Author's note: Written for Psyco_chick32, who unfortunately passed away earlier this year. K, I love you, and I miss you. I hope you would have liked your fic, and I'm sorry it took so long.
"Here you are, Tommy," Ernie said, holding out a letter. "It's from Kim."
"Thanks," Tommy grunted. He barely seemed to register what Ernie was saying as he tried to finish the set of weights. "Hey, Adam, you read it for me."
Adam hesitated slightly as he took the letter from Ernie. "You really sure you want me to read a letter from your girlfriend out loud?" he asked.
Tommy grunted as he lifted the weight again. "There's probably notes for all of us in it," he said. "You know Kim, she misses all of us."
Adam had to agree that this was totally true, and he chuckled as he opened the letter. He skimmed over the letter and then his eyes caught a key phrase. "Yeah, Tommy," he said quietly. "I really think that this is one that you should probably read yourself."
The other Rangers laughed, and Rocky and Billy returned to gently mocking Tommy, speculating on what was in the letter. While they weren't watching, Adam quickly folded up the letter and slipped it into his pocket.
"I'll see you guys later, okay?" he called, and the others nodded.
When Adam reached the park, he sat down on the bench and pulled out Kim's letter to Tommy. He didn't even know what to think about it. It just sounded so unlike Kimberly - she only cared for Tommy as a brother? Thoughts of the girls who had said similar things to him flashed through his mind - Aisha. Sarah. Shelley. He suddenly had a vision of Tanya's name being added to that list, and he shuddered. This couldn't be happening. Not to Tommy and Kim - they had survived so much together. For them to end like this - for Kim to send the letter to Tommy, it meant that anyone could end like this. They were supposed to be the couple that lasted - nothing was going to separate them - not evils spells, not power loss, nothing.
He couldn't understand how this could happen. How Kimcould let it happen. He'd been writing to her, and she hadn't mentioned anything about another guy. Adam tried to think of the last time he had spoken to her. When he thought about it, it had been a while. And that could explain why Tommy had thought the letter would be for them. If Kim wasn't writing to anyone, of course she would send one big letter.
Aisha had been the one to organize the group letter writing to Kim. Without her reminders, and the whole turning into kids thing, and Adam's new relationship with Tanya, he couldn't remember the last time he'd written to Kim.
He was the worst friend ever.
Well, not anymore. He was going to have to go fix things. And to do that, he was going to have to go talk to Aisha.
Technically, there was a rule against using powers for personal gain. Adam believed in this rule, and had always honored it. That still didn't stop him from using the teleporters to get to Africa. Besides, he wasn't doing this for him - this was for Tommy and Kim. He was going to fix things for them. Zordon hadn't questioned him too hard, at least. He'd accepted Adam's excuse that he was worried about how the time change had affected Aisha, and had allowed him to teleport. Which was good, because otherwise Adam would have had to hack the system, and while he was better with the Power Chambers computers than most of the other Rangers, there was no way he'd be able to get through Billy's security system.
He teleported to outside the village, because there was really no way that his presence would have been explained otherwise. Luckily, Aisha had been out helping to treat some of the sick animals, so he was able to attract her attention, and he found himself tackled by her as soon as he was able to get her attention.
"Adam!" she said, as she finally released him from her embrace. "What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to check on you after the time change," he said, and she just gave him her patented look.
"After three months?" she asked.
He blushed. "Well... I didn't really think until now, I guess."
"I'm fine," she told him. "I miss you guys, I miss Rangering, but... I'm doing some good around here."
"We miss you too," he told her.
"So how are things with you and Tanya?" Aisha said. "I mean, that's why you're here, right?"
"I'm perfectly capable of asking a girl out without your help..." he trailed off because she was laughing, something that sounded remarkably like "Sarah."
"Well..." he said. "Fine, I needed some help then. And I like Tanya, but that's not why I'm here."
Aisha got serious really quickly. "Oh my God, is Rocky okay? Or is Tommy brainwashed again? Or Kat?"
"No, they're all fine," Adam said quickly. He should have been more careful, chosen his words better. "It's just... Kim sent this letter to the Youth Center today." He handed it to Aisha, and watched as she read it.
"Oh, Kim," Aisha sighed. "I knew she was having trouble, but I didn't realize she'd let it get this far..."
