Chapter Text
“Abigail!” I groaned. Dad had just gotten home from work; he owned the Youth Center in Angel Grove. Ever since Mom died when I was an infant, Dad…changed for lack of a better word. Don’t get me wrong, he was a great father for me growing up, but when I turned 13 almost 2 years ago, he started acting differently at home. Even my older brother had noticed his behavior. David was four years older than myself and did his best to protect me from our dad’s anger.
David wasn’t home right now though, being at a martial arts lesson. Dad refused to let me learn, though, with his only reasoning that he didn’t want me following in my mom’s footsteps. David and I had no clue what he meant, though. We knew Angel Grove had once hosted several teams of Power Rangers, but that had been before I was born. David did his best to teach me, but it had to happen when Dad was busy at work.
Isofar as the Power Rangers went, we think Dad knew who they’d been, though he wouldn’t confirm the fact. All I knew about Mom was that her best friends were my godparents: Aunt Kimberly and Uncle Billy and that she had been one of the few people who could follow along with whatever Uncle Billy was saying when they were in school together. Aunt Kimberly ran the gymnastics school downtown and, thankfully, Dad did allow me to take lessons there.
Dad didn’t like talking about Mom much; all I knew about her was from her friends and what little David could remember. There weren’t even many pictures of her in the house as Dad had packed them away shortly after she died. If it hadn’t been for Aunt Kimberly and Uncle Billy, I don’t think I would have known what she looked like. I also did my own research, but there were some days I wish I hadn’t. I’d only seen one article about her death and it was how I knew that she’d died in a car crash; I had been the only survivor. David had been at preschool that day; Mom and I had been on our way to pick him up.
From my research and what Aunt Kimberly said, they’d all known Dad since they were teens. Mom had gone away to college after participating in a World Youth Summit and hadn’t been back to Angel Grove until after getting her degree. Once moving back, she and Dad had started dating and eventually married.
Uncle Billy, Aunt Kimberly, and Jason, another friend of hers, were the only friends of hers in town that I knew of. Most of the rest had eventually moved away or just weren’t as close to my dad. Jason ran the martial arts school that David went to. Jason had tried talking to Dad about me getting lessons, but Dad refused. I’d actually been at the Youth Center that day and heard the resulting argument. The Youth Center, thankfully, was mostly empty. The only people there besides David, Dad, Jason, and I were Uncle Billy and Aunt Kimberly. They were as shocked as David and I when he said the line about not wanting me to follow in Mom’s footsteps. Jason’s only response was to ask, then, why Dad was allowing David to take martial arts lessons. Dad had no response, but still refused to let me learn.
When I asked Aunt Kimberly later what Dad had meant by ‘following in Mom’s footsteps’, she refused to say.
“I made a promise long ago, Abigail, to not reveal that secret. All I can say is your mom was a brave woman,” was her response when I pressed the issue. Even when I asked if Mom had been a Power Ranger, Aunt Kimberly refused to say.
Thankfully, when I came downstairs, Dad wasn’t alone. He wasn’t abusive per say, but he preferred keeping me wrapped in figurative bubble wrap. Aisha, a friend of Aunt Kimberly’s, was there. I’d known her growing up, as she often helped Aunt Kimberly run the gymnastics studio.
“Hi, Ms. Campbell.” I only called her Ms. Campbell when Dad was around; she’d told me to call her Aisha long ago.
“Hi, Abigail,” was her response. Turning to my dad, she asked, “Ernie, can I talk to your daughter alone? She’s not in trouble, but there’s something I need to talk to her about that couldn’t wait until her next lesson.” As it were, my summer lessons wouldn’t start up again for another couple of weeks, whatever Aisha wanted to talk to me about, it must be serious.
Dad nodded. “Abigail, take her up to your room.” With that, Dad headed off to the kitchen to make dinner. Aisha and I headed up to my room, but I didn’t close the door all the way. Dad didn’t like David or I to keep our doors totally closed for whatever reason. This was especially true when we had friends or any guests over. The only exceptions were when we were sleeping or changing, for obvious reasons.
“Abigail, like I told your dad, you’re not in trouble. I just wanted to bring you an early birthday gift.” With that, she drew out two wrapped gifts out from her shoulder bag and two not. The wrapped gifts ended up being a set of a couple new sketchbooks and pencils; I’d been drawing for a long time. The others, though, were a bit odd to me. Of the unwrapped gifts, one looked like a watch, but what was supposed to be the watch face had a rounded ‘ball’ on top. The other looked like a morpher similar to what the original Power Rangers used.
Pointing to the morpher and watch, Aisha said quietly, “These were your mom’s originally. She’d given them to me before going to the Youth Summit. I think she’d like for you to have them.”
