Disclaimer : I own nothing other than story plot and story idea…oh, and any unfamiliar characters are probably mine as well.

A/N : I'll add this later…maybe.

THE POWER RANGERS IN :

THE HARDEST THING I EVER DID

PART 2

Chapter 4 : Dreamscapes and Reality

Isabel's POV :

I was asleep, sound asleep and as was always the dreams started once more. Mommy! Mommy, I heard the child's cry. Her voice was muffled and echoed in the dreamscape. I couldn't actually see her but I knew she was somewhere within the ever shifting realities of the dream world and I had to find her.

Mommy! Her voice echoed again, this time it came from behind me. There was a hint of fear mixed with anxiety reverberating through her voice. Mommy! Her yell echoed out again, this time directly in front of me.

The swirling mists in front of me suddenly parted and a little girl, no older than maybe a year and a half, stood there before me. Her dark blond hair reached down the center of her back, her bright eyes stared up at me, the fear apparent within their depths, emerald green trimmed with a bright oceanic-blue.

What are you doing- the words hadn't even escaped my mouth before I sensed that someone else had also invaded my dream. A tall dark shadow moved up behind the little girl and suddenly lifted her up from the ever-shifting dreamscape ground.

She cried out in terror, her tiny pudgy arms reaching out for me, as if pleading for my help. No! I screamed and started to sprint toward her. I never made it to her, but I never ever made it to her in any of the dreams. They would always end the same way, with me waking up just before I would reach her, screaming as my heart thundered with in my chest.

"No!" The sound of my own voice woke me up as I continued to scream, even as by now the dream had faded from my conscious mind and I wasn't really sure why I felt so frightened.

I felt someone's arm wrapped around my shoulders and gently shaking me. "Isabel?" the voice cut through my groggy mind. "Isabel, are you alright?"

"Huh? What?" I asked, my mind trying to comprehend what was going on in its not fully awake state.

"Are you ok?" the voice asked again.

I slowly opened my eyes, quickly blinked them in an attempt to chase the last remaining traces of sleep from them. Opening them again I looked up into a pair of soulful dark brown eyes, almost appearing midnight black.

Rocky's POV :

She was tossing and turning in her sleep, as she had been doing for the better part of the night, and this was for the most part the reason why I hadn't gotten much in the way of sleep that night. Occasionally she would mumble something that was completely incomprehensible, and I had to wonder about what it was she was dreaming about. I glanced once more at the VCR and the time. It was a quarter till eleven, everyone else had already left, except for Billy, Aisha, Kat and myself, and of coarse Isabel.

Work or other things to do, those were the others reasons for having to leave. Even Matt had had to go, he actually forgot to ask off from work, I'm glad I'm not him. It was the middle of the week, I'd asked for a personal day at my place of employment…not like they could refuse it considering Tommy, Jason and I owned the place. We all usually would ask off for the next day when we planned a get together like this, I guess some of the others had simply forgotten…man sucks to be them.

Isabel tossed again, her hand came up and grabbed hold of a bunch of my shirt, she held it tightly within her small grasp. "No!" she suddenly screamed. She sat bold upright, her breathing coming in short shallow gasps. "Bren no!" she whispered.

"Isabel?" I asked as her body suddenly collapsed back on to mine again. I gently grabbed hold of her shoulders and shook her. "Isabel, are you alright?"

"Huh? What?" she mumbled incoherently, somewhat still asleep.

"Are you ok?" I asked one more time, really starting to get worried. She finally started to open her eyes as I gazed down at her in worry. The intense blue of them almost startled me, her eyes were swimming with tears. The watery effect only intensified the oceanic blue of them, and it almost took my breath away. "Are you ok?" I asked again once she seemed to be somewhat more awake.

"Yeah." she answered quietly and surprised me as she climbed up onto my lap and buried her face against my chest. Her shoulders were gently shaking and I realized that she was crying. I could feel her tears soaking through my shirt.

