July 2008
Title: Clipped Wings - Part 2
Author: Jade-Max
Rating: T (ages 13+) (to be safe)
Disclaimer: Power Rangers and their affiliates belong to Disney and are used without permission and no money is being made off of this. I'm simply destroying the sandcastles in their sandbox
Author Notes: I hadn't intended to write a sequel, but yeah... this is what happens when the muse won't be denied. And I'm messing with the timeline a little – the idea is that Kat and Tommy aren't a couple yet and he's had Kimberly's letter for a couple of months at the very least and if I had to pick a timeframe, I'd say roughly a week after Jason's return to take over the Gold Ranger Power in Zeo.
Clipped Wings - Part 2
Piles of phone messages, cards, gifts and various other paraphernalia from fans littered the table in the dorm as Kimberly Ann Hart checked the last bag and upended it on the table. "That's the last of it."
"Are you sure?" Mia, one of her fellow gymnasts, looked dubious."I thought there was more than this."
"Most of it was junk," Kim assured her with a grin. "I boxed up what I wanted to keep for a memento scrap book."
"Tell me how you roped me into this again?"
"You owe me one - and this is it."
"Ugh," Mia groaned good-naturedly. "I knew I shouldn't have let you claim your favor later. This is going to take days."
"I've already been through my mail," Kim reminded her pointedly. "And that stack was bigger than this."
"Must be some incentive." The tease brought a faint blush to Kimberly's cheeks and Mia let her off the hook. "So what am I looking for exactly?"
"Two words." Kimberly's smile faded and her voice wavered for a moment. "Tommy Oliver."
--
"Nothing from a Tommy Oliver." Mia set the last of the phone messages that had been taken down for Kimberly during the Pan Global Competition aside. "Are you sure he would have called?"
"Or written - at least, I thought he would have." Kimberly slouched in the chair, propping her chin in her hands and surveying the piles of phone messages with a critical eye. "Are you sure we didn't miss it?"
"How could we? We checked everything with a name on it twice."
Chewing on her lower lip, Kim tried not to be too disappointed. She didn't even know if Tommy had seen her performance, let alone her message to him - and even if he had, he'd likely never forgive her for sending him that breakup letter. A wince crossed her features and Mia shook her finger in Kimberly's face, drawing her back to the present.
"Ah ah, no moping. There's a whole pile of things that were left by secret admirers or simple messages left without names."
"You don't get it," Kim slouched back in her chair, away from her friend and fellow athlete. "Tommy would have made sure I didn't miss his message if he was going to send me one."
"If." Mia cocked her head at Kim. "We're doing this for an 'if'?"
Rubbing her hands over her face, Kim came clean. "I don't even know if he saw me compete."
The eyebrows on Kimberly's petite Asian friend almost hit her hairline. "Weren't you the one who told me he wouldn't have missed it for the world?"
"Yeah, but that was when I first got here. I told you what happened."
"No, you told me you broke up with him and hadn't heard from him since."
"It's true enough."
"A bad breakup?"
"I don't know - maybe."
"How can you not know?"
"Because I broke up with him by letter, okay?"
"You what?" Mia almost came up out of her chair, staring at Kimberly as if she'd never seen her before. "Kim, how could you?"
"I wasn't thinking straight."
"I'll say."
"Go ahead - I deserve it. Tell me what a horrible person I am for disregarding his feelings. Tell me I was childish and immature for getting caught up in the support of my teammates and doubting the support that actually got me here. Tell me-"
"-to shut up?" Batting her eyelashes, Mia shook her head. "You've already beaten yourself up about it I see."
"Every second since dropping that thing in the mail box."
"Then what made you send it in the first place?"
Kimberly was the image of abject misery. "It wasn't fair to Tommy to keep him tied to me so I told him I'd found someone else - someone I was happy with. I'd hoped we could still be friends after all this - I mean, we were always friends first before anything else - but... he never wrote me back or called or anything. I figured he wanted nothing to do with me."
"So why didn't you call him and explain? If you'd just told him the truth..."
