Disclaimer : I own nothing other than the story plot and the idea…the rest belongs to someone else who is making a ton of money off of the whole idea…*sighs* and it's not me, dang it!
A/N : Nothing to say here…thank you for all 12 of the reviews. More than I wanted and I love it! Oh, something to say after all, I'm going to give Kim and Tommy a break for a bit and concentrate on the group sitting down in the living room. Figure from either Trini's POV or Aisha's, or maybe both! Ok, on with the story, enjoy and as always, R&R.
A/N : OK, so I lied, a lot to say here…but it came up after I started this chapter so…anyways, there may be some inconsistencies in this story and the actual series and if there are I apologize for them but I'm trying to remain creative with this story while at the same time trying to stay true to the characters and the show. So please excuse any of my slip ups and enjoy the story. Oh yeah, I'm trying for some humor relief with this chapter since all the others were all so serious and painful. Thanks!
THE POWER RANGERS IN :
THE HARDEST THING I EVER DID
PART 2
Chapter 2
Tommy's POV:
"Kim, um, what exactly was that?" I asked as the apparition disappeared. I blinked my eyes trying to clear them, thinking that perhaps it had been a trick of the light or the playing of shadows. I couldn't believe that I had just seen a ghost…I didn't want to believe it.
"An old friend saying good-bye." she answered. She burrowed further into my embrace, her head resting lightly against my chest. I didn't even notice, I was to busy staring at where the ghost had been and had disappeared just mere moments before.
"Just an old friend saying good-bye?" I repeated her answer.
"Mm-hmm," I heard her respond distractedly. I looked down at the beauty encased in my warm embrace, she was peacefully sleeping. A gentle smile crossed my face and I buried my mouth in her sweet-smelling hair and breathed deeply of her perfume. Good night Beautiful, I thought silently as I gently kissed the top of her head.
I leaned her quietly back against the bed and brought the silky sheets up to tuck her in. "Good night Beautiful," I said softly. I didn't want to awaken her.
"Good night my White Knight," she said sleepily. Her eyes never opened and I knew she was deep into Neverneverland.
I kissed her gently on the tip of her nose and rose to leave but not before I turned around one last time to look at her peacefully sleeping form. The apparition stood there once more, gazing down at Kim's sleeping form. She must've sensed my gaze for she turned her head to look up at me and my eyes locked with hers. She smiled ever so swiftly, Thank you for all you have done for her and all you will do. Her voice soundlessly echoed within my mind.
"I haven't done a thing." I answered aloud.
You will…more than you will ever know. Her voice came within my mind again. It was a strange feeling to communicate this way with someone.
"I don't understand." I was really very puzzled by her enigmatic riddles.
You will, just listen to her, really listen to her. Watch over her carefully Tommy Oliver. For if you don't I will haunt you forever. With that said she disappeared once more. I was actually hoping never to be seen again. She gave me the creeps, really gave me the creeps. Beware of the Leopard Tommy…it could take all from you that you hold dear. Beware of the Leopard…Her voice echoed through my mind, through the silent room. My gaze turned once more to Kim's sleeping form. She had not awakened nor heard any of it. I was actually starting to wonder if I had lost my mind. I could hear the chatter coming from downstairs and decided I had a very serious question for Jason and Trini, even if they all thought I was crazy or going crazy. It didn't matter, I needed this question answered.
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Aisha's POV:
"How long have they been up there?" I asked as I glanced at the watch on Billy's left wrist. He looked down at me and shrugged his shoulders. "I wonder what they're doing." I smiled mischievously. I caught Trini's gaze and raised a questioning eyebrow up at her.
She smiled impishly but shook her head. I reclined my head so that it fell back against Billy's one leg. I felt him drape one of his arms down across my right shoulder, so I leaned my head against it and smiled to myself. I knew there were feelings there between us but each of us were too stubborn or too shy, perhaps, to mention or act upon them. It was at times like this that I could feel my spirit soar at the possibilities of what could be.
"Should someone go up and check on them?" I asked.
