Chapter Thirty

Bicycle Built for the Blues

Trini and Billy were elected to go pick up the car parts—Billy because he was buying, and Trini because she and Jason had rarely been able to work on cars together. Both knew a good deal about cars (though Tommy was arguably a better mechanic and entirely more fanatical about vehicle maintenance), but Jason considered cars and their upkeep practically an art form, whereas Trini considered it something one did when the car went boom. Jason's near-reverence for automotive repairs clashed with Trini's methodical indifference constantly, leading to quite a few arguments and, more recently, a firm pact to always fix their own cars without each other's help. It didn't help that Tommy agreed with Jason about the subject, or that Billy, far from settling arguments, insisted that the fun part about playing mechanic was the technical aspect; he enjoyed the learning process, the improvement process, and the process wherein he got to see what happened if he did something that wasn't in the owner's manual. Sometimes, he got a flying car, and sometimes he got scorch marks, but he had fun along the way, and both Trini and Hayley shared this view, to a certain extent; they had had dozens of conversations about the fun of experimenting with automobiles, during which Jason and Tommy usually muttered defensive threats about what would happen if either girl ever did that to their vehicles.

Once Trini and Billy returned, however, they completely took over, to Tommy and Jason's disappointment. Billy started chattering about the modifications he'd made in the past and Trini struggled to remember what she could of them, while Tommy and Jason were elected to find the wiper relay and then make room in the garage to put all the stuff from the trunk, which led to a loud crashing sound and a three-minute panic, during which Zack and Kimberly rounded up Conner, Kira, Ethan and Trent and evacuated. They were two blocks down the street by the time Jason had the wherewithal to yell, "I'm okay!"

At last, however, the car was finished, all its part back in order, two gallons of gas—brought back from the gas station in a gas can—in the tank, and the flight modification system double and triple and quadruple checked (and then checked a few more times by Trini, who was mostly over her fear of heights but still not very in love with them). Try as they might, however, they couldn't persuade Billy to wash off the oil streaks on his skin; he said he missed seeing them too much to get rid of them just yet. He did, however, change back into the jeans Jason had lent him, though the shirt was much more of a battle. The old yellow polo was a favorite of his, and despite the fact that it showed a good three inches of his stomach Billy didn't want to take it off; he said he could just pull up his pants more, but Kimberly wouldn't relent, claiming the Urkel look had never been in style. Unfortunately, while waving Jason's shirt at him Kimberly accidentally dropped it in the sink where Tommy was washing the oil from his hands, which made Billy grin for about two seconds until she ran out to Zack's SUV and rummaged around in the back for a while before coming back with a black novelty T-shirt of Zack's. Billy finally conceded to put it on over his polo. As it smelled it a little odd, even Kimberly put up with that. Still, despite all their efforts, Billy looked like one hell of a fashion disaster.

"Well, it still could use a good scrub and a coat of paint," Billy said wistfully. It was now a good three hours later and they were all standing in the backyard, looking at the RADBUG proudly.

"Maybe we could get some paint tomorrow," Jason suggested.

"Yeah. We'd have to wash it with the hose, though; it can't go through conventional carwashes," Billy said. "At least, it couldn't in 1997. Are carwashes more technologically advanced now?"

"Not so much," Kimberly said apologetically. "I think."

"Awesome," Ethan breathed, staring at the RADBUG with a smile on his face that Conner referred to as Ethan's "Geek Grin." While he didn't share Trini and Billy's inventor's enthusiasm for cars, a flying car was ice cream to a science fiction fan. "That is so sweet!"

"Yeah," Kira said uncertainly. "But, um, question. Do you only have the one car?"

"Yeah, why?" Billy asked. "Isn't one enough?"

"One flying Bug is enough for me, but not for ten people to go to the same place in one trip," Kira replied. "Or is there some plan I wasn't in on?"

The older Rangers looked at each other.

"Oh," Billy said sheepishly.

"Well… the trunk's cleared out," Jason said, only half jokingly.

"I could probably fit in there," Conner said speculatively. "Kira could, at least."

"I am not riding in the trunk," Kira said firmly.

"I will," Ethan said quickly. Kira looked at him incredulously. "What?" Ethan demanded. "As long as I'm flying, I don't care if I ride on the roof!"

