Always a Frog, Never a Prince
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Tommy sat opposite Kat
She couldn't read what he was thinking as she usually could, his posture would change with each passing second and his eyes stared blankly at the floor as if it was just open space.
When they'd gotten home the night before neither said a word, they got undressed, got into bed and went to sleep. But as soon as morning had arrived Tommy was adamant that he wanted his fiancée to explain everything that had happened, everything that she had kept from him. And so she had, she told him everything, her fear of losing the love of her life, the conversation that had taken place after he had left Rocky's dorm, everything. But the same fear remained, the fear of him dumping her and leaving her alone, because whether she liked it or not, she'd lid to him, and Tommy couldn't stand people who lie.
"So let me get this straight," his voice was low and serious, but it was good to see him out of his trance. "You told Kim to leave Angel Grove and never come back."
"Yes," Kat replied, her voice just as quiet as his.
"Because you were afraid that I was going to leave you and go back to Kimberly?" she nodded, not wanting to say the words herself in case he confirmed her fears and it all became a reality. "Is there something I did to make you think that? Or something you've been told?"
"No!" Kat's reply was slightly panicked, and her voice also held a hint of urgency.
"Then why did you think that Katherine? Do you think that just because Kimberly is back I love you any less?" she remained quiet, Tommy ran a hand over his head, Kat had spent all morning explaining to him what was going on, and it was leaving him feeling a little drained.
"I don't know," she said, taking a deep breath she looked up into Tommy's eyes, "Every time Kimberly comes up in a conversation, everyone always says how much the two of you were in love, and that if she hadn't of left then the two of you would still be together now."
Tommy allowed a small smile to cross his lips remembering all of the good times him and Kimberly had together, "Yeah, we probably would be," he noticed Kat's face screw up into confusion and her eyes were starting to well up, "If she hadn't of left then I can't promise that the two of us would be together. But she did leave," he reassuringly took her hand in his, "and I met you. And just because she's back doesn't mean that I love you any less, and it doesn't mean that I'm going to go running back to Kimberly. That chapter of my life is finished, over, done, and I'm ready to start the next one, with you…not Kimberley."
Inadvertent tears fell from Kat's eyes, she wiped them away with the back of her hand and smiled, "I want that too Tommy."
"I know," he paused before speaking again, "But what you said to Kim was wrong, you had no right to tell her to stay away, you do understand that don't you?" Kat nodded, "Okay, well I doubt that we're going to be seeing her anytime soon what with her going home in the next couple of days but try to see her to apologize, for me."
Kat nodded, "I will."
"Good," smiling Tommy gave his bride to be a gentle kiss before moving on to the next subject that he wanted to discuss, "Now, what're we going to do about Adam?"
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"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" Rocky asked as he put his jeep into park outside the apartment block where Tommy and Kat lived, "In case it comes to fist-i-cuffs again you might need my help."
"It won't," Adam replied remotely, he'd told Rocky everything that had happened the night before, and once again the former red ranger had come flying to his aid asking if he wanted any help when Adam went to give the white ranger a 'good kicking'.
"Okay, but if you come back down with blood all over you I'll go up and finish what's left," the red ranger joked as his best friend got out of the jeep and shut the door.
Entering the towering building Adam headed for the elevator and made his way up the five floors in an instant, exiting the elevator pretty soon he found himself standing outside Tommy and Kat's dorm. Raising his fist he knocked three times and waited patiently.
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Kimberly opened the door with a smile on her face, but that vanished the moment she saw who was standing on the other side. "Who is it?" Trini called from her seated position on the bed, however there was no response from Kimberly who stepped aside and allowed whoever was there access.
Kat entered the dorm carefully, raising her gaze from floor level she noticed Trini seated on the bed staring at her. She was reminded of a time when Jason had joked that one stare from Trini could make enemies spontaneously combust, if that were true Kat was positive that she'd be on fire right now. Kimberly had obviously informed her of everything that had happened.
"So?" Kimberly passed her by and leaned against the far wall, her arms firmly crossed, "What do you want?"
Kat sensed the anger coming off of the former pink ranger, she couldn't blame her really, "I need to talk to you…" she paused, "alone."
