Summary: After five years, Conner comes home.
The next morning Conner woke up to the sound of his alarm clock and proceeded to the kitchen to see Tommy and Kim drinking coffee and reading the paper. He decided that a cup of coffee sounded good at the moment, but when he went to pour himself some, it was all gone. "Great." He muttered to himself.
"Good Morning Conner" Tommy and Kim said in unison.
"Maybe for you, anytime I have to wake up at 6:00 A.M. is not a good morning."
"Some things never change, do they Conner?" Tommy said with a smile.
"I guess not."
"Who's the next victim on your list?"
"Little boy blue"
It was at this time that Kim decided to put her two cents in since she didn't get to question Conner the previous night.
"Conner, What makes you so sure that Ethan and Kira will even talk to you after what you did? If I were them, I wouldn't give you the time of day."
"I'm not sure, but I have to try, it's the reason why I came back and they deserve an answer."
"Look Conner, I want you to know that it isn't going to be easy talking to them. They are going to slam you with more questions than Hayley and I could ever think of."
"I know that Tommy, and I will be willing to answer them all." Looking at the clock on the wall, Conner noticed that the couple were going to be late for school. "Shouldn't you two be halfway to work by now?"
"Oh jeez, Tommy, we're late. See what you have done to my timing since I married you." Kim said as she and Tommy were hurrying out the door. "We'll see you later Conner, good luck." Kim said as she closed the door and proceeded to her car with Tommy right behind.
"You're right, Tommy, some things never change." Conner said into the empty house. He figured since it was still early and he wasn't going to look for Ethan until later, he would go back to sleep.
(Later that day)
As he opened the doors he instantly saw Hayley working the counter. He looked around and noticed that it wasn't that busy so he decided to go to the bar and talk to her.
"Hey, you aren't that busy today huh?"
"Look at the time, everyone's at school. Did you talk to Tommy?"
"Yeah, last night and he is letting me stay at his house."
"Good, at least now, you won't be spending money every night at that hotel."
"I've got two down, now I got two more to go."
"Who are you looking for, now?"
"Ethan. You wouldn't be able to tell me where he is right now would you?" Conner asked with hope evident in his voice.
"Right over there." Hayley pointed to a computer on one of the tables on the far side of the cafe.
"Hey Conner, if you are going to do this now, I suggest you and him go somewhere else because I let Kira use this place for practice on Wednesdays and Thursdays and it's about that time that she shows up."
"Thanks, I'm not ready to face her just yet."
With that he walked over to the table that his old friend sat at. As he got closer to the table he saw that Ethan was playing a game on the computer. He smiled as Tommy's words from that morning replayed in his head. "Some things never change."
"Is this seat taken?" He asked, hoping that Ethan would look up at him.
"No, go ahead." Ethan said, never looking away from the screen.
"What game are you playing?"
"Wizard Wood, it's one of my favorites."
Knowing that Ethan was not going to quit the game anytime soon, Conner decided to do something he thought he would never do again.
He reached over and hit the power button causing the computer to shut down.
"Why did you do that?" Ethan asked very angry at him.
"Because I need to talk to you."
"I've never seen you before in my life."
"Are you sure about that?"
"Positive."
"How about if I prove you wrong. You see Ethan, I know everything about you. And I'll prove it." Conner said with a smirk.
"How do you know my name and what else do you know?"
"Ethan James, You want to work in some big software company, preferably Microsoft but you will take anything. You have known a young woman by the name of Kira Ford for just over five years. You were the president of Computer Club when you attended Reefside High and the first day of school you, Kira, and a man named Conner were given detention but bailed out by your science teacher when he brought you three with him to a dinosaur museum. The three of you fell through a sinkhole and made your way through an underground cave until you found your way into an underground lab where you found colored rocks. These rocks had a great power." For the next part, Conner leaned in close to whisper into Ethan's ear. "They turned you three into power rangers and that bracelet that you wear today was known as a communicator. The only difference with the bracelet then and now is that you don't have the rock etched into it anymore."
Ethan was left speechless at everything that this young man knew about him. After a few minutes he found his voice.
"How do you know so much about me, it was supposed to be a secret. Nobody knows."
"It's easy to know when you were a part of it as well." Conner said lifting up his sleeve to show that he had the same bracelet that Ethan was wearing.
"Oh my god, Conner?"
"It's good to see you again Ethan." He said as the two embraced.
