Okay, I haven't stopped writing 'I am Leila', but I just need a little break and the idea for this story has been nagging me for a while, so I'm writing this chapter as a trial.

If you like it, PLEASE let me know, if I don't get much response I'll just leave it, I feel a lot better now this much is out of my head anyway.

It takes place five years after Kimberly breaks up with Tommy in that horrible Dear John letter (I think they were seventeen, so about 22 now) and does not follow the canon after this point, because I never really watched after Kimberly left, and I need some room to make this story work.

It is kind of... my way of justifying the way Kim broke off the relationship, and redefining Tommy and Kim as young adults. References to Kim's married life include rape and domestic violence, hence the M rating, but it won't be particularly detailed or graphic.

So... just let me know, s'ok if you don't like it, it's no biggie, as I said; it's just a trial chapter.

*** Update April 5: Have fixed up some of the mistakes, sorry about that, will work on chapter two and three tomorrow, the mistakes are mostly due to the fact that I am an impatient person, and once it's written I tend to just post it... Sorry :P

I blame uni! It breeds laziness :D

Tommy Oliver thought the rain suited the occasion.

He moved silently to Aisha's side and placed a hand on her shoulder; there were no words. The young woman turned to him, strength overflowing from her gentle features, her red-rimmed eyes still bright. "I really thought she'd be here, Tommy. She was a part of this family."

Tommy nodded; it was all he could do. This wasn't the time to say that he disagreed… that he didn't think she'd be here. She had made her decision long ago. She had no place here; Aisha's family was no longer hers.

It had been Jason who had discovered she was married. 'Who married at eighteen?' he had fumed when he returned to Angel Grove.

Tommy never admitted that he might have. Given the chance… he might just have married at eighteen.

Aisha was strong, but she didn't need to hear his thoughts. Not so soon after the tragic loss of her parents.

Aisha was also very intuitive. "Tommy, if you need to go," she focused her dark eyes on him, "I understand."

"I can stay, it's the least I can do."

Aisha nodded and thanked him. She slipped her small hand into his and led him back to the group of ex-Power Rangers who had rallied around her.

Tommy was here with his friends, his family. He was here to support Aisha.

He would think no more of Kimberly Hart anymore tonight.

-888-

Rain sloshed over his car in heavy waves, pounding at his windscreen. The rain that had suited the mood of the grave-side funeral of Aisha's parents was now just plain depressing, and Tommy just wanted to get home. Billy and Jason were staying in Angel Grove with Aisha, and Tommy could have stayed – Aisha had offered him her couch to sleep on – but…

Time didn't heal all wounds.

He rarely thought about his old flame nowadays - not that he had moved on exactly, but he had learned to forget. Most days he wouldn't think of her at all, but it didn't work like that in Angel Grove; the city where they had lived and saved the world and loved each other. Especially not with Aisha wondering why her once almost-sister would not leave her new life even to attend the funeral.

Tommy supposed she had kids by now, married for five years as she was. That might have stopped her doing gymnastics...

Kim had always been good with kids.

Tommy sighed. He sighed a lot. He knew Kat had tried to fix him; he had tried too, to get over her, to be one and whole again. He had really tried to move on.

But a letter? They may have been seventeen, but their love had been real. Special.

For him, anyway.

There was no closure in that letter. His attempts to contact her had failed. In fact, not one of the rangers had spoken to her since that fateful letter, especially once Jason had learned she had married.

Tommy couldn't stay in Angel Grove - couldn't be there for Aisha - because he wasn't truly himself. He hadn't been in a long time.

So he would go back to his studies; he planned on completing a doctorate. He would go on living… or whatever it is that he was doing.

The torrential downpour was deafening, and it nearly obscured the road. He slowed the car down, knowing it would take him all night to reach home at this speed. Better to arrive home late than not at all.

In the headlights, Tommy could see a tiny figure walking by the roadside, coming towards him. Hitchhiking? In this weather, they'd need to have a death wish to even try.

Tommy sighed as he pulled over, and then did a u-turn, coming to stop beside the slight hitchhiker.

He pulled his hoodie up for protection against the rain and rolled down the window. "Did your car break down?" he called through the roaring rain.

The traveler - a female, he gathered from the slightness of figure - kept walking, crossing her arms across her body.

"You're not hitch hiking?" he called again, inching the car forward, to match her pace.

Her head inclined slightly. A no? A yes?

Tommy squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his head against the wheel; he could not just leave her to walk to... wherever she was going. In this weather she would drown. She probably already had a cold.

He pulled the car to a complete stop and, leaving the engine running, climbed out into the torrential downpour.

The girl, not just slight but tiny, started at his approach and backed off. Tommy spread his hands wide, palms up: I'm not going to hurt you.

"Where are you going?"

The gray and black clad figure raised her hooded head slightly. "Angel Grove," she answered finally.