I frowned. “Dad won’t be happy. He doesn’t want me following in Mom’s footsteps, whatever that means. Not even Aunt Kimberly and Uncle Billy will tell me. Dad certainly won’t.”
“Your mom was the original Yellow Ranger, Abigail. If Ernie won’t approve, you might want to keep them hidden.” I had a shoulder bag with a hidden space that Dad didn’t know about and quickly put them in there. I tended to use the bag as a purse and it occasionally doubled as a backpack. The sketchbooks and pencils were put on my desk, out in the open. Hopefully, Dad would see those and not look further.
By the time Dad called me for dinner, Aisha and I had gone on to talk about other things, including my upcoming summer lessons. She’d told me stories of what she’d known about Mom, but not any Ranger stories. As neither of us were completely sure if Dad knew of Mom being one, she promised to tell me some stories next time I was at the gymnastics studio. She also promised to let Aunt Kimberly and Jason about giving me the morpher and communicator, which is what the watch ended up being. They’d pass the word on to Uncle Billy, or so Aisha promised.
David had also gotten home while Aisha and I were talking. Dad had offered Aisha dinner, but she said she had to go, having had dinner of her own in a slow cooker.
“What did Ms. Campbell want?” Dad asked, over his chicken.
“Oh, just to give me an early birthday gift and to talk about an upcoming competition this summer. Aunt Kimberly thinks I’ve got a shot at it.” Dad scowled, the letter about it had been sent home at the end of the school year. I wanted to go, but it wasn’t in Angel Grove. Dad didn’t like me leaving the city unless it was either on vacation or school field trips. Not even David had been allowed to go to martial arts competitions if they weren’t in Angel Grove.
David also had a tough time convincing Dad to let him take Driver’s Ed and get his license. I could understand why, too, with how Mom had died. He’d finally given in; I didn’t think I’d have the same luck next year, even though I’d be 16 by then. David, though he was going to be away at university, promised to work on Dad.
The rest of dinner ended up being in almost complete silence. David had asked what Aisha’s early birthday gift had been, more to break the silence than anything else.
“A couple of new sketchbooks and some new drawing pencils.”
“Nice. How’d she find out that you like to draw?” David asked, actually curious.
I laughed a bit. “Aunt Kimberly’s got several of my sketches at the studio. She must have seen them there.” What I didn’t tell David or Dad was Aisha had also seen me draw and also had some of my sketches.
I asked David about if he was ready for university. He’d graduated last weekend and was going to go to school in nearby Los Angeles. Even though L. A. was close, David was going to be rooming on campus the first year. How he’d convinced Dad, I didn’t know and he wouldn’t say, even when asked. He had promised to let me know privately before he left, though, once out of Dad’s earshot.
After dinner, David convinced Dad to let him take me to a movie, as an early birthday gift, since he was going to be out of town for my actual birthday. His university orientation was on Saturday, my birthday. Dad was going to be going with him and I was possibly going to spend the day with Aunt Kimberly and Aisha. Even though I was almost 15, Dad didn’t like me being home alone for long. I’d spent most of today at the Youth Center with him before heading back home at 4. We didn’t live far, only a few blocks, but Dad worried.
While in the car headed to the movie theater, David finally confessed how he got Dad to agree to let him live on campus. “I told him it was required of all freshmen, which was technically true. I could have commuted from home, but it’s a 30-minute drive. Freshmen aren’t also allowed to have cars on campus, so the commute would have been worse. Next year, maybe, I told Dad.” That was clever, I thought.
The film had been an action-adventure, one of my favorite types of films and David’s too. By the time we got home, though, Dad was drunk. He didn’t get drunk often, but when he did, both David and I knew to hide. He didn’t get violent, normally, but neither of us liked being around Dad when he was drunk. He yelled, or looked at one of the few pictures of him and Mom that were still out, crying. Sometimes, he did both.
If Dad wouldn’t have noticed us not coming home, David and I would have gone over to Aunt Kimberly’s house for a sleepover. She and Jason had gotten together, finally, and their twins were a couple of years older than I, but younger than David. We’d been friends for years. Dad always got mad when we spent the night out without telling him, but never connected it with some of the nights he was drunk. He also refused to believe that it was the cause of us sneaking out, either.
We snuck up to our rooms, trying to be as quiet as possible. When I got into my room, I noticed that it had been gone through. I had an idea of what Dad was looking for too. Despite Aisha and I trying to be quiet when she gave me my mom’s morpher and communicator, Dad had good ears. I’d taken my bag with me, so he wouldn’t have found either item. The sketchbooks hadn’t been where I’d left them, nor the pencils.
David and I weren’t as quiet as we’d hoped. By the time I was finished getting ready for bed, Dad was at my door. Drunk or not, he looked angry about something and I had a good idea as to why.
“You need something, Dad? I was just ready to head to bed,” trying to sound as tired as I felt.
