Emily stepped outside and closed the door behind her. She could feel herself shaking in panic but she tried to keep a calm face as she turned to look at Spike.

"How did you find this place?" she asked.

"I, uh… well… I got lost," Spike answered her. He glanced over her head at the door, "Um, where did Mia go? Why do you live with her? I thought you lived with your Uncle."

"Long story," Emily didn't want to get into details. She was a horrible liar so she needed to keep herself from saying too much. Hopefully she would be able to get Spike to do most of the talking, "How did you get lost all the way out here? It's miles from town."

"I know. Uncle Bulk took me out here to practice our Samurai moves," Spike adopted a questionable stance. Emily bit her lip to contain her laughter as she watched him. Suddenly he started to blush, "Uh… well… I guess, by the look of your training gear, you're a much better Samurai in training than I am. Though it helps that you have a real Samurai Ranger living in your house!"

The colour drained from Emily's face, "Wha… what do you… you mean Mia?"

Spike nodded his head, "You still don't believe me? Have you asked her? What did she say? How did she react?"

"Spike, she's not a Ranger!"

"Wait a minute…" Spike tapped his chin, "You live with her! You're, you're in on it, aren't you?"

"In on what?" Emily frowned. She then shook her head, "Spike, this pink Ranger/Mia fantasy is crazy. So you usually see her wearing pink, that doesn't mean anything. I know for a fact it's her favourite colour, but that's it."

"Oh yeah, when did you and Mia first meet?" Spike asked.

"About a year ago, but what does…"

"AHA!" Spike pointed a finger in the air, "You met her a year ago… would this happen to be around the time the Samurai Rangers got together? When they suddenly arrived in town and started fighting evil?"

"What?"

"Was Mia new in town when the Rangers first showed up?"

"No," Emily shook her head. "Mia's lived here her whole life. I was new in town. I grew up on a farm, remember?"

Spike's face fell, "Oh… right…"

Emily grabbed the taller boy by the arms, "Look, Spike, I promise if I ever find out the identities of one of the Power Rangers, I'll tell you right away! You'll be my first phone call."

"Mia's a Ranger…"

"No, she's not," Emil could feel her heart racing and the laying of sweat covering her body as she lied. She was horrible at lying, but for Spike's safety she knew she had to do it, "It's a cool thought. Sometimes I like to think my boyfriend's a Power Ranger. But I can promise you, Mia's not a Ranger. We watch them on the news all the time."

"Live?" Spike asked, his face falling even more in disappointment. Emily winced, seeing how upset he was, but she nodded her head.

"Yeah, live."

"And the pink Ranger was there?"

"Yeah," Emily thought her heart was going to beat right out of her chest and it was started to get very hot under Jayden's sweater.

"And yellow? You never know, she could be the yellow Ranger."

"She's not yellow," Emily could say this without any guilt. "It was just a crazy fantasy, Spike. It was kind of cute, but there's no way Mia could be a Ranger."

"I'm still not completely convinced," Spike had a right to be. He wanted to trust that his one and only true friend was telling him the truth, but she seemed very uncomfortable. He saw her hands trembling and the sweat on her forehead. He could hear an occasional stammer when she spoke. She was trying to hide something, and now he wanted to figure out what.

"Because that's what you want to believe," Emily touched his arm gently. "Spike, would I lie to you? Why would I lie to you?"

"But… explain all the Samurai stuff?"

"My mentor… uncle has a lot of money," Emily shrugged. "Mia is a fan of the Rangers and I have a lot of energy. He thought this training equipment would keep us busy during the day while he… uh… worked."

"What does he do?" Spike asked, just out of curiosity.

"I honestly have no idea," Emily chuckled. It was then the door opened behind her. Jayden gestured for Spike and Emily to come in. Emily looked at Jayden as if he were crazy but Jayden gave her a look that told her everything was going to be fine.

"Mia tells me you're a friend of Emily's. What brings you here?" Jayden asked, closing the door behind Spike.

"I got lost. I was out here with my Uncle and… wait a minute, who are you? Emily, I thought you lived with your Uncle and Mia."

"Uh…" Emily looked to Jayden for help. He quickly came up with an excuse. He offered his hand to Spike.

"I'm Emily's cousin," he told him. "I'm Jayden. Look, kid, if you're lost, we don't mind you waiting here until your uncle finds you. There's a phone in the kitchen you could use to call him."

"Uncle Bulk dropped his phone in the river," Spike lied. If Emily and Jayden were hiding something, he needed the chance to figure out what. He couldn't go home just yet, "but I'll leave a message at home. I'll let him know where to find me."

"Perfect," Jayden put on a fake smile and pointed Spike in the right direction. When he was gone, Emily turned to Jayden and smacked him on the arm.

"You let him in! I just convinced him Mia wasn't a Ranger. What's he going to think when…?"

Jayden grabbed Emily's arms, "Calm down. We've thought this through."

"I hope you're a better liar than me," Emily muttered. "I don't think I'll be able to lie to him while he stays here. I mean… what am I going to say when he asks about Mike, Kevin and Antonio? How many people can live here before he starts to assume…"

"The key to lying is to make it believable," Jayden assured Emily. "Keep it small. Stick to the truth as much as you can and fabricate what needs to be altered. Mike is your boyfriend, Kevin is Mia's fiancé. Spike won't need to know where they live."

"If he asks? What about Antonio? Jayden…!"

"If he asks, Mike lives in town. You two met during a monster attack. The monster was about to hurt you and Mike jumped in and saved you."

A smile appeared on Emily's lips. That was, for the most part, true. She and Mike didn't exactly meet when he saved her, but in her first battle against the Nighlok she did have a bit of a hard time and Mike came to her rescue.

