Kim placed the final touches photo on the wall as she looked around the apartment. Her condo was up for sale in Miami, but that was going to take some time and Tommy's house wasn't a move in option just yet. Even though her condo was in a great location, she was just not sure where she wanted to live out here when she did have some money for a down payment on a place. Tommy had helped her find this apartment and had happened to have an opening as general manager for his dojo. Neither of them was particularly happy that he was now her boss, but there weren't many other options for her experience. The biggest issue with him being her boss, was that it put a hard stop on any chance of them dating for the time being. His own rules were hurting him now.
"He's still mad?" Trini asked as she continued breaking down boxes and Kim let out a sigh. Ollie had been positively frigid towards her since she'd told him that Tommy was his father. Tommy was handling this much better than Ollie, but she saw that his walls were back up. That hurt her more. Was this really worth it if they had to be so far from each other?
"He'll get over it," Kim said and Trini gave her a skeptical look, but nodded. Everything she had seen said that he wouldn't do that anytime soon, even if Tommy helped her out as much as he could when he had Ollie. "Plus he's splitting time with me and Tommy now."
"Separately," Jason pointed out and Kim glared at him. She didn't need another person giving her a guilt trip. She was doing her best to maintain some level professionalism with Tommy and it was taking everything in her to do that each day. She had seen that Tommy was teetering on that edge as well and she wasn't going to purposefully pull him over it. "Am I the only one who saw how the two of you acted that first week and a half when you had to stay together? Because I know you were super close to just jumping each other."
"We kept getting interrupted and then…with the job. He has a strict policy about people that are higher up in the dojo not dating other people at the dojo. He's not going to break it for himself," Kim said as her frustration bubbled up and Trini and Jason exchanged a glance. This was the first time that they had heard her express frustration about Tommy's dojo rules. Tommy had had a breakdown at their house when he tried to think of some way to change the rules, but they all knew why that rule was in place and he agreed that he couldn't move it. It was just going to slowly drive them insane.
"Have either of you bothered to explain that to your son? He's dreamt of having a normal family for years and now he thinks that can happen and he doesn't understand why it isn't happening. He's going to just keep drifting further away from you, because you are easier to blame," Jason pointed out and Kimberly grabbed a remote and aimed it at him. Jason ducked back further into the apartment and she let out a groan. Her temper had definitely got the best of her more and more often since taking the gem and uprooting their lives.
"You agree with him." Trini held up her hands as she took a step back. She didn't want to get in Kim's line of fire either.
"I think that this doesn't make sense. You jerked both of them around a lot over the last month, but I see how you look at Tommy. You're fooling yourself if you think this will work for the two of you. You're going to have to figure out how to date him again or at least how to have sex with him again." Trini dodged out of the room and Kim stood there, dumbfounded. It was one thing for the boys to be mad- it was another thing for Trini to call her out on exactly how bad of an idea this was.
"Tommy?" Ollie asked as Tommy cleaned up his kitchen while Ollie worked on his homework. Kim had asked for a few extra nights alone to get the apartment together and while he loved the time with Ollie- he was struggling. It was a huge adjustment to go from being single to co-parenting an almost eight year old with his ex-girlfriend in a matter of a month and a half. "I'm not getting this math."
"Give me five and I'll take a look." Ollie went back to his worksheet and Tommy continued with his chores. The only good thing from the last month was that Zeltrax and Mesogog had been quiet. It was reaching the point that he was concerned, but he didn't mention that to any of the rangers. He could tell that Kimberly was concerned about it as well, but she was following his lead when it came to what she said to the others. They both knew that lulls rarely meant that the evil was resting- it usually meant they were planning. "Okay- what do you have?"
"This isn't how we did math before," Ollie said as he slid the worksheet over to Tommy and he pushed on his glasses. He read the instructions and then looked at an example. He had a PhD in Paleontology and had done more than his fair share of math to get it, but this made no sense to him. "You don't understand it either."
"Not even close. Let me call your teacher and see if she can point me towards some materials that'll explain it," Tommy said as he grabbed his cell phone and walked out of the room. Ollie moved on to his next bit of homework as he heard his father chatting with the teacher. He had thought he'd get more time with both of his parents, but for some reason his mom seemed to insist that they not spend time together. Maybe he could change that, but that would mean talking to his mom again. He was still mad at her. "Okay, she said that this is for order of operation practice. Did you learn about PEMDAS?"
