"I've probably got about three hours. Hit me with it," Tommy said as he sat down at the console and looked over at Trini. She had agreed to do monitoring during the day time and the current ranger team was rotating who monitored things from their basement at night. It helped him to know that someone else was always on site, even if his kids weren't aware of it. The littles had all nodded off for naps and this was his chance to start getting an idea of what was truly ahead of him.
"Hayley is focused on not alerting anyone to his turning against your family. He's still attending school and any of the normal activities that he would have attended otherwise. We haven't reached out to any of his friends because we don't want to tip our hand about how much we know. When he's been asked about what happened to Kim, he's distant, but even that could be played off as being hurt by what is going on. We do know that he has not had a reaction to any of the rangers he has run into. The current ranger team has bumped into him and he's had no reaction to them either. We don't know for sure, but our best theory is that it is highly centered around you and Kimberly. Unfortunately, Kimberly was the one here when he flipped," Trini said as she pulled up different surveillance footage and she watched Tommy closely. He finally looked like he was rested, but none of the stress had lifted off of him. They needed some of the stress to lift so that he could think more clearly and he knew that. "What are you thinking?"
"Hayley chose to activate it when Kim was here alone with Ollie. We have to remember that she knows me. She really knows me and she knows that if she had activated that while I was on the property, I would have gone looking for him. And I would have most likely ruined her plans from the jump," Tommy stated as he flipped through the footage and he let out a groan. He had glanced at a few things at the beginning, but he hadn't been able to really focus on any of it. All of his concentration had gone into understanding everything that the doctors were telling him and making the best choices that he could for Kimberly's health. He knew that the other rangers were more than competent enough at keeping an eye on Ollie and jumping on any opportunities that they saw to get him out of Hayley's clutches safely. "That's her old house. I…we…it went up for sale, but we never saw anyone move in. I should have noticed…"
"Hey, it's okay. You're telling me now and we'll go over everything that you know about that house and everything that you know about what facilities she had there in a bit. The last thing is- none of us have been able to convince him to willingly come with us, to break away from her. So there has to be some component of this that also…that is focusing on him trusting her and wanting to protect her," Trini finished as Tommy glanced through everything again and started highlighting and moving various pieces of information around. Tommy had seen something, but she didn't know what he had seen. He kept working for the next thirty minutes and she moved to another console to continue monitoring the current situation.
"Have any of you seen Hayley?" Tommy asked as Trini just shook her head. "Huh."
"We think she's keeping a low profile, especially around people that could recognize her," Trini said as Tommy just nodded and continued to pull in more and more pieces of information. "Tommy- talk to me."
"There are going to be opportunities to separate Ollie, but I can't risk Hayley…I can't risk her coming back and doing this again," Tommy said and he looked down at his hands. He hated what was going to have to happen, more than anyone else. Hayley had been there for him during some of his worst and happiest moments and while their friendship had fallen apart, he hated that they might only be down to a few horrible options on how to resolve this. "I'm not going to make any of the rangers…or Ollie…this is my fight, Trini. So I am going to need more information on her and what she is doing. We can get Ollie when we want. He's probably in less danger if we don't tip our hand before we are fully ready to act."
"You think Kim is going to go for that?" Trini asked as Tommy started braiding his hair back as he avoided the question. "That would be a no."
"She's not going to be able to fight. I know that she'll want to but…I can't lose her. I can't let Ollie kill her either. It's going to be hard enough when he comes back and he realizes what he's done. I don't want to add to it. So yeah, I'm going to go with a plan that will piss off my wife, but will hopefully save Ollie from a lot of pain in the long run. I think she'll come around to that idea," Tommy said as Trini just stared at him. She was sure that Kim would come around to it, but she couldn't believe that Tommy had realized that this was the path he needed to take. "Hayley has enough available equipment at her house to continue making the compounds that she will need to keep Ollie under her control. She also has a paired system to the old Dino Lab. I went in and disabled most of it when she died, but I would assume that she has rebuilt it and potentially improved upon it. I would also guess that she's looking for opportunities to strike- that means following us, learning our patterns, and staying undetected while doing so. Either that or she's brought in some sort of help."
"The current ranger team isn't reporting any alliance with Sledge…but I don't know that she would be obvious," Trini hypothesized and Tommy just stared at the screens. "She was obvious with Mesogog and that didn't end well."
"No, I'm pretty sure it ended exactly how she wanted it to. Anton and Smitty told me about the lab that Mesogog and Zeltrax used throughout their time and she had full access to it. She had full access to create what she needed and document it and take enough ingredients to make enough doses to turn Ollie. Sledge doesn't have something like that available…at least that we're aware of. This is personal, I don't see her spending time convincing Sledge to trust her and I don't know that Sledge wants to come after us. There's a reason nothing has come after us since Mesogog and that when I've been called in, it's been quick and dirty. She could surprise me, but I think this is just a vendetta against me and Kimberly," Tommy said as he grabbed several print outs and arranged them in various different ways. "You okay if I take these?"
