Disclaimer: Power Rangers... not mine. Andros... not mine... darn.

Chylea3784: Soon, yes, but not quite yet.

Jenny: Yay, you're alive! And working on our story! Keep doing that.

Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: Okay.

PinkRanger4Evr: Ashley had a lot of suppressed memories that broke free when she was telling Andros her story, and that made her scared to have anyone near her. And at the end, she broke up with him because she doesn't want him to wait for her because she's afraid he'll change his mind.

Chapter 8

"Dammit, Andros, let me in!"

Andros rolled over in bed, drawing the sheet up over his head with one arm, as if the thin cloth would somehow block out Zhane's voice on the other side of the door. He didn't bother to form a reply; didn't even bother to yell at his friend to go away and leave him the hell alone. That tactic had stopped working about ten days ago.

He heard Zhane swearing profusely at Deca, demanding the personal access codes for the door. Andros almost laughed, knowing that Deca would never give them up. Why couldn't Zhane just see that going through the trouble of changing the access codes to his room meant that he wanted to be left completely and utterly alone?

"Andros?"

Karone sounded much gentler than Zhane, and Andros was almost tempted to let her in, but once she was in, then what? How was he supposed to explain the fact that he'd been holed up in his room for two weeks? He couldn't very well tell her the truth. He'd sworn to Ashley that he wouldn't.

"Andros, let me in."

Karone's voice, while still gentle, was much firmer now, and Andros knew that it was only a matter of time before she was fed up with him enough to break down the door and force her way in.

"Deca, let her in," he mumbled reluctantly.

"Thank you," Zhane said vehemently, barging in past Karone. "We were starting to think..."

"Andros, what's wrong?"

Andros neither answered nor looked up, but he felt the mattress sink as Karone sat down next to him, laying a hand on his shoulder. He knew that Zhane was hovering over him on his other side, and didn't much care. All he wanted was for them to go away, and leave him with his misery.

"Someone better tell me what's going on here!" Zhane exclaimed, pacing back and forth as he watched his best friend lie motionlessly on his bed. "We knock on your door, you tell us to leave you alone. We knock on Ashley's door, she doesn't even answer. Andros-"

"You've talked to Ashley?"

Andros's voice was hoarse from disuse, and completely hollow. Zhane and Karone exchanged troubled glances before Karone tapped him hard on the side of the head, grimacing at how greasy his hair was. Andros groaned and tried to burrow down into the mattress itself, but met only with resistence. Karone grabbed the end of the sheet and tugged it loose from his grasp.

"Sit up."

Her brother only shook his head, his eyes shut tight. Karone sighed heavily before seizing him by the shoulders and hauling him forward into a sitting position. Even then Andros made no move to support himself, and his head fell forward, lolling against Karone's shoulder.

"Sit up," Karone repeated, her voice now devoid of all sympathy. Andros realized then that she'd tricked him into opening the door, and he tried to be angry, but he couldn't feel anything more than an aching numbness where his heart had once been.

He did as he was told, oddly grateful to his sister for the order. It was a welcome respite from his thoughts, which ran in unending circles for all hours of the day and most hours of the night. He even opened his eyes, although he kept them trained steadily on his lap.

"That's better," Karone said, relief creeping into her voice despite her best efforts to do otherwise. "Now... what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Karone rolled her eyes. "What's wrong with Ashley?"

Andros's head shot up so quickly that Karone reared back. Her brother's eyes were empty and listless, as though his soul had been torn away from him. "Ashley?"

"She's worse off than you are," Zhane said, laying a hand on his arm. "Cassie was trying to get her to open her door for hours, but Ashley's never even answered, not once in two weeks. Andros, what's going on?"

Andros was silent for a long time, and Zhane was about to storm away in frustration when Andros lowered his head again, his eyes flooding with tears that he didn't have the energy to blink back. Without a word, Karone wrapped her arms around her brother, rocking him back and forth as sobs wracked his body, while Zhane stood back, watching them awkwardly. He was all for comforting his best friend, but in twelve years, he'd seen Andros shed only a few tears, as he'd gazed down sadly at Karone's lifeless body.

