So, I wrote and AU version of the Letter called The Call years ago, but this is my canon take on why Kim wrote the Letter. It's been gathering dust, but I brushed it off and figured I'd post it.

Note: I am not a Kim or Kat basher; Dear John letters do happen in real life, and my only issue with Tommy/Kat is how quickly the writers paired them together. I also do not own or work for Power Rangers.

Mistakes and Lessons

The letter was a mistake. Kim zipped her purse and put on a fake smile as she thanked the cashier in the grocery store. Her day had been going so well, She'd avoided having any thoughts of the rangers, and was enjoying having a normal, average life.

Of course, she would see the news that a new team of Rangers had popped up. Based off Dinosaurs to boot. And then all the memories she'd been able to lock up had come rushing back.

Almost ten years after she had written the thing, it still came back to haunt her.

She wasn't even living in Angel Grove, instead she was in a nice town called Ocean Bluff, she had a Gymnastics class, and everything she would ever need. She sighed as she entered her house.

There had been another boy, and it hadn't helped that despite her time as a ranger, her personality still had aspects of the popular girl she had been. Which meant even she fell into peer pressure. She foolishly listened to some of the other girls, wrote off her time as a ranger and Tommy, wanting so badly to be normal and average again, that she hadn't really thought of the repercussions. Her new flame had been nice, sweet, but let her do her own thing and never rescued her from trouble she could handle.

It lasted up until Jason came, and wanted to talk to her about the letter. Then she broke down realizing how much she missed being part of something greater, she missed doing Gymnastics for fun, and she missed her friends in Angel Grove.

Jason let her cry. Reassured her that maybe she could get something of the friendship back, Told her about how Tommy and Kat were doing (She was glad Tommy had moved on, and ignored the tiny flame of jealousy that sprung up when he mentioned Kat) convinced her to come home and then they went diving and got captured by Divatox.

She didn't really try to explain the letter. It was like an unspoken agreement not to talk about it, She didn't try to get Tommy back, and did her best to hide behind Jason. Rocky talked to her and forgave her, though. (She visited him in the hospital.) Then she moved to Ocean Bluff.

She'd lost contact with Trini, last she heard, her friend had joined the Peace Corps. Zack was somewhere in New York, Aisha was in Africa, Rocky had gone back to Stone Canyon, Adam had a dojo, Jason had disappeared, though he'd sold his house to Zedd and Rita. Billy was still on Aquitar, and Tanya may have gone to either New York, Tennessee, or Africa. Kat had opened her own Dance Studio, but she had no clue where it was. No one really knew where Tommy was either.

She regretted the letter. But mistakes were a part of life. Tommy was hopefully happy with whatever he was doing, and she was debating about trying to contact him. Time healed all wounds, and it was getting on to a decade. Then again, three years of loving someone . . . in high school, a small place compared to the world they would have had to go in to. They should have realized they wouldn't have made it past that.

She would have loved to have said Kat had written it to break them up. Or that someone else had done it. Or that she was under a spell. But she hadn't been.

It had been a mistake made with distance, peer pressure, and a desire to be normal again. It had hurt not only Tommy, but some of her other friends. She'd like to believe it was also due to suddenly having her power taken away after three long years of fighting with it being an intrical part of her.

It had been a teenager's mistake, but the woman who was looking at the photographs couldn't help but feel it had been a necessary mistake, so they could all grow.

And maybe someday, the others would accept that too.

I enjoy Letter stories as much as the next person, but some of the drama that people add seems to be unnecessary. I like some of the conspiracy theories, but honestly, they can border on unrealistic. And while I didn't like the Tommy and Kat pairing, I am not a Kat basher. She was a good character in her own right, and if Kim hadn't handed over her coin, Kat might not have had a chance to make up for the guilt she probably had for being Rita's pawn. I just didn't like how quickly the two of them started dating, it seemed like it was forced by the writers.

Bridges burned, but lessons learned. This will make it as a back story for my dimension rangers story (which will someday be updated and worked on again, I swear).