Author's Note: Oh my gosh... Here it is! The END!

I went through a long period of time where I thought I would never finish this one up, and I really want to thank all of you readers who encouraged me to do so. Thank you to everyone who stuck by me to the very end, to everyone who took the time to review or reach out, and most importantly, to the small-but-loyal TK fandom that's still kicking around out there!

The good news is... I have several other ideas I'd love to develop soon! I haven't felt like I could dive into any of them until this one was done, but now those ideas are bursting out of me and ready to be written down! Stay tuned!

To my loyal readers - I hope the ending does it justice. I own nothing, as usual.

ONE WEEK LATER

Rain pelted solidly against the window of the small hotel room that had become Kimberly's self-imposed prison over the course of the last week. She sat surrounded by a mess of unmade bed sheets and pillows, thumbing absentmindedly through the twelve channels available to her while wondering how many sitcom reruns and infomercials she could watch before she actually, truly lost her mind.

She wanted nothing more than to go… somewhere. Anywhere. Somewhere FAR away from here. She wanted to go home.

But, she'd made a promise to Jason to stay, for the time being. After emerging from the alternate dimension she'd been in rough shape - physically, mentally, and emotionally. Aisha tried to usher her back into Tommy's house, but she'd outright refused. She couldn't bear the thought of seeing him again.

The spell over him was broken - she'd known it as soon as she met his eyes in the darkness of that volcanic cavern. He was back to 'normal' - meaning, back to being in love with Katherine. And Kimberly needed to fade away as fast as possible to allow them to get on with their Happily Ever After.

So, Aisha accompanied her dutifully to the same hotel the others had been staying at the week before, where she had intended to take a hot shower, get a good night's sleep and hop on the first available plane the next morning. But Jason, who had shown up a few hours later had different plans. He'd tried to convince her to go get checked out at a hospital, but she was sure two visits so close together with similar injuries would throw up all sorts of red flags - and lead to many questions she wasn't prepared to answer.

Maybe it was the lack of sleep, on all of their parts. Maybe it was the stress of the last week's events. But something about Jason's plea was so endearing, so protective, that while she'd refused to seek out any sort of professional care, she'd agreed to a compromise - she would stay at the hotel for "a few days", until she was feeling better. In Jason's words, just until he felt less guilty about putting her on a plane and sending her away, where no one could see if she was healing properly.

Now she wished she'd asked for a more specific definition of 'a few days'. Physically, she was feeling as well as could be expected. Her shoulder was stiff and sore, but she was past the worst of it, and was fairly sure it wasn't anything too serious. She was scraped up and bruised, just about everywhere, but even that was starting to heal.

Her emotional well-being, however, was another story.

Of course, she wasn't actually being held prisoner. She could leave the room, she could leave the hotel… There just wasn't anywhere else she wanted to go. Her friends had all spent most of the last week at Tommy's house, debriefing and decompressing. And probably helping to rearrange wedding plans, Kimberly thought bitterly on more than one occasion.

Jason, who was staying right across the hall, had tried to keep her in the loop. Yes, it had been a spell - Billy had done a great deal of analysis on the shard from Finster's orb and was able to figure out exactly how the spell worked and where it originated. Yes, the alternate dimension had completely imploded, with Finster and Virox inside. Yes, all of her friends made it out safe. Yes, they had escorted Jake back to Florida - along with a dose of a heavy sedative, enough to make him think it had all been a very strange dream - combined with a heavy binge-drinking session - when he woke comfortably in his own bed (probably with a wicked headache, courtesy of Jason's fist, but he didn't seem all that remorseful.)

Yes, Kat was back to normal. 100% pre-spell, love-of-Tommy's-life normal.

Beyond that, Kimberly was wholly disinterested. Jason had caught on to this, and while he continued to spend his time at the hotel with her and express concern over her well-being, he stopped sharing ranger-y details. She appreciated Jason's concern, but more than any other time in her life, Kimberly was ready to close the book on this chapter. Ready to say goodbye to the rangers. Ready to say goodbye to Tommy.

Except, not actually say goodbye. She was hoping beyond anything that she'd be able to get the hell out of here without actually having to face him, and all the feelings of shame he'd drudge up inside of her.

How could she have been so stupid?

How did she not realize he was under a spell?

What kind of idiot was she, to have thought it was real?

"Ugh," she exclaimed in frustration, flinging the remote haphazardly on to the bed as the cycle of negative thoughts began its well-worn path through her mind again.

The cycle was broken by a loud knock at the door. Kim sprung to her feet, eager for human interaction - and ready to tell Jason that it was time for her to GO.

The knock came again, insistently, before she reached the door.