"Oh hell no," Trini's voice was full of anger as she flew to her feet, "If you think for one moment that I'm gonna let you…"
"Trini," the controlled sound of Kimberly stopped her best friend in mid sentence, "Why don't you go and get that pizza we were talking about," the yellow didn't seem sure but eventually nodded.
"I'll be five minutes," she took a moment to glare at Kat before exiting the room and closing the door behind her.
"Thanks," Kat said, "I thought for sure she was going to…"
"To be honest Kat, I really couldn't care less what you think," Kat was slightly surprised, she'd never seen her counterpart so filled with anger before, it was unsettling to say the least, "The only reason I told Trini to go is because I want to know what you're going to do about Adam and what you saw."
"Well…we'll talk about that later, but first there's something that I want to say…if you'll let me."
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When Adam first entered the spacious apartment nothing was said, now, with a drink in his hand and leaning against the counter in the kitchen even less was being said. He could see Tommy was nervous, and he was sure Tommy could see how nervous he was too.
Eventually he decided to get started, pushing himself off of the counter he stood up straight and looked Tommy dead in the eye, "About last night," he noticed Tommy shift slightly, "Some things were said, and some things happened that probably shouldn't have, I know you didn't hit Kimberly on purpose, so…I'm sorry I hit you."
Tommy dismissed the apology with a wave of the hand, "Don't worry about it, it was partly my fault, I said some things too," there was another short pause, "About Kat…"
"I was upset when I said those things about her."
Tommy looked slightly surprised by the comment, "Oh, no, no, that's okay, she…um…told me everything that went down between her and Kim. She's over there right now," he noticed Adam's eyebrows raise, "Apologizing, she knows she was wrong."
Adam nodded, the tension in the room was pretty thick, and Adam was hesitant to bring up his next subject, but knew that he had too. "About what you saw, I hope you'll understand that since I never told any of you in the first place I don't want the others to know."
Tommy nodded understandably, "No problem, Kat and I already agreed that your business is your business, nobody else's." There was another pause, "How's Kimberly?"
Adam suddenly became defensive, "Why?" he cursed inside his head, his answer was a little more abrupt than he'd intended.
"I'm not really sure how hard I hit her, I was just wanted to know if she was alright," Tommy's eyes were full of confusion.
"Oh, she's fine. You should know better than anyone Kimberly can take a little pain," it was a cheap shot and Adam knew it, but he still wasn't back to trusting Tommy yet, not after everything that had gone down between the two of them.
The white ranger nodded, "Yeah, I remember."
Adam turned his back to leave but stopped, 'He should know' his mind told him quietly, "You should probably know," he paused so that Tommy was giving him his full attention, "Kimberly and me…we're together now," he turned his head to look at Tommy who just stared into open space, "No one else knows, and we'd appreciate it if you kept it that way."
"Yeah, sure," Tommy looked calm but below the surface Adam could see his blood was boiling.
"I guess you were wrong," Tommy looked at him, "I did have a chance after all…who knew?" turning on his heels he left the apartment and started down the stairs.
He should've been happy, but he wasn't, there was one thing that was troubling him, and Rocky seemed to sense it as he climbed into the jeep.
"That bad huh?" his old friend asked.
Adam shook his head, "No, it went fine, he agreed that he wouldn't tell anyone."
Rocky was confused, "So how come you look like you just dropped the game winning touchdown at the superbowl?"
The black ranger was silent for a while, figuring that he wasn't going to tell him Rocky shifted the car into drive and started back towards the student dorms. "I lied to Kimberly this morning," the black ranger suddenly blurted out.
"How do you mean?" Rocky asked, stealing a glance at his friend before putting his eyes back on the road.
"She asked how I got my scars…I told her my step father did them."
"He did do them Adam," Rocky stated firmly knowing what was coming next.
"But I didn't tell her why he did them, I didn't tell her that he did them because I was a murderer," he lurched forward as Rocky slammed on the brakes.
Horns blared as the few cars that were behind them passed by, shaking their fists and throwing insults, but Rocky ignored them. Turning to his best friend he pointed a finger at him, "Don't ever say that again, it wasn't your fault. You know that, you didn't know."
