DISCLAIMER: Nope still not mine.

SUMMARY: Tommy's awake. Can he and Kim work out the problems they've had in the past?

"Tommy, you're awake!" Kim's voice was soft as if she didn't have the strength to raise the volume any higher.

"Yeah. I'm awake. And we need to talk, Beautiful." She blushed and tried to bow her head again. "No. Look at me."

"Tommy, please hear me out first." When she looked at him and he nodded, she took a deep breath. "I know that I should have said something about how I was feeling but I was just so scared that if I called you, you'd tell me that you wanted someone else that I couldn't even dial the number half the time. When I wrote that letter, I was only trying to get your attention. I kicked myself every day for sending it the way I did. I couldn't deal with the knowledge that you were in danger and I couldn't help you."

"Kim, I can't just let you keep going. I want you to know that I kick myself every day for not calling you to find out what was going on. For not coming down there and asking you to tell me the same thing to my face if it was true. I thought about doing just that. I thought about teleporting down there and grabbing you by the shoulders and shaking you until you admitted to me that you'd made the whole thing up just to get my attention. Something had always told me that you didn't want me to walk away from you like that. My brain knew the truth even though my heart overrode the knowledge. My heart convinced me that you meant every word of it. Hell, even Rocky knew better. He told me at one point that he thought I was an idiot for believing that letter so blindly." He chuckled as he remembered the day Rocky had challenged him after Kim had fled Angel Grove after the tournament.

FLASHBACK

"Tommy, I swear I'm going to kick your butt if you don't pull your head out of it and go after the girl you love," Rocky threatened.

"Rocko, it wouldn't be a fair fight. You're still injured."

"I don't care. You had a good thing with Kim. You didn't see the hurt in her eyes when she saw you hugging Kat. I did. I saw the tears she swiped away. I saw the way she looked around, hoping that no one had noticed. Tommy, she still loves you."

"No. She doesn't love me as anything more than a brother. That's what she said in the letter, remember? I do." Tommy was getting mad but trying to stay calm. "She's the one who dumped me. Not the other way around."

"Tommy, I don't think she meant one word of that letter. I don't think you believe it either."

"Why do you think she sent it then?"

"I think she was feeling more than a little neglected. I think that she wanted your attention and instead you just walked away. How many times did you write to her after Christmas?"

Tommy had to stop and think for little. His eyes grew wide as he realized that he'd only sent one letter to Kim after Christmas and before her letter. He'd only made three phone calls before the letter. "What have I done?"

"Call her." Rocky's voice had softened considerably. "Call her and talk to her. Ask her for yourself."

He had. That night, he called her number in Florida only to have her roommate tell him that she was out.

FLASHBACK ENDS

"That was when I really gave up. I didn't bother calling again and I didn't hear from you anymore."

"That was right after I'd left. I just couldn't handle it. I figured that nothing was worth it anymore and my mom had told me that I couldn't give up just because I was having a little difficulty. Then, when I went to Orlando, I thought I could just lose myself in the crowds. I started working two jobs just so that I wouldn't have any spare time to think about what I'd given up. Then, it became necessary in order to survive and I really didn't have time to think about what I'd lost. When Jase and Emily found me, I didn't want to tell them about the way I was lucky to be eating twice a day. I was working every hour McDonald's would give me and then going to work at another restaurant. The only meals I ate each day was my freebie from McD's and from the other restaurant. I had no food in my cupboards. Jason showed up at the apartment the day that the building manager had come upstairs to tell me that he'd take care of my back rent as long as I had sex with him. I just couldn't do it. I tried fighting him off but I'd lost so much weight that I had no leverage. Not to mention the fact that he was about Bulk's size. He was so much meaner though."

Tommy reached out a hand and cupped her cheek gently. "Kim, you don't have to tell me anything more right now."

"If I don't say it now, I won't have the courage to later. It took Jason almost three hours to calm me down. Of course, the whole time I was hoping that he wouldn't open the cupboards because I didn't want him to see how empty they were."

"He did, didn't he?"

"Oh yeah. Then, I got the lecture. The 'why didn't you call anyone and ask for help' lecture. It made me start crying all over again. Emily even yelled at him for making me cry."

"Em yelled at him?"

"She's so protective of me. She treats me like a little sister almost as much as Jason does. I continued working both jobs for a while until Em and Jase got established in town. Thankfully, Jason talked to his dad who helped us buy the house we live in. I turned the basement into a separate apartment. It wasn't too long after that that we opened the dojo/gymnastics center. I was so grateful to Jason for letting me have an area for my gymnastics that I cried for hours. Emily cried with me and he just didn't know what to do with the two of us."

Tommy could picture poor Jason trying to deal with two sobbing women. "So you and Emily are good friends?"

"The best. It's almost like seeing me with Trini or Aisha again. At least that's what Jason says. Em and I are always going to the mall or any one of a dozen other places to shop. And since the center's doing so very well, we have plenty to spend. Of course, I'm already working on spoiling my new niece or nephew. The baby's room has so many stuffed animals in it already that they've got four of those neat toy hammock thingys in each of three corners. Not to mention all the ones that sit in the crib already. It's a good thing that the baby's not due for another month or two. There's no room in the crib!" Kim giggled at that and then caught at her head.

"What's wrong?"

"I just have a little headache. The doctor says I was tossing and turning kind of heavy for the last few hours that I was out. He says I may have hit my head on the railing for the bed."

Tommy's overprotective side reared its head. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"The doctor says I'm fine. Just a headache. Of course, you scaring fifteen or twenty years off my life doesn't help matters any."

Tommy smiled at her. "I'm sorry I was out so long. I had a couple of things to work out in my head. Thankfully, I had some help."

"Really? From who?"

"Dulcea. She felt a need to 'mend my broken wings', as she put it." He chuckled again but sobered quickly as he remembered everything that Dulcea had shown him. "She showed me what would have happened to you guys if I had never joined the team. Everything was just so wrong. I can't help but think about how wrong it all was."

"What was it, Tommy?"

"Just everything. I'll tell you all about it sometime. For right now, just tell me one thing."

"What?" she asked moving to the edge of her chair.

"Just tell me that this is reality. I don't think I could bear it if the other was real."

"Does this feel real to you, handsome?" Kim asked as she stood up and pressed a gentle kiss to Tommy's forehead.

He smiled. "As real as it gets."