Chapter 5

Tommy's Pov

It took nearly a month but eventually I was able to demorph, be visible and finely be myself again. My old friend Anton Mercer/ Trent's dad took over teaching my class in my absence. We fought and defeated my failed experiment Fossilador. Trent was finally freed from the darkness of his Dino Gem, which allowed him to join the rest of the team but needing completely earn their trust. When the evil White Ranger Clone appeared I took Trent to the sight wherein knew an ancient artifact was waiting. The Shield of Triumph was finally brought out of its hiding place and Connor was finally ready for it. With is power Hayley made a new Zord, the Mezadon Rover. Connor used it to take out a destructive new toy that Zeltrax had made, well I made it on to his ship. I had a fierce battle with my former friend turned cyborg and I reluctantly had to defeat him forever.

During all this I texted Zara every night so she knew I was thinking about her, and Tobi. As a thank you for the bed frame Tobi had made me a nice get well card that he drew dinosaurs all over it with a picture of him and Zara holding hands, well waving. It was sweet and I felt bad for lying about being sick but I knew that I couldn't revile that I'm the Black Ranger. Even after doing this for years it never gets easier to keep secrets from those I care about. I was told well I was in a coma, in the hospital Zara and Tobi had visited. The little guy had apparently fallen asleep laying next to me well Hayley and Zara had been talking.

Finally I was able to go back to school and I was happily parked next to Zara's- minivan? I was confused to see a black van where Zara always parked and checking the back I did see Tobi's car seat. So after dropping my briefcase off at my class I went to see Zara who gave me a hug and kiss. "Sally has official kicked the bucket. Her radiator blew beyond repair and it will cost to much for it to be worth me to buy a new one. Thankfully Hayley says she know someone who is trying to sell their old Toyota Carole for a decent price and with selling Sally off to a chop yard, it should all work out." She explained when I asked.

"So the van is a rental then?" I asked.

"Ya and I only have it till the day after tomorrow as that's all my insurance will cover before I pay out of my own pocket. Hopefully I'll have the car by then, though I still need to test drive it today after school. I don't suppose you would know a lot about cars and I don't know want to come with and check it over for me?" Zara asked with a bit of hope in her voice.

"As a matter of fact I do have a bit of car know how, though I can't help but feel you have another motive in mind." I said as I hoped this was the case.

"Your right I do." Zara said as she took a quick look around, seeing that we were the only ones in the gym before she grabbed my tie and pulled me for a heated kiss. I kissed her back as I put my hands on her hips, pulling her against me well her hand left my tie and up around my neck. When we pulled back her face was a bit flush but she was smiling. "Is that enough of a motive for you?"

"It sure is." I said as I reluctantly let her go. "By the way how's Tobi's new bed holding up?"

"I haven't seen him this excited to go to bed in years." Zara said as she laughed but then she frowned which worried me before she asked. "I didn't know that you and Anton Mercer, Trent Fernandez's adoptive father were old friends?"

This caused me to frown. "Ya his is, did he tell you that?"

"Yes he did and I have to say there's something up with him. Don't ask me what, as I don't know for sure but I picked up this bad vibe from him. Also he seemed very interested in our relationship, which isn't a big secret by the way, and about Tobi." I could see that she was worried, though I don't know why.

"What do you mean he was interested in Tobi?" Zara bit her lip, her eyes showing an inner battle of shorts going in her head. She then nodded her head and had just opened her mouth when the 5 minuet warning bell rang, making her scowl at the roof. When she looked at me again Zara half smiled. "I'll have to tell you later, after school?"

"Sure. Then we can set a time for that first date we still need to have." I was glade to see this comment made her smile, before I kissed her and left the gym. Now I was worried about what Anton was up to with questioning my girlfriend. 'Wait, girlfriend?' That thought made me stop in my tracks. Could I really call Zara my girl, we hadn't even gone on a first official date yet. Were we even classified as a couple?

-o0o-

Near the end of the school day there was a sudden running in the hall which caught my attention, so I stopped my lecture and went out into the hall to investigate. There were a few students I knew that had gym this period were running past, thankfully one boy came running right up to me. "Dr. O, you need to stop Mrs. Rodgers, she's flipped her lid."

"What do you mean she flipped?" I asked.

"She got a call from the police that her son and his entire call were kidnapped by those dinosaur monsters." I felt my blood run cold as I ducked back into my class to dismiss them before running as fast as I could to the parking lot. I made it out the doors in time to see the van she was renting drive out of sight. I'm not one for swearing but I did this time as Connor, Trent, Kira and Ethan ran out.

"Whoa Dr. O I didn't think you had it in you." Ethan commented in a half joking manner which earned him a glare from me silencing him immediately.

"We need to find out where those Tryannodrones are holding those kids and fast before Zara dose something she can't take back." I ordered running over to my jeep. Thankfully Hayley had already heard about the situation and informed us on where we could find them. I did tell her about Zara possibly showing up there and to keep an eye out for her as we morphed and headed right over. It seemed the drones were being led by the Evil White Ranger Clone and they were in an old abandoned warehouse. As we arrived Hayley informed me that she had located Zara on the roof of the building across from the big bay doors of the warehouse. So I told the others to sneak in and try to get to the kids well I went to confront Zara.

Her back was to me as I stealthily approached from the west side fire escape, and I took notice that she had clearly made a stop at her house. I saw her long bow along with its quiver strapped on to her back which her braided hair was laying on top of as she looked down at the situation through binoculars. I must not have been a quite as I thought because faster then I expected from her, Zara pulled out and pointed a hand gun right at me. I held my hands up in surrender, not sure I liked the angry but focused look on her face. "Don't shot, I'm here to help."

