Kim bounced with anticipation as she watched California come into her view. All week, she had been barely keeping herself from calling Tommy to let him know that she was coming. She hadn't even responded to his last letter lest she let it slip out. They had a week of free time before their next, ramped up practices according to their coach. He said to make the best of the free time but to be sure not to slack in their individual work outs. They were only a month away from competition and everyone was getting intense, but a week off wasn't something Kim was going to shrug off.
Looking back, she was sure that she had started to annoy her roommate with her talk of the surprise date she had planned. She was humming to herself as she collected her bags and looked around for the rental car agency she had contacted. She had it all planned out. This was going to be such a fun week, assuming that Tommy could avoid and "I have to save the world" incidents.
She hadn't really put much thought into how that would work. This would be her first time being back since giving up her powers and this was going to be really hard to sit back and watch now that she was actually here. Maybe if something came up they would let her hang out at the command center or something. Just some way to let her feel connected.
She was shaken out of her thoughts by the woman at the counter handing her a key to a rental car. Her mom was the only one in on this plan as you need to be older than Kim currently was to rent a car. She smiled when she got outside and found the car that her mom had reserved for her- it may not have been the type of car she would normally like, in fact, she wasn't sure what type of car it was except that it was a ford, but it was pink.
She started on the couple hours' drive to Angel Grove, thinking only of surprising Tommy and seeing her friends after far too long away from all of them.
At the Youth Center, Tommy had joined his friends after school, but he looked less than his usual put-together self. He, Rocky, and Tanya were seated while Billy, Kat, and Adam were gathered around the table. The group had been trying to see if Tommy needed anything while he was trying to put on an obviously brave face for them. "I just have to stay busy guys, thanks. A crisis from Zordon would actually be the best thing right now," he said on a chuckle. His friends could tell he was hurting. Tommy couldn't see the door, but Adam could. He noticed the minute a petite, brown haired girl walked into view.
He nudged Rocky who turned around. Turning back to Adam, the both raised their eyebrows. Should they tell Tommy, should they let him notice for himself, would she really come over here? Billy, more perceptive than Tommy, had noticed the silent communication between the two and had also noticed Kim. He made the decision for them. "Tommy, I'm sure I speak for the entire group when I say that we're all devastated for you, but Kimberly just walked in the door. You need to decide what it is that you're going to do. She's likely to notice us at any moment, and, as someone who has been friends with both of you for years, I'll be excited to greet her. Letter or no letter, she's still my friend. I just wanted to give you time to sneak out the back if you want to avoid an awkward situation."
Tommy glanced through the shoulders separating his view from the entrance to the Youth Center and quickly found Kim, scanning the crowd, looking for this group, surely. He nodded to Billy and the rest, gathered up his bag off the floor and slunk out the back door. He had no more than allowed the door to swing shut than Rocky called out, "Kim! Over here!" A huge smile lit the petite brunette's face as she rushed to where the group was sitting.
Kat alone was reserved in her welcoming of Kim. Even Tanya, who hadn't known anything about Kim except for what she had heard first from Aisha and then from the rest of the Rangers was enthusiastic in their introduction to one another. Hugs were passed around as smiles and pleasantries were exchanged. Kat stayed removed for the most part. She was offended on Tommy's behalf for the way that Kim had so callously cast aside their relationship. How could any guy that she had only known a few weeks, months at most, compare to Tommy anyway?
Nevertheless, she didn't want to be obvious in her distaste, or to be rude, so she did go over to where the group had migrated to and offered Kim a bright hello with a big smile.
Kim was overjoyed to see all of them and was excited to pass around greetings and hugs. But she was most anxious to see Tommy. His absence struck her as odd when the rest of the rangers were in the room. She voiced her bemusement. "Not that I'm not thrilled to see everyone, but um, where's Tommy, I've been dying to see him!" The group fell suspiciously silent. What was going on?
Adam was the first to break the awkward silence. "Not to be rude, Kim, but I'm not sure he actually wants to see you right now. Maybe he could handle it eventually, but, just not now."
Now Kim was really confused. Tanya put her arm around Kim's shoulders and led them all back to the recently vacated table. She tried to steer the conversation in the direction of the upcoming pan-global games, but Kim was too upset by Adam's previous statement. "Sorry to interrupt, guys, but what did Adam mean by 'he could handle it eventually'? Why wouldn't Tommy want to see me? It's been like, three months of nothing but phone calls and letters." Kim tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and looked straight at Billy's eyes. The two could never keep a secret from each other. However, it looked like that had changed, as Billy withdrew from the table and leaned back to cross his arms over his chest, determinedly looking anywhere but at her.
