Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers. I do own the characters Nicarni-Aso, Zefoid, the asoriods, the amephors, and the planets Asoriotan and Nonatasion. I also own the armor flexor, invisashield, and any other weapons that you have never heard used on the Power Ranger series.
Daisyz: No, no, no, no, no! This isn't the end of this story, that was just the end of that chapter, I plan to write between five and six more chapters for this one, sorry for confusing you!
Ghostwriter: Thanks for the review!
rp: Thanks for the review, but who is PastelGarlic? I don't know if you accidentally reviewed the wrong story, but I have no clue who you are talking about. If you'd tell me who it is, I'd really appreciate it.
Now, on with the story!
Kim's POVWe arrived at the Command Center late last night, which led to another night of sleeping on the floor, but at least we got back home safely this time. Our trip back home was uneventful, but none of us got the amount of rest we desperately needed after battling Nicarni-Aso and her troops for so long. Most of my bruises have started to clear up, even if they do continue to be painful, thanks to Billy's ointment. Tommy and Jason's bruises have also gone from a dark purple to a greenish color over the last few days, which has littered our skin with greenish-yellow patches, but at least they are barely noticeable.
Jason. He is another subject all by himself, he is worrying himself sick about talking to Trini. Over the last three days, he had many opportunities to talk to her, but he is not willing to take that step. I don't know if it was the fear of hurting Billy or the fear of being rejected, but he didn't say a word to her about it. Every night, he would come in miserable, which made Tommy and I encourage him to talk to her even more than we were already. Jason doesn't think that Trini will be receptive to what he has to say and this is the only time that I wish he knew what I know about all of this. That will be taken care of later, but for the time being I think all of us are glad to be back in Angel Grove. After our experience this place has never looked better.
"Good morning!" Zack said, loudly, in an upbeat tone. He seemed to be the only morning person out of this group, so it was almost a guarantee that he would wake up first on any given day.
"It's too early to be so chipper," Trini mumbled, throwing a pillow in the general direction of the disturbance, which landed on, a still sleeping, Tommy's head.
"All of you promised to do we would do something today," Zack said, he had gotten a little stir crazy after being cooped up on a ship for the past three days. Not that the others hadn't; he just seemed to be a little bit more vocal about his dislike of being aboard a crowded ship with nothing interesting to do.
"But not at the crack of dawn, Zack," Tommy said, sitting up slowly as Kim pulled at his shirt to try to keep him from getting up.
"Tommy," Kim complained, finally feeling brave enough to open her eyes to the bright morning sunshine.
"Come on, why don't we go get breakfast at Ernie's and leave a note for the rest of them to join us when they all wake up," Tommy said, picking Kim up off the floor, as she winced at him touching some of the unseen bruises. "Sorry, I forgot about the bruises."
"You owe me one," Kim said, as Tommy put her down. "Let's go if we're going to beat all of the teenagers there."
"You are going to go out looking like that?" Zack asked, as Kim looked pretty rough, with her hair sticking out at odd angles and some dirt was smeared across her face, which had appeared last night when she stumbled off of the ship at about midnight.
"Do I have time to shower and fix my hair?" Kim asked, looking over at the impatient Zack. She knew that she would prefer to look better, but she didn't want to hear Zack complaining this early in the morning. She did not have the patience to deal with it this early today.
"Yeah, it's only 6:30. Ernie's won't be open for another hour and a half," Zack said, as Kim grabbed a towel and headed for the showers.
"You're lucky you have friends like us," Kim said, playfully hitting Zack on the chest with her towel as she passed by him. "I'll be done in a little bit."
"Take your time," Tommy said, watching her until she disappeared from his sight. "I've got something to talk to you about."
"Tommy, I don't need to be lectured," Zack said, having gotten speeches from Jason and Billy already about Aisha's and his situation. Rocky and Adam had stayed distant about everything that was going on with the two of them, which was to be expected as they were closer to Aisha than Zack.
"I'm not going to lecture you. I just wanted to tell you that you don't need to take for granted what you have right now, it may not be there when you need it later on if you don't try your hardest," Tommy said, thinking about his own situation.
