"Babe?" Tommy called into their loft as he heard their older children shrieking down in the dojo. He doubted that Kim had gotten up to do much more than take care of Luca and he hoped he'd have a few minutes to bring her up to speed as the last few days had been some of the roughest in their marriage. She was working through everything that had happened now and he hated that there was so little he could do to help. Any other time of year, he would have been able to stay home too, but that was not their luck. "Why don't you take a seat on the couch? Our youngest is 4 months old and I might get clocked if I wake him up."
"Sure," Jessica said as she looked over at Greyson. It had been a few years since she had seen him, but she remembered Jason well. Her mom had spent a lot of time with him over the years and she had tagged along for a number of those lunches and dinners. She hadn't known that Greyson was his son then, but she could see it now. She wondered if her mom had known who Greyson was to Jason. "How'd you get pulled into this?"
"Said I would come when Kim and Tommy showed up at Mom's this last spring," Greyson said as Jessica gave him a confused look. She'd never seen Tommy at her house. Her parents didn't talk about it, but there was some sort of history between her mother and Tommy. She had felt the tension in the room any time that he came up and had watched the topic quickly change time and time again. Tommy had always been kind to her family, so it just didn't quite make sense to her that her dad hated him so much. "They didn't come ask your Dad?"
"I don't know. He asked me about this and I said I wanted to come. It seems really cool, plus Tommy," Jessica said, shamelessly, as Greyson laughed. He had seen how Tommy was with Kimberly and it made perfect sense that Tommy walked around oblivious to how women reacted to him. He was also sure that Kimberly had a lot more spunk to her than what her day time television spots had shown.
"Jessica? Greyson?" Kim asked as she walked in, in a pair of Tommy's old sweat pants and a long sleeve striped nursing shirt, cradling Luca close to her chest. He had been extra clingy today, but it was something that she didn't mind. She needed time to just be a mom with a new baby and she hadn't had a lot of time to do that over the last few weeks. Jessica stared at her and she thought that she must recognize her from the years on a national morning show. It made sense that even if they'd never heard about her, that they would still know who she was. "Hi- Tommy said that both of you had some questions."
"You're the woman…" Jessica trailed off as Tommy walked back in, having also changed into a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. Most of the cadets never saw this side of him, only the rangers were lucky enough to see Tommy well and truly dressed down. "You married her?!"
"You say that like you know about…" Tommy stopped as he let out a sigh. There was always a risk that Jessica would know things about his past that other ranger children had no idea about. He had just thought that Michael would have explained who he was married to before she came here. Apparently, that was too much of a hope that Michael would make any of this easy on them. Michael had agreed to letting her come here and had also told Jessica enough to make this hard on Kimberly. "What did they tell you?"
"That some woman broke your heart and then you broke every woman's heart you dated after that. That's why Mom…" Jessica froze as she saw the pain pass between the two of them. Kim then nodded towards the hallway and Tommy silently agreed to something. As Kim turned to go, Jessica frantically jumped over the couch and grabbed her arm. She may have hurt Tommy in the past, but she was also a pink ranger. She guessed that was what her mom was and she wanted to know more. She needed to know more about her mother. "I…I'm sorry, stay. Please."
"They weren't wrong, Jessica, but I can't deal with this right now," Kim said as Tommy placed an arm around her and Jessica took a step back. It hit her that being a Power Ranger was not necessarily going to be as fun as she thought it was going to be, that there were dark things in their past and in her future. Kim and Tommy locked eyes and Jessica watched the world fade away from them as they focused solely on each other. "I can't. Not after…"
"I know. Have you eaten today?" Tommy asked and Kim gave him a confused look before she shook her head. She had napped off and on all day between Luca's feedings and diaper changes. She had managed to take a bath, but that was about it. She had sunk into the pain that she felt so thoroughly that it had been hard to take care of herself today. "Take a seat, you need something- for the both of you. Then we can decide if you're up for talking about this once you've got some food in you."
"So- we know who Tommy is. Who are you?" Greyson asked as Tommy gave him a look that clearly said he needed to read the damn room before asking something like that. Kimberly was barely holding onto her sanity right now and he was regretting bringing the ranger children up here right now. "I met you that day, but I never met you when I was with my dad. Even if Tommy didn't know who I was to my dad- I met him before Dad...Dad made sure I met the important people in his life."
"You'll learn about a lot of this in your lessons, but…" Kim started as Luca let up a cry and she started rocking back and forth, patting his back. Her train of thought completely derailed as she turned her focus to her youngest child. While it had been hard to have two babies at once, the twins had been easier in this phase of their life. "Oh buddy, does your tummy hurt?"
"Has he cried a lot today?" Tommy asked as Kim just nodded and he looked at what was in front of him and let out a sigh. "No dairy?"
"It's what the doctor said to start with so…yeah…which means basically none of that," Kim muttered as Tommy just nodded and then went back to the fridge to pull out other food options, scanning the backs of labels and shaking his head. Dairy was hidden in so many foods, but they'd do anything to help Luca with his tummy troubles. Kimberly wrenched herself back to the rangers as she continued trying to calm Luca. "I was the first pink ranger. Your dad and I were…we were on the first team. I was on two teams until I moved to Miami and your mom replaced me."
"Mom told me about you…in a way…" Jessica said as Luca continued to cry and Kim started pacing around the living room. Every day it got worse at this time with Luca and every day she and Tommy switched who was pacing with him. "She always said…"
"Jessica- you don't have to," Greyson spoke up as she shook her head. It was important to her that she explained why she had had the reaction she had to Kimberly. Especially with what she saw between Kimberly and Tommy now.
