Mrs. Goodall approached and gave Gia a small smile. "Hi Gia. I'm making breakfast for the kids and you're welcome to stick around if you'd like."

The yellow ranger gave a hard stare. "So you're the one who dumped Gavin on Emma and basically made her into a mother a decade before she was ready?"

"Gia!" Emma smacked her arm.

Olivia frowned. "It's a valid question. Yes, I did. But I had no intention of hurting either of them. I knew Emma could take care of him and I needed to work full time to pay the hospital bills. It's not like I had much of a choice."

"How about the choice you made to leave Emma behind with an abusive father who had just broken her collarbone? Yeah, maybe Emma told you to leave without her, but she shouldn't have had to make that choice for you. And by no means were you forced to listen to her. You could have snatched her right up and stuck her in the backseat, regardless of what she said. You could have had a big happy family in Paris. Instead, you chose to abandon your daughter. She was hurt for years after you left."

Gavin sat quietly, as tears came to his mother's eyes.

"I know. It's one of my worst mistakes. I wasn't thinking. He was threatening to hurt me and the kids and I was scared."

"Yeah, and how scared do you think Emma felt when you left her behind?"

"Please, Gia. I made a mistake and I won't do it again. Leaving her behind was my biggest regret. All these years, it has been all I can think about."

Gia scoffed. "Your regret does nothing to take back all the times Mr. Goodall hurt her. Just admit it. You were too scared to stay in that damn house and you left like the selfish coward you are. You knew he would continue to hurt Emma, and you did nothing about it because you didn't want him to hurt you too. Mothers are supposed to protect their children. Not just one, but all of them. Turns out your eight-year old daughter was more brave than you could ever be."

With that, Gia stormed out of the room.

Olivia turned to her daughter in shock, and the pink ranger shrugged. "We've been best friends for basically the whole time you were gone. We're not even best friends anymore, we're sisters. Maybe it was harsher than I would have communicated, but she said what needed to be said. We protect each other, and she's seen how much this whole thing has affected me."

"Emma, I'm so sorry. I-"

"Save it, mom. I've come to terms with what happened, and I'm trying to learn how to live with it. And though Gia is not as forgiving, I remember telling you to leave me behind. I remember how hard that decision was for you and me telling you was probably what pushed you over the edge. I knew what needed to be done and I knew how hard it was on you, so I made that decision for you. Whatever happened afterwards is just as much my fault as it is yours. But the only way you can earn any kind of forgiveness is if you prove you're here to stay."

Emma followed Gia out of the room, and Mrs. Goodall looked sadly at her son.

"You got something you need to get off your chest too?"

Gavin got up and hugged his mom. "I think you've heard enough for today. Emma will come around. You heard her, mom. She doesn't blame you, at least not more than she blames herself. And she left the door open for you to be in her life again. She doesn't want to cut you out. And Gia... The girls really love each other, mom. Sometimes it worries me and I hate it because they would die for each other without even blinking. But most times, it's really great. They really care about and look out for each other. That means Gia is going to be upset with you for a while because she's protective. There's nothing much more you can do except work at earning their trust back, so just take it one step at a time."

He gave his mom a small smile and followed the girls out. He had an apology to Jake that needed to be made.

-0-

Once school was out, the siblings and Gia decided to meet up with the rest of the rangers and fill them in on what had happened. It turns out none of the other rangers had watched the news either, having been too exhausted from the day's fight to stay up.

As Emma retold the story, the boys collectively freaked out every time she mentioned the gun. It really did scare them just as much as it had scared her. They were skilled martial arts and could most certainly hold their own in any kind of self-defense situation, but still, the reality of having a gun pointed at one of their own was shocking. Fighting alien threats was fine for them now, but they never thought they'd have to use their training on real people with actual guns.

Noah then took his turn apologizing to her for attacking her the previous day. It was a bit of a sore spot for all the rangers, but just like Jake had, Emma forgave him without hesitation. After another good half hour of the rangers catching up, Emma and Gia stood up abruptly, checking the time.

Gavin looked to both with questioning eyes. "Where are you going?"

Emma squeezed his shoulder. "I have a shift, remember?"

"You're going in to work the day after that place almost got shot up and you had to stop it?" Jake asked. He was not happy with this news.

Gia shrugged. "Ernie has to make his money somehow. And if he just folds up his tent and goes home after one attack, people are going to keep coming. He needs to show them they're not winning by coming after him."

Emma nodded. "Yeah, and my mom kind of quit her job in case you all forgot. Her job nursing at the hospital starts next week. So now I have to support three people instead of two, with only my salary instead of a combined salary with my mom. Needless to say, I have to go."

The yellow ranger grabbed her jacket. "I'm helping out. Hopefully I can make up for a bit of the deficit on her mom's end. It's only a week, we can do it."

As the girls walked off, the boys sat in their chairs shaking their heads.