Disclaimer: Power Rangers is the property of Disney. I'm not Disney.
Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: Andros was controlling his temper. He wants to beat the guy into a bloody pulp and instead he stayed in his seat holding Ashley's hand. I'm not entirely sure what'll happen to Terry, I really want to write that sequel. :P
Jenny: You are an incredible writer. When you actually write. :P FL is Forever Light, but what's JC? Anyway, I know Terry is creepy. This entire chapter is creepy. Especially that second flashback...
Chapter 25
Ashley's head was bowed so low she was nearly resting her forehead on her knees. Her resolve never to show any sign of weakness had broken the moment the jury had filed out of the courtoom for deliberation, and now, a day later, it was all she could do to keep herself from letting her tears spill over.
Andros shifted on the bench next to her, and she glanced over at him, craving the reassuring smile she knew he would offer her. His soft hazel eyes met hers wearily, and he squeezed her hand encouragingly.
Ashley seemed to relax for a few moments, and he sighed inwardly, wishing for someway he could erase all traces of the stress and anguish the trial had inflicted upon her over the course of the last six weeks. To his great relief, Ashley hadn't been forced to testify all that time. Had she had to do so, he had his doubts that she would still be holding herself together nearly as well as she was. He'd only caught her in tears once during the past weeks, when her mother had taken the stand to speak out against her.
Alice Hammond's brown eyes were cold, hard, and blazing with the hatred that lived in the deepest regions of her soul as she stared down her daughter. Ashley's head was lowered against the glare of the woman who had betrayed her when she'd needed her the most.
Andros squeezed her fingers briefly, and he saw Jeff do the same, both of them seeking only to comfort her even the slightest bit at this moment. Her fingers were covered in cold sweat, and for a second or two, just as her mother began to speak, Andros was sure that she'd broken some of his fingers, although he couldn't be sure if the strength of her grip was from fear or sadness and anger.
"Did your daughter ever tell you that your husband had raped her?"
Alice was being questioned by one of the prosecutors. Andros knew that both Jeff and Ashley were forcing themselves to listen to this, and he exhaled quietly, struck with the sudden urge to take matters into his own hands, whatever that might mean. Logically, he knew that he couldn't do so, but when everything inside of him was screaming at him to protect her, he couldn't help but feel that he was doing a poor job of it so far.
"Once or twice," Alice answered after a moment. "Months before I married him."
"When?"
Alice paused to think about it. "You know, I can't really remember. It must have been about this time of year, December, maybe January. Three years ago, I think."
How could she treat this so lightly, Andros wondered, feeling Ashley trembling, this time with quiet rage. This was her daughter...
"What did she say?"
"Mmm... I think it started out something like 'Mom, while you were away, I woke up in the middle of the night and Terry was in my room.' "
"You don't remember?"
Even the lawyer seemed slightly startled, but Alice remained as calm and collected as she had been from the start.
"Not really," she admitted. "But it was all a lie."
Ashley let out a jagged breath too quickly, and it became a dry sob. Andros felt a sudden wetness on his hand a moment later, and glanced over to find Ashley's face flushed with tears.
"How do you know that?"
"She looked perfectly fine," Alice explained. "She was wearing a T-shirt when she came to talk to me, and I could see her arms. There were no bruises or anything. If he'd raped her, he would have had to hold her down."
"She was uninjured?"
"Completely."
That part, at least, was true. Ashley hadn't been a ranger for more than a year afterward, but the Power had lain dormant in her, keeping her immune to most diseases, and healing all her wounds within days, even hours. Andros didn't doubt that Ashley could have been examined thoroughly by a doctor and not a trace of the violence commited against her would have been discovered.
"How did you react when she told you that she'd woken up to find the defendant in her room?"
"I told her it must have all been a bad dream," she replied. "I know my husband, and he would never do what Ashley's accused him of."
"Mrs. Hammond, DNA test results show that your granddaughter is the defendant's child," the lawyer said slowly.
"Oh, those things aren't one hundred percent accurate," she said lightly. "Besides, my husband had several relatives visiting us that winter. Ashley could have slept with any of them."
Ashley's tears were continuous, but completely silent now. Jeff's jaw was clenched, and his eyes shone with tears of his own. Ashley dropped Andros's hand for what nearly was the first time in a week to swipe angrily at her tears, furious with herself for letting the world see how weak she truly was. Jeff turned to look at her and her tears began flowing again as she saw the expression on her brother's face.
