Now, on with the Story!
Back to School
Tommy's POV
Well, I started back to school today, after a week and a couple of extra days off that was certainly interesting for me, to say the least. After Angie was born, on early Saturday morning, we both knew that the other things in our life needed to be attended to as quickly as possible. It was not that we didn't want to have time to heal, but time was definitely not on our side with the current situations we have.
Kim, on her second day out of the hospital, morphed for the first time and fainted afterwards, but we had no choice but to try it, although Tanya had a fit when she found out, not that we purposely told her about the incident. She guessed about it, as Kim's and my communicators were changed after we received the new powers and it was fairly obvious that the change had occurred. It always is when your powers are changed from one set to another. It seems like everything about you changes and you shift into being another form of yourself.
Tanya understands how all of this is, but she also has to look at Kim as a patient and not just a ranger with a job to do. She insisted that Kim not do it again until the two weeks are up, but she is going to try it again this afternoon. She wants to try it and I know that it would make me feel better if she was able to morph for more than a few seconds before we have to go fight somewhere.
We have to be ready for anything and that means that we might have to go against what several doctors would say to her if they knew the whole story. I imagine that if they knew the whole story, several of them would yell and scream at us for even getting pregnant, but that is why it is kept a secret and it will always be kept a secret.
I walked into my classroom this morning and my homeroom was rather somber, which surprised me. This group of tenth graders have been through hell this year, with me having to leave so often, with Kim's doctors appointments, problems at the dojo, and other things that I put in one of those categories because I couldn't say what it really was. I could only imagine if I had had a teacher like this in high school, but luckily all of my teachers were just teachers; none of them lead the double life of being the head ranger as well.
Principal Randall decided that she is the only one that could sit with them and try to teach them something, although I doubt that she was able to do that. They don't respect her and they know how I feel about her, actually I think most of the school knows how I feel about her. They have to after all the times that we have gotten into fights in the middle of the hallway before or right after recess.
I know that I did not approve of her teaching my classes, but there was nothing I could do about it. She insisted on it and the only thing I could do was apologize to my classes, and most of them took it rather well. I just thought that they would have been talkative, but something was wrong with them and I soon found out what it was as Principal Randall entered the room.
"Well, Dr. Oliver, I am surprised to see you back today. I thought you would be taking several more days off, due to the fact that your wife just had the baby. How is she, by the way?" Principal Randall asked, as he stared over at her, wondering why she was in his classroom anymore.
He had made it perfectly clear when he would come back to teach a few days ago, not that she had listened to him then. She had thought that something would come up and he would be out a couple more days, which would give her more time to gather information from the students, which had been a futile effort so far. They really seemed to know nothing and it did shock her that he was able to keep it a secret so well. Although, she had come up with the idea that this might not have been his first time as a ranger, which would explain a lot.
"She's fine and I am back here to teach. So, I no longer need a substitute, thank you very much for your services. I am sure that my classes really appreciated it," Tommy said, as Principal Randall looked between him and his homeroom class, seeing that he was deathly serious about every word that he said.
He knew that the only reason he would need a substitute was if he had to fight the final battle during school, which was a distinct possibility right now. He wanted to do that as soon as he could and if that meant that he would have to take a month or more out of school, then he would. If he lost his job, then that just happened, saving the world was much more important. He did have the dojo to fall back on now and he would do that if it came down to it.
"Dr. Oliver, have you not remembered who is in charge at this school?" Principal Randall asked, as Tommy looked over at her and nodded his head yes. If he attempted to say anything, there was no guarantee that he would be able to control his anger and he did not want to get into a yelling match on his first day back at school. As long as he could manage to hold his temper then he would have the upper hand, but when he lost it, he was sure that she would bitch about it for days, although there were some times when he would rather handle that side of her. If she acted like a bitch, then he had the excuse to be mean to her. "Well, I shall see you at our faculty meeting this afternoon."
"I guess I'll be there. I thought that we held faculty meetings on Monday, though," Tommy said, giving her an odd look.
He knew that they usually did not make people make it up, but that even seemed to be out of the question right now. It seemed like she was suggesting that they had, had no meeting at all, which was an odd occurrence. What would have made her call off her weekly torture session?
"Well since you were not here, I thought we'd have one to reintroduce you to the rest of the faculty. They probably don't even know who you are anymore after all the time that you've missed," Principal Randall said, as he shook his head that he understood and knew he would just have to deal with it. Most of the faculty had already seen him this morning or had seen him while he was gone, but she seemed to ignore that fact with ease. She hadn't even asked to see a picture of Angie like everyone else had, but he could honestly say that he didn't really expect much more out of her. She had never acted as if she had cared before, why would things change now?
