A/N: Sorry for the delay folks, some unavoidable computer issues needing resolved. Hope the wait was worth it!
James sat on a felled tree, a short distance from Tyler, trying to take in the news he had heard. Tyler was standing, looking a little worried by his dad's sudden silence. He had always hoped that his father would turn up alive, but he also knew that if he did, then there was an uncomfortable truth that he needed to know. Although he knew that James would have to be told eventually, he was worrying if right now, just as they were finally reunited was all too much for him to hear.
"Cheryl got...re-married?" He asked eventually. Tyler couldn't really get a handle on if he was hoping he had mis-heard, or if he was just looking for clarification. As much as Tyler was sure this would have to be a painful subject for him, now the cat was out of the bag, he didn't really see any point in trying to skirt the issue now. He just nodded to confirm what he had said. "Who?"
"It was Mr Barker." Tyler told him. James just looked confused.
"JEFF Barker? Your mom married your little league coach?" James asked him. Tyler just sighed as he heard him say this. "But...she hated him! She always said he was like a drill sergeant with the kids!"
"He really helped out a lot when you disappeared." Tyler informed him. "Dad, you need to know, he was really...really good to us. When we needed help around the house, he was always willing to help. When mom needed help to keep things running, he was there to help out."
James fell silent once more. Tyler could tell that wherever his dad had been, whatever he had been doing for the last ten years, he'd been holding out hope that he could return to his life, that his family would be waiting for him.
"Dad...it's not like mom just replaced you. Mr Baker only started dating her three years ago." Tyler said, trying his best to explain the situation. "There was some stuff to do with...lawyers and banks and...mom left it for a while, she always refused to sign stuff for ages, saying that you were probably just lost, but eventually..."
"She had me declared dead." James surmised. "She moved on."
"Dad, for what it's worth, Mr Barker's been great with me. He always looked out for me. He understood when I said I wanted to keep your name. It was actually him that bought the jeep for me. Well, the first one anyway. Sledge managed to wreck that one."
"Jeff was a good man." James replied, though his sorrow and his disappointment were obvious in his tone. Tyler put a hand on his shoulder.
"Dad, I came looking for you as soon as I was old enough to." Tyler assured him.
"It's alright...I guess it was always a vain hope that she'd wait forever." James replied sadly. "Jeff was a good man."
Tyler couldn't help feeling badly about what he was seeing from his dad. His hopes of regaining his family had to have been what kept him going for a whole decade. Tyler pulled out his phone and started typing.
"What are you doing?" James asked him.
"I'm texting Ms Morgan and telling her I won't be at work tomorrow." Tyler told James.
"What? But aren't we meant to...?"
"We can meet up with them later in the day." Tyler told James with a smile. "I just got my dad back! We're going back to your place, we're getting a pad and a pen, and we're going to write down everything we could ever want to do! Tomorrow, we're going to have the best day ever!"
Meanwhile, at Kendall's apartment, Kendall was on her computer, going through her e-mails when her phone went off. She picked up her phone, looking at it, and sighed.
"Well, I suppose I should have seen THAT coming." Kendall announced. Shelby looked up from the books she was studying, a pen hanging from her lower lip. "Tyler isn't going to be at the museum tomorrow. He's spending the day with his dad."
"Well...that's great. I guess." Shelby said, beginning to drum her pen on the pages. He really did understand Tyler wanting to spend time with his dad; he had been missing for ten long years. She did want to hear about what had happened to him, clearly he had bonded to the Energem ten years ago. He looked exactly the same as he did on the dust jacket of his books that she had read as a young girl before his disappearance. There were a lot of questions they all wanted answers to. The main one Shelby wanted to know was...what was Tyler thinking about now that James had finally returned?
"He's meeting up with us in the lab at five tomorrow afternoon." Kendall told her. "In the meantime, we just have to do the last of the cleaning once the maintenance crews have finished with the restaurant."
"Nice timing for him missing out on that I guess." Shelby muttered. "Though I do still say that Leanne should do the cleaning since she did most of the damage."
"Yeah, she did, saving our butts!" Kendall reminded her. Shelby tried to say something, but found that she really couldn't argue with that logic. Leanne's actions had saved the team from almost certainly losing all but two of the Energems they already had. Shelby just sighed.
"So what are you working on?" She asked. "Is that from Anton?"
"No, this isn't museum business, this is personal." Kendall told her with a smile, while considering her response to the E-mail. "Which means..."
