Grace Alone - Chapter 4

*Palo Alto, CA*

The redwood forests were a beautiful sight to behold, as a family strolled through the towering trees, marveling at their sheer size. The man was well dressed, at least for a man walking through the woods. He wore a polo with pressed khaki shorts, his longish dirty blonde hair had a bit of product to help tame his locks. His wife strolled alongside with long flowing dark hair, she wore a sun dress and large hat. Their daughter couldn't have been more than six months old, as she slept peacefully in the stroller. They couple laughed together as they walked, as if nothing was wrong in the world.

A ring-tone changed all that. The man grabbed his phone from his pocket and noted the number on the screen.

"I need to take this," he said to his wife, with a slight german accent. "I'm going to find a place with better service, ok?"

"Of course, my love," the elegant lady replied. "But don't be gone long, we need to get pictures of our family here before we leave."

"Of course," he smiled faintly, and then headed out towards the exit of the forest and answering the phone.

"Is the deed done?" The slick-dressed man asked over the phone.

"There's been a complication," the man said on the other line. "We thought we had locked down all the roads, but somehow Kimberly escaped."

"You let her escape?!" the man raged.

"Sebastian, I'm sorry," the accomplice continued. "But we think we have a good idea where they are headed."

"Where?" Sebastian asked.

"Angel Grove."

"Are you sure they would go there?"

"We intercepted a call from Thomas Oliver indicating as much," the accomplice explained. "We didn't get a full trace, and we don't know who the call was to, but we did hear him utter those words."

"Find them," Sebastian ordered. "Kill whoever knows about her, and bring Kimberly to me."

"Yes sir."

*Red Dragon Karate – Angel Grove*

Kimberly awoke early, before the sun had risen. She got out of bed quietly, as not to wake Hayley, and then made her way into the main living space. She saw Tommy and Officer Morgan asleep on the couches, and decided to make her way to the breakfast nook on the other side of the galley kitchen. She sat down and stared out the window, only a glimmer of dawn peeking through. It was an odd representation of how she felt at this point. Kimberly had lived in darkness for so long, and yet for once it seemed like light was trying to pierce through. Life itself had begun to stir within her heart. Hope, for the first time in ages, was actually something she could believe in again.

She felt a tear threatening to fall before the moment was interrupted by the one person that could dampen her hope.

"Can I make you some tea?" A sweet Australian voice asked. Kim's heart winced within her chest.

"S...Sure," she stammered. "Why are you up all ready?" The question was innocent enough, but the edginess of Kim's voice could have been clear to Bulk and Skull.

"I teach dance classes down at the Youth Center before kids go to school every Thursday, and then I'll come back here to help keep the dojo running," she replied, seemingly unfazed by Kimberly's tone. "Jason's smart and knows how to teach, but give the man administrative work, and he falls apart," Katherine rambled on. She fired up the stove top and placed the kettle to warm up the water. "Do you mind if I sit with you?"

"I... um..." Kimberly hesitated. "Don't take this the wrong way, Kat, but you don't have to treat me like this."

"Like what?" She asked.

"Like, all nice and sweet," Kim replied. "We hardly knew each other, and the lasting impression that everyone had of me was me dumping Tommy and leading him right into your sweet loving arms."

"Excuse me?" Kat asked, taken aback by the first pink ranger's comments.

"You heard me," Kim replied nastily. "Look, I don't need your charity."

"It's not charity," Katherine replied firmly. "Kimberly, I've always been fond of you."

"Sure, is that the reason why you moved in on Tommy so quickly after I dumped him? You were just waiting to come running in, and..."

"Kim," Kat interjected firmly, but still a gentleness to her voice. "I'm married to Jason now, one of your best friends. What happened in the past is in the past. Sure, I liked Tommy. At times, I did want to get in between the two of you. But I never chose too. In fact, after you broke up with him I did everything in my power to set him up with someone else, because I didn't want to get in the way."

"Why did you do that?" Kim asked.

"Because I hated seeing Tommy in pain," Katherine replied. "I'd never seen him so hopeless."

"Oh..." Kim whispered.

"Kimberly, I'm not blaming you," Katherine replied. "Yes, he was in pain. But you have been running from something for a long time, and we are here to help you."

