Title: Good Help is Hard to Come By

Author: SCWLC

Disclaimer: I own nothing anyone can recognise here. It's that simple.

Rating: T for language and concepts, I suppose.

Summary: Conner needs advice, so he calls someone who's been there. No one really expected the fallout.

Notes: This can be blamed on a few things, two which would be Linkara and the well-known Of Love and Bunnies. Also on the trope of Tommy having the memory of a goldfish suffering from Alzheimer's. I just . . . had a thought and it wouldn't let go. I apologise if someone already did this, but . . . the concept was right there.

Conner McKnight had a problem.

Now, he'd seen Dr. O's History of the Power Rangers. He knew he wasn't the only red ranger to ever deal with a formerly evil ranger. Hell, it seemed like a fairly common problem with power rangers generally. Dr. O started out that way, Lightspeed Rescue had an evil ranger, Wild Force had one, or something anyhow, there was some implication that Eric Meyers with the Silver Guardians was pretty much a jerk sometimes, which suggested he might have been evil too.

That didn't even count that Dr. O had been evil again with the Machine Empire, or that the original blue ranger had been possessed a couple times and something called Murianthas had happened that Dr. O didn't want to talk about (Kira said it was about that original pink ranger chick, but that could just be girl intuition stuff and who ever got that but girls?) and the point was just, Trent wasn't all that unique with the evil thing.

But Conner still had a problem. And that was, once they stopped being evil, what did you do then? Obviously he had to bring Trent into the team, that much was obvious. But Ethan didn't trust him and Kira still had all those hurt feelings about it, and Dr. O wasn't going to really help with getting Trent settled into the team properly because he was so busy empathising with Trent and stuff. And nothing wrong with all the empathy, one formerly evil ranger to another and all that, but it didn't help Conner decide whether to really trust Trent and how to get everyone on board.

And Dr. O not helping was another thing. It was fine when the dude was like a mentor or whatever. Kind of awesome to have a mentor that kicked ass like that, but if Conner was the red, the dude in charge, what did that make him when their mentor was out in the field, as a power ranger, doing whatever?

There was only one thing Conner could think of to deal with the problem. He needed advice, and he needed it from someone who'd been there. Someone who knew Dr. O and might know how to be in charge when the Greatest Power Ranger Of Everything Ever was hanging around pretending he was just mentoring.

Which was how Conner came to be skipping English one Wednesday afternoon, creeping around Dr. O's place and digging through the man's personal phone book. Who the hell still had a little phone notebook anyhow? Not that Conner wasn't grateful, of course. If he'd had to steal Dr. O's cell and look in there, he might have been in real trouble.

And there it was. Scott, Jason. The original red ranger. The first guy to have to deal with bringing an evil ranger into the team, and the guy who had to deal with Dr. O as part of his team.

Taking a deep breath, Conner dialled.

One ring, two, then the telltale sound of a phone being picked up and a deep voice. "Hello?"

"Uh . . . hi," Conner said, lamely. "I just . . . Jason Scott, right?"

"Yeah," answered the voice, slowly. "Who is this?"

"I'm Conner McKnight," Conner said, trying not to sound too nervous or whatever. But not cocky. That would be bad too. He wanted to make a good impression. "I'm . . . um . . . you heard about the power rangers in Reefside?" he asked.

That got a pause, then Mr. Scott said, "Who are you, exactly?"

"I'm the red ranger from the Dino Thunder team," Conner declared. He might as well get on with it. After all, no point in being cagey.

A quick outward breath and Conner felt like he could almost sense the tension on the other end of the line dissipating. "Nice to meet you, Conner. So, why exactly are you calling? I'm out of the game, have been a while."

"No, I get that," Conner said hastily. "I just . . . I need some advice, and you seemed like you might, I dunno, be more helpful and stuff than someone else."

"Advice?" the other ranger sounded a little perplexed. "About what?"

"I . . . with what to do when an evil ranger stops being evil and decides he wants to join up with the team." It came out in a rush. But suddenly he just couldn't stop. Dr. O didn't listen when Conner tried to say this stuff, and it didn't seem right to make a big deal about it all when the man was a formerly evil ranger himself. "See, Trent, when he got his gem, there was some sort of negative energy and he just sort of started morphing out of control, and every time he morphed he'd be evil. Eventually he just started being evil all the time, but at first he didn't even remember morphing. But he kept on kicking our asses and Kira's all crushing on him, but he was kind of horrible to her, and 'cause he was trying to protect her once he started remembering that he was evil sometimes and there was this whole thing where he took Dr. O out of the game and now that he's good again that's great, but . . ." and the words ran out.

