Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. Not even the ones I made up. Go ahead and use them, I don't really mind.
Blooming
Chapter 6 / Tale of a Battered Woman
They arrived at the storage area that Jessie had told Kat about and they were helped by the workers putting most of her furniture in the U-Haul Tommy had brought from Reefside, the rest was placed in the truck's cargo area, and to their surprise, they got everything that was in the storage. It didn't take long to put the furniture inside the U-Haul due to so many working hands. After everything was inside, they headed towards Kat's apartment.
They arrived at their destination twenty minutes after they left the 'Storage Company'. The journey was taken with ease in the sense that Tommy already knew where Katherine's apartment was located.
They got off and Kat went up to the door and opened it sighing in exhaustion. She went inside turning on the lights in the process of it.
Tommy followed her inside the apartment looking around and seeing what a nice little place she had. "Nice place." He thought out loud.
"Thanks", Kat said. "So, do you want anything, or should we just get started?"
She didn't mean to be rude, but she wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. She was afraid of Jessie getting there and completely acting like the asshole that he was. I'll just call him later, she thought.
Jessie worked for the FBI in Angel Grove. He had a record on every person in the country. With that under his belt, he felt a sense of power in him and had told Kat that he can get her involved in a murder even if she was nowhere to be seen in the crime.
Katherine was so scared by his threats the first night she had kicked him out of her apartment. Jessie had slapped her in the face after she confronted him about him sleeping with another woman.
He had convinced her to cut her hair and loose weight. Every time he saw her eating something fattening, he would throw insults in her face about how fat she was making her very self-conscious self. She was so embarrassed by his insults, she started getting apprehensions about her body image.
Jessie would hit her on a regular basis. He would pass by her and slap her on the head at times for no reason at all. He would force her to have sex with him continuously without protection because he wanted her to have his baby and like that, hook her with him forever. She on the other hand would take contraception pills without him knowing, but as for the rest, she couldn't find any way around her problems.
He had told her never to have a guy over at the apartment or else he'd kill him. Katherine wanted to get everything in the U-Haul before Jessie got out of work. He worked late on Saturdays and felt it was the right time to go and get everything done.
"Alright, that sounds like a good idea right now, the faster we get the stuff, the faster we can leave." Tommy answered her question.
He too didn't want to be rude, but he was in no position to want to see Jessie himself.
They quickly got to work on getting her clothes and the few items Jessie had left behind.
As Katherine made the last trip to the apartment she told Tommy that there was no more stuff to get. Tommy was relieved that they were done so quickly and wanted to get out of there. At that, Katherine heard a truck parking in front of her apartment.
She went to the window and opened the blinds a bit to see who it was. She gasped at the vehicle she saw. It was Jessie and he was making his way towards the door.
Jessie was getting to the door when Tommy heard a familiar beep coming from his wrist.
Aww man! Now I have to leave Katherine here alone, he thought, not knowing what Katherine was witnessing outside her apartment.
At the sound of the beep, Katherine turned her head around and Tommy looked at her with disappointment in his eyes.
"Kat, remember a certain thing we talked about at Hayley's the other day?" Tommy began.
Katherine nodded her head quickly and motioned him to go into the room. He wanted to leave right then and there but understood perfectly when he saw the fear coming out of her eyes. He then heard the doorknob being unlocked and quickly headed to the bedroom.
Tommy quickly got to his destination and hid from Jessie. He knew all too well it was he who was causing such fear inside of Katherine. As he was making his escape, he heard bickering coming from the living room. He had to leave, but didn't want to leave Kat there by herself to deal with an idiot like Jessie.
"Listen slut, now tell me who that damn jeep belongs to!" Jessie screamed at the top of his lungs and grabbed Katherine's hair turning her head around towards the blinds.
Katherine let out a small shriek hoping Tommy was gone and unable to hear what was going on.
"Tell me, bitch!" Jessie yelled again.
"It's just my friend's jeep. She let me borrow it to pick up my things." Katherine said quickly before another insult came out of his mouth.
"Yeah right, and I'm supposed to believe that?" He grabbed her hips and looked inside her eyes grinning. "Now baby, you know I don't like to be lied to, now tell me the truth. I know it's a guy's jeep, every guy knows that."
Katherine felt like wanting to be swallowed by the ground and never being spat out. She looked down and without any facial expression, tears fell down her face.
