Work Text:
Rrrinng!
Hunter swore, diving for the DVD player remote. Cam was working on the zords and Blake was out with Tori. That left him to answer the phone. The cordless was in the kitchen and he was in the rec room. He dashed down the hallway into the kitchen and snatched the phone, picking it up before the caller was transferred to voicemail.
"Hello?" Hunter tried not to sound out of breath.
"Hi, is this Blake or Hunter?" an unfamiliar, female voice asked.
Hunter wrinkled his nose in confusion. "Um, it's Hunter. You seem to have me at a disadvantage."
"I'm sorry, this is Trini Kwan," the voice said brightly.
"Cam's girlfriend?" Hunter had never been told her last name.
"Yes," Trini said. "Is he around?"
"Out doing some stuff for his Dad," Hunter said, knowing that the 'stuff for his dad' wasn't really stuff for Sensei, just one of the forty thousand pieces of maintenance that Cam insisted on doing. "Um... he probably wasn't expecting a call." But Hunter knew Cam could be there within moments, if it was urgent enough. After all, Cam was only doing some visual inspections on Dustin's zord, and that hardly classified as 'urgent'. "I'm sure if he knew that you were calling, we could get him out of the field."
Trini chuckled at something. Probably Cam did the same thing to her as he did to them. "Actually, I was hoping to talk to you or your brother. Did you know that Cam's birthday was coming up?"
"That would imply he actually told us that kind of thing," Hunter replied, hoping his tone would remind her that Cam wasn't exactly good at *sharing*. Or at least he hoped she knew. Cam might react differently to Trini than he did with his teammates and father.
"He is kind of secretive," Trini acknowledged, and from the sound of her voice, she was *very* familiar with Cam's antics. "It makes it hard to ask if he's made any plans."
"Knowing Cam, he plans to code." Hunter frowned at the thought of Cam spending his birthday working.
"Do you think you can keep him from leaving town?" Trini asked.
"Huh?" Hunter barely managed not to drop the phone. Why would he need to keep Cam in town? Did Trini think he'd go to Vegas for his birthday or something?
"I found a great deal on tickets from Gatwick to Silver Hills International and not such a bad price on the puddle hopper to Blue Bay Regional. I have to fly out of Reefside back to Silver Hills, but it's not a long way and I have an old friend who moved there recently."
Hunter grinned. "You plan to surprise Cam on his birthday."
"Yeah," Trini said. She dropped the volume of her voice. "I was sort of looking for a coconspirator or two."
"I can get Blake in on this, no problem," Hunter said, instantly liking the woman and her warm, conspiratorial manner. *And there's three more where that came from, but how do I explain that?*
"Thanks," Trini said, sounding relieved. "It's up to you what you do, but make sure he doesn't go anywhere."
Hunter was still grinning. If only Cam knew what was in store for him. "I'll just be the irritating little brother."
"Little brother?" Trini echoed, her conspiratorial tone lost in one of abject confusion.
Hunter tried not to swear at his misstep. Cam kept stuff like *that* from his *girlfriend*. Kept their adoptive relationship a secret. Suddenly he was less insulted about Cam's secretiveness. "I... um... adopted him."
"I knew Cam was hanging out with you two some, I didn't realize it had gotten that far," Trini said, clearly a little hesitant.
"It took him three months to tell us about you," Hunter soothed. "I think he likes his secrets or something. I'm really surprised he didn't mention his birthday. Oh, wait, no, I'm not. He's still in denial."
Trini's smile reached through the thousands of miles' distance. "Cam wouldn't be Cam if he acted any other way."
"It's not just me!" Hunter hopped onto a bar stool. This was likely going to turn into a long conversation. "That's good to know."
"Anyway, let me give you my e-mail address," Trini said.
"Sounds good," Hunter said, grabbing his math notebook. It wasn't like he didn't put half of his English notes in there anyway.
Trini gave him her e-mail address, and he read it back slowly to make sure he got it right. Heavens knew where his e-mail would end up if he misspelled her user name.
She confirmed he had the right e-mail address, and he nodded, only vaguely aware that she couldn't see it. "Ok, just e-mail me your flight details and Blake or I will pick you up at the airport."
"Thanks so much, Hunter," Trini said warmly. "It was nice to talk to you. I'll see you... sooner than you think."
"Cool," Hunter grinned. "Talk to you later."
He and Trini said good bye and he hung up. "So, we get to meet Cam's girlfriend. This could be interesting."
"Bro?" Blake asked, having just walked in, still wearing his motocross armor.
"That was Trini," Hunter said simply, shrugging his shoulder at the phone.
Blake's eyes got wide and his whole posture tensed up. "Dude, Cam's in the zord bay, he could've..."
"She wanted to talk to one of us," Hunter said, trying to defuse Blake. "Not Cam."
"Why?" Blake asked. "Did they...."
Hunter shook his head. "Cam's going to have a little bit of surprise in his birthday."
"Cam's birthday's soon?" Blake asked, cocking one eyebrow.
Hunter nodded. "Nice of him to tell us, isn't it? Trini found a nice deal on plane tickets, so she's coming for a visit."
Blake grinned, and poked his head into the refrigerator. "Wonder what she looks like."
His brother shrugged. "I'm sure Cam has a picture. Or we can steal his laptop for an iChat."
"That's something we don't want him catching us at," Blake shuddered, closed the fridge, opened the freezer, and pulled out a Tofutti.
"No, but I know Cam's schedule and Trini's e-mail address. We'll figure out something." His mind was racing with possibilities. Unfortunately, most of them wouldn't work.
"You're sneaky, bro," Blake said, a grin spreading over his face.
"Learned it from the best." Hunter slouched against the wall, still in thought. "We should get the others in on this. Or at least Shane."
"Tori's the one with the car," Blake pointed out.
"Okay, and Tori. I guess Dustin as well." Hunter shook his head. He *liked* Dustin, but.... "I hope we can keep this under wraps until Trini arrives."
"Maybe we shouldn't tell Dustin," Blake said, knowing that neither of them were still quite comfortable around Dustin.
"If we don't, Tori or Shane will," Hunter said, shrugging. "You know how inseparable those three are."
Blake nodded in agreement. "And then his feelings will be hurt." Blake made a face, clearly not enamored with that idea. "Good point."
"Cam won't suspect anything from Dustin, either," Hunter said thoughtfully, a smile tugging at his lips. "Dustin can keep him occupied."
"Dude, you *are* devious." Blake polished off his snack.
Hunter grinned. "Let's get together with the Winds."
"Right, " Blake said, picking up the phone.
* * *
Half an hour later, the five of them were safely sitting in a pizza joint in midtown Blue Bay Harbor, eating pizza and throwing out plans to keep Cam occupied. That, and getting plans shot down by practicalities.
"Too bad we can't just tell Trini about the Ranger thing," Dustin whispered, looking around as he spoke. "Then all we'd have to do is thrash the zords."
"Dude! I hadn't even thought of that," Hunter said, eyes lighting up. "We can't just keep him occupied, we have to get him out of Ninja Ops."
"Getting him out of Ops is the problem, dude," Shane said, taking a bite of the pepperoni-pineapple pizza.
Tori bit her lip and reached for a slice of cheese pizza. "It's not like we can just ask him to meet us for lunch or something-- he'd be totally onto us."
Hunter nodded in Dustin's direction. "I'd say Cam needs to improve his motorbike skills." He took a sip of his soda.
