Wes, Jen, Eric and all other characters from Power Rangers belong to Disney/Saban. I am using them without permission, however I have not and don't expect to make money from this.
Gaby, Chris, and Proteus are mine.

Rated T: mild language, violence, sexual references, and danger to a child.

A/N: This is a sequel to 'Reversals of Fortune' and part of my AU 'Year of Time' series. It can, however, stand alone, with most of the background from the series being mentioned along the way.

Reviews are always appreciated.

Tapestry

In Your Dreams

- - -

"Hon? I'm leaving."

"Hmm? Oh. See you later." Jen kept on combing her hair mechanically, not really aware that Wes was still in their room until he spoke again.

"Are you okay?"

The tone of worry finally penetrated the haze that seemed to have settled over her in the last week. With an effort, she turned on her chair in front of the vanity mirror and smiled up at him. "Of course I'm okay. A little - a little tired of staying home all the time, maybe."

He smiled eagerly. "You can go back to work as soon as you feel up to it. Not like we don't have a houseful of people to take care of the baby."

"But I'm his mother." She turned back to the mirror, but her hand with the comb, and her gaze, sank dejectedly into her lap. "I should stay with him for at least three months, like we decided. Bonding. Like the doctor said."

"Hey..." Wes pulled up another chair and sat, his hand rising to gently stroke the side of her face and brush back her hair. "If you don't want to stay home, don't. You could work part-time for awhile. I could take more time off myself. A father needs to do some bonding too."

"Maybe." She didn't even have the energy to argue. Certainly she had no will to tell him that fatigue or boredom weren't the real problem.

"Well... think about it. Let me know. We'll do whatever you want." Wes leaned forward to kiss her.

She responded as best she could, and smiled, and tried not to notice the worried look he cast back at her from the doorway. She tried not to look at the clock, and not to dread the single, summoning cry she knew she would soon hear from the nursery if she didn't go in for Junior's feeding. She tried not to shudder at the thought of him at her breast, those eyes staring up at her, watching her in that cold, inhuman way.

"Oh God..." she moaned, quietly so no one would hear. How could she be thinking about an innocent child like that? "What's wrong with me...?"

- - -

Wes hesitated before he silently pushed the nursery door open and looked in. As he had expected, Junior was awake, lying in his crib looking up at the mobile suspended over him. Not moving around, not sleeping, not crying. Just looking. Abruptly the child's eyes turned to him. No reaction, no waving arms, no expression. Just watching, the way an adult would watch, not a baby. The whole thing, the way the kid looked at you, as if he could see right through you... it was starting to be - creepy.

No way he could tell Jen he suspected something was wrong with their baby. No, she had gone through so much in her life, it couldn't be true. All the usual tests had been done at the hospital. No problems with vision or hearing. Junior was alert and responsive and equipped with a full set of reflexes. They said he was a normal, healthy baby, no signs of anything wrong. Nothing except that he just didn't act like a normal baby.

- - -

Silver City, 3005

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Katie asked, for the third time.

"Sure I'm sure. Nothing to it." Trip smiled up at her from the cot he was lying on, hoping his nervousness didn't show.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay with you?"

"Yes. Easier for me to concentrate if I'm alone."

"Okay." She bent far enough to pat his shoulder, and looked up at the technician who was waiting by the bed. "Take care of him, okay?"

"This really isn't a dangerous procedure," the man said. "Just a sleep-inducing field, combined with brain activity amplification. We use it all the time to enhance telepathic communication."

"Yeah, but on experienced professional telepaths. And we don't know for sure who he'll be communicating with. Just be careful."

"We'll be monitoring him. If anything goes wrong we'll pull him out."

"Don't worry, Katie," Trip said. "I'm ready."

"I'll be in the next room if you need me."

"I know, Katie."

"Just call if you need me."

"See you later, Katie."

The technician was looking amused as he swung a ring of electrodes and field projectors over Trip's head. It clicked into place. Then the door closed behind him and Katie, and Trip was alone. He sighed, and looked up at the ceiling, and wondered how long this would take, and whether he would feel anything when they activated the machinery...

He blinked and looked up. Trip was standing in his bathroom, splashing cold water on his face and letting the sensation chase the last traces of drowsiness from his mind. A moment later he was drying off - closing his eyes as the towel absorbed the moisture, feeling a little scratchy against his skin. Opening them again, he looked into the mirror. A woman's face looked back, a round face framed with green hair, his own face in female form. As he stared in surprise, she smiled.

