Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers Megaforce. This story is fan-made.
Author's Note: This is not where the Megaforce series starts. If you want to read the series without getting lost, I suggest you read my stories in the order they appear:
No To Date Nights - The Party Night - Project Partners - Megaforce: Lives Behind The Masks - Prom Night - A Trip To Remember - First Meetings - Something She Loves – Protective Morans – Samurai In Harwood County – Rainy Days – Luck Had Nothing To Do With It – Ranger Support – Parents and Children – Hero Without The Spandex – Emma's Night – Emma's Mother – Bait And Switch – After Death – A Stormy Day – A Date For Tensou – A Mother's Advice – Mending Fences – Executioner Named Revenge –Those Three Words – On The Fourth Day – Babysitting – Tiger- A Fresh Start – On the Mountains – Looking Ahead – The Rangers' Recovery – Daughter's Nightmare – Megaforce: With Great Power –Cookies – The Babysitters: Jake and Gia – Better Off With The Burrows – A Hard Journey – The Messenger – Megaforce: The Invasion Arrives – Learning To See – Sight Unseen – A Romantic Demise – To Love And To Lose
The sun was beginning to set in the sky. The team had already eaten dinner around the ship and they were winding down for the day. Vrak and the Armada had both launched an attack, but surprisingly it worked out in favour for the Rangers. While it was difficult to balance having two separate threats to the planet, sometimes, when those threats failed to communicate among themselves (which quite frankly was all the time) their forces would defeat each other. Vrak had set out a robot that had been programmed to attack anything that moved, and the Armada had sent down a monster that had orders to destroy anything that didn't yet belong to the Armada. The first part of the battle for the Rangers was spent keeping it contained to only one street while the second part was finishing off the remaining monster after he destroyed the other.
So with both Vrak and Vekar having suffered a loss, Emma knew she had at least a day to let herself relax. Jake and Noah were up on the bridge, getting in some extra training that Noah had promised Rebecca he would do. Rebecca was in the girls' bathroom, bathing Ryan before she put her to bed. Troy and Orion were up in the crow's nest, enjoying the view of the summer sunset while Orion taught Troy an old card game from Andrasia. Finally, Gia was in the kitchen, doing the dishes from dinner. Emma had some time to herself on the bow just to go over the recent days' events, as well as everything leading up to it.
She remembered back to years ago, back to when she and Gia had been in the middle of what was easily the biggest fight of their lives. After trying several times to call Cliff out on all his abuse and to convince Gia to dump him, Emma had only succeeded in chasing her best friend away. Cliff had someone gotten Gia to believe that Emma was only out to sabotage their relationship. Since the day Gia chose to believe Cliff over Emma, the then future pink Ranger would lay awake at night until she would pass out from exhaustion hoping that her friend would be okay.
The end of the summer was approaching. Cliff, just like most others his age were heading off to college and with Gia only entering her sophomore year in high school, she couldn't follow him. Emma hoped and prayed even, though she was not religious, that this would be the thing that would tear them apart, and at the very least Gia would be away from the boy who physically, emotionally, and if Emma's accusations were on point, sexually abused her. However, she had her doubts.
Her parents were often gone on trips, often for weeks at a time. Emma had the house to herself one morning. It was after a night of very little sleep. Emma should have been used to them. Worry for Gia meant she rarely got a decent night's sleep, but this one was worse. Emma had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach and thought that if it didn't go away after her bike ride through the woods, she would try to give Gia a call.
She was in the middle of making herself breakfast, as she always did before her ride, when she heard a knock at the door. She didn't want to answer it. One rule her father had left her was not to answer the door when she was home alone, but something about the knock felt different. When the person knocked again, Emma decided to check it out.
She walked to the door and peeked through the window along the side. She barely recognized the person standing on the welcome mat but knew right away to open the door. Gia walked in with a heavy limp and it appeared she was struggling to hold up her own weight. Her clothes looked like they had been thrown on carelessly and ripped in some places. There were also some blood splatters. She had heavy bruising on her arms, legs, her neck and her face. Her left eye was black and heavily swollen, her cheek looked like it had been cut, and her lip was bleeding and swelling at once. Emma shut the door once Gia was inside and then helped her best friend to the couch.
She had never seen someone so beaten up. It scared her to no end. As soon as she got Gia down on the couch she reached for the phone. Gia smacked it out of her hand.
"Don't call for help!"
"Gia..."
"Please," Gia begged and it broke Emma's heart. At least for now, she put the phone down and ran to her bathroom. Her BMX riding out in the woods meant she often suffered bumps, bruises, scrapes and cuts. She didn't have a full first aid kit, but she did have enough packed to clean and cover Gia's wounds hopefully until Gia agreed to see a doctor. When she got back to the living room, she saw Gia doubled over on the couch, groaning in pain as she clutched her stomach. Emma wanted to cry but she knew Gia needed her.
