Disclaimer: Saban is the sole owner of Power Rangers, I own only ideas that I've written down on paper/typed on the screen.

A/N: It's been a while since I've written anything, so this is just a little one-shot taking place after Tommy wakes up from his coma during the DinoThunder season.

My One Regret

'There they were, confined and hanging over what appeared to be their doom. Lava would soon consume them, and in their place they would find the most gruesome monster they would ever face. But, he wasn't concerned about him. All he cared about was her. The petite, caramel-haired, hazel-eyed former pink ranger. He knew her eyes so well, he could see the fear welling up as they descended into the pit. They battled hard to get to them, but all he could do was watch in horror as he was laid out by piranhatrons. For a moment he lost sight, only to hear her scream...'

"Uhh!" Tommy Oliver violently awoke from his slumber, sitting up only to find the darkness of his room. He sighed heavily and looked over at the clock on his nightstand which read "2:13 A.M." It was the third time in four days that he had drempt about the former love of his life, all of which seemed to be about when she was in harm's way. It was odder still that he hadn't seen Kimberly since that fateful day in Muiranthias, unless you count the days after that when she stuck around to see him, Adam, and Jason win the martial arts competition.

'It's been years since you've thought about her, Oliver, what changed so suddenly?' He pondered silently.

Maybe it was his recent coma that rattled the cages. It was one of the oddest experiences he's ever had, having to battle for his life against his three former ranger forms. 'Maybe I should talk to Hayley about...' Tommy cut his thought short and shook his head at the idea. He looked back over at the clock, only to see that it had decided to move painfully slow for the third night in a row. 'Jason might be up, 5:20 A.M on the East Coast.' He decided he couldn't wait until the morning, so he picked up the phone and dialed his number. He heard a few rings until he heard someone pick up on the other end.

"Oliver, I swear if this isn't an emergency..." Jason muttered.

"I figured you'd be up by now getting ready to get to the dojo," Tommy replied matter-of-factly.

"On a Saturday?!"

"Oh," Tommy replied. "I guess being in a coma will force you to lose track of time." The word coma woke Jason up faster than any pot of coffee could.

"What did you say?" Jason asked, concern clearly in his voice. "You were in a coma?"

"It's a long story, Jase. I was stuck in my ranger costume..."

"You're a ranger again?!" Jason interjected.

"Don't freak out Jason."

"Dude... first you call me at 5 A.M..."

"5:20," Tommy weakly interjected.

"Then you nonchalantly mention you were in a coma," Jason continued, ignoring Tommy's interruption. "Now, I find out you're a ranger? I thought you were just their mentor."

"Like I said, long story," Tommy replied. "I was only supposed to help guide Connor, Kira, and Ethan. Then a black dino gem bonded with me, and the rest was history."

"Black? Zack and Adam are going to be ticked."

"You know, for five in the morning and being woken up, you're pretty alert, you know that?" Tommy's tone dripped with sarcasm.

"So, you got stuck in your ranger costume," Jason continued Tommy's earlier train of thought. "How exactly did that lead you to getting into a coma?"

"Well, we tried to reverse the process with different inventions that Hayley created, but none worked, and the one we thought that would ended up turning me invisible, so then we had to try and reverse that, and that's how I ended up in a coma. But that's not why I'm calling."

"Tommy, do you ever have a normal day?" As Tommy was about to reply, Jason continued, "never mind, don't answer that. What exactly could you be calling me about at five in the morning..."

"5:20."

"Whatever!" Jason retorted. "What exactly could be so important that you call me if it's not being a ranger again, being stuck in your costume, turning invisible, or being in a coma?"

"It's about Kim, bro," Tommy replied. "I can't stop dreaming about her."

"Really? This is what you're calling me about?"

"Look, I know it sounds stupid. But I hadn't really thought about her for five years. I got so immersed into my work... well it drove Kat away, and I stopped thinking about relationships at all to be honest. But ever since being in the coma, I've had dreams, maybe even borderline nightmares about Kim. Tonight was the third one in four days."

"Do you think it's Mesogog messing with you?" Jason asked seriously. "I mean, if you're a ranger now, he might be after..."

"I don't think so, but I wouldn't put it past him," Tommy confessed. "I just... I never figured out what happened to us, Jase. I thought I was ok with that, but the whole 'almost dying' thing has kind of messed with me. I'm 25 and was just in a coma, it makes me think about things I've never really had to think about."

"You've had near death experiences before," Jason offered.

"But none that landed me in the hospital where I had no brain activity for days," Tommy replied honestly.

"So what do you want me to do?" Jason asked. "Do you want advice? Do you want me to tell you to forget about her?"

"Honestly, I don't know," Tommy confessed. "All I know is that I suddenly can't stop thinking about her, I have no idea what actually happened to us, and that if I were on my deathbed she'd be one of my biggest regrets."

"Regret?"

"I let her go without a fight," Tommy replied. "You told me that yourself when you returned from the Peace Conference."

"You mean you actually remembered something I said?" Jason joked.

"I know I can be hard-headed..."

"Understatement of the year!" This brought a chuckle from the former green ranger. "If that's what you're thinking, go talk to her."

