"Mom, you okay?" Ollie asked as Kim stared at the text she'd just gotten from Tommy. She didn't know how this had slipped her mind that this would eventually happen. Ollie was supposed to meet Tommy's parents months ago, but he'd come down with a stomach virus and every other time they'd tried to get together- something had come up. It made perfect sense that they would be here for Christmas though and she had not even thought about it with how busy the last month had been. Now, she was faced with seeing two people that she was fairly sure hated her for extremely valid reasons. "We're still going to Dad's for Christmas Eve and Christmas, right?"

"Yeah…umm…if you can grab those presents I think that's the last thing we need," Kim said as she took in a deep breath. Ollie was going to meet his grandparents. That was the important thing. She was sure she could deal with the Olivers so long as Tommy was there and stood by her. The last month and a half had shown her that he was here to stay, but this was different. This was standing up for his decision to give them another try with his parents, with the people that had seen the destruction firsthand and had helped him through it.

"Dad said he has a Christmas Eve tradition of watching Gremlins and making this white chocolate caramel popcorn with smores stuff in it," Ollie said as he fastened himself into the back seat and Kim nodded as she listened to him. That was a treat that she normally would have been super excited for, but her stomach just clenched. Why had she not thought about Tommy's parents being there? Why had she not asked him about this so that she had time to freak out and then calm down about it? "Can we still watch Home Alone? And sing carols?"

"Yeah, I've got all that in my bag and I'm sure Tommy won't mind," Kim forced out as Ollie celebrated in the back seat. She turned on the radio and set out towards Tommy's house, feeling herself zoning out as Ollie chattered away. She had about ten minutes to get herself together before she saw two people that she spent years avoiding.


"Hey," Tommy whispered as he gave her a hug and she bit down on her lower lip, pulling it into her mouth. Her body shook, her palms were suddenly clammy and she struggled to hide it from him. It was one thing to hide something like this from Ollie, it was a completely different thing to hide it from Tommy. Tommy knew the subtle changes she had when she was this stressed and he ran his hand up and down her side as he pulled away. "They called this morning and said they were coming up. I didn't see it until they were in the driveway and Mom pointed out that I should check my messages more. You okay?"

"No," Kim said and she took in another deep breath as she steeled herself to see his parents. "How much do they hate me?"

"They don't hate you. They are protective of me after everything that happened, but hopefully they'll see what I see in you; in us," Tommy said as Ollie stood between the two of them and looked up at them. Tommy looked down at him and offered him a smile, he knew that his parents would love their son. They'd been asking him when he'd find someone else for years and he knew a lot of that had to deal with wanting grandchildren. He hadn't found someone else, but they were getting a grandchild out of the two of them getting back together. "Hey Ollie- there's some people inside who want to meet you very much."

"Who?" Ollie perked up as Kim fought against the panic attack. She hoped that they would love Ollie, even if they hated her for keeping him from them. Surely they wouldn't take her decisions out on their grandson.

"It's a surprise. Anything else you need help with?" Tommy asked as he looked in the car and saw a couple more bags. "Those coming in?"

"I can get them," Kim muttered as he moved around her and grabbed the bags. One of his hands stayed on her back the entire time and she pulled comfort from that touch. Ollie was going to be fine, his parents wouldn't do anything to him. It was the two of them that she was really worried about. "Tommy…"

"They want to talk to us after he goes to sleep," Tommy whispered as she nodded and he leaned down to give her a kiss. She lingered against him, wanting to feel more sure about where they were at before they walked inside. They'd not been together long enough to say how this was going to really go and she didn't want to have that conversation with them when they hadn't even had it yet. "We are good and they're going to see that."

"Mom, Dad- c'mon!" Ollie yelled as Tommy took her hand and Ollie ran ahead of them to the house and Kim steeled herself for what the next few hours were going to be like. She knew that the Olivers wouldn't be openly hostile, but it was definitely going to be tense.