"Ashley... Ashley broke up with me," Andros whispered, his face pressed against Karone's shoulder.

"It's all right," she whispered back. Zhane could see the shock that resonated in her eyes, but her first instinct was to comfort Andros, and to interrogate him later. "It's all right... when was the last time you got out of bed?"

He shrugged miserably, rubbing his eyes with a filthy sleeve. "Two days ago?"

"Come on," Karone urged, tugging on his arm. "Up."

Slowly, Andros climbed out of bed, balancing unsteadily on legs that hadn't supported him for two weeks. He was still dressed in the same jeans and red sweatshirt that he'd been wearing the day that Ashley had taken him by the hand and led him to her house.

"See, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Karone said encouragingly. Andros shook his head, hoping that if he gave her some kind of a positive result, she'd leave him alone to hide in the pitch blackness of his dank room. No such luck; Karone immediately propelled him into the bathroom, ordering him to shower while she and Zhane brought him some food from the Synthetron.

He caught a glance of himself in the mirror as he turned on the water, and had to admit that he looked awful. His hair was matted and stringy, falling limply to his shoulders, and his face was red and blotchy from crying. His hazel eyes were red-rimmed and as dull as he felt.

Andros took as long of a shower as he could without having Karone send Zhane to check that he hadn't drowned himself, wondering what he was supposed to tell them. He'd already told them that Ashley had broken up with him, and he needed to come up with a story that wouldn't send them to Ashley, asking for her version. He loved her too much to trick her into telling her story another time, when she hadn't truly been prepared to tell him.

Unable to come up with anything, he stepped out of the shower, not realizing until the air hit him that the water had been scalding hot. He didn't care. Drying himself off, he dressed in the clothes that someone- Karone, no doubt- had dumped onto the toiled seat.

Andros took another look at himself in the mirror before he walked slowly out of the room, his head still hanging, and he looked much better. Only his eyes now held any hint that he was deeply troubled. They were still empty, showing the world how shattered he was without her.

"Feel better?" Karone asked kindly. Andros nodded dumbly, still wishing that they would leave him alone to hide. "Now... what happened?"

"Ashley broke up with me," Andros mumbled as he sank down onto his bed. He could tell from the feel of the sheets that they had been changed, and he had no sooner sat down than a tray was forced into his hands, Karone ordering him to eat as he talked. Andros stared at the tray, feeling nauseous. Showering he could do, eating he could not.

"Why?"

Andros shook his head, not seeing the looks they exchanged over his head, and if he had, he wouldn't have cared. He'd promised Ashley that he would never reveal her secret, and he had no intentions of breaking that promise.

"Aw, come on, man, it can't be that bad, can it?"

Andros's response was to glare venomously at his best friend. "It's none of your business."

Karone's eyebrows arched in surprise. Thirty seconds before, Andros had been on the verge of tears for a second time, yet here he was now, his voice icy cold. She sighed. It was obvious that they weren't going to get a story out of him.

"We'll leave you alone," she offered, "if you promise to eat."

Andros stared at his food, now cooling off and becoming sickeningly greasy. "I'll try," he said weakly.

"That's all we want."

Sighing again, Karone took Zhane by the elbow, and dragged him out of the room, not seeing Andros already curling up on his bed. "What do you think?"

"That he knows," Zhane replied instantly. "Whatever's keeping Ashley in her room, he knows what it is, and we're not going to get it out of him."

"What'd you think could have happened?" Karone asked him, her voice low as she cast a furtive glance at Ashley's closed door. "They love each other... or at least, they loved each other."

"Andros is hopelessly in love," Zhane assured her. "Now, all we have to do is convince Ash to tell us what happened, and then we can start scheming."

"I'm not sure about this," Karone said anxiously, as they started off towards the holding bay. "If it was something stupid, I think we could've gotten it out of him. Zhane, it seems like there's something really wrong going on here."

