Hey guys! I wanted to let you know that I may be obscuring from my regular updating order for a while, mostly because I am on a certain time crunch to get my fifth anniversary chapter(s) out, as well as have a few other surprises for you guys on August 4th. This means that I'm basically going to try to finish Guardians of the Galaxy (32 chapters left), Rainbow Fighters (17 chapters left), and the first season of this story (19 chapters left) by then.
Please bare with me on this - it'll be kind of crazy with the updates for a while! Anyways, I hope you enjoy the ride!
Russ sat in his and Topher's dorm, studying for an upcoming test while a heavy storm raged outside. It was raining so hard, in fact, that Russ almost thought it was hailing with the loud thuds of the raining against his window. He looked up from his book for a moment and looked behind him at the window, watching the rain from outside and looking up at the clouds, before sighing and turning back to his astronomy textbook.
Just as he did, the door opened and Topher walked in, immediately walking over to his side and searching through his things, almost frantically. Russ ignored him for a few moments, but he could tell Topher was getting increasingly agitated and looked back up from his book.
"Are you alright?" Russ asked, bookmarking his page and closing his book.
Topher looked at him, an almost wild look in his eyes. "I need to find my umbrella - I'm gonna give it to Dylan."
Russ raised an eyebrow, "Did she ask for it?" When Topher shook his head, Russ continued, "What is with you?" He asked, exasperated. "Do you really like this girl so much that you're gonna act like the world is gonna end if you don't give her your umbrella? Especially considering she didn't even ask you for it."
"She might hate me if I don't," Topher muttered absentmindedly. "Why is it any of your business, anyways?"
"I.. I'm really confused." Russ frowned. "What makes you think she'd hate you? You seem really freaked."
"Like I said, it's none of your business, and I'm not a coward, unlike you," Topher growled out, offhandedly.
Russ' fist clenched for a moment in annoyance. He knew Topher didn't truly mean what he was saying, as the black ranger had just made a comment to get him to back off, but it angered him either way. "I'm not a coward."
"Could've fooled me," Topher said, standing up and walking over to his closet, before proceeding to practically tear it up as well. "You're not trying for anyone in particular. Afraid of what they may think?"
The blue ranger rolled his eyes. "I don't have to be completely obsessed to like someone, and besides, there's no one I want to try for at the moment. I would never not try for anyone just because of what they might think, for the record."
Topher nodded, not too interested in what Russ was saying. "Yeah, that's cool."
"Are you even listening to me?" Russ crossed his arms as Topher finally pulled out his umbrella. "I'm not a coward."
"Okay, fine, you're not." Topher put his hands up in surrender. "You win. You're the bravest person I know, but I gotta go, killer."
Russ opened his mouth to say more, but Topher had already rushed out of the room, completely having forgotten the conversation they just had. Russ groaned in frustration, before looking over at his clock, seeing it was about time to walk to his class. He put his book on the table and stood up from where he was sitting on his bed, grabbing his backpack up form the floor.
He looked over and noticed Topher's backpack completely discarded on the floor, and rolled his eyes. Russ was more than a little confused about Topher's actions, but was much more focused on the fact that Topher had called him a coward, which wasn't even close to true.
Sighing to himself, he grabbed everything else he needed and left the dorm.
- Cue Opening -
After her morning classes, Riley was walking across campus to get to lunch, searching through her purse as she did so. Her head was pounding from her activities of the night before, particularly the heavy drinking. She hadn't made it back to her dorm until very early that morning, and was starting to regret her decision as her exhaustion was beginning to dawn on her.
She pulled out an aspirin and popped it in her mouth, dry-swallowing it before continuing her trek to get lunch. As she did so, she was at least pleased that it stopped raining for a bit, even though it was still rather dark and cloudy.
"Riley!" A voice called from behind her. She turned to see Russ jogging up to her and smiled faintly.
"Hey," She said, a bit awkwardly. "What's up?"
Russ caught up to her and smiled back. "Hey," He looked around. "Where's the other half?"
Riley rolled her eyes. "Dylan is not my 'other half,' and I assume doing something else. Actually, I've only seen her once today - mostly, I've been with Bryn,"
"Bryn?"
She nodded. "My roommate. She's cool," Riley looked him up and down, noticing the way he was looking at her. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?" She crossed her arms, giving him a look back.