"I know, but shouldn't you be following your own advice?" Zack said, as they heard the water turn on, which allowed them to talk like normal people.
"Yeah, that's another thing I need to talk to you about. I gave Kim a promise ring, so many years ago and for the first time in years I feel that it is about time, I got something to fulfill the promise I made. Of course, I'll have to go to the jewelry story in Reefside before anything else will happen," Tommy said, and then sighed. "But I can't really blame myself about all of this, can I?"
"No, you can't exactly blame yourself for her breaking up with you, but you can blame yourself in part for keeping it that way for so long," Zack said, with a smile. They all knew that this was going to happen eventually, but they weren't expecting it to take almost six years for them to get back together.
"I know," Tommy said, shaking his head. "But the first thing I have to do is get up the courage to ask her out again and then I'll have to work on getting my courage up to propose."
"You know what her answer will be, Tommy. Why do you worry so much about how she will respond to you?" Zack asked, thinking back to another time that Tommy had done this very same thing. "She said yes last time, I am almost one hundred percent sure that she will say yes this time, too."
"That's easy for you to say, you haven't had your heart broken by her before," Tommy said, with a hint of sadness in his voice.
If truth be known, he had forgiven Kim a long time ago, but now it was time to start over and that scared him more than anything else did. He didn't know what he would do if she did the same thing to him again, he didn't have the Power Rangers anymore, and that would definitely make a difference in how he would react, if that happened again. Billy had destroyed their morphers as soon as they got home, so they were only held together by friendship and losing the powers made them feel horrible.
"I know, but you didn't see how much it hurt her too," Zack said. He had gone to visit her in Florida soon after the breakup and it wasn't a pleasant visit. Instead of enjoying the beach, he spent that week consoling a grieving friend, who was too scared to try to make amends with the one man that she loved. "There is a saying that if you let something go and it comes back to you, it was meant to be; if it doesn't then it is for the best that it is gone. She came back to you, Tommy, I don't think she will ever do that to you again and if she does, all of us will take her to the Psyche Ward for you."
"Okay," Tommy said with a smile as they heard the water shut off. "Do you mind keeping what I said a secret?"
"No," Zack said.
"And the rest of you who are acting like you are asleep, you agree?" Tommy asked, knowing that Trini and Jason were awake, but had kept themselves quiet, in hopes of finding out more about Tommy's intentions.
"Yes," Jason and Trini mumbled, before Trini went back to sleep, while Jason started thinking about what he should do. Trini meant a lot to him and if he waited too long, he might lose her as well.
"Tommy, can you bring me my bag?" Kim asked, sticking her head out from behind the bathroom door.
"Which one is it?" Tommy asked, walking over to the pile of duffel bags that had been thrown in one corner of the room, before they all collapsed from exhaustion.
"The pink one, what do you think?" Kim said, as Tommy spotted the bright pink bag and picked it up out of the pile. He then turned and took the bag over to the door.
"This one?" Tommy asked with a mischievous grin, as Kim jerked the bag away from him before Tommy could get any crazy ideas.
"Yes," Kim said and quickly shut the door in his face.
"Are we even?" Tommy asked to the gray-blue steel door.
"No, we're not, but I'll think about what you can do to pay me back for all of this," Kim said, and even though Tommy couldn't see her, he knew she was smiling.
"Alright," Tommy said and walked away grinning. He knew what he was going to do to pay her back and all that he could hope was that she would say yes.
"What is that goofy grin for?" Jason asked, not seeing the point in faking sleep anymore. Tommy had only had that look on his face one time before and it was Kim had first agreed to go out with him.
"I think that I'm going to go back to Reefside tonight," Tommy said, knowing that his previous conversation would fill in the blanks for Jason. "Does anyone else want to come?"
"I will and I guess my job will be to distract someone," Jason said as the bathroom door opened.
"Oh no you won't," Kim said, walking up behind Jason, fully dressed, but she had decided that she would let her hair dry on its own today. "You have someone you have to talk to, remember?"
