Vereco
by EstiRose
“He’s a clone.”
Trip’s pronouncement was quiet, but it seemed to explode around the room as if he had shouted it. His three teammates gathered around him, and he felt the absence of the fourth, the one that was most affected by the news.
He himself was uncertain of his announcement. Not the facts, since he was sure of those. No, the fact that one of his teammates, the one that shouldn’t have any genetic alterations, the one whose DNA had matched Alex’s exactly, the one who had initially been a reluctant part of the team, was the focus of all the attention.
Trip was not empathic, or at least not empathically talented, but he was keenly concerned about the team and the team’s well-being. It was why, after Jen’s rejection of Wes, that he’d snuck onto the grounds of Wes’ residence to convince their Red Ranger that he was meant to be part of the team, and give him what was needed to convince Jen to let him be part of the team.
So far, Trip had managed to keep the peace, except when he was part of the disruption. He was aware that the others saw situations better than he did - he was, after all, Xybrian, and a typical Xybrian to boot - but sometimes it took someone with his touch to keep the team together.
He blinked up at the screen, which displayed Wes’ DNA, compared with Alex’s, and tapped a key. The screen went blank, to the apparent confusion of his teammates, and Trip wished he’d kept his mouth shut. Nobody except maybe Circuit had to know the truth about Wes. Certainly none of the others did. So Wes was a clone, so what? He wasn’t Alex, and Jen, of all people, had to know that.
There was no reason to treat Wes any differently, but now that the others knew, the secret was going to come out. Wes was going to find out, and Wes was from a time when cloning was still in its infancy. The people of Wes’ time had cloned sheep and mice, but human cloning had yet to be done, and was the subject of much controversy.
Looking up, he wished he knew what to say.
Ransik had been quiet, and so Jen, apart from training and the team’s rotation at the downstairs counter, had let her team rest. Wes was manning it now, in the off chance that someone would want to hire them to do something.
Jen wished she knew where Ransik’s lair was, just to end this thing once and for all. Every day that they failed to capture Ransik meant yet another day in this century. Not that she hated Wes’ time, but it wasn’t her own, and she wanted to get Ransik and return home. Katie wasn’t the only one that got homesick. She had to wonder if, in one of their alterations, that Alex would survive. Of course, that would mean that they would have never gone back to 2001. Paradox.
In the meantime, despite her best intentions, she had Wes to remind her of her lost love. She knew the rest of her team seemed to be highly amused by her occasional romantic reactions towards Wes, and she tolerated them. She wasn’t sure why she was responding to Wes in ways other than the team rookie and a teammate, but she was. So she didn’t take offense at her team’s actions - if anything, they were a gauge of how things were going between herself and Wes.
She leaned back and started to review strategies. It seemed that this was her strength, here in the 21st century where she had little to rely upon except her teammates. It was Trip’s pronouncement to, presumably, Circuit, that brought her out of her review back into the real world.
Jen moved towards the picnic table where Trip, Circuit, and the viewscreen sat. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the others gathering curiously towards their Xybrian teammate.
Trip, apparently embarrassed by the attention from herself, Lucas, and Katie, tapped the display off. Judging from the display just before Trip had shut it off, it had something to do with DNA, not too startling considering his statement.
“What’d you say?” Lucas asked, looming over the seated Trip.
“Nnnothing,” Trip stammered, in the sure way that signaled that he was lying. Trip was not the world’s best liar, in this century or their home one. The Xybrian culture, as Trip had proved a few weeks before, was a trusting one, and few species were lousier at lying than the Xybrians. Fortunately, in his time on Earth, Trip had gotten better at lying. But not to his teammates.
Jen silently blessed the fact that the people of Wes’ time thought that Trip was an Earth human who’d dyed his hair green. Trip had grasped the situation quickly and was capable of not blurting out that he wasn’t native to the planet, and his hair, though unusual, wasn’t a sure-fire way of identifying him as alien. Even though this Earth had been exposed to the Aquitians briefly, she doubted the ordinary person of this century could deal with the truth.
“You’ve been working on the morphers again?” Katie prodded gently.
Trip maintained silence, with a downcast look that surely meant that he had news he didn’t want to share with anyone. When Lucas reached for the controls to bring Trip’s research back up, Trip knocked his hand away.
The unusual act by Trip caused her to look up involuntarily and meet the eyes of Lucas and Katie. None of them had ever seen Trip act that way with them, and it was two confused and, from Katie, concerned looks which met her own gaze. What was going on?
Trip keyed a lock on the data and stood up. “I’m going downstairs,” he announced abruptly, and moved towards the stairs.
Three sets of eyes followed him.
Trip stormed down the stairs, the long journey to the bottom of the clock tower allowing his thoughts to stampede unaided. What had he brought about? It was surely a matter of time before the others realized what was going on, and then Wes would know. And Wes didn’t need to know. Trip wasn’t sure if his teammate could handle the news, and he didn’t want to find out in reality.
If only he’d kept his mouth shut. But like every other time he’d fouled up in his life, he was the cause of his own misery. He should go out. The others could call if they needed him. And they’d better only call if one of Ransik’s mutants was attacking.
He knew his behaviour upstairs had been almost unheard of for him, but he couldn’t help it - he wanted out of there, before he blabbered out the truth about Wes. Or left it on the screen for the others to see. He might be the team’s technical specialist, but it wouldn’t take forever for the others to find out what he’d been hiding. He almost tripped over a step as he realized he hadn’t given Circuit any instructions about not saying anything. Circuit probably wouldn’t say anything, but Trip couldn’t be sure, and he didn’t dare go up and face further questioning from Jen and the others. He’d heard the human saying ‘none of your business’ but it was still hard for him to comprehend. And he still couldn’t say it!
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Trip swung himself so that he could head immediately into the workshop without bothering Wes. “Trip?” his obviously confused teammate called out, but Trip didn’t answer, grimly shutting the door behind him.
Lucas watched Trip depart. He got along okay with Trip, but he had to confess that he didn’t know his Xybrian teammate very well.
Still, even he knew that this wasn’t how Trip behaved. Trip was smiling and pleasant, always wishing to avoid trouble. Lucas sometimes wondered how the Xybrian had made it through Time Force training, but obviously he had, and just as obviously, was good enough to be a Ranger, not that Jen had had much choice in the matter.
He looked at Jen’s and Katie’s eyes, hoping that one of them would explain why Trip had stormed out like that, what had affected him so much that he’d go away instead of explaining things. But he didn’t see anything that said that Jen and Katie had any idea of what was driving Trip. His teammate had turned off the display so quickly that he hadn’t seen what he was working on, other than a representation of DNA.
Jen sat down on the bench and fruitlessly tried to reopen Trip’s file. After a few minutes the three of them just sat there and stared, before Jen asked, “Circuit, what was Trip working on?”
The robotic owl shifted his wings and moved his head around. “Trip was working on the DNA locks on the morphers, hoping to see if he could make them even more secure. The last set of files he was working on was a comparison of Wes’ DNA vs. Alex’s.”
“Wait a minute,” Katie piped up. “Does that mean that Wes is a clone of Alex, or vice versa? Jen?”
A remembered moment out of a discussion caused Jen to look up at Circuit. “Circuit, tell us about the Rialtson clones.”
Circuit obligingly began to speak. “John Rialtson was convicted for using the DNA of individuals without their permission. His plan was to produce clones that could take over for an individual if that individual was injured or dead. With the help of secret supporters, he produced several individuals. Nobody ever found where he’d hidden the clones!”
“You think Wes might be one of the Rialtson clones?” Katie asked.
Jen shrugged. “It was always a theory,” she said, shrugging. “And Alex was one of the people on the list, so we both had an interest in it.”
In reality, it had spawned a lot of discussion between the two of them and had gone back and forth for quite some time. They’d even made plans just in case Alex’s clone was discovered - Alex had been ready to adopt the child, or whatever was needed.
“But Alex,” she had argued, “Doesn’t he deserve to live his own life?”
Her boyfriend had shrugged. “He will have his own life, Jen. He’s not me and I don’t expect him to be.” Alex’s face had softened into a smile. “In fact, I hope he turns out like you.”
“I’ll talk to Trip,” Jen told Katie and Lucas, before heading towards the stairs.
In all honesty, she mused as she headed down the stairs, she didn’t know what she was going to say. Whatever Trip had found, it was obviously something that upset him. If Wes was the clone that Rialtson had made of Alex, then that needed to be faced head-on, not hidden. Wes was very much his own person, and even if he was really a clone, nothing was going to change that.
She finally made it down to the bottom floor. Wes was leaning against the counter, clearly alternating between bored and furtive looks towards Trip’s workshop. She ignored him, intent on getting some answers from her reluctant teammate, but the door was locked. “Trip, let me in.”
The shuffle of Wes’ feet echoed around the room as Wes came into her view. “Jen?” he asked quietly. “What’s going on?”
Wes hated manning the counter, but it was part of his job and he didn’t want to be tossed out or tick Jen off again. His Dad owned the clock tower, and they were trespassing, but it was still not a good idea to annoy his roommates.
Nobody had phoned, nobody had come in, and it looked like the team was going to have to shop on a budget again, get enough food to feed five hungry people who had to save the city and 2001 from Ransik’s ideas.
Despite what Jen had told him, Wes still doubted she was telling the complete truth, or the true truth. He still felt sorry for Ransik, at least he did when he was alone like this. He tended to get wrapped up in the team’s feelings towards the criminal when they were all together. Judging from what Ransik had told him in the TV station, though, Wes sometimes wondered if Time Force had brought this problem upon themselves.
It sounded almost like the mutants were the minorities of the 30th century, their presence suspicious despite any benign intentions. Sure, all the mutants they’d found so far had been violent criminals, but what if there was an innocent mutant in cryo-freeze? Ransik and Nadira were, in some ways, compensating in this time for the injustices done to them in their own.
Still, Wes doubted his teammates would share his views, and kept his mouth shut. It was the best way of keeping the peace with ill-tempered Jen.
Jen… Sometimes he could swear that she was in love with him, and sometimes it seemed like he could never replace Alex. He kept reminding himself that Alex was gone, Jen was free, but he never wanted to make a move. Jen’s focus was Ransik, and taking her own revenge on the person who had ruined her life.
Wes wasn’t going to share that with her, either.
He slumped further forward, straightening up as footsteps thundered down the stairs, followed in a short while by Trip, who looked extremely upset by something. He called his teammate’s name, but was ignored as Trip shut the door to his workshop behind him. Shrugging, Wes started paying attention to the front door again, hoping to look attentive just in case.
A second thunder of footsteps soon followed Trip’s, and Wes was somewhat surprised to see Jen appear. Katie was the one who took the hurts of the team, not Jen. She took one look at him and then immediately headed over to Trip’s workshop. She tried the door, seemingly finding it locked, and called, “Trip, let me in.”
That got Wes’ attention. What was so important that would cause Trip to barricade himself in his lair? Why was Jen there? He got up from the chair and walked the short distance to the door. “Jen?” he asked, “What’s going on?”
Jen turned abruptly at his intrusion, as if she hadn’t heard him come over. “I’m not sure,” she said. “I’d like to talk to Trip alone… please?” She fished something out of her pocket. “Why don’t you get the groceries? We’re running low on some things,” she added lamely.
Wes took the list out of her hand, knowing that if this was some kind of weird thirtieth-century matter then it would probably do him no good to hang around. They probably wouldn’t feel very comfortable with him around. “Okay, I’ll see what I can do. You’ll watch the door?”
“I will, Wes,” Jen promised. She looked like she was serious, so he left her to her own devices. He couldn’t get a lecture for what she’d told him to do, after all, and he’d much rather face shopping than another hour down at the counter.
He was out before he could even think about it, trusting the others to deal with Trip’s issue.
Jen watched as Wes’ motorcycle vanished down the road. She hoped he wouldn’t get curious and circle around, because she wanted to give Trip a place where he could talk. No matter how the others felt, Trip obviously felt differently, and he might not be too comfortable discussing Wes if Wes was hanging around.
“Trip, if you don’t unlock this door, I’ll laser it and have you explain why to Wes!” she told her recalcitrant teammate.
About half a minute later, she had the satisfaction of the door unlocking to reveal Trip’s face. Not more than that, she noted, and Trip looked appreciably panicked. “You can’t tell him!” he pleaded.
“Tell me what’s going on, Trip,” she ordered.
“Where’s Wes?” he asked, not doing as she said.
“I sent him to get groceries,” she told him curtly. “I’m going to put a sign next to the bell, and then you and I are going to talk.”
Not giving Trip a choice, she plunked the “please ring for assistance” sign and bell from the spot near the register where they usually resided. Once she was satisfied, she went to the door of Trip’s workshop and quickly passed through it, closing it behind her. “Now, what’s going on. Does it have to do with Wes?”
Trip’s expression clouded over, replaced quickly by his best imitation of a scared mouse, and Jen knew that she’d hit paydirt. She silently blessed her decision to send Wes off. “What do you know about it?” Trip asked.
“I know what you said,” she offered. “Trip, if it has to do with our team, I have to know. I have to know what’s going on.”
“Only if you promise not to tell Wes,” Trip said, a strange determination settling in on his face.
“I can’t promise that, Trip,” she said, though she tried to soften the words, mindful of the Xybrian’s sensitivity. “Let me hear what’s going on and then I can tell you if Wes needs to be told.”
Her teammate hesitated, and then started to talk. “Circuit and I… we were trying to do these analyses of why the morphers worked as they did. It was my idea to examine Wes’ DNA against Alex’s, to see why Wes could activate the morpher when he shouldn’t be able to do that. I… I didn’t expect them to be identical!”
“So, Wes is a clone. Rialtson?”
Trip let a noise escape that may well have been half a sigh. “It’s a possibility. Did… did Alex ever submit his DNA for cloning?”
Jen shook her head. “If he did, he never told me. I think he would have, because it’s acceptable to clone, it’s just that nobody does it much anymore. It’s not like they’ll be immortal, they’ll just have a child that looks a lot like them.”
“Rialtson thought different.”
“Rialtson,” Jen said sharply, and then regretted it, for Trip was just stating facts, “thought that clones should serve as backups for their genetic parents. It’s precisely because of that kind of attitude that it’s illegal to create a clone to serve as a housing for your mind or personality.”
“I know, Jen,” Trip responded softly. “I’m not condoning what he did. I’m not condoning his attitude in any way. And I knew Alex too. I know he wouldn’t have subjected any clone of his to what Rialtson wanted to do.”
“Sorry,” Jen responded. “It’s just… Alex knew that Rialtson had created a clone of him after he became a Ranger, and I knew he felt guilty that he was the cause of this new life being born, even indirectly.”
“I know you didn’t ask, but yes, Wes has all the genetic alterations normal to someone born in the thirtieth century,” Trip told her. “If he was one of those that Rialtson cloned from, then Wes must be one of Rialtson’s clones. In any case, I don’t want to tell him. The people of this time period just aren’t… ready for clones. He isn’t ready to know.”
Jen found herself smiling. “I think you’re underestimating Wes,” she told him. Then her expression grew more serious. “And he has a right to know. If he is one of Rialtson’s clones, then he is a citizen of the thirtieth century, along with being a victim of Rialtson’s crime. He also has to know that we won’t condemn him for what he is. Besides, I think the secret’s pretty much out.”
“He’s going to hate me for telling,” Trip said, as if talking to himself. Then he turned to face her. “He’s not going to be with us forever. What happens after we capture Ransik and leave? He’s going to be alone in this century, where he’s just a science fiction concept, not a real person. The people of this time don’t have a thousand years of mistakes in this area to deal with.”
“Who says he has to tell?” Jen argued. “Trip, the only people who know this is us! It’s not like you blurted it out to the general public. We can handle it, and together, we will help Wes handle it.”
“If you say so,” Trip replied, sounding like her seriously doubted her words.
Jen’s firm expression indicated that she believed what she was telling him, but Trip had his doubts. How could he have been so careless? Sure, Wes was surrounded by people whose attitudes were accepting of his clone status, but Wes himself was a different matter. Jen seemed to have forgotten that no matter in which time Wes had been born, he had still grown up in this century and had all of its attitudes and prejudices.
Wes was going to hate him. He’d take off, with or without his morpher, and where would they be? With no Red Ranger. He’d have to grab Wes before Wes went upstairs, and give Wes a chance to leave. If he wanted him to, Trip would gladly pack for him. If Wes even wanted him to touch his stuff, that is.
His team leader awkwardly patted him on the shoulder. “I promised Wes that I’d watch the door for him. We’ll wait until he gets home and talk about this… together.”
“Okay,” Trip responded, hoping he’d figure out how to melt into the floor by then.
Wes pulled up at the base of the Clock Tower, taking the bags that held the groceries out of their packs. He walked softly towards the door, hoping that Jen and Trip had resolved the problem while he was out bargain hunting. In any case, he’d secured enough supplies for the moment.
Turning the knob, he cautiously opened the door. He didn’t hear anything, but that didn’t mean that the situation was resolved. As he pushed open the door, he kept his senses alert.
“Hi, Wes,” came Trip’s voice, and he looked around to see Trip sitting up stiffly in their one client chair, an overstuffed armchair. Jen was sitting at the counter, just like she’d promised.
Of course, the looks on his two teammates’ faces told him that something was going on, and he had the unpleasant feeling it involved him. Jen, if anything, looked anxious, and Trip looked like he wanted to melt into the floor.
“I got the groceries you asked for,” he offered, holding the bags out to Jen.
She took them, but the groceries were definitely not on the top of her mind, as she just placed them behind the counter. Wes raised an eyebrow, trying his best to do his Mr. Spock imitation, even though he knew his teammates would not “get it”.
“Wes…” Jen hesitated, and then continued, “We have to talk.”
“We?” he asked, giving Trip a sideways look.
“Yes, we.” her voice was firm, and a glance at Trip confirmed that he was soon to be talked to by both sides. Definitely whatever had happened had to do with him.