Mr. Scott was silent for a long moment. "So, this Trent couldn't help it?"

"No," Conner admitted. "And I get that, but it's hard when you see the guy out of the corner of your eye when there's a monster around and-"

"You expect him to start trying to kill you," finished the original red. "Yeah, that was tough. We all knew Tommy was on our side, but those first couple times, he'd be coming in to help and you couldn't not tense, expecting the dragon dagger to come in after you and not the monster."

Plaintively, Conner asked, "What did you do? I can't just tell Ethan to get along, and I'm having trouble not . . . and I just can't stop wanting to feel really sure that he's on our side. And Dr. O doesn't really help, 'cause he's all, 'It's not his fault,' which, yeah, but he still came in and worked with Mesogog and nearly killed Kira before he realised she's the girl he likes."

"I don't think there's much you can do except try to make sure the others try to include him. Maybe some sort of team bonding time, movie night or something," said Mr. Scott. "More to the point, you'll have to watch yourself to be sure you're not being unfair to him. Tommy and I had a lot of issues when he first joined the team. We were the same in a lot of ways and I got worried about him muscling in on my territory and he didn't take orders well. Never did. I think that's why Zordon made him leader in the end and why he wound up the red Zeo ranger."

"So, I should really just take my time on this?" Conner asked, feeling disappointed. But at the same time, it felt like a bit of a validation.

"I think you need to trust your instincts," Mr. Scott told him firmly. "You're red for a reason and those instincts are part of it."

Now that made him feel better. Dr. O was always all about how The Power chose them, but there was something about the way the first red talked that just sounded . . . calm. Competent. There was this underlying tension to Dr. O that Conner never understood and meant that all his advice sounded like the man wasn't even sure of his own advice.

"Thanks Mr. Scott," Conner said, sincerely.

"It's Jason," the older man corrected firmly. "Was that all?"

"I . . . Maybe that should be it," Conner temporised. Talking to Mr. Scott was cool, and he'd helped, and maybe he shouldn't sorta rat out his mentor to the dude's first leader or whatever.

Mr. . . . Jason's voice was amused as he said, "That sounds a little ominous."

"It's not bad exactly," Conner said, trying to work this around in a way that wouldn't make him sound ungrateful for having someone as awesome as Dr. O on his team and mentoring and being there all the time, and wasn't that just the problem? "It's just . . . Dr. O's our mentor, you know? And when he got kidnapped and stuff, we freaked. And then he's back and okay, and that was cool, but he's the black dino ranger."

Another pause. "That sounds . . . awkward," Mr. . . . Jason said diplomatically. "I'm trying to imagine what it might have been like with Zordon on the field with us, and I can see how that might be a problem."

"It's my team!" Conner was horrified at the wail that escaped him. "I mean, I'm the red! I'm supposed to be leading! How can I be leading anything when Dr. O's always coming out there and taking on Zeltrax and . . . I get that Zeltrax is after him specifically, but how'm I supposed to be leading anything when he's always giving the orders?"

"I don't know," Jason told him, sounding sympathetic. "I've never been there-"

"But you were his team leader when he was the green ranger," Conner pointed out. "You . . . must know something."

"What!?"

Something about Jason's voice made it sound less like anger and more like surprise, although Conner couldn't imagine what the man had to be upset about, unless it had something to do with Dr. O's relationship with the man. "Well, Dr O was the green ranger, right? And you were the red then. And then he was the white ranger and you were still the red-"

"Zordon gave him leadership once he became the white ranger," Jason said slowly. "Are you saying . . . Dr. O. As in Oliver? Dr. Oliver?" he asked, as though clarifying something.

There was a sickening feeling in the pit of Conner's stomach that he might have messed up. "Yeah. Dr. Thomas Oliver. He's our science teacher here at Reefside."

"And he's your mentor?"

Not sure where any of this was going, Conner decided to answer honestly. "Yeah. And the black brachio ranger."

"Black," muttered Jason. "Christ. That bastard."

Suddenly there was a click and a dial tone. He'd hung up on Conner, who still wasn't sure what the problem was.