Tommy put his head parallel to the wall letting his ear touch the cold sheetrock forcefully trying to vision with his imagination what was going on in the other room by the loud, intensive yells of arguing going on, mainly done by Jessie.
Tommy couldn't tell exactly what his mind was making out, but he knew that it was definitely not good. He couldn't resist his rage any longer, and had to open the door slightly. He didn't step into the living room but was very curious as to what was going on but most importantly he was very anxious to see what was going to happen.
Jessie, seeing his girlfriend's tears becomes 'concerned' and pulls her by the hips gently towards him and gets her chin lightly with his pointer and thumb raising her head to meet his eyes.
"Baby, I know you don't wanna lie to me right?" Jessie says softly.
Katherine nods her head silently and thinks, if I tell him it's Tommy's jeep, he's going to go psycho on me.
"So…" Jessie began, "just tell me…who's jeep is it baby?"
Katherine had no other choice than to say the truth. He was eventually going to find out, but decided instead to stick with her guns.
"It's Annabel's truck." She began, and continued quickly before Jessie would get even angrier with her. "I met her in the school, she works for the administration and let me borrow it for the weekend."
"Oh, okay", Jessie said calmly.
Katherine let out a mental sigh of relief before looking to her left seeing an open hand crossing her and striking her in the face. At the slap, her head turned towards the same direction of the slap while she let out a huge cry and grabbing the injured area forcefully in habit of trying to heal the pain somewhat.
"You think I'm gonna buy that shit?" Jessie yelled. "I know that's a guy's jeep, bitch. Now tell me what shitty guy owns that piece of garbage outside!"
At the sound and witness of the slap, Tommy could feel his rage coming forcefully now over him and couldn't take it anymore. He felt the blood from his veins rush to his head and just wanted to explode with punches and blows at Jessie. Needless to say, he interfered in their argument.
"That piece of garbage belongs to me!" Tommy yelled while coming out of the room.
Jessie looked at Tommy and his eyes widened with rage. He then looked at Katherine with the same bit of rage and punched her fist closed in the gut making her jerk back and bend forward with pain. Again she let out a shriek of pain at the hit and was then pushed down to the ground by her "creep" boyfriend. She hit the floor strongly making a small cry on her way down and a huge thump as she met the thin carpeting with her buttocks and lower back.
She had put her arms for support of the fall but failed to support anything at all because she slammed onto the floor before her hands could get to it.
Tommy witnessed Jessie's actions and took off his glasses quickly and threw them somewhat gently but swiftly away from harms way.
He interfered in their argument like any sane person would have in his situation. He was furious at this point. He couldn't stop the slap from happening, nor the punch, but he definitely said to himself that was the last time any sucker put his hands on the woman he so greatly adored.
Jessie walked slowly towards Tommy making his way over to him with an evil grin on his face. "Hope you can take me on loser."
Tommy was making his way to Jessie in five times the speed Jessie was going.
Katherine at this time knew for sure there was going to be trouble and decided to stay out of the way and let Tommy handle matters now.
She got up and grabbed Tommy's glasses not wanting anything to happen to them.
Jessie was now in front of Tommy looking at his eyes. He saw a sluggish man with a look of rage.
"This is going to be fun slug man." Jessie said, with a still devilish voice.
Tommy looked in Jessie's eyes not taking his sight away from him, they hadn't looked at each other for more than a second before Jessie let in that first blow.
Tommy weaved back letting Jessie's hand miss his chest and hit air.
Tommy knew, from all of his training in martial arts, there was nothing worst than hitting air. It completely lost ones focus, balance, and above all, strength.
Tommy quickly grabbed Jessie's arm which he used to hit air and twisted it to Jessie's surprise.
Jessie had no idea Tommy was that strong and his eyes widened with fear. He didn't have much time to think at all what his next move was going to be.
Tommy then pushed Jessie's chest away from his arm tripping him at the same time. He made Jessie fly a couple of feet backward letting out his sensei call, "eeh, yah!"
Jessie was dumbfounded by Tommy's actions and did not want to get up from the floor; he knew all too well that a sensei would not fight an enemy if he/she was on the ground as a sign of surrender.
Tommy on the other hand had his mind full of Katherine.
He was thinking about Jessie hitting her over and over again. Those yells that Jason told him about. Those stupid screams that he could just imagine Katherine getting and letting them sink deep into her ear drums.
