Disclaimer: We don't own anything and much fun has been had… MUWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Author's Notes: You know the drill. Thanks for being patient and for dealing with the grammar issues from the last chapter. Hope you enjoy the new one!!! Thanks everyone for helping us out as always. Writers block and limited amounts of time inhibited us from updating sooner. Thanks for remaining loyal because this chapter is the lead in to the next one.
Timeline: Jason had just become the Gold ranger and two weeks have passed since the last chapter.
Jason stared at Tommy's still form and sighed. He had just woken from a dream of Tommy vibrant and healthy. His heart ached from returning to the harsh reality that invaded his waking hours.
He had no idea how much time had passed since he began his vigil. The hours and days blurred together as he waited for some change, any change, in his love's condition. Upon insistence of Dr. Oliver he traveled home every few days for a meal and shower, but he was always back at Tommy's side in less than an hour. The only other thing that pulled him away was an attack from Mondo, a break that he actually welcomed. The field of battle was the one place where he could freely work out his anger and frustration at Tommy's unchanging condition. Other than that, there was nothing that could pull him away from Tommy's side.
The hours got longer each day. There were times that he actually wished for an end to the silent torment. At least with Tommy's death he could begin to grieve. Sitting day after day waiting for some sign that never seemed to come was killing him.
The others still made frequent visits, Adam most of all, but they had school and their Ranger duties to attend to. Trini and Kim had returned to Switzerland and Florida respectively, making daily calls to Kat for updates on Tommy's condition. Only Zack had remained a constant fixture, refusing to leave Jason's side until some verdict was reached.
Jason glanced over at his best friend. He couldn't believe the support and love that Zack had shown him throughout his ordeal. Had he not been sure of the young man's friendship before, this more than proved it.
He smiled slightly. The former Ranger had fallen asleep in his chair, his body contorted in a position that could in no way be comfortable. Standing, he approached his sleeping friend and shook him gently. Zack opened his eyes and looked at him groggily. "What happened? Are you okay?"
"Go home," Jason said sternly. "Go get some real sleep in a real bed."
"You sure?" Zack asked, wincing as he pushed his body from the chair.
"Go." Jason pushed Zack out the door. "Don't come back until you've had at least ten hours of sleep."
Zack hugged him tightly. "If you need anything…"
Jason smiled. "I'll call. Now go." He watched as his friend walked down the corridor and disappeared around the corner.
With a sigh Jason turned to return to his post, bracing himself for another day of futile waiting. But as his eyes fell on the bed he felt his heart stop. He struggled to draw in a breath, hardly wanting to believe the sight. A pair of large brown eyes, the same that haunted his dreams each night, stared back at him. He took a step towards the bed, still gaping in disbelief. "Tommy?"
Tommy stared up at him, his eyes filled with confusion and disorientation. He opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Wordlessly he pointed to the pitcher of water that stood on his bedside table. Jason hurriedly filled a glass, holding the straw to Tommy's lips. He took a small sip, still gazing at Jason with eyes filled with questions.
Jason placed the glass back on the table, struggling to speak himself. Emotions and confessions, things he had dreamed of saying, filled his mind, but he couldn't manage the words. Sitting down, he took Tommy's hand in his and said the only thing he could. "I'm sorry."
Tommy squeezed his hand lightly, forgiveness radiating from his face. Jason squeezed back, tears of relief in his eyes. There were so many things he wanted to tell Tommy, but he couldn't seem to put them into words.
Their reunion was interrupted as a nurse walked into the room. Taking one look at the conscious patient she reached for the phone on the wall. A few moments later the intercom crackled to life. "Dr. Oliver, please report to ICU room 12. Paging Dr. Oliver, please report to ICU room 12."
The nurse walked over to the bed. "It's nice to see your eyes open, Mr. Oliver. You worried quite a few people."
The door swung open, and Dr. Oliver burst in. "Carol? What…" She skidded to a stop as she looked into the deep brown eyes of her son. She gasped, feeling a wave of relief run through her body. With a barely suppressed sob she sat down on the bed and ran shaking fingers through his hair. "Oh God, baby. I thought…" She closed her eyes as her voice caught. A tear escaped down her cheek as she leaned forward and kissed his forehead lightly. "I love you so much!"
Tommy smiled, reaching for his mother's hand. There was a moment of silent conversation between mother and son, and then Jan looked at Jason. "Do you think you could call Tommy's father and your friends? I would, but I want to oversee his check up…"
Jason smiled. "It's no problem, Dr. Oliver. I'll take care of it." With one last look at Tommy he stood and left the room.
Dr. Oliver watched him leave, then jumped to her feet and followed him. "Jason?"