"Oh yeah- that," Ollie said as he grabbed the worksheet and started quickly going through it. Tommy kept an eye on him as he did the first couple of problems and then grabbed some of the papers he needed to grade. They both worked through their papers in silence and Tommy looked up to see that it was nearly 9pm. Normally Kim would call at around 8:30 to see how things were going and to say goodnight, but it had also been a hectic week. All of their things had arrived from Florida and she had been working to get their home to look like a home.
An alarm sounded as Tommy went to grab his cell phone and he felt himself being teleported out and he hoped that the Dino Lab had the good sense to teleport Ollie into his basement for safety. He landed in a parking lot and saw that the teen rangers were in combat already. He glanced around as a pink streak landed next to him and saw Kim land in only a bath towel.
"Where am I…" Kim trailed off as he gave her a look and she let out a groan. Seeing Tommy in front of her let her know exactly where she was and what she must have been brought in to. "My morpher is in my pants."
"Oh for pete's sake," Tommy quickly stripped off his shirt and passed it to her before he glanced down at his pajama bottoms and shook his head. He hadn't thrown on boxers tonight, but he mentally made a note that he needed to do that in the future. "Stick with me."
"Absolutely," Kim said as she tied the towel further down her waist and then jogged off with him. They dove into the tryannadrones and began fighting, giving the other rangers space to take on the monster. Tommy then pushed her to the ground and she locked eyes with him for a moment before she watched him take a blow meant for her. "Morph."
"Ooooh…Dr. Oliver does care about someone," Zeltrax said as he sauntered into the group and Kim gave Tommy a confused look as he pushed himself to his feet and she saw the gash in his back. He morphed as she pushed herself to her feet and he put a hand behind him to make sure she was still nearby. "Who is she, Tommy?"
"None of your business," Tommy ground out as the pain was dimmed while morphed, but it was still more than he was used to. Kim's hand stayed firmly on his back and he summoned his staff. He wanted Zeltrax to back down- now- and he was willing to do a show of force to get his way.
"So that's Kimberly," Zeltrax said as he tried to step around Tommy and Kim moved in tandem with him. The rangers had their hands full, but now the two of them were locked in with Zeltrax and couldn't go help them. "She's such a delicate flower that she can't take care of herself."
Kim felt Tommy's shoulder twitch and she tapped the arm that was holding his staff. He was too injured to do damage with it, but she was perfectly fine. He turned his head ever so slightly to the side and then gave her a subtle nod. He went into a stance to engage Zeltrax and then tossed the staff in the air as Kim vaulted over him and went straight for Zeltrax. Tommy kept an eye on any tryannadrones that might be headed their way and otherwise tried to keep himself still. He could feel the blood seeping down his back and knew this was not an injury he'd recover from easily. He was already starting to feel light headed, but was determined to stay on his feet until Zeltrax was neutralized.
"Stay with me Tommy," Kim called over her shoulder as she had seen him stumble and knew that he was going to go down soon. She put all of her body weight behind the strike as she slammed Zeltrax into a building and ground the staff into him. Zeltrax sent her flying and she managed to flip onto her feet before Zeltrax disappeared. She looked around to see that the rangers had defeated the monster and that Tommy was barely holding himself up. She ditched the staff as she sprinted over to him and caught him against her as his knees finally buckled. "Hey…I got you. You're okay."
"Hayley! Teleport us out!" Conner barked into his communicator as Kim secured Tommy as he put more weight on her. They landed in the Command Center and she held Tommy in her arms before he de-morphed in them. She felt the blood immediately coat her hands and looked up to see Ollie standing there- watching the entire scene unfold.
"Kira, Trent, get him out of here," Kim said as she lowered Tommy to his knees and cupped his face. She patted his cheeks, trying to get him to come around- it had been a long time since she had seen him this hurt. "Hey, c'mon Tommy, wake up."
"Kim…" Hayley started as Kim glared at her and she then held up bandages. "We should get these on."
