Hey guys! Sorry it took so long to get the next chapter out, but the holidays have been hectic! Anyways, Happy New Years to you guys! Enjoy!

Also, this takes place about 2-3 weeks after the last chapter.

Nat is portrayed by Emma Roberts

Autumn walked out of a small white house with her medical bag in hand and her uniform on. She walked around the back of the ambulance and opened up the back doors, climbing up inside and finding a place to put her bag down. As she did so, she could feel Emma's eyes boring into her back and sighed.

"What's wrong?" She asked, not looking up.

Emma looked away slightly, a bit embarrassed that she had been caught staring. "Oh, nothing. So.. what happened?"

Autumn shrugged. "Simple case of a kid falling off of the monkey bars at the park. He was fine - just a few bumps and bruises. Nothing to do, really."

"That's it?" Emma chuckled. "Sometimes people worry too much."

The red lieutenant made a face. "Hey, better to be safe than sorry, right? I mean, the kid could've broken his arm or got a concussion if he fell a certain way. If I didn't know any better, I would've called too. Or, at least make an appointment with my son's pediatrician."

"Whoa, I wasn't trying to be rude," Emma frowned as Autumn hopped out of the back and closed the doors. She walked around and got into the passenger seat, so Emma continued talking. "What's up with you?"

"Nothing," Autumn shook her head, before letting out a long breath. "Actually, something. ER wants me to have a new partner."

"What?" Emma was taken aback, scowling. "Why in the world would they do that?"

Autumn sighed. "Because ER wants me to work with someone who works there. I don't work for the hospital anymore - I work for ER, and they want me to have a partner who does too."

"Okay, then I should get a job there." Emma crossed her arms.

"No," Autumn shook her head, frowning at her. "You shouldn't. You should continue to work at the hospital. I think having a little change of pace is a good idea."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "So, you don't want to work with me anymore?"

"That's not what I said," Autumn replied exasperatedly.

The blonde in the driver's seat glared at the brunette next to her. "This is the only time I see you anymore. You're always busy nowadays."

Autumn nodded, "Yeah, helping people; saving lives. Look, I'm sorry you're upset, but I don't have a choice in the matter. I have a job to do." She looked forward and refused to look back at Emma. "Can you just drop me off at ER? I need to give some paperwork to Masters and Lia for the official transfer."

"Fine," Emma looked forward as well and started the ambulance up. She opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it and just drove towards ER in silence.

- Cue Opening -

Masters and Lia were chatting in the chief base as they were waiting for any new cases when Autumn walked in, fully in uniform and holding a few forms in her hand. Her hair was tied back in a bun and she looked very professional, unlike her usual casual style.

Also in the chief base were Joey, Sera, and Logan, who all looked up when Autumn walked in.

"Wow," Joey commented, looking her over. "I don't think I've every seen you in your full uniform before now."

Autumn looked over at him and chuckled, "Yeah, I only wear it on the job, but I didn't have time to change before I got here. Emma dropped me off." She handed Lia her papers, which Masters quickly ended up grabbing. "I had to bring my paperwork for my official transfer over here."

Sera raised her eyebrows in surprise. "You haven't done it yet?"

"Well, I've done everything except the partner transfer," Autumn responded. "I was holding out until the last minute because of Emma."

Logan gave her a confused look, "What made you change your mind now?"

"Emma and I are growing apart," Autumn sighed. "She's been clinging to me for dear life recently and I know it's because she can tell that our relationship is.. ending."

"That's not good," Sera frowned. "Are you gonna do anything to avoid that?"

"Honestly?" Autumn rubbed a hand over her face in a tired manner. "No. I really don't think we're compatible anymore. We've changed and I would feel horrible to continue something that I'm not really feeling. I think we're gonna break up."

Joey nodded. "That's a good idea. No sense in leading her on."

Masters looked through the paperwork before looking back up at her. "I think I can get you a partner. There's someone we've been considering for a chief position and I believe she'd be a good match for you."

