Disclaimer: Power Rangers, the charachters and their world are not mine. Nor is Ben & Jerry's Phish Food Ice Cream.

Moving On

Hunter trotted down the steps to Ninja Ops. He had received a strange message from Cam and had come over to the wind school directly after classes at the thunder school ended. He came around the bend of the rock tunnel and smiled when he saw the restored Ninja Ops with Cam sitting at his computer and Dustin and Shane sitting at the table arguing over some magazine. "Hey, guys," he said, although Cam must have known he was on his way down when the waterfall portal activated. Dustin and Shane fell silent and Cam turned in his chair to face the room. They all looked at him with serious expressions. Hunter shifted slightly and frowned, "Uh, what's up? Where's Tori?"

Now the guys looked away from Hunter. Shane and Dustin looked down at the table and Cam stood from his seat and moved to the table. It looked like something serious was going down and where was Tori? Hunter frowned and took a seat on a cushion at the table.

"Dude, something has happened," Dustin said solemnly. Hunter had rarely heard such a serious tone out of Dustin.

"And it has to do with Tori," Shane continued, "that's why she's not here."

"Something is wrong with Tori?" Hunter asked confused, "I was just over at her place last night, she was fine."

Every one was silent for a moment before, "Dude," Dustin said with an excited look, "Maybe she doesn't know, yet. Maybe we can totally keep this from her!"

"Yes and how are you going to do that? She's going to find out the instant she walks into Stormchargers," Cam said wryly.

"We could like hide all the magazines and turn off the TVs when she comes in. I'll tell Kel not to tell her. We could totally keep this from her."

Shane rolled his eyes and slapped Dustin lightly on the back of the head. "That's not going to work."

"Someone want to tell me what's going on?" Hunter asked.

Shane closed the magazine that he and Dustin were looking at and turned it around so that Hunter could see it upright. The front cover had Blake and Janine on the front. It looked like he had just won a race and she had her arms wrapped around him. They were smiling goofily at each other. Hunter smiled remembering how Blake used to look at Tori like that. The headline read "Blake and Janine, on and off the track."

"Tori's going to flip when she finds out," Shane said sadly.

"Dude, remember how depressed she was after he left?" Dustin asked.

"Yes," Cam said crankily, "I really don't want to go trough the chick flick and ice cream marathon again."

Hunter smirked remembering how the guys had gone out of their way to try and make Tori feel better after Blake left. One memorable night had them watching everything from "A Mirror has Two Faces" to "Kate and Leopold" with cartons and cartons of Ben and Jerry ice cream. He often blamed that evening for his addiction to Phish Food.

"It's o.k. guys, she already knows," Hunter said looking at the cover of the magazine with a soft smile. "She's o.k."

Eyebrows rose. "She knows?" Cam asked.

"Yeah, her words were something like. Blake couldn't get it together with her. How was he going to get together with anyone without help? Dude, she's been totally giving him advice on how to snag Janine."

A sudden stillness filled the room and Hunter looked up to see three faces looking at him with a mixture of shock and outrage. After a long minute, Dustin broke the silence, "Dude, that is so wrong." Shane nodded in agreement. Cam's jaw hardened.

"Look, she said she was o.k. with it," Hunter argued, "I was shocked, too."

"Is that how you know she knows?" Cam asked softly.

Hunter sighed, "I saw the mag and I went over there to break the news to her before she got shocked seeing something on ESPN or in Stormchargers, or before Dustin said something. She fed me and told me she totally knew and that she was totally fine with it."

Shane was shaking his head, "That is so wrong. You don't ask a girl that was crushing on you to help you get with another girl."

"Guys," Cam said reasonably, "It has been a year and a half, maybe Tori is over him."

"It's still wrong, man," Shane retorted.

"Whether or not Tori's over him, I still think we should go thump on him," Dustin said emphatically, "It's the principle of the thing."

"And what principle would that be?" Cam asked rolling his eyes.

"No one does anything that messes with our Tori," Shane and Dustin said in unison.

Cam shook his head and Hunter stifled a laugh with a cough. "What are you guys, five years old?" Hunter said.

"Dude, don't think you are fooling us," Shane said, "I bet you went over to Tori's all worried about her, too. You were just glad that she knew so you didn't have to tell her."