"Do you hear anything being thrown around?" Trini asked in response.
Everyone became deathly quiet and listened to the peace. "I hear a bed squeaking," Rocky said with a huge smile as he started to laugh. Kat's friend Isabel, also from Australia, threw the closest pillow to her at Rocky and started to laugh herself. He glared at her and then childishly stuck his tongue out. "Like to see you do that again!" he said, pretty much daring her to try it again. I could just see what was going to happen here and I wasn't disappointed.
Isabel picked up the pillow on the far side of Kat, the two of them were both sitting on the Love Seat, and tossed the small pillow toward Rocky. He ducked it, thinking he had missed the flying projectile. It bounced off of the wall behind him and smacked him in the back of the head. He grimaced and rubbed the back of his head. "Now that ain't fair!" he exclaimed. "I didn't know that the wall was going to gang up on me too."
Everyone started to laugh. I watched as Isabel got up from her seat next to Kat and walked over to Rocky, he stared up at her cautiously. "Scoot forward," she ordered.
Rocky just stared up at her, "Why?"
"'Cause I told you too," she answered.
"Why?" he asked again.
"Shut up and just do it!" she demanded.
"No," he said. "Tell me why first."
I tried not to laugh as she climbed into the seat, just behind him, and tried to squeeze her slender frame into the small space between him and the chair back. In her thick Australian accent so much like Kat's she reprimanded him, "Don't you know never to question a lady when she gives you an order? Especially a lady that knows all I know about you, Mr. Red Ranger…oops, actually Mr. Retired Red Ranger…?"
Isabel was one of the few friends we had considered trustworthy enough to know our secret, and so far she hadn't showed us any reason to believe we had misplaced that trust. A friend of Rocky's, by the name of Matt, was also included in our small circle. The guy had to work that night so Rocky said he would be over later.
I glanced once more at Billy's watch. It was just after 10... "Hey Rocky?" I asked.
He looked over at me, his eyes half-hooded. Isabel was slowly massaging his neck and back for him. "Hmmm…?" he asked, a dreamy smile playing across his lips. The guy was totally enjoying himself. Though I was actually surprised he was allowing Iz to do that, they usually did nothing more than fight the whole night through. You'd almost swear they were related or something…or even an old married couple, the thought popped into my head unbidden but I couldn't help but smile at it.
Rocky's eyes suddenly opened wide as he glared at me. "Hey, what's that smile for?"
"Huh? What smile?" I asked innocently.
"Aisha, I've know you for…" he stopped, pretending like he was counting on his fingers, then looked up at me with an annoyed expression. "Well, I don't exactly know for how long, but I know that look. What were you just thinking?"
I couldn't resist. "Nothing really… just what a cute couple you two make," I added and watched as both of them became speechless. Isabel's mouth dropped and her eyes became as big as saucers. Their blushes were so deep, I'd actually never knew that there was that kinda shade of red!
Suddenly I heard footsteps coming down the stairs and we all turned to look to the base of the steps at the same time. Tommy paused there, his eyes wearily looking at each person, ex-Ranger and trusted friend alike.
"How is she?" Jase asked from his vantage point sitting with Trini right next to the base of the stairs.
"She's asleep…" he paused as he looked over at Rocky and Isabel. "Finally!" he said out loud and they both turned surprised eyes toward him. Hmmm, was he talking about Kim finally being asleep or Rocky and Iz?
Rocky was just about to make a smart comment, nothing unusual for him, when Tommy continued. "Jase…um, this house isn't haunted is it?" he asked.
Both Jase and Trini looked at each other. I think the smiles left everyone's face all at once, this was not the kind of question we had expected from Tommy. I grasped hold of Billy's hand. Trini cuddled deeper into Jase's embrace and Isabel wrapped her arms around Rocky's waist and buried her face into the curve of his shoulder. He placed a comforting hand over top of her hands. Tanya leaned forward in her seat next to Adam on the couch, looking expectantly over at Tommy. Kat's eyes opened wide and she looked down at Zack who was sitting next to the Love Seat she and Isabel had both just moments before occupied.
