Chapter Twenty-nine

Golden Boy

Tommy stared down at the Coke in his hand. That was Trini—a plan for everything. She didn't trust Tommy to actually leave the kitchen with something edible, and if he didn't, the others might figure out he hadn't really needed her help to find something and they'd wonder what had actually gone on. However, throwing the Coke at him had probably ruined it, as now it was going to be shaken all to hell. Tommy tapped his finger against the opening, knocking the fizz back down to the bottom of the can. Ironic, really. She'd had a little moment of foresight to give him something from the fridge, and yet if he hadn't been paying attention, it would have literally blown up in his face. Gee. What a comforting thought.

Tommy frowned, staring idly at the kitchen wall. Jason had left the room; he could vaguely hear Jason and Zack arguing about Eazy-E in the living room. He could also hear Ethan's protests and shouts of "Ha! I got you!" (Trini was now faring much worse at Mortal Kombat) and Kira and Kimberly's chatter about music that was beginning to sound as much like a foreign language as Billy's techno-speak. Tommy wasn't really paying attention to it, though; he was too lost in thought. Things were finally starting to make sense.

She was plotting against him, he knew. However, he didn't think she had all the details yet. (If she had, he'd probably already be married.) Kimberly was probably still mostly oblivious… and the Dino Rangers were probably being moved about like pawns on a chessboard without even knowing they were a part of the game. He wasn't really surprised. It was what Trini did. Like the time when he and Jason had been trying to get along for the upcoming Team Ninja Finals, and Zack had been spouting off about teamwork like nothing else, while Trini kept going on and on about "gung ho." Tommy and Jason had finally gotten Zack to admit that Zack and Billy had only offered to manage Tommy and Jason because Trini had told them to do it, had basically ordered them to do it. When Tommy had mentioned this revelation to Kimberly, she'd just said, "Oh, yeah, I thought that might be why Zack was suddenly acting all, like, drill sergeant about the teamwork thing. Trini mentioned that Zack was going to work with you guys all day the next day, right before that big fight with the Super Putties on the playground." When Trini was looking to accomplish a goal and sensed no one would listen to a direct approach, she went covert.

Something was off, though. He couldn't think of what, but somewhere during their spat Trini had set off the warning bells in his head.

She snapped at me.

Tommy stood up straight without realizing he was moving, eyes wide in horror. That was it. Trini didn't snap. Not unless people deserved it. She'd been too… too rude. She was often fiery, to be sure, and definitely a person you wanted on your side because it was a hell of a lot better than the alternative, but there had been something different in her when she'd been arguing with him.

"She knows something," he hissed, crushing the half-empty Coke can in his hand without noticing he was doing it. She knew something important, something major, something he'd missed.

Tommy tossed the can into the sink, marched into the family room, grabbed Trini by the arm with his free hand, and hauled her right up off the couch and out through the back door before anyone could react.

"Hey!" Ethan yelled. "I was finally about to win!"

"Dude, who cares? Come on, it's eavesdrop time!" Conner exclaimed, jumping up.

"No one go near that door," Jason commanded loudly.

"What? Why?" Kimberly asked suspiciously.

"Because it's their business, not ours," Jason said firmly. "Let them talk it out."

"Do the words 'Can I see you in the backyard, Trini, please?' mean anything to you?" Trini demanded as she jerked free of Tommy's grip.

"You said if I ever wanted to talk, you'd listen," Tommy retorted. "I want to talk. Now."

"So talk," Trini said, rubbing her wrist irritably.

"What do you know?"

"Lots of things, Tommy. For example, the quadratic formula is x equals negative b plus or minus the square root of b squared minus 4ac all over 2a."

"Ha, ha. What do you know about Kimberly that I don't?"

"Well, she had a traumatic experience with Southern Comfort two years ago and now can't even be in the same room with it without gagging."

"Stop it, Trini! I'm serious. What do you know?"

"I don't know what you mean, Tommy."

"I don't, either, okay? What's your problem, Trini? Why are you so angry at me? Is it because I didn't go after her? Is that it? Or is it just a girl thing?"

"A girl thing? Excuse me? What are you rambling about?"

Tommy felt like pulling his hair out in frustration, but the trouble was he could no longer get a good grip. "The breakup. There's something you're not telling me."

Trini frowned. "I think you know all the same things I do."

"I…" Tommy stopped. Where was it? Where was the glitch in the program? It had something to do with Trini and Kimberly, he knew that, but…

"Who told you?" he asked suddenly.

"What? Who told me what?"