"Dude, you want the first time for Cam to see his girlfriend in months is when he's just come off the track?" Dustin asked, shaking his head while contemplating another slice of the pineapple pepperoni. "Hello! Mud doesn't make a good impression."
"He's right." Tori wiped pizza sauce off her hands. "We have to get him somewhere.... somewhere...."
"Geeky," Blake suggested.
"Too bad MacWorld expo was months ago." Shane sighed and reached for the cola pitcher.
"Yeah," Hunter echoed. He brightened. "Hey, Blake, isn't your birthday coming up?"
"Dude, what's that got to do with anything, bro?" Blake asked, his nose wrinkling at the jump in topic.
Tori grinned, catching the hint. "How about we involve Cam in a little surprise party?"
"You're going to surprise Cam by making him think you're surprising me?" Blake said. "And dude, he signed us up for school-- won't he realize you're two weeks early?"
"Nah, I'll just explain to him that I can't throw a birthday party for you on your legal birthday, you'd be suspicious. However, on your *real* birthday...." Hunter said, hoping the others would understand, and catch that this sudden custom was a trick, not a custom at all. Of course, then it had to work on Cam....
"You realize if he knows anything about birth certificates, you're screwed, right?" Blake shook his head at his brother's willingness to depend on a hole in Cam's knowledge.
"Hey, he keeps secrets from us, he's not going to be surprised that we have secrets from him." Hunter reached for another slice of the cheese pizza.
"I'm not saying it won't work, but if it doesn't, you'd better have one hell of an explanation, bro." Blake waggled his finger at his brother.
"Custom?" Hunter tried, eyes going wide.
Blake just looked at Hunter with a glare, and then turned his attention back to Tori, shrugging.
Hunter just shook his head. "Let's get back before Sensei and Cam suspect anything."
"Good idea, bro," Blake said, getting up and picking up the leftover cheese pizza.
"Cam would view pizza as suspicious?" Shane asked, arching an eyebrow.
"When we didn't try to drag him along?" Hunter replied, making a motion at the pizza and at the crowded pizza parlor. "You'd better believe it, buddy."
"Right," Shane got up, tossing a couple more bills down on the table, having clearly rethought the tip. "Let us know when Trini's due."
Blake pretended to balk. "She's coming for a visit, not..."
Hunter thudded him.
"Right." Blake rubbed his arm.
"We'll catch you two later," Shane said, as he, Tori, and Dustin headed for Tori's van. "Keep Cam out of trouble."
"We'll try," Hunter said, dragging Blake away from Tori in order to prevent a prolonged good-bye.
* * *
Cam was apparently still up with the Zords, as CyberCam was now at the main monitor, typing in commands and talking to his creator. "Yo," he said, not even looking up. But then again, CyberCam had eyes all over the main room of Ops. "Motocross practice?"
"Yeah, dude," Blake said, hoping CyberCam wouldn't notice him holding the container of slightly cold pizza.
CyberCam nodded and returned to the diagnostics, apparently finding the Thunders a low priority in his programming. The two Thunders headed up the hall. "That was close," Hunter muttered, eyeing Blake's pizza.
"Yeah, dude," Blake added, wiping his brow.
"At least Cam won't ask where we've been." Hunter pulled out Trini's e-mail address, studying the page of paper and ripping it out of his notebook.
* * *
Cam was apparently still up with the Zords, as CyberCam was now at the main monitor, typing in commands and talking to his creator. "Yo," he said, not even looking up. But then again, CyberCam had eyes all over the main room of Ops. "Motocross practice?"
"Yeah, dude," Blake said, hoping CyberCam wouldn't notice him holding the container of slightly cold pizza.
CyberCam nodded and returned to the diagnostics, apparently finding the Thunders a low priority in his programming. The two Thunders headed up the hall. "That was close," Hunter muttered, eyeing Blake's pizza.
"Yeah, dude," Blake added, wiping his brow.
"At least Cam won't ask where we've been." Hunter pulled out Trini's e-mail address, studying the page of paper and ripping it out of his notebook.
"Dude, what are you going to e-mail her now?" Blake asked, sitting on his bed.
"My e-mail address, mostly." Hunter sat at the desk and started up the Bondi Blue iMac Cam had set up in their room.
"Makes sense," Blake admitted over the startup chime. "So, what do we do next?"
"We wait." Hunter turned to the computer, tapping his fingers through the startup sequence.
"Oh, OK," Blake said, squirming.
"Chill, bro," Hunter said. "If you practically scream 'I've got a secret' in your body language, Cam will know we're up to something."
"That's because I'm being used as bait." Blake started digging through his backpack, looking for the Shakespeare play he had to write a paper on.
"You're not bait," Hunter said reassuringly as he booted up his e-mail program.
"I'm the one who's having a 'surprise birthday party'," Blake reminded him, finally pulling the book with the play in it out of his backpack.
"That's not bait," Hunter told him, eyes riveted on the screen as he started typing.
"What is it?" Blake asked, putting the book down and crossing his arms.
"You're tricking Cam into thinking he's surprising you," Hunter said as he looked down, as if to double-check Trini's e-mail address.
"And how do I do that?" Blake asked, leaning against the wall.
Hunter smiled. "Act surprised."
"Ok, dude." Blake sat up, dubiously picking up the book again.
"Soon as Cam comes in, I'll broach the subject. You have to make dinner anyway...." Hunter sent the e-mail and logged out of the program.
"Is that a hint?" Blake sighed, threw the book down, and headed for the kitchen.
Hunter shrugged in belated apology and went to hang in the main room of Ops. Mainly to annoy CyberCam, but also to watch for Cam's arrival.
He settled on leaning over CyberCam's shoulder as the virtual replicant talked to Cam about repairs.
"Anything else, CyberCam?" Cam asked, sounding tired. Maybe he was ready to come in. Hunter was ready for him to come in.
"Can you ask Hunter to leave me alone? He's, like, totally tripping me out." The cyber-being turned and glared at Hunter.
"Hunter," Cam said over the comm, in his best 'why do you do this to me' tone, "go leave him alone. I'm sure you have homework due."
Hunter sighed, knowing he'd have to move, and standing up. "All right, all right. Come find me when you're done, OK? Preferably without Blake around."
Cam's voice changed to one of concern, and Hunter could well imagine Cam's expression at the moment. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, dude, just want to talk to you about something." Hunter hoped he sounded reassuring.
"Very well," Cam said so dubiously that Hunter thought Cam was perhaps getting ready for another run of "Cam-as-Thunder-counselor".
Hunter hadn't even gotten out the door to the living quarters when Cam arrived in Ninja Ops.
"Dude, nothing's wrong," Hunter said, shaking his head at Cam's obvious overreaction. "You didn't have to drop everything."
"'Nothing' doesn't have you annoying CyberCam." Cam put a hand on Hunter's shoulder. "What's wrong?"
Hunter sighed. "Nothing's wrong. I just wanted to talk to you about... actually, can we talk in your room? CyberCam kinda has a big mouth and Blake could walk in at any second."
Cam made a motion as if to roll his eyes. "Okay."
They trooped to Cam's room. Cam closed the door behind him and crossing his arms. "All right, Hunter, for the love of all that's good, what's *wrong*?"
Hunter watched Woz sheepishly, feeling like his cover story had so many holes that Cam would see through it instantly. "I told you, nothing's wrong. It's just that Blake's birthday's coming up and I wanted some help planning a surprise party. But it's not like I could tell you that with CyberCam right there 'cause he can't keep his mouth shut."