He was nervous as hell the next afternoon, all of them hanging out at Dr. O's, even Trent, who had a sketch pad and was scribbling away at something. There was an impending sense of doom in the air, even if he was the only one who felt it. Suddenly, outside the house there was the sound of revving engines, and they all watched in shock as three cars pulled into the space in front of the house in a spray of gravel.

That very loosely described the stunt driver manoeuvre they pulled, of course. The three vehicles pulling into perfectly alignment while skidding sideways. A guy about Dr. O's age with somewhat Asian features and dark hair vaulted out of the first car, followed by a black woman and a much shakier white guy. "Tommy!" shouted the first guy.

"Adam?" Dr. O sounded confused. "Rocky? Tanya?"

Out of the other two cars emerged the space rangers, the red one looking sick and the platinum blond one shaking his head. "Seriously?" demanded T.J. Johnson, blue Space Ranger. "What the hell, man?"

'Adam', who Conner suddenly realised he recognised from Dr. O's History of Power Rangers, suddenly slammed a fist into the black Dino Thunder ranger's face.

Dr. O hit the floor, coming to his feet, staring at his fellow rangers in shock, clearly trying to understand what was going on. "Guys? What are you . . . why?"

No one got to answer as there was another screech of tires and a woman in pink leapt out of the newly arrived car, actually before it stopped fully, ran up to Dr. O, kissed him and then slapped him really really hard. It made Kira's occasional punches look like love taps. "I can't believe you!" she shrieked, her hands flung into the air.

From the car emerged the original red ranger, his face thunderous, followed by the yellow and black. "What the hell?" he demanded, unknowingly repeating T.J. Johnson's earlier question.

"I don't know what the hell," snapped Dr. O. "I have no idea what any of you are talking about."

Andros spoke when it became clear the others were frothing at the mouth too much to say anything that wasn't incoherent and really angry. "We thought you were dead," he said sharply. "We called in every favour. Had Lightspeed looking for you, the Silver Guardians."

Jason added darkly, "I even asked Cole to talk to some goddamn animals to try to find you." He glared at Dr. O, repeating as though the point was significant, "I asked Cole to talk to animals."

T.J., Andros and Jason all exchanged looks and shuddered. Dr. O winced a little.

The original pink ranger, because who else could she be flung herself forward and slapped Dr. O again. "Kim!"

"We had a funeral you bastard!"

"What?" Dr. O looked honestly confused. "Why?"

"Why?" the three older yellows chorused. "Because you were on an island that exploded?" Ashley Hammond said. "Because there was no trace of you anywhere?"

"Because no one heard a damn thing from you afterwards?" said the white guy from the first car. "Seriously, Tommy, you could have phoned someone to say, I don't know, you weren't dead!"

"Rocky-" Dr. O started.

He was interrupted. "We called Aisha and she's on the first plane out. So's Kat."

Dr. O winced again. "Oh no."

"That's all you have to say?" demanded the black woman, who launched herself at him, feinted at his head with a fist, then kicked his feet out from under him when he went to block the headshot.

"Violence never solved anything?" Dr. O offered from the ground, rather weakly.

The original yellow, Trini Kwan, looked less than impressed. "How about an explanation why you left us all thinking you were dead."

"Yeah," added the original black, Zack Taylor. "Also why you have to poach my colours too."

"What?" Adam and Carlos Vallerte chorused.

"He's the black Dino Thunder ranger," Jason said, glaring darkly. "Some retirement, Tommy."

Kira suddenly spoke up, sounding like she'd had a revelation. "You know, I always wondered why, if the other rangers were your friends, we never saw them."

"It's a good point," Ethan said contemplatively. "I mean, hell, where was everyone when you were in the coma?"

"Coma!?" shrieked Kimberly Hart.

Trent nodded. "After the island blew up, Dad was pretty sure you were dead," he said pointedly. He paused. "After you guys ran into each other at Cyberspace, he said something about a memory like a goldfish with Alzheimer's."

"You think he forgot to call to tell us he wasn't dead," Jason said slowly. "Forgot." He turned an even darker look on Dr. O a moment before shooting Trent a considering look. "You'd be Trent, then?"

"You know my dad?" asked Trent looking startled.

Jason shook his head. "No." He turned and spotted Conner. "Conner, right?"

