After he was taught the basics, Mike wanted to try his hand playing the song Emily was working on. He had loved it when she played it for him and he really wanted to learn it. It would probably be a while before Emily was back on her feet, especially with the team so worried about her all the time. While she was recovering, he hoped he would be able to play it for her and keep her entertained.

But Emily had fallen asleep towards the start of the lesson, leaving Mike alone to practice. He wasn't normally the kind of guy who stuck to something for hours, but he couldn't put the flute down; for more reasons than one.

First, he loved how it brought him and Emily closer together. Not that they were lacking shared interests or compatibility. He just loved being able to do something she truly loved with her, instead of training or playing his video games. Second, he loved the way she laughed every time he messed up a note and caused the flute to make a high pitch whistle. It hurt his ears and it was far from being a beautiful sound, but it made Emily laugh, that was all he wanted.

Finally, Emily had fallen asleep with her head in Mike's laugh and he was afraid of moving and waking her up. She wasn't waking up when he hit the off-pitch notes, but he really didn't want to gamble. She needed the rest to recover, and he loved to watch her sleep.

The door opened, without a knock, so Mike could only assume it was Mia. He turned slightly and offered her a smile. She hadn't yelled at him yet for running off. He knew he had scared her, especially because Emily had run with him. Mia was very protective of everyone on the team and hated to see them hurting. She would usually go out of her way to try and make everyone feel better, even if it meant a little sacrifice.

"Dinner's almost ready," Mia told him, "Are you coming out anytime soon?"

"I can't," Mike chuckled and he pointed to the sleeping Emily. Mia closed the door and walked over to the bed.

"Are you hiding in here because you know I won't yell at you in front of her?" she asked teasingly. She wasn't going to yell at Mike. When they first brought Emily home she really wanted to yell, scream and break him for running off. But while keeping her distance from him, she started to calm down. She knew Jayden and Kevin already had a few words with him, and it would be useless to yell at him anymore. Instead, she was just thinking of sharing a few kind words of warning with him.

"I can't leave her," Mike shook his head. "It's my fault she's here and I just want to make sure she's comfortable, you know?"

"I know," Mia nodded. She took a seat on the bed, careful not to sit on Emily. "You know, we were all pretty worried."

"I know, Emily has that effect on people," Mike said.

"I meant both of you, silly," Mia laughed. "We were pissed off when you both ran off, and Kevin and I did say some nasty things about both of you, but that's only because we were worried something happened."

"You don't have to talk to me about Kevin," Mike said, "We've already patched things up. We're friends again… again."

"Well, before you ran off, I did get him to calm down," Mia looked down at Emily and brushed her hair out of her face, "I know you're a bit of a screw up, but you never try to be. I've seen the way you look at her. You don't want to hurt her, do you?"

"Never," Mike shook his head. The last thing he ever wanted to do was hurt Emily. Unfortunately, he couldn't say he never had. He had done so a few times already. Nothing made him feel worse than knowing he made her feel like she wasn't as amazing as she was. And that didn't apply only to the times he hurt her. It was anytime she felt pain. He always wanted to look out for her when they were fighting Nighloks and Moogers. Even when he had been caught in that explosion with her and Jayden, he was only worried about her. The only thing he could think about was how Emily was feeling and if she would be okay. "I could never hurt her, Mia."

"Good," Mia smiled, "Because I convinced Kevin to back off and let you two do what you wanted to do; whether it's friendship or more. That doesn't mean we're okay with it. She is underage…"

"I know."

"I know you do," Mia nodded. She touched Mike's leg, "So, everything's okay? With you and Kevin, I mean?"

"Yeah," Mike smiled, "We're good. We're brothers, we're going to fight, but I think we've both realised that we need each other. I mean, who's going to wake me up in the morning when we need to train?"

"That's good," Mia sighed with relief, "because I did not want to have to play middle-man between you two. Not to mention your room is on the other side of the wall, and Emily and I both like sleeping in peace."

"She doesn't seem to mind the high-pitch squeal of the flute," Mike chuckled.

Mia shot him a look and teasingly, she laughed, "That was the flute? I thought you were strangling a flock of birds or something."

"Shut up, I'm trying," Mike shook his head.

"No, I'm relieved," Mia continued, "I heard Emily laughing and I thought I had some psychotic room-mate."

"Have you ever played the flute? It's not as easy as it seems?"

"I'm not touching that spit catcher," Mia crossed her arms, "It makes beautiful music, but there is no way that thing is ever going near my lips."

"Suit yourself," Mike smirked. Mia gently punched his arm before she got up. Her stomach was starting to tell her it was hungry, and she remembered the reason she came into her room in the first place.

"How are you going to eat dinner if you're not getting up?"

Mike shrugged his shoulders before looking at Mia and trying to give her the sweetest look he could muster, "Maybe you'll bring it in here for me."

