Enjoy! -I know, I updated early ;)

He left the room and as he neared her classroom he began to lose his bearings. Imagine him, a four time (and possibly more) ranger and he was afraid of facing his ex. What could you possibly be frightened of? Stop acting like a baby. His dark side suddenly was enthralled with winning her back and taking up that challenge she scoffed at him about. "You are so not keeping that La-Z-Boy set." He wasn't even sure what a La-Z-Boy set had to do with anything but if he was right and if he was going to win, she wouldn't need it anyway.

He began heading down the hall with this new sensation in his heart. He opened the door outside- and then he came upon Kira crying.

She looked up from her seat and saw him, instantly recovering and getting up.

"Kira? What's wrong?" He forgot about his winning back Kimberly for a moment and walked over.

She brushed off her leggings and got her things. "Nothing, I'm fine."

"You sure? You want to talk about it?" He kept his distance to not make it seem anymore awkward.

"Yes, I'm sure and no, I don't want to talk about it." She shifted her messenger bag on her shoulder and wiped away the residual tears.

He glanced down for a second, considering if he should press her or leave her be. "Okay. I hope you feel better-"

"Wait!" She dropped her things and walked quickly to where he now stood. "What is it with boys? Why do they act so- so-"

"Strange?" He suggested.

"Yeah, that too. But I guess I was looking more for manic or geriatric."

"Geriatric?"

"Yeah!" she shouted with new enthusiasm. "They act worse than women and let me tell you, my mother is freakishly scary and to say that they act worse than all women including her is a complete insult."

He laughed, shaking his head. "I'm sure it is."

She looked at him for a moment as if weighing whether or not to tell him about her boy-issues. "I guess there's no use in using the whole friend analogy," she muttered, throwing that excuse out. "Let's say there's this boy I like. Well, not boyfriend like- I'm not sure yet. But I really, really like him. I'm not sure how much because this other boy I liked and still kind of like, rejected me when I finally told him about my feelings for him. I was at first hostile to the other boy-"

"Hold up! Do these boys have names or titles or anything, because I think I'm starting to get lost."

"The first boy, the boy I really, really like is Boy A. The boy who rejected me is Boy B. Okay," Kira said slowly, as if talking to a child. "I've been sort of hostile to Boy A because of the way Boy B shot me down. I guess I've been scared, because Boy B is a really good friend and I really care for him. I've known Boy B a whole lot longer than Boy A, but it still doesn't affect how I feel. Now I've just found that Boy A has an interest in an older lady and has been involved with her." She'd started back up crying. "…He doesn't care that anyone knows. I really respected this older lady. And my faith in my judgment of people is completely gone. I don't know what to do, Dr. O. I've never felt so bad."

He felt compelled to hug her and tell her everything would be alright. Instead she did him the favor of not having to go that far. She hugged him and began to cry even harder.

He returned the embrace. He wasn't quite sure what to do, so he settled for a joke. "One of the boys, wouldn't happen to be Conner, now would it?"

She groaned and pushed him away. "No! Why does everyone say that?! Conner is like my brother! My annoying, overprotective, macho and athletic, dull and overreaching brother!" Her anger faded as she began to laugh. "Who happens to make me laugh and feel better when assholes like Boy A and Boy B make me feel like- Like-" She couldn't really think of anything so she made do with acting it out. She made a face and began slapping a floppy hand against her chest. "Like wah. There!"

Tommy chuckled some, watching her and putting his hands in his pockets. "Look at the bright side, at least you have some more teen-angst to sing about in your songs. I hear singing about personal experience makes for excellent lyricism and song-writing."

She smiled, nodding. "I know. Yet it still sucks."

He offered her one of his small smiles. "I know but things will work themselves out. I don't know if they'll get better but life will keep going. The sun will keep shining whether your heart is bruised or not."

She hit him gently on the arm, taking in what he said. "Thanks Dr. O. Well, the bell will be ringing soon and I have some pretty depressing songs to go write down." She went to go pick up her stuff and waved her hand as she kept walking, her back to him.

With a slight wave of his own, he snapped back into teacher mode. "And Kira don't make a habit of skipping class!"

A small tap rang out from her room door. She turned around to see and shook her head in a mock scold manner. "Deryck Ashcroft. I thought I wouldn't see anymore of you after yesterday."

He laughed coming down the steps of the room. "Well, you know me. I just can't get enough of seeing you so I do the unthinkable."

"And here you are. You came just in time too. I'm on my way out."

"You don't have class?"

"Well, I can imagine one up for you, but that'd be just silly."

