Author's Notes – Right so I never watched Time Force except a piece here and there to see Eric, but I did do some research and from what I read and what stuff I did catch on the show Eric strikes me over all as a bit of an animal loving hard ass, so thus I sort of made him one in this.

Really all in all I just hope I got him at least semi-decently in character.

Summary – Mortified over the events of the previous evening, Tommy has a little talk with Eric.

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Morning

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Stirring sometime near dawn thanks to rather loud chirping, which Tommy was certain was coming from inside his skull the former Ranger released a pained groan wanting nothing more then to go back to sleep.

Turning over and determined to do just that, Tommy pulled the red bed covers over his head, moaning when that failed to block out the ear shattering chirps. "Stupid birds. You'd think living on the seventh floor of this place I'd be safe from the little ba-"

Sitting up abruptly as last night's events hit full force Tommy instantly regretted this action as the room and his stomach tilted violently. "Oh god." Dropping back down onto the bed and pressing his palms firmly against his eyes, he took a few steadying breathes. "Don't throw up, don't throw up. Just breathe and forcefully block out everything that happened last night."

Trying his best to do just that but finding it incredibly difficult as he was well aware of just who he would have to face once he left the bedroom, Tommy eventually gave it up and slowly made his way out of the bed and room.

Stomach still rolling Tommy resisted the urge to go back to bed as he moved through the living room and towards the kitchen to find his host already up, showered, and dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, with a newspaper and bowl of cereal in front of him.

Looking up from the paper he was trying to get through, Eric gave his company a tired look still not too thrilled with having had to sleep on the couch in his own home the previous night. "Good morning."

"It's definitely morning, but I'm not sure I'd call it good." Tommy muttered more to himself than Eric.

"How are you feeling?"

"Mortified and nauseous." Sliding into the seat Eric gestured to, the former Zeo Ranger laid his head on his arms, hoping Eric might simply offer him some Tylenol and not press for details about the previous night.

"Good, then maybe you'll refrain from getting yourself in a situation like that ever again." Standing and rinsing off his now empty bowl and spoon, Eric poured himself another cup of coffee deciding to wash the breakfast dishes completely after he'd gotten something into his guest.

Head still on the table, Tommy's response was dry. "Thank you dad."

Sighing and knowing he really had no right to pry, Eric moved to the fridge and poured the pitiful Ranger a glass of orange juice. "You're probably nauseous from whatever drug he slipped into your drink. Be grateful that's all you are." Setting the juice down by his head, he next retrieved the bottle of Tylenol. "Drink that and take two of these. It won't help much, but it'll at least get you feeling well enough to not vomit when I drive you home."

"You don't need to drive me home."

"Yeah, how are you going to get there?" Taking his seat again as realization dawned on Tommy's face, Eric continued. "Though I suppose someone would probably give you a lift if you go stand out on the curb in your collar and leather pants, but I doubt they'd be the kind of person you'd want to get a ride from."

"Oh god." Face red and still buried in his arms, Tommy found himself wishing he'd just stayed in bed.

"You know I know it's none of my business and all, but seriously I've got to ask what the hell you were thinking getting yourself into a situation like that?"

Now unsure just what he had been thinking, Tommy gave a halfhearted shrug. "I wanted to know what it was like."

Raising an eyebrow, Eric was certain he'd misheard. "You wanted to know what it was like. What, being used?"

"No, being…never mind, you wouldn't get it."

"So explain it to me." When Tommy only shook his head, Eric's patience wore thin. Deciding he'd have to push if he was ever truly going to find out what had happened the previous night and why, the Quantum Ranger used the last card he could think of. "It's the least you could do considering what I went through last night. I was lucky I had my badge you know, if I hadn't or those men had decided I really had no authority while off duty we'd both have ended up on the floor and on the receiving end of something very nasty."

"You're very pushy when you want something aren't you."

"Damn right. I get even worse when I have to sleep on the couch while someone else takes my bed."

