Disclaimer:
I don't own the Power Rangers. I'm just playing with them and will
give them back eventually. I promise. No money changed hands here.
"You're daughter?" Tommy asked in shocked.
"Our daughter," his old friend beamed at him with paternal pride. Tommy looked back and forth between Jason and Billy, his mind not quite able to wrap around the concept of what they were telling him.
"How?" he asked in shock.
"Obviously not in the normally prescribed manner," Billy told him with as much pride in his voice as Jason.
Tommy sat down on the couch, his mind swirling with emotions. Things suddenly began to click- the years Jason spent protecting the Billy. The times he'd taken those few extra seconds in battle to make sure Billy was all right. The fight the two had had after Billy's accident. His own angry words. "Oh my God," he muttered to himself. "You're que. uh. gay., you did it didn't you." He put his head in his hands, shaking them.
"Tom?" Billy was asking him. Tommy looked up and could see something he couldn't quite identify in the former Blue Ranger's eyes. "You okay?" he asked softly, but Tommy could see him swallowing hard.
Tommy shook his head, "No, I'm not." He gave Jason a questioning look, "I need some air." Looking out the door to the patio, he got up and exited the room. How could Jason be gay and not tell me? Tommy felt a deep sense of betrayal inside him. All those long talks about Kimberly, and Emily, and Ana, the times Jason and he would spend sparring- the times Jason kicked his butt in the dojo kept coming back to him. He's a football player, not a damn hairdresser!
The day was warm with just barely a breeze blowing off the Pacific. It was perfectly normal, and that stood in stark contrast to what had just happened to his world. "Tommy?" Zack's voice asked quietly. He heard the patio door close, as the former Black Ranger approached.
Tommy didn't turn around, "I'm sorry Zack. It just caught me by surprise."
"I'm not the one you need to apologize to," Zack told him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I don't know if you realize it or not, but you almost put Billy into tears."
"So what's new about that?" It was petty and he knew it, but right now he found himself extremely angry with the former Blue Ranger. He was angry at him for taking away his best friend, for seducing him into something unnatural. For turning that intelligence that was too much for his own good into something completely against the laws of God and man. No wonder he's such a wimp.
Turning around he faced his old friend, "Is this why you guys called me down here? To show me how wrong I was about Jase all these years?"
"Tommy, I don't understand. I thought you'd be happy for them. That they."
"What Zack? That the best friend I ever had turns out to be a fucking faggot?! That he's taking it up the ass from some wimp who should have had the sense to stay out of the way?"
"That's not fair, Tommy." Zack began.
"I'm not trying to be fair, Zack. I've just been told that Jason is some kind of pervert. I'm not surprised about Billy, it's not something I expected from Jason."
He watched the color drain from Zack's face. He saw his old friend consider what he'd said, and some kind of turmoil go on inside of his head. Finally, he asked, "Is that how you really feel?"
For some reason the tone of Zack's voice brought his emotions up short. He thought about it for a moment. What am I thinking? This isn't some limp-wrist hairdresser in LA. This is my best friend. "No, Zack. I guess not. I'm surprised I guess," he shook his head, "No I'm shocked, and I think I'm discovering that I may not be as open-minded as I thought."
Zack stood back for a second, "Good, because I've got news for you Thomas Oliver, I know you've been a friend for a long time, but I was not going to sit there and listen to you run down Jason." He gave him a low look, "and the things you said about Billy were way out of line."
"Not you too." Tommy started to protest.
"Not me too what?" Zack asked.
"Protecting Billy," Tommy told him. "Don't you think you guys are taking this a little too far?"
Zack shook his head, "I'm not protecting Billy, at least not anymore than I would any of the other of my friends if they'd been called nasty names." He gave Tommy a hard look, "What is it with you and Billy anyway?"
"Nothing," Tommy answered too quickly.
"I don't think that's true, and some how I get the feeling neither do you." Zack told him. "You've had your panties in a wad about Billy for a couple of years now. What gives man?"
