Author's note: The end of this chapter is slightly rushed, but I wanted to get it posted before my boyfriend whisks me away to Paris. Although technically, since I'm paying my own train fair, I guess I'm whisking myself.
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"You'd just met Coach Schmidt," Jason said, trying to appease an angry Kimberly, "You were happy. I didn't want Billy to say anything that would prevent you from pursuing your dreams."
"You didn't think I ought to be given a choice?" her voice was raised a little now, drawing the attention of the café's customers, already intrigued by the strange machine.
"Going to Florida was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I didn't want you to miss out on it because you weren't yourself." He'd done what he'd thought best for her. He always had. Now she was glaring accusingly at him as though he'd committed some crime.
"Not myself?" She said the words with a venom Jason wasn't used to hearing from her. "You mean, if I was crazy. Didn't it even occur to you that this might be the proof that I was sane? I have spent years thinking that there was something wrong with me, when I was fine all along! And all because you decided I shouldn't be shown something." Her voice with rising to a shout now. "Did you even think about what I wanted?"
"Of course I did," he tried to calm her, tried to reach out, but she was having none of it. "I was trying to protect you."
"I don't need your protection! I don't need you!" She stormed out.
"Kimberly!" Jason started after her immediately, but Tommy grabbed his arm.
"Let her cool down," Tommy said. All the anger in Jason bubbled up at once. He was furious with Kim for reacting like this, he was furious with Billy for dumping him in it, but he was especially furious with Tommy for being there and causing all this. Jason swung a punch, but Tommy blocked it easily.
"You couldn't stay out of it, could you?" Jason yelled. "We were fine before we came here! Kim was fine before she met you!"
"She still is fine. What the hell are you blaming me for? You're the one who's been hiding things from her!"
Jason wanted to hit him again, but he remembered how things had gone in the hotel and he didn't want to get drawn into another long fight. Or get knocked on his ass again, for that matter. He needed to find Kim.
He left the café, but the argument with Tommy had caused enough of a delay that Kim was nowhere in sight. The door opened behind him and Tommy stepped out. Jason gave him a quick glare then turned right and set off down the street. He had a fifty-fifty chance of getting it right. At least Tommy went in the other direction.
He wished they'd never come to Reefside. Kim had been invited to this competition and there'd been no urgent trials looming so she went for it, saying that it was always good to test herself and to check up on the competition. Jason had tagged along, following her around the country as always. Standing in the background, in her shadow. He stood back and watched her shine.
At least, that was the plan. How could she be so stupid as to throw away a competition? If she hoped to make the next Olympics, she shouldn't be pausing her training for anything, let alone a fantasy world she'd forgotten years ago. And Billy shouldn't be encouraging her. Jason thought he'd made it perfectly clear last time that he wanted Billy to stay away. Wild theories were all well and good, but not when they threatened Kim's happiness.
Jason reached a dead end. Damn!
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Tommy ran down the road, hoping Kim had taken this route. He'd gone the opposite way from Jason because he had as much chance of finding her this way and he'd rather speak to her alone.
It didn't take him long to find her. She'd sat down on a bench and was crying, the anger giving way to tears. Tommy sat down next to her and waited. She'd speak when she was ready.
"Everyone thought I was crazy," she said at last, "I thought I was crazy. There was no proof, I had nothing solid to show me that the Rangers were real. And all this time Jason was hiding it from me."
"He was just doing what he thought best," Tommy said, trying to be reasonable. A large part of him wanted to thump Jason for the secret, but he knew that it must have been hard for Jase to believe any of this. Believing it was a delusion was so much easier.
"How could he do this to me?"
"He was trying to keep you safe," Tommy said, "Someone has to be your knight in shining armour." Kim managed a weak laugh at that, though she hadn't stopped crying.
"He's supposed to love me," she said between sobs, "but he doesn't even trust me."
"I think he does love you," Tommy said, "If not, he's doing a very good job of pretending." Another weak laugh without any real humour behind it.
"What do I do, Tommy?" she asked. Tommy felt he really wasn't the best person to give impartial advice here. He didn't know what to do any more than she did.
"Do you love Jason?" he asked. It was a question he'd been wanting to ask since Jason had announced they were engaged. Suddenly he had a reason to.
Kim hesitated before she answered. "Yes," she said, "I do love Jason." Tommy had a feeling, from her tone of voice, that there was a 'but' coming.
"But," she went on, "it's nothing like what you and I had. There wasn't the same fire."
"Then why are you engaged to him?"
