02

Jason Lee Scott held his breath, focusing on the energy of his arms exploding forward to rapid-fire punch the punching bag in front of him. His sparring partner, Logan Hawkins, held on for dear life, fear flashing through his eyes as he tried to keep the bag steady against Jason's explosive force.

After a few more seconds, Jason sent one last punch forward into the bag. Hard enough that Logan lost his grip and fell back to the ground, bringing his hands up to cover his head so that the bag didn't swing back and strike him to the floor.

Jason looked at him incredulously then started to laugh. Reaching out, he grabbed the bag that swung back to him, stopping it with the flat of his palm. "You okay, man?" Luke uncurled and looked up at Jason, who held out his hand. "Sorry about that."

Luke continued to eye him warily despite taking Jason's hand and allow himself to be pulled to his feet. Jason's grin widened as he looked over his friend. Patches of sweat peppered his shirt at the neck, the arm pits, and his back, all from helping Jason spar. And most of that was only to help spot him when he was lifting weights and to hang onto a punching bag.

"Are you sure there's nothing wrong with you?" Luke asked, placing his hands on his hips. He worked to catch his breath. "Something going on in your personal life? Have I made you angry in some way?"

Jason licked his lips, turning away to hide his grin. He shouldn't have been enjoying the pain he inflicted on his friend so much. "No, why?"

"Because you look like you wanted to take my head off."

"No." Jason waved a hand. "Your head just got in the way. Well,"—he shrugged—"Got out of the way."

Jason and Luke both laughed and fist-bumped. Jason took a step back and ran his hands over his face, wicking away the beads of sweat that dripped down before going to the bench to grab his towel. He roughed it over his face then tossed it to Luke to do the same.

"You know, when I asked if you'd help me get into shape, I didn't say anything about you kicking my butt," Luke pointed out. "I just thought we were going to be lifting some weights or getting started running laps, not trying out for American Gladiators." Jason gave him a look, making Luke snort and motion towards the front of the gym where the smoothie bar was set up. "You can't tell me you haven't noticed every woman who's gone over there has been watching you."

"I have a girlfriend, remember?" Jason then pointed directly into Luke's eyes. "A girlfriend who'd probably beat you up for even mentioning it."

Not to say that Emily had a mean streak like that. She never came across as jealous to him before. But that was before. Before everything with his ranger duties, before everything with Divatox, before getting kidnapped. Before getting brainwashed, before…everything.

Jason closed his eyes. How he and Emily managed to have things work out, he still wasn't sure. Not many people would be able to take the disappearances, the absences, and the inability to explain why in stride. It was the reason Emily had broken up with him in the first place. She couldn't trust him. Then, one day, when everything had died down, she suddenly appeared on his doorstep once more, saying she wanted to talk.

Wanted to figure everything out.

Though surprised, Jason listened to everything she had to say. And he'd explained the best he could, that there were some obligations that he had in his life that he couldn't talk about. That he was sorry things had to work out the way they did and that he hadn't meant to hurt her.

They didn't get back together just then. There were still a lot of things they needed to work through, a lot of time they had to make up for. A lot of trust that had to be rebuilt. But they did it. They started off slowly, having lunch here and there. Then he asked her on a proper date and things had gone on since then.

It helped that he was no longer running off after monsters, leaving it for the new crop of rangers that seemed to pop up as the years went by. That certainly helped Emily's trust in him; he saw her become happier as the days passed the less he was secretive and making excuses.

But that didn't keep her from becoming a little bit suspicious when he suddenly had to leave for work, if something came up, or if there was suddenly some girl that acme onto him. He didn't want to risk anything with the thing that made him the happiest. Even if Luke was joking.

"Just kidding, man." Luke held his hands up defensively. "You know I have nothing but love for Emily." He folded his arms and smiled knowingly. "How are things going with the perfect couple?"

"I wouldn't say they're perfect," Jason said modestly. But he couldn't help but smile as he lowered himself to the floor to stretch. (And tried to convince himself it had nothing to do with the grunting and groaning Jason did as he lowered himself to the ground as well). "But things are going well. She's doing great at her job and we know how things are going here."

"Yeah, how many people can say they own a gym at your age?" Luke added.

"A lot," Jason said.