"And you had to annoy CyberCam because...." Cam asked, arms steadily crossed.
Hunter shifted from foot to foot. Cam would either believe him, or he wouldn't. "OK, I had to talk to somebody or *I* was going to spill the beans."
"And the rest of the team isn't good at keeping a secret." Cam fussed with his bed covers. "I know. But what do you want me to do about it?"
Hunter tried to keep the grin off his face-- like he cared whether or not Cam's bed was made. "Keep Blake occupied while I set things up?"
Cam finished improving the condition of his room and leaned against the wall. "All right. When?"
Hunter told him.
Cam eyed Hunter suspiciously. "Isn't Blake's birthday two weeks later?"
"Yeah, but he'd be expecting it then - I want to surprise him early. Wouldn't be the first time." Hunter shrugged
"That you surprised him early or that you surprised him?" Cam frowned. "And how'd you pick *that* day?"
"It's the Saturday a week and a half prior to his birthday. Any sooner and he'll guess." Hunter shrugged at that, as if it were a minor thing. Or him being him. He just hoped Cam bought it.
To his surprise, Cam nodded. "That's a pretty well reasoned decision."
"Does that not work for you?" Hunter asked. He wanted to give Cam an opening to bring up his birthday. It would mean finding another way to keep Cam occupied, but...
"I did have other things... but I can keep Blake occupied," Cam said, not taking the opportunity to confess. Hunter inwardly catalogued Cam's inability to take a day off without Sensei force-teleporting him out of Ops. "Don't worry, Hunter. I'll think of something."
Hunter put a hand on Cam's shoulder. "Thanks, bro, I owe you one."
"You certainly do." Cam hesitated, as if unsure whether or not to take Hunter to task for calling him "bro". "Now, is there anything else, or can I get back to LionZord?"
"I'm sorry I freaked you out." Hunter withdrew and stared at the floor.
"It's okay, Hunter." Cam squeezed Hunter's shoulder briefly. "Just tell me what needs to be done, and I'll do it. I'll keep Blake occupied."
Hunter smiled weakly. "Thanks, bro. Maybe you'd better go take care of LionZord before Dustin needs it."
Cam narrowed his eyes. "Yes. If you guys would stop trashing your Zords..."
"Take it up with your Uncle, dude!" Hunter exclaimed, reminding Cam of the connection. As if Cam needed the reminder.
The corner of Cam's mouth quirked up in a small, bitter grin. "I will."
Cam left, heading back to the zord bay. Hunter watched him leave, then headed back to his room.
* * *
"So, how'd he take it?" Shane wanted to know during lunch period the next day.
"Surprisingly well considering I scared him half to death." Hunter glanced at his shoes, still upset with himself for freaking Cam out. He picked up two cartons of skim milk, eyeing the fruit selections suspiciously. He was going to have to go back to brown bagging it, he could tell.
"What happened?" Shane asked, arching an eyebrow up as the line continued. He also took two cartons of milk-- one skim, one chocolate.
"He agreed." Hunter lowered his voice, leaning towards Shane. "The thing was I was hanging out in Ninja Ops waiting for Cam to finish fixing LionZord, and I was driving CyberCam nuts. So when I told Cam I wanted to talk to him... well, he thought something was wrong."
"You do have a tendency to brood a lot, bro," Blake said as they joined the others in a quest for a table.
"I'm not *that* bad!" Hunter exclaimed, examining his food. The last thing he needed was Cam getting upset over his diet again.
"Yes, you are," Shane teased, sitting down. The rest followed.
"Anyway," Hunter continued, "I'm probably going to have to reassure Cam I'm really all right, but he has taken the bait, and will be keeping an eye on Blake on his birthday."
"How sneaky are we going to get about this?" Tori asked, starting on some green beans.
"We just have to keep Cam out of the way until Trini comes, and not mention knowing anything about his birthday or Trini coming." Hunter opened a milk carton, sniffing it experimentally. "Simple. Trini's probably doing some things on her end too, so he's not so suspicious."
"Just as long as he doesn't try to call her, dude." Dustin poked carefully at his Jell-o, clearly questioning his dessert choice.
"I'll mention that to her." Hunter jotted a reminder into his assignment notebook to e-mail Trini about that. She'd probably have to fake an exam or something.
Dustin put down his fork and grinned brightly at the group. "Dude, we're like, 007."
"It's a surprise party, not an espionage mission." Hunter rolled his eyes. "And at least this'll keep it simple. You guys pretend you're setting the party up at Tori's, I pick up Trini, and Cam distracts Blake. Or vice versa."
Blake chuckled, then looked thoughtful. "One small problem, how do we explain Cam to Tori's folks? I mean, the age difference is wicked conspicuous."
"Say that he's tutoring at our high school?" Dustin ventured, digging into his cornbread as if it was saving him from total starvation.
"That'll only work until they've met him," Shane quipped. "I mean, Cam? Tutor. The dude has no patience."
"This is Cam. He can think of something, and it'll keep him occupied," Hunter argued, knowing Cam would do exactly that.
"Ooh, a plan!" Tori's whole face lit up with excitement. "Sure we can't just pass him off as you and Blake's big brother?"
"That could work." Shane sipped his chocolate milk experimentally.
Blake frowned. "He'll kill us."
"Let me bring Cam in on the 'surprise party', see what he thinks." Hunter peeled his banana, then started to work on getting rid of the too-prevalent bad spots.
"This is like, too weird." Dustin shook his head. "Cam knows there's a surprise party, but he thinks it's for Blake."
"Exactly," Hunter grinned. "Can't have him catching on, can we?"
"No, that we can't," Shane said.
* * *
The day of Cam's birthday, the younger Rangers, except Blake, of course, were gathering in Tori's backyard, setting up the picnic tables and hanging green balloons.
"When's Trini supposed to be in?" Shane asked as he tied off a balloon.
Hunter checked his watch. "About 20 minutes."
"How's Blake distracting Cam?" Tori asked as she hung tablecloth weights to keep the green tablecloth on the table.
Hunter shrugged. "Cam's teaching him to shoot arrows on that ancient video game system of his."
"Shoot arrows?" Shane echoed, looking rather confused. "Know what, never mind, I don't want to know."
Hunter shrugged again. "Neither do I. The important thing is that Cam's at Ops. All we have to do is make sure he takes Blake on his 'errand'."
"You think he's going to forget to bring Blake to the surprise party?" Tori asked, arranging a table. "Come on, he wouldn't let Blake miss his own party. And it's not like Blake won't play along."
"No, this is Cam," Hunter said, giving Tori a nod. "He'll make sure that Blake gets here. Don't worry."
"Dude, you were the one who was worrying!" Dustin pointed out.
Hunter rolled his eyes and used his cell phone to check on Trini's flight.
"I'll just start for the airport now," Hunter said. "You guys just get ready."
"Don't worry, bro, every thing's under control." Dustin clapped Hunter on the shoulder.
"Just don't not recognize Trini," Tori teased as she mentally checked over the table arrangement.
"I won't," Hunter promised.
* * *
Blake leaned back as the screen showed the pixelly crown on the equally pixelly mountain. "So, should we go now?" he asked, not wanting to seem too eager.
"Go where?" Cam asked, an eyebrow beginning to lift.
"Hunter's up to something, isn't he?" Blake asked, realizing his mistake. He had to pretend he just knew what his big bro was up to. Which he knew anyway.
