2A/N: So, there are a lot of issues regarding keeping myself up to date about these chapters. Again, there are just complications in my life. As far as I could tell, just look up Hilary Duff's "Come Clean". But I'll leave you to what that could mean to you. We all see the world differently. No one is perfect. Somebody tell me the same thing, please!

THE REASON - Part Twenty-One: Come Clean

Summary: Kim just found out that Tommy is a Power Ranger, and the teens she seemed to grow close to are his proteges. His deepest, darkest secret was more than she could handle. Can he win back her heart before it breaks the team apart?

Disclaimer: Power Rangers not mine at all. Any connection with titles/songs is not mine but belong to the artist of the song. The story is mine. Enough said. Don't sue me, please!

A/N: Okay, I know that a song like Hilary Duff's "Come Clean" isn't the best to title this chapter. But it does sort of tie in, I think. But if you oppose, just skip over it and read between the lines for the message behind it. And enjoy. May the Powers Always Protect You.

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"Why couldn't I speak the truth in the beginning to avoid the hurt and loss of trust we have left to fix?" –Eclyptyk Neo

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The three young rangers sat on the stair step that separated the main computer console from the rest of the lab. Each held a heavy, confused look as they watched their mentor and the former pink ranger argue across the room. Hayley watched from where she sat at the console, a look of concern on her face. But the teens were also upset with their first loss. Tommy tried to be encouraging, but couldn't say much when Kim began to yell at him. Now, the four sat and watched the two duke it out in words.

"It's deja vu for Dr. O all over again," Ethan sighed, dropping his head.

Kira looked across the room, watching the two older rangers exchange threatening words. "I don't get it. I thought they loved each other."

"Not by the looks of it," Conner shook his head.

Ethan looked up at Hayley. "Hayley, you gotta do something. You're an adult here. I'm sure they'll listen to you over any of us."

Hayley shook her head, frowning. "Sorry, guys, but this is something they have to resolve on their own."

The rangers sighed, watching and waiting to see how the conversation would turn out.

Across the room.

Kim turned her back on Tommy, not wanting to look at him. "...how could you not tell me!"

"Would you let me explain it to you for one second?" he pleaded, moving around to meet her eye to eye, but she turned away again.

"Why? What's the point? I now know. Right, Tommy? But it didn't have to be your words to tell me, but your stupid actions to take on that ranger."

"You don't even understand the situation." Tommy stated.

"What situation? An evil ranger comes into town. Threatens to destroy you and takes your powers away..."

"Temporary, Kim." he corrected her. "It's not permanent. Just a little shaken, but that's all. I'm fine. And the other rangers are fine."

"But for how long, Tommy? How long? What if he destroys you next time?"

Tommy shook his head. "Don't give me that excuse, Kim. You know exactly how I was when I was under Rita's spell. And did you or the others give up on me? No. And we don't plan on giving up either." He grabbed her, forcing her to look at him. "Look. I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want you to get hurt. I didn't want you to get involved in that part of my life..."

"I was a ranger, too, Tommy." she spat back pushing away. "Or have you forgotten that?"

He grabbed her again. "No. Okay? I haven't. And fine, I admit I have told the others that I'm back in the uniform, but that doesn't matter anymore. What matters, is us. There's a lot of things I haven't told anyone..."

"Then you can begin now." she turned to his three students and the rocket scientist. "By telling all of us here."

Tommy looked at the group, forcing out a sigh. He looked away. "I can't."

"You can't?"

"Only because there are some things that are not ready to be mentioned. Time will only give us the answers to our questions." He looked back at his students and back at the former ranger. "But they didn't have a choice to become rangers, just like I had no choice to become the evil green ranger all those years ago. But those gems," he pointed at his morpher. "These gems held the same power seen in our power coins. These same gems were apart of the meteor that took out the dinosaurs millions of years ago. The gems chose their owner, you can't choose them. We were all chosen to hone its powers. And if I could turn back time, go back to even before this all began, I would. But I can't. This is where my experiments ended up. And now, it's my responsibility to make sure that it doesn't get out of hand. None of this would have happened if I didn't create that thesis, but I have to live with those mistakes every single day."

Kim looked away, trying to push her tears away. "I thought we were gonna be honest with each other."

