Footprints

Summary: After a sudden engagement, many tricks and lies, another stranger wouldn't cause Kim more troubles, would it?

Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers.

: So one day, GracefulCrane and I were talking about an AU Tommy/Kim story that I honestly haven't been able to think thoroughly until this past few days. A hug and a cookie for my big sis, I hope this story is up to your expectation, G.

Now on to the story!

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Chapter 1

Her slender fingers lingered over the mouse and her eyes locked into the computer screen in front of her, the dark colored wallpaper enabling her to see her worried reflection. Worried… she wasn't worry at the slightest, it's more like… being concern… Like a precaution.

She was not the first person who by accident slept with a guy she didn't knew at all, and for all she cared, she wouldn't be the last either. It wasn't her fault that her father chose that evening to drop the biggest bombshell she had ever had. As if her day hadn't been tiring enough, she had also been informed that somehow, anyhow, she was betrothed to a guy who'd hired 3 thugs to beat up her prom date just because she hadn't wanted to be his date in high school. Just in a span of a second, Kimberly Hart was engaged. No champagne for everyone!

"What do you mean?" Kim has asked her father, feeling the walls in her living room apartment moving closer against her, ready to crush her without mercy. Mr. Hart had been living by himself in their old house in Reefside ever since his wife, Kim's mother, passed away a few years prior. The plane crash was something that had turned their world upside down and only by locking herself in her room for 3 days straight, downing almost all Jason's beer and lots and lots of cakes and ice cream that she had finally been able to cope, if only just a little bit.

Of course, if Charles had been an evil father whose hobbies including tormenting his daughter for never calling or stopping by for nearly 6 months, everything would have made more sense. But this was Charles Hart, a fifty six year old man who would never ever hurt a fly, let alone emotionally torturing his child to the next step of insanity by practically handing her to the Winsor family. Kimberly Winsor… She cringed just at the thought of changing her last name to a name similar to a famous paint-brush brand.

She had always been aware of her father and Julian Winsor's tight friendship. From the stories she had been told, apparently they'd known each other since they're in diapers. They're neighbors and grew up together, got into the same schools and even fell in love to the same girl twice. Kimberly was genuinely touched, but that didn't automatically make her agree to marry Julian's one and only son, Dave.

Dave Winsor was a type of man who usually would be given 'I-wouldn't-date-him-even-if-he's-the-last-person-on-earth' title by some, no, most women. The only reason some of them would actually go on a date with him was only because of his father's unlimited money. The Winsor was one of the wealthiest families in town and Julian had helped her father a few times.

She was a healthy, independent 26 year old woman. Her father had stopped picking her up from school ever since she was six and now was no different. She didn't need anyone's help to get hitched!

"He's a charmer alright, but he's nothing but a self-centered pig that does nothing but spend all his parents' money. There're only 3 things that matter most to him: Money, Women, and Power. I wouldn't be surprised if one day he hired an assassin to eliminate his father," Kim nearly shouted to the receiver. It really helped to have such a good friend who'd willingly listen to her outburst at 3 in the morning even when she lived a few thousand miles away. Working as an anchorwoman, Kim could 'see' Trini every night on television, but it was different and she still missed her best friend loads.

"I doubt he would go that far," Trini replied, the last trace of the sleepiness still lingering in her voice. Kim could picture the pretty Vietnamese sitting in her balcony in her five year old apartment in New York with her yellow slip-on shoes that Kim had given her for her last birthday; hair pulled up to a messy bun. Trini was dating her fellow co-worker and their relationship seemed to be getting serious. Kim couldn't be happier for Trini. She knew Jake was a decent guy and it was kind of a refreshing sight to see Trini with another guy other than her childhood friend, Billy Cranston.

"I can't believe this, Trini…," Kim muttered, feeling too frustrated and infuriated to cry. "I mean, for God's sake, this is the 21st century. People don't do that stuff anymore. I never even heard the word 'betrothed' anymore, unless it's in one of those 300 something page romance novels. It's like wearing Madonna's cone-bra to the Oscar,"

"Hey, I resent that! I loved Madonna!" Trini cut off with a laugh. "And yeah, but it's not the 21st century when your father and Mr. Winsor promised each other that they would be in-laws in the next 2 decades or so," Trini pointed out, sending Kim to think for a moment.

"Yeah, and it happened more than ten years ago so I guess I don't have to sweat over it too much," Kim finally concluded. "I mean, what could possibly happen? No written agreement, ring, nothing. I can walk away from it anytime I want,"

The truth was, it was far from a joke and the ring was delivered the next day. Dave didn't even show up in person. Instead, he had one of his men to go to her apartment. That was so romantic, wasn't it? He deserved to win the award for the best boyfriend of the year. Somehow she got the feeling his other goon had picked the ring in Tiffany's.

