Disclaimer: The alternate universe mentioned is from "The Coin Series" by KSuzie and any mention of characters or events from that universe are her property.

Power Rangers: Legacy
"A Sense Of Normalcy"

Kim awoke early on a Saturday morning in Tommy’s bed. The spot next to her was empty but that was to be expected as Tommy had volunteered to drop by Rocky’s school and spend time with the Saturday morning classes as a guest instructor. That left her alone in bed that morning but that had been alright.

Besides she wouldn’t be alone for long as she had to get up and get dressed to go meet Jason and Carri for brunch. It was nice to be able to get to sit down with the two of them because it was going to give them a chance to get together and catch up. Everyone had been busy as of late and they hadn’t had as much time to hang out as they would’ve liked.

Not that they were busy with monster attacks. It had been almost a month since they switched their powers and there was hardly a peep from Callisto or Rhianna. Every once in a while they’d get a wave of Cirranadrones to deal with or they would be graced with the presence of Goldar or Cratus. None of those battles ever lasted long, they never did.

Kim found herself worrying about this. She wasn’t sure if their silence was a good thing or a bad one. Billy pointed out multiple times that as they had no clue what they were up to, they couldn’t say for sure what the silence was about until the duo made the next move. Kim didn’t like that answer in the slightest. The mind of the red in her was going a mile a minute trying to guess their next move. It could be more devastating than their last move. But Billy was right, there was no indication of anything they were doing and they couldn’t start speculating until they had something to speculate from.

Although they weren’t seeing any monster attacks, her friends were busy with their everyday lives. Jason had been spending a lot of time with his publisher. His new book was due soon. He hadn’t given them a date yet but he told them to be looking for it. Of course when he wasn’t with his publisher he was trying to see if things were working with Michelle. Carri was swamped with work. It wouldn’t be long before they were done with the production of the summer episodes of her show. Four of them had aired, and they had four more yet to air. So far they had been doing well, but she was very nervous over the future of the show. When she wasn’t busy with her show, she was busy with Rocky. Kim hadn’t been around the duo a lot before they left all those years ago, but as far as she could tell they were closer now than they were before.

Of course Kim couldn’t say anything about working on romance because she had her own with Tommy. She loved him with all her heart and she adored spending every waking minute with him. It was to the point where Carri joked that she didn’t have a roommate anymore. Kim would spend one or two nights a week at the house and the rest of them with Tommy. And she was usually only at the house when she had work to do. Work, the other thing keeping her more than a little busy. Ashley had loved some of her early ideas and now Kim was working on some really important marketing campaigns. It was great, but it was more than a little time consuming.

When she wasn’t busy with work or Tommy, she was spending the rest of her time trying to figure out what was happening to her. Billy checked her the day before and told her that almost all her cells were transformed. She had yet to see any major effects of her Muirantian powers like the ones K had, but over the last few weeks she could tell that they were definitely growing.

It started after her adventure in the orb. She felt the presence of the morphing grid. She wasn’t sure how she did it and the feeling didn’t stay long, but since then every time she went to morph she could briefly feel the grid. That wasn’t the only thing that happened after the incident in the orb.

Both she and Carri had their life forces drained while they were in the orb. It took Carri a few days to recover. She had even fainted once, and Billy had told her it was because although she felt better, her body was only working at about fifty percent. Thanks to Kim’s Muirantian cells she recovered within the first day. Not only did she recover from that incident faster, but a week later she found herself recovering from other things too.

It was like one day she woke up and she was a new woman. Battle scars from times past had disappeared. Injuries that she’d suffered while she was a ranger and a gymnast, ones that still nagged her on occasion felt like they were no longer there. Her allergies were all the sudden non existent. She felt better than she’d had in years and she had a horrifying experience in the pit to thank for that.

She was still coming to terms with what all this meant. Her DNA was being changed to the point where she was going to no longer be truly human anymore. She would soon come into powers that she would have never dreamed of. Fortunately she had already been trained as a master warrior, which meant that she was going to gain powers much faster than K did and the transition in theory was going to be easier. That didn’t mean she was going to understand her powers. K was much older than she was and it had taken her decades to learn how to use her powers fully.

Which meant that Kim had a while to go, especially since she really hadn’t seen much of her powers. As the red Planetary Ranger and a master warrior she understood what this meant and what was going to happen to her in the future. She had a firm handle on everything, but that didn’t keep her from being slightly terrified of her situation. Things were going to happen that she wasn’t sure if she was mentally ready for. She was physically ready but at the same time she was scared about what she was going through.

It was hard to prepare for something as life changing as this and it was even harder being the only one of your friends that knew what you were really going through. She had a lot that was going to happen in her future and she found herself looking at it with fear and wonder.

But there would be time for her to concentrate on what was going to happen to her. She wasn’t fully converted yet and she’d start thinking about the heavier side effects when they showed up. For now it was time to get dressed before she was late to brunch.

Kim approached the outdoor table at the small diner where Jason and Carri were sitting waiting for her. "You’re late." Carri said with a grin as she looked up from her menu

"I thought it was your boyfriend who had the time problem." Jason teased as she sat down

"Hush. Both of you." Kim replied with a grin of her own as the waitress came over and she ordered a glass of juice. She left and Kim picked up the menu, glancing it over while listening to her friends chatter.

"So are you done yet with the first half of this season?" Jason questioned glancing over at Carri

"Just about. Soon we’ll be on hiatus until September." she replied holding her hands up and crossing her fingers. There was no official word yet from the network on whether or not her series would return in the spring. But ratings were good and there was speculation that they would be renewed. Baring no major disaster in the next few weeks, they would be officially renewed at the end of August and could continue filming right after.

Jason nodded. He wasn’t going to say anything as he knew she was optimistic about her show’s future. "You know where you’re filming the next twelve shows?" he questioned as the waitress walked over to them ready to take their order. Carri put off answering the question as the three of them quickly placed their orders and handed the waitress back the menus.

"We have ideas. After we officially finish production the other hosts and I are going to look into cities we’d want to go to and what they’d want to cover in those cities." Carri explained. It was all going to be unofficial as they couldn’t really do anything until they’d been given the notice that their show would continue. But at the same time it was better than nothing.

"Sounds good." Jason replied as he glanced over at Kim. "What about you? How has your work been going?"

"Really good." Kim said with a smile as she thought about it. "Ashley loved some of my ideas and now I have some big campaigns I’m working on."

"That’s awesome. So are we going to see Kimberly Heart ideas promoting Ashley Hammond’s creations?" Carri asked smiling over at her friend

"Hopefully." Kim replied smiling back at her. "And" she started to speak but she thought she saw something flash in her face. "Did someone just take our picture?"

Carri shrugged. "Probably." It was starting to happen to her now, although not very often. It didn’t bother her much. As a child her photo had been snapped as Jonathan Hillard’s daughter. So far the only difference was they were snapping her photo to figure out who Carri Hillard was. "They’re just taking pics for magazines. Or souvenirs."