Cam sighed and shook his head, doing surprisingly well at pretending nothing was happening.
"Suit yourself," Blake said, more than eager to change the subject. "How do you restart this thing again?"
Cam hit the reset button calmly on the console, and the game's title screen flashed up on the television.
"Thanks, bro," Blake said, settling in for another game. They needed to leave kinda soon, but he had to let Cam take the lead. If he was too hasty, Cam would wonder. He entered a red-colored mountain.
Cam nodded. "Just don't forget that you're due at Tori's for that study session."
Blake sighed, running about the 'rooms' on the screen and avoiding a blob. Cam was really getting into the supposed surprise birthday party. "Stupid exam. Maybe we'd better get going, I'd hate to be late. Dad always said never to keep a lady waiting." *Especially one who just took a transatlantic flight to see you on your birthday.*
"You do have a little bit of time," Cam reminded him. "And that snake is about to get you."
Blake tried to dodge, but the snake hit anyway, and his on-screen avatar turned into a puff of smoke, then re-formed at the beginning of the mountain. He sighed. "Maybe we should just go."
"Blake, are you all right?" Cam asked, laying a hand on his little brother's shoulder, his face wrinkled with concern.
Blake bolted to his feet and answered way too quickly. "Yeah, fine, I just suck at video games."
"Right," Cam said, raising an eyebrow.
"Cam," Blake complained, shoving the Green Ranger affectionately, "I don't need my head shrunk right now."
Cam sighed. Blake could tell that Cam was reminding himself that he should be nice. "OK, let's go."
Blake nodded, managing to turn off Cam's game console. "Be right with you, bro. Gotta get my books."
"Sure thing," Cam said, going to retrieve his car keys.
Blake sighed inwardly. He hoped that Cam enjoyed his birthday.
He grabbed his backpack, stuffed with Harry Potter books (and Cam's present) to make it look heavy. No way he was touching a text book today.
"Ready?" Cam asked, back with his keys. He looked at Blake expectantly.
"Yup," Blake said, trying to sound less than enthusiastic. It was hard.
"I take it this is a real study session?" Cam asked, stance shifting. Either Cam was a *really* good actor, or he was worried about Blake and Tori getting together after the 'surprise party'.
Blake narrowed his eyes. "As opposed to what?"
"You. Tori. Do I have to draw you a diagram?" Cam sighed in frustration at Blake's obtuseness.
"Cam," Blake said slowly, "It's a study session. For school. We're not doing the horizontal tango." He hated to be blunt. But if he was blunt he could change the subject.
"I should hope not!" Cam said.
"Then what were you asking?" Blake asked.
"I was thinking more like smoochies."
"No smoochies. Just study," Blake said firmly. "We need to beat Lothor and get you off to England if you have to live vicariously through a couple of seventeen year olds."
"Okay," Cam said hesitantly as they reached the garage. It was clear he wasn't going to rise to the bait.
"So, what are you doing while I'm off studying?" Blake asked casually, as they got to the car.
"Oh, you know, the usual," Cam said evasively as he opened the door to the garage.
"Repairing the Zords again, huh?" Blake asked, knowing what Cam would be doing instead of getting out. Maybe Hunter was right and Cam really needed to spend more time outside Ops. "Or reprogramming CyberCam."
"Why would I want to reprogram CyberCam?" Cam asked as he unlocked the car doors.
"You know, make him less irritating?" Blake said casually. "Bro, he thinks he's good at everything."
"He's not that bad!" Cam said.
"Yes, he is!" Blake exclaimed as he climbed into the car and got his backpack settled in the back seat.
"Put your seat belt on," Cam commanded, fastening his own.
"Right." Blake rolled his eyes. That was the next thing he was going to do. "Thanks for taking me over to Tori's, Cam."
"No problem," Cam said, starting the car and fiddling with the radio.
"Not the eighties station," Blake begged. He couldn't take the Billy Idol kick they were on. There were only so many times one could listen to "Dancing with Myself".
"Yes, the eighties station," Cam said mildly as he put the car into gear. "My car, my rules."
Blake sighed, leaning against the window. Under normal circumstances he wouldn't have given Cam any static about the radio on his birthday. However, he usually gave Cam static about the radio and if he suddenly didn't, well Cam might figure things out.
At least he only needed to keep that secret a little bit longer.
* * *
Dustin paced a little in Tori's backyard, trying not to run into anything while he was at it. "What's taking them so long, man?"
"Blake and Cam or Hunter and Trini?" Shane asked, as he fixed a streamer. Good thing for After-St.-Patrick's-Day sales.
"Hunter and Trini," Dustin said, stopping a minute to examine the streamers.
"Customs in Silver Hills," Trini said as she and Hunter emerged from the back door. "I had to show them receipts for all my computer gear to prove I'd bought it here."
"And apparently they decided to play hide and go seek with her luggage as revenge or something," Hunter said.
"She's Cam's girlfriend all right," Shane muttered to Dustin, who nodded emphatically.
"The y find it?" Tori asked.
"Yeah, it's coming up on the next flight and being delivered to my hotel," Trini replied.
"Cam on schedule?" Hunter asked as he sat at one of the picnic tables, contemplating the soda selection. He hadn't been able to use his morpher, and he'd forgotten to charge his cell phone, so it ran down half way to the airport.
Dustin scratched his nose. "Blake called just before they left. They should be here in five, bro."
"Thanks, Dustin." Hunter said, choosing a bottle of root beer.
Trini coughed.
Hunter blushed. "Sorry, Trini, these are Dustin, Shane, and Tori. They're friends of Blake's and mine. And if you're thirsty, feel free to help yourself."
"Pleased to meet all of you," Trini said. "Are you all Cam's friends too?" She looked appraisingly at their outfits.
"Yeah," Dustin said openly. "Cam's, like, great."
Shane, Tori, and Hunter exchanged glances. How were they going to explain this?
"Cam's dad's our Sensei," Tori said, breaking the silence, "Or was."
"He's still our Sensei," Dustin said. "No matter if he...."
"Dude, she knows about Sensei's illness," Shane said, covering. "We're hoping he can get back to work soon."
Trini nodded, still looking them over appraisingly. It was giving Hunter the creeps. "So, how did you guys get to be friends?" she asked.
"Long, hard work," Shane responded without thinking.
Trini arched an eyebrow.
"Getting Cam to do more than put up with us after his Dad took us in," Hunter said. "He can be pretty distant... well, you know that."
"Hey, at least you live there and can get him to open up," Shane complained.
"Point taken," Hunter said.
Trini started laughing. "Same old Cam. Let me guess, before you and Blake moved in he was sitting in his room coding all day?"
"Pretty much," Hunter said, shrugging. "Now he plays video games with us, at least. I think his Dad's kind of happy we moved in."
"Video games on his Powerbook or the Intellivision?" Trini asked, pouring herself a soda.
"Intellivision," Hunter said. "He doesn't trust us much on the PowerBook."
Trini smiled broadly at that. "He's still calling that thing his baby, isn't he?"
Hunter nodded rapidly, remembering the last time he'd tried to use Cam's laptop. "We don't touch it."
"Dude, you even *try* and he like, gives you the stink eye," Dustin said, reaching for the bottle of Sprite.
"Yeah," Shane added, smirking with the memory. "We crashed something that *wasn't* his baby, once, and I thought he'd make us wash the hall on our hands and knees!"
"Oh, dear." Trini frowned, shaking her head. "We've been apart too long."
