ORDINARY WORLD - PART NINE: OUR NEW LIFE (PG-13)

SEQUEL TO: THE REASON

SUMMARY: Tommy and Kim return to Reefside to begin their new lives together as husband and wife.

DISCLAIMER: Power Rangers is not mine, just the adventures they are taking in this AU world. Thanks to all the players that made this series possible. Without you, I don't think I would have as much fun as this. And to the inspiration behind "Ordinary World", we're all trying to find our way in this world and hoping to survive it.

A/N: Man, I don't know what to say. This was supposed to be done last year. Just read it. I'm running low on my creative juices, so go easy on me.

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"It's time to return to our lives with something so much more. But are we ready to face the world as a married couple?" -Eclyptyk Neo

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Days later.

Tommy and Kim had finally returned to Reefside after being gone for nearly two weeks. Christmas had been only three days ago, and the one thing they had waited so long to do had finally been done. They told their parents who they were, and they had accepted them more for what they had done to protect Earth after all these years.

It was hard to imagine their parents could ever get mad at them. They were so understanding of everything else they did, so this wouldn't have made a difference. But it was done, and the burden was finally off their shoulders. That was a good thing.

Now, they had to get on with their lives and work out the loss of time in Reefside. Though it had already been done, Tommy couldn't help but carry Kim over the threshold of their home. She had protested that he shouldn't spoil her this way, but after hearing the news of him being a daddy, he could not help it. He could never get upset over news like that, even if it took more than a month to admit to it.

She had settled onto the couch as he raced back outside to retrieve their things. When that was done, Tommy had joined Kim on the couch as they shared a passionate kiss.

"Love you, Beautiful," Tommy had said once they broke the kiss.

Kim laid a small kiss on his lips and smiled. "I love you, too, Handsome."

For awhile, they sat there encased in each other's arms as the soothing music of the radio played in the background. Before they could really realize it, they had fallen asleep on the couch.

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Hours passed. It was into the late afternoon of Tuesday when Tommy finally stirred, slightly confused at what was going on. Kim was asleep beside him, causing his arm to fall asleep in the process. He groaned quietly as he wiped the sleepiness out of his eyes.

Kim stirred as he slowly sat up and turned to look at him rubbing her own eyes of the sleepiness. "Did we fall asleep?"

Tommy nodded before laying a kiss on his wife's lips. "Yeah, I guess we did. How did that happen?"

Kim stood up and stretched out, hearing the soothing jazz music in the background. "I think it was the music."

Tommy rolled his shoulders to loosen the stress there as he got to his feet and pulled his wife into his embrace. "I can't believe it."

"What?" Kim looked up into his eyes with confusion.

"We've been married for almost two weeks now. I mean, calling you my fiancée was one thing, but calling you my wife is another. Now, I'm not saying that is a bad thing, of course not, it's just kinda hard to believe," he sighed before displaying a gentle smile.

"Well, I liked calling you my fiancé, too. But I think husband has a better ring now," Kim smiled back. She rose onto her tippy-toes and laid a kiss on his lips.

They stood there encased in each others arms, when the doorbell rang. They looked at each other and could only conclude one thing about who was behind the door.

"The teens," they sighed and nodded in turn as they moved toward the door.

Tommy had opened the door. And it was none other than his DT teammates, all with bright shining smiles on their faces. They began to file out comments and congrats that came out as a blur to the couple.

"Whoa. Whoa. Guys, one at a time," Tommy instructed.

Conner stepped into the house as he bowed slightly toward his mentor. "Welcome back, guys. We just wanted to come back and wish you guys another congratulations."

"And a late Christmas, of course," Kira was next to follow as she exchanged a hug with the newlyweds.

"And hope you guys had a good Christmas and honeymoon," Trent nodded as he walked into the hall.

"And also get some of the dirt. We've missed you guys," Ethan said as he patted his science teacher on the shoulder.

"Like that wasn't gonna be anything new," Tommy sighed as he directed the teens into the living room. "All right, if we must, we'll give you guys the heads up."

A good hour or so had passed as Tommy and Kim shared some of the memories spent in Hawaii on their honeymoon. They had also mentioned their initial reaction of how their families reacted to the news of them being Power Rangers, and how they were accepting of it.

"Now, I'm not telling you guys to go home and tell your parents you are Power Rangers, too, I'm only saying just be careful around who you are if you decide to," Tommy had instructed the young rangers.

"It'll take time. It was hard for us," Kim admitted as she forced out a breath. "Real hard, but I know you'll know when to do it."

"Man, the more you say that if makes me feel worse for holding such a big secret on my shoulders," Ethan sighed.

"Yeah, at least Trent over here doesn't have to worry too much about telling his dad," Conner sighed dropping his head.

Trent looked at his friends slightly confused and offended. "I can't help but say that my dad had known for some time."

"Guys, relax," Tommy said. "Don't push it. Don't. You'll know when to admit to it. Just present them with the same argument we had done. It won't be hard to edit the contents of that video at all."

"Anyway," Kira began, in hopes to change the subject, "What else should we know about the two of you?"

Tommy and Kim exchanged a look as Kim pulled Tommy's hand over to her lap. It had the teens wondering what was going on as the room fell silent.

"Well," Kim sighed as she gentle put a smile on her lips. "I'm pregnant."

For a second, the teens had a hard time understanding what she had said. But then it hit them as they congratulated them again, all at once. And again, it was hard to really make out what they were saying.

But then, Tommy held up a hand to silence them. Again he asked that they make their statements one at a time.

"When did this happen?" Ethan was the first to say something.

"A little over a month ago. It was actually a few days before your final battle," Kim nodded recalling that day as if it happened the day before.

"Are you serious?" Conner asked slightly surprised. "Can you guys determine what it could be?"

