Work Text:
“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” Kim admonished herself as she looked at the clock to see that time had gotten away from her completely. It was already three in the morning.
Kim sighed, putting aside the book she’d been reading. Historical fiction had been an escape and lifeline of hers for the past several years, and it was far too easy to lose herself in a story as she had tonight.
“Water and then bed,” she commanded herself. She was surprised that she’d not yet passed out from exhaustion and that she didn’t feel particularly sleepy. She’d been up since 6AM, first fitting in her workout, then meeting with the costumer for a final costume fitting for the new movie she’d been cast in that started filming on Wednesday, and finally a grueling few hours getting ready for the awards show. And yet, only her scalp, still straining under the weight of her updo and the hairspray and pins necessary to secure it, seemed to feel the length of the day. And her feet too, she realized as she stood up.
She turned off the lamp next to her and felt her way to the kitchen and refrigerator only by the light filtering in from the foyer window and the lamp on in the upstairs hall. Once in the kitchen, however, Kim decided that she probably needed hot tea to help herself fall asleep, so she turned on the light above the sink so she could put a kettle on and prepare her mug. She leaned against the counter and absently began pulling pins out of her hair, dropping them on her kitchen island as she waited for the kettle to boil.
She was brought back to the present, however, not by the kettle’s whistle, but by her doorbell.
Kim found herself hesitating to answer the door. Her address was unlisted and she had made a point of living in a smaller town further out from Los Angeles to discourage paparazzi from following her home. She was eternally nervous that a fan would find her house. She’d had a stalker or two already and it was never pleasant.
The doorbell rang again. Kim looked over at the kettle, which was just starting to make sounds of bubbling. It would only be a minute before it came to a full boil. Kim pulled the kettle forward, off the burner and crept towards the front door, glad that the door wasn’t flanked by windows and that she kept the shades drawn on the ground floor. She cautiously pressed her fingers against the door for stability and leaned forward to look through the peephole to see who was on the other side.
She jumped back upon seeing who stood on her front step and unlocked the deadbolt, pulling the door open. “Tommy! What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Tommy said, looking at her confused. “Why would you think something’s wrong?”
“Tommy, it’s 3AM.” He looked surprised and Kim wondered what could compel him to show up on her doorstep at such an odd hour, if not for some sort of emergency. “Are you sick?”
“No, I just wanted to see you.”
“Thomas James Oliver. Are you drunk right now?” It seemed like the only explanation for him admitting such a thing at such an hour.
“No.” He said again. Tommy stepped forward so he was standing in the threshold of the door and put his hands on her arms, just below her shoulders. “I just wanted to see you and talk to you. I’m sorry. I was lost in my thoughts most of the night and I didn’t realize it was so late when I left home or when I got here.”
Kim didn’t smell alcohol on his breath and his eyes were clear, so she relaxed. Tommy’s right hand gave her left arm a little squeeze before his arms dropped back to his sides. That’s when Kim realized that she still had her hair mostly up and makeup on from the awards show she’d been at a few hours earlier. She’d gotten home, shucked her dress off, and put on the knee length terrycloth robe she was still wearing. I must look ridiculous, was her first thought, followed by fuck. I’m not wearing a bra.
Kim tried to not be obvious about trying to cover herself up more, but knew she probably failed. After the silence between them had stretched on uncomfortably long, she looked up to see that Tommy had averted his gaze and was scratching at his forearm, which Kim recognized as a old sign that he was nervous.
“I’m sorry for waking you. I should go.”
“You didn’t wake me.” Kim said. “I was up reading and I was just making myself some tea. Come in so I can close the door before any bugs find their way inside.” He shuffled in hesitantly and Kim closed the door behind him before turning and walking towards the kitchen. “I’ve been hooked on this calming lavender tea lately. Would you like that or something with caffeine in it?”
“Lavender is fine,” Tommy said after a moment, “but you don’t have to make me any tea.”
“I always overfill the kettle, so I’m already going to have extra water anyway.” Kim pushed the kettle back onto the burner and busied herself with pulling out another mug and tea bag. “You drove all the way out here, so whatever you wanted to talk about, we should talk about.”
Tommy made a hum of acceptance, but both were silent as the water finished heating and as Kim poured the water into their mugs and passed him one, before directing him towards the little kitchen table. She took a seat across from him once he’d sat down.
