"Kim's getting married," Jason just blurted out to Tommy. The whole day had been planned around Jason at some point telling Tommy this news. Jason figured that if Tommy and him hung out then just the two of them, he would get the guts to tell him. The thing is that Jason did not want to be the one who told Tommy. Hell, if he had it his way, he would have just allowed Tommy to live in ignorant bliss of this news, but he had agreed with the others that not telling Tommy would be wrong.
Initially, Jason agreed that they should tell Tommy because he figured they might do it in a group setting. This idea, however, was shot down by several of the others because they feared that Tommy would be better able to handle it if he was told on a one to one basis. So they called Haley. Haley was Tommy's closest friend and if anybody knew how he'd react, it was her.
When they broached the topic with her, however, she declined. In fact, she told them that it was already bad enough that she would have to pick up the pieces when Tommy did find out and under no uncertain terms would she be the one to break this bitter news to him as well. She did however agree with the idea that only one person should be with Tommy when the news was broken. So since nobody could agree on who should tell Tommy the news. (Well, actually they could. Everyone was under the consensus that Kimberly should be the one to break it, but they knew that would never happen because the only way Kimberly and Tommy talked to each other was if they were forced.) As a result, they did the only logical thing left to do in this situation. They drew straws and Jason lost.
"I'll take it that guy from Florida finally popped the question," Tommy sighed. He knew this day would eventually come. Hell, he thought it already had and the others just never told him. As far as Tommy was concerned the day Kimberly Ann Hart broke his heart was the same day she got married with three kids and was living happily ever after in the suburbs. He could never find it in him to picture it any other way. Sure there were times when he knew that she wasn't married. After all, he constantly scanned the news for her name and cutting out any articles with her name. Even if the only point in which she was mentioned in the article was to say such and such gymnast was like a younger Kimberly Hart. Amongst these articles, of course, were some interviews. Most of which said she was single when asked if she was involved with anybody. Tommy never believed that, however. After all, Kimberly could easily claim to be single as not to deter her male fans. Many of which eagerly hoped to win the beautiful girl's heart. As of late, however, the duty of scanning the paper for Kimberly's name had fallen to Haley.
Haley had seen the way scanning the paper distressed Tommy. Tommy always had difficulty reading the paper while he was a Power Ranger. During the years that he was retired, it wasn't so bad. He knew that there were other ranger teams who were responsible for stopping the monsters, so if a civilian was hurt, it wasn't as much his fault. The problem was is that Tommy didn't stay in retirement. When Mesogog attacked, Tommy went back on active duty as the Black Dino Ranger. When that happened, Tommy could barely take reading the paper. Every time he saw a name saying this or that person had been injured during a monster attack, he felt responsible. Like he should have done more to stop it. Most of this guilt came from his days as an evil Green Ranger when he was the one who caused a good deal of suffering. Tommy did know better. He knew that it wasn't really his fault and that he was doing the best he could to stop Mesogog, but whenever he read the paper he couldn't help but feel as though he should have done more. Yet, he had to keep reading the paper as it was his only source for Kimberly related news. Not that there was ever much news. After all, her name had severely dwindled in the headlines after she won the gold, but he could never be certain. It wasn't as if he could count on his friends to give him word about Kimberly. Once she had sent him the Dear John letter, it was suddenly as if she no longer existed. Their friends avoided speaking about her around him because they were never certain how he would take the mention of her name. So the newspaper was his only source of all news Kimberly.
Haley watched as he got upset every day after reading it. So she told him he was no longer allowed to read the paper. Tommy objected and explained why the news in the paper was so vital to him. So they struck a deal, Haley would scan the paper for articles about Kimberly and put them in Tommy's Kimberly Album so long as Tommy did not read the paper while he was a ranger. The deal worked out wonderfully until right now when Tommy wondered if he had missed out on some vital piece of information while saving the world.
"The Florida guy?" Jason stared at him incredulously. "She hasn't dated anyone in Florida for ages. I think the last time she did was back in the nineties."