Andros scooted away just enough for Jeff to have room to wrap his arms around Ashley. She leaned against her brother, still crying, unable to stand listening to another word her mother spoke, but the words refused to stop coming because she wanted them to.
"Yes," Alice was saying. "I know I've lost both my children by supporting my husband, but I know the truth. My husband has never harmed anyone, much less my own daughter. I love my children, but Ashley needs help, and Jeff is only being a good brother."
Jeff released Ashley and let his face rest in his palms. He wasn't crying yet, but he couldn't bear to watch this any longer. Ashley shifted towards Andros, her arms locking around his waist as her face disappeared into his chest. He quickly wrapped his arms around her in return, but said nothing, knowing that no words had the power to dull her pain.
Ashley let out her breath quietly, shaken out of her reverie as something crashed to the floor somewhere behind them. She judged from the look on Andros's face that he'd been just as far away as she.
"It's going to be all right, Ash," he told her suddenly. "Everything will be okay."
His confidence was encouraging, but Ashley couldn't let herself believe him just yet. She couldn't let herself dream of a future that hadn't yet happened, because she would be completely crushed when it never came.
"Andros," she began hesitantly. "If Terry gets off... will everyone here... will they all think I lied?"
"I won't," he promised her. "Jeff won't. Cassie, TJ, Carlos, Zhane, and Karone won't. We know what really happened."
Ashley nodded and glanced around the mostly empty courtroom. Besides Jeff and her friends, there was no one seated on the right side of the room, but on the opposite side of the room, several rows of seats were filled with Terry's large family, all people who had scorned her nearly as much as he had.
As she gazed across the room, her eyes met his, and she froze, torn between holding his gaze defiantly and shrinking back against Andros. He smirked at her and she bit her lip, trembling but refusing to look away, although the glint in his eyes frightened her more than anything she'd ever seen.
His eyes were still on her, as they had been from the moment he had entered the room on that first day, but before, she'd been able to shrink back between Jeff and Andros, removing herself from her line of vision. Now though, he was on the witness stand, nearly directly in front of her, and there was no way to avoid his gaze.
"What happened the night of December eighteenth of three years ago?"
"Nothing," Terry maintained, never even blinking. "Nothing at all."
"Nothing at all?" the lawyer repeated. "So Ashley Hammond did not wake up to find you in her bedroom?"
"I was there," he admitted. "Her mother was out of town, see, and I was told that she was prone to have nightmares. I was checking up on her, that's all. She never woke up."
Ashley felt her body seizing up as the memory hit, stronger than it had ever been save for the time when it wasn't yet a memory. Distantly, she was aware of Andros shifting in the seat next to her. His soft voice reached her ears, but she couldn't make out the words as she flew back in time, landing in her bedroom. For a fleeting instant, she was fifteen again, and in the last few moments before her life had become a living hell, she was happy.
"Ash, come on, don't do this to me."
Andros pleaded with her silently, but received no response of any kind. Ashley's face was blank, and her beautiful eyes were glazed over. He knew what was happening, but was powerless to prevent it as Ashley was pulled into the grasp of another nightmare.
The moment his vision was suddenly spliced in two, Andros understood what was happening and turned to behold Ashley in horror, still pleading with her to fight off the hold of her past even as she spiraled down further and further away from him.
To some degree, Ashley knew that she was still in the courtroom. She knew that the voice desperately trying to pull her back was Andros's, yet she couldn't respond, no matter how she struggled to reach out to him.
Most of her consciousness was back with her fifteen year old self, jolted awake in the middle of the night by instinct, the same instinct that had warned her too late that something was terribly, terribly wrong.
"Ash, come back," Andros shouted. "Ashley, don't do this, it's not real, please, just come back."
He could still see his own surroundings, but layered over the courtroom was Ashley's dark bedroom. Andros knew then that he was seeing through Ashley's eyes and there was no way he could end it for either of them.
There was a sudden motion in the darkness. He stepped out of the shadows and smirked down at her when he saw that she was now awake. Before she even had a chance to wonder at why he was there, she was pinned down, her wrists caught firmly in his right hand.
"ASHLEY!"
Andros screamed out for her desperately, but she was deaf to him. Bowing his head in defeat, he wrapped his arms around Ashley, holding her tight as the memory played out in both their minds. He closed his eyes, not bothering to hide or dam the tears that sprang into his eyes at Ashley's quiet cry of pain and shock.
