Maybe Someday

Chapter Six: Shane's Revelations and Questions of the Past

~ Hunter remembered climbing into his tree, the place he felt safest. He could also get on the roof from here. Now 8, he was getting straight A's in school. It made Jake mad though, so he toned it down, got some B's and C's in there. He was quiet. The students considered him weird. Oh well, he thought, fuck them. What do they know? With that in his mind, he didn't notice Jake climb up underneath him. He should've sensed him there. "Shit!" he hissed as Jake's strong hand pushed him out of the tree. He remembered landing on his feet, hearing and feeling a great Crack! From his leg, and then the rest was fuzzy. He remembered Jake kicking him on his way to get his parents. "You know, I saw him in the tree, and he was reaching for something, I didn't see what, and he just slipped out!" Jake exclaimed in a voice that sounded properly surprised and anxious. He's so good at that, Hunter remembered thinking. He woke up on the way there, and the grin Jake sent his way couldn't be described as anything but feral. With a fuzzy head, he had no problem with the pretty girl nurse person putting him on the usually uncomfortable bed. But when a tall man who looked like an older version of Jake reached with the stethoscope to check his breathing, he yelled out, and scooted so far, so frantically, he fell off the bed. "Aahhh!" he screamed as his broken leg hit the floor. When the doctor reached to pick him up, a whimper worked its way out of his throat and he pushed himself into a corner. He hadn't even thought about what he was doing, just of protecting himself. He'd always tried to protect himself from Jake. But the more he struggled and cried out, the more Jake enjoyed himself. So, he learned to struggle without crying out. Now, between the pain in his leg and the piercing headache, his former walls were crumbling down. His head was pounding again, and his vision was getting darker. Even while he tried to force himself awake, he knew he wouldn't succeed. ~

            Hunter surged up from his bed with a gasp. As his breathing slowed, he swung his legs over to the side and stood up; grimacing when his boxers were molded to his legs, and stripped them off. Great, another memory. Gee, I wonder what spurred this one on, he thought sarcastically. Tossing the soaked clothes and sheets into the corner of his room, he walked to the bathroom to bath. As he was sudsing up the washcloth, he wondered yet again why it had to be him. But then again, why not me? What if some other kid was spared what I went through because I went through it? he questioned, and finished his shower in a hurry.

            He got out of the bathroom, a towel around his waist and a troubled expression on his face. He got out the coffee bean grinder, and ground out his own beans, double-checking the bag to make sure it was decaf. No use drinking caffeinated coffee when I want to sleep, he thought wryly, and dumped the grounds into the filter, poured some water in to boil, and waited for the coffee machine to work its magic. There's nothing like a good cup of coffee, he reminisced, remembering the late night talks he and his Dad would have over cups of vanilla coffee. He felt tears prick at his eyelids and tried to think about other things.

            'Other things' seemed to consist of Cam, his brother's relationship with the blue wind ranger, and his nightmares. Since the latter didn't sit well with him, and he did want to get back to sleep again sometime that night, and thinking of the samurai ranger got the butterflies he didn't want to admit he had doing aerial maneuvers, he decided to think on how best to tease his little bro.

            He makes it so incredibly easy to tease, he thought with a chuckle. He blushes and gets that dopey expression on his face whenever she's mentioned, and may the gods help anyone if she comes around. He grinned at the thought of his brother and Tori together, and the warm feeling it gave him, the reassured feeling, made him feel better.

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            Cam felt the wind brush his hair away from his face, and sighed in contentment. It was his night off, or so he told himself. He winced in guilt as he thought of how much his father had wanted him to stop working, at least for a little while. To tell the truth, and he only did this to himself, and then only when it was comfortable, he was getting sick of working 24/7. Hopefully I'll get some sleep tonight, he thought to himself. The unease he kept feeling when Hunter entered his thoughts was back, and he wondered if it wasn't his inner ninja telling him something. I do seem to have that feeling every time he has another nightmare, memory, flashback, or whatever word they're using now, he realized, and wasn't sure the idea set well with him.

