Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: Yes, another update. Took forever though, and it's taking forever to write. But I shall remain dedicated to this neverending story.
TrueRomantic: I know, I love the sister moments too. Okay, so that's one for Tommy and Kim.
dthstlkr69: Thanks. Actually, I've yet to see someone use that pairing. I don't know if I'd go that way, but who knows? That's not a bad idea.
Star Fata, lilasecrets: And here's your update!
Ashley Hammond Astro Yellow: I love it when Taylor gets violent. It's funny, isn't it? Here's your answer.
Phantom Rogue: Yes, I had to get that moment in there. I was starting to weep for Ash and Andros. I like how everyone likes the ending. They better enjoy this chapter.
nightlancer6000: Glad you liked it and here's your answer. Well, actually, you have to read on just a bit more.
kerok29: Trust me, I'm trying to get them as involved in the story as I can. I just never figured how hard that would be since it's the girls' story. But it's not a bad idea. We just have to see where my loop of a mind leads me.
Vous-amusez!
Chapter 15:
Everyone followed the girls into the Halliwell manor with caution, saying nothing as Ashley and Kimberly were trying to calm Taylor down. She was still livid at the girl who got the worst of her, though the brawl ended in Taylor's favor. Other than pulling her away from the girl, their friends didn't dare to get anywhere near Taylor. Chris and Wyatt told her to go home, threatening to bind her powers if she didn't.
"That's going to leave a scar," Kimberly stated when she finished healing the cut on Taylor's arm.
"Well, I can't feel anything so it won't matter."
"You're still like a volcano," Ashley joked, coming back from the downstairs bathroom with a first-aid kit. She bandaged up the few cuts she got from trying to pry her younger sister away from the scuffle.
"Only because she insulted you for, like, the fiftieth time," Taylor defended, sitting back down when she was about to get up but Kimberly gently shoved her back into her seat; she still had a few bruises Kimberly had to heal.
"Sit down, Tay," Kimberly ordered. "And don't exaggerate."
"Well, she really isn't," Ashley commented.
"Um, sorry to interrupt," Alyssa interjected, "but could we ask what was going on back in the club?"
The three sisters looked at each other before Taylor shrugged and said, "Might as well."
"I was talking with Julie, a student of mine from the high school I teach at during the school year," Ashley started. "She's entering in a dance competition and asked me if I would mind spending some extra time helping her with her routine. I didn't get to answer her when one of her rivals, Layne, decided to butt in and they exchanged a few insults, one thing led to another and before I knew it, Layne's 'teachers' stepped in. It was like a three-woman army verbal attack. I ended up saying some… colorful things to Maria."
"Maria?"
"One of Layne's teachers," Taylor explained. "The other teacher's name is Ava. Anyway, I had a problem with what they were saying to Julie and Ash so I asked them nicely to leave the whole thing alone."
"She did, actually," Ashley put in. "But with Maria, nice doesn't exist."
"We tried to reason with her and Ava but some bitches just don't know when to shut up," Taylor added, Kimberly and Ashley immediately reprimanding her by clearing their throats. "Sorry, you two, but you know how I get when it comes to Maria. Anyway, I finally told her that if she didn't leave, then the next time I saw her, I'd pound her into the wall. Instead, Ava decides to start it up with me and by then I was about to blow. Only Kim and Ash were holding me back."
"And the rest you guys can figure out," Kimberly finished.
"But do you three have a problem with these Maria and Ava girls or something," Karone asked.
"Sort of," Ashley answered. "It's more like she has a problem with me."
"There was one spot for the dance department at the high school," Kimberly explained. "It came down to Ash and Maria. The school brought up the suggestion that they could each teach half of the classes that were considered a full load for the dance teachers. Ash was willing to accept the proposal but apparently, Maria's too good to share the spotlight with any other teacher."
"What spotlight," Cassie asked, a scoff about to fall from her lips.
"I don't know," Taylor returned. "She just has a big ego. She's resented Ash for it ever since, even though she got what she wanted from another school. She actually goes out of her way to make sure her students go after Ashley's. I swear, some people hold the most ridiculous grudges."
"While some people have the worst temper," Kimberly said, eyes narrowing at Taylor.
Taylor turned her head to her sister, her eyes saying what Kimberly knew was coming. "What do you expect? I'm the Charmed One of rage, it was bound to happen."
"That and you're just so overprotective of us," Ashley said, getting up from her seat and walking over to give Taylor a hug. "I love you for it, but next time, let me get the first punch in."
Everyone who knew Ashley had to chuckle at that.
