Title: "Sex: A very Hypocritical Topic when addressed by the Red Ranger"
Rating: M for the topic listed above & a teeny tiny bit of swearing.
Author: phantom12
Author's Note: Kimberly/Jason **FRIENDSHIP** but refers heavily to Kim/Tommy. This tidbit takes place during MMPR. Change in storyline: Kimberly is living with Jason's parents at this time after her mother moved to Paris, but Jason has not yet left for the Peace Pooper. Feel free to review, comment, or criticize. Or don't. Whatever you want is cool with me.
Sex: A very Hypocritical Topic when addressed by the Red Ranger
"I'll kill him, I swear I'll kill him!"
Jason Scott was livid. Not just livid. To put it simply, all across the galaxy the evilest of evil beings felt his murderous rage and fled from his flaming aura. Not even Zedd would dare to attack today. Jason's face was unnaturally red and he huffed like an ape, pacing back and forth in his parents' kitchen. His audience? None other than seventeen-year-old Kimberly Hart, who was now enduring the brunt of Jason's wrath with an annoyed eye roll.
"You're overreacting," she said in an exasperated tone.
He stopped in his tracks, shocked at her accusation. "Overreacting? Do you have any idea what kind of image is now burned into my memory? I need a fucking lobotomy!"
"Well, you wouldn't have seen it if you had just knocked!"
Okay, so when Kim and Tommy decided to head up to her room for some alone time, they weren't quite prepared for the fact that Jason's karate class was cancelled… Or that he'd come home instead of chilling at the Youth Center like he normally does during his free time… Or that he'd picked 4:30 in the afternoon as the perfect time to retrieve a CD Kimberly had borrowed from him the previous week… Or that he'd come barging into her bedroom without knocking to retrieve it… Or that the sight of his surrogate sister in nothing but a lacey bra and jeans making out with her topless boyfriend in bed would certainly scar Jason for the rest of his life.
To sum it up, Kimberly and Tommy had let their hormones get the best of them and forgot to think their make out session through. They forgot that Tommy was supposed to be home by 4 o'clock that afternoon. Forgot that Jason's parents had forbade them being home alone together. Forgot to lock the bedroom door, even. And to Jason's dismay, Kimberly did not seem ashamed at her own behavior. In a messy haste, the couple had thrown their clothes on to prevent Jason from having a seizure at the sight of their intimacy. After chasing Tommy out of his house with a bat and numerous threats to send his Zord after him, he dragged Kimberly by the wrist down to the kitchen with all the intentions of scolding her like the little girl she surely was.
"I can't believe you could be so irresponsible! You shouldn't be doing anything more than- like- kissing! No actually, you shouldn't even be doing that either! And there you are, upstairs and home alone, blowing past second base!"
"Well, what did you think we do in our alone time together? Play patty-cake all day long?"
"Mom and Dad would kill you if they'd been the ones walking through that door!"
Kim scoffed. "Mom and Dad would have knocked first!"
"Ugh!" he grunted angrily. He just had to make her see that kissing or having anything to do with boys was completely unacceptable. "And how far exactly would you have gone had I not come in?"
"Well, it's not like we haven't gone farther! Sex is a completely natural part of life."
Jason's jaw dropped at the mention of the 's' word. He stuttered. "S-sex? You've done it?"
"Well, not that it's any of your business… but yes, we have gone all the way."
Jason's head seemed to swell at her words. "Y-you shouldn't be having sex," he managed to sputter out. Yep. He was going to kill Tommy for sure. Best friend or not. Tommy was going to die a most painful death.
"And who are you to tell me what I can and can't do?" she challenged him.
"You're not ready for sex! You're too young!"
"And what? You aren't?" She gawped at his lame reasoning. "You seem to have no shame getting hot and steamy with Emily Matherson."
"No, that's not what I meant!" He began to pace again. "It's just, you're not mature enough-"
"Not mature enough?" she interrupted him. "I seem to recall you and Zack were whooping and hollering like Neanderthals the very day Billy lost his virginity!"
