"Mmmm, Peking pork and fried rice," Tommy exclaimed with a smile, greedily rubbing his hands together as the waitress set the plates down in front of Tommy and Kim "This smells delicious. If this tastes half as good as it smells, I'm going to have to call Rocky."

"Trust me, it does," Kim replied, smiling happily back at him "I never learned how to cook so I practically live off grilled cheese, canned soup and this place."

"You've got to be kidding me. Ms. Never-Put-Anything-Bad-In-My-Body is living off of Chinese and sandwiches?" Tommy asked sarcastically "I'm going to have to cook for you one of these nights. I took a couple of culinary classes in college so I can whip up a pretty good meal for you."

"I'd like that a lot," Kim replied as she looked up at Tommy from across the table with bright eyes and an even brighter smile on her face.

Before their food had come the pair had sat in absolute silence, arms extended across the table, hand in hand, relishing the moments that they were spending together. Having been apart for so long every moment between them was a special one for both of them.

Just being in Kim's company again was enough to make Tommy completely forget about the decade he had spent without her. As the pair ate their dinner they made small talk to try and catch up as best as possible. A lot had happened in the last ten years and it was going to take a lot of time to get familiar with one another again but they were both dedicated to the task at hand.

Tommy went deep in to detail in regards to the Dino Thunder team, telling Kim about all four of his Rangers and the struggles they had gone through. Kim nearly started to cry when Tommy told her about being encased in amber and almost dying. There had been so many scares in the past with Tommy losing his powers or getting abducted or being evil and it scared Kim to think that he had put himself right back in a position to get hurt. Even though she knew he was the best and had faith in his abilities, seeing Tommy in harm's way had never been easy for her to stomach.

Truth be told, he felt the same way about her only a lot worse. Every time Kim morphed he struggled with knowing she was going to be in danger. There had been times where, as the leader, Tommy had given serious thought to benching Kim for the sole reason that she wouldn't be a target. His male ego had almost gotten the better of him on more than one occasion but he managed to suppress it knowing that Kim was just as capable as he was.

Like the two old friends that they were, Tommy and Kim sat there engrossed in conversation about each other and the past ten years. Kim knew nothing of the Red Ranger mission and was completely shocked to find out both he and Jason had gone to the moon to fight the Machine Empire's remaining generals.

Since Kim was in the public eye there wasn't a whole lot going on in her life that the whole country didn't already know about. Walking down the street to the restaurant, the pair had been stopped a few times by fans with picture or autograph requests. One particular male fan looked extremely angry to find Kim in the company of a man and had shot Tommy a slew of dirty looks while Kim signed an autograph and posed for a picture with him.

Being a celebrity, Kim was used to all the attention but Tommy felt awkward about it. He was a self-proclaimed introvert, unwilling to expose himself to any more than a few of his closest friends and he liked it that way. Keeping his guard up prevented him from getting hurt even if it meant alienating himself from a lot of potential friends.

The day Jason saved Tommy and he became a Power Ranger was one of the best and worst days of his life. He had never had a lot of friends before moving from Arizona to Angel Grove and had suddenly been thrust into a circle of people who had known each other since they were literally in diapers. Thinking they'd never accept him, Tommy had almost turned down Jason's invitation to be a Power Ranger but their persistence showed him that you could know nothing about someone and still embrace them with open arms.

That experience was the reason Tommy opened up about his life to Haley so easily and it was also the reason he never harbored any animosity towards Kim. Even if, deep down inside, her actions had hurt him, he could never turn his back on someone who had meant so much to him no matter how badly he wanted to.

However, that same experience was what prevented him from having more than just a few close friends. The trust and faith his teammates had put into him put him in to a mind frame where he thought he couldn't trust anyone but a few select people. Jason and Kim had been two of those people for obvious reasons but how Tommy befriended Anton and Haley were completely different stories altogether.