"I was gladder that she didn't cry all over me," Hunter mumbled.

"Well I think-," Dustin started before another voice broke into their discussion causing the guys to freeze.

"I think, maybe you should ask me how I feel about all this." Four pairs of eyes turned towards the entrance to Ninja Ops where Tori stood, arms folded, casually leaning against the rock wall. "Hey, Hunter, Sensei said he saw you streaking in."

"Uh, hi, Tori," he said uncomfortably before turning to glare at the three wind ninjas.

"Hey, Tor," Shane said popping up and moving in front of her as Dustin grabbed the magazine off the table and shoved it under his cushion. "What's up?"

"Oh, I don't know," Tori said with a glance over his shoulder at the three guilty looking ninjas, "looks like a ranger pow wow is up, without one of the local rangers. Blake, I can understand, but to exclude me?" Large blue eyes turned sorrowfully to Shane, "I'm hurt."

"Oh, dude," Dustin murmured softly.

Shane squirmed uncomfortably running a hand though his hair as he looked over his shoulder at the guys for help. He hated when Tori looked at him with that kicked puppy expression. Cam just looked down at the table, his lip twitching, while Hunter coughed to hide a laugh. Dustin pretended interest in a blank computer screen. None of the guys could deny her when she used the kicked puppy expression. Luckily, or more intelligently, she never overplayed it, but wasn't above using it to her advantage. Shane didn't have a chance.

He held out for about five seconds, before he threw his head back and addressed the ceiling, "Tor, we found out about Blake and Janine today and we were trying to figure out how to break the news to you, but then Hunter said you already knew, and we don't want you to go all depressed on us again, because Cam really doesn't like Barbara Streisand and we can still all streak over to wherever he is right now to thump on him."

Tori blinked and her lips twitched, "Thump on him?" she asked.

"Yeah," Dustin said, "on principle, you know?"

"And what principle would that be?" Tori asked walking past a relieved Shane to sit next to Dustin.

"You know, principle," Dustin was now looking for help and three sets of eyes avoided his until he was drawn back to Tori with a bright, fake smile.

Tori shook her head and patted Dustin on the shoulder giving him a smile. He sighed knowing he was off the hook and grinned back at her. She looked at each of the guys, "Do you know what the best thing in my life is?" she asked. Shane pulled up another cushion and sat. "I know that I have five wonderful people in my life that want the best for me. That number includes Blake. Look guys, Blake and I may have been crushing on each other for a long time, but that doesn't mean one or another of us can't move on. He's been gone over a year now and he's not coming back for at least another two. I totally am fine with this."

Dustin slowly pulled the magazine from beneath his pillow and placed it in front of Tori. No one spoke as Tori smiled sadly at the cover and ran a finger over Blake's form. "There's just something about having been a ranger," she continued softly. She looked at each of the guys in turn, "All of us, no matter what, we're not going to stop being connected, being friends, even when what we do may hurt someone else." She looked back at the magazine, "And when I had the chance to help him be happy, how could I tell him no?"

Dustin reached up and put an arm around her and Tori leaned her head on his shoulder, a tear slipping out the corner of her eye that Shane reached out and brushed away. "Oh, Tori," Cam said softly.

Shane looked Hunter in the eye, "See, this is why we should thump him."

Tori just snorted, "You don't need to thump him, Shane. He was so embarrassed and guilty when he told me he was interested in Janine. He thought I was going to hate him forever. Not to mention, I hit harder than you.

"I really wasn't waiting for him or anything, and as I tried to get through to Hunter, I just haven't found anyone I'm interested in dating, yet."

"But we'll be the first to know," Hunter said sharply.

"What you are going to monitor my dating?" Tori said incredulous sitting up straight.

"Damn right, we are," Shane seconded.

"Yeah, at least with Blake, we totally knew him and could totally keep and eye on the both of you," Dustin said, "If you start dating some other dude."

Tori shot an exasperated look over to Cam, "Don't look at him, Blondie," Hunter said baldly, "who do you think can run a background check better than the FBI?"

Tori looked from Cam to Hunter then Shane and Dustin. She dropped her forehead to the table and moaned, "I am never dating again."