Power Rangers Zeo
"Blue Times"
The ball went flying through the air. One girl waved off her two teammates as she got in position. The two boys behind her looked at each other with sly grins on their faces. Then one of them tackled the girl, falling in the sand, while the other spiked the volleyball over the net.
Laughing, Matt Drake got up and extended his hand to Carri Hillard. “Were you standing there?”
Carri laughed. “I could almost kill you.”
Jerry Millwood made a face as he jogged over to the two. “If you’re going to be doing any killing, just remember it was all Matt’s idea.”
“No, I like you guys too much, I can’t kill you.”, Carri said as she put one arm around Matt’s shoulder and the other one around Jerry’s
Then the trio walked into their positions and stared at the opposing team, who appeared to be laughing at them.
“Did we do something?”, Matt asked innocently
“You guys are idiots.”, accused one of their long time friends, Luke Wright
“Look who’s throwing that one out!”, exclaimed Carri
“Yeah.”, agreed another good friend of theirs, John Blackmond
Luke glared at John. Then he started to laugh. “Now I don’t remember what I was going to say.”
Their teammate, Emily, sighed. “You guys don’t leave very good impressions.”, she remarked
“We’re not as stupid as we look.”, Matt tried to defend himself. When everyone else gave him a look, Matt realized what he had just said and made a face. “That’s not what I meant.”
Emily just shook her head. She wasn’t quite sure why she was here playing volleyball with them. Besides the fact that Carri had invited her to come play volleyball with her and her friends. That and she didn’t have any other plans so she figured why not.
“Come on guys let’s keep this game going.”, Emily said as she picked up the ball and threw it over the net
“It’s still my serve.”, Jerry said as he grabbed the ball and play began again
A silent figure watched the game wishing more than anything he could be over there playing. But he couldn’t, he had a job to do. The lifeguard sighed as he once again turned to his waters.
Beep Beep BeepBeep Beep Beep.
“Aw man.”, Rocky DeSantos sighed as he went to quickly close up the tower for a while. As he was getting ready to go inside the darkened tower, he saw a few kids playing close to the water. He jogged out to him. “Hey there you two, where’s your mother?”, he asked them
The little girl pointed to a woman sunbathing on the beach. Then he took the girl and her older brother to their mother. “Excuse me miss?”, he asked
She opened one eye and looked up at him. “Yes?”, she questioned
“I’m going to be away from the tower for a few minutes and I think it would be best if your made sure your children sat here with you.”, he informed her
“Ok. Come on kids, stay here.”, she told them. The two kids sat upon their mothers request and she closed her eyes again.
Rocky ran back into the tower and called the nearest lifeguard and told them he had to leave for a few minutes and to keep an eye on things. Then he answered the page. “What’s up?”, he asked
“Rita is attacking.”, Alpha replied
“Got it. It’s morphin time!”, Rocky yelled. “ZEO RANGER III, BLUE!”
He appeared along with Tommy, Kat and Jason. A few moments later Carri teleported in. “It was hard to get away.”, she apologized
“No problem.”, Tommy Oliver replied. “Now to send this monster back to where he came from.”
And the rangers did just that. It didn’t take too terribly long before they made it through the familiar cycle of beat monster, monster grows, beat monster again.
“That was easy.”, Katherine Hillard said as the monster fell to the ground and exploded and the rangers jumped out of their zords
“Let’s break this one up.”, said Jason Lee Scott as the all teleported back to their previous positions
Rocky went back to reopen his tower. He looked around and spotted the mother of the two kids asleep again. But he couldn’t find the kids anywhere. Then he looked up and skimmed the water. That’s when he saw them. The little girl was swept out far by a wave and he saw her go under. Her brother was in a little closer and was starting to go under.
Quickly he grabbed his rescue can and ran out into the water. He was able to get to the boy first, and grab him before he went under. Using the can, he pulled him back to shore. Immediately the boy went to wake his mother and tell her what was going on.
Even faster than he had preformed the first rescue, Rocky swam back out to look for the boy’s younger sister. He swam to the spot where he saw her go under, and started to dive in to search for her.
He was down for a few minutes but didn’t see anything. He came back up for air and swam up a few feet thinking she may have gotten swept out further. Once again he went under to look for her, but he still couldn’t find her. This time when he surfaced he saw Cody Madison, his friend and fellow lifeguard, swimming up beside him.