"What a spooky thing to ask." Isabel said so quietly, I'd almost not heard her.
"You're not frightened of a ghost are you?" Rocky teased as he tried to turn around and get a good look into the Australian beauty's face.
"Shh you two, I wanna hear this," I admonished them gently.
They both just glared at me, but said nothing further. All eyes turned attention back to Tommy, Trini and Jase. I leaned further back against Billy, so grateful that he had returned from Aquitar and was here to stay. I was also glad that his marriage hadn't worked…though I would never say that to his face. I was way to polite to do something like that…yeah right! I just didn't want to bring up any sore subjects or bad memories.
"What do you mean is our place haunted?" Jase was just asking, looking quite stunned as he gazed up at one of his friends he had known the longest…well, maybe not the longest, but one of his best of friends anyways.
"Just what I said man…is your house haunted?" Tommy repeated the question. I thought maybe it was some kind of joke, but the look on his face put that thought to rest. Tommy was being dead serious.
"Yeah, Tommy, it's haunted…look at all the ghosts hanging around here. Look, over there sits Billy and Aisha…their love life is so dead that it comes back to haunt them." He was joking, but I was so ready to kill him, until I saw the smile spread across his face. "Then there's me and Trini, our social life is so dead we had to bury it last week, sorry we forgot to invite you to the funeral man. Oh, what about Rocky and Isabel over there? Their senses are so dead I'm surprised they can even…" he stopped mid-sentence as one pair of dark eyes and one pair of blue eyes suddenly turned death stares at him. "Ok, maybe I don't want to go there…." he paused and tried to laugh nervously.
"I'm quite sure that my senses are perfectly fine thank you!" Isabel huffed as she got up from behind Rocky and strolled out into the kitchen. I believe that the girl was just a bit peeved. She'd get over it quite soon, we always did. These kind of mock arguments happened every time we were all together, it was just part of how we dealt with things…Isabel had learned that quite quickly once Kat had brought her into the fold.
"I'm sure your senses are quite good too Iz, but you just can't seem to sense when someone has the hots for you!" Jase called after her as she left the living room. Rocky glared daggers at his predecessor.
"Can we get back to the topic at hand?" I asked.
"Which was what?" Rocky quipped. "The ghost or my lack of a love life?"
"Both?" Kat said from the love seat.
Rocky glared at her. "And that is suppose to mean what?" he shot back.
"Exactly what I said. Both. We're talking about a ghost or haunting, or whatever, and your apparent lack of a love life. Though I'm sure if you just went ahead and made the first move there would be no lack there of any longer." Kat said and smiled innocently over at Rocky, who just continued to glare at the Australian beauty.
"Whatever." was all he would say.
"If you two are done," Tommy said from the doorway. I turned my attention back to him. He was now leaning up against the doorframe, looking curiously in at the assembled group of friends. "Do you know if this house was haunted Jase, seriously? If anyone died in it or near to it? Anything at all?" I noticed for the first time that Tommy looked kind of pale.
"No," Jason answered.
"Did something happen?" I asked.
"I guess you could say that…" he trailed off but wouldn't look any of us in the eyes.
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Trini's POV:
I got up from my perch on Jase's lap and walked over to stand in front of Tommy. He gave the appearance like he would fall over at any moment. "What happened Tommy?" I asked ever so quietly. He shook his head but still refused to meet my gaze. Something had seriously frightened him.
"Tommy?" I asked once more and this time I laid my hands on his arms as they hung limply at his sides. He shrugged my hands off and crossed his arms in front of his chest, but still he would not meet my eyes. "Tommy, what happened upstairs?"
"I really don't want to talk about it Trini." he answered, but still would not look me in the face.
"Are you sure?" I asked. I felt Jason get up from the chair and move up behind me. Tommy looked up and I saw for the first time the fear and confusion written there across his face. What had happened up there in that room? I wondered.
"Is Kim alright?" I asked.