Trip darted into his workroom and pulled out the other stool that had sometime ago been put there. He hopped up on it, leaving the client chair to Wes. Before Wes had time to question the action, Jen was pushing him towards it. “Sit down,” she ordered.
“What’s going on?” he asked as he sat down. “Why’s Trip upset, and what’s so important?”
Jen exchanged a look with Trip, and the two of them sat silent, as if they weren’t sure what to do. Finally, Trip spoke. “Uh… I was doing a genetic analysis of your DNA and Alex’s, and I discovered something. I’m sorry.”
It was Jen who spoke next. “How much do you know about cloning, Wes?”
“Not a lot. I know that it’s been done, on mice and sheep at least, but not much beyond that.” Strictly speaking, he did know more, but he didn’t want to show off his lack of knowledge, not to these two. A school paper seemed pretty foolish when one was talking to people from a thousand years in the future. “I take it cloning is pretty common in your time.”
“The ability to do it, yes. There aren’t a lot of clones, though,” Jen responded. “When they are, it’s because of a problem when a child is born, or for some reason somebody has to have one. It’s because clones are individuals and are not legally tied to their ‘parents’.”
Trip took a deep breath and Wes found himself turning his way. Trip seemed to square his shoulders. “What we’re trying to tell you,” Trip said, his words rushing out as if he was afraid they’d explode in his mouth, “is that you’re not from here.”
The Xybrian turned away, apparently embarrassed by his outburst. Wes put Trip’s initial words together. “You’re trying to tell me that I’m a clone?”
His two teammates traded looks in such a way that Wes knew he was right. He battered any further exclamations down, in the hopes that if he didn’t cause Trip to die of embarrassment, and Jen to become self-righteous, he would get through this.
“Yeah, you’re a clone,” Jen confirmed. “You’ve got to understand, though, that to us you’re just as human as you were before we knew about it. You are Alex’s clone, but to us, you’d only be strange if you turned out to be a duplicate, personality-wise, of Alex. Which I can assure you that you’re not! You’re just a typical thirtieth-century clone. In fact, you’re the victim of a crime.”
“Crime?” Wes asked, trying to take it all in.
“Crime,” Jen confirmed. “By someone who didn’t value you as you. You and the others were going to be his political statements. He created you and a lot of others to prove that clones were only supposed to be back-ups for their genetic ‘parents’. We never did find what happened to the lot of you until today.”
“Alex was one of his donors,” Trip explained helpfully.
“Unwillingly,” Jen said, as if to clarify the issue. “This scientist didn’t care about his consent or yours. He just wanted to prove a point.”
Wes took a deep breath. “What would have happened if I’d ended up with this guy?”
“He would have force-grown you. You wouldn’t have had a childhood, and nothing of yourself except brain-scans that he’d stolen from Alex’s records. You were supposed to be there in case Alex got injured in the course of his duties. The other clones were there for similar reasons.”
“And I still ended up being Alex’s replacement,” Wes mused.
“Not because Rialtson forced you into it, though,” Jen offered. “You became our Red Ranger because we needed you, but you weren’t Alex. You are not Alex. You are Wes. And I don’t expect you to be anyone else.”
Jen’s words were firm, and Wes felt himself wrapped in a cocoon of caring. Jen didn’t seem fazed at all by what she’d found out, and Trip’s embarrassment seemed to have more to do with some misstep he’d made. Still, this was not what he’d expected when he came back with the groceries. “I’ve got to think about this,” he said, knowing that he had some time left on the desk.
“Go ahead, then. Trip’ll watch the desk if you want to go outside. And don’t forget to come back for dinner!”
With that one last order, Jen headed towards the stairs, leaving Wes and Trip alone.
Trip sat there as Jen’s footsteps echoed down the long flight of stairs up to their residence. Wes was still sitting in the armchair, looking like he’d been hit by a stun blast. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything….” he apologized, hoping that it would be enough.
“It’s all right, Trip, Wes responded. “If what Jen said was true, then I don’t have anything to worry about. You guys are the only ones who know, so it’s not like I’d have everyone from this time thinking I’m a freak.”
“Do you think you’re a freak?” Trip asked cautiously. He didn’t have access to Wes’ emotions, that wasn’t his talent, but he could sometimes use words to spot problems. Problem was that most humans were not so honest about their feelings as his people were, and so were hard to judge.
“I don’t know,” Wes said, and opening up, Trip could see that it was true. He couldn’t read emotions, but he was good at thoughts. Wes continued, “I just don’t know. Part of me says that clones are impossible, and I’m one of a kind, and the other counters that I’ve met time travelers and aliens, so I shouldn’t find clones such a strange thing.”
“Everyone’s one of a kind,” Trip offered. “Especially clones.”
Wes looked up. “Have you ever dealt with a clone before?” he asked.
Trip found his face reddening. “No, not really. As Jen said, they’re kinda rare and it’s never come up. I know they exist, but….”
“They’re not part of everyday life,” Wes concluded. “Then how can Jen say that I’m not going to be treated differently? A curiosity.”
He shivered as he heard Wes’ tone. “Just because clones are rare doesn’t mean they’re different!” Trip protested. “Sure, some people might get mildly curious, but you’re a sentient being. The only difference is that your DNA came from Alex and not from two parents. Talk to Katie - I think she’s dealt with clones before.”
“Okay,” Wes said, sounding doubtful.
“Besides, why would anyone treat you differently? You’re your own being, not Alex’s shadow!”
He was rewarded with a small smile, but he could tell that Wes was still thinking it over. “Just talk to Katie, okay?”
“Okay,” Wes responded. “You okay down here?”
Trip put up his bravest smile. “I’ll be okay.”
Wes left Trip manning the counter and went upstairs. He realized he hadn’t asked Trip if Katie knew, or if he’d be telling her himself. Ah, well. Best way to find out if Jen was being truthful was to tell her what he was and then see how she reacted.
The stairs up to the top seemed to take forever. It was like he was going up, and up, and up… and he would only know if he was successful when he got up to the top. Would he find himself struggling with himself forever?
It was bad enough falling in love with someone who was in love with someone that was him but not him! And, as much as he hated to admit it, he was in love with Jen, despite her drill-sergeant ways. She was beautiful, she was bold….
She was in love with Alex. His genetic ‘parent’. He didn’t have a chance.
After forever, he reached the top of the stairs, the back of the clock. His current home, at least until his Dad tumbled on to the intruders and kicked them all out. He couldn’t see Katie, Lucas seemed to have his nose in a book, and Jen was sitting on the picnic bench staring. It was as if she was waiting for him.
Ignoring her, he looked around for Katie. She had been upstairs when he started his shift, so unless she’d left while he’d gone for the groceries, she was up there somewhere. Craning his head to the left, he could make her out sitting at the left window, writing in her diary.
He headed for his teammate, mindful of Jen turning her head to look at him, and Circuit also gazing curiously at him. He was half-tempted to ask Jen if she’d told Katie, but then she’d have fits.
Wes reached the window. “Hi, Katie,” he said.
“Wes,” she acknowledged.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” he asked. His teammate looked over at him
“Sure,” she said, apparently surprised. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Trip said you’ve dealt with clones before,” Wes said to her, trying not to reveal what else Trip had said. “In your time, I mean.”
“Once,” Katie said thoughtfully. “It was right after the Rialtson trial. He’d come in; apparently he was harassed for being a clone. He was really close to his ‘parent’, too, but apparently too much unlike his parent. Apparently some of Rialtson’s supporters decided that he would be a good target.”
Katie’s voice hardened at that, and Wes breathed inward. “What happened next?” he asked.
“We proved that he was being harassed, and the perpetrators were put on trial,” Katie responded, her tone matter-of-fact. “I just couldn’t believe that they’d do that to him because he was a clone! It’s just not right. I don’t know how things are in your time, but….”
“Mice and sheep so far, Katie,” Wes told her. “No humans, not yet.”
“Then it’s not a problem yet,” Katie said, sounding relieved. “I just can’t believe some attitudes.”
Taking a deep breath, Wes spoke. “Katie, Trip and Jen just told me something….”
Before he could finish, his teammate looked up. “Were you the clone Trip was muttering about?”
Wes froze.
Katie had looked up when Jen had come back upstairs after chasing Trip. However, their leader had sat on the picnic bench, watching the stairs, and neither she nor Lucas dared to ask Jen any questions.
So Lucas had drifted off to read one of the books that they’d found while cleaning the place, and she went to her diary, although she had a feeling that it wouldn’t do her much good.
A sound from the stairs made her briefly look up. But she couldn’t see who it was, so she kept her ears open in hopes that someone would speak and explain what had happened.
However, nobody spoke. Katie stared at her diary, thinking of what to say, as footsteps creaked towards her and the window.
“Hi, Katie,” Wes greeted her. She wondered what he was doing up there, as it was his shift downstairs. Maybe, since his was the last shift of the day, she’d just lost track of time. Maybe they’d closed for the evening.
“Wes,” she acknowledged, not sure why he was coming to her. Maybe he needed someone to take care of the downstairs counter?
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” he asked. Looking up, she took in his serious, almost downcast expression.
“Sure,” she said, although she hadn’t thought that she and their Red Ranger were particularly close. Maybe this had to do with his on-and-off relationship with Jen. “What do you want to talk about?” she asked.
“Trip said you’ve dealt with clones before,” Wes said, causing her to start. As far as she knew, he didn’t know about Trip’s proclamation. A suspicion formed in her mind. “In your time, I mean,” he continued, apparently oblivious to her thoughts.
Katie thought about the last time she’d talked to a clone. Her one and only time, in fact. As she explained to Wes what had happened, her mind flashed on poor Lucien. She’d been particularly outraged at his treatment. Anybody could see that Lucien was a person, a different person than his ‘parent’, Robert!
It was to her immense satisfaction that those responsible had faced justice. To think someone had to be a copy of somebody else just because that someone else had provided their DNA was something that had sickened her. At least, as Wes confirmed, people in his century didn’t have that problem. Many problems, yes, that problem, no.
As she finished, Wes took a deep breath, as if ready to give her some bad news. “Katie, Trip and Jen just told me something….”
Something clicked inside her. Trip’s proclamation, Wes’ sudden interest, Wes’ last statement. “Were you the clone Trip was muttering about?”
In that instant she knew she was right, and regretted her choice of words. How they must sound to Wes, who had suddenly found out he wasn’t who he thought he was! “Sorry, Wes,” she apologized. “I didn’t mean it to come out that way.”
“It’s all right,” Wes said, brushing it off in a way that said that he really didn’t think it was all right, but he didn’t want to discuss it further. “I guess I am really the center of attention right now.”
“Look, Trip obviously didn’t want to tell us what you were. Obviously, he wanted you to know first. It’s just curiosity, nothing more, Wes. Clones are rare, not everybody has ever met one. That doesn’t mean that you’re any different. You’re kinda like Alex’s identical twin, except you were born and raised in a different time.”
“Right,” Wes answered, obviously not convinced in the matter.
“Give us some time,” Katie pleaded quietly. “Once everybody knows, it’ll be a non-issue. Give us a chance.”
With a muttered, “Okay,” Wes left her, obviously wanting to brood. She watched him as he disappeared out of her line of sight, obviously distressed, and resolved that they had to convince him once and for all.
Jen watched Wes as he headed back downstairs after talking briefly with Katie. Whatever the two of them had talked about,it apparently hadn’t helped Wes’ mood. Inwardly, Jen resolved to bring the matter up at dinner. If this was left unchecked, it had the potential to tear her team apart.
“What was that all about?” Lucas demanded quietly.
“I’ll tell you later,” she responded. “In the meantime, isn’t it your turn to make dinner?”
“Trip’s, actually,” Lucas told her.
Jen mentally reviewed the duty roster and knew that he was right. “Can you take care of it? I’ll see that Trip takes care of one of yours.”
“Got it,” Lucas said, turning away towards their meager food stores, and Jen realized that Wes’ grocery run was still sitting down at the desk with Trip. She debated whether or not to go down, and then decided that since she’d probably be going down anyway she’d worry about it then.
With that, she was left alone, just as she liked it. She quietly thanked the universe that the revelation about Wes was the only thing that had happened that day. She didn’t know if they could deal with a mutant attack right now, not just before dinner.
She watched the stairs, willing Wes to come back. Why couldn’t he understand? She’d told him, Trip had told him, but he apparently wasn’t willing to accept it. She kept telling herself that it was because he was from a bygone era, a time past where they hadn’t even really left the planet on any kind of mass basis. Terra Venture was a few years away still as far as Wes was concerned.
Wishing she had Trip’s ability to see into people’s minds, she waited. And waited. It was coming up time to close, and she could see Trip getting ready to pack up for the evening. She resisted the temptation to activate her morpher and ask Trip, on the off chance that they’d picked up an unexpected customer.
To her immense surprise, two sets of footsteps echoed up the stairwell. Trip appeared first, obviously talking to the person behind him. Wes struggled up after him, holding the grocery bags that they had abandoned behind the counter.
Since it was her turn, she started setting the table that they shared every evening for dinner, taking the napkins and plates out of storage. She paused for a moment when she realized that it was Wes’ turn to do the dishes - would he feel like it? Would she enforce it? Maybe normality was all Wes needed. At least after supper.
Trip’s face showed panic as he rushed towards where Lucas was preparing their meal, but Lucas smoothly intercepted him with a dish, and Trip scurried over to the table with it.
Wes, to her surprise, started putting the utensils out as Trip and Lucas brought dinner over. As if realizing it was dinnertime, Katie joined them without a word.
It was after the five of them had filled their stomachs with Lucas’ offering, bean-with-bacon soup, that Lucas spoke up. “What in the heck is going on around here?” he demanded. “What’s the big deal?”
Wes had gone downstairs after the talk with Katie. He’d spoken briefly with Trip, who had reassured him that he didn’t have a problem holding down the rest of his shift. Wes personally suspected that Trip’s eagerness had less to do with counter duty and more to do with his embarrassment about the revelation.
He didn’t hate Trip for what he’d said. If anything, Trip had just been Trip. Nothing wrong with that. Still, he wasn’t beyond conning his teammate into holding down the desk for him.
It occurred to him after he’d slipped out of the building that it might not be a good idea to stay out, no matter how much he wanted to be alone. Jen would come after him and he wasn’t sure he wanted to listen to her. Best thing to do was to come up and let her pity him, and let the others pity him. Then he could go back to thinking about himself.
Shrugging to himself, he made his way back inside and asked Trip if he’d give him a yell when the shift was over. Trip readily agreed.
And Trip, true to his agreement, did. The Xybrian yelled and Wes came, picking up the abandoned groceries to take upstairs. The only comment his teammate made was a “oh, no!” when he realized that he was the one that was supposed to do dinner that evening.
He found himself reassuring Trip that Jen would have arranged things to get around that, while thinking of all the disruption in the team’s duty schedule that had occurred since Trip had come downstairs, obviously upset. Jen would probably produce a rearranged duty schedule later on that evening, no problem. She was good at that.
Jen was at her previous position when he reached the top of the stairs, although she got up to make the table. He joined her, figuring that the faster they got through with dinner, the sooner he could get away again.
Lucas and Trip brought bread and soup, and the five of them ate. The peaceful, quiet meal was interrupted by Lucas. “What the heck is going on around here?” he demanded, obviously to everyone including Wes. “What’s the big deal?”
Jen cleared her throat and looked at Trip meaningfully. But before she could speak, Trip spoke up. “Wes is a clone,” he said timidly, giving Wes an apologetic look.
Wes refocused his attention on Lucas, who looked like he was expecting a present and had been denied one. “That’s it?” he asked. “Everybody’s been acting like there’s something big going on. What’s the big deal?”
Lucas’ expression caused Wes to sag inwardly in relief. Something told him that Lucas was telling the truth. If Lucas was acting, his body language was very, very good and Wes didn’t particularly think that Lucas was that good an actor. This was how, he realized, that he wanted people to act.
“What’d you think this was about?” Jen challenged Lucas.
Their teammate shrugged. “I thought Trip meant that Ransik was a clone or something like that. It’s not like Wes is anything to get excited about.”
Wes ignored the implications as he saw the truth in his teammates’ eyes. Jen, for all her stoic demeanour, had that look which meant that she had realized she’d acted foolishly. Trip looked outright ashamed, and Katie’s expression was unreadable, but he guessed it had to do with her words earlier. They had meant well, he realized.
The dinner was finished in relative silence, and then began the ritual of clearing the table. It wasn’t until Jen gave him the bin full of dirty bowls and dishes that he realized that it was his turn to do them, and there was no way to get out of that!
Smiling, he took them, balancing the load to take it downstairs to the sink. To his surprise, as he walked towards the stairs, Jen followed. He didn’t know if it was to talk to him or to use the downstairs bathroom, or even to get more water upstairs, so he let her accompany him without protest.
He reached the downstairs washroom and diligently began washing out the dishes, wishing for a dishwasher. Trip was brilliant, but he wasn’t a dishwasher repairman and so any cleaning had to be done by hand.
To his surprise, Jen was standing there, just watching him. “I’m okay, Jen,” he told her. “I think with what Lucas said, I finally understand.”
Jen smiled at that and didn’t say a word, finally leaving him and the dishes alone. He was normal! He was normal. And his teammates knew it. Smiling suddenly, he began to whistle.
When it rains, it pours.
Of course, in the summer in Southern California, it doesn’t rain very often. Sure, maybe in June, but in July and August it’s hot enough sometimes to figuratively fry eggs on the sidewalk, and the rare rainstorm is likely to catch people by surprise. Those who have spent any time in this part of California have come to realize and adjust to this. Wesley Collins, native the area, has been through a few of these storms, but they still catch him by surprise.
Wes sat out on the balcony, his red shirt tied around his waist. For some reason, he felt comfortable wearing the shirt, although just about anything red felt right to him. He found himself hanging onto his red clothes like a child hung onto their teddy bear, and considered it comfort. And he needed that comfort.
Just a week or two ago, Wes had thought his life was normal, that he was an average young adult born in the 20th century who happened to be involved with a team of Rangers from about a thousand years in his future.
