That's not the best chapter title, but I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel here! LOL!
So, I know most of my chapters have been Tommy and Kimberly centered, but I felt that I needed to explain what happened with Shawn seeing as how Veronica is no longer in the picture. Plus, it was fun to add to the lore surrounding the Ninjetti Powers.
There's no warnings for this chapter so feel free to keep going. I can promise that the next chapters are going to go back to focusing on Tommy and Kimberly.
Anyway, that's about it for the Author's notes so read on and see me at the bottom!
The Manor
About a week later…
Tanya took a deep fortifying breath as she stood in the kitchen. She'd just put the final dish in the dishwasher and added the detergent. As she was closing the lid on the appliance and setting up the wash cycle, she heard the kitchen door open and close.
Looking up, she saw that her husband had made a special trip to the town bakery and gotten her favorite cheese cake. The grocery bag in his other hand had to be her favorite ice cream. It was such a sweet gesture and she loved him for it. She turned to the sink to wash her hands and felt his arms wrap around her waist.
"Hey, I felt some anxiety. Is this about story time tonight?"
Tanya nodded. "I don't know why this bothers me, but it does. I'm not chickening out, it just sucks that I have to bring up that loser again."
"Turn around."
At the soft command, she wiped her hands on the dishcloth and did as he requested. Adam was giving her a concerned look. "What can I do to help you through this?"
"I just need you." Was her soft answer. "I know that all of that mess is behind us, and I've barely given that asshole a thought, but I can't stop thinking about his hands on me. I hated his touch and what he almost did!"
Adam growled softly. "Okay, let get to the room and I'll banish his memory again."
Later…
It was several hours later before they emerged from their bedroom. Adam had gone into mating mode and their love making had been intense and Tanya had grounded herself in their bond. Now, freshly showered and with some new fresh love marks in hidden places, both Adam and Tanya descended the stairs to the kitchen.
The women along with Autumn were in the kitchen sitting around with various drinks in their hands.
Kim was the first to get up. "Hey, are you okay?"
Tanya nodded. "Yeah, I am now." She paused and looked all around her. Kira and Conner had left for their road trip the day before, so sadly, she would be missing this part of the story.
The teenagers were having a sleep over, though right now it was only Autumn and Sapphire that were at the table. Melanie was there too along with Ethan. Surprisingly, Trent had now taken up residence on the adult floor, but right now, he was sitting at the table on the other side of Melanie with a cold soda in his hands.
"So, I guess you are all here for story time?" She asked with soft voice.
"Only if you're really up to it." Melanie said in a concerned voice. "From the look on your face, it's not going to be a fairy tale."
Adam kissed his wife's cheek and then went to the refrigerator.
"In the meantime, Tanya took a deep breath as she sat at the counter. "No, it's the farthest thing from a fairy tale, though things eventually get better."
She looked at her daughter who was giving her a questioning look. Tanya waited to start until Adam had set the slice of the cheesecake in front of her along with a couple scoops of ice cream.
"The first time I laid eyes on Adam, I thought he was the cutest guy I'd ever met. It didn't take too long for me to absolutely fall in love with him as our souls began to fuse. He taught me to fight and we all worked out together and sparred regularly. I didn't see it at first, but the movements, especially during battle had become synchronized and we never strayed far from each other no matter how hard a beating we took.
In my first year or so in America, I slowly began to understand the customs when it came to dating and relationships. When Adam surprised me by asking me out on our first date, I was excited and the days till the weekend seemed to crawl by at a snail's pace.
Now, during that time, there was another guy at school that was trying to snag my attention. His name was Shawn and he was the stereotypical player. His attempts to charm me were getting pretty annoying and I turned him away every time." She paused and looked at Autumn. "Your father was the only guy I was interested in and I wanted nothing to do with anyone else."
"The week that everything happened, Shawn had finally stopped asking me out and I was relieved that he was leaving me alone, but I should have known that he had something devious planned.
-Flashback-
Tanya was standing at her locker pulling out her science book and her notebook when a tantalizing smell wafted around her. It smelled amazing and she looked around for the source.
