Disclaimer: Don't own 'em.

RESTLESS WARRIORS

By Etcetera Kit

Chapter Seventeen: Soaring Eagle

Taylor didn't know why she was going to Eric's house. No, yes she did know why she was going to Eric's house. He was soon to be her employer and they had to talk about some things if they ever hoped to have a decent working relationship. Growling to herself, she thought back to the catcalls and the constant question of 'I thought you hated Eric.' How that information got out to any of them was completely beyond her. Any comments she had made were off-hand and didn't pertain to them at all. She was starting to suspect phone calls had gone on behind closed doors, but no one was going to admit to calling someone to pass on gossip.

It would be just like them.

She just wanted things to be like they were. First, it had been the tenacious status quo at her house as a child. She had always wanted to keep the peace and, when she realized that that was a fruitless endeavor, she had thrown herself into the fight, trying to salvage what she had valued. Then her parents divorced, for the better she knew now, but at the time, that was not evident. She had gone on into the Air Force, still searching for that stability that she lacked. Even the military didn't quite provide that. Then she became a ranger… while there was no status quo there or anything remotely resembling organization and routine, there was more stability there than she had ever had in her life. She could rely on the other rangers. They drove her crazy, but they always came through.

Then they met the Time Force Rangers.

It happened to be the day she had just gotten her new car. She remembered that car—it was yellow and had been the best car she had owned. She got pulled over by the Silver Guardians—not just the police, but the elite police. Eric had given her a ticket for going almost twenty miles over the speed limit while talking on a cell phone. She took the ticket and went on her way, never guessing that he was a Time Force Ranger, never knowing.

She found out soon enough and there was sexual tension almost immediately. It was like they both had to prove themselves, that they were the better ranger. That had gotten them nowhere. A tentative alliance was formed and it spiraled into more, much more. That afternoon in the Animarium after the mutorgs had been destroyed… it brought back painful memories. An afternoon of lovemaking with Eric shouldn't have been painful to remember, but it was. It brought them to their present state—nothing but sex. If that afternoon had played out differently, their lives might be extraordinarily different. One couldn't tell. She would never know what would have happened if they had suppressed that instinct.

God, he was an asshole, but he had just bailed her out. What in the world was she supposed to think of that?

Her phone call to him, to warn him she was coming, had been brief. Eric tended to be extremely laconic and had just grunted in all the right places, making no overtures of surprise or displeasure at having her at his house. He was neutral in all aspects. Hell, maybe he had a girlfriend now and figured it would be safer to tell her to her face. No, Eric wasn't that stupid. He would have called or sent a letter or something. All things tallied up, he was just being Eric and Eric did not like to engage in idle chitchat.

Great, now she was at his house. She stopped the car and turned it off. Then she banged her head against the steering wheel a couple times. "Why the hell am I doing this?" she asked aloud. She looked up. Eric was standing in the front door of his house. His arms were crossed and he was leaning against the doorframe, an amused smile on his face.

Mustering up her best glare, she got out of the car, dragging the backpack she had borrowed from Kelsey. His smile didn't change.

"I was wondering if you were going to get out of the car or sit there and beat your head in," he commented as she trudged up the walk.

Her answer was a glare.

He just laughed. "No hello?"

"Hi Eric," she growled and pushed him out of the way as she entered his house.

"You know," he said in a musing tone as he came into the house and shut the door. "I'm detecting a serious lack of gratitude."

She whirled around to face. "What? You want me to fuck you for getting me a job?" He just gave her a mild look. That only made her angrier. "If I remember correctly, you wanted me for the job!"

"Sex works two ways," he said. His voice had fallen to a low dangerous tone. Shit. "I don't have sex with unwilling women."

She had known it would be a mistake to come here. Incensed, she threw the backpack at the couch. "What do you want from me?" she yelled. "All we ever do is get together and have sex!" He didn't say anything, just raised an eyebrow. "I hate you," she muttered. The silence was heavy with tension. She hated it when he had a blank look on his face. It was worse than when she knew he was angry.

