Terran looked at his hands and shook his head, "Nahuh."

"C'mon you big wuss," Carrie giggled and held up the pumpkin, waving it in Terran's face, "It's just a vegetable."

"Pumpkin is a fruit," Serena muttered. Mike rolled his eyes at her and then put his hand in his nephew's shoulder.

"You've got to gut it, dude. That's the only way it's going to look cool. Though it won't look as cool as ours," Mike grabbed the pumpkin he and Carrie were going to carve and cut the top off. He set the cap aside and reached in, digging out the insides and putting them into a bowl. Terran shook his head in disgust.

"That's gross."

"Stick your hand in it," Serena took hers and Terran's pumpkin back from Carrie, opened the top and pointed the hole to Terran, "Just touch it."

Terran rolled up his sleeved and stuck his hand inside the pumpkin. He had a horrified look on his face as he grabbed a handful of the guts and pulled them out. He dumped them in a bowl and then backed away, "It's wet and slimy!"

"Fine," Serena rolled her eyes, "I'll gut it. You just think of the best face. We're going to need something really clever to beat out their pumpkin."

Terran nodded his head and sat on the chair to think while his mother removed the insides of the pumpkin, making sure to clean it out. A whisper pulled him from his thoughts for a moment as he looked to his mother. She shook her head and groaned, "My son's a wuss."

"HEY!"

"So is Uncle James," Carrie giggled. She grabbed a handful of her pumpkin's insides and held it in Terran's face, "Pumpkin guts! Be afraid!"

"Care, stop it!"

"Ooh… spooky!"

"I said stop it!"

"Girl."

Terran stuck out his tongue at his cousin and then went back to thinking. Now, more than ever he wanted his and his mother's pumpkin to be cooler and scarier than Mike and Carrie's.

In the hallway, while Mike, Serena, Carrie, and Terran were having a pumpkin carving contest, and Jayden, Antonio, Ji, James, Little Terran, and Kate were decorating the house for Halloween, Kevin sat on the floor. It was Older Terran and Carrie's very first real Halloween and the house wanted to take the time to celebrate it. It was likely going to be the only holiday Terran got with his mother before going home, and the only holiday Carrie got with her parents. They needed to make the most of it.

It was also an excuse to celebrate Serrator's defeat. The theme of the Halloween party was defeated Nighlok. Kate had proven to be excellent in designing decorations and had done something for every single Nighlok the Rangers had defeated in the past: from Tooya to Serrator, they were all there.

Serrator was a piñata. It had been Kevin's idea. It was another way for him to try and earn Emily's true forgiveness. She couldn't defeat the real Serrator, so he was giving her every chance possible to kick the ass of the fake ones.

Though the whole house said they had forgiven him, Kevin knew it wasn't true. They were being nice to him because they knew he knew he didn't deserve it. Kevin had fired an attack, willingly, right at his teammate. Though his target had been Carrie, Emily had been right there. To make it worse, everything that could have gone wrong, had. Emily took the hit for Carrie, Emily almost died, Carrie revealed she wasn't the enemy, but Mike and Emily's daughter, and Kevin realized his mistake. He wanted to be yelled at. He wanted someone to break down and cry and make him feel like the jerky asshole he was. He wanted the team to hate him. He would even allow Mike to punch him – anywhere. They wouldn't give him that though. They were all smiles, they were all happy. They had even invited him to decorate and were sad when he decided to sit out. Serena had invited Kevin to be on hers and Terran's team for the pumpkin carving contest, praising his creativity and passion for a fair competition. She was being nicest of them all. It was scary.

"Try some," Mia stood before Kevin with a glass of red… Kevin wasn't sure what. She knelt before him, offering the glass, "I'm going to serve it at the party."

"You made this?" Kevin asked. Mia nodded her head with a smile.

"My own recipe."

Kevin sighed and took the glass. He looked at it worriedly, but trusted Mia. She had come a long way from her days as the lethal chef. In fact, she was now one of the best cooks in the house. All it had taken was someone steering her in the right direction. Putting the glass to his lips, Kevin chugged the drink and then spit it out, right in Mia's face.

"UGH! That's disgusting!"

"Really?" Mia seemed genuinely hurt. Kevin looked down at the glass and then shook his head.

"Uh… well, it's probably an acquired taste. I wouldn't mind a…"

"Liar," Mia chuckled and took the glass from Kevin's hand. She wiped her face of the juice and spit, "I made it disgusting on purpose. Mike and Antonio aren't the only ones who can pull pranks."

"You're serving this at the party?"

"There's some real punch in the fridge."

"It sounds like it'll be an awesome party."

"You're invited, you know."

Kevin shook his head, "You're all saying that. I know you guys don't really want me there. I shot Emily and Carrie."

"Yeah, you did," Mia nodded, "but that doesn't mean you should miss out on Halloween. It's our only Halloween with Carrie, Terran's only Halloween with Serena, and Baby Terran's first ever Halloween. Emily's dressing him up as a pumpkin right now. You know how I feel about babies and costumes."

"Have fun."

"Kevin!" Mia cried as she watched him get up and walk away. He could be so stubborn sometimes. She jumped up after him and grabbed his arm, "Kevin, stop it!"

"Mia, I…"

"We're all still kind of mad at you, but you're still our friend. Obviously this forgiving you has done what it's supposed to, and it's not like you meant to hurt Emily or her daughter."

"I did want to hurt Carrie."

"That's why I said daughter," Mia pulled Kevin into her arms, "Look, I'll talk to the others, okay? You're invited to the party. No strings attached. And don't drink the punch."