"Jase, relax! I'm coming!" she shouted.

She swung the door open. "Listen, before you -"

Kimberly froze. The person on the other side of the door was most certainly not Jason.

Tommy stared at her wordlessly from the other side of the door, his expression cautiously neutral.

"Aw, crap."

The corner of his mouth quirked upward into a fraction of a grin. "Hello to you too."

She sighed, contemplating her next move. Swinging the door shut seemed to be her best option, but at the last second she reconsidered and stepped backward, allowing him to follow her inward without actually extending the invitation. "How did you know I was here?" She turned and stalked slowly back into the room, listening for the door to click shut. "Never mind. I know how. Stupid Jason…"

"Give him some credit. He held out for quite a while, apparently."

She turned to face him. He stood just a few steps inside the door, a comfortable distance away from her. His face was solemn and laced with concern, but otherwise, he looked… Good. Really, really… good. His hair was damp from the rain, and she tried not to pay attention the single droplet of water that cascaded down along the side of his face… to his neck… and slipped under the collar of his black t-shirt…

Tried, but failed.

Kim shook her head to clear her thoughts. This wasn't fair. But maybe it was what she deserved.

"How are you?" he said simply, in a tight voice.

"Just great," Kim answered, trying hard to control the venom in her voice. "How's Kat?"

Well, so much for controlling the venom.

He at least had the decency to look down at the floor. "Kim, I - "

"Tommy, stop," she said, trying to sound softer and more conciliatory. "You don't have to explain. I get it."

"No, you don't." His voice was sharp and she flinched involuntarily. To her dismay, she felt tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. "You've been hiding out in this hotel room while I've been losing my mind worrying about you! You wouldn't return my calls… You didn't even stick around until I was out of the dark dimension!"

"What was I supposed to do, Tommy? Throw my arms around Katherine and tell her how happy I was that she was back to normal? That the two of you had come to your senses? Wait around to watch you carry her across the threshold as your shiny new bride?"

Tommy scoffed and shook his head. "You've got it all wrong. I don't think you understand -"

"Oh, I understand perfectly fine," she cut in sharply. "It was a spell, all along. Pretty common occurrence, in our lives, unfortunately." She shrugged and forced a smile, trying to sound nonchalant. "You couldn't help yourself. I get it. I was… you and I…" Her breathing was coming in short, shallow gasps, bordering on the edge of a sob as the words that had played through her mind all week passed her lips. "We were an unfortunate side effect. Just a casualty of the spell." She took a deep breath and tried to compel herself not to cry. "You should go. Go pull your life back together. Go… get married!"

"I'm trying to explain -"

"You don't NEED to explain! I'm not an idiot, Tommy. Somewhere, deep down, I'm sure I'm happy for you - but I can't stick around and watch you and Kat - "

"Enough about Kat!"

A fire lit deep in her gut. Tommy had shaken up the foundation of the life she'd built for herself over the last decade, then simply turned back to Katherine as though nothing ever happened. Now he wouldn't even talk about it, as if it were a non-issue!

"Fine. We don't have to talk about her - Let's talk about you. I know what I saw in your face, that night, in the cavern." She allowed herself half a second to bring up the image in her mind. The regret in his eyes as he turned away from her and back to Katherine. The feeling of Aisha pulling her away as Tommy reached longingly for Kat. She shook her head as she paced away from him. "And the worst part is," she continued, "it's not even your fault! I can't even be angry with you! If anything, it's absolutely what I deserve, after the way I treated you! So if you're here to… to, soften the blow, to make me feel better, just…" she trailed off, fighting back a sob.

He waited patiently for the words to finish tumbling past her lips, his hands on his hips, staring her down with an expression that was somewhere between amusement and disbelief. After her final outcry, he took his own deep breath and spoke slowly. "Kat's gone."

Kim froze, her mind reeling as silence filled the space between them. His words, his expression, his body language… none of them aligned with what she knew to be true. Her eyes darted across his face, looking for a clue about the context of his outburst. "What the hell are you talking about?" she finally said, in a voice just above a whisper.

"I mean," he started, his demeanor softening, "she packed up and left. Gone," he reiterated.

"Why would she do that?"

"Because I told her to."

"That doesn't make sense!"

"I told you," he said, with a slight quirk of his lips that could almost be considered a smile, "You. Don't. Understand. You also suck at two-sided conversations, but we'll deal with that later." He winked.

The jerk actually winked. Kimberly couldn't help but smile when he did that, like some sort of innate reflex. How dare he wink at her!

"The spell," she said simply, trying to regain her composure.

"Yeah, the spell. Did you want me to tell you about it, or are you just going to tell me everything you think you know about it?" He smiled at her warmly, then, and Kim felt something inside of her tugging her back toward him.

