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 7 / A Few Thoughts from Two Lovers

Katherine and Tommy had managed to get Jessie up out of his unconsciousness and he was now sitting with his back towards the wall leaning on it. He was sore, angry, but above all embarrassed. He was thinking in his mind how the pain and anger completely took the back seat of embarrassment.

Katherine managed to find an ice pack in the refrigerator beside the Arm & Hammer she was also going to leave behind. She went into the living room. Tommy was sitting on the floor with his legs bent upward and his arms resting gently on top of his knees. His hands hung loosely in front of him as he dangled his keys with his left hand just looking out into thin air.

Jessie was sitting on the floor as well leaning back on the longest wall in the living room a few inches away from where he lay just a few minutes ago.

Katherine went towards Jessie, and him seeing her managed to painfully raise his right arm to stop her. "No thanks, I could do without it." He was not going to have his macho-ness be again controlled tonight.

She then stopped for a second before heading towards him again. "Listen, I don't care how strong you think you are, but you really need to put this on there." She said handing Jessie the ice pack and motioning to the huge open wound he had on the right side of his face. "I think you're gonna need some stitches too." She continued.

He held the ice pack on his wound which was still bleeding making him flinch at it touching his face. He didn't want to show weakness…again…so he just took the pain like a 'man'.

Katherine genuinely shook her head a little at the sight and thought of her now ex-boyfriend just acting like a complete child.

Tommy stood up and headed towards the door. "I'll be back." He said.

"Umm, where are you going?" Katherine asked, trying not to sound too demanding.

"I just need some fresh air." He said. "Tell me if you need anything", he continued speaking to Katherine while motioning to Jessie, "I'll leave the door open."

"Okay" Katherine said, a little unsatisfied with the response of 'I just need some fresh air.' She had noticed that Tommy was acting a bit distant with her since she had told him that they should try to take Jessie to the hospital.

He declined the offer, but didn't want to make Kat mad, so he willfully gave in and decided to take him to the hospital.

When Jessie came to, he didn't want to go, and Tommy quickly went to sit down on the floor where he had just a moment ago gotten up from.

Katherine saw Tommy walk away just a couple of feet from the door and she saw him start pacing around.

Jessie looked at him too, but in a different way Katherine saw him of course. He saw Tommy with eyes full of hatred but he had to admit, he somehow respected him in a way. Not for defending Katherine, but for fighting like he did. Jessie had never felt such strong punches before his battle with Tommy.

Katherine noticed Jessie in deep thought, but didn't care and still made her way towards him saying, "you know, he hates people fighting other people for no apparent reason, especially when a man hits a woman."

Jessie looked up at her with no such care in his facial expression. "And?" he stated.

Katherine couldn't help but feel mad at the fact that Jessie, even after getting beaten so badly was still acting like a buffoon. She rolled her eyes to where she knew he could see her and just turned around to leave the living room. Something on the way stopped her though. Her frustration she thought was the backlash that sent her through the edge and through that mental wall that she had set up for herself against Jessie. She then turned to him with so much anger in her voice, that Jessie was struck with it forcefully; he couldn't do anything but just sit there and listen to his beaten ex-girlfriend.

"You know", she began, "just because you work for the FBI doesn't mean you can treat me like this. You think you have balls? Well, if you ask me, you're nothing but a damn coward! You think you're such a man? All you are is a woman beater! That's not a man! That's just nothing but a poor excuse for a boy! I just think you fight women cuz you know you can beat them; and as for fighting guys, well the only guys you dare to fight are the ones with your same physique and even then, you catch them off guard! What about tonight, huh? Did you think you were such a man? No! You were the coward that you have always been. Just because you knew you would get your ass kicked, you stayed on the floor! I'm glad Tommy kicked your ass tonight, just so you can know what it feels like to be humiliated, and beaten without you even being able to say anything!"

She calmed down and just stared at him angrily.

"So, that's how you feel? You think I'm a coward? Let me see you go through FBI training and then tell me who the coward is!" Jessie still did not want to change his ways of thinking and just demanded an answer from Kat.

Katherine then thought to herself about her ranger days and just laughed internally at the thought that if Jessie was complaining about FBI training, he would not last one day in the line of battle. She decided to keep her thoughts to herself though, seeing as it was a rule of being a ranger; though she did see that Jessie, although a smart man, was not going to change his ways of seeing this situation in another way.

"Well don't they teach you in the FBI training," she said with sarcasm in her voice, "that there are certain rules you should abide by? Like, not taking for granted your position, and especially not threatening anyone that you have the FBI power superior to them?" She continued sarcastically.