"I want you to take a shower and let me wash your clothes. Then I want you to eat a sandwich and then we'll talk."

"Are you my mother?" she hissed.

"I'm sure you already have a mother and don't need another one. Besides, I don't want a maternal relationship with you."

Not knowing what else to do, she picked up the backpack and turned on her heel down the hall to the bathroom. Once there, she shut the door and sat down on the edge of the tub. For the first time, she wished that Eric's bathroom door had a lock. There was nothing else to do and she did want a real shower. She stripped and got into the shower. The warm water felt good, but didn't quite ease the tension of being in the same house as Eric. When she got out of the shower, she saw her clothes gone along with the backpack. He had left her some of his clothes and… clean underwear? She flushed involuntarily at what that meant. Grimacing, she combed and braided her hair before putting on the mostly borrowed clothes and going out into the kitchen of his house.

Eric was sitting at the kitchen table. She sat down across from him, the sounds of the washer or dryer going on in the background. He pushed a plate with a sandwich on it towards her along with a mug of coffee. He didn't say anything as she ate. Soon enough, the plate was clear and the mug was empty.

He leaned forward like he wanted to say something. She gave him a bored look. She got a glare in return. "Will you marry me?"

"What?" she exclaimed, not quite believing what had just come out of his mouth. This was Eric from a dysfunctional family… and he wanted to marry her? That made no sense.

"You heard me," he retorted.

"Why?"

"Because you drive me insane."

"What kind of a reason is that?"

"Shit," Eric muttered, raking a hand through his hair. "It's a damn good reason," he defended himself. "You won't let me do to you what my father did to my mother."

"Eric, what are you talking about?" she asked, confused.

"Taylor…" he started and then trailed off, like he wasn't sure where to start. "You know the problems my family had, still has." He paused. She did know the problems he was talking about—alcoholics, infidelity and others to the tenth power. "You wouldn't let me do that. You'd fight me."

"Is that the only reason?" She tried to sound aloof, but she was shaking inside. Whatever she had expected from Eric, it wasn't this.

"No," he retorted hotly. "It's you."

"What about me?"

"You're gorgeous and intelligent and the world's biggest bitch and you scare the shit out of me more often than not."

Taylor frowned. "Thanks. I think."

He stood up and rounded the table. She rose to meet him and their lips met in a fiery, passionate kiss that she felt down to each nerve ending. One of his hands was threaded through her hair, cradling her head. The other was wrapped around her waist, holding her close to him so that she couldn't deny the heat that came from his body, his need… She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed close to him. His kisses were amazing and made her feel like agreeing to anything.

"When do you want to get married?" he whispered, his forehead pressed to hers and his breath warm on her face.

"I haven't said yes yet," she reminded him.

He gave her another wild, probing kiss that was a prelude to so much more. "I'll give you three good reasons," he whispered. "Wedding cake, oral sex and you'd get to use my credit card."

"I like cake," she replied unsteadily.

"Is that a yes?"

"I suppose."

She gasped as he leaned in for another kiss. His arms were wrapped firmly around her waist so she couldn't get anywhere. He finally adjusted his arms and picked her up, taking her down the hallway to the bedroom and depositing her on the bed. His fingers were running through her hair as he kissed a trail down to her earlobe.

"Do you have a ring?" she asked breathlessly.

He let out an extremely creative curse, before going over to his dresser and pulling a box from one of the drawers. "Want me to go down on one knee?" he asked sarcastically.

"Just get the hell over here," she snapped.

Clicking open the box, he pulled out the ring and slipped it onto the proper finger. It was a plain gold band with a dark sapphire in the middle. "It matches your eyes," he whispered. The box rattled as they shifted on the bed. She grabbed the box and found another ring in it, but this one was just a plain gold band. Slipping it onto Eric's finger, she knew that this was either a great idea or a lousy one and only time would tell.