Tommy sighed and thought about what Zack was saying. He tried to put his confusion about the Blue Ranger into words. How there were times he wanted to just kick him upside the head and tell him to grow a pair of balls. How there were others he was so glad to see whatever scientific marvel he'd pulled out of his hat to save the day that he wanted to hug him. How every time he saw him and Jase share a story, or how he and Kimberly could finish each other sentences he hated the blond. "I really don't know Zack. I guess I'm just trying to figure out how such a geek- assed loser could end up being so close to the rest of you guys."
Zack sat down on a piece of lawn chair and indicated another piece of furniture, "I think you'd better sit down and listen, Tommy." He shook his head, "I think I'd better sit down, before I knock you down." Tommy could see his old friend struggle to control the anger that was evident in his eyes. Finally he sighed, "Is that how you really see Billy, a geek-assed loser?"
Tommy sat down and put his hands in his head, "I don't know. I just can't figure out what it is that the rest of you guys see in him?"
"You have to understand something: Billy, Trini, Jason, Kimberly, and I have been friends since grade-school. What ever we saw in him a long time ago is so lost in how we all feel about each other today that there's no pinning it down. Billy has always been something of a geek, but he wouldn't be Billy if he wasn't," Zack told him. "I also want you to think about something else. He was also the person who seconded Jase's offer for you to join the team. At the time, I was so mad at you about what happened, I was ready to kick your butt into next Tuesday sideways. It was Billy who backed Jase up- not me, not Trini, and not Kimberly. Maybe you should think about that before you start wondering what the rest of us see in him."
Tommy sighed and felt somewhat ashamed at how he'd been acting. "I guess I am being difficult aren't I."
Zack smiled at him, and the tone in his voice told Tommy that he was kidding, "No Tom. You're being a prick."
Tommy chuckled, "I guess I deserved that." He looked back at the patio door, but the glare off the afternoon sunlight made it impossible to see inside, "No matter what, it's still Jase in there isn't it. Nothing's really changed. It's not like he's made a pass at me or anything."
"No he hasn't," Zack told him. "And if you ask me, he's been extremely patient with you. If it were Trini you were acting this way about, I'd have kicked your ass by now."
Tommy smiled at him, "you and what army?"
Zack gave him a very serious look, "No army. This is my wife we could be talking about. This is Jason's life-mate we ARE talking about. If I thought you were giving Trini half the trouble you're giving Billy, I'd have beaten you half to death. I know you're the big karate hero and Red Ranger, but you have to sleep sometimes, and Sears does sell quite a few tire irons." He sighed, "Don't forget this too. There are other battlefields than the dojo. You're living in a world run by computers, and Billy is probably the world's greatest hacker. That is his daughter too you just snubbed. What would you do if somebody acted the way you are about the baby Kim's carrying?"
Tommy considered what Zack was saying. He was right. He'd have knocked anybody, even Jase on their ass if they'd acted that way toward Kimberly. "I guess I've made a royal fool out of myself." He looked at the door, "I think I'd better go apologize."
"I think that might be a good start." Zack told him as he got up. "But don't take too long."
Tommy sat outside thinking about what Zack had told him. He looked back on the way things turned out. He was happy, with the woman he loved more than life itself. He was a successful businessman and his racing career was starting to take off. How can I begrudge my best friend in the world his happiness? Even if it is with someone I think is beneath him.
Finally, he screwed up his courage and went back into the house. Jason was sitting quietly in one of the large overstuffed chairs in the den. Beyond that, the house seemed empty. As he entered, Jason looked up at him, and there was a hardness in his eyes that he'd never seen before. "I think we need to talk," the former Red Ranger told him.
Tommy nodded, "I think we need to too." He sat down across from Jason and waited quietly.
"I came here today, hoping to bury the hatchet with you," Jase told him. "There was a time when we were like brothers," he shook his head, "but now I'm not so sure." He took a deep breath, "Bill wanted to ask you and Kim to be Trini Ann's godparents. I wasn't so sure, but he really wanted it. He hates the fact that you and I are fighting over him."
"This was Billy's idea?" Tommy asked surprised. He hadn't thought the other man would have wanted anything to do with him after what he'd done when Billy had lost his powers. With not a small amount of shame, he realized that he'd been happy when Billy hadn't been able to take the Gold Ranger powers. It took him out of loop and relegated to where he always thought he should be- the pit crew. It put a real fighter on the team, not someone who always needed rescuing. He slowly began to realize just how badly he'd treated someone who had always been kind to him.
