Back in the System
A Power Rangers Story
Part Three: Adam's Help
By PaperKat
Adam yawned tiredly as he pulled into the parking lot outside Jason's apartment. Last night had lasted longer than any of them had expected. None of them brought up what happened between Jason and Kimberly and their ex-pink ranger had seemed relieved at that. Adam wasn't sure what had happened, but whatever it was, it had been powerful. Rocky was convinced that sexual sparks were starting to form between the two. Adam thought it went much deeper than that.
Maybe it was a product of being a ranger, maybe it was a result of Adam's almost obsessive people watching habits he developed growing up a painfully shy kid, but he just seemed to be able to read people. He had never had the opportunity to observe Kim and Jason together for any length of time, but he had seen and heard how Jason talked about his long time female friend. There was just something different between them, more than friends, more than family, more than even rangers, and if what happened between them last night shook them both up there was something more going on then simple repressed sexual feelings.
After Kimberly had gotten off the phone with Kat, the atmosphere in the apartment had returned to friendly banter. The four of them had discussed how Kim was going to go about moving from London back to Angel Grove. She had confessed that she hadn't thought that far into the future, fearing it would jinx her chances of getting the contract.
Both Jason and Rocky had offered for her to live with them until she found a place. Since he technically lived in Hollywood, Adam hadn't been able to offer the same. He was only back in Angel Grove now because he was on hiatus. He was a regular stuntman on a primetime television show that was currently in-between filming seasons. Instead of trying to find a short-term job in the interim, Adam had saved enough money to treat himself with a three-month vacation. He was presently using Rocky's extra bedroom during this time, though he did have plans to stay with his folks all of next week.
Hearing that Kimberly had no plan for her impending move, the three of them had gotten to work. After conferring with her as to what Kim might need, a large studio and an apartment within walking distance, Jason had found his Sunday paper and they had started looking through the classifieds for something appropriate. The plan had been for Adam to take Kim around town to look at what they could before her flight back to London at six p.m. the next day.
An hour or so later, he had looked up from another possibility that Jason had circled in red marker to see that Kimberly had lost her battle with jetlag. Curled up in a tight ball, Kim had been asleep on the couch while her friends had planed her future residence. Silently he had alerted the other two to their female friend's state of unconsciousness. Jason had gone over to his childhood pal and very, very lightly shook her shoulder.
"Kim? Kim?" He had asked softly, she had given a muffled grunt in response. "Can I take the couch tonight?" There had been an affirmative sounding groan to which Jason had grinned triumphantly. Earlier in the evening, Kimberly had adamantly refused to take Jason's bed for her overnight stay. Once Jason had effortlessly tricked Kim into coming over to his way of thinking, he had easily gathered up the tiny woman and had taken her to his room.
As soon as the two had disappeared down the hall, Rocky had started in on how hot Kim had looked that night and how clueless the former original red and pink ranger were to how awesome a couple they would make. It always surprised Adam that Rocky was such a matchmaker. He supposed that Rocky got the habit from his mother that was still trying to fix him up. And for as seemingly rude as Rocky could be about personal issues he was an incurable romantic. Adam had been almost positive that if Tommy had of been anywhere in the vicinity that the young Latin man would have been trying to get them back together instead of trying to start something between Jason and Kim.
Adam had listened to his friend list the reasons the two in the back room should 'get it on' as it were. He had just let Rocky carry-on, not saying anything positive or negative. Rocky could fuel his own imagination without Adam's opinion either way. Personally Adam didn't think that anything would ever happen between the two former teammates. Their relationship just wasn't like that, unquestionably intimate and binding, but not romantic. A few moments after Rocky had been getting a little too explicit about what he would have been doing if he where Jason, the mentioned ex-ranger had come back with a pillow and blanket and had tossed them on the couch, Rocky had immediately fallen silent.
They had spent the rest of the evening writing down each of the locations that were possibly acceptable and arranging them in order so that he and Kim could hit as many as possible without having to back track. Jason had sent them home at close to midnight and both ex-red rangers had complained about having to be at work early the next morning while Adam had teased that he would still have to get up early too, but at least he'd have beautiful company.
