Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers or any of the weapons associated with the Power Rangers, so if you recognize it, it is not mine. I do own the characters, Ally Jameson, Fanny Abbott, Richard Myles, Dennis Alderway, Amanda Williams, Charlie Hughes, Ashley Meggs, Amy Tillery, Meagan Sipper-Stone, Jack Abrams, and Todd Billingsway as well as any other characters from "Saving the World, Again" that may be brought into this story.
XRachX: Yeah, I get what you mean. Nope I didn't, I don't really understand the whole flame thing anyway, so don't worry, I took it as a comment. Thanks for the review!
Now, on with the Story!
Coming Back Home
Kim's POV
We arrived back home late last night, after a five-hour delay in New York, due to a blizzard that had hit the northeastern part of the states, just this morning, which is just our normal luck. I hate those things, but despite the delay, it was one of the best vacations I have had in years, all thanks to my new husband. It's still hard to remember to call him that some times, but I love every time the I get the opportunity to do just that. The man has done so much for me, more than I will ever be able to thank him for or that he will even know about, but I am trying to slowly repay him for everything he has done for me, even if he doesn't want me to.
"Mornin' Handsome," Kim said, as she rolled over to see Tommy intently watching her sleep, looking to be wide awake himself and found it odd that he had woken up on his own this early in the morning. He usually struggled with the idea of waking up, but over the last few days he had been able to wake himself up on his own. He still had his arms wrapped firmly around her waist, as he had left them the night before, not having willed himself to let go of her yet. "You sleep good?"
"Yeah, but I have to go into the dojo today. My advanced class has not had a class in over a week and I promised we'd meet today, just for some light sparring. I don't know why I did that," Tommy said, now rather disgruntled at the promise he had made to them before Christmas break had started.
He knew he needed to hit the gym hard, after a week of no sparring, but he had refused to leave their home until Kim woke up, even if it did make him late for class, which was something that they were accustomed to after the years that he had been around. He had tried to break the habit, but most of the people that loved him, just dealt with the fact that he was late to almost everything.
"You want me to come with you? I wouldn't mind helping you, if you need it," Kim said, as he smiled at her and then gave her a kiss on the forehead before attempting to get out of bed and change.
Kim soon followed his lead, as she attempted to find a pair of baggy sweats and a T-shirt, but came up empty handed after a short search. Those clothing styles were not in her wardrobe vocabulary, as she usually worked out in leotards and jazz pants, if it was a cold day and even that did not protect her much. Unlike Tommy's normal karate gi, which was a little bit bulkier and a heck of a lot warmer during the winter months.
"Here's an old pair of karate pants that I shrunk in the wash years ago. They'll probably still be big on you, but I don't think too many people will notice it at this time of morning," Tommy said, as Kim looked down at the pants he had tossed over to her. Then she looked over at him, knowing he didn't realize how many times she had seen him wear those over the years they had known each other. Which made her pretty sure that they had not been shrunk in the wash, but that he had gained some weight, which did not suit him in a bad way in the slightest, as she would not have noticed if she had not seen the extra muscle he had chiseled into his body a few years ago. It wasn't that he was flabby before hand, but during that mission together, she found out that the years of karate had built a rock solid body under the clothes that he wore to hide that fact. "What are you looking at?"
"You," Kim said, pulling off the red nightgown she had slept in and slipping on Tommy's old, comfortable, pants. They were a little bit too big, but thank goodness, they had a drawstring or they would have fallen off of her, as they were already gathering at the floor from her lack of height, although Tommy had only about average height for most of the men that she knew and took the time to notice that about them. Of course, it didn't help that almost anyone would seem tall to her, as she was shorter than most people and many of her friends took every oppurtunity to remind her of that. "How good are these kids, Tommy?"
"I'll pair you up with Charlie for awhile, he'll take it easy on you, and then you and me can spar some. The class oughta enjoy that one," Tommy said, as he picked up the keys to his jeep and checking to make sure his communicator was settled on his wrist, they then made their way towards the front door and his jeep.
The Dojo
"Hey, Dr. O, you doing alright?" Charlie asked, as Tommy walked into the dojo, with Kim only a few steps behind him, sipping on a cup of hot coffee.
