Chapter Eight
"Rocky DeSantos gave a great deal to this community over the last decade. When we established the Saru Karate Academy fresh out of college, I was not sure how we were going to make it work. I was just a business student that liked the idea of karate- I was no use to teach classes. A couple of years ago, we realized we had outgrown the Saru Academy and we broke ground here. The last year has been hard. Today, I am happy to open the DeSantos Karate Academy," Patrick said and Tommy closed his eyes. He didn't need to watch the ribbon cutting ceremony. He could feel the DeSantos and Campbells watching him in the crowd. They had invited him here to watch this dedication, but in his gut he knew that this was just a convenient way to get him out here to answer the bigger questions. The questions that the police would never be able to answer for them.
Kimberly's hand found his and he looked over at her. She was staring straight ahead, but the tears were also flowing down her cheeks. As the rest of the crowd cheered, they mourned. He realized they were not the only ones dealing with these emotions as a few of the instructors he had met over the years hastily wiped their cheeks.
"Uncle Tommy!" Marjorie yelled as she sprinted through the crowd and he bent down to scoop her up in a fierce hug. He felt Kimberly's eyes on him and he realized that he never mentioned what most of the ranger kids called him. "I missed you."
"I missed you too, Marj," Tommy whispered as a bit of sadness settled in him. He had made it a point to FaceTime with her from time to time, but it wasn't the same as the monthly clinics he used to run at Saru. Her grandparents made their way over to them and Tommy glanced over in time to see their grim faces. "You know we're having lunch together?"
"No way! Papu- why didn't you mention that?" Marjorie asked as Tommy lowered her back to the ground and she spun around to face Brian Campbell. The smiles that spread on all of their faces as she sassed her grandparents brought all of them a small reprieve from the painful conversation that was sure to come.
"Tommy, Kimberly- it's good to see you," Martha Campbell said as she reached over and gave each of them a hug, lingering a bit longer in Kimberly's arms as the two women exchanged a few words. When they pulled apart, Tommy saw the tears that they both hastily tried to hide from Marjorie. "We were thinking you might want to come back to the house."
"That sounds great," Tommy replied as Kimberly had to turn around to hide the continued tears. He admired the fact that she was trying not to call more attention to how this was affecting her and when his hand found hers again, she squeezed it tight. "We'll follow?"
"That would probably be best- we carpooled," Allison DeSantos mentioned as she placed a hand on Kimberly's shoulder and Kimberly clapped her hand over her mouth to keep the sobs from becoming audible. The DeSantos/Campbell clan walked off ahead of them and he quickly gathered her in to his arms.
"I can take you back to Mom and Dad's…" Tommy started and he felt her shaking her head no against his chest. He thought she had grieved all of them well over the last year, but apparently there were things that she had been holding in. "Hun…"
"Hormones. I cried like this for the entire second month you were in a coma. If you can believe it, it was worse then," Kim whispered and he nodded his head in understanding. He had missed this part of the previous pregnancy and he felt his heart clench a bit at that thought. "I need to be there for this one too."
"Okay," Tommy replied and he started them towards his mother's sedan. Her sobs had settled in to hiccups, but it still worried him. How was she going to be able to stand the conversation that was to come?
"Marj seems to be adapting well," Tommy stated as she ran around the back yard with some of her cousins. He had not accounted for their siblings also wanting to talk to them, but he would face this. He had to.
"Tommy, thank you for coming out here. You don't know how much we appreciate it," Mark DeSantos started and he found Kimberly's hand under the table to try to steady himself. "We need to know what you know."
"What did the police tell you?" Tommy asked and they all looked at him. "I'm not trying to stall, but I also want to be able to tell you what they got right."
"As best as they can tell- Rocky held whoever it was off while Aisha got Marjorie up and out of the house. Once Ish knew that Marjorie was safe- she went to help Rocky. They didn't show us pictures of the crime scene, but we saw enough of the house as we cleared it and on their bodies to guess that whoever did this to them was brutal. There were no fingerprints. No evidence. Nothing on who did this," Brian stated and he glanced around at the other faces in the room and saw the pain there. He could not alleviate all of their pain, but he could do something. He could answer questions. "Did you find who did this?"
