Disclaimer: no one mentioned belongs to me, I guarantee it.

Kira swooped in on Ethan at lunch. "Where's Conner?"

He looked up from his sandwich. "I have no idea. Have you tried the soccer field? Isn't that where he usually is?"

"Not there. Maybe Dr. O.'s seen him?"

"Maybe. Why're you looking for him?"

"I just wanted to ask him something," Kira faltered. Actually, come to think of it, she really didn't know why she'd been looking for him. She had simply found herself wanting to spend some time with him. Normally, she spent plenty of time with the guy...maybe too much. Ethan looked like he wasn't sure what to say, so she quickly made her exit and spared him any awkward questions.

Kira decided to try for the soccer field again. It was, after all, Conner's home away from home. Unless he now considered his home away from home to be the lab or maybe even Hayley's, but since it was still school hours, Kira figured that the field was simply where he had to be.

Sure enough, he was there, bouncing his bocce ball in his right hand, hitting it upwards with his palm, and getting it as it came back down, flipping his hand over to knock it with the back of his wrist, then again on its downswing, hitting it with the underside of his wrist as though it were a volleyball. He was talking to some girl. Kira didn't recognize her, so she must have been an underclassman--only a few inches shorter than Conner with a flaming red bob cut. While Hayley herself was a redhead, hers was almost maroon, practically purple in color, but this girl's hair was the definition of 'redhead'. An all-natural, bright, vibrant orange color. Conner was laughing at something the girl had said, his face splitting in that organ-melting grin. Kira had never experienced anything quite like Conner's trademark smile, his most honest, open grin, one that made your insides turn completely liquid should he fix it on you. And he was fixing it on that girl. While his right hand was still occupied with the bocce ball, his left was touching the girl's arm as he said something that made her giggle.

Kira felt ill. She felt a wave of nausea so strong that it crashed through her as a hurricane. She felt as though she would vomit, but instead her lips croaked open, and a ptera scream exploded from her gut, fighting through her body, all fists and elbows as it pushed everything aside, a claustrophobic individual combating for open air. The ptera scream could well have been her most powerful yet, prompted by a base emotion even more powerful than the fear that had first awakened her power, rocking the air and rendering her completely weak. She collapsed to her knees, shadows of her dream, but in reverse order. She had no energy to stand, none to move, barely even any to think. She was only vaguely aware of whispers, a hum of confusion as her fellow students tried to puzzle out this phenomenon, and she heard the lightest squish of someone running across the grass. Kira heard someone speaking her name, as though from very far away, and she felt hands on her shoulders, warm and strong. For a brief moment they spread a tide of comfort through her body, but shortly thereafter she realized who they belonged to. Realized that Conner was touching her.

Conner's arm around her last night as she fell asleep, holding her terror in check.

Conner's hand on that girl, Conner's smile just for that girl, Conner's eyes boring into that girl's.

"Get off me," Kira snarled, and though her voice wasn't very strong, her mouth and throat aching from the rawness of her scream, her tone was fierce enough. "Don't touch me, don't ever touch me."

He let go of her, and she felt a twist that was both relief and agony. "Dr. O., we have a situation on the soccer field...you better get down here immediately."

Kira sat on her heels, bending over so that her hair twisted through the even grass, an upright fetal position. She shook with a seizure borne of the most intense pain, her body doing its best to match what her soul was suffering.

"Kira?" Dr. Oliver's voice punctuated through the dark fog that was shrouding her, and her shakes slowed, stilled, subsided. She felt a hand on her back, between her shoulder blades, and judged by its weight that it was not Conner's. "Did she have another attack?"

"Yeah. Or something. She's acting like she just had another one of those dreams, but she wasn't asleep."

"We have to get her out of here."

"She screamed, Dr. O., and a lot of people saw."

"I'll figure out something. We just have to get her out of here. Ethan, Conner, help her up."

"I don't want him touching me," Kira said hoarsely. Through the fog, her brain was trying to get a hold of itself, was drawing a picture of what it knew from experience was happening above her. Dr. Oliver's bemused expression, Ethan's concerned look, Conner's helpless shrug. "She means me," Conner said.

