Chapter Text
Earth-2823
Inside Kimberly and Olivia's home in Canada
"Are you sure about this?" Kimberly asked her husband again.
Tommy sighed, as he continued to look at his reflection in the mirror. His long flowing hair that cascaded down his shoulders.
"Yeah, Kim." He said with a small smile. "I am ready."
"You always refused to cut it before." Kim winced. "You know we can always stay in Canada. We have teleportation, you know. It would be easier to be ourselves there."
"We have gone over this before, Kim. Olivia wants to be in Angel Grove, and all our family is here. And you weren't Kim there… You were Emma Phillips. I don't want you to hide who you are anymore."
"But you have to hide yourself back here."
"Getting a new haircut, growing a beard, wearing false glasses and using a new name doesn't mean I am hiding, Kim. And I am okay with that and pretty much everything else as long as I get to be with you and our daughter." Tommy smiled, getting up from the stool to plant a kiss on his wife's forehead and wrap her in a hug.
"Okay then, handsome. Sit down and let me do my thing." Kim laughed. He obeyed, and Kim tied a blanket loosely around his neck so that the hair does not get all over him, and lifted her pair of scissors.
Tommy closed his eyes shut. It was the first time since he was ten that he was shortening his hair, but it was necessary to dissuade anyone from recognizing him as the guy who was supposed to have died more than two decades ago. They had already made a blunder by visiting Angel Grove with their friends just after returning from the moon. Though they hadn't encountered anyone who remembered him that day, Billy had still digitally altered the footage of the security cameras from the park and high school, so he couldn't be identified.
He hadn't aged inside the grid. He still looked 23, a year older than his daughter, while Kim, despite being even more beautiful than he remembered, definitely looked older than him, not that he would say that to her.
The current plan was to not show up publicly till he had grown a beard, both so he looked different and bit older or rather closer to his real age, to avoid undue attention from inquisitive strangers.
"It's done." Kim announced with a grin.
He looked down to see lumps of his hair on the newspapers they had placed on the floor to prevent it from being littered, and then looked in the mirror.
His hair was very short, like the crew cut people usually get in the armies. Tommy ran his hand over his scalp, getting a soft sensation, even though it looked spiky.
"You still look dashing, if you ask me." Kim smiled.
"Thanks." Tommy smiled at her.
Just then, her phone chimed.
Kim opened it and swiped the lockscreen, while Tommy looked at it bizarrely.
"Man, technology has really changed in the time I was gone… You have these futuristic phones, which are basically mini computers, and you can touch the screen to do stuff." Tommy marveled. Billy had given him a new phone, and tried to explain how it worked. Though the AI on the phone was no Alpha, he was still surprised when he first heard it 'speak.'
And it didn't end at phones. People had 'smart' watches, which had small computer screens, which can also be operated by touch, and can be used to call people. Aside from teleportation, these watches were way more advanced than even their communicators, though Billy said that the only reason he had not updated them with modern tech was because of Kim's insistence, and he had many ideas on how to tweak the communicators so they could do other things. Tommy had promptly asked him to refrain from doing so. He was having a tough time adjusting to modern stuff… He didn't need Billy inventing even more advanced tech on top of that.
"Yeah, you will get used to them in a while, Tommy." Kim said bemused. "So, Olivia messaged me. She is still busy in the lab."
"My daughter is all grown up. I missed out on everything." He bemoaned.
"Hey, none of that." Kim said sternly, placing her hand on his shoulders, and whirling his chair so she could look him in the eyes. "Yes, you may have missed out on a lot of things, but that wasn't your fault. It is a miracle you are back with us, and you get to be a part of her life from now on."
"Yeah, but…"
"No buts. Tommy, all three of us are together and alive, and yes, you haven't aged a day since you disappeared and look like my son instead of my husband, but that's okay. I still love you and you still love me. That's all that matters. Plus, it's not all bad. I was always worried about leaving Olivia alone one day. Now I don't have to. I may not be forever, but you will be there to look after her long after I am gone."
"Hey, you don't get to say stuff like that." Tommy admonished. "I didn't come back from dying to hear about you thinking of what will happen after you die. Nothing is written in stone. Nothing is certain."
"Sorry." Kim winced. "I was so used to being just the two of us, and always being on guard, I looked at your condition practically instead of how a normal person would do."
"You are normal." Tommy said, getting up from his chair.
"No, I was stupid, Tommy. I chose to be alone, when I had my friends… my family. Olivia never got to meet Trini while she was still around, and I never got to say goodbye to my best friend. Trini didn't even tell me about her disease… And I can't blame her, can I? I had left her and hurt her so much." Kim's voice trembled, as she looked away. "I was a bad friend."
"You were in pain, and you know that Trini loved you so much."
"I do, which is why it hurts so much. Yes, I was in pain, Tommy, but that wasn't the reason why I left Angel Grove or cut off the others from my life. I knew they would have been there for me… for Olivia, and that if I was with them, I would eventually be okay… and I couldn't bear that. I couldn't bear the thought of being okay without you in my life."
"Maybe your decisions were misguided, but from what I heard, keeping Olivia a secret was key to stopping Selena and Finister's plans." Tommy said gently, wrapping his arms around her and patting her back. "Besides, I left you once, but I promise I am never leaving you two again."
Kim nodded, leaning on his chest as tears rolled down her eyes… tears of regret and pain, but also gratitude and love.