A/N: Hey, guys! It's been a while since I posted a one-shot and this one came to mind today. It's been bounced around for a while now about what would have happened if Tommy had just teleported down to Florida after getting the letter. Well, this is my take on that idea. Let me know what you think! I'm also open to taking any other ideas for oneshots if you've got them.

As always, thank you for reading and reviewing!


Without You

A One Shot

It felt like I had an elephant sitting on my chest, each breath hurting worse than the one before it. Closing my eyes, the words kept vibrating and echoing around my mind. 'I found someone else.' What? How was that even remotely a possibility? It just couldn't be. I opened my eyes and felt that sting of the tears again and I quickly blinked them away, hoping to avoid them from falling again. It had happened before, at the edge of the pond, almost to the point where I couldn't stop them. I didn't want that to occur again, a sign of weakness for the fearless leader I was supposed to be.

Too bad I felt like a pathetic loser at this moment.

Kimberly. She was my princess in our story book romance. I had known it since the moment my eyes had landed on her. The way her eyes sparkled when she laughed and the small dimple in the corner of her mouth dipped when she smiled was enough to drive me crazy. It was no secret how I felt about her from the first moment we met and I had been so relieved when she had admitted her feelings to me as well. I had gone from the low and humble servant to her knight in shining white armor, though my stead was that of a Zord rather than that of a horse. But, she was my true love and we were together. We even saved the world together with the help of our team, romancing that of Lois Lane and Clark Kent. I needed her by my side through all of that and then some, knowing I would turn and she would be right there at every bump in the road.

Then, she wasn't.

I had been thrilled for her when she heard the news she was selected for the team. I knew what it meant for her dreams and her future career to be on that team. She had dreamed of being an olympic athlete, long before I had even come into the picture. She finally had this chance and I was going to cheer her on, no matter what it meant. I also knew what it meant for our relationship. I knew the distance would be a challenge and that we were going to need to work harder to make things work between us. We had such a long talk that night, making a pact with each other that we were going to do whatever it took to make sure we were going to be end game. Just because we would have 3,000 miles between us, didn't me that we still couldn't be there for each other. I promised to watch every game, every news segment, and anything that even mentioned her for a moment. I also promised to never miss a single phone call or letter. She promised that she would keep an eye out for news about the team and not worry so much when there had been an attack. She also promised to keep in touch daily, sending me pictures and letters with her perfume so I could still remember what she looked and smelled like, a fear she had. As if I could forget those doe brown eyes and the coconut mixed with the vanilla smell that came from her like a warm breeze from the tropics.

We both kept our promises. I had spoken to her last night, hearing all about her practice with Coach Schmidt and how he had told her how much potential she had. She would be going in front of the olympic committee in just a week, showing all her talent for a spot on the national team. She was so nervous but yet cheerful on the phone. She hadn't mentioned a word about another guy or the break up letter she had sent me that had been looming ever closer over the last week. How could she just pretend it wasn't going to be happening, laughing and joking on the phone with me like normal? She had even told me she loved me before we hung up, something that had sounded so sincere coming from her.

"Tommy?" A voice called, causing me to sit up in my bed. I looked up towards the top of my basement bedroom steps and saw that a pair of legs were coming down them. Billy appeared, his torso joining his legs as he bent down to make sure I was down here. "I had assumed the theoretical chances you would have returned to your home dwelling to be higher than that of any other location in the surrounding areas." He said, adjusting his glasses. He finished climbing down the steps and walked towards me as I swung my legs over the side of the bed to sit up.

"Yeah. I needed some time I guess." I replied, running a hand over my face. "I'm sorry I left the team earlier. I just needed to be alone."

"No apology needed, Tommy." Billy said, shaking his head. "You were clearly emotionally distressed and the necessary time to process those emotions was vital. I came over to evaluate how you were coping."

"I'm not." I muttered, shaking my head. "I just don't get it, Billy. This came out of nowhere! Things had been fine between us. I spoke to her yesterday and she never mentioned this." Billy frowned.

"She hadn't made any notable comments regarding this impending separation?" He questioned, sitting on the couch across from my bed. I shook my head, resting my hands on my knees.

"Not a one. Hell, she even mentioned that when she came back home for Christmas, she wanted to do the Christmas lights walk like we do every year. She never said anything about breaking up." Sighing, I reached over and grabbed the letter. It had been on the bed next to me, me rereading it about a hundred times now as if the words would magically change and she was not ripping my heart out to shred into pieces. "It just doesn't make sense."

