Disclaimer: I don't own the Power Rangers. They just talk to me.

Jenny: Nope, you haven't seen this before. I only sent you and Marieke up to chapter 12. :P Yay, you have time to write! And that's a perfect description of a fairy.

Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: I'm working on your brother... kinda. I've been busy and I'm not totally inspired, but I swear I'll finish the story sometime this year. :P

C.C.C: Thanks. Don't worry, there's going to be a happy ending, even if it doesn't seem like it for awhile. There's going to be a lot more of Andros and Jeff since I was having a lot of fun with them.

Mel: Thank. My school doesn't have a national honor society. They don't have a lot of things... :P

Author's Note: Get ready for a long conversation between Andros and Ashley.

Chapter 14

"Ashley, I really need to talk to you," were not the first words Ashley either expected or wanted to hear the moment she stepped out of her bedroom the next morning. Shifting a sleepy Tawny on her hip, she turned to glare at the speaker.

"What do you want?"

"I need to talk to you," Zhane repeated, his light blue eyes strangely intense as they focused themselves on her own brown orbs. "Now, if possible."

Ashley sighed and stared at him carefully. "You look serious."

"I am."

"What do you want?"

"To talk to you," Zhane said for the third time, now sounding overly patient.

"So talk."

"I need to talk to you alone and as far away from Andros as is physically possible."

"Now that sounds more like you," Ashley said. "What did you do?"

Zhane's look of exasperation was nearly enough to send Ashley into a fit of giggles, despite the fact that she wasn't in a particularly cheery mood. "Why do I always have to do something?" he demanded. "Why can't I ever... oh, what's the use?"

"Sorry," she said sheepishly. "Deca, where's Andros?"

"Andros is still asleep," Deca informed them and Zhane breathed a sigh of relief.

"That gives us some time," he said, grasping her by the arm, ready to let her go if she flinched away. When she didn't, he steered her towards the Megalift, leading her onto the Simudeck.

"What are we doing here?"

"This way Tawny can be distracted," Zhane said absently, toying with the controls. A moment later, green gridlines sprung up across the room and a playground appeared, complete with several slides just the right size for the little girl.

"You were serious about the alone thing," Ashley remarked, settling herself on the ground as Tawny ran off.

"Yeah," Zhane agreed uneasily. He glanced at her and took a deep breath. "I was... How do you feel about Andros?"

"Zhane..."

"I know you don't want to talk about it," he interrupted. "I wouldn't be asking if it wasn't important. Just answer the question, Ash, please."

She sighed and looked away, twirling several synthetic blades of grass between her slender fingers before her mouth opened. "Andros and Tawny are the two people who mean the most to me."

"Good," Zhane said, a relieved smile crawling across his features. "So you still want to be with him."

He'd half expected Ashley to fly into a fit of some sort and either start screaming at him or crying, but she did neither. With a heavy sigh, her shoulders seemed to slump forward, and she drew her knees up to her chin as she slowly nodded her head yes.

"You need to tell him that."

"I can't," Ashley said firmly, unable to look him in the eye. "I don't want to hurt myself like that. Not when he doesn't want to be with me."

"You think he doesn't want to be with you?" Zhane asked increduously, wondering how it was possible for the both of them to be so blind. "Ashley, that's not true."

"Zhane, he might have said that he'd wait for me when he found out about Tawny, but obviously he's changed his mind since then," Ashley said, her voice slowly starting to quaver. "I know that I was the one to break up with him, but he was the one who wanted to just be f-friends..."

Her voice broke off as she started to cry, and Ashley buried her face in her hands, shrugging off Zhane's comforting hand. The blond boy sighed, running his fingers through his short hair in frustration, already knowing that Andros was going to kill him, or at the very least, send him back into the deep freeze for another two years or so.

"Ash," he said very gently when she'd calmed down. "Do you want to know why Andros wanted to be friends with you?"

"You're going to tell me whether I want to know or not, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Zhane said. "And you'd better believe it too, or else he'll kill me for nothing... Andros is an idiot, Ash, and an awful actor, and he wouldn't listen when I told him so."

"What's the point?" Ashley was starting to eye him a little warily, and Zhane decided he'd best hurry up.

"Andros never wanted to be apart from you," he told her. "He left you alone because he thought that's what you wanted, and that's why he wanted to be friends with you. Because he thought that's what you wanted, and he's afraid of losing you completely if he tells you how he really feels."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Ashley appeared about to cry again.

"Because sooner or later, probably sooner, Andros is going to do something incredibly stupid," Zhane said. "He can't hide how he feels forever, and I just thought you might appreciate the warning."

"I... thanks," she said softly, a faint ray of hope shining in her dulled eyes. "I need to think."

"I'll leave you alone then," Zhane said, hopping up. "Bye, Tawny."

"Bye!" she shouted back, tumbling down the slide headfirst. Once at the bottom, she scrambled to her feet again, eager to repeat the experience.

"I think I used to do that," Zhane said, pausing to watch her for a moment.

"You must have landed on your head too hard." A small grin appeared on Ashley's tearstained face.

"Probably," Zhane agreed with a grin of his own. "I thought it was kinda fun, though."

Ashley's sad expression returned as her snort of laughter faded, and Zhane left the Simudeck quickly, groaning inwardly as he nearly collided with Andros.

"What are you doing here?" Zhane demanded as Andros asked, "Have you seen Ashley?"

Zhane shifted uncomfortably. "She's in there."

