Disclaimer: I still don't own Power Rangers

A/N: I had some free time and some inspiration, so I decided to write another chapter of Honor. The first section breaks are to indicate that there is a time change to the night before and then it goes back to the 'present'. A Quarab is a real horse, it's a horse that is half Quarter Horse and half Arabian. Also, I strongly recomend reading 'The Man Behind The Cape' to understand why Chip isn't really as OOC as he seems, I believe with his AU history he's being fairly IC. The superhero costume is cannon, but I stole the bit about 'beating to death with a paper napkin' from an HP story. The trebuchet story is something I could totally see Chip doing. Also, I made up Chip's mantra, because it seemed like something he would have, his own personal code and all that.

Of all the aspects of living on the farm, Chip loved the horses best. He didn't mind doing the chores like mucking out, because in return he could go riding on his days off. He even had his own horse, a grey Quarab gelding named Dark Star for the black marking on his face, not unlike a star. The gelding had been his conspirator in any number of dreams for the past four years, being his mount in everything from dragon hunting to jousting tournaments. Today, however, Chip didn't picture anything, he just wanted to run, and Star was willing to oblige. They galloped down the galloping lane together, fast enough that Chip didn't have to think about the day before, but not fast enough to escape it. They came out of the straight away and Chip pulled up, sending Star to a canter, and then a trot, posting automatically as they approached the crooked, downward slope that led to the creek. As Star slowed to a walk at the start of the decent, Chip found his mind going back to what had been a normal day at the Rock Porium…

xxXXxx

There wasn't any new stock to go up, and the cleaning was done, so all that was left for Chip and Xander was to wait for closing. Chip had been flipping through the comics, supposedly zoning when Xander had cornered him. "Chip, we need to talk," Xander said.

"What about," Chip asked, putting the comic back on the shelf.

"You've been acting weird for weeks," Xander said, "and I mean weirder than you normally are."

Chip hesitated, then began to straighten the comics, "I'm fine, Xander. I'm sure you're just imagining things."

"Chip, you've had three doctor's appointments," Xander said, "and you haven't told any of us about them."

Chip sighed, "That's nothing, Xander," he said. He stared at the comic books, "There was a problem with the blood work. They showed high levels of white blood cells in the first test and they did a second, deeper test to see if it meant anything. My second test came back clean. I probably just had an infection or something that I wasn't aware of."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Xander asked quietly.

"Because there wasn't anything you could do," Chip replied, he leaned in slightly to make sure one stack of comics was perfectly straight.

"We could have supported you," Xander replied, a hint of anger in his voice.

"I didn't need support," Chip said, "It was just a blood test. It's not important."

"Not important," Xander grabbed his arm and shook it, rattling him enough that he stared at the Green Ranger. "Chip, you've had cancer twice. Even I am not so much an idiot that I don't know what that means. Every remission you have means you'll have less of a chance of survival. That's why you should have told us, if it was the cancer again, we could have done something. We're Rangers now."

Chip wrenched his arm from Xander's grip, "Why should I?" He asked.

"Why? Chip, we're your friends," Xander said, "we tell you the important things going on in our lives. We like it when you return that favor."

Chip had never been so relieved to hear the clock in Toby's office chime eight o'clock. He ducked around Xander and fled for the time clock, hands trembling as he punched out.

xxXXxx

Chip stopped Star at the stream and let the gelding drink a little before turning him down the path that meandered along beside the creek. He knew why he hadn't told his friends the truth, even if they didn't understand. His gut clenched at the memory of the bewildered hurt in Xander's eyes when he'd fled rather than talk about it.

It tightened even more as he remembered being eight years old and Nurse Sara telling him that his mother had died 'in an accident' and wouldn't be coming to see him. He remembered the silent fury that had built in the pediatrics wing when his father didn't show up for two weeks after the funeral, and even then, he hadn't stayed with Chip long.

He wrapped an arm over his stomach as he remembered being thirteen, bald and exhausted from another round of chemo, waiting weeks for his dad to remember to call him. He remembered the sinking feeling as his dad told him he'd gotten remarried and that he would continue staying with his aunt 'for now'. He remembered the lawyer who hadn't known he was in the living room and could hear very well, bringing adoption papers for him.

He stopped Star and hung onto the saddle as he remembered meeting his stepmother and stepsister, the aura of anger and disgust that had been around them when he'd tried to be friendly. He swallowed against the rising nausea at the memory of meeting his three-year-old half sister and realizing that someone was already teaching that sweet faced, red haired little girl to hate him.

He gasped for air and began to whisper his mantra, "If I am going to die tomorrow, I will not regret what I would not do, but what I could not do. I am Chip Thorne, and maybe other people don't see it, but I am a superhero. I will live my life by the code of a superhero. One, to defend those who are smaller and weaker than I am. Two, I will not stop fighting, no matter how big or how strong my enemy is. Three, I will not act without honor."