"Have you tried calling her?" Billy asked. I scoffed.

"No. She's at practice I think. Besides, I have no clue what I am going to say to her right now. It's not like I can demand answers over the phone. What if she really did find this other great and wonderful guy? I just can't make her stop seeing him. God, what if she's been seeing the both of us since she's been down there? I don't even know what I would do with myself if I found out that Kimberly has been cheating on me." Groaning, I laid back on the bed. Those tears came back to my eyes and I didn't fight them back this time. I knew I could cry in front of Billy without shame. We've been friends for years and he's seen me at my worst before. There was no shame to be felt right now.

"Tommy, I apologize for lacking in any expertise in this area. I haven't had many experiences when it comes to the psychology involved in relationships. However, I feel that a confrontation would be best to deal with the current situation to help come to the fair and reasonable conclusion as to why Kimberly has behaved in this manner. Perhaps there has been some confusion or there is another explanation to be found as to why this has occurred that needs to be explained further." Billy offered. I wiped my face clear of the tears before sitting up.

"I can't just call her, Billy. The letter was shitty as it was but to just have to hear her say over the phone she doesn't want to be with me would be worse." My eyes moved over to the photo collage I had of the two of us on the wall near my pillows. It was to make sure she was always that first thing I saw when I woke up in the morning and the last thing I saw when I fell asleep. Usually, I would talk to her until she was asleep while looking at her picture. "If only I could just see her in person. Then, I could just sit with her and talk this through."

"Tommy, how are you financially able to make a trip such as that?" Billy asked.

"I'm not." I replied, pissed that he was right. I couldn't just afford a plane ticket. Besides, even if I could pile the money together, my parents would freak if I just hopped on a plane for Florida without telling them first. I might finally be 18 but I knew that my mother would beat my ass if I just ran off like that. I looked over at Billy, an idea coming to mind. "Could the Radbug make it that far?" I asked. Billy frowned, shaking his head.

"It's been out of commission since our previous battle with Rita. I've been unable to locate the necessary material to repair it." He replied. Sighing, I dropped my head into my hands. When I did, my hair got stuck to my communicator. I swore, the strands of hair getting yanked out of my scalp as I moved it away. Then, a stroke of genius hit me.

"Of course! Billy, I'm an idiot." I said, standing up. "I can just teleport to Florida!"

"Tommy, you know you can't do that." Billy said, standing as well. "Zordon warned you prior to Kimberly's departure that it would be forbidden and viewed as a misuse of our resources unless there is an emergency."

"This IS an emergency." I said. "I can go super quickly and Zordon won't even know I'm gone."

"The computer records all energy transformations and inputs from teleporting." Billy said, flatly. "He'd know before you even left California unless you had a way to translate it as some other molecular power transfer in the computer."

"Meaning?" I asked, unsure of what the hell he was saying. He sighed.

"You'd need to make it look like you're going somewhere else." He replied. I smiled, grabbing his shoulders.

"And who else can do that besides my brilliant best friend, Billy Cranston?!" I exclaimed. He gave me a hesitant look.

"Tommy, I don't know about this. I'm uncertain that there won't be repercussions from this type of behavior." I could tell how uncomfortable I was making him feel. Billy wasn't one to break the rules, especially Zordon's. I knew that I wasn't being fair to him to ask him to do something so risky for me especially for a girl. Even if that girl was Kimberly and I felt like I was dying on the inside. I shook my head.

"I know. Billy, I know that it's shitty of me to ask you to do something like this." I frowned, releasing his shoulders. "I have to just accept the fact that this is what Kimberly wants." I sat back down on the edge of the bed. "I don't know how to do that though. And what if she just decides to stay in Florida and I never see her again? I don't think I can imagine life without having Kimberly in it in some manner." I believe that was the idea that terrified me the most. What if she just never came back here and the last time I saw her, standing in the airport leaving me, was the very last time I would get to see her? We had been rushed by the team and the airport employees, our good-bye feeling slightly hasty. I would do anything to go back and make it last longer. I would hold her longer, kiss her longer, and tell her just how much I loved her.

"Tommy?" Another voice called as my bedroom door opened. I recognized it as Adam before he even made it down the stairs. "Hey." He said, seeing Billy and I in the room when he reached the bottom step. "How are you doing, man?" He asked. I shook my head, folding the letter up.

"I'm just confused." I said. "Thanks for coming to check on me, guys."

