Legal: I do not own Power Rangers or the associated names, characters, places, events etc. Anything not covered by the above rights should be presumed to be purely the creation of the author.

Rating: T – may be some mild adult themes.

Timeline: Following the events of "There go the Brides".

Mia stood expectantly at the altar, not really listening too much to what the minister had to say. She was too busy enjoying the sensation of finally having what she had dreamed of since she was a little girl, the perfect wedding day.

She could feel every eye looking at her in awe in her beautiful white gown. She smiled as she remembered the first time she had done this, as a ruse to lure the Nighlocks to kidnap her and discover where Dayu was taking brides as part of her scheme. Mike had teased Kevin endlessly about crying when he watched the ceremony, and he had also told her that Mentor Ji was also crying. She could understand the latter, since he had been such a huge part of Jayden's life. He was practically a father to him; it was natural that it would affect him to imagine Jayden taking the biggest step of his life.

She felt a hand in hers and smiled as she turned to face her groom. She couldn't remember when things had changed, but ever since their first "wedding", she saw him in a whole new light. She had always noticed that he was attractive, but since then, since seeing him in his tuxedo pledging to love, honour and protect her for as long as he lived, she could think of little else. He had been very staid and stiff on that day, barely able to look at her, never mind smile as he took his "vows". Now though was entirely different. This time he was doing it for real. Things had moved quickly between them, far more quickly than she would have imagined.

She held her hand up as he was handed the ring by Mentor Ji. He started to slide it on, his resolution tested by the excitement in his heart. His voice wavered a little as he spoke.

"I give you this ring as a token of my everlasting love." He began, looking deeply into her eyes. "With this ring, I promise to honour you with my heart, my body and soul and share with you everything I have for as long as I live."

Mia turned a little, seeing Emily holding Jayden's ring out for her. She took it and turned back to her fiancé.

"I give you this ring as a token of my everlasting love." She responded, looking deeply into his eyes, and smiling contentedly as she felt her tears beginning. "With this ring, I promise to honour you with my heart, my body and soul and share with you everything I have for as long as I live."

"By the giving and receiving of rings, you have pledged yourselves to each other. I now pronounce you man and wife." The minster told them. "You may kiss the bride."

Jayden reached forward, pulling Mia's veil out of her face gently. As he reached up, wiping away a tear, he drew her in. Mia had waited for this moment ever since she had been given her first doll in a wedding dress as a little girl, and she couldn't believe her luck that she had found that love with one of her best friends. She closed her eyes...

Just then, she felt a hand on her shoulder, shaking her awake. She grunted and tried to swat it away.

"Mia, get up!" Emily yelled, shaking her a little more aggressively. "Come on, Mentor Ji's letting us go to the beach! Get up!"

Mia groaned as she pulled the covers off her and sat up, rubbing her eyes. It was far too early for Emily's enthusiasm anyway, but she was also disappointed that she had wakened her just as it was getting to the good part.

Her feelings towards Jayden had changed recently. She had started to notice him a lot more since the fake weddings. She was starting to see why Emily and Mike had done such an elaborate dance around each other in the beginning. In the house there was little privacy, and even fewer secrets. She was already worried about the fact she couldn't be sure if she said anything in her sleep since Emily shared a room with her. A pair of jeans landed on her lap, following which a t-shirt hit her in the face, draping over her.

"Come on Mia, we want to get there before the beach fills up." She giggled as she started to look out her own supplies. "Come ON!"

"Fine, just...get me some OJ or something." She muttered. Emily skipped off excitedly to comply with her room-mate's request. Mia couldn't really blame her for her excitement. She and Mike were still broke after replacing Mentor Ji's television, so this was one of the few times everyone could go out and they'd be able to go too.

As she slowly got dressed, she looked at herself in the mirror, and she just sighed. She never did get to finish that dream, no matter how many times she'd had it over the last couple of days. Mike and Emily had gone through something similar, but in Mia's case there was a complication that made the situation different. She had no idea if Jayden felt the same way.

He was so hard to read, and incredibly guarded. The mystery about him was one of the things that both unsettled her, and also intrigued her. Whenever the Rangers talked about themselves, talked about their families and their past, he was always there listening. However, whenever anyone asked him a question, he would always answer in only one or two words, with absolutely no elaboration, and either deflect the conversation or outright change the subject. They all knew that he had been with Mentor Ji for years, and that they had a kind of father/son relationship of sorts, but beyond that, none of them knew anything about him. Where he came from, his family, if he had any friends...all they knew about him was that he was Mentor Ji's student, and one of the most dogged and determined people any of them had ever met.

