Disclaimer: Power Rangers and all characters therin are the sole property of Disney and folks under their employ. I own nothing except for the stuff I'm putting said characters through, heehee.

RJ sat in his chair up in the loft, staring at his hand. He'd been sitting in the same position, staring at the appendage in wonderment and every so often turning it over and back again as if expecting to find something out of the ordinary for nearly an hour. He wasn't sure what it was exactly he was trying to see. Well, he was sure, but he knew it was something that he couldn't find by staring at his hand as if it was some foreign thing, yet he stared on anyway. He wanted to find an explanation, an answer, as to why his hand seemed to be having a pleasant tingling sensation, a comforting slow burn, ever since earlier when he'd come out of his, quite literal, beastly state.

"RJ?" Said a voice, tearing him from his thoughts. RJ blinked and looked up to see Lily standing before him with a concerned look on her face. "You okay?" She asked. RJ blinked again and stared at her blankly, still somewhat caught up in his own thoughts to understand her simple question.

"Huh?" He said. Lily frowned.

"I said are you okay," she said. "Though, I think you just answered that question." Lily took a step closer to him and put a hand on his forehead. The touch seemed to bring him back to reality fully as his eyes lost their lost look and he chuckled, shaking her hand off.

"I'm fine," he said. "Sorry, just…thinking," he said. Lily's mouth formed a quiet 'O' and she nodded.

"I see," she said. She nodded again and sat down on the floor in front of him, making herself comfortable. "Makes sense, you've had a pretty eventful day, huh?" She said with a small laugh. RJ laughed along with her.

"That'd be an understatement," he said, causing Lily to laugh again.

"Yeah, I mean regaining control of your animal spirit, joining us in the fight…not to mention becoming a ranger," she said, listing off the things as if they were items on a grocery list. She paused before lightly smacking his leg. RJ's eyebrows went up.

"What was that for?" He asked, surprised.

"That's for not telling the rest of us you were a ranger too," she said with a small smile. RJ chuckled.

"Sorry, thought I'd be of more help playing the role of master and guiding you all," he said, putting his hands together in a Zen like manner. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Uh huh, sure, more like you thought it'd be more fun to sit back and relax while we do all the dirty work," she teased.

"Ah, ya got me," he replied. Once their laughter died down, RJ shook his head. "Anyway, I wasn't really thinking about joining you guys out there today," he admitted. "I was thinking about….what happened before that." Lily nodded, urging him to continue. "Ya know…me becoming less wolfy and all that," he said.

"Yeah, how'd that happen, anyway?" She asked. "I mean, Casey, Theo and I were a little thrown by you being a ranger to ask." RJ sighed, looking down.

"It…..was weird," he said softly. "I really lost it for a while….Things got pretty hairy," he paused, "no pun intended," he added quickly.

"What happened?" Lily asked.

"After you three left, Fran she," he paused again as the image of the girl in question entered his thoughts. Suddenly he felt that warm tingling sensation spread from his hand and envelope his entire body and he couldn't help as the corners of his mouth twitched up a bit in a smile. "She took care of me," he said in an awed whisper. He paused, catching himself and shook his head a bit before clearing his throat. "I felt terrible, like the wolf was literally inside of me, gnawing on my innards." Lily made a face at the mental picture that simile created. "My whole body just felt…..not right," he continued, "I could feel it coming….the transformation. And all I could think about was before…when I changed and attacked you guys and I knew that….if I changed and Fran was still here…..something bad could happen."

"So you told her to leave?" Lily asked. RJ gave a sad sort of smile.

"In hindsight, that probably would've been the most effective thing to do," he said.

"So, what did you do?" Lily asked.

"I grabbed the glass of water that was over here," he said, gesturing to the small TV table beside his chair, "and…sort of pretended to lose my grip and drop it. It wasn't a total act, I mean; I was pretty shaky so I probably would've dropped it even if I didn't want to. Anyway, so the glass broke and as I had hoped, Fran left to get me another glass. I was so relieved when she left to go downstairs. I figured while she was gone, I could try and rein in the wolf and…even if I couldn't, at least she wasn't around."

"So, what happened?"

"I didn't rein it in," RJ breathed out. He blinked, looking away as shame filled his face, "and Fran came back." He heard Lily's breath hitch in a small gasp as she waited to hear the rest. Lily thought back to when the four of them got back from battle and saw Fran. She didn't seem to have any injuries and for the most part looked like her usual happy self, so Lily knew that for the most part nothing truly horrible could've happened but she still was surprised. In front of her, RJ heaved a heavy sigh. "She came back with the glass of water….And here I was, Mr. Werewolf. I was up there," he said, pointing to the second level of the lost, "so I saw her before she saw me. It was like there was this war going on inside my head. The wolf part looked down at her and all he could see was a tasty treat on legs, and then there was the me part that wanted to scream at her, tell her to run while she could. Well, suffice to say…..the me……didn't win." Lily's eyes widened a bit. She was expecting him to say that he had won over the wolf and regained control over the wolf before anything happened.

"Go on," Lily breathed out.

"I growled at her," RJ recounted. He closed his eyes as the memory came to him. "She dropped the glass," he said, recalling the sounds, the smells, the sights, everything, from his memory. "She was so scared….I could smell it…..Her fear, it was all around me…I couldn't breathe without getting a whiff of it. And…it just…." He paused, afraid to continue, "excited the wolf even more," he muttered, his voice quivering. "She didn't run away…She just, stood there and tried talking to me, tried to reach me. And she…stepped back, and fell," he said, squeezing his eyes shut. "I jumped down and……I was on top of her…." He swallowed thickly as the memory continued to play in his mind. He remembered feeling her struggling beneath him, her fear growing by the second. While in that moment, the struggling and the increasing fear only made the wolf in him even more excited and wild. "And then…her hand…"

"Oh my god, you bit her hand?!" Lily exclaimed. Her voice cut through RJ's thoughts and he quickly looked at her.