"Sure." Adam said, nodding. He shoved his hands in his pockets. "I gave Aisha a call before I came over here. I asked her if she talked to Kim at all. She said that she tried calling her last night but she was really upset."

"Kim was?" I asked. Adam nodded.

"I guess she had just gotten off the phone with you." He replied. "I'm not sure what this means but I thought you might want to know."

"You need to get to Florida." Billy said, surprising me. I looked at him with wide eyes. Adam glanced over at him too, looking confused.

"What?" Adam asked.

"I will configure the control panel to make it appear you are teleporting within the state limits." Billy said. "You'll only be able to teleport there and back so ensure you land within walking distance of the location you wish to be in."

"Isn't that like against the rules?" Adam asked, looking over his shoulder. Billy nodded.

"Affirmative."

"Billy, I can't ask you to do this for me." I said, shaking my head. "I can't risk your position with Zordon over a silly high school relationship."

"C'mon, Tommy. You know that Kim and you are more than that." Adam said. "You two have been through hell and back together. I think it's safe to say that you're more than just a silly relationship. Besides, you both deserve to have the closure in this if this is what is meant to be."

"Adam is correct. You'll be able to obtain your answers needed from her in a more personal manner." Billy said. I stood up.

"You sure about this?" I asked. Billy nodded.

"Affirmative."


It took Billy about twenty minutes to access the Command Center's system using my family computer upstairs. Luckily, my parents were out for the time being, giving us the time to do what we needed to do. Adam was going to cover for me in case anyone asked any questions. I figured the group would give me some space but I had a suspicion that Katherine would be coming around soon. She was annoyingly over involved with a great deal of things in my life. I knew she was trying to be a good friend but I also knew she wanted to be more with me. I knew it was only a manner of time before she started coming around to "help me" with my emotions.

"I've programmed the control panel to record the coordinates I provide it." Billy said, looking up at me from the screen. "Once you teleport, I can change them in the system. The same will occur when you teleport back."

"Okay." I took a deep breath, my nerves getting the best of me for a moment. I didn't know exactly what I was going to say to her or what I was even going to teleport on. I just knew that I needed to see her.

"Good luck, Tommy." Adam said, giving me a small smile. I returned it before hitting the bottom on the side of my morpher. White light enveloped around me and I felt the familiar pull as I teleported from my living room. My body shot through the air, moving at rapid speed away from my house. I picked up speed as I went across the country in just a matter of seconds. My body materialized in the hallway of the only address I knew in Miami, Florida. I found myself at the dorms of the Schmidt gym, the address the same as the one I would mail letter to Kim. The walls were a dark beige color and the floor was covered in a dark maroon colored carpet. Around me, there were numbered doors with names on the outside of them. I scanned the two next to me, not seeing Kimberly's name. I walked forwards, trying to make my footsteps as quiet as possible. I came across another set of doors. The one on the left was for Hernandez and the other was a Hill. They must be by alphabetical order. I continued forward until I came across the last door on the right side of the hall. The name on the door was Hart and there were small hearts made out of construction paper on the door. Pink and white construction paper. This was Kim's room alright. Taking a deep breath, I picked up my hand and knocked.

"One sec." Her voice called from the other side of the door. It sounded muffled and gruff. I heard movement and the sound of a lock moving. The door opened and she was standing there, her hair up in a messy bun on the top of her head. She was dressed in pajamas with a green flannel - my green flannel - shirt wrapped around her shoulders. Her eyes grew wide at the sight of me.

"Kim, I-." I started.

"SHHH!" She exclaimed, grabbing the front of my shirt and yanking me into the room. I stumbled a bit, barely catching myself before I could fall head first into her dresser. She looked up and down the hall for a second before shutting the door. She locked it quickly before spinning to look at me. "Tommy, what the hell are you doing here? Are you trying to get me kicked off the team? I'm not supposed to have boys in the dorms!"

"Oh. Sorry." I said. "I didn't realize that was a rule." I replied, rubbing the back of my head. "No one saw me though. I teleported right up the hall."

"You teleported here? Tommy, you know Zordon said not to do that." She said, giving me a disapproving look. "What was so important you had to rush down here like that for?" She asked.

"This." I said, pulling the letter out of my back pocket. I held it out to her but she didn't even move to take it. Instead, she looked at it like it was diseased.

"Oh." She replied, wrapping her arms around herself.

"Oh? That's all you have to say after I opened this today? Oh?" I asked, narrowing my eyes to look at her.