"I'll be there," Tommy said begrudgingly as Principal Randall exited the room and he then looked out at his homeroom. They seemed guilty that this had happened to him, but now they were sheepishly smiling. They always enjoyed when Dr. O made Principal Randall look like a fool, but he had held his tongue back today, which was even funnier. They could only imagine the thoughts that were bouncing around in his brain at the moment and they were sure that they could get some of them out of him, with just a little bit of prodding. "You knew, didn't you?"
"We didn't know that she was going to do that, but she mentioned some crazy things while she subbed for you this last week. She seemed to think that you knew something about the Power Rangers, that is crazy, isn't it? No one knows who they are and no one will ever find out," Jennifer Meadows said as Tommy looked at her and then silently swore in his brain before looking out at his class.
Principal Randall had crossed the line and how in the world had she known that anyway? There were only a select few that knew about his ranger involvement and she had not been one of those privileged few that he had told. What was going on here? What had happened that he missed?
"Yeah, it is, but just keep it between all of us that she mentioned something that crazy. I'm not really surprised that she would say something like that. She doesn't like me anyway," Tommy said, as they laughed.
They were happy to have their teacher back, although many of them knew that meant that their work would be a lot harder than it had been over the last few days though. She had been so interested in trying to see if they knew anything about the rangers that she had not managed to teach them anything, which worried them considering the fact that she was supposed to administer one of his tests to them.
"Dr. Oliver, when is our next test?" Adam Briggs asked, as Tommy looked at them and just shook his head. They were supposed to have been tested on Tuesday, but that obviously did not happen. Principal Randall was going to catch it whenever he got a chance to tell her off about how she had conducted herself in his classroom. She made it seem like no one else could teach the class, but she didn't do a damn bit of work herself.
"Well, I thought that you were going to take a test yesterday, but obviously she did not follow my lesson plans. It'll be today, sorry about that. Don't worry though, if all of you fail we'll go over it again and retest," Tommy said as they sighed that they had to take a test, but at least they were back to normal work and a normal schedule, which was what they were used to with him. It was rare that he changed his schedule on them and it gave them a small bit of consistency when no other teacher gave them any. He had hated when things were inconsistent and he wanted to give them that much. They deserved that from him. "Okay, go ahead and go to first period and I hope that you have a good day."
Faculty Meeting
"Tommy, how's life been treating you lately?" Dennis asked, as Tommy plopped down into a chair next to him.
Tommy looked stressed and thoroughly pissed off about having to be at a meeting this afternoon, but he would be alright, somehow. Dennis had seen Tommy act like this at faculty meetings before and he got the feeling that he just wanted to be going home right now. He knew how much that little baby girl and his wife meant to him and this day had, had to have been rough on him. He hadn't been teaching his classes at the dojo and this was truly his first day away from the both of them and it had to hurt.
"Not that bad, but I thought we would not have to do this today. Kim is not going to be happy when I get home later than she expected. Angie didn't sleep too good last night and I couldn't get out of bed to help her because of the fact that I had to work today," Tommy said, as Amanda came in and sat down next to Dennis with a sigh and looked over at him with a glare evident in her eyes. "Did you have a bad day, too?"
"Except for the fact that I was cussed out by one of my students and Principal Randall didn't do a thing about it, it was a great day," Amanda said, as Dennis looked over at her and then sighed because of everything that was going on. This was rough to deal with but they would all learn how to take it, although they tried to do just that. This was so different from the way that Principal Strigner had treated them and they wished he would consider coming out of retirement or that the school board would consider getting them a decent principal, as things were going from bad to worse this year. It had to get better soon or the teacher's were going to start looking for different jobs.
"Principal Randall didn't do anything about it?" Tommy asked, as he was surprised that she had not taken the child into her office and given him a good cussing out of her own. He had, had that happen to him enough times for just slipping up and being a tiny bit late to class. He was sure that the students would warrant that type of treatment if they crossed the line.
"No, she has been letting things slide ever since you took a leave of absence. She seems to have something else on her mind, not that I mind. That means that she is not walking the halls and coming in to check on my teaching, which she always finds some problem with," Dennis said, as Tommy could only think about some of the odd occurrences that had happened since last Monday, when he had not showed up at work.