"Nice choice of words, but I don't think I would have minded so much." He joked as she climbed the stairs to the door.

"Me and all my imaginary students wouldn't come off as outlandish to you. Why, that's just crazy. Truly Deryck you should get that checked out."

Kim moved to lock the door with her key. He looked at her backside taking her in in manly pride and a flirty smile made its way to his face. "You know Kim, I thought about what you said yesterday, and you're right. It is your life and you won't be losing anything by exploring other options. I mean, with your teaching, looking into other academic fields of study, and working with Parkinson's crew I've come to see my shortsightedness. I wasn't giving much credit to your abilities at all, and I failed to remember how I fell for you to begin with."

She looked up at him slowly as she withdrew her key from the door. He took it as a moment to go even further.

"Kim, I admire you. You're breath-taking, and it would be improper as a colleague to say this, and maybe even as a friend, but I don't think I can go on living if you didn't know how I feel."

He quickly took her hand and held it in his as she watched unblinkingly at him, at a loss for words. "I love you."

She allowed herself to blink a couple of times to come back to reality and tried to close her gaping mouth but couldn't. Looking over, she saw Tommy's form enter her vision and could no longer breathe. She didn't know how much of it he had heard but her heart beat crazy with fear and excitement before she passed out in Deryck's arms.

Tommy swallowed and denied the impulse to run to her. Instead he turned to go back the way he came.

He walked in the Cyber Café looking around. Coming to the counter, he waited as he scoped out some of the familiar faces and a few new ones.

"Can I help you?"

He turned and saw Kira, with her hair pulled up into a messy ponytail sitting like a small bush on top of her head. She had some smoothie on her cheek and looked pissed to see him.

He leaned against the counter and looked at one of the menus.

"Yeah…"

"Well?"

He sighed as if he were being patient with her and settling for something. "I'll have some of whatever it is that's on your cheek."

Almost instantly her hand flew to her cheek and discomfiture was written all over her face. "God, this is so embarrassing," she mumbled beneath her breath.

"I think it looks cute on you," Antonio replied with a charming smile.

"So you're back to flirting. It's almost hard to pin down which mood you're in," she countered, officially glaring at him. "You know Ms. Hart is a respectable teacher and whatever you're doing with her- which I don't want to know- The whole school assumes- Just stop before you cause her to lose her job. I really like her. I've never enjoyed history so much before I met her."

He smiled. "She does that. What do you mean stop doing what I'm doing with Ms. Hart? What am I doing?"

She rolled her eyes. "Don't act like you don't know!"

"I'm serious. What does the school know that might cause Kimberly to lose her job?"

She wanted to scream at him and just make him feel miserable but something about his concern caused her to not go through with it. She sighed, "So you really don't know?"

"Know what?" He asked. His brown eyes were inquiring and seemed a little annoyed she wasn't being forthcoming.

God he is so clueless. Well, maybe it's just an act. I mean what he's doing isn't so candid anyway. He's probably just stalling. She began to say something but a woman called out to her. "Wait a minute."

She was given an order which she had to prepare, taking her attention from him. A pretty red headed woman came over and smiled. "Hi, you're new around here, aren't you?"

He nodded. "Do you own this place?"

She smiled at his interest, her hair falling over her face. "In fact I do. Why? Do you like it?"

He looked around once more in his boy-mused wonder. "Yeah. It's amazing." He coughed playfully and said in a deeper and more serious tone, "I mean this establishment is a very astonishing, very original and savvy investment. Mind you, that one can never do without smoothies, computers with high-speed internet, and a soundstage. Why you thought of what all the other two-timing business men of our century didn't."

Hayley said with a laugh, "And what's that?"

Kira looked back, amused while she chopped some lime.

"Class. Absolute class. A small business with the professional and personal ability to subdue its victims- Oh, I mean customers to keep coming and wanting to come back. Why I should have thought of that? Now, tell me Miss… (In a normal voice) Um, what is your name?"

"Hayley."

Returning to his good-natured, sleazebag businessman impersonation, "What type of musicians play here? I would like to cash in on all that raw talent."

Kira had to press the back of her hand to her pursed lips, nearly dying from holding in her laughter at his sudden change in character.

Hayley decided to entertain him by being rather creative herself. "Why, musicians like Kira Ford who's about to hit it big with her new album. (In her normal voice) Alright, I suck at this. I'm a horrible actor."

"Never fear, for you always have the safety of your business." He licked his lips and smiled almost shyly, glancing back Kira's way. She had finished the order in a timely enough fashion to see most of his joking. "Nice meeting you Hayley," he said in his regular voice, extending his hand.

