Mentor had been at the Tengen Gate for a few days now and he was starting to wonder what there was beyond the main room. Serena had told him not to snoop around and he would respect her wishes, but he knew there were many books he could read without getting too much information. There were some things even he wasn't allowed to know.

He had just finished reading a book about a former Samurai team and their battles against the Nighlok. It was centuries ago, but things were almost the same as they were now. A full team of Samurai, living, working and playing together under one roof for years. He had learned a lot about the dynamics of the team and he could see many resemblances between the current Rangers and their ancestors, but the thing that interested him the most was the stories about their mentor.

Ji knew that mentors made mistakes, but this former mentor had made a life-ending judgement call. Mentor Ji found he could relate. Fortunately, the Rangers whose Stones had been programmed had all survived, but there was a risk that the Stones were powerful enough to kill. Things could have been worse than they were now.

But the former mentor hadn't been so lucky. He had to make a quick call for his team, one none of the Rangers approved of, but as mentor he convinced them to trust him. Five Rangers had gone into battle, intend on going through with his plan. Only four returned. The blue Ranger, Kevin's ancestor, had died when the plan backfired against the Samurai. The Nighlok had been about to destroy the Rangers but he pushed them all out of the way and took the attack by himself. He died on the spot. The only reason Kevin was alive today and the blue Ranger powers could be passed down was because, unbeknownst to the blue Ranger at the time, the woman he loved was carrying his child.

Mentor Ji felt bad for the mentor in the stories, but reading had made him realise just how careful he needed to be with the decisions he made. Jayden had initially protested, but Mentor had assured him everything would be fine. Had Mentor only listened to his red Ranger, the team never would have suffered.

Mentor set the book down as Osamu walked into the room. He was holding something behind his back. He cleared his throat, at which Mentor Ji looked up.

"The guardians are putting the finishing touches to Serena's room," he said. "We found some of her possessions in the debris," Osamu pulled out Monkey the Ape and a photo album. He held them out for Mentor Ji to take.

Mentor furrowed his brow in confusion at the items. As far as he was concerned they belonged to Emily. He took them and smiled.

"This must have been missed."

"Will Serena be coming back?" Osamu asked. "The other guardians heard you saying we don't need her anymore. They're starting to worry you won't send her back."

"You don't need her," Mentor replied confidently. He tucked the ape and the book under his arm and placed his hand on Osamu's shoulder. "You would do anything to protect the secrets of the Samurai, would you not?"

"Of course."

"What makes Serena better?"

"She's more skilled. She's been chosen…"

"I will tell her what I have seen here and I will give her the option to return home or not. If she trusts you can all defend the Gate by yourselves, will you trust yourselves?"

"Serena would never put the Gate in any kind of danger."

"I'll take that as a yes," Mentor chuckled.

-Samurai-

The atmosphere was a little weird around the Samurai house now that everyone knew Serena was pregnant. She and Emily had made up and Emily was doing the best she could to help her sister, but they both still avoided the topic of pregnancy whenever they could. Emily wanted to help her sister, but she didn't like the idea of Serena being pregnant. Mia was always with the two girls, lending a hand whenever possible and she was usually the one who talked pregnancy with Serena and tried to involve Emily as much as possible.

Kevin was doing his best to keep a regular routine in the house, but he couldn't help but delay training or extended relaxation periods when he thought Serena was working out too hard. He didn't know how much exercise was too much and he didn't want to push it.

Jayden, Antonio and Mike were all fascinated and slightly unnerved by the pregnancy. Like the other Rangers, they had never been around a pregnant woman before. They didn't know how to behave, what to expect, or when to avoid hormonal Serena.

Mike was staring at Serena's stomach while the team sat around the common room eating their dinner.

"So, when does it blow up?" he asked and was then hit in the stomach by Jayden.

"It doesn't blow up," he whispered to Mike. "It's slow and steady."

"Are you going to get fat?" Antonio asked Serena. "I hear that when a baby's born it's only, like, seven or eight pounds. The rest is all you."

"Do you think it's going to hurt?" Mike continued his question and this time put his arm in front of his stomach to avoid another slap from Jayden. "I mean, you and Emily aren't big, but your father…"

Emily dug her nails into Mike's arms.