"I'm good Charlie," Tommy said with a smile as he placed his bag on one of the benches and then took a glance around the room, to see that Charlie was the only student there. Rocky had been the one to open up this morning, but he knew that he was heading over to Ally's soon after that, so where were the other students? It surely couldn't be just him and Charlie, as the other students had to be dying to get some practice in, especially if they had been dealing with Rocky for a full week. "Where's everybody else?"
"I think they're back in the locker room. You want to go check on them?" Charlie asked, ushering them towards the locker room and then turning to see Ashley running up behind him, carrying the present the class had made for them. They had hoped they would have been able to give it to them before their wedding, but they needed Rocky's help with it and it was hard to get his help without Tommy becoming suspicious, so they had to wait until after the wedding to do most of the work. "About time you showed up."
"Sorry, Charlie. It took me a little while to get all of it together, I didn't exactly get to sleep early last night," Ashley said, as Tommy switched on the lights in the locker room and the students jumped out it surprise, which caused Kim to jump closer to him, but she somehow managed to not spill the coffee on either of them.
"You have got to be kidding me," Tommy said, as he had not expected them to do anything for the two of them. They were just their teachers, not really anything else, even the rangers hadn't done anything, not that they had expected it, from anyone, even their friends. Them getting married was enough of a present and with as much help as their friends had, had in the situation, it was more a present to them than anyone else. "When did you have time to do this?"
"Well, you were gone for a week Dr. O," Jackson, a tall, brown-haired boy, said, as Kim blushed at the underlying insinuation that she caught in his voice. He had always been nice to all of them, but he definitely had his mind in the gutter more often than not and they could all tell that it had landed there, once again.
"Look, we just want you to have a good time today and don't worry about teaching us, this is our gift to you," Charlie said, as Tommy smiled before giving the boy a hug.
"I'll pay you back for all of this. There's no need in it," Tommy said, as Kim laughed at the statement. She knew that he would be lucky to remember this until they got home, much less long enough to think of something to repay them with.
"If you remember it Tommy," Kim whispered as Ashley pulled the package out from behind her and waited for Tommy and Kim to notice her standing there, holding it out towards them.
"The food's enough. We don't need anything else," Tommy said, as Ashley held out the package, boy were they going to be surprised when they saw what was inside of it.
"No, we want to do this for you, trust me," Ashley said, placing the package in his hands and pushing it towards him. "Well, are you going to open it?"
"Yeah," Tommy said, looking at the large, rectangular, package, and then up at them. What in the world had they done? "What is this?"
"You'll see when we open it," Kim said, as she reached to tear at the paper and it came apart with little effort. In Tommy's hands, he now held a framed collection of pictures of them with the students, having written in the blank space available. Neither had noticed the cameras that their students had been using over the last few weeks in the dojo, which truly made it a surprise to the both of them. "Guys, you shouldn't have."
"So you like it?" Ashley asked, as they had not been sure that they would even know what it was.
"Thank you," Kim said, giving Ashley a hug and seeing her sigh with relief. "You know we don't deserve this."
"No, you deserve more," Charlie said, which caused Mrs. Oliver to tackle him in a hug, and that caused him to stumble back a few steps, as Tommy's laughter filled the room. It had been a long time since they had heard him laugh and they knew that he was really happy, once again.
Christmas MorningTommy had stayed up late the night before, wrapping the few gifts he was putting under the tree for Kim, as his old habit of last minute shopping struck up again, with even more vengeance than before. After they opened those, they were going to head to Angel Grove, to have Christmas with his parents, which would hopefully be a peaceful one this year. Kim's mom had left the day after the wedding and her dad was busy in Nevada with something, so it was just going to be the four of them. Although that happened to be a nice change from the three it had been last year, as Tommy had been forced to stay on the island to do some additional research, which he hated, even at the time.
"Mornin' Beautiful," Tommy said, rolling over to see Kim was already out of bed and obviously in the kitchen from the way that the house smelled.
