"I'll be back, I promise."
Trini Kwan stared up at Jason Lee Scott, her dark almond shaped eyes boring into the very centre of his soul. "Why Jason?"
"You know I can't answer that." He replied softly. "But I promise you that I'll be back." He took her into his arms and pulled her close to him, trying to memorize her smell and the feeling of her body in his arms.
"Don't make a promise you can't keep." She whispered, holding back the tears that threatened to fall.
"I haven't yet." He closed his eyes and fought the urge to cry. With one last chaste kiss he pulled apart. "I love you Trini."
She watched his form disappear into the night. It was the first, and last promise he broke to her.
--
Six years later...
"And this is Angle Grove." Dr. Trini Kwan said pulling into the city.
"Your old stomping ground." Her best friend and colleague Dr. Ahmereen Saleem said with a grin.
Trini sighed. "Sure is. I haven't been back since the summer of first year...and even then I came home to pick up some stuff and went back to Boston for the rest of the summer doing an internship."
"Sure is warmer than Boston." Amy commented rolling down her window. "I can't believe it's October here. It was 40 in Boston...its 80 here! I think I can handle doing my last year of residency here."
The two girls had met at Harvard their first year and quickly became best friends and eventually roommates. It helped that both of them were pre-med students focussing on emergency medicine. They pulled up to Trini's parent's palace, using it as a home base until they found their own apartment.
"TRINI!" Twins Tin and Trang burst out of the house and fought to get to their older sister first. The 17-year-old tiwns grinned and wrapped their older sister in a rib breaking hug.
"Boy you two have changed since last Christmas." Trini exclaimed kissing her sister Trang on the cheek and giving Tin, he brother a tight one armed hug. "You guys remember Amy, right?"
Trang gave Amy a hug. "'Course I remember Amy." She smiled up at the young woman who was leaning against the car. "I still have the scarf you brought me from Egypt."
"I have a few new ones from my mother if you want to take a look and see which one you like the best." Amy said returning the teen's hug.
"Oh great. Two more women in the house. Way to throw off the gender balance." Tin complained.
"Though it is nice to you see you." Weilei Kwan said smiling from the front porch, his arm draped around his wife's Mai's shoulder. "And you too Ahmereen."
A grin crossed both of their faces. "How about instead of standing around the car, we move this reunion into the house?" Weilei suggested opening his arms to his eldest daughter. "I want to hear about ALL of your adventures."
Trini rolled her eyes. "Daddy, we're in medical school. The adventures we have are discussing random things we find it people's orifices." Trini said exchanging a knowing smile with Amy who merely rolled her eyes.
"I never want to talk about the kid with the firecracker shoved up his –" Amy started wrinkling her nose.
"Okay...tell Daddy about that when I'm gone." Trang exclaimed covering her ears.
They followed Mai and Weilei into the house, dropping their bags and shoes at the door.
"Tea?"
The girls nodded "I'll come and help you Mai." Amy offered leaving Trini alone in the foyer. Pictures of the family and their achievements covered the walls. Looking through, two specific pictures caught her eye. One was of Trini when she was 16. She and her then best friend Kimberly Hart were lying across the laps of Billy Cranston, Tommy Oliver, Zack Taylor and Jason Scott. The other was taken a year later in Geneva. Zack on one side wearing a black suit and matching black tie, Jason on the other side wearing a black suit and red tie with Trini in the middle wearing a yellow strapless dress. Trini ran her finger over the picture, remembering the time she had spent with her friends.
"Tea?"
Trini jumped back, spinning quickly to face Amy who was holding to mugs of steaming tea.
"It's jasmine."
"Thanks." Taking the mug, Trini sat down and looked around. "It's almost surreal being back here."
"I wouldn't know." Amy said with a slight bitterness in her voice.
Mai sat down. "I'm happy you're back. And you're here with us Amy. I ran into Zachery at the grocery store the other day...everyone wants to see you."
Amy gave a soft smile. "I think I'm going to go outside and thaw...." She patted Mai on the arm and left mother and daughter alone.
"I also ran into Jason."
Trini nodded. "Oh." She ran her finger across the picture before putting it down. "Mama, I'm twenty four now, I'm a doctor. I'm over a breakup that happened in high school."
Mai shrugged. "I know you are a young woman now danh từ, doesn't mean that you shouldn't be happy." She passed a piece of paper to Trini. "That is Jason and Zack's home number, they're roommates."
The seven numbers jumped out at her. "I can't....we just got in...I have to give Amy some time to adjust." Trini started.
"DON'T USE ME AS AN EXCUSE TRINI KWAN!" Amy yelled from the front entrance. She poked her head around the corner. "I heard that."
Mai smiled. "Think about it, that's all I ask."
Trini nodded. "Yes Mama, I will."