As her show started gaining popularity she came across one or two pictures of herself in the tabloids. It was nothing major as she hadn’t given them anything exciting to write about. There was a picture of her with Kim in the mall and she’d seen a picture of the two of them tanning on the beach. Neither knew it was shot but neither was incriminating in any way. They were in two different magazines and both had captions something along the lines of "new cable tv host and former Pan-Global gymnast hang out".

"Are they following you around?" Jason asked. That was cause for concern as she was still a ranger.

"Nah. I’m not exactly follow around material. If they happen to see me they’ll snap a picture. I think they’re working on the who is Carri Hillard story." She was glad she wasn’t worthy of being followed as that might drive her crazy.

"Just be careful." Jason warned. "That story includes things you don’t want the public to know about." God forbid someone take her picture while she was morphing. The press would have a field day with that. Not to mention it would compromise their mission. And if the whirlwind surrounding that wasn’t enough, Tommy would go ballistic. He had warned them to be very cautious this time around as he had gotten caught once by high school reporters. Luckily they decided not to run the tape but it would have been a disaster.

"I’m not stupid." Carri replied. She was well aware that she had to be extra cautious whenever she morphed and she had to do it somewhere where she could make damn sure noone could see her.

"Well...." Jason said his voice trailing off as he gave her a look and she rolled her eyes

Kim rolled her eyes at the both of them before she spoke. "Anyway. What else is new?"

"I think it’s hard for anything to be new with us." Carri said with a smile. They kept too in tune with everyone’s lives for there to be anything new going on. "I’m working on my job and my relationship, Kim’s working on a job and a relationship, and Jason’s working on being lazy and a relationship."

Jason laughed. He wouldn’t exactly call it being lazy. He had to come up with plot points for a new novel before he started working on it, plus he wanted his latest book to be on the shelves for a while so he could get feedback before he started the sequel.

"How’s Michelle doing?" Kim asked turning toward Jason. Being as close knit as they were they were all aware of Rocky and Tommy’s status, the only one of their relationships that remained somewhat of a mystery was Michelle.

"She’s ok." Jason said with a sigh. To be honest he wasn’t sure if she was ok or not. He wasn’t sure if he was ok which prompted him to seek advice from his girls. "I don’t know if we’re ok."

"What’s wrong?" Kim asked as she and Carri turned their full attention toward him

"She’s not happy with me rushing off to do work." he replied emphasizing the word work. "And I don’t think I can be with her if she doesn’t accept that sometimes I have to go do work."

"Well if she doesn’t understand your work then you may have to chose between work and her." Carri pointed out. She felt bad for him. She and Kim each had a ranger boyfriend, a member of the team and they didn’t have to worry about rangering getting in the way of their relationships. Jason had a civilian relationship and being a ranger had a tendency to drive those apart rather quickly. It was amazing that Emily put up with it for so long without knowing the truth.

Jason snorted. "If those are my choices you know I chose work." He wouldn’t give up being a ranger for her. That was his life, it was too important to him to give up over a girl he wasn’t sure about. Even if he thought she was the one he wouldn’t give up his duty to saving the world for her. He couldn’t, it was in his blood. There were reasons why he kept getting drawn back to being a ranger.

Kim scrunched her nose up and looked over at him. "Jase I thought you really liked her."

"I did. I do. I just don’t think she’s ok with the work thing and I’m not going to waste time on her if it’s just going to end down the road." Jason tried to explain. He wasn’t sure if they understood. And it wasn’t like it bothered him that much. Yes he really liked her, but finding dates was never a problem and he’d just look around until he found someone who would trust and understand him.

Kim looked over at Carri who nodded at her. They both knew what his explanation meant. It meant he wasn’t going to put his heart and soul into this relationship, put her through the trials of dating a ranger, if in the end she was just going to screw someone else. Carri glanced back to Jason and shrugged. "Well you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. If she doesn’t understand your work, leave her before someone gets hurt." That someone being him as she didn’t want to see him invest in another woman like that just to get heartbroken.

"Yeah. You’re probably right." Jason replied. Their relationship was on a short leash and he’d have to see if it could withstand the pressure of him being a ranger. If not then it wasn’t worth staying with it. As he sat there thinking about it the waitress returned and sat their breakfast in front of them. They thanked the waitress and she left as all eyes turned back to Jason. "So." he said indicating he was about to change the topic. "Do you girls want to go for a walk down the strip after breakfast?"

Carri looked up at him and smiled evilly. "You mean you want to walk in front of the stores? With me and Kim?"

"To walk, not to shop." Jason said. He actually had something particular in mind he hoped they’d get a kick out of.

Kim raised an eyebrow and looked over at Carri. "If he’s feeling that adventurous I’m all for it."

"Me too." Carri said with a shrug

"Great. Then let’s eat and we’ll go for a walk." Jason said. The conversation lessened as each of the rangers worked on finishing their breakfast.

Rocky walked around the mats in his school as he watched Tommy finish up with his last class of the morning. He loved to have guest instructors every once in a while, someone to give the students a fresh perspective. He was thrilled that Tommy had volunteered. He had a feeling that he missed teaching classes.

Of course that was probably why he went on to be a teacher. Tommy always loved helping his students. However never in a million years would Rocky have guessed that paleontology would’ve been his subject of choice. He supposed it had something to do with the rangers. It seemed like all of Tommy’s decisions were influenced directly or indirectly by the power. That’s what led him down the path that got him where he is now.

Rocky took a different path and in all honesty he was glad that he had enjoyed most of the last decade monster free. He didn’t for one second regret being involved again now. He loved being a ranger and his re-involvement was almost enough to make him wish he’d never left. Despite the team losing their powers Tommy didn’t leave, neither did Kim or Carri. And although Jason didn’t fight for eight years he still tried to stay involved. Rocky had chosen a more peaceful path and he was grateful for that as he had three successful schools to show for it. He never would’ve been able to do that as a ranger.

It was obvious that being a ranger didn’t necessarily have to hurt your career. Tommy had done well for himself, and Carri and Kim were well on their way to becoming successes in their own fields. And Jason, well Jason wasn’t involved like the others and he wasn’t sure if it mattered as by Jason’s current lifestyle it doesn’t seem like online investing takes a lot of his time. Regardless of how little he put into it his friend did ok for himself. But starting three karate schools, that was definitely something that took all his time and attention.

He thought about how happy he was with the way his life has gone as he approached the receptionist’s desk. "Hey. Anything going on?"

The redhead in the chair behind the desk swirled to face him. "I’m just working my magic." she replied as she handed him a folder filled with sign up sheets. "You had a few new students, some of which brought in their friends and siblings who I convinced needed to join as well. Plus I got half of them to go ahead and sign up for the seminar."

Rocky smiled at her as he took it. "Thanks Ally you’re the best." he replied. It was no wonder his Stone Canyon instructors loathed to let her transfer. They got Jessica who was an alright secretary, but she certainly didn’t have Ally’s people skills. It was amazing that she got some kids who haven’t even taken a class yet to sign up for the all day seminar his school would be doing. He was hoping that it would go over well. He had a lot of good things planned. The seminar wasn’t really a class, it was going to be martial arts teachings and lectures and demonstrations and he was excited about it.

