A.N: The Timeline is totally whacked compared to the actual show but just roll with it please. Wrote this yesterday, Boxing Day to those of you who know what that is. I decided I'd rather not be clichéd and do a Christmas fic, so I did one for the day after instead. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: It was on the top of my list to Santa but unfortunately it's against international law to kidnap hot men and powerful company employees just to give a teenage girl her Christmas wish of actually owning something. Instead I own an external hard drive, too much chocolate and enough lip gloss to varnish the Titanic.
Boxing Day
Tommy flicked distractedly through the rule book of the rather complex game Ethan had brought with him. A Christmas present from an obscure Aunt he hadn't seen since he was seven who seemed to think board games were the in thing with teenagers today. Very complex board games. Why couldn't they had just played Monopoly instead?
Oh, yeah, Merc-Anton had put a stop to that. Something about dealing with real estate, stocks, shares and banks every working day of the year and how he'd not like to spend the holidays playing such a tediously long game on the subject of business. The smile that had brought to Trent's face was worth having to try and understand these rules.
Tommy saw himself a lot in Trent. Disappointment to his father, well, in his eyes at any rate, trying to make up for past wrongs to friends who struggle to truly trust, hiding a huge part of himself from the world. He and Trent weren't that different for their fifteen years difference – maybe it was a White Ranger thing.
Tommy found himself drifting and shook his head to clear it. Now wasn't the time to drift off into the past, he should be focusing on his kids. It was Boxing Day, as Kat had called it, the day after Christmas, merely a few months after the greatest loss of their lives and he was trying to help them enjoy the holidays. This was a time for kids, not for adults, no matter how much Hayley and Anton insisted he was still just an over-sized one himself.
He turned to watch his kids for a few moments, the rules could wait. There was Ethan and Kira, along with Hayley, making some attempt to set up the complex board for their game this afternoon. Trent and Conner were sharing covert looks and forbidden smiles as they got snacks from the kitchen. Watching it all made Tommy rather pleased that he'd agreed to this holiday get together at his house. Now, back to the rule book…
(Half an hour and much confusion later)
Now totally absorbed into the game the group had become enthralled in what they were doing, all unaware of the knocking at the door. Anton was the only one to hear it and moved to go and answer it. On his way he smiled down at his son, trying to convery with a simple gesture that he didn't mind about the close proximity – and no doubt other things – he was sharing with the former Red Ranger.
"Okay, your turn blondie." Kira chirruped as she elbowed Connor in the side to get him to roll the die.
"Right, so now I roll, if I get a one, three or four I pick up a number card, a two gets me a chip, a five means I have a dare card and a six has me out of the game, right?" He asked, frowning down at the board. They may have been absorbed into the game but it didn't mean they didn't have to consult the rules every other turn to check they were still playing it right.
Tommy flicked back through the book and gave a small nod, "Yep, that's right and Kira, you shouldn't tease Connor about that little mishap. I'm sure his Mom hadn't intended to leave her hair dye next to the shampoo…" Tommy attempted to hold back a small snicker.
Connor glared and, as his Dad was conspicuously absent, Trent leant across to kiss him lightly in appeasement.
"See, teasing's not so bad after all, is it?" Kira teased, punching her friend on the arm.
"Shut up and let me roll." Connor demanded. About to continue he was interrupted by Anton.
"Thomas," Anton said with a strained look, "You have, a, erm, visitor."
Tommy looked up from the game board, perplexed, before his face blanked when it rested upon his visitor. "Jason." He breathed out.
In the kitchen Tommy paced back and forth as Jason just leant up against the counter top, staring out the window to the unkempt garden below. It had been nine months since he'd last seen his erstwhile boyfriend and the rather cold welcome he'd gotten hadn't put Jason in the best of moods.
"Would've been nice to have been told that the ever so perilous danger you were saving me from was over. The news reports were really informative but not a patch on actually being told by you that you were alive." His gaze didn't shift from the unfocused look at outside.
"I…" Tommy began but he didn't have the words to finish.
"Three months." Jason seethed, "Three months and I didn't hear a word, didn't even know if you were alive."
"Jase…"
"Don't start, Tommy!" Jason whirled on him. "I just… why?! Why? That's all I want to know, why?"
Sighing Tommy stopped and let out a shaky breath he hadn't been aware of holding. He stared out of the window to the same point Jason appeared to be staring at. This wasn't easy, especially with three teenagers and two adult friends on the other side of what had to be way too thin, walls.
"I was afraid, okay," He whispered hoarsely, "At first I was scared for your safety, it's why I wanted you away from here in the first place but then, it had been so long and we hadn't managed to speak much. Just the occasional call and emails. I was afraid you didn't want to be back here. You had this whole new life in New York, back in the city where your office is, among friends from your new life, you seemed happy there. I didn't want to ruin that for you out of some misguided sense of loyalty to me.
