Disclaimer: It's Saban's sandbox. I just play here because it's fun.

Author's Note: Yes, I know, I said it was going to be a week before the next part, but this was so much more fun than molecular genetics. We are continuing our move forward through the Zeo Universe (with minor alterations). Also, I couldn't find the character's middle names, so I'm making them up as I go.

**Denotes Thoughts**

- + - + - + - + - + -

"There," Kat sat back on her heels and surveyed her work with satisfaction.

Scooting out from under the control panel, where he had been working, Billy looked over at her. "Finished?"

"I think so." She murmured, her voice betraying her uncertainty. Cocking her head to look over the wiring one last time, she grumbled, "You couldn't have just given me a simple patch job?"

Sitting up, Billy gave her a self-satisfied smile and shook his head, "Nope. None were necessary tonight. Besides the fact that you're calling it a 'simple patch job' tells me that you can more than handle realignments."

"I guess." Satisfied that as far as she could tell, nothing was horrendously wrong, Kat pulled away from the panel and stood up with a grunt. "All right, come check me."

Billy smiled as she tried to brush the dirt off her jeans. "Give it up, Captain, that stuff never comes off."

Kat sighed, "Don't I know it. I had to tell Mom that I was working on restoring an old car with you guys. She restricted me to one pair of jeans and two tank tops. I just hope she doesn't want to actually *see* the car I've been working on."

"With all the time we've been spending here, we could probably have a whole fleet of Mustangs, one for each member of the team. Still that does explain your uniform." He grinned, gesturing to the torn jeans, faded pale pink tank top, and sloppy ponytail that she always wore for repair work.

"Exactly how long have you been referring to my work clothes that way?" Kat tried to give him a withering glare, but the spark of laughter in her eyes and the smudge of grease on her cheek diminished the effectiveness.

Billy walked over and crouched down to inspect her work. "Since, I've been able to predict exactly which top you'd be wearing on any given evening."

"Why Doctor, I'm flattered you noticed."

His head still bent over the wires, the young engineer chuckled, "I always notice."

At his offhand comment, Kat felt a tiny thrill of pleasure run up her spine, and she froze.

"Looks good."

"Huh?" **Oh, nice, very articulate** Shaking her head a little, the Pink Ranger tried to bring her focus back to her friend who was gazing up at her with concern.

"The realignment you did . . . its perfect. Kat, are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah . . . I'm fine. I just need a little break."

Looking as though he didn't really believe her, Billy shrugged and moved back over to his work.

Taking a deep breath, Kat leaned up against the wall and stared at the ceiling. It had been a silly offhand comment. Logically most of her knew that and was happy with it, but there was just this small part of her that had wanted it to mean more, and that small part seemed to be growing a little bit bigger every time something like this happened.

It was ridiculous really. Ninety-nine percent of the time she and Billy talked, laughed, and worked together like nothing more than good friends and then . . . *bam* a comment, a touch, a look and it all seemed as though it could be so much more. Just these stupid little moments that drew her up short, and caused the voice to whisper a little louder that their friendly banter was more flirtatious, their looks had more meaning, and their touches had more heat.

**Lack of sleep** She told herself. Of course it was the lack of sleep. A girl just doesn't go through her entire day wanting one guy, but as soon as the night falls switch over to wanting a different one. That just wasn't the way feelings worked.

**Besides, this is nothing like my feelings for Tommy** That much she at least knew with certainty. Everything about her and Tommy's friendship was tinged with the expectation of something more eventually happening, giving every interaction an undercurrent of tension. With Billy, there were no expectations, and everything they did was easy and comfortable as though they had been doing it together their entire lives. She didn't want to lose that.

"Kat?"

"What?" She looked over at him and realized that he had been waiting for an answer to a question she hadn't heard.

"I asked whether you were ready to move on to Edward. You know I would think our fearless leader's Zord would merit a little more interest from you." Billy gave her a suggestive smirk.

Laughing a little at his comment, but more at the relief of feeling everything click back into place, Kat pushed off the wall. "Yeah, I suppose poor Edward should be taken care of. Tommy beats up on him a lot."

Billy barely stifled a laugh, and continued to gather his tools. "You said it not me. Feel up to doing another realignment? I think the navigation is off by just a fraction."

Groaning a little, Kat brought her hand to shoulder and tried to loosen some of the knots that were beginning to form. "Is it in the same place? Because I don't know if I can stay in that position for another hour. How do you keep your back from rebelling against you?"