"Me working with a chief?" Autumn crossed her arms with an amused look on her face. "Wow, I thought we lieutenants were still second best."

"You still are," Masters said, keeping a straight face. "But that doesn't mean that we wouldn't work with you, as you've probably noticed. We're just more skilled than you are - it's not personal. We wouldn't work with you at all if it was."

Autumn's face fell, and she frowned. "So why do you even keep us around if you guys are so amazing?"

"Because we can't take on everything," Masters responded honestly. "Look, I'll go see what I can do about a partner for you and come retrieve you when I do. I'll be coming to get you from the lieutenant base, so stay around there."

When he left, Lia sighed. "Don't take it personally, Autumn," She assured her. "It's just something that we have to accept. We're second-in-command, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. All of the chiefs worked very hard to get into the position they're in, just remember that."

Autumn nodded, and followed Lia on her way back to the lieutenant base, still a bit irked about what Masters had said. She understood that they were the second best team, but it didn't mean that they weren't great rangers and didn't have great skills.

She always felt like the chiefs were undermining them, even if they didn't mean to. Autumn sighed and pushed the thoughts out of her head, as she knew it wasn't worth it to dwell on as she made her way into the base.

- PRER -

Sean sat in his hospital bed, flipping through the utterly boring channels that he was seeing on the television in front of him. Since he was considered an 'important person' in Waverly, he got a room to himself and the hospital staff made sure that no reporters were allowed through to talk to him about what happened. While he appreciated the privacy, it was a bit lonely when he could only talk to his friends and family when they had time to visit.

His injuries were also on the more severe side, having been rushed into surgery the minute he arrived at the hospital. He felt much better at the moment, though, with his leg in a cast and elevated, and his internal injuries healing nicely. His wrist had also been sprained, but had healed in the time he had been there already.

He was very glad to be getting out of the hospital, and was waiting for Sera to pick him up after her shift that day.

As he scrolled through the TV channels, a knock took him away from his mind numbing task and made him look over to see Tori poke her head through the door. She smiled when they made eye contact and entered the room, wearing a more casual outfit than normal, with a simple red blouse, black jeans, and a pair of black boots on.

"Hmm," He chuckled a bit as she walked over to sit in a chair next to his bed. "You look like someone I may know, but she's more of the 'obsessed with my work' type."

Tori chuckled with him. "Oh, ha-ha." She rolled her eyes fondly. "So, how are you feeling? Ready to get discharged later?"

Sean nodded. "Definitely. I feel a lot better than I did two weeks ago - antsy to get out of here. This place makes me stir-crazy."

"Well, I'm glad you're feeling better," Tori sobered, her facial expression one of worry, though she'd probably never admit that she felt that way. "Your injuries were pretty bad. We didn't get to see you at all until you were out of surgery and were awake."

He cringed. "Yeah, I heard it was pretty bad. I mean, obviously it hurt but I had no idea it was so serious until Taz told me," He pursed his lips. "So, Taz was okay?"

"Yeah," Tori said. "She was fine - drugged, but fine. She got discharged the next day. Sat in here most of the night and until she left, though."

"Really?" Sean asked. "'Cause I haven't seen her since."

"Oh, well it's definitely not personal," Tori responded. "We told her to rest and recover from what happened, so that might be why she hasn't shown up."

Sean looked down. "Might be."

Tori frowned. "What? What's wrong?"

"I told her that I was in love with her," Sean replied, looking back up at Tori. "I'm worried I might have scared her off."

The red chief sat back in shock. "Wow, I didn't expect that so soon. I mean, I didn't think you would really tell her so.. suddenly."

"Yeah, well I thought I was gonna die." He muttered. "I couldn't die without her knowing that."

"How'd she take it?"

"I don't remember," Sean said. "I lost consciousness right after I said it. Perfect timing, huh?"

Tori breathed out and nodded, "All I can say is that I know Taz cares a lot about you, and she'd be crazy not to go for you." She leaned forward. "Taz loves you too, it's just a matter of how she loves you. I'm sure that's not the reason she's not here right now."