His stomach settled and the memories faded again, leaving him sitting on his horse in the middle of a peaceful forest. He wiped his face and clucked to Star, sending him up the embankment and trotting back to the farm. He was supposed to meet the others for team bonding at Nick's sister's place, since she was out of town.

xxXXxx

Vida and the others were already waiting when he came up from the barn; all of them had their arms crossed and serious expressions on their face. "We need to talk," Vida said.

Chip nodded, and led the way into the house. "'Hip," Mandy cried when they walked in, running to him to be picked up.

"Hey Mandy-Pandy," Chip replied, scooping her up and turning her upside down, "what did you do today?"

"Put me down!" Mandy squealed.

"What's in it for me?" Chip asked, "Because I'm hungry and you're the perfect size for a snack!"

"Mommy!" Mandy cried.

"What's going on?" Andy asked as she came out of the kitchen.

"'Hip's gonna eat me," Many cried.

"I was going to share," Chip said as he indicated his friends with a slight jerk of his head.

"Why don't you give me the munchkin," Andy said, "and I'll give you guys something else."

"No thanks," Vida said, "we're supposed to go over to a friend's house for movie night. We just wanted to talk to Chip first."

"Ok," Andy said, taking Mandy from Chip. She kissed Chip's cheek, "Be safe, and do stay out to late."

"If it's later than nine, I'll call," Chip promised. He led his friends upstairs, spotting Luke down the hallway, he said, "Hey Luke, these are my friends, Vida, Madison and Xander. Guys, this is Luke Montoya."

"Hey mate," Xander said, while Vida and Madison waved.

"Hi," Luke replied, watching them warily.

"Just so you know," Chip added, "we might start yelling, but its ok. Vida just likes to yell, it makes her feel calmer. As long as nothing breaks, we're fine."

"Ok," Luke said.

Chip let his friends into his room and closed the door, "Let's try not to yell," he said calmly, "Luke has a thing about yelling and fighting."

"Why didn't you tell us," Vida demanded, but she kept her voice down.

"Because I didn't want you guys to freak out over what could have been a false alarm," Chip said.

"Why didn't you tell us after you knew?" Madison asked.

"Because it was a false alarm, and it didn't matter," Chip replied. "It was just an elevated white blood cell count; it wasn't even at danger levels. They just wanted to double check."

"That doesn't mean you couldn't tell us, mate," Xander said.

Chip looked at his three friends, wishing they wouldn't crowd him, he sighed, "I should have, I'm sorry. It's just; it's cancer, my monster in the closet."

Predictably, Madison softened, "its ok," she told him. "But you know you can trust us."

"Yeah, I know," Chip replied as he felt his shoulders relax; maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

"Then why don't you?" Vida cut in.

"I do," Chip replied, stung. "I thought you knew that."

"It's kind of hard to believe when you won't tell us things," Vida said.

Chip opened his mouth, and closed it, because he couldn't think of a thing to say. He wasn't ready to admit to them just how jarred he'd been by the scare, how cracked his walls were. Mostly because he'd put a lot of effort into convincing the three people in front of him that he had no walls. He wasn't ready to let five, almost six years, of being Chip Thorne go and he was nearly on the precipice of just that.

He wasn't ready to let go of the guy who wore a superhero costume to prom. The guy who had threatened to beat Madison's first boyfriend to death with a paper napkin if he'd ever hurt her, and then had gotten him with a balled up napkin from a 'misaimed' tabletop trebuchet in his freshman history class. He was Chip Thorne, who had believed in centaurs, fairies, knights and vampires, the Code of Chivalry, and the oath of a superhero. He pinned a towel to his back to mimic a cape and used a plunger, or a cardboard tube, or a spoon as his sword. He didn't play D&D because it was boring, but loved online gaming because of the variety of characters he could play.

One sentence and he could destroy all of that, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to yet.

"Chip," Xander said, touching his shoulder, "are you ok, mate?"

"Would you stop that?" Chip demanded, dodging away from Xander.

"What?" Xander asked, confused and hurt.

"Stop crowding me," Chip said, "getting that close isn't going to make me answer you." He shoved past Xander and began to pull off his shirt as he headed into his closet. "I told you the facts anyways, I had a funny reading, the doctors did new tests and I'm fine. It was probably just some random infection."

When he came out of the closet dressed in clean clothes, Vida said, "It wasn't a random infection, Chip. I know you were bruising easier than normal."

"What- what do you mean?" Chip asked.

"I saw them," Vida replied.

Chip turned away, looking out the window, "You were wrong," he said, "it was just a summer cold. It wasn't the cancer."

"How do you know," Madison asked.

Chip closed his eyes, pressed his forehead against the glass, and said, "Because otherwise what happened was the cancer was coming back, and becoming a Ranger and getting magic made it go away. I don't know if I can believe that." He waited in silence to see how his friends would react to that.