Power Rangers There To Light The Dark

'There To Light the Dark' – an Adam/Rocky vignette

The hospital visiting ours were closed, most of the hallways dark, and the man walking down them now tried not to feel like he was doing something illegal or sneaky. Even though that's exactly what he was doing

But he wasn't doing anything he shouldn't and that was an ironic statement. Better put he wasn't doing anything _wrong _wrong. Not that he could see anyway from where he was standing. He just couldn't handle the thought of his boyfriend spending a night alone here in the hospital – especially the first night or any other night thereafter until he got home.

No one had seen Rocky's accident coming, how could they. It had especially rocked the Power Team because nothing like this had ever happened before. They were down a Ranger, they had lost one of their own and the most shocking thing of all was that they shouldn't be so shocked. They should be prepared for anything and everything shouldn't they? Especially the more experienced Rangers, which they all were at this point.

They should be able to simplify it, compartmentalize it into easy to cope with terms. They should justify that it was a war that they fought and like soldiers on the front lines – someone was going to get hurt.

But they couldn't.

None of them could, because this hadn't been any of those circumstances. There was nothing to comfort anyone, especially Rocky. There was no way to tell him that it would be all right, that he had gotten hurt for the fate of all mankind and the sacrifice – while a hard one – had saved the planet and countless of lives. They couldn't tell him he had gone down a Ranger because he had gone down a man. A teen, just as young as any of them, in a stupid freak accident.

And while Adam had never seen Rocky scared – the Blue Ranger had been then. He'd been terrified, and he should have been. They all had been but seeing the fear in those usually fearless eyes he loved so much... had been the most startling thing nearly of all.

Adam was still in shock, like he couldn't quite wrap his mind around it all. It just wasn't possible, it still wasn't. Even though it was ten o'clock at night – visiting hours were over at Angel Grove Memorial Hospital – and he was sneaking down them to avoid nurses or maybe a night watchmen to visit his lover, who was extremely lucky he hadn't been paralyzed from his injuries... it just wasn't possible.

But each time he walked through the door of Rocky's hospital room, each time he gathered the courage to take that step or two over the threshold – it was like walking into the painful wall of reality.

And reality was a damn cold place to be.

"Rocky?" he whispered as he softly closed the door behind him. He couldn't tell if the other man was sleeping. It was dark, the monitors had been set on silent and there wasn't a sound in the room. He couldn't even hear his own tight and shallow breaths. It seemed like since Rocky's accident he hadn't been able to breathe since.

At first he figured he was asleep but then Rocky's eyes opened, the ever present frown creasing his forehead still there as he narrowed his eyes in the dark and tried to see who was visiting him in the middle of the night. And though his voice was laced with pain... he was in a lot of that – it was awake and relatively alert. He hadn't been sleeping much and Adam, awkwardly, pointed out the obvious before he could stop himself.

"Still can't sleep?"

Rocky made a soft sound that might have been a snort if he could work up the effort, "Kinda hard when your neck feels like its stuck between two boards."

Adam let out the breath he hadn't been aware he'd been holding, reaching down to take his boyfriend's hand, careful to avoid the IV so as not to hurt him. He took up the empty chair he had vacated only fifteen minutes ago, leaving to say goodbye to Jason and Kim who had just left after visiting Rocky for awhile. Jason had been around, he'd never left Tommy's side after returning and taking the Zeo Ranger Powers and they'd been inseparable ever since. But Kim and her fiance, a guy Adam still couldn't bring himself to like, had flown in despite her being in the middle of training for a big gymnastics open.

The former Black Ranger, now Green, had been touched. Kimberly had been somewhere similar in Rocky's place, suffering an accident herself, and they'd all been there. Luckily it hadn't been bad... certainly not this bad. But she understood and she was family – of course she had been there. Even though she was already getting urgings to go back to Florida she said she was staying another day and that was that. Rocky had been overwhelmed a lot lately by the love of his friends and that had nearly moved him to tears.

If anyone saw it, they'd been understanding. Which Adam had been grateful for. Rocky wasn't the type of person to show his emotions so openly but Adam knew his secret. He sure felt them stronger than most.

"Rocky..." Adam started quietly, reaching out and putting a hand on his arm. Every waking moment he was with his boyfriend of what was probably five years now, he couldn't stop touching him. And while that might be true any other time too, right now it held a more stark and painful meaning. He needed to touch him, to assure himself that Rocky was alive and whole. As whole as he could be but alive and still with him.

"Please don't tell me you're going to break up with me." Rocky said a bit wryly, his sense of humor greatly strained by the pain he was in but that wasn't stopping him from trying. Just another example of his lover's indomitable spirit.

But that wasn't what caused Adam's mouth to drop open. Its that underneath that joke... the Blue Zeo Ranger was serious. If the way he wasn't looking at him was any indication, staring up at the ceiling and pointedly away.

"Rocky." Adam said, finding his voice at last, the word no doubt coming out in a bit of a shocked rush, "Rocky look at me."

"Gonna have to stand up for me to do that." Rocky said, trying to sound more flippant but he was pointedly avoiding him.

"Fine then." Adam said, reaching over to turn on an overhead light too as he stood and not caring who saw it or if he was caught, Rocky wincing and looking a bit annoyed at even the soft lamp but meeting his eyes.

Adam was practically swept under by the emotional storm he saw in those dark depths. "Rocky you're serious." he breathed, the full force of that hitting him harder than it had before.

"And if you're serious about doing it you might as well just say it." Rocky snapped a bit irritably, looking away.

"Rocky look at me. I am _not _breaking up with you – you got that?" Adam continued only when Rocky looked at him again, reaching up and caressing the side of his face with a hand, stroking over the smooth skin and letting it calm him as well as his lover. Rocky was alive, he kept repeating that to himself. They still had each other. "Everything is going to be okay. I'm not going anywhere and we're going to get through this."

Rocky swallowed hard and for a moment tears welled up in his eyes before he tried to make an effort to blink them away, the anger gone from earlier – the mood swing that was only his right. Rocky was going through hell and he had every right to any accusation he made and Adam was all too happy to tear down each and everyone.

Adam brushed a tear away from his lover's cheek that had managed to escape with a thumb, "Okay Rocky?" he whispered.

Rocky grunted and looked irritated but a bit amused when he couldn't nod.

"Just say yes." Adam smiled, blinking back his own tears.

"Yeah Adam." Rocky managed, "I believe you."

Grateful for his lover's belief, feeling a renewed sense of strength despite whatever lay ahead, he gently raised one of Rocky's hands with both of his own and placed a tender kiss over his knuckles. Yeah – they were going to be okay.


End file.

Power Rangers, Drama, Hurt-Comfort