Adam Park rubbed his itchy eyes as he washed up the last of the dishes, of which there were a lot, even though the dinner he and Tanya had was only for two.

“Well,” he said as he put the sponge back in the sponge rack near the sink. “That takes care of the dishes.”

“Adam, you didn’t have to do that.” Tanya said as she came up to her boyfriend. “I could have washed the dishes right after we were done eating.”

“True, but after this mini-feast you cooked up by yourself I figured the least I can do is wash the dishes for you.”

Tanya smiled. “Thanks, Adam.” She said as she kissed him on the cheek.

“Come on,” she beckoned. “They’re giving “King of Queens”, and I’m not about to enjoy it by myself.” She said with a tone of feigned annoyance.

Adam smiled as he then dried his hands on a paper towel before joining her on the sofa.

After the episode was over Tanya and Adam then heard the phone ringing from the kitchen. Reluctantly Tanya pulled herself away from Adam so she could go and pick it up. “Hello?”

“Tanya!” called Kat’s voice excitedly from the other end.

“Oh, hi Kat!” Tanya then gestured to Adam that it was Kat on the phone.

“Hey! Listen, I know I meant to call you the other day, but some things unexpectedly came up and, well…”

“It’s okay, I understand.”

“Great. In fact, speaking of which, what happened these two days are partly the reason why I’m calling you now.”

“What happened?” Tanya asked.

“Well, which part would you like to hear first?”

“How about the good parts?”

“I figured.” Kat answered. “Well, for starters, you’re not going to believe who I’ve ran into here at Reefside.”

“Johnny Depp?”

“If only,” Kat said, feigning a sigh.

“Okay, who?”

“Tommy.”

Tanya’s eyes widened. “No way.”

“Way,”

“Get out of here.”

Though she couldn’t see her, Tanya could easily imagine Kat shaking her head on the other end.

“I kid you not, Tanya.” Kat said. “It was Tommy. Or, should I say Dr. Tommy Oliver.”

“Doctor? Since when?” Tanya asked in amazement.

“Since he got his Doctorates, I guess.”

“Tommy went on to get a Ph. D?” Tanya asked, her eyes widening again.

“By the looks of things, yes.” Kat replied.

The moment he heard Tanya mention his old friend’s name Adam then got up and walked over to where Tanya was. “Did she say Tommy?”

Since she was still talking into her phone Tanya nodded at Adam to indicate yes.

“And in paleontology, out of all things.”

“Paleontology? As in digging up dinosaurs?” Tanya asked. “Well, who’d have thunk? I thought he would have gone on to do racing or something, but paleontology? Did he switch brains with Billy at any point over these years?”

Kat laughed. “No, he didn’t. But that had been a few years ago that he had gone to digs and such. Now he’s teaching high school science to kids here at Reefside.”

“High school science? Okay, now I really need to pay a visit over there.”

“You should.” Kat agreed. “But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, there’s a couple more things I think you should know.”

“Shoot.”

“Tommy’s back.”

“Wait a minute…are you saying…?”

“Yeah.” Kat answered. “He’s back in the Power Ranger duds once more; this time in black.”

“Oh, well, from the sound of your voice you don’t sound like you’re complaining.” Tanya said mischievously.

Kat blushed. “Well, to be honest, no.” she giggled. “In fact, he actually looks cuter in the black duds than in the red duds.”

Tanya sighed in exasperation. Man, even after nine years of not seeing him, she’s still got it bad.

“But I take it he’s not alone in this, is he?”

“No, not by a long shot.” Kat replied. “Now I don’t know all the details, but from what I know, four of his students had found four colored rocks which Tommy calls Dino gems. Once they had touched the gems they had somehow bonded to their DNA which gave them their powers and well, the rest is history.”

“So it’s pretty much the old five-color formula again?” Tanya asked.

“Well, almost.” Kat replied. “There’s White, Red, Yellow, Blue, and of course, Black, which is Tommy.”

“No Pink?”

“No Pink.”

“Hmm. That’s a first.” Tanya mused. “Well, anyway going back to the Tommy subject, where did you run into him?”

“After my first dance class let out yesterday, my boss told me about this Thanksgiving party that was going on at this café called Hayley’s cyberspace. Seeing as how I didn’t know anybody here I figured, Why not go check it out? Then when I got close to the place, I…saw him.”

“So basically you two ran into each other on Thanksgiving?” Tanya asked, incredulous. “Hey, hey, hey, so, that being the case, were you and him able to…have a Thanksgiving of sorts…?” she asked mischievously.

Kat felt herself starting to blush. “Tanya, I just showed up in Reefside two days ago. I mean, I never thought in a million years I’d ever run into him again (no matter how much I wanted to), but then yesterday, right when I saw him again…I don’t know, it was almost like…”

“Like nine years hadn’t gone by?” Tanya supplied.

Kat sighed in surprise. “Tanya, are you sure you’re not psychic?”

“It’s like I told you the last time we chatted, girl: best friend’s intuition. Now tell me, what happened after you and he had your Danny Zucko/Sandy moment?”

Kat then went on to tell her best friend everything that had transpired in the past two days.

“…So basically we’re planning on having a belated Thanksgiving party at Tommy’s house tomorrow night.” Kat said as she finished her story.

“By ‘we’ I take it that means all seven of you, right?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Kat replied. “I mean, Conner, Ethan, Kira, Trent and Hayley are as much his friends as anyone, so…”

Tanya nodded. “Well, if it weren’t for the fact that I whipped up a mini-feast here at home today for me and Adam, I’d head there myself to enjoy it with all of you guys, but as it is, we’re stuffed over here.”

“I thought you said you were going to have it over the weekend.”

“Yeah, I was, but since Adam got back this afternoon, I figured, what the hell?”

“Oh yeah, I remember you saying he was going to come back today. How is he?”

“Well, he’s doing okay, although right now he’s trying to pry into our conversation.” She said as she gave her boyfriend a semi-warning look, to which Adam mouthed What?

“Oh, I wasn’t interrupting anything, was I?”

“No, we were just watching some late-night TV, you know, the usual things.”

“Well, in that case I think I’ll leave you two alone.”

Tanya laughed. “Okay, well, I guess I’ll talk to you next time. Tell me how the party goes tomorrow, all right?”

“Will do.”

“Good night, Kat.”

“Good night, Tanya.”

“So how’s Kat doing?” Adam asked once Tanya hung up the phone. On the way back from Angel Grove Airport Tanya had told Adam about Katherine coming back to the states to teach dance at Reefside.

“She’s doing pretty good.” Tanya replied.

“Look, I didn’t mean to pry before,” Adam explained. “It’s just that when you hear about a friend you haven’t heard from or seen in almost a decade, you do want to know-“

“-how they’re doing and whatnot.” Tanya supplied with a smile. “Believe me, sweetie. I know that feeling only too well.” She said as she put her arms around Adam’s neck.

“So what’s this about Tommy being a Ranger again?”

Tanya laughed. “Oh, let me tell you a story…”