Hmm, so clearly I haven't seen all the Power Rangers episodes, and am a lacking a little in American road rules. I've traveled a bit but I've never been anywhere where you can get your license under eighteen J How come you can get your license so young, but you can't legally drink until your 21? I'd rather drink young and drive later :D
So I thought about it, and there seems sufficient interest to continue, and I still feel like writing the story, I will make some changes to chapter one and two to accommodate what I got wrong, and I'll write maybe another two chapters and see a) how people like it and b) how I'm feeling.
To avoid being pulled up on everything I don't know, and I just don't have time to track down all the episodes and re-watch them right now, I'm going to say this is slightly AU. I will keep the characters in character as much as possible, and follow the first 2-3 seasons of power Rangers as well as I can. That being said; if you don't like the story, or if I am missing things and/or getting them wrong you can tell me in a message or review, or just not read the story.
Thank you for the kind reviews, I would never have written chapter two (or this one) without you, so I hope you like it.
Please note, I will not keep Kim down forever, she is neither completely broken nor spineless, but everyone falls over sometimes.
Right?
Update April 6: Have corrected some typos and grammatical errors. Forgive me, I will be more patient next time and read my next chapter on at least two separate days before posting to try and prevent the complete lack of self-editing that has occurred thus far (as a lit major I have no excuse). I am looking for a beta reader but with no response thus far, if you can help, or know someone who might be interested drop me a line. Next chapter will be up before end of week.
They had been sitting in the waiting room for what felt like days, but the clock told Tommy that it had only been three hours. Tommy felt the clock was quite rude to be moving so slowly. The hands taunted him.
A thought occurred to Tommy; "We should contact her parents."
Trini looked surprised at his suggestion, but Billy nodded his agreement. "Do you know how?"
Tommy nodded, "Kimberly's mother and her husband moved back from France, to New York just before..."
Hold it together, Tommy.
"…just before the letter," he finished. "Kim was really excited. We can look them up."
It didn't take long to locate them in the phone book; Hart-Lambert didn't have many listings. Tommy began entering the number into his cell, but a slender hand stopped him.
"Why don't you let me make this call?" Trini asked him gently.
Tempting, but no.
"I want to do this," he lied.
I need to do something.
He hit the call button and waited; the phone rang three times before he heard a female voice answer.
"Mrs. Hart?" Tommy asked.
The voice on the other end hummed momentarily. "I was, once; to whom am I speaking?" the voice was polite, but suspicious.
She remarried, idiot. You know she's not Mrs. Hart anymore.
"This is Tommy Oliver, ma'am, do you remember me?" What would he say if she didn't? 'I used to date your daughter before she broke my heart in a letter…?'
There a pause. "I remember. What's this about, Tommy?" She did not sound happy. Had Kimberly told her mother something bad about him?
"It's about Kimberly. She's here, Mrs. Hart, and she's hurt; I just wanted to-"
"Stop." The hostility in the voice caught Tommy off guard.
"Mrs. Hart?"
The voice had a sharp tone to it that Tommy immediately disliked.
"I am not Mrs. Hart anymore, and I do not speak to my daughter. I rather thought that after what she did to you, you wouldn't speak to her either."
What she did to me?
"You knew about the letter?" Tommy asked weakly.
"Letter?"
Tommy realised his hand was shaking. "How long since you've spoken to Kimberly?" Tommy asked, desperate to get back to the reason he had called.
How long has she been on her own?
The voice hesitated momentarily. "I haven't told anyone but Pierre and Kimberly's father about this Tommy, but if she never told you... I think you have a right to know. I got a phone call from Kimberly after she'd moved to Florida. She was pregnant, Tommy, and you weren't the father."
Tommy drew in a breath through clenched teeth, "Pregnant?" he whispered.
Of course he wasn't the father.
The voice clicked sympathetically, "She cheated on you, Tommy. She was pregnant and not even engaged. I demanded she tell me who the father was but she wouldn't, or more likely couldn't, so I hung up on her. I wrote her a letter ensuring she understood how disappointed and ashamed I was, and broke all ties with her."
Tommy heard the clinical description of Mrs. Hart's final dealings with her daughter through a fog of numbness.
She was pregnant when she wrote that letter. Pregnant. At seventeen.
Pregnant at seventeen, married at eighteen.
I always imagined she have children by now.
"Tommy, did she never tell you this? I thought you said she was with you now."
Tommy tried to collect himself, "She didn't tell me, I only recently became reacquainted with her, ma'am."
He took a deep breath and finished the call; he knew he would get no more information from the hostile lady who he had once heard promise to love Kimberly regardless of circumstance. "Thank you for the information."
