Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers or any character affiliated with the show!!!
Warning: This chapter contains Kim's detailed story of September 11th. If it will upset you just skip past the flashback section.
Ch. 4-Remembering September 11th
The next day Kim packed up Carly and Jordan and headed to the convention center where the tournament was being held. After paying spectators fees for the three of them, she walked inside with Carly beside her and Jordan in her arms. The tournament had already started and she spotted Jason stretching out in a back corner ring but Rocky and Tommy were no where in sight.
"Jase" she yelled as they made their way to the ring.
"Hey Kim" he said as he hugged her. "Jordan, Carly how are you guys today?" he asked as he took Jordan from her.
"I'm okay" Carly said
"We're gonna move in with Tommy" Jordan said
"I know, I heard, do you want to go see him?" Jason asked
"Yeah" they both said. Kim just laughed.
"Come on, he's back here with Rocky warming up" Jason said as he led them to a side room.
A couple hours later Rocky and Jason were done, they had both won. Tommy was last to fight. He stepped into the ring and bowed to his opponent. As the fight began, he backed the guy into a corner and executed a perfect side kick to his chest. He was awarded two points. They went back to the center. On the second advance, the guy tried a spinning kick, but Tommy ducked down and swept the guys feet, no points were awarded for the exchange. He could hear Jordan, Carly and Kim yelling for him from the side of the ring. On the third exchange, he came straight off the line with a sliding hook kick and followed it up with a punch combination; he was awarded two more points. The fight continued on for the final minute with Tommy scoring eight more points. He won his fight 12-0. As soon as he came out of the ring Kim jumped into arms, sweaty and all, and pressed her lips to his in the sweetest, most sensual kiss she'd had in 10 years. As she pulled back with a smile he put her down.
"Good job baby"
"Thanks, I was inspired by three very beautiful women." He said as he put an arm around her and the girls laughed at being called beautiful.
After the tournament had finished, they all went back to Kim's house. Much to Carly's dismay, the guys wanted to order pizza. Knowing how she felt at having to eat a salad while everyone else was eating pizza, Kim chose to forgo the pizza and order a salad with Carly.
"Jordan not too" much Kim said as Jordan started on her second piece. "No more after that"
"Okay"
"Why can't she have anymore?" Rocky asked
"I told you she's diabetic, she's on a controlled diet to keep her blood sugar in a certain range." Kim answered.
"Oh" Rocky said
A few hours and two Disney movies later, the girls were in bed leaving the adults to talk.
"Well, I gave my two week notice in writing this morning, and I called the realtor, after we move out they're going to stage the house to sell it. The biggest issue is finding a job. There's shortage of paramedics everywhere so it shouldn't be too hard. But I need to enroll the girls in school and figure out how I'm going to get all of our stuff across the country. Then I have to find a new gymnastics school for Carly, she can't stop training."
"Okay first of all, Jason already said he'll fly back with me, we'll rent a moving truck, we'll drive it and you can drive the girls. As far as the school issue, I will enroll the girls at the elementary school when I get back." Tommy said as he looked at Jason and Rocky and they all smiled.
"What's going on, what do you know that I don't?"
"I'll let Jason tell you" Tommy said
"Okay, Jason what's going on?"
"Well, a few months back we made an addition to the Reefside dojo. It's now attached to a fully furnished gymnastics studio. It has everything an elite studio needs. We've been looking for the perfect co-owner and head coach…..do you want the job, you can hire anyone you want, however much money you need to get them there, we've got it….So, what do you say?"
"Wow…my own gym?"
"Yep, you would be the perfect coach and business partner."
"And hey, Reefside has an awesome fire department and Ambulance service, so if you wanted to you could still work part time to keep your cert" Tommy said
"Well….okay, I guess you have a new owner"
"Awesome" Rocky said
"So, now that the business is out of the way, I'm sure you guys have some questions about the 11th."
"Kim you don't have to talk about that" Jason said
"Jason it's been six years, I'm okay, I can talk about it now. So ask me anything."