"What hurts the most?" she asked. The then future yellow Ranger shook her head tearfully.
"You can brag, you know," she said. "You were right about him. You were right about everything. If you want to gloat..."
"Do I look like I want to gloat?" Emma frowned. "Seriously, Gia, what hurts? What did he do?"
"Emma, please..."
"I want to help," Emma said. She helped Gia lay down on the couch and inspected all of Gia's bruises and cuts herself. Seeing one on her forehead, Emma decided to clean that one first. As she dabbed it with a cotton ball, Gia didn't make a sound. Emma knew the cleaning solution stung and was surprised not to hear anything from her best friend. She sighed as she looked down at Gia, "What did he do?"
"Just leave it, Emma..."
"Gia, you can't keep this to yourself."
"What do you want me to say?" Gia asked. "Anything I do tell you will go straight to the cops or my parents or..."
"It should! Look at you, Gia! What guy should be allowed to walk the streets after doing something like this?"
"I was putting up a fuss," Gia shook her head. "Emma, you don't get it..."
"What don't I get? Look at what he's done! Let me at least call your parents..."
"No! Please, don't let them see me like this!"
"Gia..."
"Please, can you just drop it?"
"I can't just leave you like this. You need a doctor. You need..."
"I'm fine. Just..."
"How can I be sure?" Emma asked. She placed a bandaid over the cut on Gia's head and then looked her best friend in the eyes. "Gia..."
"I don't want the lectures. I don't want the problems. I don't want the looks. I just want this all to be over," Gia said. She tried to sit up on the couch but cried out loudly, clutched her ribs and fell back. Emma immediately jumped up, grabbed the ice-pack from the freezer and then returned to place it on Gia's ribs. Once the ice pack was on comfortably, Emma looked back at Gia. She had covered her face with her arms and was sobbing heavily, desperately and painfully. Emma couldn't take it. She dropped to her knees next to the couch and lightly put her arms around her best friend.
"Please talk to me, Gia. Tell me what happened."
"You're going to tell. I'll be the laughing stock. Everyone's going to..."
"No one's going to find out," Emma said and she meant it. Gia wasn't going to break if she thought this would spread even just to her parents and the police, and if Emma did betray her, she was scared she would lose Gia again. Seeing her best friend at her most broken and vulnerable, Emma had to do the only thing she knew would help. She would have help Gia bear the pain in silence. It was a heavy burden, and much too big for a fifteen year old to carry, but it was better than letting Gia keep it all to herself.
"You swear?"
"On everything I love," Emma nodded. "On my camera, my bike, and this planet. We'll get through this just us."
Gia seemed hesitant for a moment, but then let it out. She told Emma all about the way Cliff treated her. The beatings, the humiliation, and the tasks he'd have her do, the things he expected from her and the way he went about getting them even when Gia refused. Emma wanted to cry through the whole thing but she kept a strong face for Gia, who by the end of it was sobbing so hysterical she could barely breathe. Emma took her in her arms, hugged her with all the love and comfort she could gather and whispered in her ear how everything would be okay until Gia passed out in her arms.
Emma finished cleaning her up, making sure not to miss a single cut or bruise and then put everything away in the trash. The garbage truck was due to come by soon so she knew all the evidence of the beating would be gone quickly. Well, all the evidence but the physical scars. Most looked like they would heal completely and those that didn't were easy to cover up with clothing, especially pants and long sleeve shirts or jackets.
But then there were the scars no one could see. Emma was most worried about those. But she would take care of them. She would have to.
When she got the house cleaned up she picked up the phone. A huge part of her wanted to break her word to Gia and tell her parents all about what had been going on with Cliff. She could risk losing her camera, bike and at this moment couldn't give a damn about pollution and global warming.
However, she couldn't lose her friend. Gia was scared, vulnerable, and unpredictable. She was fragile, and if Emma broke her trust, there was no telling what she would do next. Emma hoped, eventually, Gia would come to her senses but until then, Emma had to keep her close.
"Mr. Moran, it's Emma... No, I'm fine, everything's good over here. It's just... a little lonely. Gia stopped by on her way home from Cliff's and we were just wondering if it was okay if she spent a couple of nights here. Maybe more but I'll have her check in with you later about that... No, seriously, Mr. Moran, I'm okay. We'll probably just go out riding in the woods or something... Thanks, Mr. Moran! You're the best. I love you too."
Emma hung up the phone, set it down by the couch and looked to Gia again. Her parents were likely going to stop by at some point over the next couple of days just to check up on them. They always did when the girls were alone for extended periods of time. Gia's injuries wouldn't be healed by then, so Emma needed a cover up.