“What else did Aisha give you? Don’t lie, I heard her say that something that she gave you belonged to your Mom.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Dad. She said I looked like Mom, that I had Mom’s eyes.” I wasn’t a convincing liar, though. I was hoping Dad was drunk enough that he’d believe me. Sober, I’d not have had a chance, but Dad wouldn’t have brought up the issue either. I had several things that had once been Mom’s; Dad had given them to me years ago. No pictures, just things that Mom had collected over the years. He wouldn’t have cared normally if one of Mom’s friends gave me something that had belonged to her, but they’d all been given when he could see them.
It was at this point that I realized Dad did know about Mom being a Ranger; he wouldn’t have asked otherwise. I stubbornly refused to look at my bag where the morpher and communicator were; it would have given me away in an instant. Dad and I looked at each other, Dad not having moved from the doorframe, before he finally went to his room, shutting the door behind him. I quickly shut my own door; hoping Dad wouldn’t change his mind and have a round 2 of the conversation.
I was also hoping he’d forget about the issue before the weekend, but also knew I needed to find a better place for the items. I couldn’t wear the communicator openly; Dad knew what it was. The morpher was a bit more obvious and Dad would flip over it, even if I kept it in my room. If he didn’t forget, we’d be having one heck of an argument. David knew less than I did now of Mom’s teenaged years, or so I thought. I didn’t know how much Jason had told him, but for the time being, I assumed he was as ignorant as I’d been.
Both of us knew about the Power Rangers, it was hard not to growing up in Angel Grove. Even now, theories ran rampant as to who they’d been. Other cities had Ranger teams, including Reefside where Dr. Oliver, another friend of Mom’s, taught. Some of the Ranger teams were known as to who they were, but not any of Angel Grove’s teams. I’d only seen Dr. Oliver a couple of times growing up, but not since I was 8. I doubt he’d recognize me; I’d changed a lot in 7 years.
I went to bed, though I wasn’t going to end up sleeping in like I’d hoped. Aunt Kimberly had called the house early the next morning and Dad had answered. He was always up early, so he could open the Youth Center. The Youth Center always opened at 10 and didn’t close until 6 or 7. Dad didn’t always stay open to close, even if it was open late. Some of the local teenagers and college-aged students helped him out so he could make it home for dinner if it was going to be open later than 7.
I’d not known about Aunt Kimberly’s call, though, having slept right through it. What did wake me up was a pissed off Dad opening my door. He’d obviously not forgotten about my little lie the night before and I knew I was in trouble.
“Where is your mom’s morpher and communicator, Abigail?” I’d never heard Dad this pissed, even when I was in legitimate trouble.
“Her what, Dad?” Aisha had, obviously, sworn me to secrecy, but I don’t think she knew how bad of a liar I was. “I didn’t think Mom was a Power Ranger, Dad.”
Dad just glowered, not believing me for a second. “I just got off the phone with Kimberly, Abigail. She told me everything. She’d wanted to talk to you, but I had her explain why.”
Crap. I still wasn’t about to give either item up; even though I had no plans on becoming a Power Ranger. I knew I wouldn’t know where to start and my martial arts skills needed work, despite David’s teaching. I also wasn’t going to reveal where they were, either. I knew Dad was going to try and destroy them and I had precious few things that belonged to Mom.
“You heard me correctly. I tried protecting you from your mom’s past, not even David knows what she was involved in. I lost her; I don’t want to lose the two of you. Give me them, now.”
“Still don’t know what you’re talking about, Dad.” I was in this for the long haul, I knew that. I knew I’d be in even worse trouble for lying, but I’d also promised Aisha that I’d not hand them over for any reason. If that meant playing ignorant, I’d play ignorant.
I wasn’t, however, expecting to get slapped. Dad never hit either of us, even when drunk. “Ow!” was my only response. Dad didn’t like being lied to and had started yelling at me. David, who’d been fast asleep still, had come running out of his room, still in his boxers. Ever my protector, he got managed to get between Dad and I and got Dad to direct his anger away from me. I knew I’d have to explain later, after Dad went to work, but I wasn’t explaining without backup.
Dad finally ran out of steam and left for work. I gave David a huge hug.
“What was that about, little sister?”
I snorted, wiping away my tears. “I can’t explain, David, not exactly. Let’s just say that Aisha gave me two other items that had belonged to Mom that Dad didn’t want me to have. That’s why I didn’t mention them last night during dinner.”
David nodded. “He’d have confiscated them and possibly destroyed them if he could have. If you can’t explain, who can?”
“Aisha or Aunt Kimberly. Probably Jason or Uncle Billy, too. Not sure who else.”
“We’ll head to the gymnastics studio after breakfast, then. Get dressed and grab what you need.” With that, David went to his room to do the same.
