(A.N. This one's for Trip. It made me sad to see Trip feeling this way and I just wanted to give him a hug. Trip and Katie have such a cute friendship and I can't help but feel that Wes and Jen have a soft spot for him – though the latter can be a little tough. So here's the next chapter for It's Time For Time Force, I hope you enjoy and feel free to let me know what you think / what you think of the story :) )

Uniquely Trip

After the gruelling battle with Electropede, Trip walked down to where the other rangers were sitting around the table, the icepack still held to his head. Katie stood to look at him with concern. "Hey, you ok?"

"Yeah."

Jen stood up, looking at him seriously. "What were you trying to prove out there?"

He exhaled, not sure how to explain his actions without explaining his doubts. "I was just trying to help."

Wes mirrored Jen's expression but with a bit more concern. "You're lucky you weren't hurt worse."

He only looked away as Jen continued, addressing the whole group. "Look, this mutant has already taken out our blasters." Her next part was mostly addressed to Trip. "We can't afford any more mistakes." She shook her head. "We had this conversation the day the time shadow showed up, I told you we can't afford any more close calls." She turned back to the group as she said. "Let's go check out the other power plants, when he comes back, that's where he'll be going." They all got up to follow and each one passed her but she put her hand in front of Trip to stop him. "Not you, you stay and rest."

"But I-"

Katie looked at him with more empathy as she patted his chest. "We'll call if we need you."

What they didn't know as they walked away from him was that everything they had just told him made him feel so much worse than he'd already been feeling.

After the battle and Trip finally feeling like he had redeemed himself, he got an urgent call from Katie. "Trip, hurry. We need your help at the park."

"I'm on my way," he replied as he took off running. When he found her, he stopped suddenly to avoid running into her. "What's so urgent?"

She had a stern expression as she revealed. "Circuit told us about your harebrained idea to be like us," he looked away but she continued with a mischievous expression. "But since you saved the day, we decided we want to be like you."

He was confused as he looked passed Katie to the other rangers, only to see them pull off their hats to show their green wigs. He couldn't help but laugh and felt as Katie pulled him into a hug – her own green wig on – as she made a kissy face at him. His laughter was interrupted by the laughter of children and he looked over to find the children he'd saved at the power plant - they were all dressed as the green ranger. That moment had caught his attention long enough for the rangers to trap him in a group hug. Having the whole world on their shoulders meant that they didn't have many moments like this, but when they did, they were happy and those moments were cherished.

They shared the moment for a while but it didn't take long before Wes had convinced Katie and Lucas to mess around on the playground. Trip sat on the bench and laughed at the scene. It had only been a minute or so before he felt Jen sit beside him. He didn't look up and he heard her sigh. "Do you wanna tell me what happened out today?"

He only shrugged. "Didn't Circuit already tell you?"

"He did, but I don't want to hear it from Circuit. I want to hear it from you."

He sighed before he revealed. "It was a lot of things. I was watching you guys in the first fight today and you all made it look so easy. I went to the park after that and these kids were playing pretend, they dressed up as power rangers and they wanted to be like every other ranger except me." He looked down as he said. "So I wanted to become like you guys so they'd actually look up to me, that they'd wanna be like me. That's why I tried to do all that stuff in the fight today."

Jen placed her hand on his shoulder. "Trip, you don't have to be like us in order to be a good ranger." She gestured to the kids in the green ranger costumes. "And it looks like you did a pretty good job of the kids looking up to you by being yourself. Besides, do you really think that they'd want to be like any of us if they found out that you were from Xybria? They would think that was so cool."

He laughed for a moment before he looked up at her. "I'm sorry about today, Jen."

"Don't be, we both made some mistakes today. I should've taken the time to let you explain before I started lecturing you."

Trip looked over at the other rangers before he admitted. "I just wish I could be like you guys. You're always so in control and you always know what to do next., you always know what you're doing."

"No Trip," Jen laughed. "We don't always know what we're doing or what to do next. We all have our doubts, just like you had today."

He looked at her curiously as he said. "But I talked to Lucas today, I asked him if he ever had doubts about being a power ranger and he said he never did."

The pink ranger sighed. "Never listen to Lucas about this stuff, he'll never actually tell you if he has doubts. He thinks he's 'too cool' for that." That made Trip laugh, which made Jen smile. "Seriously though, we've all had doubts and we all make mistakes. You don't think I have doubts? I question how I lead the things that Wes can't every day. I question if we're doing everything right. And if the battle against Fatcatfish showed you anything, it's that I make mistakes too." She gestured over to Wes. "You don't think that Wes has doubts about being the red ranger, about being the only one from this time on a team of rangers from the future." She gestured to Katie next. "And you saw Katie's doubts when we came up against Vexicon, she was questioning if our fight was even worth it." She glanced at Lucas before saying. "And as for Lucas, he had his doubts too." She turned back to Trip. "No matter what happens, we're always going to have doubts and question ourselves but it's important that you don't let that interfere with what we're doing. You're a good ranger Trip, I hope you know that."

"Thanks, Jen, it means a lot."

"And in future, if you start to feel like this again, talk to us... Probably not Lucas because that obviously didn't work out too well for you today, but Katie, Wes and I will always set you back on the right path when you start to doubt yourself."

He smiled. "Thanks, Jen."

She placed her hand on his shoulder. "It's like Katie said, we're family. We stick together Trip."

He didn't say anything else because he felt like he didn't need to, they'd already said everything that they needed to. So, when Wes called out for Jen and Trip to come join them on the playground, they laughed at his antics but didn't hesitate. And that was how they spent a rare mutant-free afternoon: messing around on the playground like they were little kids because when you've got the whole world on your shoulders, sometimes you've just gotta pretend you're a little kid again without a care in the world.