He thought about Katherine not having an appetite. The days he asked her to eat and she refused. He also thought about the way she was behaving around the site of food. She would look away for some reason, trying to fight back the demons that haunted her; hunger. There was nothing worst he thought, than telling the woman you loved she was fat and has her be so insecure about her beautiful body.
He also thought about Jessie slapping her and punching her in the stomach. That was, he thought, the worst one of them all. Not the simple fact of a man hitting a woman. Of course, that crossed his mind a couple of times too, but the simple fact that Jessie was hitting his woman. Tommy's girl. He couldn't help but feel wrath in just running the slap and the punch over in his mind. It kept running as if in a tape that was just rewinding in his mind and an invisible person was pushing play on it and just laughing hysterically at his girl.
With all of that in his head just running through his brain like a vulture eating at its prey, Tommy could not resist the temptation of beating Jessie as hard as he had ever beat anyone in his life.
His fury was so much fuller and so over powering, Tommy felt his resentment getting the best of him.
He ran towards Jessie and picked him up by his collar. "Fight you son of a bitch!" Tommy yelled in Jessie's face. "What, I'm not Katherine, is that it? Is that why you won't fight back you little bitch?"
Jessie looked at Tommy bewilderedly as Tommy again struck him. This time he punched him on the right side of his face with a left fist. He hit him more than once. He actually hit him five times continuously at the upper right corner of Jessie's cheek.
Jessie could not do anything at Tommy's hits because of the simple fact that Tommy was just too fast and strong for him.
Jessie had usually won fights. The fights he would start, and caught the other guy off guard and without sense.
Tommy then let Jessie go and he fell to the floor hard. He didn't feel at all sorry for the now bleeding small guy.
Jessie was 6' 4" with a good physique. His eyes were green and full. His hair was as dark as the night. His blond features made him look very attractive although his hair was dyed black. Every inch of his body was aching and sore in twenty seconds of getting beaten. He couldn't feel anything on the right side of his face.
Tommy then picked him up like a rag doll and threw him against the wall choking the life out of him.
After seeing the rage inside of Tommy, Katherine was somehow afraid of him. She didn't want to go near him for the fear of getting hit by yet another man. She didn't want this to go on any longer, although she saw Jessie's face go from red, to purple, to blue. She then knew it was her cue to say something to Tommy.
She got up and yelled, "Tommy! Stop!" Tommy heard Katherine's voice behind him and gently let go of Jessie's hold.
She didn't yell for fear of having Jessie die for some reason. She had gained so much vicious hatred against him by now; she really didn't care what happened to him at this point. The huge thought that was going through her head right then and there was Tommy.
She didn't know why, but she preferred to keep Jessie from dying all because she didn't want to see the man she loved so much go to jail. Especially not for Jessie. She couldn't help but feel a thought of disgrace for what she had witnessed. She couldn't help but feel happy for what Jessie was going through, but sad for how happy she really was. That wasn't like her. Not like her at all.
Jessie fell into a deep sleep of unconsciousness as Tommy quickly let him go.
He turned to see Katherine's eyes full of tears. Her face wet from sobbing so much. He hadn't even heard her at all. He hadn't heard her tears swimming down her face. He put one hand up and touched her skin gently wiping away some tears, although it would have not made any difference since she was still sobbing uncontrollably.
"Who was that?" She whispered.
"Kat, I'm sorry." Is all that Tommy could say understanding what she was referring to.
She couldn't believe what she had just witnessed. She saw Tommy tackling this guy that she had known for over three years. She hadn't dated him that long, but she knew who he was. On the other hand, she completely saw Tommy's eyes, and she wanted to be true to herself, but denied that she felt nothing but fear in her soul.
His eyes became calm and brown. The blackness of his gaze was gone, and the apologies would soon be coming forth from an undisclosed dealer inside of him just wanting to get rid of his drugs. Those drugs of words that he felt, that he knew he had to say, she must have seen them coming too because she spoke out first.
"Tommy, don't even bother apologizing" she said, now calming down her sobs. "I understand why you did what you did."
He looked down in shame, but couldn't help but feel a bit proud of beating Jessie like that. It felt so good to feel his fist go into Jessie's flesh the way it did. Not because Tommy advertised nor promoted violence, but for the simple fact that he had hurt Katherine. Kat, that beautiful woman he could not stop thinking about ever since the last day he saw her at the airport getting on a plane towards London.
That woman that was now standing in front of him looking deep into his eyes, and he felt that she was also looking deep into his thoughts because before he could think, she was leaning towards him, meeting him in a profound kiss.
