Chapter Text
It feels like it takes hours to get to the car and Jason has to stop several times to keep from passing out. Billy is right; being dead really drains you.
He feels like every inch of his body is bruised and his bones ache and protest every movement. His cracked ribs are flaring mercilessly by the time the reach the car and
Jason collapses gracelessly into the front seat, fighting the urge to be sick as he does. He knows for a fact Kim will kick his ass if he throws up in her car though so he manages to keep everything down and not ruin the upholstery.
He thinks he falls asleep (or loses consciousness) at some point on the ride back because one minute they’re at the mine and the next they’re in his driveway and Billy is cutting the ignition. The Blue Ranger frets and frowns for a minute, mumbling to himself about whether or not he should have taken Jason to the hospital instead of his house, but Jason reaches out and pats his wrist in two short thumps as if to say the house was the better option.
Billy doesn’t appear convinced but he doesn’t push the issue either, choosing instead to duck out of the car and come around to the passenger side to retrieve his injured friend. Jason nearly topples out of the car the second the door opens and it’s only thanks to both of their enhanced reflexes that he doesn’t end up face-first on the ground.
It takes a second but Billy manages to get him back up and semi-functional and guides him in the direction of the front door.
Jason’s dad will be out in the bay until tomorrow at the earliest and his mom is working a night shift tonight. He has no idea where his little sister is, probably over at a friend’s house if he were guessing, but that means the house is empty when they come staggering in through the front door. Which is great because that means he doesn’t have to explain himself when he loses his battle with being sick and politely vomits in the foyer.
It drains him of what little energy he has left and he sags heavily against Billy, nearly passing out again before the other Ranger can steady him. “I’ll clean it up later,” he mumbles thickly, squeezing his eyes shut against another wave of pain and dizziness. Billy just nods and tightens his grip, leading Jason further into the house and toward the staircase.
The stairs nearly prove to be his undoing and by the time they reach the final landing, Billy is all but carrying him. His cracked ribs are a constant stab of white-hot agony and his busted knee gives out on the second step. He’s shaking with exertion by the time they get to the second floor and Billy is literally the only thing keeping him upright.
They nudge their way into his bedroom and make it the three or four steps it takes to get to the bed before Jason loses consciousness again. He hears Billy say his name, at least he thinks he does, but he doesn’t have the energy to respond.
His awareness comes back in fleeting, short intervals through the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. He’ll regain consciousness just enough to hear quiet, muffled voices but his pain and sleep addled brain can’t make sense of what they’re saying.
He knows he hears Kim at least once and Trini a couple of times. Billy’s voice is right above him like he’s sitting beside him on the bed but Jason can’t be sure. They’re all speaking quietly and he desperately wants to be a bit more lucid to contribute to the conversation and ask if they’ve found Zack but, as it is, he slips under again and doesn’t hear anything else for a long time.
When he wakes up again a few hours later it’s dark and the room is empty. He has no idea what time it is but it must be late because the house is quiet and still.
He groans and pushes himself up onto one elbow, which hurts like hell but he doesn’t quite feel like he’s going to pass out again like he did earlier in the day so he figures that’s some progress at least. In fact, most of his injuries feel like they’ve healed a bit within the past few hours, no longer as severe and mind-numbingly painful.
He figures it has something to do with their Power Coins but he’s too tired to really focus on it at the moment. Whatever the explanation, he’s grateful; granted, he still feels like he’s been thrown out of a moving car and then backed over by said car but his pain level has shifted from about 13 down to a solid 9.5.
It takes an absurd amount of effort to push himself all the way up but he does it without assistance and feels weirdly proud of himself for it. There’s a sheet of notebook paper on the mattress next to him that he hadn’t noticed before and he picks it up and reads the message scrawled across the middle of it in Kim’s elegant script.
Jason,
Out searching for Zack. Stay in bed, we’ll be back soon. Don’t do anything stupid.
Kim
He almost smiles at the note but feels the expression fall flat when he realizes it means they still haven’t located their missing Ranger. He frowns and locates his cellphone in the pocket of his jeans, pulling up the home screen with a swipe of his thumb. Amazingly it still works; he’d been half-expecting it to be a useless pile of plastic and circuitry after everything that happened today.
It takes a second for him to get to the correct screen and the correct number (he’s still clumsy and uncoordinated thanks to his injuries) but manages to pull up Zack’s contact information and get a call through. The other line rings once before immediately connecting to voicemail and Jason feels the knot in his stomach twist again.
“Zack, man, call me back when you get this,” he says as the voicemail connects on the other end. “Everyone’s out looking for you. We’re really worried about you.” He pauses and amends his statement. “I’m really worried about you. Just...call me back, okay?”
Jason drops the phone onto his bed and slowly, carefully turns so he’s sitting on the edge of the mattress. He knows Kim told him to stay put but he can’t just sit around and wait while Zack is still missing. He needs to be out there helping them look, not laying down in bed.
