Always a Ranger - Part 33
Pink is in Again
By Jeannine Trevizo
Kimberly Hart
walked off the International flight from Athens and hefted her carry on over her
shoulder. With a slight sigh, she shivered and smiled.
She was in
Reefside. For good this time.
Everything
had gone well. The team had placed second in the overall, after the Romanians,
receiving silver medals, and Carly had gotten a gold in the overall. They
had even medalled in several of the individual apparatus events as well. Her coaching of the team had been highly praised by the head
coach in private and in several interviews. She realized now that if she hadn’t
been there, things might have been different. But she’d stayed the course,
followed through with her commitment, and been rewarded for it, personally and
professionally.
And then
there was the engagement…
“Kim!”
Once she
heard her name, she picked up speed and headed for the waiting area where the
man who was her soul stood, his heart in his eyes and arms open and waiting for
her. Without thought, she let her carry on slide off her shoulder as she threw
herself into them, finding herself tightly pulled into his embrace.
“Tommy! Oh
God I missed you.”
“Me too
Beautiful. These have been the longest two weeks of my life.”
Easing away
from him, Kim looked up into the face she knew by heart, and saw the
apprehension there. As usual, he was nervous about something, and she could
guess what. While she’d said yes to him earlier, she knew he wouldn’t fully
relax until he had the ring on her finger and the marriage license signed.
As she
thought of the subject of the ring, her mind wondered if that was the source of
his concern. He hadn’t forgotten it, had he?
“So, where is
it?” she said jokingly, and then gasped as he pulled her left hand up in both
of his and smiled softly.
“Hey, a
promise is a promise,” he remarked simply, and then pulled his right hand away
to fish in his pocket for the item in question.
With a careful
maneuver, he brought up his hand, allowing her to see the item clutched tightly
in his hand. A simple round shaped diamond solitaire with a golden band.
“Oh Tommy!”
she said in a soft exclamation, her eyes misting.
“Do you like
it?” he asked nervously as he carefully slid it onto her finger, finally
sealing the deal.
“Like isn’t
even the word. It’s beautiful. I love it.”
“I’m glad. I
was a little worried…”
“Why? It’s so
elegant,” she replied.
“It’s not
new, not the current style…”
“What do you
mean it’s not new?” she asked, confused.
Tommy stared
at her and willed the words to come.
“David sent
it to me. It was my mom’s engagement ring.”
Kim’s mouth
made a shocked petite ‘o’ as she was hit with the significance of what she now
had on her hand. Tommy’s mother’s ring. A woman that he’d never know, but who
would now be a part of his life in a new way. He had his future wife wearing
this heirloom.
“Are you
sure… I mean maybe David should have kept it, or you should lock it away…” she
stumbled, overwhelmed.
“No. I want
you to wear it. I always knew I was going to ask you to marry me, and that I’d
have to find you a ring. I had even called Jason right before David sent me
this, asking him to help me. But it feels right for you to wear this. I know
and so does David that she would have wanted it this way.”
“Alright,”
she demurred, marveling at the ring and how it fit so well, and then blurted,
“how did you get the size?”
“Jason,” he
admitted sheepishly.
“You asked
Jason?” she replied in shock.
“Hey! He’s
been around you longer than anyone. I figured that if he didn’t know I’d break
down and call Aisha, but…”
“But what?”
“David had
sent me the ring before I came to Athens. I hadn’t asked you yet, and I
couldn’t be sure that Aisha wouldn’t spill the beans to you about it…”
“Wait, you
had it before you came to Athens? Then why didn’t…” she asked.
“I wasn’t
sure what I was going to find when I got there,” Tommy stated seriously, and
Kim knew what he was talking about. He had thought he might have lost her to
Chris already.
“So that’s
why you said it was in Reefside when you asked me,” said Kim, looking up at him
from where her eyes had been locked on their hands.
“I thought
about bringing it with me, but I didn’t want to give it to you, to ask you to
marry me and have you think I was only doing it to try to win you away from
someone else… that my reason for asking was because I wanted to keep you.”
“But you did
ask.”
“Because we
had settled everything, and I didn’t want to leave you in Athens knowing that I
could have said something, that I could have asked you… in case something
happened.”