Of course, that was before Trip, seeking to strengthen the security measures on the Morphers, had discovered something unusual about Wes. Now Wes, with the help of his teammates, was trying to cope with being a clone, the clone of Jen’s love Alex.
Even with their help, Wes wasn’t entirely sure that he’d gotten used to that. The scientists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries had barely started to successfully clone animals, and even then, according to some research he’d done on the sly, there were still some problems. Humans were a long way from cloning themselves. Heck, they still couldn’t clone cats yet!
And yet here he was, a successful, problem-free clone, living in the early twenty-first century. A clone so successful that he hadn’t even known that he wasn’t anything unusual. Not even that he wasn’t really related to the man he had called father. Somebody had done a good job placing him in this time.
He was having trouble accepting the fact that he actually was a thirtieth-century citizen, with full rights and responsibilities. Would the others have to take him with them, when they defeated Ransik and found a way home? Or would he find himself living in the twenty-first century?
Wes doubted even his teammates knew the answer to those questions.
“Is he sitting out there again?” Lucas asked, glancing over casually towards the balcony to the left of the clock face. He turned his head, but with his back to said opening couldn’t see it.
Katie glanced past Lucas’ shoulder. “I can’t see him,” she offered. The two of them were sitting at the table, enjoying a card game. Both of them needed to relax. The whole team did, but Wes especially. Yesterday’s encounter with his father, with the man he had considered his father, had shaken him deeply, more deeply than he probably wanted to admit. Mr. Collins might not be related to Wes, but the family ties were still there.
“I think we would have heard it if he fell,” Lucas pondered morbidly. “Or jumped.”
“I don’t think he’s suicidal,” she said, suddenly wanting to check up on Wes but just as much not wanting to seem to hover. Wes needed his space, especially now. It was too bad that Trip was downstairs manning the desk and phone; the Xybrian seemed to be best at connecting with Wes, even though Trip claimed he had little to no empathic talent.
The other one that seemed to understand Wes best was Jen, who was doing her best to do the team’s shopping. They all took turns, but the Time Force officers had all privately agreed that Wes, with his familiarity with his own century, was best at the shopping.
Wes’ time was astonishingly primitive. Before she had left her own time period, she’d barely known about his time other than it being when humanity started coming in contact with the rest of the universe. Race still mattered here and it was far from being a paradise, but she and her teammates were adjusting to living here.
And it was Wes’ home, despite the century of his birth. If Jen was correct, if Wes was one of the Rialtson clones, then the other clones must be in various times. It would be nice to find them all, to find closure in a case that proved that bigotry was alive and well in humans, whether because of the colour of one’s skin or the origin of one’s genes.
Then what? To Wes, this century was home in a way that her own time could never be. He would be a thousand years out of date there, a living anachronism. Sure, he would have his teammates, but who else would he have? And what would he do there?
At least he was his own person and not a being that existed just to provide backup for Alex. Katie shuddered inwardly as she tried to imagine Wes as just a hollow-souled version of Alex, with no personality or experience other than his originator’s. If it was a tossup between his life here and that, then she was glad that Rialtson had been caught and that Wes had ended up in a place where he could grow up free of that terrible plan.
She was sure that Alex, had he survived, would have been glad of that too.
Casting one worried eye towards the balcony, she discarded a card.
Wes stared down as he saw ‘their’ car arrive back at the tower. He could see Jen’s dark head appear as she got out, apparently making one more trip without anyone checking to see if she had a driver’s license. After Lucas’ run-in with the law, they had all been more careful, and Trip for some reason preferred to bicycle. He was probably the smartest of the bunch, biking with that little cart which allowed him to bring home the groceries.
In the early days of his teammates arrival in this time, they’d apparently discovered one little downside to living in the past - no home delivery, at least none that they’d been able to afford. Apparently groceries were, by and large, delivered to one’s door in the future, saving the residents from having to figure out how to get to the store if they didn’t want to do so.
Another thing he had noticed that none of them shopped very well. Lucas in particular was given to missing the budget. He found that he could sometimes get out of his other duties by volunteering for the grocery runs - and given that he had a valid license and a talent for finding good prices, he was seldom refused.
However, he’d gladly let Jen go today. He hadn’t been hot on going into town and running into people he knew. The world outside was oblivious to his difference, and right now, he didn’t feel like being out with people who didn’t know. His team had shown that they welcomed him even though they knew, and he wasn’t sure if he’d feel that acceptance in the outside world, even though it would be beyond the capabilities of people in the present to know.
He had to get this under control. He had to. Being fed meant interacting with people from his own time, working on the odd jobs that Nick Of Time’s customers contracted them to do.
Besides, what better to show that Nick of Time was starting to pick up business than to be visible?
Of course, he’d wished to be invisible when his father, the man he had called father anyway, had condemned him for picking up trash. His family was wealthy, always had been. They’d spread from Collinsport, Maine, all the way over to California, having a knack for making money. His father and grandfather had gone to the finest schools money could buy.
It was hard not thinking of his father as his biological father, and he suspected it was an ingrained habit. Even though he detested the man’s greed now, he’d spent his entire childhood admiring him, and he had to admit that he didn’t have anybody else to call father. Maybe Alex, but he got the impression that they were about the same age. Calling Alex ‘father’ or ‘dad’ might well be embarrassing to both of them.
Besides, didn’t somebody say that heart, not blood, mattered? Sure, he was ashamed by his father’s greed, but he grew up with this family. He could no more disown them completely than he could disown his own arm.
Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea, though, to leave with the others. He had every right to be in the thirtieth century, and there he wouldn’t be one of the black sheep of the Collins family. Admittedly he wasn’t there yet, but he had a feeling that his infamy would probably spread far and wide among his family members.
But he had an idea that when the time came, he’d choose to stay. After all, he would be about as confused by his teammates’ time as they were by his, even more so. A hundred years ago, they didn’t have computers. What would the technology be like in 3000? Adapting might prove impossible for him.
Wes got up and made his way back into the building.
Jen hauled the groceries out of the car and into the building. She thought she’d actually done well during this latest outing. Sure, she wasn’t Wes, the undisputed king of grocery shopping, but she thought she was beginning to get the hang of this time.
Turning to Trip, who was on desk duty, she asked, “How are things?”
“Okay, I guess,” Trip told her.
“Wes?”
Trip concentrated, his gem glowing. “He was sitting on the balcony, but he’s back in now. He’s been up there since you left.” The glow ceased, and Trip looked up at her. “He’s not going to be happy if he found out we’re monitoring him.”
“So we won’t tell him,” Jen said firmly. “I just want to keep an eye on him. I think running into his father again really upset him, and I didn’t want him to do… anything until he was ready to talk.”
“He hasn’t,” Trip assured her. “But I don’t think he’s ready to talk, either.”
“We’ll see about that,” Jen said firmly, heading towards the stairs with renewed resolve. “Thanks, Trip.”
She took the groceries upstairs and headed towards the pantry, wanting to get those out of the way before she dealt with anything or anyone else. Footsteps vibrated from behind her, and she turned to look. It was Wes. “Want me to give you a hand?”
“Sure,” she responded. “I also got some books, but they’re down still in the car.”
Wes smiled. “Raided the library book sale again?”
Jen tried not to blush. The Rangers had quite taken to the Reader’s Digest hardcovers, which were cheap and held a variety of writings. A good team needed to relax and the books kept them all happy. “Want to come help bring them up?” she asked.
“Sure,” he responded, still smiling at her. Jen relaxed a bit, thinking that Wes wasn’t as badly hurt as she may have thought, and maybe she was being a bit paranoid.
They finished unpacking the groceries, and then she headed towards the stairs, knowing Wes would follow.
Wes followed Jen, though he knew that his teammate would be waiting patiently for him to open up. Still, he wasn’t sure if they really wanted to hear anything bad about their time, even if it was only his ability to adapt to it. Jen, in particular, seemed to be a bit blind to the realities of her time as he saw them. He wondered why people seemed to not have any problems with Trip but found Ransik horrifying, or the other mutants for that matter. Ransik merely looked like he’d been through a bad fire, and Nadira looked like she’d had her hair dyed permanently pink. Admittedly Gluto looked weird, but he would have thought humans would have gotten better at not judging by appearance. Apparently not.
Should he be relieved that his teammates didn’t find him at all untrustworthy, at least not because he was what he was? If anything, they had all become more comfortable around him once the surprise had worn off. They’d become more open about their time and what had happened in the past, as if they were catching him up on something that he should have known.
Of course, since he was really from their time, maybe they were preparing him to return with them when Ransik was defeated. From what he knew of the one team that had revealed their identities, the team that had saved Angel Grove and the world, the members of that team were close despite some of them coming from different worlds than the rest. Maybe the others just couldn’t see leaving him behind as a valid option. He hoped not.
They reached the bottom of the stairs, and he obediently followed Jen back to where she’d parked their car. To his surprise, there were two grocery bags full of paperback books, with no hardcovers that he could see. He plucked a green-spined one out of the top of one of the bags. “Green Darkness? That was on the shelves at home….” he said, thinking out loud, and then cursing inwardly about the slip of the tongue.
“It looked good,” Jen said defensively, and Wes had to laugh.
“Don’t worry, I know they have some weird stuff in those booksales sometimes. That one’s been on the shelves in one of our guest bedrooms as long as I can remember.”
“You ever read it?”
“Tried to,” he admitted, blushing. “It was… weird. I didn’t get much out of it though.” What he wasn’t about to admit to Jen was that he seemed to remember a scene that he was definitely a bit too young to be reading. “I think it’s a time travel story, could be wrong, though.”
Jen nodded seriously. “Do you miss home, Wes?”
He knew that this was going to happen. He knew it, and he’d blundered along like an idiot anyway. “This is home, Jen,” he told her roughly.
“I mean… before,” she told him. “Before you met us.”
Wes turned away. “I’m not going back there, if that’s what you mean.”
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it,” Jen said firmly.
“Yes, there are a few people I liked there. But the only way Dad would welcome me back now is if I joined the Silver Guardians, and I’m not going to do that. Besides, why would I?”
“Because he’s your father, and you used to admire him?” Jen asked.
“He’s not my father,” Wes stated, turning towards her. “You know that better than I do.”
“He raised you,” she said, in the quietest tone he’d ever heard her use.
“Dad didn’t raise me, he just invested in me,” Wes said. “It was Philips, our butler, and the rest of our staff. And now that I know that I’m not related to him at all, why should I bother?”
“Because he doesn’t know,” Jen told him. “Nobody knows besides us. We are your teammates, not your only friends in the world. Not your only friends in this time. Your family is as much a part of who you are, if not more, than Rialtson and Alex ever were. What you are hasn’t changed who you are.”
“No, it’s just made me feel… I don’t know, more separate from all I’ve ever known,” Wes said.
“Then,” Jen said, “Maybe Trip was right. Maybe we shouldn’t have told you. Would that have made you happy?”
“Maybe,” Wes said, looking down at the books again. “Look, I’m going to go out for a while, okay?”
Jen nodded, grabbing both sacks and heading towards the door. Wes reached for the fake stone with the spare car keys and headed into town. There was something he had to ask someone.
Philips, the faithful butler to the Collins family, was quite surprised when one of the maids notified him that he had an incoming phone call. It was quite rare for someone to call during work hours. The Collins’ receptionist and other members of the staff took calls, since he was too valuable to be doing such work.
“Yes, how may I help you?” he asked, wondering who wanted him on the line. Someone trying to ‘steal’ him from the service of the Collins family?
“Philips?” the voice on the other end asked, and he nearly dropped the phone when he realized it was Master Wesley on the line. Master John had informed him of Master Wesley’s shocking career choice, and he hadn’t quite known what to think about it. It seemed that Wesley’s life was taking a turn from his father’s. It made him quietly very proud of himself; the young man had not seemed destined for heading up his father’s business for quite some time before the two had parted. “Is there a chance that I could talk to you, in private?”
“I’m afraid I cannot get away at the moment, Master Wes,” Philips told him formally.
There was a moment of silence from the other end, and then Wesley spoke up again. “Then are you alone?”
“I am,” Philips responded. “I took the opportunity to move to a private place before answering the phone.”
Another silence, and Philips wondered what the young man was thinking. Wesley spoke up once more. “This is going to seem like an odd question, but it’s not like I can ask Dad right now. So I have to ask you. Am I adopted?”
Philips was silent for a moment before belatedly remembering his manners. “Certainly not! I remember seeing you at the hospital soon after you were born. You are, without doubt, the biological son of you parents.”
Inwardly, he wondered why the young man had felt the need to make such an inquiry. Surely he could see, from pictures, how much he resembled his now-deceased mother? Philips himself had no doubt as to Master Wesley’s parentage. “Thanks, Philips.”
Philips, fearing that Master Wesley would hang up, added, “Your father is quite proud of you.”
“He is?” Genuine surprise echoed in the young master’s voice. “I walked out on him and said what I did, and he’s still proud?”
“I believe that your father is startled, yes, but he is proud of you for your commitments,” Philips said, picking his words carefully. “I think he wishes you were back home, but I think he knows, as I do, that you need to discover yourself.”
A laugh resounded in the speaker. “Thanks, Philips. I guess I do. Thanks again. And goodbye.”
“Goodbye,” Philips responded.
He spent the rest of the day about Wes’ call, wondering what it had all been about. Ah well, the young man still trusted him, and would no doubt educate him in time.
Wes hung up the public phone, gazing around the quiet park. Either Philips was lying, which he sincerely doubted, or he had been switched without his parents’ knowledge. A faerie changeling snuck into the house of a rich family.
So, what had happened to the real Wesley Collins? Had those who had brought Wes to this time killed him, or was he living somewhere else?
No doubt his teammates would tell him that he was the real Wesley Collins. True, he had grown up under that name, in that household, but he had no doubt been originally named “Alex Clone #17” or something like that. The others had stressed what Rialtson had intended for him to be.
He was glad that Rialtson hadn’t succeeded in his plans, though he wished that those supporters who had placed him had left him on the hospital steps. That way, he wouldn’t feel like he was selfishly grasping onto somebody else’s name and somebody else’s life.
Right now, he felt like his life was a cross between “Time Trax” and “General Hospital”. He chased criminals from another time, and in the meantime tried to figure out who he was in the labyrinthine corridors that made up his past and tried not to fall in love with Jen.
Did Jen see him when she looked at him, or did she just see Alex? Could he stand a chance up against his progenitor’s spirit? Maybe it was best to avoid the issue, at least until he understood himself better.
In the mean time, maybe he should do some more research. Trip would be able to help him scan through archives. And, if worst came to worst, there was always the public library. Maybe those who had brought him to this time had left some clues behind.
After an apparent altercation between Wes and Jen, Trip had seen Jen, in an obvious huff, go upstairs, and had seen Wes take the car keys and leave in the car.
Sometimes he didn’t understand Wes. Heck, he barely understood humans sometimes, and Wes had been thrown into a situation that Trip personally didn’t envy. In his time, clones knew their genetic parents, were most often raised by them. There wasn’t any problem as to their identity. Of course, Rialtson’s followers, or whoever had brought Wes here to this time, had accidentally insured that Wes would not know his genetic parent. And he and the others had compounded the issue by letting Wes know what he was. What a mess!
And it was exacerbated by Wes’ feelings towards Jen and her feelings towards Wes. Sometimes Trip could swear that Jen was reacting to Alex, not Wes, and sometimes it seemed like she was unconsciously falling for his clone. It probably wasn’t helping that she had taken up what seemed to be a private campaign to get Wes used to how things were in the thirtieth century.
When Katie came down to take up her shift, she’d asked him what he was thinking, so of course he told her. She had looked at him thoughtfully, and given him a hug. “It’ll all work out,” she assured him.
With that in mind, he went upstairs to relax. Jen was brooding out on the balcony, pretty much in the same place that Wes had been. Lucas was reading something out of one of the pile of books that served as the Rangers’ private library. Nobody was using the viewscreen, so he turned it on, hoping to find something of use to the situation.
A while later, Wes had come up and immediately come to him. He was surprised. Why not go straight to Jen like he usually did?
“Trip,” Wes said, “I need your help.”
“Wha-what can I do for you?” Trip asked, trying not to stutter. Wes didn’t seem to notice at all.
“I need to find out where I came from,” Wes told him. “At least in this time. I want to find out if I was adopted, who adopted me, and where I was adopted from. Can you access those records?”
Trip nodded. He’d broken into the databases soon after their arrival there. It was very easy, so easy that he couldn’t quite believe how easy it had been for him. His hands played over the keyboard on the viewscreen. “Tell me what you’re looking for.”
And so Wes gave his parents’ full names and what he remembered about his birth records. Trip sent the computer searching into the databases, but all that came up was Wes’ birth record. “That’s all I can find,” Trip told his teammate apologetically.
Wes was shaking his head. “Try finding all caucasian males with the same birth date that were around the same general height and weight.”
Trip obediently ran the search again, not expecting to find anything. Still, the screen surprised him. There were several matches, two of which were in Silver Hills. One was Wes, of course, but the other one…. “Richard Belant,” Wes read off the screen. “Adopted by Harley and Jane Belant. Could you find me a picture of him and his parents?”
His hands flying across the keyboard, Trip did so, rapidly bringing up pictures of three individuals. None of them looked familiar to Trip, and looking over at Wes, he could see that he didn’t recognize any of these people either. “Trip, what else can we find out about Richard Belant?” he asked.
A sound came from his right, and he looked up to see Jen striding towards him. “What are you two up to?” she asked, peering at the three pictures on the screen.
“Not a whole lot,” Wes answered, though Trip could detect a stiffening in Wes’ spine and manner. “Just looking some things up.”
“We were looking for adoption records,” Trip added. “Wes was just curious, but it looks like we’ve come to a dead end.”
“Maybe not,” Wes said. “This guy looks a lot like Dad to me. And he was born on the same day I was, and he was adopted.”
Jen sat down, still looking at the screen. “What do we know about him?” she asked, and Trip typed some more, seeking out all data on Jason Belant that he could find.