"Iz, is everything ok?" I asked and felt her stiffen at once. My arms went around her as I silently tried to comfort her, having no idea what was going through her mind at the time.

She looked up me, the tear trails evident down over her cheeks. Her eyes were luminous blue, the tears looked like sparkling stars within their depths. "I'm fine," she answered quietly. She lowered her gaze and refused to meet mine once more, as if she were afraid of what I would see in her eyes.

"Are you sure?" I'd never seen this side of her before. I'd never ever seen her looking so vulnerable or so much like a lost child as she did now. It actually scared me.

She wiped her eyes then wiped the last remaining traces of the tears from her cheeks and stood up. "I should probably get ready to go home," she said.

"Do you need a ride?"

"Is Kat still here?"

"Yeah, she's outside in the back yard with Billy and Aisha. They're putting up the finishing touches for Kim's surprise Welcome Back Party." I answered.

"Oh," she paused then looked up at me. "We're having a party for Kim? I didn't know that."

"Neither did we till this morning, just before Jason and Trini left to go to the store to pick up some party supplies. It was a kind of impromptu type of thing."

"Oh."

"Still wanna go home?"

"I…don't know." All hell broke loose after she said that. I heard Aisha and Kat scream at the same time as the doorbell to the breezeway rang, and at the precise moment the phone also began to ring. I traded confused looks with Isabel, but she didn't move to go and investigate, it was almost as if she was afraid to move or find out what was occurring.

I stood up then and headed toward the kitchen. I could hear Billy, Aisha and Kat giggling as hey ran into the kitchen from the patio. Their hair was soaked, it must've been a surprise rainstorm then I figured.

The phone rang again, I turned around to look at Isabel, "Could you get the phone while I get the door?" I asked. "I'm sure Jase and Trini won't mind."

She nodded her head and headed over toward the phone, "Hello, Scott residence. How may I help you?" she asked in her thick Australian accent.

"Sudden rain?" I asked as I walked past my three dripping wet friends.

"You could say that." Kat answered and they all started to laugh once more. The joke was lost on me.

I looked at her curiously then looked out on of the nearest kitchen windows. It was just as bright and sunny as it had been earlier, not a trace of a single rain cloud in the sky. I looked over at them again, "Do I even really want to know?" I asked just as the doorbell rang once more.

"Be right back," I said, "Then you can answer that." I heard Kat and Aisha start to laugh then Billy joined in.

I walked out of the kitchen and into the breezeway. There at the sliding glass door stood a girl I had never seen before, she didn't even look remotely familiar. She was about Isabel and Kat's height, her hair was just below her shoulders and a dark shade of chocolate. Her eyes were just a hint of a shade lighter than what her hair was.

She had the same dancer's figure that Kat and Isabel had and I had to wonder if she was a friend of theirs from Australia just come for a visit. I slid the door open and looked at her, "Can I help you?" She looked at me then looked past me, into the breezeway.

"Um," I cleared my throat in an attempt to get her attention. "Can I help you Miss…?" I tried again.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, my name is Kristin Cramner. I'm looking for the residence of Jason and Trini Scott."

"Well, you found it." I said while at the same time thinking, And exactly how do you know Jase and Trini?

"Oh good!" she exclaimed. "Then Kim is here?"

"You know Kim too?" Exactly who is this girl?

"Oh yes, from the Pan Globals. We trained together."

Now the pieces were starting to fall into place, albeit pretty slowly. Kat came out then, she looked first to our visitor then at me, something was wrong…I could feel it down in my bones, something was terribly wrong. "Excuse me," she said looking at Kristin, "but I need to talk to Rocky for a second." Without even waiting for the girl to respond Kat grabbed gold of my hand and dragged me back into the house. Kristin stood at the doorway in open-mouthed astonishment.

"What's going on?" I asked as soon as Kat had slowed down just a little and her grip on my wrist had eased just slightly.

