A.N. Another scene. Set immediately after the Turbo movie. Enjoy. Beware the possibility of OOC-ness.

Pleasant Surprises

The crowd finally dispersed after several rounds of photographs and hand shaking. The local reporters had even pulled Rocky aside to talk about his back injury. Throughout it all, Kim stood with her friends, grinning, just being happy to be home. She hadn't seen Skull though, not since the ride back. Both Bulk and Skull had been sent to the command center knocked out cold to fix the mess Divatox had made.

Kimberly still hadn't mentioned him to her friends, especially not with Tommy around. She hadn't known what to expect when she got home, but she was glad that Tommy had moved on, even though he still seemed upset with her. Kat would make him happier than she ever could have.

Jason too was happy. Trini had come back into town not long before, and after Emily had taken off, they'd hit it off. Billy and Zack were the only ones not back in Angel Grove at the moment from their original team. Though they were missed, the group had grown to twice its size, and they all seemed content with their lot in life.

As her very best friend since kindergarten, Kimberly had hoped to let Trini, and therefore Jason, in on her secret rendezvous before telling anyone else. That had not worked according to plan. Trini had flaked out on them, claiming she was ill. Kim never had told Jason, what with being captured and trying to escape. She had to force herself not to think about her... her what exactly? Whatever Skull was to her now, he had also been a distraction during the whole mission. Concentration had been her dearest friend.

The excitement must have been getting to her, though, she had not felt very well herself. The shouting and cheering had given her a headache early on in the match, but now her head was screaming at her. Kim intended to make her goodbyes and head back to her new apartment, but the moment she started moving, the room started to spin.

"Kim, you all right?" Tanya asked.

"I don't know…" she said quietly, placing a hand on her forehead. What was wrong with her?

"Maybe you should sit down," Kat started, slipping out from under Tommy's arm. "You look pale."

"Okay." Kim tried to walk back to the bleachers just a few steps away. Not one step later and the world went black.

o.O.o

Kim opened her eyes sometime later, blinded by the bright sunlight filtering through the room. She surveyed her surroundings; it looked as if she was in a hospital room.

"Kim?" someone asked from her side.

"Oh thank God!" said another.

"What's going on?" she managed to mutter, groaning as she tried to sit up in bed. "Why am I here?"

"Don't get up, Kim," Tommy told her, standing by her side. "You fainted."

She scrunched up her eyebrows. Fainted? She'd fainted before and didn't end up in the hospital.

"You scared us, Kimberly. You just kind of fell over and you wouldn't get back up."

Still puzzled, Kim was eager to see the doctor. To her luck, Dr. Jameson arrived just moments later.

"Kimberly?" she asked. "How are you feeling?"

She thought about that for a minute, taking a full inventory of herself. "Okay, I guess. I don't feel dizzy anymore."

The doctor flipped through her folder, with a grim smile. "Mhm. Yes, well, I think your friends should leave the room for a few moments. Do you have any family with you? Or a boyfriend?"

Kim simply shook her head. Immediately her brain started jumping all over the place. Maybe she had a brain tumor or a rare disease. "No," she answered quietly, "no one's here." She wished that she didn't have to be alone, but her mother was in France and her father up north. Her thoughts settled on Skull, just anyone to hold her hand.

Her friends shuffled out of the room in a disgruntled line. They didn't want to leave any more than she wanted to be alone.

"Have you been under any stress lately, Kimberly?" the doctor asked, pen held over her notes.

She thought of Divatox and the trip to the island, not that she could tell the doctor about any of that. "Not really, no. I just moved back home."

"How about physical activity? You are a gymnast I believe?"

She nodded. "I haven't been on the bar in over a month, though. Would scuba diving count?"

A tiny muscle twitched near Dr. Jameson's mouth, and it looked as if she was trying very hard not to frown.

"Very well. When did your last menstrual cycle take place, and when was the last time you were sexually active?"

Kimberly balked. "What? Why do you need to know that?"

"This might be… difficult to hear, Kimberly, but are you aware that you may be pregnant?"

Stunned, the pair sat in complete silence for several moments. The doctor waited patiently for an answer while Kim rewound her mind and thought back to the afternoon several weeks ago.

"It was just once!" she cried moments later. "We did everything like we were supposed to."

Dr. Jameson didn't seem to believe her, but carried on just the same. "Protection isn't always guaranteed."

"But I might be preg-pregnant?"

"You fainted due to the rising stress levels in your body, aided by the pregnancy stresses. It was partially due to exhaustion and dehydration. However, certain activities are very dangerous to unborn babies; scuba diving is associated with miscarriages in a few cases. To be safe, we need to run some tests, including an ultrasound immediately."

Kimberly was so shocked she didn't know how to react, and she was torn between crying and laughing. "This can't be happening…" she muttered.

"Is there someone you would like to call? The baby's father perhaps?"

Kim laughed at that. She could almost imagine the look on Skull's face if she told him. Her friends were going to be hard enough to deal with. A baby. Skull's baby. It didn't make any sense at all.