"Shut up," she murmured, stepping cautiously toward him. She wished beyond anything that he would stop smiling at her - it was salt in her many wounds. She wished he would turn around and go.

That wasn't true. More than anything, she wanted him to stay.

"It was a spell. But it was not what you think. Didn't Jason tell you any of this?"

She paused, then shrugged half-heartedly. "He tried," she admitted quietly.

He laughed then, obviously amused and satisfied by her response. "Alright, I'll fill you in - but only if you can go just a few minutes without yelling at me."

"Fine," she said, in mock-indignance. She felt her resolve to hold him at arm's length starting to crumble, and she fought back a grin.

"Not a word," he warned in a light tone, then continued. "So, that guy wasn't actually all that powerful." There was an edge of arrogance to his voice - a tone she recognized from a long time ago, standing by his side in the command center, and it stirred something deep inside of her. "He couldn't create emotion, he couldn't bend our wills… All he could do was heighten what we were already feeling."

"That sounds… lame."

"Tell me about it," he responded, glad she was calming down. "But Billy compared it to a volume dial on the radio. He cranked mine all the way up, making me… act, on what I was feeling without thinking about the consequences. It lowered my inhibitions - or, something." He shrugged as if to say 'you know... Billy-talk.'

Kim studied him quietly, allowing his words to sink in. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What about Kat?"

His mouth set in a firm line, and he nodded, as though he were expecting that question - despite his earlier demand to drop the topic altogether. "In her case, Billy believes her emotions were cranked down - so low, she was practically devoid of feeling. That left her vulnerable to emotional manipulation."

She raised her eyebrows. "That's a lot of big words in one sentence," she said teasingly.

He shrugged. "Just repeating what Billy said. Besides," he said, as the jab sunk in, "I know big words, too." He feigned mock hurt, earning him a tentative smile from Kim.

"So… What does that all mean?"

"Well," he began, as though this were the moment he'd been waiting for since he first arrived, "it means that everything thing I said, everything I did… I meant it. In fact, I meant it more than anything in my whole life." He took another step closer. He was close enough to see her hands trembling. "It means… You and I… It was ALL real."

She drew in a shaky breath and tried to speak, but nothing came out. He nodded in affirmation. "Every minute of it," he said confidently. "All that spell did was make me act on what I really wanted."

His voice had dropped to an urgent near-whisper that made it hard for Kimberly to drag her eyes away. She worked frantically to ignore the warm bloom of hope she felt growing in the pit of her stomach. "But you… and Kat… in the volcano…"

Tommy released a sharp, exasperated breath. "I know. I'm sorry."

"That's what you said then, too. When you turned back to her."

"I couldn't leave her there! Aisha had you, I knew that… Do you really think I would have left you behind?"

"No, I don't." Her response was firm and genuine. The problem was, the 'Tommy' she knew wouldn't have left anyone behind. It didn't mean she was anything special. "But I saw… something in you. I saw your regret, I saw your guilt, I saw your shame - I know it! And I didn't know what you were apologizing for, but at the same time… I did know."

Tommy hung his head and stayed silent for what felt like an eternity. Now she was sure she wanted him to go. At least, 90% sure. Definitely, positively, 75% sure she wanted him to go.

"It was regret that you saw," he said, finally, without meeting her eyes. "But not over us. I felt terrible for the way I'd behaved, terrible for the way I treated Kat, terrible for leading the rangers into what was clearly a trap… It was this awful moment of clarity that hit me when that spell broke, and I was sorry for all of it."

He was closer to her now, almost touching, and Kim was suddenly unaware of who had taken those steps to close the gap. Had she?

"Look, Tommy… I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around all of this. It's been a very crazy couple of weeks, and I've been trying to come to terms with the idea that it was all the effect of a spell - "

"I'm telling you, Kim. I don't need a spell to love you - unless I've been under a spell since we were fifteen."

His hands fell to his sides, palms out in a gesture of resignation as he met her eyes again, and she swore she could hear both of their hearts beating in the silence that followed. Before she could regain her composure, she was collapsing against his chest, fisting her hands in the back of his shirt, breathing in his scent like she wanted to drown in it. She felt his breath hitch as his arms encircled her, crushing her against him in an attempt to eliminate every molecule of space that had ever existed between them.

She had about ten more questions she wanted to ask, but she let them slip from her mind as she relished the feel of his chest beneath her cheek and his face pressed into her hair. She had wanted this small element of truth more than she was letting herself admit. Maybe this was what kept her in that hotel room with little argument for the last week - was she waiting for this moment all along?