Now it was 7:15 in the morning, an un-Godly hour for anyone on vacation to be awake, knocking on Jason's door. No matter how gorgeous Kimberly was it was too damn early to be up if you didn't have to go to work. Almost before he could finish his second rap, the door flew open to an all too cheery Kimberly. Her hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, the designer cream colored jeans and the simple amber colored short sleeved sweater looked both comfortable and attractive. Maybe it wasn't so bad getting up early to spend time with Kim.
"Hey, lazy-bones. What took you so long? Jason ran out of here almost thirty minutes ago." Adam tried to respond, but a jaw-popping yawn prevented him. Kim smiled at him affectionately and pulled him inside.
"OK, what did you guys do after I fell asleep? Jason almost overslept and raced out of here so fast I didn't get a chance to ask him. All he said as he tripped out the door was that you were coming over to take me somewhere this morning. Now you come in here practically sleepwalking and giving a Rip Van Wrinkle impersonation." Kim didn't wait for him to answer. She led him to the table and made him sit and stripped him of his favorite green bomber jacket.
"No talking for you until your caffeine level is higher. Pick your poison: coffee or tea." Kimberly told him as she made her way around the island.
"Coffee." Adam replied automatically, then thought better of it. "No wait! Did Jason make the coffee?" he asked, self-preservation kicking in despite his tired state.
"No." Kim responded. The wrinkle in her forehead clearly showing that she was confused by his question.
"Good. Then I'll take the coffee, one cream and no sugar. That sludge that Jase makes should be considered a bio-hazard." Kim chuckled as she made the coffee to his request and brought it to him.
"I was wondering what that black slime in the coffee pot was. Took me almost a half an hour to scrub it out. What do you want for breakfast? I've got five biscuits left, a full pan of blueberry muffins, about seven strips of bacon, ten sausage links, pancake mix to make… well pancakes and a half dozen eggs that I can fix anyway you like. So what will it be?" Kim asked sweetly her hands held behind her back as she rocked back and forth on the balls of her bare feet. Far too much energy at this hour.
"Is this another case of: while the Kat's away the Kimberly will play?" Kim's smile turned impish, but she didn't answer. "Jason actually has all of that in his place?"
"He didn't until I went out this morning and got it."
"How early did you get up this morning?" Adam asked astonished. Maybe it was the jetlag.
"Oh, about five I guess. I don't sleep much at night anymore. With Kat's practice and performances and my crazy artist's schedule I learned to take power naps whenever I can. Nighttime isn't always sleeptime."
"You know that you're not going to be able to get away with that kind of system once you move back." Adam informed her.
"How so?"
Adam smiled and pointed to a prominently displayed photo of Kimberly and Jason from high school. "Big Brother is always watching."
"Jason?" Kimberly asked with a snort. "Jase gave up a long time ago trying to curb my behavior. Besides what he doesn't know won't get me in trouble. Enough stalling, what do you want to eat?"
"How about bacon, some scrabbled eggs, a few of those biscuits and another round of that non-lethal coffee?" Adam requested. He couldn't remember the last time he had a morning meal that wasn't handed to him through the car window. He was going to enjoy this.
"Coming right up!" Kim bounced away and Adam followed. He fixed his own coffee, despite his earlier request, and watched Kimberly as she went about cooking breakfast. She looked positively dainty in the smallish sized room. All the higher cabinets were barely within her reach though that didn't seem to slow her down as she went about gathering things together to make breakfast.
"So what did you three talk about last night after I fell asleep?" Kimberly re-asked her earlier question as she expertly broke open eggs one handed into the bowl in front of her.
"Well, we took it upon ourselves to find you a new home." Adam cringed slightly wondering if Kim would be upset that they had interfered. Tanya certainly would have blown hot thinking that the guys had made any decisions for her.
"Oh, really?" She said, briskly whisking the eggs into a light yellow froth, totally unconcerned about their planning, in fact she seemed to expect it. "And what did you guys come up with?"