"Ollie, go put your stuff in your room," Kim said as he started to dump his bag next to the front door before she gave him a look and he then ran back to his room to put his stuff away. Janice and Allen Oliver stood up from their seats on the couch and Kim locked eyes with Janice. She saw the protectiveness in her gaze and her anger for what she had done to Tommy. For the years that she had cost Tommy with his son. She dropped Tommy's hand and he looked over at her before taking her bags to his room. He was sending a clear message to his parents, but she was not sure that they appreciated it. "Janice, Allen…"

"You have a lot of nerve," Janice whispered as Kim shrank back and looked down at her feet. Shame rushed over her as she heard Ollie run back into the room and she forced it away as she smiled over at her son. She was not going to set him up to dislike his grandparents- they were great people and she knew they would love him once they got to know him. "We will talk."

"I know," Kim met her gaze and she saw something in Janice's eyes that surprised her, respect. Why would respect be there? "Hey Ol, come here."

"Have you seen the Christmas tree?" Ollie yelled as he bounced around her and grabbed her hand to pull her back towards the living room. She let him pull her that way because she knew she'd rather join in on his joy than sit in her fear for one more minute. "Dad! When did you get that?"

"Tommy," Kim whispered as she felt him walk up next to her and she stared up at him. The last time they had been over, he had some bare bones Christmas decorations up, but it was nothing like this. He now had a real tree, stockings, and various other Christmas decorations scattered throughout the house. "What…how?"

"The kids may have dropped by and helped," Tommy said as Kim still gaped at him. The rangers had helped them with this? "Kira and Conner were really insistent that my decorations were crap."

"Can I help put ornaments on the tree?" Ollie asked as he brought over the box of ornaments and Tommy nodded, looking over his shoulder to see his parents staring at him. He knew how odd it must be to see Ollie, especially with how much they looked alike at his current age.

"But first, I want to introduce you to a couple of people," Tommy said as Ollie peeked around him at the older adults in the room. "Ollie- these are my parents- Janice and Allen Oliver."

"Hi," Ollie said as he smiled and waved, but stayed near Tommy. He glanced over at his mom and saw how tight her face looked; she was nervous about something and it looked like it was the other Olivers. "Hold on...if those are your parents, does that mean they're my grandparents?"

"Yeah," Tommy whispered as Ollie looked between his parents and his grandparents.

"Why don't they like Mom?" Ollie asked and Janice's eyes widened as Kim covered her face. Leave it to her child to not know enough to stay away from that question. "You like Mom, shouldn't they?"

"It's complicated," Tommy said as he squatted down and his dad moved forward to squat down next to him. Allen had long forgiven Kimberly for anything she had done to Tommy, he had always felt there was more to the story and now he knew that was true. He knew that she had been a scared teenager and had done what she thought was best for their baby.

"Why don't I help you with that tree?" Allen said with a smile as Ollie looked over at him, studying him for a moment before nodding. Allen put a hand on Ollie's shoulder and led him away as Tommy looked between his mother and his girlfriend. Kim was terrified of how this was going to go and he could tell that his mother was disappointed in them, but he couldn't understand why that was how she felt.

"He's not going to trust you until you stow whatever ill will you're harboring towards her," Tommy whispered to his mom as she looked up at him and he let out a sigh. He wanted her support, but he was not going to let anyone other than himself or Kimberly decide their relationship was done. One look at Kimberly let him know that she did not want to walk away from them. "You're going to have to get over it Mom, whatever it is."

"I'll get over it once she explains."


"Here you go," Tommy said as he passed Kim a glass of eggnog and she took a sip before giving him a grateful smile that he had laced hers with rum. She had felt the stress building as they got closer and closer to bedtime and it had peaked now. Ollie had, somehow, warmed up to Janice as well, but it had taken a lot out of her to stay out of the way and let Ollie decide where he wanted to be with this. How Janice felt about her was not nearly as important as them getting off to a good start. "Ollie's out- how is he normally with Christmas?"

"Normally up at around 5 and Santa is still very much real," Kim said as the Olivers looked at her. None of them had been prepared to be up that early the next morning. "Look- I've tried to get him to sleep longer. He's just so excited when he gets up and for the longest it was just us…"

"Yes, it was just you," Janice seethed and Tommy sat down between Kim and his mother. He wanted to make it clear to Kimberly who he sided with on this. He knew that Kim needed his support more than his mother needed him to appreciate her protection. "Thomas- do not defend her. She kept your child from you for eight years. She lied to you for nearly a decade. She ripped your heart out and stomped all over it. That takes more than a few months to properly forgive."