They were in a room. Slowly a light brightened above them, until he could see the table at which they were sitting, facing each other. She smiled again, her eyes warm. With a quick glance around, he recognized where they were, in the same Time Force break room where he had told Katie and Lucas about his dream. Then he returned his attention to his feminine mirror image.

"You're Trip," she said.

"You must be Trix."

"Yes." Her smile intensified. "I was hoping you'd think of using a telepathic enhancer, and that we'd both be using it at the same time. I had a feeling you would, though, since our worlds are so parallel. Wow, it's great to finally meet you face to face, sort of, instead of just trying to get into your dreams."

He was grinning too, now. "Yeah, wow! Man, you look just like me."

"I am you. But this is pretty weird for me, too. I guess you figured out from the dreams that I was trying to tell you about Proteus?"

"Yeah. I got that he's some kind of bodiless, mind-controlling mutant - and he - he possessed Jen and Wes's baby, when they were in your dimension."

Her expression was serious now. "That's right."

"What else can you tell me about him?"

"I'm not sure how much you got from the dreams. Proteus started out as a normal, or almost normal, human being who lived in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. In 2006, he would have been about the same age as Jon and Wendy - or Jen and Wes, in your world. We have evidence that he had the ability to influence other people mentally, but it wasn't very strong at that time. He may not have even known he was a mutant.

"His powers didn't become obvious until he died - and his mind survived, outside his body. He - he can get inside other people - adults if they're asleep, or unconscious - or if they agree and let him in. But an adult mind can fight him. He found out pretty quickly that he can control small children, or babies, completely. So that's what he usually does. Stays in them until they get old, or sick, or he decides he wants someone new."

"And after he leaves one of those kids?" Trip asked, feeling slightly sick. "What happens to them?"

"If he's controlled them for years, they've never really lived, never had a chance to develop mentally. He'll leave an adult body with the mind of a baby. Their lives are destroyed."

"That's - that's horrible." Trip looked up in alarm. "And that's what you think he's going to do to Jen and Wes's baby?"

"If we can't stop him."

"What can we do?"

She leaned forward. "If we can find him - we have a weapon that can capture him, even if he's inside someone, and put him in a temporary containment field. We can bring him here where our Time Force can put him back in prison. If we can do it soon, the baby should be all right."

"But - how?"

"My Time Force has a weapon that can stop Proteus. Your Time Force has the technology for dimensional travel. Can you bring us there?"

"I... I guess we could... Yeah, I'm sure we could!"

"So we could shift to your dimension-"

"-and all of us can go after Proteus in 2006-"

"-and bring him back to our universe-"

"-and save Jen and Wes's baby!" Trip sat back with a grin. "I'll have to convince Captain Logan and Alex. But I think I can at least get them to look into it, and if you're right we should find some evidence in the timestream and maybe our records of the dimensional experiment."

She matched his grin. "Yeah! We can do this! Can't wait to really meet you!"

"Me either! And Kevin and Lucie!"

"Yeah." Her smile turned almost shy. "So I guess I'll be seeing you soon, I hope."

He nodded, and then, "One more question... Does Proteus exist in our world?"

"Everyone else does. He should too."

"I never heard of him. We don't know anything about him."

She frowned slightly. "That's kind of strange... Not all the same things happened in our two worlds, but it seemed like the people are all duplicated. Don't know why this would be different."

"Maybe we can try to find him - the original Proteus - when we go back to 2006."

"Maybe. But remember we can't interfere with the past, unless he's involved in this somehow. And remember..." The light was dimming slowly. Her face and voice were fading. Trip leaned forward to catch her last words, even as the reality of the lab room he knew he was really lying in began to swim back into his consciousness. "In your universe - Proteus is a woman."

- - -

Silver Hills, 2006

Chris Tutto glanced at the clock again. Her next appointment was late. She got up and paced to the window of the apartment room she used as an office, looking out at the street briefly. Better face it; they probably weren't coming, leaving her to wonder whether Mr. Parkinson had caught on that his daughter's very expensive treatment would never produce a permanent cure - or if Mrs. Parkinson had caught on that her husband was getting more than professional services.

Her lip curled. Too bad. She had done well here in Silver Hills, helping the troubled children of the wealthy - and helping herself too, of course - and the loss of one patient wasn't going to stop her. With her talent for influencing people, especially children, there were always more prospects. Like the one luck had thrown in her path a little over a week ago, in the very attractive form of Wesley Collins - a rich family, a first child, a good-looking young father... Everything she could want in a client. New parents always had problems, or at least there was always something she could convince them they needed help with.