Adam reached into the back pocket of his black jeans to find the list, but came up empty. He tried again with his front pockets, but a second time nothing. He looked sheepishly at his female friend as she raised an expectant eyebrow.
"I don't seem to have it." Adam leaned back against the counter as Kim began to cook the eggs she had just beat into submission. "We were all here at the table with Jason's paper. He took you to bed. He came back. We wrote down the locations on the back of a blue piece of paper…" Adam said out loud as he tried to remember what happened to the missing list.
"A blue piece of paper about this big." Kim said holding up her hands to indicate something about half the size of a regular sheet of notebook paper. Adam nodded, hopeful that maybe she had seen it sometime this morning. "It had a list of Jason's students on it. I think I saw him stuff it into his gym bag as he ran around looking for his wallet."
"Ah, man." Great! Now what am I going to do?
"Hey, don't worry about it. After breakfast we'll run down to the dojo and get it from Jason. I've been wanting to see that place anyway. They do nothing but sing their boss's praises."
"Well, it's got to be now or never." Adam stated as he helped Kim carry the muffins and the biscuits to the table. She followed close behind with his eggs and bacon, her own cup of coffee and a tub of butter balanced on top of the mug. "The school's going to be closing soon."
"You're kidding!" Kimberly exclaimed, dropping the plate to the table. Adam's eggs and bacon switched places on the plate when they bounced. "They never said anything!"
"Well, they were hoping to find a way to keep it open, but with Rocky still in school and Jason just graduating neither one of them have the resources to take over for Mr. Hamin." Adam fixed himself a sandwich with his eggs, bacon and biscuit and Kimberly absently buttered a muffin half. "It's a real shame too. It's a thriving dojo, with new students all the time despite the limited space."
"So why is he closing the dojo? I mean why doesn't he just sell it?"
"Well, from what Rocky told me his son has developed some severe allergies to this area and their doctor recommended moving to the Midwest. He's already purchased a house and his wife and son moved out there last month. He's been trying to hold out for someone to take over, he really doesn't want to disappoint his students, but he just can't anymore. I think he might have sold the building they're in last week."
"That's too bad." Kim said thoughtfully as she nibbled on her muffin.
"Is that all you're going to eat?" Adam asked surprised after last night's Rocky impersonation.
"I ate earlier with Jason, or more accurately I ate while Jason ran around trying to get ready." Kim's nose wrinkled as she thought for a moment. "You know I think that maybe our two ex-reds are spending a bit too much time together."
"Why do you say that?"
"Jason was swearing in Spanish." She told him with a grin. Adam smiled back, unable to respond with a mouthful of food. He too had noticed Jason's increased Spanish vocabulary and not all of it could be repeated in front of their bilingual students. "I'm glad that they have each other. Jason was pretty lonely when everyone started moving away."
Adam paused in his eating to gaze upon his female friend. Kim had this forlorn expression on her face as she carefully buttered another half of a muffin. In that moment she looked far younger than even the sixteen he had meet her at. Adam just couldn't shake this feeling that Kim's current depressed condition had something to do with whatever was wrong between her and Jason. He couldn't tell if her sadness was for herself or for her childhood friend, but whatever the reason Kim was falling fast into a melancholy state. We'll just have to nip that in the butt.
"Well, now that you're coming back you'll be able keep an eye on the two of them and stop them from becoming clones." The comment had the desired effect. Kimberly beamed brightly at the suggestion.
"You're right. A little estrogen in their testosterone-laden world is just what those two need. I am surprised that Aisha hasn't taken it upon herself to keep them in line. I know she's in Stone Canyon but that's only twenty minuets away."
"Aisha's been real busy with the radio station lately. Don't tell her I told you this, but she's up for a permanent position for the morning crew, on the air."
"Oh my gosh! That's wonderful! I know that she was real worried that her time in Africa was going to ruin her chances at being a radio jockey, being behind in school and all that. Why didn't she want to say anything?" Adam grinned; his two female friends were too much alike in some ways.