"Tommy, I didn't think you would just show up here." She said softly.

"I figured hence the letter." I sighed. "If you wanted to break up so goddamn bad, why not just do it over the phone? We talked on the phone every single day this week and you didn't even come close to mentioning that this would be coming my way. Why? Why write me a letter and act like everything was good until I got it?"

"I can't do this right now, Tommy." She said. "You need to go back to Angel Grove and when I'm ready, I will give you a call."

"Nope." I said, shaking my head. "I've given you plenty of time and even the benefit of the doubt here. Now I want some answers. Who is this guy? How long have you been seeing him?"

"Jesus Christ." She muttered, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "I'm not doing this with you."

"Kimberly, you just broke up with me this morning with a Dear John letter. This is the least you can do after embarrassing me like that." She opened her eyes, anger on her features.

"Oh, I embarrassed you? God forbid." She said. "You know what, Tommy? You are so thick sometimes. It's a wonder how you manage to not get yourself killed sometimes with the amount of times you run off, have cocked because of something."

"I suppose your new boyfriend is a world class genius then." I replied. "Let me guess; he's training here at the gym. Did you guys have some late night talks? Get to know each other while looking at each other from across the balance beam? I mean, who wouldn't want someone who could bend like you can?"

"Stop it." She said, shaking her head. "You have no idea what you are talking about, Tommy. You need to go home before you say something you regret."

"I'm not going anywhere until we talk about this. There is no way that this new guy is better than me. Better than us! Kimberly, I love you and you know that I would move mountains to give you anything you want. How can you just throw that all away for a guy you barely know? We've been together since we were 15 years old. You can't just toss us aside after meeting some dude down here. You can't be that evil."

"Tommy, please go home." She said and I could see tears welling in her eyes as she turned away from me.

"I told you. I'm not going anywhere." I said. "Not until you tell me the truth. I want to hear all about this great guy. You said I would like him, didn't you? Well, tell me more! I want to meet this amazing and wonderful guy that was worth throwing our entire relationship away for. He must be terrific. Is he nearby? Maybe we could get lunch or something." I knew I was being a dick but I was too angry now. The sadness had switched over to anger and I didn't know how to make it go back.

"Are you done?" She asked, picking up a blanket that was on the floor and tossing it on the bed.

"No. I'm not." I said. "I am pissed. I have spent the last three years with someone who I thought loved me. I supported you in your decision to join the team and to follow your dreams. I didn't think that would mean you would go looking for someone to replace me with. If you didn't want to continue our relationship, you should have told me before you left. You had plenty of time to tell me that you didn't want to be with me since then. You wait until you find someone to replace me with to break up with me? Do you know how incredibly selfish that is? Do you know that our friends sat there and heard every single word of that letter? And you sent it to the Youth Center? Why? Just to make sure that I would read it where everyone and their brother could see me?"

"I sent it there because then I knew you wouldn't be alone." She said, crossing her arms. "I didn't want you to be alone when you got upset."

"I wouldn't be upset if you didn't cheat on me with another guy!" I exclaimed. Anger flashed over her features like a switch had been flipped.

"I did not cheat on you." She said through gritted teeth. "And if you took one look around, your little brain might be able to piece some things together." I looked at her, confused for a moment. Then, I let my eyes take a quick gaze around her bedroom. There were boxes and totes stacked around it, an open box near my foot with clothes hanging out of it. It looked like she was packing up her room.

"Where are you going?" I asked, turning back to her.

"Even though it's none of your business, I am moving out of the dorms." She replied. I felt my jaw clench.

"You're moving in with this guy, aren't you?" I asked, shaking my head. "You've been with this guy long enough to feel like moving in with him is the right step?"

"You're mental." She said, giving me an incredible look.

"And you're a slut apparently." I hissed. She stepped back, an appalled look on her face as if I had just slapped her. She narrowed her eyes at me and balled her fists by her sides.

"There is no other guy! I am moving out of the dorms because I was picked for the Olympic team last week! The whole reason I sent you that letter was because I wasn't sure if I would have enough time for us to even have a relationship let alone keep the promises I made you!" She yelled, her voice echoing off the walls around us. "How dare you waltz in here, thinking that you know what's going on when you possibly can't."

"You made the team? I thought your tryouts were next week." I said.

