It was supposed to be a movie night, but Mike had a different idea in mind. Instead of bringing popcorn and a DVD to his wife who was sitting on the couch, he brought over a bowl of popcorn and a book of baby names he had borrowed from Serena earlier that day.

"Alright, so the ending's not exactly cheesy romantic, and it's going to have a bit of blood, a lot of screaming, and probably some cussing at the male lead, but I think this is still going to be an enjoyable movie."

He dropped the book down on Emily's lap. She picked it up, read the cover and sighed.

"Mike, just because it's rectangular and has a picture on the front, that doesn't mean it's a DVD, a Blue Ray, or a video game. This is what we call a book. And it's not even the kind with a plot."

"It's got a plot," Mike chuckled, "A young couple realize they're going to have a baby. They've managed to get a home, all the supplies they need, and are getting set up for their life as parents. Suddenly, their world is turned upside down when they figure out its twins and they have no idea what to name their beautiful bundles of joy. Will they come up with names in time, or will their twins be baby gender one and baby gender two? Sounds interesting to me."

"And yet, you still haven't figured out how the laundry machine works," Emily chuckled. "Mike, you said it yourself; we don't even know what we're having yet."

"An Alien baby would be pretty cool," Mike chuckled and was smacked in the stomach with a pillow, "I'm kidding. I've thought of that already. We're having two kids, so I figured if we both pick a boy name and a girl name we're covered no matter what they come out as."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, if we have two girls, we have two girl names. If we have two boys, we'll have two boys names. If we have one of each, we can each name one."

"Alright, but do we have to do it now?" Emily looked to and rubbed her stomach, "I don't even know which kid is where yet. And at this stage, the best names I have for them are Barfy and Pissy, and those sound like names for dwarfs eight and nine."

"I'd be cool with dwarf babies too," Mike smirked. He was smacked again with a pillow. "I'm kidding. Can we at least look through the book? Maybe make a list of names we'll consider?"

"Sure," Emily smiled and opened the book.

-Samurai-

Lauren hugged herself for warmth, having forgotten how cold the night could get when she was in the middle of nowhere. She needed some time to herself to think about what had happened with Riley and what she was getting herself into with the dojo. She had been so excited about getting her life as a sensei started while working with her brother, she had forgotten about the risks she was taking. She knew how dangerous training could get. She had been hurt many times training in the last couple of years, and that was at a time in her life where she was a successful Samurai who knew exactly what she was doing. Training kids, especially taking on kids as young as Riley was a whole different ball game. If one of them got hurt on her watch, she wasn't sure she would be able to brush it off. She didn't want people getting hurt. She didn't want to be the reason people got hurt.

Or worse. It could always get worse.

And even without the dojo, she couldn't get Riley out of her head. Mia and Kevin had tried to hide it, and they had been nice about it, but Lauren could tell they were angry and upset. Lauren knew she had let them down. They had trusted her with their daughter – their one and only daughter – and Riley almost died on her watch.

Lauren sunk down to the ground and shook her head. She felt miserable and guilty.

A strong and cold wind blew, freezing Lauren to the core. She decided to suck it up for now and find someplace to seek shelter for the night. She wanted to stay away from the city – unable to bear the thought of having to look anyone in the eye after what had happened, and so decided to head further away from town, towards the town limit.

-Samurai-

When Emily opened her eyes she could see it was dark. She couldn't remember exactly when, but she had fallen asleep while skimming through the list of baby names for the twins. It seemed Mike had done exactly the same, but only after laying her down comfortably on the couch and draping a warm blanket over her. Then he sprawled himself out on the smaller love-seat. It didn't look comfortable, but Mike was the kind who could sleep anywhere.

Emily repaid him the kind gesture as she got off the couch and laid the blanket over him. She had woken up and already knew it would be a while before she would fall back to sleep.

She walked to the kitchen to get herself a snack. For her convince, James had written up a list of snacks that were good to help her keep her iron levels up, and because Mike was the paranoid husband, he stuck the list on the fridge and coloured the borders with yellow and green highlighter. Even in the dark, Emily could see it.

"Oh yeah," Emily stuck her tongue out at the list. She did follow it, but from time to time she needed a little variety. She put her hand in the cookie jar, "I'm having chocolate chip."

Something jiggled as she touched the cookie, making her drop it back into the jar and spin around to the door. The sound had come from the door, and there was a shadow at the window. Someone was at the door. Emily checked the time on the stove. It was the middle of the night. No one should have been at the door in the middle of the night.

"M… Mike?" Emily grabbed a cookie, but instead of eating it she tossed it to her sleeping husband, "We have company."

Before Mike woke up the lock on the door gave up the battle and the door opened. Someone walked into the house, making Emily scream. She launched another cookie at the intruder. The intruder jumped, and from what Emily could make out of the silhouette, adopted a defensive stance. This intruder knew how to fight.

