Chapter 12
The paramedics arrived fairly quickly at the Cyberspace and proceeded to start working on getting Conner loaded into the
ambulance. It was difficult at first because they had to first move everyone as far away from the young man as they could,
then they were forced to stablilize his body as they turned him over onto his back. Once on his back, the paramedics once
again stabalized his head and neck as they turned him onto his side and slipped the backboard underneath him. As they loaded
him up onto the stretcher, the others started surrounding him as they wheeled him to the ambulance waiting outside.
Once outside, the group of friends watched as Conner was loaded into the ambulance. One of the paramedics looked at the group
as the others got everything set up inside.
"There's enough room for one of you to ride in the ambulance with him. Who wants to?" He asked.
The seven of them all looked at each other and it was mutually agreed without words that Kira should ride with him.
"I'll go." Kira said in a whisper.
"Hop on up there. I trust we'll see the rest of you at the hospital?"
"We'll be right behind you." Tommy said.
The paramedics finished up with the prep work and they closed the doors. The last thing Tommy and company saw before the doors closed was Kira holding Conner's hand and wiping the hair away from his face. As the paramedics drove off, Tommy looked at the group before him.
"Ethan, Hayley, you ride with me. Jase, you go with Kim and Anna."
"You got it Tom." Jason said.
Inside the ambulance, Kira Ford looked at the unconscious body of her crush Conner McKnight with mixed emotions running through
her.'how did this happen? Who did this to you? What happened to you that made your morpher be stuck between the trash cans'
She was confused, scared, and angry all at once. She was so entranced with Conner that she didn't even realize that the
ambulance had stopped. When the back doors to the paramedics opened, she was snapped out of her reverie. As they pulled the
stretcher out, Kira also stepped out and found the rest of the gang there as well. They checked into the hospital and were
shown to the waiting room while the doctors took Conner to the room that was set up for him. After about fifteen minutes
of pure hell for Kira, the doctor came out of the room with a diagnosis.
"Well, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is he has no internal bleeding but the bad news is he does have internal injuries such as four broken ribs. He also suffered a seperated shoulder and dislocated elbow from impacting the ground and the obvious cuts and scrapes from flying through the window. Also, he's still unconscious and we don't know how long he will be in that state. You said he was unconscious when you reached him correct?"
"Yes. He came through the window, and proceeded to roll and he came to a stop at the counter face down and I was the first to reach him. He was already unconscious." Tommy stated.
"At what time did this occur?"
"About 9:45."
"That is too soon to make a diagnosis, within the first hour, it is almost impossible to tell if the state he's in right now will last. He could wake up in ten minutes and be really sore or he could stay in this state for an extended period of time."
"What happens if he stays in this state?" Ethan asked.
"If he shows no improvement within two hours, I have to declare Conner McKnight comatose."
"Thank you doctor." Hayley said.
As Tommy watched the doctor leave to his other duties he couldn't help but blame himself and it showed in his body language.
Jason noticed it right away and made his way over to his friend.
"You okay, Tom?"
"This is all my fault. If I hadn't cut him off when he called me-"
"Stop. Tommy, you had no idea this would happen. How could you? You had enough on your mind as it was. Nobody knew that this was going to happen and there is nothing no one can do about it. The only person who knew about this is the person that did this to Conner. We don't know who that person is yet, only Conner does and he's not exactly capable of telling us."
"Yeah but still-"
"No. Now's not the time to play 'what if', you have to be strong in this situation. You're not seventeen years old anymore,
and neither am I. Back then, we could break, because we had Zordon and Alpha to be strong for us. Zordon and Alpha aren't
here. You're the leader now and you see them?" He pointed to Ethan and Kira on the other side of the room. "They need you
to be strong. They've already broken. They broke the second Conner came through that window. They see you break and it's over.
You decided to create a new team of rangers and be their mentor, now you have to get them through this tough time."
"But I'm a ranger too."
"Yes, you are. But before that, you are their teacher, mentor, and friend. The rangers need their mentor to tell them that it's going to be okay."
"I can't do that. I can't lie to them. I don't know if it will be okay."
"I know, but you have to. How many times did Zordon do that for us?"
"Okay. I'll do what I can."
"That's all that I ask."
Suddenly a voice from the other side of the waiting room caught the attention of the everyone in the group.
"Hey. What's that?" Anna asked as she pointed to Kira's wrist.
Kira had been sitting with Ethan in the waiting room crying. She had lifted her hand up to wipe away the tears when the sleeve on her shirt had rode up her arm, revealing a bracelet. When she noticed what Anna was talking about, she quickly brought her sleeve back down to cover it up.
"Nothing."
"Oh, come on. What is it?"
"It's a friendship bracelet that was given to me."
"Yeah, see I have one too." Ethan interrupted. "Why do you ask?"
"It looks like the thing I found in the alley but that one had a T-Rex head on it and yours has nothing but that rock."
"Are you sure, Anna. Maybe you didn't look at it right." Hayley said.
"No, it's the same thing, same width, same everything. Hey Dr. O, can I see that bracelet I gave you?"
"Yeah, hold on."
Tommy reached into his back pocket to retreive the bracelet. He hesitated in giving it to Anna. He didn't like how this was going and everyone but Anna and Kim knew it. He held it out for her to see.
"Wait a minute, the T-Rex is gone, now it's got a rock in it like yours. Here, let me have it."
Anna made a move to take it out of Tommy's hand but Tommy didn't let go.
"Dr. O, let me see it, I need to see if it really is the same as the others." Tommy didn't let go.
"Tommy, let go." Kim said. Still Tommy wouldn't let go, if anything his grip tightened on the bracelet.
Kim had had enough of this game that Tommy was playing. She karate chopped his arm forcing him to release the bracelet.
Tommy instantly tended to the spot that Kim had hit, completely forgetting about his bracelet. It wasn't exposed as much
as Kira's was but the undeniable glint to the silver had not been missed by Kim. She raced to him and exposed his wrist
completely. Everyone was now huddled into a small circle around the two of them.
"You have one too?" Kim asked.
Tommy shook his head in agreement.
"What's going on Tommy? Something tells me these aren't your ordinary friendship bracelets."
Tommy looked at everyone, trying to get an answer from their faces. Jason, Kira, Hayley and Ethan all had looks on their faces that would be of no help to Tommy. He had been caught and so had the others. He had to tell Anna and Kim the truth.
"That's because they're not. They're communicators and power morphers."
Kim sighed and closed her eyes before answering him.
"Another one Tommy? Another color?"
"Black. And I'm pretty sure that you two can guess who the red one belongs to."
"Conner." Kim stated.
"You mean, you guys are-?" Anna asked.
"The power rangers." Tommy answered in a whisper.
"Oh shit. Here we go again." Kim said as she walked back to her chair and sat down.
"Look, why don't you and Anna come with me and we'll talk this out?"
"Anna already knows about our past. She overheard me and Jason talking about it last night."
"Then why don't just you come? Jason and Hayley can watch over the kids. There is quite a bit we need to talk about anyway,
this will just add on to the list."
Kim thought about it for a while. Yes, a talk between the two of them was needed but she didn't think that this was the time for it. However she knew that if she walked out of this hospital without talking to Tommy, she would never talk to him.
"Alright, Let's go."
TBC.