Emma had to stay up late that night as she sat in the hallway between hers and Gia's bedroom and waited for the yellow Ranger to come home. With all the drama of the day, she had almost forgotten the argument between her and Gia. Gia had only been trying to help, and had called Emma out on being a little too hard on her mother – which was true. Because of her fears of having to leave, Emma had been very rude and disrespectful to her mother. However, Emma didn't want to hear it at the time and had snapped. She wanted to apologize for that, but more specifically, for what she had said.

She heard the front door open at about one o'clock in the morning and could see down into the hallway that it was Gia coming home. She continued to sit quietly in the dark as Gia took off her boots and started to climb the stairs.

"You're breathing loudly," she said. Emma was startled, but not surprised.

"You knew I was here?"

"Why are you up?"

"Why are you home late?"

"I ran into Noah at the Brainfreeze. He invited me back to his place for dinner and we kind of got distracted."

"Doing what?"

"You know those power cards Gosei gave us? Noah made a game out of them."

"Of course he did," Emma smiled and rolled her eyes.

"It's a pretty fun game," Gia said. "I picked up on it quickly and we both lost track of time. Mom's going to kill me tomorrow, isn't she?"

"I told her you texted me," Emma shook her head.

"You covered for me?"

"Of course."

"I thought you were mad at me."

Emma sighed and got to her feet. She tried to look up at Gia but she was too ashamed. She hated what she had said when Gia had only been trying to help. Had she listened to Gia instead of firing back at her, she would have seen she had been wrong, possibly gone to talk to her mother, everything would have been fine, and she wouldn't have been grounded.

"I'm not mad. I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"What I said. You know…"

"It's fine, Emma. I know you didn't mean it. Besides, I shouldn't have bothered you about your mom. Whatever's between you two should…"

"You were right. I was being a little hard on her," Emma said. "She's been nothing but nice since she got here, and she's actually been trying to reach out to me. Even if it's not perfect, she's doing her best, and I should have appreciated that more instead of whining that my parents don't love me."

"You know they do," Gia said. "In their own twisted way. And it's not like parents are always perfect, or they always know what to do."

"Yeah. I guess they make mistakes sometimes too."

"Not seventeen years straight of mistakes. Noah and I talked and… neither of us really knows what it's like to have screwed up families because… we had great parents. I've been by your side through all this, but I've got no clue what you're really going through and it wasn't fair for me to push you like that. I'm sorry."

"Thanks, but I should be apologizing," Emma hugged Gia tightly. "Even if you shouldn't have been butting in, I never should have brought Cliff up like that."

"It's okay, you didn't mean it…"

"It's not okay. Mom and dad may have hurt me, but that doesn't mean I didn't grow up with loving parents. I had a normal childhood it was just… atypical," Emma laughed a little bit and then she was serious again, "Cliff hurt you in a different way, in a worse way, and I never should have compared what I was going through to that, and I never should have even brought him up. I'm really, really sorry."

"And you're really, really forgiven," Gia said. She gave Emma another hug and then smiled at her best friend. "Is everything good now?"

"Better, even," Emma nodded. "Mom and I did talk. We worked through some things and… She's going to try more, and I'm going to be more open to having her around."

"So, no more cold shoulder?"

"No."

"Good," Gia chuckled and nudged her best friend, "If you kept that up any longer, I would have lost my title as ice queen. You're really good at that, you know."

"Two years of watching you do it," Emma shrugged, "I picked up on a few things."

"Well, don't do it again."

"I won't," Emma smiled. "Goodnight, Gia."

"Goodnight, Emma."