"Hayley?" Kim asked as she watched food disappear as Tommy ate. She'd dropped Ollie off at school already and had gotten someone to cover for the both of them at the dojo. Sure, Tommy could handle this, but she didn't want to leave him alone. She needed to see him, really see him, before she could believe that all of this was not a dream. "He can't be serious."
"I know, but this is past my ability to fix and Billy won't be back until the weekend. She is our best bet at getting me back to myself before then," Tommy explained as Kim crossed her arms, but nodded. She hated this, she hated that they had to reach out to someone that had hurt the both of them. She knew that Tommy didn't want to do this anymore than her, but if Billy said this was their best bet, she wouldn't argue with him. "There's no guarantee she'll even be willing to help."
"We both know that she will, if only to try to…I don't know. Give me your phone, I'll call," Kim said as Tommy shook his head and then realized she couldn't see him. She still held out her hand and impatiently tapped her foot. "Tommy, let me call."
"Here you go." Tommy passed her his cell phone as he stood up and headed down to the Dino Lab. He could at least get stuff together for Hayley and he really didn't want to witness this conversation. Well, he knew that Kim was not looking forward to doing this either, but he also knew that she was right in making the call. He was likely to piss Hayley off to the point that she just left him invisible. Kim might be able to convince her to come and help fix this.
"Hi, Hayley? It's Kim. Tommy's invisible and I need your help."
Hayley stood at the front door and let out a shaky breath. She knew that how this interaction went was going to determine if she was able to be around Tommy again. Kim might be her best advocate for that, but she couldn't bring herself to like the woman. She knew what Kim had done to Tommy and she saw that it was even worse than what she'd originally thought. She had hidden his child from him. The door opened and she was met by the smaller woman who gave her a forced smile.
"How the hell did he get turned invisible?" Hayley asked as Kim motioned for her to come in and to follow her. Hayley noticed the subtle changes in Tommy's house. There were drawings scattered around from Ollie and a couple of pictures had made it onto his refrigerator of their little family. She didn't see anything that was obviously Kimberly's in the common areas, but a glance at his bedroom had her noticing Kimberly's clothing scattered on the floor. It was like a punch to the gut and she realized she had stopped. Kimberly looked back at her and then followed her gaze. Kim let out a shaky breath before she walked over and gently took Hayley by the arm and led her down to the Dino Lab.
"He got himself turned invisible by protecting me and Ollie. His morpher got shattered by a bullet and well…" Kim trailed off as a morpher soared into her line of sight and she quickly caught it before it slammed into either of them. "Tommy, c'mon."
"We're going to need to hook you up to see what's going on," Hayley said as a stack of papers moved over to her and Tommy placed them in her hands. She scanned through the first few and realized what Tommy must have been working on. "You already did that."
"I figured this was something that you were going to need from me. I also figured you wouldn't want to be here longer than necessary," Tommy said as he caught the look in her eyes and he wished that he could lock eyes with Kim to see what was going on. Kim had a knowing look in her eyes, but it was obviously something she wasn't going to apologize for. "Hayley? You okay?"
"No," Hayley whispered as Tommy gave Kim's hand a squeeze and she nodded in his general direction.
"I'm going to leave you to it. I've got some calls for the dojo that I can't miss," Kim made up an excuse before Tommy gave her a hug and then a quick kiss. "Come get me if you need me for anything."
"That won't be necessary," Hayley muttered as Kim stilled and she then moved to stand between Hayley and Tommy, forcing Hayley to meet her gaze. She was already on a razor's edge and that had just pushed her over it.
"The last time you needed me and didn't come get me- the both of us almost died. I'm trusting you to not repeat that again," Kim said as Hayley looked at her and then nodded. If she was going to get back at Kimberly for what she had done, it wasn't going to be by hurting Tommy. "I'll be back once I'm done."
"Go, Kim. We'll be fine," Tommy said as he rested a hand on Hayley's shoulder and she jumped. She hadn't been alone with him in months and what was once comfortable now felt frosty. Tommy moved his hand away from her and he moved a few steps away. "What is it?"
"I was fine, until I saw her clothes in your room," Hayley whispered as she started to look at the print outs, ignoring the intensity she felt from Tommy's stare. She doubted that he even realized that Kim's things were all over his house now, in ways that she absolutely could not ignore. "I know. You're back together."
"Thank you for coming. I wouldn't have asked if I could have done this on my own. And Billy pretty much put his foot down about it," Tommy said as Hayley just nodded and he went silent. He didn't want to disturb her as she looked through the results and he also didn't know what to say. She was hurting and although he had never intended to lead her on, he had and he hated himself for that. He hoped that she would be able to find someone, but he knew it was going to take her time to heal first.