He looked first at me then at Jason. "She's fine." he answered. "We talked…I understand a lot of what was going on in her life at the time she wrote that letter. I don't understand all of it, but we still need to talk." He looked away from me again and then turned to look up the stairs. Up toward Kim. "I don't know how much I can tell you. I don't really know if I have the right to tell you what we discussed. If she wants you to know, she'll have to tell you. Which I'm sure she will once she is ready."
"Tommy, what is this about the house being haunted?" Jason spoke up from behind me.
"Yeah," I heard the chorus of voices coming from deeper within the living room.
"I saw something up there." Tommy answered. "I'm not really quite sure what I saw…or if I want to believe I saw what I'm thinking I saw." He paused and looked over at Jason. "Did that honestly make any sense?"
"What ever Kim told you must've really shook you up." Jason said.
"Do you not believe in ghosts?" an Australian accented voice asked from behind us. I wasn't quite sure if it was Kat or Isabel. They sounded too much a like.
"Not all have the same outlook on life as you do my dear Katherine." Another Australian accent quipped from the kitchen, just off to Tommy's right. I knew then who had spoken first.
"And just what are you saying Iz?" I heard Kat respond.
"Not all believe in ghosts, that's all." came the reply.
"Oh." Her response to Isabel was a mere sigh on a released breath.
"Would you two shut up?" Rocky said from his seat.
"No!" the two Australians said at the same time. Isabel squeezed past Tommy and walked further into the living room and returned to her seat next to Kat, but not before she looked over at Rocky and very childishly stuck her tongue out at him. I started to giggle, which earned me a questioning look from my husband. I motioned toward the two Australian women, but it was to late by the time he looked so he missed the flirting going on between Rocky and Isabel. To bad.
"I ,myself, personally believe in ghosts." Isabel added her two sense.
"And me as well." added Kat.
"Oh, I don't know." Rocky said. "I've never seen one so how am I suppose to believe in them?" he asked.
"I'll show you one." I barely heard Isabel say beneath her breath. I tried not to giggle again but couldn't help as the soft laugh escaped my lips.
"I believe in them." Both Aisha and Billy said at the same time. I wish those two would get their act together almost as much as I wish Rocky and Isabel would.
What anyone else had to say was drowned out by Tommy starting to speak once more. "I'm positive that that is what I saw up in that room. We had just finished talking about what had happened to her in Florida and the big accident with the rig-"
"I would quite say it was big." Jason said.
"From what she told me about it, it was." Tommy said. Jason and I both looked at each other. We couldn't be talking about the same accident then. "I mean," Tommy continued. "Someone was killed in it."
Now I knew we weren't talking about the same one. No one had been killed in the accident on the way back from the airport. We were all fine. The rig was even ok. "What are you talking about?" Jason asked before I could. "No one was killed in the accident. There was barely even any damage done to the car, if any at all."
"The accident in Florida." Tommy said. Jason and I exchanged another brief look. This was actually the first we had really heard anything about it. "The one where her car was totaled. The very car sitting out in your garage. The one in which one of her friends was killed. She blamed herself for the longest time…." he trailed off. "I've already said to much. I shouldn't have told you all of this, it isn't my right too."
"She was in a car accident in Florida?" I asked. What else had happened that none of us knew about?
"Yes. She was driving. They'd stopped at a red light…" he paused and looked at each of us again. "When the light turned green, she'd started to go, but a tractor trailer plowed through the intersection without stopping and side swiped her car. Vicky died moments later from severe head trauma. It was touch and go for a while-" Tommy was cut off by the sudden ringing of the doorbell.
"I'll get it." I said and walked past Tommy back toward the kitchen and out into the breezeway. Rocky's friend Matt stood there, a large bag of grocery's in his hands. I opened the door for him and smiled as I invited him in. Unlike the rest of the group who would just let themselves in, Matt always used the doorbell. "Come on in Matt. Everyone's in the living room."
"I brought some snacks." he said as he handed the brown paper bag to me. I peeked inside. Chips, salsa, some cupcakes and I noticed sitting behind him was a twenty-four pack of Mountain Dew. "Oh," he said once he saw where my gaze was directed. "I also brought some soda."