“What did you want to talk about?” Kim couldn’t strike up the courage to look at Tommy full on in the face, so she only glanced up at him briefly. She noticed that his gaze was directed at the middle of the table between them. He couldn’t seem to look at her either.
Tommy scratched at his forearm again. His nerves were starting to set Kim’s on edge. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times as if he couldn’t figure out how to begin, before he finally blurted out, “I still don’t understand what happened to us, and I can’t let it go.”
Kim blinked, less surprised at the question than at the situation of having this conversation at three in the morning at her kitchen table sans undergarments, but with a full face of makeup.
Although, she had to admit to being a little surprised at the question; they’d been relatively close for the last three years and despite seeing each other at least once a month, he’d yet to bring up the topic.
“It just... it just seemed like it was time,” Kim said with a shrug. Then, realizing that her statement was awfully vague, clarified, “we were high school sweethearts and those romances almost never last.”
Kim looked up to see that Tommy was now staring at her face with an unreadable look. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“It seemed like it was time to end it to avoid it hurting worse later.”
“Why did you assume it was going to end at all?”
“Because high school sweethearts rarely stay together.”
“But some do. Why would you assume we wouldn’t make it?”
Kim shrugged again. “Lots of reasons, I guess.” She looked away when she saw the hurt flash across his face.
“Such as?” His voice was quiet, sad, but determined.
“We were so far away from each other, Tommy. I know that I spent a lot of nights feeling resentful when our calls were too short and desperate for even just a hug. I can only imagine that if you felt half of what I did, you struggled with being so far away too.” He nodded in the affirmative, but didn’t say anything, letting her continue.
“We had different goals too, and they were going to continue keeping us apart. I wanted to compete. I was about to be in France for several months before the Pan Globals. After that, I wanted to travel and to go to college. You were locked in to the Ranger thing, still, and you talked about staying in California. I didn’t want to go back to Angel Grove. It wasn’t home anymore. I just... I just realized that our lives were going in different directions, both geographically and by way of ambitions. I didn’t want to hold you back and I didn’t want you to hold me back.”
“And the guy you thought was your soulmate?”
Kim cringed internally. She must have made a face because she saw amusement color Tommy’s face for a moment. “Matt. I may have overstated my feelings for him to make it easier for you to let me go. And, I guess, to try to convince myself it was the best course of action.” Kim rolled her eyes at her younger self. “He flirted a lot, had asked me out a time or two. After the letter, we dated for maybe two and a half months. He was,” Kim tried to think of the best word to describe him and their relationship and could only come up with, “bland.”
Tommy chuckled, and Kim saw his shoulders lose some of their tension. His gaze dropped to his mug of tea and he lifted it to take a sip. Kim mirrored him, taking a sip of her tea as well.
“You never said anything to me,” Tommy said. “I wish you had. I talked about Angel Grove and you coming home because I thought it was your intention to go back there. I would have loved to travel with you. Hell, I ended up traveling a bunch on the circuit. I loved it.”
“I never said anything because I knew you’d give up your dreams to support mine.”
Tommy laughed frustratedly. “You don’t get it. Everyone’s motivations and ambitions are different. Your future education, career, and travel motivated you. It gave your life meaning. For me, it’s my relationships that motivate me.”
“Tommy, you have a PhD. That’s not something someone stumbles into unless they’re motivated to go for it.”
“I sort of did though. I had the money for school and I didn’t want to race anymore. Everyone else was in college, so I just went for the one thing that I actually had a little bit of background knowledge and interest in. Don’t get me wrong; it turns out that I actually really like science, but I’d be just as happy without my degrees.” Tommy shook his head as if trying to clear it and reorient himself. “I still don’t understand where this we’d break up eventually idea came from. That last Christmas, we were talking about a future.”
“Early on, some of the other girls noticed that I was struggling being without you. They kept telling me how it wouldn’t work being across the country. How first loves don’t last. How high school sweethearts only really work if they both decide never to leave their hometown. They said that it would hurt both of us so much worse if I kept drawing it out. I ignored them at first, but eventually, it started to make sense. I mean, how could we think we were so different from every other high school couple out there?”
“For real, Kim? Remember that whole being Power Rangers and being sworn to secrecy thing? Or our totally mated spirit animals that I know we both still talk to? Or being part of the same close friend group that you were still keeping in touch with so we were going to be thrown into each others’ paths at some point regardless? Any possibility of normal disappeared for every single one of us the first time we had to fight the putties. Trying to compare our relationship to Bob and Sue who break up because their colleges are two hours apart is like comparing apples to fighter jets.”
