Everyone was standing around in the Living Room in almost complete silence. Since Aaron and Mia had seen each other, it was like someone had hit the pause button on life as everyone stood, unable to think of anything to say or do.

As Aaron looked around the room, looking decidedly uncomfortable, Mike finally broke the silence.

"Aaron?" Mike asked, gesturing between Mia and the busker. "Aaron as in...?" Serena jabbed him in the ribs sharply to silence him as the others all started to close ranks. Aaron gulped as he saw the group closing ranks, the girls and Mike moving closer to Serena, while the other guys seemed to over between them. Mia just nodded to confirm Mike's assertions.

"Wow, um..."

"That's how you greet her?" Kevin asked sharply. "That's how you say hi after what you did?"

"Kevin." Mentor Ji whispered in a sharp tone, placing his cane across him to try and rein him in. He could understand Kevin's position, but by the looks of everyone in the room, none of them were particularly happy to see him either. He couldn't really blame them, finding out who this stranger was after doing so much to help him almost made him feel like his efforts had been rewarded with a spit in the face. He looked to Aaron, who was looking more uncomfortable by the second as he realised that whoever they were, all of them knew about his past with Mia.

"Mia..."

"I think you should go." She told him flatly. She didn't really know how to feel. Part of her was angry, and just wanted to scream at Aaron, to hurt him every bit as much as he had hurt her. Another part wanted to sit down with him and demand an explanation. To know why he had done what he did and to demand that he give her the answers to the questions she had tortured herself with for months after he had turned her away. Finally, there was a part of her that just had no idea what to do when confronted by the man that she had once trusted with her heart.

"Mia, please..."

"You heard her." Mentor Ji interjected. Aaron looked to the man who had helped him so much since he had come into the house, and could see by the expression on his face that even he was turning on him. "You need to leave."

"Look, please..."

Kevin picked up his coat and guitar and shoved them into Aaron's arms, before grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and the seat of his trousers, and beginning to rush him towards the front door.

"Kevin!" Mia called out as the others started to rush towards him, fearing the worst as he started to take him towards the training yard.

"Whoa dude, hold up on this!" Mike called out. Kevin ignored all of them though as he burst through the front door, and continued to drag Aaron across the yard. He finally kicked the front gate open, before launching Aaron and his belongings onto the pavement outside. Aaron just looked up at him from the ground.

"The shelter is that way!" Kevin snapped at him.

"But..."

"If you start walking now you'll be there in a couple of hours!" Kevin continued to yell, ignoring not only Aaron, but also his own heart. All of his instincts just wanted to tear him apart. He had spoken to Mia a lot over the time since he had found out about the baby, and he had been there for her through all of it as she reluctantly went through it all again with him. He had seen how difficult it had been for her, even now two years on. Seeing the man that had caused her so much heartache, he had to try his hardest not to just lose it. "Go!"

With that, he slammed the gate and stormed back into the yard, where the other Rangers were watching.

As he stormed back inside, Mike looked to Emily, communicating wordlessly that he was going to check on him. It was clear that Kevin needed to blow off some steam; all things considered he had been very restrained with Aaron.

"Come on." Serena said to Mia, putting an arm around her. "Let's get inside."

As the girls went inside, Antonio just gestured to Jayden that he was heading to the barbecue. He came to Mentor Ji's side and looked to his father figure.

"I didn't know." Mentor whispered.

"You should never feel bad about wanting to help people Ji." Jayden assured him.

"If I'd known what he had done..."

"You probably would have done the same thing." Jayden interrupted him. "Weren't you the one that always told me that you should always help those that need help, even if you believe they don't deserve it?"

"I may have said something like that." Mentor Ji sighed, knowing that Jayden was right. It was part of the Samurai code that they were meant to help people, regardless of how they actually felt about them. They were only permitted to hurt those that harmed the innocent. Regardless of how he felt about Aaron as a person, the fact was that he knew he was on the streets, and could do with someone to offer a helping hand. "I just feel like all I did was hurt Mia."