“What’s going on?”, asked Cody
“A little girl...”, Rocky started, “She went under.... about here.... dammit I can’t find her.”
“Come on Rocky let’s go down.”, Cody said. The two of them took deep breaths and dove under water. Still they couldn’t find the body of the little girl.
The next time they came up they saw another lifeguard diving off a rescue boat to help in the search, which was getting more desperate by the minute. If she wasn’t found soon, she probably wouldn’t live.
After he went under another time, Rocky swam out a little bit farther than the others to search again. It was unlikely that she had been brought out this far, but not impossible. Taking a deep breath Rocky went under. He didn’t see her and he started to swim out more while he was under. That was when he saw her. Quickly he grabbed her body and brought it to the surface. He swam towards the boat. They lifeguard driving the boat lifted her body out of the water and Rocky lifted himself onto the boat. That was the first time he heard her mother screaming hysterically. He ignored her, going to do CPR on the little girl as the boat sped off.
The next few moments went by in a blur. He was giving her CPR as they went to the dock, then he continued it in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Only he wasn’t getting any results. Once they arrived at the hospital the doctors took over and he walked into the waiting room. A few minutes later a doctor came out to speak to him.
“Are you the lifeguard who went after this little girl?”, he asked
“Yes I am.”, Rocky replied. “How is she?”
“She.... she was under to long.”, the doctor said looking down. “She didn’t make it.”
Rocky leaned against the wall. He didn’t know what to think, or what to say. He had never lost a life before. Sulking, he walked out of the waiting room as the girls mother walked in. A few seconds later he heard her wailing. He walked into the elevator and went back to headquarters to talk to his boss.
“Rocky I’m sorry about the little girl.”, Jake Thompson said as Rocky walked into his office
“It’s all my fault.”, Rocky replied
“No it’s not. You did everything you could. It’s not your fault that she died.”, Jake comforted him
“But I’m a lifeguard. I’m supposed to save lives, not let people die!”, Rocky exclaimed
Jake sighed. He remembered how he felt the first time someone died under his watch. And how he said practically the exact same things to his boss. “We can’t save everybody. We can only try our best. And that’s exactly what you did. I don’t blame you. And the girls mother doesn’t either. I talked to her before you came in. If it’s any comfort to you she blames herself for not listening to something you had told her. Look take a few days off, you need some time to get past this.”
“Yeah, thanks.”, Rocky replied. Jake could see the sadness in Rocky’s eyes as he walked out of his office and went to go change.
Rocky walked into his house an hour later. He was going to be home that afternoon and evening for the birthday dinner of one of his younger sisters, Marisa, who was turning six. He noticed the light blinking on his answering machine so he threw his stuff on the floor and went to see who called. The house was quiet, his mom had taken his brothers and sisters out for the day.
Going over to the machine, Rocky hit the play button. It beeped and the first voice that came through was Carri’s. “Hey Rocky it’s me. I know you’re at work. I just thought of something I wanted to tell you. Call me when you get home. Bye.”
The next message was for his mother, then there was one for his eleven year old sister Jessica, or Jessie as everyone called her. Tommy was the fourth and last message. “Rocky, hey, me and Jase were going to a martial arts seminar tonight, it looks interesting. We wanted to know if you wanted to come. Call me.”
At that point Rocky didn’t really want to talk to anyone. But he knew he had to return his calls, so he called Tommy first. “Hello?”, Tommy asked picking up the phone
“Tommy, it’s me. I just got your message.”, Rocky said
“Hey man I thought you were at work.”, Tommy greeted
“I.... um.... got of early.”, Rocky replied
“That’s cool. Anyway seminar, tonight, you coming?”, asked Tommy
Rocky stopped to think about it for a minute. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to go. He just wanted to sit home and sulk all night. But it might get his mind off things. “Sure Tommy.”
“Great. We’ll see you then.”, he said. “Later Rocky.”
“Bye.”, Rocky replied going to hang up the phone. Then he dialed Carri’s number to see what she wanted. He heard someone pick up then he could hear noise in the background.
“Hello?”, Carri asked. She sounded like she had been laughing about something.