Zara snorted as she turned the safety back on her gun before she holstered it again on the small of her back. "More likely you want me to stand down, which won't be happening till my son and all those kids are safe."

"I understand you want to save your son but listen, you need to leave this to the other power rangers and myself. I promise you we will get them all out safely." I tried to reason with her but I flinched at the glare she sent my way.

"I've already lost my husband, I am not trusting my son's life to a bunch of reckless teens." She snapped as she stood and headed towards the other fire escape. "Besides you lot should have dealt with monster behind these things by now. I'm going down there so you can either help me or stay out of my way."

I grabbed her arm in a firm grip. "I can't let you do that and I'm sorry for what I'm about to do." She looked at me funny before I hit the back of her head, knocking her out cold. I carefully carried her down, avoiding her bow in the process and headed over to the van. I felt bad about having to knock her out like this as I knew she would have a monster of a headache, but I wanted her safely out of my team's way.

The others had just started to attack the drones, having gotten between them and the kids by the time I got there. I attacked the Whit Ranger Clone from behind, which sent him flying far away from the kids and any possible support from the Tryannadrones. The battle between me and the clone was fierce with nether of us making it easy in gaining or losing any advantage. In the end I sent him packing and I helped the others in taking out the last of the drones. The kids all cheered as they surrounded us, Tobi running right up to me and I knelt so he could give me a hug. "Hello again kido, I hope you've been good and keeping your promise."

Tobi nodded enthusiastically "Yep, I've been really good at listening to my mom and not wondering off."

"I'm happy to hear that, and I'm glade you and your friends are alright." I told him as I looked him over for any injures. He simply smiled at me as the sound sirens reached our ears, which meant we had to go. So I rubbed Tobi's hair before I and the others left, heading back to my house. "So Dr. O was Mrs. Rodgers there?" Trent asked.

"Oh ya she was there, and she pulled a gun on me." I informed them as I collapsed in my desk chair.

I could see that they were all a bit taken back by this bit of news. "She pulled a gun on you?" Ethan asked in surprise, which I confirmed for him again with a head nod. "I take it back she not a protective mama, shes a commando mama that you clearly don't want to piss off."

"Wait if she was armed then why didn't she come in and attack?" Hayley asked confused.

"I may have knocked her out and put her in the back of the van shes currently renting." I said as I looked away from them all, ashamed of what I had done to my semi-girlfriend.

"Dude that's cold, having to knock out your own girlfriend. Its good that she doesn't know it was you under the mask." Connor said earning a slap on the back of the head from both the women in the room.

"Thanks Connor that makes me feel so much better." I told him bitterly as I got up and started to pace the room "I don't even know if I can call Zara my girlfriend but I couldn't just let her storm in there with a gun or her arrows. What if she had missed a drone and accidently shot one of the kids, or worse Tobi?" Just then my phone rang and even though I didn't recognize the number I answered it. "Hello?"

("Is this Thomas Oliver?") A woman's voice asked kindly, though she sounded very familiar.

"Yes."

("Hi this is Dain from Sunny Side Daycare, I hope you remember me. Zara recently put you down as Tobi's secondary contact and I don't know if you had heard about the circumstances that occurred on his class's field trip.")

"Oh I had heard about it, is there something wrong?" I asked concerned now as I hadn't know I was Tobi secondary emergency contact. Also now I was worried if I had hit Zara too hard.

("Well the children were all rescued by the power rangers and their all fine but its Zara, she hasn't answered my calls or come yet to- oh wait never mind she just walked in the door. Sorry if I scared you just now. You have a good day Mr. Oliver.") With that Dain hung up and I found I had to let the breath of air I hadn't known I was holding out.

"Um who was that?" Kira asked.

"Tobi's daycare. I am apparently his secondary emergency contact and Zara hadn't arrived to pick him up yet. She thankfully was just walking in the door as we were talking." I explained well I slumped in a chair before rubbing my hands though my hair.

Hayley walked over and knelt next to me. "You alright?"

"I don't know. I feared for a seconded that I had hit her too hard and she wasn't going to wake up because I couldn't control my strength well morphed." I told her feeling like such a fool.

"Hey don't sweat it Dr. O she showed up to pick up Tobi and who knows she might just call you later to vent at how up set she is with your alter ego." Ethan earned another glare not just from me but the others for that one.

Though it seemed that he was right as around 10 at night just as I was finishing up grading some papers and about to head to bed I got a text from Zara. 'I know it's late but we need to talk. Can you come over, please?' I didn't like the look of this but I wanted to see how she was doing after the day's events so I replayed yes. 'Just come around back, I'm sitting on the deck outside.'

So off I went, arriving at her place half an hour later and walked around to the back yard where I could see a glow coming from. Zara was seated on the edge of the deck staring into a fire she had going in a small fire pit. She didn't look so good, in fact she looked drunk, which would not have surprised me with the ten empty beer bottles that currently surrounded her. Number eleven was already half empty in her hands as I moved some of the bottles and sat next to her.

Before I could say a word she spoke. "There's something I need to tell you Tommy but I'm not sure how you're going to take it. I understand if you want nothing to do with me after I tell you." I heard the sadness in her voice but there was another emotion that I couldn't place that underlined it. I wrapped an arm around her and held her to my side in what I hoped was a comforting manner.

"I'm not going anywhere."

A/N: So I do have more of the story written but I want to hear what you all think so please let me know how this is going so far. I'll post the next few in a week.