"You think?"

Tori smiled. "Positive." She opened her mouth to say more when her phone beeped. She took it out of her pocket and sighed. "It's from Logan. He said there are some cases for me to look at." Tori stood up. "Sera'll be here later to pick you up, okay? Just call if you need anything."

Sean nodded. "Alright. See you, Tori." He watched her leave, before sighing and leaning back into bed, going back to his mindless scrolling through the channels on the TV.

- PRER -

"You know, this is cool," Owen commented as he leaned back in his chair outside of the restaurant he, Jason, and Nikki were eating at for lunch. "We never just hang out and eat lunch together - we're always busy with cases."

Nikki looked over at him, smirking. "We're still on a case, Owen."

He rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, we're here trying to find the guys who dine and dash. Big deal,"

"They don't just dine and dash," Nikki chuckled. "They also steal money from the restaurant itself. The reason we're here is to stake out since this is their next most likely location."

Owen leaned forward and looked across at her. "Are these guys armed?"

"Not sure," Nikki said. "A few locations reported that they had guns, but others didn't."

"Should we be worried?" Jason asked, taking a sip of his water. He felt a bit out of place butting into their conversation, though he also felt like he was being too quiet and wanted to speak. Neither Owen nor Nikki seem to notice his slight discomfort, which made him feel a bit better.

Nikki shrugged. "Worse comes to worse, we can always morph. Hopefully, it doesn't come to that."

"Who's in the car?" Owen asked, looking across the street.

She looked over as well. "Oh, that's Cody Hatenberg, a police officer. He's waiting to take the perps to the station, should they arrive."

Owen made a face, "You think these guy would show up with a cop across the street?"

Nikki didn't seem worried. "Well, Cody is undercover and in a completely normal looking vehicle, so I don't see why they wouldn't. I mean, he doesn't look like a cop from here, does he?"

"Not really," Jason input. "Are you sure it'll be fine, though?"

Hearing a shout coming from inside the restaurant, Nikki nodded. "Yeah, I think so." The three stood up and, with Nikki in front, walked in through the front door carefully. They looked in front of them and saw a fight going on in front of the register, with a man trying to fight off the two criminals, who had a small bag of money in one of their hands each.

Owen immediately walked forward, letting Nikki and Jason show their badges to the people in the restaurant and calm them down while he broke up the fight. He grabbed ahold of one of the criminals, both of whom had ganged up on the man who tried to stop them, and ripped him away from the fight.

The criminal elbowed Owen in the face, disorienting him for a slight moment before Owen grabbed him by the arms and pushed him onto the ground, taking out a pair of handcuffs he had been given when he became a ranger and handcuffed the man.

He looked up to see Jason pull the other man away and handcuff him against a wall before Nikki helped the man on the floor up. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," The man nodded. "Are they going to jail?"

Nikki looked at the two criminals, "Yes, they will be going to jail. We have an officer outside to take them to the station right now," She gestured for Jason and Owen, who's nose was bleeding from the elbow he took to the face, to take them outside. "I'm going to call for more officers to take witness statements, so please remain calm and stay here until they arrive."

"You're not going to be doing it?" A woman in the crowd asked.

"No, I work for ER - I'm the yellow lieutenant ranger. We only focus on superhuman crime, but an officer asked us if we could help catch them, and our head lieutenant, Detective Lia Carter, decided that we should help out while we're free," Nikki explained. "I'm going to call for the other officers, just stay calm. You're all safe." She assured them, before stepping to the side to call it in.

- PRER -

Tori was in the chief base, looking through a few case files when she saw Joey walk in and sit beside her at the table, peering over to see the cases she was looking at. She looked over at him curiously.

"Hey, do you know why Taz hasn't gone to see Sean?" Tori asked a bit suddenly.

Joey frowned. "She hasn't gone to see him? That's crazy - Taz loves Sean! She wouldn't even leave the room until she was discharged from the hospital."

