The Morans were great parents, but sometimes, their rules restricted Emma a little too much. She was still grounded from getting home late from Jordan's house not too long ago, and had an early curfew that meant she couldn't go out anywhere past dinner time. Now, she was grounded because she had let Gia walk home alone after an alien attack, which led to the yellow Ranger being attacked. Because her arm was broken, Gia couldn't defend herself as well as she normally could, and nearly ended up being Vrak's latest victim. For her grounding, she was assigned the role of babysitter and babysittee. It matched Gia's punishment for Rangering with a cast. Emma needed to stay by Gia's side whenever they were out of the house, and Gia needed to stay with Emma. In other words, they couldn't be apart.

Fortunately, they were practically joined at the hip, and a few days without private times with their boyfriends wouldn't kill them. The girls decided to go for a walk through the forest, so Emma could take pictures – something she hadn't done in a while. Gia wasn't as into nature photography as Emma, but did enjoy the peace that came from being so far out of the city.

And it was always nice spending time with Emma.

"There's a bird's nest up there," Gia said. Emma made sure the camera was secure around her neck before she started to climb the tree slowly. At this time of the year, she wasn't likely to find bird eggs or baby birds, but it was still a nice photo to take, especially from up close. She loved everything that had to do with animals working peacefully with the earth. Though animals, like humans, took resources from the earth, they never took more than what they needed. Emma had stated countless times to her friends and her family that there was no need for excess, as too much was just a waste of money, time, and a waste of resources.

"You're going to fall," Gia called up as Emma stretched to get to the next branch above her. Emma shook her head.

"Please, I've been doing this since I was in diapers," she chuckled. "I'll be… whoa!"

She swayed slightly, but caught herself before she could fall. Looking down, she saw Gia with her hand over her chest.

"If you fall, I'll be the one to get in trouble."

"Maybe we'll have matching casts," Emma smirked. She leaned forward, letting the branches support her weight while she took out her camera and started shooting pictures. When she got what she needed from the nest, she looked down and shot a picture of Gia sitting by the trail next to a patch of flowers. She looked at the shot she had captured and smiled, "You really should pose for pictures more often."

"Did you just…? Emma, stop being creepy," Gia rolled her eyes. Emma put her camera around her neck once more and slowly started to make her way down.

"It's not creepy, it's art," Emma said. "Jordan promised if I got a real nice picture today, he'd paint it."

"Why? You'd already have the picture. Why would you need a painting?"

"It's a different style," Emma shrugged. "Besides, people see things differently, and the way we see the world is reflected in our art. The pictures won't be exactly the same."

"You can talk fancy all you want, but a photograph and a painting of the same scene is the same picture," Gia said. Emma jumped down from the tree and landed beside Gia. She gave her the camera to show her the pictures.

"You'll see. Besides, it's a sweet gesture."

"Aren't you two beyond the mushy gesture sweet stuff anyways?"

"You should never be past the mushy sweet stuff," Emma chuckled. "Your mom told me that."

"What does she know?"

"She's been married to your dad for twenty years."

"I should probably get them something," Gia said.

"I think the fact that they have their daughter back is gift enough this year," Emma answered before seeing a deer a little ways off. She grabbed Gia's arm to stop her moving and then slowly crept towards the deer so as not to startle it.

Gia knew to keep her distance from the shy animals. Emma always loved the challenge of getting up close. On occasion, she would get so close to the deer that, after shooting a few pictures, she would reach her hand out and the deer would walk over to her. Gia had seen Emma get so close to a deer that she would spend several minutes stroking the deer's fur. Emma always had a way with animals that made them trust her.

However, trust had to be earned. No one knew that better than Gia. She knew that if she made a sudden movement or noise, the deer would be startled and would run off before Emma could take a picture. So Gia always stayed away.

As she did that, though, she heard someone talking to themselves from the other side of the trail. Seeing Emma was inching her way over to the deer, and the deer didn't seem to mind at all, Gia went off the other way. She had never seen someone come this far out into the woods unless it was one of the Rangers.

She was surprised to see it was Jake. He had told her he would be at soccer practice all morning, but she figured he may have finished early and came out here to find her. She smiled when he saw her, and she waved for him to come over. Jake turned away from her.

"Jake," she called, but not too loudly so that the deer wouldn't be startled. She started to go after Jake. "Are you blind?"

She caught up to him and grabbed his arm. He finally turned around and gave her a smile.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked her. She pointed over her shoulder, where Emma could barely be seen taking the pictures of the deer.

"Nature walk. I thought you were at soccer."

"Oh, yeah," Jake nodded his head. "Soccer."

"You didn't forget, did you?" Gia frowned. "I know Coach McKnight is going easy on you because of the Ranger thing, but you still need to be a good player. I doubt it looks good if you're skipping out on practice to be with your girlfriend."

"Don't worry. I got it covered," he assured her and then took her hand, "C'mere, I want to show you something."

"Uh, okay, but Emma…"

"It's not far. She'll find us, easy."

Gia nodded her head and followed Jake away from the trail. She assumed he had found something interesting on his way over that he wanted her to see.

Back near the deer, Emma snapped as many pictures as she could before the deer decided it was enough and took off. With a smile, she flipped back over the shots she got, proud to say that many of them turned out great. She couldn't wait to get back into the city and print off all the pictures she had taken.

She turned around to look for Gia and call her over, but Gia wasn't there. She rolled her eyes and walked back towards the path.

"Gia, you can come out. The deer is gone," she called out but Gia never answered. "This isn't time for hide and seek. You know what your parents are going to do if they find out we split up! C'mon, Gia, I don't feel like being triple grounded. Gia?"

Assuming Gia wouldn't continue down the trail without her, Emma searched through the bushes until she tripped over a rock. She fell into the dirt, getting some of it in her mouth. As she spit it out, she heard some light sobbing.

"Gia?" she looked to the side and saw Gia curled up, rocking back and forth. She got up and then knelt next to her best friend, "Gia! What happened?"

"Is he gone?" Gia whispered very softly. Emma had to get closer to hear her.

"What?"

"Is he gone?"

"Who?"

"Jake."

"Jake's at soccer practice," Emma said. "No one is around, Gia."

Gia looked up and Emma saw red marks from tears all down her face. The red extended to one side of her face where it looked like Gia had been hit.

"What… Gia, is that…?"

"I want to go home," Gia whispered. Emma nodded and helped her up. She stuck close to Gia as they headed back to the city.