Kim shrugged, knowing Tommy was right, but still not able to admit that her reasoning had been so obviously flawed. “Yeah, we had to live some extraordinary circumstances, but at the end of the day, we were still just teenagers.”
“Sure,” Tommy said sarcastically, raising an eyebrow at her, “because the literal weight of the world and survival of humankind on your shoulders doesn’t make you grow up any faster than the average teen.”
Kim knew all of this, of course. Most days she felt like she’d lived centuries instead of just twenty seven years. “I know,” Kim whispered after the silence had stretched on for several minutes. “And a part of me knew then too. But I just,” Kim shrugged, “I wanted so badly to just be normal, I think. I mean, my parents’ marriage was well on the way to falling apart by time I got to second grade, and with two younger siblings, I went from being seven to surrogate parent almost immediately when the fighting hit its boiling point. Then, being a Ranger took away any chance I had at being a normal teen. Then, I finally get out of the spandex and go full time into gymnastics and I realized that was going to eat my young adult years. I just... I think I needed our relationship to fail. I needed to have some life experience that was normal. I just needed to be ordinary for once.” Kim rolled the mug between her palms. The tea was cooling fast.
Palms covered the back of her hands, and Kim took that as a silent request to release her mug, so she did, then let Tommy maneuver her hands so they were clasped in his. “I’m sorry.” His voice was soft. Kim could feel tears threatening to escape her eyes. “I get feeling like stages of your life are getting overshadowed. I get wanting to fit in and be normal.”
“I’m sorry,” Kim whispered. “It was stupid. I was stupid.”
Tommy squeezed her hands in reassurance. “I get it. I don’t like it, but I do get it. What I don’t get is how you ended up with a career that led to you being on award shows when all you wanted was a ordinary life.”
Kim shrugged, still not able to meet Tommy’s eyes. “I realized pretty quickly how fucking dumb I was to dump you. I didn’t think about the fact that you were the person I called most for support when training got hard. And I didn’t think about the fact that I’d necessarily have to alienate myself from the others because you all needed to work as a team. And with all the other retired Rangers overseas...” Tears were building up, getting ready to fall, so Kim abandoned that time period and moved on. “Well, I guess I realized that ordinary wasn’t all that great if it left me feeling like I was. After the games and the interviews ended and “The Stir” asked if I’d be willing to fill in for a week while Kayleigh Martin was on maternity and her temporary replacement was unavailable, I thought it’d be worth a try. And I liked that well enough.”
“Then that soap for a year and the Hallmark movies,” Tommy continued.
“And one of the writers on the soap left to work as lead writer for “The Bergers,” and one of the producers had worked with me on one of those movies, so they said something and I auditioned. And, well, you’ve been around for the rest of it.”
“You don’t talk about work much,” Tommy countered softly.
Kim shrugged again, not really wanting to talk about it. Work was, well, work. Hours could be long and scenes were sometimes hard to get through. Sometimes she had minutes to relearn sections of script that had been changed at the last second. But mostly, it was hard doing the scenes where her character was happy, surrounded by her husband and children, because it was all Kim wanted and it stung that it wasn’t her reality. Kim pulled away one hand to casually swipe at her eyes, but didn’t pull back the other. “So, what prompted this conversation at 3AM on a Monday morning?”
It was Tommy’s turn to look away. He looked down at his mug and shifted it with his free hand. Kim thought she might have spied a light blush on his cheeks. “I was watching the awards show, congratulations on winning best supporting actress, by the way.”
“Thanks. That award show ended at eleven, though.” Kim was not going to let him weasel his way out of answering.
“I was just thinking about you a lot this week.” Kim squeezed his hand to prompt more out of him when he stalled. “The kids at school love their celebrity gossip and it’s all I hear between classes. There’s been a lot going around about your and Joe Logan’s breakup.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me.” Kim rolled her eyes hard.
“The gossip made it sound like you might be on again,” Tommy said, “but you were at the show without him.”
“We are not getting back together.” Kim felt herself getting annoyed all over again. She’d not said much to her industry friends, worried that some of the less complimentary things she’d say would get out and she’d sink her career for daring to talk bad about Hollywood’s golden boy. She’d not said much to her non-industry friends either, because they were all former Rangers and she figured that any bad luck in the love department they’d think she’d deserved for what she’d done to Tommy. “Never. Not after what he did to me.” Tommy was quiet and Kim took a moment to calm herself.
