Part Two

I am invisible.

Somehow time moved forward for Kimberly. The darkness came and went and she was thrust into the light. The errors and sins she'd committed still haunted her and they'd yet to be reduced to a mumbling whisper in the wind.

Since leaving Promethea, things hadn't been the same. She didn't know who she was. She had been Agent K, Kandi, Kimberly… really anyone that Promethea needed her to be. Now she was lost and living in a world that she didn't know how to live in. The enemy was out there and it was only growing. Rita may be gone but others would come. Rita wasn't alone in the universe.

I am afraid.

She'd lost it all, her job, her friends, the love of her life. Tommy wouldn't even answer her calls and she wouldn't answer Jason's. They were living in this limbo where nothing was moving forward. Convincing Grace to let her go wasn't easy and she had all intentions of running away if she had to, but she knew that wouldn't last very long. She would eventually be found. What do they do to those that flee? Death. That was something she was willing to pay in order to be free from the clutches of Promethea. However, somewhere in the black void that used to house Grace Sterling's heart, she agreed to let Kimberly go and live the remainder of her life as a civilian. There was nothing more that Kimberly could or was willing to give.

I am alone.

The decisions that she made, even if they were masked under the orders of another, were all hers. She would now pay for what she did. If that meant that she had to live the rest of her life alone, so be it. Life had always been cruel to her. She didn't know another life. What was it like when life went your way? She was alone and abandoned as a teenager. Her father was never really in the picture and her mother moved thousands of miles away and created a new life, leaving Kimberly to pick up the broken pieces of her old one. The only stable and constant thing in her life had been her friends. They were her lifeline in so many ways, so when she was forced to leave them, she felt a part of herself die.

Now she was a twenty something year old woman with no skills besides killing. Where would she work? Where would she live? She didn't entirely think the plan through. It had been a little over two months since she had left her old life behind.

San Fransisco didn't house any good memories and Angel Grove was no longer her home, so moving to Florida seemed like the most logical step. It was where she was supposed to go when she first left Angel Grove, her friends… Tommy.

A deep breath escaped her, leaving her light-headed. She tried to not think about him and how much it hurt knowing he wanted nothing to do with her. She didn't really blame him, but the pain was still there. Promethea of course got word of their little marriage and it was dissolved faster than she could protest. It was for the best. What did she really expect? It wasn't like it was ever going to work out anyway.

Promethea did manage to do one good thing for Kimberly. In an attempt to not make things more difficult as she transitioned to civilian life, they let her part with a large settlement for her troubles. It didn't give her the last eight years of her life, but it helped set her future.

I am hurting.

Somehow in her desperate need to become normal, she had retreated into herself. She found herself hiding from the world around her because she doesn't understand what being normal is. Her lids flutter open and close in the safety of her small apartment in downtown Miami. It's a small room, only four walls around her, but she's okay with it. There was safety in it. Nothing can come around and surprise her. The fear that someone is around the corner and ready to take out Promethea's best assassin is gone. She'd gladly welcome death if she was somehow able to feel something the moments before she fell into that infinite sleep. Freedom wasn't all she thought it would be. What was there when you had nothing? Nothing to lose, nothing to gain. She fought so hard for freedom, but she forgot the fact that she was chained to her sins, her soul damned to an eternal flame. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Her hands clutched her steaming mug of coffee as she sat in her near-empty living room, and she took a sip without really tasting anything. Maybe it wasn't as bitter as she remembered or hot enough to shock her taste buds. She didn't even like coffee, but she was hoping that hating something could be close enough to a feeling… and that was at least something.

The knock on her door is the only thing that breaks through her thoughts… a visitor? She steals a quick glance out her window and is able to make a time with the brightness of the sun. The sun was high. It had to be noon. The knocking continued but she refused to do anything besides stare at the wall in front of her. The sound became merely background noise to the suck that was her life. It had become a drumming in her ear now. She allowed the knocking to continue for a couple more breaths. It was likely some solicitors, but she wasn't quite ready to see anyone yet. They'd likely go away if she just remained seated.

What she wasn't expecting, however, was to hear her name.

"Kimberly," the sound of her name came through the cracks on her door.

The voice. It was Tommy.

"Kim," he tried louder, "I know you're in there."

Knock. Knock. Knock. Nothing.

"Open the door."

Too many thoughts flooded her head at the same time and she could hardly compartmentalize what went where. What was a stupid idea? What was the right idea? What would backfire? How did he find her? They all blended together.

Another knock. And then another.

"I'm not leaving," He says, "So you better open up because I'm about five seconds away from breaking this door down."

So demanding.

She smiled. Holy mother. A fucking smile.

That alone had her on her feet. It was like his voice was a power forcing her to stand.

When she opened the door and saw him for the first time as a free woman, she almost sobbed. A feeling. He brought back the part of her soul that emitted emotion and delivered it to her on a platter. She couldn't help her gaze roaming over him. He was still gorgeous as hell.

He took her in as well. She hadn't changed in the months since he'd last seen her. Maybe the bags under her eyes grew larger by the weight of the world she still carried with her, but she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

When she didn't say anything, he cleared his throat. "May I come in?"

She didn't reply, simply stepped aside to let him into her space.

