Fran slipped the tape into the Jungle Karma Pizza home radio, grinning at the trio surrounding her. "This's going to be so awesome. RJ's always saying that we need to give the customers more bang for their buck. I think this'll do it."

"This song, though?" Theo asked, sounding a bit sardonic.

"It's perfect!" Fran snipped back. She readjusted her tone. "I mean…it mentions pizza a few times, and although it isn't up-tempo or anything, I think people can appreciate a good, classic song with their dinner."

"It's the only song we've practiced, anyways." Lily added.

"Alright, we're all in agreement now?" Casey asked.

"Fine." Theo reluctantly replied. "First, lemme get the Jumbo Jungle Pie over to Table Six, then I'll take my spot and we can do this little…experiment."

Theo grabbed his table's pizza out of the oven and swiftly made his way over to his table, and Casey quickly rang out a family as they walked up to pay. Lily grabbed the small table bell and sounded it several times, drawing attention to her and the rest of the JKP employees.

It was Fran's cue to play the tape, which promptly began playing a rather Italian sounding tune. Right on cue, Lily, Theo, and Casey began their lines.

"In Napoli, where love is king," Their voices melded into a slightly dissonant harmony, with Theo not even trying to keep in harmony with the other two. "when boy meets girl, here's what they say…"

Fran stepped to the front of the group and began her lines as the trio broke up and began getting back to work.

"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore. When the world seems to shine like you've had too much wine, that's amore…"

As Lily grabbed a soda for a customer, Theo whispered to her on his way to retrieve another pizza. "Fran's actually pulling it off."

"At least she didn't faint this time." Lily replied, making Theo softly and quietly laugh.

"Bells will ring, ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-ling, and you'll sing 'Vita Bella'…"

RJ looked out from the kitchen as he realized that the music was drastically different than usual. "What's going on…?"

"Hearts will play, tippy-tippy-tay, tippy-tippy-tay, like a gay tarantella…"

RJ walked out and hit the stop button, causing Fran to turn around in a terrified manner. He gave her a confused look and walked up to her. "What are you doing?"

"I…was…entertaining the diners with song!" Fran stammered. "You said that we should try to give the customers more and…and I thought that a live performance would be a good idea!"

"I hired you guys to serve pizza, not pretend you're working at Johnny Rocket's. Get back to work." Fran gave a pained look, then quickly retreated into the kitchen. RJ watched her, addled at her reaction.

Casey, after checking in with his last table, sternly walked over to confront RJ. "What was that for?" He asked.

"What was what for?" RJ replied, sharing his completely addled look.

"Fran didn't have any work to do; we set this up so she'd have a bit of free time to sing for the dinner crowd. We've got all her tables covered between the three of us."

"Well, it's about time you guys managed to do something without me." He quipped, heading back into the kitchen without giving Casey a chance to respond.

"What crawled up his butt and died?" Lily asked Casey.

"No clue, but I hope it dislodges before Fran quits of misery."

"Or cries herself into dehydration and a trip to the hospital." Theo interjected.

RJ found Fran putting together a pizza on her own, mixing toppings that didn't quite go together. "What're you doing?"

"I'm trying to work." Fran replied.

RJ sighed deeply and walked up to her. "Sorry. Don't worry about it. I didn't know what you guys were out there doing." He tried to give her a big smile, but she didn't seem to need it.

"Well, um…surprise!" Fran laughed nervously, tossing her hands up and flinging cheese behind her. "I'll mop that up!" She said in a rattled tone.

"No, no! I got it." RJ insisted. "You just…go make sure the trio's doing what they're supposed to."

"No problem!" Fran said, smiling brightly and giving him a salute before running out the door.

If there was one thing RJ admired about Fran, it was her ability to bounce back to her cheery self ever so rapidly, like a rubber band snapping back after being let go. He envied it, to some extent.

He sighed deeply, then set his arms on the counter before lying his head on them. He then tried to focus his thoughts before going back to work.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked Fran as she walked out.

"Yeah! He apologized to me."

"Maybe he should apologize to me, too." Casey sulked as he grabbed a soda for himself.

"What happened out here?" Fran queried, looking concerned.

"RJ was still on his little tirade when Casey stood up for you." Lily replied as Fran helped her carry a pair of pizza stands over to a table near-overflowing with a large family gathering.

"Oh. Well, that was nice of Casey to do. He didn't have to stand up for me like that."

"Well, you're our friend," Lily replied. "and regardless of who does something bad to you, we're gonna stand up for you."

"Well, thanks."

With the work day finished, the quartet began cleaning up the shop for the next day.

"Hey guys…" RJ meekly called out to them as he left the kitchen. He walked out and addressed the group. "I'd like to say I'm sorry for being so negative today. I have a bad headache, and I don't mean to be so totally rude."

"That's okay. Everybody has bad days." Lily said, smiling softly.

"That's not-"

"You just woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. It's okay. You don't need to explain yourself." Fran added.

RJ weakly smiled. "…Yeah. I just need a good night's rest." As long as they weren't going to pry, he wasn't going to continue. "I'm gonna go up to my room. You guys just finish cleaning the shop. When you're done, upstairs for meditation."

"Me too?" Fran asked.

