Disclaimer: Not mine

Notes: This was written over two years ago, so the quality may not be the best ever. Spoilers for up to 'Uniquely Trip'

--

"Hey, you know... whenever I'd get hurt as a kid; my mom would kiss me and then tell me it was all better."

As gently as someone with her strength could, Katie pressed the ice pack against the ugly-looking bump on Trip's head, hoping it would bring down the swelling, at least a little. "I don't think it'd be much help right now, though."

Katie looked down at her friend. After a lot of convincing, he had given up trying to assure everyone he was all right and was finally getting some sleep, but judging from the look on his face, it wasn't a very peaceful one. She couldn't say she was surprised. After seeing how badly he'd been hurt in their last battle, Circuit caved and explained Trip's odd behavior over the past couple of days. So now she knew what he had been up to. Why was another matter entirely.

"What would make you think you're not good enough to be a Ranger?" She knew that this wasn't the time for asking questions like these, what he really needed right now was rest, but this couldn't wait. "Out of all of us, you should know that strength isn't just how much you can lift or how well you can fight. I mean... just look at you."

She readjusted the ice pack. "You gave up your world; your home... your family, so you could join Time Force. You built a life for yourself without anyone's help, but then you lost that when we came here. But you've never let that get to you. Not once."

"To be honest, Trip... there've been a lot of times I wished I was as strong as you are."

"Katie?" Jen's voice brought her back to reality. "We're trying to figure out it there's any way to salvage the blasters. We could use your help down here."

You can fix them without even trying. But she kept quiet this time. No matter how much she wanted to help him, she was just going to have to remind herself that he was more than strong enough to handle this by himself.