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Jason watched Tommy carefully. Telling one of your best friends that another of your friends, another man, loved him was not the kind of thing one did lightly, or easily- especially when that friend was a sixth dan black belt. "Look, I'm breaking a trust telling you this. Bill asked me not to say anything, to let it pass, but I can't sit and watch two of my closest friends, two men I love like brothers, tear themselves apart over something that neither can control." He stopped and sighed, "Am I wrong Tommy? Does he have a chance? Because if he doesn't I'll forget this conversation ever happened."
Tommy looked up at him, and he could see the surprise in his friend's eyes. Jason suspected that what the others were calling Tommy's moodiness over the past year wasn't so much that, as it was some kind of attempt to understand a conflict inside the former Ranger leader. He'd made it a point to just be there for his friend, not push, just let him come to his own conclusions, but after what Bill told him earlier today he realized it was time to act, before the Blue Ranger did something foolish. Finally, Tommy said in a low voice, "What if you're not?"
Jason wasn't surprised by the question, he knew that Tommy tended to brood on important questions, to think them out carefully, and even internalize them more than he should. That was what made him such a great leader for the Power Rangers, better than even he had been. He cared about his team, and his friends. That was what was making this final step so hard. He answered, "What do you mean; what if you're not? What are you worried about Tom Oliver?"
Tommy leaned back against the sofa and sighed himself, "I mean what would that do us Bro?" Oh God, please tell me that Tom's not in love with me! I don't think I could stand doing that to Bill- not take the Gold Powers from him and then take Tommy too. Jason had is own issues of guilt to reconcile about Billy's leaving the planet- about the way things turned out when Billy gave Tanya the Yellow Zeo crystal instead of taking it himself.
"What do you mean; us, Bro?" he asked carefully.
"I mean our friendship, Jase," the pleading look he gave Jason sent shivers down his spine. "How would you feel to find out that. . ., that your best friend had the hots for other guys?"
Jason gave a sigh of relief, "Are you asking me if I wouldn't be your friend anymore, if it would cause me to treat you any different?" Tommy only nodded. So, that was what this was about. Tommy didn't want to lose his friends, "I'll tell you this much, if you do have the same feelings for Bill as he does for you, and you don't do something about it- and I find out about it, then that'll cause more problems between us than anything the two of you might develop ever would. That would be cruel, cruel to yourself, and cruel to Billy, and I don't think you're a cruel person, Tommy."
"Huh?" Tommy asked.
Jason leaned forward and put a hand out to his friend. He put it as simply and direct as he could. "The only way it would change things between you and me, is that I'd start asking you both to dinner than just one at a time." He shook his head, "Do you think that knowing Bill is gay has made a difference between us all these years?"
That surprised Tommy. He leaned back and considered Jason's answer. Jase had known Bill was gay for a long time. "How long?"
"How long what?" Jase asked, "How long have I known Bill is gay? How long I've known that he's been quietly carrying a torch for you, or how long have I suspected that you might feel the same way?"
This was a lot for Tommy to digest. His past year of self- examination was suddenly coming to a head. Understanding the feelings that were tearing him apart had been a long journey. Now finding out that he didn't have to go through this alone, and that his best friend had known was more than a little sobering- and in his current condition that in itself was a feat. "All three."
Tommy watched as Jason smiled and he realized just how close he and the first Red Ranger had become over the years. He was glad that he had a friend he could talk with like this, who would listen without being judgmental. He mentally kicked himself for not talking to Jason earlier. Jason told him, "I've known Bill was gay since we just after it became evident that you and Kim were going to be an item." Jase made little quotation marks with his fingers at the last word. "He got really moody, and snappy. I've known him since we were eight, and he doesn't get that way except when it comes to his feelings. Finally, I sat him down and we talked. Actually, once he got started it all just spilled out of him. He was afraid I was going to throw him over for you as a friend. He was afraid that you'd beat him up if you found out. And he was afraid that Kim would hate him." Jase smiled at him, "You see, even though Billy was a mental giant, he was still very much a little boy emotionally. He tended to bottle things up until they exploded out of him. It was one of those times. I promised never to say anything to you- a promise I'm breaking now, mind you- and I made it clear that he wouldn't lose my friendship over it."
Tommy thought about what Jason was saying, "Why did he think I would beat him up?" God, he'd never had hit Billy to save his life. He'd rather cut off his own arm first.
"Think about it Tom, most of us didn't know you very well back then. You were still the mysterious and very brooding Green Ranger- a real tough guy. That was just a little scary to him." Jase laughed, "And I guess it had its charm too, because he had it pretty bad for you too."