"You've got that right dude, er, Trini," Dustin said.
Hunter's morpher bleeped. At that moment, a car pulled up in the driveway.
"Thanks for the warning, Blake," Hunter muttered, trying not to roll his eyes or look too obtrusive about the morpher. "Here they come. You want to hide or just sit here?"
"Why don't you go into my room, Trini," Tori said, indicating the back door. "It's inside, and to the left. Someone will bring you out."
"All right." Trini picked up her soda, grinning widely. Hunter couldn't help but smile at her expression. "Better not leave this in sight. It'd be pretty obvious this wasn't your lipstick."
"Lipstick?" Tori asked, raising an eyebrow. " I don't wear make up."
"Exactly." Trini indicated the lipstick smear on her glass. Tori blushed inexplicably.
"Good idea," Hunter said, nodding towards the door, silently urging her to get out of sight.
Trini picked up the cup and headed inside. The others only hoped she'd get inside Tori's room before Blake and Cam got in. If she didn't... well, their teammate wasn't going to take the deception kindly.
They could hear the door to Tori's room close. Then the doorbell rang.
"Whew." Hunter breathed a sigh of relief.
Tori went to answer the door. The others could hear Blake's voice from down the hallway.
A few minutes later, or so it seemed, though it really couldn't be more than a minute, they could see Tori, with Blake and a reluctant looking Cam in tow heading from the front door to the back one.
As the three emerged, Cam blinked at all the green. And the decorations. And the suspiciously shaped objects hidden under *green* cloths. He glanced at Blake, knowing that any celebration for him should be decorated in navy.
"Happy Birthday, Cam," Tori said, smiling widely at her teammate.
"How'd you know?" Cam asked, crossing his arms in consternation. "I made Dad promise not to tell. The little rodent."
"He didn't tell us." Hunter grimaced at the thought of Sensei taking the "rap" for the party. "Tori, maybe you should go get Cam's other surprise?"
"Right," Tori said, brushing past Cam and going back into her house.
"Other surprise?" Cam wondered, examining his teammates in confusion. "What on Earth are you guys up to?" Cam was starting to wish he'd said something about his birthday so that he could've made the others promise not to make a big deal out of it.
"We're not the ones up to something," Hunter said, crossing his arms. "Why do you think we're always up to something?"
"We just helped," Blake added hurriedly.
"I asked them to," Trini said, coming out of the house. Cam, having been glaring at his teammates, turned around.
"Trini!" Cam ran up to the door and wrapped his girlfriend into his arms, kissing her tenderly, then pulling away before he was tempted to do more. "We'll have to continue this when we don't have an impressionable teenage audience," he whispered. "I missed you."
"I missed you too," Trini whispered into his hair. "That's why I came."
Cam just hugged her again, too overcome to speak.
Several morphers went off, some quite insistently. Cam hugged Trini close, not wanting to go. "Um... 'scuse me," Dustin said, heading inside.
"What's with everyone's beepers?" Trini asked.
Cam shrugged, moving so that he was just holding Trini's hand. "I think they're rigged for harmony," he joked.
"Bat signal," Dustin said, poking his head out the door.
"Right," Shane said. "Excuse us, Cam, Trini. We'll be back."
"But..." Cam started.
"Relax, bro, have some chips," Hunter clapped Cam on the shoulder. "We'll be back as soon as we can. Stay here."
"Just wait for us on the cake, OK?" Blake added, doing likewise and entering the house.
Cam bit his lip as the others disappeared into the house on their way to tackle the newest monster. He guessed they'd call if he were needed.
"What was that all about?" Trini asked, looking in the departed teens' direction.
Cam could only hope she wasn't *too* curious, or his teammates could be in pretty big trouble. He shrugged. "Teenage stuff. They do that now and then."
"Do they always wear those colors?" Trini asked, still staring at the door.
"Not always," Cam said casually. He could see the gears in his girlfriend's head turning. He just wasn't sure what had started that.
"Hmm. Interesting," Trini said in a manner that indicated she wasn't sure she trusted Cam to notice.
"How's England?" Cam asked wistfully, leading Trini to a table, and away from the subject of his friends.
"How long do you think they'll be gone?" Trini asked, putting an arm around Cam's neck.
"I don't know. They're teenagers - they don't always make sense." Cam said, knowing that in this case, they did make sense, but he couldn't share that with Trini. "Hopefully a few minutes." Cam only hoped they didn't need him or his zord.
Trini still looked thoughtful, but took his hand. "England's great. The people-- the places-- there's so much history. I only wish I could share it with you."
Cam caressed her hair, luxuriating in the feel of it. "Me too."
"Cam," Trini said patiently, "you have your duty to your father. I won't take you away from that... much as I'd like to."
"The moment he's better..." Cam said, pushing his forehead against hers.
"I'll be waiting," Trini whispered, gazing into his eyes.
Cam grinned, and selfishly hoped that his teammates could handle the battle without him. "I know."
He kissed her softly. Trini responded. For long moments, the only thing that the two of them could think of was each other. No sudden beep interrupted them.
Someone clearing their throat, however...
Cam pulled away sheepishly, studying his teammates. They looked none the worse for wear, if a little tired. And maybe a little shell shocked that he knew how to kiss...
"Wondered what it would take to get your attention," Hunter said, looking a little bit uncomfortable, as if discovering his parents had a sex life.
Cam shrugged. "What kept you?" He hoped his teammates would recognize his attempt to cover for them. Or something of the sort.
"Kelly had to find some stuff and..." Dustin started, trailing off.
"You're very hard to shop for," Shane said. "We were waiting for something to arrive at Storm Chargers."
Trini gave Shane an odd look. Cam was inwardly crossing his fingers that the Rangers wouldn't say anything *stupid*. Or at least not stupider than usual.
Shane just shrugged.
Hunter started looking around in confusion. "Where's the cake?"
"Under here," Tori said, picking up a green cake cover that she'd put out after Hunter had gone to pick up Trini.
"So, let's eat," Hunter said eagerly.
Cam spared a chuckle. It was good to see Hunter hungry without seeming pitiful every now and then.
"Wait," Tori said, diving into a bag sitting next to the cake. "The candles wouldn't fit under the cover."
"I hope you don't have a candle in there for every year," Trini teased, squeezing Cam's hand. "It'd be a forest fire."
"Nah, just a big one," Dustin said reassuringly.
"Two, actually," Tori said. She pulled out a candle shaped like Harry Potter, and a second one shaped like a computer.
"You're not going to actually light Harry, are you?" Cam asked, clearly mortified at the thought.
"No, just the computer one," Tori said reassuringly, taking out the box of kitchen matches.
Trini just smiled at Cam's relief.
"What?" Cam asked her.
"Let's just say I picked the right present," she said.
"So, birthday boy, cake or presents?" Shane asked, indicating the cake and a green-shrouded pile of squarish things.
"Cake then presents," Cam said, knowing that he needed the food for his metabolism.
Tori grinned and lit the candle. "Make a wish."
Cam looked at Trini and took a deep breath. He wanted to get it out in one blow. He knew exactly what he was wishing for.
"Hey, don't we have to sing first?" Dustin asked, interrupting him.
"You ever heard Hunter sing?" Blake replied, incredulously
"I can sing!" Hunter protested.
"Like Sailor Kosh," Blake reminded him.
Hunter sighed, shaking his head at his little brother.
"Sailor Kosh?" Trini asked, nose crinkling in confusion.