“Not much,” Trip admitted. “He’s applied for financial aid, he’s going up to California State University Sacramento, he has a great driving record, and his blood type is A positive.”
“A positive?” Wes asked. “How about my parents’ blood types?”
He seemed excited by the news, so Trip obliged him. “Your dad’s AB positive, I can’t find anything on your mom.”
“And I’m O positive. Which means that there’s no way I could be my Dad’s son, and this guy could be,” Wes said, with satisfaction. “I’d love to see a genetic workup on him and my dad and my mom, just to be sure.”
“What are you going to do with this once you’re through?” Jen asked, even though Trip could see her mind working away. Jen was, first and foremost, a police officer, and Wes’ information had intrigued her. It was part of the larger puzzle that included Wes’ heritage and possibly the whole thing of what had happened with the Rialtson clones.
“I don’t know,” Wes said in an honest tone of voice.
Jen had found herself on the balcony, her favorite place to sit when she wanted to think. The Tower was behind her, nothing below her but the ground hundreds of feet away. People left her alone there, and that was what she needed at the moment.
Wes definitely provoked mixed feelings in her. Part of it, she was sure, was outrage, because of what Rialtson had done to Alex and Wes alike. Alex had been so brave when he’d decided to raise any clone that Rialtson had made. Of course, he hadn’t planned on dying, nor could he have foreseen the fact that Jen would find Wes fully grown and secure in a time where he shouldn’t really have been.
And sometimes Wes reminded her of Alex that it was painful. Wes was a product of his time, but there were things about him that she loved. He was shallow, but thoughtful. He cared about people. He was so innocent.
Wes, she sometimes thought, would be what Alex would have been if he had somehow been raised a thousand years before. She somehow wondered what would happen if Alex had somehow survived and got a chance to meet Wes. There were things about both of them that had her wondering if she could ever make a choice.
Of course, right now she was wondering if it was wise to have acted as she did. She’d been carefully and quietly planning to introduce Wes to his own time. There was no way that she could reconcile leaving him a thousand years from the time where he belonged with her conscience. Wes had been wronged, and it was only right that he go home with the rest of them.
Wes’ seeming inability to accept the hand that fate, or Rialtson’s followers had given him had given her second thoughts. What was with Wes? He seemed to be doing fine, and then he was acting like he didn’t know who he was. To her, he couldn’t be anybody but Wes Collins. It was a boon that he had an identity that didn’t hinge on Alex’s.
Whatever had happened to bring Wes into the Collins home had happened and Wes had had nothing to do with it. He was as innocent as a lamb in the matter, but he wouldn’t accept it.
Looking down, she saw the car come in, and Wes get out of it, bending down before straightening up and entering the building. She wondered if he had gotten done what he wanted to get done.
Still, she waited. Give Wes a chance to settle in, make dinner, and then they could discuss it as a team. It was time to remind Wes once again that his teammates accepted him, no matter what.
Jen stared out towards the city, wondering where he’d gone and why. He probably wouldn’t go to his father’s house, given his relationship, but who knew?
This was the place where he’d grown up, and he could have gone anywhere. Maybe he had revisited old places or old friends. People to anchor him back into his identity. Maybe tonight would be easy.
After a while, she maneuvered back into the room behind the clock face. Dinner wouldn’t be done if she didn’t start it, after all. She quickly checked the room over for her teammates, finding that three of them were in the room, with Katie apparently down on desk duty. Lucas was reading one of the new books, and Trip and Wes were hunched over the viewscreen talking quietly about something.
She walked over to them, curious to discover what they were discussing. “What are you two up to?” she asked, looking at the three faces on the screen. One was of a middle-aged man, the second of a middle-aged woman, and the third a young man about Wes’ age.
“Not a whole lot,” Wes answered casually, so casually that Jen was immediately suspicious. “Just looking some things up.”
“We were looking for adoption records,” Trip added, saving her from having to ask directly. “Wes was just curious, but it looks like we’ve come to a dead end.”
“Maybe not,” Wes said, pointing at the young man on the screen. “This guy looks a lot like Dad to me. And he was born on the same day I was, and he was adopted.”
She sat down. “What do we know about him?” she asked curiously, still staring at the screen. Come to think of it, the guy did look a lot more like Mr. Collins than Wes did. Trip was busy typing away, seeking the data on whoever this person was.
“Not much,” Trip admitted, staring intently at the screen as if he wished he could telepathically extract more information from it. “He’s applied for financial aid, he’s going up to California State University Sacramento, he has a great driving record, and his blood type is A positive.”
“A positive?” Wes asked, drawing closer to Trip. “How about my parents’ blood types?”
Trip answered absentmindedly, “Your dad’s AB positive, I can’t find anything on your mom.”
Wes was beaming at this point. “And I’m O positive. Which means that there’s no way I could be my Dad’s son, and this guy could be,” he said, with satisfaction. “I’d love to see a genetic workup on him and my dad and my mom, just to be sure.”
“What are you going to do with this once you’re through?” Jen asked. Her mind flashed though a nightmare of having to explain to somebody else that they were really named Wesley Collins, sorry for the mixup, no you can’t be him, Mr. Collins wouldn’t believe you…. Jen wished she could just send Wes back to the thirtieth century where he belonged so that he would be safe and not have to worry about such things, or make her life more complicated.
“I don’t know,” Wes said, sounding uncertain.
“Look, Wes,” Jen said, “Why don’t you do dinner tonight, and I’ll do the dishes. Deal?”
“Deal,” Wes said. As he went off to work in their tiny kitchen-like area, she turned to Trip.
“I’ve got a transmission to make.”
Trip watched as Jen activated the viewscreen, bringing up a form for data transmission into the future. He knew lots of data was being sent all the time, but very little of it was sent manually by the Rangers. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’ve been putting it off for too long,” Jen said, more to herself than to him. “Time Force has to be told about our discovery. We should have done this when we found out about Wes. They’ll be able to confirm if Wes is a Rialtson clone or not.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Trip asked, unsure of her motives. “We agreed not to file it until after we got home, because we were worried about Wes.”
“I changed my mind,” Jen stated flatly. “We are bound to report this, Trip. We have evidence of a crime here and we should have reported it as soon as we knew about him. We know that whoever brought Wes here traveled through time, which is illegal in itself. I’m just setting things in motion.”
So intent was his commanding officer on her task that Trip was almost afraid to speak. Still, he couldn’t help stealing a glance over at Wes, who was busy preparing dinner, and he couldn’t help but think of what could happen, not only to the cohesiveness of the team, but also to Wes and all the other clones. “Jen, maybe this isn’t a good idea.”
Jen glared at him, making him shrink back. “What do you mean?” she asked.
Best to not make it look like anything to do with Wes. “What if our report leaks and the people responsible for bringing Wes to this time? Wouldn’t they try to hide the other clones so that we couldn’t find them? Think of all the damage to the time stream!”
She paused. “There’s got to be a way to get around that. Maybe if we say we know that Wes has to be adopted, but we came to a dead end on trying to find him, like if Mr. Collins used a secret agency after the real Wesley Collins died….”
“Jen, that’s lying to our superiors,” Trip said, trying to reason with her.
“So what. If our report gets leaked, they’re not going to go rushing off, because they don’t think we know how he got here. That way, all the clones’ll be safe.”
“At least wait until you’ve talked to Wes,” Trip said, wishing that he could project his thoughts instead of reading others’. “Let him have some say. It’s his life, after all. He should have a say on what happens to him. Besides, he might get really upset if you do this without him. He’s barely adjusted to being a clone, and it’ll look like clones really have no say in their lives. Do you really want to do that to him?”
“I’ll discuss it with him,” Jen said, canceling the setup, even though she looked like she’d rather do anything but that. “And then I’ll make the transmission. I’ll make him understand. After all, he swore an oath, just as we all did.”
Trip nodded. Once it was clear that they had a Red Ranger, Jen had made a consultation with their superiors in 3000, and after Wes arrived, had promptly sworn him in as a temporary member of Time Force. It was what allowed Wes to arrest mutants, even though he’d never gone through Time Force training. Wes had, at that time, been so eager to be part of the team that he’d taken the oath and followed it carefully. As he’d told Trip later, he didn’t want to get Jen upset again.
Knowing Jen, Trip knew that Wes had made a good choice. But he still doubted that Wes would go along with her plan, since it would probably make him feel further like he was an object, not a human being.
And Wes, Trip knew, felt very much alone. Right now, Wes was the only clone that they knew of, unless there was another clone existing in 2001. Trip himself knew the feeling, for he was likely the only alien on the planet at the moment, except maybe for the part-human descendants of an Algieban explorer who’d visited nearly thirty years before. Trip figured he had as much chance of meeting them as Wes had of meeting a fellow clone.
Getting up, he went to talk to Wes. Someone had to warn him about Jen.
Wes heard someone’s shoes thumping against the wood that formed the floor of their residential area. Either someone was hungry or he was about to be talked to again. Grimacing, he hoped that it was the former.
“Wes?” Trip’s soft voice asked from behind him. Wes composed his features, turning around slowly as to not alarm Trip.
“Yeah?” he asked. The Xybrian’s features drooped, and inwardly Wes cursed. Sometimes Trip was so sensitive about peoples’ reactions to him! “Sorry.”
“That’s okay,” Trip responded instantly. “I’ve got to talk to you about Jen.”
“What about Jen?” Wes responded, mystified. Something must have gone on after he left to make dinner.
“She wants to tell our superiors about you,” Trip said in a rush.
“I thought you guys had done that?” Wes asked. It was totally unlike normally-by-the-book Jen to skip something like that.
Trip shrugged. “She thought it was better to wait until you were used to the idea. Just in case somebody in the future had questions.”
“She was afraid I couldn’t handle it?” Wes responded. Typical Jen.
“None of us wanted to give you the wrong impression,” Trip told him. “We knew that you’d kinda accepted it, but we didn’t know if you really wanted to handle dealing with people from 3000 who knew what you were… I mean besides us, of course.”
“I don’t mind,” Wes said carefully. “I mean, it was inevitable.”
He studied Trip’s face. Was Trip reading him now? Could he know how Wes felt about the whole thing? After all, it was just one more thing connecting him to his teammates’ century and taking him one more step away from his own. Sometimes he felt like his teammates were trying to pull him into their world.
Before, when nobody knew about his past, he was treated differently. His teammates were guarded about what they told him about their own time, and he was the team’s guide in the strange time that was 2001. Now this time and his knowledge of it seemed almost unimportant to them. It was like a mental switch had been thrown in their brains, switching him from bridge to understanding this time to student behind in his studies with four overhelpful tutors.
Would he even have a choice at the end? Or would he find himself in 3000 with the rest of them with no choice in the matter. No, they would leave him a choice, but would there be something in 2001 that he cared enough to stay behind for? The more he stayed with his teammates, the more he felt isolated from his own time.
“Okay,” Trip said finally. “But she’s going to tell them that we think you were privately adopted.”
Wes felt like he’d missed a page in a story that he was reading. “What? Start that again from the beginning.”
Trip took a deep breath. “It’s what I said. Jen was about to make her report, and then I opened my mouth and reminded her that we hadn’t found Rialtson’s followers or the clones yet, and they might try to remove the other clones if they thought we were on to them. And then she decided to tell them that we couldn’t find any record of you being adopted so that the people who brought you here wouldn’t think we knew.”
The Xybrian sounded so out of breath that Wes took pity on him. “It’s okay.”
“It’s perjury. It’s lying.”
It began to dawn on Wes that Trip was worried about something else besides him. “Trip, don’t you think she knows what she’s doing? Don’t you think she knows the consequences?”
“But she told me that she was going to do it, and she’ll tell you. I don’t want these people to mess up history, but I don’t want her to lie either.”
“Maybe she’s planning to tell the truth later,” Wes offered, trying to think of ways to calm the worried Xybrian. “When you guys go back with Ransik and his crew, then you’ll have a lot more resources to stop whoever brought me here in the first place.”
“Are you sure about that?” Trip asked, and Wes could tell from his teammate’s face that the question was not rhetorical.
“I’ll ask her when she talks to me about it. How does that sound?”
Trip nodded, seeming to take Wes’ words to heart.
Something was going on, Katie could tell. Something had happened while she was on desk duty downstairs, and she had the feeling it had to do with Wes.
Perhaps Trip’s worries had rubbed off on her. She’d honestly thought Wes was adapting until his run-in with Mr. Collins had thrown him for a loop. Now, suddenly, Trip was fretting, Wes was moody, and he and Jen had gotten into some sort of argument. She realized that it wasn’t that uncommon for Jen and Wes to argue, but this time some of it had to be about Wes’ adjustment to being a clone.
And, worse for him, a clone of someone they all once knew. Katie sometimes knew that she reacted to Wes like he was Alex, and she suspected that the others did, too. It should have ceased when they knew what Wes was, but she suspected that it was a bad habit for all of them.
She was going to be very surprised if Wes wanted to come with them when it was all over. After all, nobody knew about Alex in this time, and nobody could compare Wes to him. It wouldn’t be the same in their time. Wes would be compared to his genetic donor for the rest of his life, especially since he had taken over Alex’s role as Red Ranger. Wasn’t that the role Rialtson had engineered him to play, after all?
And Rialtson had still had supporters even after he was arrested. People who believed that clones weren’t people, just echoes of their donors, useful only to enhance those whose DNA they were taken from. Katie had a bad feeling that they would use Wes to their advantage. People would only see the clone that had taken over his progenitor’s role, not Wes the person.
Jen would argue that Wes, like the rest of them, belonged in the thirtieth century, but Katie doubted that. The scientists of this time had no way of telling that Wes was any different, and wouldn’t for several centuries. There was no reason at all that Wes should leave with them unless he chose to do so. And she knew that by the time they recaptured Ransik, Wes would probably know what he was getting into.
She glanced over to where Wes was, but she could see that Trip had his attention. Besides, she’d rather have him come to her rather than come to him. He probably didn’t want any more interference in his life right now.
Instead, she sat down at the picnic bench opposite Jen. Just as she didn’t bother Wes, she didn’t prod Jen for answers. If Jen wanted to talk, she would talk. If she didn’t, then she didn’t.
But Jen didn’t speak, just glanced occasionally in Wes’ direction. Several expressions played over her fact, the foremost of them being probably a angry worry. It was clear that Jen wanted to talk to Wes badly, and wasn’t happy about not being able to do so.
Perhaps it was for the best that the two of them have a cooling off period before discussing what issues were on their minds. It might be the only way to break the tension going around the team, tension that she was sure that both of them were aware of.
It was a quiet dinner, one of the quietest that Jen could remember. Usually the team was cheerful despite what had gone on during the day, whether it involved their Odd Jobs work or one of Ransik’s mutants. However, Wes’ problem seemed to have damped the whole team’s spirits.
Nobody really talked. Trip threw the occasional glance in her direction, Katie did the same, Lucas tried to act cool and not seem involved, and Wes, the bottomless stomach, had picked at his food as if his own makings were not up to his satisfaction.
Somebody had to take care of this situation, and it was her. As soon as the meal was over, her team scattered to the far corners of the room, wishing perhaps to be out of her radius.
A clanking noise made her turn, and she was surprised to see Wes helping to collect the dishes for the night’s washing. She gathered up the rest of the dishes into the bin, taking it downstairs.
Seemingly unable to leave her orbit, Wes followed her downstairs. It was not until she’d ushered the dishes into the sink that he said, “We need to talk.”
“We do,” Jen acknowledged. She added the dish soap into the basin, trusting the dishes to soak. Once she was satisfied with the effect, she started towards the main room and the stairs. Wes, however, headed towards the front of the room, in front of the counter, and sat down on the floor.
Jen considered taking the chair, but decided against it. How would it feel to Wes if she was sitting superior over him, even if she was his superior officer? This was something personal that was leaking into work-related. Best to look casual. Think of all the times she spent with Alex, not working.
Finally, she settled on the floor, her back against the wall near the door, facing him. She wondered if she should begin first.
He beat her to it. “Trip told me you planned to tell your superiors about… what I am.”
She nodded. “Does it bother you?”
Wes shook his head. “When you and Trip first told me about myself, you said I’d been a victim of a crime. I’m actually surprised that you haven’t reported me yet. Is this normal?”
“No, it isn’t,” Jen confirmed. She didn’t want to say more than that, just in case Wes got upset about them ‘coddling’ him. “What else did Trip say?”
“He said something about perjuring yourself,” Wes offered. “Lying to your superiors about what Trip and I found.”
“To protect you and the others,” Jen said, avoiding the use of the term ‘clone’. She didn’t know how he’d react to it right at the moment and she didn’t want to find out.
“I know. Trip’s having more of a problem with it than I am. As I said, I’m not familiar with law enforcement, especially not thirtieth century.”
“Does it bug you at all?” Jen asked carefully.
“I’m not Trip. Lying for a good cause doesn’t bug me, and I know you have a good reason.”
“So, what are you going to do about what you know?” Jen asked.
Wes shrugged, though Jen thought she could detect a certain tiredness in Wes’ frame. “I don’t think I could really do much about it. I mean, this guy who may have been the real Wesley Collins. Do I have the right to disrupt his life? He’s got a life and an identity. And I’m stuck with his. I’m a Collins, even if not by blood. Nothing’s really going to change that.”
His voice sounded so defeated, so unlike Wes, and, except for that one terrible moment before he died, so unlike Alex that Jen had to blink twice. She let Wes continue to speak.
“Did you know that this would happen? I’m Wesley Collins, but I’m not. And right now I feel like I really don’t belong to this time. It’s like ever since I found out, I’ve become more and more apart from everything I knew.”
“We didn’t mean to do that,” Jen told him, wishing Katie was here. Katie would make things right in an area that just made Jen feel awkward. It was worse, because she had meant to do that. Apparently, not only had her plan worked beyond her wildest dreams, but had backfired immeasurably.
“I know. But I need to reconnect to my own time. I need to be around people who grew up in the same century that I did.”
Something swelled up in Jen and she suddenly had to swallow. “Are you moving out?” she asked.
