Disclaimer: Power Rangers doesn't belong to me... darn.

Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: You need cheering up? All right, next time I talk to you, I'll show you the first part of my next story. It's not happy, but it should cheer you up. :P

Jenny: Here's more. Don't fail. :P

Mel: Yay, you got an A-! I thought the 'reading my mind I need a hug' part was sweet. :P

Mz. Daydream: No, they are not back together, but don't worry, this story will end happy, I swear.

Chapter 12

Ashley breathed a soft sigh of relief as Tawny stopped wailing, but continued rocking her back and forth absentmindedly for several minutes afterward. "It's okay, sweetie," she murmured once more before setting Tawny down onto the floor.

"Can I watch movie?" Tawny asked, her tears forgotten. Ashley smiled and nodded.

"Has she ever been to the movies?" Andros asked. Ashley realized that she was still sitting in his lap, and moved quickly.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "And I don't think I'm ready to take her anywhere."

"You could turn the Simudeck into a movie theater," Andros suggested. "Do you think she'd like that?"

"Yeah," Ashley said, the corners of her mouth turning up into a small smile. "Ask her yourself."

Andros glanced at her anxiously. "Are you sure?"

"It was your idea," Ashley told him. "Go on."

"All right," Andros said uncertainly. "Tawny? Do you want to go to the movies?"

"Yes!" she shrieked. "When movie? Can movie be now?"

"If it's okay with your mommy," Andros said, glancing at Ashley once again.

"Please Mommy?" Tawny begged.

Ashley's smile was no longer forced, and she nodded. "We'll all go."

Faint music floated through the air, and Andros glanced at Ashley curiously. "What's that?"

"Oh, that's just my phone," Ashley said airly, her smile disappearing. "It's not important. Let's go."

Andros remembered what he had originally come to Ashley's room for. "That's Jeff, isn't it?"

"Probably," Ashley sighed, not bothering to ask how he knew. "Why can't he just leave me alone?"

"Because he's worried about you," Andros said softly. "He wants to know that you're okay. You pretty much vanished into thin air."

"I did not," Ashley protested. "I left a note."

"Ash, if you don't want to talk to him, the least you could do is tell him that you're all right."

"If I talk to him, then he'll want to see me," Ashley said. She sighed, and sat down on her bed. "And how am I supposed to tell him the truth? Terry means a lot to Jeff."

"But you should mean more," Andros said, sitting down beside her.

"What if I don't?" Ashley challenged him, the now-silent phone clutched in her hands. "If I make Jeff choose, I'm afraid that he won't choose me. I don't think I could stand to lose him too."

"Mommy, hurry!"

"In a minute, sweetie," Ashley said, staring at the phone.

"You don't have to tell him right away," Andros said. "Just call and tell him that you're all right. You can do that much, can't you?"

"I guess," Ashley said uncertainly. She exhaled slowly before dialing Jeff's number.

He answered immediately.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Jeff," Ashley said nervously. "It's me."

"Ashley!" Jeff exclaimed. "I've been so worried about you. Where are you? Is Tawny all right?"

"I'm living on the Megaship," Ashley said. "Tawny's fine."

"Ash, why did you leave?"

"I can't talk about that," Ashley said. "Not yet. I just wanted to tell you that I'm okay."

She hung up the phone before Jeff could say anything else. Turning her attention to Andros, she asked, "Happy now?"

He chose not to reply. Ashley was glad for his silence; she doubted that she would have appreciated anything he had to say. Instead, he focused on Tawny, who was attempting to drag both him and Ashley out of the door. Laughing, Andros scooped her up into his arms and offered her to Ashley.

"She likes you," Ashley commented, watching her daughter fasten her arms around Andros's neck despite his efforts to hand the little girl over. "You can carry her."

Something unreadable passed through Andros's eyes, and slowly, he shook his head. "I just remembered, I have to... um, I have to go, but I'll come back later. Is that all right?"

Hurt filled Ashley's eyes, and he winced inwardly, but he had to get out of there. Ashley stared at him for a moment, and then nodded, avoiding his gaze once again. "Sure," she agreed. "Whenever."

"Okay," Andros said quickly, freeing his neck from Tawny's grasp. "I'll see you two later. Have fun."

Andros left quickly and initially headed in the opposite direction of the Simudeck, walking as fast as he could, hoping to be out of sight by the time Ashley and Tawny finally left the room. Once he was what he figured to be a safe distance away, he stopped, sinking down to the floor, his back against the wall.

What's wrong with me? Ashley's never going to want to talk to me again, not after that. Why did I have to do that? Why did I do that?

"Andros?"

He groaned. "Not now, Zhane."

"Hey man, what's wrong?" Paying absolutely no attention to the fact that his best friend obviously didn't want to talk to him, the former silver ranger promptly joined him on the floor. "What happened with Ashley? Was it that bad?"

"No," Andros muttered. "Everything was perfectly fine for a half hour or so. I got Ashley to call Jeff and tell him that she was okay. She even agreed that we could be friends."

"That's great!" Zhane congratulated him. "So... why are you sitting here sulking?"

"I'm not sulking," Andros protested.

Zhane rolled his eyes. "Moping, then."

Andros sighed. "We were going to turn the Simudeck into a movie theater for Tawny. I picked her up, and Ashley said I could carry her, and then... I don't know, I just had to get out of there."