"Considering this thing can go over three thousand miles per hour, you might care if you tried it," Trini said wryly. "But, um… maybe we could take two trips or something?"

"We'd have to make three trips. One person has to drive, so they can only take four people at a time. Even if I dropped four of you off at the mountain, I'd have to come back for another four, and then the last person," Billy pointed out.

"And the more trips we make, the bigger chance there is we'll get caught," Tommy said. "As it is, we'll have to avoid the airport."

"They're probably keeping a tighter watch on the skies and everything since September 11th," Jason added. He nudged Tommy. "Remember back in 2002? When we first met Carter?"

"How could I forget?" Tommy said ruefully. The teens looked at him curiously. "Carter's the Lightspeed Rescue Red Ranger," he explained. "Lightspeed Rangers are government-funded, so we thought they might be able to help us when a bunch of Navy creeps stumbled across the dormant Dragonzord—my zord back when I was the Green Ranger. They wanted to crack it open, study the technology, dissect it—" Tommy realized he was getting a little overly angry at the thought of just what the Navy had been planning to do to his zord and cleared his throat. "Anyway, Jason and I managed to contact the Lightspeed crew with a little help from Andros, and they stepped in and put a stop to the excavation." He paused. "Stupid Navy," he couldn't resist adding.

"Back on subject," Trini said, suppressing a giggle at his territoriality, "it's not like there's a lot of cloaking devices on here. If I remember correctly, getting it to fly was hard enough."

"True. I'm fairly certain it could outrun any aircraft, however," Billy said. "Unless Earth's technology has drastically improved."

"Not that much," Trini replied, "but the car is about four decades years old, isn't it? And I know we've inspected everything, but it hasn't been used in, what, seven, eight years? We shouldn't try to outrun anyone if we can help it. Let's try and at least get it down to two trips."

"Kim could sit on someone's lap," Zack said. "She used to sit on Tommy's when we had to go somewhere after Tommy joined up, remember?" Tommy glared at him, then schooled his features into a neutral expression before anyone else could see. Zack shrugged at him, either not knowing why Tommy was annoyed or not caring.

"Trini could sit on my lap," Jason said.

"Kira could sit on—" Conner began.

"Don't even think about it."

"What? I was gonna say Trent's."

"Sure you were, Conner," Kira said dryly.

"I was!"

"You so were not," Ethan scoffed.

"I was too."

"Uh-huh, sure."

"Right, Conner. Right."

"Kira can sit on my lap, if she wants," Trent said loudly, cutting off the budding argument between the other three teens.

"That gets us up to eight, provided that actually works," Billy said.

"Ethan can sit on Conner's, maybe?" Zack said hopefully.

"Uh, no! He's way too heavy," Conner protested.

"Besides, that's still only nine, and I don't think it's a good idea to drive while sitting on someone's lap," Billy pointed out.

"I can totally fit in the trunk," Ethan said eagerly. "Seriously. Come on. Please?"

"Are you sure you want to try?" Billy asked.

"Better than sitting on Conner's lap. Besides, I'd be able to say I rode in the trunk of a flying car. How many people can say that?"

They all stared at him for a second.

"Dude, I'm riding with Ethan!" Conner said gleefully.

The trunk of the RADBUG wasn't exactly large, and it wasn't exactly designed for two large guys to be riding in it. It took quite a while to fold Conner and Ethan in without knocking either boy unconscious, and then they had to make sure all of their limbs were free of the edges of the hood. By the time they managed it, Ethan and Conner were both slightly bruised and completely furious with each other and half the people who'd been helping them get in.

"Shotgun," Jason called the moment Billy had fastened a bungee cord over the hood (just in case).

"Oh, thank god," Trini sighed in relief.

"Oh, man," Tommy, Zack, Trent, Kira, and Kimberly complained.

"Hurry up out there!" Ethan shouted from the trunk.

And I thought having Conner ride in my front seat was bad, Tommy thought with a shudder.

"You'd better get in first, Trent," Billy said. Trent nodded and climbed in, Billy holding the front seat forward for him, then for Kira. Zack hopped in from the other side, scooting into the middle after Trent and Kira got settled. Tommy followed Zack… then realized with a sinking feeling that he'd forgotten all about Kimberly.