Elsa had appeared twice in the vicinity of his house and he suspected that it had something to do with Angie's birth, not that he could prove it, yet. He had started leaving his communicator on during school, knowing that Kim, Alpha, or Hayley might call him at anytime and he would have to leave the school. The time for avoiding suspicious actions was over; they had to do what they had to do to get rid of Mesogogg. He did not want to live with the risk of Mesogogg deciding to take a huge risk of his own and take Angie as he and Kim would be the most violent that they had ever been. They could not lose her; it was as simple as that.
"Has she been watching my class at all over the last few days?" Tommy asked, feeling that she had done nothing with them over those days that he was absent and that she had somehow been scouting him out, but why? She couldn't be Elsa or that was what he had always thought until now. He would have to talk to Alpha about that one, if he ever made it home this afternoon.
"No, I've watched them more than she has, but she still wouldn't get you a true substitute when I suggested it. It seemed like she didn't want your class to have a teacher, to be honest," Dennis said, as they looked up to see if Principal Randall had entered the auditorium, but it happened to be the school secretary, who looked rather disturbed. She had just overheard a conversation in the office that scared her out of her wits.
Principal Randall was talking to Mesogogg or someone that sounded a lot like him and he was telling her to go scout out the Oliver's. She wished that she could give Tommy a warning, but it didn't seem like it would help him any. He couldn't do anything to stop Mesogogg no matter how good he was at karate. If the creature had something against him, he was just in for some bad luck, which was pity with everything else that was going on in the boy's life right now.
"I'm sorry, Principal Randall had an emergency and she said that she'd talk to you when she got a chance. You can all go home for the day," Mrs. Thornsby said, as Tommy looked over at Amanda and Dennis before he leapt to his feet and ran towards the door. The feeling he was getting in the pit of his stomach did not help this, as he knew he had to get home as quickly as he could.
"Tommy, what's wrong?" Amanda asked to the back of the sixth degree black belt's head as he vaulted around people and made his way to the door.
Something had triggered him to do that, but she had no idea what it could possibly be and she didn't really want to know what it was with the way he was acting. Things had been odd when she had gone to visit them in the hospital and she had just decided it was best to ignore all of it.
At Home
"Well, this is different. Elsa is scouting out your home right now. Lucky us, Tommy is not home to go hunt her down this time. One day he is going to teach those things a lesson," Hayley said, as Kim walked down the stairs with Angie in her arms.
Neither of them was comfortable leaving her upstairs when they had to work in the Command Center because of how erratic Mesogogg's behavior had been. Alpha refused to teleport the baby anywhere, unless it was absolutely necessary, so they just carried her into the command center every time that they went down there and she seemed to be getting used to the look of the place.
"I know, but he has his reasons to worry. He is ranger and has been long enough to know all of the risks that go along with this and Mesogogg is more random than anything else we have ever dealt with," Kim said, as she heard the door upstairs slam shut and she handed Angie over to Hayley, so she could go see who it was. If it was Tommy, there would be no problem, but if it was anyone else, then they were about to meet a pissed mother. "Tommy!"
"Oh Kim, thank goodness. Have you picked up Elsa lurking around here anywhere?" Tommy asked, as she stared up at him and then nodded her head that they had.
He then gave her a hug and just stood there for a few minutes. He did not want to let her go. This day had just brought a horrible reality to his mind and he did not want to share it with her now, but he did not have much of a choice in the matter. Now did not seem to be a great time to do so, but he would have to soon, so that she would have all of the facts staring her in the face as well.
"Tommy, what's going on? Is something wrong?" Kim asked into his chest, as he had not let her go, as of yet. He was trying to keep himself calm, but that was barely working anymore. She was usually able to calm him down some, but this time she had no clue how to do that. It seemed that he just wanted to hold her as tight as he possibly could and be thankful that she was there for a little while.
"I think that I know who Elsa's alter-ego is. Is Angie in the Command Center with Hayley right now?" Tommy asked, as he gradually let go of Kim and followed her down into the Command Center.
They had both been worried that Angie would now become Mesogogg's key target and it was seeming that Elsa had been the one that was sent to get her. With that knowledge looming around in their brains, Angie's bassinet had not been put out of Kim's arms reach since she had been brought home. They would keep it that way as long as they had to do so, even if that meant she was two and still in their room.
"What do you mean? I thought that we had not figured that one out yet," Kim said as Hayley and Alpha looked at her before they figured out who they were talking about. "Who is it?"