"Who told you I broke up with Kimberly?"

"…Kim did. I should think that would be obvious."

Tommy shook his head. When she'd showed up on his doorstep, he'd been too startled to think about it, especially since her odd little hug had managed to knock some sense into him. Rocky, Adam, Tanya, Billy and Kat had already known about the breakup, and Billy had called Jason and Zack… but the guys hadn't mentioned Trini. Trini was synonymous with Kimberly. Until she'd arrived, Tommy wasn't even sure he could still count on Trini's friendship—he knew that it had been an irrational fear, given his history with Trini, but back then he'd wondered if being Kimberly's best friend meant she would no longer be Tommy's. He had been too stunned and too busy figuring his life out to think about the fact that no one had mentioned contacting Trini. She'd just appeared.

"What did she say?" Tommy asked slowly. Had she blamed Tommy somehow? Had she told Trini why she'd done it? Had she told Trini all about the new guy in Florida? What? If only he'd realized it sooner… Trini knew what Kimberly had been thinking back then. With that sort of information, he could have changed a lot. If he had known how good his chances were of making her take him back, he might have tried to reconcile before things went past the point of no return.

"I'm not too sure. It was hard to make anything out through the sobbing."

"The… what?"

"She was crying her heart out, Tommy," Trini said softly. "I figured you would have guessed. What else would she be doing just then, huh? She was hysterical. She cried, then she slept, then she cried some more."

Tommy stared at her, completely shocked by this revelation. He'd never thought Kimberly would have cried about it. He'd just figured she'd gotten bored with the long-distance thing and stopped caring and written her letter and gone off into the sunset with her new beau. That was why he currently had a hard time believing she still cared. It was downright cruel of her to do that, so completely wrong of her that he hadn't imagined her being sorry, being upset, caring at all about how much it had hurt him. She'd never tried to contact him after that, and it had just confirmed all of his suspicions about her.

"She was upset?" he asked carefully.

"No, Tommy, upset it what you are when they discontinue your favorite ice cream. Kimberly was devastated." Trini fixed him with a steely gaze. "I figured if she was that hurt, you'd probably be needing me, too. That's why I came out here. It tore you both up, Tommy, and don't pretend it didn't."

Trini lifted one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. "I guess it doesn't matter now, Tommy. After all, you're still going down. I'm gonna fix you two if it's the last thing I do."

Tommy didn't reply, lost in thought as she calmly went back into the house. Kimberly did still care. He hadn't actually believed it, despite what he'd heard on the balcony, despite what anyone had said or done. She really was sorry. She had been all along.

"Of course she was," Tommy muttered to himself, shaking his head. How could he have doubted that about her? She wasn't like that. Last night, he'd figured she'd just picked up the regret somewhere in the past few years, or else it had hit her when she'd seen him again after all this time… but she'd regretted it from minute one.

He wasn't sure how, but it made a difference, a huge one. She cared. He wasn't sure if she wanted him back—hell, he wasn't sure if he wanted that, either. But she cared, and right now, that was enough.

Billy's story wasn't over by one o'clock, but for some reason he was glad it wasn't. He supposed it was because leaving the tale unfinished meant he could have more of these talks with his father. It was starting to sink in that he hadn't had a real conversation with his father since the mid-nineties, and now he finally could.

The telephone was what ground the talk to a halt; the cab company was calling to confirm his one-thirty pick up.

"I've got to get to the airport," Mr. Cranston said heavily as he hung up the phone. "Security has been terrible ever since 9/11—it's even worse here than a lot of other cities, what with aliens and monsters on top of terrorism concerns and everything else. I've only got carryon luggage, so I'm hoping I don't get held up too badly, but still."

Billy dug Trini's cell phone out of the pocket of the jeans he'd borrowed from Tommy that morning. "You'll be back on Friday, right?"

"Friday evening, around nine. To be honest, I'll probably be exhausted—I still can't seem to get a good rest on a flight. And I assume you'll be spending most of Saturday at Power Rangers Day?"

"That is the plan, but I don't have to go."

"No—I want to come see the show. I imagine it will be something. You lost your powers, though, didn't you? How are you planning to, you know…"

"We have copies of the suits. Zordon and Alpha created them and put them on display in the Command Center after we all lost our powers and everything," Billy explained. "Jason kept mine for me. So technically I'll simply be in costume, rather than in morph."

"I see. Well, I wouldn't miss it. Besides, you should spend time with your friends, as well."

"I can do that while you're at John Hopkins."

Mr. Cranston smiled. "Well, I suppose you can. When are you leaving?"