Shawn was standing a few feet away from her and seemed to be minding his own business. He turned, looked around at her and waved. Still, he made no move, turning back to speak to his group of friends.
-Flashback end-
"I didn't understand what was going on." Adam said softly. "My mate was suddenly infatuated with the same guy that she'd shooed away on multiple occasions. After two more days of this thing went by, I started getting chest pains. It wasn't a heart attack, but the soul fusion was starting to deteriorate. I tried everything to get her attention, but nothing worked. At lunch, when she usually sat with us, she sat with that idiot and openly flirted with him.
The worst day for me was when I caught her sitting in his lap and he was holding her. I confronted her, and she told me to go away and that she was happier with Shawn than she ever was with me." Adam paused and took a deep breath. "I did as she asked, but I literally felt my heart breaking."
-Flashback-
Adam walked out of the cafeteria and to the parking lot. Every step was painful, and his heart felt like it was being shredded. He could vaguely hear someone calling his name, but it didn't matter to him.
He felt like he was dying.
His vision became darker and his breathing was labored.
He collapsed onto the pavement and everything went dark.
When he woke up, he saw that he was laying on a cot in the Power Chamber. Rocky and Aisha were at his side and the latter was sponging his face with a cool compress. Alpha was running a scanning device over his body.
The beeps were soft and steady and almost comforting. When they stopped, the friendly robot spoke to Zordon.
"ZORDON, I HAVE COMPLETED MY SCAN, BUT CAN FIND NOTHING WRONG WITH HIM. HIS VITALS ARE NORMAL, BUT I CAN'T FIND ANY PHYSICAL REASON FOR HIM TO COLLAPSE."
Tommy stood at the head of the cot and gave him a serious look. He looked at Kimberly and then up at their mentor.
"Zordon, this might be a Ninjetti thing. My soul is fused with Kimberly, Rocky is fused with Aisha the same goes for Billy and Kat. If Adam is fused with Tanya, and something is interfering with the fusion or causing it to break, it might be having a physical effect on Adam."
Aisha nodded slowly. "She has been getting very cozy with Shawn lately, which is weird because for the last couple of weeks, she's been hanging out with Adam and I thought they had a thing going."
"We do." Adam said weakly as he struggled to his feet. "We were going on our first date this weekend. I don't understand why she's suddenly into Shawn. He's such a loser and before this week she wanted nothing to do with him!"
"Zordon, could this be a spell from the Machine Empire?" Rocky asked. "Like Rita with her love potion?"
Zordon shook his head. "THE MACHINE EMPIRE DOES NOT DEAL IN SPELLS OR ENCHANTMENTS. THEY ARE COMPLETELY DERIVED OF ANYTHING OTHER THAN MECHANICS. WHATEVER HAS HAPPENED IS NOT A PRODUCT OF MONDO."
"Well, then what is it?" Adam said sounding upset. "Why the hell is my mate getting cozy with that asshole. What changed?"
"I DON'T KNOW, ADAM. BUT WE NEED TO INVESTIGATE BEFORE TANYA'S INFATUION PROVES TO BE A DANGER TO THIS TEAM. MONDO'S ARMY GROWS MORE AND MORE POWERFUL EVERY DAY, WE CANNOT AFFORD ANY DIVISION AMONG YOU RANGERS."
"I'm on it Zordon." Tommy said. "Adam you stay here and rest. We'll go find Tanya and figure out what's going on with her."
-End Flashback-
"I felt like I was in a haze the whole time." Tanya said as she swallowed a bite of the cheese cake. I don't like to think about that time, because I know it hurt my mate. I'm not Ninjetti so my half of the bond wasn't as strong. I couldn't feel the pain so sharply, though I the back of my mind, the infatuation with Shawn felt wrong. It's like my body was operating apart from my mind."
"It didn't take long to find Tanya." Kimberly said from her seat. Though it took some tough love to get her away from Shawn and bring her to the command center."
Tanya snorted. "Yeah, you call it 'tough love'. If I remember right, you threatened to knock me out cold and drag my ass back to the Power Chamber."
