James got a little lost on the way to the lake, but he would never tell Serena that. It took him a little extra time to find his way again, but eventually he did make it to the lake.

There was no one around. James had a bit of a bad feeling. Though Emily wasn't the kind of girl who would get in trouble, peer pressure could change someone. He had seen it happen to a lot of the good kids he used to teach. They would get involved with some kids who they thought were cool, and suddenly they were doing things they never used to do.

From the way Serena had reacted to the name Brian, James could tell she thought he wasn't good news. Though Serena wasn't the best judge of character, and sometimes made mistakes of her own, she was still pretty good when it came to keeping her sister safe. If she didn't trust Brian and his friends, neither would James.

"Emily?" he didn't want to call her name too loudly, just in case he and Serena were wrong. If Brian really had changed, like Emily suggested, then it was very possible Emily was just having fun with some old friends from school. He had seen a lot of kids growing up between grades eleven and twelve. The responsibility of finding a college or a job pushed a lot of students to really think about where they were and what they wanted to do with the rest of their life, and they started to realize that a lot of their childish antics were just that. Not every kid had that epiphany though – not as many as James wished, at least, but enough for him to know it was possible.

"James!" Emily called back. James followed the sound of her voice and found her, as well as a group of kids her age. Emily didn't look happy, and these kids looked like they were in over their heads. Emily was also wet.

"What happened?" James asked. Emily huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"They dunked me!"

"Why?"

"We thought it would be funny. We didn't mean anything by it," one of the boys muttered as he cower on the ground. Emily gave him a harsh glare, which made him shrink into himself even more. James chuckled and wrapped one arm around Emily's shoulders.

"Kids mess around, Em."

"I told them no," Emily shook her head, "but they lifted me up, dunked me, and held my head under water."

"We would have let her up!" one of the girls said, "We weren't going to drown her!"

"Though she deserves it," the other boy said. He was also wet, while the others were still dry. James could assume he had done the dunking.

"Games like these can get a little out of hand," James warned the kids and gestured for them to get up, "No more dunking heads underwater, alright?"

"You're letting them go?" Emily shrieked, understanding James' tone right away. Teachers had used that exact tone as a warning to her bullies. Time and time again they had been warned that if they continued to behave the way they always did, there would be consequences. Consequences that never happened.

"Can we go?" the first boy asked and looked to Emily a little fearfully. James nodded his head. They all jumped to their feet and rushed off except for one – the wet one. He wasn't happy either. Emily glared at him, and he returned the look. Then she pretended to lunge for him. He flinched and decided at that point the game was done and walked away.

James wrapped his arms around Emily, "What did you do to him."

"Brian? He's the real meanie. Always has been," Emily grumbled, "He used to pull my hair when we were little, rip toys out of my hand and then hit me with them, and he just got worse as we got older. He almost drowned me!"

"You're fine, though."

"DROWNED!"

"Would a stop for ice-cream make things better?"

"James, you're not listening. He nearly… did you say ice-cream?"

"Just promise me you'll stay away from those kids from now on," James said as he guided her off, "It's obvious that no matter how hard you try, you'll never get along with them."

"You said ice-cream. You promised ice-cream."

James chuckled, "Mia's right, ice-cream is your bandaid."

-Samurai-

After Terran fell, Kevin had ordered for Mia to go to bed, and she listened. He couldn't believe it. It baffled him just how easy it was going to be to take the Rangers out from the inside. If only the other Nighlok knew all Rangers came with a self-destruct button.

In his boxers, because he wanted to keep up the impression he had been getting ready for bed when Terran fell, he went downstairs. Terran wasn't screaming constantly anymore, but he was visibly upset and hurt. There was a huge bump forming on his head, as well as a bruise. Serena was on the phone with the doctor while Ji tended to Terran, who was constantly reaching out for his mother, and screaming at the top of his lungs when she wasn't right next to him.

"Thanks, doctor," Serena was at the end of her call when Kevin arrived, "My uncle's got things under control here, but we'll keep an eye on him for the things you mentioned," Kevin saw she had a pen in her hand, and she was looking down at a notebook that she had filled up with advice and directions from the doctor. "I'll bring him in to see you tomorrow if something comes up. Hopefully I don't see you soon."

"How is the little guy?" Kevin asked as Serena hung up the phone. The worried mother sighed and massaged her temples. It was clear this was not her night.

"Doctor gave me a list of stuff to look out for," Serena held up the notebook, "Ji says he's calming down. He should be okay."

"Good," Kevin smiled and then wrapped his arms around Serena. She looked like she could use a hug, "And don't be too hard on Mia. Mistakes happen."

"I guess," Serena nodded, "I'll apologize to her in the morning. I was a little harsh. She's not normally careless."

"Let me talk to her," Kevin insisted. "I'll let her know everything's okay."

"Thanks," Serena said. She walked into the living room and lifted Terran into her arms. He seemed a bit unsettled with his feet and bum no longer on the ground, but he nestled into his mother's arms and held on tight as she carried him off for bed.

Everyone seemed ready for bed. They wished each other a goodnight and broke off into their rooms. Kevin headed to his room and found Mia sitting on the bed, looking deeply upset. He smirked and then swatted the back of her head. Mia held her head in her hands and looked up at Kevin, extremely horrified. He had never hit her before.

