Jayden

The next morning

Slowly waking up from the best night sleep I've had in months, I soon notice that Emily's not next to me and the bed is cold. I sit up in fear so quickly I get dizzy. All these ideas start flying around my head; did something happen to her during the night? Did she die from the Master Xandred's injuries and have I imagined the last seven months to help me cope? I start looking around the house in a panic when I found her cooking breakfast and the others, including Ji, sitting at the table eating.

"Morning Jayden, hungry?" she asks smiling and setting up a plate for me.

"Yeah thank you" I respond. She passes me a plate and we sit down at the table and start eating when she starts rapidly firing questions at us. All without taking a breath.

"So Kevin when are you and Mia getting married? How's your training going? When are the Olympic trials? Antonio when do I get meet Stephanie? Have you found a space to rent yet? Mike and Mia how is school going?"

The first question makes Kevin choke on his orange juice. Everyone turns to look at her in disbelief, wide eyes and dropped jaws, as the realisation sinks in. She could hear us. I think we all start panicking internally, immediately recalling what we said to her over the last few weeks, trying to remember if we said anything too embarrassing.

"Oh! you didn't know I could hear you guys did you?" She asks sheepishly, blushing and looking down at her lap.

"No" everyone answers at the same time and she raise her head again and smile her dazzling smile. A sense of normalcy settles over us, like her absence over the last seven months never happened.

"Whoops, I could only hear you for the last month so I still need to be caught up." She look at us waiting for answers.

"Training is going well. The olympic trials are next week in the city if you guys want to come and watch." Kevin admits.

"Of course we will" she answers for everyone with her smile that makes everyone smile in agreement.

"Uni is going great. The professor is impressed by my power ranger game prototype." Mike smirked.

"I'm cooking dinner tonight so you'll be able to tell me if culinary school is working." Mia tells us. We can see fear flash in her eyes for a second before she recover and say that she can't wait to try it.

"I haven't found a storefront yet but I'm looking at a place today with Stephanie if you and Jayden want to come with us." Antonio offered. Judging by the look on his face he knows the answer but she look at me with her puppy dog eyes that I can't resist and nod. She starts squealing and dancing in her seat so we all start laughing. Just another reminder of the light she brings to our lives and missed during her Kaifuku state.

Later that morning she and I are at the park, sitting on one of the benches watching people go past. We have sometime until we're due to meet up with Antonio and Stephanie so we decided to come to her favourite place in the city and enjoy the good weather.

"It's a beautiful day." She says leaning her head on my shoulder.

"Yeah not bad for your first one in months" I agree, wrapping my arm around her.

"How long was I out?" she asks

"Seven months"

"Wow. That's a long time." She muses to herself.

"I should have done a better job protecting you" I mumble to myself.

She gently grabs my face and turn it towards her so I have no choice but to look directly at her eyes.

"Thank you for saving me"

"What do you mean?" I'm confused, if anything I put her in more danger. She was kidnapped so I would fight Deker then she was captured by Master Xandred to so that we would lose.

"Mentor explained the Kaifuku state to me. He explained my injuries and what should have happened. He also said if you hadn't started it I would be dead and gone." She replies gratefully.

"These last seven months almost killed me. Seeing you die because of me was the worst thing I've ever lived through." I confess, leaning my head into her hand and holding it to my face.

"Hey I did not 'die' because of you. I was injured fulfilling my duties as a Power Ranger and we destroyed Master Xandred. You need to stop blaming yourself. The others told me what you were like when I was in Kaifuku. But remember this: nothing is going to take me away again ok?" She says trying to reassure me.

Mia told me to stop blaming myself a hundred times while she were 'asleep' but now I know she doesn't blame me, I'll try to forgive myself.

"Ok Em" I feel relieved, like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders without my knowing it was there in the first place.

"Good. Now we've gotta go or we'll be late for Antonio and Stephanie." She says while pulling me off the bench.

When we stand up she grab my other hand, reached up and kissed my cheek. The feel of her lips on my skin again is indescribable. I shakily release my breath, I want to kiss her so much but as she reminded me we are running late so I'll wait a little bit longer.