"Who was that?" She asked instead as we walked into the kitchen. I looked at everyone else, they all sat in a stony silence. What happened? I wondered.

"Huh?" I looked at her, just partially confused as to what was going on here, my mind was trying to take in to many things all at once, and it was going in to overload.

"Who was-oh never mind!" Kat exclaimed looking intently at Billy, Aisha and Isabel. "Do you know if Jase and Trini have their cell phone with them?" Kat asked, she looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"What? Probably, but why?" What in the hell is going on here? I wanted to scream.

"The phone…" Isabel said quietly, like she was in some state of shock.

"Trini usually always takes the phone with her, Jase makes her. Why?" They were really starting to worry me. "Besides which, Jase likes to have it with him in case something goes wrong at the dojo." I looked down at Isabel where she sat at the kitchen table, she wouldn't look up at me or meet my gaze.

So instead I looked over at Aisha, she also looked away from me, her eyes looking everywhere but at me. What the hell has happened? I looked over at Billy, he meet met my eyes and our gazes held. What I saw in the depths of his sent tremors of fear coursing through my body. "Billy, what happened?"

"The phone…" I heard Isabel whisper again and she held up her hands in front of her face as if looking for the missing item. I looked at her just slightly puzzled by her sudden strange behavior.

"What about the phone?" I asked, looking at her once more. She wouldn't say anything further, like she was still in a state of shock. I turned my attention back toward Billy, hoping to get some answers from him. "What's going on? What happened?" I was starting to get really impatient as well as very worried.

"The phone call," Billy said quietly, so quietly I had to lean closer just to hear him. He didn't go any further, it was like he was struggling with himself trying to get the words out.

"What about the phone call?" I asked, just then dimly recalling the phone ringing at the same time I was going out to answer the door.

"It was a police officer," Isabel said in a mere whisper.

"What! Why?" I looked down at her and noticed that she and Aisha had their hands clasped together, silently trying to console each other. Billy moved to stand behind Aisha, his hands gently resting on her shoulders. I looked over at Kat still standing next to me, tears swam in her eyes. "What happened?"

"There was an accident," Billy said. Sobs escaped from both Aisha and Kat at the same time. Isabel still sat in stunned silence, as if the news still had penetrated her brain…or she didn't want to believe it.

"Who?" Which one of our friends had been involved this time and how badly? I wondered. It couldn't have been Isabel, Kat, Aisha or Billy since they were all here, safe and sound. Since they were wondering if Jase or Trini had their cell phone with them, that would lead me to believe it was neither of them either. So that leaves…Adam, Tanya and Tommy, Kim and Zack and Matt.

Isabel said something so quietly I didn't hear her. I thought maybe she was talking to herself, but as the tears welled up in her eyes and spilled forth over onto her cheeks, I knew she wasn't. "Who?" I asked again, more gently this time.

"Tommy and Kim," Isabel and Billy said at the same moment. Billy's voice sounded just a bit stronger than what Isabel's broken voice did.

"Tommy and Kim?" I asked. "How?"

"Iz didn't get all the details on what had happened, things were still pretty sketchy the officer said. We do know that they are at County General though, she did find that out." Billy answered.

"How bad…was it?" I asked. This just couldn't be happening, it just couldn't!

"They didn't really have a lot of information." Billy said. "They were just putting them into ambulances, but the officer said things didn't look very good."

"Tommy and Kim were in an accident…" Isabel said, repeating the phrase over and over like it was a mantra. "Tommy and Kim were in an accident…Tommy and Kim were in an accident…"

We heard a sudden gasp from the doorway behind us. We all turned to look at once, there stood Kristin, her mouth hung open in shock.

Ok, people, the usual applies here…if you want more story, read and review. Oh yeah, I was thinking of doing a spin off piece to this story based on Rocky and Isabel…it seems that Isabel has quite a hidden past. What do ya think? Let me know…review or e-mail will do. Thanks!