Kat sat down across from Kim and had had enough of her innocent act. Sure, they had been friends, but Kim couldn't just expect it to all go back to normal with one visit after she had broken his heart. She was willing to lay it all out for her predecessor. "Do you realize what your last letter did to him? He's barely eaten today, he looks like he didn't even shower or brush his hair before school today. He's only spoken to any of us because of point-blank questions and even then, he's only answering so that we won't worry about him, even though we all do."
The confusion on Kim's face increased ten times. "Kat, I have no idea what you're talking about. My last letter to him was over a week ago and it certainly didn't have anything in it to make him upset with me. What's going on?" Silence hung over the teens again, but this time it was Kat who was confused and speechless.
Adam pulled out a chair and swung it around to rest his arms on the back of it. "Kim, I was the one who was reading the letter to him yesterday. I started reading where you broke up with him. It was definitely one of the most awkward moments of all of our lives to witness your break up, through a letter, no less."
Kim smoothed her hair and sat up straight, looking each of her friends in the eye. "Okay, let me repeat this for you guys again." She gestured aggressively toward herself, "I have not written a letter back to Tommy since his last reply to me because I knew I was coming here and would see him in person." She moved her hand in a circle to gesture at all of them, "I have no idea what you are talking about, because I would never break up with Tommy, especially not in a letter. I love him. I came all of this way to see you guys too, but really, I have this big date planned for our anniversary and everything."
The group all exchanged glances until Kat spoke up, "Okay, Kim, I have no idea what's going on here, but it smells fishy. I think you had better go find Tommy and see if you guys can work anything out. And anything this big might be connected to our other problems right now, so we'll all head there and see if we can find anything out."
Kim smiled brightly again and gave her Ranger replacement a hug, "Thanks for believing me, girl. Any idea where he might be?"
Billy responded, "Well, he snuck out the back door of the Youth Center when he saw you, he probably went somewhere in the park. I can go with you to help him look if you would prefer."
Kim stood, "No, Kat's right. You guys go to see if you can find any other fingerprints on this mess, I have a pretty good idea where he is."
Kim pushed the door open and set off to the beach at the edge of the lake, where she was certain she would find a very sullen red ranger, to see if she could brighten his day and get this figured out.
She found him right where she thought he would be: on a rock overlooking the lake in the park. It was where they had first kissed. It was where he always came to think. She walked quietly up to him. She knew she should say something quickly. He thought they were broken up after all, but after months of phone calls and letters, she was struck by his physique. The way the muscles in his back rippled as he picked at the tall grass around him, the way his biceps were so defined in his tight, short sleeved red tee... She couldn't afford to stare too long.
"Hey, Handsome." She said it with a smile on her face and in her voice, but his form stiffened.
"Kim, I don't want to be rude, but please. I can't do this. Please just go back to the Youth Center. You came here to see friends and I don't want to get in the way of that, but I can't" he paused, he threw down the piece of grass he'd been picking at, he rubbed a hand down his face, "I can't do this."
Walking around the bush he had seated himself next to, she quickly sat down beside him, ignoring his request. "Thomas Oliver, look at me." He did, and her heart broke. He had been crying, or trying not to at the very least; his eyes were rimmed in red. "I did not write a letter breaking up with you." She could have tried to be more delicate about it, but with how hurt he looked, she needed to cut to the point right away.
He looked taken aback. "You," he stopped speaking, he tried to start again, he stumbled over his words. The next coherent word was, "what?"
Leaning forward, Kim grasped at the back of his neck. She threaded her fingers through the silky hair there. Kat had been right, it did feel as though it hadn't been washed or brushed recently, but she could understand that. If he had written a letter to her breaking up with her, she probably wouldn't have gotten out of bed, let alone taken the basic grooming steps she usually did.
Locking eyes with the man she hoped was still her boyfriend, she passionately stated, "Tommy, I love you. The guys at the Youth Center told me about some letter that you got where I broke up with you? I never wrote that. I swear to you, Tommy. Wherever those words came from, it wasn't me."
"Kim." Tommy only got out the one word before he had sat up, grasped for her face gently between his strong hands and crashed their lips together. Now this is what Kim had been picturing for the first moment she saw him this trip. All this drama was definitely not in her plans, but this moment, this perfect, intense, passionate moment- yeah, she'd take that.
Abruptly, Tommy pulled away, ripping Kim out of the bliss she'd been experiencing. "Tommy?" Why would he stop kissing her? Why would he pull away?
He looked pained as he stared back at her. He swiped at his lips, still reeling from their embrace. "Kim, I want to keep kissing you. I've missed you so, so much. But I've had about 24 hours to think about your letter," at that Kim looked like she was about to interrupt him to correct him, "er- the letter I thought was from you. I had all this time to think about what we've been doing, how distracting this distance has been for both of us, and how hard it's been. I just think that we should think about it."
