Koda looked to the dressing around his arm, but felt no better about having been looked at by a doctor. The bullet had done no real damage and once the wound healed up, there would only be a scar as proof that Koda had once been shot.

He also didn't feel better about having spoken to the police about who gave him the gunshot wound. Not only could he not provide a name or much of a description on one of the men responsible, but he didn't trust the police could protect Kendall like he could.

Finally, he didn't feel any better about scaring Kendall's father away. He had won, of course. Mr. Morgan looked so terrified by Koda, there was little doubt he would consider returning.

Yet, despite everything working out for the best – his wound not needing much treatment, the police on the lookout for the man who shot him and Kendall's father, and knowing Mr. Morgan wasn't likely to return if he did escape the police – Koda still felt as though he had failed. The museum had been invaded. Kendall's office had been broken into. Her files, her books, and her artifacts had been thrown around the room and disrespected.

Kendall had been disrespected. That bothered Koda more than anything.

Being defrosted had frightened him. For one, the cold was painful. But if that wasn't already traumatic enough, the world he woke up to looked nothing like the one he had left behind. Even the people looked very different from what he knew.

And they were terrifying.

They had all been scientists, each with different specialties, and each with their own interests in mind. Koda had learned, when he had first been discovered, no one imagined he could be alive. They had plans to test him. They would poke and prod his cold body to learn more about him and people like him. He was supposed to be dead, the procedure would be painful. But when they thawed him enough, they found he was alive.

This baffled all the scientists in the room, including Kendall. There was no way a caveman from 100 000 years back could have survived all that time frozen in ice. It wasn't possible in this day and age, so shouldn't have even been imaginable back in Koda's time. Yet it had happened.

Koda had no language skills then. To the scientists, he had been nothing more than a monkey, really. They had plans to carry out their tests, as well as perform several more. Koda panicked, without knowing what was really going on. He saw the strange, alien faces coming towards him and needed to escape. However, he understood nothing of this world and the scientists were able to keep him in.

At least, all those who wanted to were able to keep him locked up. Kendall didn't. As soon as she realized Koda was alive, any studies she wanted to carry out were immediately called off. Her only priority was calming the caveman down.

Kendall respected him as a human. Koda didn't understand why, to this day, she would be different from all the other scientists, but she was. He thought, perhaps, it had something to do with his energem. She had been searching for them at the time, and likely assumed that Koda had bonded to the blue energem and so she needed him. Koda later learned that wasn't true. Kendall knew he had bonded to the energem, yet admitted even if he hadn't, she couldn't justify torturing a human, even a more primitive human, just to gain a better understanding of the world.

She helped Koda escape by faking his death. She claimed a lot about the world was different from his time, including diseases. A little virus that could go unnoticed in someone today would be fatal to Koda. The caveman still wasn't sure how Kendall pulled it off, but she snuck him to the museum and brought him to the cave he now called home. She let him stay, allowed him to make the cave feel as homey as possible. She also taught him how to speak English, and was patient with him when it took him months to learn. For a long time, Koda depended on Kendall to keep him safe in this new world. Now that he was more capable of standing on his own feet, he felt he owed her that safety in return.

He returned to the museum and found the other Rangers had done what he asked. They had moved all of Kendall's personal and professional possessions from her office to the lab, where Koda would be able to keep a closer eye on them. Not to mention, the only people who had access to the lab, or knew about it, were already trustworthy to Koda.

"We should fill Ms. Morgan in on what happened," Shelby suggested once Koda and Riley were back. "She might take it better if she hears it from us than the police."

"We'll take my Jeep," Tyler took out his keys.

"I tell Kendall about... um... breaking in," Koda told the others. "I explain what happened."

"No one's stopping you," Riley nodded.

-Dino-Charge-

Jeremy managed to get a couple of extra days from his wife after he explained what had happened to Kendall. Tracey was sympathetic, and while she had admitted life was harder without him around, she understood that Kendall needed some support. Jeremy knew he had to make it up to his wife, but right now his priority had to be his sister.

He walked back into her apartment. Kendall's bedroom door was still shut, indicating she still wanted privacy. Chase was walking around and seemed to be looking for anything that could possibly be missing. He had been to Kendall's apartment a couple of times, and found it to be quite bare before the incident. He wasn't sure he would spot anything missing, but he figured he would give it a shot.