"Because there was no one else! Every guy I met, I compared with you. Everyone told me you were an idealised fantasy. How was anyone ever going to live up to that? Every guy I went out with, every guy who asked for my phone number, I looked at and just thought of all the ways he wasn't as good as you. And then there was Jason. Sweet and kind and supportive. I decided he was the best I was going to find. So I said 'yes'." She looked at him, her tears stopped. "If I'd known you were real..."
She broke off, but stayed looking at him. Then she leaned in to kiss him.
Tommy kissed back for a moment, then pulled away.
"No, this isn't right," he said. A part of him was screaming to stop talking and kiss the beautiful girl who was sitting next to him. But that part was held back by the rest of him who had come to terms with losing Kim a long time ago.
"You're angry and upset. You don't really want this. It's not fair on Jason and it's not fair on you. He loves you. Go find him, talk to him. You shouldn't do anything you'll regret when you've had a chance to calm down."
"Damn you, Tommy," she said, wiping her eyes and giving a slight smile, "why do you have to be right?"
"One of us has to be. Go."
Kim hugged him. Tommy couldn't help but remember a million other embraces, and then Kim was gone.
Tommy stayed sitting there a while longer. He wondered if he'd made a mistake. It had been hard enough to lose Kim once. Now he was expected to stand back and watch her give herself to Jason. He could stand it if it were anyone else, if it were some nameless stranger he was losing her to. He'd never known the perfect someone she'd left him for. But to lose the love of his life to the closest friend he'd ever known, the thought was enough to shatter his heart all over again.
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Kim headed back to the hotel room, walking slowly to give Jason a chance to get there first. It worked. He was sitting on the bed waiting when she was walked in. He didn't say anything, but the anger and tension in the room was tangible. She needed this confrontation. Too much had been hidden for too long.
"I never forgot the Rangers," Kim said, "I just stopped talking about them. But I'm not the only one who remembers. It's not a delusion."
"This guy's just trying to take advantage of you."
"No. Never!"
"He's playing on your fantasies to try and use you."
"Don't be ridiculous."
"I saw you two kissing!" It came out in a yell. Kim blinked in surprise. She wondered how much Jason had seen, if he'd heard what had been said. She stood in silence, wondering how to say what she had to say. She was still furious at Jason for lying to her, but now he was angry at her for one brief mistake. They were hardly heading for a polite, civilised conversation here.
"He is the boyfriend I remember from before the world changed," Kim said, "and he had the other half of the photo." She went to get her suitcase, pulling the two bits of paper from the front pocket where she'd hidden them.
"I haven't shown anyone that picture for years. It's a not a trick." She handed them over to Jason, who stared at them. He didn't look any less angry.
"So that makes it OK, does it?" he demanded, "You knew him years ago so it's alright to kiss him? We're supposed to be engaged, for God's sake! What was this to you? Just a compromise until someone better came along?"
"How dare you! I was upset and I made a mistake! But I was coming here to put things right! You lied to me for years! You hid things from me that I needed to know more than anything else in the world! And you don't even think I deserve an apology?"
"I was just doing what I thought was best."
"Well you were wrong! You didn't even trust me."
"You go snog some other guy and you're telling me off for not trusting you?"
"Don't try to change the subject! I want to hear an apology for keeping the coin a secret."
"If I hadn't done that, you wouldn't be America's best hope for a gold in the next Olympics."
"I don't care!" Kim screamed the words. Her throat was sore from all the shouting but she couldn't calm down the raging fire inside her. "I worked so hard at gymnastics because I was trying to forget. I put everything into competing because I didn't have anything more important to do, not anymore. You robbed me of what meant most in the world to me. And if you're not going to say 'sorry' for that, I don't know what I'm even doing here."
She'd already got her suitcase out, so it wasn't much effort to yank open a drawer and shove her clothes back inside.
"What do you think you doing?" Jason asked.
"What does it look like?" She headed into the bathroom to grab her toothbrush and wash bag. Jason tried to block her way when she came out.
"You can't just leave," he said.
"Sure I can." She shoved past him. "You don't trust me and I sure as hell can't trust you. So what's the point?"
"Fine! Walk out! I'm sick of spending my life trailing around after you! I followed you to Florida and every other damn place you've wanted to go, but don't think I'm going to follow you now."
Kim walked out, slamming the door and towing her suitcase behind her.
She got half-way down the hall before she realised she'd left her purse back in the hotel room. She didn't have her cell phone or any money but there was no way she could go back for them.
She almost broke down there and then. The furious rage was replaced by sadness and regret. She'd just walked out on her fiancé. She couldn't go back and the only place she had left to go was just going to make things worse.