Kelsey stared aimlessly at the bleak highway. Why Ryan had chosen to live so far out of town was completely beyond her. He still had problems of his own, which is why it was so amazing that he had been the one she got a hold of, the one who she was going to spend time with. He tended to spend a lot of time with his sister, Dana in the city. And Dana tended to be around Carter a lot, so that was his default group of friends. Ryan also had an extremely different outlook on life than most people. He had been raised by Diabolico and thought nothing about getting speeding tickets or getting into fistfights, but he was extremely loyal and stood up for his friends. He still had some quirks, but was adjusting to being in normal society.

The Lightspeed Rangers had been one motley crew that was for sure. They had a firefighter as their leader along with a whale trainer, a stunt pilot, a paramedic in training and her. The firefighter and the paramedic in training made sense, but the other three? She supposed they had the more physical skills needed to become a Power Ranger. They were athletic and could put up a decent fight or they could pilot a zord with no worries. Like all the other teams of rangers, she supposed that they seemed like five of the most different people in the world, but they had learned how to work together, how to adapt.

Like now… five people with different backgrounds and temperaments thrown together and asked to work together in record time. Well, they had achieved unity in two weeks. It might have taken longer if that confrontation with Taylor had been delayed. Comic books… who would have known that that would be the common ground Taylor and Dustin would meet on. This would work out. They would think of a way to do this—they all had their powers now.

The townhouse complex Ryan lived in could almost be described as being in the middle of nowhere. It was a newer one and the area around it would most likely be developed in the next ten or so years, but it was pretty desolate right now. It was nice… but lonely. She steered her car into the parking lot and found a space in front of Ryan's townhouse. His motorcycle was parked in the other space allotted for his house.

The lights were on in his house. She got out of the car, shouldering her small bag and went up to his house. She rang the doorbell and stood back and waited. There appeared to be a lot of clambering and noise going on in the house—more noise that one person had any right to make by himself. What was Ryan doing? She didn't think he was into having parties and wild nights and things like that. And he had seemed okay with her coming when she talked to him earlier.

The front door opened. "Hey!" Ryan said. He pulled the door open all the way revealing there to be a lot of people in his house.

Kelsey froze. All the other Lightspeed Rangers were in Ryan's house. She felt a lump form in the back of her throat. The others had all come over here to see her? "Oh my God," she whispered. "You're all here."

The next few moments were a confused cacophony of her being passed around the room to hug everyone and have most of the guys kiss her cheek. All of them looked much the same as they had when they were rangers. Carter, Joel and Ryan hadn't changed much, right down to the same haircut. Chad had longer hair and his skin was a shade or two darker than it had been. Dana's hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she was grinning.

"You didn't tell me you invited the others!" Kelsey said to Ryan, giving him a playful punch on the arm.

He shrugged. "I didn't know I was inviting the others when you called."

"Come on!" Joel called over the others. "Let's eat! I'm starving!"

"He's always starving," Carter muttered under his breath.

Kelsey laughed and followed the others into the kitchen. The townhouse was rather bare—devoid of decorations or little things to make it homey. Then again, Ryan was living here by himself and was probably spending a lot of time fending off Dana's attempts to help him interior decorate. However, the kitchen table was piled with food, presumably, that everyone had brought with them on their way to Ryan's house.

"This is what I'm talking about!" Joel commented.

Carter was rolling his eyes and Chad was inspecting a box of mini-egg rolls for heating instructions. Joel was digging into the food on the table. "See what you've missed?" Dana said in an undertone.

Kelsey laughed. "They're no worse than Dustin."

"Dustin?" Dana asked.

"One of the other yellow rangers I'm going on this mission with."

The Pink Lightspeed Ranger nodded. "Yeah. Ryan told us all about that." She paused and then grinned. "How come you didn't tell any of us that's what you were doing?"

She shrugged. "We left kind of quickly and most people's cell phones died, so we had to take turns charging them in the car. Not much contact with other humans."

"I'd imagine," Dana said dryly.

"Well, we did meet a fairy and a couple of spirits and then Taylor ran into these little demons that looked like potatoes."

