He had always told her that he would always be there, that she could call him no matter what if was for, whether it was big or small. As she sat in a hospital chair staring at her cell phone, she wondered if she really could do that. Would he understand? Would he even come to her considering all the things that they had gone through? It had been so long since she had even considered doing that. She had a family, a husband and two kids, but sadly she couldn't call her husband, not for this and the only person that popped into her mind was him.

"Tommy?" Kim asked as she heard the phone be picked up. It was 5 o'clock in the morning in Maryland and she was just hoping that he would not be too mad with her for calling him at this time of morning.

"Do you know what time of morning it is?" Tommy asked, clearly not awake yet, as he had not realized who was calling him.

"Yeah, I'm so sorry to do this to you, but I need to ask you for a favor," Kim said as Tommy sat up and looked over to his side and saw Hayley calmly sleeping. He did not want to wake her up, but he was sure that this conversation was going to take awhile. Most of his conversations with Kim nowadays did, it seemed that when she called him, she really was desperate for help.

"What kind of favor Kimberly?" Tommy asked as Kim gulped.

"A place for my kids to stay," Kim said as Tommy was suddenly wide awake and staring at the phone. He had expected a small loan or maybe even help with her husband, but not this. Not something that he was not sure that he could handle without having things turn out badly for their feeble friendship. "I can't take them back home, Tommy."

"Kim, what's going on?" Tommy asked as he pushed himself out of bed and walked over to the window.

"He hit Jessie tonight and he broke her arm. I can't take them home to that, I've filed for divorce, but I need to get them out of here. They are working on a restraining order as we speak, but I'm afraid if I keep them around here that he'll just do it again. I'll have to stay until the charges are brought up to court and the divorce is settled, but that should only take a couple of months at most," Kim blurted out as Tommy let out a sigh and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. He knew that he was going to say yes, but he wanted to make sure that he was the only person that could do this.

"None of the others could do this?" Tommy asked as Kim thought about it. In all reality, Jason and Trini could take them in, but they had two children of their own and they just didn't need the extra kids, especially with Trini being pregnant again. Most of the other rangers were in the same boat with children of their own; Tommy was the only one that didn't have kids and he had the room to take care of them.

"I don't want to stress Trini out right now, otherwise I'd send them to be with her and Jase. I just don't know who else to turn to," Kim said as Tommy squinted his eyes closed. He could not turn her away because he knew that if he did some bad things might happen to them.

"How soon do you want to send them out?" Tommy asked as Kim looked over at the nurse who was standing beside her and held up one finger to let her know that this was not going to be a long phone call.

"As soon as you can take them, Tommy," Kim said as Tommy nodded. He had felt that would be the answer, but he still didn't want to hear it.

"How about next Friday?" Tommy said as it was going to be a long weekend and he could attempt to get them settled in and in the meantime he could get Hayley used to the idea that he was going to be taking care of some of his ex-girlfriend's kids.

"Thank you, you have no idea what you're doing for me," Kim said as Tommy barely nodded as he felt a pair of arms slip around him. "I need to go, I'll call you later to work out the details. Thank you, so much."
"Okay, bye Kim," Tommy said as he hung up the phone and looked back at Hayley. He could not believe that he had just agreed to this, but part of the reason was because he knew that she was trying to do what was best for her family. The best thing that she could think of was to get her kids out now and she would come whenever she got the chance.

"What's going on?" Hayley asked as Tommy turned around to face her and gave her a strong hug. They had been friends for a long time and had recently decided to just try dating and see how it went. Now they were either at his house or hers most nights, it was rare for them to be alone now.

"Kim's husband hit their little girl tonight," Tommy said as Hayley stared up at him. She knew all about Kim and the other rangers; she even knew about Kim's abusive husband, but this was the first time that she had heard of the kids getting hit. "She's already got the divorce paperwork, but there is going to be a court battle for the kids. I can only imagine that she is going to try to get sole custody of the kids. She's going to send them out here to live with me for a little while, while all of that goes on."

"You're taking in her kids?" Hayley asked as Tommy nodded his head yes. "So I guess this means no more spending the night at my place?"

"Yeah and I don't know how well Kim will take to the idea of the two of us being together with her kids here," Tommy said as Hayley looked up at him. "I'm going to have to tell her about our relationship. I want to help…so we might just have to have a couple of lonely weeks."

"I'm sure she appreciates it Tommy," Hayley said as she pulled him back over to his bed. "Let's get back to sleep and you can worry about this tomorrow, when you're more awake."

"Yeah," Tommy said as Hayley crawled in and he crawled in behind her and settled his arms around her. He was not quite sure how he was going to deal with all of this, but he would. He had told her that she could call him if she ever needed anything and now she had. He just hoped that this would not be something that he would regret. He was not sure that he could lose Hayley, especially if some old feelings resurfaced like they tended to do when the two of them were around each other.