"I know." Hanging her head, she brushed away tears. "I was scared, Mia. I was alone and after Christmas I felt so guilty. I mean, I'm all the way across the country and Tommy and I have our whole lives ahead of us. It's not fair to either of us to be tied into a long distance relationship no matter how close we were."
"Sounds like you two were pretty serious."
"Yeah." Kimberly sighed, looking away and out the small kitchen window. Mia had no idea. "We were tight right from when we first met."
"No wonder you've been a wreck." Mia reached across the table to clasp Kim's hand and squeeze. "Here, there are some doozies in this anonymous pile that should make you laugh if nothing else. Don't give up hope, Kim - Tommy might have just postponed calling you if he watched the games. He would have had to know you'd be inundated with mail and messages - I mean, you were the talk of the games!"
"Maybe. Tommy's a sweetheart but he can be as dense as a brick."
"Doesn't take a hint, huh?"
"Never." Kim reached for a pile of messages, idly flipping through them. "Call me and a number," her tone was dry. "How original."
Mia giggled. "How about this one? What lovely legs you have, encased in white and pink, for if we were but to meet, I could tell you what I think."
Kimberly laughed, shaking her head with a groan. "What bad poetry."
"Horrible poetry you mean." Mia pulled another out from the center of the pile. "Beauty deserves no Beast and I'm just the guy for you."
Cracking up they fished for more random abstract messages that had been left for Kim during the games - mostly from male callers judging by the tone and words used. They worked their way through the stack, laughing and joking, pretending to swoon and gagging at some of the more awful comments. The sexual innuendoes made them both blush and the sweetly innocent compliments had them both sighing softly and grinning like idiots.
It wasn't until they were nearing the end of the pile, that Mia plucked another random message from the pile and read it silently. "Hey Kim, check this: Beautiful is as beautiful does - there is none more graceful than the Falcon's crane."
Mia was already grinning when she looked up to find Kimberly's face had gone white and was staring at her with wide eyed shock. "Kim?"
Kimberly choked. "W-what did that say?"
"Beautiful is as beautiful does - there is none more graceful than the Falcon's crane."
The trembling started as something unnoticed but quickly progressed into full scale shakes as Kimberly sought to control herself. It was from Tommy; it had to be. Several of the messages had spoken of falcons or cranes, but none had nailed what her leotard was about except this one - and none would have caught its true significance except her friends.
The Falcon's Crane.
Pairing that with Beautiful... it couldn't be from anyone but Tommy.
"Kim?"
"That's it." She found her voice again, lifting incredulous eyes to Mia's. "That's from Tommy."
"How can you tell?"
How indeed? Mia didn't know about Kimberly's past as a Power Ranger. She didn't know about Tommy's current stint - Kimberly would never have broken that trust to anyone - and she didn't know the very deep significance of the Falcon and the Crane. There was however something that Kim could tell her. Swallowing hard, she took a deep breath an attempted to explain - and failed miserably.
"I just... know."
"Oh come on! There's more to it than that."
Blushing profusely, Kimberly looked away, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Tommy's nickname for me is Beautiful."
Mia made a rude noise. "Then any one of these other ones which spoke of beauty should have caught your attention, but they didn't. This one nabbed you right away. What gives?"
"I... It's the way it's written, word for word, what it says. Tommy's always thought I was graceful - and he's always been the Falcon." It was as close as Kimberly would get to revealing Tommy's secret. If Mia drew the connection, she'd deny it and think of a way around it.
Thankfully, Mia seemed to be more focused on the message and its context than where the nicknames had come from. "Which makes you the Crane, right?"
Kim nodded.
"Hmm, so when the author of this message - and I'm not saying it's not Tommy, but it could be someone else - says that you're beautiful because of what you do and you're graceful, the most graceful thing the Falcon's ever seen, it's like code - right?"
"Sort of. I can't explain it, Mia, I just... I know that's from Tommy."
"So... then what are you going to do about it?"
