He stepped outside the room, starting to close the door behind him, when he came face to face with Trent. For a long moment the two just stared at each other in an awkward silence, both still not knowing how to deal with the events that took place earlier in the day.
"Trent…" Tommy started.
"Dr. Oliver," answered Trent, as he walked past Tommy, just barely brushing against his shoulder, and closed the door behind him.
Tommy sighed heavily. He wasn't sure what he was going to do with Trent or the others. Something needed to be done. He just wasn't sure what…
"Nooo. I will not accept defeat!" yelled Janixsaur as he slammed his fist on the platter in front of him, knocking down glass tubes with chemicals. He watched as the glass shattered and the chemicals splattered all over.
"Not so easy, is it," laughed a voice.
Janixsaur looked around, but saw no one. "Who's there? Show yourself!"
"Oh but I am here, in fact I'm very close to you," the voice laughed again.
Again he looked around, but saw so one, nothing at all. "Show yourself. I have no time for your games!" Janixsaur walked around searching his chambers. He saw no one but his own shadow. He then came upon a mirror and stopped to look at himself for a moment. At first he saw only himself, but something changed, something was starting to turn different. "No. It can't be."
"That's right," he laughed. "Did you really think you could get rid of me that easily? You actually did me a favor getting me out of Mercer's body. Human minds are so difficult to tamper with, yours however is easy, child's play. It's only a manner of time until I take over. Why not let go now?"
"No!" Janixsaur violently shook his head. He then punched the mirror with all his might, breaking the glass into little pieces. "I won't let you. I'm stronger then you!"
"Your mind is weak. It will only be a matter of time until your body sees that my mind is superior to yours."
"Shut up! Shut the hell up, you..."
Mesogog's voice laughed. "It's only a matter of time." Janixsaur listened as the voice drifted farther and farther away.
"Come on Wes, please wake up. Just for me," said Jen as she ran her fingers through his hair. But he never opened his eyes. The only movement he made was his very steady breathing. Her eyes then fell onto the restraints on both his wrists and ankles. She hating seeing Wes like this, she just wished so much that none of this had ever happened. She took his hand into hers and stared into his face. "I promise I'm not going to leave your side, not until you wake up." Jen then heard footsteps behind her. She turned around and found Tommy, just looking at her, with a sad and sympathetic look on his face. "How long have you been standing there?"
"Not long." He walked around so he could get a better look at Wes. "How's he doing?"
Jen's face fell. She did her best to hold back her tears. She wasn't ready to give up on him. She wasn't ready to let him go. "The same," she sniffled.
Tommy sighed. He knew how she felt, in more ways than one. Now he could see why Alex had wanted to keep this from her. It wasn't because he was jealous of her loving Wes over him. It was because she loved him, more than anything. "Wes is a fighter. He'll pull through." He gave her a warm and kind smile. "Do you really think he'd pass up the chance to be with you?"
Jen returned the smile, but then her face fell, as she remembered the last words Wes shared with her.
"Just stay the hell away from me. I don't need you! I never did!"
Although part of her had known he didn't mean it, it still hurt. She wasn't sure what would hurt more, what he had said to her or losing him forever.
"Look…I…I just want you to know I'm sorry, for keeping this from you."
"It's not your fault. You were just doing what Alex told you to," she answered all too quickly, giving the hint that she was still very angry with Alex.
"Yeah," he replied silently. He hated having tension between the team, there was already enough of that going on with him and the teens, which was something he needed to take care of. He stepped around so he could be face to face with Jen. "I know it's not my place, but for what it's worth I think Alex made the right decision." He watched as Jen glared up at him. He could see the tension and anger in her eyes. "He was only doing what he thought was best. He really worries about you."
"I don't need anyone to be worrying about me." Her tone was harsh.
"I used to say the same thing." He laughed. "Still do. And as much as I hate it they're all right; I work myself too hard, to the point where I may put myself in danger." He sighed heavily. "I guess what I'm trying to say is: once in a while we do need others to worry about us."
Jen was silent for a long moment. "If it's all the same… I'd just like to stay here for awhile. I'm just not ready."
Tommy nodded his head, understanding. "You're welcome to stay as long as you like." He started to turn around and head upstairs, but he stopped. "But when you do talk to him, go easy on him. It wasn't easy for him, keeping this from you." And with that Tommy left her to tend to Wes, hoping and praying for another miracle.
She found him by the pond, tossing stones into the water. He looked to be trying to jump the stones, but was failing miserably; his heart just wasn't in it. "Hey, is everything okay?" she asked, wrapping her arms around him.
Trent bowed his head down, sighing. "And to think I thought this day couldn't get any worse."
"What?" She turned around so she could see him face to face. She could see tears visible in his eyes. "Trent, what's wrong? You can tell me."
He sighed heavily. For so long he had always tried to be so brave, ever since that day he had lost his parents. He promised he would never let anything hurt him in that way again, but here it was thirteen years later and it was happening all over again. "My dad woke up out of his coma, but he's dying."
