chapter 20:
Previously in Stolen crane:
Lois smiled, "You both have strong women behind you. Now it's time for me to go to work. There is a spare key in the cabinet standing in the hallway. Please be careful though. Clark has a good hearing but he can't hear you in China." Lois chuckled, "Just open the door for people you know others need to come back when we are home. Thanks for breakfast."
Tommy and Kim both say "thanks and you're welcome."
"Not to worry there are only 6 people we open the door for right now and they all served with us at some point," says Tommy.
Kim says, "It would be nice to have a day to relax and recharge since my public schedule is done. So we might not even leave the house today."
"Okay good to know," says Lois before she leaves for work.
On with the story:
As soon as the door closes Kim smiles and says, "what will we do with our day of leisure?" as she smiles impishly.
"Do you want to eat something or do you have something else in mind?" Tommy asks
"Well since we already had breakfast... something else in mind," she says with a bright smile.
She walks over and wrapped her arms around him and kisses him, "but first, I think it's only right that we clean their kitchen first." and then giggles.
"Good idea," Tommy smiles.
It took them about half an hour to clean the kitchen.
Tommy walked over and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and lifted her off her feet and sweeping her up into his arms as he spun her around in a circle, making her squeal and laugh.
"I feel like the day you kissed me for the first time." Kim chuckles
He smiles and says, "good for our lives are going to start from here as he walked out of the room with her. There is one thing we do now that we didn't do then". Tommy chuckles.
She grins and jokes, "if we did that then there no way we would have gotten here without a few kids in tow." She reaches up and kisses him passionately.
Before too long they were in their room and he was putting her on the bed. In between kisses, he says, "I'm just glad we got here at all. I would have taken this anyway I could get it."
"I know handsome, now please my body and soul burns for you." Kim smiled softly.
"Let's see what can be done about that…" before he kisses her passionately.
After two rounds of vigorous and passionate lovemaking, they are laying in bed catching their breath.
She laid with her head on his chest and asks "how long do you think we have before the others bombard us with their company?"
"I expect them in a few hours, beautiful." Not knowing that their lovemaking had been heard by a certain man with a super hearing. Clark had needed a shower after his work in China.
One of the few times where his super hearing was more of a curse than a blessing.
He took the fastest shower possible which was not as quick as he would have liked considering just how filthy he had been when he got back.
He got changed and left without his houseguest ever knowing he had been there.
A few hours later Kimberly and Tommy had been cuddling in the living room at that moment, watching tv.
They both startled when the doorbell rings
Tommy gets up to look out the window and sees the gang out there on the doorstep.
He saw Kim tense up, he sighed before saying, "It's okay, beautiful. The gang is here. It's just our friends."
Kim relaxes and exhales, knowing that with the rest of the team there, nothing could get to her now, powers or no powers.
Her friends would fight until the bitter end to protect her as would their new friends who were sheltering her.
"Come on, let them in," Kim says to Tommy.
Tommy nodded and walked to the front door to do just that.
They all poured in and greeted their friends and Tommy closed the door back up.
Once in they greeted Kim, Rocky was the first one to see the big, hand-shaped bruise on her elbow, "Who died for that?"
"No one, unfortunately, but that doesn't mean he didn't pay for it," says Kim, he should have a matching one on his face. He also the same reason I'm hiding here and not at the hotel."
"What happened? Who do we need to kill?" Zack asks angrily.
"That's the problem, it's the man with his name on half the city. He has gotten it into his head that I would be the perfect trophy wife, and my opinion on the matter doesn't seem to matter in the slightest," Kim sighs, "he takes don't take no for an answer to a whole new level."
"Yeah, the stalker level!" Tommy groaned in response.
"How much did Jason and Trini fill you in on?" Tommy asks the group.
"Nothing yet, he said it wasn't safe there." Rocky was the first one to answer.
Kim and Tommy along with Jason and Trini spend the next hour filling the others in, on what happened over the last few days. They even enlightened them about the identity of their new friend. They had permission as long as the friend in question had been a ranger with them in the past.
Tommy even told them that Clark was going to help him to control his dark side, Dragon.
The others were all shocked as they process it all.
"Kim, I got your wedding dress with me, and girl, I am dying to see it." Ashia tried to lighten the mood again.
"Really, I can't wait to see it finished, let's see it;" Kim smiles The girls go into the other room to let Kim try it on, leaving the boys in the living room.
"So you really cleaned up during the fight, huh," asks Adam
"you could say that again." Jason sighed thinking how Dragon took control over the situation and not in a good way.
"I am worried when you say it like that. Is there something we don't know yet?" Rocky asks
Tommy sighed, "I lost control over my dark side for a moment. That's why I need Clark to help me control him. One of the guys grabbed Kim and had a knife to her throat."
Jason picks up and says," that's where that little scab came from and he lost it. Not that I blame him if anything worse happened to Kim I might have gone a little crazy myself."
Especially the original rangers were worried when that side took control, they had fought him and knew how dangerous he was. Thank goodness Kim was there to get him in check again.
