This is the sequel to my previous story, 'Back in time'.

Warning: This story involves a character with Cancer and going through treatment. Don't like, don't read. There is more of an explanation of this story at the bottom of the chapter.

Enjoy x

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Chapter 1

"It's called Primary Mediastinal B-Cell Lymphoma." The doctor said, looking at the woman in front of him with kind, sympathetic eyes. "It is a form of blood cancer, but we've caught it early. I'm going to give you some information on the chemotherapy regime that we will use, as well as some information about fertility treatment. There is a high chance that the chemotherapy will make you infertile, but we've caught it early enough that I feel comfortable giving you some time to harvest and freeze some eggs if you wish. You are 20, and I would recommend you have the fertility treatment, but ultimately the decision is yours." He took a moment to look at the woman in front of him, noticing the frown on her face and her eyes that seemed to be locked onto his desk. "Miss Ford? Do you have any questions?"

"You said we found it early." Kira said in a small voice, not looking up. "What are my chances?"

"I can't give you exact numbers, but it is highly curable." He replied, making Kira nod. "Miss Ford, it isn't often I see this type of Lymphoma in this early stage. I have seen women who have been walking around with this for over 25 years, and by the time they get diagnosed I don't even give them the option of fertility treatment. The regime I will be putting you on has very high success rates." She nodded slowly, making him smile gently at her. "I will give you some time to process everything and ring you in a couple of days to see what you have decided about fertility."

"Thank you, Dr Bishop." Kira said as she stood up, still not looking him in the eye before she turned and walked out of the room. She walked through the hospital until she reached the car park in silence before climbing into her yellow Mini Cooper. She sighed and leant her head against the headrest, finally letting the tears fall as she processed what she had just heard.

Tommy had taken her to the hospital a couple of weeks beforehand. She had complained about a pain in the right side of her chest the previous day, and the former Black Ranger had woken up in the middle of the night to see his girlfriend in so much pain she was struggling to breathe. Her x-ray had shown something in her chest that had caused worry, but when the pain eased off and showed no signs of returning, they seemed to relax. They had booked her in for a PET scan and a biopsy, and here she was now, being told that she had cancer. She drove back to the house in the middle of the woods that she shared with Tommy and sighed as she parked outside, noticing that Tommy's Jeep was parked outside. She quickly wiped her face before squaring her shoulders and walking into the house.

"Hey, you're home." Tommy said with a smile as he walked over and gave her a kiss. "How was the meeting?"

"Great. How was your day?" She asked, forcing a smile on her face. She had told him that she was meeting Tanya to discuss her new album, reluctant to tell him about her hospital appointment.

"It was good. Aside from a kid setting fire to their hair." He said as they walked into the kitchen.

"Wow. Not even Conner managed to do that." She replied with a small laugh as she sat at the table. "Are you cooking?"

"I thought I'd do something nice for you." He said with a sheepish grin. "You've been stressed lately, and I wanted to cheer you up." He plated the food and placed it on the table. He made a spaghetti carbonara with what looked like homemade garlic bread.

"Did you make this yourself?" She asked, looking at him with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Hayley may have helped a little." He laughed. They ate in relative silence before Kira helped Tommy clean the kitchen. Later she went down into the basement through the entrance in Tommy's office, taking a moment to look around the rebuilt DinoThunder lab before heading through a door and into her home studio. Tanya and some of the original Rangers had helped her to build it after she had signed to Tanya's record label so she could record a lot of music from home and not travel all the time. She sat in the booth and picked up her guitar, pressing record on the panel in front of her. She strummed a tune on her guitar, trying to find the words to express how she felt.

Take me as I am
Right here where I stand
Open up your arms and let me in
Out here on my own
I know I'm not alone
Let me in your heart right where you stand
Take me as I am.

She paused the recording and picked up the notebook next to her, writing the words down before she could forget them.

"That sounded good." She jumped and saw Tommy stood on the other side of the glass, smiling at her.

"Thanks. Just trying something new." She replied, putting the guitar down and walking out of the booth. Before she could stop herself, she walked right up to Tommy and wrapped her arms around his waist, burying her face in his chest.

"Hey, are you alright?" He asked with a slight frown.

"Yeah. Just feeling a bit stressed." She said, trying not to lie to him.

"You'll hear back from the hospital soon. And whatever they say, we'll get through it. I promise." He whispered, kissing her head. Kira felt incredibly guilty for not telling him what was going on, but she just didn't know how to handle it. "I can stay here tomorrow if you like."

"No. You've been looking forward to this for weeks." She said, pulling away from him slightly. "And you know Trini would drive here and strangle you if you cancel again."

"She'll live." Tommy replied. He was supposed to be driving to Angel Grove to meet with some of the original Rangers, a trip that he had rescheduled after taking Kira to the hospital a couple of weeks ago. "And I'd rather make sure you're ok."

"I'm fine." She replied, putting on a brave face. "Honestly, go. I need to spend some time working on my new album, so I'll probably just spend all weekend down here anyway." He studied her for a moment before nodding.

"I can ask Conner to check in on you." He muttered, clearly worried about leaving her alone.

"And I will probably end up strangling him." She replied with a smile. "Tommy, I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself."

