Chapter 6 Picking up the peaces
Angel Grove General hospital:
Blake sat beside the bed, Hunter on the other side, each watching the girl n the bed more than the television bolted to the wall.
"I never saw the car." Hunter told his little brother and Blake glanced at his tortured face.
"It could have happened to anyone. She was just more alert."
"And if she'd not been…" The red clad young man felt so ill, now and there was nothing they could do.
"Hunter bro things happen for a reason." Blake said slowly, repeating what Hunter had told him after their parents had been killed. It had been true then and was now as well.
"Yeah but man she's already been through so much." Hunter said running a distracted hand through his messy blond hair.
"She has?" Blake thought of their struggles with Lothor and his goons and wondered why that was worse than what they'd been through.
"You never heard about her parents either?" Hunter asked and Blake shook his head. "When she was seventeen they were killed."
"Oh…" Blake knew how that felt, had lived through the same pain she must have. Glancing at the now battered girl resting there between them he made a silent vow to protect her from now on. Tori was good, calm, sweet and he loved her. It didn't matter if she didn't feel it too he'd not let her get hurt again.
They sat in silence for a while; the only sounds in the room were that of their breathing and the television.
***
When she opened her eyes the room was bathed in a softly glowing golden light. Tori glanced around and found that it was morning. Yet the girl couldn't figure what was going on. She heard the soft snoring and glanced to the seat to her right and found a boy with tanned features and golden hair resting his head against the wall. His face was lined with fatigue, and yet she knew he couldn't be much older than she was.
The shifting of fabric had her turning to find another boy beside her. This one had dark hair and was very tanned. She could see he was built a little smaller than the other man but as memories of time seeing the boys hit her she knew that this boy was named Blake and they had feelings. The thing was even not knowing that she'd have felt the tingle in the pit of her belly. There was just something about him…
"Tori?" Blake asked as his eyes opened to find her looking at him. Her baby blues were speculative and curious.
"Blake?" She asked and her voice was horse probably because her throat was so dry it could have been the heart of any given desert.
"Yeah, you remembered?" He asked hope sparking in his gorgeous eyes.
"Just from what Shane said." Tori admitted a little sheepishly.
"Shane?" Blake asked slightly confused.
"The crash course." The other voice said and Tori glanced over at the blond young man.
"How'd you know?" She asked trying to sit up in the bed.
"You said so." Hunter informed her with an amused look on his face.
"Ok, well what could she say now? Her head was still slightly muddled from the sedative she'd been given.
"How's your head?" Blake thought to ask and she wondered if the guy could sometimes read her mind.
"Ok, a little muffled I guess but it's not so painful." Tori admitted and Hunter smiled and Blake knew he didn't have much time, he was supposed to race. If he was going to cancel he'd have to call Roger soon. He'd made up his mind last night he couldn't leave Tori like this, even if Hunter was with her.
"That's good." Hunter was saying as he saw his brother reaching for the cell phone that had brought the blue clad young man there last night.
"Good, your awake a tall oriental woman in a white lab coat said coming into the room, her eyes taking in the tablo.
"She just woke up." Blake said hitting end, he'd call later.
"That's very good, I'm Dr. Kwan.' The woman said and extended her hand to Tori who was now sitting propped up in the bed.
"I guess you probably know more about me than I do." Tori said riley.
"For the moment." Trina said with a sad smile.
"Hey bro why don't we go grab some coffee?" Hunter suggested and his little brother nodded and said a soft "Be right back" to Tori.
When they were alone TRini moved to stand closer to her patient. She could see by how the two men were talking they were brothers and that both cared deeply for this young lady. TRini knew from her time as both a doctor and a power ranger that Tori would need that.
"So now that their gone, how do you really feel?" The doctor asked and Tori smiled a little. She didn't know why but there was a presence about this woman that she liked. Maybe it was Dr. Kwan's smile or her yellow blouse beneath her lab coat. Either way Tori liked her and so answered honestly.