"Yeah, it was his idea." Jason gave him a careful look, "Believe it or not Tommy he really likes you."
Tommy shook his head, "If I live to be a thousand, I'll never understand that boy."
"I think that's part of your problem, Tommy. You see him as a boy," Jason replied.
"You have to admit, he's not exactly Chuck Norris."
"No, he's not." Jason smiled, "He's a lot stronger than that." Leaning forward, "Tommy, you've been a fighter all your life. You told me yourself that most of the trouble you used to get into before the Olivers adopted you was because you wanted to deal with conflict on your own terms. You even once admitted to me that you thought that you were taking a coward's way out instead of dealing with it when it came. Billy's not like that. He's got the endurance to stick it out through the hard times and wait for something extraordinary to show up."
This conversation was getting too close to setting off other reactions in Tommy. Reactions that he knew would cause him to say or do something that would make things worse with Jase. He looked around the room desperate for something to change the subject. "Where did everybody go?"
"Trini, Kim, Kat, and Adam went for take-out smoothies at Ernie's. Zack took Bill and Trini Ann over to my folks' place."
"How're your folks taking you and Bill together?" Tommy asked.
"Better than you are, obviously." There was a bitter sadness to Jase's voice, and Tommy realized that he was very close to loosing his best friend in the world, probably beyond all hope of recovery, "My folks have always seen Bill as a second son. At first they worried about grandchildren." Jason let his voice trail off, and Tommy realized that it was because he wasn't sure where Tom stood on the subject.
It was all coming at Tommy too fast. He wasn't sure how to handle everything, how to cope with the idea of Jase and Billy together, as a couple. The idea of Billy using or misusing in Tom's opinion, his intelligence to create another human being left Tommy wondering if the genius wasn't playing God. He shook, "I'd like to say it's cool Jase, but I have some reservations about the idea of Billy using whatever he used to give you two a daughter."
Jason leaned back and asked, "Did you ever stop to think that maybe we adopted?"
Tommy shook his head. Honestly, the idea never occurred to him that they might actually adopt. He found himself slightly ashamed to automatically think the worst from Billy. "No, honestly I hadn't."
Jason smiled at him, "We didn't, but in reality Billy had nothing to do with it." Jase actually blushed, "well he did supply half the genetic material, and most of the money to pay for the procedure, but he had nothing to do with the technology. It was already available."
"What do you mean most of the money, and that the technology was already out there?" Tommy didn't understand. Last he'd heard, not that he really kept up on these kinds of things, cloning technology wasn't available.
Jase leaned forward, "Billy supplied the money to pay for the trips to Italy, the procedure that combined our DNA and taking care of the surrogate mother for nine months, plus the medical bills. That technology has been available for about five years now. It's just very, very, very expensive."
"Billy paid for it?" Tommy asked. "Where'd he get that kind of money?" Tommy asked.
"Patents, royalties, and contracts with about half a dozen major research facilities for freelance consulting work," Jason smiled at him and leaned back in the chair, "You and I may be able to beat the crap out of him in the dojo, but in the other arena of male competition, Billy beats both of us hands down."
"Howzat?" Tommy asked.
"Earning power," Jase laughed. "While you and I were planning on all our dreams, he was making his happen. The technology he's developed over the years has made him a pretty penny."
Tommy was shocked. He'd never thought Billy would use his access to Etarian technology like that. "What about Zordon's rule about using our powers for personal gain?" he accused Jase.
"What power?" Jase asked. "Billy was a genius before he ever picked up a power coin. Besides, he asked Zordon if it was a violation of that code before he got his first patent. Zordon's only reply was that it was the least he could offer Billy." Jason locked eyes with Billy, "It was the least compensation he could offer him after all the hours Billy put in for free at the Command Center taking care of all our 'zords. Without him, we'd all be dead ten times over, and he saved us without a power coin or a 'zord. Think about that, the next time you want to consider him less than a man because he doesn't match us in the dojo. You and I just tote and carry. He does the hard work, we saved the world, he's going to change it."
"Somehow it doesn't seem right," Tommy started to say.