"I. . . , I never knew," Tommy replied. He realized that he'd been so caught up in his own emotional turmoil, that he'd never realized that the very person he couldn't get out of his system was going through the same thing. He was so busy hiding behind the tough-guy, 'I don't care' persona that he totally missed out on Billy's own fight for understanding. "And how long have you thought that. . .?"
Jason smiled at him, "Only the past year or so, I guess." He leaned back, "Kat, Kim, and I had a long talk one night, not long after you guys broke up. You know those two really have turned out to be good friends. Not something I really expected. Most women who've dated the same guy tend not to be that close, and almost never do they stay friends with the guy. I guess what we've all been through lets us break some of the rules." Jason was right about the girls. They had every reason in the world to hate each other with the proverbial pink passion, but they didn't. Instead, they were very close friends, and had drawn even closer after Trini's death. Jason continued, "Anyway, we got to talking, about being Rangers, about our friends, and about you. They kept saying the same thing about you. How, although you'd always been attentive, your heart just never seemed to be in the relationship- as if you were looking for something that they couldn't give. It reminded me of what Billy had said about his few attempts of dating girls."
"And that made you think I might be gay?" Tommy asked, hoping he didn't sound too brusque.
Jase smiled at him, "Well, are you?" Jason wasn't going to let him off the hook.
Tommy sighed and leaned back. If he was going to tell this, then by the Power he was going to tell it all. He took a deep breath and began, "You know I grew up in a series of foster homes before Mom and Dad adopted me?" He didn't wait for Jason to answer. Tommy had long past stopped referring to his adoptive parents as the Olivers. That in itself had been a major turning point in his life. A point when he'd began to slow down in running away from the things that he was. "Well, let's just say I wasn't the easiest kid to raise. To put it simply, before I came to Mom and Dad, I was a trouble-maker, a bully, and on the fast track to prison. You know; Go directly to Jail, do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars. Mom and Dad did a lot to turn that around. It took them a while and a whole lot of tough love, but they managed to at least to get me to stop running from myself."
Tommy sighed, remembering those early days when he was so afraid of being hurt again, of being abandoned and turned back over to Family Services that he lashed out at anything that tried to get close to him. "I decided that I was going to hurt the world before it hurt me. My parents had been more than patient with me. Hell, Dad had even taken a job out of LA to get me into a quieter neighborhood. It worked too, I guess." Tommy couldn't argue that Angel Grove hadn't been good for him. "Well, about the time I started getting my act to together, the whole thing with Rita started. When that was over, I felt so horrible, like every bad thing I ever believed about myself was true. Then you guys rescued me." He stopped and looked at Jason swallowing the hard lump in his throat. These memories were some of his hardest to relive, some of the hardest for him put into words, but for some reason he felt he needed to explain himself to Jase. "If it hadn't been for you, Billy, Kim, and the rest, I don't think I would have made it. Between you guys and my parents, I started to realize that I didn't have to hurt other people to protect myself."
"Man, we knew you belonged with us. We could feel it from the start, and we weren't about to let Rita have you." Jason replied simply and from the depths of his heart.
"I know, it just took me a while to figure that out," Tommy told him as he reached deep down in himself and dug out what he'd been feeling then. He'd never tried to put it into words before, but now knew it was time to do it. "The problem was, that once I stopped running from myself, trying to protect myself from being hurt, I started having these other feelings. I'd seen what happened to guys other people thought were gay. I wasn't about to have that happened to me. I mean, I was the Green Ranger for God's sake!" Tommy blushed as he realized how that sounded. "That was just a little conceited wasn't it."
Jason laughed, "Just a little."
Tommy chuckled, "Well, I figured that if I could just BE with a girl, it would change things. That what I was feeling was just frustration, and general teenage horniness." Tommy blushed deeply with shame as he admitted, "Then Kimberly came along." He could see the hackles on the back of Jason's neck rise.
"Bro, that ain't right." Jase told him evenly.
Tommy nodded, "I know, I know, and you have no idea how sorry I am about it."
"Does Kim know?"
Tommy shook his head, "There's no real need for her to. Nothing ever happened between her and me. Nothing serious I mean." He sighed, "But Kat, . . .," he let the words hang.
"Tom!" Jase protested.
