Sorry for excessively long break, something of a writer's block as well as a busy life are holding me back from giving this the attention it deserves.

Thank you for reviews, I truly love you all :D

Chapter 9

Even after Tommy had explained that the information her husband had passed on was false, that he had never married, Kimberly vehemently clung to the idea that Tommy would be happier without her.

"I won't burden you any further," she insisted, arms wrapped around her chest.

Tommy noted that her cough seemed better, less frequent and drier.

The uneasiness Tommy had witnessed that morning was gone and she was strong with her determination to remove herself from his life, but Tommy wouldn't give up; he couldn't. That morning, when he had thought about how best to approach Kimberly, he had known it wouldn't be easy. Clearly the aim was to teach her that what had happened was not her fault; that the Rangers still loved her and wanted to help her.

The problem was a niggling voice in the back of his mind, which insisted that she should have known. Tommy could still blame her for not coming to him, for not trusting him. Tommy understood the fear that had driven Kimberly to push him away, but the knowledge didn't ease his pain.

But he could live with that pain, because it was the pain he felt that he was going to use to weasel himself back into her life. What he was going to do was cruel, but Tommy needed her to understand.

"Burden me? You're not thinking about me at all," Tommy murmured darkly.

Kimberly looked at him, surprised by the tone of his voice. "I'm sorry that I intruded upon your life, on everyone's lives. I just want to leave you guys to be happy." She smiled sadly and touched his wrist with her uninjured hand. "I want you to be happy."

Tommy looked at her hand gently resting on his wrist. He took it between his own and examined it, noting the way the knuckles and bones featured prominently.

Forgive me, Kimberly; I'm doing this for you. Partly.

With effort, he lifted himself out of his brooding and raised her hand to place it against his cheek. "But I'm not happy."

Tommy watched as Kim's face fell, her eyes registering the truth of his statement. Her lower lip trembled and she tried to pull her hand away but Tommy held it firmly to his face. "Tommy..." she whispered, but her voice trailed off, leaving his name hanging in the air between them.

"I haven't been happy in a long time, Kimberly. I don't think I've been truly happy since you sent that Dear John letter." Tommy found he didn't regret his words, even though they caused Kimberly's pale face to turn down in sorrow. "If you want me to have a chance at happiness, like you claim you do, you're going to have to let me in. Let us in. We can't let you walk away, Kim. "

I can't let you walk away.

The original Pink Ranger watched him through her eyelashes but didn't say anything.

"I'm sorry," he said sincerely. "I know it's been a big morning for you, but I'm not leaving and this would be a lot easier if you just accepted that."

"Why are you doing this?" she whispered.

"I need you." Tommy released her hand and gently brushed her long hair out of face.

Kimberly shied away from his hand and turned her face away from his.

Her action drew a ragged breath from his chest; his hand balled into a fist and his shoulders slumped. Tommy knew she had reason to be wary of physical contact - of men in general - but to see her pull away from him just killed him.

Tommy felt a gentle pressure on his fist; he looked down to see Kimberly's pale hand tentatively touching his. "I hurt you," she murmured.

Tommy didn't trust himself to turn to face her; he stared straight at the wall, fighting to keep his face stoic.

He heard the rustle of the bed sheets and felt her hand withdraw from his.

Then she was standing in front of him. "I hurt you," she repeated, her expression indecipherable. Kimberly took a deep breath. "I'm not what I used to be Tommy. I can't go back, and you seem to understand that... but you're still here."

Tommy focused on the girl standing before him; the hospital gown accented her general paleness and emaciated frame and Tommy wondered whether this effect was created by the square cut of the thin, scratchy fabric or the association the garment generally had with sickness. Despite this, her dark eyes weren't as dull as they had been and her cheeks were delicately flushed over her hollow cheekbones.

She sighed; Tommy noticed that Kimberly seemed to do that a lot now. "Tommy," she whispered, pressing her hands to her temples. "I don't trust my judgement; if you want to be here I won't stop you. Don't think I could if I tried," she added, eyeing him meaningfully.

Tommy was surprised at the trepidation with which she eyed his biceps. Didn't she know his entire being shied away from the idea of her being harmed in any way?

Kimberly smiled a bitter, self-mocking smile that Tommy immediately disliked. She took a deep breath. "What I'm trying to say is... I'm putting this in your hands. I won't argue anymore. You can stay as close as you want for as long as you want. I won't fight you."