            "Oh well, what am I supposed to do about it? Force the feelings to stop?" he asked himself out loud. He watched the moon ripple on the water's surface, listened to the wind and night animals move about the trees. This served to calm him, being one with his home. He'd always loved this place. He used to wish that he remembered more of his mother, but now more than that, he wished for peace. Peace for Hunter, peace for Blake and Tori, who worried about Hunter… peace for himself. He had an inkling that Hunter never had been and never would be into guys. But even with his feelings for the crimson thunder ranger, he wanted the best for him, with no strings attached.

            He felt a presence at his back, and turned to look. He thought he saw a shimmer in the air, and frowned, but turned back towards the water, brushing it off as nothing. What he didn't see was the form of a beautiful woman with long black hair and warm brown eyes. His mother smiled sadly upon her little boy, who wasn't so little anymore. With a soft caress to the back of his head, she faded slowly away.

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            Dustin watched the waves from his back porch, his thoughts racing around. Whatever anyone decided to think about him, he wasn't stupid, and he did happen to have a brain. The news from earlier that day haunted him, and he wondered how Hunter had come to be the cool person he was with a past like that.

            Probably because he didn't remember it, although on some level he must have known, he reminded himself. Rape wasn't a subject that was new to him. He remembered vaguely a girl who'd been raped a few years back. But while the subject wasn't new, it was hard for him to have it hit so close to home, with people he cared about. Did his Mom and Dad know? he wondered, and drew his curly hair from his face absently.

            "Waldo?" his mother called out. "Are you alright dear? It's awfully late, you should go to bed." With that parting urge, she shut the sliding glass door, and left him be. He sat there for a few more minutes, feeling a minor annoyance that his parents still called him Waldo. I feel like I should be in a Where's Waldo? comic. Who names their kid Waldo anyway? He asked himself, and made his way to his bedroom, trying not to think about anything, because if he did, he wouldn't sleep at all.

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            Jake deposited the limp, bloody body of the puppy back in the cage. He heard a whimper as the sting of urine hit the many lesions on the puppy's bruised form, and a smile graced his face. He felt better now that the puppy was near death. It was an orgasmic experience, in his opinion, to see any creature at the precipice of death, especially if they were in a lot of pain. At any rate, he thought, I need to figure out just who it is who recognized me. He recalled the scene at the harbor, and felt confident that he could handle any sort of threat to his freedom. Whoever the hell it is, they'd better watch out, a cold, wicked smile curved his lips, because the bogeyman's in town. With thoughts of more torture in his head, and pictures of the abused pup, he went to bed, unzipped his pants, and fondled his erection as he lay down.

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            Blake blinked his eyes and squinted at the clock. It's 3am? he asked himself. He smelled the coffee and padded his way down the hall. He could see his brother's head bent over his coffee mug, and opened the cabinet to get out his own mug. "Have another one?" he asked quietly. When Hunter grunted, Blake turned and watched his brother closely. "What to talk about it?" he asked just as quietly.

            "It was of the last day I was with them. It wasn't an accident that broke my leg," Hunter murmured. Blake patted his brother on the back and stayed quiet. The navy ranger turned back around and fixed his coffee, then crossed to the opposite side of the table. His eyes gave Hunter the go-ahead for the rest of his memory.

            "He pushed me out of a tree. I was in it because it felt relatively safe. He came up behind me. Damn it! I should've felt him there. But I didn't. He pushed me out, and I broke my leg. On the way to play 'concerned brother' to my parents, he kicked me, and then I was taken to a hospital. The doctor was a man. I was so freaked, and my mind was so fuzzy, rather than played it cool, pretending I was alright, I backtracked so fast that I fell off the bed. I hit my head hard on the linoleum, and then my leg hit the floor pretty hard. I passed out at that point, and then I woke up," he paused for a second, and said, "Remember when Dad used to talk to us over coffee? It always made me tired. I was hoping it would put me to sleep tonight. I wish Mom and Dad were still here." He sounded wistful, and then he looked at Blake for perhaps the first time since he'd appeared. "Do you think they knew about what'd happened to me?"