"It doesn't hurt as much as yesterday but I don't like not being able to remember things."
"I don't suppose you do."
"Do you know when I'll remember?" Tori asked and TRini sighed feeling bad for the girl. She'd faced a lot in her own life but couldn't imagine losing her memory. Still there wasn't much she could give her in the way of hope.
"We can't be sure." The doctor told her adding. "From the type of accident you were in I can say that you were very lucky your memories were all that you lost." The woman said and Tori nodded.
"When can I leave?"
""Well since you passed the rest of the night alright I'd say whenever you feel like you're up to it." The white and yellow clad woman said with a little smile. A lot of people didn't like hospitals and she didn't blame this girl. She'd not asked for this.
"Oh, alright well I'd need…" It struck Tori she didn't even know if she had clothing with her or if they'd been destroyed. She too realized that Hunter and Blake would know.
"Clothing?" Dr. Kwan asked a little smile of understanding marring her pretty face as she moved to where most nurses would have placed a patients things. "Your clothes came through alright so you should be good to go when your friends get back."
"Ok," Tori replied thankfully taking the bag containing her things from the other woman.
***
Blake was taking a seat across from his brother when an unexpected figure rejoined them. Dustin, in his street clothes. He looked tired and worried but alright other than that.
"Hey bro, thought you had classes?" Hunter said arching a brow in question.
"Dude sensei said I'm not good for my students because I kept saying the wrong things." Dustin admitted sheepishly and it struck Blake that his friend in yellow didn't look like he'd slept at all last night. He wondered then just how close he was to Tori. They'd always seemed tight, even if she did treat him like a little brother.
"So bro how long you known her?" Blake asked and Dustin didn't even blink at the abrupt question, he just took the coffee that Hunter got him and wrapped his hands about the foam cup.
"We met when we were pretty young; we had the same baby sitter."
"So you've known her as long as Shane?" Blake asked sipping his coffee absently as if not conscious of the act.
"Yeah we've always been close." Dustin admitted not thinking about it. Maybe talking about this would keep his mind from worrying about Tori and if she'd regain her memories.
"That's good." Hunter murmured and his little brother nodded.
"Family is important."
"That's what we always thought." Dustin nodded taking a drink of the hospital's nasty version of coffee. "No matter how bad things at Shane's place got or how annoying my brother was we always knew we could go to each other."
'I didn't know Shane had trouble at home." Hunter frowned. He'd not been so close to Shane as he'd become to Dustin or Tori but he'd thought he'd gotten to know the red wind ranger pretty well.
"yeah well when we were like 14 his parents got a divorce, before that it had been rough, they fought a lot and…' Dustin didn't go on leaving the Bradley brothers to figure that one out for themselves.
"Man I didn't know." Blake said aloud and Hunter glanced at his watch not wanting to make Dustin feel bad for telling them about Shane's past.
"I bet the doctor's done with Tori we can probably head back up to her room." Hunter said finally and the yellow clad young man smiled a little sadly.
"Yeah I want to say hey." Dustin said and Blake nodded still feeling ill. During the time they'd been rangers they'd all come to be like family, if a little extended but still family. Now it felt so weird learning just how much they'd not known about the wind rangers.
***
Tori was just pulling on her jacket when the guys returned.
"So I take it you can go?" Blake asked amused and she nodded. True she still had a bit of a headache but she really wanted out of here. If a headache was the price of release of freedom she'd pay it gladly.
"Yep.' The blonde smiled at him and Dustin didn't believe that one. He'd known Tori too long not to recognize the pain in her eyes. Still he knew that Tori had always hated hospitals. Maybe that was a good sign, maybe her memory was on the verge of coming back.
TBC
***
Sorry it's so late, I wanted to post this but life kind of got in the way. I had major exams and stuff. Either way I'm back and away we go.
By the way what did you think of this new addition to the story? I'm having trouble getting this part done and if any0one has suggestions I'm open to them.