He braces himself against the edge of the mattress for several second before finally pushing himself up to standing. The room tilts sickeningly around him and he worries, rather belatedly, that he might pass out again but he manages to stay standing.
His room suddenly seems enormous and it takes what feels like a ridiculous amount of time to shuffle over to his dresser and locate a clean change of clothes. The shirt and jeans he’s currently wearing are destroyed, filthy with blood and dirt and dust. He’ll get rid of them tomorrow when he has a bit more energy but for now he’ll just leave them in the bathroom hamper.
Keeping the new clothes tucked under one arm, he staggers out of his bedroom and down the hall to the bathroom. He passes his sister’s room and sees she’s asleep so he makes a concentrated effort to keep his stumbling as quiet as possible to avoid waking her and having to answer a lot of unnecessary questions. He reaches the bathroom, closes the door, and slumps a bit against the sink to keep himself upright.
In spite of feeling marginally better than he did earlier in the day, his reflection in the light of the bathroom looks terrible. There’s a nearly healed cut above one eyebrow and a deep, mottled bruise the covers one whole side of his head. Probably explains all the dizziness; he’s reasonably certain it was the result of a concussion.
There’s dried blood in his hair and a long, shallow cut across his scalp that extends from his temple to about three inches back behind his ear. It’s been cleaned and dressed though, all of his injuries have, and he’s pretty sure that’s either Kim or Trini’s handiwork. He makes a mental note to thank them later.
He doesn’t look much better with his clothes off either. His chest and arms are splotched with dark, ugly bruises and there’s one particularly colorful collection over the ribs on his left side. So definitely some broken ribs. Cool.
His right knee is about the same color and roughly the size of a softball, the swelling extending all the way to the back. He can’t put much pressure on it but it’s not immediately threatening to collapse which is good. It probably won’t hold out for long though so he gets changed as quickly as he can (which still takes several minutes) and drops his dirty, bloody clothes into the hamper.
It’s going to take some effort getting back to the bedroom and Jason braces himself for the short but intense journey. Keeping one hand pressed against the wall, he slowly staggers his way back down the hall toward his room. He freezes when he gets to the doorway.
Zack is standing in the middle of his room, outlined in darkness and the glow of the hall light. He’s still dressed in the clothes he was wearing before the fight and he doesn’t look injured but his posture is definitely tense and rigid. His eyes land on Jason and a number of quick, fleeting emotions cross his face in the span of a second. Relief, concern, irritation, happiness; it’s all there and gone within the blink of an eye.
Jason is so relieved to see him he forgets his bum knee and tries to take a step forward. “Zack,” he breathes but that’s all he gets out before his knee buckles and his vision goes blurry. He’s falling before he can stop himself.
Zack clears the space between them in an instant and catches him under his arms, pulling him against his chest to keep him upright. “Easy, easy,” he breathes against
Jason’s temple, fingers tangling themselves in the other boy’s shirt. “I gotcha.”
Jason is clinging to him too, hands clenched into tight fists against Zack’s back. “Where have you been?” he asks breathlessly, burying his face and the side of the taller boy’s throat briefly to quell some of the dizziness. His eyes feel wet and his vision is blurry and if he’s crying then fuck it, it’s been a long day. “We’ve been so worried sick about you. Where did you go?”
Zack balks just slightly at the statement and shakes his head. “You were worried about me? You had a fuckin’ mountain collapse on top of you!”
“We didn’t know where you were,” Jason continues, oblivious to Zack’s words. He clings to him tighter. If it sounds overly emotional he blames it on being dead for a few minutes.
Zack sighs softly and presses his cheek against the top of Jason’s head. “I’m sorry,” he mumbles quietly. “I’ll explain everything let’s just…” he stops and readjusts his grip on Jason, holding him as tightly as he can without hurting him. “Let’s get you back to bed, alright?”
Jason doesn’t get a chance to protest as Zack practically carries him over to the bed and sets him down on the mattress. He hovers right in front of him, hands passing over his face, his chest, his arms, and he laughs a little brokenly. “Wow, Red, you’re a mess.”
Jason reaches out and catches him by the wrist, squeezing just a little. He wants to keep one hand on him at all times to make sure he doesn’t vanish into thin air again.
“I’m told that’s what happens after a mine collapse,” he jokes weakly and it falls a little flat between them.
The Black Ranger looks briefly horrified, as if abruptly remembering the events from earlier in the day, and he shakes his head slowly. “Yeah, don’t remind me,” he mutters grimly, reaching up to cup Jason’s cheek gently.
Jason leans into it, covering Zack’s hand with his own. “Where did you go?” he asks again, leveling his gaze with Zack’s. “The others have been searching for you for hours.”
Zack hesitates for a second before he speaks, clearly weighing his answer. “I panicked,” he admits finally, gaze dropping to the floor. He looks embarrassed and ashamed and regretful all at once. “After we got you back to the ship and I was sure you were okay I just...I thought I was going to have a panic attack. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t see straight...I didn’t know what I was doing, I just ran.”