"I told you that you should’ve pulled me over here earlier." she replied with a smile. She’d grown up in Stone Canyon but she always wanted to move to their rival town, Angel Grove. Especially after students from her high school were forced to transfer as they redrew county lines. She missed lunches with Rocky, Adam and Aisha. She was psyched to get a job with an old friend and she’d begged him for months to get her into his Angel Grove school. Now that she was here, she was having a blast.

"Well I couldn’t be happier that you’re here now." he replied. Mainly because her being here meant that Jessica was in Stone Canyon, miles away from anywhere she could do any damage to his relationship. He saw her an average of once a week now, and he was never around her long enough for her to think about doing anything.

"I can’t believe your secretary here wanted to go to Angel Grove." Ally said. It had been amazing that it worked out that way.

"Yeah. That was good luck for you." Rocky replied with a smile. When he asked Jessica to transfer to Stone Canyon to help him out, he hadn’t told her that Ally was coming to Angel Grove. He just told her to please help him and not ask questions and thanks to the raise he gave her she did. Ally was told Jessica wanted a transfer. He didn’t find it any of her business why exactly he was trying to get Jessica out of Angel Grove.

Ally was about to say something else but she stopped as the children calling their goodbyes caught Rocky’s attention. He turned around and said goodbye to his students as they started to make their way toward the exits. There were only a few parents and kids left milling around one of the mats when Tommy made his way over to him.

"Thanks for letting me do this. I had a lot of fun." Tommy said. He had forgotten how much fun it was to teach karate to kids.

"Anytime." Rocky replied with a smile. "The kids really liked you so if you ever want to do it again just let me know."

Tommy let out a little laugh. "Between everything going on right now if I ever have time to do it again I’d love to." He had plenty of research of his own to worry about, add in Kim and rangering and it didn’t leave him much time to swing by and teach Rocky’s kids.

"I know that feeling." Rocky replied. The one thing he remembered about trying to work in being a ranger with everything else was that it made an already hectic schedule even more so. It was simpler with Zordon around. He took care of everything and all they had to do was fight when needed.

"I’m going to take a shower then I think I’m heading off." Tommy told him. Kim would be over at his place that afternoon and he was looking forward to spending time with her.

"Alright. I’ll see you later." Rocky said. As Tommy walked off Rocky grabbed his folder of new sign ups and headed into his office.

Jason, Kim and Carri found themselves walking down the small strip of stores near the diner they had eaten their brunch at. The girls had tried to drag Jason into several stores for sales but so far he had managed to keep them out of most of the clothing shops.

"You girls having fun?" Jason asked as he looked up toward the upcoming stores

Kim crossed her eyes and glared at him. "It would be better if you’d let us shop."

Jason couldn’t help but laugh at her as he noticed them approach Barnes and Noble. He deliberately slowed his pace a little to make sure the girls stopped and glared through the window.

"At least I got the top from the window." Carri announced proudly, holding up the bag from the one store that Jason couldn’t keep her from going in. She’d seen a shirt on the mannequin and she had to have it.

Kim clutched the smaller bag in her hand. "Yeah that store wasn’t a loss. But," she started stopping suddenly as she glanced in the bookstore window. "I didn’t know the new book was out!"

Carri stopped and turned toward the window, which behind the glass held a poster that read "Luke Kirk’s Greatest Adventure Yet". She walked up to the window to examine the book cover. "I can’t believe you didn’t tell us."

"Surprise." he said with a smile. "I have copies for you girls of course. It’s only been out for a week, but I thought it would be more fun to show you than tell you."

"Oh... my.... God...." Carri stated as she examined the cover. Gracing the front of the book were the images of two of the hero’s from the book. One, the heroine, was standing on the side with her head back and her hair flying in the imaginary wind, with her cleavage hanging out of the skimpy space aged battle suit she wore. The hero stood at the front, next to her with his arms crossed to show off his muscle in a more advanced looking space aged battle suit. Both resembled Kim and Tommy.

"Jason!" Kim squealed as Carri grabbed her hand and led her into the bookstore. The two girls ran and picked up copies of the book as Jason followed them in. They both read the back cover.

"Ok so let me see if I’ve got this." Carri said giggling as she got ready to sum the book up. "This is about your hero, who is strong and all the girls swoon for him and he’s a genius on the battlefield but not quite so in real life. This hero has to save the universe from evil plan X or whatever. All the while he falls in love with the heroine, who’s with someone else so while he’s trying to save the universe he simultaneously has to woo her away from the man she thinks she’s in love with. That sounds vaguely familiar."

Carri burst into a fit of laughter as Kim turned to Jason. "I hate you." she said as calmly as she could with the meanest face she could possibly come up with

"Oh come on Kim. That’s only the main plot. There’s a subplot as well." Jason replied looking over at Carri who by this time had tears running down her face she was laughing so hard. "There’s a second hero. While our main hero is fighting the huge battle to save the universe, his partner, the second hero, is running smaller missions that need to be accomplished in order to aid in the main battle. Our second hero finds himself involved with the sister of the main heroine. Our second heroine has quite a temper. So much so that before she gets involved with our other hero she catches an intergalactic princess trying to seduce him. She decides in a moment of jealous rage to use the princess to show how she feels about the second hero so she punches her, breaking her nose, before jumping the second hero and screwing his brains out."

Carri suddenly stopped laughing and stood straight up, crossing her arms and glaring at Jason. "You suck."

"Ha ha." Kim said blandly turning to her friend and giving her a huge fake smile

Jason tried not to laugh as the girls looked at him. He was glad they didn’t have the power to literally burn him with their stare as he thought they were trying. They’d get over it though. They were the only three people who’d ever know that the romantic parts of the book were based on real life events. He was glad he threw all that stuff in. The book was quickly becoming a huge success because of it. The funny thing was he had basically rewritten in over the course of a week. The original novel had the parts with Carri and Rocky in it. But once Kim and Tommy got back together he couldn’t help but rewrite it to include their love life as well.

"Whatever." Carri said out of the blue as she walked off. She looked at the bestseller’s wall and couldn’t help but see Jason’s book in the number one spot. She picked it up and glanced at some of the reviews. Everyone loved it. It was a great mix of science fiction and action with a little bit of romance thrown in to complete the package. "I can’t believe people love this book."

"That’s just great. The whole world is going to be reading it." Kim said with a huff. Truthfully both girls were happy with his success even though he threw their love lives in with his ranger based adventures. However they weren’t going to let him know that. Besides it was still their love lives that millions of readers would be discussing with their friends at work and in their book clubs and the girls hated that part. "Stupid book." Kim added for good measure

The two girls crossed their arms and headed out of the bookstore. Jason followed behind them with a smile on his face. "So just let me know whenever you want to read it and I’ll get it for you."

"I think we have a good idea how that one goes." Carri replied turning back toward him and rolling her eyes

"There are some parts you don’t know. So if you change your mind just let me know." Jason replied. He figured they’d eventually read it once they got over the fact that their relationships were in it. Of course who only knew how long that would take. "You girls don’t hate me do you?" Jason questioned trying to get them to stop and talk to him.