"Darn straight we are," Jason replied, appearing behind his wife. "We're not leaving you, Kimmie."

"Even if I treat you like trash?" Kim admitted sheepishly. "I'm sorry Kat... I..."

"Kimberly, we love you," Kat replied warmly. "We aren't going anywhere, and there's nothing you can do to change that." At that moment, the tea kettle began to shriek, and Kat returned to the stove top to fetch the water.

"After your tea, I'm going to take you down to the station and we're going to see if we can figure some things out. And then, if I remember correctly, Tommy is going to take you shopping."

"Tommy? He's going to take me shopping?"

"Would you rather I go?" Jason joked.

"No... I just... he hated shopping with me," Kim replied.

"I think at this point, he's willing to do almost anything with you," Kat replied, returning with a mug of tea for Kim as well as one for herself. "Even if it means being with you for hours while you try on the latest fashions."

"The latest fashions... yeah..." Kim found herself zoning out as she sipped her tea. The anger and bitterness that defined her were slowly fading away, and she found herself, for once since this whole ordeal, finding joy. She even felt a semblance of safety.

An hour later she rode with Jason and Officer Morgan to the precinct. There they looked at mug shots, recorded her story, and cross-checked what she had said to all that they knew about Schmidt. While they gained some clarity on Schmidt's activity, it still led them to a dead end in terms of next steps. While Kim was saddened by this, Jason reminded her that these were the best leads that anyone had had on them ever since their whole operation started.

"We'll get these guys," Jason assured her. However, fear began to creep back in. She wondered if maybe she should just go back to her old life. This way she could keep them all safe. It was this thought that occupied her mind for the next few hours. What she didn't expect was that a shopping trip would melt this away.

Tommy picked her up from the station, credit card in hand, and made his way to the Angel Grove Mall. "I'm not even sure what stores are even here," Tommy said aloud.

"Tommy, you know you don't have to do this, right?" Kim softly chided.

"What, and miss out on spending time with you?" Tommy looked incredulous. "Come on, I wouldn't miss this for the world."

"Tommy, you hate shopping," Kim replied flatly.

"I do," Tommy confessed, though with a slight grin. "But when someone you care about is back in your life after ten years apart, you're willing to do even what you hate to care for them."

"What's in it for you?" Kim challenged. "Do you just expect that I'll be swept off my feet and I'll just be your girlfriend again. You ride in on a white horse..."

"Tiger," he interjected.

"Whatever," She shot back. "And you're my hero, that I can't live without? Am I just a prize to be won?"

"Kim, I don't see you like that," Tommy reasoned. "Look, I don't know what the future holds for us. I'm not all that interested in that right now. What I care about is you. You're wounded. You're broken. And you need us to pour into you, and that's what I want to do. If that means you reciprocate, that's fine, but that's not why I'm taking you out to shop."

"Then why?" Kim asked. "Why treat me like this?"

"How do you think I'm treating you?" Tommy asked.

"I... I don't know," Kim sighed. She thought back to earlier in the morning, when for the first time she felt like she was safe in nearly ten years. She wondered why that had moved her so much.

"You don't remember what it feels like to be loved," Tommy shared. The remark caught Kimberly off guard.

"No... I do... I mean..." she sighed again, trying to make sense of all the conflicting emotions that rattled in her brain. "I don't deserve this."

"No, you don't."

"What?" Kim asked, surprised at Tommy's agreement.

"You don't deserve it," he repeated gently. "And I think, deep down, you know that, so at every turn you treat us with skepticism, fear, and anger. Your protecting yourself from us."

"What are you, some sort of shrink?"

"Did you learn nothing from the story of my adoption?" Tommy asked. She shook her head, causing Tommy to give an impatient sigh. "Look... not every conversation we have needs to be deep and figuring out your junk. But I'm not doing this because I'm trying to win you back. I'm not doing it because you deserve it. I'm doing it because I care about you. You can either let me, or you can push me away."

Kim thought silently for a moment. "Well..." she started. "I mean, I'm all ready in the car with you. I might as well go and at least see what sales their running..." The admission illicited a chuckle from her former boyfriend. "What's so funny?"