"I thought I loved her, Jase. I really did," Tommy explained. "I thought that if I just loved her enough that what I was feeling about Billy would go away. That it would just become like what you and I have." He shook his head, tears rolling down his face. It was hard to admit that he'd used Kat like that, that he'd used himself, but he realized it had to be done. If his healing was going to be complete, if his honesty with himself and the universe was going to be real then he had to admit that he'd used his friend that way. "Then Bill got sick, and HE went away. But the feelings didn't." Tommy looked up at his oldest friend, unable to read what he saw in those deep midnight eyes. "Just before we broke up, Kat and I talked about it, talked about everything. She was hurt, but she was willing to forgive me." He sighed, "But only if I took some time off, at least a year to come to grips with myself."
Jason leaned back, the tension gone from his body. His voice still had a controlled evenness to it that hurt Tommy just a little, "So that's what this whole year of self exploration has been about?" Tommy nodded, and they sat there for long minutes in silence. Finally, Jason said, "What are you going to do now?"
Tommy wondered what his friend was talking about, "What do you mean?"
"I mean what have you learned from this year of contemplation? Are you gay? Do still feel that way about Billy?" He leaned forward and there was a seriousness to his voice that chilled Tommy's blood, "Because I'll tell you this much Tom. You've gone through two Pink Rangers, two of my friends. You may be my best bud, my Bro, but if you decide to pursue things with Billy, I want you to be damn sure this isn't just another phase. If you and Bill are meant to be together, I'll dance for joy at your wedding, or your commitment ceremony or what ever you decide to do. But, if this is just another part of your explorations, and you hurt him, I'll beat you to death with a shovel."
Tommy was shocked at the intensity in Jason's voice. He wasn't sure just how much of what he was saying was hyperbole, and about how much he was serious. He knew one thing was certain, and said so, "I want to talk to Billy about it. I want to see if he really feels the same way I do." He sighed, "and to apologize for hurting him."
Jason leaned back in his chair and smiled. "That's fair enough. But I'm going to warn you about something."
"I know, I know, don't hurt him. I think I've done enough of that," Tommy told him.
Jason chuckled, "That's not what I mean. We already covered that ground. What I mean is Billy isn't the same man that left here four years ago." He shook his head, "Almost dying has done something to him, changed his outlook on life a bit, no a lot. Recovering cost him even more. Don't expect the shy boy who left for Aquitar. Don't get me wrong, he's still quiet, but it's quiet strength now, not a quiet shyness."
"Aquitar changed him that much?" Tommy asked.
Jason shook his head, "Not Aquitar, Phaedos."
"I thought he went to Aquitar to heal," Tommy protested.
"He did," Jason told him. "But it didn't work. Two months after his transmission saying good-bye, he started aging again. Finally he went to Phaedos, to the Healing Lands to recover." Jason smiled, "He's spent the past three and a half years studying the Ninjetti ruins there, and training with Dulcea."
"Training with Dulcea? Why training with Dulcea?" Tommy asked confused. Phaedos was not a safe place for someone who was sick. He remembered Dulcea's words about those who'd come to Phaedos to get the Great Power. .the grounds are littered with the bones of those who have tried for it and failed.
"He had to reconnect with his Ninjetti Spirit Animal to be able to access the Healing Lands. Part of the reconnection included some rather intense training. As he put it, he spent his mornings meditating in the Healing Lands, his afternoons studying the Ninjetti ruins, and his evenings having Dulcea beat him until he could beat back," Jason told him. "It's made him a very different man. He's much more in control of himself, and there is power there that wasn't in him before." Jason chuckled, "I sparred with him a couple of days ago, and he wiped up the dojo with me." He sighed "I'm just saying, don't expect him to be the same guy you knew four years ago."
That made Tommy wonder, "If he's more sure of himself, why is he afraid to face me? Why didn't he come here tonight?"
Tommy watched as Jason considered his questions, "I think that you should ask him that yourself." He took a deep breath and continued, "But think of it this way. If you were in love with someone, and they were marking a year of being single, how would it make you feel to attend a day marking that year?"
Tommy realized what Jason was trying to tell him. Billy didn't want to seem like a vulture waiting something to die. "I see what you mean." He thought for a few seconds and asked, "Could you, would you set it up for us to meet, to talk?"
Jason smiled and answered, "Would tomorrow night be okay with you- my house, eight o'clock for dinner? It's sort of a Ranger reunion for Billy. So far the only people who know he's back are me, you and Adam. Since Zack is in town, I thought it might be a good chance for us all to get together, and catch up with old times. Everybody will be there." Tommy noticed that Jason didn't add "those still alive at least."
Tommy smiled, "I'll be there."