            Blake contemplated his cup for a moment. "I think they knew. I don't really remember before you were here. But I was glad you were once I got used to the idea. But knowing Mom and Dad, they knew. They were ninjas, like Sensei, and he seems to know everything. Well, except for computers," he joked, trying to cheer Hunter up.

            Hunter smiled for the first time that night. "Yeah, Sensei should leave the computers to Cam, that's his area of expertise. But you're right, Mom and Dad probably knew. What would they do? I mean, Jake is here. In Blue Bay Harbor." With a sigh, he downed the rest of his coffee and put his mug in the sink. "I'm going to try and get a little more sleep. Thanks bro." With a half-smile, he bade his brother good night, and walked slowly to his room. Man, what am I going to do? I wish Mom and Dad were here to tell me, he thought as he fell back on his bare mattress. He closed his eyes, and tried to go to sleep.

            A few hours later, dawn had spread rosy tendrils across the sky, and Hunter's communicator went off. "We've got some activity at the building on 6th," came Cam's tired voice.  Hunter groaned, but got up, pulling some sweatpants and a shirt on while he was on his way down the hall. "Yo, Blake, you hear him?"

            Blake came out in shorts and a muscle shirt, rubbing his eyes. "No, of course I didn't, that's why I'm up right now." Taking deep breaths, they transformed into their ninja uniforms and they ran over to the area in question, and saw the Kelzacks. A few seconds after they arrived, Tori, Dustin and Shane showed up too. Hunter felt the exhaustion try to drag him down, and refused to acknowledge it, keeping the pace as best he could. Within a few minutes, the fight was over and the remaining Kelzacks disappeared.

            "Dude? What the hell was that?" Dustin asked, his demeanor unusually harsh. His curls were messy, as usual, and his clothes were rumpled. Even the typically tidy Tori was looking ruffled.

            "Kelzacks," Shane replied in a fake-bright voice. "That was a nice little group. I guess Lothor likes being our alarm clock once every other second." Dustin threw him a dirty look and shook his head, with an, "I'm going back to bed," in farewell.

            "I think we should all catch a little more shut-eye. But where's Cam? He called us here, but he never showed," Hunter asked, running a hand over his hair in a restless movement.

            Tori gave him a strange look that he didn't know what to make of and replied, "I'll go see what's up, Hunter. Don't worry about him, I bet he's fine."

            "As if I could not worry about him," he muttered under his breath, and missed the second look Tori gave him. "Fine," he said a little louder. "I'm going to go to the beach or something."

            Turning on his heel, he ran his way there, making sure no one saw him. Tori gave a half-smile, and ran her way to Ninja Ops to check on Cam. She'd wanted to see Hunter's reaction to Cam not being there, but she was a little worried herself.

            She walked in, and her eyes softened at what she saw. Cam was asleep against the console, his head on his arms. He didn't look as sarcastic in sleep as he could be, but innocent. "Cam?" she said quietly, and his head shot up, and hit the lower shelf. "Ow!" he yelped, and rubbed the bruised part gently.

            Tori hissed in sympathy, and tried to keep her amusement off of her face. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay. It was just the Kelzacks, as usual. But Marah and Kapri weren't there, and neither was a monster. So, I'm assuming that they just played with their Uncle's toys again." Cam's lips quirked upwards at that.

            "No, I'm okay. I remember the computer going off and reaching Hunter," he blushed a little, since Tori did, after all, know his secret. "Then I remember… hitting my head because you scared the life out of me." The samurai sent a half-hearted glare her way, and her mouthed "Sorry." was all that was needed.

            "You know, maybe telling the rest of the team wouldn't be as bad as you think," the gentle blue ranger suggested, and went quiet at his "Don't be stupid." look.

            "And give the rest of them more room to make fun of me?" he asked with a disbelieving voice. He shook his head, "No, I can't do that. Even if they didn't do that, which I somehow doubt, they'd try to make something of any kind of look, and before long they'd know what you know."

            Tori shook her head with a bewildered frown, "Cam, you can't hide this forever. They're your friends, your teammates. I think they'd surprise you. But being you, you'll do what you want. I'm going home. I need more sleep than I got."