Kimberly blinked, caught off guard by the question. What indeed? She didn't entirely understand Tommy's message - the blatant possessiveness when in reference to the Crane belonging to the Falcon - especially when they'd been a non-couple for over a year.
One year, two weeks, three days, seventeen hours and twenty six minutes.
Not that she was counting.
And she'd never admit that she'd been subconsciously counting to anyone, even Mia. With a miserable sigh, she stared at the message Mia still held in one hand. "I didn't honestly think he'd be watching after what I did to him. I mean, I hoped he would and I knew the rest of my friends - at least one or two of them - would so they could tell him about it."
"He didn't just watch, Kim. The date and time on this message says he called you barely minutes after your floor routine ended. I bet it has something to do with your little 'secret message' at the end of your routine - doesn't it?"
"Secret message?"
Mia made the same hand motions Kimberly had made to the camera and then, to Kim's surprise, spoke it aloud. "I miss you, Handsome? What was that about?"
Ducking her head, Kimberly couldn't hide the fiery blush that swept through her cheeks. "It was all I could think of to get his attention."
"The leotard wasn't enough? The routines - acting all the world in each one like a bird who's lost its power to fly? The symbolism in your routines is going to be talked about for years."
"I told you - Tommy's a little dense. The leotard he'd probably get, I mean I made it as blatantly obvious as I could, but the rest... I think the world of the man, but he's just not that observant."
"You mean he wasn't last time you saw him." Mia finally slipped the paper onto the table top and across as she got to her feet. "It's been over a year, Kim - people can change a lot in a year."
Kimberly watched her friend walk out before her gaze dropped to the paper.
Tommy had called.
After over a year, he'd finally called her and broken the silence between them. What did it mean? Did he still feel the same way he had about her? Was he still waiting? She doubted it. Tommy was a sweetheart, the quintessential gentleman and she hadn't been mistaken about Kat's interest before she'd left. The ache in her chest was ignored as she thought about the two of them together.
They'd make a striking couple - if they were one. And if they were, why would Tommy have called - and left that kind of message? Kat was the Crane now. Or had been. She'd seen the news - the Rangers had undergone a new power transformation - and Tommy was no longer the White Falcon. Or rather, no longer wore the mantle of the Falcon.
To her, he would always be synonymous with the avian just as she would always be the Crane to his Falcon. Their animal spirits had been linked just as the two of them had been linked. Giving that over to Kat had been one of the hardest things she'd ever had to do. Hell, giving up the Rangers - and everything that went with it - had been excruciating.
But losing Tommy... living without him had been easier in the beginning. They'd talked, kept in touch religiously, sent letters back and forth – until just after Christmas. Christmas had reminded her of everything she'd left behind, everything she'd given up and everything she stood to lose. It had reminded her that her friends had a part of their lives that didn't include her anymore and with the new team, keeping Tommy tied to her had seemed selfish and petty. Especially in the light of all the looks women gave him.
She'd been smug at the time, content in the knowledge that he was hers and he didn't notice because he never had eyes for anyone but her. He was sweetly naive that way. Unfortunately, it had been when she'd come back to Florida from Angel Grove that things had really started to sink in and she'd begun questioning if keeping him tied to her was the right decision.
They'd been high school sweethearts and - to be honest - she readily believed they would always be together. But was that fair to him; to them both? Was it realistic to expect that their first real serious relationship would be the only one they'd ever have? She trusted Tommy not to cheat on her and she knew he trusted her to do the same – but the obliteration of that trust had taken but four little words.
I've met someone else.
If only it had been true, maybe she wouldn't have spent this past year so alone and lonely – but Tommy haunted her. Throwing herself into training hadn't helped, in some ways it had only made it worse. Hence the reason she'd thrown all of her efforts into her new routine for the Pan Globals and the costume to accompany it. Kimberly hated the fact that Mia had been right; her routines had been choreographed specifically to seem like a bird who'd flown – and come to a crashing end.
Which was probably how most people viewed her career after her choice of music for her floor routine – but she'd made the decision conscious of the fact that leaving the lyrics in would likely knock her out of contention for a medal. Knowing that the point three deduction could mean the difference between not medaling at all and gold.