"They were but they had an immediate opening. I had to take it or else I would have needed to wait until the next round of tryouts." She said, pinching the bridge of her nose. " I said yes and then they gave me this huge binder of rules and guidelines I have to follow. When I was reading through it, I saw what the daily schedule will be like." Bending down, she grabbed a thick binder from the floor by the dresser and shoved it into my chest. "Tommy, I'm going to be lucky if I have a spare moment to think for myself, let alone have the time for a relationship. I didn't want to make you think that it was your fault or that I was just fading off." I opened the binder and flipped through the pages. I got to one that said required practices. There were multiple in a day, not leaving much room for anything else. And most of them went late into the night and started early in the day.

"We could have made it work." I said, tossing the binder on the bed. "It's not fair you didn't let me make this decision on my own."

"Because I knew you would say exactly that, Tommy." She breathed, letting her arms fall. "You'd tell me that it would be okay and that we would make time to make it work. We're kids, Tommy. Do you really want to tie your entire life to a person that isn't even able to commit to a phone call once a day?"

"Yes. Yes, I do." I said. She scoffed, sitting on the edge of the bed. "Listen to me. If you can manage to work around me being a Ranger still, I think I can work around you working towards your dream."

"Tommy, it's a nice thought but think of it like this. Sure, we agree to make it work. We still write and call each other as much as possible. But then, we miss a couple calls. We forget to write when things get busy. Then, it happens more and more. Life gets farther and farther away from where we were to where we are now. You have this entire life back home with our friends and the team. You have an important mission to save the world. I have my responsibilities here to my new team of coaches and trainers."

"None of that matters to me!" I exclaimed. I dropped to my knees in front of her. "Do you love me?" I asked.

"Tommy, what's the point in this?" She asked. I shook my head and grabbed her hands.

"Do you still love me?" I asked again.

"Of course I do." She said.

"Well, I still love you. With all of my heart. So there has to be a way that we can make this work. All I know is that this morning when I woke up, I thought about you and how I just couldn't wait to see your dreams come true. So, we are going to make that happen one way or another, right?"

"Did Zordon give you permission to teleport here?" She asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked at me.

"That's not important right now." I replied. She rolled her eyes.

"That's what I am talking about! You already broke a rule that Zordon put in place just to come here. What's going to happen when it gets to be a couple months down the road and we haven't spoken regularly? You have responsibilities at home that you can't just up and leave. What if the guys needed you right now for an attack? You're 3,000 miles away! That could make the difference between life or death for someone in Angel Grove."

"Then I'll just quit the team." I said, shrugging my shoulders. "I only have half a year left of school. I'll graduate and come down here."

"We both know you don't want that." She replied. "You love being a ranger and there's no other leader like you."

"The team has Billy. He can be their leader. I don't need to spend the rest of my life devoted to them. I would rather you be that person." Reaching up, I cupped her cheek in my right hand. "I don't want to lose you, Beautiful."

"I don't want to lose you either." She whispered, putting her hand over mine. "I'm sorry I sent you that letter. I just panicked and didn't know what else to do." A tear slid down her cheek and I stroked it away with my thumb.

"I think we both did our fair share of panicking in this situation." I said, smiling at her. She returned it, sniffling. She slid down off the bed and to the floor on her knees in front of me. She wrapped her arms around my neck and I wrapped mine around her torso. I pulled her close, that familiar smell of coconut and vanilla wafting over me like a warm blanket.

"How are we going to make this work?" She whispered.

"I don't know but I know we're going to." I replied, stroking her back. "We can take turns coming back and forth. I promise that I will call you every night, even if it's just your answering machine I'm talking to. And I will write to you and send you care packages every day and week. Once school is done, I'm going to retire from the team." She pulled away slightly so she could look up at me.

"I promise I'll call you every day too. And I'll write you a letter for every day of the week, even I can only mail them out once a week. I'll also have them set aside tickets for the games for you when it's time. I can't picture competing without you watching."

"Naturally. I wouldn't miss that for the world." Leaning in, I kissed her lips. "I'm sorry I was a jerk."

"I'm sorry I broke up with you for a couple hours." She replied. I grinned.

"Worst day of my life I think." I teased. She laughed, resting her hands on my chest.

"I've lived with it for a week if it makes you feel better. I wanted to tell you but I was afraid that I would chicken out and tell you to just toss the letter. In a way, I guess I'm glad I sent it. At least I got to see you." I nodded.

"I'm glad to. Could you imagine if I hadn't come?" I asked, nuzzling her neck.

"We might have broken up for good." She replied. I kissed her again, pressing my forehead against hers.

"What's life without you there, Beautiful?"