Chapter 6: The Picture

"What happened to them, Mom?" Jason said.

"Well, they found out that the two children were actually foster children and that they were taken to another city for protection," Connie said. "Who knows were they are now. They also found cocaine in their basement."

"That's what that stuff was! Did Nick and Amber use any of it?" Kimberly said shocked.

"Man," Zack said. "And we all moved because you didn't want us to remember what happened until we were old enough to handle it better?"

"Right. Your family moved with us to the same street here, but Kim and Trini moved to the other side of this neighborhood and Billy went somewhere in the middle. Kim, the police told me that that Frank was so tight with dealing with the cocaine that he made sure that they weren't getting any. They were both clean." The doorbell rang.

"That's good," Kimberly said with a smile.

"Another visitor?" Zack said. "Who is it this time?"

"I got, Mom," Jason said as he, Zack and Kim went to the door. "With all the interesting friends we make, it could be anybody." He opened the door and his best friend was there. "See. What I tell you?"

"Tell you what, Zack?" Tommy said who was obviously confused.

"Nevermind, Tommy," Jason said. "What's up?"

"Not much, bro. I was on my way to give my mom a birthday present and decided to see what you were up too."

"A.K.A. you were bored," Zack said.

"Zack!" Kimberly said as she bumped him in the shoulder.

"We were helping my mother go through her old pictures," Jason said. "My mom told us a story about something that happened on our old block."

"What happened?" Tommy asked.

"Something bad, but we don't want to say what happened right now," Kimberly said. "Bad things."

"How about I make use a few drinks and we can catch up on old times?" Jason said. "It has been a while since...well...you know...since we were Rangers." The four smiled at each other and Jason went into the kitchen with Kim and Zack. Tommy went to where Connie and all the pictures were.

"Hi, Tommy," Connie said. "How are you?"

"Just fine, Mrs. Scott," Tommy said. "I heard that you are looking through pictures."

"Yeah, I am making scrapbooks. Want to see some pictures of your friends when they were little?"

"Sure," Tommy said with a laugh. He knew that if you were in any family, your mother had embarrassing pictures. Connie gave a whole bunch. Tommy laughed at some of the pictures that he was looking at, but one of them caught Tommy's attention more. The one with Jason, the other little Rangers and Nick. Connie saw the puzzled look on his face.

"That is a picture of a little boy named Nick. He was an orphan that lived next door that had to be taken away from his foster parents. I was just talking to the three of them about that." Tommy looked at the picture intensely. "Well, I need to get more pages for the scrapbooks. I will see you around, Tommy."

"Yeah. See ya, Connie."

"Mr. and Mrs. Oliver, this is Thomas," the doctor said. "He is from a foster family that abused him and another child. They named him Nick to hide the fact that he wasn't really their child and the fact that they were smuggling and selling cocaine in their house."

"He looks so sad," Maria Oliver said. "Why?"

"He had friends there and he wants to go back, but for his safety, I told him that he couldn't. They sent the both of you to adopt him?"

"Yes," John Oliver said. "We can't have any children; so, we are adopting. They told us about him and we gladly said yes."

"We felt bad for him and we want to help him get over this," Maria said.

"Well, this is Thomas and I will leave you three alone," the doctor said and he went out of the room. Maria and John Oliver went up to Thomas and pulled chairs up to sit next to him.

"Are you my new foster parents?" Thomas said.

"Nope, your new parents," John said as he put his hand on Thomas's little hand. "We want you to be our son."

"Are you going to be like my last parents?"

"No, honey," Maria said. "Those parents were bad people and they took you away because they were...ummm..."

"It's ok, Maria," John said. "I think he knows. Hey, what do you like to do Thomas?"

"I don't know," Thomas said looking down. "I never got to do anything really. I tried to play with my friends when I could but they...stopped me when..."

"It's ok, Thomas," Maria said as she offered Thomas a hug. "We are going to let you play as much as you want."

"Well," John said with a slight laugh. "You can't play all the time. You have to do what we say too, but we are going to make sure that you are happy too, Thomas." John noticed that every time he said his name, Thomas flinched. "What's wrong? Do you like being called Thomas?"

"I get called Thomas when I am bad," Thomas said. "Am I in trouble?"

"Oh no, honey, no," Maria said as she too put her hand on Thomas's. "You're not in trouble. We know that your real name is Thomas and that they called you Nick. Would you liked to be called Nick?" Thomas looked up at John and Maria. He shook his head slowly.

"Well then," John said. "What do you want to be called?"

"I don't know," Thomas said. "I...don't...know."

"Well, let's see here," Maria said. "Tom? Do you like Tom?" Thomas shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, we don't have to discuss this now, Maria," John said. "What would you like to do? Do you like art? Dancing? Music? Sports? Karate?...Do you like karate? I know someone that can teach you. We can do it together." Thomas looked up. He made a small smile. "You would like that, huh?"

"We have something that he might like. That's good. Now, what else?"

"I...very rarely...put music on while I was cleaning," Thomas said. "I like making up my own words to music."

"Music, he likes music," Maria said to John. "He'll fit right in our family. I can teach him to play the piano."

"He can play what he wants, Maria," John said. "At least we have things in common. I sound like he is an intelligent little boy."

"Let take you home," Maria said as she extended her arms to Thomas. "We have an hour drive to your next home." The Olivers signed papers at the front desk of the hospital and took him to the car. Even though he still had some bruise that were on his body, he was looking much better and the doctors said he was good enough to be released. The Olivers put Thomas in the backseat and Maria sat with him.

"John!" Maria said. "I know! Tommy! We can call him that!"

"Do you like that?" John said as looked back at his wife and his new adopted son. Thomas smiled and nodded. He liked it. "Then Tommy it is." He started the car and drove home.

'So you were the friends that I had long ago,' Tommy said. 'I never knew.'

"Tommy, what are you doing?" Jason said from their back porch.

"Just a sec, bro," Tommy said as he picked up a pen nearby. He turned the picture over and wrote a note on the back. "Coming!" He went outside and say that Jason, Zack and Kim were having lemonade and had started talking.

"Where were you?" Kimberly said.

"Bathroom," Tommy said.

"Oh!" Jason said embarrassed.

"So what are you talking about?"

"Well..."

At that moment, Connie came running into the house with her keys in her hand. She grabbed her purse that was on the table. As she grabbed her purse, she noticed a note on the back of one of the pictures. She turned it over to see what the picture was. It was the same picture Tommy was looking at. Then, she flipped it over and read.

It read:

Dear Scott Family,

I am grateful for what you have done. It is hard to believe that you were the ones that saved me from the Burkes. Connie, thank you for spotting the fact that I was in trouble. Mark, thank you for the support that you gave everyone and me. And Jason, I thank you most of all. You have done so much for me already. I can't repay you enough. You befriended me and stuck by me when I was in trouble. The others helped me too, but you helped and trusted me the most. Thank you so much. From Tommy aka "Nick."

Connie gasped. She looked out the window to where Jason and the other former Rangers were sitting. She looked at Tommy.

"Oh my!" Connie said quietly, "Tommy, are you...?"

Tommy looked at Connie in the window and she held up the picture. He smiled and nodded. The others looked at Connie and waved and smiled. Connie gave the biggest smile of happiness.

The End

Hope you enjoyed the fic.