"Yeah, right," Taylor said, "like you'd ever do that."
"You never know," Ashley shrugged. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going into the kitchen to get something to eat; you guys can cook your own dinner tonight."
"Right behind you," Zhane said, almost everyone else following right after.
Taylor was one of the last to go into the kitchen, doubting there was enough room in there. Some of them probably went into the backyard since none of them returned to the family room. She was about to take the risk of going in when she caught Wes and Eric's knowing faces, both appearing as if they would break out in laughter at any moment.
"What?" she asked.
"I better go see if there's any food left," Wes said, obviously wanting to get away from the unavoidable.
"What is it," Taylor asked again.
"Nothing," Eric replied, his smirk saying otherwise.
Taylor scanned her mind to see what he could find so funny in this situation, discovering his reason for amusement a second before she was about to give up. "Aw, jeez, come on, you've got to be kidding me." She couldn't believe he still remembered.
"It's not that easy to forget," Eric retorted, recalling the second time he saw Taylor after the coalescing of their teams to defeat the MutOrgs.
The day wasn't going well for Eric. Actually, the past two weeks hadn't been going well. He was becoming bored with the criminals who seemed to be a waste of his time and finding himself behind his desk more often than he was out protecting Silver Hills. This was not how his job was supposed to go. He didn't mind the respite, but one could only take the inactivity for so long. He was so bored that he actually accepted Wes's invitation to join him and some of their colleagues for lunch at the new restaurant/bar in town. Now he found himself tuning out the conversations around him.
Eric's attention started wandering around the establishment, finding nothing noteworthy until he saw a familiar face at the bar. His eyes widened when he realized it was Taylor and all sorts of questions sprang up in his mind. He hadn't seen her since she hunted Cole down after the Code-Red mission and found her team leader along with him, Wes, Carter, Andros and T.J., though she hadn't paid much attention to the last three rangers. She was too busy fuming with questions about where they had gone. Eventually, she got the truth out of Cole, which seemed to anger her even more, though they guessed it was because they had not allowed any yellow or female rangers on the mission. They hadn't crossed paths with each other until now.
Uncertainty passed through his mind when Eric couldn't figure if he was relieved, annoyed, or nervous at finally seeing Taylor again. She had always been the one to get to him when the rest of the rangers knew him too well or were the slightest bit scared of him to do anything to irritate him. Worse, it seemed to be effortless for her, even amusing. He had to notice her supposed hostility towards everyone when he first met her, even to her teammates sometimes. He guessed the reason was because of her military discipline, something he could understand. But there was something else; she was defensive, aggressive, and Eric sensed cynical could be added to that list. Army training couldn't make her that antagonistic.
He tried to map out any reason for the way she was but that train of thought halted when Eric noticed she was talking heatedly with a guy at the bar. He felt the smallest bit of jealousy hit him but suppressed it when he realized its presence. Instead, he felt concern when he saw that Taylor was arguing with the gentleman. At first, the two seemed civil but it soon became obvious that the man was infuriating Taylor. She slapped a small manila envelope on the bar in front of the man, said something Eric presumed was a threat and turned around to leave. Suddenly, the guy grabbed her arm roughly enough to pull her back to whisper something to her, the abrupt malice on his face unnerving Eric from afar. Taylor said something to him and attempted to yank her arm back but it angered the man further and he forced her onto the barstool beside him. He got up from his seat but Taylor didn't wait before bolting up from hers, the guy catching her arm again and pulling her back. The only difference this time was an added slap to her face that sent Eric from his seat, startling Wes and their colleagues, and toward the crowd that was forming around Taylor and the stranger.
Pushing his way through the throng, Eric could see Taylor land a hit to the guy's face which caused the man to retaliate with his own, missing her face and hitting her shoulder instead. She gave another punch that hit its target, the brawl becoming a full-out fistfight with a few kicks thrown in. No one tried to stop the fight and the barkeeps looked too scared to interfere, so the blows continued. Finally reaching the two, Eric paused to take in everything around him but when the man hit Taylor in the same shoulder as before with a fist that made her stumble and nearly fall, Eric went forward to pull the guy back and threw his own punch at the offender. He would've executed the whole thing more diplomatically like a Silver Guardian should but his personal concern and instinct got to him first.
