KIRA - AFTER DINNER

I'm not really paying attention to the movie that's playing. From what I can tell, it's basically a romantic comedy from Eltar and I am so not in the mood. Bad enough I'm surrounded by couples, but happy ones no less. Well, mostly happy anyway. Mara Jane starts to fuss and I immediately stand up. "I'll take her. You guys finish the movie."

Tommy willingly hands her to me and snuggles into Zedd. It's so cute that it almost makes me sick. As I head out of the room, I admit to myself that I'm jealous as hell. I push away thoughts of my own former boyfriend. One day I'll be ready to look for someone again, just not now.

In no time, I have Mara Jane changed and her bottle ready. I talk to the baby as she eats. "Auntie Kira's thinking about moving here. What do you think?" She looks at me so intently, I'd almost think she could understand me. "I mean, I know that your daddy's right, I should finish school first, but right now, I just don't care. After all, if my heart's not in it, wouldn't it just be wasting everyone's time if I'm just going through the motions?" I press a light kiss to the baby's forehead. "Maybe, instead of joining the business right now, maybe your father would let me be your nanny? I could take care of you while they work and when they have to go away on trips or when they just want to spend some time together."

I sigh as I let my thoughts wander. Mara Jane finishes the bottle and gives up a burp that Conner would have been proud of back in the day. Her eyes are heavy so I sing softly to her as she drifts off.

"What child is this who laid to rest

On Kira's lap is sleeping

Whom Auntie greets with anthems sweet

The babe, the child of Tommy.

This, this is Mara Jane

Whom Rangers guard and angels sing

Haste, haste to bring her laud

The babe, the child of Zeddic."

The baby is sound asleep and not disturbed at all when I jump at the quiet, "That was lovely, Kira."

I look around to see both Tommy and Zedd in the doorway, arms around each other. I blush slightly. "Oh, it's just something I've been playing around with. It's nothing really." They both come in the room and I reluctantly hand her over to Tommy. He tucks her into the crib as I stand up and head for the door. "I'm going to go to bed. I'll see you guys in the morning."

"Kira, wait."

Somehow I know I'm going to regret this but I stop and look over my shoulder at Zedd. "What?"

"We want to talk to you for a minute." And by the serious looks they're giving me, I have the distinct feeling I'm not going to like this. "We're worried about you."

They're what now? "What? Why? I'm fine."

"No, you're not" my former mentor responds. "Hell, Kira, I practically invented the 'I'm fine' thing."

"Just because I've been thinking about coming to join the business, doesn't mean that something's wrong."

"You have?" Zedd asks, surprised. "I didn't know that."

"Forgot to mention it, mate. Sorry. Not the point right now though." Both of them turn their attention on me and I kind of feel a little trapped. "What's going on with you?" I'm about to repeat myself when he says something that makes everything definitely not fine. "You and Steve were together for years, Kira, and you loved him. What happened?"

I fold my arms across my chest, gaze on the floor. "I just - couldn't be with him anymore. Our relationship wasn't - good for me."

It's quiet for a minute. "Did he hit you or abuse you?" Tommy demands, voice low.

"It doesn't matter. I'm out and I'm going to stay that way."

"Kira, it does matter. Talk to us, please."

If I don't, they aren't going to leave me alone about it, that's for sure. "Guys, I'd really rather not talk about it. I just want to get over it and move on."

"You want to live here and that's fine, but things will go much smoother if we know what happened so that we can avoid certain pitfalls and landmines" Zedd points out.

"It's not going to affect your lives here. It's in the past."

"Oh really?" Tommy challenges. "Kira, things that happened to me in rehab still effect me from time to time - even all these years later. Sometimes things just become a part of you and you react instinctively."

"I really-"

His voice takes on a command tone that, while I've not heard it in years, still gets the same reaction it did then. "Are you guys ready?"

Instantly, I flick my wrist to transform my bracelet to my morpher and before I can even think about it, I'm in position to trigger my morphing call. "Ready!" I realize he's made his point. "Damn it."

Zedd's voice is soft and unfamiliar. "We just want to understand and help, Kira."

Wow - if Zedd's being this nice to me, I must seem like I'm in bad shape. Well, worse shape than I really am. Probably. I sigh. "Do you guys remember the day that you called to tell Hayley and Jason that Zedd was pregnant?" They nod. "I had broken up with Steve a few days before that. He had a drug problem and I wasn't going to get caught up in that mess. About a week after you guys called, Steve called me from rehab. He said that he'd decided to get cleaned up because I was more important to him than the drugs. So once he got out of rehab, I gave him another chance."

