Disclaimer:Power Rangers... Disney. Ashley's parents... mine. Ashley's parents... bad.

Liz: Thanks. Here's some more, and there's some hints in here as to what she's hiding.

Mel: Have fun studying. Haha... Take an extended study break while you're reading this chapter:P

Chapter 4

"Ashley, you load the dishwasher," her mother ordered her tiredly that night. "Once you do that, and put away the food, you can go. I'm sure you have better things to do than stay here."

"No, Mom, it's fine," Ashley said quietly, as she began clearing the table. "I don't mind. I'll clean everything up."

"I've got to go, Ashy," Jeff said apologetically, giving his sister a hug. "I'm working the night shift tonight."

"Don't worry about it," Ashley assured him. "Thanks for coming."

"Anytime, Ash," Jeff said, hugging her once more before he headed out the door. Ashley listened to his footsteps receding, and heard a car door open and slam, followed by the four or five minutes of false starts before Jeff's third-hand car rumbled to life. She let out a soft sigh as the car drove off. One of her protectors was gone.

Shaking her head to wake herself, Ashley gathered up the five dishes smeared with what had at one time been chocolate cake, stacking them one on top of the other, and dropping a handful of equally dirty forks on the top plate. She carried them into the kitchen, setting them down on the counter, and running them under warm water before depositing them into the dishwasher.

After she'd cleaned up the mess left over from desert, she exhaled slowly before tackling the one that they'd made during dinner. Wrinkling her nose, she tossed bits of uneaten hamburger into the trash, and scraped the remains of salad off the plates as well. Ashley rinsed them as she listened to the conversation that wafted into the kitchen from the dining room, most of it about her.

"... such a disappointment," her mother was saying. "I thought she would have known better."

"Yes, well, some girls are like that," Terry said, obviously trying to reassure her mother. "No matter what you do right."

"I thought I'd raised her better than that, Terry," her mother said despairingly. "And look at the mess she's gotten us all into. It's only been two years!"

"I know," he said soothingly. "Think of it this way. In only sixteen years, we'll all finally be free of your daughter and all the trouble she brought on you."

"Why couldn't she have just wanted a dog?" her mother wailed. "Or a fish. Something small that would be dead by now. I would have bought her a dog."

"Ashley just wants attention," Terry said comfortingly. "I think she's gotten plenty in the last two years, and in less than two weeks, she'll be gone."

His tone was light, cheerful even, and Ashley felt her cheeks coloring with a mixture of humiliation and rage, and she nearly dropped the plate due to her trembling hands. Setting it down as gently as she could in the sink, Ashley leaned forward onto the counter, gripping the edge of the sink to support herself.

Tears welled up in her eyes, and she couldn't hold them in. Crying silently, she tried to wrap up the leftover food as quickly as she could. Her hands were shaking so that when she went to tear off some plastic wrap, she cut herself on the blade edge of the box. Hissing in pain, she quickly stuck her right hand under the faucet, watching in detatched fascination as the water washed the blood away, a small tinge of pink to the water that swirled down the drain.

Ashley snapped out of her daze when she heard her mother announce that she was going to bed, and looked around the kitchen hopelessly. There was no way that she could possibly manage to escape before Terry came in. Sure enough, as soon as the distant slam of her mother's bedroom doors reached her ears, Ashley heard her stepfather walk into the kitchen.

Her eyes watered as Terry caught a handful of her hair, twisting it in his hands. He yanked hard, and her head snapped back, and she was forced to stare into his blue eyes filled with loathing and contempt.

"It's rude to eavesdrop, you know," he commented as Ashley struggled to free herself. She reached behind her head, both her hand clamping down on his, but her wet fingers slipped as he removed her hands from his wrist with his free hand.

"Let me go!" Ashley snapped through clenched teeth. Terry only laughed. Still holding her right hand behind her head, he spotted the blood once again oozing out of her cut finger, and squeezed her finger, forcing a great deal more crimson to pour out of the injury. Ashley wrenched her hand away from him, and tried to ignore him. She might have succeeded but for the fact that he still had a firm grasp on her hair.

"I won't be home at all tomorrow, so you sure better show up, you little slut," he hissed at her. "Tawny isn't my problem, anyway. Tawny isn't your mother's problem, and you're lucky as hell that Jeff makes Tawny his problem. If it wasn't for him, your mother might have just died having someone like you for her child."