But he hadn't called after her visit to Bio-Lab. How to get to him again without seeming obvious or desperate? There was always a way... and there might be one now. At first, when she had been called to testify in the indictment hearing against the bank robbers who had taken her hostage, she had thought of it as an inconvenience - but over a lifetime of living by her wits she had learned how to turn such things to her advantage, and this might be no exception. On impulse, she crossed the room, picked up the telephone, found the number she had used before, and dialed it.

"Silver Guardians HQ, this is Leslie, how may I help you?"

"Yes - I'm calling from the county criminal courthouse. I'd like to confirm that Wesley Collins is scheduled to testify for the grand jury on Wednesday."

"I'll check..." There was a short pause, and then, "Yes, a court date is in his calendar. Eleven o'clock Wednesday morning."

"Good. Thank you so much. Goodbye."

Chris smiled as she lowered the phone. Her own appointment was for later - but she'd make sure she showed up in plenty of time to 'accidentally' bump into Wes. She had no intention of letting him get away - not without a struggle - not when he had so much to offer - and not when getting her hands on it would be such a pleasure.

- - -

"Ohhh, isn't he cuuute?" Gaby leaned over the crib with another couple of equally ecstatic exclamations as Eric rolled his eyes. "And he's such a good baby! Can I pick him up?"

"Go ahead," Jen said from the nursery doorway.

"Be sure to support his head," Wes said anxiously.

"I know; I used to do a lot of baby-sitting. Helped raise my little cousins." Carefully, Gaby reached down and lifted the child. With him cradled in one arm, she picked up a rattle and shook it a few inches from his face. "Hi there! Hi, cutie!" she crooned.

"If you start with the baby talk, I'm gonna puke," Eric muttered, just loudly enough to be heard.

"Oh, cut it out. How can you talk like that in front of an innocent little baby? Aw, don't worry, sweetie, Auntie Gaby's not mad at you..."

"He doesn't look very worried," Eric remarked dryly.

"He doesn't, does he?" The baby watched her steadily as she jiggled him gently and shook the rattle again.

"What do you think?" Wes asked, a hint of anxiety in his tone. "I mean... shouldn't he be - I don't know, more playful or something?"

"Well, every baby's different." Gaby hesitated just a little. "Most kids would react to anything moving close to them like this, but maybe he's..."

"Hey, there he goes!" Wes exclaimed. The baby had shifted his attention to the rattle, reaching a hand towards it, as if on cue. "Jen, look!"

"I see. That's great." Jen was still standing a few steps back. Her smile looked a little forced.

"Such a good baby! Aren't you? Aren't you? Yes, you are!"

Eric snorted. "Watch out, this time he's about to puke." He frowned. The child did look - impatient. Or annoyed. Or something.

"Let's go downstairs. Dinner's waiting," Jen said.

Reluctantly, Gaby lowered the baby back into the crib and lingered for a moment. "I hope he doesn't cry. Some babies hate to be put down."

"Don't worry; he won't cry. He never does." Jen smiled a little more naturally as she took Wes's hand. "Shall we?"

"Cute kid," Gaby said softly as they started down the staircase after Wes and Jen.

"Don't get ideas," Eric muttered.

"Don't worry. At least not for another year or two..." Gaby laughed at his expression. "All I have to do is remember what your baby would probably be like. Crying all the time - throwing things - grabbing at everything he sees..."

"My kind of kid. This one is..." He paused. "I dunno. He's so quiet. And the way he looks at you - it's kinda weird, if you ask me."

To his surprise, instead of the denial or rebuke he expected, she frowned and lowered her voice. "I know what you mean."

"Yeah?" He stopped and tightened his grip on her hand. "You think something's - well - wrong with the kid?"

"I'm sure it's nothing. He's just a good, quiet baby."

"I hope so. But did you see the way Jen acted? She didn't even go near the crib."

"She's tired. You would be too, after being pregnant and giving birth." Gaby sighed. "Maybe we shouldn't have come over so soon."

"It's been a week. Besides, Jen's got to eat. It's not like she cooked dinner herself."

"I guess. And maybe she could use the company. Wes too, he looks a little down. Try to be nice, will you? Cheer them up?"

"When am I not nice?"

"Do you really want an answer to that?" But she giggled and rose on tiptoe to kiss his cheek.

"Hey, are you two coming or should we start without you?" Wes had come back to the foot of the stairs and was smiling up at them.

"On our way." Eric led Gaby down to join his friend and partner. In the interest of niceness, he even offered a smile and dropped a hand on Wes's shoulder as they started into the dining room, and resolved to ignore the unease that still nagged at him.

- - -

TBC...