaz weren't meant to be. Summer would never be happy in that marriage, not any more. They'd have to break the engagement, pay the Winchesters the money they owed. Then she'd have to find a way to talk to Scott's father and arrange a marriage with him. Or if that didn't work, maybe the younger Truman would be willing to help them out by getting Summer pregnant.

Summer would thank her for it. She and Ben would get their daughter back. It wasn't like she hadn't noticed how distant Summer had gotten since they'd been forced to flee to Corinth, and Angie still wanted to marry well.

It just looked like their dear daughter was not going to do it quite the way either of them expected.

When they'd finished dinner, she sent Summer on ahead and caught Ben, swiftly outlining her plan. From his expression, he could see it had never occurred to him. But they were both getting tired of the Winchesters' demands, and at least the Trumans weren't a bad choice.

By the time that they got to the car, Angie was smiling.

They took Summer back to the base, parking outside. "We thought we'd go in with you, dear," Angie said, giving her daughter her most charming smile. "Talk to some of those young men you live with."

"Mom, I'm really not sleeping with any of them." Summer looked annoyed at this, as if Angie was daring to question her virginity. But that was actually something that Angie didn't mind at all, Summer getting out of it by sleeping with a teammate.

She wished there was some way to sabotage her daughter's birth control, but she knew that wasn't realistic.

"I know, dear. But we want to see them anyway.

"And I'm not interested in Ziggy. Or Dillon. So don't threaten them."

"We wouldn't think of it," Ben said, his smile matching hers. He offered his arm to Angie, and they followed their daughter inside, intending to have a very long conversation with a certain Scott Truman.

Scott had an odd look on his face after Summer's parents had left, and Flynn had to wonder what they'd said to him. "So?" he asked casually, hoping Scott would tell him.

His team leader shook his head,as in disbelief over what he'd been told. Flynn had seen the Landsdowns corner him and it had clearly been something that he'd never, ever wanted to discuss with them.

"Scott, do I have to talk to my parents?" Summer asked, joining them. Her hands were balled. "I thought they liked you."

"That's the problem," Scott said, sounding like he was trying to process something.

"What Ranger Red is saying," Doctor K said, joining them, "is that your parents instructed him to engage in reproductive relations quite inappropriate between a team leader and subordinate in order to release you from the conditions of the arrangement between themselves and the Winchester family."

Summer parsed that a minute before he did, and he didn't blame her for blushing. At all.

"I think I'll, um, go work on my truck," he said. That whole situation was something he didn't want to get involved in.

Everybody ignored him, so he left. He could hear Summer reassuring Scott that she'd handle her parents and their strange ideas, and that she'd find some other way to break the engagement.

"Is it safe to come out now?" Ziggy asked, from whatever space he'd been hiding in. Flynn didn't blame him, because he didn't like dealing with Summer's parents either.

"Aye," Flynn said, giving Ziggy a far more wan smile than what Ziggy really needed. "Don't blame you for wanting to avoid them."

"Well, yeah. They're rich, and the kind of people who didn't watch their pockets," Ziggy said. "And the criminal record kind of turns people off, you know?"

Flynn had to nod at that. After Ziggy had bonded to his morpher, they'd put out the information that the morphers had chosen their users, mostly because they didn't need to keep it secret anymore. When Ziggy's record had come out, they'd been able to pull a "the morpher wouldn't have chosen him if he wasn't redeemable, isn't it great that he's putting his talents to legitamite use" spiel that seemed to have worked. Flynn wondered if his teammate had noticed that the press was starting to romanticize his past.

"Aye," he agreed. "Don't exactly seek them out myself. Then again, they don't like coming in there themselves, so you're pretty safe. Suspect they only were in to ask Scott something." He was certainly glad that he hadn't been the one cornered by Summer's parents.

"Well, that's good to know," Ziggy said, relaxing a little. "I know I'm not ideal in a lot of ways, but I like it when people don't rub it in my face."

Ziggy could feel guilty about breathing sometimes, Flynn swore. It was why they'd been slowly building up his self-esteem as well as his fighting skills. It was that lack which had made Dillon try to take off with him, from what Flynn could tell. "Don't worry about it, lad. Some people are just like that, you know? If you weren't a great person, would you have saved Arcie?"

His teammate blushed a little. "Well..."

"See? You're too hard on yourself." He slapped Ziggy on the arm. "Go and do those self-esteem exercises Doctor K's wanting you to do, okay?"

"Oh, yeah. The ones that if I don't do, she lectures me about," Ziggy said. "Um. Maybe I should."

Flynn knew that self-esteem was something that only had to be discovered by oneself, but Doctor K had the final say in some things, and he admitted he really didn't want Dillon deciding that he needed to take off again with their youngest, most insecure teammate.

"Thanks, Flynn," Ziggy said, heading in the direction of his room.

Waving a quick goodbye, Flynn went to work on his truck and then realized another person had appoached. Looking up, he realized it was Summer. "Parents getting to you, lass?"

"Just a little," Summer admitted. "I can't believe they did that to Scott." She sighed. "I'm tempted to do something I shouldn't."

"Probably not the world's best idea," Flynn said honestly. "Don't worry. You'lll find some way out of it without getting married or otherwise."

"I hope so," Summer said.

In the scheme of things, it could be really worse. By the time the week was over Venjix was launching what might not have been a full assault, but it certainly felt like it.

Catching his breath, Flynn hoped the battle wouldn't become a regular occurance. For one, Venjix had invaded the city with about fifty Grinders led by a woman in spandex. At the same time, there were two Attackbots; one that had dug under the city and disruped a gate and a portion of the shield, and the second, a satellite-type bot.

As it was, they were having a tough time. The Grinders had been to soften them up and to let the AttackBots do their work. When they were done with those, the team had split, himself, Scott and Summer to tackle the digging bot, and Dillon and Ziggy to handle the satellite bot.

By that point, the digging bot had done quite a bit of damage to Corinth's streets, and the satellite bot was doing its best to permanently screw up Corinth's shields. EIther way, Corinth was endangered, so tackling one after the other wasn't a good idea.

Scott, at least, seemed to have the digging bot under control, and the woman heading up the Grinders had disappeared somewhere during the combat. They'd have to chase after her later, with the two 'Bots being the highest priority. He hoped that Dillon and Ziggy were having luck with the other AttackBot; they hadn't had time to check. A quick joining of weapons after took quick care of their AttackBot.

Flynn only hoped that Dillon and Ziggy were having as much luck.