"That's not your power signature," Hayley said as she pointed to a bit of the graph and Tommy walked over to read it over her shoulder. He had thought it was odd, but hadn't looked into it more. His power readings were always all over the place because of how many different powers he had had over the years. "Shit. When Kim took her powers- what did you do?"
"Held her hand, I think? It was rough on her," Tommy replied as Hayley let out a groan. Of course Tommy had felt empathy for her and went to make things easier and that had somehow mixed their powers together. "What?"
"It merged her powers with yours. What happened last night?" Hayley asked as she held up a series of probes and Tommy took them from her and placed them on his body. "She said your morpher got shattered by a bullet…"
"Kim had an unwanted admirer. He broke into her house last night and tried to kill me. He wanted something different from Kim. She brought me my morpher before she went back to protect Ollie. She saw him try to shoot me," Tommy muttered as Hayley just stared straight ahead. She had always known that Tommy's life was dangerous, but this was something that she had never imagined would happen to him. How was Kimberly putting him in even more danger? "We're both fine, just a bit shaken up."
"Well those spikes are her powers protecting you. I don't know why it didn't come back down. I'm going to call Billy," Hayley said as Tommy continued to look over the results as they came through and he racked his mind for why Kim's powers would do this. Part of this had to be related to the destruction of his morpher, but it seemed like more of it was related to the woman he could hear moving around upstairs. She always paced while she did work calls and it comforted him to know she was still there.
"Hey Tommy- so what happened when Kim got her powers?" Billy's voice called him out of his thoughts as he looked over at the phone and let out a sigh.
"Just the norm- the powers were graphing their way into her body and I grabbed her hand so that she didn't have to go through it alone," Tommy said as he stood up from the table and the tangle of wires followed him. He was greeted with silence and he knew that this must be a novel idea for Billy to consider. "What are you thinking, Billy?"
"Get his morpher fixed and see if morphing in front of her and de-morphing fixes it," Billy said as Hayley nodded and then took the tattered morpher and began her reconstruction efforts. "Hayley- how you doing?"
"I'm here, but you really need to find someone else to be your back up," Hayley stated as Tommy took a few steps away from her before he settled back on the table. This had always been something that could happen with her, he just didn't expect it to hurt this much.
"I'll chat with Trini and see if she's up to it," Tommy said as Hayley jerked around to face him and he let out a sigh. "Being invisible does make it easy to forget I'm here."
"I don't want to be replaced, but I can't do this again," Hayley said as he gently grabbed her arm and gave it a squeeze. "Thank you."
"I'll be over there. I'll keep an eye on the output to see if anything else pops up." Tommy moved away from her and she watched as he carefully placed the wires while he started hacking away at stuff in the console. Tommy wasn't going to waste the research opportunity that this was- his scientific mind wouldn't let him waste this.
"Lunch!" Kim called as she walked into the Dino Lab, holding a platter of sandwiches and some vegetables she'd saved from going uneaten. She paused at how frigid it was and looked over from where Tommy had to be sitting to Hayley. What had happened? "Tommy. Hayley. What's going on?"
"There…morpher is done." Hayley ignored her as she snapped the final piece together and placed it in front of Tommy. Kim watched the morpher float before Tommy muttered his morphing sequence and he appeared. Well, at least his morphed form appeared. He walked over to her and she let out a sigh of relief. Even if it wasn't the full him, she was glad to see some version of him in front of her. "Finish testing Billy's theory so I can go."
Tommy demoprhed and Kim held her breath. She hoped she would be met with his back and not the control panels in the background. When he turned around to face her, she launched herself at him and he let out a sigh. This had worked. Hayley and Billy had been able to figure it out and get him back to normal.
"Hayley- thank you." Kim turned to see that Hayley had disappeared and caught a foot going up through the trapdoor and she sprinted off after her. The look Tommy gave her said to leave it alone, but she had to thank Hayley. She knew how rough this had to be and she wanted to give Hayley the benefit of the doubt that she had done this for the both of them. "Hayley!"
"Please. Just let me go," Hayley whispered as she stopped at the front door and Kim caught up with her. "I can't take you being nice to me."
"Thank you," Kim insisted as Hayley turned around to face her and Kim offered her a weak smile. "I won't hurt him again, Hayley. Not like back then."
"I know, but I can't watch this," Hayley said as Kim just nodded. Little did she know that today had cemented Hayley's plan and exactly what she was going to do to exact her revenge.