Right after she opened the small velvet black box, she screamed. She screamed just because the ring she was holding was the solid proof that she, indeed, was engaged… in a way.

Easy to say that the ring was probably one of the most beautiful rings she had ever seen. It was flashy and gorgeous that there's a nanosecond where she put on a dreamy expression, and pictured herself being Mrs. Winsor…

Ten seconds later she mentally kicked herself for that.

And she still hated her future last name.

She picked up the phone and many, many thanks to the yellow pages, successfully found the Winsor residence's phone number. His housemaid told her that the young master wasn't home; that he was in a vacation to Switzerland with some of his buddies. Kim didn't hang up before making sure David would get her message and she almost threatened the poor housemaid to tell Dave what she had said, verbatim no less.

"Just tell him that Kimberly Hart will not marry him. Not in this life time or the next. It was very lovely of him to send his person to deliver the ring, but please tell him that I couldn't receive it and it will be returned as soon as possible. Thank you,"

After gaining her full composure, Kim grabbed the box and put it inside her drawer, shoved it into her jeans that would never be worn again since she had went from size 0 to 2 last Summer, locked it and hid the key under the tableside lamp.

Everything was like a blur, coming closer to a dream. She remembered putting on her little red dress though the memory of her getting to Frozen, a club downtown, was like had been erased from her mind. Mindful that it was still school night, she didn't get too much drink… but apparently, the devastation was so catastrophic that 2 shots were enough to get her high.

The next day, instead of waking up in her Hello Kitty comforter, she's in an entirely different room. Everything was done in soft bluish color and it took her less than a minute to realize that she was not alone. When she finally noticed that she didn't have a stitch of clothes on, a pair of longer and bigger legs rubbed against her smaller ones. That clenched her points. She hadn't been exactly living a nun's life, but sleeping with a random stranger was definitely a first.

The fact that the stranger wasn't a bad looking person only elevated her hysteria. Her initial reaction was to scream for help, but then she thought it wouldn't be the best idea. She absolutely had no idea whatsoever as to what to tell him, if he suddenly woke up. Her heart was beating 100 miles per hour and she could almost hear it. Probably he could too since his eyelids fluttered open a second later. Her hands unconsciously clutched the sheets tighter to her chest. This was almost as bad as that time when she was caught cheating in Mrs. Appleby's logarithm test when she was thirteen.

"Hello," The Guy greeted her with a sleepy smile before turning to his side completely. He propped his head against his arm and for the longest moment, they were just staring at each other.

Of all lines that she had in her mind that time, when she finally managed to open her mouth, the only thing came out was,

"I am engaged,"

Silence fell over them like a downy blanket that Kim desperately wanted to get out from. She watched as The Guy's eyes widened considerably at her confession and before she could utter another word, a smirk grew on his face. "Okay… so I assumed that last night was your bachelorette party? It was pretty sad since I don't recall seeing your other girlfriends. All that aside… you were pretty wild. It was amazing,"

Kim's face turned deep red. He'd better be not commenting about their… tryst.

"All your moves…," The Guy closed his eyes briefly and smiled, tempting Kim to shove him off the bed. "Especially when you bent your back…," He was positively purring right now and she did the only thing she had in mind. She swung her leg under the thick covers, aiming for his unmentionable, only to be caught at the last second. His brown eyes snapped open and were immediately focused on her.

"Let go of me,"

His fingers wrapped effortlessly around her left ankle, holding her in place. The Guy seemed to be thoughtful for a while, not minding her glare at one bit. "Are you by any chance a gymnast? Because you know, you're pretty flexible,"

It was said and Kim blew up. "You pervert bastard!"

Unexpectedly, The Guy burst out laughing, his body shaking though he didn't let her leg go. "For your information, I was talking about your performance last night, though I have to say that the after party wasn't so bad either,"

No need to be told what kind of after party The Guy had in mind. "What performance?"

"You don't remember?"

The last thing she remembered was drinking her second whiskey, neat, and then a number from Kiss was on…

"Not exactly a striptease, but come close," The Guy kindly informed and Kim wanted to die then and there. "As I have said, the back bending was pretty awesome. Are you a gymnast?" He inquired again as if he's only asking what time it was now.

"Oh shit," Kim muttered, hands coming up to cover her face.

"You can't be engaged," He remarked, his casual demeanor made her want to crucify him even more. "I don't see any ring,"

"Do you always talk so much in the morning?" Kim retorted grumpily. She didn't need to look at the mirror to know how she looked. Bed hair, smeared make up, dragon breath… and yet he didn't seem to mind. And that's what's intimidating her, big time. That, and the fact that he hadn't given her leg back yet.