But some things were worth more than gold.
Reaching across the table, she pulled the message towards her with her fingertips so she could look at it. The message was written in black block letters – obviously not Tommy's handwriting – but their significance was unmistakable – as if whoever had taken the message had known its importance.
Which was ridiculous of course, unless Tommy had told the guy taking the message everything? Preposterous. The Tommy she remembered would never have been able to be that forward with a complete stranger. Of course the way her recollections echoed and what he really was were probably totally off the mark.
Doubt struck instantly even as her index finger absently traced first word of the message. Was it such a good idea after all – getting in touch with him after all this time had passed? Trying to rekindle a flame she'd deliberately attempted to snuff in the effort to let him go and give him the chance to live his life without her? A chance to experience things he never would with her?
Staring down at the message, Kimberly chewed on her bottom lip, indecisive.
She had two choices. Ignore the missive - a clear sign that Tommy had either forgiven her and was ready to allow her back into his life, or he'd simply responded to her plea as he'd always done in the past – or she could respond to it and accept the olive branch for what it was. If it was what she thought it was.
A grimace settled across her features as she sat back in her chair and stared at the note under her finger tips, debating what to do. Unbidden, her eyes drifted to the clock and she mentally did the time zone change without consciously trying. A part of her was still living on Angel Grove time, and with Jason there it made sense to keep track of their time zone. Other than the occasional call from Trini, Jason was still her best friend and confidante.
Unfortunately he was stubborn as a mule and refused to enlighten her as to what was happening if she was unwilling to speak with the rest of the Rangers herself.
Yet Tommy had called.
He hadn't called her dorm – they didn't have direct lines and the one time he had called she'd suffered a ribbing from her teammates. It wasn't the good natured teasing that had her asking him not to call anymore – it had been the grueling disciplinary action her coach had taken. And while this time he'd called the arena where she'd been competing, at least he'd called.
Bracing herself, she pushed to her feet and crossed the room.
Her decision had been made and if she didn't follow it through while she had the courage, she'd falter. And talking to Tommy was something she didn't think she'd ever do again if it failed.
Dialing the number quickly – she knew it by heart – her fingers tightened on the phone as she silently counted the rings.
Ring…
One.
Ring…
Two.
Ring…
Three.
Ring…
Four.
Beeep.
"You've reached the Olivers. We're unable to come to the phone right-"
Kimberly hung up, staring at it with the most ridiculous urge to laugh hysterically. It figured. She'd finally found the courage to call him and nobody was home. Picking up the receiver a second time, she called a number she knew almost as well as her own before her courage waned any further.
Ring…
One.
"Youth Center, Ernie's Juice Bar – Ernie speaking."
"Hey Ernie." Somehow, she managed not to choke on the greeting. "It's Kim."
"Kimberly!"
She could hear Ernie cover the mouth piece to announce who was calling and almost panicked. "Ernie, wait!"
Ernie's breathing came back on the line. "Sorry Kim, what was that? I was just going to tell the gang you were on the line."
"I know; I'd rather you didn't tell everyone I'm calling."
"What's up?"
"Uh." Kimberly bit her lip. "Is Tommy around?"
"Not yet. Jason and Kat are here waiting for the others."
"Oh."
"Should I tell him you called?"
"I..." Her fingers tightened, whitening with the strength of her grip. "I don't think you should. Look, Ernie, I'll try him at home again, maybe he just didn't make it to the phone."
"Alright, Kim; take care."
"Thanks, Ernie, you-"
"Wait a second, Kim – Tommy just walked in."
Ernie's exclamation cut her off and her heart lurched in her chest.Tommy had shown up? The urge to slam the phone down was almost overpowering and she braced her back against the wall for what she felt coming.
"Are you still there?"
"I'm here."
"Should I get him?"
"How's he look, Ernie?"
"The same as always. Hang on a second… Tommy! Hey, Tommy, you've got a phone call!"