He shrugged, looking down in a way Riley recognized. "Well, I..."
Riley held a hand up and stopped, "Russ, stop. What are you doing and why are you doing it?"
"This morning, Topher said I was a coward because he thought I was afraid of what girls would think of me and..." Russ was promptly cut off by Riley.
"So you thought it would be nice to show him up by asking me out?" Riley made a face. "Really? What made you think that would work?"
Russ stared at her, suddenly becoming awkward. "You know, I've heard things," He then got a bit angry for a moment. "And, I can't stand Topher's arrogance, okay? He's a dick."
"I don't know what you've heard, but I don't do anything with anybody just to prove a point," Riley said, shaking her head at him. "I'm surprised that you, of all people, don't understand that. I get that you want to prove yourself, but all you're proving is that you're lower than he is."
She began to walk away, but he followed closely behind, catching her arm lightly. "Okay, I'm sorry." He apologized quickly. "I just can't stand it when people call me a coward, especially people like Topher who think they're better than everyone else."
Riley looked to the side slightly. "I don't know about that. Bryn, she's a psychology major, said that he just acts that way because that's how he was brought up and he's used to it. She says that she's not sure that he's really like that."
Russ rolled his eyes. "That's not really the point." He muttered. "The point is that I always have to prove myself when people say things like that. I need them to know that I'm not a coward."
"But..." She trailed off as she felt her ring heat up against her finger. Riley looked over at Russ, seeing that he had noticed as well. "Let's go." Riley said, making him nod and take off with her.
- PRED -
The two arrived at the battle, having morphed on the way, in time to see David getting knocked down by Melantha, the demon of the week. She was a tall, dark demon with a earthy pattern to her body, even with a staff that looked like a branch from a tree.
Riley raised an eyebrow at the demon, "Wow, I wonder what tree she ripped that off of."
"Doesn't look like any around here are too damaged," Russ chuckled.
From in front of them, Dylan turned to face them as she struggled with Melantha. "Hey, we could use some help over here, if you're done with your conversation, that is."
At her insistence, the two were thrown out of their stupor and ran in to help the others, who were mostly struggling to get back up after attacks. Dylan and Melantha were locked in battle with each other, her sword and Melantha's staff both pushing to get the upper hand. After a few more moments of struggle, however, Russ slashed the demon on her back, causing her to cry out and turn away from Dylan, though she shoved the white ranger away in the process.
Topher, who had been thrown the the ground, got up and blasted Melantha before anyone else could do anything, startling Russ who had been in mid-swing of his sword. This gave the demon the chance to whack him with her staff, throwing him into Topher and making both of them fall to the ground.
Riley jumped out of the way of Melantha's staff and held her hand out, making a cloud of darkness come over them. Using the dark to her advantage, Riley slashed through Melantha as many times as she could before the demon grabbed her by the neck and hoisted her into the air as the darkness faded.
Russ was running back into the fight, seeing as the other rangers were all on the ground from attacks that happened before Riley and Russ got there, but stopped when he saw that Melantha had Riley in her possession. He shoved his sword back in his belt and pulled out his blaster, pointing it at Melantha, though she held Riley in front of her, keeping her in a choke-hold all the while.
The blue ranger started to put his blaster down, not wanting to risk Riley getting hurt, when Melantha spoke up and made him freeze in his actions. "Such a cowardly little ranger. You would risk me winning for nothing?" She rolled her eyes. "You're pathetic." She squeezed at Riley's neck tighter, making her demorph and struggle for air.
"I'm not coward," Russ growled out, putting his blaster back up. "Now let her go."
Melantha shook her head. "Please. You would never shoot me as long as I hold your friend - you're too scared to hurt her."
His finger wavered over the trigger as he tried to aim at Melantha without hitting Riley. "I'm not scared of anything." He hissed through gritted teeth as he found an opening and shot.
As he did so, Melantha moved slightly, making the blast hit her and Riley at the same time, hitting Melantha in the face and hitting Riley in the side. Riley was thrown out of Melantha's grasp and fell to the ground gasping for air and clutching her side as she rolled over in pain, while Melantha clawed at her face in anger and agony, a burn spreading across half of her face like wildfire.
"Riley!" Dylan screeched, as the rangers watched what happened in horror.