Jessie just saw her with different eyes now. He didn't know what had stuck Katherine to be acting so differently in the sense that she was just completely acting like a different person than he thought she was.

Jessie didn't know it, but Katherine was acting in such a power because of Tommy. Having him by her side, she felt immortal. She felt as if the world could come down crashing upon her, and nothing would happen to her because he was there. He was there for her, and only her.

She never felt such anger come across her like that. The anger she felt for Jessie was now getting her good side, but Katherine, being controlling of her own emotions, she calmed herself down mentally and began her next statement towards Jessie.

"I see that you're never going to change. No matter what anyone does or says to you; but I will tell you this: if you ever come near me again, I will have the police on your ass so fast, it'll make your head spin. Just know that this will be on record, because I'm not letting you get away so easily. So, if you don't want to see anything coming your way, especially a pink slip, I suggest you don't even think about pressing charges on Tommy for what he did to your sorry ass."

Jessie couldn't do anything but nod his head. "You keep your mouth shut about what I did to you, and I'll keep my mouth shut about what he did to me." Jessie then said with a dealer voice.

"Fine." Katherine said, knowing that even if she did press charges on Jessie, he still wouldn't say anything, because she knew his pride was too important to him to have him say something like, 'I was beat up by a paleontologist', not knowing of course that Tommy too had been and still is a Power Ranger.

She decided not to mess with it anymore; she just wanted to get as far away from Jessie as she could. With that note, she then stated, "so, you sure you don't want to go to the hospital?" She sounded annoyed, but still, she knew she had to ask.

"I'll be fine." He said, before adding, "you and your little boyfriend better get out of here before the landlord sees the stuff in his truck. I don't want you to get in trouble…

Kat knew Jessie was not finished with his sentence but couldn't help it feel that he was being fairly nice in the situation now.

…before he catches you and I have to see your ugly face here another day."

Somehow, she knew it was too good to be true. With that, she smiled at him and nodded her head. She was just happy that he didn't say anything after that. She turned and started towards Tommy.


She closed the door behind her and headed towards the jeep. She thought Tommy saw her because she opened the door to the jeep and stopped before getting in. It was then that she realized he was deep in thought, and to be honest to herself, it didn't look good.

"Hey," she said, as she walked by him after closing the jeep's door again.

Tommy turned quickly and was a bit startled to be shaken out of his thought like that.

"Did you talk to the kids about why you didn't go?" She had to ask.

"Yeah," he said. He then saw Kat's face burn with embarrassment before he added, "but I didn't tell them why. I just said I couldn't make it."

Her face went from red back to its original soft creamy shade as she asked, "So, how did they do without you?"

"Ah, they're a strong group, I'm their mentor, remember?" He said with joking conceited pride in his voice.

She then nodded in agreement truthfully before saying, "well, I think we better be getting out of here, if the landlord sees me, he's going to have a fit."

"Oh, alright." Tommy said as he turned towards the jeep and headed to open Kat's side door.

She was about to get in, when she remembered she had a car of her own. "Oh, I'm gonna ride in my car remember?" She told him as she refreshed his memory as well.

"Oh yeah." He said innocently.

She still had use of him opening the door for her because her keys were on the passenger side of the seat in her purse. "So, what highway are you going to take?" She asked, trying to get him to give her a small detour of the direction he was going to take.

"I'm gonna take I-10" he said. "Get on the freeway and just get off on Hill Town Exit. I'm pretty sure you're gonna be tired by then because it should be really late."

She nodded her head and smiled. "Okay" she said. She gently touched his face before bringing him in for a small kiss.

Tommy leaned in and kissed her with a small sense of passion in his kiss not wanting to get into it so bad. He knew once he got started kissing her, he wouldn't want to stop.

They broke apart their quick kiss and Tommy followed her towards her car. He grabbed her hand firmly as they walked side by side together in the parking lot.

Once they made the extra few but long feet to her car, she pressed the off button on her alarm. She then unlocked it with the same keychain hanging from her keys and headed towards opening the door.

She unlocked it, but it was Tommy who opened it for her as she made her way in between the car and Tommy. He held her from her hip firmly showing his affection towards her which she couldn't do anything other than blush to.

She turned as she was now in between the door and Tommy, having the driver seat door open and to her right. Tommy pulled her close to him as she smiled at his movement of hands that were just bursting with love towards her. She wrapped both her hands around the back of his neck, while she too somewhat pulled him closer to her.