It was nearly empty. Promethea didn't allow for personal belongings. She had to be able to leave at the drop of a hat, or so Jason explained after some serious probing.

Tommy buried his hands in his pocket once Kimberly closed the door behind them. "We need to talk."

"We do?" She said, surprised. "I'm pretty sure there's nothing left to say."

"Really?" He raised a brow. "Nothing?"

She shrugged, "You hate me, don't you?"

Tommy straightened his back at her comment. Where was the girl that could read his mind? Hate was the furthest thing from his mind.

"I don't hate you," He told her gently.

You will.

"How did you find me?"

He didn't answer immediately, knowing that she might not like the answer, but secrets were not something he was coming here to create, he was meeting her to erase them.

"I called in many favors and I was eventually able to have Grace Sterling sit down with me. Promethea found you for me."

"Great," she muttered. "Even when I'm done with them they still manage to keep tabs on me."

"I'm sorry for reaching out to them, but you wouldn't answer Jason's phone calls."

"I called you too, you know."

He nodded, "I wasn't ready to hear you out then."

"You could have called back."

"You weren't answering Jason. I sure as hell didn't think you would answer me."

She gave a deflated sigh, "What exactly are you doing here, Tommy? I'm trying to move on with my life."

"This is your life," He gestured towards her near-empty apartment.

"Not all of us have had years to build a home," Her gaze averted. "I had nothing."

"And you chose to hide in Miami of all places?"

"No, I chose to thrive here of all places. This is where I've always wanted to be. It's where the dream I wanted was promised to me."

"And what about the dream that we had? The one where we were together?"

Her chin lifted slightly, "That, like everything else I was forced to forget, is in my past."

His head shook a little as he took two steps forward and she countered them by taking the same amount of steps back.

"I don't think it's in the past."

She gulped.

"Well, it is. You don't know me, and the longer you stick around to try to figure it out, the more you'll realize that the real me is nothing like what you thought I was."

He nods again and with each nod, he moves a step closer. "You're right. I don't know you, but that's not our fault. I know the girl that I loved all those years ago, but that's not you… not anymore. I want to know who you are now. The things you did, whether they were your decision or not, do not define you. I may not know exactly who you are anymore, but your heart doesn't change, and I know that in and out. You are not the monster you think you are. You do deserve happiness."

It appeared that Tommy had been speaking heavily with Jason, as those were things he had been feeling as well during his time with Promethea.

"I won't lie to you, Kim. It gutted me to know that I knew nothing. Everyone around me was keeping secrets and I was just living life thinking everything was fine. I wasn't used to having secrets kept from me and I still struggle knowing that the world isn't safe. I can't do anything about it. It's not my job anymore and it's not yours either."

It's the freedom she had been seeking.

"But just because the world isn't what I thought it was, doesn't mean that I have to give up on the dreams that I had that didn't come to be."

"And that is?" She dared to ask.

He didn't miss a beat, "You."

She's faced men twice Tommy's size with ease, but she'd never felt as powerless as she was right that moment.

When her back hit the wall behind her, she pushed a hand out, hoping to stop Tommy from coming closer. It didn't work. And quite suddenly, her hand made contact with the even harder wall of his chest.

"Why are you doing this?"

The tears she hadn't felt in months brimmed in her eyes and she hated that it took seeing Tommy to feel again. How can she move on when he holds so much of her?

"Because I'm here to get my girl back… and because it took me a long time to realize that if the roles were reversed, I would have done the same for you."

His hand came to cup her cheek and he's finally able to stroke away the tears that fell.

His words weren't lost on her. My girl. How long had it been since she had been his?

"Give me a chance," He whispered. "Give us a chance."

"You don't know what you're asking."

His nose brushed against hers and she could practically taste him on her lips, "I'm not asking… I'm pleading."

She wasn't able to form a response before his lips met hers in a kiss that was laughably and desperately overdue. Did she even know how to kiss a man that didn't involve tricking him or killing him? When's the last time that she voluntarily allowed herself to become so vulnerable. Her walls are what kept her safe, but falling into the walls of Tommy's embrace seemed sturdier than the barricade she created for herself.

This wasn't the goodbye kiss she gave him outside the club all those months ago. That was a kiss that closed the book on the past and allowed her to step towards the future. It was two lost loves getting the closure they were never able to have.

"Tell me this is real," She smiled into his neck when he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tightly towards him.

"It's real, Kim." He kissed the top of her head, "It's all real."

It was all so fast. They'd stumbled through life, each making the wrong choices, but somehow they were the right ones to lead them back to each other.

Nothing was figured out, but maybe they didn't need to be. In the end, there was only one thing that mattered…

I am his.

The End

Author note: Well, hello! Sorry for the late update. I planned for this to come out a lot sooner, but I wanted to write both parts before I posted and it took me a lot longer than I intended. Hope you enjoyed. It was just something fun that I wanted to work on. This was always the original ending. I'm not sure if anyone other than Highffel caught it lol. On a happy note, I finished a couple of fics before school started. On a sad note, school is starting back up. That's it for me for a while, folks. I will try to upload here and there, but nothing like I have been doing recently. I'm hoping I can do some more writing in the summer, but I won't promise anything. PM me all you want. I'm always up to chat all things Tommy/Kim. See you next time!