"I know, I know, none of my business." Shelby responded in a grumble, while looking back to her book. "So...when you say personal...?"
"If you must know it's my grandmother sending me pictures from her hiking trip." Kendall replied shortly. "She's done quite a bit of exploring by the looks of things, some of these shots are incredible!"
"You and your grandmother are really close aren't you?" Shelby asked, a little smile crossing her lips. Kendall, even now, wasn't the warmest of people to know, and she liked to imagine what kind of person her grandmother must be to bring out the warmth in Kendall.
"Aren't you meant to be studying?" Kendall asked her. "I wasn't kidding when I said how tough the grading is, Professor Cormier regularly flunks students for poor grammar and punctuation!"
"It's just...it's so complicated!" Shelby complained, throwing her pen down in frustration. "I can't make any sense of this!"
"That's why we study." Kendall told her. Shelby just let out a groan of frustration.
"Ms Morgan, can't you help me? Just a little bit?" Shelby asked her. Kendall took off her glasses and looked straight at Shelby.
"Ms Watkins, would you be asking for preferential treatment from the supervisor of your work placement?" Kendall asked her.
"Please Ms Morgan, I just...I'd really appreciate a little help." Shelby told her. Kendall put her glasses back on and turned towards the computer. Shelby had always insisted that she earned everything and hated the idea of people getting preferential treatment...even when that was exactly what she expected back when she first started at the museum!
However, looking to the E-mail, her mind drifted off a little, and she could remember a little girl coming home from kindergarten in tears, throwing her school books all over the floor in a fit of temper.
"Whatever's the matter Doodlebug?" Her grandmother asked her.
"I HAT E SCHOOL!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. "All the kids are mean and...They're all poopy and I hate all of them!"
"Oh, why would you say something mean like that Doodlebug?" Her Grandmother asked her. "That's not the nice little girl I know and love."
The young Kendall just looked to her shoes. G-Ma Betty didn't really understand.
"They all say I'm a baby!" She told her. "They say I'm a baby because of these."
"Whatever is wrong with your shoes?" G-Ma Betty asked her. Kendall ripped up the Velcro straps and threw the shoes away.
"They say only babies don't know how to tie their laces!" Kendall told her. G-Ma Betty finally understood what the problem was. Even at a young age, Kendall was a bright kid, and she loved reading, but she did prioritise that over pretty much everything else. She had never taken the time or paid attention when her mom tried to teach her, and so she had ended up just buying her trainers with Velcro fasteners.
"Now that's no reason to give up on school now is it Doodlebug?" G-Ma Betty asked her. "You love school! You always tell me how much you love all the books and all the..."
"But the kids, they're always mean to me! I can't help it if I don't know how to tie my shoes!" The young Kendall sniffed.
"Now Doodlebug, what's rule number four?" G-Ma Betty asked her. Kendall searched her brain, trying to think of the rules her G-Ma Betty always taught her.
"Always turn off the power before...?"
"If you don't try, you'll never learn!" G-Ma Betty told her, kneeling down by her little Doodlebug, looking her straight in the eye. "It's never a sign of weakness to ask for help Doodlebug, just a sign that you're smart enough to know when someone else knows more than you."
Kendall rubbed her eyes dry with her hands.
"Will...will you teach me how to tie my shoes G-Ma Betty?" Kendall asked her. G-Ma Betty gave her a warm smile.
"Let me get my coat." She told her. "We're going to the shoe store right now, we're going to get you any pair you want, and we aren't leaving until you tie them all by yourself. How does that sound?"
"You're the Greatest G-Ma Betty!" Kendall responded, throwing her arms around her. Kendall couldn't help smiling at the memory. She shut down the e-mail and went to Shelby's side.
"Let me have a look." Kendall told her. Shelby seemed a little surprised, but slipped the book over to Kendall. The Purple Ranger could see what she was studying. It was pretty basic stuff all things considered, but she doubted Shelby's full attention was on the task in hand. She was sure Shelby would figure it out herself on any other day. She looked to her notes.
"Well, for starters, carbon dating is a misnomer for other forms of scientific dating. Carbon dating only works on living things." Kendall explained. Shelby looked to her blankly. "Carbon has an atomic weight of 12, but there's a mildly radioactive isotope with an atomic weight of 13. Living creatures breathe it in, and since we know the half-life, or how long it takes for half the number of isotopes to degrade into their stable Carbon 12 form, we can essentially count backwards."
