Chapter 9

Towards evening, as the Cyberspace began to empty and a golden light was cast through the window, Kira called Dr O over to her. The other three rangers were seated on the sofas around her, and Hayley had come over a few minutes before (Kimberly had left for her apartment half an hour ago, needing to be up early to teach her young gymnasts). They all shifted slightly to make room for Dr O to sit beside Kira; Trent remained on her other side, where he had been all afternoon.

"Dr O, I have a confession. I lied today."

"What about?" The teacher was concerned, and with good reason. They had all lied, but Kira clearly didn't mean about being rangers.

"You…you know what I said about my dad? About being old enough to miss him but not old enough to understand? I...I understood, and I didn't miss him."

"Kira, that made no sense whatsoever…" Conner trailed off with a yelp as Ethan kicked him viciously. Their teammate took a deep breath and continued, focusing her gaze on her teacher's eyes, willing him to understand before she had to say it.

"I know why my dad left. He kept coming home drunk and raping my mom. She made him leave before his attention wandered to me."

"Kira, honey, why didn't you say so?" asked Hayley, concerned about her young friend.

"It was never important. I guess I never really wondered why mom was so angry when I told her that my friends were all guys - I was used to it, because she has always refused to date or even hang out with men. She went to the police about you because she didn't think I was strong enough to do so myself, but I'm plenty strong enough - I would have if you'd done anything."

"Kira, you don't have to talk about any of this."

"Yes I do, Dr O." The teacher nodded and motioned for Conner and Ethan to leave. Hayley went with them, leaving Trent and Dr O alone with Kira. Their mentor spoke slightly lower, his voice gentle so the red and blue rangers wouldn't overhear.

"Kira, tell me what the truth is. You're not done yet, I can tell, and you've never been one to hold out on important information."

"Please don't hate me, Dr O. Please." It was then, when Kira leaned into her boyfriend's arms, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks, that Tommy looked up at Trent properly and met his gaze.

"Trent?" He could see in the teenager's eyes that he was well aware of what Kira was failing to explain. He put his hand on Kira's shoulder and glanced over to Hayley who was standing at the bar. The woman came over and took Kira back to the counter to comfort her, muttering some lame excuse about needing help clearing the already immaculately-polished tables. Once his girlfriend had gone, Trent turned to Dr O once more.

"Dr O, Kira was raped. It was her dad, the night before he left, because he knew her mother was going to throw him out." Dr O could see the pain and anger in Trent's eyes as he spoke and knew that if he ever met Kira's father, Mr Ford would be in great danger, though the monster would deserve everything he got. Trent continued, "He…he took his time - he didn't leave until near dawn. She never told her mom, but I'm pretty sure Mrs Ford knew." Dr O didn't know what to say. "I think she realised that Kira was strong enough to tell – being a ranger makes you stronger. Can you imagine how ashamed Kira's mom would be to have to admit that, while she was glorying over the fact she was finally escaping her husband's domination, she'd left her own daughter to suffer. The police could have got involved."

"So Mrs Ford said that I raped her, so that any claim Kira made would either appear a lie or to counteract something in court…?" He was still confused, but some of the gaps were at least partially filled now.

"Dr O, what's going to happen now? I mean, Kira's staying with me tonight at my house, but my dad probably won't approve if I ask if she can move in."

"She'll move in with me if she has to. I don't care how bad it would look; I am not having her go back home now, not unless she wants to. The spare room's free now that Kim has moved out."

"That sounds great, Dr O. I'll tell Kira later. Right now we need to be heading home before my dad decides to send out a search party," the teen joked gently, motioning towards the clock on the wall above them.

"Wow, it is getting late, isn't it?" With that Trent stood and left with Kira, finding Conner and Ethan already having left.

"Tommy, are you okay? Is everything getting back to normal?" Hayley asked him when she found him on the sofa when she was closing up.

"Almost. I still have to talk to Kim about these martial arts lessons she's been holding in my backyard," smirked Dr O, failing to hide the gleam in his eye.

"Tommy, you're not going to go all green-ranger-style on her again, are you? Remember last time?" Of course he remembered; he'd been caught - it had taken Jason and Rocky three hours and two pairs of handcuffs (he broke the first pair) to restrain him, but they'd done it - and then it was a month before Kim would speak to him again.

"Yeah, I remember…" The teacher headed out the door to his former team-mate's apartment.

Don't worry, he thought. They won't catch me this time.

Yeah, I know the ending bit is kinda a quick change, but I wanted to put it in because I have another story idea and...I dunno, I wanted to put that there.

I hope you like the little twist with it being Kira's dad and all...not sure how that's going to be received, so you'd better tell me what you think of that. :)

And an apology that none of my chapters are particularly long: as I may have already said, it looks longer in Word than on here. Sorry, but I'll try and compensate by putting more stories up, okay?

To anyone who has reviewed I would like to say thank you for your kindness and criticism and...well, bothering to click the button which I tried blackmail, begging and everything in between to get you to use.

And so I bid you adieu!