Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers: (Super) Samurai. This is purely fan-made.

The Rangers were finally home at the Shiba House. Though they were happy to be back and out of the cramped hotel room, they hated what going home after a skunk attack meant.

The house had been aired out for a couple of days while the Samurai hid away in a hotel and while nature had done a good job making the house liveable again, it hadn't gotten the smell of skunk out. Four of the seven Rangers were on scrub duty, which meant they needed to scrub down everything with a surface with Jayden's special water to get the smell out, while the three others were on clean up duty. Everything was everywhere and for the house to get back into order, all their stuff needed to be put away.

Emily was part of the cleanup crew and she had been given the bedrooms. Everyone trusted that she wouldn't snoop through their things while she cleaned up, making her the perfect candidate while Antonio and Mia cleaned the rest of the house and the others scrubbed.

She was in Mia and Kevin's bedroom, putting everything as close to where she knew Kevin wanted it to be. He would come in later and put everything exactly where he wanted it, but Emily could still do the best she could. After moving all his things over a couple of inches, she had a good idea of where it all went.

She organized everything on his desk and turned to move to another part of the room when she banged her knee into the side drawers. She groaned, falling into his chair while the drawer slowly slid open. Hugging her knee to her chest and waiting for the pain to pass before getting up again, she reached out to close the drawer. Completely by accident, she saw what was inside. She grabbed what she wanted, slammed the drawer shut and then walked over to Mia's desk. She had never snooped like this before in her life but she couldn't let this go. She open Mia's drawers to gather what she needed and then she slipped out of the house through their windows. Cleaning up all the rooms would take a long time and no one would notice she was gone for a while, giving her at least a couple of hours to herself.

Knowing it wasn't safe to venture too far, she stuck close to the edge of the forest and sat on a tree stump. She looked at the papers in her hands as tears filled her eyes. She skimmed through the papers, taking in as much as she could.

With the exception of Mike, Kevin and Mia had been the first two people who had been friends with Emily. Her whole life she had been bullied and excluded by her classmates, leaving her with only her parents and her sister to lean on. She didn't have anyone back home to go back to, unlike the others who from time to time mentioned missing their friends.

But Kevin and Mia were special. When Serena fell ill, Emily felt like she was losing her sister. Leaving her home and going to the Shiba House, knowing there was a good chance she never saw her sister again tore her up inside. But Mia had taken her in right away and without even knowing what she was doing she had turned into the sister Emily desperately needed at the time. On their very first night together, when they were still complete strangers, Mia let Emily share her bed because she knew Emily was feeling homesick and alone. It was exactly what Serena would have done, and exactly what Emily had needed. And now, with Serena back, Mia was still a sister Emily needed.

Emily also needed Kevin. He was, in every way that matter, her big brother. He was kind and gentle with her, but also teased her and annoyed her. He was protective of her, but when she was bothering him he had no problem pushing her away and letting her get herself into trouble. Trouble he would always help her get out of if she needed him.

She couldn't imagine living without either of them anymore, but it looked like she was going to have to. In her hands she held two folders filled with pictures and descriptions of houses from all over the country. They weren't thinking of staying inside the city limits, or even staying close to the city. They weren't even thinking of maybe staying in the same state. They wanted to leave. In both piles of papers, there were maybe only one or two houses that were even close to Panorama City.

She knew eventually the team would split up. Once they defeated Xandred everyone would want to go home for a little while. She would head back out to the country and spend some time on the farm with her family, and she would also be in the city, visiting Mike's family. Kevin and Mia were going to want to travel back and forth between his family and hers, which was already spread out across the country because of her father. Antonio, surely would want to go home to his father and Jayden would likely go with him. But she always imagine them coming back together and staying close and she hoped they wanted that too.

The more she thought about it, the more she realized it was a crazy thing to hope for. Her grandmother hadn't stuck close to her teammates. Neither had her mother. They met up for lunch maybe once or twice every couple of years, but that was it. And hell, at some point her family had decided to move far away from everyone and the Shiba House and live out in the country, making it even harder to keep in touch.

Lost in her thoughts, Emily didn't notice the time go by until she heard her name being called. The Samurai must have noticed she was gone. Checking the time on her Samuraizer, she realized it was way past dinner time and her not showing up had obviously scared everyone.

She tried to dry her eyes and hide the papers before the voices got too close. She folded the papers and stuffed them in her pockets, concealing them completely, and then wiped away her tears with the back of her hand, hoping it would be enough.

From between the trees, Kevin and Mia popped out. They saw her sitting by herself on a tree stump, safe and sound, and breathed a sigh of relief as they caught her in their arms.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Mia then cried as she pulled away, "Do you have any idea how worried we were? You're not supposed to go off on your own like that!"

"Sorry," Emily whispered and looked down at her shoes. She couldn't make eye contact with them anymore, knowing they wanted to leave.

"You better have a good reason for this, Emily," Kevin growled. He let her go to cross his arms over his chest, showing her he wasn't happy at all, "What if something happened to you? You would think that by now you would have learned your lesson."

"I know, I…"

"Well?" both were obviously very impatient as they wanted for what they hoped was an amazing reason to run off without telling anyone. Emily thought of showing them what she had found, but didn't want them to confirm her suspicions. She just shrugged and sniffed back a few more tears at the thought of Kevin and Mia leaving.

Kevin and Mia heard the sniff and looked to each other. Something was wrong with their little sister. It was the only explanation that would make sense. Emily wouldn't run off unless there was a problem.

Knowing she was the gentler one between herself and Kevin, Mia knelt down beside Emily and put her hand under her chin, lifting her face gently. She saw the tear stains on Emily's cheeks, "What happened, Emy?"

Emily pushed her hand away and got up. She didn't want to talk about it, "Nothing. Sorry I ran off."

As she started to walk back to the house, Kevin grabbed her arm, "Why are you walking funny?"

Emily looked down at her knee. It still hurt from when she smacked it against his desk and it was hard to walk on it. It was nothing to worry about, but for now it made her limp slightly.

"No reason."

"Emily."

"I'm a klutz. I hurt myself all the time. Don't pretend like you care."

"Of course we care, Emily," Mia breathed, "This will stay between us, but you know it's not good to keep things bottled up."

"Is it something between you and Mike?" Kevin asked. Emily shook her head, ripped her arm from Kevin's hand and stomped all the way back to the house. Kevin and Mia followed her and when she was back inside safely they called the others back but warned them to give Emily a little space. Something was obviously bothering her.