Reality

The one-story house located aimlessly in the middle of the woods had not changed, but Hayley noticed something different the morning when she walked inside.

It was yet another average day for her, waking early in preparation to spend the morning laboring over the latest Zord in the making or tweaking the Raptor Cycles to get one more mile of speed on them.

Her life had changed in ways she couldn't imagine after she had met Tommy Oliver. Hayley couldn't remember the last time she had slept in, instead now taking advantage of the days she opened Cyber Space late to do all the work she could for the Rangers.

And today was no different, she thought. The sun beamed mercilessly on her back, and with the sound of birds singing softly in the air, she struggled to open the front door of her friend's home while balancing a latte and briefcase in her arms.

It was then, as the door swung open, that she had noticed the difference inside. For a woman of her intellect, she couldn't figure out what it was. A part of her disregarded the thought, yet as she took a stroll inside and threw her keys onto the newest end table, it continued to rub her the wrong way.

Everything was the same; the furniture hadn't been moved and the curtains remained open to bring forth the shining morning sun. Everything was kept neatly placed, dusted and organized in a way that labeled itself 'The home of Thomas Oliver'. So what bothered Hayley kept even her clueless.

That is, of course, until she walked to the living room, passing by the kitchen entrance on the way. In the corner of her eye, she caught a minor yet faultless glimpse of someone inside, a man sitting silently at the table.

Her feet froze almost instantly, her mind reeling as she calculated the time of day.

Friday, 7 am.

The house was always empty at this time, and she was the only one with a key. Which meant either she was seeing things, or the change of environment wasn't in her imagination.

She slowly moved backwards, her coffee and briefcase still in hands. Her eyes blinked frantically, as if she was in denial towards what she saw.

There, with his head bowed and shoulders slumped, was none other than Tommy himself.

Hayley may have been feet away, but her eyes could clearly see that something was wrong. The man was dressed in clothes of which he had slept in; black boxers and a short-sleeved shirt wrinkled slothfully. His head hung so low she couldn't see his eyes, but could still see his sight was locked on the coffee mug in front of him.

She hesitated on moving, her legs and brain no longer connected. "Tommy?" Her voice echoed on the walls, the only sound she heard in response being the beating of her heart getting louder.

"Aren't you supposed to be at school?" She took a step forward, gently dropping her briefcase on the way. "You usually call me when you're sick…if I have extra work to do today, please tell me now. You know I hate surprises."

Her light-hearted chuckle went unnoticed. Tommy didn't move an inch, he didn't blink and she began to wonder if he was even breathing. The gut feeling that something was wrong ached in her heavily, but it was when she made the decision to move closer to the kitchen table that she could hear a faint voice speak up.

"Please leave, Hayley." His voice was distant, soft, and barely heard against the sound of her own reeling mind.

"Come again?"

"Please…" With his head still lowered to the table, Tommy looked up at her with blood-shot eyes. "Leave."

The last word came out of his mouth with more power, one would almost say demanding. His attitude was all off, and the last time Hayley had seen him anything like this was back in their junior year of college.

Hayley froze for a moment. She was smarter than others were; she could put two and two together and make sense of the world in the process. But a part of her didn't want to reach the conclusion here. She pushed it back in her head, saving anything of like for a worse case scenario.

"Tommy," she took the chance of moving forward once more, pulling out a kitchen chair against his appeal. "You're in your kitchen, sitting in your boxers, staring at what looks to be ice-cold coffee, and I'll be honest; you look like Conner's Tyrannozord just shifted in reverse and trampled all over you."

She watched as his eyes found their way back to the coffee mug. As she sat down in her own chair, she screamed at her subconscious to disregard any logical conclusion to what was happening.

They had fixed things, she knew he had overcome his fears and everything had found its way into being all right. Something different was going on here, something different had to be going on. She refused to go down that road with him again.

It was just too painful.

"I'm not leaving until I know what's going on."

Hayley could be stubborn at times, just as he could. She knew they butted heads on many occasions, and it was no surprise to her when Tommy looked up again, this time with his entire face, and she saw the anger written over his expression.

"Hayley…leave."

As Tommy looked up at her, Hayley could only imagine her subconscious being shot to the ground and burned to ashes. The gray circles under his eyes and the heaviness of his eyelids were enough to force her to reality.

"It happened again, didn't it?" Her voice was small; she felt that it barely left her throat.

She didn't want to believe it, god how she didn't want it to be true. But all the evidence pointed to the facts. From the stale coffee, the sleep-deprived body and attitude, to the lack of clothes and the fear she could see hidden beneath his eyes.