"Okay..." Dr. O. said slowly, as though trying to process this, as if trying to fit Kira's odd reaction into the puzzle of her condition. "Fine. Ethan, help her up. You guys need to get her back to the lab, and get a hold of Hayley. I have classes for the rest of the afternoon, but I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Right," the two boys chorused, and Kira felt fumbling hands on her arms as Ethan attempted to upright her. Conner's moves had always been so fluid, so instinctual with her, but Ethan appeared completely lost as to what to do with her.

Kira had no recollection of how Ethan got her to Conner's car, though she knew she hadn't passed out. Her brain was haywiring itself with the constant loop of Conner and that girl, and she almost wished she could have her dream again, to be saved from this montage of Conner's flirting techniques with some hapless, love-struck freshman. She found herself praying for the dream, wanting the blackness, wanting to see the events unfold as though real, wanting Conner's death so violently that were she truly herself, she would have been horrified at her reaction. But she was hardly herself. She was a shell, her mind shut off to the rest of the world, lost in its own instant replay and filling her with a raging hatred. She wanted Conner to feel pain. She wanted him to suffer. She wanted to punch her fist in his gut, twist around, and emerge with a slick, slimy handful of his oozing, wretched guts. She hated him. Hate.

"I hate you."

"Kira?"

Her eyes flew open, and she had the fleeting wonder that perhaps she had fallen asleep, because she was now in the lab, and she didn't remember getting here. But her gaze was absolutely clear and lucid, leaving her teammates with the idea that maybe she was back. Until she repeated her phrase. "I hate you." Her expression rocketed from sober to fiery as her eyes met Conner's.

"What? Kira..?" He sounded confused, torn. He sounded like a lost little boy, faced with something he couldn't even begin to comprehend.

"Who was she, Conner?" she spat. "Just another groupie? Just some insignificant little conquest, a little fun between classes?"

"I..." Conner's eyes widened, setting off a ripple in his forehead as his eyebrows arched, as he finally got it. Ethan was staring at him now as well, utterly lost. "I have no idea who she was. She just came over and started talking to me."

"You don't even know who she was?" Kira said. "Oh, great, Conner, that's just wonderful, that makes everything just so much better."

"What are you even going on about?" Conner said. "Don't you remember what happened?"

"I remember exactly what happened."

"Kira, you need to calm down, you're not yourself, you're sick..."

"Don't you dare try to be compassionate with me!" she screeched, though fortunately for the two boys, her body was too weak to support a full-on ptera scream, so they just got the powerless version. "You son of a--"

"I got here as soon as I could," Hayley announced, stepping into the room. Conner looked relieved to be spared from Kira's tirade, and stepped to the other side of the room to watch. "What's the problem?"

Ethan filled her in on everything. She hadn't been there for yesterday's meeting, so he had to start from the beginning. Hayley asked a few questions that he couldn't answer, so Conner filled in. Kira had her eyes closed, trying to pretend as though Conner didn't exist, but they believed she'd passed out again.

"She was doing fine this morning when we left for school--that is, when I went to get her," he covered quickly, the two of them having agreed to not discuss the fact that she'd spent the night at Conner's house. "And then at lunch, her power started going out of control, and she just collapsed."

"Oh, and she hates Conner," Ethan threw in.

"Like that's a surprise," Hayley said, and Kira fought the smile that threatened to give her away.

"Well, considering the way they were all buddy-buddy yesterday, it kind of is. Conner's been taking care of her, and they practically haven't left each other's side, but just now she went ballistic on him over nothing."

"Over this girl who was talking to me at lunch," Conner said.

Kira wasn't sure if she wanted the girl to have a name or not, if it was worse if she was anonymous.

"Kira went ballistic because you were flirting with a girl?" Hayley asked dubiously.

"I so was not flirting with her," Conner was quick to defend himself.

"But yeah, she kind of did," Ethan said.

"That's weird," Hayley said. Kira's nose was itching, but she couldn't scratch it without them catching on that she was awake, so instead she wriggled her nose furiously, as if wrinkling it would somehow erase the itch. "Guys, check it, she's waking up again," Ethan said, and Kira opened her eyes.

