Disclaimer: I do not own power rangers. I wish I did but I don't.

Summary: A year after the fall of the troobien empire and its Christmas. There is only one thing Z wants for Christmas even if she doesn't know it yet.

The Best Christmas Present

Jack flipped over under the red covers. This is never going to work he thought. All night he had been tossing and turning yet not sleeping. He sat up and looked at the clock. It was two am. He had gone to bed at eleven thirty and it was now two am and he hadn't slept at all. To top it all off it was Christmas Eve. Well more like Christmas Day now. Normally he was excited for Christmas. He and Z would steal a lot of food so they and other homeless people could have a good feast. Then he and Z would sing Christmas songs all day. They never needed a tree or anything fancy they just needed each other to celebrate with. Now Jack had a tree but no Z or anyone to celebrate with. Annoyed he got up and threw on sweats and a sweatshirt to take a walk.

Z got a cup of hot chocolate and started to walk around the common room. There were lights lining the ceiling. There was a tall Christmas tree in one corner. She walked over to stare at it. It was beautiful, but she couldn't help but think something was missing. Normally on Christmas Eve. well Christmas day anyway she would be filled with joy and life. Now she was only filled with emptiness and she didn't know why. There was one other Christmas that had made her feel like this. But Jack had quickly mad her feel better. It was when she was 13 and Jack 15 or 16 and they had been walking and she slipped on ice and broke her arm. It had hurt so bad. Jack carried her back to the little shack they were living in and tried to set the bone and put a splint on it. He couldn't take her to the emergency because they would have been sent to orphanage. He didn't do a bad job at setting it though either but it still hurt. So Jack did everything he could think of to cheer her up and it worked. Suddenly annoyed of the lights Z grabbed her coat and walked out of the headquarters.

Jack was walking along the edge of New Tech City lake completely lost in thought. He couldn't cheer himself up at all. Even by thinking about all of the Christmases he and Z had spent together. Before he met Z he would just mope around on Christmas and star at the happy passer-buyers with anger and hatred. He didn't think it was fair that they got to be happy while he couldn't. But Z showed him there were many ways to be happy. You just had to find them.

As Z stepped onto the path around the lake it started snowing. The wind tossed her hair around but she just walked on. She lobed Christmas more than anybody but she didn't understand why people obsessed about lights, trees, and presents. When she and Jack lived on the streets there was none of that jazz and they were still happy. When she joined Spd she started to become fond of the lights but now they just seemed to annoy her to no end.

Jack was coming from the west end of the lake and Z as coming from the east end. Each of them was lost in thought and not paying attention to anything going on around them. Also the snow had begun to come down a little harder making it hard to see. They both kept walking until they ran into each other. Jack had been walking way faster than Z so when he slammed into her she started to fall. Quickly he caught her and helped her to her feet. Not bothering to look up or come out of his thoughts he just mumbled a sorry and started to walk on. Z on the other hand was thrown out of her thoughts at the impact and quickly recognized who almost ran her over.

"Jack." She said. Hearing his name he came out of his thoughts and turned around to see who it was.

"Z." he said walking over to her

"Wow, you were really out of it."

"Sorry."

"What were you thinking about?"

"Nothing."

"Jack I know you way better than that. You had your something's-really-bothering-me-face-I- can't-hide-it-face on. What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Come on. What were you thinking about?"

"You." Jack whispered so lightly that Z almost didn't hear him.

"Me?" she asked taken aback

"Yeah."

"What about me?"

"I was thinking about all those Christmases we spent together. It just doesn't seem the same anymore."

"Strange I was thinking the same thing."

Jack smiled and grabbed her arm and led her to the nearest bench. They sat down on opposite sides facing each other.

"I miss you and everybody from Spd." Jack said

"I… we miss you too." Z stuttered

"We never get to see each other anymore."

"Well it's hard when I work for Spd and you work with Ally."

"But we're here now."

"Yes. By the way what are you doing out at two am?"

"Couldn't sleep."

"Same here." Z said looking up at the stars through the snow. Jack scooted over to Z and pulled her into his lap and wrapped his arms around her waist. He was happy when she didn't object and put her head on his shoulder. Jack kissed her cheek and then Z turned her head to give him a full on the lips kiss.

"I love you Z." Jack whispered

"I love you too." Z whispered back

Soon it was three am and Z knew she had to get back to the base. Jack walked her there and gave her one last goodnight kiss. Z silently snuck up to her room. She was very glad that when all the rangers became officers they got their own rooms. This made it so much easier to sneak back in. She took of her coat and jumped into bed and fell fast asleep.

The same morning (just a few hours later) Syd burst into Z's room yelling Merry Christmas. Z moaned. She was not a morning person. Christmas or not. She sat up and Syd pulled her out of bed and into the common room. Sky was on the couch looking as tired as Z felt. Bridge's head was under the tree doing something. At this moment Z didn't want to know what he was doing. Syd walked over and sat on Sky's lap. Then they started to open presents.

When they were done a cadet walked in.

"Officer Delgado, someone is wait for you outside." He said

"Who is it?" Z asked

"I do not know."

"Ok thank you cadet." Z said saluting him. Z grabbed her cat and ran downstairs. Outside Jack was waiting for her with open arms. She ran up to him and picked her up and twirled her around.

"Merry Christmas Z." he said

"Merry Christmas Jack." Z said kissing him.

From above Syd excused herself and walked over to the window that overlooked the main doors to Spd headquarters were she witnessed the entire thing. She smiled to herself knowing that that was the best Christmas present Z had ever gotten.