In her mind, she saw him in front of her, a 24-year-old college student quivered up in the corner of his dorm room bed screaming for everyone to get away from him. It seemed like a millennium ago when Smitty had confronted her, feeling as if she was the only one who could get through to their friend and the night terrors he seemed to be experiencing.

Her heart stopped in her chest, and as she stared at Tommy, she could feel all the sorrow from those years before rushing back to her.

"Oh god, Tommy…" She reached out to him, the skin on her hand gently lying against his arm. For the brief moment she was in contact with him, she could feel just how truly cold he was. The sensation sent shivers up her spine.

Then he pulled away, not only knocking the chair he sat in onto the floor, but also spilling the cold coffee on the table.

"Leave!" his voice roared, his eyes shut tightly to the point where he felt the skin might rip.

Hayley hadn't moved, despite his order. She stared at him intently, watching as his arms fidgeted until he finally pulled them closely to his chest, the dripping sound of coffee spilling onto the floor distracting them both from the sound of his own breathe hitching.

Eventually, Hayley slowly stood up, keeping her eyes locked closely on the man to make sure she didn't do anything to startle him.

He seemed to be zoned out in his own world though. He hadn't even moved when she brushed up against him, leaning down to pick up the chair and place its legs back on the floor.

"Sit." She picked up the coffee mug, setting it back down on the table.

Frustration ran through her as Tommy didn't respond, his arms still wrapped tightly around his poorly dressed body. She wanted to grab him by the arms and throw him into the chair; something she would have probably done on any other occasion, too. But she knew better, and she sighed heavily.

"Tommy, you're getting coffee all over your feet. Sit, now." Hayley gave out the orders this time, ones that were shockingly obeyed. Tommy sat back down in the chair, shaking through the process nonetheless.

And once he was there, he sunk down in the seat, head in hands.

Hayley still didn't want to believe what was happening. As she gathered paper towels from the further end of the kitchen, she could only try to comprehend the actuality.

Soon after she learned about the Power Rangers, and the part of his life she could have never guessed was true, she began to discover more about Tommy than she could have wanted to.

Hayley had begun to understand why he was late for classes and digs, why he fell asleep in the theater during movies; she started to see even small things, like why he was awake at 3 am working on the morpher designs.

It was the ill-fated day Smitty had came to her that she realized just how heavy being a Power Ranger was on Tommy. It took time, more time than she wanted to go through, to have him sit down and explain it to her.

Hayley let out a bittersweet chuckle as she wiped down the kitchen table, glancing at Tommy as she did. Stubborn, just like she was. She couldn't remember how many times she had to demand him to let her in. Finally he did.

It then took nearly two years to aid him in the situation. The nightmares were always intense - there was never a reason for them not to be. The fear he held inside, the panic of what he could become again, who he had been, all down to the evil he knew was still inside of him…it was all unleashed in his subconscious.

She could never begin to relate to the nightmares he had of his evil self.

Hayley sat back down, leaving the dirty towels on the table right next to the empty coffee mug. She waited for him to say something, make any sign of communication, however could see that he was still in his own world.

She feared this was only the beginning of him pulling away all over again.

"I guess it makes sense, logically," Hayley's voice broke the silence. "Once you became a ranger again, the fears were bound to resurface. If you think about-"

"Stop!"

Tommy's shout caught her off guard, his eyes widening as he curled his shaking hands into tight fist.

"Stop trying to analyze it."

Hayley wished anything could replace the pit of emotion settled in her stomach, the kind of feeling that made you want to throw up or just ignore everything that was going on. She stared at Tommy, watching as his eyes darted back and forth between many objects in the kitchen; none of which were her.

"Analyzing this is the only way to find the solution, Tommy." Her voice was calm and steady, and emanating reliability in her that she never knew existed in her.

Tommy shot his head up, his frighteningly timid eyes gazing through hers.

"No." His voice cracked slightly, "Probing things to the very last detail isn't the only way to resolve things, Hayley. It's just your way."

Pushing the chair back, Tommy snatched the empty and dripping coffee cup from Hayley's side of the table and stumbled over to the stovetop of the kitchen.

"Oh, okay." Hayley crossed her legs, watching with distain as the man tried to pour another pot of coffee into his mug, the shaking in his arms only making a mess over the counter.

"So we'll just do this your way - ignore anything that's happening, watch as you push away everyone you care about, all until you reach your breaking point in front of Anton Mercer and many other notable paleontologists."

Tommy didn't reply. He simply slowly lowered the coffee pot down to the counter, having let it sit in a pile of stale liquid. From Hayley's point of view, it almost looked as if he was either counting to ten, or merely zoned out.

