Disclaimer: The usual. Don't own anything you recognize.

BEHIND THE CLOUDS

By Etcetera Kit

Chapter Two: Yellow Roses II

It was Monday morning – the new cadets were settled in and about to begin their first real day at the SPD Academy. Floor meetings had been decidedly different and, as he had popped in on both of them, he realized that Sky was probably going to kill everyone on his floor. Oh well – it was too late to rescind the RA things this year.

Commander Thomas Oliver leaned back in the couch in his quarters. He had been in charge for not quite a year – and it had been a turbulent year. And to think that he originally had been coming to make sure that SPD didn't collapse and that the transition to a new commander went smoothly. He hadn't planned on staying aboard as that new commander. He shook his head and glanced at the data pad in front of him.

The new cadets had the obstacle course and a martial arts seminar this morning – he had tried to keep their active activities in the morning and put their classes in the afternoon. Special trainings happened in the evening. It was an intense schedule, especially if the sports and fine arts got started again. He didn't lie to the incoming cadets and parents. Being a cadet at the SPD Academy was hard work – it was the reason that the applicants chosen had top grades in addition to excelling in extracurricular activities. The latter was flexible. The ten new cadets for this year were a varied group – musicians, artists, athletes… the list went on.

The A-Squad was in the simulator this morning doing a program designed to help them hone their powers. The B-Squad was out on patrol. He glanced at his watch. It was almost seven-thirty. The official wake-up call was at seven, but most people in the building chose to get up earlier. Breakfast in the new cafeteria ended at nine – which was the absolute latest time for morning activities to start. Most started at eight.

The door chimes to his quarters rang. "Come in!" he called, knowing who it would be.

Paris Grayson walked into the room. She was wearing work-out clothing and looked slightly puzzled as to why she was being called to his quarters this early in the morning.

"Morning," he greeted. "Take a seat."

She had a neutral expression on her face as she gracefully sank down into the armchair opposite the couch. She might have been the A-Squad Pink Ranger, but no one would be able to tell it from her clothing – a white tank top and black work-out pants. Her morpher was clipped to her side. It was no longer a requirement for the rangers to have their morphers on them at all times, but most of them had them during the day.

"I'm putting you in charge of the fall play," he said without preamble.

Paris gaped at him. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"I don't know anything about a play!" she sputtered. "The last time the drama people got on the ball was back when I was still a cadet and they put on this crappy production of Peter Pan and no one came to it—"

Tommy let out a long breath. He tolerated a lot from her, just because he respected the fact that she was highly experienced as a patrol officer. But he wasn't budging on this issue. She was going to be in charge of the fall show.

"You can pick whatever show you want," he interrupted her tirade.

She stopped and looked at him warily. "Any show?"

"Any show."

Paris gave him a level gaze. "Chicago."

"Done," he said, having a feeling why she chose that particular show. It was about a bunch of women in jail who murdered their husbands. "I except you'll want to have auditions within the next two weeks, so I'll get all the paperwork to you by then." He paused. "I'll also give you top priority when I'm booking the auditorium."

She stood up, looking more annoyed than anything else. She paused at the door and turned back towards him. "Commander?"

"Yeah?"

"Having the Pink Ranger always be female is extraordinarily sexist and I would recommend rectifying that at the earliest possible moment before the feminists come down on your head."

With that, she was gone. Tommy shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was not sure why he put up with Paris – or most of the rangers for that matter. All of them – with the exceptions of Z, Trent and Austin – were difficult to work with. And certain rangers liked to protest everything, despite traditions associated with being a ranger. He glanced to the now-closed doors of his quarters.

At one time, he had been convinced that being a high school teacher would kill him. Now, that seemed like a quiet and sunny past he should aspire to.

The food replicator in the lounge was acting up again. One of the female cadets had come prowling around looking for an RA and Syd had been the only one they could find. It didn't make any sense why the cadets were so hung up on the replicator. Doctor Oliver had taken some of the grant money from Sky's dad and had a new cafeteria built – with a twenty-four hour snack bar. With fresh food available at all hours of the day and night, she couldn't fathom why someone would want such overly processed food.