Taylor seemed to bounce back from her near tumble and so did the guy; evidently, he had bad aim but it took a lot to make him bleed, let alone keep him down. Eric soon found himself in the middle of the two to try and push them apart in vain and ended up with Taylor's fist striking his own face. When she suddenly froze as soon as she recognized him, the other guy finally landed a blow to her lower cheek. Finally having enough, he pushed the two apart, Wes arriving beside him to hold the guy back as Eric tried to stop Taylor from breaking out in more violence. It seemed her shock hadn't completely registered and she couldn't stop throwing hits or stop trying to escape Eric's restraint on her. She would've succeeded if he hadn't decided that he couldn't take anymore and threw her over his shoulder, heading toward the exit and leaving the crowd to wonder what just happened.
Walking toward his SG SUV, Eric tried his best to ignore the blows on his back from Taylor. By the time Eric opened the back door of the SUV and put Taylor down from the weight she added to his shoulders, Wes exited the restaurant and came over to check on the two. He informed that the guy was being taken care of by the other Silver Guardians and came out to see if Eric found out about the state of affairs, but it seemed Eric was too busy trying to hold Taylor's wrists from breaking out again and keeping her under control in terms of her anger and violence.
"Taylor, Taylor, stop it! Calm down!" He shouted at her to try and quiet her down, but nothing worked until he forced her to look at his face and told her once more that everything was fine. Taylor stopped her paroxysm and took in heavy breaths, using the time to calm herself down. When Eric saw that she was mollified and that she wasn't going to throw any more punches or kicks, he turned to Wes.
"Wes, go get the first aid kit and help Taylor patch up before we take her to the medical center at Bio-Lab," he said while rubbing his cheek, the pain from Taylor's punch earlier still present, not forgetting the bruises he may have gotten on his back from Taylor's hits. Eric knew from their first encounters that Taylor was a force to be reckoned with but he never figured her to be this restless.
"Are you kidding," Wes started. "Did you see what she did to the guy? Hell, look what she did to you." Wes pointed to Eric himself to stress his point. "Quite honestly, I'm scared of what she's capable of if I even try to put a band-aid on her. You're going to have to take care of her yourself."
"You aren't seriously scared of her," Eric said incredulously. "She's harmless."
"Really," Wes said, his skepticism taking over the whole word. He went to grab the first-aid kit from the SUV and tossed it over to Eric. "Even so, I doubt she'd let anyone help her and I don't want to be the one to try."
"Fine," Eric growled, silently promising to make Wes sorry later.
As Wes left to check the stability of the restaurant, Eric was left to wonder how on earth he would help Taylor; he pegged her as the self-reliant type, not to mention he never dealt with any minor first-aid problems on his case before. That was always Wes's job since he didn't have a problem with it and most were put off by Eric's stern demeanor. He took an alcohol wipe from its sachet and applied it to the cut on her cheek, the sting causing her to momentarily growl and glare at him. He merely glared back before trying to wipe her cheek again to make sure the bacteria was clear, her hand shoving his away. Getting the band-aid on would be impossible.
Eric gave out a gruff sigh of displeasure at her stubbornness before finally talking to her. "Listen, do you see that cut on your face? If we don't get it clean and healed, you're going to get an infection."
"I know that," Taylor snapped at him. "I don't need your help. I can do this myself, so will you let me go already?" She reached for another band-aid in the first-aid kit but winced and let out a sound of pain when a throb shot up her arm from the movement.
"Sure you can," Eric replied, softly pushing her back to her previous position with his free hand. "Even so, I need to take you to the hospital or the medical center at Bio-Lab for a check-up; you never know what those hits and kicks could've done to your ribs."
"I'm perfectly fine," she retorted again.
"Sure you are. Now stop fighting and just let me help you, will you?"
She pushed him back when he came forward again despite the pain in her right arm. He couldn't figure why she kept refusing his help; she couldn't be that stubborn, could she? Their struggle continued, neither side gaining victory. When Eric couldn't stand any more of her refusals of help, he tried to restrain her arms and accidentally shoved her back, causing her to fall onto the floor of the SUV, grimacing in pain as her right shoulder hit the bottom. Eric winced when she did, a pang of guilt hitting him inside. He waited a minute before trying to help her back up, keeping in mind not to touch any sore spots on her arms and shoulders.
"I'm sorry for that," he said in apology, "but you can be so obstinate sometimes."