"No," she finally decided. No need to get everyone worked up for something that might have resolved itself. That tugged at her heart just a bit. Had she accidently hurt her unborn baby? She was usually so responsible, but she didn't know how easy it would be to forgive herself if she had hurt it. "Not right now."

The doctor nodded. She did not look very surprised by that either. For someone who always strived to be noticed, to be important, Kimberly felt like nothing more than a statistic. The first of her tears started to puddle in her eyes as the doctor continued on, "I'll have someone fetch you whenever we can fit you in. It could be thirty minutes or sometime tomorrow."

Kim nodded absentmindedly, drawing her knees to her chest.

Doctor Jameson left without another word, but the silence didn't last very long. All of her friends returned to her side, Tommy at the front.

"Kim?"

She glanced up a few seconds later, the tears falling easily, rolling down her cheeks. Kimberly was regarded as one of the prettier girls in Angel Grove, but she hated to cry in front of anyone because of her reddened nose, eyes, and cheeks. Only Trini had seen her cry, after that one guy she barely remembered had dumped her at a football game.

She looked right into Tommy's dark eyes, sensing that he was going to take this harder than anyone else. Trini had already taken a seat beside her, one arm wrapped around her back. The other girls moved in closer too, and as she searched the faces around her, she noted the extreme concern in them.

"Kimberly, really, what's wrong?"

Kim returned to those dark eyes, the very same one's she had fallen in love with years ago. "I don't want you to hate me."

"No one is going to hate you," Trini said softly.

"I-I'm pregnant," she said at last, removing her gaze and staring at her blanket covered feet. No one answered her that time, shocked into silence most likely. "I-"

Trini was the first to jump in, stopping her from rambling on. "Oh, Kim… It's okay. Really, it's going to be okay."

The girls seemed to understand more than the boys, though that was kind of expected. Even Adam, who was always impossibly sweet and nice, seemed a little out of it. Jason and Rocky shared a look of some sort, before Jason turned to her and smiled. "Stuff like this happens. But Trini's right, it's going to be fine." The two others at his side smiled in agreement, although Adam still seemed concerned.

Tommy, as she had expected, was staring at her. Kim could feel his heated gaze on her, although she could not meet his eyes. Instead she looked to Kat, who had reached out tentatively to touch Tommy's arm. He jumped at the contact, and it drew her gaze upwards.

"Who?" he finally asked. The dreaded question the others were too polite to bring up at the moment.

"Tommy… Please, not right now."

"Who?" he repeated a bit firmer, shrugging off Kat's hand.

Kim knew she could not escape. She had nowhere to go, and it would come out eventually. Moving back to Angel Grove was to help her explore something new and enticing, not to sweep this romance under the rug when things got rough. With a last strengthening breath, she answered that question, and felt more than saw, everyone recoil. Even Trini.

"Skull," she answered. "It's Skull's baby." There. It was out, and the impossible weight on her shoulders was lifted ever so slightly.

No one said anything reassuring this time, however. It was strange and hard to wrap your head around, Kimberly knew that, mostly because she was adjusting with them.

"Skull?" Tommy asked, but the disbelief in his tone was fading fast. "You and Skull?"

The disgust and anger dripping from his whole being hurt more than it should have, and she realized a moment too late that he had not gotten completely over their relationship, and had taken her news to fill in holes in the past.

"No, Tommy, it's not like that. Really."

But it was no use. He had had enough. Tommy stalked through the group, pulled open the door, and slammed it behind him. And with him, Kim knew for certain, he had taken with him every chance of them ever regaining their friendship.

Kat followed him out, barely looking at any of the others, but concern was plainly etched over her features.

The others were soon to follow, none of them quite sure how to take everything that had happened. Most had a few kind words to share with her, others said nothing at all.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay, Kim?" Trini asked, ignoring Jason as he stood awkwardly behind her.

Kimberly nodded, five minutes before she wanted anyone to be there, now she would have rather been alone. "Don't tell him, Trini. Please."

"I won't. Call me, okay?"

Kim nodded again, pulling her pillow from behind her and cuddling it to her chest. "I'll be okay," she said softly, although she really didn't believe that.

"Of course."

At last they left, leaving the room completely empty. Kim sighed, fresh tears leaking onto the pillow, but her peace did not last. Not ten minutes into her solitude, a couple of nurses with a gurney appeared to take her for an ultrasound.

The day had been heading to a lovely ending, until the chaos had started up again, but several hours later as she sat on her uncomfortable hospital bed, running her fingers over the grainy black blob that was her baby, her perfectly healthy baby, and dialing the now familiar number on her room phone, a sweet sense of peace filled her, and at last, she believed, things really might just be okay.

She listened to the ringing over the phone for several seconds before someone finally picked up. A bright smile split her face. "Skull? Hey… Are you busy?" she asked. "No? Good. I was just wondering if you'd come visit me… I'm at the hospital though…" She laughed then, listening to his concerned squawk over the phone. "No, I'm all right. Yeah, really. I just need to see you."

He promised to be there soon, and she hung up, still smiling. She had mused earlier about how he was going to take this news, but, now, Kimberly felt she could use another good laugh.