She had found her thoughts straying to what he looked like in his tux a couple of times, and had found her heart turning over a little. When Mike teased her about loving the chance to get into the dress again, and Emily stood up for her, she simply responded that she was a sucker for Cinderella. As she looked over to Jayden, he just raised an eyebrow and gave her a little smirk. She didn't know what to make of his reaction, but it was enough to start her obsessing about him all the time.

As she arrived in the main room, she found everyone getting ready. As usual, there were an assortment of cereals and a few rounds of toast on the table, along with fruit juices. Emily was talking with Mike, but as she saw Emily, suddenly remembered that she had asked her for some OJ, and quickly poured it, making her way over. Mia saw Jayden eating his muesli silently. He greeted her with only a smile and a nod of the head, but it was enough to make her smile to see him. Kevin jumped away from her as he almost walked into her, carrying a large bag.

"Whoa, sorry there Mia." He stated apologetically, putting the bag down and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"I'm just fine." She assured him. He went to the table and picked up the plate of toast, snatching it away just as Mike was going for another slice much to his annoyance, and offered it to her. He had a huge grin on his face as he offered her a piece of toast. "Here."

"I'll be fine." She told him, gesturing to the fruit juice and nodding as she turned her gaze back to Jayden, kneeling by the table.

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day." He protested. "Besides, you don't want to eat too soon before you go swimming, it's dangerous."

"He's right." Jayden chipped in, gulping down his mouthful of muesli. "You wouldn't want to risk getting cramp."

She appreciated Jayden looking out for her. It was kind of sweet. Besides, she guessed she didn't really know when they would break out the picnic she could see packed in the corner. She took a couple of slices and nodded in Jayden's direction.

"Thanks." She said quickly to Kevin as she glanced back to Jayden, taking a plate, a knife and some butter and beginning to spread. "So what's in the bag?"

"I packed all kinds of great stuff for us." Kevin told her enthusiastically, kneeling next to her. "We've got a Frisbee, towels, blankets, buckets, spades, boogeyboards...all sorts of stuff. It's going to be great!"

"I'm looking forward to it." Emily agreed. "It's been ages since we got out of the academy."

"Maybe I could finally teach you how to shred." Mike suggested, putting an arm around her. She just looked at him a little sceptically.

"Are you trying to end up with me in traction?" She asked him. "It's a beautiful day; I don't want to spend it in a hospital."

"I'll just go and load up the car." Jayden told them as he finished up his breakfast, rising to his feet. "The sooner I do, the sooner we can get out there."

"I'll help!" Mia mumbled out as she shoved a piece of toast in her mouth and picked up one of the many bags they had packed up for the day.

"I will..."

"We'll be fine." Mia told him as Jayden picked up another bag and made his way out. The Kevin's smile slipped from his face as he watched them take the first of the bags out. He was no fool, and could see the way Mia had been looking at Jayden the last couple of days. She had done pretty much everything she could to spend time with him, including asking him to take her through a sword kata that he had offered to help her with many times. He had mastered it when he was only 12, but she had always insisted she didn't need the help before.

He could remember seeing the look on her face as Jayden put his hands on her, subtly changing and correcting her positions and stances as he took her through it. He could only admit feeling a slightly sick, cramping sensation in his stomach, and a tight, unpleasant knot in his chest as he watched them.

He was so distracted seeing them, that Mike bested him in their sparring session. Mike of all people! He liked Mike, and he knew he was trying his best, indeed he was making impressive progress, yet he was still the weakest of them in his technique. He had made his excuses and went off to meditate, leaving Mike and Emily to train together, but even then he couldn't concentrate. Watching her with Jayden, he couldn't clear his mind. He knew exactly what the problem was, and yet it seemed there was nothing he could do about it. He wished it was him she looked at that way.

Ever since he had met her, he found her beautiful. She was the first member of the team to greet him when they arrived. She did everything she could to make them all feel welcome, including finding out what their favourite meal was and cooking it for them that night. Well, she attempted to cook their favourite meals anyway. As he looked at her face, seeing the proud smile on her face as she presented the dishes to them, he was the first to realise that it wasn't a joke, and that she genuinely believed that she had done a good job. In gratitude, he had forced down every dry, overcooked mouthful.