"For a moment, you sounded like when you did back in high school," Tommy replied. The statement took her by surprise, but she didn't respond.

They arrived at the mall and quickly made their way to Macy's. While Kim was reluctant at first, barely thumbing through any of the items, it didn't take long for the shopper Tommy knew her to be re-emerge. She poured herself into each section, finding jeans, skirts, blouses, tanks, and more. Surprisingly, what took hours felt like nothing to Tommy. He was surprised that the time flew so by, and he wondered if part of it was seeing a bit of joy return to Kimberly.

He left her when it came to the intimates section, letting her have her privacy. While she spent time in that section, he wandered off into the formalwear section. There was a beautiful pink dress that adorned a mannequin. It had lacy straps, and sequins adorned it's body. "Can I help you?" One of the female store clerks asked.

"You wouldn't happen to have this in stock, would you?" He asked, pointing to the dress.

"I think we do, but I would need to know the size..."

"There's a young woman in the intimates section, that's who I'd be buying it for. Would you be able to tell from just seeing her?"

"I could try... at the very least, I could get an idea. You can always bring it back to altar it if needed."

"Gotcha, well, that would be great." She went ahead and quickly found Kim, and after a moment of considering, she found the dress that she thought would be the best size, and brought it to Tommy. "Thanks, can I go ahead and pay?"

After Kim was done in that section, she met up with Tommy. "Did you do some shopping yourself?" She asked, noting the rather large bag he now held in his hands.

"Just needed to pick up a couple of things," he replied. "Did you find all the things you were looking for?"

"I did, they're all up at a counter waiting to check out."

"Great," Tommy replied, handing her his credit card to go check out.

"Tommy... I might have nearly two thousand dollars worth of clothing picked out, maybe even more. How much..."

"That's fine," Tommy replied. "I've saved up quite a bit for a rainy day, and this is a good use of that savings."

"Tommy, I can't..."

"Yes you can," Tommy replied.

"Well... I'll pay you back then."

"I don't want you too, Kim. It's a gift. It kind of defeats the purpose if you pay me back."

"I..."

"No more arguing," Tommy chided. "Go, pay for all your new stuff, and don't worry about how much it is. I paid off the credit card a week ago, it should have more than enough credit." A small grin finally crept on her face, and then she left to go pay. A few minutes later, she returned with more bags than Tommy could count. "Only two-thousand?"

"I may have underestimated..." The admission made Tommy smile from ear to ear, and they slowly made their way back to the car.

They drove back from the store to the karate studio, hauling today's treasures into Jason and Kat's apartment. They arrived finding the place seemingly empty. "Do you think there's any where I could hang some of these things up?"

"Maybe Kat wouldn't mind you sharing her closet?" Tommy suggested. Kim shrugged her shoulders and brought a bag over to the master bedroom down the hall. She propped the door open, and began to take some of the blouses out of one of the shopping bags. As she did this, an uneasy feeling came over her. She hung the shirt she had in her hand up, and then quickly turned around and swung her arm, only for it to be caught by a larger man wearing black. He quickly swung her around and placed her in a choke-hold.

"Sebastian awaits your presence, my dear," the assassin whispered in her ear. Kim tried to scream, wanting to alert Tommy to the villain's presence, but there was no getting any words out. "Don't worry, your friend will have a quick death, and then all will be back as it should be."

"You're right about one thing," a voice said from behind. "Things will be put back to the way they should. Ki-yah!" Before the henchman could reach for his gun, Tommy quickly struck him with a kick to his temple, breaking the hold of Kim's attacker. Tommy then lunged at him, and the pair wrestled on the ground for a moment. However, the assassin quickly gained control, placing Tommy in the same hold he had Kimberly in. He showed no remorse, choking the life out of him, until a gunshot rang throughout the apartment. The assassin crumpled to the ground, shot through the head. Tommy looked to see Kimberly, who held the gun for a moment, only to drop it as her body shook. Tommy ran over towards her, and held her, and as he did that she finally let go of all the emotion that she had been holding within her, and crumpled to the floor, sobbing in Tommy's arms.

To be continued...

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- Googz333