Always a Ranger - Part 29
Luck of the Rangers
By Jeannine Trevizo
Before they
knew it, it was closing time at the Cyberspace.
“Alright
everybody, time to head home, or wherever you’re going, because it can’t be
here anymore,” Hayley announced, and people started for the door. “Ethan,
Conner, Kira, can you guys do the closing rounds?”
As teenagers
picked up and headed out, Ethan checked that all the computers were shut off,
Kira cleaned up the area around the stage and Conner picked up around the sofa.
Behind the counter, Hayley was cleaning up behind the counter. When she’d made
the final trash run, she headed for the door to lock up when she found a pair
of visitors that she let in instead of turning away – Trent and Tommy.
“Hey you two.
What brings you by?” asked Hayley, locking the door behind them.
“Just thought
we’d come by and socialize. It was a long day,” remarked Tommy, heading through
the second set of doors into the café.
“And while
today is my day off, I thought I’d come by and see if you needed any help
closing,” offered Trent, and Hayley patted him on the shoulder with a friendly
smile. The normal Trent was a lot more considerate than his previously evil
counterpart.
“Hey Dr. O,”
called Conner as he plopped down on the red velvet sofa that usually faced the
TV, but now faced a few of the armchairs that had been set up for a poetry
reading session.
“Hey there
yourself Conner. So, you guys helped clean up?”
“Yeah… it was
closing time and Hayley asked us to help, so…” Conner remarked as Tommy took a
seat in one of the armchairs across from him.
“That was
nice of you guys,” Trent said as he pulled the blinds to the front window,
closing off the space from the walkway. When that was done, he headed for the
opposite armchair, but changed his mind, choosing to pull up a chair, turning
it around to sit facing its back.
As he placed
it, Tommy noted that he had set himself apart slightly, and he wondered if the
young man would ever fully feel at home with the rangers. As the others
finished their tasks and headed towards the sofa, he watched his team, his
students with a keen eye.
They were
good, and they worked well as a team. But there were times when one of the
team’s situation forced the entire team to deal with them. Like Ethan’s curse
had.
“Dr. O,
you’re not coming to tell me that you found out that the curse really isn’t
broken, are you? I mean, I can’t really deal with more bad stuff,” Ethan asked,
concerned as he took his spot at the opposite end of the couch from Conner.
“No, we’re
pretty sure that you successfully broke the curse. There shouldn’t be anything
else you need to do,” Tommy said simply.
“That’s
great! I mean, you really were a wreck dude,” joked Conner, reaching across the
sofa and poking the African-American youth in the ribs.
“Cut it out!”
Kira sighed
and sat between them, effectively creating a break between the two. Looking
from one to the other, she tried to decide if she wanted to try and smack some
sense into them or just leave them to their immature behavior.
“Dr. O, do
rangers always have such crappy luck?” Trent asked as Hayley finally came over,
settling in the other armchair and joined the conversation.
“From what
I’ve heard, it’s pretty much a tradition,” commented Hayley.
“Don’t
start,” Tommy said, looking his co-creator of the ranger technology, and then
focused his answer to Trent. “For whatever bad luck you have, there’s an equal
amount of good luck.”
From the
stares that Tommy ended up getting from the rest of the team, he had no doubt
that they expected him to explain. And he really couldn’t blame them. The
history of the power rangers seemed to repeat, just like that famous quote… And
besides Kim and the occasional visit from his former ranger friends, he was
their link to what being a ranger was like.
But every
ranger had a different regret… a different bad piece of luck. Just like they
had something good that was just impossible to believe could happen to them that
made the bad worth while.
“It’s all
relative,” Tommy began, tapping his fingers on the arms of the chair. “I mean,
we all had things sort of like the curse happen. I remember this one time Kim
had this really bad day… but overall, we sort of end up having a really bad
thing happen to us, which gets balanced out by a really good thing.”
“How do you
mean?” Kira asked.
“Well, for
someone like Jason, the worst was probably something like his nearly dying from
the gold ranger powers. Or maybe not being able to get the green candle that
stole my first ranger powers so long ago. But on the flip side of that, he had
the chance… a unique chance to go to the International Peace Conference as a
delegate. That’s something that’s just so rare and so special an experience,
maybe it all evens out.”
“Wow… all the
rangers really had something like that… a really cool thing and an equally
nasty thing happen to them?” Conner asked.
“I think it’s
safe for me to quote Jason when he used to say that rangers needed luck to do
what they did. Unfortunately, you can’t have good luck without bad,” replied
Tommy with a half-smile.
Ethan
slightly frowned, and then nodded his head, thinking about that. He had so
much… the curse really hadn’t been much in the scheme of things. He had
insurance for his laptop, so he was getting that repaired, his mom had ended up
getting a ride from one of her co-workers, he’d never really liked that shirt
anyway, so when he’d chosen to trash it, it wasn’t a big loss, and he had
gotten the hover bike…
“You’re
right. I mean, I have had such great luck… I mean to have my friendship with
all you guys, and Cassidy too, I think what I went through with the
Tutenhawken’s curse was well worth it,” Ethan stated, looking at the others
around him.