Taylor didn't reply or raise her eyes as her body did, instead turning her head to the side to avoid Eric's attention; apparently, she retrieved back into her shell and was not going to come out anytime soon. Eric tried look at her by moving to the side her face was looking toward, but she only turned her head in the opposite direction, which hurt her even more, so he decided to leave it alone. He was fine with the fact that she wasn't going to put up another struggle if he tried to put another band-aid on her cuts so he resumed his earlier action. Her arms and shoulders were bruising quite badly so Eric wrapped some rolled gauze onto her left shoulder which seemed to be recovering quickly enough. Her right shoulder, on the other hand, didn't appear to be in a better position. Taylor let out an affirmative "Ow!" when her right arm was raised and her shoulder moved again, followed by an angry expletive. Eric suddenly remembered an arm sling that Wes threw in when he restocked the first-aid compartment of the SUV. Eric recalled that he inquired over the point of bringing such a contraption and Wes answered that they would never know when a situation would call for one.
Gently placing her right arm into the sling he positioned with her shoulder, he asked if she was feeling any pain that was bothering her much. She answered with a curt, "Fine, perfectly fine." Even after she basically gave up resisting, she still kept her appearance of refusing aid. Eric was getting tired of her unremitting rejection. Her arms, shoulders, and the cuts on her cheeks taken care of, Eric noticed a slit on her lip he didn't see before that was beginning to bleed, the liquid content slowing making its way down her chin. Taylor wiped the blood away but it was obvious the flow was not going cease right away. Eric took a thin bandage from the kit along with a gauze sheet to help keep the blood from streaming any further. He felt compelled to speak again.
"You okay?" He knew the question was lame, but he didn't want to delve immediately into the reason of the fight. Taylor slowly nodded in response. "You sure?" Eric cursed himself silently for asking questions that gave the impression of him being dense.
Taylor lifted her gaze and the look in her eyes told him that she was perfectly fine and he could quit asking questions of the sort. "I'm sure," she answered. "You know, you don't have to pretend you give a damn about whether or not I'm all right. I know that you hate me."
"Excuse me?" Eric asked, masking no surprise at her statement. He felt insulted that she would think that, but the more he thought about it, he didn't exactly come off as friendly to Taylor and her team. The only thing that may have changed her opinion of him was during the big picnic when he inquired Taylor about the book she was reading when he caught her taking time apart from the group to herself, tickling her and stealing her book when she hadn't given him a straight answer. Despite the friendliness in the action, nothing of the kind was repeated between the two. Not that they even saw enough of each other to repeat the event. "I never hated you."
"Never?" she asked in reply, disbelief written all over her face.
"Disliked and had suspicions of, maybe," Eric admitted, "but never hated."
A chuckle escaped Taylor when Eric divulged his opinion of her. "I feel bad that I felt like I hated you when you pulled me over to give me that ticket and then didn't thank me and my team when we helped you out. But I know it wasn't real hate, just some very extreme dislike."
"Gee, that makes me feel so much better." The two couldn't help the chuckles that the sarcasm earned, but both stopped short when they saw they were actually enjoying each other's company. Finishing her up and having nothing left to do but take Taylor to the medical center, Eric thought it was fit to ask a most suitable question. "What happened?"
"What?"
"Back in there," he clarified. "What happened with that guy that made you throw punches everywhere?"
Taylor sighed heavily, taking her time before answering. "Just something. Something personal," she added, giving him a look that asked him not to inquire further.
Eric decided that he might as well give up at this point. If she wasn't telling him now, she wouldn't tell him unless she had to or wanted to. "Fine, I'll leave it alone. I'll make up something when we get to the medical center. Can you walk?"
"Yeah." She chose not to resist any more help. Taylor got out of the back of the SUV and walked to the side of the vehicle before getting into the second row of seats, waiting for Wes to return so that they could leave already.
Getting into the driver's seat, Eric involuntarily began to drum his fingers on the wheel of the car when Wes hadn't come for another five minutes. All of a sudden, he turned around, startling Taylor when he said her name and made her turn her head from looking out the car window. "Just to make sure you get it, I never hated you, at all."
"I know," she returned. "We both just gave really bad first impressions. We're adults; we're smart enough to know we can't hate someone on sight. And just so you know, I never hated you either."
"Good," he replied, feeling the smallest smile on his lips and turning back before Taylor could see it. She was still aggressive with her actions and protective with everything else. It was because of something big, Eric could tell, but he didn't know what. He could only hope to find out one day.
"You never did tell me why you and that guy got into a fight," Eric reminded.
"But at least I admitted that I never hated you," Taylor pointed out. "And I'm probably never going to tell anyone else about what happened at the bar."
"Anyone else?"
"Who'd you think I told it to?"
Eric figured she told Ashley and Kimberly; it seemed like they told each other everything, which might or might not be a good thing for everyone else in the house at the moment. "You know, you scared Wes into running away instead of helping you."
