"Hey, Tommy, where's your better half?" Andros joked as Tommy walked up to all of them with the most pissed off look on his face. There was something going on here that none of them knew about and they could all sense it. "Something I said?"
"You knew that she was doing this?" Tommy asked as Andros looked down at the ground. When the pink ranger had come to him for help, he had thought that it would be easy to keep it from Tommy. He was now finding out that it was nearly impossible, his contact with the former red ranger had reached its peak only months ago and it happened to be at about the same time that Kimberly found out just what Tommy had in his possession.
"Yeah, I knew what she was doing, but how was I supposed to explain that to you?" Andros asked, pointedly, as Tommy looked away from him. He knew just how right Andros was, Tommy had not wanted to hear a thing about Kim and now he suddenly wanted to know everything.
"Why does she matter?" Carlos asked as the others looked at each other. They hadn't really gotten to explain that to him and he had just walked into a very sore spot without even knowing it. Maybe Tommy would be nice to him since he didn't know all about his past.
"She's the one woman I've ever loved," Tommy said as he just shook his head. He, obviously, was not thinking too clearly considering the fact that Katherine was only a few feet away, but a chance meeting like this with Kim was expected to have some repercussions. "Why couldn't she have told me the truth?"
"You think she wanted to keep it a secret? The only reason she came around to it, is because she knows what you have," Andros said as Tommy just shook his head.
"Yeah, so I'm going to be working with her and she doesn't want me. I can't do this," Tommy said as Jason and Andros shook their heads. Tommy was going to have to do this; he didn't really have a choice about it.
"I didn't know that can't was in your vocabulary," T.J. said as Tommy just shook his head. His successor had not been around enough to know how things truly went with him and Kim.
"Can't is in my vocabulary when it comes to her. Do you know how many times I told myself that I can't go to her and try to get her back? That I can't be with her because that is what she wants? Why didn't someone tell me that she had a miscarriage? Why didn't I know all of this stuff?" Tommy asked as the red rangers looked at each other. They did not like hearing about all of this and they were sure that Tommy was not happy with any of them.
"Most of us didn't know," Trini said as Tommy looked over at her. "I didn't know until a couple of weeks ago. She seems to be telling all of us the truth now. She seems to be have been waiting for the right time and it seems that is now."
"Now isn't the right time," Tommy said as Trini just shook her head. It hurt all of them to see Tommy this upset about something, but they had all had the sinking feeling that it was coming. Things between Kim and Tommy just had to be resolved and they were all hoping that this approach would work for them.
"It is for her and that's all that really matters when you think about it," Jason said as Tommy merely nodded. He knew just how right they all were, but he really didn't want to admit it.
"So what do I do now?" Tommy asked, as he looked over at Andros. He had a feeling that he knew a lot more than he was letting on about the entire situation.
"You just have to wait until the time is right. I promise that you will be seeing a lot more of her, but it's getting late and I need to be able to make it home," Andros said as he stood to exit. All of the other rangers wanted to hear more, but they were afraid that Andros and Tommy would get into a huge fight if they continued to sit in front of each other and nitpick on all of the things that were going on.
"Like your ship can't make it in five seconds flat," Tommy said as he shook Andros' hand and let him go. He knew what Andros was doing, just as well as all the others, but it was really for the best. He didn't need the confrontation tonight. "Have a good trip."
"I will," Andros said with as much confidence as he could muster as he walked out of the bar.
"I don't want to go back to Reefside," Tommy muttered as Jason and Trini looked over at him. They knew that it was pretty bad if Tommy didn't even want to go back there. "Why didn't you tell me that she was living in Reefside?"
"We were going to wait until you got the invitation to her housewarming," Trini said as Tommy glared over at her. If she had not been pregnant, she was pretty sure that Tommy would have jumped her right now.
"You are so lucky," Tommy muttered as he signaled the nearest waiter and asked for a beer. He really wanted something stronger, but he didn't think that it was necessarily the best thing for all of them considering the fact that there were quite a few that were under aged.
"Don't drown yourself in that," Jason said as he watched Tommy take a gulp. "You can come back to our house for the night."
"That sounds just great," Tommy said as some of the other red rangers gave him confused looks. "I'm not pleased with this, Jason. The first time that I see Kim in about ten years and I find out that she had a miscarriage, is now a permanent…never mind, I'll come around to that later, and she lives in Reefside. I need to drown myself right now."
"Nope, I'm not cleaning up your puke," Trini said as Jason laughed and Tommy could only shake his head. He had been known to have that sort of reaction when he had too much alcohol and he imagined that Trini's current condition would not give her any patience with him, so she heeded her warning.
"This wasn't exactly what I imagined out of all of you," Carlos said as T.J. and Eric laughed. No one else might see it as funny, but they had been around Tommy enough to know that anything that had to deal with Kimberly had this sort of reaction.
"You just saw the one female ranger that could probably whoop my ass. Things are about to change a lot around here," Tommy said as he looked at Jason and Trini, very pointedly. They knew that they were going to have a long conversation with Tommy when they got away from everyone else.
"What do you mean?" Carlos asked as Tommy looked over at him. He was not sure that he could reveal the truth to him; he was just too young to understand it.
"Let's just say that ranger powers are about to be a lot harder to come by," Tommy said as he looked around the table. "And I have the next set of powers."
"You're kidding," Jason said as Tommy just shook his head no.
"How did you happen to come by these?" Kat asked as Tommy just looked over at her and shook his head. He was sure that they didn't need to know about that.
"I'm not even going to go there. I'm sure that the rest of you will find out whenever Kim needs me to be a ranger again," Tommy said as they just shook their heads and looked around the bar. It was beginning to become more crowded and he knew that anything that they said could be overheard and it didn't need to be. There was no way that he was going to have to start running from everyone because of someone finding out he was a ranger.
"We probably need to head home, I have a feeling that someone that will be leaving early in the morning," Jason said looking over at Tommy and he nodded. He didn't need to stay in this bar any longer or Trini would be cleaning up his puke.
"Yeah, I've got a couple of things that definitely need to be cleared up," Tommy said as Jason just looked over at Trini and they stood up and walked over to pay their tab.
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"What else is there Tommy?" Trini asked as they walked into their house and Jason looked over at Tommy. He had thought that Trini was going to save the interrogation until the morning.
"Kim is now a permanent ranger and I can't be with her because I'll become one myself," Tommy said, rather bluntly, as Trini and Jason looked at each other. This was definitely not something that they wanted to hear, but they didn't have much choice about it.
"You've got to be kidding me," Jason said as sat down and Tommy shook his head no. He was surprised that Trini and Jason did not know about this sort of activity when they knew that she had been living in Reefside for the past few weeks.
"I wish I was, then maybe I would have an honest chance with her again," Tommy muttered as Trini sat down next to Jason and Tommy sat on the other side of her.
"I wish that you could Tommy," Trini said as she wrapped her arms around the hurting red ranger and watched as some tears slipped out of the corners of his eyes.
"You know, I was alright with not seeing her, but now I know that I can never be all right with that sort of life," Tommy said as Trini and Jason nodded. They had both known that this day would come for Tommy, but they had hoped that it would be at a time when the two of them could actually be together again.