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Flashback

1998, Stanford University

A nineteen year-old Tommy Oliver sat in the library at Stanford with a textbook in front of him and a frustrated look on his face. There was a pretty brunette sitting next to him with an equally frustrated look but for other reasons. Math had never been one of Tommy's strong suits so he had asked the girl he sat next to in trigonometry to tutor him.

She had been tutoring him for a while and he still wasn't getting what she had been trying to explain to him but it wasn't for lack of trying. Tommy had been diligent about the tutoring sessions, refusing to let himself fail a class just because he didn't put out any effort but every time he started to understand something the class would move on to a new formula or equation that he didn't comprehend.

"Look Tommy, we've been going over this stuff for two weeks now. This equation won't work if you multiply both sides by 'b' no matter how much you want it to," the woman explained, trying to remain calm but with a clear hint of frustration in her voice.

"But why not?" Tommy persisted "Isn't that what the professor said to do?"

The brunette, a woman named Haley who was a New Zealand import with just a residual hint of an accent, rolled her eyes and tried to put on her best smile for him. She had been tutoring Tommy for months in Trigonometry and what had started simply, an easy way for her to make some extra money to pay for college, had quickly become something much more to the both of them.

They had the relationship of a loving couple just none of the intimacy or the arguments that came from being "involved" with someone. In a mutual understanding, neither one of them had ever tried to go any further than a friendly hug or innocent spooning. They were the best of friends; able to cuddle on cold nights, support one another through tough times and just keep each other company without any worries of sexual tension or misreading the other's feelings and hurting them.

Tommy had broken down one night, on what would have been his five year anniversary with Kim and had completely lost it in his apartment, right in front of Haley who had come over to help him study. He explained everything to her and she listened compassionately, never once complaining about having to listen to Tommy's rant. They fell asleep on the couch that night, wrapped in each other's arms and, when Tommy had woken up, he expected there to be some awkwardness between them but none ever came.

He actually felt comfortable around Haley, knowing that they were never going to be more than friends. A friend was what he needed which is what allowed him to really open up to her about his past. They had gone to see a movie together, one that was intentionally picked by Tommy because of who was in it. When the credits rolled he beamed proudly that his friend Adam Park, had finally made it big.

Adam had a job that he enjoyed doing and that paid well too. As a Hollywood stuntman, he had taken bumps for some of the most famous actors in the world but he had always wanted more. He took acting classes and eventually landed a supporting role in a pretty major film. After that, his career began to skyrocket.

Haley was interested to know how Tommy knew Adam so he explained that they had gone to high school together and, in a momentary lapse of judgment, had actually blurted out that they "fought evil together." Her interest spiked at that point and she practically demanded answers from him once he had let that piece of information slip. Unable dig himself out of the deep hole he had put himself in, Tommy relented and made Haley promise that she could never tell a soul what he was going to tell her.

Initially, Haley had agreed to the promise simply because she wanted to know what Tommy was talking about but, after he explained his past, her motivation had changed. She realized that Tommy had trusted her with a secret that only one outsider, his brother, had ever known about and she promised herself that, from that point on, she would always be there to support him.

There was a certain sense of pride she felt in knowing that Tommy had confided in her with such a big secret, one that very few people actually knew about. As an undergraduate, Haley had heard everything about the shy, introverted, quiet man and how he rarely spoke to anyone on campus unless he was spoken to first. She was taken aback when, after just two weeks of sitting next to him in freshman Trigonometry, he asked her to tutor him.

Tommy had always been a proud man and asking for help wasn't an easy task for the man who had saved the world hundreds of times as a teenager. It took a few weeks of struggling but eventually he put his foolish pride aside and got up the courage to approach Haley after class and ask her to help him. He hated having to ask for help but spending time with her quickly changed his perspective.

Haley's relationship with Tommy had started out as something completely platonic; Tommy paid her and she tutored him, nothing more and nothing less but as time wore on and they spent more time together the pair grew closer. They clicked mostly because they both needed someone, a friend, that they knew they could actually trust. Haley had had a boyfriend when Tommy met her and it took every ounce of self-control he had not to pummel the guy after Haley caught him cheating on her and called Tommy in tears to tell him.

