0000000
Come With Me
0000000
"Can I ask you a question, please? Promise you won't laugh at me? Honestly, I'm standing here, afraid I'll be betrayed...can you turn my black roses red?"
-Alana Grace, "Black Roses Red"
0000000
The familiar blaring beeping of his Dino Thunder band made Tommy clench his fist and growl with slight frustration. He'd finally gotten Kimberly to open up, to admit to a few things buried deep down in her repressed subconscious, and naturally his 'side job' affected the moment. These were the moments when he hated the obligations stemming from his Power Ranger life. Normally he'd simply tell the other person he had a call to make, mask the bleeping of his bracelet by placing blame on telecommunication, but he couldn't do it with Kim. One just because of who she was - the original Pink Ranger - so why bother? She'd see through the lies. And two...he valued her too much. He couldn't lie to her now if he wanted to.
"What is that?" asked Kimberly, pulling her face away from his, concern suddenly edged on her pretty features.
Tommy reached up, his hand cupping her cheek and pushing a stray curl back behind her ear. Her skin felt like silk beneath his finger tips, supple and smooth; unblemished. Years ago, back in their high school days, he remembered feeling her skin from time to time, when they'd share a sweet, chaste kiss. He often traced her features, outlining her eyes or pressing her earlobe between the tips of his calloused fingers. Back then she'd love it. However, the years had altered their relationship and instead of embracing him, she pushed his hand away; not releasing it, boring her eyes into his. Tommy gulped, sighed inwardly, and dropped her gaze.
Then she knew.
"You're a Ranger?" she asked perplexed, "again? After all these years...you're doing this again?"
"Yes," he answered softly, brushing his thumb over her small, dainty fingers.
Suddenly, like a flash of her morphing, Kimberly pounced out of her seat next to him, taking position in front of the man. She looked angrier than perhaps he'd ever seen her.
"Kimmie?"
"You stupid, stupid, stupid man!" she bellowed, smacking him behind his head. Tommy watched with wide eyes and listened, feeling obtuse, as she screamed, "How could you do this? You can't risk your life like this again. You're not seventeen anymore!"
"Kim, you're overreacting." He couldn't understand all this hostility, especially coming from a fellow Ranger. One of the originals too! He wasn't asking for a pat on the back, but...he didn't expect this. It caught him off guard.
"Overreacting," she repeated, her voice tight with controlled anger. "You think I'm overreacting? How dare you?!"
"Now I'm lost," he admitted, desperately wanting to hold her again. It had been a long time since he'd felt that sweet girl in his arms. He often thought about his high school days when many of his friends assumed the worst about him and Kim, thinking them some undercover racy couple. Many times, behind his back of course, he'd heard about some of the guys in his class taking bets when it'd come out about them sleeping together. He never indulged them, never dropping any amount of details concerning their relationship for he had far too much respect for Kimberly and himself, forever the class act. Tommy knew Kim felt the same way and acted accordingly, never dishing to her many girlfriends about what they did when they were alone. All they did when alone involved Kimberly snuggling up against his chest, Tommy's arms locked loosely around her waist. Yeah, he'd love to go back to something like that with her.
However, understanding the situation, he decided to let her vent, hoping he'd soon get to the bottom of her underlying anger.
"Tommy...you're not young anymore. You don't just have to worry about your parents finding out, but about your career, about loved ones, and about yourself. I understand you're still doing karate and my goodness you look better than ever, but come on...you're not exactly as fit as you were then. You don't possess the same energy like we did back then."
"What's going on?"
The arguing pair turned toward the voice to see Jason standing by the staircase clad in black sleeping pants and a white wife-beater. Concern battled with slight suspicion on his face, not to mention a large amount of fatigue. Stepping down to the bottom step, he asked, "You guys, what are you both doing up and what in the hell are you yelling about?"
"Just discussing Tommy's bracelet thing," muttered Kim, hastily wiping her eyes with the back of her forearm, feeling like a ten-year-old child.
Jason looked to see Tommy's Dino Thunder band glowing while a annoying beep sounded, alerting him that the current rangers were calling Tommy. Nodding, he gave Kimberly an understanding smile.
"You knew?" she asked with wide eyes. Jason sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, making Kimberly shout, "Why in the hell must you boys insist upon being reckless? Why do you feel the need to be cowboys, hmm? Don't you think it's time for someone else to carry that burden?"
"It's not a burden, Kim," defended Tommy softly.