Jason watched Tommy carefully. Telling one of your best friends that another of your friends, another man, loved him was not the kind of thing one did lightly, or easily- especially when that friend was a sixth dan black belt. "Look, I'm breaking a trust telling you this. Bill asked me not to say anything, to let it pass, but I can't sit and watch two of my closest friends, two men I love like brothers, tear themselves apart over something that neither can control." He stopped and sighed, "Am I wrong Tommy? Does he have a chance? Because if he doesn't I'll forget this conversation ever happened."
Tommy looked up at him, and he could see the surprise in his friend's eyes. Jason suspected that what the others were calling Tommy's moodiness over the past year wasn't so much that, as it was some kind of attempt to understand a conflict inside the former Ranger leader. He'd made it a point to just be there for his friend, not push, just let him come to his own conclusions, but after what Bill told him earlier today he realized it was time to act, before the Blue Ranger did something foolish. Finally, Tommy said in a low voice, "What if you're not?"
Jason wasn't surprised by the question, he knew that Tommy tended to brood on important questions, to think them out carefully, and even internalize them more than he should. That was what made him such a great leader for the Power Rangers, better than even he had been. He cared about his team, and his friends. That was what was making this final step so hard. He answered, "What do you mean; what if you're not? What are you worried about Tom Oliver?"
Tommy leaned back against the sofa and sighed himself, "I mean what would that do us Bro?" Oh God, please tell me that Tom's not in love with me! I don't think I could stand doing that to Bill- not take the Gold Powers from him and then take Tommy too. Jason had is own issues of guilt to reconcile about Billy's leaving the planet- about the way things turned out when Billy gave Tanya the Yellow Zeo crystal instead of taking it himself.
"What do you mean; us, Bro?" he asked carefully.
"I mean our friendship, Jase," the pleading look he gave Jason sent shivers down his spine. "How would you feel to find out that. . ., that your best friend had the hots for other guys?"
Jason gave a sigh of relief, "Are you asking me if I wouldn't be your friend anymore, if it would cause me to treat you any different?" Tommy only nodded. So, that was what this was about. Tommy didn't want to lose his friends, "I'll tell you this much, if you do have the same feelings for Bill as he does for you, and you don't do something about it- and I find out about it, then that'll cause more problems between us than anything the two of you might develop ever would. That would be cruel, cruel to yourself, and cruel to Billy, and I don't think you're a cruel person, Tommy."
"Huh?" Tommy asked.
Jason leaned forward and put a hand out to his friend. He put it as simply and direct as he could. "The only way it would change things between you and me, is that I'd start asking you both to dinner than just one at a time." He shook his head, "Do you think that knowing Bill is gay has made a difference between us all these years?"
That surprised Tommy. He leaned back and considered Jason's answer. Jase had known Bill was gay for a long time. "How long?"
"How long what?" Jase asked, "How long have I known Bill is gay? How long I've known that he's been quietly carrying a torch for you, or how long have I suspected that you might feel the same way?"
This was a lot for Tommy to digest. His past year of self- examination was suddenly coming to a head. Understanding the feelings that were tearing him apart had been a long journey. Now finding out that he didn't have to go through this alone, and that his best friend had known was more than a little sobering- and in his current condition that in itself was a feat. "All three."
Tommy watched as Jason smiled and he realized just how close he and the first Red Ranger had become over the years. He was glad that he had a friend he could talk with like this, who would listen without being judgmental. He mentally kicked himself for not talking to Jason earlier. Jason told him, "I've known Bill was gay since we just after it became evident that you and Kim were going to be an item." Jase made little quotation marks with his fingers at the last word. "He got really moody, and snappy. I've known him since we were eight, and he doesn't get that way except when it comes to his feelings. Finally, I sat him down and we talked. Actually, once he got started it all just spilled out of him. He was afraid I was going to throw him over for you as a friend. He was afraid that you'd beat him up if you found out. And he was afraid that Kim would hate him." Jase smiled at him, "You see, even though Billy was a mental giant, he was still very much a little boy emotionally. He tended to bottle things up until they exploded out of him. It was one of those times. I promised never to say anything to you- a promise I'm breaking now, mind you- and I made it clear that he wouldn't lose my friendship over it."
Tommy thought about what Jason was saying, "Why did he think I would beat him up?" God, he'd never had hit Billy to save his life. He'd rather cut off his own arm first.
"Think about it Tom, most of us didn't know you very well back then. You were still the mysterious and very brooding Green Ranger- a real tough guy. That was just a little scary to him." Jase laughed, "And I guess it had its charm too, because he had it pretty bad for you too."