Cam thought fast. "Bad fanfic I found on the internet. Complete with MP3. Blake walked in with a question when I was playing it. You don't want to be subjected to it, trust me."
Blake shuddered. "You really don't."
Dustin grinned mischievously. "Why don't we make Shane sing?"
Cam blew out the candle before the discussion turned into an argument.
"Hey!" Dustin protested being deprived of his fun.
"I have this aversion to eating wax." Cam shrugged and indicated the drip forming on top of the candle.
"It *is* his birthday," Tori reminded the others.
"My guy just doesn't like lots of spectacle." Trini patted Cam's leg.
"Yeah, we know," Hunter said, trying not to do any eye rolling. "He was preparing to *code* all day."
"Hey, Blake was doing well with the Winged Dragons," Cam protested. "He even won! Mind you, it was on the easy level, but...."
"And if Trini hadn't called, so we hadn't tricked you into thinking you were distracting Blake?" Tori said, handing Cam a knife and the plates.
"I'd still have taught him how to play," Cam said stubbornly. "The game was collecting dust."
"Uh-huh," Hunter said, not believing a word of it. "Right. You'd just have coded and... coded your entire birthday away."
Blake took a plate, glaring at Cam. "Cam, you were halfway into the guts of the mainframe when I reminded you that I was supposed to study with Tori. I was ready to bring in C.C. to get you out of there. No way would you have been spending an hour teaching me to shoot black squiggly things, red squiggly things, blue squiggly things...."
"I get the picture," Cam interrupted, not appreciating Blake making fun of his favorite game.
Trini chuckled. "These kids today can't appreciate old 80's games."
"I like Pac Man," Tori said, trying to diffuse the situation as she accepted a piece of cake from Cam.
"Pac Man's a classic," Cam acknowledged, "but you don't truly appreciate 80's games until you've played Utopia."
"I've played it," Hunter said. "I'll take Black and White, thank you very much."
"I always knew you had a god complex, Hunter," Cam quipped, referring to the game's concept.
"Just hand me a piece of cake," Hunter said, reaching out a hand impatiently. "Don't want me to faint, do you?"
Cam pulled the plate with the cake away. "What's the magic word?"
"Accio," Hunter joked.
Cam glared at the joke.
"Can I please have a piece of cake, bro?" Hunter asked, holding out his hand.
Cam sighed, shook his had, and gave Hunter his cake. "I swear, you all act like you're about six."
Hunter glared at his older brother.
Tori giggled, blushing. "Sometimes we do."
Trini laughed. "They're good for you, Cam. They'll keep you young."
"He showed up for the Harry Potter party on his own," Dustin pointed out.
"I had to get it the first day," Cam said emphatically, "Trini all ready had an eight hour head start!"
"I only read for one of those!" Trini said. "I got home at 1 and I had to go to sleep at two."
Several of the Rangers nodded as they ate the cake.
"Smarter than Tori," Blake teased, wrapping an arm around his girlfriend.
"I wasn't up *that* late," Tori protested, making a face at Blake.
"I thought you said it was four," Dustin teased.
"So, Trini, have you ever gone looking for Platform 9 and 3/4 at King's Cross?" Shane asked, to get away from that discussion.
Trini nodded. "Actually, they have a sign for it outside the national rail station. You can't get through the wall though." She scraped frosting off of her plate with the edge of her fork. "People must try a lot-- I went with some friends and we were all pushing at the wall. There was a news seller right in front of it, he didn't bat an eyelash."
"Yeah, I guess the Harry Potter phenomenon is really a big thing," Shane said with a shrug. "It sounds really cool, though. Cam will have to take pictures for us when he gets over there."
"When Dad's better," Cam said firmly, though he shot Shane a grateful look. Nothing better to reaffirm the idea that he would join Trini in England than his friends talking like that.
"That's what I meant, of course." Shane stared at his plate, as if ashamed that he might've implied anything different.
"We know you won't abandon your Dad, dude," Blake added, patting Cam's shoulder.
"Good," Cam said, nodding.
"This is good cake," Trini said, clearly anxious to change the subject.
"Thanks," Dustin said, blushing a little. He looked at the cake as if it might rise up and walk away.
"You made this?" Cam asked, suddenly understanding why Dustin was blushing. He was impressed; Dustin was the *last* person he thought would know how to cook. Maybe it was part of the Earth ninja personality.
"Dude, we don't all need your baking lessons," Hunter told Cam, smirking.
"Like, I had to take Home Ec in Junior High," Dustin said. He was still blushing and looking down at the cake.
"You, taking Home Ec?" Hunter asked, focusing on Dustin.
"It was required dude!" Dustin exclaimed, though he looked like he wanted to disappear off the face of the earth.
"Hey, everyone needs to know how to cook," Shane smirked.
Tori recognized the reference and smacked Shane's shoulder. "Trini's taken," she hissed.
"Not that these two ever learned," Cam said, motioning vaguely at Blake and Hunter.
Hunter rolled his eyes and wiped his mouth with a napkin.
"We're learning now, dude." Blake glared at Cam, as if daring him to contradict their attempts at cooking.
"Can you manage to go five minutes without saying 'Dude'?" Cam shoved Blake affectionately.
"Nope." Blake shoved Cam's hand away. "And it's all Dustin's fault."
"My fault?" Dustin pointed at his chest. "Why is it my fault?"
"We thought we were bad about it, dude, until we met you." Hunter poked Dustin in the ribs. "And then we started using it more."
Dustin shrugged unapologetically.
Tori grinned. "So, how about we get back to this party?"
"What, ragging on Dustin isn't a party?" Cam asked, putting his empty plate down and grinning.
"I think Tori was talking about the presents, d...." Shane stopped the last word in mid sound.
Tori grinned and ribbed Blake. "Well, after what we had to go through to get Cam here...."
Blake turned red and muttered something about bait.
"And you were very admirable bait at that," Cam grinned. He wasn't upset at the deception, and he had to admit that Blake's acting was really good.
"Your little brothers did come up with a very good plan," Trini said, smiling at Blake and Hunter, though the words "little brothers" were rather pointed.
Cam winced. "Sorry I didn't mention that. I wasn't sure how to bring it up-- or explain it, really. Whose idea was your visit anyway?"
"She called us." Hunter picked up a present wrapped in turquoise wrapping paper with gray dolphins on it and handed it to Cam.
"I knew that you'd be out," Trini added, as Cam concentrated on his first present.
He finally found the card and opened it.
He read the card silently, a grin blooming on his face. "Thanks, Tori."
"You're welcome," Tori said, blushing.
Cam opened the gift. Cam looked at the box. Then looked at Tori. "Acne wash?"
The other Rangers chuckled at his expression, though they knew that it would be hard to explain the meaning of the acne wash without explaining Cam's position as a Ranger *or* the love spell.
"Open the box," Tori grinned.
Cam looked at her skeptically, and did as he was told. He found himself smiling at the contents. "Ooh, candles."
Trini smiled at Cam meaningfully. "We'll have to put those to good use."
"Over dinner," Cam nodded, eyes flicking pointedly to the fact that Blake and Tori were holding hands.
"Over dinner," Trini repeated, squeezing his hand assuringly. Then, as an afterthought, added, "Can I ask about the acne wash box?"
"You don't want to know," Cam replied, squeezing her hand back, but avoiding her eyes.
"You *really* don't want to know," Blake muttered.