"Hey there, Kira, how are you feeling?" Hayley asked gently.

"Like crap," Kira said honestly. Her body, however, was actually beginning to feel fine again. "But better crap than previously. And I'm not tired. Lately I've been really tired."

"Ethan told me everything," Hayley said.

"Do you think it's some sort of side effect from the Dino Gems?" Kira asked, sitting up. "Isn't it possible that they could have other powers to them?"

"Stranger things have happened; I wouldn't completely rule it out," Hayley said.

"Is Conner still here?" Kira said, though she knew perfectly well that he was off in the corner, committing himself to the shadows.

"Yeah, I'm still here," he said, stepping into the light with a hopeful look, clearly thinking that her declaration of hatred was just a side effect of her condition. She fixed him with a death glare, though directing her words to Ethan and Hayley. "Get him out of here."

"Kira--" Hayley started, but Kira cut the older woman off. "I said get him out. I don't want him anywhere near me."

"Hales, let me talk to Kira for a minute, okay?" Ethan said. "You and Conner can go upstairs."

"Fine," Hayley said, surprise still in her eyes. The two vacated, and Kira refused to meet Ethan's eyes. "Say what you have to say, and get it over with," she said bitingly.

"Girl, what happened between you two? Was it the girl that Conner was talking about?"

"She's a vapid little whore," Kira said. "Come to think of it, so is he."

"Oh, come on, Kira, you don't mean that."

"Like hell I don't."

"So he was maybe flirting with some girl. Does that come as a surprise to you? At all?" She didn't meet his eyes, confirmation of her agreement. "So why the freak out?" he said. "Think about it...Conner flirts with a girl --not that I'm saying he was, you understand, just as an example-- and then you get wiggy. Only one explanation I can think of for someone doing that..." he let his voice trail off suggestively.

"You're not saying that--" she shook her head. "No. No way. I'm not jealous."

"You're so jealous," he said with a tiny grin.

Kira snorted. "That is such crap, Ethan. You can't be serious."

"I'm serious. Face it. Whether you like it or not, you can't deny the fact that you've got it bad for Conner McKnight."

"I do not have it bad for anyone," she said. "We're stopping this line of conversation." She swung her legs off the edge of the cot and started to get up.

"No, Kira, we aren't," Ethan said firmly, pushing her back down, but not meanly. "Because your dreams haven't been about us dying, they've been about Conner dying. Conner dying, and you stricken with grief, so upset that you had Dr. O. modify your morpher because you thought that maybe it was your fault he was dead. You wake up screaming, you're unable to control your powers, and suddenly you have repercussions because you see Conner talking to someone. Kira, I don't think that this condition of yours has anything to do with your Dino Gem or your Ranger status. I think it has everything to do with the fact that you love Conner, only you're not willing to accept it."

"What, so my own mind is acting against me, trying to make me say that I 'love' him by taking him away from me?"

"Exactly," Ethan said.

"That doesn't make any sense, Ethe."

"It makes perfect sense. If you just admit that you maybe like Conner more than as just a friend --I'm not saying you have to go all chick flick, profess your undying love or anything like that-- then maybe this will all stop. Maybe the dreams will stop, maybe you can get control of your powers again." He sighed. "C'mon, Kira, it's worth a shot. Isn't it? Or would you rather spend forever passing out at bad times and waking up screaming? And if you're not willing to do this for your own good, at least do it for the good of the team. Because you used your powers on school grounds today, Kira, in front of a lot of people. I know you had no control, and it's not your fault, but that doesn't erase the fact that a lot of people saw and heard and now there are questions that we don't have good answers to."

He was right. Kira didn't like any of this, but she knew he was right. It would be good for her, it would be good for the team, if she could just figure out some way to stop this. And if that meant telling Conner something...well, she'd do it. For the Rangers. For her own sanity. Because she was sick of feeling like a stranger in her own body. "Get him," she said quietly.

"It'll be okay, Kira," he said, giving her a quick hug. "It seems scary, but Conner isn't a bad guy."