Kim nodded in
understanding as she remembered the bombing and her fear as she had pulled the
shard of glass from Tommy’s shoulder and watched the red of his blood soak his
shirt.
“Well, it
doesn’t matter anymore. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.”
“Yes you
are,” Tommy finally said, pulling Kim in for a kiss. “You’re going home.”
-
“Now that you’re
here, I think we need to start planning,” Tommy said as he steered the jeep
towards his house from the airport.
“Planning
what?”
“The wedding.
You know, a date, a location…”
“Okay… since
you brought it up, I assume you have some ideas on this?” Kim asked, intrigued.
“I have the
date and I think I have the location,” Tommy stated, and noticed out of the
corner of his eye her slightly surprised look.
“You’ve been
busy while I was in Athens. Alright, give… what did you have in mind?” she
asked humorously.
“Well, I
figure that we’ll need at least three weeks to put everything together, so what
about September 25th?”
“So soon?”
“Is that a
problem?” Tommy asked, worried now at Kim’s hesitation.
“No! It’s
just that we’ll have to start making phone calls. Is there any other reason why
you chose that date?”
“If I told
you that was the day we first met, would you believe me?”
Kim froze in
the passenger seat of Tommy’s jeep and tried to grasp what he’d just said. It
was during the school year, early, after the karate tournament that they’d
actually first met face to face. And he could have been right…
“Was it
really?”
“I think so.
But you know my memory. Anyway, it’s just a few weeks into the school year, and
I didn’t want to wait any longer. Plus, I got a firm confirmation from a few
people that they can make that date.”
“Like who?”
Kim asked, curious.
“I called
Jase with my idea for the date and he said he’s good. The next thing I knew he’d
e-mailed everyone the ‘date’. Since then, Aisha, Adam, Rocky, Zack, and Kat
have let me know that they’re all able to be here that week. We’re just waiting
to hear from the rest. And of course Hayley overheard me telling Jason and
contacted Billy, who said he’d be out here in plenty of time before the wedding
from Aquitar. And lastly, my parents and my brother can make it.”
“So, I’ll
finally meet the mysterious brother you never knew you had, huh?”
“Sam plans to
come too, but I’m worried because he’s been ill, and if something happens,
David might have to cancel too, but…”
“I’m sure
he’ll be taking extra careful care of himself. How could he and David miss
this? And the team here will be okay with the timing, right?”
“I don’t see
why not. Why do you ask?”
“Well, you
know I asked Aisha to be my maid of honor since Trini isn’t here, so I was
going to ask Kira to be a bridesmaid.”
“Really?”
Tommy asked, surprised.
“Yeah. I
mean, she reminds me a lot of Trini, and she and I have so much in common… it just
feels right to ask her.”
“Well,
knowing the kids, they’ll make a point of coming by to see if you’ve arrived.
You can ask her then.”
“So, is there
anyone else to invite?”
“Besides our
friends, our parents and our brothers?” Tommy questioned.
“Besides
them…” she replied with a grin.
“Well, I had
a thought…”
“Uh oh.”
“I was
thinking of inviting the space ranger team, and a couple of…”
“Rangers,
right?” Kim answered for him, smiling.
“Yeah,” he replied
sheepishly. “A couple of the red rangers that I met when we went to destroy
Serpentera. They really were good guys, and well…”
“We should
invite them. Look, I’ll put contacting everyone on my list of things to do…”
Before Kim
could say anything else, Tommy turned the corner and she realized that they
were at his house.
As Tommy
pulled into the driveway he turned to see Kim smiling back at him. Hefting her
luggage from the back of the jeep, Tommy walked with Kim at his side to the
front door. Boxes were all around the living room.
“So, if these
had arrived before you flew to Greece, would you have worried less?” Kim asked
with a smirk.
“Of course,”
he replied, and when Kim gave him a look, he shrugged and gave her a
self-conscious half grin. “Okay, maybe not.”
Kim wandered
around the living room as Tommy took her bags into the bedroom. She was home.
