Disclaimer : I don't own the Rangers…the only things that belong to me are the story plot and the idea, oh and also Isabel, Kristin and Matt, and anyone else you might not recognize.

A/N : I'm glad you all approve of Isabel and the girl will continue to stand up to Rocky, although they do each like one another and that will be an entirely different romance there, which may or may not be included in this story or maybe another. I don't know yet. The truth behind Vicky's warning about the Leopard is revealed at the end of this story…and you may all be ready to hang me once you find out what has happened…as always, Read and Review. It's greatly appreciated!

A/N2 : Oh, and by the way, the beginning of this chapter will be from Kat's POV. Then I'll switch to ones I'm more familiar with.

THE POWER RANGERS IN :

THE HARDEST THING I EVER DID

PART 2

Chapter 3 : History Repeats Itself

"Isabel!" I screamed. "What are you doing?" I couldn't believe she had just done what I think she'd done. The look on Rocky's face told me he was feeling the same thing I was. Total and utter shock.

"What?" she turned around to look innocently at me. "I didn't do anything." she said rather child like. "At least nothing he didn't enjoy." The smile that suddenly appeared on her face led me to believe that she was the one who had enjoyed it more.

I heard Zack starting to laugh, followed by Aisha, then the rest of the room. I turned to look over at Zack and he returned the look, he just wouldn't quit laughing. You think it's funny? I mouthed to him. He just nodded his head.

"Isabel!" I said as I turned my attention back toward her, "I can't believe you!"

"What?" she asked, smiling broadly. "I didn't do anything bad. He insulted me so I had to prove him wrong."

I turned my attention to Rocky. He was just standing there in front of us, his mouth opened wide with shock. Isabel's light pink lipstick was smudged delicately against his lips. "Rocky?" I asked, he didn't respond, didn't even look at me.

"I think he's still in shock." I heard Tommy chuckle.

I looked over and glared at him. He just started to laugh even more. "Tommy, I think you're ghost is calling you." I said tartly. Instantly I regretted it as he paled considerably. "I'm sorry Tommy, I'm just not use to my dear friend Isabel Caroline Bryant acting this way." I turned my ice-cold glare toward the afore mentioned friend.

Her smile actually broadened. She was still standing next to Rocky and looked at him rather pitifully like. "He enjoyed it and he can't tell me he didn't!" She said as she walked in front of him to return to her seat next to me. "Next time he'll think before he says that my kisses could freeze a guys bones, won't you Rocko?" She didn't even turn around to look at him as she said that.

Since Iz still had her back toward Rocky, she never saw his sudden movement. He wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her up against him. Iz's eyes opened wide in surprise and I actually heard a high pitch squeak pass her lips. Rocky caught her completely by surprise.

But she was about to deliver another surprise to him. She grabbed hold of one of his hands and spun out of his grip while at the same time flipping him so he landed on his back. "Oh, did I forget to mention…you don't ever wanna scare me. I get pretty mean when someone does that." Her smile broadened as she leaned down over Rocky. "Nice try though." She said as she planted a soft kiss on his lips. Then she straightened up and returned to her seat next to me.

"Isabel," I said. She turned her head to face me, the smile still hadn't left her lips. "You are impossible!" I sighed.

"Well, he's the one that said my kisses could freeze a guys bones. I couldn't allow him to get away with saying something like that, now could I?"

"Can we change the topic of discussion now?" Rocky's voice croaked from the floor next to our feet. I felt so bad for him…but maybe he wouldn't pick on Iz anymore now, at least not like usual. Somehow I really doubted that, their flirting seemed like second nature for the two of them.

*********

The next morning,

Isabel's POV :

Ouch, man does my head ever hurt! I guess I shouldn't have drank all the soda that I had…I thought as the first bright rays of the sun passed over my eyes the next morning. My head was lying on something soft and warm…at first I thought it was Kat, but she was across the room in a chair with Zack, and they looked pretty damn cozy!

Who in the hell? I though as I turned my neck to look up at who it was I was using as my personal pillow. Rocky?!

I suddenly heard a commotion coming from the steps and a petite girl in a simple pink summer dress came running down the stairs with a vanilla folder gripped tightly in her hands. That must be Kim, I thought to myself as she headed into the kitchen and out into the breezeway. Moments later I heard the whining of a car engine. Then the sputtering of the same car engine.

Tommy opened his eyes and stared blearily around the sunlit living room. "What's that noise?" he asked, his voice still pretty groggy.

"I believe it's Kim trying to start her car out in the garage." I answered and felt Rocky move beneath my sleepy head. "Hey, hold still, would ya?" I said as I playfully punched him in the stomach.

"Do that again and I might be running to the bathroom," he quipped.