Much like he thought they would the girls stopped walking. "Maybe." Kim replied

"We do hate your book." Carri added

"That’s too bad. Maybe you won’t hate the sequel." he told them. "It’s going to continue to follow the lives of the four hero’s. I have the action parts in mind. But I am going to intertwine some more romance. People seem to love that so far. So, what’s been going on with you and your boyfriends lately?"

"Is he serious?" Kim asked turning toward Carri

Carri crossed her arms and made a face. "I hope he knows there’s no chance in hell we’re going to give him juicy tidbits about our love lives for his next book." she laughed a little bit and she and Kim started walking again.

Jason quickly caught up to them and scooted between them, putting his arms around him. "Fine. If you feel that way." he replied. It was hopeless to ask now. But they always told each other everything. And he figured eventually he would be able to get tidbits from them to make the sequel as much fun as this first book was.

Callisto wondered through the palace looking for Rhianna. She was tired of letting those rangers slack on Earth while she reworked her plans. What they needed to do was send down a monster, if anything just for the chance to kick them around a little bit, maybe injure them, but definitely keep them on their toes. Of course since she couldn’t make a monster she’d have to find the one person who could.

She headed around the castle until she approached Rhianna’s chambers. She opened the door and let herself in. She was surprised to find Rhianna sitting in front of a small orb, viewing a Earth children’s TV show. It was easy for the goddess to forget that these were the simple things that someone of her age was supposed to be enjoying. She would be doing children’s things as technically she was still a child.

Perhaps that was what made her the less than ideal battle candidate, but as much as she hated to admit it she needed her. Her ultimate plan was no good without Rhianna’s powers, and she wasn’t going to get her revenge without her. On that end Rhianna needed Callisto as much as the goddess needed her, as she wanted revenge as well and Callisto was her best way to get it.

"Rhianna." Callisto said as snapped her attention toward her. "I am working on some plans, a way to defeat them."

"How long with that take?" Rhianna asked

The goddess shook her head. "I don’ t know. I have to gather some information. It may be a while."

"What do we do until then?" Rhianna asked

"We certainly don’t let the rangers sit comfortably thinking they’ve won." Callisto replied. "We have to think of the worst monsters we can and send them down to attack."

"When do you want to attack?" Rhianna questioned looking over at her

"As soon as possible. Think of a monster you want to create. Once it’s ready we’ll send it down with the Cirranadrones." Callisto told her

"Alright." Rhianna replied as she watched the goddess exit her room. She turned back to the Earth programing she was watching before Callisto came in. She found herself amused by the children’s television shows. She was amused by a lot of things that Earth children were amused by.

She supposed it was alright, after all she was only a child herself. She was slowly learning the things she needed to know to be a grown up, a strong warrior, a leader. She was thankful for all the influences in her life. For Goldar, Cratus, and even Callisto. Her parents would’ve been proud of her. She was becoming more evil everyday. At night all she could dream about were ways she was going to torture and dismember the rangers on her way to conquering their pathetic little planet that her parents wanted all those years ago.

In thinking about killing the rangers she had an idea. One of the characters on the show she was watching struck her as kind of odd. Odd enough that she thought she could make him delightfully evil. In fact, he would make a good monster. He seemed crafty enough to defeat those rangers and she was certain he would be worth her efforts.

Yes, he would be perfect. With a wave of her staff she pulled the character out of the show and in front of her. As he looked at her and bowed she knew he could get the job done. It was time to summon the Cirranadrones and take on the rangers.

Billy sat in the Command Chamber working on some things that needed to be done. For a brief moment he stopped and stared at his assistant, watching as she worked gracefully on the task he’d given to her. She glanced in his direction and stopped working as she noticed him stare. Casting a smile in his direction she spoke. "Does something over here interest you?"

"Mrs. Cranston you always interest me." Billy replied. Mrs. Cranston. He never could get enough of that name. That the woman he loved through high school returned his affections. Not only did she love him back, but she married him, they were one now.

"That much I’ve always known." Trini replied looking back over at what she was doing. She could tell he liked her in high school, and although she was always interested she never did make a move toward him. Although he never did make a move toward her either which is why she assumed that his interest wasn’t as great as she thought it was.

Billy sighed as he went back to what he was doing. He was grateful that she had volunteered to help him out in the Command Chamber that afternoon. He had things to do and it would have been lonely without her. He glanced over at her one more time as she stood up and bent over one of the consoles to get a closer look at something. He was resisting the urge to take her right then and there. Besides the fact that he had weapons and zords upgrades to get done, the one thing holding him back was the fact that the rangers were always in and out of there and it would be his luck they’d pop in on him. They shouldn’t be much longer though and then he wouldn’t hesitate to take his wife home.

"So what do you want to do this afternoon?" Trini said absentmindedly as if she knew he had been thinking about his plans for later

Billy shrugged his shoulders in response although he knew perfectly well what he wanted to do that afternoon. "Maybe we can just go back to the house, hang around."

"That would be nice." Trini replied looking up and flashing him a brief smile. By hang around she assumed he meant fool around, which was fine with her. She loved the level of intimacy they had with each other and she loved every moment they spent expressing it.

Billy nodded and tried to concentrate back on his work. It was hard as Trini had become at the forefront of his thoughts. He couldn’t help but think about all the reasons why he loved her. She was so passionate in life. She was a good lawyer, a wonderful wife, and one day she’s make a wonderful mother.

A mother. Something he’d been thinking about quite often since their return from the alternate universe. That Trini had become pregnant, which made him think that one day his Trini would become pregnant and one day they would have a child of their own. For a moment he thought about how he hoped that if his wife got pregnant it would be under better circumstances.

As much as he didn’t want to, he couldn’t help but think about what was going on during the alternate’s pregnancy. About Teeg, Kemora and the towers. About the world ending and everything in such chaos. He was glad he was there, glad he was able to gather information. He thought about the alternate Carri’s warning, to learn all they could about the towers. Any information they could gather would help them in the future if they needed it. He prayed daily that they’d never need it. But in order to plan for the worst he had copied every bit of information they had and brought it back home. He stored it in several places, hoping he’d never have to look at it again.

The alarms suddenly went off as Billy was deep in his own thoughts. He was somewhat relieved as it tore him away from having to think about the alternate universe. Trini stood and followed him as he headed out of his lab and back to the main room, quickly pulling the disturbance up on screen.

Trini snickered softly behind him as the monster came into focus. "I guess we should alert the others to deal with him." she said before she giggled

"Funny or not, he’s still a monster." Billy reminded her, but one glance at his wife caused him to smile as well as he went to contact the rangers.

Carri found herself heading down the streets of Angel Grove in the direction of her office. She was done with her morning with Kim and Jason which had been more eventful than she had expected. Although she and Kim were speaking to Jason now, she still couldn’t believe that he’d used their love lives in his book and it irked her.

For the moment though she was planning on forgetting about it as she wanted to attend to some things in her office that she needed to look at. She had some tapes to look at and some papers to go over and other things that had been left for her since she was last in the office. She could take everything home and do it there, but Rocky was going to be there that afternoon and she wanted to spend time with him and not worrying about her final show. By the end of the week everything would be as perfect as she was going to get it and she could relax for a while, her only job being to check out cities until the official word came down from the network.