“No!” Wes replied. “This is my home right now. And I like all of you, I just want to feel normal again.”
Jen breathed a sigh of relief. She was afraid she’d caused him to leave forever. They needed him right now, and frankly, she couldn’t see this team functioning without him.
And it might make things worse, but she had to ask. “Wes, if we caught Ransik tomorrow, would you go home with us?”
Home. There, she’d said it and applied it to Wes. He looked thoughtful. “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
“Why?” she responded, curious to know his reasons. Wes closed his eyes.
“It isn’t home, at least not to me. Oh, I know I was born there, and I might like to see it just because I’m curious to know where I came from, but I don’t think I’d want to live there. You see, I had a friend in prep school, the same school where I met Eric. He’d been born in London, England, but he grew up here. He told me once that he’d been to London and that he’d seen the hospital where he was born. But it really didn’t mean anything to him. He had no connection to it. And that’s how I feel about your time.”
He opened his eyes and regarded her again. “I know you guys have been trying to get me more comfortable with the time I’m supposed to be from. I know it’s because you care. It’s just that it doesn’t mean a whole lot to me, just as my time sometimes doesn’t mean a whole lot to you guys.”
“We wanted you to know what you were missing out on,” Jen joked, knowing that her joke was feeble. Fortunately, Wes didn’t explode.
“I know, and I know you guys were trying to make me feel at home. It’s just that when I need right now is to have some grip on this time and this place, and I feel like I’ve been slipping away. I think that’s why Dad’s reactions hit me so hard. I wanted an anchor and he didn’t prove to be it.”
Jen nodded. She had a sinking feeling that Wes, despite any feelings she had about him, would stay here, in this time. Rialtson’s followers had brought him here, and being here had made him what he was. And if staying here made him happy… then she would make sure that he stayed where he was, so that he would stay happy.
It was not her duty to make him miserable. It was not her duty to drag him into a time where he obviously did not belong and would probably never belong.
“Don’t be afraid to tell us if we’re smothering you, Wes,” Jen told him. “We’re here to capture Ransik, not turn your life upside down. Someday we’ll capture him and life will go on. Sometimes we forget that.”
“Sometimes you forget that?” Wes asked, but his tone was teasing.
“Sometimes I forget that,” she affirmed. She stood up, offering Wes a hand as he worked on getting up as well.
She could see Wes grin as she headed towards the sink. No matter what had happened that evening, some things still had to be done.
Wes woke up the next morning with the rest of his teammates. He was slowly getting used to their early-to-bed, early-to-rise schedule, fitting in with them. Jen still had no tolerance for late sleepers, at least not here.
He checked his clock and knew that he had a while before the library would open downtown. After his talk with Jen last night, he was in a much better mood, but there were still some things that he had to know. And he’d discover them on his own this time.
“Morning!” Katie greeted him.
“Morning,” he greeted back, matching her enthusiasm as he wandered over to the men’s dressing area. He quickly slid into his clothes and headed for the breakfast table, where Lucas was putting out the morning meal. Katie joined him shortly after, having slipped into her vest, shirt, and pants.
“How did things work out last night?” she asked. She pulled away slightly, and Wes realized she probably didn’t want him to think that she was hovering.
He smiled. “I think Jen and I worked it out,” he responded. “In any case, I feel a lot better than I did yesterday. I’m going to probably take the day off, though, unless Jen has something really pressing. There’s some stuff I have to do.”
“Go ahead,” Jen’s voice said from behind the two of them. She was in her workout outfit, no doubt getting ready to do her morning exercises. “After all that’s happened, you deserve some time off.”
He smiled again. “Thanks,” he responded. Jen’s manner was relaxed, as if a great weight had been taken of her shoulders, and he thought he could detect a twinkle in her eyes. Jen was actually in a good mood this morning. “I’ll take off after breakfast then.”
There was no way he could get out of breakfast. Ransik might decide to trash the city again, and he’d need all the strength he could get. Besides, the others needed to know the crisis was over, at least for the moment.
And then he’d go out. Forget his teammates, forget the weird turns his life had taken since the day before yesterday and what had happened only a week or two before, and remember who he was.
Life, for the moment, was good.
Wes tried not to slouch as he slipped his suit jacket back on and turned to inspect himself in his room’s mirror. He could feel the fabric slide over his shirt, over the place that up to today had housed a blocky piece of who-knew-what that Jen had called a ‘chronomorpher’. He hadn’t realized how much it had become a part of him until Alex had informed the team that he was returning as Red Ranger and Wes had handed his predecessor and parent the piece of equipment.
But now all that space housed was a watch, hardly a replacement for his chronomorpher or all that had gone with it. He’d left his father’s house, thrown his lot in with his teammates, and now Alex had returned to take his place on the team. Now he was back where he started, in a room he hadn’t seen since the Tentaclaw ransom, with no sign that he’d ever been a Ranger.
He should have known that his place on the team was only temporary. Jen had made it clear after that first battle when she’d taken his morpher away from him the one and only time. And then she had changed her mind. Of course, they all had thought that Alex was dead, too.
Wes had almost refused to give Alex the morpher, but he knew that the other man had every right. Besides, Alex had been right when he said that Wes’ father was in bad shape. Wes’ father had been in bad shape, and as far as he could tell, Alex would probably be right when he said that Wes’ father would die the next day.
Of course, Jen had yet to report that Wes was Alex’s clone, but Alex probably knew that too. He seemed to know everything.
And, it seemed as far as Alex was concerned, Wes was more Mr. Collins’ son than he was Alex’s son. If he held any emotion towards his inadvertant, and apparently unwanted ‘offspring’, he didn’t show it.
Jen, who Wes had privately always thought of as the team’s ‘drill sergeant’, had more emotions and concerns than Alex seemed to have. Wes was somehow glad he didn’t have to deal with Alex, not like his teammates did. He wasn’t sure if he could deal with his genetic ‘parent’ rejecting him on top of his adoptive father’s tendency to plan out his life for him.
It seemed like that his father’s spirit was reaching out from the hospital room to bring him back to a life he didn’t want anymore. Eric wanted it, he could see that from the other Ranger’s eyes, but Wes was the one stuck with it. If only he could trade places with Eric! He’d love to be a Ranger again. The boardroom was not where Wes belonged. Rangering was in his blood.
Rialtson, it seemed, had taken care of that. Even without the indoctrination, the forced growth, the brain imprintation, Wes had replaced Alex, and been left behind with no idea of where to go when Alex had come back again. All he had was this false life that Mr. Collins had planned for him, and that was no more him than Rialtson’s plan for his life.
And only he knew that he was now going to be stuck in this plan forever, trapped by his father and his rotten luck to get adopted into the Collins family. His father, the man he had always regarded as father, was going to die. And apparently he was going to take over BioLab.
The staff was even now calling him ‘Mr. Collins’, all except Philips, who had taken one look at him and immediately called him ‘Master Wes’. It was reassuring that he hadn’t suddenly shifted into being his father, not to everybody.
In many ways, his father, Mr. Collins, was more a father than Alex had been or would ever be. Both had been absentee fathers, but compared to Alex, it seemed that his father had really cared. Sure, Alex hadn’t had much of a chance, but once given that opportunity, he’d pushed his clone off to be a good little son and to continue the role that he’d been given before he’d met Jen and the others. It was as if Alex had resigned himself to not being a father, or at least not caring about the results of Rialtson’s little scheme.
He ought to head up to the hospital again. His father was going to die, but Wes couldn’t will himself towards the limo. He wasn’t ready to take up the leadership of BioLab. He wasn’t ready for anything but to be a Ranger again.
But now that was gone. Gone with Alex, and sure to stay that way. There was no way that his teammates would take him, ill-trained and from the past, over Alex, who had a long association with them. Or maybe just with Jen, he wasn’t sure. He knew that Alex had made Jen who she was, but the others had never indicated anything of the sort.
Despite what moves the others had made towards aquainting him with the century of his birth, he still didn’t know much about his teammates themselves. He knew Katie’s parents and a brother were alive, and that they were close. Trip had mentioned his family once or twice, in particular a cousin only a few years younger. He even knew a thing or two about Lucas, who was rather tight-lipped about his life in the thirtieth century.
He had to let go. He had to give it up. He wasn’t Wes-the-Red-Ranger now, he was Wesley Collins, acting head of BioLab, soon to be owner if Alex was right. There was no way he could go back to the life now. He had to sweep Jen, Katie, Lucas, and even Trip out of his life.
Would he ever fill the hole left in his life? He hoped so.
He somehow found himself standing on the balcony looking over the pool. The gardeners had been at work, he could see. The plants that had so nicely hidden Trip had been replaced by different ones. When had that happened? At the moment, he realized, he really didn’t care.
What he wanted to see, really, was a certain green-haired teammate pop out from behind those bushes and call his name again. But that was an impossibility. The team didn’t need him anymore, not with Alex back. The only reason that he’d gotten on it at all was because Jen had needed a Red Ranger badly enough that he’d been able to persuade her.
He closed his eyes, feeling tears prick at the corners. He had to give it up, he had to let it go. In a day, he’d find himself the permanent head of BioLab and any avenue he’d have to what he really wanted to do would be gone.
“Wes!” Trip’s loud whisper reached his ears. He shook his head, trying to clear himself of the memory. That couldn’t be Trip, there was no reason for him to be there.
“Wes!” the voice came again, urgently. Wes opened his eyes, staring out over the balcony and trying to remind himself that he was hearing things. His eye caught some moving bushes, and suddenly a very familiar figure peeked out from between the plants.
“Trip?” he gasped. Turning around to see that nobody was watching him, he jumped over the balcony as he had done once before. Landing securely on his feet, he moved towards the apparition, reaching out, half-expecting to have his hand pass through the form of the one he had called friend. But instead his hand met the cloth of Trip’s orange jacket.
Trip smiled. Wes stared.
“What are you doing here?” he hissed to his former teammate, conscious of the fact that Trip had no doubt come in the back way, just as he had before.
“I wanted to talk to you,” Trip said hesitantly. “About… what happened.”
Good ol’ Trip. “Haven’t we had this conversation before?”
Trip’s grin shrunk. “We all miss you, Wes.”
“How’s Alex doing?” Wes asked, trying to steel himself for the answer.
“None of us likes him very much, even Jen,” Trip told him. Looking into his ex-teammate’s eyes, Wes could see that Trip was not even attempting to lie.
“I thought you said that they were engaged to be married,” he said.
Trip’s whole body screamed his hesitance. The Xybrian was not a good liar, and not comfortable with lies. What little non-truth he said tended to be lies of ommission, or just letting people assume. There were no aliens on earth, so the green-haired guy had to have dyed his hair. Trip, after Wes had explained that to him, had never contradicted anyone when they assumed that he was human.
“They were. I guess they still are,” Trip said. “I mean, if they broke off the engagement or anything like that they haven’t told us. It’s not really been on the top of anybody’s mind at the moment. I mean, Lucas is about to strangle Alex, and I don’t think any of the others would stop him if he tried.”
“That bad, huh?” Wes asked sympathetically. Figured, he got replaced and they couldn’t stand the replacement. He’d pretty much figured that he’d had a rough time of it in the early days because he reminded Jen too much of Alex. Were they now so used to him that Alex was having a tough time?
Trip’s head bobbed in a nod.
“I thought you guys said that he was a good guy. I mean, FatCatFish managed to get himself almost killed for mentioning Alex getting killed!”
“He isn’t the Alex we knew,” Trip said softly. “At least not the Alex that Jen knew. I’m wondering if he’s a Alex from a future that we created. Of course, we never served under him as Rangers, so I don’t know what’s going on with him. I think we could accept him if he wasn’t being so cruel to Jen.”
“Cruel?” Wes echoed. “Cruel how?” He tried to imagine someone being cruel to Jen, other than Steelix, her former partner, and of course Ransik and his forces. Somehow it didn’t mesh with what he knew of Jen’s fiancee.
“She’s been waiting so long for him, I guess. And he’s been so cold towards her. She’s trying to react like this was the guy who encouraged her to take his morpher and go after Ransik, and he’s acting like she’s a disobedient subordinate, nothing more.”
Wes whistled in surprise. “And I thought he’d put me in a bad situation. I guess you guys have it worse.”
“Really worse,” Trip responded gloomily, his voice tightening. “I don’t know how long this can go on. I don’t see the others putting up with Alex for much longer.
“But he knows what’s going on!” Wes exclaimed. “I mean, he knew that Dad was in bad shape….”
“And he’s known other things as well,” Trip supplied. “But we’re all getting tired of him yelling at us.”
“Jen yelled at us all the time,” Wes told him. “We liked her despite all that.”
Trip shook his head. “There’s a difference. Jen’s tough… but she has compassion. Alex doesn’t have that at all. It’s like he’s shut himself off from every emotion except anger. Jen never did that, even… before.”
Wes nodded. “You’re right,” he realized. “But she was pretty intense in the beginning.”
“I’d rather have Jen over Alex any day,” Trip stated. “And I want you back, but I don’t know what we can do about it.”
Shaking his head, Wes wished he could say something to reassure Trip. But what could he say? If Alex was correct, and there was no reason to presume he wasn’t, Wes’ father was going to die, and he, Wes, was going to inherit that position. He hated it, but as Trip had just said, he really doubted that anything was going to change. Alex was going to lead the team, and he was going to be trapped being a good little CEO.
“I don’t either,” he offered. “If Alex is right, then I won’t have a choice in the matter. Dad’ll die and I’ll somehow end up running my dad’s company. I don’t know why I haven’t been cut out of the will and given the cold shoulder yet, but I guess Dad was confident I’d come back.”
Trip seemed to shrink down a little at this. “You mean… you wouldn’t be able to come back to us?”
“You can’t believe how much I want to,” Wes told his friend. Eric had been able to prance out the meeting room without a worry, and he’d been stuck in a world of figures. “I knew you guys were in battle when Eric got called out, and there I was, stuck listening to information on Canadian subsidiaries. Can you imagine how hard it was to just sit there?”
Trip just looked at him silently.
“I really don’t want to be a CEO, Trip. It’s slowly going to drive me nuts. I realize Rialtson didn’t intend to start programming me until I was born, but I feel like somehow he did. I feel so much like I don’t belong in the board room.”
Trip looked thoughtful. “I wonder… I wonder if he did?”
“Who did what?” Wes asked, momentarilly confused.
“Rialtson. I wonder if he started programming you and the others before you were born.”
“Is that even possible?” Wes asked. “I mean, can you do that to someone before they’re even born?”
“It’s never been tried before,” Trip said. “But it kinda makes sense. Maybe he was worried that Time Force would find him and wanted a way to make his plan succeed even if he was caught. He may have started impressing Alex upon you before you were even born.”
Wes fought a smile as his friend thought aloud about the possiblities. For a moment, all was forgotten as Trip put data together and tried to figure things out. “And ten or twenty years down the road, we’d all be at our ‘parents’’ professions?”
Trip nodded. “That’s one of the reasons we haven’t actually gotten around to telling anybody about you yet.”
“The more I hear about your time, Trip, the more I’m glad Jen stopped getting the idea that I should return with you guys. I mean, I’m not going to even get the chance anymore, not with Alex in charge, but….”
“I know what you mean,” Trip responded. “The more I know about this, the more we know, it’s obvious that Rialtson’s supporters would twist your time in the Rangers around to prove that clones are nothing but useful tools. Katie’s afraid that even now it’s too late.”
Trip’s voice was filled with a mixture of genuine puzzlement and outrage, and Wes had the feeling that the very notion of himself, of anyone, being just a tool bothered the Xybrian.
“If Alex is right, then maybe we can prove ‘em wrong, Trip. I mean, I’m supposed to be spending my life as a businessman, right? Not a Ranger, not a police officer.”
“It’s not that simple,” Trip responded, and then fell silent. Typical Trip. Can’t lie, so didn’t say anything.
Not for the first time, Wes wondered what it was like to grow up in a society where nobody bothered to lie because everybody could read the truth. A world where somebody could trust the words of another because there was no sense not to do so. It was only through his human friends that Trip lied at all, and it probably wasn’t fun for him to go home to his people and get used to not lying again.
If what Trip was holding back was that bad, maybe it wasn’t a good time for Wes to hear it. He was about to speak, change the subject, when Trip spoke up again. “I think Jen misses you most of all.”
“She does?”
Trip grew a smile. “Would you believe that she called Alex by your name?”
Wes let out a laugh. “That’s what she did to me the first time we met!”
His friend’s smile diminished. “She did it in mid-battle. Alex was not happy.”
“I guess I wouldn’t be, either,” Wes mused. “I guess she’s gotten used to me.”
“You could say that,” Trip offered in response. The smile had come back up again, the kind of smile that on a human would mean that some secret was nestled up to his chest.
“I guess this is a good time to tell you that I’m in love with her.”
The Xybrian nodded. “I know. We all know. Except maybe Jen.”
“That obvious?” Wes asked, inwardly wincing. Not good. The whole team apparently knew he’d been acting like a lovestruck teen. Trip’s nod only confirmed the bad news.
“At least Jen didn’t,” he muttered.
Trip was still smiling. He looked like he was about to say something and then stopped. “No, she didn’t. She’s been too busy.”
His expression said that there was something to it, if Wes knew what to ask. But it wasn’t as if tough-as-nails Jen was in love with him, Alex’s clone. That was ridiculous and he didn’t want Trip to have that as his last memory of his former teammate. “I guess so, with Ransik loose and all that’s been going on, she’s been busy.”
Too busy to notice his availability, anyway. Like he’d ever had a chance! Even if Jen broke up with Alex that very day, did she really want to attach herself to a guy who looked and sounded just like him? And did she really want to stay in the twenty-first century? It wasn’t as if he was returning with them, after all.
Wes looked over at Trip, who was still smiling secretively and looking at some point over near the wall. Trip seemed to snap out of it. “Anyway, I wanted to see you again. You probably feel like you’ve been deserted.”
“It’s not your fault,” Wes told him. “If Alex is right, then I didn’t have a choice.”