The scream pulled Mike from his sleep as he jumped to his feet, grabbed the closest thing he could reach and ran to his wife. He took her in his arms and held out his mystery weapon. Suddenly, the lights came on and the intruder revealed herself. Mike noticed his mystery weapon was the pillow from the couch.

"Lauren?" Emily asked, seeing her cousin standing in the doorway, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"You threw a cookie at me?" Lauren looked down at the object that had hit her, and then looked up to see Mike holding a pillow, "Wait, you thought someone was breaking into your house so you throw a cookie at me and tried to defend yourselves with a pillow? Wait a minute, where's your dog?"

Emily groaned and pointed down at Lauren's feet, where Storm was sniffing the older girl's ankles. Satisfied the stranger was actually a friend Storm rolled over and exposed her stomach.

"At least I didn't know she was there," Lauren muttered.

"What are you doing here?" Mike asked. He tossed the pillow back to the couch and glared intensely at Lauren, "I almost had a baby!"

"Emily told me you moved," Lauren said. "I thought I could spend the night here. Crash on the couch. I would have been gone before either of you had to wake up."

"You didn't think to knock?"

"I… uh… I didn't want to wake you up," Lauren looked down her feet and dragged them over to the kitchen chair. She had a seat and dropped her head in her hands. It didn't take a genius to know there was something wrong so Mike and Emily sat with her.

"What's going on? Where's Riley?"

"At home, with about a dozen stitches in her leg," Lauren muttered sadly and sighed loudly. "I screwed up."

"Stitches?" Emily asked and turned to Mike worriedly. He shrugged his shoulders. As far as he was concerned, they hadn't gotten a phone call about Riley. If the stitches were a really big problem, the late hour wouldn't have stopped anyone from calling.

"She was with me," Lauren explained the story of what happened to Riley and watched Mike and Emily's expressions carefully, hoping she would be able to read them and they would be of some comfort to her. When she was done, she shook her head, "I can't even stop my goddaughter from hurting herself. What am I going to do with a class full of students her age? I'll be in charge of all of them."

"Yeah," Emily nodded, "but you're getting insurance, right?"

"Insurance won't keep a leg from getting cut off."

"But you're not using real swords," Emily looked to Mike who nodded in agreement, "That would just be stupid."

"Yeah… I guess, but…"

"You're opening a dojo, Lauren. You're going to have a few ouchies," Emily gave her cousin a reassuring hug, "Everyone coming in is going to expect that. Bumps, bruises, maybe there will be one or two broken bones…"

"Great…"

"But your students are going to come out stronger and smarter. And if you make rules and enforce them, you may only see a couple injuries every year. For instance, no weapons training until you've reached a certain level. No sparring until you've shown you can respect the equipment and other students. You're going to be fine."

"And what happened with Riley could have happened to anyone," Mike added with a smile. He gave Lauren a pat on the back, "Riley playing with a real sword was her stupid move. It sounds like you did everything right… except maybe make sure she was on the couch, but she's five. Those buggers are tricky. You should have seen the crap that happened to me when I was five."

"But what if it was more than just stitches?" Lauren asked. "What if the sword took off her leg or cut her somewhere else?"

"Be really, really thankful it didn't," Mike said with a little laugh, "Sometimes you get really lucky, and you've just got to learn from that. Now you know you have to keep both eyes on Riley all the time."

"Mia and Kevin learned that the hard way too," Emily chuckled and lifted up her leg. She showed Lauren the scar on her calf from where she had been shot, "Remember this day? Mia and Kevin had no idea Riley even left her bedroom. All parents mess up sometimes."

"Are you sure?"

"I hope so," Emily nodded her head and let out a little sigh, "I mean, I love being an aunt, and I guess I'm good at it, but I don't know the first thing about being a mom. My last kid was… well, actually a couple days older than me. I'm going to mess up."

"I'm definitely going to mess up," Mike said, "I'm practicing with diapers, but I just can't figure them out. We're going to have a few leaks before it's time to potty train."

"Which means I'll be changing most diapers," Emily muttered and then turned back to Lauren, "Look, you're already here so you can spend the night. You did leave Riley with someone, right?"

"Yeah."

"Tomorrow, you should go pick her up. I can spend the day with you guys at the dojo or you can come for a play date with Terran. Riley likes you the best, and I'm sure she'll want to stay close to you while she gets used to the stitches."

"What if she falls on a sword again?"

"She won't," Mike promised. "I can get the couch ready for you."

As he got up and walked to the living room, Emily gave Lauren another smile and a hug, "It's okay."

"What about Mia and Kevin? I've told them and… they aren't going to trust me with Riley again, are they?"

"I think they will," Emily nodded, "But a little puppy pout won't hurt. I can teach you… tomorrow, when the sun's actually up."