"Then who is it Jas? Is it someone we know?" Tommy asked. Tommy could feel the dread stirring up inside him. That was the last thing he wanted to hear. What he felt might be the ultimate betrayal to discover that the one engaged to Kimberly was someone in on their inner circle- another ranger. It would make sense if Kim ended up with a ranger. After all, most rangers did. Normal people didn't work out well in a relationship because often issues would arise because the ranger was hiding something. Generally, the only ranger teams that dated outside of the secret group were those rangers that were publicly known like the Lightspeed Rescue or the Space teams. Yet, despite that Tommy knew he would feel betrayed if the man Kim chose was another ranger. After all, Tommy always secretly enjoyed the fact that no matter what man Kim chose, he could never know as much about her as Tommy.
"Actually, yes," Jason replied. "She's marrying Wes."
Tommy stared at him in disbelief. "Wes, as in Time Force Wes?"
Jason sighed. He had a feeling this wasn't going well. "Yes, as in Time Force Wes."
"But he's in love with Jen!" Tommy shouted. This really isn't going well, Jason thought to himself. There wasn't much he could do though except hope that Tommy didn't do anything stupid.
"Jen went back to own time. They broke up ages ago and unlike you, he got over it. Wes realizes that Jen and him can't be together so he chose to be with someone else. It just so happens that someone else is Kimberly." Jason explained.
Tommy shot him daggers. Oh, yeah, Jason thought. This really isn't going well.
"Hey Beautiful," Wes came up to Kim and gave her a kiss on her cheek. Kim returned his gesture with a slight smile. She was making the right choice at least that's what she told herself. Wes was a good guy. He would make her happy.
"How was work?" Kimberly asked. Along with his fellow ex-ranger, Eric, Wes helped run the Silver Guardians that protected the city. After completing the Pan Global games in which she won the silver, Kim went on to college where she had a full scholarship for gymnastics. Upon the completion of her degree- a combination of gymnastics and business, Kim moved to Silver Hills where she opened her own gym. It didn't take long for Eric and Wes to track her down. After all, as the original pink ranger Kim was pretty famous in the community. They even offered her a position amongst the Silver Guardians, but she declined. Kim was done with fighting although she knew that if the world was ever seriously threatened and the power called upon her again, then she would do her part. Given the fact that the Silver Guardians mostly dealt with petty criminals these days, Wes and Eric could understand that. Over time, the three rangers struck up a friendship which later lead to Wes and Kimberly dating.
Despite the fact that she loved Wes, Kimberly often found herself having doubts about their relationship. She knew she would be lying to herself if she didn't accept the fact that the relationship was mostly one of convenience, but Kimberly sucked at relationships. It was a fact that she often reminded herself of whenever she had her doubts. There was one point in her life in which she had it all, but she ruined it.
At seventeen, Kimberly had the love of her life, and she let him go. Tommy had been an amazing boyfriend- caring, loving, kind. Kimberly had fallen in love with him the moment she saw him, and it wasn't long before he returned her feelings. Tommy was what helped Kimberly get through some of the most trying moments of her life. The Pan Globals, college- none of those compared to the hardships of being a ranger. Yet, Tommy made it easier for her. She knew that as long as he was in her corner everything would work out.
But then she left. Initially, Kim and Tommy had attempted to stay in touch. They told each other that their love was worth it. Then it started happening. Kimberly would be talking to Billy and he would mention something about how it seemed that Kat and Tommy had really bonded since Kat joined the team. Rocky would remark on how on some days when Tommy was really down Kat was the only person who could manage to make him smile. Adam would mention how he went to the movies with Tommy and Kat only to have them ignore him by caring on their own special private conversations. Even Tommy's letters and phone calls became full of mentions of Kat.
Kim trusted Tommy. She knew he would never cheat on her. She knew that she loved him, but she also knew that she wasn't there. They were in high school, and it wasn't fair to expect Tommy to be forever committed to her at seventeen. Kim also knew how hard the distance between her and Tommy strained their relationship. It was only natural that Tommy would start developing feelings for Kat, but Tommy would never break up with Kimberly. He would rather suffer the loneliness of separation then risk the possibility of being happy without her. Kim only wanted for Tommy to be happy so she wrote him a letter.
