Disclaimer: Characters are owned by Saban, I only own ideas and a laptop.

Thanks for reading, please don't forget to review!

By Your Side – Chapter 6

*Beach Club*

The Angel Grove fashion show had just taken place and, as a last minute addition, Jason chose to be one of the models for it. He didn't want to at first, but when he found out Emily would think it was cool if he did it, he went all out for it. It caught the eye of both Emily and the other rangers, including Kat. Jason couldn't stop thinking about Emily, and was sure that while Kat was someone he had liked when he first got there, he really liked Emily. Not only that, but he was really excited that he could really help her through the transition from high school dropout to a working girl, and hopefully, re-enrolling the next year.

At this point, Jason was with Tommy and Billy, watching Emily tend to customers from his table. Tommy in particular had a wide grin on his face, seeing Jason so taken with his new found friend.

"So," Tommy started. "Have you thought about asking her out on a date yet? You obviously think a lot about her." Jason grinned at the statement.

"Honestly, I have. I... um... it's just weird though, you know. I think I'm going to talk to her about it today when she gets off work."

"Are you nervous?" Billy asked.

"Yeah, I mean who wouldn't?" Jason replied. "Guy who's never dated before asking an insanely beautiful girl out, I think I'd be a fool not to be. But it's a good nervousness. Like, the way you get nervous before a karate tournament, except a million times more intense."

"Yeah, sounds like how I was before I asked Kimberly about the dance before freshman year," Tommy added. Both Jason and Billy were a bit surprised that Tommy brought up Kim, but they quickly let it pass.

"I always wondered what the big deal was asking her out," Jason said. "But I had gone with Kim to a couple dances strictly as friends, I didn't get the whole 'liking' bit." He grinned. "Now, I definitely do."

"Well, good luck man," Billy said.

"Yeah," Tommy added. A couple of hours went by, and Billy had just left, and Emily's shift was about to end, so Tommy stayed with Jason to keep him company as he waited for his 'big' question.

"Sometimes, I think the machine empire is up there purposely slowing time during moments where I want time to speed up!" Jason said.

"Haha," Tommy laughed. "Hey, are you going to be free later tonight? You know, like after you take Emily home and talk to her?"

"I should have some time, why?"

"Well, I need your opinion on something, and it may take longer than a quick 5 minutes as you wait for Emily. Can I swing by like around 8 or 8:30?"

"Sure thing, bro." Jason looked at his watch, with Tommy trying hard to bite down a chuckle due to Jason's uncharacteristic impatience. A couple more minutes passed, and Jason stood up and walked over to the counter, where Emily finally hung up her apron, and had clocked out with Ernie. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah," Emily said with a smile. "Thanks for wanting to walk me home, it's really sweet of you."

"It's no problem at all." Emily's home was about a 15 minute walk away, she shared an apartment with 3 other girls on the Eastside of the city. As they walked, they talked about how their days went, the latest monster attack and how awesome the power rangers were, as they saved the city again (at which Jason had to chuckle, since this past monster he had vaporized with Pyramidas). When they finally got in front of her apartment building, Jason tried to muster up the courage to ask her what he had been waiting to ask. "Hey Emily, before you go in, can we talk for a minute?"

"Sure, what did you want to talk about?" Emily asked.

"Well... ummm... I wanted to know if you were up to anything this weekend?"

"I'm working on Saturday from 9-5, and I'm helping Eddie and a few of the other guys with their bikes on Sunday, but aside from that I'm not doing anything, why?"

"Well, I was wondering if you'd like to go to dinner and catch a movie afterwards?"

"Oh sure, will Tommy and the others be there?" She asked with a nervous grin.

"Uhh..." Jason muttered, running his hand through his hair. "No... I... was wondering if you'd want to go with just me, on a date." Jason didn't know what to expect from what he just said, but when he saw Emily's face light up with a smile from ear to ear, he assumed that was a good sign.

"Yes! I was hoping it would just be the two of us," Emily stated. "Thanks for asking me!"

"Thanks for wanting too!" Jason said. "I could pick you up for dinner at 5:45? I know of a really good sushi place downtown, are you into that type of stuff?"

"I've always wanted to try it! That'd be great!"

"Great," Jason said, with a hint of relief. "I'll see you then."

"Sounds good, Jason." Emily walked up the steps to her apartment. As soon as her apartment door slammed shut, Jason let out a loud scream of joy. He had his first date set with Emily!

*Scott Residence*

Jason was in his room attempting to work on homework, waiting for Tommy to get there. It had been a rather boring day after he returned from his triumphant ask, and if Jason was honest with himself, he was anxious to talk with Tommy. Not because he was afraid to share how the day went, but he also wondered it would be like. Tommy had been closed off emotionally for quite some time since the break up with Kimberly, and even though he seemed to have cheered up recently, he still knew he couldn't quite be over the petite brunette that had claimed his heart for so long. He sat quietly, looking at the clock to see it was 8:29 P.M. 'Late as usual,' Jason mused, and chuckled at the thought. At that moment he heard a knock on his bedroom door.

"Yeah?" Jason asked. He assumed it was his Mom or Dad, but instead it was Tommy who crept into the room. "Oh, hey Tommy."

"Hey bro, your Mom said to just come up," he replied.