For a moment, Kim considered changing the subject. But Tommy was looking at her with worry and she thought he might not let it go. Plus, she realized that she hadn’t told anyone. She’d been carrying around the trauma of what happened on her own shoulders. It would be good to finally tell someone else, to not have to live with this all by herself.
“He drugged me,” Kim admitted quietly, still torn between the shame of not being able to protect herself and the indignation that such a thing had been done to her. “He’d mentioned having an “open relationship,” a couple of times and I told him monogamy or I was out. He slipped me a roofie and then brought me to one of his friend’s houses where they were all planning on, I don’t know, some sort of ridiculous orgy. I broke out of the fog enough to realize that I was undressed and people were touching my body and I started to scream.”
“Did they...” Tommy’s mouth snapped shut, his expression grim.
“No, I found my clothes, got a taxi out of there to the hospital and had bloodwork and a rape kit done. They found Rohypnol in my bloodwork- enough that the doctor was super surprised I was aware of what was going on at that point, but nothing on the rape kit. Thank God some of the side effects of having Powers stick around. He gave me enough that it should have put me out for long enough for them to all do whatever they wanted to me. I think he wanted pictures, so he could hold it over my head.”
Tommy’s expression was stormy. “Why isn’t he in custody? Why hasn’t he been charged?”
“I’m an unreliable witness since I don’t know exactly when he drugged me and I don’t remember anything between getting our entrees at the restaurant and waking up to someone touching me. The police said there were too many other people it could have been and since I can’t specifically place him at the - that party, and it had cleared out by time the police showed up, there wasn’t enough evidence.”
“When?”
“Two months ago. It took the paparazzi a solid ten days to realize we’d had a falling out.”
“Shit, Kim. I’m so sorry. I can’t even imagine... having to deal with sexual assault, being drugged, and finding out someone you loved betrayed you...”
Kim began to giggle, then full on laugh. She could see Tommy’s worried look that she’d gone completely hysterical. She was just so relieved to finally tell someone else what had happened. She calmed herself down to an occasional giggle before saying, “I’m sorry. You must think I’ve gone mad. I didn’t love him, though. I just couldn’t figure out how to break up with him. He’d never take “no” for an answer.”
“But you’re free of him now?” Tommy squeezed her hand, still tucked into his.
“As free as I can be in this business. I can avoid working with him, but probably not seeing him altogether.”
Tommy took a deep breath. Kim thought he might be trying to center himself. “It makes me mad that he won’t face any repercussions for what he did to you.”
“Sometimes that’s the way life works.” Kim shrugged.
“But it shouldn’t!” He slapped his free hand hard on the table, making Kim jump in surprise. “Oh fuck. Kim, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean...”
Kim shook her head and got up from her seat, moving around the table to stand behind him and leaning down so she could rest her chin on his shoulder. She wrapped both of her arms around his shoulders and hugged. He dropped his head to the side so his temple rested against her forehead and both of his hands came up to clutch at her arms banding across his chest.
After a few minutes, Kim could feel Tommy starting to relax again. “I should be comforting you. Nothing happened to me.” He whispered. He pulled one of her arms up so he could drop a little kiss on her wrist. “Are you okay?”
Kim wrapped her arms tighter around him. Such an innocuous sounding question... “I don’t know if I have an answer for that yet,” she finally admitted, the fear and shame that she had felt when she woke up and quickly bottled up so she could handle the situation finally facing her again now that she’d admitted what happened to someone who wasn’t a doctor or police officer, someone she told because she knew them and didn’t want to hold onto it alone anymore.
Tommy shifted his chair away from the table and pulled Kim around to sit in his lap. Wrapped tight in Tommy’s arms, Kim sobbed.
“Friday night, as soon as you’re done filming,” Tommy instructed her softly as they hovered close together behind her front door.
“It might be late.”
“It’s okay. I’ll stay up.”
“Tommy, like, really late. I’m scheduled to shoot until 9PM and it's the first week of filming; I can almost assure you it will go over.”
“Yeah, well, I showed up to your house at 3AM, so if you show up to mine at the same time, I really can’t complain.”
“Are you sure you’re okay to drive?”
“Yeah. I promise I’ll go right to bed after I get home from work.” He leaned slowly into her, giving her time to step back.