"Same as you. Didn't want to jinx it."
"Well, I don't think that she has anything to worry about. They'd be idiots not to snatch her up before another station finds out about her." Adam was inclined to agree. Even though Aisha was his closest friend beside Rocky he knew that she had genuine talent. "You finish up here and I'm going to go clean up that mess I left in the kitchen, then we'll head out."
Adam watched her go, surprised that he was admiring her elegant erect carriage and the feminine sway of her hips. Jason wasn't the only one that was hanging around Rocky too much, Adam thought as he munched on his last piece of bacon. All the way back to Rocky's apartment last night, Adam had been bombarded with a monologue of Kim's attributes. Not that he had never noticed that she was attractive, it was just that she was so easy to talk to and get along with that sometimes he forgot that she wasn't one of the bros. She hadn't been intimidating like the other female rangers had been.
Kat had been far too alluring for his teenage hormones and ultra shy demeanor for him to ever feel chummy with her back in high school. Besides there had been the whole Kim/Kat/Tommy thing that he had not wanted to get in the middle of. Aisha was his childhood friend and sister in everything but blood and being a ranger with her only made that feeling stronger. He imagined it was the same for Jason and Kim. Then there was Tanya. So strong and confident and completely out of his league and reach.
Adam sighed, pushing his bits of left-over eggs around with his fork. Tanya was in Boston now studying to be a doctor. Not just any doctor but a neurosurgeon and what was he, a stuntman. He didn't feel that there was anything wrong with his kind of job, he loved it, but it was just a reminder of how different he and his old crush were. Old crush, yeah right, like you don't think about her almost everyday, he accused himself.
"Adam?" Kim ask him softly, startling him so much that he dropped his fork to the plate with a crash. "Is everything OK?"
Adam heard the concern in her voice, but he wasn't up to sharing right now. "I'm fine Kim."
She smiled back, the look in her eyes saying that she knew he was lying, but she was going to let him. Kimberly pulled him to her chest, wrapped her arms around his head and neck and then placed a kiss to his short curly black hair. Kim always seemed to know exactly what to do to make her friends feel better.
Even though Adam had his face practically buried in Kim's breasts all he felt from the embrace was warm comfort. Seated as he was before her, he was at the perfect height to wrap his arms around her hips. They held each other for a few minutes, and Adam had the suspicion that maybe Kimberly was drawing just as much comfort from this physical contact as he was. When she patted his back firmly, Adam knew it was time to separate, but he gave her one last strong squeeze before he did so.
"You ready to start our fun filled day of driving and looking?" Kim asked, her eyes were suspiciously wet.
"As ready as I'll ever be." He replied as he took his plate to the sink. He was perfectly willing to ignore Kim's lapse if she was willing to ignore his own.
Kim pulled on her knee high boots from yesterday and the jeans and sweater combo that had looked comfortable and stylish before now looked like runway attire. When she put on her long coat, Adam felt under dressed in his black t-shirt, jeans and boots. Kim looked like she had walked right out of a magazine.
"I thought you said you didn't have anything but sweats and leather?"
"Well, I knew that the boots and jacket wouldn't fit in my carry-on so I made sure I had a matching outfit to fly back in. Come on." She said grabbing up her carry-on and portfolio. "Led on MacDuff."
Adam led the way outside to his car. At Kim's surprised gasped he smiled with satisfaction even as his cheeks flushed just the littlest bit.
"This is your car?"
Adam clicked the alarm off of his completely revamped '68 Corvette. He watched with pride as Kimberly ran her fingertips over the high gloss candy apple red paint.
"Not black or green?" she asked with merriment evident in her coy voice.
"I do own things that aren't black or green." He told her equally amused. He opened her door for her and helped her get inside.
"I see that." She told him cheekily as she looked him up and down. Adam groaned and closed the door. He jogged over to the driver's side and got in.