"You're late," Jason said playfully.

"Actually, I'm a minute early," Tommy grinned. "I said 8 or 8:30, remember?"

"Well... I'll be darned, you're on time for once," Jason shot back.

"How'd it go with Emily?"

"Well... I'm going on my first real date on Saturday," he said with a grin. "Dinner and a movie."

"That's awesome bro!"

"Yeah... I'm really excited about it." There was a fairly long pause at that point, and Jason picked up on the fact that Tommy wanted to say something, but was sitting on it. Finally, he asked, "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Kat," Tommy said sheepishly. Jason suddenly felt squeamish, but continued to press in.

"What about Kat?" He asked, an edge suddenly added to his voice.

"Well... I... do you think she likes me?" Jason didn't know if he wanted to haul off and punch his best friend due to anger, or to crack up at him laughing. The range of emotions caught Jason way off guard. The humor of Tommy's sheer brain density was one thing, but why was he angry? Kat was beautiful, but he just asked Emily out. Maybe he was just being defensive? "Jase? Everything ok?"

"Yeah... sorry... I was just caught off guard by the question. Why do you ask?"

"Well... I mean, I've been thinking about her a lot lately, and was wondering..." Tommy trailed off at this point. Jason tried to put his confused feelings aside for a moment, and focused solely on what Tommy was saying.

"You were wondering, since you like her, does she like you back?"

"I guess..."

Jason almost let out a laugh at his friend's aloofness. He had always enjoyed seeing Tommy fret about the obvious affections of the past two pink rangers. It was so obvious that Kat liked Tommy that Bulk and Skull could have detected it. But he was also genuinely concerned for Tommy. Sure, for some reason his own feelings were coming into play, but he also was thinking about Tommy's affections for Kimberly.

"First off, if you really like her and want to see if she likes you, you need to man up and just ask," Jason said.

"I know... I just... I wish I could tell, ya know?" Despite his cluelessness, Jason could relate to this from his asking out Emily. Butterflies had been running amok just a few hours ago in his own stomach.

"Yeah," Jason replied. "Look, Tommy, not to be intrusive, but have you actually gotten over Kim?"

"What do you mean?"

"Tommy, I've been really worried about you, you know, since the whole break up. We all have. Your mood has been pretty terrible, save for the past couple of weeks, and I know that you tend to just bottle up your emotions."

"What does that have to do with me liking Kat?"

"What if you're using Kat to make yourself feel better?" As soon as the words left Jason's mouth, Tommy looked like he got hit by a ton of bricks. The expression on his face flatlined, and his body language communicated to Jason that he was retreating. "Tommy, don't withdraw man. Let me into what you're thinking. I wanna help."

"I... I still want Kim, Jase," he confessed. "But I can't stand her anymore." This statement surprised Jason, with both the wording and the tone in his voice. "She cheated on me, Jase. I loved her, and she cheated. She took my heart and took a freakin sledge-hammer to it. I need to get over her."

"So you're going to use Kat to do it?"

"No! I really do like Kat. I don't just want her to get over Kim, I want to be with her because she's... she's..."

"She's a Kim replacement," Jason said matter-of-factly. "Look bro, I'm not trying to be mean. If you want to date Kat, ask her out. But make sure you're doing it for the right reasons. You need to figure out what's really going on inside you, because if you don't, you're going to hurt her and yourself in the long run, and I care too much about you both to let that happen."

Tommy and Jason sat for the next few minutes in silence, Tommy appearing to genuinely think over what he was saying. Finally, he spoke.

"You're right, Jase. I do want to replace Kim with Kat. I do want the pain to go away. But I do like her, and I want to get to know her on a more personal level. I want to see if she would be more than just 'replacement' material. Maybe she's the one I'm supposed to be with? Maybe she's the one that I will end up wanting to care for more?"

"Maybe. But if you ask her out, you need to be very cautious. You might think you're falling in love, when in reality you're just easing the pain of Kimberly, and that's not going to help in the long run. You're going to need me and the other rangers to help you see your blind spots. If you really want to care for Kat, you're going to need that help and accountability."

"Yeah. Thanks Jase, I really do appreciate it."

"Hey, you're my bro. I just hope and pray you end up in one piece," he said with a grin. "Now get out of here, I need to get this math homework done before school tomorrow!"

"Haha, you got it bro," Tommy got up and gave Jason a hug, and walked out the door. Jason went back to his desk to work on his math. It hadn't been more than a couple minutes, but suddenly Jason heard an explosion a couple hundred feet from his window. Battle instincts kicked in, and he ran through his doorway down the stairs and out the front door before his parents could even ask him what happened. He ran down the street towards where he thought he heard the explosion, and sure enough there was smoke coming from the concrete, small flames still burning on a car parallel parked near that stretch of sidewalk. He looked around, realizing that Tommy would have walked this way home. "Tommy? Tommy!" No answer. He started to run in the direction past where the explosion took place, only to find no one ahead of him. He slowed down, trying to piece together what happened, when his communicator chimed. "I read you, Zordon."

"JASON, YOU MUST COME TO THE POWER CHAMBER IMMEDIATELY. TOMMY HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED BY PRINCE GASKET, SON OF KING MONDO."

To be continued...

Thanks for reading, don't forget to review!

- Googz333