Russ dropped his blasters in shock of what happened, and Melantha turned back towards him, her face a mess of burns. "You'll pay for this blue ranger! Mark my words! I'll be back to finish you!"
Melantha disappeared into thin air, and Dylan scrambled to her feet, running over to Riley. She demorphed and touched Riley's shoulder, trying to look her over. Dylan jumped when she felt a touch on her own shoulder, and looked up to see Rowan standing over her. She moved out of the way slightly and let him kneel down next to Riley, looking her over. Sofia also came over, both her and Rowan being in the same pre-med classes.
Dylan saw the others had demorphed as well, and were all standing around the injured Riley, while Russ stood a way back, not wanting to get too close. She growled under her breath and got up, storming over to him and shoving him back. "What the hell was that?! You could've gotten Riley killed, you stupid ass!"
"I..." Russ was cut off by Rowan, who grabbed Dylan's arm as she advanced towards Russ again.
"Hold on, alright?" Rowan said calmly, pulling her gently back towards him. "Riley's gonna be okay, we just need to get her back to the loft. We can deal with what happened there."
She looked up at him, and took a deep breath, moving closer to him for a hug, which he returned comfortingly. "Okay." She nodded. "Thank you. I just.. get a little out of hand when I'm angry."
"We all do." Rowan assured her as they pulled away, neither of them noticing Topher's glare from behind them. "Let's get back." He said, turning back to the others.
- PRED -
Back at the loft, Riley was laying on a bed in the back room, resting and recovering from the attack. She had a pretty bad burn on her side from Russ' blaster, and bruises around her neck from Melantha's hand, but she was going to be alright besides that. Sofia was tending to her, while the others were in the main room, Iris scowling at Russ.
"Russ, you made a dangerous mistake today," Iris crossed her arms. "What got into you? I know you guys haven't been here long, but I've never seen you risk the life of one of your teammates before."
"Was I really risking her life, though?" Russ asked, trying to act nonchalant. "I mean, she just got burned."
Iris looked at him as if he was crazy. "Only because of where she was hit. If she had been hit in an important area, especially one with vital organs, the burn could've easily spread through her skin and killed her."
"I didn't mean to hit her!" Russ exclaimed, standing up suddenly. "I was aiming for the demon!"
The mentor rolled her eyes. "Melantha was holding Riley in front of her, using her for a shield. You should've came up with another idea that wouldn't have gotten Riley injured."
Russ shook his head. "She was getting hurt already! Melantha was choking her, and if I didn't act, she could've died regardless!"
David spoke up, before Iris could. "Alright, you made a mistake," He said, standing up as well. "We can forgive that. It could've happened to anyone, but at least tell us what set you off. We deserve that much, right?"
"I wasn't set off, okay?" Russ turned away from them, fuming. "I'm fine. Just.. leave me alone!" He was about to storm out, when he paused by the door and turned back, eyeing Dylan. "Tell Riley I'm sorry." He muttered, before exiting and leaving the other rangers by themselves.
Dylan thought to herself for a moment, before looking at the others. "Melantha called Russ a coward, right before he shot at her." She pointed out. "Maybe that's what set him off."
"Why would he care what the demon thinks?" David frowned. "He knows who he is."
"It's not about what the demon thinks, David," She gave him a look. "It's about insecurity. Like.. say I thought I was really pretty, but someone told me I was ugly. No matter what I thought, and no matter who that person is, it would bother me. Does that make sense?"
Topher nodded, giving her a flirtatious smirk. "Everything except the part when someone called you ugly," He looked her over. "I could never imagine someone doing that."
She chuckled a little. "Thank you, Topher." She giggled. "That was pretty cheesy."
"So you weren't flattered?" Topher raised an eyebrow, keeping the smirk on his face, though it seemed like he was insecure about her response.
"No, I am." Dylan reassured him, frowning slightly. "I was just joking around with you. You okay?"
He looked a bit taken aback by her question. "I'm always okay. I don't know why you ask - I mean, I am practically the perfect guy.. especially for you."
"Please, you hardly know me." She shook her head, amused, before patting him lightly on the shoulder. "But good luck with that."
As she spoke, Sofia and Riley came out of the back room, Riley looking much better than before. She looked between Dylan and Topher, having heard part of their conversation. "Still bothering Dylan, huh?" She raised her eyebrows at Topher.