He let the small, wet droplets roll steadily down his cheeks into Ashley's hair. She was perfectly still in his arms, her mind still locked into the past, replaying the darkest moments of her life time and time again, ignoring Andros's pleas for her to remember what was real.
Andros had no idea how quickly the time passed, but the sudden straining of Ashley's body against his arms couldn't have come soon enough. Dropping his strong hold on her instantly, he inched away from her as his tears continued to run, silent as always.
Her mind slowly processed the fact that it had only been a fragment of her imagination, but it had been all too real for Ashley. She exhaled slowly, her shaky grip on reality returning to her somewhat. She felt Andros next to her and slipped both her arms around his waist, crushing him but not caring. He'd tried to bring her back, and when he'd found that he couldn't...
"You saw that?" her mind wailed, not needing to see him to know he was in tears. "Oh, God, Andros..."
"Stop it," he told her firmly, though she knew his tears were still soaking into her hair. "It wasn't real, Ash. It was just a nightmare. This is real. Trust me."
"I do," she told him, dry sobs escaping her lips though her eyes were inexplicably dry. "I do."
"Then fight," he pleaded with her. "These are just memories. Just nightmares. You are stronger than they are. I've seen you fight, Ash. You've fought monsters."
"Just not humans."
Her mindvoice was bitter as she added the last and Andros sighed, not having the words to tell her that she was far stronger than himself. He supposed he'd always known that, but now he was forced to admit it, and not only to himself.
As Ashley's mind had betrayed her and forced her to relive the moments she was struggling desperately to forget, Andros had found himself staring straight into Terry's soul. The darkness there had promised death if he was met with resistence, and nothing but nearly unbearable pain if he took what he wanted.
Had it been him in Ashley's place, Andros knew with utter certainty that he wouldn't have had Ashley's courage. He would have taken the easy way out and died, not simply because he would have lost what little will to live he had, but because he would have been forced to live the remainder of his life in silence. He might have been the red ranger, but deep in his heart, Andros knew he was a coward.
Andros doubted Ashley had any real idea of how close she had come to death, and he knew that he would never be able to thank her for living, not when he suspected she was wishing that she had died. But she hadn't; she'd chosen life, and all the darkness that came with hers, and for that Andros was unspeakably, selfishly grateful.
He felt her arms tighten their grip around his waist for a moment. Andros glanced down at her in surprise, wondering if she knew what he was thinking. After a moment of hesitation, he decided he didn't care. Of all people, Ashley had a right to know what he was thinking. She'd admitted to him that, just as she had done for him, he had been the reason she'd wanted to remember what it felt like to live.
Ashley kept her head hidden against Andros, but her ears were working properly and the proceedings were still going on and on. She doubted very much that anyone but Andros had even noticed as she'd fallen into her nightmares. Taking a deep breath, she hugged Andros a little harder before releasing him entirely. Sitting up straight once again, she forced herself to listen to the lies she feared the jury took as truth.
"Did you rape Ashley Hammond?"
"No," he replied just as calmly as he had to every other question. "I never touched her."
Terry smirked at her another time when Ashley couldn't look away, but though his face scorned her, his eyes were strangely unsettled. If he was thinking of that first night as well, it wouldn't have surprised her. She wondered if he regretted what he had done to her.
She didn't care.
It was too late to wonder what her life could have been. It had been to late the moment she'd seen the blue lines on the home pregnancy test. Tawny meant everything to her, and Ashley couldn't find it in her heart to wish her daughter away.
"Andros?" she asked suddenly, not knowing where the question came from, but voicing it nonetheless. "Tawny and I... we're safe on the Megaship, aren't we?"
"Always," he promised her, squeezing her fingers lightly. His voice sounded over the quiet creak of an opening door. Ashley's head swiveled in the direction of the sound, her pulse skyrocketing as the jury filed in.
It's going to be all right, she told herself shakily, nearly forgetting to breathe. It's going be all right, it's going to be all right...
The world seemed to be spinning as the twelve men and women slowly took their seaets. Ashley could hear blood rushing through her ears, her heart beating so quickly, she could feel her pulse throughout her entire body.
Her nails had dug into Andros's hands deeply enough to draw blood, the small red droplets oozing out of his broken skin, but he said nothing, not even bothering to pry her hands off of his.
Ashley's body was tense as she braced herself for something she didn't want to hear. She didn't move, didn't blink, didn't breathe as the verdict was read, the long, formal statement more than enough to make her head spin, but there was one word she heard over and over again, the one word that she truly hadn't expected to hear.
"Guilty."