"That's different. Billy is old enough!"
"Newsflash!" Kimberly glared incredulously up into Jason's eyes. "Billy is SIX MONTHS younger than I am!"
"That's besides the point-"
"And you were FIFTEEN when you had sex with Mary Conner from homeroom! Zack was sixteen when he did it the first time!"
"That's different-"
"Don't give me that crap! I didn't give you a hard time about it when I found out about your sex parade!"
"That's because you weren't unfortunate enough to walk in on us doing it!"
"Only because I know how to knock!" she threw in his face. "Ugh! You're impossible!"
"Me? You're the one running around making Power Babies with that Green idiot!"
"That Green idiot is your best bro, you moron!" she retorted.
"Best bro or not, he's going to get his ass kicked!"
Kimberly got up and made to leave, but Jason stopped her.
He took a deep breath and held her by the shoulders and said, "I forbid you to have sex."
Kimberly knocked his hands from her shoulders. "Excuse me? You forbid me? I'd like to see you try and stop me!"
"If you don't, I'll call your Mom!"
She had the nerve to laugh at his empty threat. "Like she could do anything about it. She's on the other side of the frickin' world!"
She made to leave him standing alone in the kitchen until she heard him say, "Fine! I'll tell my parents!"
Kim stopped in her tracks. Her eyes narrowed as she turned to face her newly sworn enemy. "You do, and you're dead," she whispered.
Jason smiled smugly at her, knowing he one-upped her. "Just try me."
He watched in horror as her facial expression transformed from defeated to determined. An evil smile crept its way to her lips. "I'll tell them about Mary Conner."
"You wouldn't," he replied with as much bravado as he could muster. But she saw the fear in his eyes.
"Oh I would," she tilted her head as if to look angelically up at him. "How many people are on your list now? Oh, yes… that's right. Four." She let the last word linger in the air.
And before he could come up with biting remarks to get back at her, she grinned in that impish manner and marched back up to her room. "And leave Tommy alone!" her voice traveled from upstairs before her door slammed shut violently.
Jason's lips pursed tight as he struggled to find a comeback to throw at her. But she had disappeared before he could even move. Admittedly, he was more experienced in the sex field than she was. He was a teenage boy, after all. He liked girls, there was no doubt about that. But that didn't make it okay for Tommy and Kimberly to be exploring each other sexually. Okay, so maybe Tommy was just as horny as he was. But did he have to feel those feelings towards his sister? I mean, really. Granted, Jason would rather have his surrogate sister dating his best friend than any other asshole in high school, but still. But she was still his little sister. It was just… wrong.
The next evening, the Scotts had Tommy over for a rather uncomfortable dinner. Helen and Dean Scott noticed a strange awkwardness among the three teenagers who sat at the table, picking their food. None of them were contributing to the conversation, and Jason and Kimberly seemed to be throwing hateful vibes at one another. In truth, they had never seen Jason and Kim angry at each other for more than one hour since they had met in kindergarten. Their youngest son, Lee, at twelve years old did not seem to notice or care about the strange tension that was hovering over the dinner table. Instead, he was happily babbling on about his day in the sixth grade. Once Lee was finished with his tales, his parents turned their attention to the older kids.
"So, son," Dean gestured towards Jason between sips of water. "How was school today?"
"Fine," Jason muttered as he poked his bread.
Dean raised an eyebrow at his wife. She shrugged. Kids these days.
"How about you, Kimberly?" Helen asked the small brunette who seemed to find her salad quite interesting.
"It was fine, too," she mumbled. She cast a dirty look at Jason who wasn't shy about returning the favor.
"And Tommy?" Dean turned to their dinner guest, who suddenly looked quite red-faced.
"It was-" he began before he cut off.
"If you say 'fine' I'm going to deny you any dessert," Helen interrupted playfully.
Tommy swallowed. "It was… good." The last word came out a little more high pitched than he had intended. He cleared his throat.