“Hey. You called?”, Rocky said
“Um.... yeah. I did. Why did I call.... oh yeah. Alright. Sorry. Didn’t expect you to call this early.”, she told him
“Well I got to come home.”, Rocky replied
Carri could sense the sadness in his voice. “What’s wrong?”
“Wrong?”, Rocky questioned. He didn’t want his friends to know. To know that he couldn’t do his job right, that he couldn’t save the life of the little girl. “Nothing.”, he told her
“If you say so.”, Carri replied. Suddenly Rocky heard voices on the other end. Loud ones too. “Would you guys shut up for five minutes!”, Carri exclaimed. “Emily do something with them.” By them she meant the four guys she had been playing volleyball with earlier. “Sorry about that Rocky.”
“It’s ok. So what did you want to tell me?”, he asked
She thought for a moment before she started talking. They spent about another ten minutes on the phone before they said their goodbyes and hung up. Well Rocky hung them up. Carri would’ve talked longer, but he wasn’t in the mood to talk at the moment.
He took his stuff and went upstairs, collapsing on his bed for a while. He wanted desperately to sleep off what had happened earlier, hoping that he could wake up and realize it was just one bad nightmare.
“Come on bro, let’s get going. We’ve still got to go get Rocky.”, Jason said standing in the doorway at the Oliver house
“I’m coming.”, Tommy replied
“We’re going to be late. You’re going to make us late. Which, for you, is usual.”, Jason joked with his best friend
Tommy shook his head as he walked out the door. “I refuse to be late.”
Jason chuckled. “Sure Tommy.”, he said. The two of them got into Tommy’s jeep and went to Rocky’s house. They rang the bell and his 13 year old brother Matt answered.
“You looking for Rocky?”, he asked
“Yeah.”, Jason replied
“Hey Rocky! Jason’s here!”, Matt yelled
Rocky was sitting in the kitchen talking to his mother about what happened. He said goodbye to her and headed for the door. “Hey Jase.”, he greeted
“Come on man let’s get going.”, Jason said. “Tommy’s trying to make us late.”
“Always does.”, Rocky replied as he went out to get into the jeep. Rocky sat in silence most of the way there. Which Tommy and Jason found unusual, but then again they figured if there was something wrong, Rocky would tell them.
They arrived there and quickly took their seats, just in time for the beginning.“Check that out. We’re on time.”, Tommy said as they sat down
“Barely.”, Jason pointed out as a guy standing in the center of things began to speak
“First of all I would like to think all of you for coming.”, he said. “We have a range of people here today, some expert martial artists, others just beginners. All of you looking to one day accomplish mastery of the arts.”
The man paused for a moment. “You all share the same qualities. You are all responsible people....”
At this point in time Rocky didn’t feel very responsible. In fact, the more he thought about it the more irresponsible he felt.
“You are all trustworthy people...”
Rocky didn’t feel trustworthy either. That woman trusted him with her daughters life. And he lost it. He betrayed that trust.
“People depend on you....”
Like the little girl depended on Rocky. And he let her down. It was about here that Rocky started to tune this guy out. He was beginning to think he wasn’t even worthy of knowing martial arts. Was he worthy for anything? He let someone die... he lost a life... failed at his job.... and what about being a ranger? People trust him to save their lives. How long before he lets one of Zedd’s monsters hurt someone?
About thirty minutes into the seminar their communicators went off. Rocky, Jason and Tommy got up and went to answer them.
“Not like we’re going to miss anything.”, Jason said as Tommy pressed a button on his communicator
“What’s going on?”, asked Tommy
“Zedd has launched two attacks. Kat and Carri are split up and out there now.”, Alpha told him
“We’re on our way.”, Tommy told him. “It’s morphin time!”
“ZEO RANGER III, BLUE!”
“ZEO RANGER IV, GREEN!”
“ZEO RANGER V, RED!”
Rocky arrived at the scene and saw Carri in the middle of a group of tengas. He flung some out of the way to get to her.
“Nice of you to join me.”, she said
“Anytime.”, he replied
They split up to fight the tengas. Rocky concentrated only on what he was doing. Which took a lot of effort this time because he was so preoccupied with everything else that was going on. He glanced in Carri’s direction once and she looked like she was doing alright. A few minutes went by before he thought about looking that way again.
When he finally did, he saw four tengas holding her down with about ten more surrounding her. Then he noticed the monster that had decided to join them.
