Hey there! Here's the next chapter. I'm so sorry for the lull in summer has been rough and the drama llama is still following me around. I've only just now got settled back into place.

All errors are mine, but I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

See you all at the bottom!

Angel Grove Hospital

Try as she may, Kimberly could not banish the feeling of unease as she followed Tommy into the sterilized halls of Angel Grove hospital. She would follow Tommy to the Gates of Hell and had followed him into battle again but even then she'd only ever been focused on the fight. But this was a whole different kind of anxiety.

She knew that her friends awaited her, but there would also be people, strangers that she'd never met. Tommy had filled her in about Tanya and Justin, but that didn't help her much. She was so afraid that they wouldn't accept her, that she, for half a second entertained the thought of running away. But she had made a promise that she would never leave his side again; and so, she steeled herself for whatever reception she would be given.

The moment she walked into the room, she was immediately scooped up into Rocky's arms and then hugged by Adam. When they finally let her breathe she was set back on her feet…and then she saw Jason and Zack, who both exclaimed how much they missed her…and how she'd never leave them ever again. When she was on her feet again, she turned and saw her oldest friend. Billy was smiling at her and she walked into his arms. He hugged her tightly and she returned it all the while feeling her nerves settle down a bit. Lastly, she turned to the strangers in the room.

For a moment the two looked at each other. Kimberly with uncertainty and the other with a guarded expression. Finally, after another moment of awkward silence, Kimberly decided to make the first move. She took a deep breath.

"Hi, I'm Kimberly."

Tanya blinked and then held out her hand. "Hi, Kimberly…I'm Tanya."

Kimberly smiled at her and then looked at the young man on the couch. "Hi, Justin."

He didn't look up at her for a moment, but when he did, he looked like he was in pain…and it was also mixed with anger. But he seemed to fight it all back and gave her an unconvincing smile. "Hi Kimberly. It's nice to meet you." And then he got up and walked out of the room. With a shared looked between herself and Adam, Tanya got up and followed him out the door.

When they were gone, Kimberly looked at Adam with a look of interest.

The former green Zeo ranger smiled bashfully. "We've been dating for a while now. She's amazing."

Kimberly grinned seeing the love in his eyes.

A moment later, they all heard a soft knock at the door. Almost as one, they turned to see the nurse from earlier walk in with a blue bundle in her arm. She looked at Kimberly but said nothing, instead she handed the baby off to Tommy who accepted his son in his arms and gave the nurse a grateful nod. When she'd gone, Tommy chuckled softly to himself and then turned to Adam.

Adam grinned, "Same routine, right?"

Kimberly gave them a look of confusion as Adam carefully took the baby in his arms with practiced ease. Her eyes widened when Tommy reached behind his back and took his shirt off. She just couldn't stop herself as she gave him an appreciative once over.

The man was still extremely handsome, he wasn't big and muscly like that loser she'd gone out with….he was lean and fit. His arms were strong and warm….she missed them.

"Kimberly?"

Kim could feel cheeks heat up as she realized that she'd been blatantly staring at the new father.

She blinked a few times and then looked at Tommy who was looking back at her with an amused expression.

"Kimberly, meet my son, Lorcan."

With a feeling of trepidation, Kimberly stepped closer and looked upon the infant for the first time. Kimberly smiled down at him. "Oh my goodness, Tommy. He's so cute!"

In that moment, the baby opened his small eyes and looked up at her. In that moment, her unease vanished, and a strange feeling she couldn't name filled her. Suddenly, she was looking at him with new eyes and nothing but feelings of love and protectiveness was there now. She didn't say it out loud, but she knew that someday, he would be her step son.

She planted a soft kiss on his forehead and then stepped back and Tommy shifted him in his arms before taking a seat in the rocking chair. Adam walked over to him and handed over a small bottle for infant formula.

Kimberly watched in wonder as Tommy kissed his son's head and then offered his son the bottle. Soon the only sound in the room what the sound of soft suckling. Kimberly smiled at the private moment and then quietly exited the room.

She wandered the hall momentarily until she saw the private waiting room where Rocky and Aisha sat with a group of unfamiliar people. She walked into the room and took a seat a little bit apart from the group and decided to just be quiet.

Then Aisha came over with an unfamiliar Asian girl. For a second she thought it was Trini, but on closer inspection, she saw the girl was wearing pink.

Kimmie, this is Cassie, the pink space ranger, Cassie, this is Kimberly, the first pink ranger of Earth.

The two pink rangers gave smiled and shook hands. But neither could think of anything to say except,

How have you been doing?" it was almost in unison and it made Rocky look up momentarily from his quiet conversation with Carlos and TJ.

Cassie smiled. "I'm good." She almost brought up the fact that Zordon's was missing, but she bit her lip instead. She had a feeling that now was not the time to bring that up. So she said, "We came as soon as we could. Is there anything we can do to help?"

Kimberly shrugged. "I have no idea. This is Tommy's show, I'm just winging things too. He's been my hero forever, maybe it's my turn to take care of him now."

Cassie had been given the basics of the situation, but she still couldn't stop from giving Kimberly an odd look.

Aisha took a deep breath. Things were getting way too awkward, maybe it was time for a different approach. Maybe it was time for a girl's meeting. There had to be a way to smooth things over.

She quietly excused herself and got Rocky's attention.

"Things are not going very well. The tension in the room is thick enough to be cut by a knife."

Rocky nodded. "Yeah, I noticed. From what the guys are saying, the evil alliance they're fighting may be coming back to earth for a confrontation. My guts are telling me that we may need all of us for what's coming…we've got to get it together and everyone needs to be on the same page."

Rocky was in full red ranger mode and Aisha felt butterflies in her stomach. Once the moment had passed she nodded.

I'm thinking along the lines of a girl's night and we have a hotel room."