He was not surprised that she had beaten him out of bed, since he had gotten to sleep at one this morning and she had been forced out of the living room at nine o'clock last night, which made him guess that she went to sleep no later than ten, as he had seen the light turn off about 9:30. He had, had to struggle to get her to leave, but once she did, he found himself enthralled in the wrapping and some other last minute things that he thought of doing.
"Merry Christmas Handsome," Kim said, as he walked into the kitchen and she passed him a cup of coffee, as he was never truly awake until he got a little bit of caffeine in his system and she did not want to have him in a bad mood on their first Christmas together in a very long time.
"Merry Christmas to you, Mrs. Oliver," Tommy said, giving her a hug as the timer on the oven went off and he looked down at her suspiciously, as she simply smiled up at him. "I thought we weren't going to eat breakfast."
"Tommy, your mom said we won't be eating until one at the earliest and I know someone who will complain if they don't eat before then," Kim said, disentangling herself from him and going to get the sausage and cheese balls out of the oven. She had several habits that she developed in Florida that she had not been able to break and this was one of them, it was a shame that more people didn't know about this breakfast treat, but as long as she could fix them, it was not a problem in her book.
"Do we have to let those cool down before we can eat them?" Tommy asked, as the aroma was certainly appealing to his senses and his now, hungry, stomach.
"Yes, Mr. I'm not hungry. Why don't we open presents and then we'll eat before we get ready to go to your parents," Kim suggested, motioning for Tommy to head towards the living room and he took a hold of one of her hands and lead her into the living room.
"Okay, but mine aren't that great, so don't get your hopes up," Tommy said, as he had done last minute shopping, as usual, but that was to always be expected from Tommy, she knew that one from the previous Christmas's they had spent together, although it had been a couple of years since they had been together on Christmas day. Last year, Christmas had been miserable for both of them, but they somehow made it through it and they were very happy about their situation this year.
"I'm just happy you remembered it was Christmas this year," Kim said, as she followed him into their living room, comfortably letting go of his hand, knowing that they would come back to each other, unlike some of the other times that she had done that. Tommy picked up the handful of gifts that had been sitting under the tree and passed her the two gifts he had bought for her and settled his own next to him on the couch. "You go first, I can wait."
"Okay," Tommy said, deciding not to fight her on this. He started with his first gift and was surprised to find a new, black, karate gi, as all of his old ones had holes, in the most unfortunate of places. Plus, when he had gotten this new color, he was now wearing a lot more black and the others just didn't appeal to him as much, although he wore them because he really didn't have any other choice about it. It was too much of a hassle to go out and buy new ones to replace the old ones and the fact that Kim did like the white karate gi's helped with the urge to change color some. "Thanks, I guess this is a hint that you're tired of seeing my boxers."
"Tommy, I see you in boxers everyday, I just don't want anyone else to see them. Now open the next one," Kim said, bouncing on the other end of the couch and he laughed at her excitement.
"What is this?" Tommy asked, as he looked at the unmarked book and then glanced over at Kim. There was absolutely no way that he was going to keep a diary and she knew that, so why did she even take the time to give him one?
"Something I got Alpha to help me with," Kim said, as he opened the book and a computer screen within it was revealed to him, so it wasn't exactly a diary, but he still did not understand what it was and what it could do for him.
"Welcome, please state the password," the book said, as Tommy peered at it before Kim supplied him with the password.
"White Knight," Kim said, as a message came up that it was in the wrong voice key. "Try it Tommy, I promise it won't bite."
"White knight," Tommy muttered and the screen immediately showed the location of all six active rangers and would locate any other ranger or monster on command. He knew that it would be useful, but he would have never even thought of something like this, not unless weird things happened. Then he would certainly have wished for one, which made him wonder if Kim knew something that he didn't. He wouldn't doubt that she knew something like that, but usually she told him within a few seconds of finding out, unless someone threatened her within an inch of her life if she was to let it out of the bag. "How long did it take you to get this?"