As anyone could guess, school had not been 'fine' or 'good' today. Jason and Kim had not spoken a word to each other since their conversation the day prior. Their only form of communication was a roll of the eyes or a heated glare. Tommy felt like a ping pong ball. Of course, things were bound to be weird when you're dating your best friend's sister. The only words Jason had said to him today were during history class: "Just – don't say anything, Bro. I can't look at you right now when all I can do picture is my sister underneath you." Tommy felt lucky, really. He'd expected a beating, but Jason seemed to be restraining himself. After he inquired Kim about his escape from death, she'd simply replied that she had made sure that if he tried he'd be grounded until the end of the century. Tommy had already been invited to this dinner well before Jason had caught them making out in her bedroom. He offered to back out for the sake of Kim, but she insisted that he be there. For some reason, he felt Kim was rubbing his presence in Jason's face. Jason, in turn, was fuming and unable to hide it.
"Is there something you kids aren't telling us?" Dean asked carefully, his eyes moving from teenager to teenager. Helen watched expectantly as Lee's eyes seemed to light up as though his favorite TV show was on.
After the long silence, Jason cleared his throat, seriously contemplating. If he told them what he saw yesterday, Kim would surely backfire with every detail of his sex life that she knew about. Could he handle that? Oh what the hell, it didn't matter to him if he was grounded. As long as it got Kim to stop doing dirty deeds with Tommy, he'd be happy even if his parents strapped a chastity belt to him. In any case, his parents' sex talks was a wrath he was willing to put up with as long as it ensured that Kim never even has the chance to look at another guy again.
Kim's eyes narrowed at Jason, who seemed to be unable to keep it in. She could see clearly on his face that he was quite ready to throw himself on the line to get her in trouble. She sent him a warning glare, which he pointedly ignored.
"Kim slept with Tommy!" he sputtered, finally breaking the uneasy silence. Sweet relief clouded him as the secret exploded into the air. "There! I said it!"
Helen coughed up her water as Dean nearly choked on his rice as Jason's abrupt proclamation. "W-what?!" Dean demanded.
Kim gasped as Tommy groaned. Jason seemed to be very pleased with himself at her horrified reaction… until he saw her mouth open and heard the words fly out of her mouth.
"Jason's sleeping with Emily!" she cried out. Jason, horrified, moved to cover her blabby mouth but failed miserably. Tommy put his head in his hands and sunk lower into his chair, hoping to disappear forever.
"Wait a minute-" Helen said as she got up trying to make sense of this new wave of information.
"I caught them!" Jason cried as he defended himself from Kimberly's fists. "Yesterday afternoon!"
Kim growled. "Jason had sex with Pia Patel on the living room couch when you guys went to the police banquet!"
"They were home alone in her bedroom!"
"When Jason borrowed Dad's car to go to the store, he actually picked up Sissy Thompson for a quickie!"
"Kim only had a bra on when I walked in on them sucking each other's faces off on her bed!"
"Jason snuck into Sissy Thompson's house last spring while her parents were away!"
"They were about to have sex before I walked in! But I stopped them!"
"Jason lost his virginity to Mary Conner when he was fifteen!"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Dean's voice bellowed, interrupting their tattle-tale-a-thon. Kim and Jason froze in a tangle of arms flailing about in attempts to shut each other up.
A wide grin spread to Lee's face in fascination of the event being played out before him.
A very soft, "Oh God," was muttered from Tommy's direction.
"Lee," Helen said sternly. "Go to your room."
"Wha-?" he cried out incredulously. "I wasn't the one who did anything wrong! They're the ones having sex!" He pointed wildly towards Jason, Kim, and Tommy. Nevertheless, he complied and laughed his way up the stairs to his bedroom knowing his brother and sister were in huge trouble.
Once they were sure Lee was out of hearing range, Dean turned to the three who sat before him and his wife. Kim's eyes were shut and her hands covered her mouth as though she was trying to stop herself from saying anything else. Jason just sat and stared uncomfortably at his half-eaten dinner plate. Tommy, on the other hand remained slumped in his chair, a hand covering his face.
"Thomas," Helen said gently to Kim's boyfriend. "You should probably go home."
