by: ScarletDeva
Author’s Notes: Thank Cheryl and Dagmar for this one. They depressed me to the max. Anyway it does end well so read on. R&R please.
Disclaimer: Don’t own. Probably for the best anyway. I don’t own Meatloaf or “I Would Do Anything For Love” either and I took some liberties with it so that may be for the best too.
Dedications: Huge thanks to Hartfelt and Wild-Melody for beta-ing and ooh-ing and aah-ing over it. You two are awesome.
Rated: G
Genre: General/Angst/someDrama
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And I would do anything for love,I'd run right into hell and back,I would do anything for love,
I'll never lie to you and that’s a fact.
Adam walked gingerly through the wrought iron gate. He made his way down the familiar path automatically as he had for the last thirty years. His dark eyes, dulled with age, ran over the neatly trimmed bushes that looked lit from within by the last bit of sunlight. He sighed quietly and stepped inside a specially walled area. The first object in his sight was, as it had been for the past three decades, a stone angel. The angel stood proud with unfurled wings and a sad smile on his face and Adam exhaled painfully. At the pedestal were the words, “Rocky DeSantos. He lived with his heart. We miss him.” The old familiar pain snuck up on Adam and his smile was bittersweet. Rocky was the first they lost. He was still relatively young, only sixty, but the intractable advance of his cancer didn’t leave any room for hope. Aisha was the one who finally let him go by taking him off the life support and she was the only one who could.
But I'll never forget the way you feel right now- Oh no - no way - And I would do anything for love,Oh I would do anything for love,I would do anything for love.
“Aisha Campbell DeSantos. Her smile lit our world.” She was one of the last to depart this Earth. Adam hoped that the smile that was frozen on her face when they found her cold in her bed meant that she was reunited with her husband and their other dear friends. She was buried next to Rocky of course. The Rangers had been well-known and well-loved for over fifty years and, upon Rocky’s untimely death, the mayor created this special cemetery ground for the group. A sort of morbid monument. Adam shook off the depressing thought. Death is not the end… Who was it that said that?
And some days it don't come easy,And some days it don't come hardSome days it don't come at all,And these are the days that never end.
“Kimberly Hart Oliver. Death is not the end.” She wrote that on a piece of paper that she tacked on her fridge in dark-pink ink and her distinctive curliqued script when she learned that she hadn’t much longer to live. She was the second to leave them, but not so young anymore at seventy-seven. Kim died from a congenital heart disease and Tommy cried hysterically over the irony of his wife’s death coming from the one place that was most special about her.
And some nights you’re breathing fire,And some nights you’re carved in ice,Some nights you’re like nothing I've ever seen before, or will again.
“Thomas Oliver. We will never be alone.” He died soon after his wife, unable to live without her. Aisha was the one who found him and didn’t seem surprised. Neither was anyone else. The words on his tombstone came from a letter he wrote the week before and put in his will to be read to his friends. He was right of course. Adam could feel the love that entangled all the former Rangers even now. He shook his head, his silver-gray hair falling gently over his forehead.
And maybe I’m crazy, Oh it's crazy and it's true,I know you can save me, no one else can save me now but you.
“Katherine Hillard Taylor. Sweet as chocolate and hard as steel. How will we live without you? But live we must. For you.” Zack insisted on writing the message for the tombstone and the rest could hardly deprive him from that small comfort. He lost Kat suddenly. She was pretty spry for her eighty years but even she could not escape fate. A car with an inexperienced driver and stalled breaks ended Zack’s happiness but he stood tall and proud, supporting his daughters on both sides of him at the funeral.
As long as the planets are turning,As long as the stars are burning,As long as your dreams are coming true - You better believe it!
“Zachary Taylor. He found joy in everything. May we be as lucky.” Adam chose that line himself. There was no one else left to do it. A small tear escaped the former Black Ninjetti Ranger’s eye and he swiped it away impatiently, this pain still too fresh.
That I would do anything for love!Oh I would do anything for love,Oh I would do anything for love.
“Jason Lee Scott. Forever our hero.” Trini wrote that down with tears blurring her eyes. And it was true. Jason, strong amazing Jason, who could never escape his superhero mantle nor his FBI badge, ran into his neighbor’s house and stopped a crazy ex-boyfriend from beating a young girl to death. He got a bullet for his kindness. Adam never did think that was fair. Even so, there was now a young boy named after his mother’s rescuer sitting in a classroom somewhere.
I will do anything for love,Anything you've been dreaming of.
I will do anything for love,
Anything you've been dreaming of.