"I know, but this is going to take a lot of planning," Jason said with a sigh. He did not want to be the one to break up Trini and Billy, but he also knew that he was going to be absolutely miserable until he got all of this off his chest. If only he had been smart enough to tell her when there wasn't a third party involved. Of course, he wasn't smart enough to do that at the time and was now suffering because of his ignorance.
"No, it won't. I'll do the planning if you want me to," Kim said, setting her bag down with the others and grabbing her purse. "You want to come to breakfast with us?"
"Sure, are you leaving a note for everyone else?" Jason asked, pulling on a pair of jeans and a red T-shirt.
"Yeah, you don't think Ernie will mind seeing us this early in the morning, do you?" Tommy asked jotting down a quick note and leaving it on the command center door.
"After not seeing some of us for five years, I think he will be happy to see us," Zack said and they then teleported to the Juice Bar. Their old teenage hang out had not changed much of the past few years; the old sign was still there, as well as Ernie, which was the one person they were looking forward to seeing in Angel Grove.
"Ernie, do you still remember our usual?" Jason asked, knowing that he probably looked the most familiar out of the four young adults.
"My good Lord, where did you come from?" Ernie asked, as they sat down at the bar. The last time he could remember seeing all of them was almost five years ago, at least and it was scary how time had not changed them as much as he thought they would. "It's been forever since I've seen all of you, how have you been?"
"Alright," Kim said, with a smile. "You better get used to seeing us, I think that most of us will be making ourselves your frequent customers again."
"That would be nice," Ernie said, going to fix some smoothies. "Where are you living?"
"Angel Grove," Zack and Jason answered.
"Reefside," Tommy said.
"I don't know at the moment. I just kinda left Florida about a week ago," Kim said, not looking any of her fellow rangers in the eyes.
She didn't want them to ask any questions about it now. All of them, including Jason, had thought she would be heading back the second everything was over, but that had never been her plan at all. She was just thankful that she was at least on speaking terms with her old boyfriend, although that was just good luck after all these years, if you asked her.
"The others coming in anytime soon?" Ernie asked, as they each took a smoothie and a bagel off the tray that he had set in front of them.
"They will when they wake up," Zack said.
"They all asleep on the floor in your apartment?" Ernie asked, knowing that this had been a common occurrence for this group of friends while in high school, although there just seemed to be something else there.
"Yeah," Jason said. "It may take them awhile to get here, most of them don't like getting up this early in the morning."
"I know how they feel," Ernie said. "So who are each of you dating or married to?"
"No one," Jason said miserably.
"Aisha, kinda. That's a long story," Zack said, not willing to share much more at the time.
"And the two of you?" Ernie asked, as Kim and Tommy had both remained silent, not knowing if it was the other or if they were single.
"Her," Tommy said, taking a leap of faith that Kim would take this as his way of asking her out.
"That's great. When did that happen?" Ernie asked, knowing what had happened years ago. He could remember Tommy coming in for a month straight and eating a banana split all by himself. The boy had, had it bad and it seemed the man that he turned in to felt the same way.
"Just now," Tommy said with a smile, as Kim shook her head in disbelief. Tommy had always been able to make her speechless and he proved that he still had that ability, without him even knowing.
"Congratulations," Ernie said, smiling at the young couple. "Let me guess, you're already planning on getting married?"
"We haven't talked about that yet," Kim said, finding her voice after a long period of silence. "After my mess up, I think it'll be awhile before we even mention that."
"Don't bet on that one," Jason muttered and then Tommy hit him on the backside of his head.
"What was that for?" Kim asked looking up at Tommy, who now had a look of rage in his eyes.
"Nothing," Jason said quickly, as Zack stifled a laugh. "I was just being stupid."
"Listen, I know you haven't been here in awhile, but I've been asked to put together a fundraiser for Child Haven and I just can't think of anything to do," Ernie said, looking at the group of friends. They had always been able to help him before and he hoped that hadn't changed over the years. "Do you have any idea what I could do?"
"My school might let us hold a charity ball," Tommy said, thinking of what else could be done on that night. It would just have a built in way for him to propose, without Kim becoming overly suspicious. "But it's an hour drive away from here, Ernie."
