Within the week, Tommy and Kimberly were able to pack up her apartment in Florida and drive back down to Angel Grove in a rented moving truck. Kimberly insisted on stopping in nearly every state to pick up bridal magazines. She was getting really excited while looking through all the different catalogs, making list of things to do: Find a venue, invitations, times, dates, wardrobe, the list went on and on.
"At least it keeps her mind off everything going on for a while," Tommy thought. Driving to Angel Grove took a few days. As soon as they returned they started working on getting Kim settled. The next step was to inform everyone they hadn't told yet. Which included her dad and a lot of her old friends. All of the former rangers knew already. Trini had been blowing up her phone since she got the news asking questions about planning and what she could do to help. Kimberly made the obvious decision to make Trini her maid of honor and was going to ask the rest of the female rangers to be her bride's maids. She was sure Aisha and Tanya, would accept but was worried about Kat.
Tommy chose Billy as his best man and his groomsmen were his brother David, Adam, and Rocky. The rest of the rangers, like Zack, Jason and Justin were also invited and Justin was going to invite the turbo rangers. They still had to ask them formally though.
Kimberly was making plans on how to ask each of her girls. "How should I ask Tanya?" she said.
"Ask Tanya when I ask Adam. They've been together for a while."
"Really?" Kimberly thought back to a few days ago, "That's right, I did notice him wrap his arms around her shoulders. Aw, I'm happy for them. Your idea is perfect."
"I'll call Adam and have them come over for dinner," Tommy responded. While Tommy called Adam, Kimberly ran out to the store for groceries.
"I know just what to make," Kimberly said walking through the store. She grabbed some fresh veggies for salad, chicken, rice, fish and all the fixings for fresh sushi. She had learned how to make sushi at a cooking class. Tommy always loved sushi. She would also make stir fry chicken and a salad. As she was shopping someone called out to her.
"Kimberly? Kimberly Hart?" she turned towards the voice. It was a tall skinny man with short dark hair. He wore jeans and a button up white and blue plaid shirt.
"Skull?" she asked as he walked towards her.
"It's been a while, hasn't it?" he asked. "What are you doing back in Angel Grove?" Kimberly flashed her ring.
"Getting married."
"Who's the lucky guy?"
"Tommy Oliver."
"I heard you broke up," he said confused.
"Fate brought us back together. It was meant to be," she smiled. What about you?"
"I'm happy for you," Skull responded. "I'm teaching. After high school, I worked on getting a teaching license and now I teach English."
"That's great! Well, I have to go. We're having Adam and Tanya over tonight," she said waving good bye to her old acquaintance and continued shopping. She also picked up small gifts and cards for Adam and Tanya. That was the way her parents asked their wedding parties.
Kim paid for everything and drove back to the apartment. She couldn't wait for her big dinner party with Tommy, Adam and Tanya. And tomorrow everyone else was coming back in town for a celebratory picnic.
When she returned, Tommy had been cleaning and moving boxes out of the way. Making sure the apartment didn't look like a college student's apartment… even if that's exactly what it was. Kim started cooking while he moved his college textbooks, research, and papers off the dining room table and helped Kim get set up for dinner.
While everything was cooking, Kim instructed Tommy on what to do so she could put together the gifts for Adam and Tanya. She bought Tanya a silver bracelet with a golden-yellow flower on it with a matching hair clip and Adam a watch with a silver band, like their old communicators and dark green center. She put them in small white boxes and tied a bow around them. A "T" sticker was placed in the center of Tanya's bow and an "A" on Adam's with cards attached reading:
"Will you be my bride's maid?" and
"Will you be my groomsmen?"
"Perfect," she said placing them at the center of the table that Tommy had so nicely set up. There was a nice white table cloth covering the table. Four plates set out, all the utensils including chopsticks, glasses, napkins and a small vase with pink roses as the centerpiece. She finished up making dinner with Tommy, laughing and smiling the entire time. They finished cooking with enough time to change their clothes before Adam and Tanya arrived.
Kim changed into a light pink knee length dress with a pink cardigan over it. Tommy wore a red button up long sleeve shirt with black pants. As soon as they were ready the doorbell rang.
"They're here!" Kim said excited and ran to the door with Tommy following. She opened the door for their friends. Adam and Tanya walked in. They had also dressed up. Tanya in a light-yellow ankle length dress and Adam in a dark green button up shirt and black pants. Everyone looked great for their evening.
"Thanks for having us over," Tanya said.
"Weren't we supposed to be getting together with everyone tomorrow?" Adam asked.
"We still are," Kim started. "I just really wanted to see friends. It's great to see you both." Kim walked over to Adam and hugged him then Tanya.
"We're glad to have you back," Adam said. "Tommy probably told you, but Tanya and I are together," he said smiling. He looked happier than Kim had ever seen him be.
"He did. That's fantastic. Come on we made dinner." Kim walked Tanya and Adam over to the dinner table and helped Tommy bring everything out.
"Wow, everything looks amazing!" Tanya said.
"It was all Kimberly. I helped a little bit, but nothing major." Tommy responded.
"Kimberly, you really outdid yourself." Tanya said.
"Thanks, but this is nothing. I took some cooking classes for a while." Kimberly said modestly.