"Alpha finished it in a couple of weeks. He needed something to work on, so I asked him to make it," Kim said, as he could only stare at the device. It was as good as having the command center screens sitting right in front of him and it was very portable, which would help when he had to be away from the command center for a long time, as he had been when Principal Randall made him go to a workshop earlier this year. During that week, he had been called back to Reefside everyday because of a battle that was going on. If he hadn't known better he would have thought that Principal Randall knew Mesogogg personally, which would not surprise him at this point, although Alpha had not dug up anything that would suggest that, yet. "You got one more."
"You sure you don't want to open any of yours?" Tommy asked, as he looked at his two open presents and none of her open presents. He felt bad that she had not opened anything, but she was so insistent that he go ahead and open his that he was not willing to go against what she wanted.
"Yes, Tommy. Open that one," Kim insisted, scooting closer to him and watching him expectantly, as he opened his last gift.
"What is this?" Tommy asked, pulling out the very familiar white uniform and it took him a second to fully comprehend what he was holding in his hands at the moment, it was the first white ranger uniform he had ever worn and he could not believe that it was sitting there, in his grasp. He had no clue as to how she had gotten this suit, but he was more than grateful and he hoped that he could show her that. "I thought this was destroyed when I lost those powers."
"So did I, until Billy let it slip that he had discovered all of our suits under the command center a few years ago, so I went and got it," Kim said as he gave her a hug. "I couldn't wrap the helmet, so I put it downstairs. I was so worried you'd find it."
"You did good, but don't get your hopes up about my gifts being that good," Tommy said, as she smiled up at him. She didn't really care what he got her, as long as he was home for Christmas this year, he could have filled the boxes with nothing and she would have loved it.
"Which one should I start with?" Kim asked, as he shrugged his shoulder and she decided to go for the smaller package first. He had always seemed to give her things that she would not expect and not know how he could have gotten, but he somehow managed to. "Tommy…"
"Don't finish that unless it's good," Tommy said, as she stared at him and then back down at the necklace and earrings he had bought her. He knew it was a tiny bit on the expensive side, but she was sure to wear it enough that it would be worth the expense. Plus, he had been waiting for an occasion to buy the things that matched her engagement ring, for a long time and this seemed like as good of a time as any.
"It's beautiful, Tommy, but when did you have time to buy this?" Kim asked, as the expression on his face turned to a look of guilt.
"Remember when there was the emergency at the dojo, well I actually was going to pick this up, but something happening at the dojo seemed less suspicious," Tommy said, as she laughed at how far he went out of his way to cover his tracks, just so she would be surprised and that was one thing that she loved about him.
"Good one. I need to remember that for when I want to go shopping and you won't let me," Kim said, opening up the next, and what she thought would be her final, present. Upon opening the box, she found two new leotards: one pink, one black, and a pair of black jazz pants. She was sure that was it, until she saw a card buried under the clothes, which seemed odd. "This is a first, even for you."
"Just open it," Tommy said, as he was the one, who was now anxious to see the others reaction and he now understood why Kim had been bouncing up and down on the couch earlier. If he didn't think that the couch would break, he would have been tempted to do the same thing, instead he settled for closing the remaining space between them and putting his arm around her, and she automatically molded herself to his side.
"Okay," Kim said tearing at the glued seams of the envelope and pulling out a few pieces of notebook paper, folded neatly to fit inside of the small envelope.
Beautiful,
Well, as I look under the Christmas tree at midnight, I notice you got me three presents and I only got you two, this year. I know we said that we wouldn't compare the numbers, as us being together was what really mattered, but I couldn't help but to feel that you got shortchanged on this part of the deal. So, I decided to tell you some things that you may not hear often enough from me in our everyday life.
Firstly, I want to thank you for sitting on the sidelines these past few weeks, since that incident we had with Zeltrax certainly rattled us both. I don't worry about you like I would if you were out there with me, fighting unprotected. I know that it has been rough on you, watching from the command center, when you want so badly to be out there with us, fighting the good fight, but I can't risk you dying out there because of me. We both know how Mesogogg is gunning for our hearts this time, you happen to be my heart, and it seems that the whole world knows that one. They have for years, but we both knew that, deep down, even when it didn't seem that way to others. You know if another power source ever comes along, I'll offer it to you first, no questions asked. I want you to be out there with me, but I can't risk you, again, unless you are protected, someway.