Kim leaned forward as well and kissed him lightly, shyly. “Be careful driving.”
“The highway shouldn’t be that bad at this time of morning.” In the living room, the grandfather clock Kim had bought off her Uncle Steve chimed the half-hour. “Thanks for the tea, Beautiful.”
“Anytime, Handsome.”
After he left, Kim went back into the kitchen and cleaned up their tea mugs, which they had abandoned half empty when they’d retired to the living room after she’d finished crying earlier.
For the first time in years, Kim felt at peace. The air had been cleared between her and Tommy and something, some little spark, just might have survived in both of them after so many years.
Melina Carson, correspondent for Entertainment News Daily, repositioned herself on her chair to face Kim more directly. They were sitting on the set of the Berger’s living room, a camera crew just beyond Melina. “Do you need water or anything before we continue?”
“No, I’m alright,” Kim said from her spot on the couch. She had to remind herself to not let any of her nervous quirks make their way to the surface, so she made a point of clasping her hands together and resting them casually over her knees.
“Your agent said we were okay to ask you some personal questions?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Let’s get the camera’s rolling again.” Melina’s crew quickly pulled themselves back into working order
“So, I have to ask because speculation is still rampant more than a year later, any chance you and Joe Logan are going to get back together?”
“Definitely not,” Kim said, trying to keep her nerves in check and a pleasant smile on her face.
“There are rumors that he’s stilling pining after you,” the reporter pushed.
“So he says,” Kim scoffed. Kim could see her agent frantically mouthing vague, keep it vague, from her position next to one of the cameras. Kim decided to leave the conversation at, “but I’m just not interested.”
“So, if you’re not interested in Joe Logan, is there anyone else that’s caught your eye?”
Kim smile turned genuinely and her heart sped up. This was the moment. “Yes, actually.”
Melina looked momentarily surprised. When Entertainment News Daily had requested the interview with Kim about the upcoming season of "The Bergers" and her part in a soon to be released, highly anticipated action film, they’d also gotten permission to ask about Kim’s personal life. But, as she usually kept her personal life pretty private, Kim figured Melina was surprised that she was being so forthcoming.
“So the pink stone-”
“Sapphire,” Kim offered.
“The pink sapphire you’ve been photographed wearing a few times this past year, there’s been speculation that it’s an engagement ring.”
“It is.” Kim obligingly put out her hand so Melina and the camera could get a better look, then added, “we got married last month, actually.” She tapped at the thin platinum band that sat just above the pink sapphire on her left ring finger.
“Congratulations! Can you tell us anything about your relationship? How you met, perhaps?”
“Yeah. We’ve actually known each other since high school.”
“Has there always been something there, or is this relationship something you’ve grown into?”
“Oh, there’s always been something there. We dated for a while when we were teenagers, lost touch when I was competing, and we’ve spent the last several years reestablishing and growing our friendship. When we decided to start dating again last year, well, everything just sort of fell perfectly into place for us.”
“That’s amazing that you rekindled that relationship! It sounds like it was meant to be.”
“We think it very much was.”
“What can you tell us about your husband?” Melina looked hopeful and Kim was grateful for the open-ended question because it meant she would be able to put out the mostly vague tidbits she and Tommy had agreed upon without having to push back on more invasive questions.
“He’s not in the industry, so I’m sure you understand that we want him to have some level of privacy, but, I’ll tell you that his name is Tom. He’s a high school science teacher, and he said he’s been dreading news of our relationship coming out for the sole reason that his students are going to lose it. I guess I have a bit of a following,” she laughed. “But he’s amazing. He always stays up when I have a late night filming and waits for me to get home. He goes to personal training with me every morning, and we’re super competitive with each other, so it honestly made staying in shape for this movie super easy. He has such a passionate dedication to me, to his friends and family, to his research, and to his students, and that is the thing I admire most about him. And, just so it’s on the record, he is the most handsome man, like, just absurdly attractive. I’m excited to show him off on the red carpets, because the man looks fantastic in a suit. Also, I’ll tell you he’s bashful as anything, so when he sees I said that, he’s gonna blush. Sorry, Handsome.”
“It sounds like you’re very happy and absolutely besotted with Tom.”
“Yes, I am. Have been since the first day I met him.”
As Melina wrapped up the interview, Kim’s smile never once faltered, her mood much improved for talking about Tommy and the extraordinary life she got to share with him.