"I know," Tori nodded. "That's why it's so strange."

"What does Sean think?" Joey asked.

Tori sighed, "He thinks it's because he told her that he's in love with her and that it scared her off."

"Well, maybe." Joey looked at her. "What do you think?"

"What do I think?" Tori repeated, looking at him with a confused expression.

"Yeah. I mean, you're pretty close to them," Joey responded. When Tori opened her mouth to speak, Joey cut her off. "Don't act like you guys are just partners because I know you guys are friends."

Tori crossed her arms. "How would you know? Maybe I'm concerned about my partners' wellbeing. I don't let my feelings get in the way of my job."

"Not saying you do," Joey mimicked her position. "But, you were really worried when we were looking for them, and don't try to deny it because it was the most obvious thing in the world."

The red chief looked down at the ground, "They're my partners - my teammates. I could never let anything happen to them and be able to live with myself."

Joey nodded. "I know, and there's nothing wrong with that. You would put your life on the line for them, and they would for you too."

"I.. yeah," Tori pursed her lips. "I know."

The yellow chief smirked slightly. "Hey, that just means you guys are close - you care about each other, and there's nothing wrong with that. I care about them too, if it makes you feel any better."

Tori chuckled. "Wow, I never would've guessed," She smiled slightly. "They care about you too."

Joey leaned back, a simper on his face. "Yeah, and I know you do too. Don't worry, you don't have say it," He said. "Cause I believe you do, no matter what you say."

"I wasn't gonna say anything," Tori shrugged, before handing him a folder. "Look, not that I don't find this conversation riveting, but we have to look into these."

He took the folder, "Whatever you say, Tori." Joey stated, still with a simper plastered on his face.

- PRER -

Autumn walked through the grassy area in the middle of ER towards some of the trainees with Masters, him walking ahead of her to find her new partner. He walked over to a hallway that led to a few rooms with future paramedics training for when they really went out in the field.

He stopped in a room where there was a female recruit standing, having just gotten dressed back into her street clothes from her paramedic uniform and looked like she was getting ready to go for lunch. She had pale skin, long blonde hair, green eyes, and stood at about 5'2. She wore a pink crop top, black skinny jeans, a light black and pink jacket that was currently tied around her waist, and pink high-tops.

When they walked in, she looked up from her phone, which she was using to text someone. "Oh hey, Mr. Masters." She smiled. "What's going on?"

Autumn looked up at Masters, a bit surprised that this young woman knew him, though she said nothing. "Natasha Porter, this is Autumn DeWitt, the red lieutenant ranger."

Natasha turned her gaze towards Autumn, and smiled. "Hey, nice to meet you." She shook her hand. "You can call me Nat,"

"Okay, Nat," Autumn smiled back. "It's nice to meet you too."

Masters cleared his throat. "Natasha, you'll working with Autumn as her partner on duty starting tomorrow."

"Really?" Nat asked, her smile brightening. "That's awesome! I'm excited to get out on the field."

"I'm sure you are," Masters nodded, his expression neutral. "You're free to go to lunch now, but meet Autumn in the lieutenant base first thing in the morning for your task."

"Of course," Nat said. "I'll be there. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity, Mr. Masters."

He shot her an obligatory smile and allowed her to leave, before looking at Autumn. "Are you pleased with your new partner?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Autumn responded. She paused for a moment, before continuing. "So, how did she know you? I mean, she's still just a recruit, even if you think she's chief material."

"I take more of an interest in recruits I believe can make it to chief status," Masters responded. "I watch them a bit more closely and make sure they're continuing on the right spot and see what kind of person they are before I actually bring them on. There's a process that goes into finding the right recruits."

Autumn frowned. "Really? Then why was I brought on as a lieutenant so quickly?"

Masters shrugged. "Lia isn't as detailed as I am in my search. Besides, you had a recommendation from one of your fellow lieutenants, as well as from Victoria, so it's not like she hadn't been watching you."

