"The amnesia appears trauma induced, but I am only saying that because I have no other explanation for what could have caused it. I'm going to do some more research to see if there are cases similar to this one that may help us understand how to best treat her. I am surprised with how much she is missing and at the timing of the onset, but she remembers nothing that you gave me information about," Elizabeth said as Tommy nodded as they stood in the hallway. Elizabeth had spent the last two hours evaluating Kimberly, but it was more a formality at this point and they all knew it. Tommy had gently pressed at some things over the last few days and none of it had brought up any recognition in Kimberly and if anyone was going to break through it was going to be him. "I will say, she was more comfortable with you there than with you gone- so that's a good sign. Her feeling safe is the first priority if we're going to help her recover these memories."
"And her physical recovery?" Tommy asked as he looked over at Billy and he nodded that things were going well. Her pain was being managed well and there was no unexpected swelling that they could detect. Except for the amnesia, there was no reason to keep her in the hospital for longer than they originally planned. "So I should be able to take her home tomorrow?"
"I think it might be beneficial for you to run her through some of the basics about your kids and your home, so that it's not so overwhelming when you get home. Also, if you haven't noticed, she is having a hard time with physical touch- from anyone- not just you," Elizabeth said and Tommy just nodded. Over the last two days, he had gone through their phones and sorted pictures and videos together so that she could have some idea of how their relationship had progressed. "Have you told your children yet?"
"I haven't been home," Tommy said as Elizabeth looked between the two of them. Billy understood why Tommy hadn't gone home, but he knew that it had to look odd to Elizabeth. "There's a lot more to the story than this just being a craniotomy, she's safest if I'm here."
"Well, my only other suggestion is that you tell them before you bring her home so that they are prepared too. It's going to be a lot of balancing for all of you," Elizabeth said and Tommy nodded. "The fact that you love her, so completely, it gives you the best chance at being patient and you're going to need patience."
"Can I…" Tommy motioned to the room behind him and both of the doctors nodded. He steeled himself for her wariness and then opened the door.
"So, it's confirmed?" Kim asked and Tommy nodded as he sat down next to the hospital bed and leaned against the railing. He clasped his hands together instead of reaching for her and she watched him carefully. "Tommy, I'm sorry."
"Bab…Kim, it's not your fault. None of this is your fault," Tommy whispered as he looked at his hands and avoided her gaze. He wanted to touch her, to hold her and have her hold him back. He desperately needed his wife and he had no idea how to truly get her back. Usually they would tackle problems together, but he did not see how they could be together on this. "Do you want to see pictures of us…of our family?"
"You have pictures? With you?" Kim asked and he just nodded his head as he opened up his pictures and handed his phone to her. "How do I…"
"Swipe right to go back and left to go forward," Tommy explained and she gave him a confused look before he demonstrated. "If you'd rather, I can work the phone."
"I…" Kim trailed off as he placed the phone in her lap and she stared at him. She wasn't sure how he was doing this, she could see how much pain he was in and how much he just wanted to hold her. How much he wanted to make this go away, but they both knew he couldn't and she only knew Tommy as the boy she had broken, not the man that loved her this much. "I want to remember, Tommy. I want you to be able to hold me and me not be conflicted between what I'm seeing and what I know. I want…I just want…"
"Hey, this is on your time. Do not worry about me being uncomfortable or what I'm having to do right now. This is what you need, okay?" Tommy asked and she nodded as the tears spilt over. He reached for the kleenex and put the box in front of her and she took several. "I'm going to be fine, because either you'll remember over time or we'll make new memories and I want to make memories with you for the rest of my life."
"Really?" Kim asked in a small voice and he felt his heart break again. She was only weeks after she broke up with him to keep their baby safe and he was 18 years in the future. He could only imagine that she was in a place where she thought he could never possibly forgive her for what she had done.
"Yeah, Kim. You're it for me. Always have been," Tommy reassured and she turned the phone over in her lap and tapped on it as she tried to get it to work. Everything was so foreign to her now and she knew that this must be stuff she knew how to do now. "I'll show you. My pass code is 112010. You type it in and then you can go to the multi-color flower looking thing and that's my photos."