He wasn't going to get sick, was he? "Not feeling to well?" I asked, "Shouldn't have eaten all that junk food last night."

"No," he answered with a strange smile. "My bladder is kind of full and you're laying right on it so it's making me really hafta go right now."

"Oh," I said quietly, but I didn't move off of him. Instead I applied more pressure to his stomach as I brought my left hand up to lay my head against. I couldn't help but smile as he started to squirm around beneath the added weight. "Sorry…I guess that didn't help much." I said with a hint of sarcasm in my voice. "But my shoulder was starting to cramp…"

"That's alright," he said as he shifted slightly so that his one arm was draped across my waist. I looked wearily up at him, wondering what his next plan of attack would be. I didn't have long to wait as I felt his fingers gently dancing across my hip. I squirmed and tried to get away from his fingers, he was very gently starting to tickle me. "What's wrong?" he asked all innocent like.

I glared up at him. "Nothing at all," I lied. I quit squirming, but he didn't stop tickling. He gently dug into my waist so that I resumed my wriggling in an attempt to get away from his questing fingertips. It did no good and I was finally forced to sit up and glare at him from the other side of the love seat. He just smiled as he got up and walked in the general direction of the bathroom. "Make sure you don't get it caught in the zipper!" I called out, which only earned me a disarming smile.

"Don't worry, if that happens I'll call you to come in to kiss it and make it better." he shot back at me, which made my cheeks turn three shades of crimson. I sputtered but wasn't able to do much more than that.

"Why don't you two just admit your feelings for each other and quit with the games?" Tommy asked from the floor, his bed for the night.

"I have no idea at all about what you are talking about." I said as I turned my light blue eyes toward him.

"You really expect me to believe that?" he asked.

No, not at all. I just don't know if I want to trust my heart to him. I've had it broken to many times, I don't wanna risk it again, I can't risk it again. It was almost as if he could read my mind for instantly his features softened up and he crawled up on the love seat next to me. "What happened?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, playing the fool.

"The look in your eyes, I've seen it many times…in my own. What happened for you to not trust love like that?" He actually seemed like he might understand what I had went through, the heartache and humiliation. From what I understood of his past with Kimberly, it had been a pretty bad break-up, but apparently there had been unseen circumstances. That was not the case with my past.

"I don't want to talk about it." I said, hoping he would take the hint and drop the subject. It was not to be.

"It helps sometimes if you talk about it. Especially if the other person understands and can offer some advice and support." It seemed pretty awkward hearing this from a guy…maybe he knew what he was talking about after all.

I wouldn't find out 'cause suddenly Kim came in, madder than a hornet that had just been stepped on. "What's wrong Beautiful?" I heard him ask. She turned loving brown eyes toward him as she walked into the living room.

She smiled distractedly toward me, but didn't really pay me much attention. I didn't mind all that much, I didn't like being in the center of attention, it wasn't who I was. "My car won't start," she said dejectedly.

"Where were you going in such a hurry?" he asked as he stood up and took one of her hands into his own.

"I'm suppose to have a therapy session this morning. My first one here, so I can't really miss it. But that stupid pile of metal out there won't start and I'm going to be late…I don't want to bother Jase or Trini, I know you all went to sleep late last night…" she looked forlornly up at him, as if silently pleading with her eyes for him to come to her rescue. I imagined they had done an awful lot of that.

"I could take you, if you don't mind." he offered.

Her face brightened up almost immediately. "You wouldn't mind?" She asked.

"Not at all, at least if it's for you." he answered.

"Oh thank you Tommy!" she cried as she jumped into his arms.

"Your quite welcome Kim." he said as he laughed softly and kissed her gently on the tip of her nose. I almost envied them for what they'd been lucky enough to get back, something I would never know again. "I'm just going to run to the bathroom real quick," he said.

"Um, Tommy?" they both turned to look at me. "Rocky's in there right now." I said.

"Oh." he said and looked down at Kim. "Do you mind waiting a few minutes?"

"No, I guess not. It shouldn't matter if I'm a few minutes late. Just as long as I make it there in one piece." She was smiling as she said the last part, it must've been some private joke between them or something.

*************

Kim's POV:

(A/N : I know, I'm having a lot of segments in this particular chapter. A lot of action going on along with a lot of ideas.)

Jase and Trini's place was located just outside of the main section of Angel Grove so we had to hop onto the highway in order to get to the place where my therapy was set up for. The guy, someone by the name of Dr. Antonio Perez, was suppose to be a specialist in his field. If anyone could help me get back what that accident had taken from me physically so long ago, they said it would be him. I was honestly hoping so.

"So, what were you two talking about when I came in?" I asked Tommy as I looked over at him.

"Huh? Who?" he asked and looked confusedly over at me.

