Somehow, Tommy managed to focus enough on science to teach his class the next morning. His lack of sleep had made him less friendly than usual though. He had snapped back at two students and announced a pop quiz he didn't even know about. Still he made it though the day, partially by thinking about how close spring break was. Then he'd really have a break to think, or so he though.

"Hey Dr. O…" Kira's cheerful voice met his tired ears as soon as everyone but the rangers had left the room.

"Yes Kira?" He tried to sound normal, but he really wished the kids would just go home some days.

"We have something to ask you, a favor." Tommy could tell it must be something big the way Kira was avoiding actually asking.

"It's really important!" Connor added in.

"Have you guys got into detention again, because I'm not getting you out of it this time." Tommy knew it probably wasn't detention they wanted his help with, but he kind of wished it was.

"No nothing like that." Ethan assured their mentor.

"What are you doing over spring break?" Kira asked, almost pleading him to say he didn't have plans yet with the look on her face.

"Not coming to school everyday and hoping nothing makes me leave the house." He answered.

"So, you don't really have plans….and you could really use some? Say, some that involved your favorite students?" Kira spoke back just as coolly as her teacher.

"Why would you guys want to spend spring break with your teacher?"

"Because, Dad said he'd let me go if you went, and everyone's parents agreed when we told them you were coming along…." Trent explained.

"You already told your parents I was going, before you even asked me?"

"More like asked what if you came… but that's the only way we'll get to go!"

"Go where exactly, Kira?"

"I won a contest…You'd know if you'd stuck around at Haley's last night."

"A contest involving that singer you were all excited about?" Tommy hoped they weren't about to ask him to go see Kim, but he knew they were.

"Exactly, I won tickets and backstage passes and stuff for one on Anne Cranes' concerts! It's free air fare and hotels and everything. They said I could bring five guest, so of course I asked Trent, Conner and Ethan to come. Then we figured if you and Haley came, our parents would be ok with it and we'd have fun."

"So I'm a last resort, just so your parents will say yes?" Tommy did not want to go and he did not like to be a last resort.

"No, you're certainly our favorite adult." Ethan smiled big at Tommy, he might be that into music, but he couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a real spring break. A week with his friends away from his parents sounded good to him no matter who they saw in concert.

"I see…"

"So, you'll go? Please say yes!" Kira didn't know what she'd do if Tommy refused to go.

"I'll go with you guys, but I will not go to the actual concert. Haley will have to handle that part."

"But I thought you said Anne Crane was awesome?"

"Just be glad I'm going at all and drop it." Tommy gathered his things and left the room. As far he was concerned, the conversation was over. 'How am I going to make it through this?' Tommy asked himself. Spending all of spring break with the kids was one thing, but to spend it with them in honor of Kimberly was another. He hadn't seen her in years, and the last time hadn't been planned at all.

Flashback

"Hey Bro, glad you could make it." Jason greeted Tommy at the door. Jason had just finished building his house. While most of the former rangers had lived on their own in apartments, Jason was the first to really have his own place. Some of them had decided they should throw him a house warming party. It had been Kat who called Tommy, and it had never crossed his mind that Kim would probably be there.

"Hey, no problem. It has been way too long anyways." Tommy and Jason shared a brotherly hug as Jason let him into the house.

"It has been way too long for something else too." Jason started saying, but Tommy had already spotted where Jason was leading him.

They were still safely in the living room, but Tommy could see her from there. Kim was sitting at the kitchen table reading a book. She hadn't noticed Tommy arrive so he ignored Jason for a minute to take in the image of her. She looked almost exactly how she had when she left after the karate competition. Her features and style were still the same. Only one thing seemed different from when she first left Angel Grove, she wore no pink.

"Jase, I got to go bro." Tommy began to walk back towards the door.

"She wants to talk man. She's ready." Jason knew Tommy must have realized who they were walking towards and he wanted to persuade him to stay and talk to her.

"Give me a pen and some paper….just do it." Jason gave him a weird look to begin with but quickly gathered the requested items. Tommy took them and wrote his own letter.

Kimberly,

Jason said you were ready to talk, but I don't think we have anything to talk about. I don't want to know your reasons behind the letter or even what you've been up to these past years. I don't mean to be harsh, but I'm trying to put this all behind me. If our paths cross again someday maybe we can start over. I mean completely, "Hi, I'm Tommy" over. I'll always love you but I can't do this right now. Good luck in life. Please forgive me for being the one to walk away this time.

Tommy

"Give this to her, I've got to go." Tommy quickly left right after handing the letter to Jason.

End Flashback

He had left then, never seeing her receive the letter. Never knowing how she had responded. He couldn't sit there and talk to her at Jason's. He had been prepared to talk to her if they met by fate out in the world, but that had felt like a set up. Maybe it was maybe it wasn't, either way he had chosen to wait for the next time their paths crossed. That night had been the last time he had saw Kim, but it had also been the last time he had saw Jason. The house warming party had celebrated a house now cold and empty.

Tommy thought about the note he had left for Kim while he drove home that afternoon. He had said if their paths crossed again, they could start over. He certainly hadn't been planning on going to her concert and she couldn't have known her concert winner would bring him along. This wasn't some set up planned by their friends, this was destiny.