"Why 112010?" Kim asked as he locked the phone and she repeated the steps he had shown her. She looked up at him and he offered her a sad smile.
"It's our anniversary. Well at least our marriage anniversary," Tommy said as she paused and he let out a sigh. He never thought that he would have to explain this part of their relationship to her and now he knew exactly how this was going to look. "We had been engaged since 2005, but every time we tried to plan a wedding something came up. We finally just got married in our backyard with our closest friends and family. We found out you were pregnant with Opal a week later."
"We have a little girl?" Kim whispered and he motioned to his phone and she passed it over. He scrolled through until he got to pictures of Opal. "Would you…would you mind sitting up here with me so that…so that…"
"I don't mind." Tommy lowered the railing and she scooted over to the far side. Tommy hopped into the bed, leaving some room between them as he settled next to her. He saw her shiver and grabbed the blanket from the end of the bed, tucking it securely around her. "Do you want me to start with Opal? Or from the beginning?"
"The beginning," Kim said as she leaned against him and he forced his face to stay neutral. Everything had to be at her pace, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to celebrate every small victory.
"We reconnected in 2004, right before Ollie turned eight," Tommy said and he watched the wheels turning in her mind. "Jason may have tricked you, us, into that first meeting."
"You never came after me?" Kim asked and Tommy let out a sigh. It was one of his biggest regrets that he didn't go after her, but he hadn't been able to see past his own pain. He hadn't been able to think that she might be lying to him. "I thought with us being married that…"
"I should have come after you, but between ranger duties and you telling me to stay out of your life, I decided that I would respect what you wanted out of me. If it makes you feel any better, I ruined every relationship I was in after you. I finally realized in grad school that no one else was going to be you and I stopped looking," Tommy explained and she stared at him. He had resigned himself to being single when he thought he had lost her? She had thought that Tommy would be able to move on, there were more than enough women that wanted him, but apparently that hadn't mattered. He didn't want them in the way that he wanted her. "Mom sent me some of the pictures you have of baby Ollie."
"I named him Ollie Oliver?" Kim asked and Tommy shook his head. "What did I name him?"
"Thomas Oliver Hart," Tommy said and she gave him a confused look. "By the time I met him, the nickname Ollie was firmly there. We changed his name to Thomas Oliver in 2005. When we asked him if he wanted a new middle name he said no, but he's Ollie to everyone. Only a handful of people have ever called him Thomas and it normally ends with him politely saying he prefers Ollie."
"He looks…he looks so much like you," Kim whispered as she reached out and started scrolling through the pictures. She paused as she got to one of the three of them, Tommy looked more like he did now, except for the hair. "You had short hair?"
"I went through a phase. I grew it back out the first time to donate it and then you said how much you missed it and well…it's been this length ever since. You've helped a lot with figuring out the curls. And it's a good thing too- Opal's hair is even curlier than mine," Tommy said as she reached up and ran her fingers over the part he had shaved just a few weeks ago. "I shaved it because I didn't want you to be alone."
"That's what's under the gauze?" Kim continued exploring the changes in his hair and face. She wasn't sure why she felt so comfortable with him at this moment, but every time she touched him, she felt the familiar spark that she only knew with Tommy. She felt him nod as he closed his eyes as she raked her fingers through his beard, relaxing into her touch.
"We moved into the house we're in now in 2005," Tommy forced out as he gently grabbed her hand and guided it back to his phone and he watched as her face softened as she looked at a photo from their first day in the house. His mom had insisted that they take a family picture together and he was so glad that they had things like this now. "We told Ollie that day that he was going to be a big brother, you were about 16 weeks along with Landon then."
"Are all of our kids dark haired?" Kim asked and he shook his head no. "Huh."
"Apparently we both had blonde and red buried in our genes somewhere. Landon has sandy blonde hair and Opal is a little strawberry blonde," Tommy said and he could tell that she was concerned. "With me being adopted, we have no idea what either of my parents look like, plus your mom has lighter hair. My mom just says that she acts exactly like I did at that age."
"Scared of nothing?" Kim asked and he gave her a look. "So we have one no limit warrior."