“Just remember, we’re your friends. Just because Alex is being an idiot right now doesn’t change that. As for what he says… it might not be true.”
“He seems to think it’s written in stone,” Wes said, belatedly realizing he was defending Alex. But why wouldn’t he? Alex seemed so sure of himself.
Trip simply shook his head.
“I guess we’ll know tomorrow,” Wes said, wondering if that would hurt Trip or reassure him.
He was distracted by a door opening behind him. He looked over, suddenly paralyzed. What would the staff think of Trip?
It was Philips who emerged, who paused to examine Wes’ companion before speaking. “Master Wesley, your limo is ready. Will your… friend be joining you?”
Wes looked over at Trip, who nervously shook his head. “I’ve got to get back before Alex misses me.”
“Better go out the front door this time,” Wes whispered to him. “I’ll be at the hospital if… you want to see me.”
Trip nodded, still nervous about Philips’ presence, not seeming to notice Wes’ change of direction. “Thanks,” he said.
With that, Wes walked up the steps, acutely aware of Trip’s presence behind him. His teammate followed him through the house, only parting from him as the driver opened the door. Giving Wes one last smile, Trip walked up the driveway and was soon gone.
Shoulders sagging, Wes stepped into the limo, mentally steeling himself. It was going to be a long twenty-four hours.
Alex stepped out of the timeship and into the thirtieth century, walking away from the events that had happened over the last day.
Around him, Time Force personnel surged to check over the ship, just in case something had been transported that shouldn’t have been. There had been a few instances of the Time Flyers or his own Time Shadow picking up things in the twenty-first century air during their fights.
He knew there were things that required his attention in this time period. It was one of the hazards of being so high up in the ranks - eternal paperwork, even though paper wasn’t used much anymore.
At least with all that had happened he was free to stop hiding anymore. He had gone from Red Ranger and secretly the head of Time Force’s special projects to a near-corpse. When Jen had stolen the morphers and gone back in time, it had become time for him to step out of his cover role and into his real one, making sure the Ranger team won the fight.
In that capacity, he had plenty of time to process the data sent through by the Rangers and their equipment. He was able to keep an eye onto anything that might rock the balance of the future. And, finally, he ended up going.
Even with what he’d seen, he didn’t expect to see what he did. Jen and the others… had gone native. They were in odd outfits that no doubt were normal in that time period. They were still Time Force Officers, they were still Rangers, but something had gone wrong.
Mentally strengthening himself, he had walked towards them, barking orders in the hope that he would shock them out of what they had become. And then he had looked at their Red Ranger.
He’d known for months that Jen’s choice for his replacement was his own clone. She had, curiously, never given a report that at least one of the Rialtson clones had been found, no doubt a sign of the past’s influence on her. The Jen he’d known and trained would have reported his presence immediately.
Unless she didn’t know. Unless she never thought to wonder why someone from the past was able to activate his morpher. He was hoping the ‘clear’ signal had worked and cleared his DNA from the morpher’s security, but it was obvious that it hadn’t. So someone as bright as Jen should have looked at Wes’ DNA and known what she was dealing with.
The reports had given his clone a name: Wesley Arthur Collins. A birthdate. He’d traced Wesley Collins’ life through documentation and found out that he was supposed to become the owner of a company called BioLab. Or at least he would in the current timeline. A rampage of Ransik’s would soon cause the death of Wesley Collins’ adopted father. And Wesley would become the CEO in his place.
He had to seperate his clone from this life, from the life he wasn’t supposed to be leading. It was for Wesley’s own good. The more he had to do with his own century the better. The thirtieth shouldn’t hold a claim over this man, and yet it did.
So, once he had a chance, he gave Wesley a small hint of the future, backing it up with what he knew. The terrible call had come as he’d hoped, and Wesley had reluctantly given his morpher back to him and run out of the ship.
It was all that he could do to get the others’ attention back on him. To make them not think of the teammate that he had just replaced. What was it with them? They had to know better than anyone else what Rialtson’s followers would make of their teammate.
But he had to keep them focused, which meant that he had to divert their attention away. So, he took a radical step. He made them hate him.
It seemed to work. He could see the distrust in their eyes, the hate that would forever scar his reputation. Someday he’d make it up to them when the situation wasn’t so bad and the future not so important.
He just hoped that Jen would believe him.
They had followed his commands, though slowly, and he’d gotten them back in uniform again. They were still thirtieth-century police officers, no matter how attached they’d become to this century.
No matter how much Jen had become attached to Wes. Oh, she tried to hide it, but he’d seen the picture. Wes had fallen in love with Jen, and Jen, perhaps not able to handle his loss, had started falling for Wes. He should have come earlier, but he hadn’t known. He just hadn’t known.
It looked like certain theories were right about exactly what Rialtson had done with the clones. He had to remind himself that it was not Wes’ fault that he’d fallen for Jen - it looked like he had been primed to do so. It still hurt, though, to see the likeness of himself kissing the woman that he’d chosen to spend his life with.
And even more that Wes was not destined to have a life with Jen. There was nothing in his history to indicate that he’d ever fallen in love, much less married.
Wes could be a successful CEO, his history proved it. The time he’d spent in the Rangers was only a diversion from what he was meant to be. No matter what Jen might think after his recent behaviour, Alex felt for the young man that had resulted out of Rialtson’s plans. It was in his ‘child’s’ best interests that he have a life that had nothing to do with the Rangers or Time Force.
But, much to his frustration, the team refused to function without Wes. And Wes refused to function without the team. The young CEO, who should have been involved in paperwork, had instead saved them from Frax’s machine.
It was far too late. He had no choice but to return the morpher to Wes and turn the team back to what it was. And, truth be told, he was proud of Wes, though he couldn’t admit it in front of the others.
No matter what, Rialtson had won, though not in a way he had ever expected. There was no way that Wes could be diverted from what he was. Jen and the others wouldn’t allow it. And even he could not, finally, allow it.
And in a way, returning Wes would throw a damper on Rialtson’s followers. The clone had succeeded where the original could not. Alex was a loner. Wes had proved that he could become part of a team.
There had to be some way to throw that in the faces of all those who would say that Wes was just one more tool. And he intended to make sure that everybody knew who Wesley Collins was and what he had done.
He had diverted destiny away from the young CEO, making sure that Wes could retain his position as Red Ranger. And the other had seen it, and known. Even though he had lied to Wes’ face, he had the feeling that the other had known.
Even if Wesley Collins didn’t know about his true self, he had somehow known. And that was what made it worthwhile, what had caused him to go back to the future. Not because of the others, but because of Wes. Because of Jen.
Because even Alex loved.
Katie watched as Jen secured the wig onto her head. Wes had found it in some thrift store, and it and the glasses made quite a difference in their leader’s looks. As if unaware of her teammate’s attention, Jen started walking around in the imitation of some of the characters in the tape that Wes had rented. She had to admit that Jen was a good actor.
From the other side, Wes emerged. Katie hadn’t been sure about either’s ability to pull off being ‘geeks’, the kind of person who would be attracted to the Super Strong gym like bees to honey, but the two of them could easily pass off as what they pretended to be.
Oddly enough, even with his hair pulled back like Alex’s, Wes didn’t seem like Alex at all. Katie wasn’t sure enough to say if it was the extra-thick glasses or his whole demeanour.
Unfortunately, jarring the whole image of the hopeless pair of geeks was the sight of the morphers sitting there plain as day. Normally undercover officers would take anything distinctive off, but Jen had vetoed that, saying that the risk of being discovered was far less than finding themselves without the ability to morph if this happened to be a plan of Ransik’s or Frax’s. And since Jen was heading up the team, the rest of them had given in. There was time later to talk to her about unwise command decisions.
The pair examined each other for what seemed like a few minutes before Jen looked at the rest of the team. “We’re going in.”
With that, the two of them left. She could see Trip staring at them, as if he had been denied the opportunity to go out for his favourite sweet instead of someone who had wisely been left off a mission. While Trip was the right type of person who would go for such a scheme, his hair was very distinctive and she didn’t trust the chemicals people used in the twenty-first century to dye hair.
Trip chose to start whining at that moment. “Lucas, why couldn’t have I gone?”
Inwardly she sighed. Well, Lucas would tell him, all right. Trip might get sulky because of what Lucas said, but at least eventually he would recognize the truth.
“Because I was tired of listening to the two of them,” Lucas answered. “And if you’d been here, you’d be pushing them to go out, too!”
It wasn’t quite what Katie expected, and from his expression, she knew that it wasn’t an answer that Trip had expected, either.
“What happened?” she asked. “Did they have another fight?”
But as soon as the words had left her mouth, she knew that they were wrong. Given the many times that Jen or Wes had irritated the other, the rest of the team should know the symptoms of another fight by now. And Wes and Jen hadn’t been acting in any such way.
Lucas snorted. “That would have been easier. It’s just like right now they turned into a pair of lovestruck teens. I can’t get either to admit this to the other’s face, and this pussyfooting around the issue is driving me nuts! Jen’s too proud to admit she’s fallen for Wes, and Wes can’t seem to admit he’s in love with Jen. If I thought it would do any good, I’d say it for them.”
“I could say it,” Trip offered. “They would believe me.”
“Wouldn’t do any good,” Lucas told their other teammate. “I’ve seen this kind of thing before. Somebody’s got to get those two to admit things to each other. We either need to lock those two together in a room until they come clean with each other, or leave them alone long enough. I don’t know which would be better.”
Katie shook her head. “Maybe leave well enough alone. I mean, remember what Wes is?”
Looking at her two teammates’ faces, she knew that it didn’t make a dent of difference to them. Trip was too close to his friend to see the problem, Lucas too adamant about Wes being any different. It seemed that she alone knew what pitfalls lay ahead for this particular romance. Wes and Jen were doomed, it was just that nobody here knew that yet. Even if Wes was willing to return to the thirtieth century with the rest of them, how would he adapt? And how would the century take him?
She knew how certain parties in her home century would take him. They’d never leave the two in peace.
“I still say that we should get the two of them together,” Lucas replied, though he looked at Trip, the incurable romantic where Wes was concerned. “Or do the two of you want to suffer through the mission having to watch Jen and Wes act like teenagers too afraid to ask for a date? I mean, they’re Time Force officers. They’re supposed to be mature!”
“I don’t think Wes believes that Jen could ever be in love with him,” Trip said softly. “I visited him when Alex was here, and I don’t think he wanted to be in love with Jen and not have her love him in return. I mean, can you imagine how that feels? He thinks he’s got this puppydog crush on her.”
“As I said, we need to get the two together,” Lucas stated firmly. “Until the two of them realize they’re being stupid, we’re not going to get any peace.”
Heart sinking, she realized that Lucas was right. She may not wish for Wes and Jen to get together, not under these circumstances, but there may not have been a choice in the matter. She, like the two others, had seen the way the two had started to act towards one another. Who was she to block them?
Besides, Wes had stated that he wasn’t going back with them. Not for Jen, not for Trip, not for anyone. Jen and Wes would have their fling, and then Jen would go back and leave Wes behind. She couldn’t imagine by-the-book Jen refusing to return, or rebelling to stay with him. And if Jen did, she’d be there to talk sense into her.
“Are you guys in?” Lucas demanded.
Trip nodded, looking entirely too happy for his own good. She could see a hundred schemes running through the relatively innocent Xybrian’s mind. Katie turned her head, noticing that Lucas had that stare which meant that he was waiting for an answer. Waiting for her.
“I am,” she said finally, finding no joy in the matter, for what was the joy in bringing two people together when you only had to bring them apart again? Still, maybe, despite everything, Jen and Wes deserved a few moments of happiness.
“Good,” Lucas said. “Now, here’s what we do….”
With a heavy heart, Katie bent slightly towards Lucas and Trip, and listened.
It was a bright, sunny day and Trip found himself unable to stay inside. Most of the work was done for today and it was time off for their entire team. Ransik had been quiet as well, which meant that he had something bad planned, but there was little they could do about it.
The exercise tree stood in the front yard, with nobody exercising on it. He could just about see a shape, and he walked around to one side, curious. Wes was sitting there, his eyes closed.
“Hi,” Trip said, tentative, just in case Wes wasn’t in the mood for company.
Wes opened his eyes to look at him, and then closed them again. “What’s going on upstairs?”
“Not much,” Trip offered. “Jen’s gone all moody again. She’s looking at recordings of our most recent battle.”
Wes grinned and asked, “Looking at her ring again?”
Trip shook his head. “No, but I think we’re going to have a tactical lecture this evening.”
“Figures,” Wes said in an amused tone, and didn’t say anything more.
Trip looked at Wes in concern as Wes stayed silent. Their Red Ranger had to sense that the whole thing was coming to an end. Maybe soon they would be on their way back.
And, as Trip very well knew, Jen wasn’t in love with Alex anymore. Their leader, having once made a promise to Wes that he wouldn’t go with them if he didn’t want to, was considering reneging on the promise. As he had seen that white-haired woman explain to her boyfriend on that tape, she just couldn’t let him go.
Of course, Jen didn’t feel comfortable asking Wes about it because she didn’t know that Wes felt the same way about her. Trip had been working on a few plans to get them together, but he had to keep revising and revising them as circumstances changed. Most of his plans were very subtle, at least for him, and they would require more time than they seemed to have lately.
He was at a loss to figure out how to bring the two of them together while keeping his role in the scheme out of public knowledge. He needed help, and soon, but not from Lucas or Katie. He wanted to do this by himself.
And then he realized that there was somebody else he could ask. Someone who might even help in such a scheme.
Jumping up, ignoring Wes, he rushed to get his bicycle out. He might have finally found an accomplice.
Eric was enjoying one of his rare days off. Between the active duty he saw as the head of the Silver Guardians, and the paperwork involved in same, he didn’t get home as much as he had before. Then again, his position paid decently, to the effect that he was finally starting to afford stuff, or at least hide the money away for the day when Ransik was gone.
He wasn’t under the illusion that Ransik would run loose forever and give him steady employment. And with Ransik gone and with no more need for a Quantum Ranger, those two jerks that had dismissed him when Mr. Collins was unconscious would be more than happy to reduce him to what they no doubt thought of his proper station in life.
Rich jerks. Assumed all the world ran on their say-so and the only reliable people were other rich folk. Why else would they grab Wesley Collins to take over his father’s company, despite his reluctance. He had so much more wanted to be at that meeting than Wes had, and he had little patience with meetings like that.
At least Mr. Collins knew a leader when he saw one, even though he’d been just as prejudiced the first time Eric presented himself.
Strangely enough, Eric realized, the Rangers were far more accepting of him than his employers ever were. He was too busy being superior to them to ever notice. It was only when he started accepting the inevitable presences in his life that being a Ranger seemed to attract that he knew that he’d wronged them. He still didn’t feel comfortable in their little collective at the clock tower, but he could tolerate their presence, and they had apparently grown to adjust to him.
A bicycle tottered on by, and Eric snapped out of his reverie. He had a lot to do, he reminded himself savagely. How often did he get a Silver Guardian, Mutant, or Ranger-free day in order to just take care of things?
The bike noise had stopped by the time that Eric started for what passed for his front yard, and then he realized that somebody was ringing the doorbell on his trailer.
Curious to see who it was, whether door-to-door evangelist or somebody else, he rounded the corner and took a look. Totally oblivious to his presence was Trip, the Ranger team’s technician. The mutant. Most of Ransik’s mutated gang didn’t look nearly as human as Ransik and Nadira did, and Trip did.
Except Trip was apparently on the Rangers’ side. The wimpy little mutant posed almost no threat to him other than the threat to wreak havoc on his day off.
“Trip,” he said, not bothering to disguise what he felt in his voice, “What are you doing here?”
“I… I… I wanted to ask for your help!” Trip said, terror in his eyes. Eric wondered if something was wrong at the Clock Tower, or if Trip was just scared of his own shadow.
Eric folded his arms, knowing from what little he’d absorbed on etiquette that the gesture would make him seem closed. But then again, he didn’t want a part in whatever was going on. The Rangers would have to do without him. “And what is that?”
The other seemed to draw himself up. “I want your help in putting together a date. I mean, it’s supposed to be a date, but I don’t want the others to know. I don’t want them to know what I’m trying to do.”
“Trip, do I look like a matchmaker? For crying out loud, you’re supposed to know how to find out things like this!”
But Trip was shaking his head. “I can’t ask them. They’d laugh.”
“I don’t find it funny at all. And before you ask, I’m not going to do it.”
“Please, Eric? It’s… it’s Jen and Wes. They’re slowly driving us crazy.”
Eric had been turning away when he heard that. It had been impossible to miss Jen’s actions a few weeks before when he rescued the two of them from that strange gym. Something had been going on, and he was also sure that Mr. Collins would not approve of his son’s latest romance.
This was, he knew there were a few things that should be given a wide berth. Domestic disputes and lovers’ spats were high on the list. “Give them time, Trip.”
Not very helpful, but far more helpful than he intended to be. Eric congratulated himself on being diplomatic while dismissing the other Ranger at the same time.
“Eric, they don’t even realize that they’re in love,” Trip’s voice pleaded from behind him. “I mean, they’re in love with each other, but they can’t admit it.”
“And why do you think that I’d be able to help?” Eric asked. “I’m a soldier, not a babysitter.”
“We think that if they could just admit their feelings for each other, that they could concentrate on other things. That things between them wouldn’t be so awkward.”
Eric could understand that. He still didn’t want to have much to do with the rest of the Ranger team, but he knew that a team worked better when there weren’t unresolved issues going around. Still, if Wes wasn’t in a relationship with Jen now and he sparked one, Mr. Collins was going to kill him. Slowly and painfully, shortly after firing him.
He turned around to look at the trembling Trip. “All right. I’ll help. Under one condition.”
The other Ranger looked at him, unsure as to what he had in mind, but Eric knew he had Trip. “What’s that?”
“I’m going to go with them.”
Trip had been totally unsure whether Eric would help him. Yes, Eric was a little more willing to work with the rest of them nowadays, but other times, he was still what Wes described as a “lone wolf”. The condition that he had named made Trip edgy and relieved all at once. There was no way that Wes and Jen realize what he was getting them into, but then again, Eric’s presence might drive them away from the ultimate goal of the evening.