"What doesn't seem right? He put his time in fighting beside us- and before you say it, yes we had to save his butt a few times in a fight. But how many times did he save ours?" Jason gave him a very hard look, "I can think of at least one time when he saved mine, beat you and never even picked up his power coin." Tommy suddenly remembered Jason lying on the ground in supplication under him, waiting for the inevitable sword stroke from the evil Green Ranger. Beaten, without a power coin, and at the mercy of a fully operational Power Ranger, he never really stood a chance, but fought any way, only to lose. Then, just before the end came, Jason had been yanked from certain death by none other than the Blue Ranger and his not inconsiderable intellect. Suddenly all the old shame and guilt came rushing back to him. Jason leaned forward, "you know something, I don't think I ever even thanked him for that. At the time I was more worried about stopping you."
"Jase," Tommy began, he could feel the tears building up inside him. He fought to control his emotions.
"Tommy, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought that up." Jason told him.
"Yes you should have," Tommy growled at him. He looked over at Jason, finally losing the battle with the wetness behind his eyelids. "My time as Rita's minion has always been a forbidden subject, and I was hiding behind that to attack Billy." Suddenly he was more ashamed of that than he was of his time as the evil Green Ranger. "I guess I'm jealous of Billy," he finally admitted to Jason.
"Jealous of Billy?" Jason asked. "You? What do you have to be jealous of Billy over?"
Tommy nodded, "You, Kimberly, of how all of you guys rally around him. I'm jealous of how he has all this history with you and Kim that I'll never have. It eats away at me that you chose him over me after his accident." Tommy told him.
"I didn't choose him over you. You're not in competition with him," Jason said. "You made some mistakes. I was angry because somebody I cared about was hurt, and you were the person in charge. I understand that now. Billy's over it, hell he was over it almost immediately, I'm over it, so it's time you got over it too," Jason paused a second to emphasize his next word, "Bro."
Tommy looked up at Jase, "I'm sorry man."
"Me too," Jase told him.
"Don't you think that Billy's the one you should really apologize to?" Zack asked from the door, there was still a hardness to his voice. Tommy realized that his little war with Billy had hurt more than just his relationship with Jason. He turned to look at Jase, his tone softened. "You're mom says that you'd better stop by for more than just a couple of minutes this time."
"You're daughter?" Tommy asked in shocked.
"Our daughter," his old friend beamed at him with paternal pride. Tommy looked back and forth between Jason and Billy, his mind not quite able to wrap around the concept of what they were telling him.
"How?" he asked in shock.
"Obviously not in the normally prescribed manner," Billy told him with as much pride in his voice as Jason.
Tommy sat down on the couch, his mind swirling with emotions. Things suddenly began to click- the years Jason spent protecting the Billy. The times he'd taken those few extra seconds in battle to make sure Billy was all right. The fight the two had had after Billy's accident. His own angry words. "Oh my God," he muttered to himself. "You're que. uh. gay., you did it didn't you." He put his head in his hands, shaking them.
"Tom?" Billy was asking him. Tommy looked up and could see something he couldn't quite identify in the former Blue Ranger's eyes. "You okay?" he asked softly, but Tommy could see him swallowing hard.
Tommy shook his head, "No, I'm not." He gave Jason a questioning look, "I need some air." Looking out the door to the patio, he got up and exited the room. How could Jason be gay and not tell me? Tommy felt a deep sense of betrayal inside him. All those long talks about Kimberly, and Emily, and Ana, the times Jason and he would spend sparring- the times Jason kicked his butt in the dojo kept coming back to him. He's a football player, not a damn hairdresser!
The day was warm with just barely a breeze blowing off the Pacific. It was perfectly normal, and that stood in stark contrast to what had just happened to his world. "Tommy?" Zack's voice asked quietly. He heard the patio door close, as the former Black Ranger approached.
Tommy didn't turn around, "I'm sorry Zack. It just caught me by surprise."
"I'm not the one you need to apologize to," Zack told him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I don't know if you realize it or not, but you almost put Billy into tears."
"So what's new about that?" It was petty and he knew it, but right now he found himself extremely angry with the former Blue Ranger. He was angry at him for taking away his best friend, for seducing him into something unnatural. For turning that intelligence that was too much for his own good into something completely against the laws of God and man. No wonder he's such a wimp.