"I don't want… never mind…"

"What?" Mia asked. "Kevin, this niceness thing was your punishment but it's over now. I'll talk to the others and it'll be genuine. Serena will stop being creepy happy. I promise."

"But that's not…"

"Not what?" Mia placed her hands on her hips and gave Kevin a horrible stare, "Not what you want, huh? I guess you wanted someone to yell at you? Would that make you feel better?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah, that is what I want."

"You selfish asshole!" Mia shouted and punched Kevin in the shoulder, "You're in no position to ask for anything. You shot Emily! Why in the world do you think we'll be catering to what makes you feel better? You're not the one who had to sit out the most important battle of your life! You're not the one still injured on Halloween! You're not supposed to feel good! You should feel miserable. You should feel like shit."

Kevin backed away from Mia with a guilty look on his face. She was right. Him asking the others to yell at him wasn't for their sake. It wasn't for Emily's sake. It was for his own. It was selfish.

Mia continued to shout at him, though, refusing to let him get a word in, "We're doing this for Emily, Carrie, Mike, and Terran. We're doing all of this for them, and if you really want to be the good guy again, you're going to this party and you're going to do everything you can to make sure they all have a good time!"

"Mia, I…"

"Feel better now, jerk?" Mia crossed her arms over her chest, "I yelled at you."

"I… I didn't deserve that," Kevin shook his head sadly. Mia shook her own.

"No, you did. You know you did. I only yelled at you because we are starting to forgive you. And none of us want to see you sulking on Halloween. Emily's going to be okay, Carrie and Terran get to spend some time with their parents. It all worked out, you lucky ass. Now, go count your blessings and have a look at the costume you're going to wear for the party. Emily picked it out, so you're not allowed to refuse."

"I'm going to hate it, aren't I?"

Mia shrugged her shoulders, "Depends. By the way, it's French."

"French? Will I have to speak with an accent?"

"Nope. But, um, you wouldn't happen to know what the French word for shower is, do you?"

Kevin shook his head. He knew two languages. French wasn't one of them. Mia gave him a kiss and then chuckled to herself as she went to help the others with the decorations. Kevin walked to his room to see what costume Emily had picked for him. He looked to the bed and saw nothing but underwear, a towel, a shower cap, and a note.

"You can't wear anything except what's laid out on the bed. For the record, I wanted to go with dragon, but you shot Emily so... maybe next year! Love Mia.

"PS: Emily says you should be thankful for the underwear. She would have omitted it, but didn't want you to scar her further if the towel fell. And you have to start wearing the costume as soon as you're done reading this note."

Kevin groaned and looked at the costume and the note. The things guilt made him do. He stripped down, put on the underwear and then wrapped the towel around his waist. He put the shower cap on his head and sighed.

"I'm taking a shower?" Kevin asked himself and then walked to his desk. He turned on his computer and googled the French translation for shower. Seeing his answer, he groaned loudly.

-Samurai-

"Alright on three you turn your jack-o-lanterns around and we'll see which is scarier," Antonio said and slowly counted backwards from three. The design and build portion of the pumpkin carving contest was over and now it was time for the judging. Antonio, Jayden, and Ji were the three judges. They were determined to be the most neutral and fair of all the Samurai.

When the count reached one, Mike and Terran turned their team's pumpkins around. The judges looked to the design, which flickered from the candle inside and then looked to each other. Whispering their votes to each other, they counted it up and turned to their contestants.

"Well, it's unanimous," Ji announced, "Serena and Terran's skull faced monster is the scariest."

Serena and Terran high-fived. Mike threw his hands up in the air.

"What? How is a skull faced monster scarier than this?" he pointed to his pumpkin.

Jayden shrugged his shoulders, "It's a picture of a woman."

"Yeah, Serena. It's Serena's face. Scariest thing I know."

"Conference," Antonio called as he consulted the other two judges.

Serena growled at Mike, "They've already made their call. You lost. I'm not scarier than a skull-faced…"

"Votes have been recounted. Mike and Carrie's Serena faced pumpkin wins!"

"What! Mike!" Serena cried and lunged for the green Ranger.

"We won, we won!" Mike cheered for himself and Carrie as he raced around the room, trying to outrun an obviously angry Serena. "You know, you're not exactly proving your point."

"I'll show you scary! Get back here!"

Carrie giggled and looked to Terran, "Uncle James was right, we do get it from them."

Terran nodded his head and winced when he heard Mike's pained cry from somewhere in the house.

Emily walked into the common room with Terran on her hip. She couldn't really help out with decorating the house and so had been left with her baby nephew to dress him up in his costume for Halloween – a job she could easily do in bed. She was feeling better, though, and Terran was all dressed up and ready to be seen.

"Pumpkin contest?" she asked the rest of the house. Carrie nodded her head and smiled.

"Dad and I won."

"What did you carve?"

"Aunt Serena's face."

"That explains it," Emily giggled as she sat down on her stool. Little Terran sat on her lap and tried to get a look down the hall. He had seen his mother chasing his uncle around the house and wanted to know what was going on. Emily stood him up and smiled at everyone as she showed off Terran in his pumpkin costume, "Do I win cutest pumpkin award?"

"Emy, he's adorable!" Mia came over, unable to resist Terran in his costume. She loved dressed up babies.

Just then, Kevin walked into the room wearing nothing but a towel around his waist and a shower cap on his head. Mia groaned and buried her face in Terran's puffy pumpkin, Emily grinned happily, and the boys, Carrie and Kate were all more than a little disturbed.

"Shower's that way," Antonio pointed down the hall, "and, no offence, Kevin, but… you don't have enough hair to justify a shower cap."

"Kevin," Emily grinned, "would you mind explaining your costume?"

"I'm a douche…"