Taylor shrugged her shoulders. "I can't help it," she replied.
"I guess not." Eric turned to go into the kitchen like everybody else, wondering what they could be talking about and hoping none of the current discussions involved him; he never liked being talked about. "Oh, just to let you know," he said when he turned back to face Taylor again, "I said you'd punch the girl."
Taking a moment to smirk at Eric's comment, Taylor felt an odd sense of calm with the memory Eric brought up. Or maybe it was that they shared it together. That last thought stuck in her head, causing her to shake physically for a moment as if she could wave it off. That's… weird, she thought. She'd leave it for some other time; now, she had to go see what her sisters were up to.
Boxes and papers were strewn over the floor of the manor attic, enlightening the Charmed Ones about the history of the Halliwell family but being of no specific help to their current situation. They had less than an hour left before the girls had to meet up with their friends at the park like Kimberly promised and they had found basically nothing.
"There has to be something," Ashley urged, rummaging through the last documents in the box in front of her. "Did you guys find anything?"
"Nothing significant," Taylor answered. "Just a few albums, birth certificates, family trees, blah blah blah."
"There isn't even a diary in all of this," Kimberly remarked. "You'd think out of dozens of generations of Halliwell women, one of them would've kept a journal or something."
"Well, they kind of did," Ashley said. "I mean, we do have the Book of Shadows."
"Yeah, but that only helps us vanquish demons, which isn't particularly useful when we don't know which one we're after."
"We could always go after all of them," Taylor suggested with a teasing smile.
"I don't think we're up to that," Ashley replied.
"God, this is so frustrating!" Kimberly's sudden outburst was accompanied by her tossing a photo album to the side, surprising both her sisters. Their attention was shifted elsewhere when they heard more than just a thump right after Kimberly threw the album, looking around for the cause of the noise. "What the-"
Taylor got up from her sitting position on the floor, walking over to the photo album on the floor and trying to see what she might be missing in that spot. "There's nothing here."
"Maybe we're just hearing things," Ashley said. "We've been searching for something since nine-thirty this morning. In fact, we're going to have to get something to eat soon; I don't think I can stand this much longer. Hey, what was in this album anyway?" She bent over to pick up the object, opening it to find pictures she guessed were only a few decades old. "Looks like nothing special."
"Here, let me put it back," Kimberly got up and went over to retrieve the article, hearing a loud creak when she reached her sisters. "What's with the floor?"
"I don't know," Ashley shrugged, walking closer to Kimberly to give her the album. When she heard the creaking sound increase, she stopped. "Um, I know this attic is old, but I don't think the floor is supposed to creak that loud."
"Check it," Taylor suggested.
"Check a piece of wood?" Kimberly asked. "Come on, it's just old wood." She walked forward to get the book from Ashley when she felt a part of the wood beneath her move and nearly fell from the shift. "Whoa, what the hell?"
Taylor rushed over to examine the wood, both her sisters joining her when she found the loose floorboard. She tried to lift the wood, finding it a little difficult to remove. She finally pried it from the floor, nearly hitting Kimberly on her right with her elbow when the board almost flew out of her hand. She looked back at the uncovered spot, finding some papers and a book in the alcove. "What the-"
Ashley grabbed the book that lay on top of the papers, finding a lock on the side. "Must be a diary." Despite the lock, she opened the diary easily, wondering how old the thing must be to open that easily without a key.
"What are these," Kimberly asked while picking up the papers. Scanning them briefly, she recognized them as birth certificates, wondering why they weren't placed with the others. "What are birth certificates doing down here?"
"Who are they for?" Taylor asked.
"A Prue, Piper and Phoebe Halliwell," Kimberly answered. "They weren't on any of the family trees we found, were they?" She became further bemused when her sisters answered in the negative. "Then why would they have the Halliwell name?"
"Can I see them," Ashley requested. As soon as Ashley took the three sheets Kimberly handed to her, her mind instantly felt like it shut off until black and white images raced through her mind. Several scenes flashed after another, featuring the same five women over and over, seemingly on the same side at first and arguing with each other in the last picture. She could feel the anger, the anxiety, and the enmity between the girls, though she wasn't sure it was directed toward each one of them. The premonition was gone before she knew it. She involuntarily gasped when she opened her eyes again. "Whoa."
"What?" Kimberly and Taylor asked, panicked at what Ashley saw.
"Was it a premonition," Kimberly asked. Ashley nodded. "What was it about?"