Billy paused. He'd planned to leave on Sunday morning. But he didn't have to. The teleportation device could stand some extra time to recharge after a jolt like the one he'd given it to send him to Earth. There was an Aqua-phone in Trini's basement; he could use that to let Cestria know. He did need more time. The Aquitians would survive without him for two weeks as easily as they had for one. After all, they'd dealt fairly easily with that Gruumm character, who was actually stupid enough to believe that he could break through Aquitar's defenses, and they'd settled that dispute between Xybria and Inquiris; Billy had been one of the people to sign the treaty as a witness. Things were running smoothly for Aquitar right now—at least, as smoothly as they were going to get for a while, considering it, too, was a planet with Power Rangers.

"A week from Friday," he said. "Maybe longer."

"But I thought you said something about—"

"Doesn't matter. It's not like they'll terminate my employment or anything." Billy smiled wryly. "I've been mediating and inventing and strategizing and fixing and so on for so long… I'm beyond indispensable, Dad. I'm a liaison to other planets, I'm their chief engineer… they'll understand that I need time off. I'll just extend my stay; it would probably be very beneficial for the teleportation device, anyway."

"Well, why don't you come by some more after Power Rangers Day," Mr. Cranston said. "Sunday morning, perhaps? And I'd like to talk more with Trini and the others, too. You kids… sometimes I still can't believe you're not running around the backyard pretending to be the Scooby Doo Detective Agency."

Billy laughed. "Funny thing is, Dad—once we got our powers, that's all we ever did. We were just playing Scooby and Ninja Turtles—with some really cool toys as props. And we didn't have to take turns being the villain." He paused. "We did that on occasion, though. Most of us have been evil at some point."

Mr. Cranston clapped him on the shoulder. "Spend some time with them, too, Billy. We'll have next week, and when you go back to Aquitar you can give me one of those alien phones that your friends have. Kimberly, Tommy and Zack aren't going to be in town for as long as I am, now, are they?"

"No." Billy shook his head. "You're right. But I've gotten to talk to them more. They knew, all of them…"

"Well, I know now. That's the important thing." He smiled. "So don't forego seeing your friends just for me. You're important to them, as well." Mr. Cranston smiled. "You know, if you want, the garage is still in pretty much the same shape as it was when you left. You should show your friends around. Make an invention or something. I still keep a key inside the old wind chime."

Billy looked up. "Is the RADBUG still around?"

"Of course. It's parked in the backyard. I haven't used it in a few years, though, not since 2000. It still had gas back then, if I remember correctly, but I daresay it's probably going to need some work before you can get it up and running. I gave up on the upkeep; it just didn't seem feasible."

"Mind if I take it out?"

"Of course not. It's your car, after all."

Billy grinned. His crazy great-aunt Betsy had given it to him when he was twelve, in order to help with his paper route. As Billy was neither old enough to drive nor employed by a newspaper, he'd taken to tinkering with it instead; it had been one of his favorite things to modify. After all, cars had plenty of moving parts and all sorts of interesting components. He was sure he could get it working again, as long as most of the more expensive parts were still in good shape. And if they weren't, he probably had some spares in the garage.

"Feel free to spend as much time in there as you want while I'm gone," Mr. Cranston continued. "Just try not to blow anything up. Again."

Billy nodded. "I'll try. I haven't seen real fire since 1997, however, so no promises."

His father laughed. "Well, have at it. Your old belongings are in your room, too, but I'd imagine they're all musty and dusty by now. I do try to clean, but I never seem to get very far. Oh, and before I forget…" Mr. Cranston reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope, handing it to Billy. "I figure it's about time I gave this to you."

Billy opened it, and was startled to realize that he barely recognized the object inside as a credit card. He'd forgotten so much about Earth. "What's this?"

"Your ATM card."

"My… what?"

"I went to the bank this morning and had your college fund transferred to a regular checking account. It's a joint account; both of our names will be on it, so I'll still have access—"

"My college fund?" He knew his parents had one for him, but he hadn't really thought much about it once he got to high school. His guidance counselor had informed him that he could probably get scholarships to just about anywhere, and he was more concerned with the Rangers back then.

"Your mother started saving for it the day she found out she was pregnant with you. She was so confident you'd end up at Harvard; she wanted to plan ahead." He gave a slight shrug. "I doubt that it's enough for Harvard tuition and room and board nowadays, but… ah, well. I should have known you were too smart for college."

