Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Pulse
Chapter 29
Floating out to sea
January 1st, 2008
4:30am
Tommy's House
Kimberly stood amazed for a moment before running after him once again. Once she caught up to him, she sprinted ahead and smacked him across his face. Tommy winced and held his cheek, glaring back at her.
"What the hell was that for?" he yelled.
"You fucking dick!" she seethed.
"Excuse me?" Tommy asked angrily.
"Do you have any idea how hurt I was, thinking everything we had accomplished tonight was for nothing? And for what? To tell me that you're still in love with me? You've got a lot of fucking nerve!" she screamed through her tears.
"Believe me Kim. This is not how I wanted to tell you!" he barked back.
"Do you know how long I have waited to hear you tell me that again? Do you?" She demanded, mere inches from his face.
Tommy's face softened slightly, realizing that Kim was more upset that he had simply misled her, not because he'd admitted how he felt.
"Kim–" he started as she continued to rant.
"I have hoped and prayed to hear those words! I was so afraid of never hearing them again! All this business tonight about being in your life again and wanting help with Annie? I lied! I only want them with you! I want to be with you! I want to be your wife and be a family! I want to hug you and kiss you and make love to you and–"
Tommy seized her and crushed his mouth against hers, abruptly stopping her tirade. Kimberly squealed and pushed him away aggressively, panting as she stared him down.
He looked at her nervously, disappointed she had broken the kiss. But in an instant, Kimberly grabbed him by the collar and pulled him into her as Tommy's hands wrapped around her waist and lifted her up.
The couple devoured each other, as lips met and parted, tongues clashing with teeth. They stumbled to the ground in their frenzy, hands groping each other's dampened bodies. Tommy moaned blissfully as Kimberly straddled his lap, and ripped his shirt aside, kissing his neck and chest. His hands caressed her thighs gently before finding their way to her backside, grinding her into him.
"Wait!" she said suddenly.
Tommy obediently removed his hands and raised them above his head as Kimberly slid off of him.
"What are we doing?" she asked him seriously, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
Tommy sat up and gave her a smile, brushing away flecks of sand that had gotten stuck to her face.
"Kim, I've never stopped loving you. Even when you showed up at my door, and told me what had happened. Even when you were drunk and punched me and threw up on me. Even when we spent the next two months yelling at each other in front of a group of strangers. Even when you introduced to me your new boyfriend and broke our plans to be with him."
"I'm so sorry about–"
"Kim, shhh," he whispered, holding her chin in his hand and kissing her on the cheek.
"I love you," he said simply.
Kimberly bit her lip, her eyes threatening tears once again. "I don't deserve you, " she said quietly.
"Says who?" he asked, running his fingers through her tangled hair.
"Me. Anyone in their right mind," she reasoned.
"Well I disagree. If anyone has the right to be angry, it's me. But being angry won't give me you, and you're what I want."
"Really?" she asked again, still not believing her good fortune.
"You know how many arguments I had with Jason, fighting with my heart to deny how I still felt? Jason knew. Jason always knew. That's why he tried so hard. I guess I wasn't exaggerating about the locked in a room idea, huh?"
"Me too," Kimberly confessed bashfully, receiving a curious look from Tommy.
"Jason had me pegged from the moment I came here, looking for Annie. Hell, even before that! I just, assumed that with everything I'd done to you, everything I had put you through . . . that you wouldn't want me like that again."
"I had myself convinced for a while that I didn't," Tommy admitted. "But the more time I spent with Annie; the way she laughs sometimes, or smiles . . . "
Kimberly bit her lip and stared at him dreamily.
"They way she bites her lip when she's nervous or embarrassed," he added as their lips met once again.
"All I could see was you," he finished after they parted.
"I had the same moments with her sometimes, too. She's more like you than you think," Kimberly told him.
"Yeah, my conscience," Tommy joked.
"Do you know, one of the first things she ever asked me was, why after you wrote that letter I didn't go after you and demand an answer?"
Kimberly stared back at him, stunned to hear that her daughter had been so forward, so suddenly.
"And I guess there was always a part of me that had wanted to do just that but was afraid too," he concluded.
"But who knows what would have happened. I was already a few months into my pregnancy. You wouldn't have wanted to see me like that," Kimberly said.
Tommy gave her an incredulous look. "Of course I would. I'd love to see you pregnant!" he defended.
Kimberly giggled as Tommy blushed.
"I didn't mean that the way it sounded," he said bashfully.
"It's okay. It makes me happy," she said softly as her focus drifted upward and she sighed at the sky.
"Trini would be really pleased right now."
Tommy gave her a sad smile and grabbed her hand, massaging it with his thumb. "Yeah?" he asked quietly.
Kimberly nodded and looked back at him.
"Yeah. She always knew you'd take care of me, no matter what. She fought me tooth and nail to tell you about the baby, ya know. She only suggested the letter as a way of saving you from my bad decisions," Kim explained.
Tommy squeezed Kim's tiny hand and nodded. "I know. Trini only ever wanted what was best for everyone," he said.
Kim nodded slowly. "Sometimes I wonder where we would have been, if I had told you the truth from the start."
"Probably married. With five more kids running around in a huge yard and a big, shaggy, sloppy dog," Tommy offered merrily.
Kimberly giggled and playfully slapped his arm with her free hand. "Six kids? What are you, crazy?"
"I just might be," he teased.
"You really think we would have been married?" she asked sadly after a moment.
"Beautiful, I have no doubt," he told her simply, bowing his head to kiss her hand.
Kimberly smiled as her pet name was spoken. "But would we still be? And happily?" she questioned.
Tommy shrugged. "Doesn't really matter, does it? We're not married, and we've already survived more trauma in the last four months than most married couples do in four years!"
"We should tell Annie," Kimberly said.
"Tell Annie what?" he asked.
"You know," she said, gesturing between them. "About this. About us."
"What about us?" he asked innocently as Kimberly's face grew frustrated.
"You mean we're not professing our love to each other on the beach and wanting to attempt a life together again?" she asked incredulously.
Tommy laughed. "Ah yes, that! Well, now that you mention it . . . you've yet to profess anything," he informed her.
Kimberly covered her mouth with her hand and sat there in shock. "Oh my god! You're right! I'm so sorry, Tommy! I got so caught up in everything we'd been talking about and was still in shock from you telling me that you're still in love–"
"So say it already, would ya?" he teased, poking her in the stomach. Kimberly giggled as she scooted closer to him and grabbed both of his hands.
"Tommy," she began as he smiled wistfully into her eyes. "I love you."
Tommy leaned for a kiss, "Won't you give me a smile?" she added cheekily.
Tommy laughed and obliged, smiling as he pulled her into him. "I'll give you more than a smile," he whispered huskily.
Kimberly growled as she fell backwards, Tommy half leaning on top of her, as the two embraced again.
Once parted, Tommy braced himself on his elbow and looked down at her, brushing her hair out of her face and caressing her cheek.
"I love you, handsome," she told him earnestly.
Tommy smiled. "I love you too, beautiful."
AN: SO? What do you think? THE STORY IS NOT OVER YET! There are still plenty of things to resolve (and plenty of things that could go wrong). So read and review and let me know what you think! Oh yeah, a quick but shameless plug; my newest story, Knights of Zodiaca, is up and running. Please check it out! Thanks! Catch ya on the flip side!