"I. . . , I never knew," Tommy replied. He realized that he'd been so caught up in his own emotional turmoil, that he'd never realized that the very person he couldn't get out of his system was going through the same thing. He was so busy hiding behind the tough-guy, 'I don't care' persona that he totally missed out on Billy's own fight for understanding. "And how long have you thought that. . .?"
Jason smiled at him, "Only the past year or so, I guess." He leaned back, "Kat, Kim, and I had a long talk one night, not long after you guys broke up. You know those two really have turned out to be good friends. Not something I really expected. Most women who've dated the same guy tend not to be that close, and almost never do they stay friends with the guy. I guess what we've all been through lets us break some of the rules." Jason was right about the girls. They had every reason in the world to hate each other with the proverbial pink passion, but they didn't. Instead, they were very close friends, and had drawn even closer after Trini's death. Jason continued, "Anyway, we got to talking, about being Rangers, about our friends, and about you. They kept saying the same thing about you. How, although you'd always been attentive, your heart just never seemed to be in the relationship- as if you were looking for something that they couldn't give. It reminded me of what Billy had said about his few attempts of dating girls."
"And that made you think I might be gay?" Tommy asked, hoping he didn't sound too brusque.
Jase smiled at him, "Well, are you?" Jason wasn't going to let him off the hook.
Tommy sighed and leaned back. If he was going to tell this, then by the Power he was going to tell it all. He took a deep breath and began, "You know I grew up in a series of foster homes before Mom and Dad adopted me?" He didn't wait for Jason to answer. Tommy had long past stopped referring to his adoptive parents as the Olivers. That in itself had been a major turning point in his life. A point when he'd began to slow down in running away from the things that he was. "Well, let's just say I wasn't the easiest kid to raise. To put it simply, before I came to Mom and Dad, I was a trouble-maker, a bully, and on the fast track to prison. You know; Go directly to Jail, do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars. Mom and Dad did a lot to turn that around. It took them a while and a whole lot of tough love, but they managed to at least to get me to stop running from myself."
Tommy sighed, remembering those early days when he was so afraid of being hurt again, of being abandoned and turned back over to Family Services that he lashed out at anything that tried to get close to him. "I decided that I was going to hurt the world before it hurt me. My parents had been more than patient with me. Hell, Dad had even taken a job out of LA to get me into a quieter neighborhood. It worked too, I guess." Tommy couldn't argue that Angel Grove hadn't been good for him. "Well, about the time I started getting my act to together, the whole thing with Rita started. When that was over, I felt so horrible, like every bad thing I ever believed about myself was true. Then you guys rescued me." He stopped and looked at Jason swallowing the hard lump in his throat. These memories were some of his hardest to relive, some of the hardest for him put into words, but for some reason he felt he needed to explain himself to Jase. "If it hadn't been for you, Billy, Kim, and the rest, I don't think I would have made it. Between you guys and my parents, I started to realize that I didn't have to hurt other people to protect myself."
"Man, we knew you belonged with us. We could feel it from the start, and we weren't about to let Rita have you." Jason replied simply and from the depths of his heart.
"I know, it just took me a while to figure that out," Tommy told him as he reached deep down in himself and dug out what he'd been feeling then. He'd never tried to put it into words before, but now knew it was time to do it. "The problem was, that once I stopped running from myself, trying to protect myself from being hurt, I started having these other feelings. I'd seen what happened to guys other people thought were gay. I wasn't about to have that happened to me. I mean, I was the Green Ranger for God's sake!" Tommy blushed as he realized how that sounded. "That was just a little conceited wasn't it."
Jason laughed, "Just a little."
Tommy chuckled, "Well, I figured that if I could just BE with a girl, it would change things. That what I was feeling was just frustration, and general teenage horniness." Tommy blushed deeply with shame as he admitted, "Then Kimberly came along." He could see the hackles on the back of Jason's neck rise.
"Bro, that ain't right." Jase told him evenly.
Tommy nodded, "I know, I know, and you have no idea how sorry I am about it."
"Does Kim know?"
Tommy shook his head, "There's no real need for her to. Nothing ever happened between her and me. Nothing serious I mean." He sighed, "But Kat, . . .," he let the words hang.
"Tom!" Jase protested.