They weren't even really friends when Haley told him about that but her openness and his reaction was what initially drew the pair together and was the foundation for what would eventually become the perfect friendship. When Tommy finally opened up to her about his past, Haley felt special because she had been able to break down the "Wall of Oliver" as all the girls with crushes on him referred to it.

It was an even sweeter victory for Haley because she hadn't just thrown herself at him like the all other girls frequently did. She had simply been there for him when he needed her and Tommy would always love her for the support she showed him. Many a jealous glare was thrown in Haley's direction due to her association with Tommy, especially when the pair started spending more and more time together in public.

They both knew that everyone thought they were a couple and Tommy was perfectly content to let them think that because it meant no one, predominantly females who just thought he was good looking, would bother him anymore. Haley had also been happy to oblige because she had finally found someone she could trust and confide in without worrying about a messy breakup or things going sour and him throwing everything back in her face.

"You can't multiply by 'b' because there's no 'b' in the equation," Haley continued to explain "The variable you're going to multiply with actually has to be in the equation. You know, you can't just pull random letters out of your ass and hope that they work."

"Trig sucks," Tommy muttered angrily "I'm a Sports Medicine major for God's sake. What am I ever going to need trigonometry for?"

"You never know, Tommy. What happens if, in a year or two, you decide to change your major?" Haley asked "We're still freshman after all and most of us haven't even thought about picking a major. You have at least three years to change your mind. Don't put all your eggs in one basket."

"Come on, Haley. It's not like I'm going to become a doctor or anything," Tommy muttered, his lips spreading into a wide grin as he threw out the first thing that popped into his head "I can just see it now. Tommy Oliver, Doctor of Paleontology. Yeah, right. Like that will ever happen."

"Like I said before, you just never know," Haley replied with a smile of her own "After your previous experiences with our prehistoric friends, it definitely wouldn't surprise me if you did something with dinosaurs. I could see you in five or six years with short hair and glasses, wearing a lab coat and boring the hell out of kids saying the same thing about science that you're saying about trig."

"Yeah, sure thing Ms. I'm-Going-To-Write-For-Rolling-Stone," Tommy shot back with a playful nudge "I can't wait until you get older and become something lame like a rocket scientist so I can laugh at you and throw this conversation right back in your face."

At the time, they had both rolled their eyes and laughed it off not realizing just how real their joking statements would turn out to be.

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May 2002, LAX

Tommy put his arms around Haley, wrapping her in a tight hug as he prepared to get on his flight to Egypt, 7,000 miles away from everything he knew and was familiar with. After two years of trying his hand at Sports Medicine and failing miserably, Haley's premonition had actually come true and Tommy had taken a sudden interest in dinosaurs midway through his junior year which was why they were standing together in the airport.

A professor of Tommy's had put him in contact with a man named Anton Mercer, a world renowned scientist who was looking for a few good interns. Tommy's knowledge of the dinosaurs and prehistoric times during the interview with Anton had impressed him enough to offer Tommy a non-paying position as a researcher instead of just an internship.

Anton knew that Tommy was far overqualified for just a standard internship and he didn't want to waste his talents by putting him in a position where all he'd do was file paperwork and fetch coffee for employees. But he wasn't going to pay him either, especially when he knew Tommy would jump at the opportunity to do researching even if it was for free.

Tommy graciously accepted the part time position at Mercer Industries in the summer of 2001 and, a year later, he was getting ready to go on what would prove to be the biggest dig in the history of paleontology. It was during that summer in Egypt when Tommy, Anton and a man named Terrence Smith would discover the dinosaur DNA that Tommy and Anton used to create things like the Dino Gems, Raptor Riders and Tyrannodrones.

For something that should have been a monumental discovery in the world of paleontology, it had turned into an absolute disaster. They should have won Nobel Peace Prized but instead all three of them had nearly lost their lives. Prior to going on the dig, Anton had told Tommy and Terrence that they were competing for a paying position at Mercer Industries and that what they did with their findings would dictate who got the job.