"Elsa?" Hayley asked, as Tommy walked over and picked Angie up out of her arms.
They all knew that Tommy would not be at home as much as he would like over the coming weeks and months, so he wanted the time that he did have with Kim and Angie to be worth his while. He knew that he might not get as much time as other fathers did and he didn't like thinking about death, but it had come up more often in his mind lately.
"Yes, it's Principal Randall, I'm almost certain about it. I don't know why I didn't realize it earlier. All of the clues were pointing to her," Tommy said as Kim sat down and looked over at him, while covering her mouth. She was more shocked than she could ever believe she would be.
Principal Randall had never been nice to Tommy, but this was not something she had expected to see as they had never had someone that close to them that was an informant for the other side of the coin. Randall controlled whether or not Tommy would still work at that school and they both knew that if she was still under Mesogogg's control when they defeated him then it might not be good for them. He might lose his job and they didn't really need for that to happen to him right now. They didn't need for things to become too suspicious too early.
"No way, Tommy," Kim said, as she just continued to stare at him and he could only shake his head that it was true. It was horrible to know it, but it was even worse that he knew the woman and had to work for her every day of the week. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know, but I'm hoping that Kat will seriously be willing to baby sit Angie. I know I won't trust anyone that does not know what is going on right now. They would be careless, in ways that they wouldn't realize," Tommy said as Kim nodded her head and then saw Alpha pull up information on Elsa and Principal Randall. There were no comparisons there, but Tommy knew the truth and they did trust him, no matter how foolish some people thought that idea was.
"She will Tommy, but I understand what you are thinking," Kim said, as Tommy walked over and sat down next to her. He could believe that she was that scared and upset about it all.
It was rough on the two of them, but it seemed to be getting worse as the weeks went on. She was stressed and was barely able to take all of this with Angie being so young, but they were about to let her try morphing again. She had not responded to it very well the last time. She and Tommy had already traded in for their other powers, knowing that they had to be able to deal with those. It didn't matter if she was able to morph with the Dino Thunder powers, if she couldn't morph with her others, then it was just useless.
"Tommy, are you sure that you will be able to work at the school with the information that you know? Principal Randall might come after you if she figures out that you are one of the rangers," Hayley said, as Tommy shook his head that he could deal with it. He could not leave his job, that was just too suspicious compared to everything else that he had going on around him.
"He will never do that, that paycheck is all we have," Kim said, as they understood. The two of them were in a tight spot with the fact that they were no longer getting money from the dojo. They could not work there due to the fact that they had to get everything ready to deal with Mesogogg. Tommy had cut back his schedule again to only one class and that was barely enough to keep him in his best condition, although he did spar with Charlie during his planning period, which happened to be his English class, but Amanda understood it every once in awhile. "It'll all work out. Are we ready for me to try morphing again?"
"I guess, but I'm going to go get the baby swing," Tommy said, handing Angie over to Kim.
He would be needed down there in case she fainted again, which was a distinct possibility considering what had happened lately. Her body had to get used to the reintroduction of the powers which was going to be rough on her. He had never tried to keep them from overtaking him, but she had, had to do that and he could only imagine what the reintroduction was doing to her whole body.
"You know Tanya doesn't like this at all. Don't you?" Hayley asked as Kim looked over at her and nodded her head.
Their choices, however, did not go through Tanya. This was what was best for the team and they didn't need Kim fainting the first time she went out into a battle. So, they had to bend the rules with this area in their life and just hope for the best.
"Of course, but there is not much I can do. I have to be ready for whatever comes at me, whenever it comes at me," Kim said as Tommy walked back down the stairs with the baby swing in tow. He was seriously thinking about just leaving it in the basement, but that could be discussed later, right now they had ranger issues to deal with.
"Go ahead Kim, I'll catch you if you fall," Tommy said as Kim morphed and then looked over at Tommy. She didn't look like she was completely comfortable, but she did stay on her feet for a few seconds before falling over into his awaiting arms. He hated when this happened to her.
"This sucks Tommy. I can barely hold myself up for a few seconds. How am I supposed to fight these creatures?" Kim asked, as Tommy de-morphed her and she woke up nestled against him. She knew what she mentally had to do to keep herself from using her powers some times and that was affecting her now. She just hoped that she would be able to pull the mental block off before she was called out to fight.