"OK, OK. So I still have a psychological need to have it in my wardrobe. How about you?" Adam asked remembering that the only pinkish thing he had seen on her was the thin rose strips in her plaid skirt yesterday.
"Please, with me and Kat living in the same loft we went into Power Pink overload in just a few months." Kim shrugged as she looked down at her current attire. "I still feel the need but I always ask myself if it's what I really want or a power flash back. Me and Kat decided that we would wear the pink, the pink won't wear us."
Adam chuckled and started the car. Again he felt a moment of masculine pride as Kim sighed appreciatively when the car hummed around her. She snuggled deeper into the leather seat and closed her eyes. He heard her whisper under her breath 'Almost as good as a bike.' He really loved this car.
"When did you get this?" Kim asked as she ran her hands over the black leather of the seats. Adam pulled out of the parking lot and moved into traffic.
"Only about a month ago."
"Stunt work must be treating you well."
"When you're the only one that 's willing to put on a full spandex bodysuit with helmet and jump from a burning building into the ocean, they give you a little something extra in you checks." Kim laughed and patted him on the thigh.
"Can't get away from that spandex, eh?"
"I wear the spandex, the spandex doesn't wear me." Kim burst out laughing and covered her mouth with her hand to hold in her mirth.
"What about you? I hear that a Joseph St. John original goes for a pretty penny. A couple of million pretty pennies according to the late night news." Kim rolled her eyes and threw up her hands.
"Can you believe what that guy paid for a painting of a scantily clad tiger woman riding on ostrich? I thought they were asking too much at ten thousand then the biding started and the next thing I knew it was up to hundred thousand dollars!" Adam had to smile at the astonishment in Kim's voice. "I'm glad I donated it to the auction. The environmental group that's helping clean up that oil spill off of the Spanish coast really needed the money. But, honestly I make enough to keep my name out of the spotlight and to live anyway I wish, even after I pay the lawyers and my publicist."
"What made you decide to get another secret identity? Missing the old days?" Adam asked turning down Main Street.
"You remember how much a pain in the butt keeping our identities a secret was." Adam nodded his understanding remembering all the excuses and ducking his parents he had to do as a Ranger. "This is almost as bad. Hide away meetings, passing my work from person to person so that it doesn't get traced back to me. But it's worth it. After I saw what kind of reaction my stuff got in London I knew that I would need the secrecy to have a private life."
"So if you are making enough money being Joseph St. John, why did you take this new job and why did you wait until now to move back home?" Kim didn't answer immediately and Adam feared that he had stepped in it good. He hazarded a glance in her direction and saw that Kim's expression wasn't hurt, just thoughtful.
"I guess I wasn't ready yet." Kim sighed deeply and Adam could almost feel her sink into her memories. "I needed time to find myself again. I had a couple of rough years after I left Angel Grove and I just need time to recuperate."
Adam took another quick look at his friend and wondered what had happened all those years ago. Kim's seeming complete disappearance was one of those things that no one asked about and no one talked about. At the time the team needed their leader to be grounded and focused so they had all just pretended that Kimberly had never existed, at least in front of Tommy. Secretly they had discussed what could have possibly happened and had even tried to contact her, but all their efforts had been in vain. He suspected that Kat knew what had happened from some of the things that she had let slip, but she hadn't said anything directly.
"As for the job…" Adam snapped his attention back to the here and now as Kim answered his first question. "I needed something to keep my imagination on it's toes. I could draw mostly naked humanoid women riding all manner of beasts until I was blue in the face, but I need more of a challenge to satisfy my artist's eye."
"Well I'm just glad that Rita and Zedd are gone. I got a look at some of those sketches and man would I have hated fighting some of those things."
"I know. Thinking of all the times they took something of ours and turned it into a real monster, like Tommy's art project. Did he ever… Adam quick, pull over."
"What?"
"Pull over right there in that warehouse parking lot."