As she headed down the street a familiar voice called her name. She turned to see the face of a man she hadn’t seen since graduation. "Matt?" she called out unsure if it was really her old friend or not

"It’s good to see you." Matt Drake said as he walked up to her and gave her a hug. "It’s been a long time."

She quickly hugged him back then let go. "Since college. Man it’s hard to believe it’s been that long since we’ve seen each other." This was the guy that she hung out with constantly through middle school, and was friends with again once she moved back to Angel Grove the summer before her senior year of high school. At once point in her life he knew everything about her, and he still did know odd tidbits about her childhood that noone else in her life knew.

"What have you been up to?" he asked. He couldn’t believe he’d run into her here. This was one of his oldest friends and he was sad that they’d fallen out of touch. Maybe now they could be friends again.

"A lot of work. I’ve got my own production company. And a show. Traveling in Style. It’s on TLC." she told him with a smile

"Well that explains why I haven’t seen it." Matt joked as he laughed. "If I can figure out where TLC is I’ll try and catch it."

"What about you? What have you been doing since college?" Carri asked. For a brief moment she thought about her answer to that question and how she’d been "traveling the world". She hoped he wouldn’t ask her for any details if it came up as she couldn’t come up with any good ones.

"I’ve been playing soccer of course." he replied with a grin. "I’ve been playing for the Galaxy the last few years. It’s been fun, I’ve done well. I was one of the stars on the team until they signed Beckham. Now he’s the one and only star."

Carri grinned slightly. She didn’t keep up much with soccer but as a new producer she was paying attention to entertainment news. And apparently the Beckham’s moving to America was huge. "So you got overshadowed by the worlds biggest soccer star. It would be like Angelina Jolie joining my show. Sure people love me now, but they’d forget about me if Angelina was there."

"Yeah. Gotta love Angelina." Matt replied as Carri laughed at him

Before she could say anything in response her communicator went off. "There’s my phone. They’re looking for me in the office so I’d better get going." she said quickly

"Alright. Well we need to get together sometime and catch up." Matt told her

"Yeah definitely." she said as she started to walk off

Matt pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Let me get your number and I’ll give you a call sometime."

"Sure." she said. She quickly gave him her telephone number just as her communicator went off again. Giving him a quick goodbye she jogged the rest of her way to Ausus productions and let herself into the building, flying back to her office and shutting the door so she could answer the page and teleport off.

Jason sat on his back porch lounging in a chair, beer in one hand cell phone in the other. He had promised Michelle that he would call her. He didn’t know what he was going to say. They had a date that night and they had talked about going out before then.

He wanted to go out with her, to make it work. But the girls were right. If he didn’t think she could accept that he had work related issues he had to take care of then maybe he ought to end it before something bad happened. With a sigh he took his phone and browsed through the contact list until he came across her name. He hit the send button. He wanted to talk to her, to go out with her that day. He wanted to get a feel for what she was thinking.

The phone rang twice before she answered. "Hello?"

"Hey." Jason replied as he took a swig of his beer

"Jason hey." she said her voice perking up. "I’m glad to hear from you."

"I told you I’d call. When have I ever lied about that." Jason joked

Michelle let out a small laugh but truthfully sometimes he called much later than when he said he’d call. He always blamed work but it bothered her that she didn’t really truly know what he did or what was going on. "So what’s going on?"

"I was thinking if you’re still interested in seeing me this afternoon I could pick you up on my bike and we could head down to a remote little area I’ve found and enjoy the view until it’s time to come back to Angel Grove to go out." Jason suggested. It would be fun and relaxing, and best of all it would give him time to talk to her.

"That sounds like fun." Michelle replied. And romantic, and it would probably be the perfect afternoon. Now she’d just have to figure out something to wear that would be perfect for their afternoon and evening out.

"What time do you want me to pick you up?" Jason asked. She sounded excited. This may be good for the two of them, it may give them a chance.

"Give me a half hour then we can go." she replied. If she hurried she could get ready in thirty minutes.

"Sounds good." Jason said just as his communicator went off. "Shit." he muttered under his breath

"What was that?" Michelle asked. She was pretty well aware of what he said, she just wasn’t sure what was going on.

Jason let out a sigh. "I hate to do this but work just called on the other line."

"So what, you’re going to run off to work this afternoon?" Michelle asked as she was starting to feel angry

"I don’t have a choice." he replied

"What kind of job is it that calls you and you go? Can’t you tell them just this once to find someone else? We have a romantic afternoon planned." Michelle was practically yelling as she spoke. It never failed. Just as they were going to do something he had to run off to work. She wasn’t sure how much more of this she could take.

"I can’t. They wouldn’t call if it wasn’t important." Jason assured her. Besides he wouldn’t not go on a ranger related mission.

"So work is more important than seeing me?" she snapped

Jason quickly took the last swig of his beer as her words danced around his head. "Look hopefully this won’t take long. I’ll call you when it’s finished and we’ll go out."

"Fine." she said angrily

Jason hung up the phone and went to answer his communicator. Upon realizing there was a monster attack he quickly morphed and headed to the scene.

Kim strolled into the front door of Tommy’s apartment building after returning from her morning with Jason and Carri. "Hello?" she called out as she let herself in. She shut the door behind her and walked into the small kitchen, setting her keys down on the counter. "Tommy?"

"In here." Tommy replied as he walked out of the office. "Hey." he greeted Kim, walking over to her and throwing his arms around her giving her a big kiss

"Hey." she replied returning the kiss before stepping back. "How was class?"

"It was good." Tommy replied smiling at her. "I had fun. Hopefully I can do it again sometime."

Kim nodded. She knew he missed his karate classes at the Youth Center. It was nice of Rocky to let him be a guest instructor at his school. "I’m sure Rocky will let you come back and help out."

"Yeah." he said. "So how was brunch?"

"It was brunch." she said not sure what she wanted to tell him about it. She obviously couldn’t talk about their trip to the bookstore and their love life being the center of a Luke Kirk novel as Tommy had no clue who Luke Kirk was and Jason preferred to keep it that way. "We ate and we walked by the stores. We managed to drag Jason into one."

"Sounds like fun." Tommy replied as his girlfriend smiled at him. "So I was thinking we should do something romantic tonight."

"Like what?" Kim questioned as she put her arms around him and grinned at him

Tommy put his arms around her as well. "Like I don’t know. I was hoping we could think of that together."

"Mmm." Kim said as she buried her head in his chest and thought for a moment. "I know what to do." she said lifting her head back and looking up at him. "We’ll cook dinner, pack it in a picnic basket, and have a romantic moonlight dinner in the park by the lake."

"I like the way you think." Tommy said as he pulled her up to him and gave her a kiss. "So I take it you’re staying with me tonight?"

"Of course. I always stay with you." Kim replied

Tommy thought about her statement for a moment. She did stay with him most nights. She was always over at his apartment, and she was becoming more like a visitor in the house she technically shared with Carri. He should ask her to move in there with him. After all she was practically moved in anyway.