"Ethan- go check his suit- tell me how much blood there is," Kim forced out as she kept slapping Tommy's cheeks and he didn't come around. She realized that Hayley was going to work, but that wasn't her biggest concern. Her biggest concern was if he needed to go to the hospital. "Tommy…Tommy!"
"Uh…Kim…" Ethan held up the suit and she saw how shiny the back was. It had completely soaked through. How had Tommy stayed conscious that long?
"Shit," Hayley whispered as she kept tending the wounds, but more and more blood poured out of them. "This is beyond my pay grade."
"Then get Billy here," Kim said as she wrapped her arms around Tommy again and she felt how limp he was in her arms. "Go Hayley."
Kim started softly singing to try to keep herself calm as her worry climbed. Tommy had been hurt plenty of times before, but she had never seen him bleed this much. She had also never seen him lose consciousness and not come back when she had shaken him as roughly as she had.
"You have to be okay," Kim whispered as she felt someone move her hands and she let out a growl before she realized it was Billy. She locked eyes with him for a moment before he placed her hands under Tommy's armpits and she just supported him. She kept singing because it was the one thing she could do to stay even remotely sane.
"He's stable Kim, it's the pain that's knocked him out," Billy said as she felt the relief wash over her and she was able to concentrate on keeping Tommy steady. "Why didn't he have a shirt?"
"I was teleported in, in a bath towel with no morpher. So he gave me his shirt so I had something," Kim said as Billy glanced back at Hayley who gave him an innocent smile and he shook his head. Kim may not have known that Tommy had dated Hayley, briefly, but Hayley certainly knew exactly who Kimberly was. Tommy was going to have to say something when he woke up, because this had put both of them in danger. Tommy let out a groan and she leaned back to see his eyes blinking open. "Can you stay still for me?"
"Why are you so bloody?" Tommy muttered as Kim forced a smile as tears slipped out of her eyes. He was still too hazy to see her properly and she was glad for that. She didn't need him worried about comforting her when he was in this much pain and he would worry about that if he could see her, see her. "Kim…"
"I'm fine, it's your blood. You went and got yourself a really good cut," Kim joked as he just nodded and then sank back into her arms. She felt Billy continue to work and began humming as she felt Tommy relax with it.
"Hey Tommy- you're patched up. Think you can get back on your feet?" Billy asked as Kim looked at him and shook her head no. There was no way Tommy could stand on his own right now, he had too much weight on her and he was just kneeling. "Conner, Ethan- a hand?"
They walked over and each took one of Tommy's arms and helped him get to his feet as Kim supported him from the front. She took a step back from him and she knew he was taking her in. She had no idea how much blood was on her and she wiped her forehead, just spreading more on herself. She tugged the oversized shirt down and he closed his eyes for a moment.
"Can we not freak Ollie out anymore and get him some clean pajamas?" Kim suggested as they walked Tommy over to a chair that they spun around and he settled in it. All of them paused and she gave them a confused look. "What?"
"You should probably shower down here. We'll get you some…thing…" Conner trailed off as Kim looked down at her arms and saw how much blood was on her body now. "Do you have any clothes here?"
"Just grab two pairs of my pajamas," Tommy said as he glanced over at Kim and let out a shaky breath. "Go shower- I'll get Hayley to drop the pajamas off back there."
"You're sure?" Kim asked and Tommy nodded. She leaned down and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and he could feel the worry boiling over in her. He wanted her out of the room before he talked with anyone else. He could only guess who teleported them in and who decided it wasn't worth telling Kim to get her morpher and throw on clothes. She slipped off and he watched as her feet tracked more blood through the Dino Lab, they'd clean that up later. He then spun the chair around to face Hayley and her face fell.
"You ever teleport her in without her morpher again and I'll tell her you did it on purpose," Tommy stated as Hayley gulped and then nodded. She had seen enough of how Kimberly fought to know that she wouldn't stand a chance if she ever decided to take her on. She knew that Power Rangers didn't go looking for fights, but they also didn't ignore ones right in front of them. "What were you thinking?"
"She wasn't," Billy said as he settled between the two of them. He knew that Tommy was livid, even if he was holding it together really well. It probably helped that Tommy couldn't really move at the moment without reopening the wound on his back. "Kim doesn't know, does she?"
