Author's Note: I should have forewarned readers that this is NOT an Adam/Tanya fic, despite the second chapter's suggestions. They are dating at the current moment, but they will be breaking up in the next few chapters. Sorry to spoil this bit of news, though it isn't really that important to the plot. So, for all of you who are Adam/Tanya fans, sorry about this but go out into fanfiction and find something else to read that's more suitable. Thank you.

Chapter 3: A Glimpse into Friendships

One day later…

"Do you ever worry?" Kat broke through the silence, staring sideways at her friend. Tanya's springy hair whipped her face, a thoughtful expression crossing her face.

"What about?" She asked.

"You and Adam breaking up," Kat replied. It wasn't a question she would normally ask Tanya, who was very uncomfortable when it came to her relationship with Adam. But Kat supposed now was more of an appropriate time for the Yellow Ranger to reconsider her relationship with the Black Ranger.

Tanya shrugged, "Sometimes. But I'm just trying to take things one at a time. Luckily, I haven't fallen in love with him or anything yet. It'll hurt more if we did break up and I did love him."

"Will you ever love him?" Kat inquired inquisitively.

"I hope, someday. He's such a sweet boy, but he's so insecure. I don't know if there's a chance we can love each other." Tanya replied sadly.

Kat embraced her friend. "Don't worry, Tanya. Love takes time."

"I know, and besides, we're still very young. How many people can say that they found their soul mates when they're 16?"

"Elizabeth and Rocky," Kat grinned mischievously.

Tanya laughed heartily, "You saw it too, didn't you?"

Kat nodded, "When I first moved here, I thought I sensed a close link between them. I even asked if they were dating, but they surprised me by saying they were dating different people. I always thought they belonged together."

"I hope they recognize it, especially since Rocky just lost Jen. Maybe he'll realize Elizabeth's been there for him all the time." Tanya reasoned. "And it'll relieve my worries too, if they fall in love."

"How so?" Kat questioned.

"Then I'll know whether or not Adam really loves Elizabeth."

At the beach…

"I thought you'd be here," Adam fell next to a pensive Elizabeth, who jerked slightly but relaxed when she saw who it was.

"Hi Adam," she beamed. "What have you been up to?"

"Fixing up the shelters, but it's almost done. What about you?"

"I'm just thinking. This could be a new hangout spot. It's comfortable enough and very peaceful." Elizabeth remarked.

"But it doesn't carry Ernie's smoothies." Adam retorted.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, "Guys and food,"

Adam laughed, "More like Rocky and food, but I guess I earned that."

Elizabeth smiled softly, "Adam, you're my best friend."

"And you're mine too," he replied confidently.

"We'll always be best friends, right?" She asked, her green eyes piercing his.

"Of course, nothing will change that." He affirmed.

"Good," she smiled, turning back to the waves. "You know, ever since I was young, I believed that you, me, and Rocky would end up together." Adam raised an eyebrow in question and curiosity, urging that she continue. "Remember the eighth grade dinner dance we had before graduation?" Adam nodded. "Well, I was getting some punch by the punch bowl, and Megan McCauley came by and said, 'I don't get it. Are you going out with Adam or Rocky?' And I said, 'Why does it matter?' And she said, 'Because you can't spend the rest of your life with both of them. You can only choose one.' So I looked around the dance floor and I spotted you and Rocky standing near a wall, talking, and I turned to Megan and I told her, 'There, there are the two boys that I will spend the rest of my life with.'"

"But--" Adam interjected, puzzled. They hadn't even graduated yet, and she was discussing this like she already knew the future.

"No," Elizabeth interrupted, pushing a finger on his lips. "I'm going to spend the rest of my life with you and Rocky. It doesn't matter to me whether you're going to be married, or Rocky's going to be married, or I'm going to be married. I just know that 50 years from now, we're going to live down the street from one another, rocking in our creaking chairs, watching our grandchildren play with each other and complain that kids are so irresponsible."

Adam chuckled, glancing up to see Elizabeth's eyes were brimming with tears. He reached over and wiped a tear away, smiling faintly.

"I love you, Elizabeth. I always will." He whispered. "You're my best friend. You are my pillar of strength, my conscience, my heart…" He stared directly into her green, shimmering eyes and smiled. "I am who I am today because of you."

Elizabeth regarded Adam with a strange, bewildered look, as though she was seeing him for the first time in years. "That's the sweetest thing you've ever said to me." She responded. Adam blushed furiously red.

"Elizabeth, I--" But before he could say anything, another voice, more fiery and flamboyant, called out to the withdrawn couple.

