A/N- First serious Power Ranger fic ever so please be kind and leave a review.

After All This Time

Chapter 1: Missing You

Tommy thought that life would get back to normal- but it couldn't and it never did. 'Once a Ranger always a ranger...' he thought wistfully to himself as he watched the archives of the early ranger days. It had been four years since his Black Dino Powers had been completely drained by defeating Mesasog but he still hadn't gotten over the loss yet. 'Once a ranger always a ranger...' he repeated silently to himself as his gaze was drawn back to the screen.

'They said back at the gym that I'd find you here.'

"What?" he muttered out loud as he watched the images on the screen. "What is that doing here? It has nothing about being a ranger..."

'Yeah.' replied a much younger version of himself. 'Sometimes I like to practice outside sometimes you know, smell the fresh air.'

'How are you doing?'

'She seemed so concerned...' Tommy thought to himself as he saw the concern on Kimberly's face. '...at the time...'

'I'm hanging, I've been working on my karate, focusing on my school work, just trying to keep busy you know'

'We miss you.' She had said, but there had been something else behind her eyes.

'Yeah- but you guys were a team long before I showed up...it'll be back to normal before long.'

'I miss you ' Kimberly had said and Tommy watched as the younger version of himself had taken her hand, looked into her eyes and leaned in for a kiss. Even after all this time, all he had been through that memory brought back all the same feelings that he had had as a teenager.

'She missed me after only a couple of weeks,' Tommy thought to himself as he paused the archive recording. 'I wonder if she has missed me after all this time...' Just then his phone rang and Tommy nearly jumped out of his seat.

"I wonder who that could be..." he muttered to himself as he picked it up. "Hello?"

"Tommy?"

He knew that voice. He would always know that voice. "Kim?"

There was silence.

"Kim?" he repeated, suddenly frantic that she wouldn't answer. "You there."

"Yea, I'm here." she replied sounding as nervous as he felt. "I uh- was just surprised that you didn't hang up on me."

"It's been twelve years since we broke up-" Tommy muttered darkly. "Do you really think I'd be holding a grudge for all this time..."

Again there was silence.

"Kim?"

"I'm here." she replied her voice wavering as though she was crying. "I'm here."

"You okay?" he asked suddenly concerned.

"Yeah," Kim answered. "Listen, I uh- was just calling because I was going through my old boxes yesterday and I came across some of your things and well...I haven't been able to stop thinking about you since."

"Oh- so you haven't thought about me in the past twelve years?"

Silence was all that met him.

"Kim?" he asked as a part of him berated his mouth for speaking without thinking. Even after all this time- it was clear that Tommy was still angry. "Kim I'm sorry."

"I know," she answered finally in a quiet voice. "And so am I- but apologies never work over the phone. I heard from the gang that you're in Reefside now and seeing how that's only a few hours from Angel Grove I figured that I could drive up and-"

"No." he interrupted. "No if we're going to talk about things then it should be at the lake."

"At our spot?" she asked quietly and Tommy inwardly flinched.

"Yeah." he answered. "I think that would be best."

-Tommy/Kim-

Two days later Tommy was sitting quietly at the spot where he had first asked her out. 'That seems like so long ago,' he thought to himself as he recounted his face in the archive record. 'It is possible that I still have the same feelings even after all these years?'

-Tommy/Kim-

"There he is Trini," Kim whispered as she watched Tommy from behind a tree. "I can't believe I let you talk me into calling him and getting him here."

"It's been twelve years," Trini pointed out. "Twelve years and neither of you have found anyone else. He needs to know what happened back then, he needs to hear your reasoning and you have to know why he never came after you- why he never fought for you after he had fought for you for so long-"

"I don't think I want to know," Kim muttered as she leaned against the tree her face away from Tommy. "I mean honestly if I couldn't face him after Divatox..."

Trini just shook her head. "Honestly girl- I talked to Jason after the competition and he told me that Kat had told him that Tommy's face had paled when he saw that you were in trouble. And you yourself said that you thought that you had seen something in his eyes when he was trying to talk to you while you were evil."

Kim nodded. "Yeah- but that was another lifetime."

"You haven't died Kim," Trini reasoned. "It's the same lifetime."

"You know what I mean."

"And you know what I mean," Trini countered. "Now go over there..."

-Tommy/Kim-

"Tommy?"

"Kim?" he asked as he stood up.

"Hey..." she replied with a small smile as she kept a respectful distance from the one and only love of her life. "You-"

But her sentence was cut off- Tommy spontaneously pulled her into a hug and Kim didn't push away. She just wrapped her arms around him as she had done many, many times in another lifetime. She buried her head in the crook of his shoulder and she could feel his hands get tangled within her hair. 'I've missed this...' she thought to herself.

"I've missed you." Tommy replied, whispering in her ear and echoing her thoughts.

Kim nodded and pulled out of the hug reluctantly. "I've missed you too...uh, we-"

"We have a lot to talk about..."

"Yeah," she nodded. "We do."

-Tommy/Kim-

"So do you think this will work?" Trini turned to face her husband of five years and nodded.

"I hope for her sake that it does." Jason Scott answered and they both turned their eyes back to the pair. "And his come to think about it." he continued. "I mean neither of them have been the same since..."