Disclaimer: I do not own the power rangers or any of the weapons and/or original characters from that series. This is the third story in the "Saving the World, Again" series, so any characters from those stories that are mine, might be brought in. I do own the character Ally Jameson as I know she will appear in this story a good bit and I just wanted to let you know that she is my character from the beginning. I also own the characters of Janice Mitchell, Principal McEntire, Mallory Wiggins, David Jackson, Mrs. Thornsby, and Alabaster.
Now, on with the Story!
Closing the Door
Kim's POV
Closing one chapter in your life never is an easy thing to do. It doesn't matter if it is the end of a high school basketball career or the end of a lifetime of dancing, it is hard to close the chapter without regretting have to leave it behind. We, the Power Rangers, are now asking ourselves to close that chapter in our lives, forever. To put away the fact that we were once rangers and to never let the world know about. This afternoon, Tommy and I will close the Command Center and hope that it stays closed, forever this time.
"Tommy, come on. Couldn't we do this another day? When the two of us are not so emotionally drained? Come on, we just lost Alpha a couple of days ago," Kim pleaded, as she didn't really want to go through with their plan, now that it was time to fulfill it. She had just laid Angie down for her afternoon nap and that left them with an hour or so to do what they had planned. It just seemed that both of them did not want to go through with it, at all.
"She's starting to crawl around, Kim. The last thing we need to happen is for her to roll down the stairs and onto the cement floor. You know that and we can't put it off much longer, for other reasons as well. Our friends at school want to see our home and we can't risk it because there is a command center, in use, under our kitchen," Tommy said, opening the hatch and ushering her down into the Command Center. There was not much left for them to do, as the others had helped once they had their powers taken away. They just had to lock up some things and then they could be on their way.
"Tommy, that's not the point and you know it. If they accidentally found out about it, I think we would live. Is everything going to stay down here?" Kim asked, as they had not yet decided on some of the items as of yesterday. Tommy walked over to the storage closet and opened a trunk, which held most of the remains from their ranger careers. That, certainly, had to be left down here and it was time for them to look at it and then put it away. They had to do it just to be able to go on, but they didn't want to say that.
"Yes, Kim. It might have to be used again and we'll need all of it around if that happens. You know that our generation will have to deal with it if we are still here," Tommy said, as Kim looked at him, hating that she felt old at the age of twenty-six.
He said he would never be involved with Power Ranger work again, but they both knew it wasn't so. If something happened right in front of them, they would have to do something. It was just in their nature and it was also a responsibility that they felt they had, even if it technically was not theirs or anyone else's.
"How are we sealing it?" Kim asked, as she kneeled down next to him and he silently wiped his own eyes. "Tommy, you said it was for the best. Come on, get what we'll need and we'll close it."
"Kim, I've been a ranger for so long. I don't know if I can live without being one now," Tommy said as Kim gave him a tight hug. She knew how he felt, they had never been married and not had some type of ranger work to do. It was hard to believe that this might be the last bit of ranger work they had left to do, for the rest of their lives.
"I know, come on, Tommy," Kim said, as he placed his arms around her and began weeping, which caused her to start crying as well. She had been doing fine until he became upset and then her own resolve to not cry had broken down. He had more ranger memories than she would ever have and she wouldn't have given anything to trade places, but she understood. He could say that almost everything good that had ever happened to him had been while he was a ranger, she couldn't say that, but she could understand him. She didn't like giving this up any more than he did. "Handsome, it's all right. We'll be fine."
"It's just hard Kim. We've never had to deal with something like this before ," Tommy said as he stood up and wiped his eyes. It was really much harder than he had expected it would be and now he was about to do what he had said he would do from the beginning. He was about to leave his ranger life behind, for good. He had never thought that this day would come, in his true fantasy, but this was reality and this was where he had to live with the people that he loved. "You ready?"
"Yeah," Kim said, as they turned to walk up the stairs and Tommy closed the trap door behind them. Jason and Trini were coming to visit later on tonight and they wanted to have this out of the way.
They would tell them that they had closed the command center and then they would not talk about it anymore. This was to be the last time they would talk about any of it openly. Their old way of life was about to be put away and they knew that the others would be reacting in a similar fashion, as they found out about it from them in the weeks to come.
Night
"Kim!" Jason yelled, as he opened the front door and saw that Tommy and Kim had already finished cooking dinner and just seemed to be waiting for them to arrive. They, however, were not in the front room and they could only imagine where they were.
"In the living room, Jase," Kim called, as Jason and Trini walked into see the two of them settled down on the couch, watching a rerun of ER. They seemed to be almost too calm for their liking, but there was really nothing that they could do about it.
