The farm was very still at night after dinner. The work was done, and dinner was as well. Kendall was so full she could hardly move. Mrs Griffin didn't appear to believe in small portions, and Kendall didn't feel it would be exactly polite to leave more than half her plate untouched. Still, once dinner was done, Matt had invited her to walk with him into town. Although all she really wanted to do was sleep after such a large meal, she did appreciate the opportunity to work some of it off, and to get some time alone with Matt.

Kendall had been brought up in cities most of her days, but she had travelled quite a bit in her time, and sometimes she found herself places that were a little out of the way. Anton's island was isolated by design. She had been to digs in areas that had barely seen technology reaching into the 20th century. She had even once been in a region of Africa where the only technology was the communications and land survey equipment her team had taken with them. She had to admit that she was generally most comfortable in cities, but right now, heading into town with her arm in Matt's, there was a little part of her that saw an appeal in the quiet.

"Wow, the place looks great." Kendall said as they finally arrived in town. She had heard all about the fire. Millport was still a little backward, looking a lot more like something from a Western movie than a modern town. While that was part of its appeal, the fact the majority of the buildings were still made primarily of wood meant that when the fire took hold, it very quickly took most of the town. While he knew that Phillipe had pledged to foot the bill for the materials, the town's people had insisted on doing the work themselves. She was surprised to see that the town was completely rebuilt already. More than that, a lot of them had already started to hang up decorations for the festival the following day.

"Yeah, everyone pitched in. It was something to see." Matt told her. "When it's your own homes and businesses, people are really invested in it."

"I can see that." Kendall said with a smile as they arrived at the tavern. Matt showed her inside. The usual clientele were there, unwinding after a hard day's work. When he stepped in, there were a lot of spirited welcomes from the regulars and the staff. Matt took his hat off as he got to the bar, sitting with Kendall.

"That's quite a welcome." Kendall commented. Matt just shrugged.

"Everyone knows everyone around here." The barmaid, Jess answered, coming over to them. "Of course, being the local hero doesn't hurt matters at all."

"Jess was one of the ones I saved from the fire." Matt explained to Kendall as he indicated that he was looking for two beers. "So, how's Stevie?"

"He's getting along just fine. He's really looking forward to the festival." Jess told him. She gently patted her slightly expanding belly. "He's still not too happy to hear he's going to be sharing things with little Matthew in a few months, but I think he'll get there."

"Matthew?" Kendall asked, accepting the beer. Jess just smiled and nodded in response.

"What else would I call the little one? If it wasn't for Matt here, neither me nor Stevie would still be here." Jess responded. "So is this the girl you keep telling us about?"

"Kendall." She introduced herself. Jess shook her hand.

"You take care of this one, he's a real hero." Jess told her.

"Oh, you don't have to tell me twice." Kendall agreed, going with him to a table and sitting down. Matt took a long swig of his beer, looking to her. "Wow, you really are everyone's hero around here aren't you?"

"When people need help, I try and help out." He said with a shrug. Kendall couldn't help smiling as he said this. He had run into a burning building, he had undoubtedly saved two...no, three lives according to Jess. While she could remember giving him hell for risking his life, the one thing she couldn't deny was that his actions were heroic. He didn't stop to consider the danger; he had run in to save them regardless. No one could blame him for milking it a little either, but that didn't occur to Matt at all. To him, someone needed help and he went to help. Her hand strayed to her pocket, where the Purple Energem was sitting. "So, what is it?"

"I'm sorry?" She asked him, looking a little startled. Matt just laughed at the reaction.

"Well, as much as I love seeing you, I don't remember you being terribly enthusiastic about the Harvest Festival." He responded. "So why are you really here?"

"Do I need a reason to come and see my boyfriend?" She asked him. Matt just looked to her in that way he had that let her know he could see through her. She both liked and disliked it in equal measure.

"Well, as flattered as I am, I remember how much you like the slow pace of the farm life." He replied. "You said you had something you wanted to talk about?"

Kendall took a long slug from her beer, before reaching into her pocket and pulling out the Energem. She was in two minds about this plan. She would love the chance to get Matt to come to Amber Beach where they could be together more often, and a part of her wondered if maybe that wasn't clouding her judgement. However, the more she thought about it, the more sense it made. Matt was strong, Riley had told her many times about all the accidents and injuries he'd walked away from that by all rights should have needed hospital treatment. Like Tyler, he was unfailingly brave, risking himself without a second thought to help others for no other reason than it was the right thing to do. He was genuine in his courage, not seeking any form of praise or acknowledgement. In many ways, as soon as Riley had said that they were looking for a hero, she couldn't think of anyone that satisfied all the criteria more than Matt.

