A/N: Thank you so much for your kind words and reviews. I am continuously blown away by your support of the story. The feedback is amazing and it's been such a genuine help. Your loyalty as a reviewer is touching, thank you for everything. I will do my best to hopefully satisfy your expectations :)
Gavin's mind slowly drifted back into consciousness, and he cracked his eyes open. His throat was dry, and he could feel his motor functions were slower than usual. He tried to sit up and look around, when he felt a hand gently push him back down to the bed.
He turned and saw it was Gia. Immediately, everything came back to him in waves. His seizure, waking up in the hospital, Vrak's attack, and Emma getting hurt. When he saw Gia and not Emma, he freaked. Gia tried to placate him.
"Gavin, calm down. Emma's in the Command Center recovering. She asked me to come watch over you so that you wouldn't wake up alone. Emma is strong, she'll be fine."
Gavin wilted into himself, feeling miserable. "She keeps getting hurt because of me. Emotionally, and physically. I wish she would just look after herself."
Gia laughed, though it was mostly humorless. "She'll start prioritizing herself the day hell freezes over."
As she said that, Troy and Noah teleported into the hospital room. Gia looked to them, asking for an update. Noah responded first. "As expected, she'll be okay. The blow to her leg completely shattered her knee, and if it were anyone else, the damage would have been irrevocable. But because of Tensou, he was able to surgically re-structure it and once she gets a cast, she should recover full function in her leg. Out of all of us, Jake is physically the strongest, so he stayed back to help try and pop Emma's shoulder and wrist back into place."
Troy sighed. "They'll be here as soon as Emma gets her cast set. Noah and I just wanted to leave before Jake tried to fix the dislocations; we've seen her in enough pain." Gia and Gavin took in the information. He started asking about what had been going on recently that led Emma to come home in such a rush, when he was seizing.
The rest of the rangers caught him up on the situation, and he was visibly shaken. "For some reason, when he came to attack, Vrak was targeting me. Do you think that has anything to do with him tracking and watching you guys?"
Troy nodded. "I think it has everything to do with it. Emma might know more, once she gets here. We came in the middle of them fighting, but he probably gave some kind of indication as to why he needs us, or you for that matter."
The blue ranger pointed out the fact that since Gavin was being targeted, the game was changing. "We need to have at least one ranger with him at all times, and with Emma working crazy shifts at the Brainfreeze, we're all going to have to step up. Now that Vrak is watching us closely, he'll know where to find Gavin. Our best shot at protecting him is being with him."
Gia readily agreed. "I worry about what this means for our parents, though. If he can track us, he knows where we live. How are we going to protect ourselves, Gavin, and everyone we love all at once? My mom's already been taken from me, and if I lose my dad to this war, I don't know if I'll make it."
Gavin shook his head. "I don't think you need to worry about anyone else. For some reason, he seems to be fixated on me. That sucks, but at least it means he's not coming after anyone else."
At that moment, Jake teleported in, helping an obviously injured Emma try to operate her crutches. She looked like she was about to fall and pitched forward, so Gavin tried to sit up in time to steady her. Instead, the blood rushed to his head and he was overcome with dizziness, while Jake managed to catch her.
Gavin leaned over the bed to the bedpan, and emptied his stomach of its contents. Emma looked worriedly at her little brother as she gave up on her crutches and hopped over using her good leg. Her hands circled his back as he heaved. She looked to Gia with a question in her eyes. "Has a doctor come in yet to give an update on how he's doing?"
Gia shook her head. Just looking at the siblings was devastating. Gavin was just a kid, and he was living through something that no one deserved to go through. Emma was hardly any older. And she barely even recognized her own injuries because she was so worried. In that moment, Gia felt an inexplicable wave of anger towards their mother. She was aware that Olivia was doing all she could to keep the siblings alive and send funds, but though the two needed money, they needed a mom more.
No kid should have to go through what either of the two were, especially alone, and it was physically hurting Gia to see them wrecked like this. Their father was the last person in the world who could help them, and the rangers were doing what they could.
It just simply wasn't enough.
Gia had half a mind to call Olivia, but didn't even know how she could reach her. Even if she did though, she had to respect Emma's wishes not to see her mother. Though Gia was not happy at all with Mrs. Goodall's choices, she recognized that the siblings needed her. It was a tough situation for everyone involved.
Her contemplation of the situation ended when a doctor came in. He looked worried at the sight of Emma's cast, and was one of the doctors who had run in to help after Vrak had left.
"Emma, what happened? The rangers just took you away before we could do anything. I'm glad you still got treated."
Emma did her best to give him a small smile, though she was sure it wasn't that reassuring. "Don't worry. They took me to some place that I would assume is where they go to patch up their wounds after battles. Since my injuries were caused by a ranger attack, they felt they had to take care of me."
"Your knee looked pretty bad... I don't mean anything by this, but I'm surprised it was even salvageable." He motioned to the cast on her leg.
The pink ranger bent the truth a little to avert suspicion. "It was apparently just a bad break. One of them reset it for me, and stuck a cast on it. They said it would be fine."
The doctor eyed her curiously. "The rangers have medical training?"
Emma nodded. "I guess they know the bare minimum. It makes sense though, with the job they have to do." Finally, the doctor seemed to be satisfied with his interrogation and turned to Gavin.
Emma internally sighed with relief.
"Gavin's tumor has been causing a lot of external health issues for him, and the seizures are unfortunately one of the side effects. The first time, his blood supply was being cut off by the tumor, which caused the brain to seize. The second seizure was likely due to the attack. He was in an extremely frightful situation, and I'm sure seeing you get hurt and kidnapped by the rangers did not help his cause. The stress and bodily duress was too much and he seized again. For now, he's okay, but if he starts having too many, it could lead to permanent brain damage. We're keeping him an extra couple days to monitor him.
I want him to stay away from anything that could potentially trigger a seizure. High pressure situations, anything that would cause him to feel nervous, things that are stressful for him, etc. The less risks we take, the better. As for the neuroblastoma, the current treatment seems to be working. It was growing rapidly, but it has completely stagnated since we upped his radiation and chemo. Hopefully, we'll start to see the tumor shrink. And if it gets small enough, we could try surgically removing it."
Emma nodded as she tried to take all of it in. If things continued as they were in terms of Gavin's treatment, he could get a surgery that would potentially leave him tumor-free. They just needed to keep him away from potential stressors, which in their line of work, would not be easy. But at least for the first time in a while, things were not looking so bleak for the siblings.
The doctor left to let the teens talk things over, and the rest of the rangers went home. With news of Gavin becoming Vrak's new target, they worried less about having to travel everywhere in partners. But still, they were worried about their parents and wanted to check on them. With Gia having recently lost her mother, all of the rangers were on high alert. They were reluctant to leave Gavin and Emma alone, but figured Vrak wouldn't repeat attack so soon.
Emma sat in a chair by Gavin's bedside, noticing he had moved rooms. His previous room had been victim to the carnage of battle, and she assumed it was too messed up for patients to be in right now. She was relieved because that meant at least for now, Vrak no longer had access to Gavin's medical records since he didn't know what room he was in.
She relaxed slightly as she took her brother's hand and laid her head down beside him.
It had been a long day.
