AN: I would like to thank prophet144, who made a suggestion that will be put to full use in this chapter. Hope you enjoy!
"Quiet, class, quiet!" Josh yelled as the students looked up at him. He still had a goose egg on his forehead from one of the punches that Aiden had served him, but other than that he had a clean bill of health. The effects of the concussion where wearing off and he was feeling more like himself each day, he just couldn't take a lot of noise at the moment.
"Mr. Fitzpatrick, what happened?" Melody asked as he shook his head.
"I had a little accident, fell down some stairs," Josh said as they all looked at him in shock. How in the world could stairs cause that much damage. "I can be a real klutz sometimes. Now, what did you learn while I was away?"
"Just a little bit of everything, the sub jumped around a lot," Tyler said as Josh nodded and he then flipped open his textbook and pulled out the notes that he had made.
"Well, I guess that we are going to take a quiz and see if you actually learned anything," Josh said as he heard the teens let out a sigh and he averted his gaze from Grace's seat, knowing that he would not get a welcome look from her this morning.
"Josh!" Carrie yelled as he turned around and saw his old teammates walking towards him. He honestly was not surprised that Tommy had called them, things were definitely getting rough for him and his team was the perfect thing to help him in this situation. They understood a lot of the things that had happened and could help with teaching the new team, somehow. "What happened to you?"
"Did Dr. Oliver call you in?" Josh asked as Carrie shook her head no and he gave her a confused look. Why were they all here if Tommy hadn't called them in? They wouldn't know about what was going on otherwise.
"Why would Dr. O call us in? Just heard some rumors from your parents about you getting hurt, looks like they weren't lying," Carrie said as she reached over and ran her hand through his hair and he pulled away. The last thing he needed was for Grace to be mad at him, especially after the step that they had just taken in their relationship only a week before.
"You okay?" Ben asked as Josh nodded his head yes and the others looked at him.
"My girlfriend wouldn't be too happy if she saw that Carrie," Josh said as Carrie looked over at him and her eyes widened. They had dated while they were rangers and she had thought she'd hear when he started dating someone else. "I have to go help with some training, so you might as well just come over there as well."
"This doesn't sound like retirement," Elisha said as Josh scratched the back of his head.
"Just follow me out to Dr. O's house," Josh said as they barely nodded and then exchanged glances.
"Do you notice that he didn't tell us who he was dating?" Carrie asked as Josh walked away and Ben barely nodded his head yes. "Why wouldn't he tell us?"
"I can think of why he wouldn't tell you," Elisha said as Carrie looked over at her. "You're still hopeful that he'll come running back to you, saying that he was wrong to break up, but he's moved on."
"The two of you are in good relationships, I haven't dated anyone since him, it's been too hard," Carrie said as Elisha put her arm around the former pink ranger and gave her a hug.
"He's moved on, it's time that you do as well," Elisha said as Carrie barely nodded.
"I wish it was that easy, but it's not…I need to know, see who he's dating, then it will be real," Carrie said as Elisha nodded and they then followed Josh's car as he headed towards the familiar stomping ground of the Oliver's.
The former and current rangers lined up against each other and took their sparring stances. None of them had thought that this was what they would be doing this afternoon, but here they were. Carrie had paired up against Grace, by chance and it was that chance that was going to cause a lot of problems that afternoon.
"Grace, honey, take it easy. You don't want to kill your sparring partner," Tommy said as Grace glared over at him and he took in a deep breath. "Did something happen that I don't know about?"
"Ask your former rangers," Grace said as Josh cringed and he knew then that Grace had seen Carrie's actions earlier that afternoon. Right now they could not really have any tests in their relationship, they were going through enough with trying to hold on and keep it a secret. He didn't need an ex-girlfriend to cause them problems.
"Grace," Josh said as he turned around to face her and then got kicked in the side by Aiden. "Thanks."
"You took your attention off of me, I simply took advantage of that, like any monster would," Aiden said as Josh turned back to him and gave him a gut check.
"I won't be fighting any monsters any time soon," Josh said as Aiden squared his shoulders towards him and gave him a lopsided grin.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that Mr. Mentor," Aiden said as Josh's eyes narrowed and his fellow rangers looked over at him. "When the two of you get…"
Josh's hand landed flatly on Aiden's mouth and he gave him a confused look. Now the sparring had stopped and Tommy scratched the back of his head in an attempt to try to think of a way to keep from speaking about all of this. He knew that Josh was still close to the rangers he worked with, but he knew that they didn't know about this relationship. No one really knew about it, that had not been told reluctantly. Neither of them wanted to risk his job, because he wouldn't be able to get another with that sort of thing over his head.
"Do you want to explain all of this?" Carrie asked as Grace straightened up and tugged at the bottom of her shirt and let out a sigh. She still remembered them hanging over each other when they would come visit when they were rangers. She was sure that Carrie would not like to hear that Josh had moved on to someone that she wouldn't even view as an equal.
"I don't have to explain it to you anymore and I would prefer not to explain it to any of you right now," Josh said as they all looked around and sized up the other rangers. If he was being called that by Aiden, there must be a reason, a very valid reason.
"Who's the leader?" Ben asked as the eyes of the older rangers focused on the boy wearing red and Grace laughed.
"I am," Grace said as Carrie stared over at her, before she tackled the young ranger to the ground.
