Disclaimer: Let me check real quick... yep, Power Rangers are still property of Saban (am I the only one who celebrated a little bit when they bought the franchise back from Disney?). I only own plot ideas and characters you don't know already.

A/N: Hey guys! Big thanks to anyone who's reviewed this or added the story to their alerts. Means a lot, really. Sorry this one is a little short - it felt like the right place to end it, and fear not, Chapter 3 will be up in the VERY near future. This should hopefully tide you over til then. Also, the next few chapters contain some stuff about police and FBI procedure that I know absolutely nothing about besides what I've seen on TV, so hopefully nothing is so ridiculously inaccurate as to defy believability. OK, I'm rambling now. Enjoy!


Chapter 2
Scott Residence
July 10, 2012
4:58 AM

"Well, yeah, but that would make sense."

Several hours later, Kim stirred awake from a peaceful sleep and slowly opened her eyes. She found herself lying curled up sideways on the bed, her head resting in Jason's lap. The first few dull rays of sunlight had begun creeping through the window, and in the faint light of the room Kim craned her neck upward and saw Jason leaned back against the wall, his pillow flipped upright behind him, finally resting calmly. His left arm was loosely draped across her body, as though he was holding her close. She smiled and inhaled deeply, tracing her fingers through the folds of the sheet that lay forgotten across his feet.

Her moment was interrupted by a soft buzz. She looked up and frowned at the sight of Jason's cell phone, which lay on the nightstand on top of his copy of The Shining, vibrating against the soft cover, the glow from the screen illuminating the entire room in a harsh electronic light. She reached over and grabbed it, squinting into the display. The caller ID simply said "Work;" she looked at the time and grunted in frustration when she saw that it was only five in the morning.

"Shit," she sighed. Jason had finally fallen asleep, restfully this time, and she hated to have to wake him up. "Damn thing goes off earlier every day." She slid her finger over the phone's touch screen and prepared to answer the call herself, to tell them Jason was sick or something and try to let him sleep.

Another buzz sounded from behind her. Kim whipped her head around and saw her phone vibrating now, the sound not muffled by soft paper like Jason's but loud and resonating off the wood of her nightstand. She felt Jason's phone pulled from her hand and turned to face him. He sleepily glanced at the screen, flopped his head back against the wall and reluctantly brought the phone to his ear, his eyes closing again as a frustrated groan escaped his mouth. He pressed the button to answer and said simply, "Scott." His voice was still thick with sleep, and as he listened to the voice on the other end he brought his free hand up to his face and gripped the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger.

Kim suddenly remembered her own phone, which still vibrated insistently against her nightstand. She hurriedly snatched it up and glanced at the screen even though she knew exactly what she would see. "Grant," her display read; it was her boss' assistant. Jason's boss, too, conveniently enough. The two of them had gone through FBI training together shortly after the Muranthias incident, after Kim had won her pair of medals at the Pan Global Games – gold in the beam and silver in the all-around. It was during the intense 21 weeks of training that the bond between her and Jason had finally blossomed into something more than close friendship. After they had graduated, they'd managed to find posts back home in Angel Grove and their relationship only got stronger the longer they worked together. They'd gotten married last year.

Kim raised her phone to her ear to answer, vaguely hearing Jason grunt behind her. "Wrong Scott, Joey. Again," he said, clearing some of the sleep from his throat. The voice on the other end said something and Jason snorted before retorting, "Yeah, well, this wouldn't happen ever if you would just add first initials to your directory like I've told you to a million times." He turned and caught her eye as she was about to answer her phone, pulling his away from his ear and pressing it against his bare chest. "Don't bother," he said softly. "Joey's telling Grant that he got a hold of me. They must've called us both just to be sure somebody answered."

Kim tapped the ignore button on her phone and set it gently back on the nightstand, stretching her legs as she did so. "You'd think they'd have figured out by now that we live together and they only need to call one number."

"Well, yeah, but that would make sense," Jason replied, arching his eyebrows and giving her an amused grin as he brought the phone back to his ear. "Now would you care to tell me why I'm sitting here awake at 5 a.m.?" His overly stern tone was betrayed by the twinkle in his eyes. He listened for a while, and Kim took the opportunity to lean back against his body and lay her head on his shoulder. He responded by wrapping his left arm around her absentmindedly, as if on reflex. His hand swung loosely back and forth across her chest; she slept in one of his old T-shirts, and she felt the tips of his fingers gently brush against her breasts through the thin fabric. She gently swatted his hand away, and he turned to give her a look of mock hurt before suddenly turning back to the call. "Wait, wait. Another one? Here? Are they sure?" She furrowed her brow and turned to look at him again, confused by the shocked look on his face.

"Right, got it," he finally said, closing his eyes again for a moment. "We're only a few minutes from there, we'll handle the police. Yeah. Thanks." He hung up and gently set the phone back down on top of the book. When he turned back to face her, still rubbing sleep from his eyes, he didn't miss the concerned way she looked back at him. He sighed and said, "There's been another murder; they think it's the same MO as the ones in LA and Phoenix."

"But this one was around here somewhere?"

He nodded. "Someone found the body in the park and called it in. Leaned up against that tree where we used to have all those picnics in high school."

"Great," Kim muttered. "Nothing like a dead body to lend the place an air of romance. But wait," she said, looking up at Jason. "I thought you told me the murders in LA always happened in twos: two bodies, same cause of death, found at two different locations at roughly the same time. There's only one here."

"They did with the first two in Phoenix, and as far as I knew they had been since I got the first calls from LA. That's what's so weird about it," Jason said, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and curling his toes into the carpet. "Joey told me the body count in LA had hit an odd number as of ten days ago. They were starting to wonder if maybe the pairs of bodies had just been a coincidence until this came in. There's never been this much separation between kills before, but everything else matches too well for this not to be connected." He stood slowly, grunting and scratching his thigh. "God I need a shower," he muttered to himself, digging the heel of his hand into his eyes.

"Yeah, well, so do I, so don't fall asleep in there," she taunted him playfully, standing herself and beginning to make the bed. He raised his eyebrows at her, and she continued. "What? You are the only person I've ever met who actually has the ability to fall asleep standing up."

Jason shook his head and turned back around toward the bathroom. As he reached the door, he turned and said over his shoulder, "First of all, for the record, I don't sleep standing up, I lean against the wall. Secondly, I'm not the one who can't stay awake on an airplane for longer than five minutes. Judge not lest ye be judged." He entered the bathroom and flicked the light on, shooting her one more grin as he reached for the doorknob.

"The rumbling is very comforting!" she called after him as he closed the door behind him.

"I'll have to remember that next Valentine's Day," he said through the door. She could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Jason Lee Scott!" she cried in mock outrage, shaking her head and grinning at the sound of his hysterical laughter as she started straightening the sheets. They showed no sign she could see of the ordeal they'd been through the night before.