“Now you’re going to pay yellow ranger.”, the monster threatened
She struggled to try and get free but she wasn’t having much luck. The monster jumped towards her swinging some type of weapon.
“Carri!”, Rocky yelled trying to run towards her, but he was too late. All he could do was watch as the monster hit her and she powered down and crumbled into a lifeless being on the floor. The monster stood over her and got ready to strike again. Rocky ran forward and kicked the monster sending him backwards. Then he stood over Carri. “This is all my fault.”
The tengas didn’t give him much time to think as one of them attacked him from behind. He threw the tenga out of the way. Then the other rangers appeared on the battlefield.
“What happened?”, Kat asked upon seeing her cousin on the ground
“I....”, Rocky couldn’t quite produce the explanation
“Alpha teleport Carri up.”, Jason said into his communicator
In a flash of yellow light she was gone leaving the others to the fight.
Rocky was afraid. Afraid that he might not have been able to save two people that day. What kind of ranger was he if he couldn’t even protect his own teammate?
He was quickly snapped back into reality by the monster. After a while it became apparent that Zedd and Rita’s original divide and conquer plan wasn’t going to work, and the monster was defeated.
They teleported back to the Power Chamber and found Carri sitting up on one of the med beds.
“You ok?”, asked Jason
“Yeah.”, she replied. “I was gonna come back out and help you only Alpha wouldn’t let me.”
“I told you it was for your own benefit.”, Alpha replied. “Stubborn rangers.”
Kat, Jason and Carri looked at Tommy. “What?”, Tommy asked. Everyone laughed at Tommy, including himself. Everyone except for Rocky.
Rocky breathed a silent sigh of relief. At least Carri’s alive. No thanks to him. And she was probably mad at him. He would be mad at him. All she needed was someone to watch her back and he couldn’t even do that. He was exactly the kind of person the rangers did not need on their team. “It’s my fault.”, Rocky said interrupting their light mood
“What are you talking about?”, asked Kat
“I let the monster attack you Carri. I should’ve been there for you.”, Rocky said
Carri shook her head no. “Don’t even say that. It’s actually my fault. I kinda taunted the tengas... and the monster...”
“Will you ever learn?”, Jason asked
“Nope. Not anytime soon.”, she told him
“I should’ve been watching your back. And I wasn’t. You don’t need me on this team.”, Rocky said calling on his zeonizers
“Rocky what are you talking about?”, Tommy asked. He was as confused as the rest of the rangers about what Rocky had just said.
“If I had been paying attention, I wouldn’t have let her get hurt.”, Rocky said laying his zeonizers on a table. Then he took his communicator off and placed it beside them. “If I stay on the team I’ll just end up getting someone killed.”
Rocky walked out the door. “Rocky wait!”, Carri called after him. But it was too late, he had already left the Power Chamber.
It was getting late and Rocky went home and went straight to bed. Yes home, and not to his dorm by the school that he was supposed to go to the next day. He wouldn’t go. He couldn’t bring himself to go. Or stay in his dorm room which was shared with Tommy.
He could hear the phone ring. The machine picked the calls up. More then half of them were Carri, he could recognize her voice easily. Tommy also called several times along with Jason and Kat. But he couldn’t face them after what he’d done.
Finally Rocky allowed himself to fall asleep, something that he found very hard to do that night.
The remaining four rangers were going to meet in Jason’s dorm room the next day. His roommate had a class and they could talk uninterrupted for a while.
“Hey Rocky, it’s me again. Look we’re all worried about you and we want to talk. Please pick up if you’re home.”, Carri paused. Looking up she saw Tommy and Kat walking in and they sat down beside Jason. “Well I guess you’re not there. Call me later ok?”, she asked him hanging up the phone
“He’s still not talking to us?”, asked Tommy
She shook her head no. “I don’t get it. I mean one minute he’s fine and the next... something happened I just don’t know what it is.”
“He sounded kinda... spaced when I talked to him on the phone earlier.”, Tommy said
“Yeah he did.”, Jason said looking thoughtful. “Anybody know why he got off work early?”
“He sounded upset about something when I talked to him.”, Carri said
“Maybe.... he got fired?”, Kat suggested. “But that still doesn’t explain his actions.”
“Well there’s only one way to find out.”, Carri said. “And that’s ask.”