"Maybe it works in her favour that she doesn't hold onto anything," Chase said when he saw Jeremy. The older man shook his head.

"She used to keep everything," Jeremy told him. "Mom says that happens, sometimes, when you've suffered a loss. You hold onto stuff, even if you don't need it, because you're afraid of losing again."

"Kendall never holds onto anything she doesn't need," Chase shook his head.

"Wanna bet?" Jeremy asked, then glanced around the room quickly before setting his sights on the coffee table. Chase had made nothing of it, assuming it was just a place to rest his feet and hold his drinks while watching TV, but Jeremy knew better. He lifted the top of the table, revealing a place for storage. Inside was filled with random papers, old toys, and various knick-knacks.

"She used to hide this crap under her bed," Jeremy said. "Mom found it all one day when cleaning and started tossing out the junk. You know, the cheap, broken toys and stuff. When Kendall found out, she flipped."

Jeremy reached in and took out a toy plesiosaur. Chase wasn't surprised Kendall had one. They were her favourite reptiles from the Mesozoic, and possibly of all time. However, he never really considered she would have a toy.

"This was her favourite," Jeremy said. "She brought it with her when she started high school. She was new in town and really nervous, so she shoved it in her bag. Just for comfort, you know."

"Kendall, nervous, about school?"

"Very," Jeremy nodded. "Anyways, there was some kind of accident, this fell out of her backpack and the other kids made fun of her. When they called it a dinosaur, Kendall corrected them, saying it was some kind of... water lizard, or whatever. She got labeled a nerd and picked on even more until I stepped up."

"You were there?"

"I'm not that old," Jeremy chuckled. "When she started high school, I was already a junior. I knew Kendall was having a hard enough time already, I didn't think she needed kids picking on her too. Anyways, we got home and I thought for sure she'd finally want to toss it out."

"Why toss it?" Chase asked, taking the toy to examine it a little closer. Jeremy rolled his eyes.

"It's a gift from her father, apparently, from after he left. Personally, if dad took off, I wouldn't want anything from him, especially after the fact, but Kendall, she'd hold onto that thing like her life depended on it. She held onto all this crap. These are all things from her parents, most of which always hurt her to look at, which is why she hid them. But she could never throw it out."

While Chase continued to look at the plesiosaur, Jeremy picked up an old letter. It was still in the envelope, which had been stamped 'return to sender'. It was one of the many letters Kendall had written to her father while she lived with the Fishers. She had mailed them all out, hoping he would one day respond to at least one of them. He always did, but in the most painful way possible. He always returned the letters unopened. Her father didn't care, he didn't wonder about her, he seemed to want nothing to do with her and he wanted her to know it. Every time she got her letter back, Jeremy watched her heart break. So the summer before taking off to college, Jeremy intercepted every letter, either before it could be mailed out to Mr. Morgan, or before it got back to Kendall. After a couple of times of never getting a response, even a returned letter, Kendall was devastated. Eventually, she stopped writing to her father. It had been one of the most difficult things Jeremy had done as a big brother, but he knew it had allowed Kendall to put her past behind her, if not completely, then just a little bit. At the very least, she would no longer have a broken heart every time the mail came and her letter was brought back to her.

"How can someone be so... awful?" Jeremy asked, looking to Chase, showing him the letter. Chase shrugged his shoulders.

"Some people just aren't meant to be parents," Chase said. Jeremy shook his head.

"There's bad parents, and then there are bad people. I could never imagine leaving Anna, but even if I did, I could never do something like this to her. Just, as a person, I could never live with myself if I hurt someone as badly as he hurt Kendall. Then to come back and demand money from her like that? Twice?"

"He's scum," Chase shrugged his shoulders.

"He's worse than scum," Jeremy insisted before the door knob started rattling and it sounded like someone wanted to come in. Jeremy seemed alert, but Chase kept calm, assuming it was just the other Rangers coming to check up on Kendall. He had run out on them, leaving Cammy with them hours ago, and hadn't called or texted to update them since. He figured, by now, they'd be worried. He got up to answer the door, but before he could the door opened. A big man walked into the apartment. He looked a little rough and angry. Chase didn't recognize him. Neither did Jeremy. Both tensed up before the intruder.