After a quick breakfast of cereal, we headed out to the studio in David’s car. Thankfully, the studio was in the opposite direction of the Youth Center, but we didn’t want to risk Dad coming back for round 2 of the argument. Thankfully, both Aunt Kimberly and Aisha were at the studio; Aisha sometimes only worked afternoons, depending on classes and what else needed done.
Aisha looked up when we came in; Aunt Kimberly was likely warming up to do a routine as she often did in the mornings. She knew something was wrong as David and I were still visibly upset.
“What happened?” Concern was obvious on her face.
“I take it you told Aunt Kimberly this morning?” She didn’t even have to ask as to what I was talking about.
“Not long after I got in, why?”
“She called Dad, wanting to talk to me. Told him enough of what happened that he woke me up, angrier than I’ve ever seen him.”
“Slapped her too, Aisha. I didn’t see it happen, but it was still obvious when I got up.” David added after I stopped, unsure of what to say next.
“Fuck. I didn’t know she was going to call right away. I though she was going to wait until the Youth Center opened. Damn.” Aisha was frustrated, I could tell. “I’ve known your dad for years and have never known him to get angry. Frustrated at Bulk and Skull or any bullies but rarely angry. I heard about what he said to Jason that one year, though.”
“Who got angry?” Aunt Kimberly had come out during Aisha’s last comment. David and Aisha explained; I wasn’t in the mood to repeat myself twice.
“I’m sorry, Abigail. I thought he knew of Aisha giving you the morpher and communicator. I wasn’t happy she did, but thought she’d told Ernie.” She came around and drew me into a hug. I broke down crying at that point.
After I finished crying, I immediately started apologizing.
“Don’t apologize, Abigail. My shirt can dry off.” Aunt Kimberly smiled at me. “Do you want me to talk to your dad?”
“I can too, Abigail,” Aisha added to Aunt Kimberly’s offer. “Seeing as I was the one to give the communicator and morpher to you, he’d probably listen to me.”
David cut in with, “That is if he doesn’t yell at you first, Aisha.”
I finally nodded at this point, just too spent emotionally to disagree. Aunt Kimberly ended up sending us over to Jason’s martial arts dojo, shared by the same fairly big building, while she and Aisha went over to talk to Dad.
Jason, after hearing what was going on, was as flabbergasted as Aunt Kimberly and Aisha had been. Like Mom and the other two, he’d known Dad for years. He was about to join them, but then there’d be nobody at either studio if Dad came. Instead, he spent the time refining what David had taught me, just to be safe. Adam, who also taught at the dojo, was tasked with keeping an eye out for Aunt Kimberly, Aisha, or Dad. If Dad showed up, Adam was to distract him while David and I left. When I asked why, all they’d say was, “Rangers protect their own.” Apparently, that included children of Power Rangers.
Jason also took the time to explain everything about the Power Rangers and Mom’s role in it. David was surprised by the whole thing, but not completely.
“I figured Mom had been one, but didn’t realize she’d been a founding member of the team,” was his only answer when Jason noticed David’s almost complete lack of surprise. He cheekily followed that up with, “Does being a Power Ranger mean you always have to dress in the color of your Ranger suit color?” Completely derailed the conversation and got us laughing.
Jason didn’t answer, but that was more because he was laughing too hard. “Out of all the questions you could have asked, you picked that?”
“Abigail needed a laugh after this morning,” David replied. He sobered up pretty quickly, though. “I’m worried about leaving her alone with Dad, though, after going to college. He was drunk last night and got violent this morning. I’ve never known him to be violent, but the longer Abigail has the morpher and communicator, the worse Dad’ll get.”
“Before this morning, I’d not have pegged Ernie as being a violent guy either. I don’t agree with him wrapping either of you in bubble wrap either. He was never able to answer why he allowed you to have martial arts lessons and not your sister.”
“I had to practically beg for the lessons, Jason. It took Mr. Anders to convince him; he’d not been able to do the same thing twice for Abigail. I’m just glad Dad allowed her to take gymnastics.”
We ended up troubleshooting for a half hour; the only things we could think of were to either make an anonymous call to the police for abuse or for me to run away. Both weren’t ideal, as they’d draw negative attention on Dad and the Youth Center. Appearing for me to be kidnapped was another option, but Jason didn’t know of anyone except Uncle Billy who could create that type of computer trail. These, though, were only if this morning’s behavior ended up turning into a repeat thing.
David and I promised to keep Jason in the loop; the dojo, unlike the gymnastics studio, had continuous lessons. Besides Jason and Adam, there were enough other teachers that they could do so. Some of them were former Rangers while others were black belt students willing to teach the younger students. Even Zack, who’d eventually returned from Africa where he’d been teaching, taught at the dojo. He wasn’t in this morning, though. His classes weren’t until the afternoon; Jason promised to fill him in when he arrived.