Mia shook her head, "Are you kidding? I don't even let Emily eat in here, and this is her room! Plus, I just washed those sheets."

Mike pointed to Emily, "But she's sleeping. You don't want to wake her, do you?"

"Mike?"

"Look at her sleeping face," Mike gestured to Emily's face. He knew Mia was going to cave. Women were programmed to cave for cute.

Mia rubbed her temples, "It was a bad night to suggest tacos…"

"Please! I'll use a plate tonight!"

The pink Ranger sighed, "Fine, but if I see any cheese or salsa on this bed, the floor… or Emily, you're cleaning this entire room."

"Sir, yes, sir!"

Mia shot him a look.

"I mean," Mike cough, "Yes, Mia, whatever you say, oh beautiful pink Ranger."

"That's more like it," Mia laughed.

She left the room shaking her head. If there was anything Mike was good at, it was kissing up.

She arrived in the kitchen alone. No Mike and certainly no Emily.

"What took you?" Kevin asked her. "The food's getting cold."

"Sorry. Emily's still asleep and Mike's afraid of waking her up. I'm going to bring the plate over to him."

"When is Emily going to eat?" Jayden asked. "We can't let her starve. We're going to send her back to her parents in worse condition than when we took her."

Mia grabbed both Mike and Emily's plates from the table and she put the smaller one in the fridge for Emily to eat later.

"I'm sure she'll eat when she's hungry," she said before leaving to give Mike his dinner.

Kevin smiled and looked at Jayden once Mia was out of earshot, "Isn't she great?"

Jayden put down his taco. He was all for the Rangers having a relationship, as long as they kept up with their training and they didn't let their feelings get in the way of their Ranger duties. But that didn't mean he wanted to hear his blue Ranger go on about pink.

"She's so caring," Kevin continued, "So thoughtful… so nice and sweet and…"

"I have a strong stomach," Jayden commented, "but please: stop."

"Sorry," Kevin laughed. He watched as Jayden finished his taco and started collecting his stuff from the table.

"Are you going to train?" he asked. Jayden nodded.

"You're welcome to join me," he answered. "It's should be light out for another few hours."

"Thanks for the invite, but I think I'm okay," Kevin nodded. He shifted in his seat so he was looking at Jayden, "Haven't you been training all day, anyways. Even I know the value of time off."

"After everything that's been happening lately, I would feel better knowing I was one step ahead of Master Xandred."

"I'm sure you're good," Kevin assured his leader. "You're the best there is. Everyone knows that. Even you know that. Unless you're trying to prove that even the great can improve, you should take a night off."

"Not going to happen," Jayden grabbed his training sword and headed for the training mats. Kevin managed to stop him before he left the kitchen.

"Is this about the Moogers?" he asked. Mia had her suspicions about Jayden, and she had passed them on to Kevin. The blue Ranger was aware of Jayden's constant training schedule, especially after the explosion, but now he was really starting to see how excessive it was.

"We should have been able to stop them," Jayden's grip tightened around his sword. "I still don't know what the hell they wanted, or why they didn't just finish us off when they had the chance. Something tells me they had a plan. I can't rest until I know I can stop them."

"They're just Moogers," Kevin shrugged, "I don't see what's so dangerous, really. Personally, I like a good Mooger fight."

"Because they're easy to beat," Jayden agreed. He looked down at his feet and sighed. Kevin furrowed his brow.

"Jayden… are you upset?" he asked. He had never really seen much emotion coming from Jayden. There was the occasional smile, but aside from that, the man was very closed off. No one really knew Jayden very well. The only thing they knew for sure was that they could trust him with anything.

"Those Moogers beat me," Jayden said.

"They beat the three of you," Kevin nodded, "And to be fair, they had a bomb. It's not like you guys are bomb experts and could have diffused it."

"They never should have gotten the chance to plant that bomb in the first place," Jayden growled and Kevin could see the red Ranger's knuckled were white. "Either I led my team right into a trap, and they could have been killed, or Master Xandred got something and we don't know what it is. I can't let that happen again."

"Emily and Mike are fine," Kevin said, "And you were in that explosion as well. If anyone should be feeling guilty here it's me and Mia. We were the ones who left town."

"You had permission," Jayden said. "I gave you my car. You did nothing wrong. I put my team in danger…"

"That's the name of the game," Kevin smiled. He placed his hand on Jayden's shoulder, "C'mon, Jayden, we're all in this together. We win as a team, we lose as a team. You're just the red guy, really."

"I'm the leader. You trust me to keep you guys safe. You guys are trusting me to stop Master Xandred."

"Yeah, we're trusting, but we're not stupid. Have you seen our team lately? We're all making mistakes; constantly. Some of us keep making the same ones over and over again. But that's why we're a team. We cover for each other."