Hayley shook his hand solemnly with a smile.

"And my name by the way is-"

"Antonio Myers-Hart. Kira told me all about you."

He looked at Kira once more. "I hope they were nice things."

Kira shrugged.

"Since this is your first time to my shop, how about a drink on the house?"

He nodded, happy at the sound of his receiving a complimentary drink. "Awesome! I'd love one." He once more looked Kira's way.

Hayley observed him, smiling. "So what would you like?"

He started pointing randomly at the items on the large menu behind Kira's head, before stopping at Kira's cheek. "I'd like some of that yummy stuff that was on her cheek."

Kira laughed, "A strawberry-banana smoothie it is."

Tommy had just entered the café, taking a seat at the counter. "Hey, are you okay?" Hayley asked looking at his nearly pale face.

"I don't know."

"He doesn't know," Hayley mouthed to herself while rubbing at a nonexistent stain on the glass. She hated it when he tried to brush things off that were really affecting him.

He turned to see Antonio sitting next to him. "Hey."

"Hey," Antonio muttered.

Hayley noticed the deflation in Antonio's personality. Hmm?

"Here." Kira handed him the smoothie, waiting for him to take a sip.

"Good stuff," Antonio complimented on tasting the drink.

Tommy looked like he wanted to say something but didn't before finally succumbing to. "Kira, I have one for you. Girls are strange-er than boys. How about this girl I knew, we went out in high school for two and a half years-"

Uh oh. The history teacher must be Kim, after all. "Tommy, are you sure you want to-" Hayley started. He'd never really gotten that personal with any of the rangers before.

"-And then she goes to Florida, to this competition because it was always one of her dreams. And knowing that one word from you, she'd stay, you say nothing because it's been a dream of hers since she was like 5. So she goes and you're even still communicating by phone and letters- Ha ha, letters. You think everything's fine and dandy. Of course with the way she's making out with you at Christmas it's gotta be fine-"

"Oh god, Tommy don't do this to yourself," Hayley pleaded.

"Then. One day you get this letter in the mail. But you don't get it sent to your house, it's sent to the youth center where you and your girlfriend's friends hang out. The letter turns out to be a 'Dear John' letter. Kira, do you know of any guys that have done that or would do that? Are there any 'Dear Sue' letters?"

She shook her head hesitantly, suddenly feeling sympathetic for Dr. Oliver. "Wow, Dr. O that happened to you? How awful."

"Bummer," Antonio replied getting up. "Must have sucked for you."

Kira bit her lip, trying to refrain from making any comment. I guess his bad mood came back.

"I have to go, but I enjoyed the smoothie. Thanks," with that he left. They all watched him leave before Tommy decided to continue.

"The story's not over." He sighed, rubbing his hand through his hair. "Before I came to Reefside, I forgave her and we became a couple again. We were fine. Beyond fine, I could have sworn we were happy. Then, I left her." He avoided her gaze as he stared on massaging his neck.

Kira, stood waiting for an explanation. "What? You left her. Dr. O, please tell me there's more to this story."

He nodded. "There is, but- it's complicated."

Kira crossed her arms. "How so? Dr. O, you're just like the boys I was talking about."

"What boys?" Hayley, and now presently Ethan, and Trent asked in unison.

She ignored them. "How could you leave her?"

He shifted around uncomfortably. Remembering where he was and afraid someone might here, he began to alter the story. "I have this friend who works in the military-"

"Don't go changing the subject-" Kira started.

Tommy raised his hands in defense. "I'm not."

"This friend that I have happened to have been in this explosion and after the explosion lost some things really valuable. This girl he knew kindly let him stay at her place while he began relocating the valuable things. Therefore, he was already working on something extremely important and their relationship kind of got in the way. He didn't want to drag her into the mess he basically helped to create. He didn't want to see her get hurt. He didn't want anything to happen to her."

"Oh," Kira managed to say, starting to understand what he meant.

"Don't get me wrong she was a very smart girl, capable of holding her own. However when you lose someone and find them again, you get kind of selfish. You have to understand that he really loved the girl and really cared about her."

"You want to clarify on what you mean by left? I mean tell them the part about where that friend just up and left in the middle of the week leaving behind no contact number, no contact address or letter or anything to indicate where he went, why he went, that he was still alive, that he might have still cared for her or anything of the like." She was angry at him, yes, but only a little. Of course she wasn't as angry as she was when she found he had went behind her back and reconciled with Kim, and then left her. No, now she was just poking fun and being a little mean.