Of course, that probably explained why she was now prowling around looking for Boom so she could turn in the work order. She let out a long breath – her and Sky were going out tonight and she was going to be late. It didn't bother her to be late, but for Sky, tardiness was the eighth deadly sin. Oh well – he was just going to have to get over it.

The lab door was open. She poked her head in. Ethan was behind one of the desks tinkering with his most recent project. Boom was nowhere to be found.

"Hey Ethan," she greeted. "Is Boom around?"

The current A-Squad Blue Ranger looked up and frowned. "He was here. I'm not sure where he got to." Ethan glanced at the form in her hands. "Work order?" She nodded. "Just drop it on his desk and I'll make sure he gets it."

"Thanks," she replied. "You have any wild and crazy plans for tonight?"

He snorted. "If you want maintenance on the zords finished and the new upgrades to the morphers, I think not."

Syd grinned. "See you around."

"See ya'," he called as she left the lab.

Heading back towards the lounge, she shook her head. Ethan worked harder than all of the other rangers combined. He had taken over Kat's old job and, when he became a ranger, never gave up that job. The ironic thing was that he loved the work – and was just as likely to procrastinate on his work and play a video game with Bridge and Boom. The three of them had been in the lab earlier that morning gushing about the latest game for the latest system. It all went over her head since that stuff didn't appeal to her.

"Hey Syd!"

Starting, she narrowly avoided a head-on collision with her older brother, Austin. He was a year her senior and the B-Squad Red Ranger. "What are you doing?" she gasped, one hand over her heart. "You scared me half to death!"

He held up the data pad he was holding. "Training schedule for next week." He tried to blow a strand of straight, blonde hair out of his eyes. It didn't work. Syd gave him a level glance. Since Doctor Oliver had reformed the rangers into an A-Squad and B-Squad, Red Rangers were responsible for their squad, along with setting training schedules.

"You need a haircut," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Now excuse me, I'm late for my date."

"Uh-huh," he looked skeptical.

"What?" she said in exasperation. "I thought you liked Sky."

"I do," Austin replied defensively. "It's just that he's only a year older than me and I know how guys think and I really don't like you dating them."

"You don't care who Paris dates!"

"Yeah – about that. I was in a different galaxy when she was dating – and she hasn't had a boyfriend since I've been back on Earth so I haven't had an opportunity to…"

"To… what?"

"Never mind. Just be careful, okay?"

"I will," she promised, stepping around her older brother and getting back on course towards the lounge. The sad fact was that Paris scared Austin sometimes. It didn't matter that they were twins. Paris had strong opinions and expressed them loudly and exuberantly.

Z, you are so lucky you don't have an older brother, she thought as she entered the lounge. What Austin didn't know was that her and Sky were lovers – Paris knew and her mother knew, while her father had an idea but kept his opinions on it to himself.

The lounge was fairly empty for a weeknight. The 'out of order' sign she had put on the food replicator was still in place. A few male cadets were playing video games, while two girls were at the counter in the corner giggling – and it was easy to see what the object of their giggles was. Sky was sitting on one of the couches playing solitaire with a random deck of cards. He was wearing khaki pants and a loose long-sleeved shirt that was dusty blue. And per usual, he was ignoring the girls and, what he deemed, their ridiculousness.

He looked up when she entered and smiled. "Hey," he greeted, standing up to meet her halfway. Their lips met in a gentle, soft kiss. She smiled.

"Sorry, I'm late." Syd paused. "I had to put in a work order for the replicator."

Sky glanced at the machine, then back to her. "I noticed," he replied dryly. "No one else would decorate the sign that much."

"You are such a guy," she muttered. "Where are we going?"

"Anywhere but an ice cream place."

"You never want to go get ice cream."

"I don't like ice cream."

"You're weird too." She paused. Syd knew full well that he didn't like ice cream, but she couldn't refrain from ribbing him about it whenever it came up. "We could go to the pizza place." Sky nodded his agreement and took her hand, warm and secure.