"The two of you seem relaxed," Trini commented as she moved around the couch and sat down next to Kim, who was holding Angie, although she was wriggling to get down and onto the floor. Kim, however, was not going to let her since they would be eating soon. She never liked to be picked up from scooting around and she didn't want for Trini and Jason to see her being fussy, although they had seen it before, tonight was just not a good night for it.
"It's done. We can be relaxed. We don't have to stress about closing the command center anymore," Tommy said, as Trini looked over at him and Kim nodded to her that it was true.
They really had done what they had promised the rest of the rangers they would do. None of them had believed that they would close it on their own, they all thought that they were going to have to come here and do it for them, but they had surprised them. They had closed it willingly only a week after the other rangers said they needed to close it. That was after they all found out about Alpha leaving and they all agreed that this was for the best, even if it didn't make sense just yet. They may have been too optimistic, but that was the best way to live, especially in their shoes.
"You…you were able to close down the command center?" Jason asked, as Kim nodded her head yes. Jason reached over the back of the couch and settled both of his arms around Trini. "Are you all right with that?"
"Are you? Don't worry, we'll be fine Jason. We all knew that we were going to have to do this sooner or later. We might as well do this now," Kim said, as they had had the time to do so. She just knew that it was going to shock many of the others that they had been able to do this so soon. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm doing good. I have a doctor's appointment next week, you know how it is with the check-ups and everything," Trini said, as she patted her belly rather fondly and looked up at Jason, who seemed to have not wanted to change the subject so quickly.
"That's good," Kim said with a smile as Angie managed to wrap her hands around a few pieces of her hair, although she did not pull on it.
"What are we going to eat?" Jason asked, as a buzzer went off and Kim untangled Angie from her arms and handed her over to Tommy.
"Well, I have tacos in there, but if Trini's not up to eating that, then I can make her something else," Kim said, as Trini thought about what Kim probably had to go with the tacos and it sounded good to her tonight.
"I'll be fine with that," Trini said, as Tommy watched Jason eye her suspiciously. Now he didn't know if he believed her, but it certainly looked as if Jason didn't.
"You sure?" Jason muttered as Trini nodded at him with a smile. It actually sounded great to her, but Jason wouldn't believe that. She had refused his mother's Mexican food a few days before, but she had had a bad day that day. She didn't mean to offend anyone by the fact that she couldn't eat the food. She was sure that Jason didn't want to see her sick anymore and she hoped that he would understand it all.
"Do you want to eat in here or in the kitchen?" Kim asked, as Angie slapped Tommy and he gently grabbed her hands inside one of his. They were definitely going to have to teach her karate or gymnastics when she got older, she was already trying to beat him up and Kim was tired of getting her hair pulled. However, they agreed that she was too young to really try anything, except slapping her hand away.
"In the kitchen," Tommy said as he thought Angie seemed to be in the mood to throw anything they gave to her on the floor. They were just hoping they could save the carpet, for a few more weeks.
"Okay," Kim said, as she reached out and Angie quickly went into her arms. "How many times has she slapped you today?"
"Not that many," Tommy said as Jason and Trini sat down next to each other while Kim got some baby food out of the refrigerator. Angie was not quite ready to try tacos, although she would probably dig her hands into the meat anyway before the night was over.
"Can I?" Trini asked, as Kim started to feed Angie, but she looked over at Trini and handed her the spoon. She was more than welcome to practice all she wanted on feeding a child.
"You looking forward to this?" Tommy asked, while Kim fixed her plated and then looked up at Jason. She was interested to hear what he had to say about the situation. Sure, he had wanted to start a family, but they all had to admit that it happened much faster than they expected.
"Yes," Jason said, looking over at Trini with a fond gaze. Angie was eating her food very quietly tonight. She seemed to think that Trini was trying and she was not going to make her do things the hard way, the way that she did Tommy and Kim every night.
"Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?" Kim asked out of curiosity. She had known that Jason and Trini had been arguing about whether or not they would find out. She just hoped they had smoothed that over or she might be opening a can of worms.
"I know, but she doesn't. We finally agreed on that much before our last visit," Jason said, as Kim nodded her head thoughtfully. She was going to gave to talk to Jason later about what to get for them. She had already started buying some things, but she had to get Trini back for her own baby shower. She still remembered some of the gifts that had pissed her off the most.
"We'll talk later," Kim said, as she took a bite of her food. It had been far to long since they had been able to sit down in peace and quiet.
"How do you ever eat?' Trini asked, as Kim picked Angie up and had her sit in her lap. She was bound to get cranky if she sat there for too long, but she was not risking her crawling around in the kitchen.