"Hey, we expected this and I know that you'll be alright when we have to fight. Remember that these powers are much stronger than our Dino Thunder powers," Tommy said, not forcing her to stand up or even move. They didn't like seeing her react so badly to the powers, but they knew that it was likely to happen. She had, had to lay off for so long and there were risks to deal with not using any powers for so long, while having them running around inside of her.
"But I should still be able to do this and not faint, Tommy," Kim said, as Alpha stepped in to try to explain it better and to keep the two of them from getting into a shouting match. They had both been a little bit touchy since they had started losing sleep and since they knew that Mesogogg was making a real attempt to fight them again.
"Kim, your body is still adapting to the new powers and Angie. It may take awhile to become comfortable with them again," Alpha said as Kim stood up and brushed herself off before she went over to look at the page that Alpha had pulled up on the computer. She didn't like what she saw there, but she knew that she would have to deal with it at sometime and she would rather deal with it sooner than later.
"How long will it be before I'm back to normal?" Kim asked as she settled into Tommy's chair and he placed both of his hands on her shoulders and gently massaged them to try to decrease her stress. They had, had other things that had hit them this hard, but this somehow seemed worse to them. They rarely had things go wrong with their ranger powers and it was something that was hard to figure out how to deal with.
"I don't know. I can conduct some tests to see if there is anything that we can do to change everything, but I am not sure that it will help you any," Alpha said as Kim nodded her head that she agreed, although Tommy did not agree with it at all. The test would probably drain her more than anything else already had and they did not need that right now.
"I don't want you to do this," Tommy stated as Kim looked up at him. He wanted what was best for her, but this had to be done, they didn't really have a choice about the matter.
"It needs to be done and I'll be fine, don't worry about me," Kim said walking off with Alpha so he could conduct the tests that were needed.
"She's right Tommy," Hayley said, as Tommy watched Kim and she knew that they knew what they were doing. Tommy was just a constant worrier when it came to his wife, which was sweet until things had to be done and then it became annoying to deal with.
"I know she is, but that's not something I want her to do. We have Angie now and I don't want her to be too drained to take care of her," Tommy said, as he knew that he couldn't necessarily wake up all night if she was still downstairs, as Principal Randall expected him to show up at school tomorrow and be able to teach something that resembled a lesson.
"Tommy, Kim knows that, but she has some things that she has to do to make sure that nothing will happen that might cause her to be killed. There is no use in her risking things that much," Hayley said, as Kim walked back into the command center's main room. Alpha's test had not been very invasive, but she could only hope that they would be conclusive or she would have to undergo more tests.
"And I'm fine right now. Nothing will happen, yet. It just depends on what we have to do to get my powers back to normal," Kim said as Tommy gave her a hug. The little act that Kim was putting on for Hayley and Alpha was not getting past him. He knew that once the two of them were gone that she would fall down and let everything go.
"I know, now I'm hungry so if you don't want to fix supper, I'm going to go upstairs and do that," Tommy said as Alpha and Hayley gave him a curious glance before he walked out of the room.
Kim was surprised that he volunteered to fix supper, but she was not going to stop him from doing that. She was too tired to really try to fix anything edible and she knew he would be able to take care of supper.
"Well, I'm going to go on up there. Whenever those results come in just tell me," Kim said, as she picked the sleeping Angie up and took her upstairs, so she could be situated in her crib.
"Hey, Beautiful, you really alright?" Tommy asked, as she collapsed into one of the kitchen chairs and watched him place some steaks in the oven. He then joined her at the table so they could talk, which was something they had not been able to do this morning.
Angie had been fussy and he had, had to get out of the house earlier than normal, so he could catch up on what had been going on at the high school while he was gone. He had not liked most of the things that he had heard from Dennis, but it had been going normal, except for the little remark about Principal Randall's odd absence.
"No, but I have to get used to my body feeling like this again. It seems like my powers left me while I was pregnant and now that they are back, I have to readjust to having them. It's so weird Tommy, I've never dealt with something like this before," Kim said, as she switched the baby monitor on and looked over at him, hoping for some sort of explanation. She didn't really expect that he would know what had caused it, but he would at least have some words of encouragement or flat out lies that would make her feel better.
"It was more like I was using them when you were still pregnant, at least that is what I think it might have been. I felt stronger every time that I morphed then," Tommy said, as Kim gave him a bewildered glance before trying to comprehend it.
She had remembered the power and the possible transferal of powers between the two of them, but she didn't think he would admit to something like this. He really had been afraid that she would have morphed, although him taking up most of her powers would not stop her if she had, had to for her own safety and he should have known that.
