Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers. If I did, I would do things very differently. I've played fast and loose with the timeline here. It's been a year since Kim sent the letter, but they're still using the Zeo powers. Trey has the Gold Ranger powers, but is still living on Earth. Any gaps will be explained in future stories. This is the first of my `Reunion' series. I really hope I didn't copy anyone's ideas for this, but if I did, I heartily apologize, and if you e-mail me and tell me what I messed up on, I will make a note of it in my next fic's disclaimer thingy.
Falling Rain
by: IceQueen
It was raining. It somehow seemed fitting. Tears of the earth falling, just as the tears had fallen that day she had sent that letter to Tommy. *Why did I tell him I had found someone else?* she wondered. *Why didn't I just tell him the truth. . .that I was so lonely and so scared. . .*
Kim Hart slowly twisted the ring on her finger. *I don't know what hurts more. ..that he never called to ask me about things. ..that he never asked for this back. ..or that he started going out with Kat. But I guess I can't blame him for that, really. I certainly didn't do anything to keep him. I dumped him. . .in the cruelest way I knew how. In the _stupidest_ way I ever could have.*
Her fingers shook as she pulled something out of her purse and glanced at it. It was a copy of the letter she'd sent. She'd made a copy before mailing the original to him; a personal torment that she had given up her love. The same way she kept the communicator now shoved into the bottom of her purse.
It had been so long since she had seen him. . .she wondered if he would even *want* to see her. No, he wouldn't. He was involved with Kat, and there was nothing she could do about that.
*I'm glad Billy told me. I expected it. ..but it was nice to get the confirmation anyway.* Nice to know that Kat had been there for Tommy when he had needed her, and had not tried to jump him the first moment he'd been available. *He asked her. . .*
She closed her eyes for a moment, imagining the scene as Billy had told it to her. Kim smiled for a moment, knowing something he didn't, something she had gleaned from the wealth of detail that he had told her about Kat. Only certain people noticed that much about someone: people who were in love with another person. She could imagine just how Tommy must have looked when he had asked, how the light would play off his hair and how he would have stuttered and stammered the question out. ..
"Miss?" she looked up at the sound of her seatmate's voice. "Are you all right?"
She wasn't certain why the other woman had asked that, until she touched her cheek gently, and found tears falling down her cheeks. "Yes, I'm fine," Kim replied. "Just thinking about. ..an old boyfriend."
"Going to see him?" the woman, clad in a white business suit and with long dark hair, asked solicitously. Kim flushed without reason, and made a head motion that could've been either a nod or a shake, whichever way the watcher wanted to take it. Then, something about the stewardess's gleaming eyes made her want to talk more.
"I broke up with him about a year ago. I just sent him a letter. .a stupid letter. And I didn't even mean it. I was angry and tired of everything that day, and so lonely. ..all we did there was work out, there was no time for any fun, and after everything that my friends and I did back home," she restrained herself from mentioning saving the world, "I just couldn't take it anymore...I snapped a little, and sent that letter."
She showed the copy of it she had to the woman, who read it quickly, then glanced at her. "Did you mean it?" she asked quietly.
"No," Kim answered softly and truthfully. "But I wanted to see him, and I hoped if I sent that, he'd come see me. . .but he never did. He just ...let me go."
The woman smiled briefly at her, and for a moment, Kim thought she saw a glimpse of white robes all around her. "Wouldn't that mean he loves you himself? Loves you enough to let you go? To not hold you where you don't want to be?"
Kim's lower lip trembled, and she almost felt whole again. "Yes. ..yes, you're right!" she smiled. "But. ..he's seeing someone else now. One of our friends told me about it. I don't really know why I'm coming back. Maybe to torture myself. .."
"Or perhaps to reclaim what you had once, and hope to have again?" the woman countered. Kim smiled suddenly.
"It's going to have to be Tommy's choice. ..it's his love life. And ours. . .if he really loves her, then I . ..," the next words almost cost her everything to say. "I'll let him go."
The woman patted her on the shoulder. "Isn't that the best love of all, the love that can let go when it needs to?" she asked. Kim smiled.
"You're right. What is your name, by the way? I'm Kim."
"Dimitria."
Kim and her new friend talked quietly all the way to Angel Grove. Kim found that she was spilling her guts about *everything* that had ever happened to her, including being a Power Ranger. She couldn't help it, though. She felt instinctively as if she could trust this mysterious woman, and she wanted someone to talk to after over a year of near-silence.
"You believe that your friend Billy is in love with Katherine?" Dimitria asked quietly. Kim had noticed that she tended to speak mostly in questions, but had never asked why. It seemed to just be a personal idiosyncrasy, and they did help her concentrate her own thoughts at times.
Kim nodded. "I saw the way they would look at each other every now and then when I was still there. And from the way their letters would describe each other. ..it kind of shocked me, really, when I found out Tommy and Kat are dating. I really thought Billy was going to ask her out one of these days."
"Perhaps he was simply too afraid," Dimitria suggested. "You have said he is very shy."
"You're probably right," Kim replied. "We always had to push him to get him to ask anyone out."
Dimitria glanced out the window, and smiled. "We are approaching Angel Grove now."
Kim suddenly felt *very* nervous. After all this time, to once again see her friends. ..could it *really* be happening? Could she be about to see Tommy again. Another of Dimitria's questions just barely managed to be heard.
"Yeah, I told them I'm coming," she replied. "It's been so long, though. ..and they could be...busy," she checked to see if anyone else was listening. She looked over at her new friend. "Will you come and meet them with me?"
Dimitria shook her head quietly. "It isn't time for me to meet them," she said. "But in good time. .."
The plane was coming down right on time. Tommy, Rocky, Adam, Tanya, Kat, Jason, Trey, and Billy were standing in a small bunch together. The Pink Ranger and Billy stood hand in hand, having entered their second week of couplehood. Tommy smiled briefly at them, then turned his head to where the people were starting to emerge from the plane.
"I wish we had told her that we were dating," Kat said, squeezing Billy's fingers gently. "She probably still thinks I'm with Tommy."
Tommy sighed almost wistfully. He and Kat *had* experienced a wonderful time on their two dates, but almost immediately afterward, he had realized he was just trying to replace Kim with her color-counterpart. Kat was a wonderful, nice, sweet person, but . .she wasn't Kim. *Besides, I couldn't take her from Billy. They look so perfect together. ..*
A small figure emerged from the crowd, and started over to them. "Tommy?" Kim looked at the Red Ranger, and her eyes widened as she saw Billy and Kat hand in hand behind him.
"Kim. . .," he whispered, staring into her startled eyes. "Kim. . .we..welcome..."
His words were cut off at once when she dropped her bags and threw herself into his strong arms. "I'm sorry, Tommy," all of her resolve melting away at the sight of him. "I'm so sorry. .."
"It's all right, beautiful," he murmured, holding her. "I love you, Kim. I love you. . ."
From a shadow-filled corner, a beautiful face smiled softly. "Things are falling into place," Dimitria of Inquirius whispered. "Things are falling into place at last."
Not the end. ..the Beginning.