"Do you have any idea what you just did?" he growled and grabbed her roughly by the arm, "You're not a nice person."

"Kevin, stop!" Mia cried and tried to rip her arm away from Kevin. He gave her a light slap on the cheek, horrifying her again. Then he pointed to the door.

"Serena's pissed. You're a guest in her house and you drop her baby. She told me she wants you to sleep in the barn."

"No way."

Kevin raised his hand again and Mia cowered away. She grabbed a pillow and hurried out of the room.

She had never been in a barn before, much less slept in one. She made her way inside and found a spot in the corner to sit down.

She had no idea what was going on. Kevin was a completely different person, and she couldn't explain why. At least, she didn't think she could, but she knew there had to be a reason. She remembered talking to Mike on the island, and listening to him as he caught her up on what had happened while she had been in her mini-coma. Kevin had been knocked silly, and for a while he had acted strangely. She thought maybe his behaviour now had something to do with that. She figured maybe he wasn't completely in control of what he was doing.

It was the only excuse that made any sense. In his right mind, Kevin would never behave this way. He would never touch her. Yet, he did.

-Samurai-

"Everyone must be in bed," James whispered as he and Emily snuck into the house. He turned to her to signal she needed to be quiet, but then he couldn't help but laugh at the chocolate on her face. After her unpleasant reunion with her old tormentors, James had decided to end the night on a happy note and took her into town for ice-cream. Fortunately, the bar was still open at that hour and the man who owned it was more than happy to serve up a few scoops of ice-cream for Emily. He seemed to know her personally. "You've got ice-cream… everywhere."

"It was cold. My nose was sore," Emily smirked.

"Now you look like you took eating lessons from Terran," James walked to the kitchen and picked up a cloth from the sink. He tossed it over to Emily, "Serena will kill me if she finds out you had apple pie and chocolate ice-cream in one night."

"Do you promise you won't tell her about tonight? I don't want her thinking she was right."

"I'll tell her what she needs to know," James said, "So what I tell her depends on you. If you stay away from those jerks, she'll never need to know."

"I will, I promise," Emily wiped her face clean and then looked up to the stairs, "I don't know how much sneaking around you had to do, but at night, this place is booby trapped."

"What do you mean?"

"Steps three to five and eight to eleven creak loudly. There is no avoiding them unless you jump."

"Jump?"

Emily nodded her head and walked to the staircase. She stepped up the first two no problem, and then stretched out and put her hands on the sixth step. She took a deep breath and then jumped, skipping over steps three, four, and five with a single leap. She walked up to step seven, reached up to the top of the staircase and then jumped right over steps eight, nine, ten, eleven.

James watched in awe, "There's no way I'm doing that. A little creak won't wake anyone…"

"It'll wake the dead," she warned him. "If you're not going to listen to me, at least let me get tucked in so only you get in trouble for coming home late."

"Or you'll both be in trouble," Serena walked up right behind Emily with her arms crossed over her chest. She had gotten up in the middle of the night to check up on Terran, and heard whispering from the hallway. "I'm glad to see you're getting along, but I didn't expect the party to last well into the night."

"Emily was stood up," James explained from the bottom of the stairs, lying expertly. Emily shot him a look. He was on her side, but if he could lie this well, who knew what else he was lying about. "So we went into town. She needed a bit of cheering up."

Serena didn't seem convinced, and for the obvious reasons. James was an excellent liar. Emily not so much. They were hiding something. She knew it.

"And…?" she pressed on.

James sighed loudly, "Alright, I didn't want to tell you this…"

"James! You promised!" Emily shrieked.

"I gave her ice-cream."

Serena blinked, "That's it? You've been out for hours for ice-cream?"

"It was a big bowl," James held his hands out; "She was determined to finish it."

"Seriously?" Serena looked back and forth between her sister and her fiancé. She was sure there was more, but neither of them was willing to budge on the matter, and they both seemed content with… whatever it was they were hiding. Deciding she was done with all the drama, and she wanted to spend this time at home in peace, she let it go. "Whatever, just come to bed, but whatever you do, don't…"

James put his foot on the third step and it creaked loudly. Emily and Serena covered their ears and James couldn't believe what he had just heard. The other Samurai opened their doors to see what was going on, and Terran started to cry, unhappy his sleep had once again been disturbed.

"…Step on the creaky stairs…" Serena groaned.

"Told you," Emily stuck her tongue out at James, "Booby trapped."

"You have to jump up," Serena told him while Emily explained what was going on to the boys, who wanted to know what had made that awful creak. "Jump. Step six is safe."

"It doesn't creak like that during the day," James lifted his foot and stretched it high and far, skipping over the creaky stairs Emily had warned him about. "You should put markers or something."

"Mom and dad were really protective of us," Serena explained. James made it over the first set and she helped him get over the second, "That was so that if an intruder did come in; they couldn't make it up the stairs without waking up the entire house."

"What about down the stairs?" Kevin asked, finding it odd Mia had raced out of the house without alerting anyone.

"Downstairs is fine," Emily chuckled, "We don't know why. Dad always said there was a method to his madness."

"I think it was because he used to sneak downstairs for a second helping of dessert," Serena said with a laugh.

"You said three to five and eight to eleven?" Kevin asked.

Emily nodded, "I'll mark them tomorrow, I promise."

"Don't bother," Kevin shrugged, "I don't think that's something we'll forget. Good night, guys."