"Well, I guess our biggest question would be what really happened. And I mean from a real standpoint, not what we saw on TV." Rocky asked
"Well, at the time I was a full time firefighter with FDNY, I just filled in medic shifts when they needed me. The days leading up to it were way too quite on fire's side so we all knew that something big was coming, we just had no idea it would be that bad. You see in this field, if you go long enough without anything, you're going to get something huge. I was supposed to be off at 7:00 that morning, but I stayed over for one of the guys who had a doctor's appointment with his pregnant wife. So I was working on Kenny and Marie's shift. We were all outside washing the truck when we heard this loud rumbling sound so we looked up…..
Flashback
"Okay that plane is way too low" Lt. Marcus said
"Hey I think it's going to hit trade center, its headed straight for it" Kim said. They watched helplessly as it flew into the North Tower and a ball of fire erupted into the air.
"Alright everybody on the truck lets go" Lt. Marcus yelled as the tones went off and a city wide 10-60(major emergency) was called. They were at the site in five minutes; people were already starting to jump. After checking in with command they headed to the North Tower and began ascending a rear stair case toward the 94th floor where the plane was estimated to have hit….
End Flashback
"By the time we pulled up, people were already jumping from the floors above where the plane hit. If you think about the sound a bug makes when it hits your windshield and multiply that by about 100, that's what we heard over and over until we made it into the stairwell….."
Flashback
Lt. Marcus, Kim, Kenny, and Marie were together in one group. Others from their unit were sent to other destinations, but this was theirs. As they climbed the steps, people coming down would nod their heads as if to thank them for their bravery.
"Alright guys, let's stick together, if one of us needs to stop, we all stop" the Lt. said
As they made their way up they quickly checked and cleared floors for injured people. They passed the handicap staging area on floor 10 radioing for command to have someone come get them. The closer they came to the floors of destruction, the more damage and injured they encountered. As they approached the 50th floor, there was a loud explosion and the building moved. The higher they got the more twisted metal they had to maneuver around. They were in a process of clearing a path near the 80th floor when the building began to shake violently and the stairwell filled with suffocating thick, black smoke.
"What the hell is going on" Marie yelled
"I don't know, but I think we should get out of here" Kim said
"I'm with her" Kenny said "Whatever it is it can't be good and it's getting harder to get past all of this debris. Lou, what do you think?"
"Well they haven't called evac yet, but this building is definitely not steady, lets go down regroup and try a different way up. Everyone below us should be out of the building by now." Lt. Marcus said as they headed back down the stairs….
End Flashback
"I found out later that the shaking was the collapse of the South Tower, We didn't even realize it had been hit. Anyway, they had called evacuation of the north tower twice, but there were communication failures between the Police and Firefighters and due to problems with the radios, most of the firefights, including us, never heard either call to evacuate. So we continued down the stairs, totally unaware of what was happening outside…."
Flashback
When they got to the 8th floor, they heard voices.
"Do you hear that?" Kenny asked
"It sounds like people" Kim said
"The staging area" Lt. Marcus said "No one ever came for those people"
"We have to go back for them" Kim said
They made their way back up to the 10th floor there were two men and one woman in wheelchairs.
"I'll take her" Kim said
"Me and Kenny will get the other two" Lt. Marcus said "Marie you stay behind Kim and help her."
They continued down to the stairs, they made it to the fourth floor….
End Flashback
"Thats I felt the stairs come out from under me and the next thing I remember is waking up to blackness; I thought I was dead until I heard coughing. I called out to whoever it was…
Flashback
"Is anyone alive, please yell" Kim said
"This is Lt. Marcus, FDNY" it was a weak response and Kim could tell he was severely injured.
"Lou, it's Kim, can you see anything?"
"No, is anyone else alive?"
"I don't think so" Kim said before calling out again "This is firefighter Kimberly Hart, if anyone can hear me please yell out" There was no response "Kenny, Marie are you guys there" she said as she looked to her side and saw her brother's lifeless and bleeding body underneath the man he had been carrying, who was also dead. She couldn't see much but she could tell that they were both dead, that's when she saw Marie trapped in debris above her and to her right, she too was clearly dead. Tears filled Kim's eyes. The woman she had been carrying was no where in sight. She could see fires burning all around them. "Lou, it's just us, everybody else is dead" she said though sobs.
"Try to stay calm Kim. There's limited oxygen down here, we need to conserve what we have."