Then, shockingly, what happened next didn't startle her. With a frustrated shout, Tommy threw the coffee mug against the wall, the loud and echoing smashing of glass drowned out by his cry.

Hayley didn't move. She didn't even bother looking at the mess behind her that he had created. She kept her eyes locked on Tommy, as he pounded his hands against the counter until the little strength he had was gone.

The silence was almost deafening after that, as if no noise could be louder than the glass smashing against the kitchen walls. She didn't expect Tommy to talk anymore, she simply waited until she felt the tension riding on his shoulders slowly let go of its strong grip.

She cleared her throat loudly, "Did that make you feel better?"

It wasn't sarcastic, but it wasn't being considerate either. If Hayley wanted to coddle the man, she'd be at his side hugging him until he couldn't breathe. But she didn't do things that way, at least not with Tommy Oliver.

His heavy breathing slowly subsided, and his fist uncurled into the puddle of cold coffee. For a moment, she could have sworn she saw his knees buckle, and that was when she let her worry rise.

"Tommy, maybe you should try and get some sleep. There's no point in figuring this out if you can't even keep a thought going."

He shook his head, ever so slowly. "I can't."

His voice was soft, too low for her to fully hear. While she didn't budge from the kitchen table, she titled her head sideways, as if it gave her a better position to hear him.

"I can't…watch…as I hurt you again."

It was odd how her heart skipped a beat, but her mind began to administer things at a faster speed. He may not have wanted her to analyze the situation, but she had already began the process when entering his house and seeing him in this state.

This really did recur because of his new morpher.

His voice spoke louder this time. "I can't watch…as I hurt them."

Tommy didn't turn to look at her, but she could see his eyes shifted over to where she sat. It was as if he knew that whatever he said, she could decipher it into what he didn't want to say.

And oddly enough, it had worked before he began to look at her. Hayley sighed, bowing her head with a burden she wasn't strong enough to carry.

During those grad school years, Tommy had told her that he experienced night terrors of sadistic things, all from conquering the town to murdering his closest Ranger friends. Whatever he had nightmares of, it always revolved around the Power Rangers, old to new.

His biggest fear always ended up being destroying the side of good that he was once turned against.

It didn't surprise her that it was happening again, with not only his students, but the newest generation of the Rangers.

She thought to herself, 'same ending, just a new story.'

"I know I got over this. I know…" he sighed, pulling his arms to his chest, "I know it's…foolish to just fall back into this all because I have a morpher again."

Tommy then turned to her, eyes gaping into hers with almost a gleam of plead. "But there are so many possibilities, Hayley. So many ways that Mesogog could resurface the evil in me. I saw firsthand what he's capable of.

"When he captured me, I laid there and spent the night going over the equations, the matter of probability - anything that he could do to re-emerge the evil-!"

Hayley shot up from her chair, the noise startling him out from hyperventilating.

"Tommy!" She watched as he slowly began to come back to the moment in time, the white glaze over his eyes fading away and returning her to his normal brown pupils.

She walked towards him, her hand gripping his arm tenderly. "I am not going to stand here and baby talk you into believing that it can't happen. I told you in college, and I'll tell you now, there is a chance every day that you could be turned evil again."

Hayley looked him in the eyes, gripping his face to make him do the same. She wasn't going to stand here and talk to him as he zoned out.

"We don't know for sure if there's still something inside of you that can be resurfaced…but with Mesogog now here…"

His breath hitched at those words, and even Hayley couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence. She shook her head slightly with a gulp,

"You can't let it get a hold of you, though. It's just fear. You need to use that fear against them, not let it take over you."

Tommy didn't nod his head, or give any sign of acknowledgement to Hayley when she said this. If it were any other person, they'd probably be frustrated and storm away. But just by looking into his eyes, Hayley could see a blanket of liberation wash over her friend. The piercing fear that haunted him seemed to get a tad bit thinner with her statement.

Taking a step back, Hayley let go of him. "The possibility that Mesogog could turn you against us is just all the more reason to destroy him, Tommy."

She wasn't expecting anything beneficial after this. She knew a few words wouldn't solve the problem, or make the wound go away. But for some odd reason, watching as Tommy sank to the ground, one leg sprawled out in front of him, was more a relief than seeing him stand number than a statue.

Hayley didn't bring herself to the ground with him. It was all she needed to see him nod his head ever so slightly with an understanding to know nothing more needed to be done. She wasn't expecting to be in the circumstances again, but Haley was prepared to stand by his side just as she did in grad school.

And just like in grad school, the subtle snoring she heard from Tommy gave her a reassuring peace that everything was going to be all right in time.

The End