"Right," she said, and then watched Ethan go upstairs to fetch Conner. She could just run…there were other exits. She could morph, take her Raptor Cycle, and get the hell out. She had time. Yeah, that's what she would do. She stood up, feeling strengthened by the fact that she had a plan, and started over to the Cycle holding cell.

"Kira?"

Caught in the act. She turned to see Conner standing there, and she tried to pretend like she hadn't just been attempting to escape. Not that Conner would come to that conclusion, anyway. "Ethan said you wanted to talk to me. Um...should I morph, or something, so that any objects you hurl at me don't do any serious damage? I don't think Dr. O. would be too thrilled if you killed me..." He looked truly nervous, and Kira felt an odd rush of sympathy coursing through her.

"We need to talk about a few things," she said, staying where she was. They were at opposite sides of the room, neither of them seeming willing to get closer.

"Look, I'm really sorry about...whatever it was that I did."

"No, let me talk first," she said. "Because we're trying to heal me here, so I should say my things. See, about that girl...I was jealous."

His jaw dropped. "You're kidding, right?"

"God, I wish." She sighed. "I was stupidly, irrationally jealous because you were smiling at her, and not at me. Which is absolutely ridiculous."

"Wait...so you don't...like...you don't like me or something, do you?" he said.

"I don't know. I mean, well, Ethan thinks I do, he thinks that my whole illness thing isn't a psychic thing, he thinks it's my way of telling myself that maybe I have feelings for you or something. I don't know why I ever would, though, because you're an egotistical jerk, you're a complete burden on society, you're--"

"Yeah, I'm definitely feeling the love," Conner said dryly.

"Don't say that word around me," she threatened.

"What, love? I don't know why you care. You hate me, remember? I know that you meant what you said. I'm sorry that you're sick, I really am, but this is all..."

Kira stalked across the room to him and kissed him on the mouth, hard. Just to see what it felt like, but she was too angry and too confused to even pay attention to it, much less appreciate it. He gaped at her like a fish out of water when she pulled away.

"What just happened here?" he said.

"I don't know. The thing is, you just make me so damn mad sometimes. You have no idea. But when I saw you dying...it was like a part of me was dying with you. It wasn't just grief that I'd lost a teammate, it wasn't just sadness that I lost a friend...it was something deeper than that, something sharper. And when I saw you and that girl..." She sighed, pushing her bangs off of her forehead with her hand and scratching vigorously at her scalp as though it would help make her thoughts clearer. "I flew off the handle. Ethan's right. I feel something for you, Conner, and these past few days...you've made me feel so, I don't know, safe. I would wake up terrified, feeling like a stranger in my own skin, and all you had to do was be there and you helped ground me, helped bring me back from wherever it was that I was. Dr. O. couldn't do that. Ethan couldn't do that. Only you, Conner, I relied on you. You were so sweet to me, and so nice, and when I saw you with that girl, it was like you were abandoning me. You were smiling at someone that wasn't me, and I didn't know what to do if I didn't have you to bring me back around. It was like if you were around her, you wouldn't help me, and I'd be lost forever. Is that love? I don't know. But whatever I feel for you is pretty strong, and I'm having a hard time dealing."

Kira sat back down on the cot. She was out of words. Explaining what was going on inside her head was a task that was beyond her, since she couldn't even begin to puzzle it out herself.

He sat next to her, and after a pause, put his arm around her shoulders. She found herself leaning into him, drawing from him. "Kira...you mean a lot to me. And I've been so worried about you lately, because you're the strongest person I know, and I hate seeing you like this. And I keep wishing there was something I could do to help, but I'm not smart like Ethan and Hayley and Dr. O. All I've really got going for me, all I can really offer you is my support and my care. I'm always going to be here for you, or at least I'm going to try. If you want me to."

"I do," she said. "You mean a lot to me, too."

They sat in silence for awhile, thinking over the things they'd said to each other and the things that had been said to them. "That girl you mentioned last ni--yesterday?" she asked.

"You," he coughed, looking away.

"Oh." She wasn't sure how she felt about this, but decided that ultimately, she was pleased.