"You weren't responsible for that, he was." Jayden assured him. "You helped him. He has a place in the shelter. What he does with the help you gave him is up to him."

"Have I ever told you I hate it when you're right when you quote me?" Mentor Ji asked him with a smile. Jayden just shrugged, but he winced as he aggravated his shoulder injury.

"Jayden..."

"I'm fine Ji, but this will take some getting used to." Jayden told him. "Come on. Antonio's offered to cook."

In the girls' room, Serena and Emily were just sitting with Mia, waiting for her to say something. It was a long time before she finally breathed a sigh in exasperation and threw her hands up.

"Guys, stop staring." She told them. "I'm fine."

"Yeah, you're fine." Serena said sarcastically. "And I'm in line for the next Poet Lauriat."

"Mia, we know this has to be hard." Emily told her. "I mean, what he did to you, I can't imagine how that felt."

"Trust me, you don't want to." Mia assured her. "I guess I have been thinking about this a lot recently."

"It'd be kind of hard not to." Emily said, shuddering a little to think about it. "I mean, it wasn't that long ago you were pregnant again."

"There was something else." She admitted, taking a deep breath. "You remember that Nighlock put me in the Dream World?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Serena asked.

"Well, the dream that I had was..." She struggled to bring herself to talk about it. "I was with my son."

Serena and Emily just looked at each other hearing this. It was a cruel thing to do to show her what she had lost.

"I guess that makes sense." Emily replied. "I mean, in the dream world you see what you wanted. You lost your baby..."

"It was more than that." Mia told them, looking to her two friends, feeling close enough at last to finally be able to tell them. "I didn't miscarry. He died three days after he was born."

"Oh my God." Serena gasped as Emily just looked on sympathetically. A few tears started to form in Mia's eyes as she thought about him. Serena and Emily both pulled her in hugging her tightly. They knew that all this had brought back a lot of painful memories, but they had no idea that it was this serious.

Meanwhile, in the dojo, Mike found himself slammed to the floor yet again. He had seen that Kevin needed to calm down, and had opted to help him work out some aggression with some sparring.

Unusually though, Kevin was actually beating Mike in unarmed combat. His aggression actually made him a lot sharper and stronger than he usually was. Mike got back to his feet, looking to Kevin as they re-took their marks.

"OK, now I'm starting to wish you had kicked his ass." Mike commented as he limped to his line. "Dude, you seriously need to calm down."

"Mike, he was here!" Kevin told him. "He was standing there in our living room! He had been eating our food!"

"Kevin, I'm not happy about it either." Mike told him. "After what he did, don't you think I wanted to tear him a new one? If someone had hurt Emily the way he hurt Mia you'd probably be helping me dig a hole in the back yard right now."

"I know, it's just...I hate feeling this way!" Kevin told him. "I really wish none of this had to happen, but now that it has, in a way, I'm kind of glad it did you know?"

"Glad?" Mike asked him. Kevin just nodded.

"I know Mia and I are good together, but I've always felt like she held back." Kevin told him. "I understand why knowing what I do, but since this...I feel like we've gotten a lot closer. I really feel like we totally get each other."

Mike just smiled when he heard Kevin say that.

"You know, I still don't know how you managed to stay so restrained." Mike assured him. "I mean, you did dump his ass on the pavement, but I doubt any of us would have blamed you if you took it further."

"Believe me; your idea of digging a hole in the garden had crossed my mind." Kevin assured him. "I don't know, but when I got my hands on him, all I could think about was the fact Mia was there, and suddenly what I wanted didn't seem so important. I just wanted to do what was right for her."

"I don't know if there's any way I can say this without sounding patronising, but I'm proud of you man." Mike assured him. "It says a lot about how much Mia means to you."

"Besides, I got to kick your ass for a while." Kevin told him. Just then, there was a knock on the door and Antonio came in.