"You had this nice, happy life somewhere you fit in, belonged. I didn't want to spoil that for you. You deserved to be happy, to put yourself first for a change. You didn't need to be tied to some washed up fake hero trying to create some semblance of a normal life. You got out, you moved on, you deserved a life. Not to be stuck trapped in the vortex with me. You deserved to live."
"How the hell do you know what I deserve and what I don't? And furthermore, since when have you been so completely bad at knowing what I wanted!?" Jason fumed as he moved a few steps across the kitchen, crowding Tommy against the counter. He clamed, placed his hands on Tommy's chin and forced him to look up at him, "The only thing I ever wanted, then and now, was you, nothing else changed that, ever."
Tommy let out a small, self deprecating laugh, "I've been an idiot, haven't I?"
"Yes," Jason told him with a small nod, "I always did wonder if that doctorate came by postal order." He stroked his thumb gently across Tommy's cheek before whispering, "Kim wanted me to give you a smack in the mouth but I don't think she'd mind too much if I gave you a kiss instead."
"As long as it's coming from you, not her, I can't see any reason anyone would object," Tommy answered leaning up to meet Jason half way as they kissed.
One arm wrapped around Jason's waist, Tommy leant across and grappled with the door handle, pulling it open wide. As he expected, when they pulled apart a pile of teenagers, and Hayley of all people, were sprawled across his kitchen floor.
"You didn't teach them better spying skills than that?" Jason asked with a smirk as he moved to lean up against the counter next to Tommy. "All those years of practise on Kim and you don't even teach them the teenage basics, let alone Ranger basics. Never lean against a door that opens away from you, rookie mistake."
From the floor the pile just gaped up as Anton stepped across them with dignity before standing before Jason. Trent looked from his father back to the unknown man and up to Tommy. He and Connor had been positive about Dr. O's orientation, it turns out they were just wrong about his choice of boyfriend… maybe. This could be bad.
"Jason," Anton greeted, with a small nod, "I'm glad to see it all went well. Forgive the children, and Hayley, they're rather over eager where their science teacher's personal life is concerned. Probably due to the sudden creation of one."
"Hey! It's not my fault your alter ego due to our experiment decided to keep me too busy from having a life. Besides, what kind of social life could I have had anyway?" Tommy asked indignantly, "Not exactly as if I could hit the clubs with a boyfriend on the other side of the country and only teenagers for company."
"Yeah, well, had you called me like you were meant to, the other side of the country problem could've been fixed months ago." Jason told him before kissing him lightly on the cheek and squeezing him around the waist. He could tell Tommy was genuinely apologetic for what he had done. Besides, Jason himself could have visited sooner, could have made the trip of his own accord three months earlier, if not for the same doubts as Tommy in reverse.
"But…" Kira stuttered from the floor, slowly pulling herself out of the pile of limbs, "You and Hayley? I mean, you're like, I thought. Huh. I guess I thought wrong, Trent and Connor were right all along." She gave the pair a little thoughtful look before smiling brightly.
Connor, who was already up on his feet and completely alert – he still had a touch of Red Ranger in him – regarded the pair with suspicion, "Hate to break up the happy reunion but is no one else the least bit concerned that this guy knows all about our extra curricular activities yet we know nothing about him. No offence Dr. O, I trust you and all that, but I'd rather know who the hell this guy was before everybody gets drawn into the Christmas spirit of peace on earth, good will to all men just in case he isn't the peaceful type."
Tommy laughed slightly but smiled proudly a Connor's protectiveness. The kid had come a long way from the self absorbed jock he'd started out as.
"He's a good kid." Jason said to Tommy with a nod, "Fits with the colour code, I was bit worried when you first mentioned him."
Tommy just shook his head indulgently and went on with the introductions. "Kids, this is Jason. He's the original Red. First one of us chosen, first to accept."
No one could help laughing as Connor's jaw hit the floor and he just stood and stared for a few moments. Suddenly he turned to Tommy, "How on earth are you dating the coolest, original, ultimate Ranger?"
"Hey!" Tommy protested only to be silence with a kiss.
"If the kids wants to think that let the kid think that," Jason told him with a superior smirk.
"I hate you." Tommy glowered.
"Same to you."
Sighing Hayley shook her head, "Come on you lot, lets go finish this board game before New Years and then you kids can grill the happy couple on all the details." Tommy looked at her with a cocked eyebrow, "Of Rangering." She finished with a faux-sweet smile.
Just as they were sitting down at the board again a sudden thought struck Ethan. "Hang on, if Dr. O's dating Jason, then what about Dr. Mercer, not Principal Randall, please, god, no."
"He's got a New Years Eve date with Mr. Marsters, the geography teacher at the other end of my corridor," Tommy answered flippantly with a smirk as Anton blushed furiously Red. Took five years but he'd finally managed it. He had made Anton Mercer blush.