"From what I've seen in pictures," Mike quickly added, "is huge! And Dekker's not exactly a tiny guy. If the kid's anything like either of them…"

Serena glared at the two boys and then pointed her fork at them, "If you guys do this for the entire pregnancy I'll have you both filming the birth. Start to finish. Every gruesome detail."

Mike and Antonio didn't say another word.

"Maybe we can have a meal where Serena's pregnancy isn't the only conversation we have," Kevin suggested. "So, what did we all do today?"

"You have to ask?" Jayden laughed. "We spent the day together."

"We spend every day together," Emily nodded. "There's nothing to talk about unless you want to relive what happened only a few hours ago."

"Mia tripping up the steps," Serena chuckled as the memory came back to mind. "That's never going to get old."

"Emily slips all over the place," Mia muttered. "I nearly trip once and it goes down in history."

"You're right," Serena placed her hand on Mia's shoulder and for a moment she gave the pink Ranger a sympathetic look. Then she turned to the rest of the team, "It would have been even better if you actually fell on your face."

Mia glared at her friends. She knew they were only teasing but she had to get the last word. She snuck a glance at the mess in the kitchen.

"Fine, if I'm such a klutz today that would mean it would be a bad idea for me to do dishes."

"But… it's your week," Jayden frowned.

"Yeah, but there are glass cups and breakable plates and don't even get me started on the knives. Someone could get hurt. I would do the dishes, but I wouldn't want any of you accidentally getting stabbed in the chest when I take another little spill."

"I hate you," Mike muttered and he started collecting plates with Antonio now that the Rangers were all done eating. There was a bit of a silence as the conversation fell flat. Finally, Serena got up.

"I have to pee."

"Again?" Kevin frowned. "You just went an hour ago."

"Junior's already starting to run my life," Serena shrugged. "And he's barely the size of my hand. Hopefully he won't do like what Emily did to mom."

"What did I do?"

"Every symptom in the book," Serena groaned, thinking back to what she could remember of when her mother had been pregnant with Emily. "Mom suffered for months because of you."

"My bad…"

"She still kicked my ass when we were training, though," Serena muttered. "And you were a kicker too. My first memory of you was you kicking me in the face from the uterus when I gave mom a hug. Mom and dad were laughing for hours."

"Sorry," Emily giggled.

"It didn't hurt, but I got you back."

"How?"

"Like this," Serena reached forward and flicked her sister in the forehead before rushing off to the bathroom before she wet herself.

Mia handed her plate off to Antonio as he came back to collect the second round of dirty dishes. Once her plate was gone she turned to Emily.

"I'm glad you came around on the whole Serena-pregnancy thing," she smiled. "She was really worried about how you would take it."

"It's a little awkward still," Emily admitted. "Last night I had a nightmare the baby would look like Nighlok Dekker when it came out…"

"Okay, forget my painful big baby theory," Mike interrupted from the kitchen, "That's going tofucking hurt!"

"Yeah," Emily nodded her head slowly. "Serena told me I can take my times coming to terms with it. She won't force me to go with her to appointments and stuff."

"That's what I'm here for," Mia smiled. "You'll come around soon though, Emy. And you're doing your best to help."

"Serena was up all night throwing up," Mike nodded, walking back into the room after leaving Antonio to dry the dishes. "Emily was up with her."

"I just told myself she had food poisoning."

"What about when the bump comes?" Jayden asked Emily. "The flu's a believable excuse. What will you tell yourself when it looks like she swallowed a basketball?"

"She had too much ice-cream," Emily shrugged her shoulders. "Hopefully I get used to the idea of her being pregnant with Dekker's baby by then. I don't like not liking it. I've always wanted to be an aunt."

"Maybe when the baby kicks you in the face and you feel it for the first time, you'll fall in love," Kevin suggested with a smile. "I've never felt a baby kicking before, but I hear it's amazing."

"Maybe," Emily nodded and turned around when she heard Serena walking back into the room. Her sister had detoured the kitchen and was eating from a tub of ice-cream. Jayden couldn't help but laugh.

"You're a walking cliché," he said to Serena. She glared at him.

"One more word and my next craving will be you."

"Definitely Dekker's kid in there," Mike chuckled. He looked over to Emily, "How do you explain Serena's weird cravings?"

"Never mess with Serena and ice-cream," Emily laughed. Mike turned back to Serena and saw the older sister giving him a dead-serious look. He took a step away.

"That's all yours," he gestured to the tub. Serena smiled and licked her spoon clean.

"You guys learn fast."