"There is something I want to talk to you about." Kendall told him. "Something I wanted to give you actually."

"Now I'm really curious." Matt said, raising an eyebrow. He could see Kendall was hesitating a little, and that was something he had never known her to do. She was never backwards about coming forward when she had something she wanted to say. He took her hand. "Kendall, whatever it is, you can tell me."

"The thing is..."

"MATT!" A little voice screeched, interrupting them. They both looked around as Jess came over, carrying her son with her. Matt's face lit up as he saw him.

"Stevie!" He greeted the little boy, taking him from his mother. "What are you still doing up?"

"He heard you were here and refused to go to bed until he saw you." Jess answered. Kendall just slipped the Energem back into her pocket as he spent some time talking with the little boy. "Sorry, was I interrupting anything?"

"It's nothing that can't wait." Kendall assured her. "Um...isn't it against the law for kids under 21 to be in the bar?"

"Well, you see that table over there?" Jess asked. Kendall saw a man and a woman having a quiet drink in the corner. "Since the guy is the local sheriff and the woman he's with is the local magistrate, I think we're good."

"I guess that's alright then." Kendall replied, settling back in her chair with her beer. Matt just looked to her.

"So, what is it you wanted to talk about?" He asked her. Kendall just smiled.

"Like I said, it's nothing that can't wait." She assured him.

Over in Amber Beach, Koda was sitting in Alessandra's motel room as she came back, having gone to fill her ice bucket. Koda didn't really know what to say to her, how to explain things to her. Words really were not his strong suit. He had improved greatly in his language skills, but he knew that wasn't the only issue. Kendall was good with these kinds of things. Even when he didn't really understand a lot of the big, long, complicated words that sometimes he couldn't even believe were words, she would always find a way to put things that he could understand. She would be able to find ways to make even strange and complicated things like his weapons and money and television seem simple. He wasn't sure he could do the same with Alessandra. She poured both of them some wine from a large box.

"I think we both need." Alessandra said as she sat with him, putting the glass in his hand. Koda wasn't much of a drinker. His tribe would make what he understood to be a rudimentary form of beer back in his time, but it was nothing like the wide variety of drinks available in the modern era. He took a drink, feeling like it might help him with his nerves telling her all she needed to know.

"I need tell you truth." He told her. "You know I Blue Ranger." Alessandra just nodded in response. Koda pulled the Blue Energem out of his shirt, letting her see it. Alessandra took it from him, looking at it as he tried to think what to say next.

"This my Energem. It give me power." Koda explained to her. "Keeper bring Energems to Earth long ago. They bond to dinosaurs..."

"Dinosaurs?" Alessandra asked him. She didn't claim to be much of a student, but she had graduated High School. She knew enough to know that dinosaurs died out long before the first humans showed up on Earth. Koda nodded in response.

"They carry spirits of dinosaurs with great strength. They bond to us and give us much strength. My Energem have spirit of stegosaurus. My Energem bond to me long time ago." Koda told her. He looked to the mask lying on Alessandra's dresser. He picked it up, holding it in his hands. "You wear this to honour your ancestors, yes?"

"Aztecs wear masks in battle." Alessandra answered with a sigh. She hadn't told him about the incident at the last show yet. She had worn her mask since the first time she had stepped into the ring. "It part of my heritage."

"I paint to honour my past." Koda told her. "But not my ancestors...my family."

"I not understand." Alessandra replied as Koda took her hand in his.

"Since I bond to Energem, I not get older." Koda told her. "I bond to Energem long time ago. Before your Aztecs. I...caveman."

Alessandra didn't know how to take this news. She just stared at him, not knowing if this was some kind of joke. Koda never lied to her, that was one of the things that she loved about him. If he was telling the truth though...she just didn't really know how to process it. He didn't speak very well, his speech was still quite stilted and broken, but she always presumed it was because like her he was foreign. He looked Asian; oriental...she just assumed that like her English was his second language and he was still learning.

"You...you caveman?" She asked for confirmation. Koda just nodded in response.

"Kendall find me in glacier, frozen." He explained. "She say I there...100 thousand years?"