Adam's head snapped left to stare at his friend, "But I should've known, but I didn't want to know, I ignored her and told her to go do something else."
"You didn't mean become our ball fetcher," Rocky yelled before calming himself down, "It was an accident Adam, the car was going too fast, she ran out into the road and she died, you can't change that."
"I know that Rocky, but when she died…" Adam stopped himself and turned to his best friend, "We can debate this all we want, let's just go."
Rocky nodded, "Okay, but I know why you didn't tell Kimberly. It's not because you feel guilty about what happened to your sister, it's because you know you're not."
But despite what his best friend said, Adam wasn't listening.
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Both Adam and Rocky entered the black rangers dorm to a fit of giggles. Both pink and yellow rangers were seated on the bed finishing off what seemed to be a giant pizza. However as soon as Kimberly noticed Rocky she burst into laughter only to get swatted by Trini who was beginning to turn a light shade of red.
"Am I missing something?" Adam asked, confused by the way his new girlfriend had reacted to seeing the red ranger.
"No!" both red and yellow ranger responded simultaneously causing Kimberly to burst into laughter all over again.
"I'll tell you later," Kimberly smiled, approaching Adam she leaned up and placed a lingering kiss on his lips.
This time a simultaneous "Awwwww," came from their two friends.
Adam pulled away from Kimberly momentarily to look at both of the grinning rangers and state firmly, "Shut it!" going back to Kimberly he kissed her again, cupping her face in his hands they eventually separated, "Hello."
"Hi," Kimberly beamed before seemingly remembering where he had been, "How'd it go?"
"Okay, he agreed to…" he stalled seeing Trini seated on the bed.
"Don't worry I know," Kimberly cut in, "Kat came around earlier, she told me that she and Tommy discussed it and were keeping quiet," Adam nodded, "and…she came around to apologize," he couldn't help but smile at the way she said that sentence, "and she wanted to give me this," she held up an envelope in her hand.
"It's not a bomb, is it?"
"No, it's a wedding invitation. So…I guess she meant it," Adam shrugged, he was more preoccupied with just looking at her, trying to feel anything less than ecstatic that the two of them were together.
"Who are you talking about?" Trini called from the background.
"Kat," Kimberly replied not taking her eyes off of Adam.
"Whore," this brought about laughter from both rangers who turned to Trini, "What?"
"For starters its whom," Rocky said taking a seat on the reclining chair.
"What?" Trini snapped.
"It's not who are you talking about…it's whom are you talking about," he looked over at Adam, "Right," however Adam wasn't paying any attention as he was once again feeling the soft caresses of Kimberly's lips against his.
Trini smiled seeing the two kissing and stood up, "Well, I'll guess I'll be getting back to my dorm," she headed for the door but stalled, turning around she looked at Rocky as if slightly confused, "Well, are you coming or not?"
Rocky was out of the chair in a flash and bypassed Adam who ignored him for a moment before seemingly realizing what just happened, breaking away from Kimberly he looked around only to see a closing door and turned back to Kimberly, "What the…"
"Shh," she placed a finger against his lips, "I'll explain later," she whispered before pulling him back down into a passionate kiss that there would undoubtedly be many more of in the future.
At least, as long as she had anything to say about it
To Be Continued
By Boulder
Authors Notes
Okay, chapter 22 is up. There will be one more chapter after this, which will be the prologue, and I have decided whether or not I'm going to do a sequel, I'm just not going to tell you yet. I had some fun with this chapter as it is the last proper one of the story, it was fun writing the uncertainty of Kat and the slight confusion of Tommy as they are two characters that are usually prominent in other stories but really third string in mine. It's not that I hate them but I enjoyed developing the personalities of the characters so much that I didn't have much time for them. Rocky is the joker, Trini is the sadistic but reliable friend, Adam is the tortured soul and Kimberly is the person who wants to help everyone else but usually needs help herself.
Anyways, as I said, the prologue is to come and then I will let you know whether this is the end of the story. As always, if you like the story please review and I hope you all had a great New Year.