"I know, but it's hard to breath through all the dirt and rocks in my mouth, if I could just spit this shit out..."
"Yeah, I could go for a glass of water too, what's your situation, how bad is it?"
"I'm trapped under a piece of concrete, my radio is busted, so is my SCBA(Self contained breathing Apparatus). What about you?"
"I don't know, I'm wrapped in metal, my SCBA is gone too, but I think my radio still works." He said, he tried his radio "Engine 31, 7 Adam 1 to command" No response, he tried again "Engine 31, 7 Adam 1 to command" Still no response, he tried a different approach "Engine 31, 7 Adam 1 to dispatch" After hours of trying, and more explosions and crashing noises as well as loose debris falling around them, there was finally a response.
"Command to 7 Adam 1 we read you, what is your status"
"Myself and one firefighter are alive and trapped" Lt. Marcus said
"Copy that 7 Adam 1, what is your location?"
"North Tower, rear stairwell B"
"Clear 7 Adam 1, be advised we'll do our best to locate you but we're not sure exactly where you are"
"7 Adam 1 is clear"
Kim had picked up the ax that was barley in arms length and started trying to cut stuff around her away. When the axe accidentally slipped from what she was working on a hit a metal pipe near by. It created a loud clang.
"What was that" Lt. Marcus asked
The damn axe slipped and hit a pipe"
"Well keep doing it, maybe someone will hear us." He said as she continued to hit the ax against the metal pipe. Every few minutes she would stop out of exhaustion, thinking she couldn't go on, it was just too tiring. They would talk off and on just too make sure the other stayed concious. But every time she quit fighting it, she saw Tommy telling her it would be okay, willing her to keep going, reminding her that she would get out of this alive. After each appearance she would continue her attempts. The banging got slower and slower as she became weaker and weaker…
End Flashback
"Finally after what seemed like an eternity, there was this voice…"
Flashback
"Is someone there, we can here you, please identify yourself" it was a man's voice. At first Kim thought she was imagining things, but then she heard it again "Hello, is there someone down there?" It finally registered that someone had found them
"Hello" she said weakly at first, realizing he couldn't hear her she started yelling "Hello, Hello, can you hear me, we're down here"
"I can hear you, my name is Joe McCafferty I'm a New York City Firefighter, who am I talking too?"
"Firefighter Kimberly Hart and my Lieutenant is down here too, Lt. Michael Marcus, both alive and injured"
"Alright Hart, we're going to work on getting you two out of there, you just hang in there."
'Oh thank god' she thought "Hey Lou, we're getting out of here."
"I know, I heard, we're going to live"
An hour later they were able to get down to Kim and cut her out. Lt. Marcus was about 20 ft further down so it would take them another 45 minutes before he was freed. When they pulled her out of the small opening, fully immobilized in a scoop stretcher she was able to see the destruction for the first time…
End Flashback
"The first thing I said was, where's the south tower, I had no ideal that it had collapsed. I just kept asking, what happened where are the towers, finally someone said 'they're gone, totally destroyed' It was only later that I found out everything that happened that morning. Anyway, I was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital. I was there for a year and a half going through surgeries every two months. My mom came in and took care of the girls and me while I recovered, but I had already signed papers that I would take care of the girls if anything happened to Kenny and Marie, so when she was sure I could handle everything on my own, she went back to Paris, I went back to work and six years later here I am."
"Wow, that's some story" Jason said
"Yeah, I had no idea how bad it really was. I mean the reports were bad, but I can't even imagine being there in person" Rocky said
"Yeah it was pretty bad, but what's done is done" Kim said "So how about we move on to a more pleasant subject."
"Sounds Good" Tommy said
Well next one is the last chapter. Thanks for reading and Please Review. Preview for next Chapter:
Two months later, Kim, Carly and Jordan were all moved into Tommy's house in Reefside. The girls had started school and were doing great. Kim was the new head coach and owner of Reefside Olympic Gymnastics Academy. Jason, Rocky and Adam had all agreed that the name would work. She had hired all her coaches and after only opening a last month, she already had close to 100 students ranging from age 2 through elite and up to tumbling for adults. As she sat in her office filling out paperwork for the first competition coming up, she thought back to the week she was moving in and getting everything settled.