Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Author's Note: This is for my big sister from WITS, I know we haven't talked in a while but I still wanted to give something for your birthday. I hope you enjoy this Ilkreader.


This takes place right after Always A Chance.

Trying to Sleep

Cassie woke up to the dark. Looking at the clock she saw that it was 3:30 in the morning. She laid back down hoping to get in a few more hours before she had to get up. But after about twenty minutes she realized that wasn't going to happen. Groaning she looked at the clock again.

"Fine. I guess I don't need sleep anyways."

She got out of bed. She and Ashley were going to go down to Angel Grove at about 7:30 to hang out. No way was she going to have enough sleep. She rotated her shoulder allowing it to stretch for a bit. She could still remember Carlos coming down with a strike that was meant for the monster. It wasn't as painful as the look she could see in his eyes when he had left the rangers for a bit and was blaming himself.

He had finally come back and defeated the monster and he was back. Cassie smiled remembering how glad she was that he had stayed in the end. She loved having Carlos around; they had gotten much closer over the past months.

Cassie walked down and got some hot chocolate to drink. She went over to the main bridge. When she got there she saw the sky full of stars in front of her. As she stepped further in she could see that she wasn't alone.

"Carlos?"

Turning around the man she had been thinking of stood up, "Cassie."

"What are you doing up?"

"I could ask the same for you." Carlos walked over to Cassie, "Are you okay?"

"Just had a little trouble sleeping, thought I'd hang out here for a while, but I can leave."

"No, it's okay, stay."

Cassie and Carlos went over near the screen and sat down on the ground. They sat in silence for a bit.

Cassie liked these quiet moments with her and Carlos, sometimes it only took a look for them to know what they were talking about. It was a different way than with TJ. Carlos was different than TJ.

Carlos really enjoyed spending time together with Cassie. After what he had done to her he wasn't sure if they could again. He remembered going into the infirmary and seeing her there with her arm in a sling. She was in pain and he had caused that. After much thought he realized that the best thing to do would be to leave, even if it meant never seeing any of the again. Of never seeing Cassie.

Adam had helped him get over it, and to that he was once more grateful to Adam. Then when Cassie had come and given him his morpher, it was if she knew.

Everything had gone back to the way it was. Ashley had told him that Cassie's shoulder still hurt a bit, but there was nothing wrong with it; that had been after he saw her in the infirmary again. He knew that her arm was going to get better; he just hoped that it wouldn't end up taking too long; he hated seeing her in hurt.

Carlos had a hard time sleeping that night. He had laid there for a while but so many things kept entering his mind that he couldn't go to sleep. It was then that he decided to come and sit in the bridge for a while, until he got tired at least. Still he had no luck in getting tired, which was when Cassie had come in; someone that he had wanted to see.

After sitting in silence for a bit the two began talking. They ended up talking about quite a bit. Soon it was 5:45.

"Well I'm getting kind of tired, so I think I'll try and get a couple of hours of sleep, or at least how much I can get before Ashley drags me out of bed."

"True." Carlos laughed a bit. "Let me walk you to your room."

"Okay."

Carlos helped Cassie up and the two walked to Cassie's room. "So I guess I'll see you later?"

"Yeah."

Cassie was about to turn around when she found herself reaching up and touching his lips lightly. For a second Cassie worried and almost pulled away but instead she felt Carlos pull her closer and return her kiss. The kiss was a short one, but one her best kisses that she had. After pulling away Cassie smiled at Carlos, "Night."

"Night."

Cassie walked into her room but realized that now there wasn't a chance of her going to sleep, but she definitely didn't mind.