"We actually have two. Sean is…I'm just glad that they're not super close in age or we would have lost our minds. Hell, there's some days when we do lose our minds," Tommy remarked and Kim smiled as she watched him describe their children. She had known he would love their babies, if she ever had babies with him. But seeing this, seeing how much he loved them hit her right in her heart. How had she let this man go and stayed away from him for so long? "You okay?"
"Yeah, I…do I ever tell you how lucky they are to have you as their dad?" Kim asked and he blushed as he gave a non-committal nod. "Well- I think I need to say that more."
"Here's Landon," Tommy forced out as he fought past the lump in his throat and focused her on a photo of the three of them shortly after Landon had been born. He was all newborn baby squidge, but he had always focused on the look between the two of them in that picture. He had held it together until he saw him, but a kind of love had flooded him that he had never known. It was something reflected in both of their eyes and he was so glad someone had caught it. "He was born on December 19, 2005. You were in labor for about five hours and he was the least dramatic of our babies."
"What…what does that mean?" Kim asked and he chuckled. "Tommy!"
"You had to have an emergency c-section with Sean because he was transverse- we tried everything out there to get him head down, but he kept flipping around. You went into labor and there was no more trying to get him in the right position anymore. We wound up having Opal at home because of how quick your labor went," Tommy explained and she just shook her head. She could not believe that she had had a baby at home. "I tried to get you to the hospital, but you were already pushing and I made a split second decision to not try to move you. I was terrified of you having a baby in the car and me not being able to help and that would have happened with Opal if we had tried to drive."
"They're so tiny," Kim muttered as she placed his arm around her and she then started scrolling through the pictures again. She came to another picture where Tommy was in hospital scrubs, holding a screaming baby in his arms next to her head. "Sean is our third child?"
"Yeah."
"Is there a reason we didn't stop at three?" Kim asked and he gave her a look. She might not know him well now, but she knew what that look meant. "I really wanted a girl."
"Yeah and I can't say no to you. Plus, we were still young enough that it wasn't high risk for you, so we tried and we got pregnant. She was the only one that we actually tried for," Tommy explained as she kept looking through the pictures, pausing on some that had always been his favorite. She got to more recent pictures and she stopped at one of the six of them. Opal was swinging from their hands screaming with glee while the boys ran around and ahead of them. "I like that one too. It was hell to get all the kids to cooperate, but it's our bunch."
"Are they really this happy?" Kim asked and he gave her a long look. There was something in her eyes that said she wasn't sure that happiness was in the cards for them and he understood that. The fear of beings coming after their children must be at the forefront of her mind.
"Most of the time- yeah, sometimes they really dislike when we have to discipline them about something, but I think we're doing a pretty good job most days. Things have changed a lot in eighteen years though. Ollie is the only one that was ever around me, us with powers. I've been called in a handful of times since Landon came along, you've been called in less. I might have been captured once or twice and well…" Tommy trailed off as she stared at him. "Too much?"
"You were able to walk away? Really?" Kim asked and he just nodded. To his surprise, she threw her arms around him and held him tight. "I wrote…I did that because I never thought you'd be able to really walk away."
"I know, you've told me all the reasons behind that letter over the years," Tommy said as he gently held her to him and he heard her breathing slowing, fading off to sleep. He leaned back to check that she was actually passed out and carefully shifted to where he could sleep as well. He knew Billy would get mad at him, but he was going to take the peace that he felt right now and love his wife exactly where she met him.
Amber walked out of Kimberly's hospital room, after checking on her 'pain' medication and adjusting the bag. She had met Hayley Ziktor seven years ago, after she had disappeared from the world. Hayley had told her the story of how Tommy Oliver betrayed her and went back to the one woman that had hurt him so thoroughly. And she knew, she knew then that they would work together forever. That she would do anything for Hayley, because Tommy Oliver had hurt her too. Tommy Oliver had not saved her family.
She had searched for years for the Power Ranger that had let her family fall to their death. The Power Ranger that had had to chose between her family and the city and he chose the city. It had taken years to discover who he was and even longer to figure out where he was. She had gone to the dark web to get information and Hayley had come to her. Hayley had come to her with the perfect plan. And the fact that they had been able to do this right under Tommy's nose was the best revenge of all.