            Cam sent her a semi-apologetic look, and then teased, "Up all night chatting with Blake again?" At her blush, he rolled his eyes. "You don't see me up all night chatting with Hunter, do you?" he asked, making her laugh. What he didn't see was Shane in the shadows, about to walk in. He went pale and paused there, trying not to draw attention to himself.

            "No, but that's only because you won't tell anyone, let alone Hunter, that your gay," she said, only half-seriously. Cam rolled his eyes again, but didn't contest her statement. "Besides, you've got the hots for Hunter, so I guess that's a good reason." Cam grabbed a piece of crumpled up paper, and threw it at her, making her laugh harder.

            "Quit making fun of the gay guy, Tor," he admonished jokingly. He turned back around to his console, and checked to make sure things were alright. In that time, Shane made haste and ran as far as he could to his favorite place: the skate park.

            The red ranger felt the cold sweat of panic trickle its way down to the small of his back, and slumped onto the bench at the very edge of the asphalt. Cam's gay? He likes Hunter? I thought I was the only weird one. Now what do I do? Shane's thoughts were spinning out of control. His memories from a few years before came crashing through his mind.

~ Shane at age 12 came into his house, lugging his backpack and skateboard behind him. He felt weird, because he'd just gotten his first kiss. Only, it hadn't been a girl, but his best friend, Jeremy. He'd known about Jeremy's interest in guys, they had been best friends forever, and he'd never told anyone else about it. It'd been a promise. But now he was more confused than ever. He knew he was attracted to girls. Very attracted to them. But he'd found himself thinking of some select guys at school the same way he thought about the cheerleaders. So, now he was going to make up some BS story to see how his mom felt about it.

            "How was school sweetheart?" she asked him in the kitchen as he dug through the fridge for a soda. He shrugged, and said the first thing that came into his head, "It was there. Mom, what do you think about being bi? Or gay? There was a discussion in the science class about how people are born that way or something…" he trailed off, and took a gulp from the can of Coca-Cola.

            "It's a sin, it's that plain and simple," his mother's mouth was firm, her eyes sober. "It's just not right! If they're discussing something like that in your school, I'm going to call—"

            "No, Mom, it was, like, in passing. Don't worry about it. It's sex ed. time again, and they always make sure to broach every subject. It's just the way things are these days," he interrupted, and tried to shrug it off.

            "Well, alright. If you're certain about that. Now, go wash up. Dinner's in a half-hour," she turned back to the dishes in the sink and resumed washing them, feeling strangely disturbed. ~

            Wiping his forehead, he looked around to make sure no one was in sight, and ran home to get his skateboard. It was times like these that he missed Jeremy. He'd moved away the summer before, and now Shane wished he had someone to talk to who could relate to him. If Tori knows about Cam … maybe you can tell her about yourself, his inner voice whispered. Shaking off the suggestion, he decided to wait and think on it.

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            Cam hacked into some more systems and looked for names that matched Hunter's foster brother's name. Sure enough, he was renting a house from Julie Sherman, who he suspected was out of town. 215 Blue Harbor Lane. Tori was sitting on the table, and they'd long since stopped teasing each other, but Cam told her that Hunter had told Shane and Dustin something the other day, and she'd told him that Blake had informed her of the developments.

            "I found him!" Cam stated, eager to go there and torture the bastard who'd hurt Hunter. Tori sat up gracefully and took a look at what he'd found. When she saw the address, the horrors of the past, and Jenny, came rocketing back to her, and she felt lightheaded, as if about to pass out.

            "Cam?" she whispered. "I think I know who he is. I think that's the man who raped my best friend. He's why she's not here now!" She sobbed the last out, and sat back on the table hard, tears streaming down her cheeks. "She only talked to me back then. I'd been trying to convince her to talk to the police before … before she'd committed suicide. But that's where she was raped. She told me that much. What do we do now, Cam? What do we do now?"

Okay, that's the end of chapter 6. I hope you liked it. Please review! I need the reviews, even if it's just to say you liked it. I'll start on chapter 7 as soon as I can. Thanks to Lee for getting me through this chapter. ^_^ Love you girl! Blessed be -- Chero