"Sit down." Billy pushed her gently into the pilot's chair and replaced her hands with his own. "Why do you think I keep up with the martial arts training?"

"For the same reason you've improved in biology, and we're here repairing Zords at two in the morning. The good of the team, Dr. Cranston, the good of the team."

"Besides that." He ran both hands along her neck and pressed lightly against the back of her head, indicating she should tilt it down.

"You're secretly a Bruce Lee wannabe?"

"And you're insufferable. The martial arts helped me learn to be still and relaxed. I can stay in a position for awhile without all my muscles cramping."

"Well then how come it's not working for me? I've been training with Tommy ever since I joined the team."

"Tommy's all about movement and power. I learned from Trini --- all focus and flow ---different disciplines and styles. Talk to Adam, his style is similar to Trini's."

Feeling her tension melt away under his gentle ministrations, Kat sighed in contentment. "Where did you learn to do this?"

"Trini again."

"Mmm, remind me to thank her when I meet her." Tilting her head up to look at him, she smiled. "You are way too good to me."

"Well, it's not like I can have you in pain. How else am I going to get that realignment done?" Kat stuck out her tongue, but he ignored her. "Lean forward."

Thorough as ever, he continued in little circles down the length of her spine, until Kat was sure that she might never want to move again. Moving his hands back up to her shoulders and he began to work along her shoulder blade.

At the Pink Ranger's small gasp of pain, Billy pulled away so quickly that is was as though she had burned him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't---"

"No, no . . ." She hurried to reassure him. "You didn't do anything. I banged up my shoulder yesterday. You just hit a sore spot."

"You should have told me. We could have put something on it."

"It wasn't Ranger related, and it's healing fine. I had almost forgotten about it."

"Healing? Kat, let me see."

Immediately serious and focused, Billy made her stand up and move to better light. When she felt his fingers resting at the edge of her tank top strap, Kat nodded, giving him the silent permission that he always waited for.

Pushing strap down her shoulder, just enough to expose her bruised skin, Billy drew in a sharp breath at what he saw there.

"Looks horrible, doesn't it?"

"Kat . . ." With infinite care his fingers traced the edges of the wound. "This is more than just a bruise, you've got some abrasions too. What happened?"

"I just bumped into some the weight-lifting equipment."

"Like hell you did. Nobody gets a bruise like that just bumping into equipment." Turning her gently so that, she faced him, he demanded, "Tell me what happened, Captain."

"Jacob."

Something dark and fierce flickered behind his eyes, "Who is Jacob, and what did he do to you?"

"He's just this guy at school who doesn't know what a girl means when she says no."

"Kat, did he . . .?" Billy's deceptively calm voice contained a mixture of fear and barely restrained anger.

"No," She shook her head, "No, I didn't mean it like that. He just likes to make an annoyance of himself. Every time I turn around he's there . . . looming over me. That's what happened yesterday. He moved into my personal space, and I backpedaled hard, directly into one of the weight machines."

"Does Tommy know?"

"Oh yeah," She laughed. "I've got my very own, male Ranger body guard unit right now."

"You don't sound very happy about it."

"I am. It's just . . . while its really sweet of Tommy to look out for me and everything . . ."

"You want to fight your own battles." At her surprised look, he smiled, "I spent most of my freshman year getting shoved against lockers and being protected by Trini. I know what its like to want to be able to do it yourself."

"Yeah. I mean, I'm a Power Ranger, I could drop him if I wanted to, but it's not like he knows that. All Jacob sees is a weak girl."

"Have you thought of trying to make him see you as something other than a weak girl?"

"That's the problem, if he gave me the slightest provocation, I'd kick his ass, but all his does is stand there and smirk."

"What if he saw you kick someone else's ass? On the training mats, I mean."

She shook her head. "The only one I'm really evenly matched with sparring wise is Tanya. I don't think Jacob would find me beating her very impressive. Tommy might agree to pretend, but that would just be completely unbelievable."

"Yeah, it probably would be, although I'd pay good money to see it."

After sharing a brief chuckle over the image of her knocking their team leader to the ground, they fell into sober silence.

"Kat?" Glancing up, she found Billy looking at her with a mischievous glint in his eye. "What if he saw you kick mine?"

*****

"Oh, come on Captain, is that all you've got?" Billy teased.

"No." Was all Kat said before he barely had time to dodge a beautifully executed roundhouse.

Not giving her a chance to regain her footing, he dropped to a crouch and swept her other leg out from under her, causing Kat to land on the mat with a thud.

Staring up at the ceiling, the Pink Ranger muttered, "I hate you."

