Disclaimer: Everything you recognise belongs to Disney/Haim Saban

"Mum told me to tell you you're still grounded, so get off the phone."

David turned, frowned at his sister. "This is important."

She shrugged. "Hey I don't make the rules, mum does." She held out a hand. "Give. I wanna call Barbara." Barbara was a good friend of hers.

"You just made up mum saying that so you could use the phone." David retained his hold on the receiver.

Mary Ann raised her brows and looked extraordinarily like Tori, her black hair and slanted dark eyes notwithstanding. "Do you really want to test that?"

David hesitated, then uttered a soft oath. "I'll call you later," he said into the receiver and hung up. He stood up, glared at Mary Ann. "It's all yours."

"Shouldn't have played hooky and got caught," she said, thumping into the sofa chair beside the phone.

He rolled his eyes. "Like you haven't."

Her grin was quick and bright. "I haven't been caught," she said and picked up the receiver.

David wandered into the kitchen, where his mum was preparing dinner. "I'm bored."

She looked at him. "I've got some chores I need doing."

"Okay." He said immediately. "What're they?"

"Wow." Blake said from where he was getting a bottle of water from the fridge. "You really are bored."

"Yeah." David picked out a pear from the bowl of fruit Tori kept on the kitchen counter and slid into a seat at the sturdy wooden table that seated six at a stretch. "Just a week and three days more." He put the pear in front of him and his chin on the table and began inspecting it.

Sympathetically, Blake ruffled his son's hair. "It'll pass quicker than you think."

"Not quick enough," David called as Blake left the room.

Tori continued to stir the soup she had simmering and David continued to inspect his pear. Finally, deeming it as flawless as a pear could get, he sat up, rubbed it clean on his jersey and took a huge bite. Hearing the crunch of crisp fruit flesh, Tori turned, looked at him. "I've got dinner cooking."

"Yep."

"You're ruining your appetite."

David grinned. "I'm a growing boy mum. Nothing ruins my appetite." He looked down at his flat belly. "Though I wish it did. I'm getting fat; all this lazing around with nothing to do."

"Like I said," Tori tasted her soup. "I've got some chores I need doing."

"I think I'll pass for now." David waited a while, watched as she left the soup to simmer, took out the potatoes she'd left soaking and began to thinly slice them. "Mum."

"Yes David?" She asked in a dry voice.

"Can you please talk to Eva for me?"

At the strange question from her usually confident son, Tori left off cutting the potatoes and turned to face him, leaning against the counter. "David, I know you're not that comfortable around girls, but I seriously don't think I'm the right person to –"

David's brow furrowed as she spoke, then cleared. He went red. "No! I mean, I don't mean that," he said in an awkward voice, practically wriggling in his seat. "I mean. She's acting a bit strange. Like, not herself."

Frowning, Tori slid into the seat opposite him. "I think you need to explain yourself a little better David."

"Well. She says she's training two times a day with Dayton. And she's neglecting her homework – she got told off yesterday for it. Which isn't like her. She's usually pretty serious about her schoolwork. I've tried talking to her about, you know, balancing things out but…" he shrugged. "I don't think I'm getting to her. Something's up with her and she won't talk to me about it," he said, obviously frustrated.

"David." Tori reached out, squeezed the hand he clenched on the table. "I don't think I'm exactly the right position to talk to Eva either."

David looked at her. "But you always know what to say to get my head straight."

"I'm your mum David," Tori said. "Of course I do. What I mean is; I've never been in the same position as Eva." His brow furrowed. "Eva failed the screening test, remember?" Tori reminded him in a gentle voice. "And you said yourself you think she took it to prove a point. Well, whatever it was, she didn't prove it. I passed the screening test. I'm a ninja – exactly the sort of person she was aiming to be. So, no, I'm not the right person to talk to her."

"Right." David's face brightened suddenly. "Then I'll get Uncle Cam to talk to her. He's not a ninja!"

"But he comes from ninja," Tori said, hand tightening on his to stop him from leaving. "And he's a samurai which is, in Eva's eyes, probably equal to a ninja. No. I don't anyone from our immediate circle should talk to Eva about this."

"Then who should?" David demanded. "If we don't sort her out, it'll be like what Ris said; she'll be like Pleance without balance."

"Ris said that?" Tori asked, surprised.

"Mum."

"Sorry." She waved a hand, dismissing it. "It's all right David. I'm going to ask Dr. Oliver to help us out."

David's brows furrowed. "Dr. Oliver?"

"You remember? The man who helped us save your Uncle Dustin and Aunt Marah?"

"There were four guys who helped us," David pointed out. "Which one is he?"

"The oldest one."

"Oh. Right." David grinned. "The one that dad and Uncle Hunter, Uncle Shane, Uncle Dustin and Uncle Can practically worship."

"That one, but I don't think you should mention that to your dad – or any of them in fact. Cheeky monkey," she added, but secretly cheered he looked slightly happier now.

"But I thought Dr. Oliver's one of the best rangers in the world."

"He is," Tori allowed. "But Tommy knows how to contact all the ranger teams in the world. I'm sure he'll be able to find someone who Eva can connect with."

David smiled. "Thanks mum."

She smiled back at him. "Anything for a fellow ranger." She leant over the table and kissed the centre of his brow. "And more for my boy."

"I knew it!" At Mary Ann's voice, they both jerked back, stared at her standing in the doorway. "I knew David was your favourite." Then she grinned. "But that's okay. I'm dad's favourite." With that, she stuck her tongue out at David and pranced off.

David looked at his mum. "Are you sure she's not adopted?"

A/N: Tori and Blake seem like cool parents, don't they? Just wanted to show a little family life.