Turning around he faced his old friend, "Is this why you guys called me down here? To show me how wrong I was about Jase all these years?"
"Tommy, I don't understand. I thought you'd be happy for them. That they."
"What Zack? That the best friend I ever had turns out to be a fucking faggot?! That he's taking it up the ass from some wimp who should have had the sense to stay out of the way?"
"That's not fair, Tommy." Zack began.
"I'm not trying to be fair, Zack. I've just been told that Jason is some kind of pervert. I'm not surprised about Billy, it's not something I expected from Jason."
He watched the color drain from Zack's face. He saw his old friend consider what he'd said, and some kind of turmoil go on inside of his head. Finally, he asked, "Is that how you really feel?"
For some reason the tone of Zack's voice brought his emotions up short. He thought about it for a moment. What am I thinking? This isn't some limp-wrist hairdresser in LA. This is my best friend. "No, Zack. I guess not. I'm surprised I guess," he shook his head, "No I'm shocked, and I think I'm discovering that I may not be as open-minded as I thought."
Zack stood back for a second, "Good, because I've got news for you Thomas Oliver, I know you've been a friend for a long time, but I was not going to sit there and listen to you run down Jason." He gave him a low look, "and the things you said about Billy were way out of line."
"Not you too." Tommy started to protest.
"Not me too what?" Zack asked.
"Protecting Billy," Tommy told him. "Don't you think you guys are taking this a little too far?"
Zack shook his head, "I'm not protecting Billy, at least not anymore than I would any of the other of my friends if they'd been called nasty names." He gave Tommy a hard look, "What is it with you and Billy anyway?"
"Nothing," Tommy answered too quickly.
"I don't think that's true, and some how I get the feeling neither do you." Zack told him. "You've had your panties in a wad about Billy for a couple of years now. What gives man?"
Tommy sighed and thought about what Zack was saying. He tried to put his confusion about the Blue Ranger into words. How there were times he wanted to just kick him upside the head and tell him to grow a pair of balls. How there were others he was so glad to see whatever scientific marvel he'd pulled out of his hat to save the day that he wanted to hug him. How every time he saw him and Jase share a story, or how he and Kimberly could finish each other sentences he hated the blond. "I really don't know Zack. I guess I'm just trying to figure out how such a geek- assed loser could end up being so close to the rest of you guys."
Zack sat down on a piece of lawn chair and indicated another piece of furniture, "I think you'd better sit down and listen, Tommy." He shook his head, "I think I'd better sit down, before I knock you down." Tommy could see his old friend struggle to control the anger that was evident in his eyes. Finally he sighed, "Is that how you really see Billy, a geek-assed loser?"
Tommy sat down and put his hands in his head, "I don't know. I just can't figure out what it is that the rest of you guys see in him?"
"You have to understand something: Billy, Trini, Jason, Kimberly, and I have been friends since grade-school. What ever we saw in him a long time ago is so lost in how we all feel about each other today that there's no pinning it down. Billy has always been something of a geek, but he wouldn't be Billy if he wasn't," Zack told him. "I also want you to think about something else. He was also the person who seconded Jase's offer for you to join the team. At the time, I was so mad at you about what happened, I was ready to kick your butt into next Tuesday sideways. It was Billy who backed Jase up- not me, not Trini, and not Kimberly. Maybe you should think about that before you start wondering what the rest of us see in him."
Tommy sighed and felt somewhat ashamed at how he'd been acting. "I guess I am being difficult aren't I."
Zack smiled at him, and the tone in his voice told Tommy that he was kidding, "No Tom. You're being a prick."
Tommy chuckled, "I guess I deserved that." He looked back at the patio door, but the glare off the afternoon sunlight made it impossible to see inside, "No matter what, it's still Jase in there isn't it. Nothing's really changed. It's not like he's made a pass at me or anything."
"No he hasn't," Zack told him. "And if you ask me, he's been extremely patient with you. If it were Trini you were acting this way about, I'd have kicked your ass by now."
Tommy smiled at him, "you and what army?"