Billy stared down at the card. Money. He could actually pay for his own meals, give Jason and Trini a little something for putting him up all week, stock up on overalls and toothpaste and maybe he'd even get a new video game system, he was sure he could find some way to convert Aquitian energy to get power for it… the challenge would be immense, but doable, definitely…

"Thank you," he breathed.

"It's no problem," Mr. Cranston said. "It's your money, anyway, and I'm not doing anything with it. I asked for a printout of the interest the account has accumulated, the balance, everything like that; it should all be in the envelope."

Billy pulled out a sheaf of papers, his jaw dropping when he saw the balance. It wasn't exactly enough for a mansion in Beverly Hills, but he had no bills to pay, no obligations or debts to any company on Earth, and it was a good deal of money. Visiting would be so much easier now, in the future. He didn't have to worry anymore about using his friends' pockets; it was one of the main reasons he hadn't come back. And he could buy plenty of things to amuse himself on Aquitar, all the things he missed and tried not to think about anymore…

They heard a car approach, followed by the honking of a horn. "That'll be the cab," Mr. Cranston said, nodding at his luggage, already stacked by the door. "I have to go."

"I'll see you on Saturday," Billy said. "I'll be the one in the Blue Power Ranger suit."

"It's good to hear you say that, son," Mr. Cranston said, picking up his briefcase. Billy hurried forward to help with the suitcase. "There was a time when I thought I was crazy to even think that you were a Power Ranger. It's good to know I'm not delusional."

Billy laughed, thinking of all the people who'd ever accused him of being the delusional Red Ranger when his own father had a sneaking suspicion that he might be the Blue. Then he sobered, realizing he'd been so caught up in telling his story that he hadn't actually realized what this discovery meant.

"Dad… I don't think I have to ask you this, but…"

"I won't tell anyone, son, I promise."

"Thanks." Billy gave him a hug and showed him to the cab. It felt so odd, seeing his father off on a business trip—something he'd done over and over during his childhood—when he hadn't seen his father in years.

Billy watched the cab disappear, waving and smiling. Then he looked down at his new ATM card. Grinning like mad, he ran back into the house.

"His dad's already gone, right?" Conner asked for the fifth time.

"Yes, Conner. His dad is already at the airport."

"I liked his dad," Kira said.

"Yeah, well, he got your color straight," Conner pointed out. "Me, Black. Ha!"

"I'll say," Tommy muttered.

"But I'm not asking because I don't like him. I'm asking because I don't think I could handle thinking about parents anymore today," Conner said.

"Speaking of, I should really call mine," Ethan said.

"Oh, god, you haven't called your parents yet?" Tommy demanded. "We've been gone for four days!"

"We all called home to let them know we were okay when we first got here," Trent said. "When you went out to get ice."

"Oh." Tommy breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't need angry parents wondering where their kids were. He still couldn't believe they'd let Conner, Kira and Ethan come along… but then, he'd made it sound good, he supposed—mostly because he didn't want people to start thinking he was creepy, rather than because he wanted them to come—and they did all seem to think it was some sort of supervised graduation trip. Besides, the three had probably gotten pretty good at manipulating their parents by the age of seven, let alone seventeen. And a free graduation trip with an adult around to keep them in line… well, plenty of parents would jump at the chance.

Currently, they were all driving to Billy's house; Billy had called at four o'clock to let them know he was ready to leave. Tommy was, once again, driving the Dino Rangers, which was starting to annoy him a bit; after his little spat with Trini, he was no longer comfortable with the fact that Kimberly was in the same car with Trini and the others while he was off with the teens. And Conner was always in the front seat. Never in the back. ALWAYS in the front.

They parked on the street in front of Billy's house; the garage door was wide open. The moment the last car door slammed, Billy practically bounced out of the garage.

Tommy stared at him. He was wearing a pair of crusty old work boots and worn, faded coveralls that might have once been baggy, but were now a good deal tighter and a bit too short, over a too-small yellow polo shirt. He was also currently covered in oil stains, from hair to toes and even glasses.

"I've almost done it, guys!" Billy yelled excitedly, speaking fast, almost wildly. "I'll need a battery, possibly an alternator and a few other things, but I'm close, guys, and I found all sorts of things in the garage while looking for replacements! I'm even thinking about giving it a new coat of paint. I found the old mechanism I used to whitewash my grandfather's fence, and I'm guessing I can pour a little blue paint in there and make a few modifications and voila! The things I'd forgotten… my tracking devices, my puzzle games, my experiments with brain wave alterations… oh, and the first communicator I ever made. The prototype, you know. I even found my old coveralls! My inventions and my father and you guys and look, look, I'm dirty!" He threw out his arms to show them his oil-streaked skin.