"You can classify it as a calling, but damn it...it didn't exactly make life easy then and sure as hell can't be making life easy now. And why didn't you tell me Jason?"
Jason, though he appeared awake, still felt slightly groggy from sleep. Precisely why the next words left his mouth without too much thought.
"Kim, it's not like you're his girlfriend. Hell, it's not like you're even frien..."
Kimberly stepped back and moved her head with understanding, though the hurt was clear as dawn. Tommy dropped his face in his hands, not exactly mad at Jason but exasperated by his tactlessness. Jason, however, jumped back at the chance to set things right; "Kim, I didn't mean—"
"Good night, Jason. Tommy."
With pursed lips and a sad disposition, Kimberly walked past Jason and up the stairs, prepared to spend the rest of the night next to Trini. After they heard the door shut, Jason and Tommy exchanged a look which spoke volumes.
"I didn't mean to hurt her."
"I know," answered Tommy with a heavy sigh, "Trust me, I know better than anyone."
The flash of his Dino Thunder band brought them out of their shared reverie and Tommy found himself instead zoning in on his wrist. Exhaling audibly, Tommy pulled it to his mouth, and asked, "Connor? It's one in the morning."
"Sorry, Dr. O, but you wouldn't believe the night all of us just had. The school dance was tonight and well, mid-dance mesogog sent some henchmen to crash. His goons actually swarmed the dance right in the middle of Kyra's performance. It sucked, but we managed to get out of sight, morph and everything else. Dr. O...it's getting harder each day you're gone."
Closing his eyes for a moment, Tommy told him, "I understand that, but Connor...my friend still needs me here."
"Dr. O, I hate to say it but we need you."
Tommy peered over to see Jason with a serious expression although quite indecipherable. He couldn't exactly tell what his friend thought he should do. A problem given the current Ranger certainly could have used some advice.
"I'll talk to you about it tomorrow, Connor. Unless it's truly an emergency?"
"No, it's cool right now and I'm sure we'll make it if need be, but..." Connor's voice sounded meek, unusual for the extreme soccer player. Tommy learned quickly how much Connor liked to hear himself speak. When bad times occurred, much like now, his voice dropped, a sure sign of trouble on his behalf. He'd have to return home. Soon.
"I'll talk to you tomorrow, Connor," replied Tommy with finality.
He could practically see the simper on the current Red Ranger's face; "Good night, Dr. O."
Dropping his wrist, Tommy stared forward for a long while, drinking in the situation, thinking about everything he needed to do. Billy needed him, but so did the Rangers.
Kim needed him...
"Jason—"
"I think you already know what to do. I'll stand by you, buddy, but...she's fragile. She can't take much more. You're my best friend, but if you hurt her, I'll hurt you."
0000000
"So, what happened with you and Tommy last night?"
The sweatshirt over Kimberly's head decided to get stuck at this precise moment, much to her relief. Kimberly pretended to not hear the question, asking, "Can you help me? I'm stuck!"
Laughing, Trini merrily walked over to her friend and helped pull down the clingy material, Kimberly's head popping out, hair flying all over the place. Trini smirked at her friend, the question still on her mind. One of Trini Kwan's greatest qualities - though some might call it a pain in the ass, too - was her ability to remember even the smallest, insignificant of details. The entire opposite of our loveable Tommy Oliver.
"So?"
"So what?" Kimberly tried to play it off like nothing mattered, feeling like she'd crack if she had to discuss anything serious, though anyone could easily see through her. Especially a girl who used to share clothes with her back when they were fifteen. Not to mention shoes, purses, hats...
"Are you going to play stupid all night?"
Kimberly bit her lip, knowing Trini would eventually tackle her if need be. She'd get the information out of her. This was the original Yellow Ranger after all, and she'd been known for her strong personality.
"I freaked out a little and Tommy and I just talked for a while. That's it."
"That's it?" asked Trini, sounding throughly unconvinced.
Nodding quickly, Kimberly darted for the door, running down the stairs before Trini had the opportunity to question her further. Yet, due to her focus on the girl upstairs, she didn't focus about where she currently was. She tripped on the last stair, landing directly into Jason's arms.
"Whoa, steady there."
Bringing her to her feet, Kimberly shoved some of her hair behind her ears while Jason tried to gauge her mood this morning.
"Look, Kim, I didn't mean—"
"Don't worry about it. You were right," she muttered hastily, pushing past him without looking back.
Jason willed himself to follow her, to talk some sense in his distressed friend, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him from pursuing her.
"What's wrong with her?"