Regards
Boulder
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Tommy sat opposite Kat
She couldn't read what he was thinking as she usually could, his posture would change with each passing second and his eyes stared blankly at the floor as if it was just open space.
When they'd gotten home the night before neither said a word, they got undressed, got into bed and went to sleep. But as soon as morning had arrived Tommy was adamant that he wanted his fiancée to explain everything that had happened, everything that she had kept from him. And so she had, she told him everything, her fear of losing the love of her life, the conversation that had taken place after he had left Rocky's dorm, everything. But the same fear remained, the fear of him dumping her and leaving her alone, because whether she liked it or not, she'd lid to him, and Tommy couldn't stand people who lie.
"So let me get this straight," his voice was low and serious, but it was good to see him out of his trance. "You told Kim to leave Angel Grove and never come back."
"Yes," Kat replied, her voice just as quiet as his.
"Because you were afraid that I was going to leave you and go back to Kimberly?" she nodded, not wanting to say the words herself in case he confirmed her fears and it all became a reality. "Is there something I did to make you think that? Or something you've been told?"
"No!" Kat's reply was slightly panicked, and her voice also held a hint of urgency.
"Then why did you think that Katherine? Do you think that just because Kimberly is back I love you any less?" she remained quiet, Tommy ran a hand over his head, Kat had spent all morning explaining to him what was going on, and it was leaving him feeling a little drained.
"I don't know," she said, taking a deep breath she looked up into Tommy's eyes, "Every time Kimberly comes up in a conversation, everyone always says how much the two of you were in love, and that if she hadn't of left then the two of you would still be together now."
Tommy allowed a small smile to cross his lips remembering all of the good times him and Kimberly had together, "Yeah, we probably would be," he noticed Kat's face screw up into confusion and her eyes were starting to well up, "If she hadn't of left then I can't promise that the two of us would be together. But she did leave," he reassuringly took her hand in his, "and I met you. And just because she's back doesn't mean that I love you any less, and it doesn't mean that I'm going to go running back to Kimberly. That chapter of my life is finished, over, done, and I'm ready to start the next one, with you…not Kimberley."
Inadvertent tears fell from Kat's eyes, she wiped them away with the back of her hand and smiled, "I want that too Tommy."
"I know," he paused before speaking again, "But what you said to Kim was wrong, you had no right to tell her to stay away, you do understand that don't you?" Kat nodded, "Okay, well I doubt that we're going to be seeing her anytime soon what with her going home in the next couple of days but try to see her to apologize, for me."
Kat nodded, "I will."
"Good," smiling Tommy gave his bride to be a gentle kiss before moving on to the next subject that he wanted to discuss, "Now, what're we going to do about Adam?"
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"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" Rocky asked as he put his jeep into park outside the apartment block where Tommy and Kat lived, "In case it comes to fist-i-cuffs again you might need my help."
"It won't," Adam replied remotely, he'd told Rocky everything that had happened the night before, and once again the former red ranger had come flying to his aid asking if he wanted any help when Adam went to give the white ranger a 'good kicking'.
"Okay, but if you come back down with blood all over you I'll go up and finish what's left," the red ranger joked as his best friend got out of the jeep and shut the door.
Entering the towering building Adam headed for the elevator and made his way up the five floors in an instant, exiting the elevator pretty soon he found himself standing outside Tommy and Kat's dorm. Raising his fist he knocked three times and waited patiently.
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Kimberly opened the door with a smile on her face, but that vanished the moment she saw who was standing on the other side. "Who is it?" Trini called from her seated position on the bed, however there was no response from Kimberly who stepped aside and allowed whoever was there access.
Kat entered the dorm carefully, raising her gaze from floor level she noticed Trini seated on the bed staring at her. She was reminded of a time when Jason had joked that one stare from Trini could make enemies spontaneously combust, if that were true Kat was positive that she'd be on fire right now. Kimberly had obviously informed her of everything that had happened.
"So?" Kimberly passed her by and leaned against the far wall, her arms firmly crossed, "What do you want?"
Kat sensed the anger coming off of the former pink ranger, she couldn't blame her really, "I need to talk to you…" she paused, "alone."
