---------------------------------------
No Place Like Home
by Lianne Burwell
March 2004
---------------------------------------

"Come on, Conner, can't this wait until later? Dr. Oliver 
isn't going to like being woken up this early on a 
weekend."

Conner frowned at his teammate, Ethan. Kira was standing 
back, pointedly not getting into the argument. "Don't you 
think he'd want to know that we might have a lead on where 
Mesogog is?" he asked. 

"Sure, but not this early! Bad enough you dragged the rest 
of us out of bed," he added under his breath. Conner 
winced. Okay, maybe he'd been a little over-enthusiastic, 
but getting an anonymous tip on Mesogog was too important 
to just ignore. They still weren't sure what the over-sized 
lizard had planned, but whatever it was, it couldn't be 
good for anyone in Reefside City, or anywhere else for that 
matter.

"Listen, we're here, we might as well knock. The worst that 
can happen is that he tells us to get lost until later," 
Kira finally said, pushing past the two of them. She went 
to knock on the back door to Dr. Oliver's home only to have 
it swing open at the first touch.

Immediately all three of them were on guard. Dr. Tommy 
Oliver had enemies. Enemies from his days in old Power 
Rangers teams, and newer ones from his membership in the 
new Power Ranger team with them. Mesogog, his henchmen, and 
even that creepy Dr. Mercer that Dr. Oliver used to work 
with all could be after him. An open door could only mean 
trouble.

Conner decided not to morph before going in, just in case. 
He edged past Kira into the kitchen. There were dirty 
dishes in the sink, but no sign of trouble. There was no 
sign of a struggle in the living room or lab either, but 
there was also no sign of Dr. Oliver. Conner eased towards 
the hallway that he assumed led to the bedroom. After all, 
he'd never been into that part of the house. He certainly 
had no business in Dr. Oliver's bedroom. Not that he would 
want to. Uh-uh, nope, nice hetero male here. Just because 
Dr. Oliver didn't look thirty, and did look good in 
spandex, didn't mean Conner was thinking about the man's 
bedroom.

Ethan bumped into a table, knocking over a book. Conner put 
on a burst of Dino-gem fueled speed and caught it before it 
could hit the ground. He set it back on the table and 
gestured to Ethan to keep quiet. Ethan looked embarrassed.

The door to the bedroom was slightly ajar. They crept 
closer and closer, listening for any sign of trouble. They 
all glanced at each other, then shrugged. If they got in 
trouble, so be it. Conner stepped forward and pushed the 
door open.

Ohmigod!

>>>~~~<<<

Tommy sighed and rolled over, cuddling up closer to the 
warm body next to him. It had been far too long. He felt 
warm, protected, and sore in all the right places. It had 
been years since he'd felt this good. He rubbed his face 
against his bedmate's chest, enjoying the tickle of hairs 
against his nose. It was Sunday morning, he had everything 
ready for classes on Monday and he didn't have to go 
anywhere. He was seriously considering spending the day in 
bed. He doubted he would have trouble convincing...

"Ohmigod!"

At the squeak, Tommy was instantly fully awake, although he 
didn't open his eyes. He recognized the voice, and he was 
definitely not ready for this.

"Um, Tommy?" Great. Now he wasn't the only one awake. 
"You've got guests."

Tommy buried his face in an armpit. He was probably bright 
red with embarrassment. "Ignore 'em. Maybe they'll go 
away." It had to be all three. That was the way his luck 
ran.

He didn't get to find out if they would go away before he 
was pushed out of hiding. Tommy groaned and sat up.

Yep. All three of them. All staring at him in open-mouthed 
shock. He pulled the sheet up a little higher, but there 
was no way to disguise the fact that neither of them were 
wearing any clothing. And looking down at himself, he could 
see dark bite marks that made it abundantly clear what had 
been going on.

Conner was turning as bright a red as his shirt. "Um, we, 
I..." Tommy just looked at him. "I got a message... I 
mean... The door was open... We thought..."

Tommy closed his eyes. "Maybe if you went back to the 
living room, we could get dressed?" he suggested when 
Conner stopped babbling.

"Uh, right."

They disappeared with amazing speed; all three of them. 
Tommy groaned, and gave serious thought to jumping out the 
window and taking off, just to avoid the upcoming 
conversation.

Billy chuckled. "Three teenagers, dressed mostly in shades 
of red, yellow, and blue. I take it that's the new team?"

Tommy opened his eyes and looked over at his former 
teammate. Billy looked embarrassed, but was smiling. "Yep, 
that's them. I must be insane, doing this all over again.

Billy shook his head ruefully. "No, just a hero at heart. 
Me, I'm just a geek who did my time. That's why I turned 
down the chance to do it all again, unlike you. Green, 
white, red, and now black. A veritable rainbow of colors."

Tommy snorted and bumped his shoulder against the other 
man's. "You're a pretty damned heroic geek in my books."

"I missed you," Billy said, his eyes dropping as he reached 
out to Tommy.

"Hey, I wasn't the one who ran off to another planet with a 
girl."

Billy looked embarrassed at that. "It felt like the right 
decision at the time. And I was dying, after all. But I'm 
back now, and I hope I am not too late."

He looked so worried that Tommy had to smile. "Never too 
late," he said, brushing the back of his hand against 
Billy's cheek. "Fifty years from now it still wouldn't be 
too late." He leaned over and kissed the other man softly.

"Thank you," Billy said softly, leaning against him. Then 
he sat up straight. "But right now, we better get dressed 
before those three start wondering if you ran out on them."

Tommy rolled out of bed and started grabbing for his 
clothes. "Don't think I'm not tempted."