Where Tommy was confident in his abilities and what he was capable of, Terrence was the exact opposite. He started working too hard and got careless, resulting in a horrible accident that had left him on the brink of death. If it hadn't been for Anton's equally overzealousness which caused him to turn himself into Mesogog, Terrence surely would have died. Without the protection offered to him as the cyborg, Zeltrax, there was no way for his body to sustain itself.

With Anton's transformation into Mesogog the battle lines had been drawn, pulling Tommy away from the man who had given him a chance to do something special. Even if Anton was no longer a human, Tommy was going to work as hard as possible to fix that. It was the least he could do for the man who had given him an opportunity to do something not many people actually got a chance to do.

As Mesogog, Anton would forever be Tommy's sworn enemy but, as a human, Tommy loved Anton like he was his own father. He had taken Tommy under his wing, given him a chance to make something out of his life and offer his guidance to the student. Tommy would forever be indebted to Anton for that.

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"So what do you want to do now that dinner is over?" Kim asked sheepishly as they walked back towards her apartment hand in hand.

Tommy still had to be up for another conference at seven the next morning and it was already getting close to midnight. As much as he never wanted to let Kim out of his sights again, he was forced to tell her that he had to say goodnight once they reached her apartment.

Kim gave him an understanding look but you could tell that neither of them ever wanted to be apart from each other again. As they said goodbye, Tommy held Kim closely for almost five minutes wishing he could just stop time and enjoy the moment forever.

"I have to go, Kim," Tommy said finally, trying to pull away but Kim wouldn't let him go "Don't make this any harder than it already is, please. I don't want to leave Kim but I have to be at another conference tomorrow."

"You could always stay here," Kim enticed "I have a few things to take care of at my school in the morning and I could drop you off at your hotel on my way."

"What happened to taking it slow?" Tommy asked "I don't want to rush in to anything that we'll regret in the morning. I want this to work and I'm committed to us but I'm just not ready for that kind of commitment yet and I think if you really think about it, you aren't either."

"I wasn't talking about anything like that," Kim replied "I want to take it slow too but that doesn't mean you can't take the couch. I just feel like we've missed out on so much time and I don't want to be away from you when we've been apart for so long already."

Tommy nodded his head in understanding as he reached out and pulled Kim in to another warm and loving embrace. He agreed to stay with Kim for the night as long as they both agreed that neither one of them was going to try and take things too far. Tommy knew they'd probably end up on the couch in a session of passionate kisses and he was okay with that as long as it stopped there.

With Jason or Zack or any of the other guys, Tommy would joke about his sexual conquests in great detail because that's what guys do with each other. It's all about who's gotten laid recently and who's gotten laid the most when they get together. Tommy or Jason always won and no one ever doubted either one of them when they talked about their latest and greatest fling.

In all reality though, he had never been with a woman in that way but he couldn't let the guys know that. Maybe it was the values his parents instilled in him that sex should be something between two people who love each other. Or maybe it was that he was just holding on to the hope that he and Kim would have another chance. Both were true actually and now that he had Kim back he didn't want to mess things up by rushing in to something they weren't prepared for.

For as naïve and innocent as Kim had been as a teenager, real life had hardened her approach to, and outlook on, life in general. She no longer went through life turning a blind eye to the truths of how people really behaved and she assumed Tommy had probably been with numerous women in the past. Surprisingly, even though she was wrong, the thought of Tommy with another woman didn't bother her because he was with her now and that was all she cared about.

She had seen Tommy all through high school with his long brown hair and deep brown eyes that caused almost every female student, and a few teachers as well, at Angel Grove High to fall head over heels for him. Seeing him with his short hair and soul patch, so grown up yet so young at heart, Kim was sure that he was still dealing with the same stuff but where most girls would be jealous of the attention Tommy got it didn't bother Kim in the slightest. She trusted Tommy with her heart back then and he had never let her down before so she had no reason to think that this time was going to be any different.