Kevin took the sword from Jayden and set it against the wall, "How about you take the night off? Just tonight. We'll do something fun like beat all of Mike's high scores on all his games or dump the old leftovers in his bed for when he goes to sleep."

"That's fun?"

"You'll know when you see the look on Mike's face," Kevin grinned. He pulled the red Ranger into the common room, trying to think of what to do first.

-Samurai-

Mia didn't stay long after handing Mike his dinner. She gave him his food, checked up on the still sleeping Emily, and left to give the two Rangers privacy. Mike felt a little bad when he wondered if he was keeping Mia away from her own room, but he wasn't going to pass on spending time with Emily.

There wasn't much to do in the girls' bedroom, especially with Emily's head still in his lap and the flute out of reach. The only thing Mike could reach was his now empty dinner plate (he hadn't spilt a single crumb on anything – he was proud), and the bag of peas that had been placed on Emily's head when she first came home. The bag had been popped, though, while Emily slept, and the peas were starting to leak out. With nothing better to do, Mike collected the bag, dumped a few peas in his hand, and began tossing them across the room into Mia's bed.

"No wonder people find me annoying," Mike laughed to himself as he dumped another handful of peas into his hand and started tossing those over to Mia's bed.

Suddenly, Emily screamed and jolted awake, hitting her head right in Mike's stomach. The green Ranger groaned and doubled over while Emily sat up in bed and looked around.

When the pain started to cease, Mike looked up at Emily and saw there were tears streaming down her face. He didn't need to know what had caused them. He pulled her into his arms and held her tight.

"It's okay, you're safe."

"I fell," Emily muttered. She buried her face in his chest.

"You fell once. It's not going to happen again," he assured her with a soft hush.

"I did fall again…"

"It was just a nightmare. You've been here with me for hours. Safe."

He rocked her gently until the sobbing slowed. This was the only thing he knew he could do right every time.

The others burst into the room after hearing Emily's scream, but they stopped at the doorway when they saw Mike comforting her. He chuckled and whispered to them, "Nightmare."

"Is she okay?" Mia asked with concern.

"She's fine. I think it was just a nightmare."

Mia nodded and turned to the boys, "I might stay in here. It's getting late anyways."

"Good night," Kevin said as he gave her a kiss. Mike and Jayden both turned away.

"Is it just me, or is that like watching your older siblings kiss?" Mike asked his leader. Jayden wrinkled his nose in agreement.

"That's what that feeling is…"

Kevin rolled his eyes and waved Mike over, "C'mon, let's let the girls sleep."

Mike nodded though he didn't want to let go of Emily. He understood that this was the girls' bedroom, and it should remain that way.

Emily, however, didn't want to let go of his shirt, so Mike didn't get far. Mia saw this and tried to help him out by sitting on the bed beside Emily and taking her into her arms. Emily pulled away from Mike, but looked at him with sad eyes. She knew he wouldn't ever let her fall again. She felt safest with him.

Kevin had also caught the look Emily gave Mike and he sighed, "Maybe, if the girls are fine with it, we can all camp out here? You know, a team that sleeps together, stays together."

"Uh…" Mike started, but Jayden quickly caught Kevin's mistake.

"Actually sleeps."

"Good."

"There are a couple of sleeping bags down the hall," Jayden said. "Kevin and I will grab a couple we'll set ourselves up."

"I don't care where the rest of you sleep," Mia said as she walked to her bed, confident Mike would take care of Emily for the night, "I'm keeping my own bed."

Without looking, she sat in her bed and reached for the blankets. Suddenly, she could feel little bead-like objects rolling around her butt and legs. Looking down, she noticed her bed was flooded with green peas. With a glare, she looked at Mike.

"What is this?" she held up a pea.

"Tomorrow's dinner?" Mike smirked.

Mia growled and swept the peas out of her bed. She would have Mike clean them up in the morning. She could hear Mike laughing from Emily's bed and collected a handful to throw at him.

As the peas rained down on him and Emily, Mike cried out, "We've just been pea-ed on!"

He grabbed the blankets and pulled them over him and Emily. This only seemed to irritate Mia further, though in a playful way. When Kevin and Jayden returned to the room with their sleeping bags and pillows, she pointed to the peas on the ground.

"Help me," she mouthed to the boys. Kevin and Jayden exchanged looks, but when they saw Mia through another handful of peas at Mike and Emily, they got the idea.

Under the blankets, Mike and Emily were hiding from the pea attack. They could hear the little legumes hitting the covers, but none were getting through. Mike was holding the blanket over both of them with one hand, while the other held Emily close to him. When he looked down at her to make sure she was okay and having fun, he saw she was gazing up at him. She nestled in closer to him with a smile and closed her eyes to try and sleep again, confident she was safe from nightmares with him around.

Mike grinned and kissed the top of her head while waiting for his friends to stop pea-ing him. They would run out eventually, and then he too could get some sleep after this long day.