His eyes widened in horror; she'd have to climb over him now if she wanted to sit on Zack's lap, but she might have already assumed that she was supposed to sit on Tommy's after that comment Zack had made… and if he got out so that she could sit on Zack, it'd be so obvious, so awkward… war with Trini aside, he was getting used to the calm settling over him and Kimberly…

He looked around wildly for a way out, and his gaze landed on Trini. Slowly, her face split into a triumphant smirk.

"Evil, evil woman," Tommy muttered to himself.

"What was that?" Zack asked.

"Nothing," Tommy practically snarled. So she'd planned this. Somehow. Well, it couldn't have been that hard for her. Even if they'd only made two trips to the ruins, someone would have to be on a lap at some point, unless they'd made three trips. She'd somehow managed to ensure Kimberly would be sitting on him, or squeezing into the space closest to him at the very least; even if she did sit on Zack, she'd have to be extremely close to Tommy. It also didn't escape Tommy's attention that Zack had made the suggestion that Kimberly ride on Tommy's lap; while it had seemed like a slip of the tongue, Zack was one of Trini's little weapons, and Tommy wasn't about to forget that now. Even if Trini hadn't planned it all, she wasn't about to help him plan his way out of it.

This is nothing, he told himself firmly. What did he care if he had to let her sit on his lap for a while? The drive wouldn't be long in a car as fast as the RADBUG. It was more of a makeshift zord than a car. Besides, he could handle it. He was an adult. So she would be sitting on his lap. Big deal. No problem.

He looked expectantly at Kimberly, forcing his expression to remain calm and collected. She seemed to be doing the same; other than a slight blush to her cheeks—and it was hard to tell if that was manufactured by makeup or not—she appeared completely at ease.

Kimberly turned around and backed into the car, which wasn't easy as she couldn't aim where her butt was going and the car was now rocking from Ethan and Conner having a hissy fit of some sort in the trunk. She ended up partially on Zack and partially on Tommy, her legs thrown on the other side of Tommy's legs. Unfortunately, her bulky purse was practically crushing his foot, and the curve of the ceiling meant she had to bend her body over, unless she wanted to mold herself up against Tommy the way Kira and Trent were doing (happily, Tommy noted grudgingly). All in all, it wasn't very comfortable, but it wasn't very snuggly, either. Take THAT, Trini, Tommy thought smugly. He was fine. He wasn't too comfy, but he was fine. This was fine. Fine.

Jason moved the seat back, practically crushing Tommy's legs and forcing Kimberly to lean back towards Tommy more. She shifted a bit, trying to resettle herself. Tommy sighed heavily, knowing this was only the beginning of a hellish experience; this thought was further compounded by Trini grinning at him over Jason's shoulder as she slid in.

"Next time you modify a car, Billy," Trent joked, "you might want to get a station wagon or a minivan or something."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Billy smiled and pulled the car around the side of the house, out of the yard and onto the street, then headed around the curve and down the road. "Why aren't we flying yet?" Tommy called. Kimberly winced; her right ear was an inch or two in front of his mouth.

"Need to get gas," Billy replied. "We've only got a couple gallons; Zack's gas can wasn't very big."

"Go to the closest place," Tommy said. He wanted to make this go as fast as possible.

"I will. I don't want to get pulled over. Especially considering the fact that the plates are expired and I don't have a driver's license anymore anyway."

"Oh, great," Tommy said with a sigh, blowing Kimberly's hair onto the other side of her neck.

"Riding like this isn't legal, anyway," Trini said. "You'll get pulled over the moment a cop sees us."

"Oh," Billy said, clearing his throat uncomfortably.

Some sort of fight had apparently started in the trunk; they could hear yelps the occasional clang. Tommy prayed Conner and Ethan were both still alive. He also prayed Kimberly stopped shifting about. It was very disconcerting.

"Dude, move your leg over," Zack complained.

"I can't move my leg over without breaking one of Kimberly's bones," Tommy replied sulkily.

"Sorry, Zack," she said, shifting again. Damn Trini, Tommy thought mutinously.

"Why are we going so slow?" Zack demanded.

"I apologize, but the speed limit is only twenty-five miles per hour, I can't see out the back or the passenger window, and the car's frighteningly overloaded," Billy responded. "It's not made to carry as much weight as we're putting into it. Each of us weighs over a hundred pounds, so there's over a thousand pounds in the vehicle at present. If my calculations are correct, closer to sixteen or seventeen hundred. Despite my modifications, the car is old, and the flight system isn't very light, either."

