He was having a lovely dream. It involved a house with a backyard, steaks on the grill, and a blonde knockout. Oh yeah baby…come to papa! He vigorously scratched the Golden Retriever's head when she obediently dropped the stick at his feet. Good dog! He was about to throw the stick again when the dream was interrupted by an annoying beep.

Jack grumbled and tried to hide under his pillows. A perfectly good dream – wrecked! Jack did not respond to the beep immediately; there were no wailing sirens or flashing red lights, so whatever the beep indicated it wasn't a Ranger emergency and he was hoping that if he ignored it, it might go away.

No such luck. His communicator beeped again, this time accompanied by a frantic voice. "Jack! Jack, get up!"

Grumbling, but in motion, Jack tried to simultaneously sit up, read the clock and find his communicator on the nightstand next to his bed. He rubbed his hand across his eyes attempting to dislodge the sleep-sand. The clock read 5:53.

5:53? A.M.? Damn.

"Jack, I need your help!" the voice called.

Jack put a name to the voice about the same time he located his communicator. "Bridge?" he asked.

"Jack!" Bridge's voice was as frantic as it was relieved. "I have a problem. I need your help."

"Where are you?" Jack demanded as he threw his legs over the side of his bed and got up. Gone were his thoughts of trying to recapture the dream. The edge in Bridge's voice had him concerned.

"I'm in my room."

Jack raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't comment. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what kind of emergency Bridge had in his room that he couldn't take care of himself. "I'm on my way."

Not knowing what to expect, Jack took off down the corridor towards Bridge's room. He didn't waste time changing out of the grey sweatpants and red SPD t-shirt he'd been sleeping in – it wasn't as if his pajamas were indecent or anything. Just moments later Jack arrived at Bridge's door. The night lock was on, so the door didn't open automatically.

"Bridge!" Jack called out.

"Come in!"

Jack was surprised at what he saw when he stepped into the room. Sky was sitting on the end of Bridge's bed – knees drawn up with his right arm laid across them. His head was down and he was rocking slightly. Bridge was sitting up in the bed facing Sky. His face was panic stricken; the whites of his eyes were almost all Jack could see. And if his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, it looked like Bridge was glowing a soft blue.

Jack scanned the room for signs of an intruder or a struggle. There was nothing. Warily Jack stepped further into the room. "Are you alright?" he asked Bridge, still looking for signs of an intruder.

"He won't let go. I can't get him off."

Jack frowned not understanding what Bridge was getting at. He stepped closer to the bed. From this new angle he could see that Sky had a hold of Bridge's ankle, and yes, Bridge was definitely glowing blue – the same color of Sky's shields. This didn't make sense.

"I was sleeping...it was great…it was so helpful, and quiet, and oh – I can't even explain it, and everything was fine. I must have slept for hours, I don't know how long…then I got this feeling, not like the feelings I was having, it was closer and felt…I don't know." Bridge's face crumpled as he was talking to Jack. He tried to release Sky's hold on him as he continued talking. "I never should've let him do it, I should've made him go to Miss Kat, but it just sounded like such a good plan, I never thought about what it might do to him."

"Wait." Jack demanded. "What are you talking about?"

"Sky offered to help me get to sleep. He'd make a shield," Bridge waved around a hand, " and keep out the negative energy. And it worked great. But now I'm awake, and something's wrong with Sky. He's not sleeping, but he won't respond. Jack…he's still holding the shield, and I'm stuck here."

Jack could see Bridge trembling as he spoke and he understood how close the Green Rangers was to losing it. He wasn't sure what was freaking Bridge out more – Sky's unresponsiveness or the claustrophobia of being caught beneath Sky's shield.

Jack crossed the room and knelt at the side of the bed between Bridge and Sky. Bridge had not stopped trying to get Sky to release him. "Sky!" Jack shouted. He shook the Blue Ranger's legs. "Cadet Tate!" No response. Jack could feel anxiety beginning to build inside his chest. It was rapidly becoming clear to him that this was a situation he was not suited to handle.

Bridge had switched from attempting to force Sky to loosen his grip to trying to kick his leg free. Jack could see it was having no effect. "Wait…hold on, Bridge. The shield's not gonna give like that."

"I have to get him off, Jack!"

"Hang on…" Jack tried to project a soothing aura. "I think I can do it."

Bridge froze in place and kept a full out panic attack at bay by sheer force of will. Jack assessed the hold Sky had on Bridge's leg. He laid his hand on top of Sky's; Bridge watched fascinated as Jack's hand sank through the shield until it was beneath it. Bridge's expression was awed as he looked at Jack, "I didn't know you could do that."