>>>~~~<<<

Conner was perched on the edge of the sofa, trying not to 
think about what he'd just seen. Dr. Oliver. In bed. With 
another man. Naked!

"Maybe he was just a friend stopping by for a visit and 
there's no spare bed," Ethan suggested, sounding a little 
desperate.

Kira laughed. "With those hickeys? I think not."

"But I thought he and Hayley..."

"Hayley? Whatever gave you that idea?"

Conner looked up to find Dr. Oliver standing in the opening 
leading to the back hallway. The strange guy was right 
behind him, thankfully dressed. He was wearing blue jeans 
and a blue plaid flannel shirt. He also had glasses on. 
Conner eyed him suspiciously. He didn't know who this guy 
was or where he'd come from.

"Guys, I'd like you to meet an old friend of mine, Dr. 
Billy Cranston."

The stranger waved a hand at them, looking a little 
sheepish. "Hi."

"Another doctor? Did you meet at university, like with 
Hayley?" Kira asked, almost bouncing over to shake the 
guy's hand. She was way too accepting of this guy, in 
Conner's view. They didn't know anything about this guy. He 
might be like Dr. Mercer, out to get them.

Dr. Oliver was smiling. "No, we knew each other before."

"We went to high school together," Dr. Cranston added, 
glancing at Dr. Oliver with a weird smile.

Conner frowned. There was something familiar about the guy, 
but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"So what was so important to bring you over here so early 
on a Sunday morning?" Dr. Oliver asked. "I thought we were 
supposed to meet up at the Cyberspace this afternoon."

"Um..." Conner glanced at Dr. Cranston. "It can wait."

Dr. Oliver's eyebrow went up, and Conner flinched. How come 
he'd never told them he was gay? Not that it mattered, of 
course. Conner didn't care that their teacher was gay. And 
it wasn't like he'd ever thought about it. Nope. No gay-
thinking around here. Still...

Kira was watching them all with that intent look, and 
Conner avoided her eyes. She was way too perceptive at 
times for his comfort. Especially right now. "Blue 
ranger...," she muttered, then fixed her gaze on Dr. 
Cranston. "You were the Blue Ranger," she said again, a 
little louder and a lot firmer.

Conner stiffened. That was why he looked familiar, he was 
one of the rangers in the video diary. Dr. Oliver had 
pictures around of them out of uniform too. Blue Ranger 
from the original group. Crap. Who could compete with that 
sort of history. Not that there was a competition or 
anything. Well, maybe Hayley was competing. Or was she? 
They just assumed that because the two of them were 
spending all that time together, that they were more than 
just friends. Of course, if Dr. Oliver was gay, then that 
changed everything. Or maybe he was bisexual. How did one 
find out these things?

Suddenly he realized that everyone was staring at him. 
"What?"

"You came over because?" Dr. Oliver prompted.

He felt like a complete spaz. "Someone left me a note. 
About Mesogog. We thought..." Kira rolled her eyes, and 
Conner sighed. "*I* thought we should talk to you about it 
immediately."

"Okay, well, let me see this note."

Conner handed it over, trying hard not to stare at Dr. 
Cranston. He wasn't bad-looking, Conner supposed. At least, 
not if you were into older guys with glasses. Of course, 
Dr. Oliver was also an older guy with glasses, even if he 
didn't wear them all the time. And he looked good in them 
too.

"This might be promising," Dr. Oliver finally said, 
breaking up Conner's mental babble, thank god. "I'll get 
Hayley to check into it from her end and we'll discuss it 
later at the Cyberspace."

"Okay." "Sounds good to me."

"Um, yeah. We'll see you later," Conner said, getting to 
his feet.

Dr. Oliver walked them to the back door, but pulled Conner 
back at the last moment. "This isn't going to be a problem, 
is it?"

"Huh? No!" Conner protested, scuffing his feet against the 
floor. "It's just... a surprise. We just need to readjust 
our..."

"Expectations?" Dr. Oliver suggested, a small smile on his 
face. Fuck, did he have to be so good looking?

"Yeah. I'll see you later."

And with that, he made his escape.

>>>~~~<<<

"Looks to me like the Red Ranger has a bad case of puppy 
love."

"Hmm?" Tommy said as Billy's arms wrapped around him. 
"Well, Kira is a pretty girl."

"That isn't what I was talking about."

Tommy frowned. "What do you mean?" he asked, then gasped as 
Billy licked the side of his throat. "Oh, do that again."

Billy obliged him, making him shiver. "I mean," he said in 
a low, sexy voice, "that your new Red Ranger has a serious 
crush on an older, more mature, good-looking man."

"Huh?" Tommy froze. "Me? You have got to be joking."

"Not at all. I can quite understand it. After all, I have 
had a crush on you since high school."

"But he's my student!" Tommy shook his head, trying to wrap 
his mind around the idea. Oh lord, this could be awkward.

"A quite common phenomenon. He will recover."

Tommy wrapped his arms around Billy's neck, pulling him 
closer. "He better, because even if I were the type to date 
someone more than ten years younger than myself, it 
wouldn't matter. I'm taken."

Billy's leg slipped between his, pressing up. "You most 
certainly are. And if we go back to bed, you'll be taken a 
few more times."

The thought made him moan. "I'm not sure I can make it that 
far," he teased.

The soft chuckle vibrated through him. "Then turn around."

Tommy did as he was told, already fumbling with the buttons 
on his jeans. A moment later, they were around his ankles 
and he was pressing back into the thrusts. Oh, he'd missed 
Billy. "Ah! Wel... welcome home... Billy... oh, god!"

"Glad to be home," was the last thing he heard before Billy 
drove him completely out of his mind.

THE END