Andros's eyes narrowed. "Zhane..."

"I told her nothing she didn't need to hear," he said, and bolted. Andros glared after him for a moment before poking his head cautiously onto the Simudeck, ready to deny whatever Zhane had told Ashley, however true it might be.

"Ash?"

As Andros spoke her name, Ashley's head shot up off her knees, and she spun around to face him. One look at her face told him that she'd been crying, and he made a mental note to throttle Zhane the next time the opportunity presented itself.

"Ash, I'm sorry," he said quickly, crouching down beside her. His fingers itched to touch her arm, but he couldn't bring himself to do so, not anymore. "Whatever Zhane said to you, it wasn't true. He..."

"Andros, sit," Ashley said. With one hand, she reached out and tugged hard on his arm, pulling him down all the way. Andros didn't protest, and Ashley truly looked him in the eye for the first time in weeks. "I think maybe we should talk."

"We need to talk," Andros agreed. "But not about whatever Zhane said, if you don't want to. He doesn't know what he was saying, Ash. I don't..."

"Andros," Ashley interrupted softly, and he ceased rambling. "Why did you ask to be friends?"

"I can't lose you," Andros mumbled, his resolve never to tell her crumbling as he saw the torn look in her eyes. "I don't know what to do without you, Ash, and it was the only way I could think of."

She nodded her head slowly, contemplating what he'd said as she watched her daughter swing for a long minute. "Andros, I just need to know. Are you saying that if I hadn't broken up with you then you wouldn't have broken up with me?"

"That's why you broke up with me?" Andros exclaimed before he could help himself. "So I couldn't do it? Ash, I never would have."

"I'm sorry, Andros," she whispered, looking and feeling tremendously ashamed of herself. "I'm so sorry. I just needed some time for everything to sink in. I should have trusted you... trusted us..."

Her already quiet voice gradually diminished in strength as she spoke, and by the end, Andros was reading her lips more than anything else. At her last words, he looked at her carefully, searching her face anxiously for anything to give him hope, and finding nothing.

"Ash, you don't need to apologize," he told her, thinking that he should say something. "It's all right."

"No, it's not," Ashley said quietly, swallowing hard as she raised her eyes to his. "So don't pretend that it is."

"Ash..."

"No, Andros," she said sadly. "Don't act like it's all right that I hurt you."

"Ash, I..." Andros stared at her, unable to come up with a reply. "You..."

Ashley sighed, hugging her knees to her chin as she fought hard to keep her voice steady. "I know I've hurt you, Andros. I never meant to, or wanted to. I just... I didn't know how long I'd need, and I couldn't ask you to spend the rest of your life hanging around waiting for me to deal with everything that I've been hiding from."

"Ash..." Andros sighed and opened his arms, his eyes silently pleading with her to come closer. Ashley hesitated visibly, leaning in towards him and then drawing back sharply, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from his. Slowly, Ashley edged closer to him, allowing him to envelop her in his arms. She wrapped her arms around him a moment later, forcing the oxygen out of his lungs with the strength of her grip, mumbling apologies into his neck.

Gently, Andros disentangled himself from Ashley just enough to allow him to stare into her eyes. The words died on her lips as she gazed back at him, furious with herself. Why had she forced him away? There was no hatred or resentment in his eyes, only the soft look that she had wanted to drown herself in so many times.

There was a slight widening to Ashley's chocolate brown eyes, and something deep inside of Andros snapped. He couldn't do this. It was beginning to slowly drive him crazy to have her this close and not be able to touch her... or to kiss her...

Ashley stiffened as Andros touched his lips to hers, clueless as to how she should react. Torn between leaning into him and shoving him off of her, she did absolutely nothing and held herself perfectly still. When it dawned on Andros that he was kissing her, his head jerked back and he stared at her wildly. Her mouth opened and closed several times, but Ashley couldn't form any coherent thoughts, much less words. Andros couldn't bring himself to tear his eyes away from hers, knowing that the instant he did so, she would snap out of the daze she was in.

She was shaking slightly, not much, but with their bodies pressed as close together as they were, Andros was painfully aware of it. A moment later, he realized why she was trembling, and was torn between bursting into tears and throwing himself into the nearest black hole. When he'd pried Ashley's arms loose, his hands had fastened themselves onto her wrists. He'd never released the hold on her, leaving her unable to pull away from him.

"Ash, I'm sorry," he cried, dropping her hands, immense guilt flooding into his face and eyes as he realized what he'd done. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to... I'll go now."

Ashley watched him climb to his feet and turn to go, still stunned. As he reached the doors to the Simudeck, she jumped up, calling after him, "Wait!"

He stopped, and slowly turned, carefully avoiding her eyes. "I'm sorry, Ash," he said again. "I don't know what I was thinking."

Ashley cocked her head at him, scrutinizing his expression before daring to say anything. His guilt was clear to her; he hadn't even bothered to try to hide it. There was also the heavy look of sadness that Ashley herself had become too well accquainted with over the past three weeks. It was an expression that she'd seen on Andros's face far too many times, and the knowledge that she was the cause of it now cut through her more thoroughly than any blade.

"Andros..." She finally forced herself to speak. Her mind tried to keep the words in and screamed at her that she was making the biggest mistake of her life, but her heart disagreed and didn't care. "Do you... do you still want me?"

"Yes," Andros exclaimed, falling into the same state as Ashley. The words formed on his lips without his knowledge, and before he realized it, he'd blurted out, "Ash, I love you."