Here comes the hard part. "Two weeks before Pina called me about coming to visit and help out, Steve called me one night at work. He was panicking, told me that he was slipping and wanted to use again. He'd had some rough patches before, but he'd never sounded that freaked out. I told my boss that I had to leave that something was wrong. She refused to let me go, telling me that if I left that I was fired. I decided that Steve was more important than the job and left. By the time I got to his house, it was too late. He was higher than a kite and hallucinating. I still have no idea what the hell he was on, but he completely flipped out. He was so gone that he didn't recognize me and attacked me."

I realize that I'm rubbing the spot he'd hit. "He hit me and broke the bone by my eye. It was worse than the time Mesogog attacked and nearly blinded me." After a minute of being lost in the memory of that horrible night, I shake myself. "They sent him to the psych ward until whatever he'd taken was out of his system and then moved him to another rehab program. He called me again, but this time I refused to go back to him. Once he was out again, he called, sent flowers, gifts but I refused them all."

"Finally, he caught me after classes one day. We ended up having one hell of an argument in the middle of the campus, the end of it being that I couldn't deal with his drug use and dependency and I wouldn't. I headed for the dorms and my phone went off. It was my boss demanding to know why I wasn't at work and hadn't been in days. I pointed out that she'd fired me when I had to leave and, as I'd had classes that day I wouldn't have been in yet anyway even if I hadn't been fired. She said that my determination and willingness to do what was right was just what the company needed and she wanted me to come in to work after all. I pointed out that I had asked for the next week off for finals and I wouldn't be able to be there anyway. She told me that I needed to come in or I would be fired for real this time. I was still wound up from my fight with Steve and pretty much told her where to stick her job."

They both chuckle at this and I smile weakly before I continue. "A few days later, I called home to talk to my parents and to arrange to come home for the summer. When I heard how bad things were there, I knew I didn't want to be trapped in the house with that mess all summer. Right after that, Pina called and I took her up on her offer to visit for a while. She came and got me and here I am."

"So he did hit you" Zedd growls, returning to an earlier point in the story. And he looks like he's going to go off and kill Steve. Until Tommy sets his hand on Zedd's arm.

"He couldn't help it, mate."

Looking at Tommy in disbelief, he says, "So it's okay that he hit her?!"

"Of course not. But once he took the drugs, once he gave in to that temptation - well, it's not really all that different than when I was under Rita's spells - either one. I wasn't really in control of what I was doing."

"So then he shouldn't have-"

Tommy shakes his head, stopping Zedd mid-rant. "For some humans, mate, it's just as tempting as the dark power can be for you. You can control the urge much better than you could have twenty years ago, mostly because the whole thing with Zordon acted like a detox for you. I'm not saying that what he did was okay, just that I can understand how it happened."

Zedd frowns but falls silent as Tommy turns his attention to me. "Kira, while I completely understand your desire to get away from all of that, I still think you should finish school. It's only one more year. Either you can come visit us or we can come see you when you're on your breaks so that we can plan your move here, not to mention easing your family into the situation."

"But Tommy-"

"Please, Kira" he pleads. "If you don't finish and move here and somehow, powers forbid, are unhappy, you're always going to wonder - and we will too - if things would have been different if you had finished." His logic is a little convoluted, but I see what he's getting at and I can't help but hesitate and he jumps at the opening. "If you think about it, it's not even a whole year - eight or nine months at most."

I have no desire to go back. On the other hand, I do want my mentor - and he still is very much that - to be proud of me. Before I can respond, Zedd says, "If you go back and finish - and I mean do well, not just get by - when you graduate, I'll throw you the biggest party ever and I'll talk to some of my contacts that I know have contacts in the universal music industry." Damn it. He's won and he knows it, by the smirk on his face.

I exhale loudly. "Fine. But you're going to regret the offer of the party."

"Remember, you have to do well, not just pass."

I narrow my eyes at him. "And what happens when I graduate with honors?"

He looks at Tommy, confused. Tommy switches to Eltarian and explains the difference, I guess, between just doing well and with honors. Zedd thinks for a minute. "If you do, I'll buy you your own ship and have Dar and Pina teach you to fly it."

"Deal." If I'm going to do this, then I'm going to go all the way. We shake hands on it. I'm determined to make him regret this.