"Wait, I had a recommendation from Tori?" Autumn asked, a bit shocked. "When did this happen?"

He thought for a moment. "I believe a few months before you became a ranger. At the time, we were trying to create the lieutenant squad, and she said she thought you would be the perfect leader for the team." Masters patted her on the shoulder. "Like I said, we always watch the right recruits."

Autumn watched him leave and still stood there, stunned for a few moments before following him back to the base.

- PRER -

Nikki walked outside after the other officers arrive, smirking a bit when she saw Owen sitting there with a napkin pressed up against his nose. She walked towards him, chuckling a bit.

"You okay?" She asked, the smirk still on her face.

Owen rolled his eyes at her expression. "I'm fine. Damn guy just got one over one me when I wasn't expecting it."

"Yeah, I was gonna say that it's probably best if you don't stand right behind a guy's elbow," Nikki joked, sitting down next to him at the table. "You know, it was brave of you to just run in there and stop the fight, even though you didn't know if the guys were armed or not."

"Nah," Owen shook his head. "Just doing my job, you know? And to think I almost became a baseball player."

Nikki raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Really? What changed your mind?"

"Well, if I'm gonna be honest," He sighed. "I wanted to be a fireman like my older brother, Wade, was. He had an accident and can't do it anymore, so I wanted to honor him by doing the same thing. I really love my job now, so I'm glad I decided to do this."

The yellow lieutenant nodded. "He worked for ER, didn't he? I remember hearing about it - I'm sorry. Is he alright?"

Owen looked down. "No, not really. He's in a wheelchair and really depressed, so..." He shrugged. "He just wishes he could still do his job; he loved it. I feel bad that I can't help him, and I feel like he gets upset that I'm doing his job."

Nikki had a sympathetic expression on her face, "He's probably worried about something happening to you like that."

"Yeah, I know," Owen looked back up at her. "Truthfully, I get worried about that too. It's scary to think about something happening on the job, especially since I'm a ranger now along with being a fireman."

She smiled slightly, "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I get worried about getting hurt on the job too. It's a scary thought, but it makes me treasure the good moments I have."

"Me too," He smiled back at her. "Thanks."

"For what?" Nikki frowned in confusion.

"For making me feel better," He responded. "I don't usually tell people about those things, but.. I don't know, it's easy to talk to you, so thank you for that."

Nikki blushed slightly. "No problem."

- PRER -

Autumn stood outside of ER later that night, looking at her texts and thinking about how to respond to them, or if to even do so at all. They were all from Emma, apologizing for that morning and asking her to just talk to her. Autumn had read them when she first got them, but still hadn't responded a few hours later.

"Hey," A voice brought her out of her thoughts, and she looked over to see Tori standing there, looking like she was about to walk the other way, but had clearly seen the look on her face of indecisiveness.

The red lieutenant tried to smile, "Hey. What's up?"

"I could be asking you the same thing," Tori, against her better judgement, made her way over to Autumn, her arms crossed. "Are you okay? You look.. upset."

"Yeah," Autumn looked down. "I guess I am. I think I'm gonna let go of Emma, my girlfriend. We just don't have a good relationship anymore, you know?"

Tori nodded. "Yeah, I get that,"

"She's become really clingy and gets mad that I'm working and it's just too much," Autumn said, before looking up at Tori and chuckling humorlessly. "I'm sorry, you probably have better things to do than listen to my drama."

She shrugged. "I'm not sure about that. All I was gonna do was go grab something to eat and go home, so it's not really too important."

Autumn rubbed a hand down her face. "Are you sure?"

Tori chuckled lightly. "I'm pretty sure. I don't have anyone waiting for me or anything like that, so I think I'm good."

"Well, aren't you hungry, though?" Autumn asked.

The red chief looked pulled her phone out and looked at the time. "Yeah, a little." She paused for a moment, before gesturing with her head behind her. "I probably should grab something to eat. If you want, you can.. come with and talk," Tori quickly added, "If you need to. I don't have anything better to do."