"Something really weird. I saw these five girls but they don't feel familiar. Most of what I saw was just the five of them talking, like they were trying to figure something out, but one of the girls seemed to just stand by. In the last one, though, it was a fight with three against two, and they all seemed pretty mad at each other."
"I'm guessing the three on the same side were those girls," Taylor said, pointing to the birth certificates, finding the deduction possible. "As for the other two… I don't know."
"What about that diary," Kimberly pointed out.
"I couldn't really read a lot into it," Ashley answered. "The handwriting is a little girl's so a lot of it is misspelled and illegible."
"We can figure it out later if we want." Kimberly thought it was about time for them to clean the mess they created of the papers and boxes and get ready to meet up with everybody at the park. She was about to say so, but something in her mind felt like she was missing something important and she looked around to see what it could be. She would've ignored it but the feeling grew into a nagging sentiment in her mind. Her eyes landed on the birth certificates again. There was something about them…
"Ash, can I see those again?"
"Sure."
Kimberly took the papers and scanned them again, looking for anything that seemed the tiniest bit familiar besides the surname. She felt a question to click in her mind. Taking her cell phone out of her pocket, she dialed the first number she thought of. "Hey, Wyatt? I know this will seem totally random, but do you remember the name of your mom and aunts? Huh. We just found something weird in the attic and I wanted to ask. Really? All right, thanks." She closed her phone and let out an involuntary, "Huh," before letting her mind going back into investigator-mode.
"Mind telling us what that was all about," Taylor asked.
"When I heard the name Piper," Kimberly explained, "it was like something clicked in my head, like there was something about that name. I didn't know why but I thought it had something to do with Wyatt. That's why I asked if he remembered his mother's name, and oddly enough, he remembered that it was Piper. Don't you guys think it's awfully weird that neither these girls or Wyatt and Chris are on any of the family trees?"
"Well, they're pretty old," Ashley reasoned. "Who knows when how recent the last entry is?"
"Not too far back," Taylor thought aloud. "Patty Halliwell was the last one I saw and call me weird but I think that was Wyatt and Chris's grandmother."
"But if this Piper is their mother," Kimberly pointed out, "then what's with these messed up birthdates? Wyatt is 25 and Chris is only a few years after him. According to this birth certificate, Piper would've had them when she was, like, nine years old."
"That is weird," Ashley agreed. "Why is that?"
"Who knows?" Taylor shrugged. "We can see if there's anything more when the guys come home. Right now, though, I think we have around fifteen minutes before our friends chew our heads off for being late and not keeping Kim's promise."
After cleaning the rest of the clutter in the attic, the girls took Taylor's advice and swiftly left for the park. However, they knew those birth certificates and that diary would stick in their minds all day. How were they going to explain them to Wyatt, Chris, and their friends?
Everyone turned their attention to the sisters when they arrived at the park, seeing all sorts of things going on wherever they looked. Some of the guys started the football game they spoke of the night before while some girls went to do the same with volleyball. Several were still on the picnic blankets, lying down to enjoy the breeze, eating some of the food they brought, talking to one another about anything, or just relaxing on a surprisingly calm day. And of course some were running around playing an unofficial game of tag that Ashley, Kimberly and Taylor were sure all of them would get involved in.
Something was a source of amusement for each of them. Kimberly smiled cheerfully when she saw Jason and Tommy get tackled by almost every guy playing football with them for apparently conspiring against every other player of the game. Sometimes, their brotherhood may have gone a little too far for everyone else to stand by doing nothing. Ashley did the same when she saw Cassie and Karone splash water from several water bottles at their friends running around in their game of tag. Eventually, the two had to run in hopes of escape from revenge but that only made it more amusing. Nothing could hold back the somewhat pleased smile Taylor gave when she noticed Alyssa and Cole sitting just a little apart from the rest engrossed in their own conversation and obviously flirting with each other. Everyone thought it was about time those two tried to progress their friendship into something more.
"How about we take part in this little outside gathering," Kimberly asked her sisters, already knowing the answer.
Each girl went separate ways, Kimberly to the set-up volleyball court to join in the game, Ashley to help Karone and Cassie escape their chasers, and Taylor to the football game the guys just resumed after their group attack. Initially, most of the guys couldn't help but worry when Taylor said she wanted to join in the game, wondering what she would do in a game of true football, tackles and all. If she was willing to punch a girl, who knows what she would to do a bunch of guys? Worse, what would she do to them since they excluded the girls from most of their activities?
"Come on," she insisted. "I promise, I won't hurt you guys. Much."