“Ask who?”, asked Jason
“His fellow lifeguards of course. Let’s make a trip to the beach.”, Carri replied
Tommy shook his head. “Kat and I had plans. If you don’t mind....”
Jason shook his head. “Go ahead bro. We can handle this. We’ll call you the minute something comes up.”
Tommy and Kat left followed by Carri, who just ducked into her dorm room to get her favorite pair of sunglasses. Then Carri and Jason left the building in search of some answers.
Rocky rolled out of bed around noon. He stumbled downstairs and saw that there were several messages on his machine. He heard one start with Carri’s voice. He skipped the message. Plus the other two that she was going to be on. Until finally he stopped playing the messages completely.
He can’t face anyone after what he’s done. Or rather what he hasn’t done. He hasn’t saved any lives like he’s supposed to be doing. Not as a ranger or a lifeguard and given the chance he probably couldn’t save even the child running out into the road.
What could he do though. There’s always the cowards way out. Rocky shook his head. No matter how horrible things got he could never bring himself to do that. Of course not many people would miss him. But he could always run away. Stone Canyon would be the obvious place. But maybe he could go somewhere that nobody could find him. He’d like to go visit some old friends. Kim was out of the question, she would tell everyone in Angel Grove. Maybe Aisha. Run away to Africa. That would certainly put him out of the way of harming anyone here and he could forget about it all.
Rocky sighed as he walked through the kitchen. Upon realizing he wasn’t hungry, he left and flopped down on the couch to watch TV.
Carri and Jason stepped onto the sand and started to walk towards headquarters.“You think they’ll tell us?”, asked Jason
“I hope so. I’m afraid this is getting serious.”, Carri replied
Jason nodded as they continued to walk towards headquarters. They walked in and the first person they ran into was Cody.“Cody, hey.”, Carri said stopping him
“Hey. What are you doing here? You do know Rocky’s not working today right?”, he asked
“Yeah I do. Actually my friend Jason and I are here to pry.”, she told him
“What kind of prying are you doing?”, asked Cody curiously
“Well...”, Carri started. “See yesterday Rocky came home early from work. And he was all spaced out and didn’t have much to say and now he keeps talking about how he’s a horrible person and he won’t talk to us and...”
“What she’s trying to say is we’re getting worried about him and we wanted to know if anything happened yesterday at work.”, Jason supplied
“Yeah that too.”, Carri said
“You mean he hasn’t told you?”, Cody questioned
“Told us what?”, asked Jason
“Yesterday.... well he was on duty and he left his tower. He saw this kids playing close to the water and he told their mom to keep them out of the water only she went to sleep and paid her kids no attention. So when Rocky came back to his tower the kids were in the water drowning. The older one, the boy, he rescued. But the little girl...”, Cody shook his head no
Carri’s eyes got wide. “You mean she’s...”
“That’s the first time he’s ever lost somebody on watch. He’s shaken up about it. I talked to him right before he left yesterday. He was out of it. Which isn’t really surprising. Just watch him though, don’t let him get too depressed.”, Cody requested as he walked off
Jason and Carri started to walk off. “So that’s what happened.”, Jason said. “He lost a life then he must have felt responsible for you getting hurt and now he’s isolating himself and busying himself with depression.”
“Think of what he must be going through. He must feel so horrible. You don’t think he’d...”, Carri shook her head. “No Rocky would never do that.”
“Don’t even think that. If you got that from my imitation psychologist babble let me tell you know I have no idea what I’m talking about. He can’t be that bad.”, Jason said
“Why do you say that? I mean he was obviously torn up beyond belief over this child then I went off and did something stupid and he blamed himself and quit the team and won’t talk to us. At least before he talked to us. But anyways yeah he does seem bad. Jason what are we going to do? He’s not talking to us so a lot of good we’re doing him.”, Carri finished
“Who would he talk to?”, asked Jason
“There’s only one person who he doesn’t feel like he’s let down.”, Carri replied. Jason glanced at her asking for the answer. “Adam.”
“Let’s give him a call.”, Jason said. “He can teleport to Angel Grove. I’m sure Zordon would let him.”
“Good idea.”, Carri replied. While they had been talking, they made their way out of headquarters to a more secluded area. Carri hit the button on her communicator. “Tommy come in.”
