The past few days Wes had intentionally avoided any contact with his father and Eric, not wanting another conversation to come up about him, Lisa and Jen. But time was running out on him. Lisa was already back from her trip and their wedding was not too far off.

Wes sighed as he walked along the beach staring off to the ocean, feeling the breeze blow right past him. He stopped and faced the ocean watching as the waves hit against each other, clashing together, like the predicament he was feeling now. Loving two women, and wondering if he truly does love the one over the other, or was that just what he was telling himself? What he wanted to believe? The reality he didn't want to face.

So many memories here. Memories he sometimes wished he could forget. And he often wondered if anyone ever gave him the chance to forget, would he take it? He wasn't sure if he would even want to know the answer. He sometimes felt guilty wondering that, as if it was some kind of betrayal, betrayal of friendship, meaning and love. Was all of that really worth it? Worth all the pain he felt every single day? He thought he used to know the answer, but now he wasn't sure if he ever really knew.

A shadow stepped up behind Wes. She was so silent that he didn't even know she was there. And perhaps that said it all right there. The sign she had been waiting for, or perhaps the sign she had been dreading, because she knew what it meant.

"This isn't going to work, is it?"

He had wondered how long it would take until she found him here. This place had always been the place he would go to when he was feeling down or depressed. It was the only place where he felt he could escape the world around him. Wes slowly turned around to face her. He gulped in heavily; feeling the heartbreak and numbness in his heart grow. "I don't know. I want it to, but…" He couldn't even look her directly in the eye, wanting to avoid any more pain from entering into his already broken heart.

"You still love her, don't you?" she asked softly.

The funny thing was she didn't sound angry or upset, or any of the things she should probably be feeling. Perhaps that was because she knew it was coming or maybe she knew all along that it wouldn't last.

Taking a deep breath he gathered up his dignity, knowing he at least owed her that, to tell her face to face. "I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you." Wes sighed heavily.

Lisa smiled weakly at him, knowing very well that his intentions never were to hurt her, but perhaps to fill a void he had lost. And the truth was she wasn't the only one getting hurt. In truth he was hurting himself a lot more than her. She knew she would be able to move on, but Wes - he wasn't moving on, no matter how much he pretended he was. He was still holding out for the one he had loved and lost.

"I know." She kissed him gently on the cheek, smiling, as a small tear rolled down her cheek. She stroked his face gently. "But someday, Wes, you'll need to get over her, or else you'll wake up one day and you'll see that life has run out on you." She then kissed him on the lips, one last kiss, one last goodbye.

Wes sighed as he watched her leave, not turning back. Part of him knew he should go after her, stop her from leaving, and try to make things work. But he couldn't gather up the strength. And just like that, another love had come and gone, even before it had begun.

"Goodbye..."

A few weeks later…

A man in his late twenties walked up to the receptionist's desk in the Silver Guardian's main building. The receptionist looked up from her computer and stared at the young man, smiling.

"May I help you sir?"

"Yes. I need to speak with Eric Myers and Wesley Collins."

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No-"

"Then I'm afraid you cannot see them until you make one, both Commander Myers and Commander Collins are very busy men."

The young man appeared to be getting frustrated and annoyed, as if his reason for being here was very important and needed to be taken care of right away. "It's urgent."

"All right, could you tell me what the emergency is?"

"I can't tell you; it's a private matter."

"Well then I'm sorry…" the receptionist then realized she had never gotten the man's name.

"Dr. Thomas Oliver."

"Dr. Oliver, without an appointment you cannot see either Commander Myers or Commander Collins." She took out the appointment clipboard from her desk. "Now if you like I can set an appointment up for next Tuesday-"

Tommy's voice was starting to grow very impatient. "That won't work. I need to see them today, now if all possible." He leaned over the desk looking her directly in the eyes.

"I think you need to leave, Dr. Oliver," she announced.

"Look, I'm NOT leaving until I speak with Eric and Wes," he demanded. The receptionist just glared at Tommy, not answering. She moved her hand under her desk and pushed a button.

From the corner of Tommy's eye he saw three Silver Guardians coming up to him. "Great, just what I need," he muttered to himself.

"Excuse me, sir, come with us," one of them said, grabbing Tommy by the arm.