They stood there in that embrace for quite some time, both unwilling to be the one to pull away. Slowly, then, Kim started to turn her chin upward to look at him. She fully intended to say something witty, maybe even sexy… But as she moved, she caught sight of herself in the mirror over the desk - her hair pulled up in a sloppy bun, her tear-stained cheeks, the yellowing bruise over her jaw. "Oh, my…" she squealed, again burying her face against his chest. "I am a hot mess right now!"

She felt his low chuckle reverberate through his chest. "No," he said simply, his face still pressed to the top of her head. His hand slid confidently up her back from her waist to the back of her neck, then around to cup her cheek and angle her face toward him. "You're beautiful."

She was pretty sure she stopped breathing as his face descended toward hers, capturing her lips in a soft, featherlight kiss. Then he pressed his forehead against hers and grinned, his eyes locked on hers. "I'm so sorry, Kim, about how this all came about. But I don't think that makes it any less right. This… this is where I belong. Where we belong."

In truth, Kim hardly heard a word he said. His kiss had made her giddy, in a way she hadn't felt since she was a teenager. He had kissed her so many times over the course of the last week, but this time was different. It was earth-moving, faint-inducing, swoon-worthy kissing, and she gripped Tommy's t-shirt tightly to keep herself upright.

"I've been pumping Jason for info about you all week, but he wouldn't budge. Until tonight, when he found me buying a plane ticket online." He tipped her chin back toward him and looked at her intently. "I wasn't letting you go without a fight this time," he whispered.

She smiled and tightened her grip around his waist. He laughed. "Oh, so now you have nothing to say? "

Her fingers twisted in the fabric of his shirt and she pulled him down, brushing her lips against his teasingly. "Stay," she said simply against his mouth. "Stay with me."

He pulled away from her and made pointed eye contact, his eyes dark with longing. "Yeah?"

"Yes. Please, yes," she answered his hidden question.

"Why? So you can yell at me some more?"

"Ugh!" she exclaimed, pulling away sharply, but he caught her around the waist and yanked her back to him aggressively, claiming her mouth quickly with his own. She melted into him, throwing her arms around his neck and deepening the kiss, consuming every ounce of fire he poured into her and responding in kind. She felt her feet leave the floor and wrapped her legs around his waist instinctively as he covered the distance to the bed in two quick steps. In a heartbeat she felt the soft mattress against her back, Tommy's weight hovering above her.

He pulled back just enough to lock eyes with her, his eyes soft and affectionate, answering every question lingering in her mind - and asking one of his own.

She answered him with a bright, mischievous grin and ground her hips against his suggestively, thoroughly enjoying the grunt that erupted from deep in his throat. Then she sighed as his lips found the sweet spot just above her collarbone, and the world faded away around them, allowing her to succumb to him completely.

Some time later, Kimberly's heavy eyelids lifted. Tommy's bare chest rose and fell evenly beneath her cheek. She had no idea what time it was - with the blackout shades drawn, it could be halfway through the next day by now and she'd never know.

Every muscle in her body ached gloriously. Over the course of the last few hours (three hours? six?) Tommy had filled her over and over again, satisfying her in a way she'd never known possible. He'd worshiped every inch of her body while allowing her to explore his, the two of them communicating their feelings physically in a more effective way than they'd ever been able to before. She'd drifted in and out of a listless sleep between periods of lovemaking, the scent of sex heavy in the air around them. She was exhausted, but in an amazingly euphoric way.

Slowly she drew her fingers along the muscular lines of his abdomen, willing him to wake. Sure enough, she felt the telltale change in his breathing, the minute shifting of his body against hers, and eventually his fingers creeping along her hip, up her back and tangling in her hair. "Hey," he murmured gently.

"Hey," she responded as she spread her fingers wide and swept them across the firm expanse of his chest and abdomen. He moaned appreciatively and pulled her closer.

"You are insatiable, you know that?"

"Are you complaining?"

"Not a chance." He rolled in her direction, pinning her against the bed before kissing her hungrily. She responded enthusiastically, then slowly pulled back with an apologetic smile.

"I was hoping we could talk."

"Mm," he mumbled. "Sounds ominous." He propped himself up on an elbow and met her eyes. "What's on your mind?"

She exhaled sharply, gathering the fleeting thoughts bouncing around in the back of her mind. "Kat," she said simply.

"Kat," he repeated, incredulously. "You want to talk about Kat?"

"You never really told me what happened after you got back."

"Okay," he muttered reluctantly, propping himself up on an elbow. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"Nope. I just need to know how that was all... resolved."