"But I do. Mom always said that Tommy would never be happy again without you. Even with everything you did to him," Jessica said as Kim and Tommy froze and Luca's cries turned to screams before Kim started moving again. "How…how did they…"
"Oh God- how do we do this?" Kim asked as tears streamed down her face and Tommy completely abandoned making food as he saw the realization that he had months ago hit her. Pregnancy brain had saved her from realizing what was going to happen. But it was only a matter of time before they were going to have to tell all of the ranger children what had happened to their parents. While there were not that many, there were enough. There were enough that these conversations would never become less painful.
"Daddy!" Kira yelled as the front door opened and she sprinted towards him.
"We need five minutes- just us," Tommy whispered to her and she just shook her head. "Five minutes may be all that we can get right now."
"What's burning?" Gayle asked as she rushed over to the stove and looked at everyone in the loft. A screaming baby, two crying women, Tommy holding random foods in his hands, while giving Kim a hug and Kira pulling on Tommy's shirt to be picked up. It was chaos. "Dear goodness."
"Can you make something with no dairy?" Tommy tossed over his shoulder and hoped that his mom would find something. He was concerned about Luca, but he was terrified that Kimberly hadn't eaten today. His first priority was to just get some food into her stomach and hope that that would settle her. "Please."
"Yeah…ummm…" Gayle muttered as she stared at them in shock and tried to figure out what to do next.
"Kira, Jay, why don't we go take a bath? We brought a couple new toys," Russell said as Tommy gave him a grateful look as he took Luca out of Kim's arms and started trying to comfort him.
"Baby, sit down. Get some food. We'll explain this later," Tommy forced out as he guided her to one of the chairs and walked over to Jessica and Greyson. "If you'll let us get all of this settled, we'll explain. Unfortunately, it's near bedtime for them, this little guy has colic, and she needs to eat, so it may be a little bit."
"We can wait," Greyson said as he looked over at Jessica and saw the agreement on her face. Their parents didn't know the full story, they just knew that it was bad and that Tommy knew what happened to them. If they wanted answers, Tommy and Kimberly were their best bets.
"Thanks," Tommy muttered as he went back to his youngest, placing him on the floor and trying to work out any gas that might be in his belly. He continued screaming and Tommy looked back at Kim to see her pressing her hands over her ears. He knew that she would feel better once Luca's cries settled and he got some food in her. He just hoped they could work fast.
"Is it always like this?" Jessica asked an hour or so later as Tommy returned to the living room, sporting a fresh shirt and another pair of sweatpants. Luca had spit up all over him and Kimberly over the last hour.
"We're still adjusting. So yeah, this is what it is like right now. Tonight might have been a bit worse than normal," Tommy said as he heard Kim coming back down the hallway and he met her gaze as she walked around the room to him. "Beautiful, go rest. I've got it- I can handle this on my own."
"Your mom said she'll take him tonight and only get me when he wakes up to eat. And that's only if he won't take a bottle. I need to be here," Kim said as she squeezed his leg and sank down next to him. She relaxed into his side and he felt the stress leaving her as this responsibility was taken away. "You shouldn't have to tell this alone."
"Kim," Tommy pleaded and she just shook her head as she steeled herself and looked at the two children that looked so much like their parents. She owed it to their friends to be there for Tommy, especially when she had been there to stop this before it got this bad. "Fine. Rangers started dying and I did all I could to save them…"
Three hours passed as Tommy and Kimberly explained everything that had happened, leaving out the goriest details, but providing them with the answer they had long wanted. The two teens sat in silence as they stared at the two of them. They had imagined a lot of things had killed their parents, but this was not it. They had known that it wasn't a typical death, but their parents had shield them. And they finally understood why their living parents were so hesitant with them becoming rangers. Being a ranger is what had gotten their parents killed.
"Will we…does that…" Greyson tried to find words to describe all of the thoughts that were running through his mind.
"Atlantis was…misguided and hurt and had experienced all kinds of loss that we couldn't understand. We work closely with the Guardians now and it shouldn't happen again, but I know that's hollow. We didn't know they existed until Atlantis came after all of us and we only figure it out when we were the only ones left," Kim said as she heard a cry and let out a sigh. "That's probably me. He definitely needs to eat again."
"Why didn't you make Mom go to the Command Center too? Why did you…" Jessica asked and Tommy nodded for Kim to go on. It was something that he had re-lived over and over as he tried to understand why he didn't put all of them under house arrest at the Command Center, but it wasn't a simple, binary answer. "Tommy- why?"
"I miss them every day and I regret that I wasn't able to save them too, but I couldn't force them to go into hiding at the Command Center. I tried- when I realized the pattern- I begged all of them to go there and let me figure it out, let us figure it out together. The only reason Kim dropped everything and went was because I had left her alone since she broke up with me and she knew. She knew that I would only contact her if things legitimately threatened her life. I wish I could have gotten everyone else…" Tommy trailed off as he looked between the two of them and he put his head in his hands. "I tried, Jessica, but I didn't succeed. And it haunts me every day."
AN: Anyone interested in a pre-quel to this series where we get to see into the mind of Atlantis and everything that happened to create this world? It's been floating around as an idea for a bit, but I want to gauge interest on it. Let me know what you think about a pre-quel in the comments!