"Do you have her number?" Tommy asked.

"I do, but I'm not giving you that, I'm giving you her address," Jason answered back.

"Wait, what? You want me to travel all the way to Florida when I can just call her on the phone?"

"No, I want you to travel all the way to Angel Grove, because that's where she lives now, and I don't want you to call her on the phone, because this is a conversation that needs to happen in person."

"She's back in Angel Grove?" He asked.

"Yep, and you'll have to talk to her to find out why she's back," Jason replied. Tommy wanted to disagree with the plan, but he knew Jason was right. As much as he wanted to hide behind the phone, he knew all the more that he needed to see her, take all of her in. Even if it was merely for closure. "All right, text me her address, I'll visit today."

"I will," he said. "Just promise me one thing."

"What's that?"

"Don't wake her at five in the morning," Jason quipped.

"It was 5:20!" Jason didn't hear his last defense because he had all ready hung up. Tommy closed his flip phone and found a message from his best friend a moment later, containing the address. He briefly scanned the address, and then closed his phone and placed it on his nightstand. 'Maybe I should try to get a couple more hours of sleep. Lord knows I need it.' He thought to himself. He laid down, only to look at his clock once a minute for the next 60. The clock read 3:30 when he finally decided that the former Pink Ranger dancing in his head would allow no more sleep for him this night, and he rolled out of bed, showered, grabbed some breakfast, packed a bag, and pulled out of his driveway in his jeep to start the three and a half hour trek to Angel Grove.

By the time he got to the city limits sign for his old stomping grounds, it was a little past 8, which meant that while Kim might be awake, it still might be too early for the shock of him standing on her doorstep. He wondered for a moment what he should do, only to feel driven to go back to a place that held bittersweet memories: The lake at the park.

He parked his car and got out and put on his brown bomber jacket, since it was a little chilly that morning. He walked up the path to the lake and saw the body of water in front of him, and once he got within close range, he just stopped. He scanned the area and just took it all in. The place hadn't changed all that much since the last time he was there. But he had. For the first time in a long time, Tommy started asking questions that hadn't plagued him in a long time.

"Why does my life keep changing, when all I've ever wanted was to keep it the way it was?" He muttered under his breath. He was challenged by the appearance of the lake. It was just like he left it, but he had changed considerably. It was the great paradox, that life should be calm and peaceful like the lake, and yet all he did was court chaos.

He was quickly brought out of his thoughts when he heard footsteps from behind him. He thought nothing of it, just another person who loved the lake. But he was interrupted by her voice.

"Jason thought I might find you here."

Tommy's heart raced to find Kimberly behind him, as beautiful as ever. He felt like he had no voice due to her surprise, all he could do was stare for a moment as she gazed back. Her hair fell perfectly, as it always did, and her eyes pierced his with a soft gaze. He couldn't even take the rest of her form in because of them. He finally shook himself out of his thoughts.

"Jason told you?" He asked.

"After he got off the phone with you, he thought it wise to at least alert me that you would show up at my doorstep today," Kim replied.

"When did he call you?" Tommy asked.

"About 20 minutes ago. He said he wanted to make sure to beat you to me, and even when I talked to him, he sounded concerned that he wouldn't. Something about calling him at five in the morning?"

Tommy sighed. "It was 5:20, his time, not five," Tommy justified himself.

"So you called him at 2:20, ours?" Kim asked. "Why the sudden call out of the blue?"

"Because I couldn't stop dreaming about you," Tommy replied. Kim gave a quick smirk, "Look, I know that sounds ridiculous..."

"A little," she teased. Tommy grinned a little, almost like falling back into old times, seeing her laugh and smile.

"Look, after the letter, I..." Tommy paused for a moment. He saw Kim flinch, and he didn't know exactly how to say everything he was thinking. "I didn't fight for you." Kim looked confused by this. "I was hurt, sad, angry, and instead of calling you, flying down to Florida, or doing something to fight to get you back, I gave up. I dated Kat for a few months, and then I immersed myself in racing and then my schoolwork and research, and I basically stopped thinking about you. About us. And life moved on."

He looked at Kim's eyes again, seeing that they were tracking with his, that she was engaged with his every word. "Kim, I would see old pictures of you and wouldn't miss a beat, and then a little over a week ago I landed in the hospital, where I had little to no brain function for over 24 hours."

"You were in a coma?" Kim asked. Tommy nodded. "What caused that?" Tommy didn't answer verbally, he just held up his wrist, revealing his dino gem. "You're a power ranger again?" She asked, shocked.

"Black," Tommy replied.

"Good, for a minute I thought you were going to tell me you took my color," Kim quipped, which brought out a smile from Tommy. "So you were in a coma?"

"Yeah, and then when I awoke, after we defeated the latest threat from Mesogog, I started thinking hard about the fact that I almost died. And I think that got me thinking of what regrets I have. And then the dreams started. Three in four nights. The balance beam incident, Zedd kidnapping you, and the latest being you dropped into the lava pit in Muiranthias. All I could think about was getting to you." Tommy stopped, wondering if he said too much. He looked at his ex to see the concern in her face, her eyes glistening with slightest tear forming, threatening to fall. "Look, if you're still with that other guy, or if you want to move on, it's fine. But I needed to come here and see what really happened. Otherwise I'd regret it for the rest of my life. I can't keep hiding from and ignoring what happened to us." The tears threatening before now fell from Kim's eyes.