"Maybe if you'd stuck around, you would have found out," he said teasingly, pressing a kiss to her forehead. She rolled her eyes. "It was really pretty simple. We both knew we were done. I brought her inside, and Tanya and I helped her calm down… Remember that moment of clarity I mentioned earlier? I felt it, after the spell broke? Well, for her, that 'moment' was her experiencing every feeling of the last week the instant that spell broke. I think it must have been pretty overwhelming."

Kim nodded sympathetically. She tried to imagine waking from a spell, only to find that the man she had been planning to marry had run back to an ex-girlfriend and nearly abandoned her to some bad-guy-wannabe. That would be a lot to take in.

"But," he continued, "once she pulled herself together, she looked at me and said, 'We're done, aren't we.' It wasn't even really a question." He shifted beneath her, settling back down on the pillows. "I know I was a complete jackass to her, and I apologized… That was where the spell got me. He didn't make me love you - that's been part of me for a long, LONG time. But the spell did make me think that it was okay to cheat on Kat, and that's what I've been struggling with."

Kim studied him carefully, watching the guilt and regret cloud over his eyes. She knew he wasn't the type of guy who would cheat, even if he were unhappy. She was fairly certain the ramifications of this particular spell were harder on him than he was letting on, and a secret sense of relief flooded over her - this was the Tommy she knew. Something about his dismissive tone earlier had not sat well with her, but now she felt like the pieces were sliding back into place.

But, now…. What type of person did that make her? She was fairly certain she had NOT been under any type of spell during her time with Tommy - she had not felt any differently when that spell broke. And here she was, her naked body wrapped around his with practically no regrets. "We were terrible to her, weren't we" she said, in a near whisper. "And at least you have a 'spell' to fall back on as an excuse."

"We were," he agreed. "But, I think Kat knew, even more than I did, that we weren't right together. She tried to hold on as long as she could, but any relationship that falls apart so easily was on thin ice to begin with. So, I helped her pack up the last of her things, walked her to her car, apologized again, and that was that."

They were quiet for a moment, before Kimberly spoke again. "How long before you started trying to shake information out of Jason about where I was?"

"About an hour."

She laughed, having expected an answer like that. "You are… something else, Tommy Oliver."

"Don't I know it." He ran his thumb across her lips and cupped her chin, looking at her affectionately. "You know what's weird though?"

"What?"

"Billy never found evidence of a struggle in the dressing room at the church."

"That doesn't make sense."

"That's what I said too. But Billy's theory… Billy thinks that, maybe, Virox convinced her to come willingly. As a test for me." He traced his fingers up her sides, causing a shiver to run down her spine. "A test I clearly failed miserably."

Kim pondered this silently. Now she felt like she had a hundred more questions, but Tommy's sudden yawn reminded her just how tired she was. Besides, it was in the past - no use worrying about it now. She settled back in to her spot at his side and allowing her eyes to drift closed. "I'm sorry about you and Kat."

"I'm not," he said firmly. "It really was for the best. I mean, I don't think we'll be inviting her to our wedding or anything, but all in all she'll be okay."

Kim blanched. She wasn't sure she'd heard him right - she was half-delirious with sleep deprivation, after all.

But really… did he just say their wedding?

"To be clear," Tommy said evenly, sensing her reaction. "I'd propose to you right here, right now. But I don't have a ring, and also, I think it might be in bad taste."

An incredulous laugh burst out of her chest. "One step at a time, tiger. We've got a lot to work out before we get to that point."

"I know. So just let me say this." He pushed up on an elbow again. "I'm all in, with you. For whatever. I'll go anywhere, I'll do anything... Name it, and I'm there. Hell, I'd be happy to stay right here," he said, flouncing back down on his back.

"Come on, Tommy," she murmured, looking around at the dated wallpaper and cheap furniture. "This doesn't exactly look like 'happily ever after'."

"It does to me," he said seriously, not breaking contact with her eyes. He rolled over and placed his mouth tantalizingly close to his ear. "I want to show you how badly I mean that, but I'm pretty sure my legs don't work anymore."

She flashed him a bright smile. "Who said anything about your legs?"

"You're going to be the death of me."

She thought about making good on her half-serious suggestion, but seeing as how she could barely keep her eyes open, she simply sighed contentedly and settled in next to him.

After all, they had the rest of their lives ahead of them. Surely they could squeeze in a few hours' sleep before their next go-round.

"I'm not going anywhere this time," she murmured. "I'm all in, too." Then she slung her arm across his chest and drifted off into a blissful, satisfied sleep, knowing that he was hers to hold on to from here on out.

That's it! I hope it lived up to its build-up... The two weeks covered in this story felt a lot more like a decade or so! Thank you, readers - please review and let me know what you think!