"Alright, let's eat!" Tommy said. The former rangers dug into their dinner and caught up. They talked about old times, told stories, laughed a lot. It had been a while since Tommy hung out with his friends like this. He didn't realize how much he missed it, being so busy with college.
After dinner, they moved to living room. Tommy and Kimberly sat down on the couch with Tanya and Adam.
"So, guys, there's a reason we asked you to come over." Kimberly said.
"What's that?" Adam asked looking at Tanya placing his hands on her arms. Kimberly grabbed the gifts off the table and handed them to the couple.
"Thanks, Kim." Adam said, "But what's this for?"
"Adam," Tanya said pointing him to the cards. "They want us by their sides at the wedding." The four smiled. Adam turned to Tanya. He didn't like making decisions without making sure they both agreed on it. Tanya nodded excited.
"We would love to." Adam responded.
"Morphenomenal! Oh my gosh, I haven't said that in so long," she giggled. "Open the boxes." While Adam and Tanya opened them, Tommy wrapped his arms around Kim's waist. He was staying quiet because this Kimberly's moment. If this small thing made her happy he was happy to let her have it.
"It's beautiful," Tanya said slipping the bracelet on. "Just the right color. Thank you, Kimberly." Adam placed the clip in her hair and smiled, then opened his box.
"Reminds me of our old communicators." He clipped the watch on his wrist. "Zordon? Do you read us?... Still not a ranger." He joked. "Thanks, guys, but you didn't have to go through all this trouble for us."
"It was no trouble." Kimberly replied.
"We're just happy you two are joining us." Tommy said.
The next day they were to meet the rest of the team at Angel Grove park around noon for a picnic just like the old days when they used to have picnics. Everyone who was on their ranger teams were going to be there.
When Tommy and Kimberly showed up everything was already laid out. A big red picnic blanket was laid out underneath the tree they always sat under.
"We're here!" Kimberly said running up to her friends and starting to give out hugs to each of them as Tommy caught up.
"She's excited," he laughed.
Everyone seemed so happy to be back together again. It had been a while since some of them had gotten together or seen some of the other teams. They all sat down on the blanket and dug into the food Trini and Aisha and Billy brought.
"This is great having everyone together," said Jason.
"Yeah, imagine if we all worked together. Enemies wouldn't stand a chance." Tommy laughed and high fived Jason.
"Once a ranger. Always a ranger," Adam said.
"Well, I'm just glad we can all get together without having to worry about being called on or interrupted by Putties." Kim said.
"Or Tangas," Rocky added.
"Or anything else that attacked us," Justin said.
The group continued catching up and talking about old times. But one ranger was silent the entire time. The former Pink Ranger Tommy had most recently seen, Kat.
"I knew I shouldn't have come," she thought nibbling on her food as the other rangers laughed. The entire time Kimberly noticed how quiet Kat was being.
"This must be so awkward for her. I'll talk to her in a bit." Kimberly thought.
"This has been great, but I have to go. I have a meeting with my record label. They want to start producing my first music video. I convinced them to have Adam help." Tanya said.
"I have to go too," Adam said. "But we'll see you guys soon."
"Thanks for coming. We can't wait to see it." Kimberly said. Slowly everyone started going their separate ways. Kim took this chance to pull Kat aside.
"Hey Kat, wait…" she called.
"Oh, Kimberly…"
"Hey, I wanted to talk to you."
"I don't think that's a good idea." Kat responded.
"Kat, please…" Kat turned around and sat down. Kim sat with her. "I know this must be weird… and I'm really sorry about that. What I did… was an awful thing. I hurt Tommy, the person I cared about more than anything. But he told me what you did. That you helped him through the worst of it. You brought him out of his depression and helped him move on with his life. You made him happy. And I can't thank you enough for taking such good care of him."
Kat smiled. "Thanks Kimberly. He really does love you. I couldn't fill the void that you left in his heart. But I couldn't let him stay in his funk. He's a great guy. Now that you're back, just please take care of him."
"I couldn't forgive myself after the last time. I have a lot of work to do to make it up to myself. Tommy won't let me apologize to him about it. He keeps saying now that I'm back that's all that matters."
"That is all that matters, Kimberly." Kat cut in. "It's a prophecy that was bound to come true. It was meant to be." Kimberly smiled.
"So, I wanted to ask you something, Kat." Kimberly reached into her purse and pulled out a box just like the ones from the night before and handed it to Kat. Kat looked confused but took the box and looked at it.
"What's this?" she asked.
"Open it!" Kim insisted. Kat pulled on the pink ribbon and noticed the card.
"Bride's maid?" she asked.
"Yes. I would love for you to be up there with us." Kat wiped a tear from her eye.
"I'd love to," she finally answered.
"Great! Now open the box," Kat finished pulling off the ribbon and opened the box. Kat was given a black wire hairband with pink roses covering the top. "I thought it would work well for your ballets." Kat carefully placed it in her hair as Kimberly got out her mirror she never left the house without.
"Thank you, Kimberly. It's perfect. I'll wear it during my next show." After all this the two former pink rangers became closer friends. Kimberly was relieved and now even more excited for her big day. Kimberly walked back over to Tommy as Kat left.
"Everything okay?" he asked.
"Yes," Kimberly said wrapping her arms around her fiancé. "Everything is perfect." Kimberly pulled Tommy down and kissed him.
TO BE CONTINUED