"Trini, I um...I didn't hear you coming down the stairs," he replied, disregarding her question. Like Kimberly, Jason didn't expect her to take that as an answer, but, like Kimberly, he tried anyway.
"There is something wrong with her. There is something seriously wrong with her and I know you and Tommy are hiding it. At this point, I don't even care what it is. I don't care what she did or what happened or about anything that happened all those years ago when she left. I don't give a damn about the grudge Tommy holds against her. I do, however, care about her and I care about Billy. Whatever problem is plaguing her...it's affecting him. He knows she doesn't want to be here and I know it has nothing to do with him. She's..." Trini exhaled heavily, rubbing her hands over her face, "She's just not all here for Billy. What the hell is wrong with her?"
The thick throbbing behind Jason's temples reminded him why he hated high school. He didn't have any of this drama back home. Then again, his friends there weren't like the ones from Angel Grove. These were his soul mates, his first friends, his best friends...the Rangers. Their bond couldn't just turn itself off, not even right then, when Trini finally questioned the motives of the girl he loved like a sister.
"Kimberly changed. I can't speak on her behalf, but I'll just say that you need to let her be. If and when she comes to you, then you'll know."
"Hello? Jason, you all here? She won't come to me and you know that. Hence the problem we're all in. Well, everyone aside from you and Tommy," she sneered, sounding indignant.
"Then Trini, by all means go ask her. Talk to her yourself, I don't care. Just don't expect me to tell you anything about her. I don't like talking about other people's business behind their backs. You want to know then grow some balls and ask."
"I should kick yours," she hissed, brushing past his arm, getting ready to visit their friend in the hospital.
0000000
"Billy...I need to talk to you about something."
Tommy's uneasy voice caught the attention of every person in the room, particularly Kimberly, the one who didn't like change. Jason gave Kim's arm a loving squeeze, but she ignored it. Her eyes never left the man who still held her heart.
"What's going on, Tommy?" asked Billy, curious.
"I um...I haven't been honest with you. I haven't been honest with most of you," he said sheepishly, avoiding everyone's gaze.
"Meaning?" Trini butted in, hoping she'd finally get to the bottom of why her friends were acting so weird.
"Um...damn, this is harder than I thought," he chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. The amount of pressure he displayed nearly took off some of his skin. "You see, I've kind of taken up post in an old position of mine. Of ours."
"Position?" questioned Katherine, her brow furrowed.
"You're a Ranger," said Trini, her statement knocking everyone else off their feet. Nobody, save Kimberly, Billy, and Jason, expected to hear that ever again.
"Dino Thunder Rangers. I'm black this time. I'm...the other Rangers are my students. They're the same age we were and I need..." Tommy ran a hand through his short spikes in aggravation, feeling tongue-tied, unable to articulate. "Look, I thought they could handle it. I thought I could take some time off to be here, but they're having trouble. Apparently Mesogog, the current Rita Repulsa, or Ivan Ooze if you want to think of him that way, decided to crash now that I'm gone. The Rangers need me there. Apparently they've been taking some hard hits."
Tommy waited.
He waited for the blow up like the one Kimberly gave him. He waited for them to scream, shout, call him a fool, tell him he was an idiot, that he was too old.
It never came.
When Tommy peered toward his friends, he found smiles and nods of understanding. He found shocked expressions, but not anger. He saw worry, yes, but the good kind. He could deal with this.
"You've got to go to them, Tommy," said Billy sternly, giving his friend a small smile. "I didn't want this ordeal to...to keep you from your lives. I didn't want that—"
"Billy—"
"Let me finish," interrupted Billy, determined to get his words heard. "I didn't want you to risk everything. The fact that you came at all means more to me than anything. Leaving cause you're helping fellow Rangers, helping people I admire and respect without having met them, though they sound great from what you told me the other day...I definitely can recognize that. I can appreciate that, Tommy."
"You're going to get better, Billy. You have to."
"I know, Tommy, and I will. Go help the Rangers."
Smiling, feeling astounded over Billy's wisdom - though he knew he shouldn't have; it was Billy, after all - Tommy rose to his feet and bent down close to his friend. He whispered only so Billy could hear, "The current Blue Ranger reminds me of you...smart with just a hint of mischief in him."
"Blue isn't melancholy for all," noted Billy, a smirk in his voice.
"Right, as per your usual," jested Tommy, shaking his friend's hand.
After hugging many of them goodbye and assuring everyone he'd return as soon as could (meaning within a few days - he refused to abandon Billy at a time like this, no matter how much the intelligent man guaranteed him he'd be alright), he left the room.