"This is your specialty- I'd say take as much as you need to make sense of things," Trini said as Tommy stood up and she stared at him. "Going so soon?"
"I just got a text that she's awake- so I need to run. Thank you," Tommy said as he gave Trini a quick side hug and then jogged out of the control room. He had precious little time with his wife and he hoped he'd make it back while she was still awake.
"He's on his way, Kim," Kat said as Kim's eyes darted around the room, searching. Searching for some sign that Kat could not give her.
"True or false- we have four children together?" Kim asked as Kat gave her a confused look and Kim squeezed her eyes closed before opening them again. "I have more children with Tommy, right?"
"Yeah, you have four kids- Ollie, Landon, Sean…"
"And Opal. Oh thank God. It felt real I just didn't know," Kim said as she leaned back in the hospital bed and then stared at the ceiling. The images kept flashing through her mind and she tried to find some level of comfort in them being real, but she desperately needed her husband. She needed to lay eyes on him and see that he was alright. "He's coming?"
"Yeah. He just went to spend the day with the littles and get some research done," Kat supplied as she watched Kim struggle with what she was saying. "Do you want me to get Billy?"
"No…I…Ollie?" Kim asked and Kat just shook her head as Kim played with the edge of the blanket, running it through her hands over and over. "So that was true too. I need him."
"I know and Tommy's looking…" Kat trailed off as Kim shook her head and Kat realized the 'him' she was referring to was Tommy, not Ollie. "Why don't I call him? Would that help?"
"Please," Kim said as Kat watched her relax as she scrolled through her phone to find Tommy. At one point she had been jealous of how Tommy cared for Kimberly, but she was now grateful that monsters didn't come after her children and that she had never been put in this kind of danger. She knew that Tommy did everything he could to prevent things like this from happening, but it would never be enough. There was always going to be bullseye on them.
"Hey Kat? What's up?" Tommy's voice floated into the room and Kat put the phone next to Kim and she watched as she relaxed even further. "Kat."
"Hey Handsome," Kim forced out and Kat pointed to the door and then recognized that Kim was barely keeping her eyes open. She wanted to give them privacy, but she didn't know how long Kim would be able to stay awake and if she went silent that would terrify Tommy.
"Beautiful. Hi," Tommy whispered, his voice thick with emotion. "I'm about five minutes away."
"Just talk, please," Kim whispered and Tommy let out a chuckle. He was happy to do just about anything that she asked right now. He settled on telling her about his day and rambled on with whatever came to mind. He heard the phone clatter to the floor and shook his head.
"Kat?" Tommy called and she picked up the phone, tears streaming down her face.
"Yeah, she's asleep again," Kat supplied as she hastily wiped her eyes. They all gave the two of them a hard time about how much they loved each other, but seeing it in action was something that hit harder than she had expected. "Where are you?"
"Here," Tommy said as he opened the door and hung up. He was shocked by the tears streaming down her face and he glanced around to see what was going on. "You okay?"
"Yeah. I'm good," Kat said as Tommy gave her a confused look, but decided he didn't want to press it. "You know- I could have become Hayley. I probably should have become Hayley with what you did. But she never saw this, she never saw you with her and how right it is."
"I shouldn't have done what I did to you. I know we've talked and I've apologized and…" Tommy trailed off as Kim squirmed in the hospital bed and he glanced towards her and then back up at Katherine. "Thank you."
"I think Tanya will be here tomorrow. How did it go today?" Kat asked as Tommy just shook his head and she gave him a quick hug. "She's healing. You're doing good."
"I wish I could do more," Tommy muttered and Kat gave him a sad smile. "Go on. Get back to your family."
"Tommy?" Kim asked as he turned around and Kat moved away from him, heading towards the door. "I have some questions."
"Yeah, whatever you want baby," Tommy said as he sat down on her uninjured side and carefully grabbed one of her hands as the door opened and shut behind him.
"They good?" Billy asked as Kat walked up to him and she nodded her head. "But you're not."
"Yeah. Ummm- we really need to stop giving Tommy shit about how much he cares about her," Kat said as Billy gave her a confused look. It was a running joke that Kim and Tommy took incredibly well. "She's been awake off and on and one of the times she really needed him…Billy he just- we just shouldn't."
"Okay," Billy said as Kat put his arm around her and let out a sigh. "I'll try not to mention it anymore."
AN: Thank you to everyone that has liked, reviewed, and favorited this story so far! I truly appreciate it!