Eventually, with a little coaxing from some of the girls watching the game, they let Taylor into the game, Wes saying he'd take full responsibility for whatever happened since he chose her for his team. Soon, though, he almost regretted his words. The former Air Force Lieutenant was a better football player than the men thought, helping her team score enough touchdowns to put her team into the lead and tackling the guys hard enough that Max decided to take a break before she gave him anything worse than big bruises. The opposite team called for a sudden time-out, telling Wes he'd have to do something with Taylor before they quit playing.
"Oh, come on guys, that's completely unfair," Wes countered.
"No, no," Taylor started. "Don't worry, I don't mind. Besides…" She called out to Kimberly a second later, the two sisters having a quiet conversation quickly after. Kimberly suddenly looked up and stared at the guys with an unyielding gaze.
"Well, looks like we're just going to have to teach them a lesson," she said aloud, calling all the girls to come over to join them. The guys couldn't help their anxiety at the situation unfolding before them. "It looks like our fellow teammates have a little problem…" She gave a brief explanation of the 'problem', which prompted a common idea in all the girls.
Kimberly and Taylor turned to the guys with a shared smirk. "Well," Kimberly started, "if you guys are really that hurt by one girl…"
"Then how about a battle of the sexes," Taylor suggested. "Guys against girls, full-out football, and hold nothing back."
"Yeah, right," Zack said suddenly before anyone else spoke. "I hate to say it but us guys would kill you girls at football." All the guys around him took their turn at hitting him for that comment that was sure to worsen their situation.
"Fine," Aisha said, "if that's how you want it. You guys get to choose eight players for your side."
"Just eight?" several asked.
"Just eight," the girls returned.
"First team to score ten touchdowns wins the game," Kimberly said.
The agreement made, the guys dived into a discussion as to who would play. They didn't want to hurt their female counterparts, but then again, the girls weren't playing around either.
"All right, so which one of us gets to play," Jason asked first.
"Well, I know we're bumping Zack out for what he said," Rocky stated first.
"Hey, that's not fair, man," Zack retaliated, though everyone came to an agreement that he wouldn't play. The rest of the guys tried to figure which guys would play based on the girls who were most likely to play.
"Taylor and Kimberly, definitely," Tommy started.
"Aisha will be in the game," Adam added.
"Knowing them, I say Ashley, Karone and Cassie are in," T.J. put in.
"Trini and Kim played football with us all the time when we were younger," Jason continued.
"And Alyssa isn't as gentle as she seems," Cole brought up. At the looks his fellow ex-rangers were giving him, he quickly added, stuttering, "Um, uh, okay, that- uh- came out wrong. I mean- you guys- she and I- we're not-"
"We get it," all the guys said quickly to get Cole to stop stuttering, though it was obvious that most of them were barely holding their laughter at his words.
Finally, they decided on the eight guys who would play in the game, not noticing one fact about their team until the girls pointed it out. When the 'team' said they were ready, the girls they knew would play looked at them with odd expressions. Feeling self-conscious all of a sudden, Rocky, T.J., Jason, Andros, Wes, Tommy, Eric and Cole looked from one to another trying to find the reason for the weird looks from their opposing team. They couldn't see the problem.
"Just a little dense, are we?" Trini asked aloud.
"And a little arrogant, like always," Aisha added.
"Why is it always an all for one and one for all deal with you red rangers," Taylor pointed out.
The guys groaned when they noticed that little fact but the girls told them to forget it; they had better things to deal with. The two teams lined up in separate positions in the area they deemed the football field. They decided both Tanya and Danny would be the referees to keep the game fair. The coin toss decided that the girls would get the first chance with the football. All the girls made a point to turn around for a moment and state a synchronized, "Have fun, boys," before Ashley got ready to hike the ball.
"42, 39, hike!" And the game began.
It took some time before the first touchdown was scored, earned by the guys, but the score didn't come without its price. Quite a few of them groaned from the pain they acquired when they were tackled by the girls. When the girls scored the next two touchdowns, the red rangers realized they'd have to stop going easy on their old teammates and actually play the game as if they were playing against each other. The task was easier than they thought, although halfway through the game, a shove from T.J. sent Karone to the floor and injured her to the point she had to get out of the game and have Katherine replace her. Zhane and Andros made a point to glare at their former blue ranger.