"Eh… huh," Jason said intelligently. The others just sort of stared.

Billy gave them a sheepish smile, appearing to come down a bit from whatever high he was on. "You'd be excited about dirt, too, if you lived underwater. Besides, they never let me do too much of the actual work on Aquitar anymore. They're always going on about the efficiency of micromanaging."

Trini smiled and stepped forward. "You look good in oil, Billy. You look… like you."

"Do I?" He looked down at himself, startled. Come to think of it, he'd probably looked like a completely different person lately, with the longer hair and the baggy clothes that weren't really the right colors.

"I didn't understand a word he just said and he looks the same as he did back in high school," Kimberly said. "Wow. Billy's back."

Billy grinned madly and motioned towards the garage. "Come on, guys! Trini, remember that enhanced vacuum I invented?"

Trini rushed over behind him to look at the old invention. "Oh, god, how could I forget? We spent two hours trying to get Zack's arm out of it."

"And I never wore any of my favorite shirts to Billy's house ever again," Zack added sulkily, staying well back from the gigantic mess of tubes hooked to the canister.

"Wow," Ethan said, staring around in awe at the miscellaneous objects littering the garage. "This is awesome."

"You really should have marketed a lot of this stuff," Trini said wistfully. "Think of all the good it could do people if you perfected some of these things and marketed them."

"The CIA must be watching you like a hawk," Conner said, edging nervously away from a device marked "signal scrambler," only to bump into something labeled "for emergency surveillance."

"Wait until you see the RADBUG," Billy said. "Come on!" Billy eagerly led them through the garage and into the backyard, where he flung out his arms and yelled, "Ta-DA!"

They stared blankly at the battered Volkswagen Beetle. The hood was open, as was the passenger-side door; the other door lay in the grass, its inner panel removed. The overly conspicuous attachment that allowed for flight was still in place, random cloths and rags dangling from the top of it. An assortment of junk—most of it martial arts equipment, unknown mechanical devices and thick books—lay scattered in the grass, as though it had been yanked out of the trunk and dropped for lack of a better idea. Several vital components were sitting in front of the car, while the entire backseat was propped up against the side of the garage, sporting a handful of duct-tape patches. The twin horns had been polished to a nearly painful gleam. An extremely dirty car cover was piled nearby, streaked with years worth of leaves, dirt, dust, sand and just about anything else Mother Nature had tossed at the car since Billy's move to Aquitar.

"Isn't it great?" Billy gushed. "I'm almost done. The gasoline expired, which is to be expected, but of course I'm having fun cleaning everything and we can just fuel it back up. I've already changed the oil, but the carburetor's practically ruined, so I decided there was no point in cleaning it. I'm keeping a list of what all I still need, though. But once I get it all together, it shouldn't take long for us to get on the road. Or on the sky, so to speak. Hey, let me know if you guys find the wiper relay, will you? I can't figure out what I did with it for the life of me."

"Don't move," Tommy hissed at the Dino Rangers, glaring at Conner in particular. "Who knows what you might step on?"

"What all do you still need to get it going?" Jason asked Billy.

Billy pulled the list out of his pocket and handed it over. Jason's eyes widened. Turn signal bulbs, he could handle. A battery, he could spring for that. But an alternator was going a bit far, and a carburetor was just plain out of the question. Jason was financially stable, but by no means well-off enough to completely refurbish an old car owned by a guy who didn't even live on the planet and wouldn't be using it for who knew how long. As it was, even though he hadn't really done anything extravagant for this vacation, it was still costing him a decent chunk of money; he wasn't getting paid, as he wasn't teaching his classes, and he was eating out and driving a lot, in addition to paying for Billy, which was not only about food and admission to any attractions they might go to, but was sure to cause a spike in the next energy bill (Billy took longer showers than any guy he knew). He didn't mind all that, but no matter how much he might want to, he wasn't able to drop a few hundred bucks for one drive in the old RADBUG.

"Um, Billy, man," Jason began apologetically, "I'm not too sure I can pay for all this. I mean, one or two things, sure, but even though Trini's vacation is paid, mine isn't, and—"

"You don't have to pay for anything," Billy interrupted. He pulled his ATM card out of his pocket and flourished it at them. "I've got a bank account."

"Does it have money in it?" Jason asked, confused.

"My college fund," Billy said proudly. "I'm set. I'll be paying you back for all the meals, by the way. Oh, and I'll give you something extra for—"

"Oh, no you won't," Trini cut in sharply. "Getting to see you is enough payment for that."