The big man didn't notice he wasn't alone in the apartment as he shut the door behind him. Once the door was closed, he started to turn around and called out into the apartment, "Alright, Morgan, I've had enough. You give me the damn money your father owes or..."

He trailed off, his eyes settling on Chase and Jeremy, who looked angry. He wasn't intimidated by him. Neither were quite as big as the man from the museum or himself. However, the last thing he wanted was another fight. This debt he was owed was turning out to be more work than he imagined.

Still, he was owed a lot of money. Money he couldn't afford not to get back. He wasn't a stranger to getting his hands dirty. If it meant he'd get his money, he'd knock them out. He would just have to do it quickly.

"Looks like little Morgan's put some of that money into hiring body guards," he chuckled. "Guess she's cheap, just like her father. Couldn't hire anyone bigger?"

"You did this?" Jeremy growled and pointed to Kendall's bedroom. Chase was quick to grab his arm and lower it. It was already clear the man was looking for Kendall, and while the apartment wasn't big enough that Kendall could hide out for long at all, Chase didn't want to give her away.

"I didn't want to," the man said. "But when Tom failed to collect the first time, I figured I'd just come and get it done the easy way. So, just tell me where that little bitch keeps her money, I'll take what I'm owed, and then I'll be on my way. No one needs to get hurt."

Jeremy heard the deal, but he didn't like it. He clenched his fists before charging at the big man. He didn't have an idea of what to do in his head except that he wanted to hurt the invader.

The big man saw Jeremy coming for him and readied himself for a fight. As Jeremy got closer, he punched, hitting the smaller man in the middle of his face, smashing his nose and knocking him to the ground. Once Jeremy was down, the big man kicked him for good measure.

"Get off!" Chase shouted as he rushed over to help Jeremy. He hoped he'd be able to fight the big man, that he could scare him off. He fought aliens and monsters, after all. One man shouldn't have been a big deal but Chase was proven wrong. The man wouldn't hold back and he knew how to use his size to his advantage. Chase quickly found himself on the ground. Fortunately, he wasn't as in pain or as dazed as Jeremy and tried to get up again. Just when he was on his knees, the man punched him, knocking him in the side of the face. If that wasn't enough, Chase hit the other side of his head against the wall and his vision blurred. It would take him a second to bounce back.

A second was all the intruder needed. He walked past Chase, stepped over Jeremy and made his way into the bedroom. Chase was close to catching his second wind when he heard Kendall scream. There were some thumps from the bedroom. Kendall, obviously, was putting up another fight. Chase could only hope she had what it took to finally beat the big man. Just in case, though, Chase pulled himself up to his feet, using the wall to find his balance. He shook his head then made his way to the bedroom. Just as he reached the door, though, he was shoved to the ground once again as the man walked out, dragging Kendall, by the leg, behind him. When she saw him, Kendall reached out. Chase tried to grab her arm, thinking maybe he could pull her out of the man's grip. Kendall grabbed his arm, then reached, with her other arm to his neck, held on tight to his necklace and pulled. Chase wasn't sure what she was doing, but had no time to ask. His grip on Kendall's arm slipped when the big man pulled, and Chase couldn't hold on. He crawled after her and the intruder, desperate to stop them leaving, but he was too late. The door slammed shut behind them, and when Chase finally managed to open it, there was no sign of them in the hallway.

"Dammit!" he shouted and punched the floor in frustration. He couldn't believe he had been beaten. He couldn't believe he had let the man win. He knew it wasn't encouraged; the first day he became a Ranger, Kendall told him only to use his powers against Sledge, Fury and their army. However, he was certain this would be an exception. He was certain she would have wanted him to morph. And he should have morphed.

Suddenly, he reached to his neck. He kept his energem around his neck for safe keeping when it wasn't at the Lab and he had had it on him today. Kendall had grabbed it, though he wasn't sure why, and had ripped it away from him just before disappearing. Now, not only was she gone, but she had an energem with her – one she couldn't use! There was also the little problem of what it meant for Chase. If he needed to use one of his chargers, he would only have so much power before he needed his energem. If Kendall wasn't back and Sledge or Fury decided to launch an attack, Chase would be nearly helpless.

This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.