The laundry room inside Pebble Brook Manor

Kimberly stood over the washer in the laundry room. Having put the last pillowcase in and pouring in the color safe bleach, she closed the lid and turned the machine on the heavy-duty cycle. Normally, she wouldn't have had to do laundry so soon after arriving, but after making sure their son, Maverick was fast asleep in travel crib, Tommy had held to his promise and they'd played around like love sick teenagers that had been left alone in a house for the weekend. Tommy had been tender and sweet to her…at least at first. After the first round or two, she could sense through their bond that he'd been holding back. With some encouragement, he'd finally let go and taken her like he'd truly wanted to, and it had been fantastic for both of them.

Kimberly had woken up this morning perfectly sated and just a little sore and with wonderful task of changing out the sheets in their large double bed. The sheets she'd just thrown into the washer were proof of just how good the sex had been the night before. They. Were. Filthy.

She shook her head and gently touched the front of her shirt, just over the hickey he'd left over her breasts the night before. She'd be feeling his love bite for some time to come.

This morning, they'd gone one more round in the shower and then he'd lovingly washed every inch of her before washing himself up. After drying off, they'd kissed one last time and then he'd pulled on his workout clothes and then headed to the manor. After Christmas he'd begun to officially teach Fabian and Kayla tumbling and their first Katas. Today, would be the first time he'd be sparring with them.

So, after nursing her son and leaving him in the nursery to sleep along with Thalia, she'd gotten the laundry started.

Just then, Kira walked in with a laundry basket of her own.

"Good morning Kira."

"Good morning, Kimberly." Kim looked at her niece and saw her biting her lip. It was a nervous tic that she'd seen before.

"You look like you have a lot on your mind; is everything okay?"

Kira looked at her smiling nervously. "Yeah, I had something I wanted to ask, but it's kind of personal, I know you and Dr. O are a private couple, but I kind of overheard the bed time story you told Kayla last night and it sounded like a watered- down version. I'm kind of curious about the real unedited story." The words came tumbling out all at once and Kimberly gave her an amused smile and thought back to the night before.

"Ah, you mean the story about our interrupted date involving the purse and lipstick monster."

Kira nodded. "Yeah, it seemed kind of…"

"Unrealistic and strange?" Kim finished.

"Yeah, like something out of a Saturday morning kid's show."

Kim nodded. "Yeah, the unedited version is not something I want my daughter to hear about till she's ready for 'the talk'."

Kira paused to throw in a mesh bag full of what Kimberly could tell were scandalous unmentionables. "I never thought I'd be asking about something like that."

Kimberly smiled. "Believe it or not, Tommy and I were once teenagers as well. We fell in love, fought giant monsters-" She paused as she handed over the box of detergent. "Tommy went through three sets of powers and during all that, we moved in together and punched each other's v-cards before we even graduated high school."

Kira closed the lid and then looked at Kim. "Three? I thought it was four sets of powers."

Kimberly shook her head. "No, they didn't get their Turbo powers till after we all graduated. That was when Kat finally took my place on the team."

Kira fixed the settings on the second washer and closed the lid.

"Would it be rude to ask about all of that? I know you guys are a private couple and everything… maybe leave out the raunchy parts?"

Kimberly grinned and laughed, once again touching the love bite on her chest.

"Yeah, why don't we go to the living room and I'll tell you the adult rendition. It'll actually work since Kayla joined her daddy this morning."

When they got to the living room, Melanie was there, quietly reading a magazine with the nursery monitor resting on the table.

Kira made herself comfortable and then turned expectantly to Kimberly who had taken off her slippers and tucked her feet under her.

"So, what happened on your date?" Kira prompted.

Melanie looked at them with interest.

Kimberly grinned to herself at the memory.

"Well, first a little backstory. At the time Tommy got his new Tiger powers, we were living together, and we were already sexually active. It was such a nice day and I wanted to have a real date… you know, something that wasn't going to end up with us getting hot and heavy in our room."

"Earlier in the year, my mother had thrown me out for defying her new husband. He was a colossal jerk and I got to the point where I refused to put up with his verbal abuse and I called Tommy over my communicator to come and get me. We were like two storm birds looking for a safe harbor. Tommy's late uncle was a semiprofessional race car driver and was never home. So, Tommy and I lived in his house and played around whenever we could get away from ranger duties and school work. It took us a while to balance it all out."

Kimberly paused and then took up with the story again.

"Anyway, I had planned this fantastic low-key picnic in the park. He drove us to the youth center in that pretty 69 Sting Ray of his."

"Do you mean that old car in the garage?" Melanie asked.

Kimberly nodded. "Yep, that's the one. After Tommy's uncle died, that car was bequeathed to me. Tommy didn't really complain of course, because he had the jeep by then. But that's a whole other story."

When Melanie nodded, Kim continued.

"Anyway, the date was going great. Ernie had prepared a lunch for us and we took it to the park. We went on a long walk and talked about our futures. I'm sure at least one tree in the park saw a major make out session.

"Anyway, we were truly enjoying ourselves when Zedd struck. During the fight with the super putties, he stole my purse. I'd left it by the picnic basket and one of the putty patrollers stole it during the fight, took the new lipstick I had bought just for our date and Zedd turned them both into monsters." Kimberly sighed softly. "Now, some of that battle is a blur to me because at some point, Tommy and I were frozen by the compact mirror the monster used on us. It was a lengthy battle and it took longer than usual to defeat it. Thankfully in the end, my purse and everything in it was recovered and we went home soon after. After that we learned an important lesson."

"What was that? Melanie asked.

"That if we were going to have dates, then we would have to be spontaneous about them. To have them on the fly and only after a massive battle. That way, Zedd's power would be depleted and we knew we could enjoy ourselves without fear of being attacked. That led to some very interesting experiences."

"I bet it did." Kira said with an amused grin.

"You bet it did. Once the battle was over, we were able to joke about it. I was also very glad that Tommy carried the condoms in his pocket and not my purse. I mean, can you imagine the monster using the foil packets for throwing stars or something?"

Kira shook her head. "That must have been some evil warlord. He didn't seem so vicious on the DVD."

Kimberly nodded. "I wasn't kidding when I told you that we had a hard-long road before we made it to the altar. There's so much more to the story than what you guys know. Sure, I got to marry the love of my life, but like all the good things in life, we had to go through hell to get to paradise. And not all the fighting we did was against alien war lords, the worst ones were fellow humans."

"Will you tell us more about them? Kira asked as a baby's cry was heard through the monitor

"Yeah, but not right now; that's my son's cry. He's definitely got his father's appetite."

When she got up and left the room. Melanie shook her head. "You guys sure saw some weird stuff, didn't you?"

"Well, Zedd was a very opportunistic enemy. That purse and lipstick monster wasn't the only weird monster we faced." Tommy said as he came in the room. "The Shell Shock monster was even weirder." He added and then finished. "Kim was a lot more pissed off than she seemed after that fight, She refused to use that lipstick ever again and we ended up going to the mall for another tube of the exact same color and brand. Not that I blame her. Had it been my wallet, I would have done the same thing, considering the contents."

Kira put up her hand. "Say no more, please. I'm good as far as that story goes. In fact, I think I just heard the laundry timer go off."

Tommy shook his head and grinned. Through their special bond, he could sense his wife's amusement; she was in a very happy place. That had been a very good day for them and when they'd gotten back to the house, they'd continued their picnic with a very different type of feast. He grinned at the memory and walked back out to the nest. Those memories that just played out in his head would need to be addressed by a long cold shower.