Kim handed Tommy a beer and then sat down next to him on the couch, curling up against him as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. You could tell just by looking at them just how much they genuinely enjoyed being around each other again. They didn't even have to say anything to each other, their actions spoke loud enough.

Tommy with his arm around her, acting like he was her protector. Kim curled up next to his side, knowing exactly what Tommy was thinking, content to let him believe whatever he wanted.

"How many women have you been with?" Kim blurted out suddenly causing Tommy to spit his beer out.

Kim jumped back in shock at Tommy's sudden action and he rubbed his chin embarrassingly with his shirt sleeve to wipe the beer off. He hadn't been expecting the question she asked and she hadn't been expecting the reply he gave either.

Tommy looked down at Kim and saw the look in her eyes that said she wasn't going to back down from her question. With a single deep breath he set his bottle down, turned towards Kim and took her hands in his own before exhaling.

"None," Tommy admitted painfully, sure that he was far behind in experience with Kim "I could have if I wanted to but sleeping with someone who wasn't you never appealed to me. I've been holding out for you since I was a kid. Pretty lame that I'm 27 and never had sex, huh?"

Kim looked like she was about ready to burst from the seams. She had been so sure that Tommy was an experienced veteran with numerous sexual experiences. Finding out that he was in the same boat as her was like a breath of fresh air. If their relationship evolved like they both thought it would and ended up reaching the point where they were both ready for that kind of commitment, she wouldn't feel weird or awkward that she didn't really know what she was doing because Tommy would be just as clueless.

Something about what Tommy had said made Kim's eyes slowly start to fill with tears of happiness. The fact that he cared about her that much, even after she had done so much to hurt him, made her feel special for the first time since they were teenagers. Tommy always had a way of doing things or saying things that made Kim feel like she was the most important person in the world to him.

In all actuality, she really was the most important person in the world to him. From the first day that they met in the hallways at school Tommy had immediately been drawn to the petite brunette with a smile that could melt hearts and a personality to match. There was something about how nervous she looked when they talked for the first time that made Tommy fall head over heels in love with her and promise himself that he would never do anything to hurt her.

Less than five hours after their first meeting in the hallway Tommy was chosen by Rita Repulsa and turned into her Evil Green Ranger. When Jason saved him he realized that he had promised himself he was never going to hurt Kim and had already done it a ton of times in less than a week of actually knowing her.

The guilt Tommy felt over what he had done was unexplainable and almost unbearable to the point that he was prepared to walk away and never talk to any of them again. Jason's persistence and Kim's warm smile and bubbly personality eventually got him to change his mind though and now he was glad that he hadn't walked away like he wanted to at first.

If he had stayed with his initial instincts his life would have been an extremely boring one to say the least. He never would have gotten the chance to experience so many incredible things like going to different planets, saving the world and making so many great friends along the way. He also never would have gotten the chance to make things right with the girl he fell in love with the moment he saw her.

"How about you?" Tommy asked with a sly grin on his face "How many men have been ravaged by "America's Sweetheart?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Kim shot back sarcastically "Let's just say that you're the only one I've ever wanted to go that far with and our boats are floating in the same direction and leave it at that."

"Really?" Tommy asked in reply, Kim nodding sheepishly "I can't believe that, at 27 years old, neither of us have done anything more than kiss. Part of me feels like I've missed out on something but the other part of me is glad I didn't do anything with someone I didn't love and care about."

"Me too," Kim replied, curling up against Tommy's side once more "For the first time in ten years I feel happy. And safe too. Being in your arms again reminds me why I loved it so much when we were kids. I feel like nothing can happen to me if you're nearby."

Tommy loved that he could still get the same reaction from Kim that she gave to him when they were teenagers. Knowing that Kim still felt comfortable and safe in his arms was an incredible feeling. They had always been so close, able to tell each other anything, when it abruptly ended. He hated having to go ten years without Kim before he could hold her again but, to him, having her there at that moment was worth it no matter how tough it had been on him.

You just couldn't help but look at them together and have hope that true love actually existed and really was possible. With so much bad in the world they were like a little ray of sunshine to each other and they made each other happy, something neither of them had really been in years.