"So, I'll see you at Hill Top?" He said to her in a sense of a question.

She looked deep into his eyes and nodded her head. "Yeah, you still have some of my stuff at your house. Not to mention all of my furniture in the back of your jeep." She joked.

He couldn't help but smile at her remark and just tapped her gently on her behind. They both chuckled a bit at their actions because as Tommy tapped her, she somewhat kissed him on the tip of his nose.

Tommy sighed at the thought that he wasn't going to be able to see Kat for four whole hours but still knew she was going to follow him, furniture or no furniture. He then leaned in towards her as she too leaned in for a final kiss before heading towards their destination.

They once again broke apart after five final kisses when Katherine saw with her ninety-degree angle vision someone standing beside them just a few inches away from her car.

She jumped at the sight of the figure standing there with his arms on both sides of his hips. He looked as if he was angry making his somewhat wrinkled lips to one side of his mouth as his left eye twitched a bit and the other had its upper lid closed a little.

"Mr. Hems!" Katherine couldn't help but look alarmed at the figure. It was her landlord and he looked as if he was mad enough to take them both apart.

"Yes", he stated with such a fierce old voice, "I see that jeep parked outside your apartment there missy," he said pointing at Kat's apartment, but mostly at Tommy's jeep. "I also see a U-Haul behind it. Is it carrying your furniture?"

"Oh, no, well yes," Katherine's voice was unstable now. "Umm, you see, I bought new furniture, and my boyfriend here was just helping me take this one out and give it to my parents", she lied.

"I'll see you back here then later." He said, keeping a sharp eye on her.

"Oh, no, you see, I'm going to spend the night at my parents, and tomorrow morning I have to go to work, so, you probably won't see me until tomorrow afternoon." She then told him.

"Oh, well, as long as you remember to pay me next months rent by next week, everything is fine by me." He then said.

"Oh, yes Mr. Hemms, wouldn't dream about missing a payment. You'll boot me out of here for sure." She somewhat joked with the old man.

"Alrighty then sweetie, I'll see you Sunday." He said as he was turning around. As he slowly made his way to his office, Tommy and Katherine both heard his mumblings as he was going about, "rotten kids, think they can kiss all over public area like that…"

They both then looked at each other and couldn't do anything else but laugh at the old man. Katherine knew he was a nice man, although a bit of a grumpy old man about ninety-nine percent of the time.

Both of them went back to their business and gave each other three last intense kisses before Katherine got into her car and let it warm up while Tommy made his way to his jeep.

He turned on the ignition, and made his way out of the parking lot. Katherine pulled out behind him, following her 'boyfriend'.


Tommy and Katherine were both at a red light. At this point, Katherine was next to Tommy pushing in the brake pedal of her car. Tommy was sneaking looks at his left in her direction just thinking to himself how lucky he was to have her back in his life.

Katherine like wise was sneaking short looks here and there. It was somewhat of a long red light, but when the light went from red to green, Katherine took her foot off of the brake and pushed in the accelerator pedal in lightly, enough to beat Tommy passed the pedestrian crossing lanes.

Tommy was a bit slower at the reaction of the light because his mind was on Katherine. It wasn't till he saw from the corner of his eye the Mustang pull out of the still position that he realized he had to go on green.

They both made it up the rail of the highway in the two lanes, where it turned into one for the entrance of the freeway on I-10. Tommy let Katherine pass his jeep completely letting her get on the freeway first.

A while later, they were both on their way towards Hill Top; it was a quiet little town Tommy knew. They had stopped there for a rest where Katherine supposedly was sitting on her 'throne'.

On their way, they were both deep in their thoughts, still focusing on the traffic going around them.

Katherine thought to herself, oh my God! Did I just call him my boyfriend a while ago? Come on, we kissed, yeah, but jeez, who do I think I am just blurting something out like that? It doesn't even mean we're dating! Oh jeez, how could I have said that? Maybe he didn't realize I said anything about 'boyfriend'…

Tommy on the other hand was thinking, man! How in the hell does she just want me to take a stupid idiot that beat the crap out of her to the damn hospital? Who does she think I am? The World Health Organization? Then again, she 'did' give it to him good when I was outside. I couldn't have said it better myself. 'Coward!' Ha, Classic. He said to himself between mental chuckles. Oh man, but that kiss she gave me…it was just so freakin' perfect. Ah, I'd love to just pull over and give her a huge wet kiss right now…

Katherine by now was mentally kicking herself in the head for saying what she said, boyfriend, damn Kat! Urgh. That was by far the stupidest thing I could have said, then again, I 'was' lying to Mr. Hemms. Maybe Tommy took it as a lie as well…

Tommy was also thinking about the scene with Mr. Hemms at that time as well, ah, now 'that' was classic. It was so funny to see that old man just making her trip with words like that. Hmm, I don't think I've ever heard Katherine lie to the elderly before. Ooh, mental note: tell Katherine about that later, no, no, no, make 'fun' of Katherine about that later. Yeah, that's it. 'My boyfriend is helping me move furniture', ha, ha…wait a minute…did she say boyfriend?...