He couldn’t help but wonder if it was too soon. Sure they had been back together for two months and they had a rich history before that, but so much had happened he wasn’t sure if she’d be ready to officially move in. It was easy when she didn’t live here, she always had the option of going home. But he loved her and he hated spending time without her. He definitely wanted to ask her to move in with him, he’d just have to wait until the time was right.

"Maybe we should get a menu and prep food for tonight." Kim suggested pulling Tommy out of his thoughts. "We can get meat and vegetables and soak them to give them some flavor."

"That sounds good." Tommy replied just as his communicator went off. He let out a sigh as he went to answer it. It always went off when he and Kim were in the middle of something. But it was alright, it was their duty after all.

"Go ahead." Tommy said

"You’re needed in the park immediately." Billy replied

"We’re on it." Tommy said looking down at Kim who broke away from him. "It’s morphin time!"

Kat pulled into the driveway of her cousin’s Angel Grove home. She wanted to talk to her face to face, to tell her what was going on. She never knew when to find her but it was a Saturday so she assumed that she had to be home. She stepped out of the door of her four door sedan and walked up to the front to ring the bell.

A few seconds later someone answered, but not the someone she expected. "Rocky, hey." Kat greeted

"Hey Kat. Come on in." Rocky replied opening the door for her. He had finished up at his school and scooted over to Carri’s house. She called him earlier, said that she was going to stop by the office and then she would be there.

Kat followed Rocky into the livingroom and had a seat on the couch. "So is my cousin around?" she questioned. If Rocky was there she had to be there.

"No she’s at work. She’ll be back soon." Rocky replied

"Oh." Kat said looking at him curiously. "I didn’t know you lived her."

Rocky smiled at her. "I don’t live here. Carri gave me a spare key. That way I can drop in if she and Kim aren’t around."

"Right." Kat said smiling briefly and nodding. She let out a sigh. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to wait for Carri but then again she didn’t want this trip to be for nothing.

"What’s wrong?" Rocky asked. Despite the two cousin’s grievances, he and Kat were still old friends and he hated to see her upset.

"It’s just.... you know the baby is coming soon. And we’re still working on how we’re going to pay for it." Kat said. The subject was still sore and she could feel tears forming again. "Then Chris is still looking for a job. He has an interview this week and he thinks he’ll get the job but we still won’t get the insurance until after the baby’s born."

Kat stood as she didn’t want to bawl in front of Rocky. She walked around the couch and walked into the kitchen. Fumbling she looked through the cabinets and found a class, filling it with tap water so she could try to drink and calm herself down. She took the glass over to the kitchen table and noticed a folder that Carri had left sitting open full of newspaper clippings.

"I’m sorry." Rocky said as he stood up from the couch and went to sit over at the table

"It’s ok. It’s just hard." she replied. She thought about how she worked so hard and life still wasn’t a walk in the park as she looked over the clippings and saw them to be reviews for Carri’s show. It upset her a bit to see that this show had become such a success and it seemed to come so easily to Carri. She sighed as here she was sitting in her cousin’s home with her boyfriend who owns three successful karate schools.

It seemed effortless for Carri to get the home, the job, the stable boyfriend.... Kat couldn’t help but be a bit jealous of it all. She supposed she shouldn’t be. She was the one with the steady job as Carri’s show could easily fold. She was the one who had the husband and the home and the baby on the way. She had everything every girl ever dreamed of. Carri messed her life up with her continued insistence on being a part of the rangers.

Kat stood up with a sigh and looked around the house. "Where’s the bathroom?"

"Down the hallway." Rocky replied pointing toward a small door that led to the hall where the bedrooms, bathrooms and office were located.

"Thanks." Kat said as she walked toward the bathroom. She walked by the guestroom on her way to the bathroom and noticed her grandmother’s furniture with Kim’s clothes strewn all over them. As she headed into the bathroom Kim’s things were also all over the sink as this was her bathroom.

She stopped and stared at herself in the mirror, splashing her face with water and drying it off with the hand towel before walking back into the livingroom. Seeing all of Kim’s things everywhere reminded her of how Kim had become like a sister to her cousin since college, and she had become nothing more than a casual acquaintance. Of course they both let it get that way but that didn’t mean she didn’t regret some of the things that happened.

"I miss high school sometimes." Kat admitted as she sat back down at the table across from Rocky. "Those were the days. We were all Zeo’s together, I was with Tommy, Carri was my best friend."

"Things change. People change. Everyone grew apart." Rocky pointed out

"Tommy and I grew apart." Kat said thinking for a moment about their relationship. Although she was happy with Chris, in a way her relationship with Tommy still nagged at her. "Carri and I... well that exploded with her not bothering to come to my wedding." she said a little more harshly than she intended

"Kat." Rocky stated intending on going into detail to remind her of the importance of Carri’s mission but he was stopped short when his communicator went off.

Kat sighed. "I know, you have to go save the world." she said as she stood. "I’ll let myself out."

From the corner of her eye she watched as Rocky answered the page then went to morph as she headed out the front door. Her conversations with Carri would have to be saved for another time.

Rocky arrived on the scene just in time to see the girls doubling over with laughter. One look at the monster and it was easy to see why. He cursed under his breath as the absurdity of the monster didn’t matter as they had a battle to fight.

"Come on let’s take out the Cirranadrones then work on him." Tommy said already getting agitated by the girl’s not taking the monster seriously as the Cirranadrones were quickly closing in.

"Please Tommy we have to be afraid of him?" Carri asked kicking a Cirranadrone back before getting pushed back into Kim by another Cirranadrone. She turned to look at the pink ranger as both girls burst into laughter again, allowing themselves to get attacked by Cirranadrones momentarily. Suddenly Carri couldn’t help herself. "Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?"

"SpongeBob SquarePants!" Kim replied with enough enthusiasm that Carri found tears rolling down her cheeks from laughter for the second time that day

"You think I’m funny?" SpongeBob questioned the two female rangers

"Oh! And he even has the same annoying voice!" Kim exclaimed as the two girls stood together and tried not to die with laughter again

"That wasn’t very nice." SpongeBob scolded as he shot laser beams from his eyes, hitting the two females who were too busy being amused rather than fighting

The two girls hit the ground hard and were slow to get up. "Talk about not being nice." Carri grumbled

"Come on he’s still a serious monster!" Jason hollered across the battlefield as he continued to rapidly take on the Cirranadrones

"Whatever." Kim replied rolling her eyes. "You think all his friends will show up? Because, you know, that will just make my day."

"Naw. Besides just beating the sponge will be good enough to make the day." Carri said as for a brief second she got serious. "Power daggers!"

"Power bow!" Kim called out. Both girls wanted to make quick work of SpongeBob before they got themselves into trouble.

Carri leaped at him first, clicking her daggers together and attacking full force. The blast was absorbed by the sponge and then she hit the sponge and sunk in before bouncing off. Kim fired multiple arrows but they all went right through the sponge pores. She landed on the ground beside Carri as her friend was laughing so hard she was clutching her sides. Seeing her laugh like that got Kim started again as well.