That got most everyone's attention. Joel was giving her an open-mouth stare and Chad had suddenly lost interest in the egg rolls. "All right!" she said loudly. "I'm sorry for not telling any of you about this mission or what it was about!"

"We've got all night," Joel said. "You can tell us now."

"Yeah," Ryan chimed in. "I know a thing or two about demons."

"I should hope so," Dana said under her breath.

Kelsey resigned herself to pulling up a kitchen chair and relating everything that had happened to her since Maya's initial phone call. She told them about the Wind Ninja Academy and the scroll of destiny and meeting Trini the first time. Soon enough, no one was wondering about the filthy state of her clothes and the fact that she looked like she hadn't taken a proper shower in two weeks.

"Do you need our help?" was the first thing Carter asked.

Kelsey shook her head. "The scroll was pretty insistent on the fact that this was assigned to the five of us." She paused. "The five yellow rangers that is."

"Well, you know how to get a hold of us if you need us," Chad reminded her, holding up his wrist that had his morpher. Their morphers were linked as communication devices so they could talk to each other in an emergency. It helped—they could contact the others in the middle of a battle if need be.

"I'll keep that in mind," she replied, surveying the food on the table. Most of it was junky snack food that looked really good at that point in time. It was amazing how much camp food made one crave good-old microwavable food. She picked out some stuff and put it on one of the plates that Ryan had dug up.

The others kept up friendly chatter over the food. Kelsey smiled frequently at the pointed looks Joel kept giving Carter. The Red Ranger was glaring back at Joel. Those two were closer than they let on—they were just complete character foils in the process. "You need to announce it," Joel hissed.

"Joel, what's going on?" Kelsey asked.

Joel stared at Carter. Carter let out a long breath. "Dana and I are engaged."

There was silence in the room for a moment. Then everyone erupted into well-wishing and general noise. It still amazed her how much noise the six of them could make when someone put them in the same room. She smiled. Carter and Dana should have gotten together a long time ago. They were suited for one another.

"That's great, guys!" she said with a grin.

Soon enough the food was gone into the depths of people's stomachs and the guys were out in the living room doing something ridiculous—either playing a video game (Ryan did have a video game system since he hadn't been allowed to do any of that stuff as a child) or watching some gruesome 'beat 'em up' kind of movie. She and Dana were left in the kitchen to ignore the manly bonding time.

"What are the other yellow rangers like?" Dana asked.

Kelsey smiled. "They're great people. At first I didn't think we'd get along, but everything has turned out all right."

"Well, having Maya with you is certainly an experience." Dana had met Maya when the Lost Galaxy Rangers had helped them out with Trakeena.

"Did you get a phone call from any of the other Galaxy Rangers?"

Dana frowned and shook her head. "Not that I know of. You might want to ask some of the boys though."

Kelsey shook her head. "They'd have said something."

"What about the others though?" Dana asked picking up the previous thread of the conversation. "What are they like?"

"Taylor's a control freak and she's not overly nice."

"Does she get along with anyone?"

"She does now." Dana looked startled while Kelsey just laughed. "Dustin is kind of a space case, but he's a nice space case. Kira's a musician. Doesn't suffer fools well." She paused and drew in a breath. "Look, I appreciate you guys coming here to see me."

"We're your friends," Dana replied. "We're here for you."

"I know. I just…"

"Don't even think about it," Dana reprimanded her. "We are your friends."

"Of course, we're your friends," Joel said coming into the kitchen. "We like you even when you smell kind of weird."

"You can stay with me tonight," Dana offered. "I think I have clothes you can borrow and it might be a little more comfortable than staying with Ryan." She shook her head and sighed. "God only knows what his routine is."

She joined in the laughter.

A few hours later when she was following Dana back into the heart of Mariner Bay, she couldn't help but feel content. A warm fuzzy feeling had descended upon her. She hadn't doubted that her friends were there for her before, but it had been confirmed in her mind.

And that made all the difference in the world.

To Be Continued...