I don't own RPM. Not sure this turned out the way I originally imagined but... *shrugs*

"Can you be a bit quieter?" Dillon asked his passenger politely.

"Oh, yeah," Ziggy took his voice down a few notches before continuing to ramble. Eventually his voice grew a bit louder again.

"Ziggy. My head is killing me and I need to focus on the road," Dillon reminded.

"Oh I know some good tricks for headaches…"

Dillon let him talk for another minute before he couldn't take it. "Ziggy! Will you shut up?! Do you not understand how to be quiet!?"

Ziggy's eyes grew big, "I was just trying to help."

"Well you can help by shutting up!"

After a few minutes in silence, Ziggy asked, "Is it from the testing Dr. K gave you this morning?"

Dillon growled, "I don't know, but if you don't stop talking, I'll show you what it feels like."

Ziggy stayed quiet the rest of the ride and stared out the window.

Once they finished their task, they arrived back at the garage. Both Dillon and Ziggy zoned out what Dr. K was telling the team. After she was done and they were heading out she called back, "Ranger Black and Ranger Green, stay here for a moment."

They turned around to the voice. "Ranger Green, you were much quieter than normal, did you hear anything I said?"

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"I told him to be quiet earlier. He's being good and actually behaving," Dillon rubbed his forehead.

She turned to Ziggy who was unconsciously rubbing his jaw, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, never better," he lied through a wide smile.

"Alright, you're dismissed." She then turned to Dillon, "And what is your excuse?"

"My head has just been hurting. I'm sure it'll be fine once I get some peace and quiet."

"Here," she reached onto the table and grabbed a syringe. She stuck it in his arm, "you should be feeling better soon. What did you say to Ranger green?"

Dillon shrugged, "I told him to shut up, multiple times."

"I can't be having any problems within the team. You better go talk to him."

"He'll be fine."

"Has anyone seen Ziggy?" Flynn wondered a few hours later, "He was going to help me cook this."

The others shook their heads.

"I'll go look for him," Summer decided.

She knocked on his door and he opened it slowly then smiled when he saw her.

"Flynn said you were on dinner duty with him," she reminded.

"Oh yeah, I'll be right down."

He chatted a bit with Flynn but quieted down when the rangers gathered around the bar. He grabbed a plate and headed to the lab.

"Brought you some dinner, Dr. K," Ziggy smiled.

"Are you sure you are doing ok?"

"Yeah," Ziggy shook his head. "Dillon just… his head hurt so he lashed out a bit. Like anyone would. It just reminded me a bit too much of the past and I just needed a bit of time to myself."

"He didn't come talk to you, did he?"

"No, I hadn't seen him until he just came to dinner. He seems like he's feeling better, but I'm just going to take it slow and wait for him to want me to talk."

"He wouldn't lash out like that if you told him."

"He has enough to worry about, I don't want to bother him with my problems," he admitted. "It was different with you, you had medical evidence that I had to explain. It's kind of hard to just tell someone, 'Hey, I used to get the shit beat out of me for talking too much. Broke my jaw a few times. Or if they didn't feel like using me as a punching bag, they'd drug me into oblivion.' To be honest, I'm not sure why the cartels even wanted me other than being a punching bag. I kept screwing up and I do talk too much. See I'm talking too much again now. I'll let you get back to work," Ziggy turned around.

"Ziggy?" he turned in surprise at the sound of his name, "You know if I'm not working on something important, you can always come talk about it."

"Thanks Dr. K," he smiled sadly, "though I think you are always working on something important."

He turned again and as he exited the doors he ran into Dillon.

"Oh, sorry," he went to step around.

"Ziggy?" Dillon seemed livid.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to get in your way," Ziggy apologized again as he started walking back toward the bar.

"No, Ziggy," Dillon grabbed his arm, "I heard you talking to Dr. K."

"What part?" he asked nervously.

"The cartels used to drug you? What else did they do?"

"Oh," Ziggy looked down, "yeah, I don't know how many different drugs I was given over the years. The cheapest ones that would shut me up, the cheapest ones that would keep me from fighting back, the cheapest ones so they could have their way. Or they'd just break my jaw so I couldn't talk for a couple months."

"Why did you stay?"

"Where else was I going to go? The foster homes weren't any better, and at least with the Scorpions I'd get a bit of food and shelter."

"Ziggy…"

"Look it doesn't matter, alright?" Ziggy started back toward the kitchen again.

"It does matter. I yelled and even threatened you. I shouldn't have done that in the first place, I know you care about me, but I didn't think about how it could have affected you."

"It's not like you knew any of that stuff, and I do tend to talk too much."

"I get lost too deep in my thoughts if you aren't there to pull me out of it. I love listening to you talk. Today was just a bad day, and that still doesn't excuse what I said to you, I just want you to know that."

"You like me talking?" Ziggy looked shocked.

"You do talk about nonsense a lot, but you have some good stories. It's fun to see how energetic you get," he smirked.

"Your food's going to freeze or get eaten if you don't get back in here," Flynn called to Ziggy.

Ziggy nodded before whispering to Dillon, "look, it's not a big deal. Just please don't tell them about it."

Dillon put his hand on Ziggy's shoulder, "I won't, and I'll never tell you to shut up again, but don't be surprised if I get arrested for taking down the entire Corinth mob."

Ziggy grinned up at him before heading back to his seat to fight the twins who were trying to sneak food off his plate.