"I thought I loved her, Jase. I really did," Tommy explained. "I thought that if I just loved her enough that what I was feeling about Billy would go away. That it would just become like what you and I have." He shook his head, tears rolling down his face. It was hard to admit that he'd used Kat like that, that he'd used himself, but he realized it had to be done. If his healing was going to be complete, if his honesty with himself and the universe was going to be real then he had to admit that he'd used his friend that way. "Then Bill got sick, and HE went away. But the feelings didn't." Tommy looked up at his oldest friend, unable to read what he saw in those deep midnight eyes. "Just before we broke up, Kat and I talked about it, talked about everything. She was hurt, but she was willing to forgive me." He sighed, "But only if I took some time off, at least a year to come to grips with myself."
Jason leaned back, the tension gone from his body. His voice still had a controlled evenness to it that hurt Tommy just a little, "So that's what this whole year of self exploration has been about?" Tommy nodded, and they sat there for long minutes in silence. Finally, Jason said, "What are you going to do now?"
Tommy wondered what his friend was talking about, "What do you mean?"
"I mean what have you learned from this year of contemplation? Are you gay? Do still feel that way about Billy?" He leaned forward and there was a seriousness to his voice that chilled Tommy's blood, "Because I'll tell you this much Tom. You've gone through two Pink Rangers, two of my friends. You may be my best bud, my Bro, but if you decide to pursue things with Billy, I want you to be damn sure this isn't just another phase. If you and Bill are meant to be together, I'll dance for joy at your wedding, or your commitment ceremony or what ever you decide to do. But, if this is just another part of your explorations, and you hurt him, I'll beat you to death with a shovel."
Tommy was shocked at the intensity in Jason's voice. He wasn't sure just how much of what he was saying was hyperbole, and about how much he was serious. He knew one thing was certain, and said so, "I want to talk to Billy about it. I want to see if he really feels the same way I do." He sighed, "and to apologize for hurting him."
Jason leaned back in his chair and smiled. "That's fair enough. But I'm going to warn you about something."
"I know, I know, don't hurt him. I think I've done enough of that," Tommy told him.
Jason chuckled, "That's not what I mean. We already covered that ground. What I mean is Billy isn't the same man that left here four years ago." He shook his head, "Almost dying has done something to him, changed his outlook on life a bit, no a lot. Recovering cost him even more. Don't expect the shy boy who left for Aquitar. Don't get me wrong, he's still quiet, but it's quiet strength now, not a quiet shyness."
"Aquitar changed him that much?" Tommy asked.
Jason shook his head, "Not Aquitar, Phaedos."
"I thought he went to Aquitar to heal," Tommy protested.
"He did," Jason told him. "But it didn't work. Two months after his transmission saying good-bye, he started aging again. Finally he went to Phaedos, to the Healing Lands to recover." Jason smiled, "He's spent the past three and a half years studying the Ninjetti ruins there, and training with Dulcea."
"Training with Dulcea? Why training with Dulcea?" Tommy asked confused. Phaedos was not a safe place for someone who was sick. He remembered Dulcea's words about those who'd come to Phaedos to get the Great Power. .the grounds are littered with the bones of those who have tried for it and failed.
"He had to reconnect with his Ninjetti Spirit Animal to be able to access the Healing Lands. Part of the reconnection included some rather intense training. As he put it, he spent his mornings meditating in the Healing Lands, his afternoons studying the Ninjetti ruins, and his evenings having Dulcea beat him until he could beat back," Jason told him. "It's made him a very different man. He's much more in control of himself, and there is power there that wasn't in him before." Jason chuckled, "I sparred with him a couple of days ago, and he wiped up the dojo with me." He sighed "I'm just saying, don't expect him to be the same guy you knew four years ago."
That made Tommy wonder, "If he's more sure of himself, why is he afraid to face me? Why didn't he come here tonight?"
Tommy watched as Jason considered his questions, "I think that you should ask him that yourself." He took a deep breath and continued, "But think of it this way. If you were in love with someone, and they were marking a year of being single, how would it make you feel to attend a day marking that year?"
Tommy realized what Jason was trying to tell him. Billy didn't want to seem like a vulture waiting something to die. "I see what you mean." He thought for a few seconds and asked, "Could you, would you set it up for us to meet, to talk?"
Jason smiled and answered, "Would tomorrow night be okay with you- my house, eight o'clock for dinner? It's sort of a Ranger reunion for Billy. So far the only people who know he's back are me, you and Adam. Since Zack is in town, I thought it might be a good chance for us all to get together, and catch up with old times. Everybody will be there." Tommy noticed that Jason didn't add "those still alive at least."
Tommy smiled, "I'll be there."