"No, you don't."

"I should."

He offered her a hand up. "You know we're attracting a little bit of a crowd."

"Is Jacob here yet?"

Billy allowed his gaze to sweep the Youth Center. They were actually attracting the attention of just about every patron there, which wasn't surprising considering the intensity with which they were going at it. Both had agreed that if they were going to make it look real it had to actually be as real as possible, which meant actual sparring. The only difference was after going a few rounds with him in the training gym every night for a week Kat knew what it looked like when he dropped his guard, and once Jacob was present he would drop it.

**Well speak of the devil and he appears** Watching the, weasel-like teen weave his way through the crowd towards the mat, Billy whispered, "He's here, and he's watching."

"Showtime."

"Just don't kill me."

Separating out to start again, they circled for a short time with both making a few light test attacks, but Kat was obviously ready to take things up a notch. Blocking a punch, Billy began to wonder whether he would need to drop his guard at all. He had never seen her quite like this -- all fiery determination and beautiful intensity.

As his back hit the mats, Billy let out a grunt of pain. **Nope, definitely no guard dropping needed**

Kat was standing over him with a look on her face that was cross between triumphant and worried, and all in all very pretty. "Are you okay?"

"I hate you."

"No you don't."

"I should." Picking himself up off the mat, Billy winced. "I might be feeling that for awhile."

"I could get an icepack or ---"

"I'll be fine. Just let me go get a smoothie from Ernie." Locking eyes with her, he cast his gaze just over his shoulder to where Jacob was standing.

Reading the grim determination on Kat's face, he left her to her own devices and went up to the Juice Bar.

"That was amazing."

Turning a little, Billy smiled at the familiar voice. "Hey, Tommy."

Gesturing to the seat beside him, the Red Ranger continued, "When I walked in and saw the crowd, I thought there was some sort of exhibition happening. Imagine my surprise at seeing you and Kat going at it out there."

"Yeah, she's pretty good. Of course she's had a good teacher."

"Just watching her go. She was so beautiful."

"I wouldn't know. I was too busy hitting the mat." Smiling a little at the slightly goofy look that had come over the face of his usually rather intense friend, Billy followed Tommy's gaze out into the crowd, just into time to see Jacob approach Kat as she was stretching.

"Why that . . ."

Billy laid a restraining hand on the Red Ranger's arm. He'd be damned if he was going to let Tommy ruin this, because there was no way he was going back out on those mats again. "Kat can handle him, Tommy. Let her do it her way."

As though on cue, the Pink Ranger got up from her stretch, grabbed her bag, and sauntered slowly over to them as though nothing was wrong. When Jacob moved to step in front of her, she didn't slow down a fraction, so that he was the one forced to move aside first.

"Wow."

The ex-Ranger had to admit that that about summed her up at this very moment.

"Did you see that?!" At Kat's excited squeal, Billy looked up just in time to be caught in a gigantic hug. "Did you see that? We did it! I'm so happy I could kiss you."

Coughing a little at her last statement, Billy caught her gaze and flicked his eyes over to Tommy. In a flash she had launched herself into the Red Ranger's arms. "Tommy! Did you see me?!"

Oh, yeah, Kat was on cloud-nine or possibly nine and a half.

"Yeah, I saw you. You were amazing. Here sit down." Watching Tommy pull the chair out for Kat, Billy didn't miss the openly admiring look his face or the way he kept his arm at her back. It was as though in these last few minutes, Kat had completely stepped out of Kimberly's shadow into her own personal and apparently very flattering spotlight.

"Oh, that's only because I had help." Kat caught Billy's eye and smiled, and for a moment they were alone exchanging a private joke.

Tommy flicked his gaze between the two and grinned, "You planned this?"

Billy laughed, "Oh, yeah."

"But the sparring looked completely real."

Kat smiled, "It was real."

"The pain is too."

"Well, at least it was real up until the point where Billy intentionally dropped his guard."

"No I didn't."

Kat looked over at him wide-eyed, "You mean that wasn't intentional."

"No, I mean I didn't drop my guard. You were just faster." Seeing her concerned look he smiled, "Take pride Kat, you truly and royally kicked my ass."

Tommy shot him a surprised look at his language, and Billy laughed. "Sorry, private joke."

Kat however was grinning at him like an idiot. "So you up for a rematch?"

"Ugh," The young engineer groaned, "Not until my bruises fade to yellow and then we'll see."

"Why did you ask Billy for help?" Tommy finally interjected, with a bewildered expression on her face.