Kimberly, tears in her eyes (she'd been one of the two who hadn't received so much as a glance from him), stood up and followed him straight to the parking lot.
"What was that?" she asked boldly, finally being the one to confront rather than just taking it. So caught up in her emotions, she didn't even register this new wave of confidence. "Hey! You can at least have the decency to look at me."
Tommy sighed and turned around, facing the flushed girl head on. The corners of his mouth drifted up at the sight of her. Her seventeen-year-old self looked pretty standing there.
"Come with me."
His abrupt request caught her off guard, making her step back a few times. Had he really just said that? What did this mean? What did he expect of her?
As though he could read her mind, Tommy quickly said, "It's nothing like that, Kim. You've...damn it, it's not like that at all. I'm just...I thought maybe if you could see life a little differently...if you could see my life then maybe..."
"Maybe what?" she asked, her voice just above a whisper.
Tommy turned his back on her, pacing around a small perimeter, making sure to give her the right amount of space. He clearly realized she'd taken the wrong impression from his words, but Tommy Oliver was never one to just give up. Tommy needed her to realize his point of view.
"Kim, I want you to come see the Rangers. I want you to do something." His last word came out with slight vehemence, explaining, "I know the type of person you've become. You've ostracized yourself. You get up, go to work, and then come home, right?"
Nobody likes hearing such things about themselves. Nobody likes having somebody they love, someone who means the world to them (and in Kim's eyes, it's a one-way love), tell them the problems with their life. Kimberly didn't want to admit it, but yes, her life, if put on paper, looked like that. She didn't have many friends there and the ones she did only saw her at work. She'd have lunch with them, banter on about things in their office or whatever stupid gossip came up, nothing of true importance; never seeing them outside of the office. She kept her cubicle clean so as not to cause problems with the custodial staff. After completing her tasks for the day, she'd venture home to meet up with Snapper, her fifty pound Siberian Husky. Aside from being great company, the dog acted as her body guard, her protection from everyone and everything.
"How transparent have I become?"
"Kimmie, I'm a teacher. I'm tangled in the web of high school. Trust me, I can tell personalities based on clothes alone. You can say my judgments might lie, but I guarantee you, I'm right nine out of ten times."
Accepting his answer, Kimberly wrapped her arms around herself as though trying to thwart off those bad thoughts. A chill swept her up, one which extended from her toes to her ears, making her teeth chatter.
Turning around, meeting him back for back, she questioned, "what does any of this have to do with me going with you?"
"See a different kind of life. See what your life can be and see if it's what you want. This could help you. I want to help you."
"You want to help me...or you want to fix me?"she asked bitterly.
Realizing he needed to make the next admission to her face, he turned around and walked in front of her, noting her tense and tight body language. Gently yet firmly, he slipped his hand beneath her chin and willed her to look him in the eyes.
"Kim...you don't need to be fixed. This...what happened to you is superimposed over your life. I know that and you're smart enough to know that. I want...I want to take it away. Stop letting this thing obscure the rest of your life. I want to help you try to live. It's just a matter of whether your willing to or not."
Kimberly felt a surge zip throughout her, the same type of feeling she'd get when someone reached out to her. She got it whenever a coworker invited her to a party; whenever Jason asked her to come visit him in California; and she felt it now, with Tommy looking at her with so much hope.
However, unlike before, she also felt a jolt of excitement bubble around her, too. She wanted to go. God help her, she wanted to go.
"What do you say, Kim?"
Licking her lips, biting into her lower one, she asked, "I...what about Billy? What about your friends and the Rangers...I don't want to impose."
"I think he'll understand. I think they all will," he told her, positive his friends knew she needed it. "As for my friends, don't worry about it. They'll love you. What do you say?"
Taking a deep breath, Kimberly surprised herself with the response...
"I say yes."
Yay! Some progress for Kim - this is a good thing, yeah? Also, thanks to the lovelies that reviewed last chapter - you bring me smiles. Life is still stressful school wise so again, be patient with me. I'm loving this story, have it all planned out, and it's just a matter of me penning it. I'm hoping to have it out soon.
Oh and note, I'm a Mighty Morphin chick through and through, meaning I stopped watching after that era ended. Anyway, my knowledge about PRDT is limited (though I've been watching a few episodes lately so I can know the characters better) and I got most of my information from internet research. I apologize if it's not all accurate, but keep in mind - it is fanfiction.