"Nah," Zhane said airily. "I think Andros is just too embarrassed to tell us why he got dumped."

"Are you sure?" Karone fixed him with her piercing cerulean blue eyes. "You know him better than I do, but... there's something else going on here."

"I'm pretty sure," Zhane said slowly as they entered the holding bay, where their former teammates had congregated. A hint of uncertainty crossed his otherwise confident face. "But, let's just assume for a second that you're right... then whatever it is would have to be huge... "

"So what's up?" TJ asked them. He was dressed in his blue warm-up suit, and looked like he was ready to hit the Simudecks with Carlos and Cassie, who were dressed in a similar fashion. "Did Andros crack?"

Zhane shook his head. "Nope."

"And I somehow don't think he will," Karone said, looking thoughtful. "You should have seen him. He was pretty pitiful, and then when Zhane asked about Ashley, his voice turned cold so fast..."

"At least you got him to open the door," Carlos sighed. "Ashley's still ignoring us. If Deca didn't swear that she was still on the Megaship, I'd think she was at home or something."

"Break down the door," Zhane suggested. "I'll do it."

"Maybe we should leave them alone," Cassie said hesitantly. "I know that they're our friends, but maybe all they need is some space..."

Zhane shook his head emphatically. "You guys didn't see Andros. Poor guy looked pathetic..."

"So you guys don't think this will all just blow over if we give them time?" Cassie asked. Zhane and Carlos shook their heads immediately, while Karone and TJ shrugged helplessly.

"Did Andros say anything?" TJ asked. "The last time I saw him was that night at dinner, and..."

He gave a low whistle, as Cassie and Karone nodded their heads.

"Well..." Karone said hesitantly, not sure if it was really her place to be saying anything at all. "He said that Ashley broke up with him."

"Not the other way around?" Carlos said in surprise. "Wow. I mean, if I was going to have to pick a reason for them to split up, I'd have said that Andros got scared, and flipped... You guys don't think he cheated on her, do you?"

"Andros cheat on Ashley?" TJ was wondering if he'd heard right. "Somehow, I don't think that's it."

"I agree," Cassie said, twirling a few strand of her long raven hair between her fingers anxiously. "If that was it, Ashley would have been in here crying on our shoulders, not making her room into a fortress."

"You know," TJ said thoughtfully, "even if we don't get them back together, we should at least get Ash out of her room. Most of you know her better than I do, but I do at least know that a stunt like this isn't Ashley's style."

"Yeah," Cassie said, looking slightly abashed. How'd I forget about that? She's my best friend...

"It's all right," TJ said softly, and Cassie glanced at him out from under her eyelids in surprise, not wanting him to see her staring at him. How does he know?

"So we're back to breaking down the door?"

"Zhane, maybe you should go with her," Carlos suggested, shooting an anxious look at Karone, not wanting her to misunderstand. "Ashley might respond to you more..."

He stopped talking, still looking uncomfortably at Karone, who to his surprise, nodded her agreement. "I think Ashley sees you as a sort of brother figure," she said, her tone contemplative. "More than a friend, but definately not a potential boyfriend. She might let you in... Besides," she added with a wry smile, "if Andros sees you anywhere near her, he might be less inclined to keep you away from me."

"Good enough for me," Zhane said brightly, and Astroblaster soaring into his hand from across the room. TJ gave him a skeptical look. "I was serious about breaking down the door, you know."

Karone reached out and plucked the weapon from his grasp. "If you shoot at Ashley, what do you think is going to happen?"

"I won't be shooting at her," Zhane protested. Karone laughed.

"Trust me, Andros is not going to see it that way."

"Fine," Zhane said with a disappointed sigh. "Come on, Cass."

Cassie hopped down from the table she'd been perched on, casting a backwards glance at TJ as she did so. He didn't seem to be watching her, or at least not her specifically, but somehow, she could feel his eyes on her. She shrugged it off; she could sort out her feelings later.

Right now she had Ashley to worry about.