"My turn to play." SpongeBob replied as he went to fire lasers at them again

Kim laughed as he spoke before she and Carri barely scrambled out of the way. As the laser beams barely missed, SpongeBob ran to the girls and started to fight them head on. "Oh yeah I forgot he knew karate." Kim said. "Somewhat." she added as he flubbed a move and the girls took advantage and knocked him back

"Do you think we’re crushing the feelings of every child in America by beating the crap out of SpongeBob?" Carri asked as she rolled out of the way of an oncoming punch

"Yeah. But oddly it feels kinda good." Kim replied causing Carri to giggle again as she started to stand up. Their amusement was providing quite a distraction to the battle, and as Carri stood she never noticed SpongeBob go to kick her. The unsuspecting yellow ranger sailed in the air and flipped backwards.

"Who knew a sponge could kick." she said as she stood up and shook off the kick. She was more embarrassed to be kicked by SpongeBob than hurt, and she ran to him with a vengeance and unleashed some moves of her own.

As Carri went for a round with the sponge, Tommy ran toward Kim with Jason and Rocky close behind. "We need to end this now." he said sternly. He was tired of watching them goof around with SpongeBob, who actually had some power, when they needed to be trying to figure out how to destroy him.

"He absorbed our individual power weapons." Kim quickly pointed out

"Then let’s use the power cannon." Tommy replied. He yelled at Carri to come into formation with the others. As she did they called for the Power Cannon and fired it at SpongeBob, sending him flying into a million pieces.

"Aw look at all the little sponges." Carri said as pieces of sponge flew around them

It didn’t last long as the pieces started to merge back together, growing as they did until they loomed high over the rangers. Carri giggled and Kim nudged her and pointed to the members of the press that were gathering to watch the fight. "Do you think this will be bad publicity? Power Rangers destroyed SpongeBob SquarePants."

Carri looked at Kim and they both laughed. "Hey we might get some thank you notes from some parents."

Kim glanced back and saw three of the zords come running toward the monster. "Shit." she cursed. The others weren’t going to be happy with them. She didn’t even hear them take off. "Come on let’s go."

Within seconds the crane and panther zords joined the battle. Once the girls arrived Tommy was quick to bring the zords together to take SpongeBob down for good.

Callisto watched the rangers easily finish off Rhianna’s monster. If you could call it a monster. Sure it had powers and wanted to kill the rangers. But it was SpongeBob SquarePants, a children’s cartoon. She supposed she should’ve expected it, after all Rhianna was watching cartoons when she made her choice of monster. In the future Callisto was going to have to sit down with her and tell her what makes a good choice for a monster. She was trying to learn, and she tried to have an eye for evil, but she was still to young and to new to this to be able to pick what was going to make a good evil monster.

Any cartoon character that was good by nature and had no truly evil tendencies wouldn’t make a good monster. If she picked a villain from a superhero cartoon, they would be pleasantly evil and could give the rangers something to worry about. Of course SpongeBob did give the girls trouble, but that was only because they were too busy being amused by the situation.

Callisto sighed. She was just going to have to put up with the monsters while she continued her work. The last big battle was a huge setback. She wasn’t expecting the rangers to come up with powers like that. She was hoping they would’ve had a victory there and she wouldn’t have to worry about the next phase of her plan.

Not only did they not win, but they got pushed down a few notches. She was going to have to claw her way back up as she worked on the original plans she had for the destruction of the rangers and Rhianna’s conquering of Earth. She was going to have to start from scratch. She had abandoned her plans when she thought she had the ultimate solution in the power ups to her army.

It was going to start with research and other things that would give her a headache. But it would all be worth it in the end. She would be able to get the power she needed to destroy those rangers for good.

Tommy and Kim teleported back to his apartment after the battle. Kim went into the kitchen and started rummaging through things she could use for their dinner. "We need to come up with a menu. I’d like to start getting things together." she said as she paused and turned toward Tommy

The white ranger stood with his arms held firmly across his chest and a sour look on his face. "I can not believe how you two acted in battle." Tommy scolded. "Especially you. You’re a red, you should know better."

Kim was quick to cross her arms and stare back at him. "Oh come on Tommy. The SpongeBob monster was lame. And funny. And we were just having a good time."

"And what if you had gotten yourself killed out there? Those lasers in his eyes packed serious power." Tommy was quick to point out

"We were having fun. But we weren’t stupid." Kim defended their actions as Tommy snorted.

"Even if you don’t think you would’ve gotten killed, it was stupid of you as a Planetary red, a galactic leader, to stand out there and be too busy laughing at a monster to fight it." Tommy replied. It drove him crazy to watch as the two female rangers cracked jokes and half fought.

Kim gave him one of her over dramatic eye rolls. "Please who intergalactically was going to see us out there laughing at the SpongeBob monster?"

"That’s not the point." Tommy reminded her

"You’re just upset because we weren’t acting professional and you couldn’t get us to pay attention." Kim pointed out. She knew Tommy, and he wanted his team to go out there and act strong as a team and he expected nothing less on the battlefield.

Tommy didn’t say anything as she was partially right. Not only was it hard to watch a red misbehave and worry she was going to get herself killed, but it was hard to watch his teammates act like a couple of kids when there was a battle to be fought. It was his team and he expected them to stay in line, especially the girls as they knew what was at stake more than anybody.

"Look Tommy I’m sorry. It won’t happen again." Kim promised although she wasn’t sure if she could make that particular promise. She’d have to say something to Carri or else they’d both suffer the wrath of Tommy. "It was just funny, you know?"

"I’ll give you that much. Them sending down a SpongeBob monster was kind of funny." Tommy said letting his guard down a little. He could tell Kim knew their behavior was out of line. "Apology accepted."

Kim walked over toward him and put her arms around him. "So now can we concentrate on dinner?" she asked as she buried her head in his chest

Much like every other time she wrapped her arms around him, the warmth of her body against his drove him crazy. "It’s a while until dinner."

"If you want to have the most amazing dinner of your life you have to get a head start on it." Kim pointed out. She thought the evening would be fun and romantic and she wanted it to be perfect. She loved Tommy and didn’t want to do anything less for him.

"I’m sure no matter when we start dinner it will be excellent." Tommy assured her. Frankly he didn’t give a damn what was for dinner, it could be a bowl of rice for all he cared. What he looked forward to was the romantic evening under the stars with Kim.

"Thank you for your vote of confidence." she replied as she glanced up and gave him a kiss

"Besides," he started wrapping his arms tightly around her, "I can think of other things we could be doing right now."

"Like what?" Kim asked raising an eyebrow although she was pretty sure of what he was eluding to

"Like this." Tommy said as much to her surprise, he swept her off of her feet and carried her into the bedroom.

Late that afternoon Carri pulled her car into her garage. She had spent longer than she’d wanted to at work and now she was ready to relax for a little while. She hit the button to close the garage as she opened the door to head inside.

She walked into the living room and tossed her keys and phone down on one of the end tables before crashing on the couch next to her boyfriend. "Hey." she greeted leaning over and giving him a quick kiss

"Hey." he replied flashing her a smile

"How was your day?" she questioned. It was the first time they’d spoken all day besides the battle and she was curious as to how his guest instructor session went.

