"This hardly seems fair," Serena muttered, though there was a slight chuckle in her tone, "I cook dinner and dessert, and I have to put away the dishes?"

"Mom cooked dinner and made dessert," Emily said with a smirk. The girls and their mother had had a rough road over the last year, but life was finally getting back on track for them. Their mother was once again the mother they knew growing up. Ellie had cooked a huge feast for the Rangers to dine to that night, and had done all the preparation for the apple pie she knew Emily, Serena, and Ji loved. All Serena had to do to get it ready to eat was heat it all up. "Besides, everyone else is a guest. They don't know what to do with the dishes yet."

"They could have offered," Serena said.

"I guess. I'm sure we'll all do our fair share around here."

"I guess they'll be put to work tomorrow," Serena looked out the window to the farm, where all the animals were settled in for the night, "I don't know how dad does it by himself every day."

"It relaxes him," Emily smiled.

"He always seemed stressed to me."

Emily shrugged her shoulders and then looked up at the clock, "Serena, can I go out tonight?"

"You're eighteen, Emy," Serena laughed, "You don't have to ask my permission if you want to go out with Mike…"

"Not Mike," Emily shook her head, "Storm kind of got loose and I tried to catch her, but she's pretty fast. Brian got her."

"Bri… Brian?" Serena's heart froze. The last time she had seen Brian had been in a what if life. Though it wasn't the real thing, and life was much different in this reality, Brian left a horrible taste in Serena's mouth. The dish she was holding slipped right out of her hand and shattered on the floor.

Emily knelt over to clean it up. Serena leaned on her crutches, trying to take it all in. She seemed to be in shock, and from what she could tell, she was. Her heart was pounding, and she couldn't think straight. Her brain wouldn't work properly while images of what Brian, Stephanie, and all their friends had done to her baby sister to make her life a living hell flashed through her mind.

Emily dumped the pieces of the plate away and then walked to the wall to get the broom, while keeping one eye on her sister, "Serena, are you okay?"

Serena snapped herself back to reality and nodded her head, "Uh, why do you want to go see them, Emily? What did they do?"

"Brian was actually… kind of nice," Emily said, "He wanted me to meet up with him and everyone by the lake so they could apologize."

"Emily…"

"I know he was a jerk…"

"Jerk doesn't even begin to describe him. Those… monsters almost ruined your life, Emily."

"I've changed a lot, Serena."

"Yeah, but…"

"You have to give them a chance."

Serena shook her head, "I'm all for taking risks, Em, but not where your safety is involved."

"Safety? They're kids. Besides, you've gambled with my life once or twice before. I've changed a lot, and I have no reason to believe they haven't. Brian said…"

"No."

"What?"

"You asked if you could go out, I'm giving you my answer. No."

Emily huffed unhappily and then pointed to the living room, "Your son is in there. You don't need to baby me."

"You asked my permission."

"Why don't you want me going out?"

"I have a bad feeling, Em."

"Now you have a bad feeling," Emily rolled her eyes, "You'll date Dekker, make deals with Nighlok, put my life, and yours, at risk without a second thought, but you have a bad feeling about me, the Samurai, going to hang out with a few kids from school?"

"Kids are mean, Emily. I'll finish with the dishes; go show the others how to get the VCR started. For geeks, Mike and Antonio sound like they're really struggling."

"No," Emily shook her head and then walked to the front door, "I told Brian I would meet him by the big lake at eight."

"Emily…"

Emily slammed the door as she walked out. Serena groaned. She never wanted teenagers. If there was a way to make sure Terran stayed a baby forever, she would do it. Changing a diaper was easier than dealing with whatever it was Emily was going through this time.

"Do you want me to follow her?"

Serena jumped at the sound of James' voice. She turned to him and nodded her head.

"I love how you can read my mind."

"Also, word of advice: kids hate being told no," James chuckled. "Emily phrased her evening in the form of a request, but she was really just looking for support."

"What do you know about kids?"

"I worked with them," James smirked. "Emily's also got a point…"

"Can we scrutinize my mistakes later? Emily knows this place better than you do. If you let her get too far away, she'll…"

"I know where the lake is," James assured her and gave her a kiss, "I'll make sure your precious baby sister comes home in one piece. But you need to get in the living room fast. They got the VCR working, but now they're fighting over couch space."

"My foot's useless," Serena frowned and started for the living room, "Obviously I get the couch."

-Samurai-

While Emily and James were out, and the others were downstairs watching a movie, Mia was putting Terran to bed. She had just finished giving him a bath and was trying to read him a bedtime story.

Terran, though, had a newfound ability. He could walk. His world, suddenly, was completely different, and before he fell asleep that night he needed to explore every inch of it. Mia could not keep him still, no matter how hard she tried. Eventually, she gave up on the book, scooped him up and set him down in the crib. He put up a bit of a fuss, but sleep started to come to him the moment he was on his back. From his diaper bag, Serena pulled out his favourite blanket and stuffed toy. His eyes were heavy as he reached to take them from her, and he snuggled up with both close to his chest. When he was finally down for the night, Mia started to clean up the room. Terran had gotten his hands on a few things and they needed to go back into their place.

As she was cleaning, there was a gentle knock on the door. She turned and saw Kevin had come up, likely to get her for the movie.