"Carrie!" Josh yelled as the male rangers began pulling the two girls apart and Grace stared at her in shock. There had been no reason for her to do that, she couldn't have figured out their relationship. "You okay?"
"I'm fine," Grace whispered as Josh turned back to Carrie and she just stared at him.
"You're fucking Oliver's daughter?" Carrie yelled as Ben and Elisha looked away. They didn't really want to deal with what was about to happen. Keeping the peace was something that they had learned to do a long time ago with Josh and Carrie.
"No," Josh, Tommy, and Aiden said simultaneously as Carrie shook her head.
"Like you'd admit to it, you didn't even have the balls to tell him what we were doing in the Command Center the night he caught us," Carrie said as Josh closed his eyes and Tommy looked between him and his daughter. None of this seemed to be a shock to her, which meant that the two of them had at the very least talked about having sex, although he was fairly certain that they hadn't, yet.
"A lot of things change in five years Carrie, including who I date," Josh said as she just shook her head.
"You were supposed to be the man that was my white knight, that would always be there for me," Carrie yelled as Josh let out a sigh. He had told her he'd protect her and that he'd always be there if she needed him, but right now she didn't and he knew that. She just didn't like who he was dating.
"I'll be there for you, but not as a husband, not as someone that will love you in the way you want me to. We're over, we have been for a long time, Carrie," Josh said, gently as Grace silently fumed in the background. If the two of them could come to some sort of agreement, she wasn't going to say anything, although she desperately wanted to give them both a piece of her mind.
"You bitch!" Carrie yelled as she moved around Josh and stood toe to toe with Grace.
"Step away from my daughter," Tommy commanded as Carrie was flung out of her rage and looked up at her former mentor. "You can yell and scream at him all you want, but she wasn't the one to break the two of you apart. You did that just fine on your own."
"Dr. Oliver, you can't possibly be all right with this. She's five years younger than him," Carrie said as Grace shook her head.
"It's four," Grace said as Carrie looked over at her.
"What did you say?" Carrie asked as Grace let out a sigh and turned to face her.
"It's four years younger, not five. We were born in December, so we started school a year later," Grace said as Carrie stared over at her and just shook her head.
"One year doesn't matter," Carrie forced out as Grace just shook her head. "Dr. Oliver?"
"I'm fine with it Carrie and I'm getting tired of defending how I feel about the two of them dating to everyone that has found out. If I was not fine with this, everyone would know, he wouldn't have a job anymore. All that I am asking is that you don't ruin this for the both of them, I can certainly think of some things that you would not be grateful for if they were to happen to you," Tommy said as Carrie gave him a shocked look. He couldn't possibly be threatening her, she was one of his favorite rangers. "That's a promise, not a threat Carrie."
"What's the difference?" Carrie asked as Kim walked over to the rangers and waved her hand at Tommy.
"A threat is something done to prevent an action, it may or may not be done if the person does something. A promise is something that will be done if you cross that line," Tommy said as Carrie barely nodded and he headed towards his wife. "Something wrong?"
"We've got a problem, Tommy," Kim said as he gave her a confused look. He couldn't really think of anything that could be going wrong, unless there was a monster attack. "Not a ranger problem."
"A family problem?" Tommy asked as Kim barely nodded her head yes and he looked back at the others and then turned back around. "Do you need Grace and Aiden too?"
"No, just you, for a couple minutes," Kim said as Tommy barely nodded and then walked away with her. "How do you feel about another person living in our house?"
"Like who?" Tommy asked as Kim looked down at her feet and he felt a chill run through him. There were only a couple of people that they knew that would make him uncomfortable.
"Mom," Kim said as he stared at her in shock. "She called from New York, said that she's flying out here to spend some quality time with her grandchildren. I asked about her boyfriend or whatever he is and she said they were through and she felt like coming back to California."
"She wants to stay with us until she gets on her feet?" Tommy asked as Kim nodded her head yes and he let out a sigh. "I can't tell you not to let your mother stay here and the kids have missed seeing her."
"But now isn't exactly a good time with everything that is going on," Kim said as he barely nodded that he agreed as he looked over to see that Carrie had jumped on Grace again and the boys had decided it best to let them fight it out.
"We'll figure it out tonight. I've got to stop the two of them from killing each other," Tommy said as she barely nodded as he jumped in and pulled Carrie back from Grace, as Josh did the same thing with Grace. "Can't the two of you cool it for just a couple minutes?"
"I'm sorry, Dr. O, your daughter just happened to be in line with my fist," Carrie said as he released her and looked down at her in disgust.
"You are a Power Ranger, a person that is supposed to have morals and virtues and to live by those morals. Now you are yelling and fighting because you didn't get your way? I'm sorry Carrie, but life it rough, you should know that already. I'm not going to allow you to continue to do this, not here. If the two of you have a problem with each other, you are going to settle it away from me. You are one of my rangers, but she's my daughter, I won't let you continue this," Tommy said as Carrie stared at him in shock. Whatever Kim had said to him, it must have been something unexpected. Dr. O didn't fly off the hinges like that very often.
"Dad, you okay?" Aiden asked as Tommy nodded his head yes and then looked over at Kim who was walking back towards the house. "What did Mom say?"
"Nothing you need to worry about, come on, I want to get some more sparring in before the sun goes down," Tommy said as the rangers diligently feel into their positions and Carrie moved away from Grace. She knew that the girl was a lot tougher than she was letting on and she didn't want to risk what might happen to her if she pissed her off again.