"Oh hell no," Trini's voice was full of anger as she flew to her feet, "If you think for one moment that I'm gonna let you…"
"Trini," the controlled sound of Kimberly stopped her best friend in mid sentence, "Why don't you go and get that pizza we were talking about," the yellow didn't seem sure but eventually nodded.
"I'll be five minutes," she took a moment to glare at Kat before exiting the room and closing the door behind her.
"Thanks," Kat said, "I thought for sure she was going to…"
"To be honest Kat, I really couldn't care less what you think," Kat was slightly surprised, she'd never seen her counterpart so filled with anger before, it was unsettling to say the least, "The only reason I told Trini to go is because I want to know what you're going to do about Adam and what you saw."
"Well…we'll talk about that later, but first there's something that I want to say…if you'll let me."
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When Adam first entered the spacious apartment nothing was said, now, with a drink in his hand and leaning against the counter in the kitchen even less was being said. He could see Tommy was nervous, and he was sure Tommy could see how nervous he was too.
Eventually he decided to get started, pushing himself off of the counter he stood up straight and looked Tommy dead in the eye, "About last night," he noticed Tommy shift slightly, "Some things were said, and some things happened that probably shouldn't have, I know you didn't hit Kimberly on purpose, so…I'm sorry I hit you."
Tommy dismissed the apology with a wave of the hand, "Don't worry about it, it was partly my fault, I said some things too," there was another short pause, "About Kat…"
"I was upset when I said those things about her."
Tommy looked slightly surprised by the comment, "Oh, no, no, that's okay, she…um…told me everything that went down between her and Kim. She's over there right now," he noticed Adam's eyebrows raise, "Apologizing, she knows she was wrong."
Adam nodded, the tension in the room was pretty thick, and Adam was hesitant to bring up his next subject, but knew that he had too. "About what you saw, I hope you'll understand that since I never told any of you in the first place I don't want the others to know."
Tommy nodded understandably, "No problem, Kat and I already agreed that your business is your business, nobody else's." There was another pause, "How's Kimberly?"
Adam suddenly became defensive, "Why?" he cursed inside his head, his answer was a little more abrupt than he'd intended.
"I'm not really sure how hard I hit her, I was just wanted to know if she was alright," Tommy's eyes were full of confusion.
"Oh, she's fine. You should know better than anyone Kimberly can take a little pain," it was a cheap shot and Adam knew it, but he still wasn't back to trusting Tommy yet, not after everything that had gone down between the two of them.
The white ranger nodded, "Yeah, I remember."
Adam turned his back to leave but stopped, 'He should know' his mind told him quietly, "You should probably know," he paused so that Tommy was giving him his full attention, "Kimberly and me…we're together now," he turned his head to look at Tommy who just stared into open space, "No one else knows, and we'd appreciate it if you kept it that way."
"Yeah, sure," Tommy looked calm but below the surface Adam could see his blood was boiling.
"I guess you were wrong," Tommy looked at him, "I did have a chance after all…who knew?" turning on his heels he left the apartment and started down the stairs.
He should've been happy, but he wasn't, there was one thing that was troubling him, and Rocky seemed to sense it as he climbed into the jeep.
"That bad huh?" his old friend asked.
Adam shook his head, "No, it went fine, he agreed that he wouldn't tell anyone."
Rocky was confused, "So how come you look like you just dropped the game winning touchdown at the superbowl?"
The black ranger was silent for a while, figuring that he wasn't going to tell him Rocky shifted the car into drive and started back towards the student dorms. "I lied to Kimberly this morning," the black ranger suddenly blurted out.
"How do you mean?" Rocky asked, stealing a glance at his friend before putting his eyes back on the road.
"She asked how I got my scars…I told her my step father did them."
"He did do them Adam," Rocky stated firmly knowing what was coming next.
"But I didn't tell her why he did them, I didn't tell her that he did them because I was a murderer," he lurched forward as Rocky slammed on the brakes.
Horns blared as the few cars that were behind them passed by, shaking their fists and throwing insults, but Rocky ignored them. Turning to his best friend he pointed a finger at him, "Don't ever say that again, it wasn't your fault. You know that, you didn't know."
