Lauren had a skip in her step all day as she walked around the house getting everything set up for midnight. This was going to be the best night of her life, and she didn't want anything going wrong.

She had dozens of alarms set for ten minutes to midnight and made sure there was at least one alarm in every room. She didn't want one person to be late in the common room, and wanted them all present when the new year started. It was going to be the first moments of the rest of her life, and she wanted to be surrounded by family and friends.

As she walked by one of the bathrooms she heard an alarm go off early and then a scream. She stopped and waited for whoever was inside to come out.

Jayden held a small clock in his hand and stomped out of the bathroom. He was startled again when Lauren, his target, was waiting for him just outside the door. He tossed the little clock at her and groaned.

"Seriously? In the bathroom? I'm lucky I was on the toilet! I shit myself!"

Lauren sniggered and reset the alarm, "Sorry, Jayden. I could have sworn I set it for midnight. Guess I got a little distracted with this one."

"Just don't let it happen…" Jayden was interrupted when another alarm went off somewhere down the hall. He looked to Lauren who shrugged her shoulders.

"It's a really important night for me."

Terran's crying made Jayden roll his eyes. He heard stomping from down the hall and backed into the bathroom to finish his business, "You might not make it to tonight."

"I…" Lauren heard the footsteps coming and saw Serena had a little clock in her hand. She gulped, assuming another alarm had gone off early and woke Terran from his nap. She hid the bathroom alarm behind her back and shrugged, "He-he… funny story…"

"Keep the alarms away from my room," Serena tossed the alarm at Lauren, who had to drop the first one to catch it. "I just got Terran down for his nap. If he misses it and he gets crabby, you're dealing with him, got it?"

"Sorry. I could have sworn I set them to midnight…"

"LAUREN!" another alarm went off followed by a call from Emily in the common room. "That's the third time!"

Serena shook her head and gave Lauren a sigh, "Midnight, huh? And if you want us gathered in the common room, why are there alarms in the common room? Emily's gotta rest?"

"Shut up, I went overboard, okay," Lauren huffed. She grabbed the alarms and walked down to the common room to shut off the alarm on the side table by the couch, which Emily couldn't reach because the table was at her feet and she had been discouraged from moving without help. When the buzzer stopped, Emily sighed contently.

"I had just gotten back to sleep, you know."

"Sorry," Lauren set all the premature alarms down and took a seat on her stool, "I'm a little excited."

"Yeah, I think everyone's got that," Emily gave Lauren a smile, "But it's a big night. I don't blame you. There's still a few hours before midnight, though, so how about you sit down and relax with some TV."

"Sounds good."

"Okay, can you get the remote from James?" Emily pointed down the hall, "He's the one who insisted I nap."

"I'll find it," Lauren nodded.

-Samurai-

"Can I stay up till midnight? Please, please, please!" Riley begged her adoptive parents as she bounced excitedly on the bed. Because she was so young, she had never stayed up for New Year's before, and was hoping Kevin and Mia would finally give her the chance. She heard all kinds of fun stories from her older brother and wanted to be able to share in all the excitement and after bedtime fun. Kevin shrugged his shoulders and turned to Mia, who was on the phone with Sabrina Clarkson, the social worker who was handling Riley's adoption case. Though it was New Year's Eve and Sabrina had the night off, she insisted on calling the family to check up on them, and Mia had to reassure her everything was okay (without telling her about the bank robbery incident over the phone).

Kevin listened to Riley's begging and wasn't sure what to do. It was common knowledge kids Riley's age go to bed on time, but Kevin's soft spot for her was growing. He had pushed her down the stairs twice, he wanted her to like him, and she had survived a near-death experience. He felt the need to spoil her and give her everything she wanted.

But it occurred to him that wasn't good parenting. Conflicted, he decided this would be Mia's call. If Mia agreed to letting Riley stay up late, Kevin felt he would get a few good points from Riley. If Mia said no, at least it was Mia turning Riley down and being the bad guy, and this one time, Kevin could slip under the radar. Mia had enough likable points to afford losing a few.

"If Mia says…"

"Please, please, please!" Riley hopped off the bed and grabbed Mia's leg, hugging her tightly hoping it would convince her to say yes, "Mia! Mia! Can I stay up till midnight? I'll be a good girl, I promise."

"Riley, I'm on the phone," Mia whispered to the little girl and returned to her conversation with Sabrina, "I'm sorry, Sabrina, that's just Riley… oh… okay."

