It's like raiiiiiin on your wedding day. It's the free riiiiide, when you've already paid…
Tommy peeked into the Command Center as he heard the music blasting through the walls and Kim singing along at the top of her lungs. The twins had not noticed he was there yet and Kim was singing into a hairbrush as she danced around the console. He walked in a bit further and realized that the tots were solidly passed out on the couch. Luckily, Kim had insisted that they still play music and do things that they liked when they slept from the beginning. Now they could sleep through just about anything.
He snuck up behind her and wrapped his arms around her as he joined in singing, completely off-key. Kim swayed in his arms as she continued to belt out the song. He loved her voice. It was something he had missed in all the years they were apart. She spun around to face him and jumped up and down as she placed the hairbrush in front of him. Her joy was contagious so he leaned in and sang with her.
He felt little hands grab onto his gi and he looked down to see Jay had joined in on dancing with them. This phase was his new favorite, as they were able to do so much with them, but were still small enough that they would crawl up into his arms and go to sleep.
"Alexa play 'Still Dre'," Tommy yelled over his shoulder as the next song came on and Kim looked up at him before handing him the hairbrush. She picked Jay up as she turned around to dance against him. Jay pushed her away and she placed him down on the floor as he did his favorite move: the squat and booty shake. Kira ran over to them and she spun around in circles before she settled for a full body wiggle. Tommy placed a hand under Kim's pregnant belly and gently supported her as they danced together. While this pregnancy was different, he had noticed the strain it was starting to put on her body.
"Mama spin!" Kira yelled as she reached up and Kim picked her up, breaking away from Tommy to spin around with Kira. Tommy caught a hint of movement from the other side of the Command Center and motioned for them to come out. "Dance Somebody Song- Lexa! Dance Somebody!"
"Alexa play 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody'," Kim called out as Tommy shook his head. They should have never introduced Kira to Whitney Houston, for some reason she had fallen in love with all of her songs. Kim danced over to him and Kira jumped to one of his arms as he put his free arm around Kim and she wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned back into his arm. She closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and sang. Jay ran off and Tommy caught him pulling Julia out into the Command Center. Julia hastily tucked her phone away before she started dancing with Jay.
Axel and Brandon walked in from training and were shocked to see Tommy joking around and dancing with Kim. They had walked in on the girls having dance parties in the Command Center before, but they had never seen Tommy join in. Kira spotted them and she scrambled out of Tommy's arms and sprinted for the boys.
"Uncle Ahol! Uncle Ahol! Dance, dance!" Kira yelled as she grabbed one of his hands and tugged on it. Axel shook his head before he tossed down his bag and scooped Kira up to dance with her. She giggled with glee as he spun her around and tossed her in the air.
"We've got company," Tommy whispered into Kim's ear and she glanced back to see that Axel and Julia had joined in on the dancing and Jay was trying to pull Brandon in as well. He twirled her around and pulled her back into his body and appreciated her sinking into him. The song trailed off and the twins immediately started yelling for Alexa to play other songs. He let out a sigh as he realized he was going to have to go save the rangers from their kids. "Love you."
"Love you too."
"You look happy," Carrie said as Kim sat down in the studio and scanned the set up. "Except you don't like the blocking."
"I just need to stay chest up at the moment," Kim said and Carrie gave her a confused look, but nodded. She'd been suspicious of another baby Oliver being on the way, but Kim and Tommy had said nothing. And if Kim was showing, she was hiding it well enough that she couldn't tell for sure. "Okay, so I know we've got the monthly update on deck for today. What are the next few weeks like?"
"It's pretty heavy- you've got the interview with a survivor from one of the major Angel Grove battles, toddler chronicles, something that just says 'you know what this is supposed to be', coffee with Janine. You're also getting a lot of comments asking for you to sit down with Tommy. They want to know more about him," Carrie said and Kim glanced through the papers. She stayed active in the comments section, but had always had a mixed relationship with the people who pressed for more about Tommy.
Tommy appeared in the toddler chronicles a bit as they did different things with the twins, but that was something he accepted only because it stayed far away from his past. He had agreed to it once he knew that he was limited to the montage bits and she'd kept her word on that. She knew that sitting down for an interview, with him, was not something she could do. If Tommy was ever going to talk about being a ranger, she was not the best person to pull that out of him. She would not push him as far as he'd need to go for this to whet their appetite. And she would not willingly put him with any interviewer that would push him that hard.