"Like this," Kim said and then took a bite and grabbed her plate before Angie pulled it off the table. She then swatted at Angie's hands, as Tommy calmly popped her hands as Kim missed. She looked up at him, but didn't cry. She just seemed a tad bit shocked. "At least she's stopped pulling my hair, I was starting to lose some."
"I thought Tommy would be the one worried about losing his hair," Jason said as Kim looked over at Tommy. Lucky him, he had short hair now.
"His hair is too short," Kim muttered as Tommy smiled. She liked it, but he could tell that she wished he would have left it long for as long as he could have.
"You know I had to cut it," Tommy said calmly, as Jason and Trini felt there might be an argument brewing, but Kim smiled. The time had long since passed when they fought over his decision to cut his hair, but it was always a subject that they like to joke around about, for the most part.
"By the way, when did you cut your hair?" Jason asked, as Kim's hair was now chin length and flipped.
"Last week. Angie managed to put a knot in it that we couldn't get out. I just decided to cut it," Kim said and Jason nodded his head. It was not really that bad and Tommy hadn't minded, too much. He said he liked it more now, but she knew he had to be lying.
"She's only a baby," Trini said, as Kim gave Trini a look. Babies could do much more than they imagined possible.
"That's what makes them innocent, but she still can manage to do some things that I would never have thought she would do," Kim said, as Angie finally let out a cry, as she wanted to get down and Kim looked down at her half finished plate. Everyone else had managed to finish their meal, but she had not been able to do that, due to the diversion tactics she had to use to even get the food in her mouth. "Take her Tommy, I'll finish my food, then come in there in a little bit."
"Kim, you sure?" Tommy asked, as he picked up the plates and she nodded her head.
"Yeah, go ahead and find something that we can watch on television," Kim said, as he took Angie out of her arms and then walked behind Jason and Trini into the living room.
"How often does that happen?" Trini asked, as she sat down and Jason then sat down next to her.
"More times than she would like, but it's either she sits in there and eats while I watch Angie or she doesn't eat at all. I don't usually risk her not eating," Tommy said as they two of them let out a laugh.
"Yeah, Tommy, you don't risk it. I wonder if she would consider it a risk," Jason said, as Kim had often times skipped meals in high school without Tommy knowing. None of them had had the most stable eating habits then, but after the power incident, Tommy did everything that he could, including watch her eat meals.
"I would now, Jason," Kim piped up from the kitchen, as Angie jerked her head up and looked around.
"Yeah, I know, you hear her but you can't see her," Tommy said as Angie looked at him.
"You talk to her like she really understands that," Trini said, as Tommy looked over at her. Angie understood a lot more than he wanted to admit at five months old.
"Kim does more of the baby talk and I promise you, it's not wasted," Tommy said, as Kim plopped down next to him on the couch.
"Yeah, but I'm the woman and you are the man, but don't say you haven't done it too," Kim said as Jason laughed. "What, do you think that you won't ever talk in baby talk?"
"I doubt it," Jason said, as Tommy looked at him skeptically.
"You will, don't be afraid to admit it," Tommy said, as Angie bounced up and down on his lap.
"Come on, Tommy, I don't think so," Jason said, as Trini smiled and placed Jason's hand on her belly.
"I'm glad that I'm not the only one that was fascinated by that," Tommy said, as Jason looked over at him and although that would have been an invitation to move his hand away years ago, now he didn't care. The ridicule was worth almost anything.
"So, what exactly did Alpha have to say to you when he left?" Trini asked, as Tommy just shook his head. Alpha hadn't really left them in a good way. He had just gotten up and left and that was all that they could say about it.
"He just said it was time for him to go back to the Space Rangers, I guess that they need more help than we do," Tommy said, as they looked over at them.
"It's odd that Alpha didn't leave with more of a good-bye," Jason said, as it was Kim's turn to shake her head.
"He's not an emotional being, Jason. He did what Zordon wanted him to do and that was to come help us, then leave once we were stable," Kim said, as they knew that was the truth.
"I know, but I still miss him. You'd think that after you've given up the powers...what is it? Four times now? That all of us would be used to this type of thing," Jason said, as they nodded their heads. They had thought that they would be used to it, but they weren't, yet. It always came as a shock, every time that they lost their powers.
"Yeah, we should be used to it, but I don't think this was ever something that Zordon was supposed to teach us to cope with. We were so far apart thelast time that we lost our powers with him and how was he supposed to counsel all of us in that situation?" Kim asked, as they realized that Angie was struggling to get down and Tommy bent over to put her on the floor.