Mia covered the mouth piece of the phone and knelt. She looked to Riley, "Miss. Clarkson wants to talk to you for a minute."

"Can I stay up till midnight? Please?"

"We'll talk about that after you talk to Miss. Clarkson," Mia passed the phone to Riley, "Be polite, kiddo."

Riley frowned, took the phone and growled, "I don't like you, poop head."

Mia smacked her hand to her forehead and sighed. Kevin chuckled.

"I'm not very fond of her either."

"Riley is not afraid to speak her mind," Mia said with a groan, "Unfortunately."

Riley continued her rant on the phone, listing off the reasons why she didn't like Sabrina to make her point very clear. Convinced Mia and Kevin were going to take care of her, the only person Riley had left to blame for being at risk of losing her new parents was Sabrina. But that wasn't easy for the four year old to explain. Instead, her list was a little… different.

"… and you want to take me to the opanage so I die. And you want to take me away from Mia and not-so-meanie Kevin. And you smell like stupid starberries, and I no like starberries!"

"Riley, I understand this is confusing to you…"

"No! I love Mia. I stay with her and not-so-meanie Kevin," Riley blew a raspberry into the phone before hanging up and passing it over to Mia with a smile, "Now can I stay up until midnight?"

Kevin tried his best to hide the laughter that was pushing its way out. He knew he wasn't supposed to encourage Riley letting someone else have it, but watching the four year old tell off a social worker and apparently win the fight was hilarious to him.

"I.. I vote… yes," Kevin said and tried to hold in the laughter until he left the room. Riley heard he was on her side and her smile brightened. She looked to Mia hopefully.

"I'll be a good girl, I promise."

Mia sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Okay, here's the deal. You go to bed at bedtime…"

"That's not a deal," Riley shook her head.

Mia continued, "You go to bed at bedtime, and I'll come wake you up ten minutes before midnight. You can celebrate the New Year with all of us, but only if you go to bed without any fuss."

"I'll go to bed now!" Riley crawled into the bed and buried herself under the blankets. Mia was a little startled at how eager Riley was to see midnight, and hadn't expected her to go to bed right away.

However, she wouldn't argue it. If Riley slept, she would have more time to have fun with the other Samurai, instead of having to keep one eye constantly on Riley.

"Good girl. Goodnight, Riles."

"Shh, I'm sleeping."

-Samurai-

James had only agreed to let Emily watch TV if he got to control what they would watch on TV, knowing that her pain medication would knock her out soon enough and it was likely she fell asleep watching cartoons and with the remote lodged somewhere under her. Emily agreed, only because anything was better to watch than the ceiling.

Just as he had predicted, Emily did fall asleep, so Lauren and James were the only two who were actually watching TV. Lauren didn't yet have any favourite shows, and so didn't care what James chose to watch, but it did annoy her that he didn't seem to want to watch anything in particular. He just kept flipping through channels, hoping there was something better somewhere else.

"Can you just pick something?"

James shook his head, "I'm looking."

"We have a TV guide. You can browse that. Just stop the flickering channels before I have a seizure."

James groaned but stopped changing the channels and opened up the guide. As luck would have it, he stopped on the news. While he continued to browse for something he wanted to watch, Lauren listened to the daily news.

"James! James! James!"

"What? What? What?"

"Full screen," Lauren said as she got off her stool and approached the TV. James canceled the guide and rolled his eyes.

"The news is just depressing. Besides, all they have to cover now is the bank shooting. We know what happened. We know the police took those two assholes…"

"… as the cameras from the store just across the street from the bank show, a young girl in a pink Samurai Ranger costume is seen following the armed robbers into the bank, and shortly after, a woman enters the scene. Neither of which were seen by police, and no camera was able to catch either of them leaving from any of the doors. Police are on the look-out. In other news…"

"The picture is blurry," James whispered nervously and turned off the TV, "I mean, Riley's costume's ruined, and they couldn't see her face behind the mask anyways, and they didn't get a clear shot at Emily's face."

"It's still not good," Lauren shook her head and started to pace, "Someone saw Emily. What if the robbers remember her? Can't the police track her down that way?"

"That would mean trusting the jackasses who shot at a kid," James said, hoping he was right and that the police wouldn't put any faith at all in the robbers – though that was unlikely. Emily and Riley were both the only other two people at the bank, making the robbers the only witnesses. If the police wanted any information, they were certainly going to ask the robbers.