"But I have money, Trini," Billy protested. "I can finally—"

"Get yourself some new glasses," Trini interrupted loudly. "You can finally get yourself some new glasses, and some new clothes, and some new shoes, and pig out on guacamole cheeseburgers, and fix the RADBUG. That's what you can do."

"I'll help you pick out the new glasses," Kimberly said quickly. "We can go to the mall later. Ooh, and you'll need a brand new wardrobe. Not living on Earth is no excuse for not keeping up with the trends. And you could use a haircut. A complete makeover. Maybe even a facial."

"But—"

"No, no, I'll take care of it. I'll probably need some time to get you in at the salon, and of course you'll need an eye exam, that'll have to be scheduled, but you'd look so cute in modern fashions that weren't around eight years ago. I don't think they even had some of my favorite designers back in the nineties. How much was your college fund, anyway?"

"Lie, Billy," Zack said in a stage whisper. "You've done put your foot in it now. Tell her you gambled it all away at the racetrack or you're doomed."

"Oh, he's doomed anyway," Tommy said. "She's already got that gleam in her eye."

"Don't know what you're smirking about," Kimberly told him in a tone that was both teasing and scolding. "You're carrying the bags."

"Who said I was going with you?" he demanded with an attempt at defiance, though it came out rather resigned. There was no stopping Kimberly from dragging someone to the mall. "I could just… not go."

"Oh, you're going, Mister," Kimberly said lightly. "I haven't taken any of you on a shopping trip in ages. It'll be fun."

"That's Doctor, thank you. And I've been on enough of your shopping trips from hell, haven't I?"

"You can never go on enough shopping trips. Besides, you're good at carrying the bags."

"Aw, man," Tommy whined.

"Ha, ha," Zack teased.

"There'll be too many for one person, you know," Tommy joked threateningly.

"I've already got my excuse prepared," Zack retorted.

"Me too," Jason said. "I keep a list now. Good thing you brought friends, Tommy."

"Good point," Tommy said thoughtfully. He turned to look at the teens speculatively. "They could carry a good fifteen bags or so." Conner, Ethan and Trent looked uneasy, but Kira shrugged, used to carrying her own bags at the mall whenever she had to pick up a new outfit. She liked to think of herself as an independent woman, above such girly things as making men carry her belongings. But she didn't realize what Kimberly was like in a mall… she just didn't know… Besides, Kimberly never just shopped for one person. She shopped for herself at the same time, and for her friends, and she usually saw something cute that a relative would just love, and the elderly neighbor down the street could always use new slippers, and the crossing guard down by the elementary school might like a new whistle, and that checkout girl at Kroger's needed a better shade of lipstick…

"I'm thinking maybe even twenty-four," Kimberly said.

"I don't need fifteen shopping bags worth of clothing," Billy said, wide-eyed. "Let alone twenty-four."

"Sure you do," Kimberly said. "I'll make the calls right after we get back from the Command Center. How do you feel about pedicures?"

Billy looked down at his feet, then back up at Kimberly in horror. "Um… tell you what. If someone wants to go pick up the parts with me, we can get going. It'll probably be harder to find in the dark."

"It's, like, four-thirty in the afternoon," Kimberly pointed out. "You know, we should probably get you some contacts, as well as glasses…"

"I'll start calling auto parts stores, to compare prices and see who has the parts in stock," Trini said, taking pity on Billy and grabbing the list from Jason. "It might be hard to find some of this stuff. Does your dad have a phone book, Billy?"

"Used to keep one on top of the microwave," Billy said gratefully.

"You guys go with Trini," Tommy told the Dino Rangers. "Go watch TV or something."

"Why?" Conner asked.

"Because the last thing I need is for you to step on Billy's wiper relay."

"Hey, I happen to know a bit about cars, you know," Conner said indignantly. "Haven't you seen my car? It's a classic." He paused. "What's a wiper relay?"

Tommy rolled his eyes and pointed to the house. "Go."

"I'll come too," Zack said.

"Take Kim," Jason muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

"Come on, Kim," Zack called obediently. "Let's… uh… you can call the salon for Billy."

"Whole point was to get her off Billy's back," Jason hissed.

"Uh… after Trini's done. Hey, I… think… we should… I bet there's something good on TV?" Zack said hopefully.

Kimberly, knowing fully well what they were doing, rolled her eyes but followed Zack to the house, leaving Tommy and Jason out back with Billy.