"Why?"

Andros shrugged. "I don't know."

"You don't know why you ran away from Ashley?"

"I wasn't running away," Andros protested. "Not from Ashley, anyway."

"So you're running away from a two-year-old?" Zhane asked skeptically.

"No," Andros said defensively.

"Then what's going on?" Zhane demanded.

"It's stupid," Andros muttered. "But I was afraid I'd drop her."

"You were afraid of dropping Tawny?"

Andros nodded, his head snapping up to glare daggers at Zhane when the blond boy snorted with laughter.

"Let me see if I understand you here," Zhane said, controlling the urge to laugh hysterically. "You're scared that you're going to drop the little girl, so instead of doing what most people would do, setting her on the ground, you run away from her, and her mother, who you are completely and hopelessly in love with, making her feel hurt enough that she'll probably never want to speak to you again. Is that it?"

"Yes?"

"Andros," Zhane sighed, "that's the most idiotic thing I've ever heard."

"I -"

"I'm not saying that you weren't afraid that you were going to drop her," he continued. "Hell, you probably were going to. I'm just saying that you've come up with what has to be the sorriest excuse for running."

Andros looked away before mumbling, "That's because it is just an excuse."

"Well, I know that!" Zhane exlcaimed. "Now, what really happened?"

Andros shook his head. "This is going to sound even stupider."

"I very much doubt that."

"Fine," Andros snapped, his temper aggravated by Zhane's tone, but his voice softend as he continued. "When Ashley told me about Tawny, I never thought about breaking up with her, but I didn't want that much to do with Tawny, either. I guess she knew that, and that had a lot to do with why she broke up with me instead."

"And...?" Zhane prompted as Andros stopped speaking.

"And then yesterday, I ended up watching her while Ashley went to talk to you guys," Andros said. "I don't know why I did that, but I did, and when Tawny woke up, I couldn't just sit there and ignore her. She's always so happy, and I realized that she didn't bother me at all."

"Andros," Zhane said slowly, carefully scrutinizing his friend's expression before continuing. "When you say she doesn't bother you, is that your way of saying that you're starting to care about her?"

"Yes," Andros muttered reluctantly. "I love Ashley, and now I'm starting to love her daughter."

"So tell her," Zhane urged. "She just might be interested in knowing that."

"I can't do that!"

"Why not?" Zhane demanded.

"We're not together anymore," Andros cried. "Until today, she was terrified of me!"

"But she's not anymore," Zhane pointed out. "Look, I'm not telling you to propose to her or anything, but the least she deserves is for you to be, you know, honest with her."

"But-" Andros started to protest, and sighed heavily. "How am I supposed to tell her?"

"Just tell her you want to talk to her," Zhane advised him. "Andros, if you don't tell her, sooner or later, you're gonna do something to give yourself away, and she'll react much worse then than if you just go up to her now and tell her."

"I won't screw this up," Andros said determinedly. "Ashley means too much to me."

"Andros," Zhane said, "you are an awful actor."

"I can't tell her, Zhane," Andros snapped. "I'd lose her again if I did."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Zhane, listen to me," Andros said firmly. "Me going up to her and saying, 'Ashley, I love you, I'm dying without you' isn't exactly what she needs right now."

"Maybe it is," Zhane retorted. He paused, and added with a grin, "Okay, leave out the 'dying without you' part."

"It's not funny," Andros protested. In a much more muted voice, he whispered, "I think I am."

Zhane opened his mouth to reply, and closed it abruptly, seeing the mournful look on Andros's face. "You're serious." Andros nodded, and Zhane groaned. "That's another problem that could be solved by telling Ashley how you feel."

"I'm afraid she'll never want to see me again," Andros muttered.

"So you're best - and only - plan is to be friends with Ashley, who you're in love with, and hope that she doesn't notice and you don't do anything stupid to make her notice?"

"Do you have a better idea?" Andros challenged.

"Telling her!"

"No."

"Andros," Zhane sighed. "You are going to screw this up big time."

Zhane hopped to his feet saying something about meeting Karone and took off down the hall before the words could slip past all thoughts of Ashley to register in Andros's mind.

"Deca, are Ashley and Tawny still on the Simudeck?"

"Affirmative," Deca replied.

Andros sighed and stood up. If nothing else, he should apologize to Ashley for leaving the way he did. He wondered if Zhane was right; maybe he should tell Ashley. He wished he knew if Ashley loved him. Probably not; she had broken up with him after all, but if he knew what she was feeling, it would make his decision much easier.

He reached the Simudeck and slipped in quietly, not wanting to disturb Tawny, who was thouroughly entranced with everything. Tawny was settled in Ashley's lap almost in the exact center of the theater, and Andros sat down in the seat beside them.

"Hey," he whispered, loudly enough to get Ashley's attention, but nowhere near the level of volume he would need to distract Tawny from the movie. "Ashley, I'm sorry about before. I didn't mean to run away like that."

Ashley glanced at him, and nodded. She turned her attention back to the movie, but could feel Andros watching her out of the corner of his eye, and shifted uncomfortably.

"What?" she asked, using her telepathy for the first time in weeks.

"Nothing," Andros said hastily. "What movie is this?"

"'The Lion King,'" Ashley replied. "Ever seen it?"

"No," he said, and for the next sixty-five minutes, Andros concentrated very hard on the animals and their story.