"Hey, um...why'd you kiss me?" Conner said finally.

She shrugged. "I don't know."

"Could we maybe, I don't know, try it again?"

It wouldn't kill her, she thought. "Okay." She leaned in, and felt his lips on hers. She closed her eyes, it was soft and gentle, not like her frantic mashing of the mouths. For the first time in two days, Kira felt utterly fine. There was no haze, no fog, no tiredness, no lingering confusion. She felt like herself. No, better than herself--she felt incredibly alive.

They separated, Conner's arm still around her shoulders, and she was staring into his brown eyes. "Thank you," she said. "For everything. For taking care of me, for being nice to me when I probably didn't deserve it, for being there for me, for--for everything."

"You're welcome," he said. "And Kira, this is going to sound sappy, but thanks for being you. Because you came into my life, and you made it...you made me more than what people think I am," he said finally. "So thanks."

She smiled, cheered by his words. Next thing she knew, she was kissing him again. His arm felt good, warm, as it crossed her back, and her hand ruffled the edges of his beloved hair. He liked that, she thought, feeling him smile against her lips. This felt...it felt right. How could she have denied that she felt something for him? How could she have done anything that delayed this?

"Kira, how are you doing? Oh..."

Frantically Conner and Kira broke apart, because Dr. O. had just walked into the lab. He looked nothing short of flabbergasted at the sight that had greeted him, and Kira felt her face burning. Conner's arm drooped, sagging down to her waist before he quickly removed it and folded his hands in his lap. Ethan and Hayley were hot on the teacher's heels. "I'm sorry, guys," Ethan said, "I tried to keep him out of here, but..." Ethan took in how close his fellow Rangers were sitting, how red Kira's face was, how Conner moved jerkily, how they steadfastly refused to look at each other, and he got it. "Oh."

"I don't get it..." Hayley said.

Dr. O. coughed embarrassedly, but Ethan grinned. "You two kissed, didn't you," he said, nodding knowingly.

"They what?" Hayley said.

"That was...um...I..." Dr. O. shook his head. "Okay. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to...how are you feeling, Kira?"

"Better," she admitted, with a small grin.

"You what?" Hayley tried again.

"I think maybe we fixed the problem," Kira said. "Thanks to Ethan."

"You mean I had nothing to do with it?" Conner said, and she wasn't sure if he was actually disappointed or faking it. Kira just rolled her eyes at him.

"I'm missing something, aren't I," Dr. O. said.

"You and me both," Hayley said.

Going into any further detail would most likely scar her for life from the embarrassment of it all, so she wisely refrained, and said simply, "I think I finally conquered my problem."

"Well, congratulations," Tommy said.

"I still don't see what any of this has to do with you and Conner kissing..." Hayley began, then looked at Ethan, back at the Yellow and Red Rangers, and seemed to figure it out. "Oh, that makes sense."

"I'm confused."

"It comes with being a guy," Hayley said. She patted on Dr. O.'s arm. "C'mon, let's go. I need to get back to work, and I'm sure you have papers to grade. Let the kids do their thing."

As the adults vacated, Ethan glanced to his teammates. "So, are you two going to be all sick and lovey-dovey and stuff? 'Cause if that's how' it's gonna be, I'm gonna have to join forces with Mesogog."

"Dude, don't be an idiot," Conner said, hopping off of the cot and punching Ethan lightly in the arm.

"Coming from you, that's a laugh."

Kira smiled to herself as she watched the two of them banter. Definite normalcy there, and that showed promise.

Then the alarm sounded. "Oh, crap," Conner said, and yelled up the stairs, "Dr. O.! Trouble!" as Ethan took a seat at the console. "It's Elsa, she's downtown," he announced.

Dr. O. rushed in and leaned over Ethan's shoulder. "Elsa only comes out of hiding if there's an egg," he said. "We better get moving."

The four of them lined up in front of the console, Dr. O. and Conner in the center, Kira on Conner's side, and Ethan next to Dr. O. "DinoThunder, power up!" they yelled simultaneously, activating the morphers and appearing in their uniforms. Kira felt the slightest twinge in her stomach--something about this seemed familiar.