"You were being difficult." Aisha said with her arms crossed over her chest. "Your mate's life was hanging in the balance and we care enough about the both of you to drag you kicking and screaming and do whatever it takes to restore the bond."
"And my god, you put up such a fight that we had to restrain you while Alpha did a scan. Thankfully, this time, he found traces of an alien chemical compound and was able to analyze it."
"The only thing we could get from the scan was that it was pheromone based. I'm sure that if Billy had been around, he could have narrowed it down and probably had an antidote made within a day. Sadly, he and Kat didn't come home for a couple more weeks so the only idea we had was for Tanya to go 'cold turkey'. At the time, there were a couple of private quarters set up in case of an emergency and though they were sparse, the bed was comfortable, and we made sure they had food and drink and access to a bathroom, and we kept them there until the compound wore off."
"Thankfully, it didn't take more than a couple of days of TLC from my mate to overpower whatever it was that Shawn had done to me and before the start of the next week, we were back to being a happy couple."
"So, what happened to Shawn? Did you ever find out what the compound was?" Ethan asked.
Adam grinned at him.
"It would have been dishonorable to use my skills to beat him up. My training was for defense only, and I was determined to not beat him up. All that mattered to me was that I had my mate back and the soul fusion was whole again."
"But I thought the road to hell was paved with good intentions." Trent replied.
"You bet your ass it is." Adam said. "I had good intentions, but those evaporated when Shawn copped a feel."
-Flashback-
Tanya gasped and moved away from Shawn as he grinned at her. "Hey Sexy, where have you been hiding?"
"Keep your hands to yourself, Shawn! You drugged me, and you're lucky I don't beat you up for taking advantage of me!
Shawn rolled his eyes. "Please, Bitch. You can't prove anything; I got the good stuff and it's undetectable to all test kits."
"How pathetic can you be?" Tommy asked coming up to him. "This is the only way you can get women? By drugging them?"
"Whatever works." Shawn said with a sneer. "It's just a damn shame that I didn't get to take her for a test drive."
In the next second, Adam had him by the shirt and was driving him back towards the locker behind him. "Ah, the mighty Adam Park, resorting to violence." Shawn sneered. "Didn't think your morals would allow it."
Adam was absolutely pissed off. "Yeah, well that all changed when you went after my mate. If you know what's good for you, you'll keep your distance…"
"And if I don't?" Shawn challenged him.
"Then you'll get the beat down of your life. I have skills that you don't even know about and I'll use them all on you if you touch Tanya again."
Shawn laughed in his face. "Well, aren't you cute. Fine, her skinny ass isn't even worth the effort."
-End Flashback-
"When Adam let him up, Shawn blitzed him, and it led to a massive brawl." Tommy finished. "Eventually, Mr. Caplan broke it up with the help of the PE teacher and it landed the both of them in detention."
Adam snorted. "It was well worth it. That asshat had it coming to him. I thought it was a one time thing because he disappeared after that, but he still showed up that night and made a final attempt to get to Tanya. I don't usually condone beating up someone weaker then myself, but when my mate is concerned, all bets are off. I never heard from him again."
"It wasn't until years later, when the big war against Dark Specter was over that we finally got some answers about the strange compound." Rocky added. "As it turns out, the compound was actually an aphrodisiac in cologne form. The fancy term for it was Pherimonious Secdutionious or Liquid Lust. It's a drug more commonly found on planets near KO-35. It's most common use is to enhance the experience during orgies. When diffused into the room, it causes inhibitions to ease and really gets the party started. We have no idea how Shawn got a hold of it, or if he was even from earth. Until that night he showed up at the Grand Opening of the Dojo, he was just a bad memory."
They were all quiet for a few minutes and then Melanie looked up at Tanya. "So, when did you guys get engaged?"
At the memory, Tanya grinned. "There are no words to do it justice." From behind her, Adam chuckled conceitedly and Tanya shook her head. "The house was finished and so was the war against the alliance of evil. We were all sad that Zordon was gone, but we were also relieved that we didn't have to worry about going into battle for a while.