"I'll be here," Ashley whispered. Her head was starting to pound, and it was too much of a trial not to cry. Tears sild silently down her cheeks as she stood there, trapped, unable to get away. "You know I'll be here."

"Unless you decide you'd be better off spending time with your boyfriend," Terry said, and Ashley froze. It was only for a split second, but it didn't go unnoticed by the man forcibly holding her, and he laughed triumphantly.

"I don't have a boyfriend," Ashley muttered, giving up an attempt to twist herself free. Terry would let go when he wanted to, and her head would hurt her badly enough for the next week without having her rip out half her hair.

"So now you're a lying little slut?" Terry challenged her, pulling harder, dragging her head back farther, causing Ashley's eyes to water with pain. "Don't think I haven't seen you with him. What's his name again? What's the name of your precious red ranger? Tell me!"

"Andros," Ashley whispered. "His name is Andros."

"And I'm betting you haven't told Andros your little secret," Terry taunted her. "Because you know he'll leave you once he find out. How'd you end up with him anyway? Did he take pity on you? Was he rejected by his own species?"

"He's human," Ashley snapped angrily. "More human than you'll ever be."

Terry released her then, and Ashley's head fell back into its rightful place. Grabbing her instead by the shoulders, he spun her around to face him, and slapped her as hard as he could, once on each side of the face. Ashley's head snapped from side to side with the force of each blow, and for several seconds afterwards felt nothing on either side of her face.

"Don't you dare insult my humanity," Terry growled at her in a dangerously low voice. "I should have thrown you out of this house two years ago and let you live on the streets for all you're worth! I should make you leave right now, you little ingrate, instead of giving you another week and a half to pack up your things. I should show the world who you really are. You'd be nobody's hero then, Yellow Ranger."

He spat the last two words at her in disgust, before turning on his heel and storming out of the room. Ashley watched to make sure that he wasn't coming back before pressing her hands to her furiously stinging cheeks. Leaving the kitchen in the state it was in, she flew up the stairs to the room that she was allowed to call her own for the next eleven days.

She closed the door quickly and slammed her fist against the button that would lock the door. The door didn't lock, and hadn't since she was fifteen, but it somehow gave her a small sense of security.

"Dad, why did you have to leave us?" she whispered, not for the first time in the seven years since she's last seen her father. After the divorce, there had never been any visits, few letters, and even less phone calls, and certainly nothing in the last two years, almost three now.

Not even her father, who had been the one to make her parent's marriage unravel, wanted anything to do with her anymore. He, like her mother, probably regretted ever having her, ever giving her his name.

Ashley sank down onto her bed, wishing now more than ever that she could just curl up and die. No life at all sounded more appealing than the two lives she was forced to live now; the one where she pretended to be the same happy, cheerful Ashley that she had always been, and the darker life, where she was the outlet of everyone's frustrations, the cause of all their problems.

Ashley hated herself. Her mom had first met Terry when she was twelve, and they'd become a couple a few months later. Ever since their first meeting, Ashley knew that Terry had taken an instant dislike to her, and as time passed, dislike had become hate, hate had become contempt, and contempt had become loathing, and eventually, Ashley had transferred Terry's feeling to herself, after loathing had become something even more frightening.

Rolling onto her side, Ashley stared at the corner of her room, or more specifically, what occupied the corner of her room. A constant reminder of the useless failure that she had become, and always would be, it was also a faint symbol of hope to her.

Ashley closed her eyes to block out the nightmarish images that always plagued her when she slept in this room. She had to stay here tonight, she knew. If she went back to the Megaship, Andros would certainly come looking for her, and he would know instantly that something was wrong. Even if he didn't question her, Ashley didn't have the energy to face him, even for a few moments.

At the thought of Andros, Ashley was reminded of what she'd resolved to do. What she'd steeled herself to tell him, to show him. Terry would be gone tomorrow. Tomorrow, it would be safe to bring him here. Jeff might be home, but she could probably convince him to leave, she thought. When she finally broke down and let Andros see the darkest side of her life, she didn't want anyone else around to witness it.

Ashley closed her eyes, knowing that sleep would never come to her on this night, not in this room. Sleep here had been nearly impossible now for almost three years, but Ashley closed her eyes anyway, hoping somehow that the darkness would be a safe haven for her.

It was a foolish hope.