Tommy opened the back seat door and gestured for her to climb in. "I just came from there, but get in and I'll drive you."

The girl hesitated. Tommy assessed her reaction quickly and took a step back. "I'm not going to hurt you, but I can't let you walk that far in this weather."

The girl appeared unmoved by his concern; her feet stayed firmly planted in the muddy ground.

Tell you what," Tommy tried again, "What if I sat in the back seat and you drove? Hell, I'll hitchhike back to Angel Grove and you can take the car… just get out of the rain."

The girl's head turned to the car. "My husband wouldn't let me drive," she finally rasped out, her voice was raw and coarse; she definitely had a cold.

Tommy felt a chill pass through him. Married? She was tiny; she couldn't be an adult yet.

What was it with young girls and getting married?

"And where is your husband now?" Tommy asked, pulling his hoodie tighter around his face.

"Dead."

Tommy felt his heart sink. He wanted to reach out to the girl, widow, who was attempting to walk another thirty miles to Angel Grove in pouring rain, but knew intuitively that she wouldn't appreciate it. She had an invisible 'don't touch me' sign hanging over her head.

Tommy summoned his patience. He could be stubborn when he needed to be. He gestured again to the car again. "Ma'am, I won't leave you out here, so get in… or I'll walk the whole way with you."

A deep sigh escaped the dark clad figure as she turned to face him. She wore dark-coloured, loose-fitting slacks over dirty sneakers, and a large gray coat with a hood pulled up over face. The clothes were enormous and hung from her tiny frame like great flaps of gray skin.

Suddenly she laughed; a short, harsh and ugly sound.

"Right, what's the worst that could happen?" she barked out… a rhetorical question apparently, as she walked around to the front passenger seat, ignoring the open door, and climbed in.

Tommy shook his head. God forbid he would ever understand a woman. He closed the back door and climbed into the driver's seat, cranking up the heat before gently easing on the gas and taking off.

So much for leaving Angel Grove.

"Do you have somewhere to stay in Angel Grove?" he asked when the car had begun to warm up, still concerned.

The girl inclined her head slightly. "I did," she answered cryptically.

"Past tense?"

The girl snorted, apparently amused at his words, "As in... not anymore." Her head shook, and she moved her bony hands towards the heater. "I just wanna see something; I don't think I'll be long."

I thought the same thing.

Tommy bit back a sigh (he sighed too much) and pushed back his hoodie with one hand, shaking his short-cut hair out. "How about I check you into a hotel for a few days, it's no problem."

He heard a sharp intake of breath, and looked quickly to his hitchhiker.

A pair of horrified deep brown eyes peered at him from under the gray hood.

"I didn't mean with me," Tommy clarified, "I meant I could give you to money to stay..."

His assurance did nothing - the eyes grew wider, more panicked.

"Let me out," she whispered desperately.

Tommy shook his head, pursing his lips, "I can't do that. It's still ten miles to Angel Grove, you'll get pneumonia."

"You don't understand, please let me out," she begged, shrinking into the farthest part of the car.

"I can't do that, ma'am," he repeated, taking his eyes off the road to see her pulling her hood down to obscure her eyes.

The girl pulled her legs up onto the seat and huddled into a ball and shook her head slowly. "Then drive faster."

The remainder of the journey passed in the most painful silence Tommy could ever have imagined. The girl sat rigid in her seat, her arms wrapped tightly around her voluminous clothes, which did little to conceal her slight frame.

In another life, Tommy might have done more, but this wasn't one and he wasn't whole anymore. He'd get her to a hotel, pay for few nights, and leave his number. He'd just have to hope she got everything sorted out.

He hated himself for his quitter attitude, but he just didn't have the strength.

He pulled up at the hotel and got out. She didn't protest as he came with her into the hotel and got her set up; she took the key and followed him to room 27. At the door she thanked him softly, then turned away and put the key in the lock.

"If you need anything..." Tommy trailed off; he didn't know if he could help anyone. Who was he to offer help anyway? He couldn't even help himself.

The girl used her free hand to tug her hood more tightly closed, though it was soaking wet. She tilted her head back to him ever so slightly.

"Goodbye, Tommy," she whispered.

And she was gone.

Tommy sighed.

He sighed too much.

He headed back to his car; it looked like he would need to take Aisha up on her offer of a couch to sleep on after all.

He got into his Chevy and turned the key, replaying the evening's events in his head.

Aisha had said, "I thought she'd be here."

Heading to Angel Grove, married, brown eyes.

Brown eyes.

Those brown eyes.

He knew those eyes.

Oh my god.

Tommy killed the ignition and bolted from the car, up the stairs. I never gave her my name. He raced along the musty hallway, and did not stop when he reached the room, but rather focused his momentum and kicked the door down; Tommy felt a fleeting sense of satisfaction as it burst into splinters.

He heard the gasp, and stepped in through the broken frame.

"Kimberly."