A/N: Thank you for the kind reviews. I really appreciate them and they motivate me to keep writing this story. I hope you all continue to enjoy :)
The yellow ranger woke up the following morning in a good mood. The rangers had defeated Vrak and the monster yesterday with little to no difficulty, and had confiscated the weapon into the command center. They no longer needed to worry about the imminent threat, because Vrak lost the blaster that could penetrate their suit's protection. He could always build another one, but it would take him some time. They had at least successfully bought themselves some weeks to whittle down the enemy's forces before they had to face that threat again.
Jenna Moran smiled happily as her daughter walked down the stairs. She had a whole breakfast already prepared, since she was going off to work and wouldn't be able to eat with Gia. She gave her girl a kiss on the forehead and sat down to spend her last three minutes at home with her before she had to leave for work. "How is Emma? I feel like I haven't seen her in a couple weeks."
Gia tried to lie to her mother, but it was always hard for her. Gia's parents had always been so kind and nurturing to her, and had even unknowingly taken care of Emma when she was going through the worst of her home situation. She hated lying, but had promised Emma that she wouldn't tell anyone what had been going on.
"She's fine, mom. Just busy. We usually just meet up at Ernie's when we want to hang out."
Gia's mom smiled. "Well, we should invite her over to dinner soon. I've missed having her at the house so often. You always ate healthier when she was over. I couldn't pay you to eat cauliflower, but as soon as she came over, you'd eat whole salads, grain smoothies, and more broccoli than your stomach could fit."
Gia rolled her eyes. "It wasn't that bad, Mom. And it's only because she's vegetarian. I don't want to force her to eat something she's uncomfortable with."
Jenna laughed. "You girls are so cute. I wish I had someone I cared about that much when I was your age. You can invite the rest of your friends too, I'd be happy to have them all over. I wouldn't mind getting to know them better. That Jake boy is kind of cute." When she winked at Gia, her daughter fake gagged.
She exaggerated looking at the clock. "Oh, would you look at that? Isn't it time for work?"
Gia's mother jokingly teased her about Jake as her daughter pushed her towards the door. At that point, Jack Moran came down the stairs and watched as his daughter covered her ears and shoved his wife out the door.
He laughed at the scene. "What is going on here?"
Jenna smirked. "I was just talking to Gia about-"
Gia interrupted abruptly. "About how she's later for work and needs to get going? Yeah, that's why she's heading out the door now. I'm going to head to Emma's too so we can walk to school together. See you later, Dad."
Mr. Moran just shook his head as he went to grab an apple. He was used to his daughter and wife's antics. Once they were outside, Gia's mom turned and gave her daughter a hug. "Remember what I said, okay? Extend an invitation to Emma. I would be happy to have her over."
Gia nodded and hugged her mom back. "I will. Have fun at work today."
Mrs. Moran's face soured. "Fun? Have you ever worked a day in your life before?"
Gia laughed. "Nope! Bye!"
Mrs. Moran fake glared as she pulled out the driveway. Gia was walking to Emma's this morning on the way to school, and started heading down the opposite sidewalk. "Do you want me to drive you to her place before I head out?"
The yellow ranger didn't want to take any risks of her mother finding anything out about Emma's situation or getting suspicious, and didn't mind the walk either. She was in a great mood and the sun was shining bright. "No, it's okay mom. I'll talk to you when I get back from school today."
Gia's mom drove away and rolled down the window to yell. "I love you!"
Her daughter laughed and yelled back. "Love you too, mom! See you soon."
With that, Gia's mother drove away. At school, Gia could be the badass tough girl all she wanted, but when she was home, she enjoyed the relationship she shared with her parents. Especially with the recent knowledge of what Emma had gone through, she had an entirely newfound appreciation for how amazing her parents had been to her. She vowed to do something nice for her mother once she got home. On her walk over to Emma's, she started thinking about where they could go on a mother-daughter date.
She arrived fifteen minutes later to the Goodall household, and pulled out a house key. After everything that had happened recently, Emma thought it would be a responsible move to give someone else a key, since there were no other adults who could get in. And if anything happened to her, Emma took comfort in knowing that Gia would be able to get in and take care of Gavin if need be. When she entered, Gavin was in the kitchen eating a sad excuse for a fried egg, as he helped Emma cram last second for her math test. The pink ranger looked up to see her best friend, and smiled.
Gia laughed. "Well, you're certainly looking better. Yesterday, you looked like a zombie. If the wind blew hard enough, you would have collapsed."
"I only got four hours of sleep, but I feel much better than I would have if I pulled another all-nighter."
Her little brother smirked. "Yeah? And who helped you finish all your calc homework on time?" Emma punched him playfully. "Okay, we get it, you're good at math. No need to rub it in."
Gia looked questioningly at Emma. "You let your sophomore year brother help you with math? And he succeeded?"
The siblings looked to each other, and spoke at the same time. "Math genius."
Gia shrugged. After everything that had been going on recently, that wasn't even in the list for the top ten craziest things she had heard in the last week. Just as she was about to tell them to start packing it up so they could start walking, the doorbell rang. Gavin volunteered to answer it, so Gia went to help her best friend clear everything up and get ready to leave.
Gavin opened it, and found a complete stranger on the opposite side of the door. "Hello. What can I do for you?"
The stranger looked tentatively inside. "Is Gia here?"
Gavin immediately tensed up and looked cautiously at the woman. "Why are you asking?"
If she was after Gia, he was not going to give anything regarding her whereabouts. He was not in the business of putting his sister's friends in danger, especially after everything they had done for him. As far as he was concerned, she was a total stranger who shouldn't even know Gia was in the house.
The woman watched as Gavin regarded her suspiciously, and immediately explained herself. "I've seen Gia playing with Emma out on the block before. I know they've been friends for years. I'm a neighbor, I live two houses down." She pointed her house out to Gavin. "I saw her walk in, and really need to speak with her."
At this point, the girls had their bags ready to go and brought over Gavin's too. They were ready to leave, and wanted to check out what was holding him up. Emma glanced at the woman and was surprised to see who it was.
"Mrs. Williams? What are you doing here? I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."
The woman wrung her hands tentatively. "A couple minutes ago, there was a really bad car accident. They've identified the vehicles." She had been wondering who this boy at the door was because she had never seen him before, but decided to ask about him later. Now was not a good time. Instead, Mrs. Williams turned her attention to the blonde.
"Your father has already been called. But Gia, there was an incident. We should really talk about this in private."
The yellow ranger shook her head, already knowing where this was going. "Just say what you need to say. And talk fast."
The neighbor sighed. "They sent out a neighborhood alert earlier this morning. It's about your mother."
Gia's eyes welled up.
"She was one of the drivers."