"So, have you given them back to me yet?" Kim asked, as he peered over at her and he thought about that conscious decision. He had let go of his powers at the same time she did, but he could not remember making a conscious decision to give them back to her, until now.
"I thought I had, but I never made a conscious decision to give them back to you," Tommy said, as she looked down at her communicator. It was glowing and he got the feeling that the powers had gone back into her hands and he knew that for sure once she looked up and smiled.
"Didn't know that you would be the one to decide this for me. What powers will you hold back from me the next time I'm pregnant?" Kim asked with a smile as Tommy laughed. The stress from everything else was getting to them some, although they had been through worse. They just had to be able to find some comedy in every situation, even if it was not hilarious. "That's not funny, Tommy!"
"Yes it is, because I've always depended on you to draw powers from and to think that I've been the one holding you back lately," Tommy said, as Kim watched him stand up to get the food out of the oven. It surprised her that he had volunteered to make supper after a day at work, but she figured he had worse news for her than she expected.
"Did you have a bad day, Tommy?" Kim asked while he moved things onto the table and turned around so she would not see the look on his face.
"Yeah, I really did. I wanted to be home with you and I couldn't teach my classes, no matter how hard I tried. My mind kept wandering away. It kept on coming back home," Tommy said, as she looked over at him, wondering why he was so honest tonight. He had been sleep deprived before, but he had never acted like this before.
"I'm sorry, but you have to work. You don't have much of choice about that paycheck," Kim said, getting up to fix her own plate of food and then heard a gurgle through the baby monitor.
"She's fine Kim," Tommy said, to keep her from running up the stairs and checking on Angie. Tonight he needed her to be down there and listen to him, he was completely drained right now and he was upset. He didn't think he would be upset the first time he left them alone, but he was and he couldn't help it. "Now, I know that I don't want to talk about anything else that is ranger related tonight. I'm stressed enough without hearing anymore bad news."
"Well, I say that we eat in the living room and maybe there will be something good on t.v., that doesn't deal with us," Kim said, as she picked up her plate and walked into the living room, with him right behind her.
They settled in and actually watched a movie for the first time in about four months, without worrying too much. Kim went upstairs a few times to check on Angie, but she was sleeping soundly tonight. He was happy to just have her in his presence and when they went upstairs, he was surprised at the way the conversation turned.
"Tommy," Kim said, softly as she walked in from the bathroom to see him standing over Angie's crib, with one hand gently playing with her fingers, as she reached out and held one of his. He looked so torn up about something and she just couldn't tell what it was. She hated seeing him like this and he was not too willing to let his mood change.
"Yeah," Tommy said. He felt her hand on his shoulder, as he reached around her and held her as tightly as he could with one arm, while watching Angie. He loved her and he didn't know how he was going to be able to handle what laid ahead of them. It had hurt him to be at school today, how was he going to deal with being away long enough to defeat Mesogogg?
"What's going on?" Kim asked, as he looked down at her and felt that she was worried about him. She never liked seeing him like this and he knew that it was in his best interest to be completely honest with her, right away or she would pull the answer out of him.
"Kim, I'm worried. I'm worried about you. I'm worried about Angie. I'm worried about everything that is going on," Tommy whispered, as he was afraid to wake Angie and he felt Kim reach up and cup his face in her hands.
"Handsome, it's alright. I don't blame you. I'd be worried if I had the same responsibilities that you do," Kim said as he looked down at her and gave her a kiss. He felt his own worry being matched by hers and he knew that he loved her more now than before. He didn't know how it came into being, but he felt it, no matter what he had believed a few weeks ago.
"I love you, Beautiful," Tommy said as he released her from his kiss and looked down at Kim, who seemed to be realizing how much it was really hurting him. She thought she had figured out how bad his day was, but it seemed to have been much harder.
"I love you too," Kim said, as she grabbed his other hand and pulled him towards the bed. She wanted him to have some comfort and the most that she could give to him was a chance to snuggle with her right now, as she was exhausted and restricted.
"Kimberly, don't ever forget that I love you," Tommy muttered into her hair before he drifted off to sleep and she lay there awake for several more minutes, thinking about what he had said to her. He seemed to think that his time left on Earth was limited, but she knew that she couldn't deal with that thought on her own and thus fell into a fitful sleep.
AN: Thanks for reading and I hope that you have enjoyed this chapter! Please feel free to review!