Chapter four:

"You can either confirm the rumors or tell them that they aren't true, you can lie, Zordon, Kim, Trent and his friends, they would all back you up, as will Anton and I."

Tommy glanced at his watch, at least he still had twenty minutes to figure out what to say, and how to say it.

He reached over and grabbed his Z phone, a state of the art piece of technology, all routed through the Morphin' Grid to give him amazing coverage, including outer space coverage, and the peace of mind that no one could hack onto his phone and hear his conversations. He quickly dialed Kim's number, hoping that she might have some advice on how to deal with this new development.

...

Kim was making sure that the mats were all on the floor and the balance beams set up when her phone went off, again, since she had came back from Germany, whenever she wasn't with Tommy he would call her randomly through out the day, and no matter how many times she explained that she was completely safe at the gym with Zordon in the office, he wouldn't stop, hopefully if he got the teaching job he would ease up a little.

"Tommy," she said, exasperated, "I'm fine and I would like to see someone get pass Zordon and Alpha."

"That's not what I'm calling about," Tommy insisted, "There's a new Rumor flying."

Kim snorted, rolling her eyes, "So, what is it this time, the fact that you are the girls real father? Yep heard that one. Honestly whoever comes up with these aren't the brightest, there is no way on earth that we could have been having a secret relationship these past six years, we lived on different coasts."

Tommy laughed, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that I know who started that rumor, and she isn't the brightest, and just likes gossip, if she doesn't have gossip juicier than the person next door she'll make it up, but that isn't the one I'm talking about."

"Then which rumor is it?" Kimberly asked, shooting Zordon, who had happened to step out of the office for a second, honestly if this was another Luke left her rumor she was going to scream, why couldn't people just forget about her first marriage and move on, she had.

"The one that the only reason that the power rangers got involved and we got together is because I am the leader of the power rangers and you were one of my former teammates."

Kim swore, something that Tommy was surprise to learn that she could do, but then again, judging by who her first husband was, it was possible that she picked up a few choice words, but still to hear sweet and innocent Kimberly release a stream of profanity was shocking, "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know," Tommy said, "That is why I'm calling you, you're the brain of this relationship."

Kim shook her head, "I think we should just ignore it like all the other rumors going around, if we pay to much attention to it people will realize it's true, but if we ignore it like the rest of the rumors, everyone else will too."

"I can't believe he actually told," Tommy said with a sigh, "When it didn't make the news the first day I assumed..."

"We all thought that, and I guess we were wrong," Kim interrupted.

"What if they ask me about it during the interview?"

"It won't be the first time that you had to dodge a question you didn't want to answer during an interview."

Tommy groaned, remembering the one time that the rangers had been on television as teens, the person interviewing them asked about the Green Ranger, even though Tommy had been the White ranger for a while by this time he still hadn't been comfortable with talking about what happened to the green ranger, if only because it was a sensitive topic for him, "Yeah, but luckily for us Zedd interrupted remember."

"Tommy you can't get worked up with every single little rumor you hear," Kim said as the early students for her two year old tumbling class started to arrive, she couldn't say anything else without getting suspicious looks. Kim hung up and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"It's a shame, really," one of the stay at home mom's said, "How all you want to do is start over in life but all everyone else wants to do is spread vicious lies. Just because that Silver monkey creature was helping your ex does not make you a power ranger. A power ranger would never stand to allow anyone to hurt them."

Kim winced, she knew that she was trying to make her feel better, but it wasn't working. While for the mom the logic that a power ranger could easily get out of the abusive situation made sense, it was a slap to Kim's face, because as a power ranger she should have been able to escape.

"Thank you for your opinion," Zordon said from behind Kim, placing a supportive hand on her shoulder, not that she needed it, just hearing his voice calmed her down, after all all through her teenage years and through the divorce it had only been his voice there to comfort her, "Come on Kimberly, you know that you were in a sticky situation and didn't want to make it worst," he muttered into Kim's ear.

Kim took a deep breath, forced a smile and said, "Okay everyone, form a circle on the mat."

...

Tommy took a deep breath as he entered the School District Office Building, at least he had Elsa who would gladly aid him in steering the questions away from any possible rumors circling. Besides, Trini had helped him put together a sound argument about why they should give him back his old job.

He double checked to make sure his tie was straight, before entering the actually meeting room and taking a seat.

"Why should we hire you?" the head of the school district asked, his voice sharp and accusing, as if he was playing bad cop good cop and he was the bad cop and Tommy was the suspect.

Tommy pulled out a piece of paper, "Well, there's the fact that since you let me go, the science test score has dropped causing you to lose a grant that puts a greater strain on your science department."

Elsa spoke up then, "I think that the Students would benefit having Dr. Oliver return."

"I don't know if I feel comfortable with him teaching our teenagers," another woman spoke up, "I mean surely there has to be some truth to the rumors?"

Tommy forced himself not to roll his eyes, he had nothing to hide, "I am aware that there are several rumors flying about my wife and I, but I don't see what that has to do with my teaching position, they are after all just rumors."

"The problem is people believe those rumors and they may not want a power ranger teaching their children, you might get mad and blast them or something."

"I would find knowing that one of my children's teachers were a power ranger rather comforting," Elsa spoke up, "Power rangers have been around since 1993 and there hasn't been any reports of them attacking children."

"I heard a rumor about the Green Ranger," yet another board member pipped up.

"Just a rumor," Tommy pointed out, "Just like me being a power ranger is just a rumor, and since I was not asked here to gossip, I suggest we leave this conversation alone."