"They don't know they shot a kid," Lauren shook her head, "Now, all they know is that a kid was there. No one's said anything about a kid being shot at."

"What are we talking about?" Serena's voice made Lauren and James jump in their seats as she walked into the room and sat on James' lap, leaving the couch for the napping Emily. She looked to the news, but by now the reporter had moved on to a citizen helping out at one of the shelters.

"Just the…" Lauren say James was shaking his head and signalling for her not to say a word about what they had seen on the news. She didn't think it was right to keep this information from Serena, but she was still new to the group and she was still trying to find her place. She didn't want to push any buttons. "Just the fact that James can't pick a channel."

"He does that," Serena nodded her head and gave James a kiss on the cheek. "Terran's out like a light and I'm going to see if Kate needs help in the kitchen. Any requests for tonight, you two?"

"Nope," they shook their heads and answered together. Serena gave them a look before getting up and walking away. When she was gone, they breathed a sigh of relief.

Serena wasn't stupid. She walked into the kitchen and grabbed Antonio's laptop from the counter. She had learned his password after living with him for so long and logged in without any problem.

It wasn't that she didn't want Lauren to bond with James. She considered Lauren to be one of her best friends, equal to Mia, and only slightly below Emily and James on the relationship scale. She wanted her husband and her best friend to get along, and for Lauren's sake, she wanted the red Ranger to make friends with good, trustworthy people.

But Lauren and James didn't have the kind of relationship where they behaved the way they did in the common room. Something was up.

Serena also wasn't clueless. She had walked in, saw the two were watching the news, and figured their working together had something to do with what they had seen. Having heard the words "kid being shot at", Serena decided to investigate and searched for news about the bank shooting.

She browsed for a few minutes, telling Kate she would help with the cooking after she got her research settled and made sure everything was fine. She went back and forth in the search engine, looking up different articles about the incident and getting as much information as she could. It startled her that the investigators were now looking for a little girl and another woman (whom Serena knew to be Riley and Emily) who were apparently linked to the crime. Riley, easily, would be let off the hook once they knew who she was and that she was safe. Emily was thought to be a part of the whole plan.

Then something else came up. The internet made getting up to date information very easy. Serena shook her head, closed the laptop and got up.

"I'm going for a walk."

"What about dinner?" Kate asked, looking a little upset she wasn't getting the help she was promised.

"Ask Ji."

"Where are you going?"

"Just to check up on stuff… at home… Storm."

"Storm?"

"Just going to make sure she's not lonely on New Year's Eve. Maybe bring her here… maybe not."

"Serena…"

"I'm just going on a walk!" Serena called and ran to the door. She got her boots and jacket on and headed out. She walked down the path, and when she thought she was far enough, she suddenly turned and sprinted to the side of the house. She walked up to Ji's bedroom window and watched secretly while Kate came to get Ji, asking for his help in the kitchen.

"I'm not an ungrateful niece," Serena muttered to herself once Ji and Kate were gone and then opened the window and climbed inside. Ji had been hiding the Samuraizers, and fortunately he hadn't had time to lock them away. For now, they were sitting on the night table near his closet. Serena opened the box and took out her white Samuraizer.

"Okay," she whispered as she flipped it open and started to trace a Symbol, "This is going to hurt. This is going to hurt. This is… holy mother fucker!"

A wound, very similar to Emily's gunshot wound in her calf, opened up in Serena's leg and the pain was agonizing. Fortunately, Serena had thought this part of the plan through, and her next Symbol covered her wound in gauze and braced her leg and foot like Emily's.

There was only one more Symbol to be done. Serena traced it, and felt herself getting smaller. Finally satisfied, she put the Samuraizer away and limped to Ji's closet. He always had medical supplies on hand and that included crutches. She took them and then walked to the window.

"I did not think this part through," she said and looked down at her leg. Deciding to bite the bullet, she dropped her crutches out the window and climbed out, biting her tongue as the wound in her leg protested. After hitting the ground and not screaming out in pain like every part of her body demanded she did, she got up and with the crutches walked out of the yard. As she followed the path into the city, she went through the checklist in her head one more time to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything before she got too far from the house.

"Female, white, blonde, short, made rocks out of thin air, gunshot wound to the left calf, late teens to early twenties… alright, I'm stretching that, but what do those assholes know. They shot at Riley. I'm convincing enough."