A couple months before, Rocky and Aisha had surprised everyone with their pregnancy announcement and we'd all pitched into clearing out the room that would become the nursery and Adam and I were slowly making our room a perfect for us. We didn't have the money we have now, so we stuck to shopping at places like Walmart and Target for our furniture and linens. Kimberly had found a place that sold mattresses and we'd been able to each find a set that worked for us, though we could only afford a basic bed frame to hoist us up off the floor."
"And that is how that story started."
-Flashback-
"Tanya, come with me." Adam said poking his head into the living room. "I want to show you something."
Tanya put down the catalog and followed her mate up the stairs. "What did you find?"
Adam showed her the computer screen. "I found us a really nice bed frame. It's got a headboard and a foot board and it's one we can actually afford!"
Tanya used the mouse to scroll down the screen. "Wow, it's really pretty! I think we should go check it out. Have you called the sellers already?"
Adam nodded at her. "Yeah, I just got off the phone with them and they'll hold it for us if we get to Stone Canyon by tomorrow. It's only $250 and I think it will fit the theme for our room."
Well, I've been wanting to go on a road trip, so let's go. I've never been in a hotel room either. This could be a lot of fun!"
-End Flashback-
"So, then what happened?" Ethan asked.
"We made the trip and the bed frame was everything the sellers said it was and because it was kind of late when we got there, we decided to stay the night and Adam surprised me by taking me to this small couple's resort on the edge of town. We enjoyed a nice simple dinner and came back to the room and well, after we had some fun together, he proposed…
Tanya trailed off looking off into the distance and bit her lip.
Melanie chuckled. "That good huh?"
Tanya winked at her and Adam grinned kissing her cheek.
"Eww! Mom! I so don't need that visual" Autumn exclaimed looking mortified.
Adam grinned at her. "Yeah, but if it weren't for all that fun, you wouldn't be here to complain about it. I'm ninety-nine percent sure you were conceived that night,
"Oookay. I'm gonna go get some air." Without another word, Autumn got off her stool and walked out of the room with an amused Sapphire trailing behind her.
When they were gone, Melanie asked another question. "So, did you guys get married after she was born, or did you get married immediately?"
"We've always done things in our own time." Adam said sobering up. We were already mated so the wedding was something that we didn't think too much about. We went to the courthouse and took our vows before the judge. We had a nice party at the manor and we grilled hamburgers, hot dogs and whatever else we felt like throwing on the grill. We did however order a cake from the bakery and we did cut the cake and make toasts with real wine since we were finally 21 and could do so legally."
We didn't get wasted or anything but it was a fun night." Tanya finished. "We enjoyed many years of peace before the so called 'Red Ranger Mission.'"
Rocky groaned. "God, I'm so glad we were on our honey moon when that happened. I don't want to think about the punishment Tommy and Jason suffered after they got back.
Yeah, let's just say that those two were banished from the adult floor for a whole week and spent a week's worth of nights in the living room."
"The moral of the story is to never piss off a female ranger." Tommy said as he came into the kitchen. "Especially when you're married to one."
Kimberly turned in her seat and looked up at him. "Or risk your life unnecessarily. I didn't know if I'd lost you or not! You could have at least told me."
Tommy grimaced. "Yeah, and ever since then it's been full disclosure between us. I've never repeated that mistake again."
Kimberly smiled at him. "Hey, Handsome. Is our son up again?"
"Yeah, I just changed his diaper and put him in his onesie. Kayla's also dressed for bed and is just waiting for you to tuck her in."
Kimberly leaned up and kissed her husband. "Okay, well this seems like a good stopping point for story night."
Tanya nodded. "Yeah, I think so too." She paused and looked at Adam. "I think I need some more TLC after bringing up that asshat again."
Adam grinned at her. "I'm all for it."
Everyone shook their heads as Tanya and Adam left the kitchen hand in hand. No one doubted what was about to happen.
And they all went their separate ways for the night, the story had been heart breaking, but from the smile that Adam and Tanya shared, they knew the couple would be just fine.
By the next morning, Shawn was forgotten and the new project they'd started on was on their minds.
So, your thoughts? The picture is becoming a lot clearer now and we'll be back to Tommy and Kim next chapter!