"My name's Tommy Oliver," The Guy finally introduced himself, letting go of her leg just to offer his hand.

She stared at his hand. She wanted to ask how they could have ended up in bed, but if she went that far to almost perform an unrated scene in front of 300 people last night… She probably should be relieved that she didn't jump off the bridge under the effect of alcohol.

"I… I have to go," Purposely ignoring him, Kim turned around, dragging the covers along with her and striding to the bathroom. It was only when she had locked the door behind her that she realized she was in his place. Most of his things were neatly put inside the cabinet and his bathroom didn't look as nasty as some bachelors'… but he definitely was living alone. The place lacked of woman's touch.

After embarrassingly realizing that she had been judging someone only from his bathroom, she dropped the covers, letting it pool around her feet.

Damn, Kim thought. She left her clothes outside.

--

Kim shook her head, trying to clear her mind as the last of memories from five days ago playing in her head like a broken tape. Snapped back to reality, she moved her attention back to the computer screen at the teachers' lounge. She probably shouldn't do her investigation there where every teacher had full access to what she was doing, but she really couldn't care less.

Pointing the cursor to the search engine, Kim clicked on the small box and started typing, feeling her fingers going cold.

Dr. Tommy Oliver.

Oh yes, The Guy had a PhD to brag. She didn't mean to look him up, but she couldn't help herself not to. She was just fooling around earlier in the day and found that he was actually listed in the internet.

What had happened a few days ago… it happened because of her careless miscalculation. She hadn't been with anyone for almost 2 years now and since she'd never thought she could have done such reckless thing like that, she'd never considered taking birth control until yesterday morning. And from her memories, what little of them, they didn't use any protection either. She would gladly take a pregnancy test, but from the online information she had been collecting, she should wait at least 10 days after the conception. Which meant she would live her days like a zombie for 5 more days.

She could be pregnant and she thought it was pretty understandable if she wanted to look for information about the one responsible: The Guy.

So not only she was forced to marry someone she loathed, she's also in a risk of getting pregnant to some stranger who only God knows where right now. Oh alright, she knew where The Guy lived, but she wouldn't go up there and tell him to his face that she was carrying his child.

IF she was pregnant, which she doubted she was. At least she HOPED she wasn't.

Kimberly licked her lips that suddenly went dry when the Wiki-page about The Guy finally loaded up. His profile was pretty long, for a guy whose job was digging dinosaur bones. The main picture of him displayed made her stomach lurch. Unfortunately, before she could do some digging, someone called out for her.

"Kim, they're here," Mrs. Walker informed, her head peeking from the slightly opened door.

Sighing in defeat, Kim glanced at The Guy's picture for the last time before closing the window. First thing first, she needed to take care of the new student. Next week would be officially 2 years she had been working in Angel Grove Kindergarten. She loved working with little children and the job didn't take up all of her day; she was still have time to teach gymnastics in the weekend.

Picking up her books and glasses, Kim moved her chair back and stood up. She pushed the door open and soon was greeted by the sweetest smile of a five year old brunette. Her hair was pulled up to a ponytail with a pink and white ribbon. Her smile was contagious and Kim was quick to find herself smiling. "Hello there,"

"Hi," The girl replied shyly.

"My name's Kimberly Hart and I'm going to be your new teacher," Kim said, leaning over and put a comforting hand on the little girl's shoulder.

"Should I start to worry that you're going to be Violet's teacher?"

Kim froze and tried as hard as she could, she just couldn't find her voice. The Guy who she had been Googling was standing less than 2 meters away from her. The Guy who she never thought would see again, especially not THERE. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was told to come at 6.30 and see a Miss Hart. Are you Miss Hart?" Tommy asked with a grin and a deep frown soon marred her face. He looked very much energized; clad in black dress shirt and dark brown jacket with a pair of jeans. If only the situation had been different, she might give him a second glance. It's not everyday that she met a sexy single parent.

Except that she wasn't sure if he was single; he did, in fact, have a daughter.

And of course, there's the engagement.

And she couldn't forget that he probably had AIDS and had given it to her because she had been so stupid.

Or that she's probably pregnant with his child.

Could her life get any worse than it already had?


: I perfectly aware that I have TONS of stories that I haven't finished. (Especially TSTM&TS… It's only 1 chapter left and I haven't touched it for ages!). Shame on me. I want to continue them, but as I've said before, the mood just isn't exactly there and I don't want to mess the updates. So I hope this could tie you up till I can get around to finish them. I'm so sorry.

Feel free to throw me your shoes. I know I deserve it.

: As for Footprints, more will happen in the next chapters, and more will be explained also in the chapters following this one. Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think :)

- Yuuri