She didn't know what to say. What could she say? "Oh Trent…" She wrapped her arms tightly around him, as he cried on her shoulder.
"I don't know what I'm going to do without him," he cried.
Never in all her life had she felt so powerless, she wished she could make things better, make his father better, anything. But she couldn't.
It was late when Tommy made his way downstairs to go check on Jen and Wes. Jen hadn't come up for dinner, or for much of anything. He carried a plate with a sandwich and glass of milk in his hands, but Jen was already fast asleep, resting her head next to Wes, with her arms around him.
Tommy smiled and set the plate aside. He grabbed a blanket from the cabinet and wrapped it around Jen. "Sweet dreams, Jen."
No matter what he did, it always seemed to be the wrong thing. Alex stared up to the starry night sky, everything up there seemed at peace while everything down here was screwed up, all because he never did the right thing. He was fiddling with a stick, breaking it into little pieces, thinking things over. "What was I thinking? Jen hates me." He bowed his head down. "Can't say I blame her, I knew she would. And Eric, he probably wants to beat the living daylights out of me."
"You'd be surprised," answered a familiar voice.
Alex turned his head around and saw Eric heading towards him. He was surprised to say the least.
"So do you always think out loud? I thought Wes was the only one that did that," smiled Eric.
"I didn't expect to see you show up, after what happened-"
Eric took a seat next to him. "Let's just say someone told me to get a grip, it's not like I've never kept things from people that I was protecting."
"Hayley got to you."
"Yeah. She's getting pretty good at it, too."
Alex smiled. "Women have a way of doing that to us tough guys." Perhaps things would be okay between him and Eric, but that had been the least of his worries. He had always known he and Eric could work out their differences. Now Jen, that was another story; it wouldn't be easy to fix things between them, but he was going to do everything he could to fix their friendship.
The next day...
Tommy sat at his desk, anticipating what he was going to say to Conner and the others. The students sat silently at their table doing their work and projects, while they waited for the lunch bell to ring. He glanced at the clock; it was still a good five minutes until the bell would ring. "Um, you guys can head off to lunch." He watched as the students got up and started to gather up their belonging. "But I need Conner, Ethan, Kira and Trent to stay behind for a minute."
Conner picked up his book bag and looked to Ethan. "I knew it was too good to be true that we'd get out early," he muttered under his breath as he and the others walked up to the desk.
Tommy waited until they were all alone. He took a deep breath. He wasn't ever sure where to start or what he should say. He looked to Trent first. "How are you doing, Trent?"
Conner, still angry with Dr. O, got in front of Trent. "He's doing just fine." Conner crossed his arms against his chest. "No thanks to you," he replied coldly.
"You have every right to be angry with me, but this is something I have to do." He could tell that none of them understood why. And he couldn't blame them, how could they? How could anyone? "Look, I don't expect any of you to understand. I wish I had some great explanation for you, but I don't. This is just something I need to keep on doing-"
"Even at the risk of your own life?" asked Kira, concerned and hurt. She just couldn't begin to understand.
Tommy sighed. "Yes."
The teens all bowed their heads down. They just didn't get it, didn't understand. Conner looked up and looked Tommy square in the face. "Why?"
Why? Did he even know the answer to that question? Even he didn't know. "I don't know, it's just something I have to do, no matter what." He sighed heavily.
"But we don't understand, Dr. O, I'm sure you could-" Ethan was unable to finish his thoughts, not being able to get the rest of the words out.
"I hope you never do." He saw more puzzlement on their faces. "I've been doing this for a long time, maybe even too long. I hope and pray with all my heart that you will never come to understand what it means to be me, to be in my shoes." He smiled, looking at all of their faces. "You're still young; once this is all over, you'll go on with your lives, fulfilling your dreams." And he meant it.
They were silently taking in his words and embracing them. Perhaps he was right, maybe it was better they didn't understand. He had been a ranger for so long that it had become part of his life, maybe something he couldn't live without, and this was his way of saying he didn't want that for them.
"Alright… I guess we'll just have to accept your wishes," announced Conner. He looked to the others for support and they all gently nodded their heads. This was hard for them.
Tommy smiled faintly at them. "Thank you, and you have my word that I don't intend to die, we'll beat this thing, together."
No one answered. They were still coming to grasps with accepting things the way they were and would be.
"Go on, I don't want you guys to miss lunch."
They nodded their heads and headed out of the classroom; Trent was the last to leave. "Trent." He watched as Trent turned to him. "If you ever need anything, I'm here for you."
"Thanks." Trent smiled and left the room, leaving Tommy alone with his thoughts.
Sighing heavily, he looked to the bracelet on his wrist that held his dream. There had been a time when he believed his life was worth more than any ranger power, in fact that was what brought him out of his semi-coma, but now, months later, things had changed. "Sorry guys, but right now my life is less important than anyone else's."