Tommy felt his face draw into a frown. He had won, but it didn't feel like winning. She wasn't accepting the fact he wanted to help her... or needed to help her. She certainly didn't believe he would stay by her side forever.

She was giving in. For now.

Tommy wasn't foolish enough to believe she wouldn't continue fighting him.

Tommy reached and took her left hand with his own and squeezed it, forcing himself to smile.

But I'll take what I can get.

The door burst open and a cheery voice announced, "Lunch time!"

Kim looked up in shock to see Aisha push her way into the room, laden with shopping bags. Trini followed her, excited but more subdued than her successor, and also carrying several shopping bags.

"We bought you lunch," Trini told Kimberly sheepishly, holding up a plastic bag with several cardboard boxes inside. "Still like Panda Express?"

Tommy couldn't help but smile at the Yellow Ranger duo. He turned to Kimberly. "Feel up for a walk?"

-888-

To say that Kimberly felt bad would be an understatement.

She didn't know why Tommy was so insistent on staying with her, but apparently she wasn't getting rid of him anytime soon.

This thought worried her.

At first she had assumed that she would be a burden to him - that he was better off without her - but after watching him throughout the morning, Kim had the face the fact that Tommy was telling truth.

He wasn't happy.

Since she owed Tommy for the pain she had caused him, she couldn't reasonably deny him anything, even her company. Resignation to fact she was going to be seeing more of him caused her more worry, though.

She was going to have to be very careful.

Kimberly knew he couldn't stay forever. She would help him in whatever way she could, and then he would leave. So she would need to protect her heart, and make sure that it wouldn't hurt any more than necessary when they did part ways. She would need to protect herself from all the Power Rangers.

The idea terrified her. How was she going to guard herself against people she loved intrinsically?

She had no choice; she wouldn't turn him away. She couldn't turn any of them away.

So here she was, sitting in the family waiting room on the ward, surrounded by friends in the most 'normal', everyday situation she had been in for years.

It felt horrible and unnatural.

Kimberly pushed her noodles around the box, surprised by how hungry she was. She couldn't remember the last time she had eaten a proper meal before Tommy had picked her up on the highway. She certainly didn't remember feeling hungry like this, either.

Then again, I don't really remember anything since I lost my baby.

Around her, her friends - the Power Rangers - ate their lunch, laughing and teasing each other. But what was she meant to do? What did one do when people were talking? Kimberly couldn't exactly remember the appropriate way to integrate herself into the conversation, and wasn't sure she wanted to anyway.

Instead, she looked around at her friends and began to analyse their faces. They had changed somewhat, grown older. Did she look older, too?

Kimberly slowly came to realise that the noise that Zack, Adam and Rocky were making combined with Aisha and Trini's excited conversation with Billy had clouded her judgement...

Not everyone here looked happy.

Jason played into the heated argument over superheros that the boys were having, but Kimberly noticed the strain on his face and saw the guarded glances he kept shooting at Kat. Katherine was studiously ignoring him, but didn't quite seem to know what to do. She sat to Tommy's left and smiled at the girls, who were gesturing at their shopping bags, while picking at her meal.

Tommy was silent.

Where was the White Ranger? The leader of the Power Rangers?

As if in response to her thoughts, he looked at her and smiled a genuine, open smile. "Eat up," he nudged her. "It's better than hospital food."

The answering smile came so easily to her face that Kimberly was taken aback. It was impossible not to respond when he looked at her like that. "It's good," she admitted, twisting her chopsticks in the box and raising them clumsily to her mouth.

"Yes," Aisha interjecting, grinning. "Eat up so we can show what we did this morning!"

Trini dug her fingers in under Aisha's ribs, eliciting a squeal. "Easy, girl! You'll put her off her food."

Kimberly eyed the bags with some trepidation. She put her lunch aside, unable to continue eating, and attempted a smile. "What did you buy?" she asked, although she already knew. Even after years in isolation she recognised some of those labels... but what did the Yellow Rangers' retail therapy have to do with her?

The smile on Aisha's face fell slightly and she looked at Kim guiltily. "Well..." she began, looking to Trini for support. Trini grinned back but didn't speak up.

Aisha squared her shoulders as though steeling herself. "You're coming home tomorrow, and those clothes you were wearing were soaked through-"

"And they smelled," Trini added.

"And they were gross," Aisha nodded. "And even you can't pull off a hospital gown, so..."

Kimberly felt her heart sink into her shoes. "You bought me clothes?" she finished.