"No, you go home. I'll see you all in the morning." He smiled warmly, then left them to their devices.

"Should I come back with some aspirin? I mean, do you guys have that?"

"Nah. He's probably gonna break out the chamomile tea and hit the hay like the last time he wasn't feeling good." Lily replied.

"I'm a little worried about RJ's health," Theo piped up as he finished cleaning the counters. "I mean, he's been like this on four separate occasions in the last three weeks."

"Maybe it's a terminal illness." Fran chirped, getting looks from her co-workers. "Or…maybe he has a nasty chronic sinus infection. I mean, he said he had a headache, and my dad caused an uproar when he got one last month, so…"

"Well, whatever it is, we shouldn't push his buttons." Lily commented, finishing up her cash register organizing. "That hasn't worked in our favor yet, has it?"

Several hours later, and the trio was still meditating, Lily becoming more impatient with every passing minute. A knock at the front door was just the excuse she needed to get up and move around.

Fran was on the other side of the door, carrying what looked to be an old doctor's bag. "Hi. I know RJ told me to go home, but well, my mom's a doctor and I guess I got it from her that if someone's sick, I just have to jump all over them and make them feel better."

Lily smiled. "Come on up. We're just meditating."

"Still? Wow. You guys do this all the time or something?" Fran said, walking in.

"Well, not all the time, and not as much as today, but there've been times where we've meditated for days on end."

"Whoa. I could never do that. I mean, if I meditated for days, my mom would think I was on a hunger strike or something."

Lily laughed softly and walked over to the boys, tapping them on the shoulder. They looked up at her, then over at Fran.

"Fran, what're you doing here?" Casey asked.

"I thought RJ told you to go home." Theo added.

"Well, both my mom and dad are at conferences for their jobs, so it's really quiet in the house, and I thought maybe you guys could make it seem less quiet, but you're here meditating and, well, that backfired." Fran laughed nervously.

"Fran." Lily gave her a look.

"Well, I brought a lot of medication with me in case RJ needed it, too." She walked over to them and sat down as she opened the bag. "I grabbed a ton of sinus medication for him, mostly generic OTC stuff, but also some name brands." She began digging out various boxes and pill bottles. "I got Benadryl, Advil cold and sinus, Excedrin, NyQuil, Robitussin, and even Nasonex; but I doubt that the last two will be of any help since he doesn't seem to be all that congested and coughy, does he?"

"Look at all this stuff! Did you rob a corner store or something?" Theo asked, gazing in awe at all the pills and syrups.

"No, my mom's a doctor. We have a lot of this stuff around the house." Fran blushed slightly. "So…should I just leave this stuff here, or should I bring it up to him myself?"

"You should leave it." Lily advised.

"He's got a 'quarantine' sign on his door. He obviously doesn't want company." Theo added.

"Well, I'll go bring it to him." Casey said. The trio looked at him. "Well, he's already yelled once today, so twice can't hurt that much."

"I'll go with you!"

"NO!" The Ranger trio shouted in unison. Casey then spoke up. "He told you to go home, and besides, he might be sleeping."

"Fine…I'll just stay here for the night."

The trio looked at her. "Where will you sleep?" Lily asked.

"You know the chair's off-limits." Theo added.

"I'll just sleep on the floor. I don't mind."

"I'll give you a pillow from my room." Lily responded, going towards her room.

"You can borrow one of my blankets." Casey added, going over to his hammock.

"Thanks guys." Fran replied, setting her bag in the corner.

"What are you doing out here this late? We're supposed to be inside, meditating in the Great Hall!" He heard a faint voice call out, one from long ago. He turned around to see a young man dressed in an First Rank student's attire, his untamed brown hair sitting around his face.

He turned around the view the lower ranked young man. "I'm trying out this technique. You wanna join?"

"No, I'd just like for everyone to be inside meditating."

"Listen Towelboy," The young spike-haired master replied, using the affectionate name he had given the young man from the first day that he had joined Pai Zhuq. "I'm training on my own. I want to be on top of the group tomorrow for the big test. And besides, I want to learn this technique I found just sitting around in the library." He showed the First Rank student the scroll depicting an ancient technique. The Initiate recognized it immediately, and his eyes widened.

"But that's…that's illegal!" He said.

"Well, it's more of a lost art, really. Nobody banned it, they just stopped teaching it. I think I'm gonna bring it on back. You want to join me?"

The lower ranked young looked scared. "Of course not! I'd probably mess up anyways."

"Have faith, and take the leap, Towelboy! Nothing good ever came without a little sacrifice! I think you'd pull it off quite well, anyways. You're damn good."

The lower ranked young man gave a rather surprised look. "Oh don't flatter me. I'd rather see you do it first."

"Alright then. Sit back, and watch this master do his thing." He looked over the scroll a few more times, memorizing it.

Before he could dream of anything more, RJ's eyes shot open as he dropped out of his deep meditation. All of his incense had burned out, and the morning sun was shining through the curtains in a futile effort to brighten the room up. His fingers were dug deeply in the cartilage cushioning his kneecaps, threatening to tear both them and the kneecaps straight off in one quick yank. He forced his fingers to let go as he stood up, realizing the futility of his efforts.

He got up off his meditation mat and went out to get more incense.