Katherine was now seeing a sign that read, 'PARKVIEW 45 MILES, BEAUMONT 85 MILES, HILL TOP 140 MILES' she couldn't help but yawn at the frustration of Hill Top still being so far away.

Tommy read the sign too, but wasn't so interested in the mileage still, more so because he was still on the same thought, although in a happier tone than Katherine was; boyfriend. That was nice of her. Then again, she probably just said it because her landlord was there. She 'might' have been seen as a bit of a slut to him if she had said 'my friend' after she was so clearly making out with me. And boy were we making out! Oh, man, I really need to talk about that. Hmm, knowing her, if I bring up the subject and somehow make fun of her about it, she's gonna get as red as she always does when she's embarrassed. Ah, Tommy, you know her too damn well. It 'would' be nice to be free to call her my girlfriend. I mean, who wouldn't want a girl like 'that'? She's gorgeous! Although I wouldn't picture her as a short hair girl myself, she makes the look work for her. I still can't believe she called me her boyfriend, mental note: speak to her about…no, no, no, make 'fun' of her about the boyfriend situation later. He was almost done with that thought before adding, oh yeah, like 'I'd' remember anything.

Oh, man, that kiss was incredible; he 'did' kiss me like he meant it. What if I was just another one of his girlfriends that he had sex with in High School? I wonder if he ever did it with Heather? Na', he couldn't had, they only dated for a day or two. Then again, she was a bit older than him, hmm, I wonder…no, Katherine, don't get ahead of yourself, he wasn't like that. Then again, was she? I wonder if she ever wanted to do something with him though, I 'would' give her that one, hell, 'I' wanted to do something with him too! She was too into her thoughts and did not notice the signs up ahead of her drive.


In no time flat, she saw the next sign that read, 'HILL TOP 5 MILES, SAN JUDAS 35 MILES, REEFSIDE 425 MILES'. She was so happy that she hadn't focused much on the signs, she got to Hill Top much faster than she expected.

It was five minutes before she put her right signal light to get off in the small town. Tommy followed behind her, as well as another car after him.

It was well past two am, when they arrived in the small town, Katherine then let Tommy pass her vehicle and he led her to the hotel, Riata Inn.

They both parked side by side getting off almost at the same time on the right side of the building. Katherine went to the other side of her car and retrieved her purse from in back of the passenger seat. Tommy came up behind her grabbing her hips snugly on his palms. She didn't make a sign of uncertainty, she knew it was Tommy behind her, and just didn't mind at all where his hands were. She then stood up from her crouching position that she was in and turned to him.

"Shall we then?" She said, with a bit of a smirk on her face.

"Oh, we shall." He said, in his charming way that only Tommy knew how to speak.

He let go of her hips and dropped his arms while extending his left hand out so she can get it. She willfully took it, and they headed inside the hotel.

Before they got to the front desk, they stopped for a moment to argue a bit on who was going to pay for the rooms. Katherine ended up winning since she was the one who brought up the conversation. She made her point proven to him when she told him he was the one that had paid for the gas and he was still letting her stay in his home. Tommy didn't like the idea of Katherine paying for him, but didn't care after long, since he was just ready to go to sleep.

They arrived at the front desk and Katherine asked the clerk for two separate rooms. Tommy didn't mind the separation, seeing as he honestly didn't know what to expect from his body spending the whole night in the same room with the woman he loved.

The clerk typed in Kat's name and information in the computer provided for him. As he was taking Kat's credit card, he paused for a moment to tell the other man that had just entered there was no more rooms available.

Katherine didn't know what to say because she surely didn't want to leave this man without a room. Tommy then looked into her eyes and she just melted at the sight of his gaze. She then told the clerk, "well, you know, you can just go ahead and charge me for one room."

She handed him her credit card and he took it this time. He then gave her two cards for the door and they headed to the room to check it out, Tommy still hassling her about paying for the room.