"Know what?" Tommy asked as Hayley and Billy stared at him. "That we dated? No. Why does that matter? We didn't date that long…oh…it's not Kim that it matters to."
"She could just not flaunt it around me, that would be nice," Hayley said as Tommy gave her a look and shook his head. "What do you mean 'no'?"
"We're not dating. We won't until I can figure out some way around it with her being the general manager at the dojo. You could have just asked if we were together instead of doing something so reckless- we're lucky I just have a bad wound in my back," Tommy said as Hayley laughed at him.
"Do you really believe the shit you just said? It doesn't matter that you can't technically date- I doubt either of you is going to go out with anyone else," Hayley said as Tommy took in a deep breath. She was hurt and he didn't blame her. Everyone that he had dated after her, he had taken care to not bring around her. Kimberly was different. Now that he knew about Ollie and she was a ranger- she was going to be around.
"Pajamas," Kira said as she held them up and Billy saw the terrified look on her face. She had heard more than they wanted her to hear. "Do you want me to keep Kim out?"
"No."
"Yes."
"No, when she gets done let her come in. I'm going to need a hand and none of you are helping me," Tommy stated as they all looked at him and he heard the silence. "She's freaked out and it'll give us five minutes to talk it out before we go up and try to get Ollie settled down. Kira- if you can drop off a pair of those in the showers and then you guys can go ahead and get out of here."
"Sure thing, Dr. O," Kira said as Billy followed her back upstairs to sit with Ollie. He knew that Tommy was not done with Hayley just yet.
"Hayley," Tommy said and she looked down at the ground. "Why didn't you say something before?"
"Because she's Kimberly and this is how you have always been about her," Hayley said as Tommy gave her a look. "I didn't realize what teleporting her in without a morpher would mean. I just thought that it would be…"
"Funny? Embarrassing? I can't fight if I'm worrying about her and you left me no choice but to worry about her. This won't be the last injury either of us gets if you don't get your head out of your ass on this," Tommy growled as Hayley just nodded. "So no more. You don't have to like her, but you're not going to put her in danger."
"I've got it, Tommy," Hayley said as she turned around and walked out of the Command Center, heading for the cave entrance. He glanced into the blank screens and saw Kim's bloody handprints on his cheeks. He must have been solidly passed out for that much blood to transfer.
"Hey," Kim whispered as she walked over to him and he mentally kicked himself for telling them to grab her a pair of his pajamas. They were huge on her and it reminded him too much of the times she had thrown on something similar when they were teenagers. He was going to have to ask her to keep some clothes here from now on. "Let me get those off."
Tommy closed his eyes as she wiped off his face and he could tell how she was barely holding it together. When he opened his eyes she gave him a shaky smile and he nodded. He stood up and she stepped into his arms as the sobs finally came.
"I'm okay. This will heal in a few days," Tommy whispered as she nodded against his chest, but he knew that it would take more than that to really settle her. "You want to stay tonight?"
"Please," Kim whispered as he squeezed her a bit and then took a step back.
"I'm going to need a hand with changing," Tommy said as she shook her head. "What?"
"You didn't throw on anything else, did you?" Kim asked with a laugh as Tommy shook his head no. "That's why you wouldn't let anyone else help you?"
"That and I know you'll be the gentlest," Tommy said as he reached for the waistband of his pants and realized he would have to lean too far forward to even help her with this. "I'm sorry."
"It's not the first time and it won't be the last," Kim joked as she went about helping him, forcing herself to ignore how his body looked. Even battered and bruised, she was still attracted to him. She averted her eyes and kept her focus, but she could tell that Tommy was struggling. She had a feeling that it had been a long time since anyone had touched him that he cared about this way. "Do you even want the shirt?"
"Just while we talk with Ollie," Tommy said as she managed to get the shirt on him and he put his arms around her. "You did great tonight."
"Thanks," Kim whispered and he slowly let her go. This was going to be torture to not be able to hold and comfort her the way he knew she needed from him. This injury was also getting to him as well, but he could only admit that to her. "Okay. We can do this."
"We can do this."