Title: A Friend in Need
Fandom: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers
Rating: Gen
Length: 1850 words
Summary: Trini is stricken with a migraine, but luckily Jason is there to comfort her.



Trini huddled in bed, miserable. It was late afternoon, but all the lights in her dorm room were off and the shades were drawn. She had even hauled the blankets up over her head, to no avail. The pain still stabbed through her head regardless of the dark, and the strange flashes of light still teased at the corners of her vision no matter how hard she squeezed her eyes shut.

She'd taken some painkillers and settled down for a nap, but that was hours ago now and the pain had only intensified since then. Now she lay in bed and fought against tears as the combination of blinding pain and disorienting lights threatened to overwhelm her.

Someone knocked on her door. The sound throbbed through her skull as more pain; she ignored it and hoped it would go away.

The knocking came again a minute or so later, accompanied this time by a voice. "Trini? Are you in there?"

She recognized the voice through the haze of pain: Jason.

She had missed all her classes today because of this headache, the first time she'd missed anything since they came to Switzerland. He must be worried sick by now if he'd showed up to look for her.

Knowing that he wouldn't go away until he got an answer, Trini forced herself out of bed and staggered the scant few feet to the door. She felt off balance, uncoordinated, as if her limbs would not quite obey her. Even thinking about speaking sent pain shooting through her head. For the moment she was content to just collapse against the doorframe and breathe.

"Trini?" He must have heard her come over; he sounded truly concerned now. "Are you okay?"

Before she had time to regret it, she quickly unlocked the door and stumbled backward. The door swung open and the light from the hallway blinded her. She bit down on a wave of pain, covering her eyes with her hands to block out the worst of it.

"Trini," Jason murmured. He closed the door behind him, plunging them into far less painful darkness. "God, what happened?"

She realized she had crumpled to the floor, and wondered when that had happened. She'd been so wrapped up in the pain that she hadn't noticed. "Headache," she told him and immediately regretted it. Speaking was every bit as bad as she'd feared it would be.

Jason crouched beside her and leaned in to brush hair out of her face. With her eyes squeezed shut against the pain, she couldn't see his expression or guess what he might be thinking, but she didn't dare open them. "That bad, huh?" he asked quietly.

All she could manage was a pained intake of breath. Beyond the pain, she felt utterly horrified that he was seeing her incapacitated like this, but that thought was a distant second to the pain. She could hardly see straight and had absolutely no hope of making it back to her bed on her own. She hated that feeling even though she knew it wouldn't make him think less of her.

Unperturbed by her embarrassment – or unaware of it – Jason scooped her up off the floor without a word. The next thing she knew, he'd nestled her right back into her bed.

"I will be right back," he told her.

She murmured something in assent and tugged the blankets back up over her head. It quickly became stifling and hot under the blankets like that, but the complete darkness was the only thing that made the pain even slightly more bearable. She didn't know where Jason was going or what he intended to do, and she didn't much care as long as his absence meant she didn't have to talk or think anymore.

From underneath the pile of blankets, she heard the door open and close again. And then all was silent for a blessedly long time, save for the occasional sound of footsteps as someone passed by outside her room. She had no idea how much time had passed when the door opened again and someone came in. She poked her head out from under the blankets enough to see that it was Jason, then ducked her head back under the blankets again.

"It's just me," he murmured reassuringly.

A moment later, much to her surprise, he climbed onto the bed beside her. He helped her untangle herself from the blankets and sit up before pressing a warm cup into her hands. To her dismay, she had to lean heavily against him just to stay upright. If he noticed, it didn't seem to bother him. "Drink this," he said. "It'll help."

She made an unhappy sound. The pain was making her feel nauseated and the last thing she wanted to do was throw up all over her bed.

"Try. If you don't think you can keep it down, then you don't have to."

She took a tentative sip. It was tea. Strong tea. But it didn't upset her stomach, and it didn't make her want to throw up.

"Coffee would've been better, but I know you hate it so I got tea instead. Won't do you any good if you won't drink it," Jason explained.

She murmured her appreciation and took another sip. And another. There was something soothing about the familiar taste of the tea, even if it was much stronger than she liked.