Still, from Eric, it was a gift, and Trip had to consider it as such. It couldn’t hurt to improve relations with Eric, either. The two of them had to work out the details, but he was sure that it would all work out smoothly.
But he still got far away from Eric’s place before smiling.
Watching Trip leave, Eric found himself preoccupied on what to do next. He doubted that Trip’s looks got him very many dates, and Eric hadn’t precisely been popular in the past. Then again, Trip wasn’t mandating that the two of them fall in love, just that they admit their feelings for each other.
Grimacing, he realized that he couldn’t let them do that, even if it messed up team dynamics. Eric had, out of respect for Jen, never told his employer that every Ranger except for Wes and himself were from the thirtieth century. Jen was a time traveler. Which meant that she could very well take Wes with her when she returned home. Even though he knew that Mr. Collins had pretty much okayed his son’s secret occupation, he doubted that this was what Mr. Collins had in mind for the aftermath of Ransik’s capture.
It occurred to him that Mr. Collins might know what to do. He manipulated people all the time to get the results he wanted. If that kept his son with him, he might be willing to help out on this so-called date.
Mr. John Collins looked up and was more than a little surprised to see the commander of the Silver Guardians at his office, when Eric had been given the day off. But Eric Meyers was ambitious, a quality that John certainly shared. In a way, Eric had been the son that Wes could not be until he realized that Wes was taking what he was given and running with it.
Relations with his son had improved considerably at that point.
Still, Eric was competent to go along with his ambition. In fact, Eric and Wes worked well together. Maybe, after this whole thing with Ransik was over, he’d have the two of them work together in his company.
“Eric,” he greeted the young man, injecting some warmth into his voice. “What brings you here on your day off?”
“Mr. Collins,” Eric greeted back. “It’s a personal matter.”
“Yes?” John asked, wondering what the young man would say. Eric wasn’t particularly attached to his family, nor did he seem to date.
“It’s not a personal matter of mine, sir,” Eric told him, looking towards one of the windows. “It has to do with the Rangers.”
“The Rangers?” John asked, mystified by what was going on with the Rangers that Wes hadn’t told him about. Of course, he and Wesley had only reconciled recently, so he didn’t know if his son would feel comfortable talking about his ‘business’.
“I’ve become more… aquainted with them, sir, and one of them visited my house a few minutes ago. It seems that Wes has fallen in love with Jen. And vice versa.”
John forced himself to remain patient and listen. “Go on.”
“From what I’m told, neither of them wants to tell the other that. So I was asked if I could help put them together.”
“And you agreed?” he asked.
“I agreed, if I could go with them. I knew that you’d want to have a say in this, sir.”
John looked at his commander and then away, staring at the wall in his office. He didn’t normally do so, but then again, he hadn’t exactly expected the circumstances. There were some upsides - Jen didn’t scream “spend the money and run”, and she might turn out to be a good business owner just by sheer intimidation. Besides, Wes had to make his own decisions now. And to John’s intense pride, Wes hadn’t asked for money since he had moved out.
On the other hand, Jen, whatever her last name was, was an unknown. Plus he hadn’t had the best first impression of her, though after second thought that might have been Wes. At least his son had gotten more serious after becoming a Ranger, and if that was due to Jen, then he should be thanking her for it.
It all came down to it being Wes’ life.
He noticed that Eric was still waiting for his instructions. “My son is his own man. I’ve learned not to interfere in his life.”
Eric nodded. “Sir, do you have any instructions on what to do with the two of them?”
Laughter welled inside as John realized why his Quantum Ranger had come to him. Playing matchmaker between his son and his son’s associate probably wasn’t something he was required to do every day. Or requested, for that matter.
Folding his hands in front of him, he replied, “Take them out to a restaurant. That’s how I met Jolene. It’s won’t alarm Wes because he doesn’t know how we met.”
“Yes, sir,” Eric responded, coming to attention. “Thank you, sir.”
His talk with Mr. Collins over, Eric realized he had no better idea of what to do with the problem of Wes and Jen than he had before he met with Mr. Collins. And, he realized belatedly, no way to get in touch with Trip to exchange plans with his co-conspirator.
Calling was out, probably. Jen or Wes might be suspicious if he asked to speak to Trip. The morpher was a possibility, though he never knew if his call might be misrouted.
Showing up on the doorstep, like Trip had done with him, wasn’t the smartest of moves. He had a two in five chance of running across Jen or Wes. It was the same problem he had with calling.
And, of course, he had no idea where Trip might be sent on any particular day.
On the other hand, he just had an idea. How hard would it be to tell Trip to tell the others he had come here to apologize? He’d have to make the message short, but it was a possibility.
Smiling grimly, he set off for the Clock Tower.
Somehow, Trip had not expected Eric to come over to the Clock Tower and ask for him. It wasn’t something the Silver Guardian tended to do - in fact, from the strange looks given him by his teammates, it was practically unheard of.
It did not bode well for his plan. Probably Eric wanted to tell the whole team what Trip had hooked him into, and then everybody would be absolutely furious with him.
Passing Katie, the counter person for the moment, he stopped expectantly. Eric’s cold eyes gave him no clue to what the other had in mind. Eric spoke, and Trip froze. “We’ll be right back,” Eric told Katie.
Trip found himself ushered outside, near the exercise tree that Jen liked to batter when she was in a bad mood. It was less battered as of late. He took in a breath, preparing to apologize to their sometime ally, but then Eric spoke.
“Look, I have to make this fast. Tomorrow, I’m going to invite Jen to have dinner with me. I’ll get Wes to come too. Whatever those two confess or don’t confess is up to them.
Startled, Trip nodded.
“And you owe me one. Now, scram. Get back inside and tell them I was apologizing for something. Whatever you want, I don’t care.”
Trip bobbed his head, and the leader of the Silver Guardians seemed satisfied, pulling away and heading towards his SUV. As Eric drove off, Trip stared after him until the vehicle had disappeared. Then he went back inside.
“What did Eric want?” Katie asked, apparently more out of curiosity more than anything else.
“He wanted… he wanted to apologize. To me, I mean.”
Katie smiled at his not-very-faked confusion. “I think he’s getting used to us, Trip.”
Trip nodded. “I think I’ll go upstairs.”
Katie smiled her consent and he went upstairs, knowing enough about the human mindset that his teammates’ curiosity had to be satisfied quickly so that the incident would drop from their minds by the time Eric’s plan kicked into action.
Three stares greeted him, and he knew he was right. “What did he want?” Lucas asked, suspicion evident in his voice. The two would-be lovebirds weren’t quite so hostile, but he could see their confusion.
So, once again, he answered. “He wanted to apologize to me.”
Wes shook his head, giving an amused smile, but Jen wasn’t as easily quelled. “What for?”
Trip shrugged. “I’m not sure.”
Eric had left it up to him on how to handle it, and Trip was happy to see their suspicions relaxing. He’d lied, and gotten away with it!
“That’s Eric for you,” Wes said. “Don’t worry about it, Trip. It’s just his way of doing things.”
“I know,” Trip answered honestly.
With that, the three relaxing in the upstairs room gradually wandered off to other activities.
It was the next day when Eric made his appearance, as promised. The whole team, and most importantly Jen and Wes, had made their way back to the clock tower for a well-deserved dinner. Trip tried not to grin openly, knowing that Eric had a plan up his sleeve.
Since it was his turn to make the dinner, Trip deliberately made a smaller dinner, not wanting to waste the team’s precious food when Jen went to dinner with Eric and Wes followed.
Boots thumped heavily on the clock tower stairs and he turned around to take a peek. Sure enough, it was Eric, missing his beret but retaining his uniform.
The rest of the team must have noticed this as well, as a stunned silence fell over the group. To the best of Trip’s knowledge, Eric had never come to their sanctuary, and it was extremely evident he didn’t feel comfortable there.
He was the one who broke the silence. “Hi, Eric.”
Eric dipped his head in acknowledgment, before turning to Jen. “We need to have a little talk. Leader to leader.”
Jen nodded, distrust evident in her face as Trip tried not to wince publicly.
“If you don’t mind, privately. I’m prepared to offer you dinner.”
Even though Trip could tell that Eric’s attempted ‘seduction’ wasn’t anything like he’d seen or read, he could tell that it was having an effect on Wes. Their teammate had tensed up, warily looking alternately at Jen and at Eric.
Jen nodded, though her expression was stony. “I’ll meet you downstairs.”
Eric returned the nod and walked stiffly down the stairs, soon gone from sight. As soon as his steps started echoing more softly, Wes was at Jen’s side. She stilled him with an upheld hand. “I know what I’m doing, Wes.”
“There’s got to be something going on. Why’s he here?” Wes asked her. “He’s almost never here unless there’s something he wants.”
“Right. And what he wants to do is talk to me,” Jen said firmly. “Circuit, did you scan him?”
The little robotic owl swiveled his head. “Sure did, Jen! That was Eric all right.”
“I’ll be back as soon as possible, guys,” Jen said at last, getting up and heading down the stairs. “Sorry about this, Trip.”
Trip smiled at Jen’s last, called message. “No problem,” he said, using one of the twenty-first century phrases he’d learned. “No problem at all,” he said softly so that nobody could hear him.
A few minutes later, as Trip continued making dinner, Wes returned from his stop at one of the windows. “Hold my portion for later, Trip. I’m going after them.”
As Wes left, Trip permitted himself a wide smile. Things were going more or less as planned.
Things were going as planned.
Aware of Jen’s untrusting expression, Eric permitted himself no more than a brief smile before turning into the strip mall with the local pizza parlour. This one was noisy, perfect for a private conversation, but with enough people that he might still be able to monitor the events of the evening.
“Here?” Jen asked, and he nodded.
“Why not? We can talk without being overheard.” Eric told her. “Besides, did you think I was going to take you to headquarters?”
“Possibly,” she admitted.
“The food’s good here, and I’m hungry,” he said, heading into the restaurant. He knew she’d follow, out of curiosity, or at least a semblance of honor.
“Do you like pepperoni?” Eric asked. “Or would you prefer a salad?”
“Pepperoni’s fine, thanks,” Jen said. He nodded, and made their order.
“Large pepperoni-pineapple, two waters,” he told the girl at the counter, taking out his wallet and paying. He had no idea if Jen liked pineapple with her pepperoni, but he knew Wes did from their time at school together.
After she presented him with the receipt, he headed towards a table near the back. It was the best place to discuss private business, such as the love lives of a thirtieth-century police officer and a twenty-first century business owner’s son.
“You stay here, I’ll wait for the pizza,” he told her. He didn’t know if Jen had ever ordered pizza before, if she knew that it wasn’t likely to be ready-made. Especially with the specialty order he’d put in.
Still, when he looked back, she was still sitting there. Probably she was wondering what the heck was going on there, and what he had to discuss with her. He looked away and smiled. Several minutes later, at about the time his pizza should be done, he checked his belt, knowing that Jen was watching.
To his great relief, he’d judged things correctly and the pizza came right on cue, along with their two waters. He picked the tray up, bringing it over to Jen, who watched him expectantly.
“It turns out I have business out at headquarters,” he told her. “You can pay me back sometime.”
She was beginning to stand up as he turned around and strode towards the front door, but he knew she was too frugal to leave their dinner alone. As he left the building, he turned, spotting the figure in the shadows. Striding over, he said simply. “You might as well go in. Pizza’s getting cold.”
With that, ignoring Wes’ startled protests, he strode towards his car, not bothering to look back.
Wesley Collins wasn’t sure what impulse drove him to follow Jen and Eric to the pizza place. However, upon reflection, he realized that this was a really stupid thing to do. What if Jen caught him? He’d never hear the end of it.
He bet Alex never acted this foolishly, this impulsively.
But then again, Alex didn’t have Wes’ programming. He intellectually knew that he could have fallen in love with Jen due to Rialtson’s plan, but it was difficult to remember that whenever he looked at his leader.
Still, he couldn’t be seen. He’d go home. Jen could take care of herself. Hadn’t she done just that with Steelix?
Wes snuck further into the shadows and tried to make himself get back in the car and return to the clock tower.
The door to the pizza parlour banged open and Eric stepped out. Wes held in his breath as the commander of the Silver Guardians looked in his direction. As Eric walked over, he knew that Jen would be told. But the figure paused in his stride. “You might as well go in. Pizza’s getting cold.”
“What?” Wes asked, startled. “Wait a minute….”
But Eric ignored him, striding away. Wes watched as his former classmate walked away and looked at the doorway for the pizza parlour. Should he go in and confess, or hope that Eric never told Jen he was there?
Not quite trusting Eric, Wes hoped that Jen was feeling merciful that night. He strode into the pizza parlour, searching for his friend and leader.
Finally, he spotted Jen sitting near the back, observing the street, a pizza in front of her and two glasses, one that she was drinking from. He made his way towards her, hoping that she would restrain her famous glare so that he could try to explain the unexplainable.
She looked over, and he knew that she had seen his reflection in the slightly-darkened glass. From her expression, he knew he’d have to act fast if he wanted to avoid an explosion.
“I know I’m going to probably sound very petty,” he said, hoping to forestall her anger, “but I didn’t know what Eric had in mind. I was worried.”
“I can take care of myself, Wes,” Jen told him stonily.
“I know. It’s totally irrational. Trip thinks it might be something Rialtson did.”
Actually, that wasn’t quite true, but Wes felt no remorse at blaming things on the scientist. “And what did Trip think Rialtson did?” Jen asked, her demeanour not softening one bit.
“Trip and I were talking one day, and he kind of theorized that Rialtson may have planted certain… impulses of Alex’s in my head before I was born.”
He realized that he could kiss any chance of romance with Jen goodbye then and there, but at least he wouldn’t look stupid when he was obviously mooning and stuttering in front of her. Or at least she’d understand.
Jen’s face half-quirked in a smile. “What?” Wes asked.
“I am just so glad we arrested him. The more I know about what he might have done, the happier I am that we caught him.”
“So am I,” he said, cursing himself for a lack of anything else to say on his part.
She was looking at him, an unreadable expression on her face. She picked up a slice of the pizza, staring at it, and Wes looked down. Pepperoni-pineapple. It had been one of the few things he and Eric had enjoyed in common, and it looked like the other Ranger had retained his taste for it.
“I’m really sorry about this, Jen.”
She shook her head. “We’ve told you before, Wes. It’s not your fault.”
He was about to speak, and then he closed his mouth. How would he explain to her that he felt more than Trip could explain? He’d gotten himself knocked out of the running by his own confession. Better just go through the evening and pretend everything was normal.
After Eric had left, Jen had found herself staring at the street outside the window. She could make out his vehicle departing, and realized she had no way of getting home, apart from walking. Or having to call one of the others to get a ride.
Eric had probably forgotten her the moment he was called up. She hadn’t seen an actual call, but she suspected that he had been called one way or another, and it was something that required his immediate departure.
Of course, he hadn’t seen fit to tell her what, exactly, it was. It could be anything from Mr. Collins wishing to see him to an imminent mutant attack, though she would have hoped that he’d warn her if that was the case.
Taking a sip of her water, she looked again at the scene outside the window. It was getting dark, and she could start to see the crowd inside the pizza parlour. Someone was approaching her table, though she couldn’t see who it was clearly.
Looking over, she was both surprised and unsurprised to see Wes approaching the table, a somewhat befuddled expression on his face, as if he wasn’t quite sure why he was there. Of course, she had no idea why he was there, and if it turned out that he had followed them to the pizza parlour, he’d better have a good explanation.
Every so often, Wes reminded her of the way he had been when they had met. He’d been a bratty rich kid, not serious at all, and not understanding why what they were doing was so serious. Some of it had to be ingrained twenty-first century behaviour. Some of it was just pure Wes.
“I know I’m going to probably sound very petty,” Wes told her, “but I didn’t know what Eric had in mind. I was worried.”
He sounded like he expected her to blow up at him at any minute, and Jen briefly considered doing so. He could be aggravating that way - one minute seeming like he was interested in her, the next minute chasing after another girl. “I can take care of myself, Wes,” she said, hoping to remind him that she was the leader here, and hardly helpless, something that Wes normally remembered.
Wes looked like he’d just realized he’d made a fool of himself, and rightly so. “I know. It’s totally irrational. Trip thinks it might be something Rialtson did.”
Jen resisted raising an eyebrow, or letting Wes off the hook that easily, though what he said both intrigued her and sickened her. Sometimes, she was reminded of why she’d gone into Time Force and the injustices people justified in the name of superiority. “And what did Trip think Rialtson did?”
One of his shoulders lifted up in a slight shrug. “Trip and I were talking one day, and he kind of theorized that Rialtson may have planted certain… impulses of Alex’s in my head before I was born.”
Jen made a note to ask Trip later about his theories. It seemed that the Xybrian had left a few things out as of late. Though, if it was half as embarrassing as Wes looked at the moment, Trip might have done it out of kindness.
It was somewhat disconcerting to know that some of Wes’ loyalty to her may have sprung from Alex’s devotion. That their Red Ranger could have been so persistent about staying on the team not only because he liked the fights, but he just didn’t want to be away from her.
Everything that she’d thought was typical Wes, she’d have to rethink and reestimate. She found herself smiling slightly. Who would have known that catching Rialtson would have helped them one thousand years in the past?
“What?” Wes asked.
She looked at him and tried to condense her feeling into words that he would understand. “I am just so glad we arrested him. The more I know about what he might have done, the happier I am that we caught him.”
“So am I,” he said, sounding a little bit relieved. She had the sense that there was something he wasn’t telling her, something he considered too personal to tell his team leader.
But maybe she had time. They were there, alone, and he might find the courage to tell her what was going on with the others absent. Of course, the two of them had found themselves doing things together as of late, but not in circumstances that allowed them to relax like this.
She picked up a slice of pizza. She hadn’t considered Eric’s pizza order too exotic, though she wished that he’d consulted her before the order. She caught Wes staring at the pizza, as if debating whether to take a slice.