"Elizabeth! Adam!" Rocky skidded to a halt, sprinkling his friends with light dusts of sand. Elizabeth brushed out the sand from her clothes and beamed at Rocky with obvious delight.

"Hi Rocky, what have you been up to?" She asked, scooting over so that Rocky could sit beside her.

"Just hanging around, talking to people," He replied nonchalantly. He turned to Adam with a smile- "Miss Sloan is looking for you, by the way."

Adam grinned coyly, "What did she say?"

"She said if you don't get your butt over to the caves in three seconds, you're putty-toast." Rocky laughed hysterically. Adam rolled his eyes and knocked Rocky down, and the two boys began to wrestle. Rocky managed to free himself from Adam's grasp and began running along the beach.

"You…are…going…to…die," Adam shouted, and then raced towards Rocky, who bolted away, laughing.

Elizabeth stared after them for a moment, thinking: What are they, twelve? She brushed off the sand from her shorts and stood up slowly, looking up just in time to see Adam jump on Rocky, knock him over, and begin tossing sand into his shirt. Rocky yelled, and began scrabbling in the sand with his fingers in an attempt to make a sand ball. Looking at them, she suddenly saw another image superimposed over this one: she saw the two of them rolling over and over in the snow with her when they were all fourteen and it hadn't mattered that she was a girl, she had still been fair game to have her shirt pockets stuffed with ice, and she missed that suddenly - suddenly and piercingly. They had been so happy together, the three of them, a perfect unit. Stealthily, she bent down and gathered up a handful of loose sand, which ran through her hands like silk. She crept up behind Rocky, who seemed gleefully intent on shoving sand into Adam's shorts, and very carefully dumped the lot of it down the back of his shirt.

The yell that greeted this sally was instantaneous and very gratifyingly loud. Rocky fell sideways into the sand, yowling, while Adam, sitting up with his black hair full of sand, was speechless with laughter.

Rocky looked at her reproachfully. "Elizabeth! Cheating!"

"Don't be a sore loser, Rocky DeSantos," she replied, scooped up a handful of ocean water, and hurled it at him. Rocky reached out and grabbed for her leg, and she slipped and fell sideways onto Adam, who commenced stuffing sand into her camisole with an apparent total disregard for niceties. Elizabeth shrieked and wriggled away, grabbing for Rocky with her hands. Shouting with laughter, they all three rolled to the edge of the beach, tangled together, finally fetching up against a small tide. Elizabeth sat up first, spitting sand out of her mouth and holding her chest, which was beginning to hurt from laughing. Her camisole was soaking wet and her hair hung in wet, ratty tendrils all around her face, but she didn't care. She watched as Adam and Rocky sat up as well, both as thickly covered with sand as if they had been rolled in icing sugar.

"Well," said Rocky, "That was -"

He was cut off as Elizabeth leapt forward and threw her arms around them both, hugging them tightly. Both Rocky and Adam seemed astonished at this sudden display of affection; Rocky patted her gently on the back. Finally she pulled back and looked at them - covered in sand, clothes clinging to their skin. They could almost have been the two boys who had collapsed on the hard ground of the Dark Dimension after battling the Serpent of Darkness so many years ago.

"I just want you to know," she said suddenly, surprising herself, "that I love you - I love you both, no matter what ever happens to us, ever."

Adam looked at Elizabeth, and then at Rocky, obviously very embarrassed indeed. "Beendrinking again, has she?" he demanded.

Rocky nodded. "It's becoming a problem."

Elizabeth held out her hands. "Oh come on," she said, and without being told what to do, each of them took one of her hands - Adam the left, and Rocky the right. "We'll always be together," she said, her voice firm. "Won't we - won't we?"

Rocky and Adam looked more embarrassed than ever. "Well, not always," said Adam. "I think I'm going to need a hot bath after this, and I plan to do that on my own, thank you."

Rocky grinned at him. "What, you don't need anyone to scrub your back?"

Adam wiggled an eyebrow. "Are you offering?"

"Nah," said Rocky. "I was thinking of that monster we defeated awhile ago that had that immense crush on you- Myrtle the Turtle."

"Oh shut up, you two," Elizabeth interjected despairingly. "Look - just promise me we'll always be friends, won't you? Because if you don't, I will personally tell Myrtle that you both love her, and she'll never leave you alone again. Okay?"

"Okay," said Rocky, laughing. "I promise."

"I do too," said Elizabeth. "I promise."

She looked at Adam; they both did, and it seemed to her that he looked oddly moved, as if somehow her pronouncement had made him sad. "I promise," he said. "We'll always be friends."