Hunter shoved his little brother, glaring.
Cam picked up the next box. It was wrapped in yellow and felt rather light. He opened the card and read it, smiling. "Thanks, Dustin." He unwrapped the gift. "A Kermit the frog key chain!"
"Well, you needed a new one, dude." Dustin shrugged, blushing for the second time in several minutes.
The next one was rather heavy and wrapped in red paper. Cam studied the paper against the other present wrapped in red, gave up, and opened the card. "Thanks Shane." He tore open the paper. "The Mac is not a Typewriter! Cool, I've been thinking about getting this book."
Shane muttered something that sounded like "Amazon wish list." Cam swore he heard a giggle coming out of one of the others.
Tori grinned at him. Hunter handed him the other red box, a darker red than the first. It was quite large. And somewhat heavy.
Cam took it, arms going down from the unexpected weight. He opened the card, though the color of the wrapping gave the person who had wrapped it away. "Thanks, Hunter." He opened it, and both his eyebrows went up. "A motocross helmet?"
"We thought you might be tired of borrowing them for your lessons," Hunter said, shrugging.
Trini's eyes widened at that. "You're taking motocross lessons, sweetie?"
"I kind of got roped into them," Cam said, mock-glaring at Hunter and Blake.
Hunter shrugged. "Bradleys have to know how to motocross."
Cam rolled his eyes and reached for the next present.
"Bradleys?" Trini echoed.
"It's no point in arguing with him, " Cam said. "I've even tried showing him my drivers' license." He turned his attention back to the presents. Blake's was also rather heavy. Cam looked at him. "Let me guess, body armor?"
Blake grinned, "Open it dude."
Cam opened it to find another book. "Building Cocoa Applications?" he asked.
"Thought you'd like it, dude," Blake said, scuffing his feet.
Cam flipped through it. "It looks pretty useful, actually. Thanks, Blake."
Cam picked up the last present, a moderately weighted, rectangular package wrapped in yellow. He opened the card and read it quietly. He was grateful for his dark complexion-- he didn't want any of his teammates asking him why he was blushing. "Thanks, honey." He kissed her lightly on the lips, then opened the present. "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." A wide grin spread over Cam's face. "I really appreciate it." He kissed her chastely on the lips.
"No problem," Trini said gracefully as they separated.
"I vote we eat," Dustin said, seeing that the presents were over.
"You all ready had cake, you pig." Tori swatted Dustin with a clean paper plate.
"Hey, I'm still hungry!" Dustin whined. "And I'm still growing!"
"He's been running around all day," Cam said, knowing Dustin's Ranger metabolism was kicking in, "what do you expect? Help yourself, Dustin, there's only tons of food."
"Thanks, dude," Dustin said gratefully. He grabbed another plateful, ignoring everybody else present.
"Dustin the bottomless stomach," Shane teased.
"You have your moments too, dude," Blake pointed out. "Didn't I see you eating three hot dogs at the skate park the other day?"
"Guys, chill out," Cam said, not wanting his birthday party to become heated.
"We're chilled, bro," Shane said, holding his hands out in a placating gesture.
"But not frozen," Hunter added, sipping at a root beer.
Tori smacked her forehead. "We forgot the ice cream!"
"We didn't get any," Blake said, matter of factly. "We got everything put out."
"Exactly," Tori said, burying her face in her arms. "We forgot the ice cream!"
Cam made a face.
"Oh," Tori said, realizing.
Dustin frowned, putting down his fork. "Oh, boy, Cam's going to be a grouch until he gets his butterscotch ice cream."
Cam looked at Dustin strangely. "What makes you say that?"
Trini started giggling. "Cam? Ice cream? The only thing frozen and sweet I've ever seen him eat are those tofu things."
"Tofuttis," Cam corrected absently, releasing Trini's hand and putting an arm around her.
"Those ice cream bars," Hunter said. "The ones he *eats* all the time at Ops."
"We should have gotten some of those," Shane said. "I saw them at the store yesterday."
"Hey, they make other flavors too," Cam said defensively, as if he was tired of arguing the point. "The Cuties are just a perfect size."
"You just hate scooping anything," Trini said, batting her eyelashes at him.
"That's just too much work," Cam agreed. He gripped her hand slightly tighter, and sincerely wished they didn't have an audience.
"This from a guy who designs computers," Shane said, sipping at his Coke.
"I like working for programs, not for my desserts." Cam shrugged. "I like it that way."
"He's gotta stop working so hard," Tori commented to Trini. "We have to keep telling him to take breaks."
Trini chuckled. "He's practicing for graduate school."
"They make you work *that* hard?" Dustin asked.
Trini grinned. "Like a house elf."
Several heads nodded.
"I hope you get paid better than the Harry Potter creatures." Hunter's face was so sympathetic that Cam reached over and squeezed his shoulder reassuringly.
"Only slightly," Trini joked.
"Dude, that's it, I'm stopping after college," Dustin said. "If I go to college."
"My parents say I'm going to college, no questions asked," Tori said.
"Tori, you get straight A's," Dustin pointed out. "You're a shoo in to get it."
"Hey, you're not doing *that* badly," Tori said. "Neither is Shane. Of course, you guys have to...."
"Remember to do our homework," the other two chorused.
"You might want to do that before Sensei gets wind it's not getting done." Hunter sat next to Blake, clearly still a little shaken by the surfacing memories of his and Blake's time of trying to live on their stock boys' pay at Storm Chargers.
Cam glared at him. "Yeah, substitute teacher at the dojo or not, Dad would be pretty upset if his students weren't fulfilling their other responsibilities."
"We get it, we get it," Shane said, holding out his hands, palms away from him. "Don't tell your dad. "
"I've told you guys, not everything you tell me gets back to my Dad," Cam said, trying to keep everything calm.
"You refuse to promise not to tell him anything," Hunter pointed out.
"Well, if one of you ends up in really big trouble and needs help I'll tell him, your parents, and whoever else it takes to get you help," Cam said.
"Including superintendents," Blake muttered.
Shane raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't say anything.
Blake looked abashed. Trini didn't need to hear the story about how Cam and the rest of the team had come and forcibly moved him and Hunter into Ninja Ops.
"Anyway," Tori said, trying to distract their guest before anybody mentioned the wrong thing in non-Ranger company, "Trini, got any stories about the guest of honor?"
Trini bit her lip. She could think of several-- but she wanted something that wouldn't have Cam upset with her. Not when she was only in for a couple days.
"How about when we helped move that friend of Hayley's out of his apartment after he finished his Ph.D.?" Cam asked.
Trini snickered. "There's not much to tell-- you spent a good part of the time geeking out with Hayley about all that computer equipment she got him."
"Who's Hayley?" Shane asked curiously.
"Another friend from M.I.T.," Cam said. "She was also a computer major, but she met this paleontology prodigy grad student..."
"And he's my friend too," Trini chimed in, nudging her boyfriend gently.
Cam grinned at that. He was aware he had the world's silliest grin on his face. "I'd forgotten."
Trini raised an eyebrow at that. "I'm surprised, given that grilling you got."
"Trini, he's a good paleontologist, but he's hopeless with technology," Cam said, exasperated. He wasn't going to go into the *other* grilling he'd gotten when he'd met the other man.
Trini rolled her eyes. "I wasn't referring to the computer grilling."
Cam looked at his cake for a moment. "Can we lay off the embarrassing stories? Please?"