"Like a pajama party?" Rocky couldn't have stopped the smile if he tried.

Aisha shook her head. Red ranger he may be, but he was still a guy.

"No, it's more like a pow wow, no boys allowed thing…so no, it's not a pajama party."

Rocky chuckled but gave his girlfriend his best apologetic look and she couldn't help but kiss his cheek. "Just hold down the fort here. I'll see what I can do to bring the other girls into balance."

Rocky pecked her lips and grinned boyishly at her. "Do what you gotta do, Mama-bear." Then he smirked. "May the Force be with you."

Aisha giggled at him. You're such a goof, how long have you been waiting to use that line?"

Rocky grinned at her again. "For a while…Sorry, Ish, I can't help myself."

She laughed softly and kissed him back. "Ok, I'm gone. Time to go round up the girls."

Holiday Inn

About an hour later

Tanya still hadn't been able to look Kimberly in the eye. She knew the whole truth now, but she still had a hard time getting passed things.

The other girl rangers were all sitting around the hotel room. Aisha took a deep breath and looked over at Kimberly. Though she looked calm and steady, the former yellow ranger knew that her best friend was just a little on edge. Trini was sitting close to Kimberly and was leaning against her ever so slightly.

Aisha took a deep breath. She had no idea where to start, so she just plowed forward.

"Ok, so I called us here because there was a hell of a lot of tension in the hospital room. There is a ginormous elephant stomping around and things need to be put out into the open. A really horrible thing has happened and every one of us is affected by it in one way or another. To start getting back on our feet, we need to air everything out."

When everyone looked up at her but didn't say anything, she inhaled deeply. "Ok, fine. I'll go."

"When Kat came into my life, she had four furry paws and a tail. I was doing some volunteer work at the animal shelter when she was found. Kimberly and I named her PC or park cat. We didn't realized till later that she had been put under a spell. But once the spell was broken, she became a really good friend. I have no idea what happened while I was gone, and I was hoping you girls could fill in the blanks for me."

Aisha paused and looked around, and saw Kimberly bite her lip, before getting up and standing up before walking towards her. The pride she had in her friend expanded tenfold as she stepped away and sat in her place.

Kimberly felt nervous, but there were things she needed to say. So she faced the yellow Zeo ranger.

"Tanya, I know that you have mixed feelings about me being here. I would too. But you should know that I had absolutely no hard feelings after I woke up in the hospital. Tommy was under an evil spell before and we had many talks after he was freed. So even after Kat was broken from her spell, she seemed to be really nervous. But we also had talks around that time. I know she was a good person and had a lot of integrity."

"When I chose to leave, and needed a replacement, Kat was the perfect choice. I had been protecting the Earth from Rita and Zedd for most of my high school career, so had I even one doubt that Kat couldn't pull her weight around and do the job I was handing over, I never would have chosen her to be my successor. She was a wonderful fierce young woman, and had courage in spades. That is why I chose her, and not some other random girl. I trusted Kat with the power coin, and there's a part of me that's hurting big time, knowing that our little power ranger family has lost a member. I don't know if Aisha told you of the letter that I received from our friend. But Kat bore her heart to me, and it was as if she knew something would happen. You should also know that in my absence, you guys had your own team. I love Tommy and will do whatever it takes to help him out, but that doesn't mean that I intend to step on anyone's toes." Kim paused and bit her lip again. "I guess that's all I have to say about things for now."

As she went back to her seat beside Trini, Tanya spoke up softly.

"I guess I known for a time that neither of their feelings ran that deep. I was in that kind of relationship with Shawn; I'm with Adam now and I've realized that there is a difference. Tommy and Kat are family and so are the rest of our team. I'm having a really difficult time dealing with losing my best friend. I just need some time to process…all of this."

Tanya looked up at Kimberly. "I want to be friends…"

Kimberly smiled kindly at her fellow ranger.

"Then we are. We can start all over again."

"I'd like that."

Aisha sighed in relief and then looked at the others. "Alright, who's next?"

A few hours later, feeling lighter and a little more cheerful, the girls began to leave for their homes (whatever they were). Rocky would be over in a few minutes to spend some more time with Aisha and Kimberley would head back to the hospital.

It had been a good night. There had been some tears and laughter and a few inside jokes created, and their bonds of sister hood had been strengthened, Ashley and Cassie had been as upfront with the other ladies as possible and warned them of what might be headed their way. They had come up with a few contingency plans and back up plans and were now all in agreement. Should trouble come for Angel Grove, they'd be ready.

Tanya was the last out the door. "There's a change in the others that I haven't seen before. Everyone seems better now. I know I reacted poorly before, but I am glad that you're here.

"I feel better now too. I never realized how delicate the balance of the team was. I underestimated The Great Power and everything Dulcea said. It won't happen again,."

Tanya nodded. "We all make wrong decisions now and then. But from now on, lets try and keep things as they are, there's been enough drama around here. We could start our own soap operas with everything that's happened."

Kimberly had to laugh at that. "Yeah, but I think I've had enough drama for now. I just want to start my life again…and I really miss the Mall too."

Tanya nodded her head knowingly. "It's taken me a while to get used to this. We didn't have any shopping centers in Africa. Kat was the one to help me adjust. We were supposed to go this weekend."

Kimberly bit her lip. "I won't try to fill her shoes, cause Aisha and I were shopping partners. Maybe all three of us could go?"

"I think I'd like that."

You better not go without me Pinkie.' Trini said as Rocky drove up in his truck.

Kimberly looked at Tanya. "Would that be okay with you?"

Tanya grinned. "Yeah, that would be great."

Trini grinned. "The mall won't know what hit it!"

There you have girls have worked things out among themselves. I know Justin isn't quite there yet, but everyone grieves differently. He will come around eventually.