After a little while, she noticed that Tommy had yet to come out of the
bedroom, and wondered if he was putting away her things. As it was, most of them
needed to be washed. Heading in to see what he was up to, she turned to find
him standing beside the door, staring at her with a heated look that she
recognized now only too well.
“How about a
proper welcome?” he asked, closing the door behind her, and pulling her tightly
to him with a heated kiss.
She wasn’t
about to object.
-
After their
‘welcome home’ party, Kim sat looking over her address book as Tommy checked
his e-mail again for any more confirmations. They’d briefly discussed the
wedding planning, but Kim had told him they had to start today if they were
going to be able to pull off the 25th.
“It’s about
thirty people, right? That shouldn’t kill our pocketbook too much,” Tommy
sighed, thinking of the scaled down wedding they’d probably put together for a
few thousand dollars that he really didn’t have to spare, and he wasn’t sure if
Kim had in her bank account either.
“I could ask
my parents. It is tradition,” Kim reminded him, and he shook his head.
“I want us to
do this on our own. I don’t want us asking your dad or your mom for any money
to do this, only to have them take over what we want to do or who we invite.
We’ll get by.”
As he said
it, Kim immediately had a light bulb go of in her head. She’d forgotten…
“Tommy, we
can pay for a very nice wedding,” Kim said to him with a knowing grin,
realizing that she hadn’t told him about her ‘reward’.
“Of course. I
mean I figured that it would be tight depending on how much you’d saved while
you were in Boston, but that once you had a new job we could pay it off
faster…”
“No, I mean
right now. We can plan the wedding we want and not worry about how much it
costs,” Kim said simply.
“What, did
you win the lottery and not mention it?” Tommy questioned humorously.
“No, I got a
performance bonus before I left the US Olympic team’s payroll. USA Gymnastics
president Bob Colarossi gave all the assistants and the apparatus coaches one.”
“How much of
a bonus?” Tommy asked shocked, thinking perhaps they had an extra grand or two
to play with.
“Forty
thousand dollars.”
Tommy turned
around with a speed born of ranger powers. He stared at the woman before him
and tried not to gape. Forty thousand…
“You’re
joking!” he exclaimed, dropping the checkbook he had in his hand.
“Nope. I have
the check right here,” she replied, moving to find her purse and dig through
the contents until she pulled out the bank draft.
“Oh my God…
Jesus Kim, this could pay off what’s left of my student loans…”
“Then I guess
it’s a good thing that what’s mine is going to be yours in a month.”
“So it seems.
I guess that means I have to wear a tux now, huh?” he asked, smiling at her.
“You bet,”
Kim stated, walking across the room, check in hand and sat on his lap before
kissing him soundly.
-
“So, how about
a walk?” Kim asked later in the day, feeling a bit antsy. “I’m sure you have a
nice park, or maybe a lake around here. I’m sure with all the trees outside
your door there has to be a trail or something…”
“God Kim, you
know I’d love to, but I have the first tests of the year to prepare. I sort of
put it off…”
Kim rolled
her eyes. Seemed that even with the PhD some things never changed. Of course,
between his flying to Athens and starting the wedding planning, he really had
been sidetracked.
“No problem.
I’ll just get back to unpacking…”
Before she
could make it halfway across the room to the stack of boxes that she hadn’t
gotten to yet, there was a knock at the door.
“Kira, Ethan,
Conner! Hey, what’s up? And who’s this with you?” Kim asked as she answered the
door, noting the familiar team and the young Hispanic man with them.
“Hey Kim! We
heard from Dr. O that you were coming in today, so we thought we’d come by,
sort of be the welcoming committee,” Conner announced.
“And this is
Trent,” Kira said, reaching back and pulling the Hispanic man forward, who
smiled shyly at her. “Trent, this is Kimberly, Dr. O’s… girlfriend. And in her
day, one hell of a ranger, from what we’ve heard.”
“Nice to meet
you,” Trent said and then eased back to his former place.
“Good to meet
you Trent. I’ve heard a lot about you. Sorry about not recognizing you. I
should have paid closer attention,” Kim stated, pulling lightly at her shirt in
reference to his ‘color’ status being right in front of her face.
“No problem.”