Zack gave him a very serious look, "No army. This is my wife we could be talking about. This is Jason's life-mate we ARE talking about. If I thought you were giving Trini half the trouble you're giving Billy, I'd have beaten you half to death. I know you're the big karate hero and Red Ranger, but you have to sleep sometimes, and Sears does sell quite a few tire irons." He sighed, "Don't forget this too. There are other battlefields than the dojo. You're living in a world run by computers, and Billy is probably the world's greatest hacker. That is his daughter too you just snubbed. What would you do if somebody acted the way you are about the baby Kim's carrying?"
Tommy considered what Zack was saying. He was right. He'd have knocked anybody, even Jase on their ass if they'd acted that way toward Kimberly. "I guess I've made a royal fool out of myself." He looked at the door, "I think I'd better go apologize."
"I think that might be a good start." Zack told him as he got up. "But don't take too long."
Tommy sat outside thinking about what Zack had told him. He looked back on the way things turned out. He was happy, with the woman he loved more than life itself. He was a successful businessman and his racing career was starting to take off. How can I begrudge my best friend in the world his happiness? Even if it is with someone I think is beneath him.
Finally, he screwed up his courage and went back into the house. Jason was sitting quietly in one of the large overstuffed chairs in the den. Beyond that, the house seemed empty. As he entered, Jason looked up at him, and there was a hardness in his eyes that he'd never seen before. "I think we need to talk," the former Red Ranger told him.
Tommy nodded, "I think we need to too." He sat down across from Jason and waited quietly.
"I came here today, hoping to bury the hatchet with you," Jase told him. "There was a time when we were like brothers," he shook his head, "but now I'm not so sure." He took a deep breath, "Bill wanted to ask you and Kim to be Trini Ann's godparents. I wasn't so sure, but he really wanted it. He hates the fact that you and I are fighting over him."
"This was Billy's idea?" Tommy asked surprised. He hadn't thought the other man would have wanted anything to do with him after what he'd done when Billy had lost his powers. With not a small amount of shame, he realized that he'd been happy when Billy hadn't been able to take the Gold Ranger powers. It took him out of loop and relegated to where he always thought he should be- the pit crew. It put a real fighter on the team, not someone who always needed rescuing. He slowly began to realize just how badly he'd treated someone who had always been kind to him.
"Yeah, it was his idea." Jason gave him a careful look, "Believe it or not Tommy he really likes you."
Tommy shook his head, "If I live to be a thousand, I'll never understand that boy."
"I think that's part of your problem, Tommy. You see him as a boy," Jason replied.
"You have to admit, he's not exactly Chuck Norris."
"No, he's not." Jason smiled, "He's a lot stronger than that." Leaning forward, "Tommy, you've been a fighter all your life. You told me yourself that most of the trouble you used to get into before the Olivers adopted you was because you wanted to deal with conflict on your own terms. You even once admitted to me that you thought that you were taking a coward's way out instead of dealing with it when it came. Billy's not like that. He's got the endurance to stick it out through the hard times and wait for something extraordinary to show up."
This conversation was getting too close to setting off other reactions in Tommy. Reactions that he knew would cause him to say or do something that would make things worse with Jase. He looked around the room desperate for something to change the subject. "Where did everybody go?"
"Trini, Kim, Kat, and Adam went for take-out smoothies at Ernie's. Zack took Bill and Trini Ann over to my folks' place."
"How're your folks taking you and Bill together?" Tommy asked.
"Better than you are, obviously." There was a bitter sadness to Jase's voice, and Tommy realized that he was very close to loosing his best friend in the world, probably beyond all hope of recovery, "My folks have always seen Bill as a second son. At first they worried about grandchildren." Jason let his voice trail off, and Tommy realized that it was because he wasn't sure where Tom stood on the subject.
It was all coming at Tommy too fast. He wasn't sure how to handle everything, how to cope with the idea of Jase and Billy together, as a couple. The idea of Billy using or misusing in Tom's opinion, his intelligence to create another human being left Tommy wondering if the genius wasn't playing God. He shook, "I'd like to say it's cool Jase, but I have some reservations about the idea of Billy using whatever he used to give you two a daughter."
Jason leaned back and asked, "Did you ever stop to think that maybe we adopted?"
Tommy shook his head. Honestly, the idea never occurred to him that they might actually adopt. He found himself slightly ashamed to automatically think the worst from Billy. "No, honestly I hadn't."
