Disclaimer: I don't own PR, I just wish I did.

Talking to the Olivers had left Jason shaken. Mrs. Oliver had been crying too hard, and Jason suspected it was his fault. Mr. Oliver had manned the conversation out of respect to his wife, answering all of Jason's questions with quiet resignation. "My son thought very highly of you, Jason," Mr. Oliver had concluded.

"I thought very highly of him, too, sir," Jason said. "I'm going to miss him a lot."

When that bit of pain was over, Jason pulled a legal pad and a pen out of the kitchen's junk drawer, and made a list of all the ex-Rangers that needed to be phoned. Should he start with the easiest first? Was there anyone that would be easy?

Jason closed his eyes and jabbed his finger at the pad. It took him a moment before he could open his eyes. Zack Taylor. "Okay then," he said with a sigh, flipping open the address book and calling Zack's number.

"Salut."

"Zack? It's Jason."

"Jason!" Zack said. "Hey, how are you?"

"I'm fine. How's France? How's Marie?" Zack had gotten married earlier in the year, but since Marie lived in France, Jason hadn't been able to make it to the wedding.

"France is awesome; I just love it here. Marie's pregnant, she's due in two months."

"That's wonderful." Zack's happiness just made Jason's news harder to spit out. "Um, Zack, I have some bad news."

"Bad news?"

"It's...Tommy. He died earlier this week."

"Oh, God..." Zack got very quiet. "Oh, God...not Tommy."

"Yeah," Jason said.

"When's the funeral?" he asked, and Jason told him, feeling even guiltier about not having gone to Zack's wedding. "Okay, man, I'll be there. How're you holding up?"

"I'm doing okay..." Jason said.

"Have you told Kimberly yet?"

"No."

"Well, then, I'll let you get to your calls, I guess. I'm sorry...this sucks. If you need anything, just call."

"Okay. Thanks, man."

Jason hung up and crossed Zack's name off the list. He decided that the blind stab approach wasn't half bad, so he tried it again. Billy Cranston.

Billy was still in Boston. He had graduated from MIT and was now working at some sort of tech firm. Jason wasn't sure of the details, but then again, those sorts of things had always eluded him. Jason dialed, but the phone was busy, so he left a message with a sigh. He was only delaying the inevitable. "Billy, it's Jason. Please call me back as soon as you get this. And if my phone is busy, just keep trying." He put a mark beside Billy's name so that he would remember that he had called, and hit the list again. Tanya Sloan. This would be two birds with one stone, she and Adam were living together. He dialed.

"Hello?" a man answered.

"Adam, hey man. It's Jason."

"Oh, hey, Jason! How are things?"

"Not so good," Jason admitted, deciding to cut short the small talk that had been so particularly painful with Zack. "Listen, Adam, it's about Tommy. He's...well, he..."

"Is he okay?" Adam asked, concern lacing his voice.

Jason laughed shortly. "Not so much okay as dead," he said. He immediately regretted his phrasing, especially considering that Adam was one of the more sensitive ex-Rangers, and Tommy was one of his closest friends. "I'm sorry, that came out all wrong...it's been a long day..." He took a deep breath. "Adam, Tommy died."

"I have to sit down," Adam said, and there was a long pause.

"You okay, man?" Jason asked.

"This is...he's really..?"

"Yeah," Jason said. "Earlier this week." Jason had made the decision to keep the story behind Tommy's death as evasive as possible. He knew it had everything to do with Mesogog, judging from the man's concern the last time the two had met. The others didn't need to know that Tommy was back in the Ranger business. Even though he'd only been a mentor, the others wouldn't take the news too well. Jason laid out the details for the funeral. "Give Tanya a hug for me," Jason said quietly, because he and Tanya were close friends. "I'm really sorry about this."

"No, it's all right," Adam said in an odd, detached sort of voice. "Have you called Kimberly yet?"

"No, I'm getting to that." Jason wondered if he sounded as tired as he felt.

He must have, because something crept into Adam's voice, giving it weight as he offered, "Do you want me to call Aisha and Rocky? You've probably got your hands full as it is."

"That would be great," Jason admitted with a large sigh of relief. "Thanks."

"No problem. Hey, if you need anything, don't hesitate to call."

"I will, man," Jason said. "Thanks." If you need anything. Zack had said that, too. What Jason needed was Tommy back. Things had been weird the past few years, but Tommy was still his best friend.

He crossed off the names of Adam, Tanya, Rocky, and Aisha, and then jabbed at the list again. Justin Stewart.

Okay, this was a bit harder. Jason had never worked with Justin, and Justin hadn't gone to Trini's funeral. The two had never met. Jason would have to get his number through someone else, and he figured only one person on his list was likely to have it. Katherine Hillard.