Autumn smirked slightly. "So is this you being a friend, or you being a coworker?"

"We're not on the job, right?" Tori said. "I mean, I don't really know you well enough for you to be or not to be my friend. For now, let's just stay with acquaintances."

"Okay," Autumn nodded. "Sounds fair, but I have a question. Should I just not take anything you say on the job personally?"

"Look," Tori smiled a bit, obviously trying to hide her amusement. "Do you want to go or not?"

Autumn put her hands up in surrender. "I do. Can I just send a quick text first?"

"Yeah, sure," Tori said, looking away to give her a bit of privacy.

The red lieutenant unlocked her phone and read through the texts, before sending one of her own, I can't do this anymore. After she sent it, she took a deep breath and shoved her phone down into her pocket, before turning to Tori. "Okay, I'm ready."

- PRER -

Sean had thanked Sera for dropping him off at his apartment, and made his way up the elevator to his floor. Once he was up there, he walked with his crutches over to his door and pulled his key out of his pocket, balancing his weight on the crutches as he jammed the key into the lock and unlocked the door, pushing it open while he put the key back in his pocket.

When the door was open, he was surprised to see a bottle of sparkling water sitting on his counter with two champagne glasses next to it. He frowned and closed the door behind him, walking up to the bottle and looking it over. Also on the counter was a vase with flowers and a card.

"I know you can't drink until you're healed up," A voice came from behind him. "So I got that." He turned to see Taz standing there, looking at him a bit shyly. "I hope you like it."

He stared at her in shock. "Taz. I.. I thought you..." He trailed off, not knowing what to say. "What are you doing here?"

Taz walked towards him a bit. "Well, I was bringing some things over and your mom said you couldn't stay alone like this. She was gonna stay here with you, but I told her I would do it for her. I hope that's alright."

Sean smiled. "That's perfect," He said breathlessly. "I thought I scared you off or something."

"What? Why?" Taz frowned.

He shrugged. "I don't know. I guess because I told you I loved you and I thought you might not have returned the feelings or something."

"That's crazy," She walked forward and put a hand on his cheek. "I.. I love you too. I kissed you in the car, don't you remember that?"

"No, I passed out right after I told you. The next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital," Sean told her. "Why didn't you visit me?"

"I couldn't see you like that," Taz rubbed her arm and looked down guiltily. "I was so scared of what happened to you and I didn't want to see you in pain."

Sean nodded. "That makes sense. I just thought you were too scared to visit me because you didn't know what to say."

"Of course not," Taz leaned up and kissed him lightly. "I love you."

"I love you too." Sean smiled, leaning down to kiss her again. "Are you gonna stay?"

Taz nodded. "I'd never wanna leave."

Next time on Power Rangers Emergency Responders: The lieutenants get a case of new criminal is going around and committing arson, but are stumped as to who the person is, leading Owen to go off on his own to find out who it is.

Next Chapter Title: Owen's Success

So, Sean and Taz are officially the first couple in this series! I'm so excited that I finally got them together, and their relationship will grow and shape as the series goes on.

Anyways, this is the second chapter I'm posting for the New Years, and I really hope you guys liked it! Keep in mind I'm still not done with the next chapter for Rainbow Fighters or Earth Defenders, but I'm gonna try really hard to get them up in the next two day, but if not, don't worry because they will be up ASAP.

I also put up a poll, and I'm finding out that your guys' favorite story of mine is this one, so thank you guys for all of your support! I really appreciate it!

Here's the lineup for the next five chapters!

Ep 11: Home Is Where The Heart Is - Joey focused chapter.

Ep 12: Test - Nikki focused chapter.

Ep 13: Kidnapping Reds - Tori and Autumn focused chapter. Possibly a two-parter.

Ep 14: Purple Lieutenant - New ranger appears!

Ep 15: Nutrition - Taz focused chapter.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you guys back with the next one!

© Copyrighted by Charlotte 'Charlie' Hartley