There was a shuffling on the other end and for the first time since sending her letter she heard his voice. "For me? Who is it Ernie?"
"Some fan – shall I tell them you're busy?"
"Ernie!" He didn't respond to her mortified exclamation and she heard the phone change hands, Tommy's laughter echoing in her ears.
"Nah, I've always got time for my fans. Hello?"
He sounded so happy, so normal she almost cried.
"Hello?"
Bracing herself to answer, she inhaled deeply and forged ahead "Hello Falcon."
"Kimberly?!"
"Know anyone else who calls you that?"
"I might."
The sound of a stool being pulled up didn't escape her notice. Apparently he figured this was going to be a long conversation – or he needed the support of an outside source as much as she did. Heaven knew the only thing keeping her on her feet was the solid length of wall behind her. "I... Tommy, I... I got your message."
"Oh."
That was it? Just 'Oh'? It was disheartening to note there was a slightly guarded edge to his words, as if he didn't quite know how to talk to her – as if they were strangers. And maybe they were; she never would have thought herself capable of hurting him like she had.
"Yeah. I... I just... wanted to say thanks."
"For what?"
"For watching." The words came out softly and heartfelt. Knowing he'd been watching after the fact had buoyed her spirits in the wake of her coach's disappointment.
"Yeah, well, I wouldn't have missed it for anything. Was it everything you dreamed it would be?"
"And more," she answered honestly – and faltered. She couldn't simply come out and tell him she'd sacrificed one dream – on national television no less – in the futile sense to recapture the one she'd knowingly shattered. "It's not enough though."
"Going for the Olympics, huh?"
Either he was being deliberately obtuse or he really didn't understand what she meant. The Olympics were the last thing on her mind and the Tommy she'd known would have realized it. He would have understood her almost overwhelming desire to come home now that her dream had been achieved. Now that she wanted to focus on the nearer and dearer dream to her heart – but he didn't understand. He didn't, and she felt her heart quiver as she considered that he hadn't cared for her as deeply as she'd believed. "I've been asked."
"Congratulations, Kim, you more than deserve it."
It was the warmest, most heartfelt thing he'd said so far and this time a tear did slip down her cheek. He didn't want her anymore. "I... thanks, Tommy. I guess I should be going, I just... just wanted... I mean I..."
"Hey, you okay?"
A laugh bubbled through her lips but came out as a half sob. "Fine, just... just fine."
"You don't sound fine. He didn't hurt you, did he?"
He? What he was he talking abo... oh right, the make believe guy she'd told him she'd left him for. The make believe guy she'd been a fool to create and tell him about. The make believe guy that had all of Tommy's traits, that had been written about to echo his own strengths so he wouldn't question her decision. "No."
"Good, 'cause I'd never forgive him if he did – no matter how much you like him."
It took a minute after the fact to register that Tommy had sounded not only concerned, but protective; an echo of the man she'd left behind. Always the white knight – her white knight – no matter what color he wore. "I think I'd better go."
"Kim... wait."
The plea in his tone was the last straw and her knees shook, collapsing as she sank to the floor, the phone clutched tightly against her ear. It was a word she'd waited in vain to hear when she'd made the choice to come to Florida right up until she'd passed through the boarding gate. "I'm here."
There was a long pause before he spoke again, his voice low so not to be overheard by the others in the juice bar. "I... I miss you too, Beautiful."
Sobbing, the phone dropped from fingers suddenly nerveless, landing with a clatter on the tile floor. She couldn't take it – the pain was tearing her apart – and didn't notice as the receiver bore witness to her breakdown. Unaware that the line was still active and that, on the other end, a man she'd never stopped loving was listening to her cry her heart out into her knees.
--
On the other end of the line, Tommy bowed his head, covering his face with one hand as he sat and listened to Kimberly cry like her heart was breaking. Each sob tore at his heart in a way her letter never had, making him ache with the knowledge that she was crying over some guy he'd never met and it had been his words that had started it.
Slowly, carefully, he lifted the phone back to the cradle and hung it up.
TBC