Ranger Family Christmas Chapter two:

Kim entered her apartment with a bag full of groceries. She had been on her feet all day, and all she wanted to do was put away her groceries and put a heating pad on her leg, which was throbbing with pain.

She gritted her teeth as she put her food away, maybe she should have listened to Kenny's concern about renting an apartment with so many stairs. She can go up and down stairs quite easily, if she wasn't hurting. When her leg decides to hurt, she finds it hard to walk in a straight line, while leaning heavily on her cane, and going up and down stairs was nearly impossible.

She sighed a sigh of relief as she sat down in the old recliner that Kenny insisted he was going to throw out if she didn't take it. It was just another act of charity that Kenny had shoved down her throat since the accident, and just like all the other times she ended up being very grateful that she had accepted.

Kim had nearly dosed off when she heard it, a low scratching noise. She bolted straight up in her chair, where there mice in her apartment. She never could stand the little creatures and one of her greatest fears while she was a power ranger was that Rita and Lord Zedd would turn a mouse into a monster.

"Get a grip Kim." She scowled herself, as she stood up and grabbed her cane, "You aren't a little girl anymore. You faced way more scary things than a mouse while a power ranger."

She headed towards where the sound had come from, a pile of boxes that she still had to unpack. For somebody who has been living with her older brother for several years, she still ended up having a lot of stuff to unpack.

Now that she was closer she could hear that the scratching noise sounded more like sniffles. As she peered around the boxes she caught sight of something scurrying away, something that was too big to be a mouse and too small to be a burglar. "I know that you're there, and I promise I don't use this cane for hitting."

Just then a little girl popped up from behind her chair, her green eyes wide with fear, "You can't let them take me!"

Kim felt her heart break at the little girl's outburst, "Who take you where?"

"The Orphanage!" Came the response.

Kim sank down into her chair, running a hand through her long caramel colored hair, as she let out a sigh, a long day at work was turning into a long night at home, "Why would they take you to an orphanage?"

The little girl looked up at her and said quite seriously, "Mommy and Daddy forgot to take me to Heaven with them."

Kim's heart ached for the little girl, hadn't she once told all her friends that her father forgot to take her and her mom to Seattle with him. And she had still been able to communicate with him, to lose your parents at such a young age. Kim frowned, "How old are you?"

"This many!" she exclaimed holding out five little fingers, "but soon I'll be this many." She added, proudly holding up another finger.

Kim nodded, she had figured that she was around that age, "What's your name?" she finally asked.

"Olivia Whimmer."

Kim nodded, standing up, "Well, I don't know about you Olivia, but I am ready for some dinner."

It only took her a little while to whip up some grilled cheese and tomato soup, as the two of them sat down to eat Kim asked, "Why don't you want to go to the orphanage?"

"Because they only serve mush and if you're naughty they lock you in the basement with the ghosts. Plus Santa Claus doesn't come to orphanages."

Kim was pretty certain she knew the answer, but she had to ask anyways, "What makes you think that?"

"I saw it on Annie."

Kim pulled little Olivia onto her lap, "Annie took place a long time ago. Things have changed; an orphanage is where you go so that they can help you find a new Mommy and Daddy. Santa does go to them, I should know, I happen to be really good friends with Santa."

"You are?" Olivia gasped up at her, she never meet someone who knew Santa personally.

"Yep, went to his house Christmas Eve and helped him get ready for Christmas."

Olivia jumped off her lap, "That is so cool!"

Kim stood up and headed to the phone, Olivia froze, "Whatcha doing?"

"I'm calling the people who work at the orphanage. I'm going to let them know that you're okay. They probably are worried about you."

…

Half an hour later, a lady from Children Services arrived at her apartment. Kim went into the other room and started to put things away so that she could talk to Olivia alone. As she went through the boxes she found a box full of her old leotards. She frowned, she was certain that she had thrown those out after the accident, back when they weren't sure if they would be able to save her leg or not.

Just then there was a knock on her bedroom door, Kim looked up to find Ms. Walker standing there, "Yes, can I help you with something?" she asked.

"Olivia is expressing a desire to stay here with you." the lady from Children Services explained, "When at all possible we try to accommodate what the child wants, as long as their needs are being met."

"I actually thought about taking her in." Kim admitted, "But I only have the one bedroom and more bills than I think I can afford at times. I would love to, but at the moment I am not settled enough to provide her with a good childhood."

Ms. Walker nodded her head, "I see, you know the fact that you thought about her future tells me you would make a wonderful foster parent, once you get more settled, that is. Do you have any suggestions on where to place her?"

"I just moved here from New York City, the only person I know really well is my ex-boyfriend, and while he is good with kids for short periods of time, he isn't good with them for longer."

Just then there was a knock on Kim's front door. Kim shuffled over to the door and answered it, surprised to see Mrs. Mercer there with a strange man she never met before. He was carrying a plate of chocolate chip cookies.

Elsa smiled, "Hello Miss Hart, seeing as you are new to town, my husband and I decided to stop by and give you a house warming present."

Olivia appeared, like any little kid when cookies make an appearance, "Can I have one, puh-lease?"

Kim shrugged; she didn't see the harm of letting the five year old have a cookie, so she lowered the plate so that Olivia could grab a cookie.

"I didn't know that you had a daughter." Elsa said, after introducing her husband Anton Mercer.

"I don't," Kim explained, shaking her head, "this is Olivia, she's an orphan that seems to think that I should take her in. However I don't really of the money or space to take her in at this point in time."

Anton smiled sweetly at the little girl, "Miss Hart's house is too little for you, but my wife and I have a great big house that is too big for us. Why don't you come live with us until Miss Hart gets a bigger home?"

"I don't know? Will I like it there?" Little Olivia questioned him.

Elsa laughed kneeling down in front of her. "We have a big swimming pool and a giant dollhouse waiting for a little girl like you to come and play with it."

The little girl's eyes light up, before turning to Kim, "Can I go live with them, they have a dollhouse. I love dollhouses. Only 'til you get a bigger house of course, once you have room for me; I'm living with you, Miss Kimmy."

"I think you better go with them then until I have room for you."

…

It didn't take long for them to be approved, it helped that Anton had adopted Trent five years before, and soon Olivia was leaving with the Mercers.

They stopped at the store and while Elsa and Olivia picked out clothes and bedding, Anton hurriedly bought a dollhouse and all the necessary furnishings for it. Soon they had bought everything they needed and were on the way home.

At their house, Olivia oohed and awed at all the decorations. After the butler Peter finished putting her bedroom together she was lead into it, blindfolded.

Elsa and Anton watched with enjoyment as she discovered the dollhouse and giant stuff animals. She was like a rocket ship blasting off in one direction and then another. It took them awhile to calm her down and get her into her very own princess bed.

After Olivia was sound asleep Elsa explained something to Anton, "I think Olivia reminds Kim of herself when she was younger."

"What do you mean?" Anton asked.

"Dr. Oliver told me that she was a pink ranger, according to him, pink rangers are stubborn, happy-go lucky kind of people, of course there are exceptions but that seems to fit most of them."

"She didn't seem all that Happy-go-lucky to me."

"Tommy's worried about that, he just doesn't think that Kim is acting like herself, maybe Olivia can help her open up to Tommy a little more, she seems to have taken a liking to her."

…

A/N: Done with another chapter, tell next time Catlovingmermaid.