"It was ok." Rocky replied glancing over at her. "I wasn’t too thrilled about the part where my girlfriend tried to get herself killed by SpongeBob SquarePants." He had been more than a little annoyed with her actions during their fight that afternoon. Every time she doubled over with laughter instead of pay attention to the monster he tensed up, afraid of watching her get herself killed. It was hard enough watching her put herself into situations where she was fully aware of the danger she was getting into, but it was nearly impossible watching her not care about the danger of battle.

Carri dramatically rolled her eyes. "Please I was in no danger of getting killed. We were just having a little fun. And SpongeBob is gone so no worries." she said before quickly changing the subject. "Besides I wasn’t talking about battle I know what happened there. How did your classes go this morning with Tommy?"

Rocky sighed. She wasn’t going to discuss it and he didn’t want to start an argument over it. Nothing good would come out of it as she would just argue that she knew what she was doing. Most of the time she did and if he tried to argue with her that she didn’t it would just be a mess. So he let it drop for the moment and answered her question. "They went well. I think the kids really liked him." he replied glancing over at her. "What about you? How was your day?"

"Brunch was brunch. Then I went over to the office for a while and got some work done. Hopefully Monday they can run with some of the stuff I did and we can get that last show wrapped up." Carri informed him

"That’ll be good." Rocky replied as he lazily draped his arm around her then tugged her into him. "Kat dropped by this afternoon."

"Oh?" Carri questioned relatively surprised. "What did she want?"

"To talk." Rocky said

Carri let out a sigh. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"It’s a good thing." Rocky assured her. At least he thought it was. They were both trying to make amends and he couldn’t imagine Kat had poor intentions when she came over. "I mean she does still seem kinda upset about things like the whole wedding thing and college with Tommy and you and Kim." The look on his girlfriends face made him instantly regret the comment. If they were ever going to be close again he shouldn’t point out those things.

Carri made a grunting noise as she looked over at her boyfriend. Of course she would still be upset. Carri wanted to mend their friendship but Kat was good at holding grudges. Just when she thought her cousin had moved past something she’d be reminded of it and bring it up again. "If we get back on the same page again we do. If not, I’m not going to worry." Not that she worried about it before although she did want to be friends again.

"Kat’s still your family." Rocky pointed out. He was very close with his family and he hated to see it when she was at odds with hers.

"My blood relatives are just that. You guys - the rangers - they’re my family." she replied. It had been that way for a long time, ever since she moved by herself to Angel Grove. Her parents loved her, but they were too busy in their own lives to care enough to visit or make much contact with her. As for her aunt and uncle, well she wasn’t their daughter and although they cared she never really felt like they were a family. By the time she was in college the people she was the closest with and leaned on for support were the rangers.

Rocky squeezed her a little tighter as he didn’t have anything to say. There was a brief silence between the two of them before he looked down at her and changed the subject. "So do you want to go to dinner tonight?"

"Yeah that sounds fun." she replied as she looked up at him and flashed him a smile

He gave her a quick kiss on the top of her head. "I’ve got this great place in mind." he said as he stood up and gently pulled her with them. The duo then collected their things and headed out to the car to go have a nice quiet dinner.

Jason jumped into his car to go pick Michelle up a lot later than he should have. He should have gone to get her when they were done battling SpongeBob. But he had so much to think about where his relationship with Michelle was concerned he didn’t end up calling her until much later. She was, of course, agitated with him over the phone but she still wanted him to pick her up as planned.

Jason wasn’t sure how this was going to go. He still wanted to try to take her out like he’d planned and see how the evening went. He thought about what was going to happen as he pulled his car into her driveway and cut the engine off. Instead of jumping right out he found himself sitting in the driver seat for a moment before opening the door. Once outside he walked briskly up to her front door and rang the bell.

A few seconds later she opened it and gave him a smile. "Glad you could make it." she said with a slight sting to her words

Jason cringed. This was what he didn’t want his night to be like. "Sorry about earlier." he said sincerely as she stepped back from the door and let him come in

Michelle shut the door behind him and went to grab her purse. "It happens all the time." she pointed out. She didn’t want to start an argument. But she was sick and tired of him bailing out on her constantly.

"It’s my work. There’s not much I can do about it." Jason was quick to point out

"Then quit. If it interferes in your life like that then it’s not worth it." She really liked Jason but she wasn’t sure she could accept a man who was always off with his job.

"It’s not that simple." Jason replied. He wouldn’t quit being a ranger. Not for her, or for any other woman. The more she indicated that she didn’t accept that his work was important, the more he wanted to leave and forget the whole damn date to begin with.

"Yes it is." Michelle said as she stopped and caught her eyes with his, holding her stare there. "You can’t let your job run your life. It will cost you everything."

Jason couldn’t stop himself from snorting. His "job" was what brought him everything he had in life. His career as a writer, his close relationship with his friends, almost everything in his life he owed to being a ranger. He really liked Michelle but he wasn’t going to stand here while she told him to quit being a ranger to spend more time with her.

"You may not see it now but you will." Michelle assured him crossing her arms. She was more than a little unhappy with him snorting in response to her. "Your friends, your family, your lover... work can consume you I’ve seen it happen more than once. Everyone will leave you and when you crash there will be noone standing by your side."

"You know Michelle we shouldn’t argue about this." Jason said looking her over. It wasn’t up for discussion and he was done with it.

"You’re right we shouldn’t." she agreed. It wasn’t worth it and if he could just see where she was coming from there would be no need to argue about it. "It’s just hard for me to be constantly put on the back burner for your job. I need more than that."

"I know this is hard for you to understand but my job is important, it means everything to me." Jason said pausing for a moment. He had a feeling this would be coming but he was hoping he was wrong. There was nothing more to do than just say it. "And if you can’t accept that then maybe we shouldn’t see each other anymore."

Michelle swallowed hard. She knew they both liked each other a lot. She was hoping that he would see her point and things would change but it looked as though that wasn’t going to be the case. "I’m sorry you feel that way." Michelle finally replied. And she really was sorry that it was going to end this way. "If what you do is more important than me then we’re through." She was trying her hardest to stand strong and not tear up as she spoke. It was a hard thing to do but it had to be done. She stepped closely to Jason, brushing her body against his as she leaned up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you for our time together."

Jason said nothing in reply as he simply turned and walked out the door. This was the way it was going and there was nothing he could do, nothing he was able to do about it. He quickly walked back to his SUV and climbed into the drivers seat, cranking it up and pulling out of the driveway.

As he put the car in drive he had no idea where he was going, he was just moving. He couldn’t help but wonder if he was ever going to find someone he could love. True love and happiness came easily to his friends but for whatever reason it didn’t to him. That wasn’t completely true. It did once, and as he thought about it Emily’s image once again came drifting into his thoughts. It haunted him now and he didn’t know why. He took a deep breath and pushed the image out of his head.

He needed to relax and gather his thoughts. The first place that came to mind was the bar he spent so much time hanging out at. He knew the bartender, and he knew he could sit there by himself and have a beer or two in peace and quite. Mind made up, he changed directions and headed for the bar hoping to push any mentions of any of his relationships far out of his mind.

The End

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