"Well, if you are willing to set it up, I don't care where it is hosted," Ernie said, relieved that they had come through for him, once again. "I'll do whatever you need me to, if you'll just get it going."
"Okay, that should be fine," Kim said, excitedly. "When can we go see your school about all of this?"
"Tomorrow, if you want to go up to my house tonight," Tommy said, as his cheeks turned slightly pink.
"We all do," Zack said, knowing that it would take all three female rangers to plan something like this and it actually be a success. "That way we can all make sure there are no issues that can't be resolved."
"Okay," Tommy said with a smile and looked around to see that the Juice Bar had started to fill.
Command Center"Does anyone know where Tommy, Kim, Jason, and Zack are?" Aisha asked, being the last one to wake up and noticed that they were missing from the group.
"They went to the Juice Bar this morning," Billy said, holding up a note that he had found taped the command center door.
"Why didn't they wait for us?" Aisha asked, walking over to find her duffel bag, before going to take a shower.
"I don't know," Rocky said, as his stomach growled. "Would you mind hurrying up? I'm on the verge of starving."
"Don't be so dramatic," Aisha said. "It should only take me about an hour to shower and get ready."
"No," Rocky moaned, as they other rangers laughed at their hungry friend's reaction.
"I'm only joking, Rocky," Aisha said with a smile. "It should take me about twenty minutes to get ready. Is there anything I should make sure to bring with me when we go to the Juice Bar?"
"Beach gear," Trini said. "I'm pretty sure that is what Zack will want to do today."
"Yeah," Aisha said, before disappearing behind the bathroom door.
"Trini, you know that we have to talk about something," Billy whispered in her ear and then looked at her with a sad smile.
He had never thought that this would happen, but he knew all to well that if he didn't do this now, it would possibly never happen. Jason and Trini were both his friends and even he knew that the relationship he had shared with Trini would all depend on if Trini finally admitted to herself how she felt about Jason. It hurt, a lot, but whatever made her happy would give him some happiness in his sorrow.
"I know, Billy, but I don't want to ruin all of this. Everyone is so happy," Trini whispered back, while watching Adam and Rocky settle in for a few more minutes of sleep.
"You're not going to ruin anything," Billy said, gently putting an arm around her. "I know how you feel and I'll let you do whatever you need to do, but please don't stomp on my heart too hard."
"Billy," Trini said, on the verge of tears. "I'm sorry, I didn't know that this was how I felt, but being around him made me see it."
"Trini, I'm alright," Billy said, giving her a friendly hug and he felt the tears soak through his shirt. "I'll survive, but you are sure that this is what you want to do?"
"Yes," Trini whispered, looking up at Billy, who was somehow managing to smile, "who knows, maybe Tommy has a friend."
"It's gonna be awhile before I date again, but I'll keep it in mind," Billy said, knowing that this was certainly the easiest way on the both of them. They didn't hate each other, so what was the use in being bitter about their breakup? They had been friends before and going back to friends would be bearable, for now and would get better as time went on.
"Thank you, Billy," Trini said, smiling at him. "I know how much this hurts you, but I promise that you will find your soul mate, one day. You're too good of a guy to not find her and she'd be a fool to turn you down."
"Thanks," Billy said, as Aisha came back into the room, ready for a day of fun.
"Are you ready to go to Ernie's?" Aisha asked, throwing a shoe at Rocky.
"Yes," Rocky said, eagerly getting up, as Adam took his time standing up. They then teleported to the Juice Bar and walked in to see that they were definitely the oldest people in the Juice Bar, besides Ernie himself.
"What time did you leave this morning?" Adam asked, walking up to the bar.
"Early," Tommy said, with a smile, "but I don't think that Zack could have stood to be cooped up any longer, so we thought it would be best to let the rest of you sleep."
"How does the beach sound?" Zack asked, as the others grabbed some bagels and various drinks of their own. "We'll all be able to do whatever we want and after that we can go to Jason's before we head to Reefside."
"Sounds good, but when did we decide to go to Reefside?" Aisha asked, watching the boys shovel food into their mouths.