She knew a letter was the worst possible way she could break up with Tommy, but she wanted it to be a clean break. If she called him or worse attempted to do it in person, Kimberly knew that her true feelings would betray. Tommy would see that she still loved him with every inch of her body and he wouldn't be able to let her go. So instead, she hurt him in one of the worst possible ways. She told him that she was the one who found someone else, and she only thought of him as a brother. Despite it being completely out of character, she knew that was the only way Tommy would not pursue the matter. Afterward, she cried herself to sleep every night for a year. There were days that she wondered how she would have made it through if it hadn't been for her gymnastics. The worst one probably being when she found out that Tommy had moved on with Kat.
There were days when she was angry with Tommy. She screamed at him in her head. How could he just accept her letter like that? Didn't he realize that the way he felt about her could never come anywhere near close to what one would feel for a brother? Why didn't he call her after the letter? Why did that letter have to also mean the end of their friendship? There were days in which Kimberly thought that writing the letter was the worst decision she ever made in her life.
While writing the letter, Kim couldn't help but think of that cliche line. "If you love something, let it go. If it was meant to be, it will come back to you." Well, Kimberly had let Tommy go, and he hadn't come back to her. Instead, he pushed on with life and found many replacements for her instead. It never ceased to amaze Kimberly how quick and easy it was for Tommy to move on while Kimberly spent years before she finally dated again. Then there was always some problem or another with the man that she was dating generally each time the greatest problem was that he wasn't Tommy. There were many days after a breaking in which Kimberly resolved that she would call Tommy. She would try and make things right with him, but she never had the guts. After all, what if Tommy didn't want to hear from her? She did try and kill him during her last encounter with him. Granted what Tommy didn't know was during the encounter, it took everything within herself not to declare her never dying love for him. Of course, that was excluding the time she spent being evil. But Kimberly knew declaring her love wasn't an option. Tommy was with Kat by then. Since then any time Kimberly thought about the possibility of calling Tommy, she would chicken out by the fear that maybe Tommy was happy and the last thing he wanted was an ex-girlfriend dragging up unwanted memories. So Kimberly had know idea what Tommy was up to in life. She refused to ask her mutual friends about him in fear that in doing so she would learn that him and Kat were happily married with half a dozen kids. For the longest time, Kimberly wanted to hold onto the hope that maybe Tommy would remember that she was the love of his life and he would come back to her. That day never came.
So, it was a fact that Kimberly had accepted. Kimberly sucked at relationships. When Wes finally asked her out, she had accepted because at that point what had she to lose. It was during their first date that Kimberly realized exactly why her and Wes would actually make a decent couple. It was the fact that neither Kimberly or Wes were the loves of each others life. Wes loved Jen. Kimberly loved Tommy. Neither one of them could be with the one that they loved, so they were good friends and since they couldn't be with their soul mate, they might as well be with their best friend. And that was all their relationship was, two best friends dating. They enjoyed each others company but they weren't in love with each other.
In fact, their relationship wasn't even very physical. They would occasionally kiss each other, but that was the extent of it. Neither one had the desire to take it pass that either. When the two decided to get married, they had even agreed to not worry about the physical part. Kimberly and Wes only even agreed to get married for one reason alone- Alex. In order for Alex to exist in the future, Wes had to have a child. Since Kimberly was his best friend, she was aware of Wes's dilemma. She knew that Wes had no desire to be with anyone but Jen. So she agreed to help him by agreeing to carry his child when the time came. After all with the current technology it was possible for Wes to impregnate her without using traditional methods. And that was why the two decided they would get married.
Kimberly remembered her own issues with her parents being split up and she wanted to give any child of hers a traditional home. Wes could understand and thus, they decided that they would get married before they decided to have the child in question and it was at this point that brought them to the current day.