Kimberly walked into the kitchen and stopped as she saw Thomas had made a full breakfast this morning. Normally, they were rushing to get to class, but apparently this was what he went to do instead of workout this morning. His workouts looked a lot different than anyone else in the lower Academy now and she knew it was because there was a hope that the Guardians and mentors would grant him an exemption to join a team early. Everyone wanted him to have powers as soon as possible. Well, everyone except her.
"Happy birthday," Thomas said as he walked over to her and she felt a jolt of desire go through her body. She knew that he had picked up on it when he squatted down to pick her up around her thighs and she wrapped her legs around him. He nipped at her neck before she pulled his chin up to where she could lock eyes with him.
"We've both got surprises today," Kimberly whispered against his lips as she grasped his neck with one hand and moved the other hand around to hold up a pregnancy test between them. Thomas froze as he looked between the test and her and a reassuring smile spread on her face. "You're going to be a dad."
"I'm so glad I told Theo we weren't coming today," Thomas muttered as she laughed before she nestled into his chest. This was the safest place in the world for her and she hoped that he knew how she felt. "I love you."
"Love you too," Kimberly responded as he placed her on the kitchen counter. She gave him a confused look as he tugged up his t-shirt that she had slept in and then leaned down to nuzzle her flat stomach. His actions completely caught her off guard and she was surprised as she felt her eyes start to water. He whispered something to her stomach before he crawled back up her body and pulled her into a fierce hug. There was her protector. "You know…you can just have me for breakfast."
"I'm glad you read my mind," Thomas whispered as she let out a husky laugh and he smiled at it. That sound would never grow old.
"When do you want to tell them?" Thomas asked as they walked into the restaurant for her birthday dinner the following night. He had celebrated her birthday yesterday, but they had agreed it would be much easier to get a group of people together tonight versus on Valentine's day.
"I don't know. After last time…" Kimberly trailed off as she saw her parents and waved as they walked over. "Maybe after graduation."
"What after graduation?" Doug asked as he gave her a hug and then shook Thomas' hand. Thomas glanced down at Kimberly and saw the guilty look spread on her face. There was absolutely no way they were even going to make it out of tonight without her parents knowing. "Kimmie…"
"It's just stuff about how the advanced training is going to go," Kimberly lied as Doug glanced over at Thomas and he nodded. Doug didn't believe either of them, but he also could tell that it wasn't something they wanted to tell them right now. "Heather!"
Heather ran over to her and threw her arms around her. While she loved parts of being at the Academy, she desperately missed her friends. She looked up and saw several of her gymnastics teammates walk in and squealed before she ran over to them. She glanced back at Thomas for a moment and caught the smile he always wore when he did something that made her happy. She couldn't believe that he had reached out to all of her friends, especially the ones he didn't know, just so she could have everyone here she'd want.
"He's your boyfriend?" Emily asked as she looked over Kimberly's shoulder and saw a guy chatting with Kimberly's parents. Kim's smile lit up her face as she glanced back at him and Jessica shook her head. "Wow- you did good."
"You wouldn't even believe how good he is," Kimberly remarked as Trini, Zach, Jason, and Rocky filed into the restaurant and she moved past Jessica to give each of them a hug as well.
"Anyone feel like the Power Ranger Academy is just full of hot guys?" Emily remarked as she watched the boy clad in red go by and followed him as he walked over to Thomas and gave him a hug.
"Oh you have no idea," Trini whispered, conspiratorially, as Emily glanced over at her. "Trini Kwan- I can introduce you."
"Seriously?" Emily asked as Trini laughed but motioned for Jason to come over and he smiled before heading their way. "Yes please. I'm Emily."
"What are you ladies talking about?" Jason asked as the girls turned to him and he gave them an open, easy smile. Trini gave him a look and then tilted her head towards Emily. "I'm Jason Scott, I don't think I've seen you around before."
"Emily," Emily said as she held out a hand and he instead pulled her into a hug. Jason gave Trini a smile as she moved past him and headed for the table. Jason might have enough energy to flirt, she was just ready for a decent meal.
"Beautiful, c'mon, it's time for bed," Thomas said as he walked up behind Kimberly and wrapped his arms around her. She didn't respond the way she normally did and he noticed the papers littering the floor around her. He reached down and started putting them in some sort of order. She had had a few prophecies since her monster session, but this one worried him. The doctors estimated that their miscarriage was likely due to stress from her prophetess powers. He didn't know if they could emotionally survive another one.