Jack smirked, "I didn't know either."

Just as Jack had maneuvered his fingers around to get a grip on Sky's hand, the alarm on Sky's watch went off startling both Jack and Bridge. As if it were some preordained signal, Sky released Bridge and the shield. Sky's head shot up as he gasped like a drowning man reaching for that last breath of air. His sudden movement shocked the other two Rangers, and for a split second no one moved.

Then chaos broke out.

Sky let loose with a guttural scream and grabbed his head. His momentum carried him completely forward and he would have fallen off the bed if Jack had not been positioned to catch him. Bridge yelled simultaneously and threw himself as far away on the bed as he could get from Sky. Both seemed to be in agonizing pain. Bridge immediately started babbling, but Jack couldn't make out anything he was sayingt. At least he was talking.

Jack pushed Sky back onto the bed while attempting to get some sort of response from him. "Sky! Sky! Are you okay?" The Blue Ranger made no response. Jack stood to move Sky into a more stable position on the bed; he was alarmed to notice Sky had a serious nosebleed. Already the front of his shirt was stained with blood. That was it!

With one hand on Sky keeping him stabilized on the bed, Jack whipped out his communicator. Using an open frequency he put out an all-call for a medical response team. "Medical emergency in Cadet Carson's room – B-Squad quarters – We need Dr. Manx , STAT!" He hoped that was enough information for people to find them fast.

Jack kept half an ear on Bridge while attempting to staunch the flow of blood from Sky's nose. It was hard to keep him steady; he was moaning and rolling around like he was trying to get away from his own head. Suddenly, Sky's eyes rolled up into his head and he started convulsing. OH SHIT! -was all Jack could think.

Everything Jack had ever learned about what to do about someone having a seizure flew out of his head. He just tried to make sure Sky didn't fall off the bed, or hurt himself as he jerked around. Watching the Blue Ranger in such a torturous scenario was the scariest thing Jack had ever experienced – EVER. It lasted only a few seconds, but it was the longest few seconds of Jack's life.

The sound of pounding footsteps heralded the arrival of the med team. Jack had never been happier to see anyone in his life. "What happened?" the first medic demanded.

Jack was at a loss for words. How the hell was he supposed to explain what had just happened here? Later as Jack retold the experience to Z, he told her that reporting to the med team was like having an out of body experience. Someone with his voice calmly reported what little he knew to the medics. He even told them that Sky's nose had starting exactly at 6:00, right after his alarm had gone off, and that the seizure had lasted only 8 seconds.

The chaos of the arrival of the med team and their subsequent treatment of Sky left Bridge in a state of total hysteria. He'd crawled so far up the head of the bed; he was crouched in a position where the walls made a corner. He had wrapped his arms around his head and was heartbreakingly mumbling incoherent nonsense. Dr. Manx, having arrived on the heels of the medical team ascertained that they had Sky's treatment well in hand, undertook Bridge herself.

Kat shouted to the med team, "Get him out of here as fast as you can, and down to the infirmary." Then she spouted a bunch of medical jargon Jack couldn't follow about tests she wanted done on the Blue Ranger. All the while she was talking she approached Bridge's position and prepared a syringe. It would occur to Jack later to wonder why Kat had a syringe like that prepared – was she anticipating this type of emergency?

"Bridge?" Kat called out soothingly. "Bridge, can you hear me?"

Bridge didn't respond to her, he just continued his incessant babbling. Now that the room was quieter, Jack could make out a little more of what he was saying. He seemed to be focused on "so much pain". Now that Jack wasn't so distracted with Sky, he could see that Bridge was rocking back and forth much the same way Sky had earlier. Oh, that can't be good.

Gently, Kat made her way closer to Bridge. She managed to get him seated rather than standing on the bed. He didn't react to the injection she gave him at all.

"Jack, "she turned to him. "I need you to stay here with Bridge. I'm going to send someone with a wheelchair down here. When it gets here, get Bridge in it and bring him down to the infirmary. DO NOT bring him into the same room as Sky. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, ma'am." It was a relief to have someone else giving the orders for once.

"Alright." Kat patted Bridge's arm reassuringly then got up off the bed. "I'll see you when you get down there." Jack nodded, attempting to display more confidence than he felt. He only hoped that someone would be able to figure out what happened here, and how to fix it.


Thanks as always for the feedback! I appreciate the time you take to read and review : Evil Slash Piranah; Chyck; MzDany (yep I love Katherine Kurtz - the Deryni books are my favorites, thought I did like the Adept series too);AngelMouse5; and DV2 (welcome aboard!)