“Trini Kwan Scott. Wisdom, beauty and a razor-sharp wit in one lethal package.” Zack argued Adam into allowing that particular phrase. Really, Adam was in no mood to fight, Trini’s death coming a few months after his wife’s. Zack was right of course and reading those words again brought a small smile to Adam’s lips. There was a small American flag tacked to the side of the beautiful black stone. Another tribute to Trini, or in this case President Kwan. Who would have thought that the reserved intellectual Trini would finally get pissed at the world, win the U.S. Presidency in a landslide and force a new international treaty which led to the creation of a whole new U.N. that actually held the power to change the world? Well everyone of course…
And some days I pray for Silence,And some days I pray for Soul,
Some days I just pray to the God of Sex and Drums and
Rock 'N' Roll.
“William Cranston. A whole new world is before our eyes and all we have to do is reach out and grab it.” Trini borrowed the quote from his own speech at the signing of the first Earth-alien treaty. The headstone was only a tribute of course as Billy’s actual body was laid to rest on Eltar. He was Earth’s first ambassador to other planets and humans have much to thank him for. And not just humans. Eltarans gave Billy and Cestria’s funeral the treatment of a planetary mourning day. Adam sighed, unable to kick off the nagging feeling that they didn’t see Billy as much as they should have. Well, as Kim said, death is not the end. Really, who would have figured her for a philosopher? Much more Trini’s forte usually. He sighed again.
And maybe I'm lonely, And that’s all I'm qualified to be,
There's just one and only, The one and only promise I can keep.
“Tanya Sloan Park. We are forever young.” Trini had decided Tanya’s tribute as Adam was in no condition to do so himself. It was a quote from Tanya’s last book. She always thought that people are only as old as they choose to feel. Add in the fact that in Adam’s memory they all lived as they were when they were young and brilliant… well it made sense. He sighed and turned back, refusing to look at the plot intended for himself.
That I would do anything for love!And you know it's true and that’s a fact,I would do anything for love!And there'll never be no turning back.
He climbed the steps to his door and walked in slowly, somehow feeling that this was the last time he’d get to look at the home he and Tanya created… the warm, comfortable home. He ran his fingers over the wall and moved over to lie down on the couch, covering himself with an old quilt. It was another memory. The girls made the quilt when the first of them hit thirty. They dug around to add in a bit of everyone, even Billy, who had smiled indulgently and teleported some fabric immediately. Adam matched Billy’s remembered smile and closed his eyes. He drifted off softly and it seemed that a melody began to play in the darkness that surrounded him. An old favorite of Tanya’s, a song by Meatloaf called “I Would Do Anything For Love.” And in a moment, there she was. His luminous Tanya stood there wearing a soft peach sundress and a huge smile.
But I'll never do it better than I do it with you,So long - So long - And I would do anything for love,Oh I would do anything for love,
I would do anything for love.
“It’s time Adam.”
“Yes, love, I do believe it is.” He took her hand and walked into the sunlit park. And just as suddenly as Tanya had appeared so did the multitude of bodies that were suddenly crushing him.
“Sorry man, didn’t mean to leave you alone.” Zack, slapping Adam on the arm.
“Hey Frog-boy, I’ve been waiting!” Rocky, hale and hearty and in that ratty red muscle shirt.
“Hi old friend.” Aisha, who had no business saying that looking all of twenty-five.
“We have much to make up for.” Billy and that indulgent smile and Cestria right behind him smiling in greeting.
“Adam!!!” Kim, looking like her old energetic self and launching herself at him.
“Up for a game of volleyball?” Tommy, saying a lot in that simple question.
“Oh please, he knows I’ll kick his ass.” Trini, more outspoken than she was at twenty-five but looking it all the same.
“That’s my girl for ya. But darn it if she’s not telling the truth.” Jason, with his arm around his wife and a welcoming smile on his lips.
“Well we girls do always win thanks to Tanya.” Kat, hugging him and crying and laughing and oh so painfully beautiful.
“Let’s test that shall we?” Adam asks, grabbing the ball from Zack and chasing a giggling Tanya to the net and all of them swallowed within the sunlight, the beautiful sunlight.
Will you raise me up?Will you help me down?Will you help get me right out of this Godforsaken town?Will you make it all a little less cold? I can do that!I can do that! Will you cater to every fantasy that I've got?Will you hose me down with holy water - if I get too hot?Will you take me to places that I've never known? I can do that!I can do that! Three days later a new headstone was lovingly constructed in the Rangers’ burial section. “Adam Park. Anything for love.” I will doAnything for love. BACK E-mail me HOME