"Not much more, I'll be to bed soon," Kimberly's voice said in a robotic fashion. She had learned how to be able to communicate with him in the middle of a prophecy, but he had learned that her 'soon' could range from fifteen minutes to twelve hours. He placed a basket next to her for her to put the papers in and then went to lay down on the couch. He hoped she would wake him up and take him to bed, but if not- he needed to be close. She could not protect herself when she was in the middle of a prophecy and that terrified him.
Thomas stretched and he realized that he had slept on the couch all night. He looked over at the desk and saw that Kimberly was still writing. He let out a sigh before he walked over to the phone and called Theo and Robert. Normally, he would just let it run its course, but knowing what he knew now- he wanted some extra support in case they needed to pull her out of this prophecy.
"Hey Dad, if you could come over, I'd really appreciate it," Thomas said as Theo answered the phone and he continued to watch Kimberly as the writing was becoming more frantic and tears were now streaming down her face. "And if you can call Uncle Robert too."
"Yeah, we'll be right over," Theo said as Thomas hung up and he walked over to her and placed his hand on her back. She shoved the piece of paper she was writing in the basket and he picked it up, curious as to what was making her this upset. He read through it and his heart dropped into his stomach. She was writing about her own death, writing about a being called Kiros, and how Power Rangers held him back from saving her. How he wasn't able to save her. He wrapped his arms around her, but stayed enough out of her way that she could keep writing. This couldn't be true, he had to have a long life with her.
"Hey, T. What's up?" Theo said as Thomas opened the door and fell into his arms. Theo caught him and gave Robert a shocked glance. Theo walked Thomas back a few steps and Robert walked into the apartment to see that Kimberly was in the middle of writing a prophecy. He began assessing her while Theo tried to figure out what was wrong with Thomas. "T…"
"Who is Kiros and how can I kill him?" Thomas asked as Theo and Robert stilled. How did Thomas know that name? "It's what she is writing about. I don't normally read it, but she was crying, panicking, and I just…how do I keep her alive?"
"Did you call us because of what you read?" Theo asked and Thomas took a few steps away from Theo and then turned to walk into their bedroom. Robert and Theo both couldn't read him right now and they really wanted to be able to.
"She just told me on her birthday," Thomas said as he tossed Theo a onesie and watched as Theo he read 'world's best papa'. Theo let out a shaky breath as he forced back tears. "We were going to tell everyone in a month or two. We stopped by Target on the way home and she saw that, both of us thought it fit you. But that, this is why I called."
"How long has she been at it?" Robert asked as Thomas glanced over at the clock and let out a sigh. "Over 12 hours?"
"Yeah. I put some food and water in front of her once I got it together and she ate a bit…I just…" Thomas let out a sigh as Robert ran his fingers through his hair and stared off into space for a moment. He then walked over to the phone and Theo pulled Thomas back into their room. Theo didn't know what Robert was going to do, but he just wanted to give Thomas some space to keep processing everything.
"Talk to me- where's your head at?" Theo asked as he took in Thomas' demeanor. Thomas had been trained to be a lethal weapon and while he had built relationships that had softened him a lot, all he saw was the weapon right now.
"I don't care if I die, Dad. I don't know if I can live without her," Thomas said and it was like the air had been sucked out of the room. How was he going to keep Thomas from trying to save her?
"You're going to have to Tommy," Kimberly said as they both whipped around to look at her and Theo quickly excused himself. This was a conversation that they needed to have in private. "This isn't the first time I've seen this."
"What do you mean?" Thomas asked as she sat down at the foot of the bed and he sat down next to her. She reached over and tried to massage the tension out of his thigh. She could tell his entire body was tense and she needed him to relax.
"Back in November…when…when everything happened, I saw it for the first time. Amelia and I suspect that I stayed in the prophecies that long because I wanted to see what other options there were. They're all written down, but every one of them ends in me dying. There's a lot that don't end in you dying- they show me that you have a long life ahead of you. You raise our son and you get remarried and you save people. You are an amazing dad and become an amazing mentor. I don't have any of that ahead of me and I don't want you to come with me. I want you to have all of that. Our son needs you in his life, Tommy, but that means you have to let me go," Kimberly said as the tears poured down her face and he stared ahead before he jerked away from her and stormed out of the room. Kimberly let out a shaky breath before she stood up and walked to the bathroom to take a shower. Thomas was mad and he had every right to be. He would come back when he was calm. Little did she know how long it would take him to truly calm down.