But he knew the truth. There were many people who didn't get the chance to live out their dreams. He'd always wanted to have a gym, a safe place for those of all ages like Ernie had done with the Youth Center. It was Ernie's death that had prompted him to final go ahead and do it, after years of worries that it wasn't the right time or that he didn't have the money for it.

Excuses, he realized. They were all excuses.

And he knew it all stemmed back from his tenure as a ranger. He had to make excuses every day to face certain death. And he faced it without a care in the world. The power would protect them. That power didn't extend to everyday life and when he was normal Jason, that was when things were hard. It was when he put all his attention and everything into his martial arts training.

Focused on what was going on in that moment. When not in training, he worked on his school work, didn't have time for anything else. And everything else fell by the wayside; his family, dating, and eventually his friends…

When he had the opportunity to create a gym in Los Angeles, he made sure it was as much like Ernie's as possible, keeping up with the found family feeling it always brought him. Business was booming, word of mouth was ensuring there were new signups for membership every day. They were selling a lot of smoothies per day; their classes were being filled. There was nothing Jason could complain about.

And yet, there was still something within him that was missing. An empty space, a black hole that took everything of joy in his life and spat out…nothing. He could be having good days and then there'd be moments during those good days where he'd have to process whatever it was he was feeling.

What a sight to see? Big Bad Red Ranger Jason Lee Scott had to stop and wait for moments of bleakness to pass. The guy who ran into every fight with a rousing speech to keep his team going, refusing to give up, had small moments of giving up himself.

It wasn't possible.

"Yeah," Luke conceded. "But they don't always have their best friends in to help them."

Jason had to concede that. He and Luke had met when in business school together, taking most of the same classes before getting to talking. Luke had been impressed, but not surprised, to find that Jason was into martial arts and overall health of body and mind.

"You look like you'd be into it," Luke commented.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jason responded.

Luke grinned. "How hard is it for you to put your arms down?"

And the two had laughed and gotten to know each other as the classes passed. Luke showed a lot of promise when it came to marketing and advertising, something Jason wasn't so well-versed in. Not in the computer sense, he was more of making connections and advertising while talking to people face to face. Having real conversations with them. It was a match made in heaven, once they worked things out.

And Emily pushed him all along, supporting him every step of the way. He owed a lot to her as he did to Luke and even Ernie in some way. With their continued success, there wasn't anything he'd do differently. Everything was working out perfectly.

After finishing their workout, Jason bid goodbye to Luke and headed back to his place with Emily. He had a lot of work he needed to do and being away from the office was good for that at times, opting to work from home. Meditating was still something he kept in his routine doing it three times a day. Once in the morning, once around lunch, and once at night to destress from the day.

Stepping into the apartment that day, he found himself immediately deep breathing to remove some of the stress from even the workout he'd done with Luke. Normally it chilled him out like knitting or yoga would relax others, but it simply made the muscles in his back and shoulders tighten even further than it had been before.

Abandoning the practice, Jason shuffled to the room he shared with Emily, tossing his bag to the ground and pulling his shirt overhead to get ready for a shower. As he did so, he lifted his chin and looked at the pictures that lined the wall. Pictures of himself and Emily over the years, pictures of him and his friend and colleagues, pictures from martial arts tournaments, form networking events, even from when he was younger. When he was a teen and everything with Kimberly, Billy, Trini, and Zack. When they added Tommy to that group and Avalon and Bailey…

Picture after picture lined the walls. Memories of his past. Jason sucked in a sharp breath and turned away from them. Bad move. It put him in the line of sight of his bookshelf. A bookshelf filled with different accolades from many different ventures. His university degrees, high school diploma, multiple trophies and medals from past competitions.

His eyes bypassed that and landed on the smaller piece of hardware that sat on the shelf. One that hadn't been in use in so long that Jason wasn't sure if it still worked. He tried to keep his communicator hidden as much as possible. Not just from Emily, but form himself, if he were being honest.

He couldn't remember the last time it'd gone off. The last time he'd felt that electric charge that rolled through his body when he was morphing into his suit. When he connected to the Morphing Grid.

Couldn't remember the last time the adrenaline of martial arts came close to the adrenaline of running into battle to defend his home.

Nothing would.

A/N: Can I just say that working to get into Jason's head is equally exciting and frustrating, simply because he's quieter. I have that same feeling with Billy at times. There's just a lot to unpack there. But I hope you all enjoyed this update.

Also, can you guys guess when within PR this is set?

~Av