"Better fly slow and low," Trini advised.

I hate you, Tommy thought, resisting the urge to growl.

"Goody," said Kimberly. "God, does one of you have a sword in your pants?"

There was a moment of extremely loud silence, during which everyone held very still. Tommy was praying there was some sort of innocent meaning in there somewhere.

"What kind of question is that?" Zack asked incredulously. "Someone's got her mind in the gutter." Zack nudged Tommy with his elbow and mouthed "She wants you, man" behind Kimberly's back. Tommy rolled his eyes.

"I meant, something's jabbing me in the leg," Kimberly clarified. Well, that explained her shifting about. Tommy wasn't sure, but she sounded a tad embarrassed now.

"Might be my ink pen," Tommy said.

"That's a new word for it," Zack quipped.

"Shut up, Zack," Tommy growled darkly.

"Why do you have an ink pen in your pocket?" Kimberly demanded, stressing the last word for Zack's sake.

"It's a teacher thing," Tommy said sheepishly. Well, actually, it was more of a memory thing. He'd gotten into the habit of stuffing things in his cargo pockets because he tended to forget to put everything in his briefcase or back pack before leaving the house, so any other random objects he came back for were put into his pockets to save the hassle of dealing with opening his bag.

"Can you move it?"

Tommy paused. "Eh, you're kind of in the way." In other words, he couldn't get to his pocket without a lot of awkwardness.

"Would it help if I moved?"

"…I don't think so." Please stop moving, Tommy thought desperately. There was just a sort of imagery in his head now regarding Kimberly wiggling on his lap. Which Trini had probably put there with some sort of evil brainwashing technique, he was sure. Though Kimberly and Zack had both made it a lot worse.

"We're almost there, Kim," Billy said reassuringly. "Maybe he can take it out at the gas station."

"Good," Kimberly said with a sigh, shifting again.

Someone's SO getting strangled when I get out of here, Tommy vowed.

"AHHH!" someone—possibly Ethan—yelled from the trunk.

"Think they'll kill each other this time?" Kira asked Trent.

Trent shrugged noncommittally, looking quite happy for the moment. "Dunno. But it'd be nice to have the room to myself." Kira grinned at him, in a way that looked sort of suggestive. Tommy grimaced, trying to ignore thoughts of hotel rooms, as well as thoughts of who the parents would blame if Kira and Trent did something stupid while in Tommy's care.

Ethan and Conner became louder and louder, and Kimberly began shifting more and more, trying to avoid the ink pen. Meanwhile, Trini and Jason began murmuring to each other in a distinctly icky fashion, and Tommy busied himself with trying to figure out a way to kick their seat without spraining an ankle or knocking Kimberly unconscious against the RADBUG's ceiling, but between Kimberly, the seat, and the purse weighing down his foot, it was looking like an impossible task. Zack was cheerfully trying to glance around the car, but there wasn't much of interest that he could glance at; Trent and Kira were smiling at each other happily and Trini and Jason were a step away from making out and Tommy glared at him every time Zack looked his way.

"DIE!" came a muffled roar from the trunk.

"RAWG!"

"SHUT UP IN THERE BEFORE YOU GET MURDERED BY YOUR SCIENCE TEACHER!" Tommy bellowed.

"OW! Tommy, warning!" Kimberly complained.

"For real, bro," Zack added, causing about three different painful moments just by lifting his hand up to his ear to wiggle a finger in it experimentally.

"Now I know how you guys used to feel about my Ptera-Scream," Kira moaned.

"Tommy, I nearly committed vehicular manslaughter!" Billy admonished.

"Well, at least they're quiet, now," Trent said feebly.

"They probably just wet their pants," Trini said dryly.

"They're cleaning the trunk if they did," Billy said worriedly.

"Sorry," Tommy lied. "I'll give them a talking-to at the gas station."

"Come on, Dr. O, they're trapped in a trunk with each other. Adding a lecture's just kinda cruel," Trent joked. Tommy tried to glare at him, but Zack was in the way, so he settled for glaring even harder at Zack.

"Might want to wait until we get to the Command Center, actually," Jason said. "It won't be long, and they're quiet for the moment… and it'll look really strange if you get out and start yelling at the two guys in the trunk."