"It's more like he found me, well…us really," Tommy started and he hastily wiped his eyes. He could tell his voice was not going to hold up for him and that was alright. He needed to show that this affected him too. "He came after all of us and he wanted to make us suffer. He made sure of that. I can't lie to you and say it was quick and painless. I can tell you that he will never harm another one of us again."
"One of you?" Martha asked and he averted his gaze. "What were they, Tommy? What are you?"
"Martha…" Tommy started and he was surprised when Kimberly shook her head, surprised enough that he turned his attention to her.
"Power Rangers. We were all…" Kim trailed off as the tears started again. He was shocked that she was admitting what they had all been. It was the first time she had willingly talked about that part of her past with anyone aside from him.
"That's insane," Felicity barked and he watched her jump in her seat. "I would have known if my own sister…if she…"
"If she randomly disappeared for hours at a time as a teenager and those times happened to coincide with when the Power Rangers were needed?" Tommy supplied as Felicity turned on him and he closed his eyes as he tried to think of how to help them. He tried to think of how to move the families past the truth that they had just learned. "Felicity- Ish did so much for this planet. Neither of them deserved this. No one deserved this."
"You're alive, Tommy. If you were as good of a ranger as it seems- you'd be dead too," Felicity snarled and she turned to march out of the room. Tommy felt Kimberly stand up from her seat and she moved to block Felicity's path. Every alarm in his body went off as he sensed the danger Kimberly was putting herself in. "Get out of my way, Kimberly."
"No. You want to know why he's alive? Because he saved him for last. He wanted to torture him in more ways than anyone else. He wanted to make him watch them all die and know that there was nothing he could do to stop it. If he had come after him first…" Kimberly trailed off and he tensed to act. Everyone in the room was tensing to act and he could see it. It was if they all knew that he was set to 'hair trigger' when it came to Kimberly. "He came for us last. We lost our baby. We nearly died. I am so, so sorry that they didn't make it Felicity. I know you're hurting, too, but we can't help that we made it out alive."
It happened in a snap. Felicity reached out and slapped Kimberly with her full force and he leapt to his feet, eyes fixed on Felicity. Kimberly stepped between the two of them and enough of his senses remained intact for him to stop moving forward when her palms flattened against his chest. Felicity took a few steps back as his gaze met hers. She was a threat, a threat to his family.
"I'm fine. We're fine. Felicity is just mad and hurting," Kim stated and he looked around the rest of the room. There were multiple tear streaked faces and a few that were rightfully scared. He knew just how terrifying he could be when he was in protect mode. He felt her grabbing his hand and place it against her abdomen. "We're fine."
"Uncle Tommy! Want to come outside and play with us?" Marjorie asked as she barged in to the kitchen and he barely shook his head no. Thank goodness Marjorie was too young to understand what she had walked in to. "Uncle Tommy, c'mon."
"I'm sorry, Marj. It's time for us to get going," Tommy said as he read the room and determined that they no longer wanted him there. "Maybe next time?"
"You live in New York now. Next time could be AGES," Marjorie coaxed and he reached down to give her a quick hug. He squatted at her level and forced down the lump in his throat.
"I promise- next time," Tommy whispered as he held up his pinky finger and she quickly linked hers with his. He then stood up and walked the two of them towards the front door. He felt that some of the others were following, but he was not sure who.
"Tommy…they protected this planet?" Allison asked as he reached the door and he stopped in his tracks. The tears threatened to spill over and he knew they would if he faced them again. He felt Allison's hand gently touch his shoulder and the sob was torn out of him. Kimberly's arms looped around him and he fought to stay on his feet. These stories- these were going to be the hardest to tell.
"They did. We all did," Kimberly supplied as she steadied him and he sobbed even harder. He had tried to save them. He had tried so hard to get them to safety, but everything he tried hadn't been enough. It never would have been enough.
"Thank you for telling us," Quez said as he managed to look over at him and he saw the pain and understanding in Aisha's brothers eyes. He glanced around at the others and saw more of the same. Felicity stood in the back of the room and as his eyes met hers, she hung her head in shame. He knew that she desperately missed her sister and she also knew that striking Kimberly was not going to change anything. "We knew it wasn't normal. Now we know just how fortunate we were to have them as long as we did."