He moves one hand to grip Jason’s, squeezing tightly like he needs to convince himself he’s there and alive. “I didn’t mean to leave, I just... I felt like I was drowning. I knew you were breathing but I felt like I was suffocating and I panicked and ran. I don’t even remember leaving the mine or the quarry or anything like that. I just ended up on the other side of town pacing in an alley. By the time I got back, everyone was gone and the ship was empty.”
He lets out a long, slow breath and shakes his head again. “I didn’t know what to do so I came here.” He looks back up and Jason and his eyes are dark with anxiety and obvious fear. He presses a hard, desperate kiss to the back of his knuckles. “God, I thought I was going to lose you...”
The admission makes something in Jason’s chest clench and he squeezes the other Ranger’s hand in reassurance. “Hey,” he says gently, ducking down and catching Zack’s lips in a soft kiss. He tastes blood and he’s not sure if it’s his own or Zack’s but he doesn’t bring it up. “I’m okay. I’m fine, I promise,” he tells him even though he knows for a fact he looks like lukewarm death.
“But you weren’t,” Zack insists against his lips, voice thready and fragile when he speaks. He shakes his head and kisses him back and cups his face with both hands.
“Jason, your heart stopped. I felt it. I thought you were going to die or that you were dead already. It was like watching Billy drown all over again and I just…” he fades off and clears his throat quietly. “I couldn’t do that again. I couldn’t handle it.”
He hesitates briefly before closing his eyes and pressing his forehead to Jason’s. “You have to understand, man, I’m not used to caring about anyone but me and my mom,” he mumbles quietly, thumbs brushing ever so gently across Jason’s temples when he speaks.
“This whole team thing...it’s new to me, it’s not something I’m familiar with, but watching something happen to you guys, watching something happen to you,” he says, emphasizing the last word with a small shake of his head. “That terrifies me.”
He smiles wanly and lets out a shaky breath. “I can handle a lot of things, man; aliens, superpowers, creatures of the week...but watching you get hurt? Knowing how easily you could have died today? I can’t handle that. I’m strong, Jas, but I’m not that strong…”
Jason feels like a ball of lead settles in his stomach. He can’t imagine what Zack must have felt when he was digging him out, not knowing if he was alive or how badly he was injured. He knows he would have been a complete wreck had their roles been reversed, if he had been the one pulling Zack out of the mine, and if that’s even a fraction of the panic and desperation Zack felt earlier today then Jason fully understands the fear he feels now.
“I’m sorry,” is all he can say, reaching out and tangling his fingers in Zack’s dark hair. His shoulders ache and the movement is stiff and jerky but Zack’s hair is soft and warm against his fingers and he slides them through slowly. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that. I’m sorry…”
Zack shakes his head slowly and takes one of Jason’s hands, pressing a soft kiss to his palm. “Just promise me you’ll never do that again,” he pleads shakily, trying for a half-smile and failing.
Jason tries to smile as well but it hurts and causes a cramp in his jaw. “Not an experience I’m looking to repeat, believe me.” He leans down and catches the other boy’s lips in another kiss, still holding onto him tightly. The gravity is a bit too much though and he sways a bit following the lean, nearly toppling off the bed and into Zack’s chest again.
The Black Ranger reacts quickly and moves up onto the bed, pushing Jason very carefully further back onto the mattress. He snakes one arm around him gently and pulls him down onto the bed so they’re both stretched out across the mattress. “Stop moving,” he mumbles softly, lips brushing against Jason’s temple as he speaks. “You’re going to make it worse.”
Jason obliges and goes still, mainly to make Zack happy but also because what little energy he had left is draining out of him faster than he can keep up with it. He feels heavy and boneless again, weighed down with balls of lead and iron chains. Zack is with him though, curled against his side and his arms wrapped around him, and that outweighs everything else.
“You need to call the others,” he mutters, voice slurred a little as exhaustion tugs at him again. “They’re worried sick.”
“You need to go back to sleep,” Zack retorts gently but he does reach into his phone and type out a text message to their teammates. Once it’s been sent, he settles back onto the mattress and holds Jason close, listening to him breathe while keeping one hand resting above his heart.
Jason reaches up and covers his hand with his own. “I’m okay,” he assures him with a small, tired smile.
Zack nods once and leans forward to kiss him again. “Just making sure, Red,” he says, laying back down beside him. His phone chirps a few times from his pocket, a sure sign that their teammates have gotten the message and are on their way back, but Zack doesn’t answer. He keeps his focus on Jason and nothing else.
The Red Ranger is slowly but surely losing his battle with the waking world again and he knows he won’t be able to fight it off much longer. He squeezes Zack’s hand gently while he still has the energy to do so. “Stay with me, okay?”
Zack just nods and pulls him close. “Not goin' anywhere, Red.”