"Sorry guys, can't do that." Tommy grabbed the guard by the arm, twisting it and then flipping him over on his back. The other two guards came at Tommy, kicking and punching him, but Tommy blocked all of their moves. Tommy then round kicked the guard to his right, knocking him down. The other guard came at Tommy, but he was ready for him. Tommy grabbed the guard by the arm, throwing him over his shoulder.

Tommy took a step back, away from the guards, watching as they slowly got to their feet. He waited a moment to see if they were finished. All the guards looked tired and winded. When Tommy was pretty sure they were finished with him, he straightened his clothes and dusted off his hands.

The sound of a blaster gun being loaded echoed in the room. Tommy froze and raised his arms up.

"Hold it right there! All right, wise guy, turn around slowly," ordered Eric, gripping his finger around the blaster trigger.

Tommy slowly turned around to face the Commander. "Is this how you welcome all your old friends? Remind me not to send you a Christmas card this year," laughed Tommy.

"Tommy?" Eric was more than a little stunned to be seeing Tommy here of all places. The last time he had seen Tommy was back when Tommy had recruited Wes and him for a mission on the moon. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Think you could put the gun away first?"

Eric had been so shocked to see Tommy that he had forgotten he still had his blaster gun out. He lowered his arms down, putting the blaster gun back in its holster on his belt.

Tommy put his arms down to his sides. "Thanks. I feel much better now. So how've you been?"

"Enough with the chit chat and cut to the chase. What are you doing here? Last I knew no one had seen or heard from you in the last two years."

Same old Eric, always wanting to get down to business.Tommy smiled, as he walked up to Eric. "So this is where you work. Nice."

"You going to tell me why you're here or am I going to have to pull out my gun again?" asked Eric, growing tired of these games. He had more important matters to attend to than playing twenty questions with Tommy. But yet again if Tommy was here, then something must be up. But what? As far as he knew Tommy was retired from being a ranger, just as he was.

Tommy bit his lip. Eric was right, he had put this off long enough. "Is there somewhere we can talk, in private? And you better get Wes."

Questions started to flow in Eric's mind. Now he knew something was up. "Yeah, we can go in my office."

"Good. And Wes?"

"I don't think that would be a good idea," announced Eric.

"What do you mean? Last I read in the paper, he was getting married to some girl, Lisa or something," asked Tommy, not quite following.

Eric hesitated. "It didn't go off. Wes called off the wedding two days before it was going to take place." A part of Eric did feel responsible for the wedding not taking place, mainly because of how Wes had been acting. "Wes has been a wreck for the last couple of weeks."

Tommy bowed his head down, sighing. He couldn't have shown up at a worse time, and if he had any sense he would walk out now, not involving them, but he knew he couldn't do that. The others were counting on him to bring help and he himself knew he needed both Wes and Eric. "I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm afraid my reasons for coming here isn't to catch up on old times. It involves ranger business."

That's what Eric was afraid of. He should have known the second he had seen Tommy that this had something to do with being a ranger. "Both Wes and I are retired from that, and I thought you were too."

"So did I. But things change."

In any other case Eric probably would have jumped at the chance to be a ranger again, but it had been a little over two years. He had gotten used to just being a regular old cop, and not to mention the fact of knowing that Wes was in no condition to be a ranger right now. "Maybe for you, but it's been two years for Wes and me. A lot has happened. So I'm sorry, but you're going to have to find someone else." Eric turned around and started to walk away from Tommy.

Tommy's eyes glared in anger. How could Eric just walk away from something like this? Didn't he understand that he needed his help? The veteran ranger took a giant step forward. "There is no one else! Whatever this thing is my team and I cannot destroy it. It isn't from this time, it's from the future!"

Eric stopped right in his tracks. He slowly turned around, looking at Tommy, sighing. That was something else he dreaded hearing- 'the future', future being where Jen and the others were.

"So I'm sorry if me showing up out of the blue interferes with your life, but I cannot do this on my own!" yelled Tommy.

Eric gulped in heavily. He knew right then and there he had to help Tommy, and whether he liked it or not he was going to need to get Wes involved. "All right, we'll help you, but on one condition."

Tommy nodded his head.

"We don't contact Jen or the others unless we need to. Wes's life is messed up enough as it is. If Wes has to say goodbye to Jen a third time, it will destroy him."

Tommy sighed and nodded his head. Part of him understood, but the other part knew there was a big chance that they were going to need to contact the future. "All right, but for Wes's sake I hope the seven of us can defeat this thing, because whatever this thing is, it's unlike anything I have encountered in the past…"