"And as for Antonio, he's my friend from out of town. He's staying here for a few days," Jayden said. Emily took a deep breath.

"Okay… you know, you're really good at this lying thing. Scary good."

"I've been a Samurai my entire life," Jayden shrugged. "It's a skill I needed to learn."

"Quick, tell me a lie," Emily challenged her leader. Jayden's eyes widened for a moment and then he smirked.

"I've been hiding a big secret from you guys," Jayden said, looking Emily in the eye. "The responsibility of red Ranger hasn't always been mine. There's someone else."

Emily stared up at her leader, blinking for a moment as the words sank in. Suddenly she started to smile.

"Whoa, you are good."

Jayden pointed to the kitchen, "Go find Spike before he gets himself into trouble. We've hidden most of the Samurai stuff, but I don't want him accidentally finding something. It's bad enough he found this house."

"Got it," Emily nodded and hurried into the kitchen. When she was gone Jayden let out a heavy sigh and rubbed his head. It scared him to think he was getting so good at lying that Emily didn't believe him when he did tell the truth.

But he pushed that aside. His secret was something he would worry about another day. Right now he had to focus on getting Spike out of the house without any information on who he and the others really were.

-Samurai-

Spike hung up his cell phone. Truth be told, he had dialled the wrong number and had left a message with a very confused older woman, but he had to make his phone call believable. When he tucked his cell phone away he smiled at Emily.

"I called the neighbour," he told her. "She's going to try and get in contact with Uncle Bulk. Once he knows where I am, I'm sure he'll come find me."

"Great. Until then… I… I guess you can hang out here."

"Cool, so what do you do for fun around here?" Spike looked around the kitchen, trying to find any clues to what Emily was hiding from him. She still seemed very nervous.

Kevin walked into the kitchen after cleaning up the dojo and saw Spike. He had met the bumbling teenager before, but given Spike's relentless attraction to Mia, Kevin wanted to introduce himself.

He stood tall and proud and stuck out his chest slightly. When Emily saw this she giggled slightly but bit her lip to keep herself from offending Kevin. He shot her a sideways glance before holding his hand out for Spike.

"Jayden told me we had a guest," he said. "I'm Kevin. I'm Mia's fiancé," he stressed that last part in hopes Spike would understand. The much younger boy nodded his head.

"Oh… you're… the… lucky…" Spike stammered. He shook Kevin's hand but found the older, taller and stronger man's grip rather painful.

Emily saw the pained look on Spike face and smacked Kevin in the chest, causing it to deflate – for lack of a better word.

"Kevin, Spike's harmless!" she cried. Kevin released his death grip on Spike's hand and took a few steps back.

Spike nodded his head quickly, "Look but no touch… okay… okay… I get it… I…" he gulped when Kevin shot him another look. "Uh… no look… won't even look… she's uh… she's all yours, sir…"

"Speaking of Mia, I think I hear her calling you, Kevin," Emily said through clenched teeth. Kevin was starting to board on overprotective and she wanted to get him away from Spike before he truly terrified the younger boy.

Kevin took the hint and walked off, leaving Spike alone with Emily. When he was gone, Spike let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Uh… is he always like that?" he asked.

"He's got this crazy protective instinct," Emily nodded. "I didn't notice it, but apparently he was really bad when I first started dating."

"You've known him that long?" Spike asked.

"Yeah… uh… pretty much since I moved in with Mentor, uh, Uncle Ji…" Emily really needed to take a class in the art of lying. "He and Mia have been dating for a long time and… well… Mia's kind of like a big sister to me, especially seeing as I'm away from mine and… Kevin just… Kevin kind of… He's like a big brother."

"Oh, cool," Spike smirked. He glanced around the kitchen, "So, does this house have any other rooms. I wouldn't mind a tour."

"A tour?" Emily squeaked. She hadn't been there for the cleanup so she had no idea which rooms were safe to visit, if there were any. But Spike insisted.

"Yeah. You said Mia was a fan of the Samurai and you watch them all the time on the news, right?"

"Yeah…"

"You've got to have a clubhouse where you pretend to be Samurai Rangers, seeing as apparently no one here is. My Uncle Bulk and I have one! It's awesome, I'll show you one day!"

"A clubhouse?"

"I know you have one, Emily," Spike smirked knowingly as he started to walk away from his friend. "If you don't show me, I'll find it!"

"Spike…"

Spike stepped out into the hallway and grabbed the handle for one of the doors. Slow, but surely, he started to pull it open. When it was about halfway open, he whipped it out the rest of the way and jumped inside. Emily winced and looked away quickly; terrified he would find something he wasn't supposed to find.

But what Spike failed to noticed was that the door was only a door to a closet, and when he jumped inside he smacked right into the shelves holding the spare blankets and pillows. Spike groaned loudly and fell back onto the floor.

Emily heard a thud as he crashed into the ground and turned to find him nearly passed out on her floor. Her eyes widened and she raced over to him.

"Spike! Are you okay?"

She helped him sit up and Spike started to shake his injury off. He swayed for a moment, but soon found his balance.

"You should have told me that was a closet," he said. "Ow!"

"Sorry," Emily carefully pulled him back to his feet. "Don't worry, I'm always running into things too. There's a bag of peas in the freezer if you need."

"I'll be fine," Spike rolled his head from side to side, waved his arms and legs around and flashed Emily a smile, "There, good as new. So, what other secrets are you hiding?"

He hadn't meant to ask it that way. By secrets he was referring to the fact that Emily hadn't warned him he was about to jump into the closet. But he found it interesting how she winced when he said secrets. Now he was sure there was something going on in this house.

He was starting to get that feeling again. That feeling he got when he knew he was right, even when there was very little proof of the fact. He would get to the bottom of this.