"Thanks!" I said. "This should keep Rocky occupied for a little while."
"I wouldn't even give it a little while really." Matt said and we both started to laugh. He pushed a lock of blond hair from his eyes and smiled. "He may be one of my best friends, but I've never seen anyone eat quite as much as he does."
"And you never will either." I responded. I grabbed a few bowls, filled them up with the goodies motioned for him to grab the soda and follow me into the living room.
"Food!" Rocky yelled and bounded toward us like he hadn't eaten in days.
"Is that all you can think about?" Isabel asked with mock distaste.
"No, I think a lot about sex too." He said and smiled at the shocked look that briefly crossed her face.
"Oh, you are so unorthodox. And extremely disgusting!" she said as she turned her head away from him as he started to shove the chips and salsa into his mouth, and then guzzle down the soda.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Where are my manners, I didn't even ask you if you wanted any!" He got up from his seat and sauntered over toward Isabel. "Here milady, would you like something to eat, or maybe something to drink. Anything to shut your mouth for a few seconds so I can eat in peace."
I laughed, boy was he going to get it! She narrowed her eyes, her lips were compressed into a narrow line and her brows scrunched up in anger. "You want me to shut up for a few seconds, do you?" she asked and her voice was just tightly controlled anger. Watch your back Rocky, you pissed her off big time this time around. I thought, and couldn't wait to see what kind of retribution she had in mind for him.
"Yeah, just so I can eat in peace." he answered.
"Ok, if that's how you want it."
"I swear Iz, you just seem like you never shut up." his gaze fell on Kat, "But that just might be an Australian trait or something." Kat looked like she was starting to fume too. If I was Rocky I think I would've shut up and sat down right then. I looked over at Jason. He looked over at me and smirked, he must've been thinking the same thing that I was.
Tommy looked at both of us and I was relieved to see some of the color had returned to his face and he was actually smiling. Like he couldn't wait to see what both Kat and Isabel's response would be to Rocky's remarks.
We didn't have long to wait. Everyone was watching and waiting.
Kat gave a soft "Humph!" and turned her attention to Zack who was still sitting down next to the Love Seat beside her. Isabel kind of amazed us all, she continued to goad Rocky into his verbal assault.
"I think the same could be said about you and your eating. That seems to be all I ever see you doing. Eat, eat and more eat, nothing else. How did you ever manage to make it to any of your fights?" Oh, what a low blow. She was good, I had to give her that.
Rocky's face turned seven shades of red. "Yeah, well, what about you and your shopping?" Not a very good comeback.
"Is that the best you can do?" she shot back.
"Give me a sec and I'll come up with something. We're all not as cold hearted as you are!" he shot back.
"I'm only cold hearted to ignorant morons like you." She was good, I had to admit that, very good.
"No wonder you haven't had a boyfriend since you arrived here. You're to cold. Probably once kiss from you would be enough to chill a guy to his bones." Nice counter strike there Rocky.
"You think so?"
"Actually yeah I do." came his response.
Isabel suddenly jumped up from her seat, we all thought she was going to deck Rocky, what she did next made us all gasp. My eyes opened wide and I turned to look at Jason, only to hear him gasping from surprise. Tommy's mouth was hanging open, as was Aisha and Billy's. Kat was clapping delightedly. All's you heard was a collective gasp from the room.
I couldn't believe she had just did that.
"I guess he'll learn to shut his mouth next time, won't he?" Matt asked.
Sorry this took me so long, but I had to rewrite it a couple of times. I wasn't happy with how things were going and then I had to change things to make other things make sense and it was just becoming a head ache and the ideas didn't want to let me alone. But, hey it's finally done. 10 more reviews and hopefully I'll get the third chapter out a lot sooner than this one was. The third one is going to be a little scary…oh, and if you don't understand the warning that Vicky gave to Tommy about the Leopard, that's good. You're not suppose too. Well, tell me what you think and as always, REVIEW!! Thanks a million!