"I'm not bothering her," Topher crossed his arms, looking almost offended. "Besides, she should be so lucky to be graced by my presence."
"You never lose your arrogance, do you?" Dylan rolled her eyes, standing up to join the two girls. "We should get going. See you guys later?"
Rowan nodded, giving her a sweet smile. "Definitely."
Dylan blushed lightly, "Awesome," She, Riley, and Sofia walked towards the door, calling out, "Bye!" to the guys as they left.
- PRED -
The next day, Sofia and Dylan were in their room, getting ready, while Riley stood in the bathroom doing the same. They, along with David, Rowan, Topher, and Kenny, were planning on going on a day trip to go hiking in the nearby woods.
Dylan wasn't getting ready as fast as Sofia and Riley were, more so sifting slowly through her clothes, and was obviously a bit distressed, though her reasons for being so were unclear. Sofia put a hand on her shoulder, startling her.
"Sorry," She said. "I was just wondering if you were okay? You seem kinda upset." At this, she noticed Dylan's uncomfortable look. "I know we haven't known each other all too long, but you can talk to me if you need to. I'm sure Riley feels the same way."
Riley poked her head into their room through the bathroom. "I heard my name?"
Sofia nodded, "I was just telling Dylan that we're here for her if she needs anything, or just to talk. Right?"
"Oh," Riley stepped into the room, rubbing her arm awkwardly. "Yeah, sure. I mean, I'm not very serious or anything, but if you wanted to."
"It's fine." Dylan shrugged, standing up and looking at the two of them. "I think I might just stay back today. I'm not, like, sick or anything.. I'm just tired. Don't worry about it, I still want you guys to have fun."
The other two girls looked between each other, before Sofia shot her a smile. "Okay, that's alright. You know where we'll be if you change your mind." Sofia said kindly, before moving past Riley and into the bathroom.
Riley watched Dylan sit down on the bed and run a hand through her hair, before deciding to, once again, awkwardly speak up. "Are you sure you're okay? You're not mad or anything, right?"
She shook her head. "Of course not," Dylan gave her a funny look. "Why would I be mad?"
"I don't know," Riley shrugged, before looking at the ground. "Sorry, I'm not very good at this whole.. comforting people thing. I don't do it very often, most of my friends are very casual."
Dylan chuckled lightly. "Don't worry about, you're fine, and so am I. Sometimes I just need some space to deal with myself, you know what I mean?"
"Not really." Riley admitted. "But, I think I got it." She saw Sofia come out of the bathroom, and shot her a smile. "You ready to get going?"
"Yup," Sofia nodding, picking up a backpack she was bringing. "See you later, Dylan." Dylan nodded at them, and the two set off down the hall to walk towards the boys dorm. By the time they got there, they found Rowan in David and Kenny's room, chatting with them.
Riley looked around. "Where's Topher?"
David gestured to the room next to them. "He's getting ready, I think."
She nodded and walked through the bathroom, and into Topher and Russ' shared room, finding Russ sitting on his bed, staring defiantly up at Topher, who was ignoring him. Riley made a face, turning to Russ. "What's up with you?"
Russ started at her voice, not having seen her since the day before when she was injured. "Umm.. you all are going on a day trip without me?" He asked, just as the others began to walk in, wondering what was going on. "How come I didn't know about this?"
"We planned it yesterday," Kenny told him, bluntly. "Right after you shot Riley."
"I didn't...!" He trailed off, shaking his head. "It doesn't matter. This isn't fair. Aren't I your guys' friend too?"
David nodded. "Yeah, you are, but we figured you should have some time to yourself today."
"Besides," Riley spoke up. "Dylan's not going either, so you could always see what she's up to if you get lonely."
Topher halted in his actions, turning to her. "Dylan's not going? Why not?"
Sofia shrugged. "She said she was tired, but not to worry about it."
"Maybe one of us should stay here with her," Topher suggested, practically ready to drop everything to stay behind.
"She said she wanted us to still go," Riley crossed her arms. "Besides, I don't think she'd want you to stay behind and hassle her. She much rather have someone nice like Rowan to stay back, than someone like you." She muttered, smirking back at Rowan, who looked to the side shyly.
"Whatever," Topher turned away from them, finishing what he was doing. "Let's just go."
