Gavin knocked tentatively on her door to let her know he was coming, and he opened it slowly. He found his sister sitting at her desk, lost in thought. He had to wave his hand in front of her face in order to get her attention.

Emma sighed sadly when she saw her little brother standing there. "Hey, Gavin."

He just looked at her worried, taking a seat on the edge of her bed. They both paused, before opening their mouths at the same time.

"I just wanted to-"

Both of them gave a small laugh, and Gavin motioned for her to go first. "Look, Gav. I just wanted to apologize for what I said earlier and the way I blew up at you. I knew you were just looking out for me and you saved me. I would have done the same for you, and it's hypocritical of me to get upset. I know why you did it, and I'm sorry I made you feel bad for looking out for me."

Gavin shook his head. "I'm sorry too. From the looks of it, Gia had broken out of it before I shoved her off. Everything would have been fine if I hadn't shown up. And I apologize for scaring you and being reckless, and I know why you were worried. I should have respected your wishes and stayed out of it. I'm not sorry that I tried to help you, though. I'll always try to help you whenever I can and I make no apologies for that."

Emma moved over to sit next to Gavin on the bed, and pulled him in for a hug. "I was just scared because out of all the people on this earth, you are the one I can't afford to lose. I love you and I want to protect you, and I want you to know that I really appreciate you coming to save me. Even if it was really incredibly stupid, it was also really brave. Just please try not to do it again."

He laughed. "Deal." He then heard a noise from the guest bedroom and assumed his mother had started unpacking. "This thing with mom..."

His sister let out a heavy breath. "How is she? I kind of exploded at her earlier, I didn't mean to."

"Yeah, I kind of heard."

Emma looked at him. "How much?"

"Everything. I also saw the story on the news."

"I'm sorry. You shouldn't have found out that way. I meant to tell you, but there just wasn't a good time."

"So what you said to mom... Did you mean it?"

The pink ranger rubbed her face. "I don't know. Clearly if I was thinking it enough to say it, a part of me does mean it. But I don't want to cut her out of my life. It was just so sudden and before we could even talk about anything, something else went completely horrible. It was just incredibly bad timing. But I don't want whatever is going on between mom and me to get in between you guys. I know you're close and even if you never said it to me, you missed her and how she could take care of you. Like a mother should."

"Hey, I missed her, but you did a damn good job. We talked, and it doesn't feel any different than the day I left. But I have seen what this whole situation has done to you, and how much it has hurt you. And I know that's her fault for putting it on you. It's something I'll have to work hard to forgive. If I'm feeling this bad about the way things have been going, I can't imagine how hard it is on you seeing her after ten years. Especially after she dumped me on you."

"Don't worry about that. We'll work it out and we'll talk, I promise. I don't want things to be like this forever. At least now she can help out a little and be the mom you need. I was taking care of you, but I wasn't enough. I'm glad that we have an extra pair of hands now. It just sucks having her come in right at the peak of our war with Vrak. I mean, we've already seen the dangers of having her here even during a civilian encounter. She doesn't know I'm a ranger and it has to stay that way, but that means she won't listen to me if there's trouble. I really do know better in that kind of circumstance, but she just doesn't care, and I worry something is going to happen."

Gavin took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Well, I'll do what I can so you don't have to worry about that. I can try to cover for you or even side with you if she tries to pull anything again. And speaking of, what exactly even happened earlier? I watched the news and read a couple articles, but I don't think I got the whole story."

"Mom ran into me at the Brainfreeze, and we went to talk in the back. Then she started interrogating me about my neck and I didn't have anything believable to tell her. I kept asking her to drop it, but she was worried. And then to pile it on, the silent alarm rang in the back, at which point I told her to leave and get home. I didn't want to put her in danger. I guess when I turned around, she decided to stay. I didn't even realize she was there until later.

When I came out of the back room, I saw a guy with a gun robbing Ernie and the customers. I didn't really know what to do and I froze. I couldn't morph for risk of being seen, and my bag was too far anyways even if I wanted to. But then I saw him wave his gun at a kid and everything was kind of a blur after that. I tried to talk him down and get him to give me the gun. It almost worked, too. But the kid made a run for it and all hell broke loose. The next thing I knew, he was on top of me with the gun and he was going to kill me, but I redirected the gun back on him as fast as I could. I shot him."

Gavin sat quietly as Emma recounted the ordeal she went through. When she met his eyes, he saw tears streaming down her face, and she was trembling.

"I- I shot someone."

She buried her head into his shoulder and cried. He held her tight and tried to comfort her, but he felt helpless. She kept repeating that she shot that man, and Gavin's heart broke. He was sure she wouldn't have shot him if there was any other way, and by the sound of it, she wasn't even the one who pulled the trigger. All she did was redirect the barrel of the gun. But he knew trying to explain that would be pointless.

So for the first time since his arrival, Gavin was the one who held her while she broke down. It was all he could do to hug her and tell her everything would be okay.