"We'll explain everything at the beach," Kim said and stood up to go pay Ernie.
"It's on the house," Ernie said with a smile, before he received a huge hug from Kim.
"Thank you and we'll do a good job on the charity event, I promise," Kim said.
"Do we need to go back to the command center?" Tommy asked, as soon as they had gotten away from most of the customers. He knew that he was not prepared for a day at the beach and had the feeling that some of the others wouldn't be either.
"I don't," Trini said, holding up a beach bag.
"Well, who else needs to go?" Tommy asked, hoping he wasn't the only one who had not prepared himself for one of Zack's favorite activities. His forgetfulness had come in full swing over the summer holidays and he hoped that he would be able to rid himself of it at the beginning of the school year.
"Me," Kim said, noticing the others wore sly grins.
"Let's go," Tommy said, as the checked to make sure no one was watching before teleporting to the command center.
"They're dating again," Zack said, with a satisfied grin.
"What?" Aisha yelled, as a few people turned their heads toward her. They were not used to a bunch of college aged kids yelling and screaming in excitement. "When did that happen?"
"About an hour ago, but never mind that. Let's hit the beach," Jason said, as they walked out onto the pavement.
At the Beach"Hey, what took you so long?" Trini asked, as Tommy and Kim walked up to Jason and she. They were the only ones that had decided to wait for their breakfast to settle before hitting the water.
"Someone forgot to bring a bathing suit, so we had to go buy one," Tommy said, trying to act as if he was mad, but you could hear the hint of joking in his voice, no matter how much he tried to disguise it.
"What's it look like?" Trini asked, looking over Jason, who had decided he wanted to sit up.
"Nothing too special," Kim said, who still had her suit hidden under a fitted shirt and blue jean shorts. "Just a little pink and white bikini."
"How little, is little?" Jason asked. He had always been protective of Trini and Kim and he definitely didn't like when either one of them wore anything too skimpy, although he hadn't looked at Trini's attire yet.
"Not that little," Kim said, taking off her shirt and throwing it in her beach bag.
"Not that little my ass," Jason said, the top didn't look like it was anymore than a white bra with pink hearts on it and he wasn't sure if he wanted her to take off her shorts.
"It's fine Jason," Trini said with a laugh. "Look at some of the other suits that people are wearing, that is decent."
"I think it's fine, if that helps any," Tommy said, analyzing how the suit looked from the back and knew that this was one thing he could definitely get used to. Kim was still as petite as ever and although the suit covered everything, it still did not leave enough to Tommy's imagination and Jason knew that.
"You wouldn't mind if she wasn't wearing anything at all, so no that does not help any," Jason said, before looking over at Trini. He then realized that her suit was just as revealing as Kim's was, but he didn't mind since he didn't think anyone else would notice it.
"Jason, have the two of you talked?" Kim asked, looking down at him with a rather intimidating glare.
"No, we haven't had the chance to," Jason said, looking away from Trini to keep her from seeing him blush.
"Bull shit," Tommy said playfully and pointed towards the others, who were in the water. "I think that we're going to go join the others, so why we're gone you could talk to her."
"We'll talk when we talk, alright?" Trini said, looking up at the couple who finally saw the defeat of their attempt and began walking away.
"Fine, Trini, but I know what went on with you and Billy this morning," Kim said and then continued on her way to the water. She knew that it would only be a matter of seconds before Jason's curiosity over took him and that proved to be the key in this situation.
"What happened to you and Billy?" Jason asked, looking over at Trini who had now buried her face in her hands. "Trini, what happened?"
"The inevitable, Jason," Trini said as she felt Jason put his arm around her, in a friendly attempt to help her get over whatever was going on. "And it is all my fault, I was the one that figured out that I loved someone else. I've really hurt him, Jason and I never meant to do that."
"I know you didn't mean to," Jason said, knowing that this was not a good time to ask who she had fallen in love with, "Billy will be fine, you know that. Look at him now, he doesn't seem to be a heartbroken person."
"He doesn't look like it, but he is," Trini said, looking at the seven rangers who were having a water war.