"That girl and you? Who is she by the way? A friend of Kat's or something?" There was no suspicion or anything in my voice. I held no grudge against Kat or Tommy. I was actually glad that he had tried to move on with his life after what I had done to him.

"Yeah, her name is Isabel. We call her Iz or Izzy once in a while. She's a friend of Kat's from back in Australia. She moved here a little over four years ago. Just like Kat, she hasn't lost that accent of hers." He looked over at me and smiled. "I think you'll like her."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, she's pretty nice. We've been working for the last year or so on trying to get her and Rocky together. We can all see that they'd be perfect together, but it just seems they can't see it themselves. Last night was the closest they've came to anything."

"Why, what happened?" I asked.

"Rocky pissed her off." he answered and started to laugh.

"What did he do?" I could just imagine all sorts of possibilities of what he could've done.

"They were getting into the insults really bad, I mean really bad. He told her that her kisses would probably freeze a guy's bones, or something to that effect," he laughed. "She wasn't to thrilled at the comment. I guess she wanted to prove him wrong. She kind of surprised the hell out of him as well as the rest of us."

"Well? What did she do?" I asked anxiously. I could almost imagine it.

"She kissed him, full on the lips." he answered.

"Oh, I bet Rocky could've probably just died!" I laughed.

"That wasn't the funniest part."

"There's more?" I asked, what could've been funnier than seeing Rocky shocked speechless?

"Oh yeah. Rocky tried to surprise her by grabbing hold of her suddenly from behind. Needless to say it didn't work. She flipped him on his back like it was nothing out of the ordinary for her. I'd almost swear that she was the ex-Power Ranger and not Rocky, if I didn't know better." he started to laugh again and I joined him.

"And I missed it? I would've loved to have seen the look on his face." I was looking at a trailer we were just starting to pass, I tried not to grimace as flashes of memory assaulted my mind. I tried to look away from it, but my eyes kept on wondering back to it. My heart was starting to thunder in my chest, "Tommy!" I gasped. He looked over at me, the worry evident in his eyes. "Tommy, you're to close to that trailer." I pleaded in a mere whisper.

"I've got everything under control Kim, don't worry." He said as he tried to comfort me.

But I was worried as I watched the large trailer sway dangerously back and forth, almost coming into our lane before going back into its own. I tightly closed my eyes and refused to look at it any further. "Kim!" I heard his excited voice. I opened my eyes to look at him, it was my biggest mistake.

We were boxed in by not just one of those huge trailers, but three of them now. My heart leapt up into my throat and I actually thought it was going to clog my throat so I couldn't breath. "Tommy!" I tried to gasp, as the fright threatened to destroy my last hold on sanity.

There was a large trailer in front of us, not the same one as before. The trailer was different…some other color or something, I'm not quite sure. The trailer that we had passed just moments before was now behind us but another trailer was coming up along side of us, and scaring the living hell out of me. "Tommy please!" I cried, the fright and memories too much for me.

"It's ok Kim. Our exit is coming up real soon. Sorry, I didn't think it would bother you this bad." He smiled over at me, trying to ease my worries. My worries would be eased once we were away from all of the trailers and the highway and anything that could even remotely remind me of that accident ten years ago…

"Kim, do you realize what those trailers are?" Tommy asked suddenly.

"No," I answered and really at that moment I didn't really care or want to know. I just wanted away from them. "And I don't want to know Tommy." I said softly. So softly I don't think he heard me because he kept right on about those trailers that were terrifying me.

"The one in front of us belongs to Bobby Labonte. The number 18 car, usually sponsored by Interstate Batteries, though right now it has a logo of a Snow Leopard across the trailer in honor of the upcoming EAP Rally. Otherwise known as the Endangered Animals Pro Rally." he continued on about the trailers, though I'd caught a strange note in his voice as he'd said the word Leopard. I looked at him curiously, but his attention was turned to the road ahead of us, though he did keep looking in the mirrors.

"The one coming up along side of us belongs to Terry Labonte, Bobby's older brother. He drives the number 5 Kellogg's car. Right now though it has a picture of an Bengal Tiger on it, instead of the cartoon character Tony the Tiger it usually has." I so badly wanted to tell him I really didn't care but he was trying so bad to comfort me so I figured I'd entertain him for a bit more.

"The trailer behind us holds the car of Dale Earnhardt Jr. son of one of the greatest men in racing history. Dale Sr. died in a horrific car accident on the last lap of his first race in the 2001 Winston Cup year." I yawned but tried to look like I was finding all of this interesting, though it had actually taken my mind off of my worry of the trailers surrounding us…until I thought of it again.