The early morning mist and dew hadn't quite burned off the training field yet. The sun was rising, warm and golden – and Trent Fernandez wished he were still in bed. He pulled his hoodie tighter around himself and sipped a cup of scalding coffee. The burning coffee didn't bother him, since the sole purpose of it was to warm-up and wake-up. He had never been a morning person for as long as he could remember, always preferring late nights.

The rest of the A-Squad was straggling out to the practice field. The rehearsal dinner for Conner and Kira's wedding was that night. He snorted to himself. They were an odd couple, that much was for sure. He wasn't jealous – couldn't be jealous. He had let Kira go years earlier, when neither of them had even graduated from college. They were different people and trying to wreck her relationship with Conner was just one idea doomed to fail. Besides, he really didn't want a replay of what had happened in their team fifteen years earlier.

He shivered, watching Ethan exit the building and make a beeline for him. Conner planned their training schedules now and it was obvious he preferred the morning – breakfast in the cafeteria hadn't even started yet and he dragged them out for training. Trent had to brew the coffee in the apartment he shared with Ethan.

"Run for your life," Ethan said, joining him on the track.

"Why?" Trent responded, stifling a yawn.

"I heard from Conner that Tommy put Paris in charge of the fall play."

"So?"

"She's recruiting."

That much sounded ominous. Trent shook his head, not sure what he could contribute to a play. Then again, the theater department at his college had always been after him to design sets and he had just avoided them. Well – it wouldn't matter if he got recruited or not. It wasn't like he was doing anything earthshaking right now. The extent of his current activities were being the A-Squad Green Ranger and teaching drawing classes once a week. The latter was more of an activity where everyone sat around with drawing pads for an hour. He didn't want to dictate what they should draw – he had too many professors that did that.

"Speak of the devil," Ethan muttered.

Trent looked up. Paris was exiting the building. It never failed to amaze him that her wardrobe was almost entirely black with the exception of a few tank tops and those purple sunglasses of hers. She had the sunglasses on this morning and the sunlight glinted off of them. How long was it going to be before another spiel got started about having females be the Yellow and Pink Rangers was sexist?

"You guys want to help out with the play, right?" she said with a large, false smile.

"What show are you doing?" Trent asked mildly.

"Chicago."

"That'll be fun."

"I think so." She paused and pinned Ethan with a severe look. The Blue Ranger winced under her gaze. "So, Ethan, I don't have a tech director yet…"

"No!"

"Oh come on! It's four shows – you can work your own schedule for working on stuff, I'll get you a crew and there's only really one week where we have to all be there at once!"

"Paris," Ethan retorted. "I don't have time!"

"You have time to play video games," she said under her breath before turning to Trent. "Production designer, please?"

Oh Lord – hell just froze over. Paris Grayson said please. Trent shrugged. "I suppose. You have a schedule for production crew meetings."

"Working on it as we speak. We have a preliminary meeting Monday, before auditions, so we can conceptualize things." She smiled at him before turning back to Ethan. "See," she said in a scathing tone. "Trent said he'd do it."

"Fine," Ethan grumbled. "But if the zords malfunction from lack of maintenance—"

"I'll take full responsibility. Jeez." She shook her head. "Don't be such a drama queen."

"Look who's talking!"

Their friendly argument about who was a bigger drama queen was cut short by the appearance of Conner and Kira. Trent frowned to himself, not entirely remembering the reason they needed to be out here at such an ungodly hour. He just hoped that they weren't running the mud swamp or something like that – he hoped he would have remembered something like that.

"We're doing the first obstacle course," Conner said.

"Fun – cargo nets," Ethan muttered.

"Is there a reason we're doing this so early in the morning?" Trent asked.

"It's booked all the rest of today." Conner paused and raked a hand through his hair. "It's not like I don't have to do this stuff too."

Trent watched out of the corner of his eye as Paris adjusted her ponytail. Her hair actually shone in the morning light – just like all those shampoo commercials. Was a real person's hair supposed to do that? There was something about her, he realized, that made his heart flutter. It was something he hadn't felt in a long time, not since… he abruptly shut down that train of thought. He was getting too old and the only relationship he could ever have with Paris was that of teammates.