The other teens groaned, slightly embarrassed by his comment. It was of course, too early to tell.

"I mean, what do you guys hope it will be?" Conner changed the question.

The couple exchanged a look. Out of all the things to not discuss was that. Let alone deciding on a name for the child.

"Ya know, to tell you guys honestly, we had not discussed that," Kim admitted slightly embarrassed.

"I'm up for a surprise, but I'm thinking it'll be a boy," Tommy shrugged.

"Have you guys decided on a name?" Kira asked.

"Well, until we find out what the sex is gonna be, we won't know," Tommy said with a nod.

"Okay, so, Kim is pregnant and everything. Why did you wait until now to tell us?" Ethan couldn't figure it out.

"Because I didn't tell him the news until Christmas day. It was my gift to him. I had went to see Adam a few weeks ago and he had confirmed it. So, in many cases, I kept it hidden until now," Kim had admitted.

"You know, now that I think about it, I could almost see it," Trent said as he pushed himself back into reality. He had been thinking for some time. "I mean, the symptoms were there."

"Oh yeah," Ethan nodded. "Meet the Fockers, right? The signs were there."

"But it just came out," Tommy said.

"We went to go see it yesterday. Man, Dr. O I would have thought you guys would have caught it on Sunday or something." Conner said.

"Well, we were doing other things. Was it good?" Kim asked.

"I thought the first one was better. It had more laughs," Kira admitted.

"It was too focused on humor that just wasn't necessary," Trent nodded. "But it was still funny."

Tommy and Kim looked at each other and shrugged. They figured they might as well catch it and make their own judgment.

"So, what else happened to you guys?" Ethan asked.

Kim ran a hand down the side of Tommy's side as he slightly wince when she hit his soft spot.

"Something happened," Conner could only conclude at the gesture.

Tommy sighed and pulled up his shirt to reveal a patch on the side of his body. The teens' eyes widened with confusion as they looked at the couple for an explanation.

"It was just a bullet graze," Tommy said simply. "Nothing too serious. I'll be fine in a few days."

"Unfortunately, our honeymoon wasn't all filled with great memories," Kim sighed. "You guys remember Carl, right?"

And Tommy growled quietly at the mention of that name. Kim quietly apologized laying a kiss on his lips.

The teens nodded, wanting to learn more about the situation.

Kim looked over at Tommy and knew he wasn't gonna say anything. He didn't want to, but he knew he didn't want to leave the teens out of it, if he knew Carl was gonna be coming back. "Well, somehow Carl had decided to follow me and Tommy to Hawaii. And he had confronted us," Kim paused a moment as tears began to form in her eyes. "Tommy had went to go get us something to drink when Carl had came up to me. He told me how much he missed me and wanted to get back together. I obviously told him that I was now a married woman and he had taken it the wrong way. He and his friends had taken me into an alley..."

But she could not finish as tears fell from her eyes. And she shuddered in fright. Tommy pulled her into a hug as the teens waited to hear more about what had happened.

"I don't know how I failed to sense the danger any sooner, but Kim had gotten raped by Carl," Tommy managed to say. "Lucky for me, I had stopped it before it had gotten worse. Carl didn't take it well, and threatened to kill me. Luckily, it only came out as a bullet graze. But he fled again, and if he so decides to come back to town, I won't be giving him another chance."

The teens fell silent, kinda feeling guilty for asking what else the couple had gotten into. One by one they had apologized to the couple before encasing the woman in warm, caring and understanding hugs.

To lighten things up, the teens had decided to share their own adventures with the couple. They had mentioned a few of the things they did-hanging out, catching a movie, doing what teens seemed to do. It was nothing compared to what Tommy and Kim had gone through, but enough to lift the nervousness around them.

Out of all the talking that went on, Tommy and Kim realized they had not given the teens their gifts. The obvious was souvenir items from Hawaii. Then Tommy had pulled out an envelope and handed it over to Conner.

"We were informed by Hayley that you guys were wanting to catch a little snow before the year ended and failed to get tickets," Tommy began as the teens looked at the envelope with awe.

"No way. Are you serious?" Ethan said.

Conner didn't hesitate to open it up as six ski lift passes fell out. They all smiled as they took one and slipped it around their necks.

"Now, I know it may be sudden, but if we want to catch a few good slopes, we have to leave tonight," Tommy smiled as they thanked them for the gift.

"Hey, that's fine with me," Conner nodded. "I kinda want to see what this whole craze with snowboarding."

"Yeah, since we couldn't get you into the ocean for a few laps," Kira couldn't help but laugh.

"I hate the water, okay? I will only drink it, bathe in it, or take a leak in it, but that is it."

The team couldn't help but laugh at his comment.

Unfortunately as much as they wanted Hayley to come, she couldn't. She was still in Atlanta with family and won't be back until Thursday night. She had wished them well. Anton was no good either considering how much he hated cold weather. And Elsa was also out of the question when she was the same way. So, it would be the six of them. But they didn't seem to mind. They would make due with who was going.

Another hour had passed before they had to call it and get set for the trip up to the ski resort at Lake Tahoe. It would be a good few hours drive there, but would be worth it in the end.

Only one problem remained. Tommy and Trent were the only two people who had snowboarded before, and the others were all newbies at it. They could only hope nothing extremely bad would happen.

to be continued...

A/N: Somewhat short and simple. But, I seriously need to get this done and move on to part three of the series. There is a lot of things I need to get out to you guys. But I kinda like this suspense I'm building for you. Either way, I hope you like this part of the series. There will be no crime-fighting action here, that's in the sequel. But, we still got a few more chapters to go to close off 2004. I hope you like them. See you when I do. May the Powers Always Protect You.