"Don't judge us till you've seen them," Aisha grinned, and Kimberly instantly felt remorse for how sick she had felt at the thought of new clothes. They had clearly gone to a lot of effort and were excited - the least she could do was humour them and be appreciative of their gesture.

Kim forced a smile; at least, she hoped the grimace she had mustered resembled a smile. "Let's see them, then."

As the clothes came out, Kimberly felt her stomach drop into her feet. She fixed her smile onto her face and clenched her right hand into a fist, focusing on the pain it caused her. Pain was good, simple.

There were two pairs of jeans, some dark singlets and tank tops, but what had Kim was upset was the colour of the shirts and tunics they had purchased.

Pink.

Light pink, reddish-pink, baby pink.

Kim vaguely felt a hand rubbing her back and barely heard a whisper voice in her ear, "Breathe, Kimberly."

"Tommy," she gasped out, finally exhaling and pulling away from the comforting presence.

He drew back from her, but left his hand on the small of her back.

"I can't wear those," Kimberly protested.

She looked around at the assembled group and realised that they were - for the most part - wearing the colours that they had worn as Power Rangers. Trini was wearing a yellow shirt and Aisha a pale yellow sweater; Adam and Zack wore black, although Kimberly was heartened that Adam had paired his black top with a dark green jacket; Billy wore blue, and Kat's mules were a pearl pink colour.

Kimberly noted that Jason wore black and white, and was glad that not everyone was conforming to their old convention of slipping their respective colours into their everyday clothes. Tommy, as usual, wore black as well.

Trini sighed theatrically and threw a few clothes at her. "Don't judge them 'til you've tried them."

The clothes fell uncaught into Kimberly's lap, and she raised a hand to poke unenthusiastically at them.

The conversations had stopped and all attention was turned to her. Kimberly looked around the various gazes: wary, encouraging, amused, and guarded.

What was she meant to do? She wasn't the Pink Ranger; she wasn't strong, and she certainly didn't deserve to wear those colours. Kimberly knew she couldn't just rewind the clock and return to her younger, more vibrant self.

A happier time.

A time I don't belong to.

And then Aisha was at her side, kneeling in front of her holding her hands. "Please, Kim?" Aisha implored, "Please... just try them on. If you don't like them, you don't have to wear them."

Kimberly looked into Aisha's eyes and could have kicked herself for that mistake. Aisha fluttered her eyelashes at her and Kim couldn't help but smile.

There was a time when she had considered Aisha her sister; they had lived together, after all. They had been a family, the two girls and Tiani and Kiros, a happier family then her own. But Aisha's parents were gone... and the thought pulled at Kimberly's heartstrings. Aisha was so strong, to be here so soon after the loss of her parents, smiling and shopping and... begging her to try clothes on.

Kimberly smiled and scooped the clothes into her arms. "You win," she laughed.

The laugh sounded wrong, but Kimberly stood and held the clothes to her chest while Aisha squealed and hugged her.

-888-

Kimberly turned this way and that, standing on her toes so she could see the effect the clothes had on her figure in the small mirror above the wash basin.

She had to admit... the girls had done a good job. The black jeans she pulled on were only a little loose around her fine waist - she had belted them up - and they hung straight to the floor, hiding her thin legs and giving the illusion of a healthier figure.

Similarly, the figure-hugging grey camisole she had been given was layered with a pale pink tunic of a lightweight fabric. It hung to just above her knees, and the long sleeves obscured both the scars on her arms and the unnatural shape of her wrist, which Kimberly knew was more noticeable to her than it was to others.

The camisole was too low-cut, however, to hide her prominent collar bones, and nothing could obscure the way her cheekbones dominated her face.

Still, Kimberly felt... nice.

It was nice to look in the mirror and not be disgusted by the way your ribs were visible, or the way your knees were as wide as your calves. Kimberly vaguely remembered living in the same pair of pyjamas for weeks on end and, with more clarity, remembered the disconnected revulsion she experienced when she had examined her body for the first time after she had 'woken up'. After she had come to her senses and fought back for the first time in – what? Three years? Four? She had found the baggiest pair of slacks and an enormous coat to hide the thinness of her body, and it was strangely liberating to wear clothes that didn't drown her.

"The colour suits you," an easily-recognisable voice complimented her.

Kat entered the small bathroom armed with a hair brush and began detangling Kimberly's limp hair, uninvited.

"Pink suits you, too..." Kim murmured, eyeing her successor's pink beaded top.

Katherine smiled and brushed Kim's hair so that it obscured the fading bruise on her temple. "I think it's important that we wear our Ranger colours. It reminds us that we are strong, that we belong to something greater than ourselves."