He turned to look at her, and found himself enfolded in the woman's arms. After a brief moment of shock he returned the embrace. "Thank you," she whispered.
"For what?"
She pulled away and smiled at him, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. "You never gave up on him."
He gave her a small smile. "What are best friends for?" He ignored the pain those two words caused in his heart. That's what I am. His best friend. And from now on I'll be happy with that. As long as he's okay, I'll be happy with that. "I'll go make those phone calls now."
She nodded and disappeared into Tommy's room. Drawing a deep breath, Jason headed to the waiting room. He hadn't taken ten steps before he heard a familiar accented voice. "Jason!"
He looked up to see Kat and Adam headed towards him. Before either of them could greet him Jason blurted out the exciting news. "He's awake!!"
Both Rangers stopped short, staring at their friend dumbfoundedly. "He's awake?" Adam repeated.
"When?" Kat managed to squeak out.
"About twenty minutes ago." Finally feeling his shock and relief turning to sheer joy, Jason grabbed Kat in his arms and spun her around. "He's awake!!" Kat laughed at his elated excitement.
"We have to tell the others!" Adam said, a big grin on his face.
"That's what Dr. Oliver sent me to do. But I have to call Tommy's dad first."
"You do that. Kat and I will get the rest of the team." He couldn't help but give Jason a big hug himself. "He's awake!" The Gold Ranger laughed, hugging him back. Then Adam grabbed Kat's hand. "Come on!"
Jason grinned as he watched them go. "This is gonna be quite a party!"
Tommy closed his eyes, almost wishing to return to the peaceful bliss of his unconscious state. There had been constant commotion since his mother walked in. She and another doctor, who introduced herself as Dr. Cordieh, were checking over every inch of his body, murmuring indistinctly to one another as they did so. The young man tried to find a calm place in his mind to hide from the chaos. He was holding his fear of the hospital environment at bay. He didn't care what tests he had to go through, as long as it meant that he could get out of there and see his friends. As long as he could see Jason and make sure their friendship was back on track.
He wasn't absolutely positive, but he surmised from the heartfelt apology and the look Jason had given him before he left that all had been forgiven. He wanted more than anything to actually hear it from his best friend's mouth, but he knew that he wasn't going to be seeing any of his friends until the doctors were appeased. Or maybe he should say he wasn't going to be seeing any of his friends until one doctor, known to him as Mom, was completely satisfied that he would fully recover from his ordeal.
My ordeal. He wrapped his mind around those words, trying to pull forth memories that might describe them better. What exactly happened to me, anyway? I remember getting sick, and then…nothing. I must have gotten pretty bad for my parents to put me in the hospital.
His eyes opened and fell on his mother, who was peering over the shoulder of the nurse that was taking his vitals. Her eyes darted between the equipment and the door, presumably looking for his father. She was pale, and the bags under her eyes indicated her state of exhaustion. She doesn't look like she's slept much. Or eaten anything really substantial. I wonder how long I've been here? No one has been kind enough to divulge anything about my condition to me. Maybe they think because I can't talk that I don't need to be informed. Stupid hospital people…
He began to pull from his hazy memory the events that could have let him to this cold and sterile place. His idiotic fight with Jason, the horrible nightmare that brought him to the Scott house, standing under Jason's window for hours in the rain. That nice little escapade had caused him to burn with fever the very next day. That was real smart, Oliver. Stand all night in the rain and catch your death. I may not get sick often, but I'm not invincible!
The word "death" seemed to echo in his mind, sparking another memory. I was fighting for my life. For my life and the lives of those I love. But who was I fighting? He tried desperately to remember the face of his enemy, but only saw blurred figures in his mind. Like a bolt of lighting, a face flashed.
A sharp pain brought his mind back to the present, and he sucked in a breath. His mother and Dr. Cordieh had started moving his arms and legs. His mother looked apologetically at him. "You've been lying here for a while, baby. We have to get your circulation going again. You might feel some tingling."
Tommy nodded with a grimace. Tingling? She calls this tingling? Feeling came back so quickly into his unused limbs that if felt as if iron nails were being stuck beneath his skin. It's not tingling when your entire body is waking up! He closed his eyes, trying to center his attention on anything other than his oversensitive nerves coming back to life.
However, the memories that now flowed into his mind didn't offer much relief. For a long time he had locked away anything that had to do with his evil doppelganger, closed it up tightly in a dark corner of his mind. Now it seemed the dam had been broken, and recollections of his enemy crashed over him like waves on stone. The Green Ranger was there. He tried to take over, to kill me and take my place. How is that possible? He was destroyed years ago…wasn't he?