"So... you don't hate me?" Kim asked.

"No, Kim. I never have. I've felt hurt, and I was confused, but I never hated you. To be honest, I'm more angry with myself that I didn't come after you." Kim frowned at this.

"Let's take a walk," Kim said. "Around the lake, like old times?" Tommy nodded and they began to walk beside each other. They were silent for a moment, until Kim offered up her thoughts. "The letter... what I did to you... Billy told me what it did to you."

"He did?"

"He said that it completely changed you. Your leadership was strained, you became distant. I... it should have never happened that way."

"What do you mean?" Tommy asked as they continued to walk.

"Tommy, I cheated on you. I met someone, and dumped you for him. After all your support, all your love, I stabbed you in the back."

"True," Tommy said with little emotion. "Why?"

"I don't know," she confessed. "He was great, I guess. I just wanted you to be closer. I wanted to feel loved..."

"You didn't feel loved?"

"You were thousands of miles away, communication was limited, and you were enjoying your new team of rangers. Not to mention there was someone who was not exactly subtle in their intentions."

Tommy smirked a bit when she mentioned this. "Yeah, I guess Kat never really was all that subtle. Neither were we."

"When I made the decision to go to Florida and give up my power coin, I didn't think it would mess with us. I thought our storybook romance would stay, you know, storybook. A happily ever after, where you could satisfy my deepest longings from long-distance. In hind-sight, that was unfair of me to think. And stupid, too."

They continued to walk around the lake until they made it back to the fateful spot where Tommy asked Kim to their first dance, and where they shared their first kiss. "Whatever happened to the guy?" Kim looked up at Tommy with a puzzled look. "You know, the guy in the letter? Are you guys still together?"

Kim shook her head. "No, we broke up fairly quickly. There were other guys, but none of them were you. I wanted so badly to come back to Angel Grove and surprise you and ask for your forgiveness, but when Jason and I came back for the martial arts competition...

"I was with Kat," Tommy said, finishing Kim's sentence.

"After the fourth or fifth guy, I realized I just needed to move on from dating for a while, but all the guys I dated were around the gymnastics complex. So I moved back here, and with the endorsement money I earned from being in the Pan-Global Games, I became a co-owner of the Angel Grove Youth Center & Juice Bar."

"Wait, really?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah, Ernie came back, but he his health issues were really holding him back from running it the way he used to, so he was looking for a business partner. I agreed on one condition."

"That you could teach gymnastics," Tommy guessed.

"You know me too well," Kim grinned.

"Well, you know, I did date you for about three years," Tommy replied. The two stood at the lake and stared out at it until Tommy once more broke the silence. "I've got a crazy idea." Kim turned to look at the current Black Ranger. "It sounds like we both have regrets, and that we both wish things turned out differently." Kim nodded in agreement. "What if we started over?"

"What do you mean?" Kim asked, beginning to bite her lip.

"Well... you know..." Tommy fumbled his words a bit more.

"Are you asking me on a date?"

"No," Tommy said emphatically, which seemed to shock Kim. "Sorry, I didn't mean that to be so forceful. I'm asking if we can be together, again. Which, I guess, would involve going on a date. Hopefully many more than one." Kim smiled weakly.

"I don't know, Tommy," Kim said. "Look, I'm glad that you got the courage to come up here, and I want to, but, is it reasonable for us to think we could get back together after seeing each other once in seven years. I mean, we've barely scratched the surface..."

"You're right, Kim. We've barely scratched the surface. I'm sure there's a lot of broken trust that we're going to have to work through. We've both had seven years of unmet expectations from each other, and from others. You cheated on me, I gave up on you. But I can't give up the chance to see if we were meant to be. I regretted not going after you before... if I can't be with you now, it won't be because I didn't fight for you."

"So... you still love me? After all this time?"

"Yes, I love you, even if we've both changed. I love you enough to see if we can make this work, and I love you enough to let you go... if that's what you want. But I'm not going down without a fight."

"Always the fighter," she said with a slight smile tugging at her lips.

"Yeah, probably why I keep ending up with ranger powers," he playfully shot back.

"I want to try too. I have a lot of questions, and I'm scared, but I let you go once, Thomas Oliver. I'm not going to turn down a second chance." She lunged into his arms and gave him a squeeze, which surprised Tommy. After a few seconds she let go, and looked up into his eyes with a big smile. "So, I have the day off, so, where do you want to go?"

"Why don't we go to the juice bar and say hi to Ernie, there we can grab a table and you can ask me all the questions you want," Tommy smiled. "I packed a bag, so I can grab hotel and stay, so you can have me all day."

"Good," she said as they started to walk back to their cars. "I do have one question right off the bat."

"What's that?" Tommy asked.

"What happened to your hair?"

The End

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- Googz333