Chapter 15: The eye of the storm

"Any luck?" Madison asked when Nick and Vida returned from the garage.

"Nope," Vida sighed and flopping down on the couch so hard that Xander next to her winced. "We found a new plug but nothing. Chip must have fried something in the wiring. Don't touch anything Chip!"

The last part she said directly to Chip who was just coming back from the kitchen where he had been sweeping the floor from glass.

"Chill V, it's not just us. The power has gone all over town. There must have been a lightning strike at the power station or something. If you look out the window you can't even see harbour anymore."

A loud thud echoed through the room. Something had hit the shutters of the panorama window. Nick wasn't surprised, the wind had grown vastly stronger just in the few minutes he and Vida had been out in the garage. The eye of the storm was upon them.

"It's a good thing you closed those shutters you did," Xander said from the couch.

Silence filled the room. Nick looked from one person to the next. The severity of the situation slowly dawning on them. This was it.

"Is everyone feeling, okay?" Nick asked. "Vida?"

Vida had been tapping her foot restlessly. She seemed to fighting an urge to move.

"I'm okay," she replied, shaking her shoulders. "It's just so hard being still. Gah! I want to dance, or run or . . . something . . . everything but being still."

"Move if you have to but be careful. We don't need a storm inside the house." Nick turned to Chip. "How about you?"

The former Yellow Ranger hadn't managed to make his hair lie flat again after the incident in the kitchen. It stood out, each strand of hair searching for something in the air like tentacles. Nick knew better than to touch it, however tempting it was, it would only end up with him being scorched.

"I'll be fine as long as don't touch anything. Maddy gave me these."

He held up a pair of thick rubber gloves. Nick didn't know what they were used for but he knew rubber was a poor conductor of electricity. With the gloves on, they might just see through the night without any more incidents.

"Maddy, X?"

Xander's groan was answer enough. He's face pale with pain. Madison, who was kneeling on the floor at Xander's feet, bit her bottom lip. Anxiety reading all over her face. The urge of hauling her into his arm returned. Nick had to take a slow deep breath to suppress it.

"I'll be alright, I'm more worried about Xander." She met Nick's gaze. "Could you go upstairs and see if you can find something for the pain? There is a medicine cabinet in the bathroom."

Nick nodded and grabbed a flashlight Vida had brought with her from the garage.

"Sure, I'll be right back. Just hang in there Xander."

He waited until he was out of sight from the other before he darted upstairs. The last thing they needed was to see their leader running scared. And he was scared. His team was suffering and there was nothing he could do to help them other than to encourage them to sit tight. The eye of the storm was on them, within an hour or two, things should start to calm down. At least, that was what Nick hoped. He had never waited out a storm before, he didn't know how long it would take for its intensity to decrease.

Xander's groan from downstairs, chased Nick down the corridor. He didn't know which door led to the bathroom so he opened them all. The first door he opened led to a bedroom used for storage. Boxes of clothes and school books stood everywhere. The next room he opened the door to was without a doubt Vida's bedroom. Clothes laid all over the floor, a huge stereo stood in the corner by the window and their walls were papered in poster of various DJs.

Something smelled funny, too. Nick wrinkled his nose and noticed a pair of black boots laying among the clothes.

"Ah, foot sweat, nice one, V!"

He closed the door and headed to the next. Jackpot! He had found the bathroom.

Less than a minute later, Nick returned to the dark corridor with a package of pain killers in his hand. He was just about to head back downstairs when something familiar at the corner of his eyes caught his attention. A door stood slightly opened farther down the corridor. Nick pointed his flashlight in that direction and saw his baby blanket poking out from underneath a pillow.

Maddy's room . . .

Nick pressed his lips together. He had always been curious about the inside of Maddy's room. He believed seeing it would reveal something about the enigma she was. Madison was shy and secretive but in the shelter of her own room she would not hide.

Moans from downstairs made Nick hesitate. Xander was probably exaggerating his pain to get more attention. Besides, he would only take a quick look.

Nick approached the door.