"We need to start getting ahead. I'm seeing more and more with Kiros and I just feel like…I feel like we need a backlog in case I get pulled to another planet for a few months. We still need income to be generated from all of our income streams when that happens," Kim said as Carrie stared at her and she let out a sigh. She wanted to explain more to Carrie, but they'd still told no one except their parents about this pregnancy. "I know we can't get more ahead for any of the monthly things, but I've reached out to other key figures from our time as Power Rangers for interviews and many of them are willing to do an interview whenever it fits in my schedule. There's also the dojo series that we've been working on that would be great to have prepared for whenever that happens."
"I get what you're saying and I understand, but isn't that a lot of pressure to put on yourself? Don't you think that we could explain…" Carrie trailed off as Kim crossed her arms and glared. "Probably not a good idea to announce to the world and the further universe that the most powerful Power Rangers on the planet are suddenly away."
"I would rather be transparent, but there's a high likelihood that the rangers are going to get slammed with something while Tommy is off Earth, I don't want to make it worse for them," Kim stated as she scribbled a few more notes, her eyes squinting and tongue poking ever so slightly out of her mouth. "Okay. I've got my notes for the Academy update- ready to roll when you are."
"I still can't believe Tommy agreed to this series," Carrie muttered as Kim let out a laugh and she gave her a confused look. "You…you didn't."
"I didn't what?" Kim smirked as Carrie's eyes widened and she let out a belly laugh. "I'm glad Tommy wasn't here when you figured that one out."
"Your sex life is good. Why would you even put something like that on the table?" Carried asked and Kim just smiled. "You're not going to explain it?"
"Let's just say this makes things more fun for Mr. Oliver," Kim said as Carrie froze and then walked over to the camera set up.
"Okay. We're rolling in three, two, one…"
"Hello and welcome back to Ranger Academy, the show where I talk a bit about how we are building the Power Ranger Academy and what new things we've done each month. Earlier this month we celebrated the first anniversary of the academy announcement and in case anyone missed it my lovely editor Cory will put in some footage here. In the last year, we've welcomed our first class, figured out what the curriculum needs to be, and have failed a lot along the way. Our current rangers are pulling double duty as teachers and mentors in the Academy while we wait for whatever is coming next. And before I get flooded with comments- no- we are still not revealing who they are until they hang up their suits. This month was the admissions call and that is what I am going to spend most of my time focusing on today.
"We're regularly questioned about how you can become a Power Ranger and there are a mix of things that go into that process. First off, the last two years have had twenty potential rangers identified worldwide. I cannot emphasize enough how selective the Command Center is when it searches for potential Power Rangers and we suspect that even from these twenty that anywhere between seven to ten may actually become rangers. Unlike when we became rangers, every person that attends the Academy has an option to decline. Being a ranger changes so many parts of your life and we want for future rangers to know what they are getting into, well…as much as they can. We don't know what monsters will come their way, we've never known what monsters will come our way.
"Secondly, people who are in the pipeline are given specialized training and we further evaluate if they would be a good fit based on our experiences. At any point in time, the potential ranger can choose to walk away and we will cover any missed college years. We are currently working with a few universities to accredit specific courses at the Academy so that they will be transferable to any university in the country. We are also working with a handful of universities with specialized degree programs that Tommy and I do not have the skills to teach, but will be needed in the ranger ranks. IT and healthcare related fields are the ones we are primarily looking to partner with.
"Lastly, the powers have to choose the person. This is the part of the process that we understand the least, but we know that there are some distinguishing characteristics for each color and there are rough profiles for who will fit what best. There is still further research to be done so that we have a better indication of who may wind up where and this will also allow the potential rangers to opt out if they're not satisfied with the profile they are most likely to fit. This is one of the research projects that Tommy is currently working on and one of the projects that will be shared with Columbia University students in the future.
"The biggest concern that we have for our rangers is that they are able to live a life in and outside of the Power Rangers. My generation of rangers was able to remove themselves from being rangers, but never truly assimilated back into normal society. I probably came the closest and I cut off contact with almost everyone I was a ranger with for the better part of ten years. That isn't a healthy way to move out of ranger life. We're going to continue to work with psychologists, career counselors, and other specialists to give them a path back to a normal life if that is what they want. It's something Tommy and I both wish we had had clearly outlined for us and even with this project, we're learning as we go. That's for this month's Ranger Academy- look forward to seeing you next time."