"Zordon always left us with options, though. We never had to choose to leave or to stay,the powers were what told us to do whatever it was supposed to beand we just went along with it. There is not much that we can really accept about that, we just would lose everything," Trini said, as Kim nodded her head. They really had lost everything in those days. They had lost each other, they had lost faith in themselves, and finally they had put the nails in their own coffins to keep them seperated.
"I'm glad that we are close enough this time to take care of each other. We don't have to worry about messing up too much," Kim said, as Tommy nodded his head. If she had been heading to some other state after all of this, he was afraid that he couldn't do it. Yeah, they were married, but things always changed in the ranger world and he had prayed that wouldn't be a change.
"Yeah, you mean that you don't have to worry about messing up," Jason joked, as Angie rammed her head into the recliner and then let out a cry.
"Ang...why you gotta do that?" Kim asked as she walked over and picked her up and spun around. "Aw, it's alright. You want Daddy to kiss it and make it better?"
"Whah!" Angie continued to cry as Tommy stood up and gave her a kiss on the forehead and she didn't stop.
"Come here, sweetie," Tommy said, as Kim handed her over and Tommy tossed her into the air a couple of times and then she gave him a toothless smile.
"This is too easy for the two of you," Trini commented as Tommy set Angie back on the floor, and steered her away from the recliner.
"It's not always easy Trini, we have just kinda gotten used to it," Kim said, as Trini yawned and Jason looked up at the clock, which read nine. He didn't want to leave, he really wanted to stay, but he knew that if Trini didn't get to sleep soon, he was going to have to deal with it in the morning.
"I guess that we better leave," Jason said, as Trini glared up at him. "Trini, I have to go into work early tomorrow and I don't know if I can deal with you being in a bad mood."
"Jase, I'll be fine. I'm not that tired and I don't have to get up early tomorrow. I went ahead and took the day off," Trini said, as Jason just looked at her.
"Why did you do that?" Jason asked, as Kim and Tommy tried to sink further into the couch and out of sight.
"Because I knew that you would want to stay late. We don't get to see them like we used to," Trini said, as Jason gave her a hug.
"I'm so lucky," Jason muttered, as Trini smiled as him.
"No, I think that I'm the lucky one, Jase," Trini said with an even brighter smile and the baby kicked against Jason's arm again.
"It's somebody's bedtime," Kim said, as Angie was now tugging at her pants. "I'll be back in a couple of minutes.
"Okay," Tommy said, as Jason and Trini broke themselves out of their world and watched Kim walk out of the room.
"Did we do something wrong?" Jason asked, as Tommy laughed.
"No, it's Angie's bedtime," Tommy said, as Jason nodded and Trini gazed up the stairs. She couldn't wait to have her baby there.
"So, when little one here is born, are we going to let the two of them play together?" Trini asked, as Tommy laughed.
"Of course, with any luck the two of them will be as good of friends as we are. It'll be rough on them if they aren't friends," Tommy said with a smile and Trini flinched a little. "Strong baby, right?"
"Of course, always strong," Trini said. "I think those powers I had made this baby a little bit stronger."
"If you talk to Kim about it, I'm sure that she would feel the same. Angie about killed her some nights," Tommy said, as Kim walked back down the stairs with a look of aggravation in her eyes. "Did she give you a hard time tonight?"
"No, she didn't, but she managed to get ahold of my hair again," Kim said, as she sat down next to him and he started pulling out the knot.
"Jason, you were right, we really do need to be heading home," Trini said, as Jason nodded his head.
"Jase, before you leave, can I talk to you?" Kim asked, as Tommy looked over at her and then started to help Trini towards the door.
"You know what she's going to ask him," Trini said, as Tommy nodded his head and smiled at her.
"She can't resist it. Plus, the plans that she has for you, are nothing compared to what you did to her," Tommy said, as Trini laughed.
"I didn't think that I would be able to top her, but thanks, Tommy," Trini said, as Jason walked back over to her and then gave Kim a hug good-bye.
"We'll see you in a couple of weeks," Jason said as Tommy nodded that they would indeed see each other then.
"Bye!" Kim called as they walked outside and the two of them waved back.
They then sat back and relaxed. They were rangers no more, they still had their friends, a wonderful family, and even better each other. The ranger world was now empty to them and many others that had formerly been there. The ranger world felt a hole in itself for the first time, but they would always be there. They were always the Power Rangers.
AN: Okay, there is an epilogue left. I'm not going to leave you hanging about so many things, but I really hope that you have enjoyed this series. I'm going to take a couple of weeks off once I've finished this series to work on some of my other projects and then deliver them to you. Review if you wish!