Tears shone in Kim's eyes as his words registered. Scratch that, they weren't registering, they were bouncing around her skull, not sinking in. "Think about…" she said under her breath. That wasn't making any sense.
Despite seeing the pained look gracing Kim's features, Tommy continued, "I love you. I can keep up with my school work and my Ranger duties with you so far away. I'm not worried about me. As I sat there, many times today, re-reading the words in that letter, I realized how distracting I might be as a cross-continent boyfriend. I don't want to do that to you, Beautiful."
The world was spinning. The ground flew up at her from behind as she landed hard on her rear from the kneeling position he had pulled her into. It was jarring and pulled the words out of her, "you want to break up? Now? After I just told you I didn't write that?"
Reaching for her hand, unable to stop himself from offering physical comfort despite his words, he pulled her to his side and sunk a hand into her caramel-colored hair. "Oh Kim, I don't want to break up. I've never wanted that and I will never want that." He paused again, unsure if he would be able to get the words out. "I'm just saying that while the wound is already open for me, if you want an escape route, this is it. If you've been questioning us because you're so far away and it's hard or distracting, or" He took a deep shuddering breath, unable to suggest that she may have met a guy in Florida, he finished, somewhat lamely with "anything, now is the time to let me know."
Leaning into his shoulder and throwing her arm around the opposite one to hook behind his neck, Kim forcefully responded, "I've never had that thought. I've never wanted to be without you." She sniffled. "All I want is you. I want to finish training, compete, and to come back to you."
Rubbing a hand up and down her arm, elbow to shoulder, Tommy tried to offer relief without acceding. "Don't decide just yet. We can fully decide where we stand when you get ready to go back. Just take the time to think about it." It was his turn to sniffle, unable to believe he was actually suggesting this to her. He wanted to be with her more than anything. Almost anything. Her happiness would always come before his own.
Sensing that he wasn't going to let this go, Kim backed away and wiped at her eyes, making sure that no tears were still present on her face. "Fine, I'll think about it. But at any rate, we need to figure out who did write this letter and why. If I didn't write it, and I didn't, then isn't it possible that it's part of some convoluted plot by, whatever cosmic evil is trying to hurt the planet? Let me see the letter." She held out her hand expectantly while Tommy reached for his wallet to take out a paper that, although it had only been out of its envelope for a day, looked worn from how many times he had read it.
Reaching for the piece of paper, Kim's heart was beating fast already, her mouth was dry from what Tommy had been saying. She rationalized with herself that following his request to think about their relationship couldn't do any more harm and that she would just tell him later today or tomorrow that she had thought and decided she still wanted to be with him. She always would.
This letter, on the other hand, was an actual problem. Was it a ploy from the Machine Empire? It sure seemed like something that Prince Sprocket would do. She read the words that she has supposedly written. Her eyes stung as they skimmed down the page. She got to the end, not knowing what to say. She re-read the worst part out loud. "'I feel like I've found the person I belong with.' Oh Tommy!" she covered her mouth with her hand, unable to imagine him reading these words. Adam had said that he was reading the letter at first. Where had he stopped? Had the entire group heard these words they thought she had written? No wonder Kat had been so cold to her. She would have reacted the same in that position. She imagined him reading these words over and over, as evidenced by the worn-in creases. It broke her heart to imagine the pain this must have put him through in the last day.
Looking up from the page, she saw that Tommy seemed to have left the here and now and was spacing off looking at the lake. She could understand him not wanting to hear those words again, particularly with her giving voice to them. She reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze until he came back to her, mentally. "Tommy, I didn't write this. I swear to you. I have no idea who did, but they didn't get the idea from me." She pulled their interlocked hands up and over her head to position his arm around her shoulders.
She saw him smile and then settled into the crook the open space left for her. He pulled her closer to his side and kissed the top of her head. "I believe you, Kim. It just, it hurt a lot. I can't describe all the thoughts that have gone through my head since I read these words that I thought were from you."
Spinning out of his grasp and standing in one fluid motion, a feat that Tommy would never be able to replicate, she held out her hands to offer him assistance in standing. "Come on, Handsome, the rest of the group is already at the Command Center trying to figure out if they can find any traces of the Machine Empire in this. Besides, I'm dying to see Zordon, Alpha, and the new Command Center!" The smile on her face was infections and did wonders to drive out the lingering pain he still felt in his chest, both from the letter and from what he has asked Kim to consider. He accepted her outstretched hands and then wrapped her back up in his arms before pressing the button on his communicator to teleport them together.