Jason smiled at him, "We didn't, but in reality Billy had nothing to do with it." Jase actually blushed, "well he did supply half the genetic material, and most of the money to pay for the procedure, but he had nothing to do with the technology. It was already available."
"What do you mean most of the money, and that the technology was already out there?" Tommy didn't understand. Last he'd heard, not that he really kept up on these kinds of things, cloning technology wasn't available.
Jase leaned forward, "Billy supplied the money to pay for the trips to Italy, the procedure that combined our DNA and taking care of the surrogate mother for nine months, plus the medical bills. That technology has been available for about five years now. It's just very, very, very expensive."
"Billy paid for it?" Tommy asked. "Where'd he get that kind of money?" Tommy asked.
"Patents, royalties, and contracts with about half a dozen major research facilities for freelance consulting work," Jason smiled at him and leaned back in the chair, "You and I may be able to beat the crap out of him in the dojo, but in the other arena of male competition, Billy beats both of us hands down."
"Howzat?" Tommy asked.
"Earning power," Jase laughed. "While you and I were planning on all our dreams, he was making his happen. The technology he's developed over the years has made him a pretty penny."
Tommy was shocked. He'd never thought Billy would use his access to Etarian technology like that. "What about Zordon's rule about using our powers for personal gain?" he accused Jase.
"What power?" Jase asked. "Billy was a genius before he ever picked up a power coin. Besides, he asked Zordon if it was a violation of that code before he got his first patent. Zordon's only reply was that it was the least he could offer Billy." Jason locked eyes with Billy, "It was the least compensation he could offer him after all the hours Billy put in for free at the Command Center taking care of all our 'zords. Without him, we'd all be dead ten times over, and he saved us without a power coin or a 'zord. Think about that, the next time you want to consider him less than a man because he doesn't match us in the dojo. You and I just tote and carry. He does the hard work, we saved the world, he's going to change it."
"Somehow it doesn't seem right," Tommy started to say.
"What doesn't seem right? He put his time in fighting beside us- and before you say it, yes we had to save his butt a few times in a fight. But how many times did he save ours?" Jason gave him a very hard look, "I can think of at least one time when he saved mine, beat you and never even picked up his power coin." Tommy suddenly remembered Jason lying on the ground in supplication under him, waiting for the inevitable sword stroke from the evil Green Ranger. Beaten, without a power coin, and at the mercy of a fully operational Power Ranger, he never really stood a chance, but fought any way, only to lose. Then, just before the end came, Jason had been yanked from certain death by none other than the Blue Ranger and his not inconsiderable intellect. Suddenly all the old shame and guilt came rushing back to him. Jason leaned forward, "you know something, I don't think I ever even thanked him for that. At the time I was more worried about stopping you."
"Jase," Tommy began, he could feel the tears building up inside him. He fought to control his emotions.
"Tommy, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought that up." Jason told him.
"Yes you should have," Tommy growled at him. He looked over at Jason, finally losing the battle with the wetness behind his eyelids. "My time as Rita's minion has always been a forbidden subject, and I was hiding behind that to attack Billy." Suddenly he was more ashamed of that than he was of his time as the evil Green Ranger. "I guess I'm jealous of Billy," he finally admitted to Jason.
"Jealous of Billy?" Jason asked. "You? What do you have to be jealous of Billy over?"
Tommy nodded, "You, Kimberly, of how all of you guys rally around him. I'm jealous of how he has all this history with you and Kim that I'll never have. It eats away at me that you chose him over me after his accident." Tommy told him.
"I didn't choose him over you. You're not in competition with him," Jason said. "You made some mistakes. I was angry because somebody I cared about was hurt, and you were the person in charge. I understand that now. Billy's over it, hell he was over it almost immediately, I'm over it, so it's time you got over it too," Jason paused a second to emphasize his next word, "Bro."
Tommy looked up at Jase, "I'm sorry man."
"Me too," Jase told him.
"Don't you think that Billy's the one you should really apologize to?" Zack asked from the door, there was still a hardness to his voice. Tommy realized that his little war with Billy had hurt more than just his relationship with Jason. He turned to look at Jase, his tone softened. "You're mom says that you'd better stop by for more than just a couple of minutes this time."