"Knew what?" Adam asked.
"It's the power loss," Aisha said. "Trini told me about it when we switched - she was here long enough for the depression to start to build. And she'd seen it happen to Tommy. Losing the powers, it hurts," Aisha said quietly, barely meeting his eyes. "One of the things I like about being here is that there are no real reminders that I'm not... I mean, I made the right choice. I'm doing important work here. But you still feel like you're missing something.
"And sometimes its easier to make a clean break."
Adam listened and nodded.
"So you think that breaking up with Tommy is her way of that?"
"Probably," Aisha said. "Teleport me to Florida, and we'll talk to her."
Adam stared at her. "Powers for personal gain, remember?"
"Says the guy who teleported to Africa just so I could fix things for him," Aisha teased. "Besides, I haven't seen Kim in ages."
The best thing about teleporters was that there wasn't any jetlag, although it had been weird going from early afternoon to late evening to mid-afternoon. By some miracle, the two of them managed to arrive just as Kim's practice was ending.
The thing about going places with Aisha was that she was able to argue her way into anything, and Adam just watched in amusement as she managed to convince the guard to let them into the gym, even though supposedly Kim didn't get visitors. He wasn't sure how she did it - Adam may be a writer, but actual conversations with people weren't nearly as easy as making his characters do what he wanted.
Kim was in her room, curled up on her bed when they found her. She looked exhausted - there were circles under her eyes, and Adam wasn't sure if it was from training herself to exhaustion or crying, or both.
"Aisha?" she said in surprise. "Adam? What are you?"
Adam handed her back her letter. "This came to the Youth Center today," he told her.
She flinched. "And what? Tommy sent you to yell at me?"
"Tommy hasn't read it yet," Adam said. "He told me to read it, but I wouldn't in front of everyone else, and..."
"Honey, you look like hell," Aisha interrupted. "You need a hug." Kim got off the bed and the two girls embraced.
"Power loss?" Aisha said.
Kim nodded. "The letters were... they were helping, you know? It was like I was still part of the team, and then they just stoppedand... well... if everyone was going to move on and not need me anymore, I figured..."
"That you might as well try and move on yourself," Adam finished.
Aisha beamed at him, and Adam guessed he'd figured it out.
"Yeah," Kim admitted. "I couldn't move on if I was still trying to pretend like I was still part of the team, still with him."
"You are part of the team!" Adam insisted. "Both of you are!"
The two girls exchanged a look. "Not in the same way, though," Aisha said gently. She turned back to Kim. "Is that really what you want?" she asked. "Or is it the power loss speaking?"
"I've been regretting the letter ever since I sent it out," Kim admitted. "But I didn't know how to take it back once it was sent, and... I don't know how to make it so I won't still feel this way. Long distance sucks."
"Right," Aisha said. "Kim, start writing a new letter to Tommy that Adam will deliver later. Then we'll go talk to Zordon and point out that using the teleporters to keep in touch is totally valid, and he'll be letting us, or I'll have Billy rig the system so we can anyway, and you knowthat Billy will do what I tell him to."
"And I'll try to make everyone write to you more often," Adam said. "I mean, with Tommy's memory..."
Kim smiled fondly. "It's a miracle he remembers anything," she admitted. She turned back to her letter, and Aisha began to interrogate Adam about his relationship with Tanya as Kim wrote. He smiled as he began to answer her questions - going to see Aisha had been the right plan.
Zordon had been surprisingly willing to go along with their plan, agreeing that their service as Rangers had changed them, and it would be remiss of him to not allow them to see each other as necessary. They were only to exercise their best judgement.
Adam met up with the others in the park for a picnic, and sat down next to Tanya.
"Do you have my letter?" Tommy asked. "I seem to have lost it."
"I took it with me, sorry," Adam apologized. He handed the new letter to Tommy, the one that Kimberly had made him promise not to open upon pain of death. He started laughing as Tommy began to read it, a blush rapidly spreading.
"Thanks for not reading this out loud," Tommy said finally. "I'm going to go call my girlfriend, okay?" He bolted, leaving the other four Rangers and Billy sitting there.
"What did it say?" Billy asked.
Adam grinned. "That's between the two of them," he said. "And trust me, I'm not telling."