Biting the bullet and figuring the other was right in some sense as he had obviously gone through a lot to get him out of there and keep him comfortable and safe for the evening, Tommy rambled off his explanation as best he could. "I'm always in control. I'm always the one that has to handle everything. Even back when I was a teenager it always fell on me. Do you know that I got thrown off a fifty foot cliff, my Green Ranger powers failing, draining my life, and instead of teleporting me out of the gully I landed in Zordon ordered me to call my Dragon Zord as I struggled not to pass out for a second time? Then Kim, god I loved her but that girl depended on me so much in battles I don't even know why she bothered morphing. The second the monster would come she'd scream my name and expect me to handle it, it was amazing no one ever found out I was the White Ranger. Throw in leading three teams, this latest mission, which by the way I was told I was going to lead not asked, I just…I just wanted to let go for once, you know? To not be the one having to handle everything and making all the decisions. To not be the legendary Ranger that others seem to think I am."

Looking skeptical, but still having some understanding of what Tommy was talking about, Eric pushed a bit more. "So your solution was to find the biggest asshole you could and let him dominate you?"

"It wasn't supposed to be like that. It was just supposed to be a game. Something to release the tension. I didn't know Smitty would pull something like that." 'Or did I? I had a weird feeling that evening; I should have listened to my instincts and not gone. God some Ranger I am, I can save the world ten times over, but when it comes to one manipulative prick I land flat on my face.' Opening the bottle Eric had set before him and swallowing two of the pills, Tommy just hoped the other man would keep his knowledge of his stupidity to himself. All he needed was for the other red wearing Rangers to find out about this.

As if reading his thoughts, Eric's voice softened a touch as his fingers came out to glide through the miserable Zeo Ranger's hair. "You need to be more careful with games like that Tommy. How long did you even know this guy before you dove into this?"

"Few months, we both work for Anton Mercer in the special projects division. We didn't start off on the best of terms, but I don't know we started hanging out and found we had some things in common. Then one night we were fooling around and he got kind of rough and it just sort of developed from there." Sparing a glance up, Tommy wasn't surprised to see the exasperated look on the other man's face. "You think I'm an idiot don't you."

Choosing his words carefully as Eric truly did think that a very idiotic way to become involved in such a trust centered game, he nevertheless didn't think that cutting Tommy down any further would be helpful. "No I think that you're stressed out and need something to help with that, but you have to be more careful about who you do things of that nature with because chances are next time I won't be there to save your ass, and I do mean that quite literally."

Muttering something about being well aware of that and grateful for said saving, Tommy frowned as Eric once more got up to place their now empty cups into the sink with the cereal bowl. 'He's a little OCD isn't he.'

Filling the sink with water and washing the few dishes in it, Eric continued on with the conversation unaware of Tommy's now growing awareness of how spick and span the kitchen and no doubt rest of the house was. "You know I understand why you might like such a game. I mean I myself have played it on occasion, though not the role you seem to prefer, but you really do need to be more careful who you play it with. Why don't you find someone you know you can trust, huh? Like Jason."

Head coming up fully at this, Tommy winced at his own abrupt movement before repeating the suggested name in disbelief. "Jason?"

"Yeah, he's a pretty big guy, I'm sure he could play a dominate role fairly easily. Plus you two are good friends right? So he won't hurt you or take advantage of the situation. Probably even understand why you'd want to play at such a thing if you explain it to him like you did to me."

Certain Eric had now lost his mind, or perhaps just had a skewed view on his relationship with the original Red Ranger, Tommy went with the easiest argument he could find. "Jason's straight."

Snickering and letting the water out of the sink, Eric began drying and putting away the now clean dishes. "Uh huh, sure he is."

"He is. Besides I can't go telling my friends any of this, geez I'd never hear the end of it." At Eric's confused look, Tommy scowled in what was clearly half true annoyance. "Don't think I didn't hear what you all said after the mission. You weren't exactly quiet with your remarks about me. That's all I need is to give you guys more things to make fun of me about."

Suddenly feeling rather bad about their joking at Tommy's expense, despite that being all it had been, Eric took his seat again. "They, we all didn't really mean anything by all that. We were just playing around, still hyper from the mission. I'm sorry, we thought you were far enough away and even then we didn't really mean any harm so it didn't strike us as something that would have bothered you if you had heard."

"Yeah well it did."