He nodded as he slowly got up. "Mr. Scott… Mrs. Scott… I'm really sorry… about everything."
Helen nodded at the young man before him. Tommy was a good kid. A hormonal one, but a good one nonetheless. His puppy dog eyes were so sincere that she realized it wasn't hard for Kimberly to get lost in them. "Thank you, Tommy. We're not angry with you. I'll be calling your parents, however. So this is your official warning that you'd better go home and tell them about this before I make that call."
He nodded like a wounded puppy, placed his hand on Kim's shoulder and said goodbye to Jason.
Once Tommy had left, Jason felt the gates of hell opening up. His father had not said a word. He was fuming, perhaps more than Jason was yesterday.
"You two," Dean started not able to look at them, "are grounded. Indefinitely."
They nodded. No use trying to fight back now.
"But not for having sex. That's a whole other issue your mother and I will figure out how to deal with."
The teens looked up at him in confusion.
"You're grounded because you turned on each other," he explained. He felt his wife's hand on his shoulder. He looked up into his children's eyes with a desperate plea for them to understand. "Your mother and I let a lot slide with the two of you. Broken curfews, unexcused absences at school, midnight excursions without our permission…"
Jason and Kim exchanged a meaningful glance, momentarily forgetting that they were mad at each other. Could they possibly know?
"It's not fair of us to strip you of normal circumstances," Dean continued heavily. "But given what it is you… do… your lives are not normal. A mother and father shouldn't have to ground their children just for bickering or telling tattle-tales. But you two? You've been friends since you met in kindergarten. It's important that you never turn on each other again. You've always been side by side, always fought the same fight. And these days, it's quite literal. You must fight on the same side, not against each other."
"Dad-" Jason began, realizing his parents knew the truth about their identities.
"Let me finish, son. There's nothing more I would rather do right now than ground you two for losing your virginity so young. Any normal parent would. But I can't, because we're not a normal family. Right now, there's a bigger picture to think about. The two of you depend on each other, for everything. To protect each other, to be there for each other, to save each other. You will have this bond for the rest of your lives because of what you are going through now. But if you're out there fighting the fight, and you can't trust each other… then bad things can happen. You need each other to depend on out there. Just like you need the rest of your team."
So this was it, Jason thought. He knows about us. Kim fidgeted uncomfortably in the chair next to him.
When his kids could find nothing to say, Dean concluded, "So we're begging you, as your parents, to get past this and never look back. If you don't trust each other, I guarantee you won't survive. And I'll be damned if I have to bury one of my children before I die."
Silence clouded the dining room table. Helen leaned on her husband's shoulder, revering in the wake of his words. He was right. She was thankful her husband had the strength to confront Jason and Kimberly about their battles, because she could not bear the thought of acknowledging that their lives were in constant danger.
Kim and Jason sat there for several moments, taking their father's words to heart. Kim spoke up first.
"Jason, I'm sorry," she whispered, meeting his dark eyes with her own.
"I'm sorry, too," Jason nodded. "I overreacted. I just… you're like… my baby sister. I can't help but be protective over you."
She smiled. "I'm sorry I blabbed about your sex life. I like that you're protective though. I like knowing I have someone looking out for me. But you have to understand that I don't always need it."
"Then how will I know when you need me?"
"Easy," she said with a small laugh. "I'll tell you."
He draped an arm over her shoulder and pulled her to him. "I'm just glad you're dating Tommy and not some random douche."
She laughed. "Me too."
"Ah, see now!" Helen exclaimed with a clap. "Isn't it much easier when you're not fighting?"
"Yeah," Kim replied with a smile.
"Great," Dean smiled. "Now that you're done fighting each other, you are officially ungrounded."
"That's awesome," Jason said triumphantly.
"I've never been grounded for such a short period of time," Kim laughed.
"Yeah, well," Helen's face turned serious. "I wouldn't get too happy." She looked to her husband, officially giving him the honors of their real punishment.
Dean smiled brightly at the dumbfounded teenagers who sat before him.
"Now you're grounded for having sex."
-fin