I'm never going on vacation again, Tommy promised himself firmly.

"There's the gas station," Billy said, coming to a halt at a red light. "Dead ahead."
"GEEK!"

"LOSER!"

"I count thirty-three seconds of silence," Kira said.

"Thirty-one," Trent said, holding up his watch.

"I want out of here," Tommy whined. Kimberly suppressed a giggle.

"Sure you do," Zack teased.

"Shut up, Zack," Kimberly said playfully.

"Yeah, shut up, Zack," Tommy said, not so playfully. He wondered how much it would hurt if he stabbed Zack with his ink pen.

At last, the RADBUG putted into the gas station. "Let me out," Tommy said quickly as they came to a stop at the pump.

"I'm working on it, jeez," Jason muttered, popping open the handle. Trini had to grab hold of the roof and pull her legs out, Jason steadying her unnecessarily. "Anyone want anything to drink or anything?" Jason asked, turning around in his seat.

"See if they have apple juice," Kira said.

"I'm fine," Trent said.

"I'll look for myself," Tommy said. When you finally let me out, he added silently. He wondered if Jason was prolonging this on purpose.

"I'll come with," Zack said.

"I will too," Kimberly said. "This is the sharpest ink pen I've ever sat on."

"Oh, shoot!" Billy exclaimed. "I haven't got any cash! We'll have to go to the bank first."

"You've got your ATM card, right?" Jason asked, still not moving from the seat.

"Yeah."

"You can pay at the pump, then."

"It's an ATM card. Not a credit card. And don't I have to pay the clerk, not the actual pump?"

"Debit cards can be used just about anywhere now," Jason said. "You and Trini need to talk about technology advances and banking."

"And you need to get out of the freaking car!" Tommy fairly exploded.

"Huh? Oh. Yeah." Jason hopped out and slid the seat forward.

Unfortunately, climbing out was not an easy task; being folded in half with her legs rather crushed beside Tommy's hadn't been an easy position for Kimberly to get into, and getting out of it proved worse. Jason practically had to lift her out. Tommy leaped out as soon as she was clear, intent upon putting some distance in between himself and Kimberly; Zack followed more calmly, handing Kimberly the extremely heavy purse.

"Look, Mommy! A clown car!"

Tommy looked over at the next pump, where a mother was balancing her young son on the front bumper and staring at them curiously while trying to wipe chocolate stains off the kid's mouth. Tommy looked at the RADBUG, with its odd attachments, realizing that it probably wasn't every day one saw a funky little five-seater Bug emit six people with two left inside. Shaking his head, he smiled a little and headed for the store, simply for the sake of getting away from the insanity for a while, but Kimberly blocked his path.

"Empty out your pockets," Kimberly commanded.

Tommy reached into his cargo pocket and pulled out the first thing his hand closed on—a pair of safety scissors.

"You keep scissors in your pocket?" Zack said incredulously, coming over to them.

"Must have thrown them in there at some point," Tommy said with a shrug. He didn't want to admit it in present company, but he'd worn the pants for about six hours last week and hadn't washed them since; according to the bylaws of bachelordom, this was perfectly acceptable, but he didn't need any laundry jokes or memory cracks right now. He set the scissors down on the hood and pulled out an ink pen. And a very melted candy bar. And his address book. And a red yo-yo he'd taken away from Conner after Conner had tried to do tricks with it in the lab a little too close to the electronics.

"Oh-kay," Kimberly said, shaking her head. "Wanna do the other pocket? Just to be safe?"

The pile on the hood gained a bag of Skittles, his reading glasses, a note that said "Remember to feed dog" (despite the fact he didn't actually have a dog), a guitar pick that probably belonged to Kira, a comb, his old white communicator, and a lint-covered gumball. By this point, Jason, Zack and Kimberly were staring at him incredulously.

"You actually have crap in the other five pockets, don't you," Kimberly said with a grin.

"You're not going to be sitting on them," Tommy pointed out. Kimberly just raised an eyebrow at him. Sighing, he reached into his hip pockets.

"Elizabeth Randall—hey, Tommy, is this chick hot?" Zack asked.

Tommy looked over at him with a rather horrified expression to see Zack flipping through his address book. "Give me that!" he snapped.

"What? Got your eye on her?"