Adam did as he was instructed and pulled his Corvette up to a three-story warehouse. As soon as the car stopped, Kim opened her door and ran up to the 'For Sale' sign posted on the standard sized door at one corner of the building. The whole warehouse was about half the size of a football field and stood on the corner of Main and Lakeside. He didn't remember this location being on the list and with it being only a half a mile from Mr. Hamin's dojo Adam thought that he would have remembered. Adam stood back and observed the structure.
The side that faced Main and the parking lot had two large garage type doors side by side along with the single door Kim was now standing in front of. On the side that faced Lakeside was a double wide set of stairs that led to a second floor door. Unlike the Main Street side, which was whitewashed, this side was charred black. Probably a monster attack, Adam reasoned since this was an area of Angel Grove that Rita and Zedd seemed to favor back when he was a ranger. Probably why it's still for sale.
"Come on Adam. Let's take a look." Adam looked to his friend and saw that she was just inside the now open door.
"Was it open?" Adam asked jogging over.
"No." Kim said nonchalantly as she walked inside. "I picked the lock."
"Kim!" Adam hissed as he looked around expecting cops to show up at any moment to arrest them.
"Adam, don't be a stick in the mud. I have a really good feeling about this place."
"What do you mean 'a good feeling'?" All Adam was feeling was the need to throw Kimberly over his shoulder and carry her B&E butt back to the car, then he'd call Jason. That would get her in hot water.
"Can't explain it. It just 'called' to me."
"Are you on any medications I should know about?"
"Nothing special." She told him and Adam wasn't so sure that she was joking.
Adam took a deep breath and plunged in and was meet by a cloud of dust. Obviously no one had been inside for quite some time even Kim's footprints ahead of him could be seen in the dust on the concrete floor. Adam squinted in the low light provided by the open door behind him and the single, block divided, five by 6-foot window across the room from him. The other seven windows were boarded by slats and fingers of dust defused light striped the floor.
Kim moved through the vastness being careful not to trip on the strips of metal bolted to the floor, both of their boots echoed in the concrete cavern. Must have been a production warehouse, Adam thought as he took in the wall to his left and the four huge offices that ran along it. There wasn't enough light to truly see from wall to wall but the provided light reflected off of the huge glass windows, windows that allowed whoever was inside to see the entire warehouse floor. In the back right corner was a thirty by forty-foot box. Restrooms for the workers, maybe?
Kim called his name and Adam watched her make her way over to a set of zigzag stairs that led into the ceiling and knew that their unannounced tour wasn't over yet. He followed her up the stairs and the metallic groan was creepier than the their boot falls had been. There was no door at the top of the stairs, it just stopped on the second floor, so Adam missed a chance to see Kim's lock picking skills. Once on the next floor, he was struck by the openness of the space. While the ceilings downstairs had been about 12 feet tall with strips of florescent lights banning them, the ceiling here was over 20 feet high with enormous round lights.
Half of the space on the same side as the windows was sectioned off by a third floor lined by thick metal railings. Unlike the first floor vast amounts of light spilled into the room from what must have been windows on the third floor overlook. Other than the double bathroom directly above the one downstairs and the single door across from them, that undoubtedly was the one that Adam had seen from outside, the space was utterly empty.
Kim didn't stop as she made her way over to one of the set of two stairs that led to the third floor. Since there was nothing to see, Adam gamely followed. Up the stairs was another empty space, half the size of the previous floors, but flooded by light from the eight huge unobstructed windows letting in the rising sun's light.
"This is perfect." Kimberly whispered as she ran to the windows.
"This?" Adam asked surprised. How much room could she possibly need?! "Kim you could play football downstairs and basketball upstairs! This whole place is three times the size of the youth center."
"Adam… look." She told him pointing outside.
Adam shook his head and complied. He was stunned by the view. Outside the window was a completely undeterred panoramic view of the lake and the park beyond and if the sun wasn't so bright coming over the mountains, he was sure you could probably see those too.
"Let's get to the dojo, Adam. We have a lot of work to do!"
Kim ran down the stairs two at a time and Adam wondered how she could possibly do that in heels, then what she said sunk in.
"We?!" he squeaked out running after her. Why do I think that this day just got longer?
End part 3