Thanks to BuffyXena for reviewing i appreciate it, now this chepter is set about a week to two weeks after the first chapter and Conner is beginning to really be a red ranger with his self sacrificing ways and everything. This comes from teh 2nd prompt-Faint/Collapse

Chapter #2-Exhustion

The loud shrill of the whistle Priced Conner's ears making him wince at the sound, making his headache feel ten times worse than it really was. He hadn't really been sleeping well lately getting on a few hours for four days. It wasn't that he was purposely keeping himself awake it was more that his daily life wouldn't let him fall asleep: with school and soccer he really didn't have a rest in the afternoon and then when he went to sleep at night an hour later he was normally woken up by Dr O with a ranger emergency.

Sometimes he thought he should be in drama, he was a great actor; no one even suspected he was in any trouble which was just how he liked it. Being the team's leader he couldn't show any weakness or it would look bad for the whole team but he could hard see straight and now he had to lead his soccer team to victory and it was taxing on what little strength he had.

"McKnight! You ready?"

The red ranger sighed and stood up from the bench making his supporters cheer happily for him, sucking in a deep breath he plastered a huge smile on his face and turned to his fans waving at them generously. Out in the crowd he could make out four figures that made his fake grin turn into a full blown smile: sitting in the back were Kira, Ethan, Trent and Dr O-each wearing their respected colours of course.

Conner would never say this to anyone but after that night in the cave with Trent a week ago he would have to admit that the team was working so much better than it used to. Dr O was pleased and even had the gall to say being trapped in a cave all night had done the two of them some good to the point where they actually acted like best friends.

The kiss they'd shared was never spoken of but even Conner-who Kira described as totally oblivious-could tell that the two of them were so much closer that it was slightly scary. They had gone from frosty teammate to the best of friends who could hardly be seen without the other, when Trent had work Conner could always be seen there with him laughing and joking around with him-sometimes even helping!-and when Conner had soccer practise Trent would always stay behind and help him catch up on the homework that he normally would have forgotten about.

"Coming on for Reefside- team captain: Conner McKnight" the commentator announced sending the spectators into a cheering frenzy.

Taking a deep breath and shaking off the dizziness that had become a normal part of his day the red ranger ran onto the field taking his position as the striker of his team. Looking at his sweaty and muddy teammates Conner saw the looks of relief they were sending him and he knew they were depending on him just as much as his ranger team was so after giving each of them encouraging nods he looked back at the ball and steeled his determination: he just had to get through this one game!

The whistle blew again and he was off-being careful not to use his super speed that it-he easily got the ball off the other team's captain and passed it to one of his teammates before jumping over another player who had tried to slide tackle him. He knew why the coach had put him back on despite him playing almost the whole game: it was the last minute of the game and they were tied-and Coach Lancer didn't like to tie ever.

The teammate he had just passed too kicked the ball back to him and Conner's sight zeroed in on the goal, after skilfully manoeuvring the ball around several other players he saw his opening and the red ranger took his shot. The ball flew through the air and for one moment Conner didn't think it would go in until it arced and flew into the net safely. The crowd cheered happily at his goal and the umpire blew the final whistle making his team scream in victory jumping all over him with delight making him smile happily: he had done it, his team had won.

As he was carried into the locker room by his team Conner could feel the ever present dizziness that had start a few days earlier creep back making his vision slightly blurry. So after making a few excuses about assignments and the like he grabbed his bag and raced out of the locker room sucking in deep gulps of air trying to clear his already stuffed head.

"Conner?" The young man looked over to his left and saw a blurry white figure walking to him.

Despite not being able to see straight Conner smiled when he recognized the voice, and anyway how many teenagers that went to Reefside actually wore white on a daily basis, only one that he could think of at that moment. "Trent!" he said happily

The white blur came closer and clapped his on the shoulder making him almost fall over from the strength of it. When had Trent become so strong...when had he become so weak? "Nice game McKnight"

Conner smiled and was about to say something when he felt himself starting to sway, he was so tired all he wanted to do was sleep...but he was talking to Trent he couldn't so that to the white ranger: it was rude. "Trent" he mumbled as his eyes started to droop

"Conner are you okay?" Trent asked in alarm

The red ranger gave him a tired smirk and shook his head "catch me" he murmured before his eyes rolled up into the back of his head and everything went black.

As Conner fell into the white ranger's arms Trent was shocked, what had just happened, when Conner had been out on the field he had seemed fine what had but here he was only a few moments after he had won his game he was lying unconscious in his arms.

"Conner!" Trent looked up and was relieved to see that the person rushing towards him was Dr O and not Kira. The yellow ranger tended to hover when one of them was hurt and speaking from experience the one thing a person doesn't want when first coming back into consciousness was someone hovering over them.

"What happened?" the black ranger demanded as he began to check his red ranger over.

The white ranger shook his head and hugged himself self consciously "I don't know, I came over to congratulate him and he just passed out into my arms" he said nervously "Is he alright?"

Dr O sighed and hoisted the boy up into his arms shaking his head "I won't know until I run some tests. Come on we'll take him back to the lab"

Trent nodded and followed his mentor out into the forest towards the dino-lab where Haley was already awaiting them ready to take care of the red ranger.

Trent-Conner

Opening his eyes Conner groaned as the light hit his eyes, his head was thumping like he'd just been hit with the force of a Mack truck; he shut his eyes straight away to stop the light from hurting him even further.

"Conner are you okay?" That voice he knew that voice.

Letting out another groan as his muscles protested as he pushed himself to sit up Conner forced his eyes open to stare straight into the worried chocolate gaze of Trent who was sitting by his side. The red ranger gave him a dozy smile and then groaned again as his muscles shot through with pain again.

The white ranger smiled warmly and took his hand for comfort "I know you're in a lot of pain" he began dropping his eyes down to their hands his voice going soft "You were extremely worrying for a while, even Tyranno began to get scared"

Conner's eyes flew wide when his friend said this, Tyranno his zord was a direct link to him, he was the only thing the red ranger could rely on when he was hurt on injured to believe that he was going to be okay. The fact that the red T-Rex had been worried to the point that he had been scared for his operator meant that things must have been bad.

"I'm sorry" he whispered

Trent looked up at him and shook his head slowly "Don't be, I'm the one who should be sorry" he said sadly "The fact that you were there for me that day in the cave" he said stopping as the memory of their kiss hit the two of them before he cleared his throat to continue "And I wasn't able to see that you needed help hurts me more than the fact that you were hurt"

Conner smiled at his friend and looked up when Dr O walked into the room with a relieved smile on his face "Hey Dr O...how'd you know I was awake?"

"Tyranno finally relaxed" the black ranger said happily "I've been with him all night, he wanted to burst out of his pen and rush to your side. He was really worried about you Conner"

The red ranger smiled slightly and then looked down at Trent who was wearing the clothes he'd been in at the soccer match and looked as if he hadn't slept for a week. Tightening his grip on the white rangers hand he gave his mentor a bright smile "I know, I'm really lucky"

Dr O gave him a warm smile and looked over at Trent who was smiling up at his leader with an indescribable look and realised that the comment was meant for more than just the red ranger's zord, and by the look of the white ranger's smile Trent had gotten the message clearly. The black ranger turned to leave only to turn around and gaze back at his two students and watch them fondly as he remembered his days as one of Zordon's chosen children: as the original white ranger.

"On the contrary Conner" he said softly not disturbing the two rangers who were now whispering to each other "it's us who are the lucky ones" he said watching at their red ranger warmly.

Please review