"Sure," Jason said, as he saw a tall blonde-haired woman wearing a pale pink bikini join the other rangers.
"Jason, are you alright?" Trini asked, following his gaze that had fallen on Katherine. She knew that the two of them had dated casually, but had never become a couple. Of course, it did seem like Jason was now the one that would have to clear things up with a significant other.
"You want to join them?" Jason asked, standing up and brushing the sand off of his swim trunks before offering a hand to help Trini up.
"That sounds like fun," Trini said, taking his hand and she noticed that he didn't release her from his grasp until they had reached the water.
"I was just asking where the two of you were," Katherine said, looking over at Jason and Trini as she saw Jason let go of Trini's hand.
"How are you doing?" Jason asked, feeling slightly guilty.
"Fine, Jason, and I meant what I said to you earlier this week," Katherine said, with a stare that could have bored its way inside of his brain with little effort.
"Okay," Jason said with a smile, before giving Katherine a tight hug. "You're not mad?"
"I'm about as mad at you as I was at Tommy when I ended things with him," Katherine said, smiling, before she was hit with a stream of water. "No fair."
"We don't play fair," Adam said, with a laugh as Katherine charged after him.
"I don't want to talk about fairness for about a year if you don't mind," Tommy said, as some students from Reefside walked by and waved at their teacher.
"Who are they?" Kim asked, with mock jealousy as she watched the teenage girls go giggling down the beach.
"Some of my students," Tommy said, as Jason let out a laugh. "What is that for?"
"Looks like they have a crush on Mr. Oliver, now don't they?" Jason said and promptly got splashed with a small wave of water.
"I've tried explaining to all of them that I am not available, but they won't listen to me," Tommy said in a very aggravated tone.
He knew that he wanted to teach for the rest of his life, but he was planning to start on his doctorate at the end of the year, after going through an accelerated master's program. He also knew that his students would continue to have crushes on him until well after he was married and he didn't like that idea at all.
"You were available last year Tommy," Katherine said, before being dunked by Adam.
"I know, but I'm not single anymore," Tommy said, laughing at Katherine's expression as she came back up.
"You think this is funny, do you?" Katherine said and then dragged Kim under water.
"I wasn't laughing, it was him," Kim said, coming up completely soaked.
"I know, but there is no way I could dunk him," Katherine said, as they both looked at Tommy with mischievous grins.
"We'll help you," Zack said, walking after the two of them.
"No, guys this is crazy," Tommy said as he continued to go out into deeper water.
"It's not that crazy, Tommy," Kim said, having gotten to the point where she couldn't touch anymore and had to start swimming.
"Yes, it is," Tommy said, as the two women leapt at him and dragged him under water.
"Good one," Katherine said high five-ing Kim.
"Same to you," Kim said trying to swim back to shore, but found herself being held back.
"Now where do you think you are going?" Tommy asked, pulling her back even with him.
"Back to the shallow water," Kim said, treading water next to him. "Tommy, please don't do anything crazy. I can't keep on treading water much longer."
"I'll give you a ride back to the shore, if you trust me," Tommy said, as Kim climbed on his back.
"I trust you, I think our trust issue works the other way around most of the time," Kim said, as Tommy swam, lazily back to shore.
The remainder of their day at the beach was spent having multiple water fights, in between some much-needed naps for some of them. Tommy, could not separate himself from Kim, no matter how much he tried to, he was stuck again. Zack and Aisha, although they had not talked, seemed to be getting along much better while Trini and Jason didn't seem to have a clue as to what to do about themselves. Billy was silently grieving his break-up, but he knew that the pain was only temporary and that with any luck what Trini said would come true. Katherine stayed the rest of the day and a barely noticed attraction between Adam and she had seemed to materialize over the last few hours. When they finally went back to the command center, it was almost five o'clock and they still had to travel to Reefside.
AN: That is all for this chapter and I am sorry for any confusion I caused with the author's note at the end of my last chapter. That was NOT the end of the story and I do plan to write about five or six more chapters before I end this story. Thanks for reading and please review!