He was once again pulled out of his thoughts by a needle piercing his skin. He sucked in air through his teeth. He hated needles even more than he hated hospitals. This checkup was taking too long. When are they going to finish? How much longer do I have to wait to see my friends? When am I going to fucking get out of this place? He opened his eyes and glared at his mother, hoping she would get the hint. Luckily she did, and touched the shoulder of her colleague.
"Hillary, do you think we could finish this later? I think my son has had enough for one day. I know that you are doing a detailed checkup exclusively for my sake, and I will breathe easier when I have all the results and I know he's going to be okay. But I can't put him through any more torture. He hates hospitals enough as it is, I don't want to add to his aggravation."
Doctor Cordieh smiled back. "Of course I understand. I'll finish this later tonight when he's asleep, and he won't even know I'm here. You should have some time with your son. I know this has been hell for you, coming so close to losing him."
Tommy listened to this conversation with interest. How close did they come to losing me? Damn I wish I had a voice!
The young doctor patted Tommy's shoulder. "You're going to be just fine, Tommy." She smiled at Dr. Oliver once more and left the room, two nurses in tow.
Tommy sighed, silently thanking God that the poking and prodding was done for a time. His mother smiled at him. "Don't look so relieved, she'll be back later to finish up. I just judged by the look you gave me that you'd had enough." She sat down on the bed next to him, smoothing his hair with her hand. "You have no idea how good it is to see your eyes open." Tommy took her hand in his, and she gave him a teary smile. "Do you think you can answer some questions for me?"
She has questions? Is anyone planning on telling me how the hell I ended up in a hospital bed? With an inward sigh he gave his mother a cooperative smile. Hopefully after I answer her questions she'll explain what happened to me.
"Squeeze my hand once for yes and twice for no, okay?" He squeezed her hand once to show that he understood. "Do you feel any sharp pains anywhere?" His response was two firm squeezes. "Can you feel all of your body? Hands, fingers, toes…" One squeeze. "Good. Can you move your body?"
He shifted in the bed, wiggling his toes and fingers, bending his knees. It felt to him like his body had a delayed reaction to the commands his brain sent out. How do I answer this? She should have given me an option of 'I don't know'. I wonder if I can shrug my shoulders. He shrugged slightly, and she laughed. "Well I'm glad you can do that much!"
She jumped as the door burst open and Tom Oliver ran into the room. "Jan, Jason just called me. Is he…" His eyes drifted to the young man propped up in bed. In one long stride Tom made it to the bed and pulled his son into his arms. "Oh God, Tommy…we were so worried about you!"
Tommy returned the hug as best he could with his limp arms. His father's grasp was gentle and warm, and it felt wonderful to be held. After a long while he was released from the bear hug. His father pulled away, and Tommy was shocked to see tears in his eyes. He had never in his life seen his father cry, and the presence of tears only further endorsed the seriousness of his illness.
Tom wiped a tear that escaped from his eye and smiled at Tommy. "Thank God you are all right. Don't you ever scare us like that again, you understand? Never again!" The ferocity of those words did not hide the fear that Tommy read in his father's face.
Jan took her husband's hand with a smile. "Everything has checked out so far, so I'm expecting that he will be good as new after a few weeks. It will take a little while to get the use of his vocal cords back, so we'll just have to find other ways to communicate."
She ran her fingers once more through his hair and laid a gently kiss on his forehead.
Tommy was getting impatient. As much as he loved his parents, he wanted to see his friends and find out what he had missed. He gave his mother a pleading glance, pointing to the group picture that sat on the bedside table. She smiled, "Are you trying to tell us to get out of your hair so you can see your friends?"
His parents laughed at his emphatic nod. "All right, I'll go get them. They've certainly been patient enough." His father paused, picking up the picture. "You certainly have an amazing group of friends, Tommy. Not a day has gone by that they weren't here at some point, checking up on you. You're very lucky, not many people find one friend like that in their lives. You have an entire group of them." Returning the picture to it's place on the table, his father left the room.
His mother smiled at him. "I thought you should know that Jason barely left your side."
What? He looked up at her with questioning eyes. What does she mean, he barely left my side. Didn't he have school?
"He was at the house when…" Her voice caught, and she paused for a second, just long enough to make Tommy even more curious. "He was there when we brought you here, and I had to resort to threats to get him to leave the hospital to eat or shower. He even slept here, right in that bed." She pointed to an empty cot in the corner. "He's been by your side the entire time."
This really shouldn't surprise me. After all, I wouldn't have left his side either. And now I know for sure that things are okay between the two of us. We'll work everything out and be best friends again, just like we used to be. He ignored the small voice in his head that said it wasn't enough.