"I know. But you still haven't heard from the hospital." He said, trailing off slightly. Kira sighed before laying her head on his chest again.

"Tommy, go and see your friends. Just forget about me for a while and enjoy yourself." She said.

Later that night Kira lay in bed with her head on Tommy's chest, unable to get to sleep with everything swirling around in her mind. She wanted to just confess to Tommy what had happened, but another part of her wanted to keep it from him. He had said to her before that he loved how strong and determined she was, and she was worried that once he saw her going through treatment, he would feel differently about her. She knew that she was more than likely overthinking everything, but she was still scared that it could still happen.

Eventually she managed to fall into a restless sleep, waking multiple times during the night. She turned over when Tommy got up, kissing her gently on the head as he started getting ready. She got up and went down to the kitchen and made coffee, standing at the window and looking out at the woods behind the house, thinking about all of the times her and her former teammates trained and fought the bad guys in those woods.

"Hey. What's going on in that brain of yours?" Tommy asked as he wrapped his arms around her from behind, resting his chin on her head.

"Just reliving some of our ranger days." She said enjoying the feeling of his arms around her.

"Are you sure I can't tempt you to come with me?" He asked as he kissed the top of her head.

"I'm sure." She replied, turning around and smiling at him. "Go. And tell the guys I said hi."

"Alright. Have a good day." He said, giving her a quick kiss before grabbing his keys and walking towards the door.

"Tommy?" She called before he reached the door, making him turn around and look at her with a frown. "I…. I love you." She said. He smiled and walked over to her, giving her a loving kiss.

"I love you too." He said before leaving. She watched as he got into jeep and drive away, tears falling down her face.

Kira walked through the house, looking around at the pictures on the walls and thinking about all of the memories in that house. She went down into the basement and smiled as she ran her hands over the walls of the lab, remembering when she first found her Dino Gem with Conner and Ethan, and when they found out about Tommy's past as a ranger. She glanced into her studio and was reminded about the trip to the past when the met the former rangers, wincing slightly at the memory of spending a day as Jason when their minds were swapped. She sighed before walking back up the stairs, wondering if she was doing the right thing.

She walked back to the bedroom and saw Tommy's phone sat on the bedside table, making her think for a moment. She knew that what she was about to do was cowardly, but she also knew that if she didn't do it now, she would lose her nerve. She packed a bag and rang Tommy's phone, leaving a voicemail for him to listen to when he got back home.

Once her bag was in her car, she paused for a moment, looking back at the house with sad eyes. Leaving was the last thing she wanted to do, but she also didn't want to force Tommy to stay with her through her treatment. She knew that once it was all over, she would try to explain it to him. She sighed as she got into the car and drove away, leaving everything she cared about behind.

Xxx

The next day, Tommy drove back to the house with a smile on his face. He had enjoyed spending time with some of his friends, and he was looking forward to the next time he could see them. He frowned when he parked up and noticed Kira's car missing. He shrugged as he assumed that she had gone to Hayley's to meet up with the others.

He walked into the house and frowned for a moment, taking in how quiet it was. He walked up to the bedroom to put his bags away and laughed when he saw his phone sitting on the bedside table.

"Well at least I didn't lose it." He muttered as he turned around, only to freeze. He walked over to the wardrobe and frowned, noticing that a lot of Kira's clothes were missing. He went down to the basement and looked in her studio, noticing that her guitar was missing. "Maybe Tanya asked for a meeting." He muttered as he walked back into the lab, looking at his phone to see a voicemail from Kira.

'Hi Brachio.' Her voice said as he listening to the recording. 'You left your phone again. But I suppose that is a good thing. I would never have been able to do this if I spoke to you.' He heard an intake of breath and frowned, noticing the strain in her voice. 'Tommy, I am so sorry. I have to leave for a while, and I can't tell you why. This isn't what I wanted to do, and I want you to know that I love you so much, and I will always love you. But I can't do this to you… I can't make you go through this too. I am so sorry Tommy. Please forgive me.' The voicemail ended, and Tommy stood there with his phone to his ear for a moment, not fully believing what he heard.

He grabbed a device from the shelf next to him and threw it across the room, watching it smash into pieces against the wall.

"Tommy?" He turned and saw Conner on the stairs, a frown on his face. "What's wrong?"

"Kira." He said, sinking down onto the sofa. Conner looked around with a frown, noticing the broken device and the open door to the studio.

"What about her? Where is she?" He asked, moving to sit next to his mentor. His frown deepened as he saw the tears on Tommy's face, something that he had never seen before.

"She's gone." He said, making Conner's eyes widen in shock. Tommy pulled a small black box out of his pocket and stared at it for a moment before holding it up. "What do I do with this now?"

Please don't bite my head off!

I started writing this when I was going through chemo myself, and before anyone moans about Kira leaving Tommy because of this unrealistic, I did the exact same thing with my boyfriend, although my dad told him what was going on, so it didn't even last a day.

I am using some of my own experiences in this story. As I was going through chemo, and writing some of the previous story, I thought of what I thought Kira might do in my situation, and used that to influence this story slightly.

Thank you to all who have been patiently waiting for this sequel. As you can imagine, I needed to get myself into a good place to feel comfortable posting this.

The song in this chapter is 'take me as I am' by David Cook