Unlike her sister's room, Madison's room was tidy and smelled pleasantly of clean cotton. The walls were in a soft shade of blue, the carpet a fluffy white. He saw a bed and a wardrobe, a desk and a bookshelf. On the far end of the room, a window was overlooking the backside garden. A rocking chair stood just underneath it with a side table overloaded with books. Nick smiled. He could see Madison sitting there, reading, all wrapped up the knitted blanket hanging over the armrest, while a soft summer rain hammered the window.

Nick took a couple of steps into the room. He saw her camera standing on the desk and remembered how his harsh words to her about hiding behind it had gotten her turned into stone when the truth was, he had been the one hiding. From the moment he had laid eyes on her, he had been in love with her. He just hadn't known how to deal with it.

He walked over to the bed and pulled out the baby blanket from underneath Madison's pillow. It was flattering to know she was still keeping it close. Treasuring it. Maybe there was hope . . .

"I wasn't sure if you wanted it back, or not," a voice suddenly said behind him.

Nick spun around, his heart in his throat and eyes big as a reindeer's caught in the headlights. Madison stood on the threshold, watching him with her dark beautiful eyes.

Nick felt like such an idiot. Why had he walked into her room without permission? He might as well read her diary, too!

"I'm sorry," he stammered and put down the blanket on the bed. "I saw the door was open and . . ."

And what? He just had to peek inside?

"I'm sorry," he said again.

Madison approached him, shrugging her shoulders. When she didn't say anything, just picked up the baby-blanket Nick had dropped on the bed, he began to get really nervous. Was she angry with him for trespassing? He knew he would have been if someone had entered his room without permission back at his adoptive parents' house. His room was his sanctuary. No one was allowed there unless he wanted them there.

He watched Madison turn the blanket over in her hands, soft hands caressing the red fabric which had held him sheltered as a child. It felt . . . intimate, somehow. Like she was caressing him.

"I'm surprised you kept it," he said, at last. "I would have understood if you had thrown it away."

Madison took her time answering.

"That would have been a waste. It's a good blanket. Udonna did a great job weaving it."

Nick blinked. It had never occurred to him that the blanket was handmade, nor that his birth mother had done it with her own hands.

"Maddy . . ." he begun to say but quieted as Madison's head snapped up to meet his eyes.

"Was it all just a joke to you?"

Nick stumbled backward. The serenity gracing her before was gone and instead he saw hurt in her eyes. The very same dark beautiful eyes he had dreamt of while being away were suddenly blank with tears.

"What are you talking about?"

"This!" Madison held up the blanket. "Was this some kind of sick joke for you to keep me hanging? Never knowing if you were to come back or not. Well, was it?"

Nick didn't notice she was cornering him until he felt the desk touching his back. Before him, Madison stood furious, beside herself with hurt and anger. Yet, she managed to look more beautiful than ever before. She was a mermaid, a Ranger, a warrior, a ruler . . .

"No, Maddy, it wasn't . . ."

"Then why didn't you call? Three months you were gone and you didn't call me once! Do you know how that feel? Three freakin' months dangling!"

Nick held up his hands to fend off the blanket she threw at him, happy she hadn't gone for something harder. Or heavier.

"Maddy . . ." he spoke softly.

He knew better than to get wind-up himself. Madison had every right to be hurt and angry with him. He had let her dangling because he was too much of a coward to step forward and tell her how he felt. And now there was this storm raging above their head, adding to the madness. He could see it in her eyes, they were black with uncontrolled rage – the wrath of the sea.

"I never meant to hurt you, Maddy," he said between the loud booms of thunder. "I wanted to call, trust me, I did. I dialled your number every single day . . ."

"But you never pressed 'call', did you?"

Madison's voice was sharp as a whip. She shook her head, tears streaming down her face. She didn't bother wiping them away.

"Why did you come back? Do you want to hurt me some more, is that it?"

"I don't want to hurt you, Madison. I never want to hurt you . . ."

"Lair!" Madison yelled at the same time thunder struck outside. The force shook the house and a rage so forceful it overwhelmed him, overpowered him.