"Trent and Paris, be partners."

He snapped to attention at Conner's statement. The first obstacle course had to be run in pairs, meaning they would be running it in cycles with one rest period per person. Great – he was being paired with Paris for the first time through, right when he had pinned down…

"Come on," Paris said to him, already striding for the first trail marker in the course. She turned with her hands on her hips. "Or are you afraid you're going to get trounced?"

"By you? Get real!"

"Race you!"

She took off in long, fluid strides. Trent shook his head and took off after her. He wasn't in bad physical shape – it was just that, after years of writing comics, coming back to being a ranger wasn't the easiest transition. Why did he always seem to fall for women that he couldn't have a lasting relationship with?

"Syd – it doesn't matter what you wear to the rehearsal dinner. No one is going to care!"

Z flopped down on her bed, exasperated. Only Syd could take forever to pick out what to wear to anything. Paris was sitting at the other end of Z's bed – having already picked out a dozen possible outfits. Z had chosen to wear a yellow skirt and matching tank top – probably the last wear she would get out of it before the cold started. Paris was wearing black pants with a black jacket – her top was made out of a black silky material and had dark purple trim.

"Just wear the green thing with some jeans," Paris added.

"Green thing?" Syd sounded offended as she picked up a green frilly top with pink stripes that she owned.

"It's green and it's a thing, so, therefore, it's a green thing."

Syd opened her mouth to say something, but Z beat her to it. "When are auditions?" she asked Paris, effectively changing the subject.

"Next Tuesday and Wednesday," Paris replied. "You trying out?"

"No, but I thought I might do stage crew."

"Great! I need a stage manager – you're hired!"

Z frowned, not having the faintest idea what a stage manager did. "Thanks, I think," she said. All she had been planning on doing was help paint some sets, sew some costumes – all the cadets could talk about was the show and she was volunteering her services to show support. Unlike Syd and Bridge, she had no desire to try out. She took a breath. "What does the stage manager do?"

"You're the boss backstage," Paris replied. "You coordinate all the entrance cues and sound cues and orchestrate set changes, things like that."

"Oh." Z glanced at her. "Can't I just paint sets?"

"No. I need competent people around in positions of power. You qualify."

"Oh." Z fell silent. Helping with a play was unlike anything she had ever done before. She briefly thought to the two names on the at-large list… that pimp house… She shuddered, before focusing her attention on Syd's never-ending wardrobe debate.

"Green thing," Paris repeated to Syd.

"Who else is involved?" Z asked.

"With the show?" Z nodded. "Not too many others – just production types. I still need an assistant director. I've been trying to think of the most anal retentive person I know."

"Good luck."

Syd finally picked out a clingy pink top and jeans and rushed into the bathroom to change. Z glanced over at Syd's side of the room, now strewn with her clothes. Believe it or not, that happened every time she had a date with Sky. She'd been dating him for just under a year and she still was worried about how she looked. Z sighed, glad that clothes were the least of her worries with Bridge.

Inkwell jumped up on the bed and into Paris' lap, where he blended in. "Hey Inky," Paris said absently to the kitten, stroking him between his ears. He began to purr a ten on Richter scale.

"Traitor," Z said to the kitten. The door buzzer went off. "Come in!" Z called.

The doors slid open to reveal Sky. "You guys ready?" he asked, looking around at the hurricane that ran through Syd's side of the room and then at the two girls sitting on Z's bed.

"Syd almost is," Z replied.

Then she noticed that Paris' eyes had lit up when Sky entered. She looked like she had eaten half a cheesecake and then hidden the other half, having no intention of revealing its whereabouts. "Sky," she said with a smile, standing up and linking her arm through his.

Sky was starting to look like a cornered animal. "What?" he asked warily.

"I need a favor…"

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: I feel like these first few chapters will spend some time setting the scene - let me know if things start to put to you sleep! With that said, I was really excited to see that some of my all-time favorite reviewers are back for this piece. It makes me smile to know that you really do appreciate my work! I'm not expecting a huge reaction to this piece, but you guys make it worth it! TTFN.