“I’m really sorry about this, Jen,” Wes told her, mind obviously more on his regrets than anything else. Jen almost groaned as she recognized Wes was about to guilt-trip for something that Rialtson had done to him.
Shaking her head, she said, “We’ve told you before, Wes. It’s not your fault.”
He opened his mouth and closed it, and she tried to be patient. Sometimes she wondered if telling him about being Alex’s clone, about Rialtson, had been a good idea after all. As they learned more about Rialtson’s activities, the more disgusted she became.
If anyone wanted evidence of how different Wes was from his predecessor, all they had to do was get to know him. Wes was not a shadow of Alex, he was his own person, and the only people who could not see that were Rialtson’s supporters. And, weirdly enough, Wes.
She longed to tell him that she was attracted to him, in a way that she had not been to Alex. But she was his superior officer, and he hadn’t shown anything that meant that he was in love with her, too. Loyal, yes, as a Ranger teammate and maybe by what Rialtson had done to him. But she had been too harsh on him, and as Alex had proved, there could be no love in that kind of relationship.
Knowing that she had to give Wes time, she tried to turn his attention to something else. “Let’s finish this pizza,” she said, and to her relief, he took a piece, smiling.
“Did you know that this is Eric’s favourite flavour?” Wes asked, his mind for the moment obviously on days past. “I like it too.”
She smiled at that, glad of the distraction. Watching him, she ate her pizza.
“Trip, we have a visitor downstairs,” Circuit chirped. Looking up from the meal he was about to serve, Trip swiveled his head towards one of the balcony windows.
“I thought I heard a car,” he heard Katie murmur. “I’ll go downstairs and see who it is.”
“No, no,” Trip said, hurrying to get to the stairs before Katie. “I’ll go. You just go and enjoy dinner.”
He made sure that Katie went back to the table before taking the stairs down as fast as he could. Barreling out to the front door, he saw Eric’s unmistakable figure. Had something gone wrong?
Opening the door, he took in Eric’s tired expression. “Is everything all right?” he asked.
“You owe me big,” the Silver Guardian answered. “And Wes and Jen owe me for the pizza.”
“I thought you said that you were going to stay around,” Trip protested. As odd as Eric’s request had been, he reflected, it actually helped to have somebody there to see if the mission had been successful.
“Trip, they wouldn’t have done anything with me there,” Eric told him. “If they’re going to do what you want to do, they’re going to have to be alone together.”
Shaking his head, Trip wished he’d brought Eric in earlier. “We’ve tried that,” he said. “It didn’t work!”
“Maybe it did this time,” Eric said. “Why couldn’t you have set this up, anyway? Never had a date in your life?”
Trip blushed. He couldn’t help it, not with Eric’s reminder of his lack of success on the dating field.
“No, I guess not. Mutants aren’t well loved in the thirtieth century, I take it.”
Suddenly, Trip realized that Eric had the wrong idea about him. Since Ransik and Nadira looked human, and Trip looked human, he had to be a mutant like them.
“I’m not a mutant. I’m a Xybrian.”
“A what?” Eric asked, the look in his eyes telling him that Trip’s admission had unsettled him.
“A Xybrian. From the planet Xybria.”
“You’re an alien,” Eric said, in a tone of voice that had it been anybody else speaking, would have been wonder. In Eric, it just indicated “why didn’t I realize this earlier, I had all the clues”.
Eric shook his head as if to clear it. “There’s more to you than I thought. But you still owe me one, no matter what happens with Jen and Wes.”
Trip nodded, somewhat disappointed that Eric refused to open up to him further.
“I’d better be heading back. Just in case Jen or Wes think to check up on me.”
Trip nodded, and Eric did an about-face, almost marching out the door and back to the car. Heading back upstairs as he heard the engine rumble to life, he knew he’d have to come up with something to explain his presence downstairs. He wasn’t about to let the others know about his attempt.
Sitting at the table, the remaining two Rangers looked over at him. “Who was that?” Katie asked.
“Just some guy wanting some directions,” Trip told them, marveling how easy it had become for him to lie since they had landed in this century and met Wes.
Katie nodded, her suspicions apparently fading away, and Lucas just turned back to the meal, which was finished in peace.
A while later, Trip had wandered down to his workshop on the ground floor. Not only did he want to do some equipment maintenance, but he wanted to be the first to greet Jen and Wes and see how things went.
The door jangled as two forms slipped in. To his disappointment, Wes and Jen were not holding hands or anything he’d seen Jen do with Alex. He smiled for their sakes, and asked, “What did Eric say?”
“He left early on,” Wes told him. “We’ve got this pizza - want to join us upstairs?”
“Sure!” Trip exclaimed. “So, you two ended up having pizza because he had to leave?”
Eric had been spare on the details, and Trip yearned to know what had happened.
“Yeah,” Wes confirmed. “He apparently way about to sit down when he got called into the office.”
Trip nodded. Glancing Jen’s way, he knew he’d have to get Wes alone to get the story out of him. “Here, let me hold that.”
Wes smiled, handing him the pizza. Trip slowed down, letting Jen get far ahead of the two of them. “So, what happened after Jen left?”
“Not much,” Wes answered, and from his look, Trip knew that there was a lot the other Ranger was leaving off. “Eric left, we had pizza. That was pretty much it.”
Struggling to keep the disappointment from his face, Trip watched as Wes started hurrying up the stairs. Oh, well. If he didn’t succeed the first time, then all he had to do was try again.
And this time he’d do it in person.
“Trip, I have to tell you something,” Wes said as he closed the workshop door behind him. Trip was working away on who-knew-what.
“Did it have something to do with your date last night?” Trip asked, and then started looking like he should eat his words.
“It wasn’t a date,” Wes told him, knowing the Xybrian had just read a little too much into the accidental get-together. “As I said before, Eric left, so we had the pizza.”
Trip smiled at that, and Wes momentarily regretted telling the other that he was in love with Jen. True, he thought that he was saying goodbye for the last time to Trip, but he should have been more cautious. “So, what do you have to tell me about?” Trip asked, putting down his whatever.
“I told Jen about your theory. You know, the one where Rialtson might have imprinted Alex on me.”
Trip nodded. “I’ve been doing a little work on that. Barring detailed tests, I think it might be true.”
Wes shook his head at his friend’s momentary preoccupation. “Anyway, I think she thinks that I’m in love with her because Alex was in love with her.”
His friend frowned at that, and Wes wondered if the Xybrian had half an idea of what he was talking about. Or maybe Trip understood only too well. Wes sneaked a glance, and was relieved to see that the gem on Trip’s forehead wasn’t glowing.
“I really messed up, Trip,” he said, sitting down at one of the benches. “I mean, there’s no chance that she’ll ever see me as me, much less as a potential boyfriend!”
He looked down as Trip continued working on his latest gadget. It felt good to confess, to tell someone about how he felt, even though he knew that Jen would never feel the same way about him as he felt about her.
And, of course, he could never tell if he was really in love with her, or if this was some thrice-accursed feeling of Alex’s that drove him to go after his originator’s fiancee. Ever since learning of his true heritage, of what he might be, he’d had to reevaluate all that he thought he knew about himself. Oh, the team might continue insisting that Wes was his own person, and he certainly wasn’t Alex, but sometimes he felt like an inferior copy, especially when Jen was stripping his ears off about his latest wrongdoing.
“Maybe it’s not as bad as you think,” Trip said, continuing to work.
“You know her better than I do,” Wes said, realizing that he wasn’t alone in this. Maybe if he got Trip to help him win Jen’s love, the way that Trip had helped him win a place on the team?
No way. Trip giving him information because Jen was too upset over her fiance was one thing. Seducing someone who still wore her engagement ring was another and something he couldn’t ask Trip to do. Trip’s friendship, his willingness to stand up for Wes was something Wes couldn’t risk over what could be a foolish dream.
“Enough to know that she won’t hold what Rialtson did against you,” Trip said, finally looking up from his work. “Jen’s not a bigot, Wes.”
Wes rubbed his forehead, thinking of ways to explain love to the innocent Xybrian. There was a difference between the team knowing he was a clone and Jen dealing with the fact that he had Alex’s feelings for her. One did not automatically assume the other. “I know that,” he said.
Trip actually shook his head, but whether it was over the gadget he was putting together or Wes’ words, Wes didn’t know. “I don’t think you do,” Trip said quietly, but in a tone that he’d never heard before from his gentle friend. “If you were nothing but Alex’s memories you’d know that Jen wasn’t a bigot. Don’t underestimate yourself. We don’t.”
“So, who am I?” Wes asked, curious to know how Trip felt about him.
“I don’t know,” Trip responded, brushing his bucket hat back a little, almost knocking it off. Then in a sudden movement, he pulled it all the way off, revealing his crown of green hair. The Xybrian never, ever did that, ever since he’d found the clothes for them. It was just too risky.
“But I know what you’re not.”
Trip’s simple words startled him, for he had almost whispered them. Wes’ friend examined his hat as if it was something to repair, or just use as a component, instead of a simple piece or two of fabric.
“I am what I am,” Wes said.
His friend kept shaking his head, and Wes watched the green hair sweep back and forth. Though he wasn’t talented in that direction at all, Wes had the sense that he’d disappointed his friend terribly by just telling the truth.
Well, what did Trip expect? Wes had, for once, told the truth. Weren’t Trip’s kind supposed to place great value on the truth?
Trip swept his hat back on his head, transforming once more into a human with dyed hair, deceiving unless you knew what he was. In a way, Wes felt like he was deceiving the world, just as Trip’s hat did.
Or was he deceiving himself? His teammates accepted him. His father accepted him. Even Eric occasionally came around. Did it matter that he was what he was?
Only in love. Only in the messed-up triangle that was his love life. Science-fiction soap opera, indeed. But he was involved, and he had no choice. He had to live his life as it had become, until he found himself free.
“Trip, does she love me?” he asked, knowing that Trip would have to tell the truth. Trip never lied.
Trip shook his head. “You’ll have to ask her.”
A non-answer. But he doubted he’d get anything more out of Trip. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to ask her. He wasn’t going to feel foolish. No matter what, he guessed, some doubt remained.
Shaking his head, he got up. The mystery would have to remain unsolved. He wasn’t going to pursue it.
“Thanks,” he said to his friend. Trip nodded briefly, returning to his work. Shaking his head once again, Wes headed to the desk. It was his time, and he had some thinking to do.
Staring at the little clear card, Wes let go of his past.
He had known, ever since Alex had given the five of them the news, that he wasn’t going to survive. He’d been willing to go along with it, helping Jen and the others pack up and leave. Go home, safe and sound, to 3000.
Except his teammates hadn’t seen it that way. In a conference that he wouldn’t have known about except for that awful dream, they had agreed to stay and fight. Die for a people and a century that had once upon a time been ancient history for them.
It was what Rangers did, apparently. Fight one’s best and die to save the world if needed. Ten centuries of Rangers had taught his teammates that much. They had taken that lesson to heart and remained, disobeying orders much like they had when they’d fled to his century.
Or was it his century, after all? Like the rest of them, he’d been born in the thirtieth century. Like his teammates, he’d been born in a lab. The difference was that he had been created for a political purpose instead of out of love.
Somehow, it was fitting that he’d die in the time that had adopted him, proving that he was not Alex. If he could. Alex had almost died once, doing the same job Wes did now. Alex had been willing to die too. The only difference between the two of them was that Wes had had to fight to be a Ranger.
Of course, maybe Alex had too. Wes was pretty sure he’d been gifted with something of Alex, but besides his looks, he wasn’t sure exactly what.
He never had mentioned it much to anyone, not since Alex had started acting like a cold-hearted jerk, but he admired his original. Trusted him. And even though Alex had no idea what Wes was, would never think of Rialtson sending his clone back to the twentieth century, Wes sometimes thought that Alex was weighing his words and decisions as if Wes truly belonged among them.
Jen and the others… they had been effectively planning to kill themselves. Commit suicide. All because they had become attached to his adopted time. He’d seen the look in Jen’s eyes as she told him that she was going to stay in his and defend the city. No amount of persuasion could take her or the others from their path.
Somewhere, in a thousand years from now, Katie’s family was waiting to have her come home. Lucas had his racing career to think of. Jen had a future ahead of her. And Trip, his very good friend Trip, would die before he found anybody to love.
He couldn’t let them die, not when they had a chance to get back home and go back to the lives that they left. Left wiser, and stronger, by his association with them, as he had become from his association with them.
But they weren’t going back on their own. So he, the only one who wanted to obey orders, was the one stuck making sure that they obeyed. He didn’t want to die, not without his friends, but sometimes one just had to do what was right.
He was going to die. But he wasn’t going to take anyone with him. Sure, it was suicidal, but in a thousand years, it really wouldn’t matter that one Ranger did his duty and died anonymously. He wouldn’t be remembered, except by his friends, and that was the only thing that mattered.
It wasn’t until he got to the ship that he’d found out how to save them all. A simple lucking-out of running across the manuals, a speed-read on the auto-pilot. He read fairly fast, he knew, and he had never been so grateful for that as he had at that moment.
If Lucas hadn’t figured things out, gotten suspicious at the last moment, things would have gone off splendidly. The others wouldn’t have known that he was sending them away until they were actually off. He wouldn’t have their last words running about his head.
They had adopted this time, just as he had so many unknowing years before. They were unwilling to let go. He’d had to see them, pounding on the window, last desperate pleas to get him to come back and release them.
And what would have happened then? Jen would have yelled at him, and they would have fought together, and died. Not a fate he would have chosen for any of them. Better to just accept that he was going to be alone. That he was going to die, alone and afraid. He’d made his own choices, walked his own path.
Committing suicide, in a way. Going out in an anonymous blaze of glory, one of the random victims of the destruction. Nice, in a way, to not be remembered at all.
He would have rather had a full life, but some things just didn’t work out when one had destiny breathing in one’s face.
But the others were safe. They’d go on to have nice lives, and he would be a pleasant memory. He, who wasn’t really meant to be, would have a meaning in their lives. Even if he had to die for them. To make a difference for those he’d loved.
Getting rid of the card, Wesley Collins walked towards the town and prepared to die.
It was not what she had imagined.
She had many times dreamed of the day that the four of them and Wes would capture Ransik, and she and her teammates would be free to go home, redeemed for their actions that night.
But Ransik was still loose, and the only reason she was home was because one of her own had betrayed her. The only one not there, waiting for memory adaptation.
Wes.
Alex would argue that Wes was a civilian, which was true, but on some timeline, he had been sworn in temporarily as a member of Time Force. Technically speaking, he was still under her command. And he was loyal as he could possibly be. Of course, in the end, that had been the problem; Wes had been far too loyal for their own good.
Day by day, she resented Rialtson and his scheme more and more. Trip had admitted that it was only theory that Wes had been fed Alex’s memories before birth, but it was a credible explanation as to why he’d acted the way he did from the beginning.
In the end, Wes’ instincts to protect her, to follow Alex’s orders, had resulted in her team’s unwilling trip back to their own century. She could understand his reasoning, that better one die than five, but in other ways, she still wanted to ream him for the stunt he’d pulled.
He, who chose his own destiny, in the end refused to let his teammates choose theirs. She thought the four of them had made that clear to him the night before the attacks came, but apparently not. Part of that had to be his upbringing, and part of that had to be Alex.
Alex didn’t know about his own clone. He had no idea who he had left to his death. Not that the version of Alex that they knew now would particularly care, but she wished she could tell him, just to see if he reacted at all.
But she wouldn’t tell him. She had no reason to tell him, after all. There was no rescuing Wes from his fate. Wes would die without his teammates, and no amount of longing would take her back to the twenty-first century and back to him.
She would never be able to tell him that she loved him. Never be able to look at him and be beguiled by a gentle smile in a rounded face, in some ways so different from Alex’s. No longer be irritated by one of Wes’ westerns.
Sure, Wes could be irritating, but he was warm. Human. Loving. Even if he looked at her with Alex’s memories in his subconscious, there was some element of him that made her think that he was in love with her, too.
It was that which caused her not to be upset at Wes’ memory. Oh, she had no doubt that some of her Alex still remained in this new one, but she knew that he cared far beyond the loyalty enforced upon him.
But it was still forced, and no matter how she felt, she reminded herself that it really wasn’t his choice. No matter how much she and the others told him that he was an individual, free from any obligation of being Alex, he really wasn’t.
She had to remember Wes. There was nothing any machine or mandate could do to make her lose sight of the injustices against him and the rest of the Rialtson clones. But could she? She knew of the technology, but she never thought she’d have to have her mind adjusted. There had been no such policy in place when they’d fled through time, so she knew it had to be a timeline change.
Jen tried not to shiver outwardly as she thought of not remembering the past few months. Of not remembering anything of her battles with Ransik, her time in the twenty-first century, or the one that she loved more than ever.
Okay, the one that she loved when she wasn’t yelling at him about some transgression he’d committed, which was often in the early days. He’d gotten better once she’d let him on the team and sworn him in as a Ranger and as a member of Time Force. And to be fair, the only one who had obeyed orders.
Even though those orders were wrong. Even if they meant that she should have left him alone to die.
Staring out at the sky, she tried to remind herself that he was dead now, dead for a thousand years, and would never be on the receiving end of one of her lectures ever again. She breathed in, trying to keep her eyes from watering and her nose from running.
Maybe it was better that she not remember. Better that she never knew Wesley Collins, who he was, and what he could become. Better that she not remember one who cared so much for his teammates that he betrayed him to safety.
But she couldn’t bring herself to do that. Sure, she might obey orders, but there was so much that those who had never spent a day in a century not their own could ever know. She would obey orders this time, but she would not let them take her spirit away.
She would not let them take Wes away from her.
Behind her, her team stirred. They, like her, were discontent. They, like her, wanted to remember. They, like her, would not go down without a fight. They were her team. The four of them knew what was right, no matter what Alex and the bureaucrats might think best for them. Nothing could quench that.
No matter what happened. No matter what anybody did. They would remember.
-end
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