Kevin pulled himself up from the couch as the sun blinded him in the early morning, pulling him from an uncomfortable sleep. Assuming the others wanted nothing to do with him after he had shot Emily and almost killed her on the spot, he slept on the couch and away from everybody else.

Normally Emily fed the dog in the morning. Kevin, though, assumed that since she couldn't do so, he would take care of Storm for her. It was bad enough Emily was hospitalized because of him, but he wouldn't let her dog starve or fall ill or feel neglected. Storm was Emily's furry baby, she would be furious if something happened to her. But as Kevin got up and walked to the dog bed, Storm was nowhere in sight. He called her name softly, hoping she would come out of hiding. When he discovered she wasn't in the common room at all, Kevin knew the only other place she could be. He walked down the hall and found her sitting just outside Emily's door – begging to be let it. Kevin approached her to pick her up and carry her into the kitchen, but when Storm saw him coming she cowered and growled. Recently, she had been slapped, chased, and almost kicked by one of the humans in the house.

Storm had quickly learned that all the humans in her house were friendly. No one who was invited into the home was a threat to her or to her masters – and if they were, her masters would make it clear. She was a very smart dog, and had learned to pick up on her humans' emotions. She knew when they were happy, or angry, or scared, or when they needed comfort. She also knew they would never hurt her and they would never let anything hurt her. That changed the minute Carrie had struck her. Storm had run and Carrie had chased her out of the room, threatening to hurt her more. Storm knew not to bite and preferred to run, and fortunately for herself and for Carrie, she had an exit. Unfortunately, no one had come to comfort or protect her since. She didn't know it, but they had been so busy with Carrie and Terran they had no idea Storm had been by herself, crying, and scared. As a result, Storm no longer trusted humans like she could before. One had struck her and so they were all going to have to earn her trust back, especially the ones she spent less time with.

Kevin was one of them. Storm growled, whined, and cried as he approached her. When he reached to pick her up, she barked loudly and snapped at his hand. She was quick, but Kevin was just a little quicker.

"Storm!" he scolded. Storm barked, growled and lunged for his ankles, hoping to bite him again. Kevin danced around, avoiding her teeth until he could turn and run. Storm chased him down the hallway for a moment but when he was gone she settled. She sat down by the wall, keeping her eyes on the activity in the hallway, ready to snap at whatever unfortunately soul threatened her next.

Kevin had run to the kitchen. When he got there he rested his hands on the counter and sighed. It was bad enough he felt the whole house was mad at him – but the dog was now too. He had always know Storm was smart; at least, she had been able to outsmart Mike many times, but he had no idea she was that smart. He assumed she had picked up on the other's anger towards him and was projecting it. He assumed she knew he had been the one to hurt her mistress and now she was trying to protect her.

Taking a seat on the bar stool, Kevin groaned. The scene played again in his head. He could see Carrie with her sword, ready to plunge it into Emily and kill her off. She had tried to kill Emily once before already, and had Kevin not acted he was sure Carrie would have succeed. He had shot at her, trying to kill. Not only had that, in itself been a mistake because Carrie was human, and Kevin was a killer of Nighlok, not of human, but he had forgotten all about Emily, and the danger he had put her in. Even if Emily hadn't tried to protect Carrie, she would have gotten hurt. Not as badly as she had been, but it still would have been pretty bad.

But there was everything else that Kevin could think about now that he hadn't of thought about before. In the moment, it was hard to keep his thoughts straight. Hindsight was always twenty-twenty, and his hindsight was telling him the signs had been flashing everywhere that Emily would protect Carrie. The first time Carrie had attacked her, when Emily had been pinned and inches away from death, she had surrendered, whispering something no one else could hear to Carrie. Then, when Carrie was supposed to be locked away in a room, Emily, with Mike's help, had aided her escape and took her all the way out to town. Mike later told Kevin they had been trying to get Carrie away from danger until they could do something more to help her.

Then, the biggest, brightest, flashiest sign of all had been staring Kevin in the face as he fired the deadly arrows. Emily had been holding an injured Carrie in her arms gently, as though comforting her after Kevin shot her with the first few arrows. Emily had a heart of gold, and he knew opened herself up easily to people, but only if they treated her kindly. Carrie had done nothing of the sort, and still Emily seemed to want to protect her, to care for her.

All the signs had been there and Kevin had still shot. He fired the arrows and watched as Emily covered Carrie with her own body. The space around her exploded in flames and water, a scream was heard over the boom, and then silence. Silence until Carrie's cry.

"MOM!"

