The Tale of The Dragon and The Tiger

Chapter Twenty Four: Quinn

   The slow sound of mechanical beeping woke me. I opened my eyes carefully to the blinding light above me.
   "He's awake!" Alpha shouted and the rustling of feet greeted my aching ears.
   The team huddled around me as i tried to sit up. Jason held out his hand to stop me. "Hey hey hey. You're hurt pretty bad. And you're still fighting that cold. You need to rest."
   "I cant sit here and just wait for Tommy and Rita to get stronger." I pushed his hand away and hauled myself to a sitting position. A blinding pain erupted in my abdomen and i fell back down to the hard stone floor. "You could have at least gotten me a pillow."
   The group laughed at that. Just a couple chuckles, but it was enough to lighten the mood.
   "Now let me check your wound." Alpha said, pushing back through the group. "Jason could you?" Alpha motioned to my shirt.
    Jason nodded and pulled out a kit. From there, he pulled out a pair of scissors and began to cut my shirt off my chest. He laid his hand in my chest and cut the collar of my shirt, making the fabric fall off my shoulders. He held his hand lightly on my chest for a minute, making my skin shiver.
   Despite the pain, i leaned up and locked lips with Jason. His eyes widened as I raised my hand and twined my fingers into the back of his hair, holding him in it longer.
   If this was the only time I would ever get to kiss Jason Lee Scott, I was damn well gonna make it count.
   After a minute, I pulled back and Alpha pushed Jason out of the way. The Red Ranger was still in shock when the others drug him away.
   "That was a brave risk." Zordon said behind me. I smiled out of hysteria, as Alpha prodded at my wound. "To reveal yourself fully to the members of your team."
   "Yeah well I thought it was high time they knew the real me."  I winced as Alpha threaded a needle in out of my stab wound, creating an intricate thread work pattern across my abdomen.
   That night, I stayed with Alpha and Zordon, who kept a close watch on me. And with the weeks following, no mention of Tommy or the missing Dragonzord.
  I stepped up my training regiment. I got more combat practice, more endurance training, and more zord time. It took all of my being not to go over to Jason's. To tell him how uncalled for it was for me to do that. To make amends.
  But a little lip locking wasn't the worst problem we had right now.

  I started falling behind on my studies. I was missing classes. Missing important tests. I was destroying the only good thing I had left in my life.
   "Hey, Quinn." Mrs. Holden said as I finished making up my test. The worst part about this was that, my teacher was also my counselor. She moved here after Tommy and I, to help us cope with the death of our father and the transfer of schools. "How are you and your brother?"
   I bit back a comment. I didn't know how we were. We didn't talk. We didn't see each other. We've never been this separate. "I don't know."
  "Well, why don't we talk about something else." She pushed her curly blonde hair out of her face. "How about you and Jason, how's that going?"
   Again, another concept I didn't want to think about. "What about Jason and I?"
  "Well, I overheard from Kimberly and Trini that you two... had an intimate moment the other day. Care to explain?" She said the words intimate moment like it was some world ending event.
   I took a deep breath, my stitches burning a bit. "I... I kissed him."
  "Oh. And?"
  "And what?! Nothing happened afterward. He just stared at me. We haven't talked since then."
   "Okay. Well maybe you should. Talk through it." She wasnt going to stop until I said I would.
   "Fine, I'll... catch him after school." I gathered up my things and trudged out of the class room.
  But waiting until after school to talk to Jason would have to wait, because we barreled into each other in the hallway.
  I shook the daze out of my head and locked eyes with him. He smiled shyly, not favoring eye contact.
  "Shit."