"Guys, dinner's going to be ready in a few." He told them. He gestured to the door. "Mentor asked me to tell you so you could both get cleaned up."

"Sure, we'll do that." Mike told him. As Kevin and Mike started to head for the door, Mia came in. Kevin stopped by her, looking to her thoughtfully.

"Are you alright?" He asked her. She just nodded as she looked to him.

"I will be." She assured him.

"Sorry about that business with Aaron." Kevin told her. "I know I shouldn't..."

"It's alright Kevin, I understand." She told him. "Antonio, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Uh...sure thing." Antonio replied. Kevin kissed her and went with Mike out of the room. Mia just looked to the Gold Ranger as he waited to see what she wanted.

"Do you have the Black Box?" She asked him. He just nodded.

"Mia..."

"I think I'm ready." She told him. He pulled out the Black Box and his morpher, and knelt on the mat, getting ready as Mia took a few deep breaths to prepare herself. She knelt down slowly.

"Mia, I know I keep telling you to be open." Antonio stated. "After today, I don't know if it's such a good idea. If you want to wait..."

"I didn't tell you the whole story about the baby." She interrupted him.

"Wait, baby?" Antonio asked her. He had noticed something subtle about what she had said. She didn't refer to it as a pregnancy. "You mean...?"

"I had a son." She confirmed as she held onto her Turtle Disk, looking down to it. "He was a little over two months premature."

Antonio could see her Power Disk starting to glow, and realised that it was unlocking itself as she relayed what had happened. He tapped a few keys on his own morpher to start up the process.

"Evan was really small, and there was something wrong with his lungs." She continued. "They did everything they could but he just wasn't strong enough."

Antonio listened to her as the beam connecting his morpher to the Power Disk finally did its work. The Turtle no longer resisted his attempts to coax it, giving itself willingly to the process. As it transferred itself to the morpher, Antonio aimed it at the Black Box and started the transfer. The room was bathed in light, and they both watched on as the Turtle flew from his morpher to the Black Box. As the light dissipated and the process completed, Antonio looked to Mia, seeing the way she was looking at him.

"Mia, I'm sorry." He whispered, his heart breaking for her. He simply couldn't imagine what it had been like for her to face that. It made him despise what Aaron had done all the more, knowing that she had faced that alone.

She just drew in, hugging the Gold Ranger. He wrapped his arms around her, comforting her, but ultimately grateful that she had opened up to him. Not only did it mean he now finally had all the disks programmed into the Black Box, it also meant that she had finally allowed her friends to share her burden.

Later that night at the homeless shelter, Aaron was sitting on the edge of one of the beds, his head in his hands. It had been a long time since he had seen or spoken to Mia, and a lot had changed for him in that time. He had never imagined that he would ever see her again.

He had been barely more than a kid himself; they were both only kids when they had gone to the Prom together, the night that had changed both of their lives.

He had always been into music, and his band was starting to make headway, getting bookings in numerous venues. They were planning to go on tour after graduation, having secured bookings in other towns, but a couple of weeks before he was due to go, Mia had dropped the bombshell that she was expecting his child. It was not his proudest moment, what happened next. Instead of facing up to his responsibilities, he had turned on her, aiming to leave to chase his dream of stardom and never look back. His dream hadn't worked out though, the reason he was back in town, busking for the change that strangers were willing to spare to feed himself instead of headlining the world's great arenas.

It was then that he looked to his guitar and picked it up, starting to tune it, before looking through his case for some sheet music. One of the shelter attendants came over, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry sir, but lights out is in a few minutes." He told him. "I'm going to have to ask you to put that away."

Aaron just sighed and nodded, putting the guitar and the sheet music back in its case, sliding it under the bed. He lay down, pulling his sheet over himself as he turned over onto his side, trying to sleep, but as the lights turned out; he just stared at the wall, unable to sleep. All he could think about was Mia, and the terrible wrong he had done to her.

Fin.