"So, why do people talk about carbon dating rocks and metals and...?"
"Like I said, it's become a bit of a blanket-term for all methods of dating." Kendall told her. "Now, let me show you this equation. There's a very simple trick I use to remember it."
The next morning, Tyler and James had set off early for their day ahead. Neither one of them had really slept, they were still far too amped up from the excitement of meeting up again that they had spent pretty much the whole night coming up with ideas for how to spend their amazing day together. Although it was technically an abuse of their Energems, they had both morphed in order to ride their Raptor Cycles up to the highest point in Amber Beach to watch the sun come up together.
The city was beautiful at this time of the morning, especially when it wasn't still smoking from the latest monster attack. Gentle orange rays bathed the city in a glow that would almost make anyone forget the horrible thing that happened there every single day.
James couldn't help smiling looking out over the city. His life had seen a lot of scenes like this, he had spent much of his adult life camping. It had been a long time since he'd gone with his son though. Tyler was a little way off, still staring at the list.
"Tyler, would you put that thing down? You're going to miss the best part of the day!" James told him. Tyler was still trying to come up with ideas though.
"How about Mount Whitney?" He suggested. "It's supposed to be a great climb!"
"You're putting more on the list?" James chuckled. "You don't want to save anything for tomorrow?"
Tyler didn't respond though. James could understand completely Tyler's enthusiasm to pack as much into their day as possible, to make up for lost time, but ten years was a lot to pack into a single day.
"You know I'm STILL going to be here tomorrow right?" James asked him. Tyler just shifted a little as he heard him saying this. "Tyler, I'm not going anywhere."
When Tyler still didn't respond, he tapped the list with his finger.
"Put it on there, right next to sky diving." He told him. "But if we do, we're saving scuba diving until another time, right?"
"Sure thing." Tyler said with a smile, scribbling on his list.
"Besides, we do have to meet your friends later, remember?" James asked him. "Not to mention, I haven't really been properly introduced to your girlfriend."
"Dad, you met Shelby..."
"I met her for about five minutes in passing." James reminded him, putting a hand on his son's shoulder. "I know you want to catch up with me, but...I want to catch up with you too. There are a lot of new people in your life now, people who are important to you. I'd really like to get to know them."
"Alright, then we can skip Scuba and...dinner at the best Italian in town, that can wait too." Tyler replied. "If you order in pizza, I promise you the guys will love you for life!"
"That sounds like a plan." James answered, getting up and heading to his Raptor Cycle. "Come on then Tyler, Mount Whitney awaits!"
Meanwhile, over on the ship, Singe came into the Command Room, where Heckyl, Wrench and a recovering Fury were waiting. He was carrying with him what looked like a long, green rod, but as he got closer, letting them have a look at it, they realised it was a metal rod, surrounded by a number of strange looking green rings.
"These are Zotak Rings." He explained. "Zotak Rings neutralise the power of anything they surround, including Energems!"
"We don't want to neutralise the Energems!" Fury roared as he started swinging his sword around in a fit of temper. While he was still recovering, he wasn't able to help out in the field, and so his position in the ship was slipping. He had already found that Singe had taken his cell as his own, since it was the only one that could adapt its atmospheric pressure controls to match his native environment. "We want to STEAL THEM!"
Heckyl took Fury's blade between his thumb and his forefinger and guided it away from Singe's face.
"You seriously need some anger management Fury." Heckyl said in a casual drawl. "We wouldn't want you to pop a stitch or anything...leave you on the shelf any longer."
Fury just muttered something under his breath as he put his sword away.
"Though he does have a point, we are trying to get Energems, not POWERESS gems. If I wanted useless jewellery I'd raid Poisandra's collection." Heckyl told him.
"But Master Heckyl, think how much easier it will be to take those Energems if the Rangers don't have their powers." Singe answered dryly, showing him a controller. "Once we've defeated the POWERLESS Rangers, I can simply de-activate the Zotak rings."
"Your complicated schemes mean nothing without results." Heckyl told him. "Bring me the Energems, or I'll neutralise YOU!"
"Of course." Singe replied with a curt nod. "Now, I just need to collect Hunter and I'll be on my way."
"I don't trust him!" Fury told Heckyl. "We should destroy him..."
"Do you really think I trust him either?" Heckyl chuckled. "Keep an eye on him Fury. If you find anything, I'll give you the honour of being the one to destroy him personally."
"It'd be my pleasure Master Heckyl!" Fury answered.