Tommy checked his cell phone again. It had been hours since Kimberly had texted him that Ollie had snuck out and that she was checking his normal spots. His stomach clenched, as he raked his hair back into a ponytail and let out a long sigh. Kim might leave her cellphone in the office at the dojo from time to time, but after her texts about Ollie- he doubted that she would just go walking around without it. He closed his school computer and headed to the front office. He had his planning period for the next hour and that gave him plenty of time to run by the dojo and their house to calm his nerves. He hoped it was as simple as her battery dying but as he felt the sweat running down his back, he doubted it.
"Dr. O- what's that look for?" Eliza asked as he gave her a tight smile and then let out a sigh. Eliza had been the school secretary for five years and she had gotten to know when he was coming in for just a chat versus when something had gone wrong. Things had slowed down a lot for him since his last ranger stint, but he still was called in if things went very wrong. "You need to run home?"
"Yeah. Neither Kim nor Ollie are answering and I just want to make sure that they're okay," Tommy said as Eliza nodded and then motioned for him to go back to clear it with the principal.
"Go Tommy. I know you'll be too distracted to do much of anything until you check," Tyler said as Tommy dropped his hand and stared at him. "You only ever come in here if you're asking to run home and you've always had a good reason."
"Thanks, I owe you one," Tommy said as he waved and then jogged out of the front office. He forced himself to walk as he went through the hallways of the school, even though everything in his body told him to run. He didn't want any of his students to realize that something was going on. He wasn't even sure that something was going on. He scrolled through his cell phone so that he could begin tracing what he knew. First he needed to check all of the obvious places and then he could let the panic overtake him. "Hey Alex- has Kim made it in?"
"No. She didn't send anything to the group chat either," Alex said as he could hear a class going on in the background. Kim was always at the dojo by the time classes started, it was one of the things that helped him the most back when she first started working there. And it was part of why he still took morning duty with the kids all these years later. "Something up?"
"I don't know yet, but if you see her or Ollie- give me a yell," Tommy said as he hopped into his jeep and he let out a shaky breath. All of the rangers had texted him back with something similar over the last couple of hours, the dojo had been his last hope. He quickly hung up the phone as he shifted the car into drive. "Please let me be wrong about this."
"Kim! Ollie!" Tommy yelled as he pushed the oak door open and scanned the kitchen. Kim and Ollie's vehicles were still in the driveway and he noticed Kim's cell phone was situated on the island. She must be somewhere on the property, it was the only place that she would run around without it. He grabbed his communicator and tried to pull in a steadying breath. He hoped she had picked up her communicator this morning and that it wasn't lying next to their bed. "Hey Kim- you got me?"
Silence. There was no sound of his voice echoing in the house and he felt his heart begin to race in earnest. The only reason she wouldn't answer was if she was incapacitated. She never ignored a communicator call, even after all these years of 'retirement'. He sprinted down the basement stairs and went to the far wall where he pulled on a brick and a door swung open. The lights flickered on as he headed for the console and started typing in his credentials. A globe swirled into view, with various colored pinpoints- locations of all rangers, former and present worldwide. He clacked away as he pulled up Kim's location and he felt his stomach drop. She was still on the property. A quick historical scan let him know there had been two teleportation events this morning, but neither of them had been Kimberly. He actually didn't recognize either of the signatures.
"Shit." Tommy sent out a beacon to his ranger teams to let them know to keep an eye out for Ollie. He locked the system before quickly sealing the room and running back upstairs. He went into the garage and saw one of the four wheelers was missing and he guessed where she must have gone. Ollie liked to go to his lab when he wanted some time alone, away from the littles. If he was searching for Ollie, that would have been the place he started too.
"Hey Tommy- just got your message. You need back up?" Jason's voice rang out as Tommy started the four wheeler and he gunned it across the property. It struck him as odd that Ollie hadn't taken a four wheeler for himself, but sometimes he went to that part of the property on foot. There was something about walking through the woods that calmed all of them, but it especially helped Ollie.
"Don't know. I'm checking the lab. Kim's still here," Tommy responded as he shook his head and tried to not go to the worst case scenario. The detector wouldn't tell him if she was alive, it would only tell him a proximal location.
"I've got nothing on my schedule until 4pm. Let me know when you find her." The lab came into sight and Tommy's dread increased as he saw the door was ajar. No one in the family left it that way. There were so many different things that he had in there that were not safe or were ranger related. Either was dangerous if it got into the wrong hands.
"Kim!" Tommy yelled as he slowly pushed the door open and took a step into the entryway. When he moved through into the lab, he saw that everything had been destroyed. That didn't scare him though. What scared him was the blood that he saw on one of the walls- Ollie, Kimberly, or both of them, had been injured enough to bleed. He ignored the gut instinct to call the police and went to check the supply rooms. If this was ranger related, the police weren't going to be able to help him. The first three rooms opened easily, but when he got to the fourth, it didn't budge when he unlocked it. He slammed his body against the door, desperate to get it open and cursing himself for constructing such a solid building.
"Step back." A red clad ranger ordered and Tommy stepped aside and the ranger gripped the doorframe and then pulled it from the wall. Tommy stepped around him and glanced around the room. He noticed that some of the barrels he kept had been moved and started pulling them out of the way.
Kim's body slumped over and he saw the blood covering her face. He didn't know how he did it, but he checked for a pulse and felt relief flood him as he found one. It was weak, but it was better than nothing and nothing was what he had expected when he saw the state she was in.
"Oh crap," the ranger muttered as Tommy looked over his shoulder and nodded. "I…I was just sent because…"
"Can you teleport?" Tommy asked as the red ranger nodded and he looked between Kim and the unknown ranger. He didn't have time to wait for an ambulance. She didn't have time to wait for an ambulance- if he was right she had been out for hours and every moment counted now. "I'm inputting the coordinates for Billy Cranston's office. He'll be on high alert with the beacon I just sent. I need you to take her and go. I still don't know where my son is."
"But…what if someone asks…" Tommy forcefully placed the ranger's hands on Kim's body and then pressed in the sequence that had both of them disappear in a shimmer of light. Billy was not going to ask any questions- he would just start treating her and they could figure out what exactly caused it later.
"Hey Jase. I'm going to need all of you. Kim's barely alive and Ollie…Ollie's missing."
AN: Welcome everyone to the second story in the I'm Gonna Cry Series! Yup- we're starting with full angst and a missing Ollie. This story is going to be posted each Friday- I hope to see all of you next week!