"I was 16, Janice. I was scared and alone and I made a horrible decision to not tell him what was really going on. I hurt him so that, so that he would stay where he was needed most," Kim forced out as Tommy looked over at her and he shook his head. He was not needed here more than she needed him and he hated to hear that that had gone into her decision as well. They'd talked more about it over the last six weeks, but there were still things that he didn't know about her decision. "Yes- they needed you here, Tommy. We know what would have happened if you…"

"We don't. Kim my staying here…being what I was…" Tommy let out a groan as he just shook his head. Being a ranger was not this important, but he knew he had made her feel like it really was. "They would have survived without me."

"Maybe. Or maybe something would have followed you. I couldn't risk any of it. So I did what I thought was best and I've hated myself for it for all of these years," Kim whispered as she locked eyes with Janice. Tommy knew a lot of this and she knew he suspected other parts, his parents had no idea what she was protecting their son from. "So you can hate me for what I did to keep my son safe, but you still won't touch how much I hate myself for hurting Tommy."

"What would have followed him?" Janice asked as Tommy gulped down his eggnog and Kim absentmindedly ran her hand up and down his back. Tommy stared at a spot on the coffee table, trying to figure out what to tell them. For so many years he had maintained the lie, but he didn't have the strength to continue to do that now. He wanted them to understand that her decision hadn't been from a selfish place or a place to purposefully hurt him. It had been because it was the safest thing for them. "Tommy."

"Lord Zedd, King Mondo, Divatox- any of their generals and minions," Tommy stated as he stared straight ahead, but leaned closer to Kim and she draped her arm around him as they leaned in to each other. "Even now, I still put him in danger."

"We both put him in danger," Kim said as she cupped his cheek and he looked up at her. Yes, she had powers, but he felt that he was the one that put them all at risk. He was the ranger that evils went out of the way to confront. He was the ranger that they came after when they were concerned that other rangers would join in on the fight. "Do not do this to yourself- the world has needed you to do everything that you've done and everything that you're doing."

"You're rangers," Allen muttered as the realization hit him and Janice just shook her head that that couldn't be possible. "Janice, you can't pretend that means something else."

"It doesn't excuse her not telling him," Janice said as Tommy turned to face them and just shook his head. "It doesn't."

"You don't know what it is like to have that…this on you, Mom. You don't know what it is like to have to make decisions to keep people safe in your life at the risk of alienating them. It wasn't a good reason, but I understand the reason," Tommy said as he looked over at Kim and she gulped at his words. It was hard to hear that, but they had promised each other that they weren't going to push away the hard discussions anymore. If this was going to last, they were going to have to get good at having these kinds of conversations. "We've worked through this. We're dating again. If you decide to treat her any way other than with respect- I am going to choose them over you. Every time."

"Thomas, she…you would do that?" Janice asked and Tommy's eyes flashed a warning that clearly drove home how serious he was. "I don't like this."

"Tommy, they're your parents," Kim whispered as he looked back at her and his gaze softened. He knew what she was trying to say, but he was not going to give his parents an excuse to treat her badly. "Tommy."

"And the two of you are my family and I'm not letting anyone take that away from me," Tommy stated as she gave him a kiss on the forehead and then looked up to see Janice staring at the two of them. "I've got a couple of gifts that I need to put together. Dad- can I get a hand?"

"Absolutely," Allen said as they both stood and headed out to the garage.

"I don't plan to ever hurt him like that again, Janice and I don't plan to keep secrets from him anymore either. We're not running down the aisle next week, but we're done running away from each other."

AN: I don't know how much longer FFN is going to hold it together. If you're unaware- there have been all sorts of problems from blank pages showing up to all of our stats being down for about two months. I do intend to publish on here until the site dies- but I want to make sure that my readers are aware that my stories are also on AO3 under the same penname- BrookeSHodges. Just in case the day comes and this website becomes completely unusable- I am trying to let my readers know where else they can find me if they want to keep reading.

AN2: In less 'doom and gloom' news- thank you to everyone that is still reading with all of the issues that are going on! It means the world to me!