“True… I mean,
I would never have appreciated the music deal if we hadn’t gone through all
that hell with Trent… no offense,” commented Kira, looking up to where Trent
sat.
“None taken,”
Trent remarked, even though he shifted in his chair slightly, as if he was uncomfortable.
“I feel the same. You guys were there for me after I was able to break the evil
spell of the white gem. You accepted me, took me into the team. And I think
that evens out the guilt I still feel for when I was evil.”
Everyone
looked for Trent to Tommy, noting the look on his face. It was one of
understanding, and he nodded as Trent finished. The shared experience was
something they and only they could really understand, and there still seemed to
be a long way to go for Trent…
“What about
you Dr. O?” asked Kira with a knowing grin, “or do we even have to guess?”
There was a
round of laughter and Tommy gave them all a deadly stare. It was not easy with
them knowing what seemed like everything about him and his life. Especially his
love life. Still, the very little ribbing he got from them, coupled with the
fact that they all genuinely cared about and liked Kim seemed to cut him some
slack. Which in his mind was good, since they’d have to deal with him and Kim
together and married soon, if he could get her to say yes…
“In a way,
you probably do know… but part of me is shocked at how lucky I was to get a
chance to get my PhD. It was something I didn’t do with ranger powers, but on
my own.”
“With help,”
Hayley reminded him smugly, and Tommy was tempted to throw the accent pillow
behind him at her.
“With help.
But to answer your question, yeah, I’ve been luckier than I deserve. I have had
more second chances… with being a ranger, with Kim… and on the other side, I
don’t know how I was so unlucky as to have been picked by Rita Repulsa to be
the evil green ranger.”
“You know, I
have to say that I had my worst and best luck on the same thing,” stated
Conner, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.
“Which was?”
Ethan asked, curious
“Becoming a
ranger.”
That
pronouncement brought everyone up short. Some of them knew of his unease at
being chosen, the others did not. Tommy looked over at the red ranger, and met
his gaze. The younger man smiled though and Tommy nodded.
“Have you
gotten over it?” Trent questioned, curious.
“Yeah… I
mean, I can’t do some things I wanted to do, but what I got in the tradeoff is
just… wow.”
“What about
you Hayley?” Kira questioned, deciding to include the technology wizard.
“I’m not a
ranger.”
“So? You
still have to have a best and worst luck story,” claimed Ethan.
She pondered
answering, and then finally sighed.
“It was
actually like Conner’s… it was the same thing.”
“And…” Kira
prompted, looking anxious.
“It was
meeting Tommy.”
That froze
everyone in place. The question running through everyone’s mind was why, and
Trent wasn’t shy in asking.
“Why?”
Hayley
shifted in her chair, looking uncomfortable. Tommy pinned her with his gaze,
and Hayley avoided it. Still, she was over the real reasons why she was uncomfortable
about her choice. Still, she should say something. Sigh a sigh, she looked up
and glanced at everyone before settling on Trent.
“I was this
excessively bright woman, and here’s this really gorgeous guy. Yet he’s still
in love with his ex. So any thought I might have had at starting something was
gone in like seconds. Yet at the same time, he opened this opportunity… to work
on the most cutting edge weapons and vehicles… who wouldn’t take that?”
Kira, Conner,
Trent and Ethan all looked from Hayley to Tommy. He frowned slightly, upset
that he’d never really noticed that Hayley was an attractive woman who spent a
lot of time with him… he should have seen it. But like he’d told Kim more than
a few times in the last eight years, he was dense that way.
“I’m really
sorry Hayley,” he said, feeling somewhat guilty.
“Don’t be.
Besides, Billy’s in my life now… so hey, I got a ranger after all,” she
smirked, and the others started laughing.
“Speaking of
other rangers Dr. O, any word from Kim? She left for the Olympics already,
right?” Kira questioned.
“She said
she’d be busy and she’d call when things got settled.”
“When was
that?” asked Conner, frowning.
“A few days
ago…”
“And she
hasn’t called?” Kira yelped, worried. “You think she’s okay?”
“Kira, she
should be fine… I mean, she has nine girls between the ages of 16 and 28 that she’s having to help keep an eye on, practices and getting settled at an International sporting event. I’m sure it’s crazy and that she’ll call when she can.”
They all
nodded, and Hayley looked at her watch, and swore.
“I have an
appointment I’m late for. Come on, let’s send you all off.”
With that,
they got up and headed for the door. Kira nudged Conner and looked to Ethan.
“Guess his
bad luck was good luck after all.”
Everyone
laughed as they all left the building, realizing that being a ranger really did
mean you had to have luck.
-End-
To be
continued…
A/N2: Just so
everyone knows, I’ll be posting a little closer to actual events the next
couple of weeks, so keep an eye out for new stories on days other than
Saturday. But by the 28th we should be back on schedule.
GO TO THE PG VERSION OF CHAPTER 30
GO TO THE NC-17 VERSION OF CHAPTER 30
click the picture to go to the Always a Ranger page