"And this isn't honest enough for you!" Tommy seemed surprised at her cold shoulder. "Kim, you just gotta understand that I wasn't ready to tell you what has happened." he said sincerely. "But, now, you know. I am a Power Ranger. I am the mentor of the new team. And I am responsible for the disruption in Reefside. But I did not want to hurt you by telling you all this in this way."

He took her into his arms, but she couldn't even look at him. She never felt so crushed. That lies could be so painful as this. Especially coming from him. "I just don't understand," she pushed his arms away stepping back, "why couldn't you tell me? Why couldn't you just tell me, Tommy?"

He forced out a sigh, looking down. "Because after three years of not seeing you it was hard to decide what to tell you and what not to say."

"I just never would have thought you'd lie to me. You of all people, Tommy."

Tommy forced out another breath. "I'm sorry. But now, you know how I felt all these years without you..."

"Don't you dare bring up the past in this situation, Tommy."

"I think it's a little too late for that, Kim." He countered. "In case you're forgettin', there is an evil white ranger in town. And let me tell you, nothing could ever match up to the pain I've felt in the past eight years of my life."

"But I didn't expect you to break the news to me this way about your double life? By watching each of you tango with the evil White Ranger and weaken yourselves to the point where you couldn't hold your ranger forms? To see you lay there, helpless and weakened on the ground. I never felt so scared. I never felt so helpless."

"Well, I'm glad for the concern, but you really caught me at a bad time, Kim." he held up his hands in surrender. "We all make mistakes. No one is perfect, so don't try to put all this blame on me. You can't assume that by knocking on my door and have me take you back after all these years without forgettin' what has already happened? No, Kim. And do you think I wanted to talk to you after the funeral? I did. I wanted to so badly, but my heart ached every time I saw you. And even now, it still hurts. No one could ever hurt me as much as you have. But no one could ever understand me better than you."

Across the room, the teens were surprised to see how open and sincere their teacher was. Either he didn't realize they were around, or he didn't seem to mind that they were seeing this side of him.

"Man, this is some brutal shit." Conner sighed.

"Than if you oppose, why don't you do something about it? I mean, you are the leader, aren't you?" Ethan suggested.

"Who voted me to stop it?"

"No one. But Ethan is right. You are the leader, and as the leader you should step us and take your place." Kira pushed him off the step.

Conner stumbled to his feet, looking back at his blue and yellow counterparts. They only encouraged him to take a stand. He looked back at the couple, still throwing out excuses as a defense.

Then the secret back door, used mostly by the young rangers and Hayley, opened. Another familiar face to the team stumbled in. He caught the attention of the four at the main computer console, but not the two arguing.

"So, this is what he meant by using your head." Jason commented as he stepped into the room toward the four at the computer. He greeted them quickly, but stopped short to see the heavy, concerned looks on their faces. "What's up?"

"Don't tell me." Ethan looked at Jason seeing the dusty clothes. "You stumbled into a sinkhole and followed the passages all the way to Dr. O's lab?"

Jason dusted off some of the dirt on his shirt, nodding. "Lemme guess, the same way you guys just so happened to find the place?"

The three teens nodded. He looked around the room, complementing the work done to the place. Hayley taking credit for her work in the lab. Then he stopped and looked at the two older rangers arguing across the room, eyebrows raised.

"Hey, Jase. Why don't you stop them?" Ethan suggested. "I mean, aren't you the doctor's best buddy and consider Kim a little sister?"

Jason looked back at them shaking his head. "No way. I'm not getting involved in that."

"You started it, Jason." Hayley shot back, hating to see the argument go on this long. "Now, if you don't resolve it, it could get worse. And that is something none of us need to deal with right now."

Jason exchanged a look with the new rangers, seeing the defeat in their eyes. And the look only meant one thing. "Lemme guess, you just lost your very first battle against your biggest foe? An evil power ranger?"

They nodded.

"Well, at least it wasn't Tommy."

"Yeah, thanks for the encouragement." Conner said sadly.

"No, I didn't mean that in a bad way. The guy must just be confused like Tommy was. You guys just need to set him straight."

Across the room.

"...were you ever going to tell me, Tommy?" Kim looked back at him, tears falling.

Tommy forced out a breath. "Do we really have to go over this again?"