"I had your mind off of it for a little bit there, didn't I?" he asked as he looked over at me quickly, from the driver's seat. I nodded my head slowly, but didn't really smile at him.

"You did for a little bit there Tommy, but I would feel a lot better if we were off of this road and away from these rigs and trailers."

"But you weren't afraid for just a few seconds though, right?" he asked again as the smile spread across his face once more.

"Yes," I said quietly and listened as he crowed in triumph. So he had been trying to lull me into a sense of ease all along, and he had managed it until my mind had conjured up thoughts about the horrific accident once again.

Suddenly the sound of triumph turned into a scream of terror as the locks on the rear panel of the lead trailer jolted loose and the boarding ramp for the car fell down onto the asphalt below. Tommy screamed at the same time I did as we both saw the midnight black car roll down from its prison with in the belly of the trailer.

The Snow Leopard on its front gazed evilly at us, it's mouth opened in a feral snarl. I felt my voice lost in my throat, I couldn't scream, the noise was caught within the depths of my throat.

The snow-white leopard looked like it was leaping out from the midnight black of the hood of the car. From either side of the snarling beast were what looked like strands of ribbon. One green and one pink, each a single strand that ran down the sides of the car. The green strand ran down the passenger side of the dark car, while the pink strand ran down the driver's side. The two pieces of ribbon never touched and never met, not even from their starting points right behind the stocky body of the large cat.

"Tommy!" I screamed as the large car careened down onto the road directly in front of us.

"Hold on Kim." he hollered back, unable to do anything else. "There's no where for me to go!"

I looked over towards his side of the road, Terry Labonte's trailer was just starting to slow down but still they effectively blocked any way of escape we may have hoped for. I knew they hadn't done it on purpose, but I wished they had stayed further back, instead of moving as a pack like they had.

I saw the big black beast lurch onto the roadway, sparks flying from its undercarriage. We're going to die, the thought ran unbidden through my head. The brake lights for the trailer in front of us suddenly came on, and I noticed that the trailer behind us was steadily flashing his headlights. I don't want to die, I survived a terrible car accident once, I don't know if I could do it again.

A sudden thought occurred to me as my mind started to randomly sift back through dates…It had been exactly ten years ago today that that terrible accident had occurred. Ten years to the date, and here I was, about to be in another one just as terrifying. I was certain I was doomed to die, maybe I was running on borrowed time or something and they had finally caught up with me. Maybe I was originally suppose to die on that day and somehow I had managed to cheat death…was this the day I would die? I couldn't stand to believe such a thing, especially since it now looked like it was possible for Tommy and I to try and start over…life just couldn't be this unfair, could it?

I felt the impact more than I felt it since I had decided to close my eyes. I didn't want it see it this time around, I didn't want to be able to remember it later, if I lived through it. Knowledge was not always power in some cases…this would be such a case.

Tommy had swerved the jeep at the last possible moment, I felt the car impact on his side and the front end smash into the guardrails that bridged the side of the highway on my side. The car smacking into the rear of the jeep caused it to spin around, its nose scrapping across the metal of the guardrails and emitting a horrifying squeal I would never forget, at least not till my dying day. Next I felt the rig that had been behind us slam into our back end, which sent us spinning some more. I felt sick to my stomach and could just imagine that I would become ill at any moment.

The rig behind us hadn't hit with the force I had imagined they would so I figured they must've slowed down considerably before they hit us. But I could still imagine the damage that the jeep had suffered. If only I hadn't chickened out of driving my own car…If anything happened to Tommy, it would be all my fault. If I'd been a lot braver and driven my own car, he wouldn't be in this mess with me. Once again it all boils down that I'm to blame, again! I shouldn't have said that my car wouldn't start…it wasn't true.

But we weren't done getting pushed around, not yet. The lead rig had stopped and the rig behind us ended up pushing the battered and disheveled jeep into the rear of that trailer. The force from the rig behind us had spun the jeep around so that it was my side that impacted against the lead rig's trailer…I was praying to pass out anytime soon.

The jeep finally came to a halt. I felt someone's hand against my shoulder and I looked over to see Tommy just before I passed out. I don't even know what he had said, I was dead to the world. My head hurt as did my shoulder and my right leg…was I even going to survive this accident?

That was a good question…

I do have this to say, I do not own Terry Labonte, his brother Bobby or Dale Earnhardt Jr. The Endangered Animals Pro Rally is a fictional race I made up in support of my story. Any and all coincidences are just that, coincidences. Well, as always Review and if enough of you are kind enough to give me quite a few good reviews Chapter 4 will be out soon too! Thanks!

Oh, one last thing, thanks to ScarletDeva for all of her help, it wouldn't have been this good if it wasn't for you pointing out my errors to me! Thanks a million girl! I owe you one.