"What? Dr. O that's even worse! That's outright cold!" Kira was becoming passionate about the matter. "What's the number of this girl? We can have an all right men-haters club at the rate you're going. I can't believe you- your friend could do such a thing," she corrected remembering where she was as two kids from school pulled up to the counter and began chatting.

"He left the way he did because she would have followed him, gotten herself into the mess, and proved his whole point of leaving her pointless. She would have wanted to get involved."

"I was involved!" Kira shouted.

Trent, and the others just looked on while the two kids turned and looked at her funnily.

"She could have gotten killed."

"Do I look dead to you? Angry, yes. Dead, no. Dr. O that's no excuse for you- for your friend to leave someone they claim to care about. Especially, if you love that person. That's a horrible way to leave a person. She was probably hysterical."

He was quiet for a while. "I couldn't risk… My friend had an enemy who would do anything to hurt him. He couldn't risk someone he loved getting caught in the crossfire without any means of protection. He loved her too much."

"But still…" She was still as defiant as ever.

"What if the friend said he had a nightmare of this person getting hurt really badly, and that his dreams had a tendency of coming true?"

"Then I'd say that your friend's nightmare came true anyway," Trent finally stated.

They were all quiet at his revelation.

"So what's the girl's name?" Ethan asked, quietly.

"Her name's Kim. I'm afraid you all know her. She's your history teacher," he confessed, biting on his thumb.

All of their eyes must have been bugging.

"Dr. O, Ms. Hart! Are you serious?" Kira shouted.

The two kids who pulled up stared at them, before getting up and moving someplace else.

Hayley quickly covered Kira's mouth, while Tommy sat looking defeated on his stool.

"Well, did she ever find out the truth?" Trent asked, flopping down on one of the empty stools beside Tommy, shocked by the news.

"She knows a little of it."

"So you haven't told her the whole truth?" Ethan corrected, in expectation.

"That's the problem. I don't think she wants to hear. I mean I have a good case to contend but she does also." He sighed, raking his fingers once more through his head. "I think she's moving on."

"Then stop her!" Hayley reprimanded. "Do you know what I heard all throughout college? 'Kimberly left me, I can't move on.'" She mock whined for emphasis. "By the time Tommy came to college he couldn't get past date number 2 with a girl. He got to the point where he just became, eh…" She nodded her head in his direction.

"Hey, it wasn't like I couldn't move on. After Kat and going into college it got hard."

"And that's his excuse," Hayley muttered.

"Who's Kat? Did you just leave her too?" Kira asked haughtily.

"No, I didn't. Kat was a good friend who helped me through me and Kim's break up and who I happened to date for the rest of my high school years."

"Did you love her?"

They all stared at him, waiting for an answer.

"Not really. …She was a good friend who happened to have a crush on me and ended up getting taken along for a rebound trip."

"Does she hate you? I know I would."

He laughed dryly at her response. "No, our break up was a mutual agreement. She was kind of disappointed though. I was too, to tell the truth."

"Why did Kim break up with you? Was it for being a jerk?" Kira shot.

Hayley did all she could to keep from laughing at Kira's newfound hostility.

"You know I'm going to go all Alanis Morissette and get Ms. Hart to give me the details for a whole new catalog of songs all dedicated to how much we hate men."

"Whoa!" Ethan backed up. "Kira, you know I've always been a good friend to you, right? You won't write about me, will you?"

Tommy ignored him. "Couldn't really blame you, but it was Kim who sent me the 'Dear John' letter telling me how she found another guy and how she thought of me as a brother and how she wanted to be just friends. I was traumatized for a while to think that with all the things we did, her considering me something like that spoke volumes of incest on her behalf."

"TMI, Dr. O. Wait, really? She called you a brother," Ethan asked, beginning to feel sorry for Tommy as well. "Damn."

"Really." He answered blatantly.

"Well, at least you got a letter," Kira retorted.

"Hate to say it, but she's right Tommy," Hayley finished, moving to go tend to a customer.

Trent shook his head. "No, I don't think so. She never gave you an explanation after you got back together either."

Tommy shook his head. "I let it go. I wanted to forget it ever happened."

Trent shook his head again, looking at his teacher and mentor with a brand new sort of admiration. "Wow, I don't know if I would have been able to handle something like that." He pat Tommy on the arm and got up. "Well, I have to go. See you tomorrow Dr. Oliver."

"Bye Trent." He looked up and saw Kira roll her eyes at him.

"I still say boys are far worse."