You tactless little… Tommy thought in annoyance, snatching the book away. He was fairly certain that if there was a demon on one of his shoulders and an angel on the other, the angel would be glowering and the demon would be waving his pitchfork at Zack threateningly. "She's the principal at Reefside High. You know, Elsa, ex-evil minion?"

"Ooh, the dominatrix type," Zack said with a fairly interested expression. Tommy whacked Zack's shoulder with the book. That was an image Tommy never wanted in his head again.

"Come on, let's go get some provisions," Jason said, smirking at Tommy.

"Wait—where am I gonna put all this stuff?" Tommy demanded.

Kimberly scooped up as much of it as she could. "We'll ask for a bag inside. Come on."

Tommy hurriedly grabbed the rest, mentally grumbling about how his pockets didn't seem that deep, and followed her inside. Jason and Zack split off from them, heading for the snack aisles, while Tommy and Kimberly approached the counter. The clerk looked at the stuff in their arms oddly before handing over a plastic bag, into which they dumped everything from Tommy's pockets; now all he had left was his wallet and his phone (he refused to let the phone out of his sight, ever again).

Just as he was preparing to make an excuse to ditch Kimberly to avoid any one-on-one time, Kimberly looked at him with a nervous expression. "Tommy?"

"Huh?"

"Look, I'm uncomfortable as hell in there," Kimberly blurted out. "If we're not going to be flying fast, and the mountains look different, and so on, it could be a really long trip. I don't want to bug you, but… but… can't I just sit on you like I used to? It was so much more… comfortable."

She looked like she wanted to melt into the floor. However, far from feeling worse, Tommy felt a whole lot better. She really wanted things to be okay between them, and she was being honest with him. After his fight with Trini, he was relieved to see something about Kimberly get simple, even if it was something as strange as her sitting on his lap for a long flying car ride.

"I'll understand if you say no," Kimberly said quickly. "I don't want to make you uncomfortable. I just don't want to be folded into a pretzel for the next six hours or whatever. But it's okay. It's totally okay. I can manage."

"No, no, it's fine," Tommy replied. "Sit however you want. We're cool."

Kimberly exhaled gratefully. "Yes. Good. Thank you."

A thought struck him and he held out his hand. "Can I see your cell phone for a second?"

Kimberly pulled it out of her purse. "Why?"

"No reason," Tommy said, snatching it and flipping it open. After playing with it for a moment, he managed to find her phone book. Praying he wasn't going to regret this, he started pushing buttons.

"As long as you're not calling China or anything," Kimberly joked, leaning against the counter but still watching him curiously. "My bill's high enough as it is. I gotta stop going over my minutes."

A few seconds later, Tommy turned the phone around so she could see that he'd added a new entry—him. "There's my cell and house numbers. If we're going to be friends, you're going to need them."

Kimberly gave him a look that could only be described as the facial expression equivalent of "Awww, how sweet!" She took the phone and held out her hand. "Here, let me give you mine."

Tommy's recent protectiveness of his phone warred momentarily with the rest of him and won. "Has it changed in the past two years?"

"No."

"Then I already have it. Stole it from Jason's phone ages ago," Tommy said sheepishly. Much as he hadn't wanted to admit it, he didn't want to lie to her right now, and anyway she would have seen the entry when she'd tried to add it.

Kimberly looked surprised but pleased. "Oh. Okay, then." She smiled and swallowed. "Well, I'm going to go… see if I can find a diet root beer."

Tommy watched her walk away. Screw Trini. He could be friends with Kimberly. If he wanted to be more one day, that was up to him. What could Trini do? Lock them inside a Las Vegas wedding chapel? He didn't want to play mind games. He was sick of trying to sort things out; it was all he'd done after Kimberly had left. He really did want a clean start, and Trini could just get the hell out of his way. He knew she just wanted to help him, but he wasn't an idiot. He could fend for himself.

"Tommy!" Zack called. "Can you go grab a bag of Doritos? This was all we could carry."

Tommy was startled out of his reverie by the return of Jason and Zack, arms loaded with chips, cookies, candy and enough drinks to service the Sahara. "Where the hell are we going to put all that?" he asked as they dropped it on the counter.

"My lap," Zack said promptly. "You get Kim, Jase gets Trini, Trent gets Kira, I get food."

Tommy shook his head, but he smiled. Doritos sounded pretty good right about now.