"What?" He asked, totally caught off guard. "No," he quickly added once he replayed what she said in his mind. He shook his head and fixed her with an incredulous look. "Don't you think a bite mark on her hand would've been kind of noticeable to you guys when you saw her before?" Lily paused, closing her mouth.

"Oh yeah, good point," she said amidst a nervous chuckle. "Sorry, continue," she said. RJ sighed.

"I had my hand reeled back, ready to," he let out a shaky breath and was silent for a few moments, "strike," he finally forced out. "The me part…in was inside of me, wanting to stop, wanting to roll off of her and let her get away. I didn't want to hurt her, but the wolf was too strong."

"But you didn't," Lily spoke, "hurt her, I mean….right?" RJ looked at her and smiled a bit; partly to reassure her, but mostly because now the memory playing inside his head was reaching its more pleasant conclusion.

"No," he spoke, "I didn't." He paused for a moment as a chilling thought entered his mind. "Well, I mean, no more so then practically pouncing her and trying to get at her like I did had," he frowned and quickly shook his head, trying to let that go and return to the conclusion. "She just stopped," he said. "She stopped struggling, didn't make any sounds…I…for a second I thought she'd gone into some sort of shocked catatonic state. She just looked up in my eyes….like she was staring right past the wolf and looking right into my soul, to the me part," he breathed out, his voice once again awed as he remembered that experience. It was scary, but in a good way, if such a thing was possible. Her eyes, which had been filled with fear when he had jumped on top of her, changed and became filled with something else; hope, understanding, forgiveness. "It felt like she was looking at me for hours….and I could see her eyes, they…..it's like she understood. As if she was telling me that….she wanted the good old RJ back but….if something happened, it wasn't my fault." He blinked, the tingling inside of him making his heart flutter as he remembered the rest. "And then she just…put her hand up, against my," he chuckled a bit, "paw."

"And then what?" Lily asked. By this point of the story, she was already certain that RJ hadn't hurt Fran and was now on the edge of her seat, or at least she would have if she was sitting on a chair instead of on the floor, eager to hear the rest.

"Something changed," he said. "The wolf….it didn't feel so out of my control anymore." He smiled. "I guess you could say it got domesticated. One minute there's a war going on inside of me, one side wild and scary and the other trying to hold it back, tame it somehow, and the next minute…it was tame. I was able to pull the wolf back, regain control over it. I became me again." He looked at Lily and could see by her face that she was expecting him to continue, that she knew that wasn't the end of the story. "I was so shocked," he went on. "I thought that it was a losing battle, to be honest. I…I lost hope." Lily smiled.

"And she gave it back to you," she said. RJ looked at her.

"What?" He asked.

"The you part inside of you, it began to lose hope. Sounds to me like Fran gave it back to you." RJ sat back, considering her words as Lily's smile widened. "She still had hope for you to be you again," Lily continued, "seems that when she put her hand to yours, she transferred some of it to you and helped you put wolfy on a leash." RJ chuckled.

"That's an interesting way to put it," RJ said.

"So, after you were you again, what happened?" Lily asked. RJ shrugged.

"You know the rest, I joined you guys in battle," he replied. Lily giggled, shaking her head.

"What, you just got up off her and left without a word?" She asked disbelievingly. RJ frowned.

"Well, no," he said, shrugging again. "I got up and," he stopped, his voice trailing off.

"And what?" Lily asked. Her eyebrows went up a bit and she couldn't help grinning as she saw RJ's cheek blush a bit.

"Held her hand," he muttered before quickly looking up, "to help her up off the floor, I mean," he quickly said. Lily simply gave him a knowing nod.

"Uh huh, and then what?" She asked.

"We hugged, and then I went out to find you guys," RJ said. He paused and looked at her. "What's that grin for?" He asked in a wary tone.

"Oh nothing," Lily said in an innocent tone, "just find it all interesting," she said. RJ stared at her for a moment before nodding and looking away. "And a little romantic," Lily said after a moment. RJ snapped his gaze back to her so fast his eyes could've popped out of their socket from the sheer force of the movement.

"Ro…romantic?" He sputtered out in disbelief. Lily chuckled.

"Oh come on," she said in a sort of sly tone, "her touch brought you back, you've got to see the romance in that," she said. RJ gulped. Of course RJ had had similar thoughts. Deep inside, he knew the tingling he was feeling in the hand Fran had touched and the rest of his body had to do with what Lily was suggesting, but that didn't mean he had to admit it.

"I think you should go downstairs and do some work," RJ mumbled quickly as he rose to his feet and walked over to his meditation mat as a symbol to Lily that this conversation was over. Lily climbed up to her feet, grinning like the cat that had gotten the canary. RJ sat down on the mat, crossing his legs and putting his hands on his lap as he closed his eyes.

"Sure RJ, whatever you say," she said before turning around and leaving the loft. As RJ heard her footsteps retreat, he slowly opened one eye to make sure she was gone before heaving a heavy sigh and lying on the floor on his back. He held his hand up above his face and resumed what he had been doing before Lily interrupted him: staring.

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AN: Hoped you all enjoyed this. The second chapter should be up sometime tomorrow or this weekend at the latest. Don't forget to leave a review. 