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

A few days after the Spider-Mike incident, the house was getting back to normal. Jayden had burned away all of Mike's spider webs and continuously checked every corner of the house for any signs of the nasty eight-legged creatures from the Netherworld until he was sure they were all gone. With a watchful eye from Ji, Storm was starting to move around a lot more. She kept her distance from Mike and always growled at him when he got too close, but for the most part she was her usual self.

Mike still felt badly for all the chaos he caused as a spider, but with things getting back to normal, so was he. However, he had stopped teasing Jayden about his fear of the small creatures. He heard what the red Ranger had done to help the others capture him and knew he owed Jayden his life. Though he couldn't remember what it felt like, he was positive he didn't want to live the rest of his life as Spider-Mike.

The only difference in the house was Emily, but no one noticed. When she had to be around the others, she masked the pain. Ever since Spider-Mike had attacked her and sliced her knee, it had been in constant throbbing pain. She could barely walk and training was a huge BITCH, but she was confident her knee would recover. All she had to do was hide the pain for a little longer.

As far as she was concerned, none of the Rangers had any idea she was suffering. She used to wonder how Serena hid her illness from the family for a full year before telling them the truth, but now she understood. It took a lot of strength and commitment, but as long as she continued to act like herself, and as long as she always had an excuse to sit down, no one was the wiser.

Until it all started to take its toll on her body. She felt sluggish. This very morning, she was unable to get out of bed. The room spun anytime she sat up, despite sleeping with Mike the furnace and all her blankets she still felt a chill, and she wasn't hungry for breakfast. All she wanted to do was lie in bed, close her eyes and sleep.

She felt Mike press his hand to her forehead, "You're a bit warm, Em."

He was already dressed for training. Normally he was last to be ready, which had been his first sign that Emily wasn't feeling well. She assured him it was nothing to worry about and he believed her. Though the Rangers were in peak condition, they were stressed out constantly from dealing with the Nighlok (and each other). From time to time they did succumb to illnesses and needed to spend a day or two in bed.

Mike gave her a kiss on the forehead, "I'll have Ji make you some chicken soup and I'll see you after training, okay? Just get some rest up."

Emily nodded her head and closed her eyes. Mike tip-toed out of the room to let her sleep. When she heard the door close she sat up, threw off the blankets and unravelled the dressing from around her knee.

Her cuts were red, they were swollen, they were oozing, and they hurt A LOT. As a kid, she hurt herself quite a bit, and some of her cuts, scrapes, and burns had gotten infected. Emily was sure she could treat it, though. The last thing she wanted was Mike to feel like this was his fault, and for the Samurai to get mad at him for it. She grabbed the ointment from her drawer, spread it around the infections, dressed it back up, hid the old dressings until a pile of tissues to make it look like she had a cold, and then snuggled back into her bed and closed her eyes just as Ji walked in with her soup. He set it down beside her on the night table and touched her forehead. Mike hadn't lied when he said she was warm. He touched her shoulder, gently shaking her awake. When she opened her eyes he showed her a thermometer and then stuck it in her mouth. If she had a fever, he wanted to know what he was dealing with.

When it was ready, Ji pulled the thermometer out and hissed. He showed the number to Emily: 104.

"That is high," he told her. Emily nodded her head and closed her eyes. She didn't need to be told the fever was bad. She could feel it, and she knew how to read a thermometer. Serena had plenty of fevers when she had been sick.

As Emily drifted off to sleep, Ji pulled up a chair and sat beside her bed. As far as he could tell she had been fine the night before and now suddenly she had a troublesome temperature and was too sick to get out of bed. He wanted to keep his eye on her.

-Samurai-

Outside, the Rangers were training just like any other day. Mike had explained Emily's absence and the Rangers all promised they would check up on her before the day was done. None of them liked it when a teammate was sick. Serena especially was worried. She always was when a teammate was bedridden due to illness. Given what she had gone through, it was impossible not to feel a little bit of panic. Still now, a year after her recovery, she would wake up in the middle of the night from nightmares of either her own illness, or one of the Rangers or her parents falling ill.

As training came to an end, Serena offered herself as volunteer to clean up. Mike rushed off to his and Emily's room to check up on his fiancée, hoping she was feeling a little better. Serena couldn't bring herself to go just yet. She had a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Antonio stayed behind when he saw Serena seemed worried. As she finished putting the swords away he put his hand on her back and smiled brightly.

"Emily's a lot like you, you know."

Serena believed it herself, and Mia had said it after Emily stupidly disregarded her own life to take care of Storm. She hated that about her sister.

"That's not a good thing."

Antonio shook his head, "It's not necessarily a bad thing, either. Emily knows how to take care of herself. We all get sick from time to time and we all bounce back."

"Yeah," Serena nodded her head. She knew she was just being silly. Not every illness she was going to encounter in her life was strong enough to kill. She couldn't stop herself from worrying, but she could calm herself down a little more. She took a deep breath and then smiled at Antonio.

"Why don't we grab one of the games from the common room and we all play?" Antonio suggested. "You know she loves it when we all do something together."

Serena followed Antonio into the house and down to Emily and Mike's room. Just as Mike had promised Emily, he was in the room with her. Emily was fast asleep in the bed but Mike wanted to sit with her until she woke up.

Kevin, Mia, Jayden, and Ji were also there with her but were just about to head out when Serena and Antonio came in. Antonio saw Emily was asleep but figured playing a game would still be fun. He asked Serena to get the board and told everyone to sit down. Even Ji was forced to play.

Serena came back with the board and while the Samurai set up the game she had a look at her sister. Emily did feel warm when Serena touched her forehead, but she had wrapped herself up tightly in the blankets as though she was cold. Her face was pale and had a slight look of discomfort. When Serena looked to the night table, she saw the soup Ji made her a couple of hours before hadn't been touched.

"Any idea, Ji?" she asked. The older man shook his head.

"The flu is my best guess," Ji answered. He tapped the empty space on the floor, "Come, sit. She will be fine."

Serena did as she was told and sat down beside the board. She picked her pawn and rolled the die to see if she would be the one to go first. She rolled a five, highest roll went first.

Antonio rolled a six.