Koda didn't begin to know how Alessandra would understand that. He didn't either. He understood mathematics, but he couldn't begin to comprehend what a hundred thousand years meant in any real context. He had only been out of the ice for just short of two years. Shelby seemed to have a new phone with new fancy features every few months...Kendall had even told him that most of the technology in her lab was based on concepts in technology like computers that had barely even existed for a century. If he couldn't understand what a hundred thousand years meant, how could anyone else?

Alessandra just looked to Koda, and a million questions were swirling around in her mind. She just couldn't quite get her mind around what Koda had told her. He was a Ranger, he was given his power by a mysterious gem that had been brought to Earth...what did that even mean? Who was this "Keeper" that he spoke of? Most of all, she struggled with a thought of the last thing he had told her. He was a caveman.

Like everyone, she had heard the term, and she had grown up with a certain mental image of them. She heard people refer to men as "Cavemen" or "Neanderthals" whenever they displayed attitudes or behaviour that was considered backwards or unenlightened. She had used the word herself when men tried to make lewd suggestions to her that they would advance her career if she did them certain favours, or when they belittled her for the fact she was a woman, or insulted her because of her heritage.

Whenever she had thought of cavemen, she thought of beasts that looked a little like men that reacted with fear and anger to fire, that would willingly smash each other's skulls in for a meal or drag a woman to their cave to mate. That was what she thought of when she had heard the word caveman.

As she looked to Koda though, she couldn't see any of that. All she could see was the affectionate, gentle, kind man that she had fallen hard for. She could only think of Koda showing anger a few times, and in all those times, she couldn't think of him as the savage that came to mind with the term caveman. He was the one who helped her when she was hurt. He was the one that always made her feel better when he was around. She knew something of prejudice; she had faced it herself in her life. She couldn't see a savage in Koda, all she could see was the man she loved.

"I no mean lie to you. I not like lie to you." Koda told her apologetically, taking both of her hands in his. "I promise, anything you want ask, anything you want know, I not lie anymore."

She looked up to him, looking straight into his eyes, and could see the sincerity in them. Despite what he had said, what it felt like to him, Koda had never lied to her. He hadn't told her, but he hadn't lied to her. It was one of the things she loved about him. She took the glass from him and put it on the bedside table, kissing him softly as she pressed him down gently to the bed.

"I love." She told him. Koda just looked up to her as she hung over him.

"I love too." Koda answered as she lowered herself down, kissing him as she reached to the lamp and turned it off.

Back in Milport, Kendall and Matt arrived back at the farmhouse after a couple of drinks. Kendall had hoped to approach the Purple Energem issue with him, but she hadn't reckoned on his fan club. He really was the town hero. Once he managed to convince Stevie to go to bed, the Fishers came over to meet Matt's girlfriend. Kendall had learned that Matt had spent much of his youth getting into scuffles with the Fisher boys, but that some time back, he had stood up for them against Phillipe when he first arrived in Milport. After that, for the rest of the night, more well-wishers came past. Hell, even the Mayor stopped by to talk to Matt and ask if he wanted to help judge the Harvest Princess contest. He politely declined but by the time all was said and done, there really wasn't a good opportunity to talk to him about Ranger business where they wouldn't be overheard.

Kendall hung up her jacket as she got in, kicking off her shoes as they arrived. The lights were out, indicating that Mrs Griffin had already turned in for the night.

"Well, it looks like we've got the place to ourselves." Kendall commented as they made their way inside. "Matt, there is..."

"Wait, hold that thought." Matt told her as he started sniffing the air. "Oh man, you've got to be kidding..."

He ran into the kitchen, at which Kendall followed him. He was like a kid at Christmas as he found an apple pie sitting on the table waiting for them. It had a note with it.

"Your mom baked us her apple pie?" She asked, remembering the last time she'd had it. Mrs Griffin really was a wonderful cook, and she had a special fondness for her apple pie. Mrs Griffin had made that the night before she let Kendall know that she knew about her and Matt and gave her blessing to them.

"Aw mom, you are a legend!" Matt stated as he picked up the note. "The pie should have cooled by the time you get home. Have a good time."

"Matt, there's something..."

"You heard her." Matt interrupted her as he took the pie and came over towards Kendall.

"Matt, we really..." He silenced her with a soft kiss as he put his arm around her.

"I thought it was nothing that couldn't wait." He teased her. He raised his eyebrows, at which Kendall just smiled.

"The hell with it." He responded, putting her arms around him as they headed for his room. "It can wait until tomorrow."