Secondly, thank you for giving me everything that you have. Some of those things happen to be even too personal for me to write without blushing, so I am sure that you can figure out what I am talking about, as you would probably be the same. Some, however, are not. You may not know some of it and then again, you may.
One thing I want to tell you is that you were the first girl I ever got the nerve up to kiss and you were so nice about it, as I truly feared that I had screwed up in every way that I could imagine on that kiss. Don't drop the letter, Kim. It doesn't deserve that sort of treatment and keep on reading it, too.
Another one is that you are the only girl in this world that it would have been worth waiting five years for you to come back to me and I am truly grateful for every moment that I have with you. You are the most precious thing in my world and you always will be, Beautiful.
About that nickname, I have to confess that I didn't want to wake you up that day, when you fainted from the shock of me coming back as the white ranger, you looked so peaceful and well for lack of a better choice of words, beautiful. Corny, isn't it? And to believe it actual stuck is even crazier. You also are the only girl that I have ever given a nickname that they would respond to, without looking at me like I am crazy and telling me that I should just call them by their really name. There is so much more I could tell you, but I don't know if there is enough paper in the world to hold everything that I feel for you and everything that you have so graciously given to me.
The last thing that I want to tell you is that you never need to worry about how much I love you. I have always felt this way about you, even when I was evil and I thought that you hated me. Yeah, there were times when I wondered if I should try to stop, all those years ago, but every time I thought that, I physically got sick to my stomach. That let me know that you were always going to be it for me and there was nothing else I could do about it, even if I tried to get over loving you.
Then, my pride got in the way. I thought that as long as you were happy that I would be happy for you, so if he made you happy I would be fine, somehow, but that was a joke. I knew deep down I couldn't be happy for you, when I knew that I was supposed to be yours. Well, there wasn't even a he, so I guess all of Jason's and the others "she will only be yours" was really true, this time, but don't tell Jason that I said he was right. He'd hold that over my head for years to come. I guess that you can say that I love you and it's not just a little bit, you make me complete, always have, and always will. So Beautiful, Merry Christmas, and I hope that we will be able to enjoy many more together and who knows, maybe we'll even have some kids to enjoy all of this with someday.
Love,
Your Handsome
"Thank you, Tommy," Kim said, smiling over at him and giving him a hug, before he reached over to wipe the happy tears away. He hadn't known that a simple note would cause this, but she was not mad, which was a good sign, as he had not been sure how it would go over.
"Your welcome, go on and get a shower, I'll eat breakfast, then we can switch," Tommy said, as she nodded her head and headed towards the upstairs, master, bathroom.
Lunch at the Oliver's"Mama," Tommy said, entering his parents' house, quietly, as Kim shut the door behind the two of them and looked around at the decorations. The Oliver's had not held back on the Christmas decorations, although they were only entertaining two people for Christmas this year.
"In the kitchen, Tommy," Mrs. Oliver said, as she heard Tommy set some presents under the tree, before they continued towards the kitchen. "Hello, Kim, how was the honeymoon?"
"Wonderful," Kim said, with a smile, as she couldn't help but think back to the days that they had spent in Venice. Yes, it truly was wonderful, even if no one else would have thought so.
"My son didn't misbehave too much, did he?" Mrs. Oliver asked, as Kim laughed at her question. "I take that as a no. Now, Tommy, you know better."
"A little taste has never hurt him before, Martha. You know we have to make sure it is all right," Mr. Oliver said, sampling some of the cake batter as well and receiving a stern look from Mrs. Oliver and a quiet giggle from Kim.
"So, have you talked with any of your friends since you got back?" Mrs. Oliver said, shaking her head at her husband's encouragement of this behavior.
"Just Jason, and he needed to know the date of the dojo's tournament," Tommy said, as he settled himself in the seat farthest away from the stove, where he was likely to do the least harm. He knew that his mother was likely to ask him to do some sort of food preparation and that was when he would suddenly find something else interesting and leave, along with his dad.
"Well, it seems he'll be the next one to pop the question or Adam, they seemed about as nervous as you were on that altar a few weeks ago," Martha said, as Tommy nodded his head in agreement. He knew all too well what the two of them had in store for their unsuspecting girlfriends.