“What’s up?”, Tommy’s voice came through
“Meet me and Jason in the park. We found something out that we think you guys should know.”, Carri said
“We’re on our way.”, Tommy replied
Kat shook her head. “Oh man... I can’t believe that...” Carri and Jason had just finished telling Kat and Tommy the reasons for Rocky’s sudden withdraw from the team.
“So you guys think that Rocky will listen to Adam?”, asked Tommy
“Why wouldn’t he.”, Jason replied. “After all Adam is his best friend and he hasn’t done anything to Adam for him to think that Adam should be mad at him as well.”
“Well then what are we waiting for. Let’s go give Adam a call.”, Tommy said
The sound of a phone ringing jolted Tanya Sloan out of her daze. She had been trying to work on a new song but the lyrics just weren’t coming out like she wanted them too. “Hello?”, she asked picking the phone up
“Tanya, hi, it’s me.”, Kat said
“Hey girl how’s it going?”, asked Tanya
“Pretty good.”, Kat replied. “This isn’t really a social call. I don’t have time to explain now but is Adam around?”
“Sure hang on a second.”, Tanya said putting her hand over the receiver. “Adam! Pick up!”
While listening on the phone she heard him pick up. “Hello?”, Adam questioned
“Hey Adam.”, Kat’s voice came through
“Hey Kat. What’s up?”, he asked
“Mind if I listen in?”, asked Tanya
“You’ll find out soon enough anyway.”, Kat said not minding her still on the phone
After Kat finished the quick explanations Adam was speechless. “That was always Rocky’s biggest fear. Not being able to save somebody.”
“Will you come talk to him please? He won’t let us near him.”, Kat requested her friend
“Of course.”, Adam said
“Great we’ll teleport you over.”, Kat said hanging up the phone
Tanya put her phone down and walked into the room Adam was in. “You alright?”, she asked him going to give him a hug
“I’ll be fine. I need to go talk to Rocky though. He needs somebody there for him that he hasn’t already pushed away.”, Adam said
Tanya nodded her head in understanding. She stepped back from Adam as he was teleported to Angel Grove.
Rocky stretched out on the couch. He looked down at himself. He was still wearing the t-shirt and sweat pants he wore that night. He was a sight. A bad one, but a sight. What else was he going to do with his day. He was considering dropping out of college and doing this all day everyday. At least if he wasn’t in college he wouldn’t have to face any of his ex-friends.
The doorbell rang. Rocky started wondering who in the world would be at his door. Probably one of his siblings friends. Which was a very good reason for him not to answer the door. He wasn’t having anything to do with his friends let alone those of his little siblings.
Whoever it was started knocking on the door. “Rocky it’s me.”
Rocky knew that voice. It was his best friend. He staggered over to the door and opened it. “Adam, hey, it’s good to see you.” Adam didn’t know, at least he couldn’t hate him.
Adam saw how Rocky looked. Which was horrible. He looked like he was in the early stages of locking himself in his room and never coming out again. Adam walked into the door. “Hey Rocky how’s it going?”
“Fine.”, Rocky lied. “What are you doing here?”
“I came back to hang out with my best friend.”, Adam told him
The two youngest in the house, Liz and Marisa, came running into the room squealing followed by Mrs. DeSantos. She smiled at her son and his friend. It was good to see that Rocky was talking to someone. “Hello Adam what are you doing in town?”, she asked
“Hi Mrs. DeSantos. I was just here for a few days and I figured I couldn’t leave without coming by here.”, he answered. Adam turned to Rocky. “How about we go to your room where it’s a little more quiet.”
“Sure.”, Rocky said. Then the two of them went to Rocky’s room shutting the door to drown out the noise of his sisters. “So what’s going on?”
“I just got back in town. Actually I’m only here for a few hours. I saw the others before I came by. You know the gang - Kat, Carri, Tommy and Jason.”, Adam told him
“Oh.”, Rocky’s voice dropped
“In fact they were telling me about what’s been going on around here.”, Adam continued
“College is so interesting.”, Rocky said the nervousness in his voice showing
“Actually it was more about work. Lifeguarding. In fact they told me something about you. And a little girl.”, Adam let Rocky know he knew
“They know?”, Rocky asked suddenly feeling like he couldn’t breathe. They knew. The people he wanted to keep it secret from. They probably think he should be shot for what he did. Maybe that’s why Adam’s here. To take his place. He was just going to come by and let him know gently.