Not only had Kevin shot and almost killed Emily, but his intended target, Carrie, was her daughter. Eventually, someday, in the distant future, he hoped the others could forgive him, but he was sure any relationship he had with Mike and with Emily was completely shattered.

And, though Emily was being well looked after, there was still a chance she didn't make it. If she did die, and Mia found herself comforting Carrie, who didn't seem to want to leave until Serrator was dead, Kevin wasn't sure he would ever earn his fiancée's forgiveness either. What he had done to Carrie would have been exactly like what Dayu had done to Mia. A parent would be dead.

He was thinking way too far ahead. Emily was strong, she had the best family taking care of her, and if she had survived the initial boom it was likely she would survive the recovery, but his mind jumped around to different scenarios. All of which were bad.

Suddenly, he heard a knock. He looked around and saw Kate had knocked on the counter to grab his attention. He jumped to his feet and rushed to the stove, "I can make breakfast. It's the least I can…"

"Emily wants to talk to you," Kate said.

Kevin looked horrified. She was awake. She was alive. She wanted to talk to him? Had he shot her in the head? Was she really okay? Was he going to get an earful or was Emily going to force him to sit with her and look at her scars? She knew he cared for her. She was everyone's little sister. She was his little sister. Seeing her hurt, hurt him. Seeing her hurt, knowing he had been the one to hurt her killed him. He wouldn't deny that it was a fair punishment. He did deserve to suffer, but he wasn't sure he could look at her.

"Go talk to her, Kevin," Kate said, "I'll make breakfast, Serena, Mike, James, Terran, Terran, and Carrie are all in the dojo training. It'll just be the two of you."

"That's even worst," Kevin muttered but he did as he was asked. He dragged his feet across the floor as he walked to Emily's bedroom. Storm barked angrily at him, nipping at his ankles but Kevin didn't care. He opened the door to Emily's room and Storm raced in before her. Emily's face lit up as much as it could when she saw the dog. Storm seemed to hesitate jumping up on the bed, and even backed away for a moment, but when she saw Emily was too weak to be a threat, she jumped up and nestled into her mistress' arms. Emily would never hurt her. Emily would keep her safe.

"Dog hates me," Kevin muttered as he went to sit beside Emily's bed, "How… how are you?"

"Please don't hurt Carrie," Emily was already crying, and Kevin wasn't sure why. Well, there were plenty of reasons why, he didn't know which was most accurate. He shook his head.

"I won't. I'm really sorry, Emily. I didn't mean… I thought… I'm sorry."

"I'm not going to be well enough in time to kick Serrator's butt, am I?"

Kevin shook his head and sighed sadly, "I don't think so. Not unless Serrator wants to be kind and wait before flooding the Earth."

"Carrie was awake with me for a bit last night. Mike and… Mike and Serena think she can destroy Serrator but she doesn't. Can you do me a favour?"

"I can train her. I'll keep her safe, Em. Serrator's not going to hurt her, no one will, I promise…"

"Can you be an ass… like you were to Mike when we first got here? I think… if she has someone who doesn't believe in her, it'll really bug her. Like Mike."

"You think she's like Mike?"

"A lot like Mike. If you bug her, if you're her rival she'll want to prove you wrong and she can do it. She has to."

Kevin nodded his head. In a way, it had worked for Mike, and if Carrie was like Mike, like Emily said she was, then it should work for her too. Kevin had his doubts, but he couldn't refuse Emily. He nodded his head just as her eyes started to feel heavy again, and she used all the strength she had to stay away.

"Promise?"

"Yeah, Em. I promise. By the time you're feeling better, Serrator's going to be gone. But can you… can you be mad at me?"

"No," Emily shook her head. "I'm not going to be mad at you."

"Emily, I almost killed you and your daughter."

"I forgive you," Emily said. She gave Kevin a smile before drowsiness overpowered her and she fell back to sleep. Kevin groaned loudly. This was worse than anything he could have imagined. It felt great knowing Emily wasn't mad at him, but she should have been. He had almost killed her. He could have still killed her – no one was really sure yet. A positive outlook wasn't a guarantee, it was a promise, and promises could be broken. Emily shouted have screamed at him, scolded him for not thinking things through like he normally did. She should have wished horrible things upon him, swearing to send Mike, or Serena, or even worse, Mia, after him. But she didn't. She had forgiven him. The kindest heart, the sweetest person in the whole house and he had shot her down. She was suffering because of him, but she still smiled. She still thought of nothing but her daughter. Kevin grabbed his hair in his hands and pulled in frustration.

This was worse and he deserved it. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze and got up slowly to leave the room. Storm kept her eyes on him, watching him the entire way out of the room.