"Jason definitely does not want to waste anymore time that he already has," Kim said, as only Tommy, Trini, and she knew how far back all of this went for him. He had admitted that he had wasted those years, but that no longer mattered. He had her now. That was all that was important to him.
"Yeah, I can remember when all of you came over here that one night, while you were still in high school. I thought the poor boy was going to go crazy when you asked him who he liked. Wouldn't you have known, it was the girl sitting right beside him and she never suspected it," Martha said, as Kim and Tommy remembered that night in another way. He had just lost his green ranger powers, for the first time and they were trying to cheer him up, but he soon got sick from the side effects. He just never seemed to catch the easy end of things and they had soon left, with Kim feeling horrible for having to leave him the way that he was.
"We didn't mean to embarrass him, but it would just seem like he would like one of the girls that were constantly flirting with him at school," Kim said, as Tommy just shook his head. He had suspected, even in high school, that Jason had a thing for Trini, but he had never been brave enough to ask about that one. Neither of them would have until they saw the aisle's worst fear for Jason. Then they knew the truth that one of their best friends, was in love and it seemed that he had been for a very long time.
"Kimberly Oliver, you know that's a lie," Tommy said, stealing another bit of batter and getting hit on the back of the hand by his mother's spoon. "Ow."
"Out, the both of you, if you keep this up there won't be a cake to eat and then you'll be mad at me," Martha said, shooing them out of the kitchen. As Tommy pouted to have to leave Kim behind, but knew that, there was no point in arguing with his mother. She was determined to save her cake no matter who that meant making mad.
"Works every time," Mr. Oliver muttered, as Tommy couldn't help but stifle back a laugh. When he was younger, his dad was responsible for helping with the food and was determined to get out of it. After several years of trying, to no avail, he figured out what got to his wife more than anything else: taking the batter out of the bowl and eating all of it. One year, there was no cake and thus they began being kicked out of the kitchen, to save the cake. No one else would have taken that and used it against his mother, but it worked and they never stopped after that Christmas, as neither of them was any good in the kitchen.
"Yes it does, but only because both of you like the cake better baked, than the batter," Martha said, as Tommy then started to laugh at how true that was.
"Alright, Martha," Mr. Oliver said, as he continued to push Tommy towards the living room.
"So that's the trick to keep them from destroying the food?" Kim asked, as Martha shook her head and watched the young girl thoughtfully nod, before she went to find an apron. "I wish that I had known about that sooner."
"You don't have to help cook this year. I did that last year to make sure that you forgot Tommy was away on that island. You were suffering last year at this time because he was away and after the damn thing blew up, gosh I thought you were going to tie him down to that recliner of his for the rest of his life," Martha said, as Kim shifted her gaze to the floor and then back up at Tommy's mother.
"Yeah, you were right about that one," Kim said, "but I couldn't tie him down, although I wanted to. We had some repairs to make to the house. I had kinda let some things get out of hand."
"I heard about those. What would be so important as to keep you up for four days without any sleep now missy?" Martha asked, as Kim stared at her with wide eyes. How could she get out of this one, without letting them know who she and their son were?
"Things," Kim said, vaguely, taking the spoon from Martha and sending her on her way to continue to work on the main dishes.
"Oh, it's one of those things," Martha said, knowledgeably, as she had heard that particular answer from Tommy a great deal since they had moved to Angel Grove, as he would have to run off to one thing or another. They had gotten suspicious over the years, as he would come home bruised and tired, but the bruises always went away soon and that kept them from questioning it. As well as the fact that his friends carried the bruises as well, although she had seen them on Kim and Tommy a few times lately, but it was probably just their work at the dojo. "The two of you must have one heck of a secret for it to cause you two to work like that."
"It's not a secret, it's a way of life. We're used to it," Kim said, as she remembered talking to Kira about the very same thing. For them, it was not a secret to be discarded to any unworthy individual, but a way of life in which the fabric of the secret wove itself into their very being. Hence, they lived, breathed, and were the Power Rangers, no matter how hard they tried to get away from it, it was what they were always going to be.