Adam's head snapped left to stare at his friend, "But I should've known, but I didn't want to know, I ignored her and told her to go do something else."
"You didn't mean become our ball fetcher," Rocky yelled before calming himself down, "It was an accident Adam, the car was going too fast, she ran out into the road and she died, you can't change that."
"I know that Rocky, but when she died…" Adam stopped himself and turned to his best friend, "We can debate this all we want, let's just go."
Rocky nodded, "Okay, but I know why you didn't tell Kimberly. It's not because you feel guilty about what happened to your sister, it's because you know you're not."
But despite what his best friend said, Adam wasn't listening.
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Both Adam and Rocky entered the black rangers dorm to a fit of giggles. Both pink and yellow rangers were seated on the bed finishing off what seemed to be a giant pizza. However as soon as Kimberly noticed Rocky she burst into laughter only to get swatted by Trini who was beginning to turn a light shade of red.
"Am I missing something?" Adam asked, confused by the way his new girlfriend had reacted to seeing the red ranger.
"No!" both red and yellow ranger responded simultaneously causing Kimberly to burst into laughter all over again.
"I'll tell you later," Kimberly smiled, approaching Adam she leaned up and placed a lingering kiss on his lips.
This time a simultaneous "Awwwww," came from their two friends.
Adam pulled away from Kimberly momentarily to look at both of the grinning rangers and state firmly, "Shut it!" going back to Kimberly he kissed her again, cupping her face in his hands they eventually separated, "Hello."
"Hi," Kimberly beamed before seemingly remembering where he had been, "How'd it go?"
"Okay, he agreed to…" he stalled seeing Trini seated on the bed.
"Don't worry I know," Kimberly cut in, "Kat came around earlier, she told me that she and Tommy discussed it and were keeping quiet," Adam nodded, "and…she came around to apologize," he couldn't help but smile at the way she said that sentence, "and she wanted to give me this," she held up an envelope in her hand.
"It's not a bomb, is it?"
"No, it's a wedding invitation. So…I guess she meant it," Adam shrugged, he was more preoccupied with just looking at her, trying to feel anything less than ecstatic that the two of them were together.
"Who are you talking about?" Trini called from the background.
"Kat," Kimberly replied not taking her eyes off of Adam.
"Whore," this brought about laughter from both rangers who turned to Trini, "What?"
"For starters its whom," Rocky said taking a seat on the reclining chair.
"What?" Trini snapped.
"It's not who are you talking about…it's whom are you talking about," he looked over at Adam, "Right," however Adam wasn't paying any attention as he was once again feeling the soft caresses of Kimberly's lips against his.
Trini smiled seeing the two kissing and stood up, "Well, I'll guess I'll be getting back to my dorm," she headed for the door but stalled, turning around she looked at Rocky as if slightly confused, "Well, are you coming or not?"
Rocky was out of the chair in a flash and bypassed Adam who ignored him for a moment before seemingly realizing what just happened, breaking away from Kimberly he looked around only to see a closing door and turned back to Kimberly, "What the…"
"Shh," she placed a finger against his lips, "I'll explain later," she whispered before pulling him back down into a passionate kiss that there would undoubtedly be many more of in the future.
At least, as long as she had anything to say about it
To Be Continued
By Boulder
Authors Notes
Okay, chapter 22 is up. There will be one more chapter after this, which will be the prologue, and I have decided whether or not I'm going to do a sequel, I'm just not going to tell you yet. I had some fun with this chapter as it is the last proper one of the story, it was fun writing the uncertainty of Kat and the slight confusion of Tommy as they are two characters that are usually prominent in other stories but really third string in mine. It's not that I hate them but I enjoyed developing the personalities of the characters so much that I didn't have much time for them. Rocky is the joker, Trini is the sadistic but reliable friend, Adam is the tortured soul and Kimberly is the person who wants to help everyone else but usually needs help herself.
Anyways, as I said, the prologue is to come and then I will let you know whether this is the end of the story. As always, if you like the story please review and I hope you all had a great New Year.
Regards
Boulder