Billy meet Kat's gaze and after a moment of silent communication answered, "Because she knew that I had had trouble with bullies in the past. Who better to go to than the expert?"

Accepting the small white lie at face value, the Red Ranger turned his attention back to Kat, and the three of them continued talking and laughing over smoothies.

As the conversation died down, Tommy asked hesitantly, "Kat, what are you doing this evening?"

Billy tried to make himself as unobtrusive as possible, as the Pink Ranger blushed a little and replied, "Nothing really. Why?"

**Ladies and Gentlemen the Captain has just reached cloud ten**

"Well, . . . I . . . I was thinking that we all might go out. You know the entire team, take some time off and boost morale."

**Oh, for the love of . . .** Billy barely refrained from kicking Tommy under the table, as he saw the flicker of disappointment play across Kat's face.

Getting up from the table she smiled half-heartedly, "Yeah, that would be nice. Count me in."

Watching her walk away with a little less spring in her step, the teen genius dropped his head and sighed, "Tommy, can I talk to you, out in the hall?"

---

Leaning against the lockers, the Red Ranger sighed, "I just don't know if I can do it."

Billy wanted to bang his head against the metal in frustration. "She likes you Tommy. If there is one thing I know about Kat it's that she likes you."

Of course there were lots of things he knew about his best-friend, but somewhere along the line the two of them had come to the silent understanding that for some reason that wasn't something to be shared with the rest of the team. Not that he was complaining. It made the time they spent to together uniquely their own.

"Yeah, but maybe it's just not the right time yet."

"Oh come on, I saw the look on your face when she hugged you today. You could have lit up the New York skyline. Besides, you can't keep stringing her on like this."

A dark look crossed Tommy's face, "You think that's what I'm doing?"

The young engineer had about ten snappy comments that seemed good at that moment, but he settled for rolling his eyes and replying, "I don't think you're doing it intentionally, but yeah that's what you're doing."

"I don't want to, but I also don't want to rush anything after Kim."

"Tommy, do me a favor. Close your eyes, picture Kim at her best, and describe her for me using three words." At the Red Ranger's startled look, Billy gave him a wane smile, "Just humor me."

Obeying somewhat reluctantly, Tommy closed his eyes. After a moment he said, "Bright, open, beautiful."

"Okay, now picture Kat and do the same thing."

"Calm, caring . . ."

"And?"

"Beautiful." Tommy finished somewhat weakly.

Billy chuckled. He would have chosen strong, perceptive and fiery, but Tommy's description was enough to satisfy him, "I should have placed a restriction on that word in the beginning, but it proves my point."

"Which is?"

"You see different things in Kat. You're not interested in her solely because of her similarities to Kim."

"Still . . ."

This time Billy did bang his head against the locker. "This is ridiculous. Look, just go out there and ask her. She'll say yes, and I'll get some sleep."

"Some wha. . .?"

"Just ask her," The ex-Ranger interjected, realizing his slip of the tongue. "I'm going to stand right here, and if you don't, I promise I will make you regret it."

Tommy laughed, "Are you threatening me?"

"Not physically, but I'm a hacker in a world run by computers. I can screw with you six ways from Sunday." Billy didn't know what was in his eyes, but for a second Tommy looked just a little bit frightened. "I'm joking . . . sort of."

Dragging his friend over to the hall opening, he forced Tommy to look into the Youth Center. "She's right over there, just go up to her and ask her to a movie."

"Easy for you to say."

"Exactly, one of the few pleasures of not being the heart-breaker."

"Where is Mondo when you need him?"

"Just go." With that the teen genius forcibly shoved his friend out into the main area of the Youth Center.

Standing in the doorway, he watched Tommy walk over and approach his best-friend with no little trepidation, but as soon as the Red Ranger received one of Kat's soft smiles, he was speaking very fast and very animatedly.

As Billy saw the sheer joy light up Kat's face, his heart skipped a beat at the thought that he had helped to put it there. After everything she had done for him, his Captain deserved this and so much more.

At that moment, Kat's gaze met his from across the room and for an ephemeral instant there was something almost regretful in her eyes, but then it danced away to be replaced by gratitude and delight. Billy smiled back. How could he not, when Kat glowed like that? Tommy had been such a fool for keeping her at arms length for as long as he did.

**So why do I suddenly feel like a bigger one?**

- + - + - + - + - + -

(end pt.4)

I never said who would date. Yes I'm a bitca, no I don't care, but feel free to tell me so in feedback.

Comments and Criticisms are appreciated as always.