Upstairs Kim was showing off her wedding gown. Kim looked radiant in her dress. It fit her like a glove. Yards of pure white silk and lace hanging and hugging in all the right spots, with tiny little pink crystals woven over the bodice and trickling down the front, leading the eye down to the pale pink flowers that gathered at the bottom of the gown where they stood out against the stark white of the fabric giving a great contrast. A sweetheart neckline and a sole lace panel over a space in the back that would have exposed otherwise, with 3 quarter length sleeves that flared out at the end giving the dress an elegant vibe while still having a fairytale-like heir about it.
All the girls were in aww about the dress and how she looked in it, "Tommy will be speechless." Trini smiled
Kim nods, "I know because I'm almost speechless by it." as she does a little twirl and gown fans out a bit flaring out the skirt.
"where's the veil? Kim asks
Aisha takes it out of its bag and brings it over, she uses the clips to hold it into her hair, the long white tulle, with matching pink crystals. Kim starts to tear up at seeing the whole picture, it's incredible." says Kim
All the other girls are awed at how beautiful she is. "Kim, you really look like a princess this time, more so than last night." Trini smiles, "not to worry, that scab should be gone by then. If not we can cover it with makeup."
"Thanks, girls. I needed this." Kim sighs she felt more relaxed than she had the past few days. with all that happened over the past few days, it now finally feels real that the wedding would happen, "Now, let's get changed and see what the guys are up to." Kim said rather quickly.
The girls agreed and slowly help her out of the gown and store it back in the bag so Tommy doesn't see it before the actual wedding.
An hour later they rejoin the guys in the living area.
"Does anyone know when Billy will get here exactly?" Kim asks her friends. Everyone shrugs.
Jason says, "no, while we know Andros got the message to him about the wedding there is no telling when he'll show up."
"I hope he makes the wedding," says Kim
"I am sure he will do everything in his power to arrive in time." Trini smiled, "He doesn't want to miss this."
"I miss him." Kim sighs with a smile.
"We all miss our blue friend, beautiful," Tommy said.
They chatted for a few hours. Tommy looked up when he heard the sound of the front door opening and saw Lois and Clark walk in.
"Hello, you must be the friends of our guests. I am not used to seeing so many people in my house but you are all welcome here." Lois smiled.
Tommy smiles and says, "yeah, these are our friends and former rangers. You remember Jason and Trini, but we also have Rocky, Adam, Aisha, and Zack, the only one missing is Billy."
"We don't know when to expect him because he lives on Aquatar." Kim sighs, "we know he's coming, we got word to him, there just no telling when or how for that matter."
"Do you all want to stay for dinner?" Clark asks suddenly. He wanted to get to know their new friends' team-mates.
All the former ranger nod, "Sure."
"If it's not an imposition," Kim asks.
"Not at all, I have dinner done in a matter of seconds. Clark winked. They were former superheroes so no need to pretend.
"Okay." Kim giggles back at Clark. The others smile too, being in on the secret.
"So, there seems to be more of you than I saw in old video clips, how is that?" Lois asks confused as she walks in and takes a seat with all of them.
"Well, Rocky took over from me, Aisha took over from Trini and Adam from Zack the moment we could help the world in a whole other way. We had to move to Switzerland for a few years." Jason explained, "Ever heard of something called the youth summit? we got picked to be a part of it."
"I think I remember hearing about that. I didn't cover it, but I know who did." Lois said, "This must have been a great experience for you three. How was it to suddenly not being needed to save the planet from monsters anymore?"
"It was strange in the beginning but being a part of the youth summit helped a lot," Trini answered.
"It was odd not being 'on call' but we were helping the world in a new way. We were still making a difference." answers Jason.
"Just without the possible price tag of giving our lives for it. Getting to be present at the moment without having to create a lame excuse to explain pulling a disappearing act." zack adds, "that bit me in the butt more than once."
the other rangers nod, while Kim and Jason smirk.
Suddenly Jason says, "you still hung up on Angela, man?"
The others start to chuckle knowing where Jason was going with this.
Zack says, "not really, but ugh … that could have really been something."
"Dinner is ready." Clark yells, "I told you I didn't need long."
"Dang! I can't even manage that fast in my restaurant," says Rocky, "at least not by myself." and smirks as they get up and go to the table.
"I want to hear more bout this what happened with Angela," says Lois.
Tommy smirks, "Let just say it's a prime example of why dating outside the group was nearly impossible."
"How so?" asks Clark really interested as they sit down to a spaghetti dinner.
Zack groaned as Jason starts with, "well, Angela was this girl Zack had a massive crush on and she wanted nothing to do with him, but he was persistent. eventually, he wore her down and she agreed to go out with him."
Kim picked up with, "A battle seemed to come up every time he was on a date, eventually, it blew up in his face."
"I think the last straw was when his birthday gift to her turned out to be a plant from our enemy and they literally disintegrated off her body when we won that battle," Tommy added. as the others laughed while Zack blushed.
The dinner went well with lots of laughs and stories from both the rangers and Clark. Never had Clark felt so accepted in his entire life.
TBC