"Okay, tell a *cute* story," Tori said, after a moment of consideration. She hadn't meant to hear something that had embarrassed Cam, but she did want to know him better.
Trini pondered that, leaning against Cam's shoulder. Cam put an arm around her.
"Why don't we tell her a few stories... carefully edited, of course." Shane cleared away the wrapping paper.
"Edited for what?" Trini asked, gazing up at her boyfriend.
"Stuff Cam would kill us over." Blake glared at Shane. Why didn't he just wear a "we have a secret" t-shirt while he was at it?
"Would I do that?" Cam batted his eyes at his youngest brother teasingly.
"Yes," the other five chorused.
"Dude, you like, were majorly pissed off when Shane decided to practice skateboarding," Dustin said. "I thought you were going to, like, throw him out!"
"He was inside the room with all the computer equipment!" Cam pointed out. "Blue Bay Harbor has a perfectly good skate park. What's wrong with that?"
"Hey, you were the one that needed us to be there," Shane said. "Is it my fault you left us standing around with nothing to do?"
"You should have left your skateboard outside," Cam retorted. "Or is it physically attached to you?"
Trini looked at Hunter. "You sure he's only picked up two little brothers?"
"Not really," Hunter said, grinning.
Cam sighed. Sometimes it did feel like he'd adopted more than Hunter and Blake when he'd become a Ranger. "Oh, boy."
"Hey, I'm not that bad!" Shane exclaimed, tossing a piece of ribbon at Hunter. Hunter caught it and started tying knots in it.
Cam decided a little perspective was in order. "Would Porter agree with that assessment?"
"Relax, sweetie, he's just teasing." Trini kissed Cam's cheek.
"More cake?" Tori asked.
* * *
"Morning, Sensei." Hunter hopped off his bar stool in order to get down the bag of guinea pig chow the next morning. He hadn't seen Cam since the elder Ranger had taken off with Trini after the birthday party.
"Good morning, Hunter, Blake," Sensei said calmly. "Do you know where Cam is?"
"Probably still with Trini," Hunter shrugged. "Or back with Trini. One of those."
"Ah. He did not return home last night," Sensei told them. "This is most unusual for him."
"Trini's in town," Blake repeated. He tried to wrap his mind around Cam and Trini... Cam and Trini... doing what they were probably doing last night.
"Yes," Sensei observed as he started in on the chow. "Perhaps he will be out all day."
"Or in all day," Hunter muttered, concentrating on his breakfast.
Blake gently smacked him upside the head. "That was so not what I needed to think about, bro."
"Boys, please," Sensei said, and his voice caused the two of them to look over at Sensei.
"Sorry, Sensei," the Thunders chorused, bowing slightly.
"Sensei," Blake added, "Do you think...." He didn't really want to ask, but he felt he had to. It was like watching a train wreck.
"I try not to think, Blake," Sensei replied, his manner indicating he didn't want to discuss the topic further. "It is easier that way."
Blake nodded. He didn't blame Sensei for that. He didn't want to think about it either.
"How is that English paper coming, Blake?" Sensei asked as Hunter took the bag of Guinea Pig chow and put it away, effectively changing the subject.
"It's pretty much done, Sensei," Blake answered obediently.
"Very good," Sensei said, wiping his face with a napkin.
* * *
"You know," Hunter said later on, "I pretty much envy Cam."
"Why?" Blake asked. He was fiddling with the remote control to the tv and the DVD player, unable to settle on a channel.
"He's getting some," Hunter said casually, lying down on the couch, watching his brother idly.
Blake made a face at that.
"Dude." Hunter snickered at Blake's expression. "Cam and Trini have been dating for what? Four years. You really think they were playing parcheesi last night?"
"No," Blake mumbled, scrubbing his face over his hands.
"So what's your problem?" Hunter crossed his arms, not liking any of the current offerings enough to try to curb Blake's channel surfing.
"Maybe he thinks you're being crude." Cam's stern voice caused Hunter to jump.
Hunter turned to find Cam leaning in the doorway to the rec room. Arms crossed, a frown aimed in Hunters direction.
"Trini get on the bus to Reefside OK?" Hunter asked.
"Yes," Cam said patiently, while continuing to glare at Hunter.
"Sorry she couldn't stay too long, bro," Hunter said, ignoring Cam's glare.
Some of the tension in Cam's form seemed to fade. "She'll be back, sometime," he said.
"Or we'll zap your Uncle and you can meet her in England," Blake told him, idling from his channel surfing.
"And in the meantime..." Hunter started, but Blake covered his mouth, knowing that Hunter would get himself in trouble. The last thing the duo needed was another meal plan. Or a zord redesign or two.
"In the meantime, what?" Cam asked, his voice betraying the words. The tension that had flowed away before was back.
Hunter tried to jerk away from Blake.
"Don't say it," Blake warned.
"I got this, Blake," Cam said, gently prying the Thunders apart.
"And in the meantime you two got some quality lovin' in." Hunter waggled his eyebrows.
Cam grinned. "That's it." He grabbed Hunter, tickling him mercilessly.
Blake tried not to grin. Failed. Started laughing.
Hunter was laughing hysterically under Cam's assault. "Glad... you're amused... bro," he gasped.
"Hey, I'm the one who knew better than to do what you did," Blake said, shrugging. He changed the channel on the TV.
Hunter glared, trying to pull away from Cam, and not succeeding.
"No more jokes about my sex life, right?" Cam asked, continuing to tickle the taller Bradley.
"Right," Hunter gasped. "Have mercy!"
"Good," Cam said, letting up at last. He let go of Hunter and stepped back, still grinning mercilessly.
Hunter just stared. It was as if he'd never seen Cam before. Or never really *looked* at Cam before.
"What?" Cam asked, eyeing Hunter as if he were debating tickling him again.
"You've really got this big brother thing down." Hunter told the floor.
"I learn fast." Cam mussed Hunter's hair affectionately.
Hunter glared at his older brother.
"You sure do," Blake said, finally pausing long enough to see what was on the Cartoon Network.
Cam just stood there, grinning.
"Have a good visit?" Blake turned around to face Cam.
"The best." A grin spread over Cam's face.
"Good birthday?" Hunter added. It seemed a safe enough thing to say.
"Yeah," Cam said, still grinning. "I know you two helped Trini orchestrate all that. Thank you."
"No problem," Blake told him.
"Anytime, bro," Hunter added. "You know that we wouldn't have said no. It was good to meet the mysterious Trini, too."
Cam just smiled again.
"So, Cam, not upset with us because of... well, you know what?" Hunter asked, suddenly fascinated with the floor again.
"The deception or the crude behavior, Hunter?" Cam's eyes narrowed meaningfully.
"Deception." Hunter busied himself with a piece of the shag carpet. "I got the behavior, thanks."
Cam paused for a moment, letting Hunter stew. "Nah. Surprises are good sometimes. Just as long as that's the only time you're lying to me."
"But that's half the fun!" Hunter exclaimed, finally looking up.
Cam raised an eyebrow.
"Well, it is!" Hunter exclaimed. "You're too stubborn for your own good."
Cam patted Hunter on the head impishly.
Hunter just looked up at Cam expectantly, not quite sure what was up with his teammate.
"Good dog," Cam said, dashing for his room, leaving a stunned Hunter in his wake.
Hunter, after a moment, tore after him.
Blake snatched up the remote as he noticed the time, and changed the channel before putting it down. He finally knew of something good on, and he wanted to watch his cartoon in peace for once.
The End