The group left, saying their goodbyes to Russ, who sat on his bed and ignored them. He continued to sit there until he was sure they were completely gone, before pushing himself up and exiting his room, walking down the hall to see if Dylan was still in her room, as he didn't want to spend the whole day alone.
He made it to the door, and peeking partially inside, seeing as it was partially opened. When he did, he saw Dylan pacing back and forth and holding her hands to her head. Russ was confused by her actions, and was about to knock to let her know he was here, when a hand landed on his shoulder. He turned back to see a tan young woman standing behind him, her arms crossed.
"Are you spying on one of my roommates?" She looked him up and down.
Russ frowned. "Roommates?" He looked at their room. "You must be Riley's roommate, Bryn, right?"
She nodded, giving him a look. "You know Riley?"
"I know all three of them," Russ told her. "I was coming to see if Dylan was still here, which she is."
Bryn grabbed the door nob and quietly pulled the door closed. "She told Riley she wanted to be alone today, so I don't know if you want to interrupt her time." She took him by the arm. "Walk with me."
"To where?" Russ asked, but allowed her to pull him towards the door and out of the dorms.
"We could go to Lake Hastings," Bryn suggested. "If you're down."
"Just the two of us?" Russ said, making her smirk. "Not that I'd have a problem with that, but I was just making sure there wasn't a huge party or anything like that."
Bryn chuckled. "There isn't. It's like 8 am." She nudged him. "That's a good one though." She gestured towards the parking lot. "Come on, let's go."
- PRED -
"So wait, what happened?" Bryn frowned as the two sat in the sand surrounding the large lake. "I don't understand, and I also don't think you're telling me the full story here."
Russ shrugged. "I can't tell you the whole story. Basically, I accidentally hurt a friend because I was pissed off that someone called me a coward, and now all of my other friends are pissed about it too."
Bryn made a face. "Really? Why? If it was an accident, there's no reason they should be angry."
"Ehh..." Russ sighed. "I mean, I do get it. I was acting on anger and I shouldn't have done that, but it's not like I was trying to hurt her."
She shook her head. "You know, funny thing, I'm actually a psychology major." Bryn told him, making him raise his eyebrows in surprise. "Yeah. I know a lot about the human mind, and I can pick up on cues as to if people are upset, but I usually don't understand the why. Emotions are kind of a hard thing for me to understand."
"But you want to be a psychologist?" Russ chuckled. "Isn't that kinda difficult if you don't get why people are upset?"
"It is." Bryn laughed. "But I'm getting better at it. Besides, the mind has always been very fascinating to me, and the fact that I don't understand it makes it even more interesting."
Russ smiled. "That's awesome. I..." He was cut off when a screech came from nearby. The two looked over immediately, Russ seeing Melantha standing in the stand a few yards away, glaring furiously at him. Her face was still extremely damaged from his blast, and she looked like she wanted to kill him, which he imagined she did.
The two stood, Russ turning back to Bryn. "You should get out of here."
"And leave you to fight this.. monster on your own?" Bryn looked at him like he was crazy. "I'd have to be insane!"
"I..." Russ didn't know what to say to her. He couldn't just tell her he was a ranger, but he didn't know what else would make her okay with leaving him there, and it's not like he could just leave with her. Who knows what destruction Melantha could cause while he was gone. "Fine." He said after a few moments. "Be careful."
Russ ran in ahead of her, trying to block Bryn from doing most of the fighting. Melantha swung her staff at him, but he caught it with his hands and tried to rip it from hers. She fought back hard, both them practically playing tug of war with her staff.
He could feel the splinters digging into his hands from her wooden staff and grimaced, though he didn't let up. Bryn saw that Melantha was distracted and came up behind her grabbing her by her vine-like hair and yanking her backwards, startling her and making her let go of the staff. Without the demon's weight on the other end, Russ fell to the ground, throwing the staff out of his hands in the process.
Bryn was struggling against Melantha, continuously trying to move herself out of arms reach from the demon while keeping her grip firm on her hair. Russ moved to get up and help her when Melantha's foot shot out and kicked him hard in the side, making him fall back down and groan.
Melantha growled in annoyance at Bryn and ducked down quicker than she could react, before grabbing Bryn's arm and yanking it behind her body and holding her in front of her as a shield, just like she had done to Riley.
Before either of them could do anything, however, a blast hit Melantha in the back, making her stumble forward a bit, but not let go of Bryn. She turned around to see Dylan, morphed, standing there with her blaster pointed at her.