Almost an hour later, the guys were one touchdown from winning, the girls two away. The red rangers had to admit that they were wrong in underestimating the girls at the beginning of the game. They knew they should've learned from when they were all Power Rangers, but some lessons took longer to sink in. As it was Jason's turn to hike the ball, he immediately passed it to Tommy who threw it Andros when he was nearly tackled by Aisha and Kimberly. Andros tried to run down the field with a firm grip on the ball but lost it and had to pass when Cassie took him down. As T.J., Rocky and Cole were being blocked by Katherine and Ashley, the ball ended up in Wes's hands who was already making a dash for the end-zone. When he was twenty yards from the goal, he saw both Alyssa and Taylor rushing toward him to take him down. He passed it to Eric a few feet away and fell when Alyssa basically tripped him, unknowing if it was on accident.
The guys were sure Eric would make the touchdown but once again, they underestimated the speed of their opponents. Kimberly and Cassie bounced back from their tackles and Alyssa was still standing when she made Wes stumble, not to mention that Taylor was already going after Wes to stop him from scoring the winning touchdown seconds before. Eric focused his attention on his run ahead but made the mistake of looking back momentarily to see three former pink rangers rushing after him and found his side crashing with the ground a second later. Glancing up to his left, he only had a second to realize that Taylor tackled him before the momentum of the fall caused them to roll to his right for a few turns.
Taylor got up once they stopped rolling, Alyssa, Kimberly and Cassie catching up to her as she looked down at Eric with a smug smile. "Hah!" she declared emphatically before going off with her teammates for what was most likely the final huddle for this game.
The guys were worried in their own huddle, trying to find a quick and surefire way to win the game.
"All right, guys, that wasn't the best play, but Eric was only about eight yards away, ten at the most," Jason lay out as the team captain for the game.
"If we can figure out a way to just hold all of them back for just a little longer," Tommy stated, "then Eric would be able to score the touchdown."
"Okay, then, so we make the same play as the last one," Jason decided, "but this time, Tommy, fake a right, you know Aisha and Katherine are going to expect you to go right. Then pass to Cole. Rocky, Andros, you two protect him from whoever goes after him. Then Rocky, when you're close enough, throw the ball to Eric. Wes, Cole, T.J., I know three guys protecting Eric sounds a little ridiculous but you guys saw how the last play went. And, Eric, if for some reason you go down or one of them tackles you, pass to Wes. All right, ready guys?"
"Ready," they all agreed.
As Jason hiked the ball once more, the guys immediately went into the play he planned a minute ago. As far as he and the rest of the guys could see, it was working just fine; it seemed they had the girls figured out. Suddenly, their eyes widened when they saw a shift in the girls and they all began running from positions of equal distance from Eric and his defense. By the time they realized what they girls had done, they were too far down the field for the guys to reach them in time but they ran after the girls anyway. It wasn't long before the females broke through the three-man defense and Taylor took down Eric again, faster than she had last time. The girls all screamed in semi-victory when Taylor bounced up from the ground, happier at preventing the guys from winning than scoring any touchdowns for her team.
Jason was rethinking the play when Eric abruptly shot up from the grass and said, "That's it, Earhardt."
Everyone on the field stopped whatever they were doing when they heard Eric's declaration, wondering what he meant. Ashley and Kimberly knew what was on his mind and rushed over to Taylor but reached her two seconds too late, as she was now dashing all around the field trying to escape Eric's tickling her in the side. Kimberly and Ashley ran after him and tried to jump on him to stop his assault but their laughing didn't help their maneuver and instead started a chain reaction with everyone eventually chasing each other around the field.
Screams and yelps came from everybody when they were tagged at one pointed or another, the game tiring them out after all the running and laughing. The girls ended up gathered on one side opposite from the guys. They decided to come to a truce, the guys admitting the girls were quite good at football and the girls promising to be nicer the next time any of them insulted one of the girls. The two groups headed toward the picnic blankets to finally eat something after all that activity.
Most of them were settled down, laughing and smiling again for more agreeable reasons than before. Ashley was passing the food Kimberly was taking out of the baskets to their friends behind her when Kimberly suddenly stopped and she stared at the ground, obviously deep in thought.
"Hey, Kim," Ashley said. "Something wrong?"
"Get up," Kimberly ordered quickly, though it wasn't a second later when the entire party could feel the fiery blasts charging at them from an unknown source.
Panic spread for a while before they realized that someone was attacking them. As they recovered and stood up from the ground, Taylor, Kimberly and Ashley looked around quickly to see if the attacker was anywhere near. They were suddenly glad the park was empty that day except for their gathering when they saw a familiar enemy standing yards away, grinning at them with a malicious smirk. The good day just turned terribly unpleasant.
There you go. Be nice and review. :)