"Look at you, man you have changed."
"That was the plan."
"Sit down man, What have you been up to?"
"Actually, I was hoping we could take this elsewhere, Hayley told me that Kira should be coming in anytime now, and I can't face her just yet."
"Yeah she should be here already so we better hurry up, let's go to the park we can talk there."
"That's a good idea."
With that said the two of them started heading towards the door. Conner wasn't looking where he was going and acidentally ran into a short girl with long dirty blonde hair knocking her notebook and guitar out of her hands. All loose papers from her notebook went flying about the cybercafe as Conner bent down to help clean up the mess he made.
"I am so sorry. I should have been watching where I was going." He said as he was picking up the papers around him.
"It's okay, no harm no foul." the girl said.
The voice made Conner instantly freeze up, he knew that voice. When he looked up at the girl, he saw her looking right back at him with her lovely smile. 'Kira' he said to himself. As the two of them stood up he handed her the papers and looked towards Ethan. She followed his gaze to see her friend looking more than slightly uncomfortable.
"Hi Ethan. Are you going to watch me practice today?"
"I'd love to Kira, but business came up and I got to go right now."
"What kind of business?"
It was at this moment that Conner decided to step in.
"We are thinking of aquiring Mr. James to come work for us."
"And you are?" Kira asked the tall man standing next to Ethan.
"James Napier, I work for Microsoft. I was told to come to Reefside and find Mr. James and talk about the possibility of him working for us."
"That's great, I'm happy for you Ethan. I'll let you guys go about your business."
Once outside both Conner and Ethan breathed a sigh of releif.
"Man that was close." Ethan said once out of hearing range.
"Too close."
They made their way to the park and proceeded to sit down in the bleachers.
They talked for hours about what each other had been up to in the five years Conner was gone.
"So let me get this straight Conner, you told them both different things but they are both the truth. How is that possible?"
"I left out certain details. I told them that I would have to talk to you and Kira before I could come out with the entire truth.
"So, what are you going to tell me that you haven't told them?"
"You know how I mentioned to both of them that this place brought a lot of pain? There is one more source of pain that I didn't tell Tommy. Do you remember that time when I missed about a week of school and you guys went into battle without me because you couldn't find me?"
"Yeah. Go on."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a very small tube like container and tossed it to Ethan.
"Painkillers?"
"Yeah, I started taking them about two months before we beat Mesogog for good. I know that as rangers we had special healing abilities but they weren't working so I went and got these. One night I took too many and my brother Eric found me face down in my pillow on my bed. I was transported to the hospital where I stayed for about a week. I didn't have my morpher on me when it happened, it was under my bed in my hiding spot. The battles were just too much and I needed the pain to go away as quickly as it could."
"Wow. I really don't know what to say." At that moment in time, Ethan was grateful they were already sitting down.
"When we defeated him, I was still on them. Not as much but I was still on them. I wanted so badly to hear Kira say that she loved me but when she did I knew it was a lie because I didn't love me. I told Tommy that when I left I wanted to find excitement but that wasn't all that I wanted to find. I wanted to find me, I wanted to find the person that Kira wanted to be in love with. I loved her enough to walk away and I still love her today. This is the first anyone has heard of this but it won't be the last." Conner confessed. "I always expected to get clean and come back but it's alot harder than it seems."
"Are you still on these?" Ethan asked referring to the bottle in his hand.
"No. I only carry that around to remind me of how stupid I was. I've been off of them for about six months."
"Well Conner, I understand now. I didn't then but I do now. I know why you left the way you did but you got to realize that Kira would have loved you anyway. As much as you think she was lying, she wasn't. She cried herself to sleep the first three months you were gone. Even today, five years later, she still will not let a day go by that she doesnt't say 'Ethan I miss Conner. I love him so much. I just wish I knew where he was.' She still loves you Conner and you just got done telling me that you still love her. So I suggest that while you are here you tell her that."
"I have every intention to."
"We should probably start heading back."
"Yeah and I am going to talk to her tommorrow while she's practicing."
"Good. Maybe then, this will get put to rest."
With that the two of them went back to the car and returned to the cyberspace. As Ethan got out of the car, he leaned in the passenger window and smiled at his old friend.
"By the way Conner, Nice hair."
"Thanks. I'll talk to you later."
Conner proceeded to drive away leaving Ethan waving at him before going back into the cybercafe to continue his game.
TBC.