The demon rolled her eyes. "Please. Don't tell me you're gonna risk a civilian's life now, are you? You're just as much of a coward as your blue ranger friend,"
"You don't know anything about any of us," Dylan ground out, lowering her blaster. "Besides, he made a mistake. I got it - he didn't like being called a coward, but I think he's gonna learn that it's more cowardly to hide behind his anger and risk his friend than it is to stand up to his feelings and fight the right way." She said, eyeing Russ, who nodded at her once. "I'm not gonna risk her life."
Melantha smirked. "That's sweet." She rolled her eyes. "Perhaps I'll kill her for you."
"No you won't," Russ exclaimed as he picked up Melantha's fallen staff and rammed it into her back as hard as he could, causing it to go almost straight through her.
She instantly let go of Bryn, who ran over to the white ranger and watched Melantha fall to her knees, looking back up at Russ. "Grifyth will still rise," She croaked. "And he will destroy everything you love." Melantha told him, before falling forward and exploding.
Russ looked up at Dylan as she held Bryn back. "I guess that's a win." He gave her a lopsided smile and a thumbs up.
- PRED -
After dropping Bryn back off at her dorm, Russ walked a bit down the hall, planning on going to the loft when he found Dylan waiting for him in the hallway. She was leaning against the wall with a slight smirk on her face.
"You did a really good job just now," Dylan complimented him, her tone appreciative. "I mean that wholeheartedly - you were great out there, even unmorphed. If I knew you had it handled, I wouldn't have even come out."
Russ chuckled. "Thanks, but I can't take all the credit. Bryn actually helped, and so did you. If you didn't distract her with your blast, I don't know what I would've done. Besides, you were right, in what you said. I'm stronger when I let go of my anger and protect my friends."
Dylan shrugged. "Hey, everybody makes mistakes. You've made up for it, and no one's gonna hold it against you." She looked down. "Sorry no one invited you on the day trip. We were all kinda still mad."
"It's alright." He looked her up and down. "So, why didn't you go? Are you okay?"
She regarded him awkwardly. "I.. it's just a little anxiety." Dylan shrugged, trying to be nonchalant. "I'm okay. Sometimes I just need a little time to separate from everything. I've been getting better though, and I don't mind people being around most of the time."
"Oh, okay. I was just making sure, Princess." Russ nudged her lightly as she rolled her eyes. "We should get to loft and wait for the others to get back, but I'm glad we're all good."
"Of course," Dylan smiled. "Now, let's get over there. The others are probably wondering what happened."
Russ nodded, laughing. "Oh yeah. Wondering how I've screwed up this time, huh?" The two laughed and walked towards the loft.
Next time on Power Rangers Earth Defenders: After Rowan blows them off to study, even though he doesn't need to, Dylan and Riley decide to break him out of his shell and bring him to a party, only to be overwhelmed by his suddenly different behavior.
Next Chapter Title: Held Down
I know I've been gone on this story for a while, but that's going to change. The first season of this story is definitely going to be finished on August 4th, since I'm finally getting back to writing more regularly. Like I said, I won't really have a schedule, but I will still be updating. The only story I can think of that may have a bit of a delay would be Emergency Responders, since I'm not rushing to get that finished at the moment, but I'll try to be consistent on all of them!
I really enjoyed writing some of the budding friendships in this chapters, especially between Dylan and Russ, as well as a bit of Dylan's friendship with Riley. I should be clear that there are no romantic notions between Russ and Dylan, since I really like their friendship and Dylan already has enough romantic activity going on.
Also, I should mention that Topher's slightly off behavior is, again, because of his BPD, and will continue to show up in certain things he says or does until it comes to a head a little later on in the story. I'm really trying to keep his symptoms and his personality separate, because I don't want him to be defined by it, so I apologize if it ever comes off like that.
Here are the next five chapters!
Ep 8: Firepower - Sofia focused chapter.
Ep 9: Party Hard - Riley focused chapter.
Ep 10: Snob - Topher focused chapter.
Ep 11: Should've Been You - David focused chapter.
Ep 12: Perfect World - Rowan focused chapter.
See you guys soon, and let me know what if you liked it - I'd love to know what you thought!
© Copyrighted by Charlotte 'Charlie' Hartley