"Come on Amy, I'll show you the spare bedroom." Mai said with a knowing smile.
--
Jason Lee Scott laid on his bed staring up at the ceiling. He was still wearing his suit from work, his shoes kicked off at the door. He returned to Angel Grove to help out when the Rangers needed him, only giving the Gold Ranger Powers back when they learned that it was slowly killing him. He didn't want to leave...he had to. Zack came back to Angel Grove. Billy eventually came back. Kim came back. Tommy at least came back to California. But not Trini. Trini stayed in Boston, first going to Harvard and then, for all he knew, getting married and raising a family. He missed her. He hated not knowing what happened to her. Kim was with Tommy and had lost touch with Trini years ago. Even Billy had lost touch with Trini. And it was all his fault. He left without saying goodbye. He left without coming back. He left her, he left them.
She probably hated him. She was better off without him. They would have been better off staying friends....colleagues. Two people who worked together and nothing more. But they were more. He closed his eyes and thought back...
Flashback
16-year-old Trini Kwan took a sip of her smoothie and opened her chemistry book with a sigh. The juice bar was relatively empty for a Friday afternoon, most people finding something better to do than study. She wrote a couple down a couple of multi-component reactions before taking another drink. A pair of dark eyes peered down at her.
"Jason."
"What are you studying?" He pulled the chair up to the table and peered over her shoulder.
"Organic chemistry." She made a face before looking back at him. "What're you doing here on a Friday afternoon?"
"Looking for you."
"Okay...why?" Trini closed her book.
"Come with me."
"Pardon?"
"Just come with me. You can put off studying for a few hours." His eyes danced with amusement.
The pretty Vietnamese girl mulled over her options before slowly putting her books in her bag. "Okay, only a couple of hours...I have to study."
Jason's face broke into an ear to ear grin. "Let's go." He led her out of the juice bar and to Angel Grove Park. They walked in silence until they reached a blanket spread out on the grass.
"Jason?"
He grinned. "Just sit down and eat."
"Will I get food poisoning?" Trini eyed the food in the basket. Jason was not known for his culinary skills, and after the flaming grilled cheese incident all of them were wary about eating Jason's food. Except Zack who once ate worms on a dare.
Blushing, Jason opened the basket. "My mom made it, so it's safe." He pulled out a tray of cupcakes. "Chocolate fudge with white buttercream icing."
"My favourite."
"I know."
Silence fell over them as they quietly ate the food. "Trini, I have a question."
"Ask away."
The leader of the Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger, Jason Lee Scott, turned about as red as his uniform and the usually eloquent young man began stammering. "A-Are you g-going to the spring dance?"
Trini chewed thoughtfully on the cupcake. "I might, no one has asked me."
"Wooyoulitogowitme?" Jason mumbled, running his hand across his face.
"Pardon me?"
He cleared his throat. "Trini, would you like to go with me?"
Her dark almond eyes peered up at him. "To the spring dance?"
"Yeah. I mean, I understand if you don't want to...I probably shouldn't have asked. You're probably planning on going with Richie..." He started to spit out at rapid fire.
Trini rolled her eyes and gently grabbed Jason's face with both hands and placed a kiss on his lips. When they finally separated, a small smile crossed her lips. "Jason, shut up."
--
They were inseparable from that point on. Jason sighed and rolled off the bed, changing into a pair of jeans, a red zip up sweater with a black shirt underneath. He was ready to crack open a beer, or if the memories of Trini persisted, a bottle of tequila, when Zack rushed into the kitchen.
"Dude, you'll NEVER guess who's back." Zack threw the groceries on the table and shifted his weight from foot to foot, like he was likely to run away at any second.
"Iunno, who?" Jason mumbled pulling out a jar of peanut butter and not so delicately shoving a spoon in it and plopping it in his mouth. "Rita?"
"No. Even less likely than THAT." Zack frowned and pulled the peanut butter away from Jason. "Dude, between this, pizza and the amount of booze....I'm surprised you don't weight 300 lbs."
"Fast metabolism." Jason grunted with a glare. "Who's back?"
"TRINI!" Zack hopped on the counter and grinned. "I ran into Tin at the grocery store, you know Tin, her annoying little brother? Well he's still her annoying brother, but he's graduating this year so I guess it's not as much little brother, but younger brother. Anyway, we started talking and he said that he had to clean the basement because Trini and her roommate were moving back to California and needed a place to stay...Dude. Dude!" He waved his hand in front of Jason's face.
"She's back?"
Nodding, Zack swung his legs on the counter. "Yep, she's back....I'm gonna go call the rest of the gang."
--
Author's Note:
Asalaam Alaikum. So there it is, the beginning of the story the pain of love. It was originally going to be called Al-Hob Al-Haqeeq, which is true love in Arabic...but it got changed to "colour of love." The title may change eventually.
Jasmeen