Casey, Theo, and Lily looked blankly at Fran. Without warning their co-worker (of all of two weeks) had thrust a book at each of them.
"Er, thanks?" Casey said doubtfully. He looked quizzically at the girl whose fair skin was flushed with embarrassment.
"There was a book sale and well…I bought everyone a book that I thought they might like…" Fran pushed her glasses up onto her nose and smiled nervously. She wasn't used to attention from groups bigger than two. And now four people were focused on her. Her strangely color coded new acquaintances in front of her and RJ lazily leaning against a doorway just to her right.
"Thanks," Theo said quickly to forestall a torrent of what their master had dubbed 'Frannie babble.' He looked down and his brows wrinkled together, "'The Secret Garden?'"
Fran blinked and shook her head as she realized which books had wound up with which Jungle Karma employee. "Switch with Lily."
The boy in blue and the girl in yellow shrugged and switched.
"This was my favorite book when I was a little girl," Lily's voice was tinged with delight.
The other girl's lips quirked up a tad smugly.
"'The Hobbit'…is it any good?" Theo wondered.
Casey and Lily both gave him incredulous looks.
"You've never read 'The Hobbit'," Casey shook his head. "It's like your illiterate."
Theo glared, "Shut up!"
"Dude, it's a literary classic." RJ's mellow voice floated over. "The Tolkien rocked the written word."
Fran smiled bashfully at RJ. "I'm good at matching people to books."
Casey considered this and wondered what book she considered a good match for him. "'The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius'. Should I have heard of it?"
Fran shrugged as she stuffed her half-completed social study homework into her backpack.
"Marcus Aurelius was an emperor of Rome. He was a philosopher whose writings are considered by some to be the essential book on character, leadership, and duty," RJ pushed himself of the wall and wandered over to Fran.
Casey regarded the book with considerably more interest.
Fran shivered under his steady gaze. It amazed her that a man who at times resembled nothing so much as a cartoon puppy who liked to surf could turn all weirdly insightful. It amazed her even more that no one else seemed to notice.
"Didja happen to pick up a book for your wonderfully hip boss?" RJ went from intense to bouncing.
Fran regarded him wordlessly before pulling a hardback children's book from her bag. Maybe, he was bipolar. It would explain a lot. "If I want to get home before dark, I'd better go now. Things aren't safe at night …starting recently….not that they were ever really safe. Ocean Bluff is a mid-sized city with a sizable criminal element…bye!" Fran slid out the door.
"She knows," RJ said flatly.
"Knows what?" Casey wondered. The others adopted similarly confused expressions.
RJ smiled gently at his cubs, to a master all his students were cubs and would always remain so. "What color are the books that Fran gave you?"
Theo looked at his copy of 'The Hobbit'. It was a bright robin's egg blue.
'The Secret Garden' was cream with gold lettering with touches of buttercup yellow, Lily let out a small gasp of surprise.
Finally, Casey held up 'The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius' it was bound in dark red pseudo-leather.
"It's a coincidence. It has to be," Lily said without much conviction.
"How could she possibly know?" Scoffed Theo.
Casey looked thoughtful, "We do wear our colors all the time. The same colors that the Rangers wear."
Theo stubbornly shook his head, "Can't be. No one has ever made that connection between the Rangers and their civilian identities. From the Wild West Rangers to the present they've never been found out."
RJ laughed aloud, "You know about the Wild West Rangers? You really are a fan."
Theo rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "I may have done a report or three in Jr. High," he mumbled.
"If Fran knows what are we going to do?" Lily asked with a worried frown.
"We'll retcon her mind back to kindergarten," RJ announced airily. He laughed at their appalled expressions, "Just kidding. Dudes, like I'd do something like that! Fran knows but I don't think she's gonna tell."
Theo's mouth twisted down, "How can you be so sure?"
RJ shrugged. "Sometimes you got to have a little faith in people. She knows but don't tell her that we know that she knows. Ya know?"
Casey sighed. With Master Mao you knew where you stood; however, their new master seemed to think that being cryptically confusing was good for them. "So just to clarify we should pretend that we don't know that she knows."
"Exactamundo," RJ winced at the sheer dork-ness of the word. "Remind me never to say that again!"
"I suppose if she was going to call Buzz Wire we'd be knee deep in reporters by now," Lily said.
Casey nodded in agreement, "We'll watch her just to be on the safe side. But, as she hasn't told anyone I think we're safe."
"I can't believe she found out! She can't have found out! Oh, we are so screwed," moaned Theo.
"Dude! This is a kid's show you can't say words like that," RJ waved an admonishing finger at Theo.
For their part his students just stared. This was after all the same man who swore with great enthusiasm and in three languages when he burnt his thumb on one of the pizza ovens.
"Is that a do as I say not as I do thing?" Lily wondered aloud.
"Hey, what book did she get you?" asked Casey.
RJ looked at his and let out a chuckle, "'Where the Wild Things Are' by Maurice Sendak." RJ's expression turned pensive; a book about a little boy who dressed up as a wolf…huh.
The title comes from the song 'Strangers Like Me' by Phil Collins from the Tarzan soundtrack.
Wild West Rangers came from the episode where Kimberly fell through a time hole and ended up in the Wild West where she put together a team of rangers that consisted of the ancestors of Billy, Adam, Aisha, and Rocky and with the help of the White Stranger (Tommy's granddaddy) defeated Goldar.
Retcon is the typical response of Torchwood to anyone finding out about them. Basically, they feed you an amnesia pill.
Buzz Wire is a fictional Internet news show from the TV show Moonlight.