"I want to know, Tommy!" she cried. "Would you have told me?"

"Yes, I would."

"When?"

"I don't know. Okay, Kim? I wouldn't know. I mean, these past few days went straight over my head. So, don't tell me I have every right to re-think my options and decide what needs to be said and what doesn't."

"That should be no excuse. I'm your girlfriend!"

Tommy huffed, forcing back the raging anger in his throat. The way she forced it out pierced him in the chest hard. He couldn't deny that. They were finally something, but than again there were things he didn't want to know about her. He had nothing to say.

"I'm tired of all this, Tommy. We were never like this in the past..."

"This isn't high school anymore, Kim." He forced out. "We have real lives outside of our group of friends. We have other things to worry about. I guess it makes sense why it took us so long to contact each other. And I figured you settled down over the years. But I haven't. I've been one busy bee and I thought that I needed some more time to settle down before telling you."

"And let the years drift farther between us?"

"If that had to be the case? Fine. But I figured after I settled down, it wouldn't have to be this hard to tell you what I've been doing. And if you would have given me more time, I would have called and told you everything. I just needed time."

"Well, here's your time, Tommy," she declared, arms crossed. "Have anything else to tell me?"

The two of them fell silent as another figure had the guts to step forward and confront the two. When Tommy realized it wasn't one of his students, he looked over at the figure, eyes leering. Jason stiffened and took a step back.

"Hey, bro. How ya doin'?" he asked cautiously.

Tommy forced out a breath, sending him into the wall. "You're dead!" He threw out several punches.

Everyone was on their feet trying to rip Tommy away from making another attack on his best friend.

"Let him go, Tommy. Let him go." Hayley wrapped her arms around his waist trying to pull him back.

"Stop." Ethan and Conner cried, trying to force their teacher back.

"Don't do it." Kira demanded.

Kim grabbed Tommy's arm, wrapping her own around it, looking directly into his eyes. "Let him go, Tommy. This wasn't his fault."

Tommy caught his breath, looking back at his best friend still tight in his grip. Looked at each of his ranger proteges, seeing the frightened look on each of their faces. Looked at the rocket scientist that helped him get settled down and make it through college.

Looked at his love and the hurt in her eyes.

Jason looked away, nodding slowly. "I'm sorry, man. I didn't expect it be this way."

Tommy stepped back, pushing away the hands on him. He didn't have anything to say. Unable to believe he did that. Could not recall why he had made such a big outburst of anger.

Each person turned to the shaken black dino ranger unable to think of anything else to say.

Jason groaned, running a hand across his lip to reveal a trail of blood. "Well, you definitely still have that dragon spirit, T."

Tommy shook his head. "Oh, man. What's wrong with me?"

"Hey, you were just mad. I'm fine."

Tommy looked back up, his eyes becoming pools of water. "No. This wasn't suppose to happen. I didn't mean..."

"For that to happen?" Jason finished. "Nah, it's cool. I guess, I figured that was going to happen."

Conner turned to the former red ranger. "You figured it was going to happen?"

Kira looked at their teacher in awe. "No offense, Dr. O, I thought you guys were best friends."

Tommy forced out a breath. "Look, it's been a long rough day. Why don't we all call it a day? You guys have other things to do than stick around."

"But..." Ethan began.

"Go." He demanded, turning away and headed up the stairs.

Kim wanted to go after him but Jason placed a hand on her shoulder telling her that they should all leave.

"C'mon, guys, you heard him." Hayley herded the teens toward the forest entrance.

"Give him time, Kim. Just give him time." Jason whispered into Kim's ear.

She looked back up the stairs as her love disappeared from the room. She nodded and followed the original red ranger out of the room, only hoping she didn't contribute to anymore closed doors in the black dino ranger. She had a lot to ask him, but figured she'd ask the new team and Hayley first before confronting him again. She didn't expect to be so harsh on him, never realizing she'd be so cruel to him. But what was done was now in the past. They all had to wait to see how the future would be.

To be continued...

A/N: So, now what? Could Tommy and Kim really be meant for each other if all they do now is argue? And what does Jason have left to figure out how Operation: Ranger Reunion will proceed? And what about the White Ranger? Who can he be? Stay tuned.