"You've been quiet tonight," he told her. Mia gestured for him to be quiet and walked him out of the room. She closed the door very carefully so as not to wake Terran and then she gestured to their bedroom for the stay. When they were inside, she gave Kevin a strange look.

"You think?"

"If it's about what we did…"

"I thought you were getting over that," Mia huffed, "I know I screwed up, Kevin. I know it hurts. I know it'll be a long, long time before that goes away, if it ever does, but you didn't need to be an ass about it earlier."

"I wasn't trying to be an ass," Kevin was starting to see he had a lot of damage control to do. He couldn't blend in if the Samurai weren't functioning normally, and though he hadn't been around long enough to know their habits, he had been getting a lot of questions, mainly from Antonio, regarding Mia's silence. It seemed it wasn't normal for her to be so withdrawn. He needed to fix that under he had a little more control, "It's still kind of new to me."

"You're just as experienced as I am," Mia rolled her eyes, "You made your point, it hurt…"

"I didn't want to hurt you," Kevin approached her and held her warmly, "I'm sorry, Mia. I really am. Maybe I was just a little thrown off about the fact that this isn't our home. I mean, we're in Serena's old room. This is the room she grew up in…"

"Actually, she only moved in here once she got sick," Mia explained, remembering a talk with Emily from a while back, "She needed so much to keep her alive, and she got so sick, the best thing they could do for her, and for everyone around her, was give her, her own space."

Mia then looked down at the bed as a thought occurred to her, "This was almost her death bed."

Kevin decided to work with that, "Yeah, that thought occurred to me too. It's just kind of weird. You have to admit. And I could smell dinner was about ready, and if the others caught us… I rushed out, I know I did. I didn't mean to hurt you, I swear."

He gave her a kiss on the forehead and squeezed her lovingly, "I would never do anything to hurt you, you know that, right?"

Mia nodded her head just a little, "I'm sorry."

Kevin gave her a quick look. That was easy. Humans were easy. He could try for more.

"You know, I'm a little hurt you would think that poorly of me. I thought you loved me. I thought you trusted me."

"I do, Kevin, I just…"

"Then act like it," he snapped and watched her closely for a reaction. She seemed horrified. He could work with that. As though he was angry, he stormed out of the room, for the second time that day leaving Mia in tears. On the other side of the door, Kevin was smirking wickedly. Without trying, he could get her to break down. It was almost too easy. He was going to need a little more of a challenge.

His storming out and slamming the door had woken Terran. From his room, the little boy was crying loudly for someone to comfort him. Downstairs, the Samurai thought he and Mia would get it under control. In her room, Mia was probably too shocked and upset to even notice the crying. Kevin had Terran to himself.

He walked into the room and grabbed the side of the crib. Terran settled just a little when he saw a familiar face standing over him. He pulled himself up onto his feet and then reached up for Kevin to grab him, wanting to be in someone's arms. Kevin lifted him up and then let him go. The drop was high, especially for such a young boy. Terran hit the ground, smacking his head. The thump his body made when he landed was loud, and his screams of fear and pain were even louder. Kevin raced out of the room, leaving the little boy to cry by himself while footsteps raced up the stairs and Mia darted out of the bedroom. She didn't even see Kevin as he slipped around the corner and into the bathroom. He pulled off his shirt and his pants once he was inside, leaving himself in only his boxers. He wanted it to look like he was getting ready for bed.

When he was out of his clothes, he raced out of the bathroom in a panic and ran into Terran's bedroom, where Serena was trying to soothe him, and was screaming at Mia, whom she assumed had somehow caused the accident. Though Terran was in his crib, if it wasn't properly adjusted for bed, he could hurt himself. Now that he was walking, and from what Serena had heard from James, he had been able to pull himself up to his feet for a while now, Mia needed to be extra careful putting him to bed. It seemed he was talented enough to climb over the edge of the crib and hurt himself, if the side of the bed was lowered.

"I did!" Mia insisted but was too distraught from her talk with Kevin to defend herself any better than that. "He was safe and sound when I left him. I lifted the side of the crib! I did! I did!"

"Then how the hell did he manage to fall out?" Serena screamed and then turned to Terran and tried to be calm for him.

"I don't…"

"Idiot," Serena muttered and walked out of the room, with a screaming Terran still in her arms. She needed to call the doctor. She had his number memorized still, after all those years of calling him for Emily. Surely he would help with Terran.

Mike followed to help. Calming Terran down would require the person holding him to actually be calm, and Serena was not that person.

Jayden, Antonio, and Ji weren't quite sure what to do, but they left with Serena, just to keep their eye on Terran. They wanted to know he was okay before they could go back to doing anything else.

Kevin and Mia were left alone in a room. Kevin looked to Mia and shook his head.

"What's wrong with you?"

Mia no longer had it in her to fight back. Today was a weird day and it didn't look like she was going to get any support from Kevin. For a reason she couldn't explain, he hated her.

She lowered her head and started to leave the room. Kevin grabbed her by the arm, "You could have killed him."

"I didn't…"

"You have to be careful. Babies are very fragile, Mia."

"I know, I…"

"Just, go to bed," Kevin ordered he let go of her arm. Mia did as she was told. Kevin watched her go with a big smile. It was amazing what these Samurai could do to each other.