It felt like it took her forever to finish the tea, but Jason was patient. When she was done he took the empty cup from her and set it on the side table. While he was doing that, she snuggled back into the blankets and closed her eyes. She almost felt like she might actually be able to sleep now.

Sleepy as she suddenly was, she became aware of Jason's hand on her back. He moved his hand, now joined by the other, over her upper back, applying gentle pressure as he went. She hadn't realized just how tense she was until he began to methodically massage that tension away. First her upper back and shoulders, then her neck, and then finally running his fingers through her hair to massage her scalp… Trini sighed in near bliss. The pain wasn't gone by a long-shot, but by the time he was done it was actually bearable. Even the lights in her head had settled down. And compared to what she had been feeling before, that was bliss.

As the pain gradually lessened, exhaustion took over. She sagged bonelessly into her mattress.

"Better?" Jason asked.

"Mmm," she replied. Speaking coherently was still too much effort.

He mussed up her hair absentmindedly, his fingers gliding gently over her scalp; she leaned into the caress. "Get some rest," he murmured.

She realized he probably meant to leave now, felt a flash of panic at the thought that he would leave her alone and the pain might return as soon as he was gone, and in the end "Stay" was the only thing she could think to say.

He thought about it for a moment, and chuckled. "All right."

She remembered the sensation of the mattress shifting as he stretched out next to her on the bed, but that was the last she remembered before sleep – finally – overtook her.

When she awoke again, morning sunlight was creeping in past the shades. The pain in her head was gone, though she still felt a bit out of sorts. It was mildly disconcerting, but nothing like she had gone through the previous day. She sat up, groaning, and stretched tired muscles. Thankfully, it was Saturday. She had the whole weekend ahead of her to recover.

Beside her, Jason stirred. He rubbed his face and sat up, blinking blearily in the gloom. "It's morning? Shit, I was here all night?" he muttered to himself.

Trini was mildly horrified. It wasn't the first time they'd had an impromptu sleepover, but she'd intended to send him on his way once she was comfortable and certain that the pain wouldn't get worse again. But then she'd fallen asleep and, apparently, so had he. To fill the awkward silence she said, "Thank you for staying with me."

He smiled. "No problem. Headaches like that can be rough. I'm just glad you're okay."

"I owe it all to you. How did you know just what to do, anyway?" She was genuinely curious. The pain had been so intense and had come on so suddenly that she had felt helpless in its wake, but he'd seemed to know exactly what to do.

"My mom gets migraines," he said, shrugging. "I must've seen my dad do the same thing for her a hundred times. If the caffeine and the massage didn't help, there were some other things I was going to try, but luckily you didn't need that."

"At least now I know who to call next time I get a headache like that. I was lucky you came along when you did," she admitted. She was lucky to have someone like him as a friend, too. "It's the first time something like that has happened to me… I don't know how I would have got through the night without you."

"It wasn't luck," he told her. "It's not like you to miss class like that. I was worried. So was Zack, actually."

Trini wracked her brain, trying to remember what Zack's plans for last night had been. She vaguely remembered that he would have been too busy to drop in on her, but she couldn't quite remember why. Finally, it dawned on her. "But he went on his date with Sarah anyway?"

Jason laughed. "I wasn't gonna let him mess this up like he always did with Angela. I told him I'd go see what had happened to you, and I'd get in touch if it was something I couldn't handle. But you probably just had a cold or something, so he had to go on this date."

She couldn't help it. She laughed, too. It felt good to laugh after the day she'd had yesterday. "Well, at least one of us hopefully had a good night."

"This is Zack we're talking about," he pointed out.

"Don't remind me. If something could go wrong, it probably did." She hoped it hadn't, though. Zack deserved a break in the romance department.

Feeling rumpled and vaguely grimy – and very, very hungry – after having been in bed much of the previous day, she got up and made her way over to the small mirror that hung on the far wall. She didn't look as bad as she felt. That was something. "Let's go get something to eat," she suggested, aware that Jason was watching her like a hawk, just in case she might need his help. She felt lucky all over again to have a friend like him.

"Okay, but then we go find Zack and grill him about his date," he agreed, his tone just the slightest bit conspiratorial.

Trini laughed, knowing he intended to give Zack a hard time about his date. "Deal."