"My son really has gotten to you, hasn't he?" Martha asked, as Kim nodded her head. If she only knew how many ways, he had gotten to her, if she only knew. "Well, while that cooks, let's go watch that football game."
"Football?" Kim asked, in semi-shock. Tommy had never watched any sporting event, well most of the time. He might watch a karate competition every once in awhile, but they rarely came on and they didn't usually have the spare time for something like that, as things always came up, especially when they had just managed to get some free time.
"I know Tommy doesn't watch it often, but his father is a huge fan and we have always watched a game on Christmas Day. Tommy loves it, but I think it is enough to last him the rest of the year," Martha said, as Kim understood it a little better and noticed that Tommy was sitting on the couch, elbows on his knees, intrigued by the ball game. Kim had only seen him stare at something that long a few times before and she knew all to well what he had been staring at then.
"Thank goodness," Kim said, as she sat down on the other couch, to avoid taking away Tommy's focus on the television. "You know he doesn't stare that hard at most things."
"Yeah, we know," Mr. Oliver said, with a laugh.
"Mr. Oliver," Kim admonished, as Tommy looked over at her and then back at the television.
"No more, Mr. Oliver, Kim. It's James, has been for years and you should call me that since the two of you finally got married," James said, as Kim smiled and then Mr. Oliver turned back to watch the football game, as Tommy yelled at the television.
"How often does this happen?" Kim asked, as Tommy then sat back and she had to admit that she had never seen him like that before.
Although he had been that mad when things went wrong in the field, no it wasn't even when things went wrong, it was when people got hurt. She was the one irate when he got hurt, as his own safety did not matter to him, but he basically ignored it, as he knew he was keeping her and the others safe by being out there.
"Okay, another tradition I forgot to mention, they each bet on a team. They've done that since Tommy was about thirteen and obviously Tommy's team is losing," Martha said, as Kim thought about how much money Tommy had grabbed that morning and she knew that they already had everything for his parents, but she hoped he was not betting that much on a game.
"How much do they usually bet?" Kim asked, as Tommy threw a plastic cup at the television and Kim stared, shying away from him, as he glanced over at her looking positively irate.
"Not much, but some years it is worse than others. A few years ago, to pull Tommy's mind of some things, he decided they wouldn't bet at all. Tommy enjoyed that game more than most of the others," Martha said, as Tommy stood up and left the room, with Kim following closely behind him.
"You alright?" Kim asked, as she walked into his old room and was hit by so many old memories that it overwhelmed her, which caused her to sit down on the floor before she even took two steps into the room. When she had come last year, they had avoided anything of his, so this made it almost ten years since she had been inside this room, with him. He knew that she had been following him, only he had hoped she would not react like this.
"It's been a long time, hasn't it?" Tommy said, with a smile, as the anger of his team being beaten so badly in the first quarter, subsided. "Nah, let's not talk about that one. There's something in here that we need to take home."
"Lunch, Tommy, Kim!" Martha yelled, as they both jumped and he went to dig out a few boxes from under his old bed.
"Coming, Mrs. Oliver!" Kim yelled, as Tommy held the box out and she carefully took it and placed it in the living room, as she was sure that they would be dealing with that later.
"Well, do we need to say the blessing before we eat," Martha said, as Tommy stopped the forkful of food that's destination was his mouth and placed it back on the plate, as Kim gave him a gentle smile before bowing her head.
"Thank you, Martha," James said, bowing his head. "Dear God, thank you for this life that you have given us and the time that we have to be together. Thank you that our son's family is able to be here in one piece, as that was nearly destroyed this summer. Thank you for your understanding and giving your Son to die for our sins. In Jesus name I pray, amen."
"Amen," Tommy softly echoed, as he squeezed Kim's hand and then looked down at his full plate of food. This brought his communicator back into sight, when he saw it, he suddenly got the sinking feeling that there was something going on that would have to be taken care of when they got back home and that she had caught on to what he was thinking as well.
AN: Thank you for reading and I hope that you have enjoyed this chapter and I know that I left this chapter hanging, in some ways, but it will all be explained in the next one, I promise.