"I'm sorry. In all fairness though all I said was that my Zord could eat your Dragon Zord for lunch." Smiling when this only made the other groan, Eric made a quick mental note to perhaps mention to the others next time they got together that joking at their leader's expense was not something he thought of as a good idea anymore. "So if you're so worried about it, how come you told me?"

Snorting Tommy fixed him with a 'duh' look. "You didn't give me much of a choice."

Finding this true and once more feeling a little bad, Eric quickly shifted topics. "So this Smitty guy, he's not going to give you any problems is he? I mean I saw the guy, he's a big bigger then you, but from my brief encounter with him it's pretty clear he can't fight for crap."

"No, don't worry about it. I doubt he'll do anything but avoid me for fear I'll kill him after that. Plus he said half the reason he even did it was because he was mad I'd basically taken his job and he was getting fired next month. Maybe I'll go mention to Mercer that he should make it next week instead."

"Good." Not bothering to tell him that he'd more or less broken the blonde's nose and probably his wrist when he'd still refused to comply and give him the keys to the cuffs, Eric figured it'd be a nice enough surprise come Monday.

Laying his head back down as the chirping that had originally woke him began again, Tommy suddenly realized with mild surprise that it wasn't coming from outside but from the living room instead. "Why do you have birds?"

"I find them soothing."

Finding that hard to believe as the incessant chirping was anything but soothing after the night he'd had, Tommy wondered if perhaps he should suggest Eric get a cat instead. "They're loud."

Smiling and enjoying the small bit of noise unlike his guest, Eric shook his head. "They're talking."

"What are they saying?"

Unable to help himself the Quantum Ranger responded in a fairly teasing tone. "They're saying that this is going to make one hell of a story come the next Ranger reunion."

Unsure if he should beat his own head against the table or that of his host, Tommy settled for continuing to let it lie on his arms as it was. "I'd like to appeal to your sense of moral decency and ask that you please not ever tell anyone about this ever."

Reaching out and once again finding his fingers in the other Ranger's short hair, Eric thought it over a moment before deciding to take a small yet calculated risk. After all he was fairly certain that his act of hero had put him in some favor with the other Ranger so why not take a bit of a chance. "I'll make you a deal, I won't tell anyone if you go have dinner with me tonight."

Unsure he'd heard correctly, Tommy opened his eyes, but remained as he was knowing that moving his head up would end the rather pleasant strokes on his aching skull. "You want me to have dinner with you? Is that all?"

Reaching his free hand across the table to where he'd thrown the Zeo Ranger's collar the other night after he'd removed it and got him into bed, Eric set it down beside him. "And you don't let any more jerks put this collar around your neck."

"Don't like the collar huh?" Eyeing the thing with mild distaste as he wasn't certain he liked it all that much either, Tommy was fairly surprised by the other's response.

"I never said that. I just said don't let anymore jerks put it on you."

Now unable to help lifting his head, Tommy fixed the other man with an odd look, uncertain if he was understanding Eric's subtle statements correctly or not. "And who should I let put it on me then?"

"Well considering you didn't like my earlier suggestion of Jason, maybe you should look into another former red wearing Ranger. Maybe one that already commands respect and goes by Sir in his line of work."

Barely holding back a smile, Tommy put on the impression of considering it for a moment. "I think I know who you're referring to, but I don't really see myself becoming involved with Wes. Just not my type you know. After all I think I've had my fill of blondes."

"Uh huh, and what exactly is you're type then?" Eric pressed, rolling his eyes at the mention of Wes.

"I don't know, someone who's not going to drug and handcuff me when I'm not looking." Lost for what else to say Tommy settled for simply studying the Quantum Ranger quietly for a moment, before being struck by a rather odd thought. "Hey you're not wearing your beret. I thought that thing was permanently attached to your head."

"I'm allowed to surgically remove it on Saturdays."

"Pity, I thought it looked good on you."

Thinking this over and looking first at the collar then back at Tommy, Eric finally thought up what he believed to be a fair response. "I'll tell you what, after dinner I'll wear the beret if you wear the collar."

Smiling and fairly certain he wasn't going to be returning to Reefside anytime that night, Tommy once more laid his head on the table, all but purring as the fingers returned to his hair. "We'll see."

The End