Trini was rubbing his back and tried to lead him to a chair but Tommy shook her off.
"Kim's mother wants nothing to do with her; I don't think her father does either. I'm sorry guys, but I can't be here, I need to bail."
Billy nodded, his brow creased with worry. "Take care Tommy... we will stay with Kimberly."
Tommy nodded; he couldn't even thank his friends properly. Before he left he turned back to his friends. "If it helps, she said her husband was dead, and she was pregnant when she wrote the letter."
Tommy exited the hospital into the pouring rain; he vowed not to see Kimberly Hart again.
A doctor wearing a white coat emerged from the closed hospital room and approached Trini and Billy, who were discussing whether to call the other former rangers in.
"Trini Kwan?" the doctor inquired.
Trini and Billy rose to their feet and Trini identified herself.
"How is she?"
He doctor tutted, "She's very weak; and still unconscious. I need to ask you about her next of kin."
Billy and Trini looked uneasily at each other.
Trini spoke first. "Kimberly is estranged from her mother and father, she told us her husband is dead." It wasn't quite a lie, she did tell Tommy. "We've known Kimberly since school, and we may be the only family she has."
The doctor considered this; "What do you know of her husband?"
"We hadn't heard from Kimberly for some time before she found us tonight. We never met her husband and we don't know his name or whereabouts," Billy answered truthfully.
The doctor sighed; her eyes were pensive.
Trini felt her temper flare. "Will you tell us what's going on or not?"
The doctor considered it and then looked at them again, in deep thought. "In these circumstances... You may need to act as her next of kin, and that would give me permission to disclose my findings to you. I can't examine her properly without her consent; or failing that, the consent of her next of kin. Malnourishment and influenza aside, it looks as if she has been beaten multiple times, although not recently. Perhaps not in the last week or two."
Billy stepped forward, "Beaten?" His voice quaked.
The doctor nodded, her blonde hair bouncing, "When we see multiple scars and bruising like this we normally suspect domestic violence, but if her husband is dead-"
Billy's phone began to ring. "Sorry, I have to take this," he apologised sincerely. "It's Jase."
Trini looked back to the doctor, shocked. "You think her husband did this to her?"
She said it was not people but a person. One person.
"It is the most common explanation. What I would like to do is call in the police to examine her, and collect evidence, and I need to do a full examination of her to determine exactly what's wrong and what needs to be done."
Trini processed this with some difficulty.
"I need permission to do a full examination, and I need it soon," the doctor urged.
Trini opened her mouth to speak but at that moment, Billy came running back into the room.
"You need to see this," he told them breathlessly, as he reached up to change the channel on the little television in the waiting room.
The screen flicked to a news reporter, a familiar face was displayed in the background.
Kimberly.
Wanted in connection to the murder of her husband.
"Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Kimberly Hart is asked to contact-" Billy turned the news off, his lips pursed tightly.
Trini looked at him in shock, her face pale.
"It can't be," she whispered.
Suddenly she realised the doctor was on the phone, calling the police. Trini touched the doctor's hand pleadingly, but the doctor shook her head.
"Wait."
Billy wrapped the trembling Trini in his arms, and she clung to him for support. "Jason and the others are on their way now," he murmured reassuringly.
Trini pulled back and looked at him fiercely, "I don't believe Kimberly could ever kill anyone; there is no way she could change that much. I won't believe it."
Billy returned her impassioned gaze calmly. "I don't believe it either," he soothed. "All we can do is wait, be patient and hope the truth finds us."
Trini's lip trembled; in an uncharacteristic display of emotion, she wrapped her arms around Billy and buried her face in the nape of his neck.
The doctor coughed politely and Billy gently disengaged himself from Trini's embrace. "You couldn't have given some warning about that?" he asked the doctor, as coolly as he could manage. Billy was too mild-mannered to truly affect any form of incivility.
The doctor looked slightly abashed. "The police need to know where your friend is, at least so they can stop airing those news reports. They won't be able to interview her until she's recovered, and if my suspicions are correct it's unlikely there will be any charges."
"Suspicions?" Billy asked, suddenly he was acutely aware that he was still holding Trini's hand. Instantly, his hand started to sweat.
The doctor considered them. "I need you to sign the next of kin forms and allow me to do a thorough examination of her." She tapped her pen against the clipboard she carried, "Please."
Trini looked at Billy and nodded. "Just show me what to do."
So it's a little shorter than the last two chapters, but this seemed a good place to leave it for now.
As I said... I'm relying on reviews for this one, so please let me know how it's going, and what you think. Many thanks to sabina21, andyg2525 and the butterfly angel for reviewing both chapters, and to grits for correcting me, I will fix up the first two chapters when I get a chance.
Please review :)