Back in time

Chapter 1

The sound of swords clashing filled the air around where the two rangers were fighting. The red and Green rangers were locked in a fierce battle, both fighting for the upper hand. The green ranger knocked the red ranger back with a swipe of his dragon dagger.

"And now red ranger, it is time for me to destroy you. I must be victorious for my queen." He called before diving the sword of darkness into the ground, sending a shock wave that knocked the red ranger off his feet. He charged again, but the red ranger was ready and used his power sword to knock both the dragon dagger and the sword of darkness out of the green ranger's hands. The force knocked the green ranger off his feet and he rolled on the ground, trying to regain his footing.

Dr Tommy Oliver awoke with a start as something slammed into his side, his eyes shooting open as he sat up quickly.

"Shit! Sorry dude! Didn't mean to hit you." Tommy looked up to see Conner McKnight stood in front of him, the red ball at his feet letting Tommy know what had hit him. It was at that point that Tommy realised he had fallen asleep at the desk in the Dino Thunder lab.

"Conner, first of all, what have I said about calling me Dude? Second, I thought you'd have learnt your lesson of playing soccer in here." He said, making the red-clad teenager wince at the reminder of the lecture he had received from Hayley.

"Come on Dr O, cut us some slack. We're all exhausted." Ethan James said from where he sat on a rock that stuck out of the cave wall on one side of the lab. "Mesagog's been sending more monsters down lately. We never get any time to relax. By the looks of it, you're not sleeping much more than we are."

"Hey, I'm only warning Conner before Hayley catches him playing soccer in here again." Tommy replied, smirking slightly at the scared look on Conner's face. "Where's Kira and Trent?"

"Trent's working and Kira is over there." Conner pointed to where Kira Ford lay curled up on the sofa, her guitar laying abandoned on the floor as she slept. "She's been sleeping all through lessons today. Barely stayed awake in your lesson." Tommy frowned as he remembered Ethan nudging her a few times during his lesson, keeping her awake.

"Whatever's keeping her up, it can't just be because of Mesagog. There has to be something else." Ethan commented. Tommy frowned before looking at the time.

"Right, I don't think there's going to be an attack tonight. You two should go home and get some homework done." He said, standing up from the desk and moving towards the stairs that led into his study.

"What about Kira?" Conner asked, looking at the yellow ranger with a frown.

"Let her sleep." Ethan said, smacking Conner's hand as he went to wake the girl up. "You know what happened the last time you woke her up. Besides, this is probably the longest she's slept in a while."

"Ethan's right." Tommy said, leading the two boys up the stairs and into his house. "I have some work to do, but I'll take her home when she wakes up." He said goodbye to the two rangers at the door and made himself some coffee before going back down to the lab, stopping for a moment to watch the yellow ranger sleep. He knew that she wasn't sleeping well. None of the rangers were, but he knew that Mesagog wasn't the entire reason behind Kira's lack of sleep.

He sat back down at the desk and pulled out a pile of marking that he had to do. He laughed to himself as he worked, wondering how his students took so little notice of what he was teaching. He marked some pop quizzes from his class with the Dino teens and silently wondered how Conner managed to get such a high score, before becoming aware to a certain yellow ranger stirring in their sleep.

"Urgh." Kira grumbled as she sat up, rubbing her eyes. "What time is it?"

"Half nine." Tommy replied, turning in his desk chair to face her. "I sent Conner and Ethan home. Figured you could use the sleep."

"Is that the only reason?" She asked with a smirk as she stood and made her way over to the black ranger.

"Of course not." He murmured, placing a kiss on her lips as he pulled her onto his lap. The two had been dating for around two months, but were keeping it a secret from their fellow rangers, as well as everyone else. They knew all too well what would happen if anyone found out that Tommy was seeing one of his students. "God I missed that." He whispered as they parted. He wrapped his arms around her as she placed her head on his chest.

"Me too." She whispered. "I can't wait for school to be over. Then we won't need to hide."

"I know." He replied, kissing her forehead. "You have a nice nap?"

"I did. Did you?" She asked with a smirk.

"I've had better." He said, pulling away and looking down at her. "By the way, you wouldn't happen to know how Conner got 80% on the last quiz, would you?"

"He had his book under the table." She said with a laugh, looking down at the paper on the desk.

"How didn't I see him?" He asked in shock.

"He was using his Tyranno speed to look at it and put it away whenever you weren't looking." She said, trying not to laugh at his shocked expression.

"Remind me to give him a lecture on using his power for personal gain." He muttered.

"You can't talk." She said, making him frown. "You turned invisible to avoid Randall today!"