“So, what’s
up? You get the grand tour yet?” Ethan questioned, his face lighting up with a
huge grin.
Tommy
suddenly appeared behind Kim, placing his hand on her shoulder. He watched the team
in front of him, all so young and eager. Had he and Kim ever been that young?
“I was going
to try to get to what she hasn’t seen this weekend; I’m sort of up to my ears
with work right now. Hey, if you guys want, Kim was feeling like getting out.
Would you want to show her around?”
“Would we?”
Kira asked glowingly, latching onto the former ranger’s arm. “Come on Kim,
let’s hit the sights.”
-
Kim walked
along the dilapidated path, trying to keep herself occupied while the rangers
took on some nasty monster downtown. Kira and the guys had been out showing her
the area where they’d found the first three dino gems when they’d had to run
off to help stop the latest bad guy. They promised to come back and help direct
her back towards Tommy’s… well, her house. She still wasn’t sure where
everything was yet.
As she
shuffled her feet along the dirt, she found herself missing the days of the old
team; when she and Tommy went together when Zedd or Rita was on the warpath.
Not paying
attention, she wandered a bit off the path, heading more towards the wooded
area, and didn’t see the root from a nearby tree. Her toe caught the edge of it
and she found herself pitching forward. Fighting with all the gymnastic
abilities still at her disposal, she tucked to roll through the impact, but
instead the move gave her too much momentum, and she ended up tumbling down a
slight embankment. She nearly tensed as she saw the leaf covered ground rushing
up to meet her.
Except the
impact she had feared was delayed as the leaves crushed beneath her weight and
she crashed through a thin layer of dirt and sticks before going into free fall
for a few seconds. Finally, the trip came to an end as she crashed heavily to
the dirt and moss. Kim felt the skin of her hands and arms rip as the rocks and
other debris cut her as she landed. Beneath her, she felt stones and sticks
poking and ripping through her shirt and jeans.
“Damn it!”
she swore quietly when she got her breath back, frustrated at being tripped up
by a stupid root.
Kim tentatively
moved her head, making sure she hadn’t done any significant damage, and then
gingerly stood. She looked up and saw that she had to have fallen through a
small opening to an underground cave or something. The light coming in from the
opening was enough for her to look around her sparse surroundings, looking for
an exit. As she stared at the dark colored dirt of the cave walls, she could
see flecks of silver and white, and wondered if maybe there was some kind of
metal embedded in the sediment. Continuing her slow surveying of the walls, she
felt like something was pulling at her, drawing her to another point within the
cave. The feeling was like something within her, a place that she’d forgotten
existed was being called to.
Her eyes
swept the area carefully when she finally settled on some light colored
protrusions embedded in the far wall. The moment she laid eyes on the objects,
she felt the feeling increase in her chest. She carefully maneuvered her way
across the cave, ignoring the aches and stings from her bleeding scrapes and
bruised muscles to move forward. As she got closer, she realized the thing
she’d seen was part of a skeleton.
Stopping in
front of a half-visible skeletal claw, she started scraping away the dirt
surrounding the talons, digging like a dog searching for a bone. After what
seemed like forever, Kim felt her hand hit something slightly warm with sharp
edges. Without hesitation, she pried the object from the stone and dirt with
her fingers and drew it up to the light so she could see it clearly.
“Oh my…”
In her hands
glowed a gem... a *pink* gem.
And after
seeing the kids and Tommy’s she knew exactly what kind of gemstone it was.
A dino gem.
It rested in her
hand for a moment, and then she felt the infusion of energy. That place where
the power had resided all those years ago seemed to expand and bloom with this
new power taking up residence. She felt better than she could remember since
the day she’d given up the Ninjetti powers to Kat all those years ago. It was
almost as if the energy that was flowing into her was healing some unknown
cracks within herself.
Once the
power seemed to finally settle, Kim smiled at the skeleton pieces in the wall.
She couldn’t wait to show Tommy and the team her discovery. But she still had
to get out of the cave. Staring at the opening, she wished she had her old
powers back, when she could literally jump ten stories. That would be much more
than she’d need to get out of the cave.
No sooner
than she’d thought of it, she felt her feet start to move away from the floor.