“Rocky they don’t understand what you’re going through but they’d like to try and help. Nobody is mad at you.”, Adam comforted
“You have no idea what I’m going through.”, Rocky said
“I know how devastated you are. Remember when we were ten and you had that pet lizard and you forgot to feed him for a day and he died?”
Rocky chuckled. “Yeah I was torn up over the poor thing. And it wasn’t even that I didn’t feed him that killed him it was the fact that Matt got to him and strangled him to death.” Rocky’s brother Matt was five at the time and didn’t know better. It wasn’t until later that Matt confessed what he had done. Well not really confessed but asked Rocky why after he played with his lizard his lizard didn’t move anymore.
“Yeah but you still thought it was your fault and you hated yourself for letting that lizard die.”, Adam reminded him
“I know. I was upset until I accepted the fact that he died because Matt strangled him not because I didn’t feed him that day and there was nothing I could do about it.”, Rocky said
“Yeah and that little girl died because her mother didn’t care enough to watch her when you said to make sure she didn’t go into the water and there was nothing that you could do about it.”, Adam quickly changed gears
Rocky started to open his mouth but he stopped. He thought about it for a moment. “You know when you compare it to that... maybe you are right. Maybe there was nothing I could do about it. But it’s just so hard to accept that somebody died while I was on duty.”
“I know that was always your biggest fear. But even the best lifeguards lose people. Not to say that it’s alright or you’ll get used to it, but it’s a part of the job.”, Adam told him
Rocky smiled. “You should be a counselor.”
“Yeah well I try. How about we go visit the others?”, Adam asked
“They’re still mad at me. After all I did almost let Carri die. That would have been two lives in one day.”, Rocky said
“You know that came up too this afternoon. And Carri said, and I quote ‘I was being a dumbass taunting the monster again and I almost got killed again and if it wasn’t for Rocky I probably would be dead.’ See according to her you saved her life.”, Adam said
“The monster was about to slash her while she was unconscious. I knocked him back.”, Rocky said. “So that’s how they see it?”
“That’s exactly how they see it.”, Adam told him
“I feel so stupid.”, Rocky said
“You had perfectly good reasons for acting the way you did. They understand. And they’re worried about you. You need to go talk to them.”, Adam ordered
Rocky nodded.
“Good. Now I’m going to go out here and you’re going to put on some real clothes then we’ll go to the Power Chamber.”, Adam directed
The other rangers were waiting around in the Power Chamber for Adam to return. Finally he did, and he brought Rocky with him.“Hey guys.”, Rocky said
“Rocky how are you?”, asked Kat
“Much better thanks to Adam.”, Rocky replied. “I want to apologize for acting the way I did. I ignored you all the last few days and acted irrational.”
“Apology accepted. In fact...”, Tommy walked over with Rocky’s zeonizers and communicator, “We’d love for you to take these back.”
Rocky took them and put them on. “Thanks guys.”
All his friends came over to him. “Glad to have you back Rocky.”, Carri said putting an arm around him
“Glad to be back.”, he said giving her a hug
“Let’s all go out tonight. And party.”, Jason suggested. “It’ll be fun.”
“We’ll go out clubbing and do a little dancing.”, Carri suggested
“I’d love to stay but I’ve got obligations back home.”, Adam told everyone
“Thanks Adam.”, Kat said and she was echoed by Jason, Tommy and Carri
“Thanks man.”, Rocky said shaking his best friend’s hand
“Anytime.”, Adam replied. Then he teleported out.
“So clubbing you say?”, Rocky asked
“That has potential.”, Tommy said
“It could be fun.”, Kat added
“Then it’s settled. Clubbing it is.”, Jason finalized everything
“Come on let’s go to the Youth Center.”, said Carri
“Anybody up for sparring?”, Rocky questioned
“Definitely.”, Tommy replied
“Always.”, Jason threw in
“Then let’s go.”, Rocky said. He smiled as he and Carri teleported down hand in hand. He had gone through the most difficult thing that week. But somehow he made it through it thanks to his friends. Now it was time to get things back in order. He figured he would go back to the dorm that night, and back to work the following day if needed. Yep, it looks like it’s going to be a good week.