"I'm not strong," Kimberly protested, turning to face Kat.

The pretty blonde smiled and stepped back. "You haven't been listening to the doctors, then. Or me. Come on," she beckoned Kimberly out. "Aisha is going to explode if you don't come out soon."

Kim took a deep breath and followed Kat out of the room.

The group was suitably impressed; they said the right things and complimented Aisha and Trini on their good taste, choice of colour and their wonderful idea. Kim found she was relatively comfortable propped up on her hospital bed, with the attention of the group focused on the girls for their shopping expertise rather than on her.

Inevitably though, the conversation did migrate back to Kimberly. It was Billy who, noting how tired Kimberly was looking, got down to business. "What's the plan for tomorrow, Kimberly?" he asked.

Kim steadied her fluttering heart. Until this morning, she had expected to be in police custody by now or - barring that - finding a shelter. Not that she knew the first thing about homeless shelters; her plans had really only been half-formed inclinations anyway.

Now she was surrounded by people who wanted to help her, there was no prospect of jail time and she had money. Well, she would have money when she went back to settle the estate.

For the first time in years, Kimberly had options and the prospect of freedom. Was making decisions one of those things you could forget how to do?

Aisha interrupted her thoughts. "She's staying with me."

Kimberly looked to her friend, stricken. "I can't-"

Aisha's face fell and her eyes darkened with pain as she murmured, "You need somewhere to stay..."

Kimberly looked desperately to Tommy for help. "I thought you were staying at Aisha's," she protested. "I can't take your bed from you."

Aisha harrumphed and dismissed Kim's protests with a wave of her hand. "Tommy's got the couch, and it's only temporary anyway. Rocky has my parent's room and your old room-"

"I'm going to stay with Billy for a few days," Trini interrupted. "The room's all yours."

Kimberly began to protest, but something in Trini's expression stopped her. She looked curiously at Trini; her friend was staring intently at her. What had she said?

I'm going to stay with Billy for a few days.

Kimberly looked from Trini to Billy, who was staring at Trini with in shock. "Of course," he stuttered, and then recollected himself. "Yes, that sounds satisfactory," he finished lamely, his cheeks tinged with pink.

Despite the situation, Kimberly stifled a giggle. How could she refuse when her friend had so much to gain?

Kimberly looked back to Aisha, her sister who had lost so much. How could she refuse? How could she put her feelings above the desires of those who had been her dearest friends and teammates?

"That... sounds great," Kimberly smiled. "Thank you, Aisha."

The room was warm, her stomach was full and Kimberly found it was getting more difficult to keep her eyes open. Her eyelids fluttered and rested upon her cheeks, and the happy murmurs of her friends became a low, comforting tone that hummed feelings of safety and security.

After some time, the hum quieted and she vaguely registered comforting gestures as her friends touched her hand on their way out. As though from a distance, Kimberly recognised a pair of lips moving through her hair, but it was a long way away and in the darkness, Kimberly was content that she was safe.

-888-

The Power Rangers filed out of the door. Tommy gently kissed Kim's head and hair before Aisha shooed him out, determined to get him home and rested. Kat watched with mild amusement as Trini wrapped her hand around Billy's elbow and was glad the sweet boy had ensnared such a vibrant, brilliant person, even if it has been unconsciously done.

Jason was the last to leave; his dark eyes held the promise of a conversation to come, of a question he would ask. Sooner or later. Katherine studiously avoided his gaze and breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the door close behind him. She tenderly laid a long pale hand on Kimberly's flushed cheek and couldn't help but smile. Kimberly face when she pulled on her new clothes had made Katherine's day; the smaller girl had instantly looked more like the vibrant and vivacious Kimberly Hart Kat remembered.

Kat had two motives on remaining behind. Firstly - and she hoped it was the dominant reason - she loathed to leave Kimberly alone. Secondly... she didn't want to face Jason.

Until she saw Jason staring at her hand, Kat had not realised that the ring had left a noticeable tan line; if she knew Jason at all, she knew that sooner or later he would ask about it. The promise in the powerful Ranger's eyes as he watched her this afternoon confirmed it; he wanted to know her story.

How long can you hide in Angel Grove, Katherine?

Kat hoped that she could hide here forever.

Do you love Kat too?

Review review review!

Many thanks to my wonderful wonderful beta psycochick32 and to the ever intelligent and critical reviewer Nepht, who I am going to blame if I fail uni :D

xoxoxoxox