Startled, she felt herself start to drop just as suddenly, and she braced for
the landing. As her feet came back to the ground, she started to wonder what
had just happened.
Then, with an
almost literal leap of faith, she pushed up from the dirt and found herself
hovering above the ground.
“Wow…” she
murmured under her breath.
Concentrating,
Kim felt her body respond to the power, and she rose towards the opening. The
gem had given her the ability to levitate… she could literally walk on air.
Once she made
her way through the opening, she guided herself to solid ground and couldn’t
help but laugh as her feet touched the grassy area. No longer caring that she
wasn’t sure of where the hell she was and how to get back, she turned and ran
the way she thought that she’d come from.
-
“What do you
mean you don’t know where she is? You said you were going right back to where
you’d left Kim before the monster showed up,” Tommy nearly roared, his anger
tempered only by his fear.
“We went
right back. She wasn’t there. Maybe…” Conner started to say.
“Never mind.
We’ll use the scanners to look for…” he stopped in mid-phrase as his students
and team mates faces changed to a mixture of shocked, horrified and worried
expressions as they looked up and then past him towards the door.
Noting the
lack of attention, he turned and saw that the object of his concern, his
missing former gymnast and fiancé had flung open the door and was standing in
the doorway looking like she’d been attacked by a patrol of Tyrano-drones.
“Kim…”
The team
collectively breathed a sigh of relief as their mentor and teacher forgot about
them and rushed forward, throwing his arms around her, uncaring that he and Kim
had an audience.
“Did you get
attacked? Are you okay?” he asked, his fear now ratcheting down to worry as he
stepped back to look at Kim more closely. He paused as he took in the dirty and
ripped appearance of her clothes, her face and hands scraped up and he could
see the dried brown smudges in places that had been blood.
“No… yes…
something, I can’t really explain…” she started, unsure now of how to tell them
what she’d discovered.
“I’ve been
out of my mind worrying. What happened?” he asked.
Kim stepped
back and everyone stared at her strangely. She’d obviously been banged up
somehow. Maybe she wasn’t in her right mind. As it was, Tommy was barely
willing to let her hands go, even as she forced the issue by moving out of his
reach. He frowned, not liking her pulling away from him, and started to take a
step forward when she dropped her eyes to her right side.
“I’m fine,”
she stated as she reached into the pocket of her jeans, and carefully pulled
her hand out in a fluid move that was nearly invisible under everyone’s
scrutiny. “Better than fine actually.”
“Kim?” Tommy
queried, his fear returning again.
She smiled at
him with a half smirk as she lifted her hand parallel with her chest and then
twisted her wrist to show the object sitting in her hand. The pink gemstone
glittered with an inner light, catching everyone’s attention.
“Pink,” Kim
said simply.
Tommy stood
there, his jaw going slack. He wasn’t sure if his feet could actually move,
what with the shock that seemed to be paralyzing him. If that was what he
thought it was…
“A dino gem?”
asked Ethan, shocked as everyone else.
“Oh my God!
Kim’s a ranger again!” Kira yelled and then hurled herself towards the woman she
considered a friend and surrogate big sister.
Kim carefully
clutched the glowing crystal tightly in her hand as she clasped the younger
ranger to her.
“What can I
say… pink is in again.”
“Wow!” Conner
exclaimed, moving to follow Kira, with Ethan and Trent following. The four
rangers circled around the former and once again pink ranger, shaking hands,
giving congratulations and all around being supportive and happy.
“Tommy?” Kim
said, worriedly. What if he wasn’t happy about her being a ranger again?
The rest of
the team broke away and stepped back as Dr. O moved forward. He stood before
Kim for a long moment, and then reached forward and pulled her to him,
clutching her tightly as he finally said the words he’d neglected to say
before, which were now more appropriate than ever.
“Welcome
*home* Beautiful.”
-End-
tbc…
A/N: 1. All
will be revealed about the pink gem next chapter, which I’m taking feedback on
– review and tell me if you want to wait until next Saturday, or if you want it
TOMORROW?! 2. If you’re looking for an NC-17 version of this chapter… see my
site!
click the picture to go to the Always a Ranger page