"Well, that was so that I didn't have to supervise detention. And I'm the teacher! You should be doing what I say, not what I do!" He protested, making her laugh again.

"Yes sir!" She said with a mock salute before laying her head on his shoulder, trying to hide a yawn.

"Why are you so tired lately?" He asked, shifting so that she had to lift her head.

"Mesagog's been tiring me out with all his attacks." She said, trying to avoid eye contact.

"That's not it." He said, making her look down. "Come on, Kira. Talk to me."

"It's my parents." She sighed, still not looking at him. "They've been arguing more and more lately. And…." She trailed off, biting her lip.

"And what?" He asked, concern filling him. She looked up at him before looking away again, standing up and lifting her shirt as she did so. Tommy looked down and stood up quickly, putting his hand on her hip as he looked at the skin she had exposed in shock. On her torso, there was a variety of bruises, old and new. Tommy knew from his experience as a martial artist that these bruises were caused by punches and kicks, and from the look on her face, he knew it wasn't from fighting one of Mesagog's monsters. "Kira….. what happened?"

"My dad came home drunk last night. He got violent." She said, dropping her shirt and looking away, tears in her eyes.

"Did he do this to you?" Tommy asked, putting his hand under her chin and lifting her head, making her look at him. She nodded as tears fell down her cheeks. Tommy wiped the tears with his thumbs before pulling her to his chest, running a hand through her hair. "I'm here. I'll look after you." He whispered. He picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his torso and arms around his neck as he carried her upstairs to his living room, sitting down on the sofa with her and holding her as she cried.

After a few minutes, she lifted her head and wiped her eyes, brushing the tears away. "Sorry." She murmured.

"You have nothing to be sorry for." He said, kissing her lightly. "You're staying here tonight. No arguments." She smiled at him before nodding. The two sat for a while longer, just cuddling and kissing until Kira fell asleep. Tommy carried her upstairs to his bedroom and set her down on the bed, pulling the covers around her and placing a kiss to her head. He went back down the stairs and sat on the step outside on the porch, just thinking about what she had told him.

"Oh Kira. I wish you told me sooner." He whispered before sitting upright and grabbing his phone. He dialled the number he knew of by heart and waited anxiously for it to be answered as he stood and began to pace the porch.

"This had better be good Thomas Oliver! It is nearly midnight!" Hayley Ziktor snapped as she answered the phone, making Tommy curse as he realised what time it was.

"Sorry Hayley. I didn't realise the time." He said, rubbing his eyes.

"You do realise that you have work in the morning, right?" She asked, making him roll his eyes.

"I'm not that forgetful Hayley." He said, making her snort. "Anyway, there is a reason I called you. I need a favour."

"What is it?" She asked, hearing the strain in his voice.

"Kira's staying at mine. She fell asleep in the lab earlier and when she woke up, she confessed to me why she's been so exhausted lately." He said, trying to be careful with what he said. "She said that her parents have been arguing. Hayley, her dad's been beating her."

"What?" Hayley gasped. "Is she alright?"

"At the moment. There's no lasting damage, but I think she may have a few bruised ribs. She was wincing a lot." He said, mainly to himself. "Anyway, I wanted to ask if you have any way of proving that her father did this? I don't want her to go back to that house again."

"Tommy, you do know how hard this is going to be to prove, right?" Hayley said, trying to be the voice of reason. "It is her word against his, and it'll probably take over a month just to get a trial date, let alone get her out of the house." She paused for a second, already sighing. "But you already know this. So what do you want me to do?"

"First of all, would you be able to take Kira to hospital tomorrow? I don't think she should be at school, and maybe you could talk to her and see if she has any proof. She's more likely to talk to you about it." He said, looking back at the house to make sure he wasn't being overheard. "And maybe work your tech magic? If anyone can find proof, it would be you."

"I'll do my best. But Tommy, I am making no promises." She said sternly. "Do you know how long it's been happening?"

"I didn't ask. But some of the bruises are old." He said as he ran a hand through his hair. "I can't believe he'd do that to her. I should wring his neck!"

"Tommy, that isn't going to help anyone." Hayley admonished. "All you need to do is focus on Kira and keeping her safe from now on. Now it's late. And I need to sleep."

"Thanks Hayley." She grumbled something in reply before hanging up, making Tommy chuckle. He took a deep breath to calm himself down before going back inside. He went to the bathroom and got changed before crawling into his bed, wrapping his arm around Kira's waist from behind and kissing her head. "I promise Kira, I will protect you. No matter what." He whispered before falling asleep, his arm staying firmly locked around her waist.

Here you go guys. If you don't like the Tommy/Kira relationship, then don't read.

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