Ranger Hunter

Repressing Emotions

Merrick grunted as he got in bed the next morning after playing for the DeerZord like he'd... unwillingly promised the Princess.

He grabbed Caith's letter and looked it over for the hundredth time since he found it.

"I can't believe I got so mad at her..." Merrick didn't need to look it over... he knew every word by heart now, "I didn't even consider her feelings when I agreed to playing for the Deer!" His hands shook with sorrow.

Finally, the paper fell from his grasp and he covered his eyes as started to whimper.

"What kind of a friend does that...?"

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Caith hadn't even been in Glendale a full day, and she was already making money from hassling people.

She was smiling and joking with some locals, all of whom found her really descent and enjoyable.

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Merrick got up 3 hours later and started cleaning the room, trying to make it look like nothing had happened.

When he was done, he moved to the front and found it still empty of people. "This is all my fault... I shouldn't have gotten mad at her.... I shouldn't have just told her to leave.... She was trying to help..."

The door opened and he looked to see the five rangers walking in, "Woah... Merrick... what's....?"

"Faith's gone." Merrick slid the letter over.

"What's this...?" Taylor picked it up and blinked, "She left?!"

"She can't do that." Max looked it over.

"Faith can do whatever she wants." Merrick sighed, "I didn't think about it... and now... now she hates me."

"Come on, man." Cole patted his back, "It can't be that bad... I mean, yeah.. Caith gets unreasonable when she's upset but-"

"Unreasonable? Upset?" Merrick repeated then shook his head, "No... she was being plenty reasonable..." He closed his eyes, "She wanted to help get the Deer Zord back and I... I thought she was pushing it too much..." He looked at the others, "She hurt her leg... before she came to find me... do you notice that?"

Everyone remained silent.

"You did, didn't you?" Merrick stood up.

"We didn't know if it was really bad." Danny reasoned.

"And we don't know how she got it." Alyssa added.

"It shouldn't matter!" Merrick groaned, "She was hurt!... you guys should've stopped her."

"We tried." Taylor responded, "But she was hell bent on helping you."

Merrick looked down, "Great... just... just great!"

"Merrick... it's not like you could've known-"

"But I should've!" The Lunar ranger leaned his hands against the bar, not wanting to look at them, "I should've known! I should've let her help! But instead... I screwed up our friendship.... That must is for sure."

"You don't know that... Caith could come back-"

"And what? Beat the crap out of me?" Merrick pointed to the bottom part, "Read that."

"'P.S... Hope you had fun singing with your girlfriend'." Cole read aloud, "So... she's jealous?"

"Before that."