Both Zack and Adam had been concerned about Jason telling Kim, but Jason was just as worried about calling Katherine. She had loved Tommy just as much as Kimberly had. Or maybe Zack and Adam had been concerned about Jason's tight bond with Kimberly. Either or, calling Kat wasn't going to be a picnic. His phone bill was going to be atrocious this month, he thought, as he made a call to London.

"Hello?" came Katherine's breathless voice.

"Hey, Kat."

"Who is this...is this Jason?" He could hear a smile creeping into her voice.

"Yeah. Were you just heading out or something?"

"Just heading in, actually. The phone was ringing when I got in the door and I was afraid I might miss the call. How are you? I haven't seen you since..." she trailed off as she remembered the last time they'd seen each other. Jason hated what he was about to say next, but it had to be done.

"Kat, I have some bad news about Tommy."

"He's not getting married or something, is he?" Katherine asked. God, he wished that was all he had to tell her. Kat was his friend, too.

"Kat, this isn't easy for me to say, but Tommy died the other day." He heard her gasp, and he wished that he was there so that he could hug her. "I'm sorry, Kat."

"This is a little too much to take," she said, and he could judge from her voice that she was speaking through tears. "I wish you'd said he was married," she said with the slightest of laughs. "That would have been easier. Then I wouldn't have felt so much like I was losing him."

Jason told her about the funeral almost mechanically. This was only his third call, but it was beginning to be too much. He finally asked for Justin's number, and Kat offered to call instead. "No offense, Jason, but it would be better if he heard from someone he knew."

"Of course," Jason said, then added a thank you as he crossed Kat's and Justin's names off his list. All that left now were Billy (if he returned Jason's call) and Kimberly. He bade Kat goodbye and hung up, then gripped his head firmly between his hands and squeezed. He was trying to squeeze out the past hour, trying to make it as though it never existed. It was odd: he'd spent years after leaving Angel Grove without seeing or talking to Tommy Oliver, and it had never bothered him to the level that this one hour without Tommy had.

Of course then, he hadn't lost Tommy for good.

"If you're up there, bro, you're really screwing with my head right now," Jason muttered. "I hope you're happy." He reached for the phone and punched in Kimberly's number before he had the chance to think about it.

"Hey there!" chirped the voice on the other end.

"Kim, it's--"

"I'm not here right now, so if you leave a message..." He tuned the rest of her message out. "Damn." He waited for the beep. "Kim, hey, it's Jason. Listen, call me back immediately. Okay? Just do it. It's..." he faltered, wondering how much he should say, wondering if hearing this message was going to make her worry. Before he could decide whether or not to complete his thought --or what his thought even was-- someone picked up.

"Jase?"

"Kim?"

"Hey! I just got out of the shower, sorry. How are you? How's Emily? How's L.A.? Have you run into Colin Farrell yet? If you do, you know enough to give him my number."

"Kim, it's Tommy," he interrupted.

When she spoke again, after a pregnant pause, her voice had a haunted quality to it. "Not him. Anyone. Anyone but him. Not after Trini."

"It happened suddenly," he said quietly.

"Another car accident?"

"No. I'm not sure what the circumstances were." Not a full lie. She asked about the funeral, and he repeated the information Mr. Oliver had given him. All he really wanted was a nap. A nice, long nap. And the ability to wake up and have this all be gone.

But he had responsibilities first. "Kim, are you okay?"

"I'm about as okay as you are," she retorted, and that actually made him smile.

"That good, huh." He sighed. "I'm so sorry, Kim."

"You and me both, Jase. But we can't take it back. We can't have them back. They just have to wait for us." She was being remarkably calm about this, and Jason felt grateful for it. He didn't have the energy or the will to play the strong big brother to Kimberly. It was his role, and it was a role he performed dutifully and lovingly and without reservation, but just not now. Not tonight.

"Right, right," he said. "Listen, Kim, I have to go. Sorry. I just...I have a lot of stuff to do."

"Okay," she said in a tiny voice, and he felt bad for abandoning her.

"If you need anything..." he said, borrowing the phrase.

"Of course."

"Bye, Kim."

"Bye, Jase--" He hung up before anything else could be said, and immediately dialed the airline company to book tickets to Reefside. When Emily got home, Jason was spread out on top of his covers, staring at the ceiling with dead eyes. She crawled onto the bed next to him and rested her head on his chest. Instinctively he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "I'm sorry," she said.

"I'm leaving for Reefside tomorrow," he said. "I have to sign some paperwork."

"Okay," she said.

"I got us tickets back to Angel Grove for the funeral," he added. Tommy had apparently requested to be buried in Angel Grove, according to the Olivers. It made sense...Tommy had been an army brat, and when his dad had finally relocated to Angel Grove, Tommy had found a circle of friends and finally a place where he felt at home.

"Okay," Emily said again. "Do you want to talk?"

"No," Jason said tiredly. He stroked her hair absently. "I just want to get some sleep." Sleep for a very long time.