"Uh . . . yeah. Hey," he said, waving. He shrugged and introduced the others. "Conner McKnight," he said, "Red tyranno ranger, Ethan James, blue Tricera ranger, Kira Ford, yellow Ptera ranger and Trent Fernandez, white Drago." He didn't bother pointing at them, because like all the other rangers, apparently, they were physically incapable of wearing anything but their signature colours. Hayley had once muttered something about cognitive dissonance and colour, but that was the kind of background noise he ignored because it didn't help him with either soccer or being a ranger. He shrugged and added, "And you all seem to know Dr. O, who's the black Brachio ranger."

The three former black rangers all made noises of disgust.

Rocky raised an eyebrow. "Dr. O?"

"I have a doctorate," Dr. O said. "The students at the school shortened my name." He shot Rocky a look. "You all knew that I was getting the degree."

"No, not that," Rocky was starting to snigger. "Dr. O." He punctuated the name with a sort of arm pumping gesture. A moment later the first black ranger got the joke and started to laugh.

Adam closed his eyes as though in pain. "I didn't need to think about that, Rocky."

"About Dr. . . . Oh . . . " Ethan and Trent's eyes went wide, then they both went green. "Ew."

"What?" Tanya asked.

Adam sighed. "Dr. O. As in the big 'O'?"

"He's not that good," Kimberly said, then promptly flushed.

"What?" Trini stared at her. "You and . . . you never said anything!"

"We were dating," Kimberly defended.

Trini glared. "Yeah, in high school. You having sex with Tommy would have been a big deal. Why didn't you ever tell me?"

Kira turned green to match Ethan and Trent and Conner was pretty sure he was looking pretty queasy too. "Oh, ew."

"As interesting as the ins and outs of Tommy's sex life is," Jason cut through the mess with ruthless efficiency, "I'm still wondering why the hell he didn't call us after the island blew up."

"I did!" protested Dr. O.

Everyone shook their heads.

"I could have sworn . . ." he trailed off, looking embarrassed. "I thought we'd just kind of drifted apart," he said slowly. "I mean, I was sure I called . . ."

More headshaking.

"I can't believe this," Cassie Chan said, shaking her head. "We called everyone. There was a funeral and everything."

"What?" Dr. O looked horrified.

Kimberly nodded solemnly. "We had a burial at sea," she said. "We put your old white ranger uniform in, you know the one in the Command Chamber? Everyone showed up. The Silver Guardians and Lightspeed did a whole salute thing and everything."

"I saw that on the news," Kira said. "It was kind of horrible. I mean, thinking that the white ranger was dead and stuff."

Conner found himself nodding along with Trent and Ethan. "I thought you'd set that up for some sort of . . . secret identity reasons," he said. "I mean, that maybe someone found out something so you'd faked the death of the white ranger or . . . something."

"Yeah," Ethan said. "We talked about it after we found the whole history of the power rangers thing you have, we figured something must have made you do it as a boondoggle."

Dr. O was frowning. "When was this? Because Hayley and I spent a lot of time on the morphers and things that year."

"Wow, Dad's right," Trent said, sounding awed. "You traded up the ability to function in normal society for being an awesome ranger."

"That . . ." Jason's lips were twitching. "That makes so much sense," he said. "I can live with everyone claiming you're the greatest ranger of all time if I get to point out the trade-off is being unable to function like a normal person."

"I can!" exclaimed Dr. O, offended.

Ethan said sardonically, "Then how come Hayley keeps muttering about you getting a foot stuck in the sink?"

Rocky, Zack, Zhane and Adam promptly burst into hysterics over the notion. Jason eyed Dr. O a moment, but went to Conner and started asking some questions about Dr. O and authority in the field. Kira was soon pulled into a discussion with the other woman rangers that had her perking up and a real overuse of that noise of disgust girls were so good at making over things guys did. T.J. and Andros converged on Dr. O after a moment, apparently heckling, joined by Adam, Zack and Carlos a moment later. Zhane looked amused then disturbed as Ethan and Trent appropriated him and started asking no doubt super-geeky questions.

Things shifted around, Dr. O wound up kissing Kimberly while the girls made high-pitched noises and Conner got some tips about getting Dr. O to shut up and let him be the red.

Then it started all over again when Carter Grayson burst into the house with Lightspeed, Wild Force, Wes Collins, Eric Meyers and Aisha Campbell on his heels.

It was all kind of awesome.