Hearing the garbage truck come up the street, Emma knew what she had to do. Gia's wounds were pretty severe, but nothing a nasty fall on the BMX couldn't cover up. So Emma walked out to her garage. Gia kept her bike there because she only ever went out to ride with Emma. Emma picked it up and walked it out to the street as the garbage man came by. She offered him the bike. He frowned.
"This still looks good. Are you sure it's trash?"
"Yeah, I'm sure," replacing the bike would cost a fortune. She was sure the Morans wouldn't be happy when they found out Gia's was gone, but she would cover the cost with her own money if she had to. As long as Gia felt safe and still had someone she could trust. The man took the bike, threw it in the back of the truck along with the rest of the garbage and Emma watched as it was crushed. She thanked the man then walked back inside the house. Gia was awake again and sobbing heavily into her pillow. Emma covered her with a blanket, lay down next to her and whispered.
"It's going to be okay. You're going to be okay."
"No pictures tonight?"
Emma snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Gia coming up behind her. Her mind snapped back to the present and turned around in time to see her best friend offering her an ice-cream cone. Emma smiled.
"What's this for?"
"Just because," Gia shrugged. She looked out at the sky, "The sunset's gorgeous. You're not taking any pictures?"
"Oh! How could I forget," Emma said. She had Gia hold her cone as she grabbed her camera and took a couple shots. When she was satisfied with the pictures she got, she set her camera down. Gia leaned next to her.
"You looked like you were thinking hard. You didn't break something up there, did you?"
"Nope," Emma shook her head. "I was just... looking back."
"Why?"
"Just to see how far we've come."
"From where?"
"Two years ago, did you think any of this would happen?" Emma asked and pointed around the ship. "That we would be here, with all our friends, saving the world and living on a flying pirate ship."
"If you had told me that, I would have been convinced you found some crazy mushrooms," Gia chuckled.
"I'm really happy we made it here. I'm really glad it's all worked out."
"Um, the Armada and Vrak are still out there, in case you've forgotten," Gia said. Emma gave her one quick look. Gia nodded, "You meant Cliff, didn't you?"
Gia sighed, turned to Emma and opened her arms wide, "Alright, it's long overdue. I can handle it. Just say it. You told me so."
"You made it so," Emma smiled. "I'm really, really happy for you."
"Thanks," Gia said, blushing slightly just before something jumped up on her back. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Tiger was trying to get up on her shoulder to sit like she had done when she was a much smaller cub. Gia shook her head.
"Get off! You're too big now!"
She pushed the growing cub to the ground but Tiger was ready to play. She nudged Gia's leg, almost knocking her over completely.
"Hey! Okay, now you're just asking for it," Gia chuckled. She started to swing her hands in front of tiger's face, imitating rough play, though Gia would never purposely cause harm to her cub. Tiger reacted both by trying to swipe back at Gia, but by backing off. Eventually, Gia made a sudden move toward Tiger, prompting the cub to run with her mistress right on her tail.
Emma couldn't resist taking out her camera and shooting pictures of the entire playtime. Over the last few days, she had never seen Gia let go and relax so much. Around everyone, she seemed to be a lot more open than they ever thought possible. It was a whole new side to the yellow Ranger and everyone was enjoying it.
Especially Orion. He and Troy finished with their game on the crow's nest and were on their way down when Orion saw the playing happening between Gia and Tiger. Emma wasn't sure when Gia and Orion had gotten so close, but she was happy to see that Gia was comfortable with someone, especially so soon after the break up with Jake. And whether the yellow and green Ranger could eventually work out their feelings for each other, or whether Gia had actually moved on to Orion, Emma was just glad to see her so happy.
"I've got your tail," Orion said as he gently pulled on Tiger's tail. The cub playfully tried to jump him, but Orion made sure to stay behind her at all times. The three of them were having so much fun together, Emma completely forgot about that morning at her home the weeks before her sophomore year of high school.
And it looked like Gia had too.
Author's Note: Since my last contest, I've seen a huge jump in the number of reviews I've been getting. It makes me really happy to hear from each and every one of you and I wanted to thank you for all the time you've taken to leave me feedback. I've got a special deleted for regular reviewers (new and old + anyone who reviewed my last chapter of To Love And To Lose). Here's a snippet and yes, unlike most deleted scenes this is cannon for my series:
"Grr," Ryan said again and leaned against the tiger gently. "Grr."
"Ti-ger," Troy repeated for her. "Ryan, do you love T-T-Tiger?"
"T...T...grr," Ryan repeated. Troy's eyes widened slightly. He leaned forward in his seat to watch and listen to his sister.
Thank you once again to all of my amazing regular reviewers (new and old). I hope to continue hearing from you!