Since that day, he had only watched her continue to demonstrate all the things he loved about her. She was always willing to spend time with Emily when she got homesick; fulfilling a void in her life he suspected she felt with her sister so far away. She was always willing to offer words of encouragement to Mike when it became apparent exactly how much he had let his training slide and they had to work with him to get him up to speed with his sword work. She had even been willing to spend time with him that night they had to follow Ryan to see what the Nighlock wanted with him.

While the others knew of his ambitions to swim in the Olympics, only she had spent a whole night talking with him, allowing him to just talk about his disappointment at missing so much of his training, leaving his dream behind. Even though he had all but accepted the fact that his duties as a Ranger would make his dream just that, an unreachable goal, he appreciated her telling him that he could go back to it, just as they could all go back to their lives once it was over. For him, it was slightly different; he knew how narrow the window of opportunity was to compete. If he was even out of training for a year, it was possible he'd never get back to top-level competition performance, being too old to compete by the time the qualifiers came around. However, as she held him, he couldn't bring himself to dispute her faith in him. When he woke up with her leaning her head on his shoulder, he couldn't help smiling. From that moment on, he was doomed to feel this way about her.

Unfortunately other factors got in the way. Like Mike and Emily, he knew that privacy was an almost non-existent commodity. He just couldn't find the time alone with her to ask her out, and even when he did, his mouth just wouldn't come out with the words. He had never been particularly good with that kind of thing. Between his training as a Samurai, his swimming and his schoolwork, he had never made time for anything else really. He had, instead, only managed to do what he could to get her to notice him and make her smile.

He was the one who generally convinced the others to force down her attempts to cook, and had even occasionally been the one to fix them snacks once he was sure Mia was safely asleep when it had been particularly bad and almost inedible. He was the one who did everything to keep her in the dark about how bad it was. When he had heard her idea about how to track down the brides Dayu had kidnapped, he had volunteered to play the part of her groom. Even if it was fake, he just wanted to be near her, to protect her as much as he could. Unfortunately Jayden and Mentor Ji had overruled him on the point, reasoning that as team leader, it was Jayden's responsibility. Kevin had reluctantly agreed, unable to defy his mentor and his leader, no matter how much he wanted to.

As Jayden and Mia came back for the last of the bags, laughing a little as they both reached for the same bag, before Jayden took it, he felt the jealousy build in him once more. He didn't want to feel this way, but he couldn't help it. Despite his sense of duty, he had another thought, another feeling that he hated. He resented Jayden, and not just because Mia was into him. His anger has caused him to think about a lot of recent events in a different way.

Jayden had ordered him to tell Mia how terrible her cooking was. He insisted specifically that it was HIM that did it. While he could see Jayden's reasoning behind not simply using the Swordfish Zord's cleansing abilities to keep her in the dark a little longer, Jayden could have easily asked Mike to do it, or even Emily. He could have gotten Mentor Ji to handle it. Hell, he could have stepped up to the plate as team leader and done it himself, but he didn't. He got Kevin to tell her, and while it had ended well and she insisted she was fine, he could still tell that it had hurt her. Jayden knew that Kevin would never be able to defy any of his orders; his sense of duty would force him to obey.

He had used his sense of duty again to put himself before the altar at Mia's side instead of Kevin. He knew that he was just as good as Jayden with a sword, he could easily have done it, but still Jayden chose to do it himself. Now, it was him that Mia was staring at, and the anger simmered just beneath the surface to think that perhaps none of this had been coincidence. Perhaps it was what Jayden had in mind all along.

"Come on Kevin." Mike told him, snapping him out of his thoughts as he and Emily finished their breakfast. "The beach is waiting!"

Emily hopped up on Mike's back, accepting a piggy back out to the car as Kevin just finished his bowl and left it on the table, before following them out. There, he found Jayden and Mia just finishing loading up. Jayden shut the trunk and pulled out the keys.

"Next stop, Lementor beach!" He announced cheerfully.

"I call shotgun!" Mia rushed out immediately, hopping into the passenger seat. Kevin couldn't help noticing the little smile crossing Jayden's face as he got in the drivers' seat and shook his head, clenching his fists tightly as he saw it. He was duty bound to follow Jayden's orders unquestioningly, and he would continue to do so, but that didn't mean he had to like it. As he got to the car and climbed into the back seat, where Mike and Emily were already sitting holding hands, eagerly looking forward to the day, he just leaned on the door, staring out of the window as Jayden pulled away. Being a fifth wheel sucked.