"You should come up to Reefside sometime soon," Tommy said quietly, his fingers tracing lines on Kim's lower back that caused her to shiver slightly "Kira really would love to meet you and you guys would get along so great. God, there's so many people I want you to meet. Haley and Anton and Conner and Ethan and Trent and Haley…"

"You already said Haley," Kim corrected with a smile, Tommy smiling embarassingly "Tell me about the woman who was able to tame The Great Tommy Oliver."

"We met at Stanford when we were both undergrads and I sat next to her in trigonometry my freshman year. She was incredibly smart and I needed help so I asked her to tutor me," Tommy explained "It started off where it was just the tutoring thing but we both realized that we really had a lot in common and we eventually became really great friends. You and her are the only two women besides my mom I've ever really truly trusted."

"Did you guys ever, you know? Did you…" Kim muttered slowly as Tommy smiled and waited for it "Date? Sorry. That's not my business. I shouldn't have asked that and you don't have to answer."

"It's okay, Kim. I don't mind. It's not like I have anything to hide or be embarrassed about," Tommy replied "But no, we didn't date. Haley's a very pretty woman and she has such a sweet and caring personality like you which is why I was drawn to her but it's always been strictly platonic between us. We spent so many nights crying in each other's arms or drinking and laughing until we passed out. We seriously thought about it but neither of us was willing to risk losing such a great friendship by trying to date. I love Haley with all my heart and would do anything for her. I just don't love her in the way that I love you."

"Aww, you're so sweet. You know I've always loved you," Kim smiled, leaning in to kiss Tommy's cheek and causing him to blush a little "How did we get so lucky? I never thought we'd even see each other again after Murianthis and now we're taking another shot at this. It's crazy."

"We're just meant to be together, Kim. As clichéd and silly as that sounds, I think there's no real explanation other than that," Tommy reasoned, Kim nodding in agreement "I've spent the last ten years trying to get over you and move on because, as much as I wanted this to happen, I was starting to think it wasn't going to. As soon as I read your interview every feeling for you that I had tried to suppress came rushing back at me all at once. Even though I acted like a dick earlier, seeing you in the coffee shop just made me fall harder for you."

Kim nodded with a smile on her face as she looked in to Tommy's eyes and they both knew what was coming next. Tommy bent his head and leaned in for a single kiss, soft and with love like all of their kisses were. It was only one kiss like always but, for Tommy, it was amazing.

Kissing Kim was like heaven on Earth for him and he cherished every single time their lips met in a loving embrace. Kim pulled back after a few seconds, biting her lip and smiling brightly with Tommy doing the exact same thing.

"You are so amazing," Tommy said softly while stroking Kim's hair "But I don't think one kiss was enough. Can I kiss you again?"

"Do you even have to ask?" Kim laughed as Tommy leaned in for another kiss.

One kiss turned to two and before they knew what had happened they were kissing like they had never kissed before. It started off slow, quickly picking up the pace as their mouths opened and closed rapidly and they tried to keep pace with each other.

A few minutes later Tommy pulled back to catch his breath while Kim leaned against the back of the couch and smiled like she was seven on Christmas morning. Tommy smiled and reached over to pull her back close but, as he leaned in acting like he was going to kiss her, he switched gears and flipped her in to a spooning position. Kim exhaled loudly, happy to be next to Tommy with his arms wrapped around her, holding her closely and not letting go.

Tommy reached behind him, grabbing a blanket from off the top of the couch and throwing it over Kim and himself. Kim nestled in closer to Tommy, both of them allowing the warmth of the blanket and their bodies pressed against each other to help carry them off to sleep.

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Well, I guess this chapter shows you what my decision was, huh? I thought long and hard about doing this because this story could have stood alone as just a oneshot but I also realized that there was a lot that I could do with it as well. Since this was just going to be a oneshot, I have no idea where this story is going to go but hopefully you all enjoyed this chapter. Remember to leave a review, guys.

-WK