Disclaimer: Power Rangers... not mine.

Melissa: I love writing the devil/angel thing, especially for Andros. I can go on forever with him. I actually type pretty slow, but I've been working on this story since the end of August. :P

Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: Yup, she's safe. For now. Now she can marry Andros. Children? What children? I have no idea what you're talking about. :P

Chylea3784: I doubt I would have handled it well either. There are some things that you just don't do.

C.C.C: Well, I skipped ahead a month or so, so Ashley will be recovered enough to say yes, but it will take a lot longer for her to heal completely.

Jenny: Oh yeah, my birthday present. :P Just write something. I don't even care what story anymore.

Chapter 26

"Sorry I'm late!"

Zhane rushed into the glider bay, Karone right on his heels. Andros shot the two of them an exasperated glare before shrugging and glancing down at Tawny, who had crawled into his lap sometime in the last ten minutes. She mimicked his expression and he had to laugh.

"Zhane, even the baby was here before you were," Cassie teased. "And you were the one who called this meeting."

"I not a baby!"

"You're sure not," Cassie agreed, laughing at Tawny's indignant expression, made all the more amusing as her face was smeared with most of her breakfast. "I don't know what I was thinking."

"I not a baby," Tawny repeated, glancing around to make doubly sure that everyone had gotten the point. "Really."

Ashley leaned across Andros's arm to kiss her forehead. "We know."

Tawny wrinkled her nose, scrubbing at her forehead with her small hands, and Ashley laughed softly. She'd been able to do so more and more often in the last month, and for that, Andros was unspeakably glad.

"Anyway..." Zhane cleared his throat and attention gradually shifted back to him. "Who actually still lives here besides Karone and Andros and me? Just Ash and Tawny?"

"Yeah," Cassie said after a thoughtful pause. "Teej, Carlos, and I rented out an apartment together on Monday."

"Good luck with that," Andros said dryly, earning himself a slap on the arm from Ashley and a mock glare from Cassie, but she laughed along with the rest of them.

"Why'd you want to know, Zhane?" Carlos asked.

"Well, see..." Zhane suddenly looked sheepish.

"He's homesick," Karone filled in. "And, well, to tell you the truth, this isn't my home. I don't know if KO-35 is either, but..."

"So you guys are leaving?" Cassie said sadly. She could understand why, of course, but she would miss them.

"Yeah," Zhane admitted. "As soon as we can."

Ashley turned to see how Andros was taking to this news. He didn't look too shocked, but she was surprised to see the torn look in his eyes. He wanted to go back too, she realized slowly, biting her lip at the thought of losing him now, after all the time he had spent at her side. The trial had ended four weeks ago, but Andros was still with her and Tawny most hours of the day, and truthfully, she wasn't sure that she could go on without him.

"You want to go," she said softly.

Andros nodded slowly without a word, staring down at the top of Tawny's head. Ashley sighed sadly, knowing that after everything he had done for her she didn't have the heart to keep him here with her if there was somewhere else he'd rather be.

"Then you should."

He shook his head, finally meeting her eyes. "No," he told her, his voice tentative as he went on. "Not without you."

"Andros?"

"Come with me?" he asked quietly.

"You want me to move to KO-35 with you?" she said, just to be sure she had it right. "Andros, I..."

"If you don't want to, I understand," he was quick to add, suddenly very conscious of the fact that the room was far from empty and all eyes were on him and Ashley. "I can't ask you to give up your home, especially not so suddenly, and if you stay, so do I, but if you'd want to, just for a little while even..."

"Andros," she said softly, and he ceased rambling. "Let me think for a few minutes, okay?"

He nodded, and they both fell silent as their friends broke into conversation. The answer was really an easy one, Ashley realized a moment later. She'd known for weeks that Angel Grove could never be her home any longer, and while she'd never given any thought as to where she'd actually like to end up, KO-35 suddenly appealed to her at the moment. With that much distance between herself and her past, Ashley thought that she could finally let go.

And then there's Andros... I can't live without him.

And he wants to go home.

Ashley smiled to herself, her eyes narrowing as she suddenly realized how... convenient this all was.

"Which one of you planned this?" she demanded, eyeing the three Karovans suspiciously.

"Actually..." Karone grinned at her. "We didn't plan anything, really. It just took us awhile to realize that we all felt the same way."

"We figured Andros wasn't going anywhere without you," Zhane added. "But he was too chicken to talk to you before."

"But we did know you wanted to get away," Karone admitted.

Ashley rolled her eyes at the pair of them before glancing down at her daughter, wrapped snugly in Andros's arms.

"What do you think, Tawny?" she asked. "Do you want to go?"

"Go where?"

"KO-35," Ashley explained. "It's where Andros, Zhane, and Karone are from."

"We live there?" Tawny asked.

"Yeah, we would."

"We've even got the houses," Zhane added helpfully. Ashley raised an eyebrow at him and he shrugged. "Well... Andros inherits his parents house, if he wants it. My parents finally made it back home, and moved back into our old house..."

"Which just happens to be next door to Andros's house," Ashley finished for him, laughing. "So everything just happens to work out perfectly."

"No," Karone said. "Not unless you come."

Andros hadn't spoken in several minutes, Ashley realized, and he was doing a good job of avoiding everyone's eyes. Smiling, she reached out to touch his arm, watching his face relax into a hesitant smile as he took in her expression.

"My home is with you," she said simply, repeating the words he'd once told her. "If you want to go, then we're coming with you."

His eyes lit up at her words, and he extended one arm out to her, drawing her into a hug as best he could with Tawny still in his lap. She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Thank you," he whispered for her ears only. "I love you, Ash."

"I love you too," she whispered back. Drawing away, she glanced at Zhane and Karone. "When are we leaving?"

"We-ell..." Karone said slowly, before grinning sheepishly. "Whenever you want. Tonight, even."

Ashley rolled her eyes at them, but couldn't keep back her smile - or the sudden intense longing to leave the Earth far behind.

"Give me the rest of the day to say goodbye to Jeff?"

"Sure," Karone agreed. "We'll leave tonight then."

"We didn't plan anything," Zhane insisted, laughing at the look Ashley gave him. "Well... I didn't anyway."

Ashley didn't miss the fact that everyone in the room suddenly seemed to be hiding a smile, or the fact that Karone had just kicked Zhane under the table.

"What's going on?"

The moment Andros eased Tawny out of his lap, understanding hit her, and she bit her lip, struck completely speechless. He slowly sank to one knee before her, showing her a nervous smile as his fingers fumbled for hers.

"I love you," he began softly, his voice a shaky whisper. "I think I fell in love with you the moment I first saw you, and that scared me more than anything. I'd lost everything, but I knew that if I woke up one day and you were gone, I wouldn't be able to live."

"Andros," she whispered through the lump in her throat as he paused for breath.

His grip on her fingers tightened briefly in the seconds before he dropped her hands, reaching into his pocket to produce a small black box. He opened it slowly, trying to force his trembling hands still enough to do so. Taking a deep breath, he looked straight into her teary brown eyes.

"Ashley, will you marry me?"

"Yes," she breathed, sinking slowly to the floor, kneeling down alongside of him and throwing her arms around his neck. The moment she did so, she felt Andros nearly collapse into her with relief, and she couldn't keep herself from giggling a bit. "Did you really think I was going to say no?"

"You did the first time," he whispered in her ear before he thought better of it, and she winced.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, now practically strangling him with her hug. "I love you, Andros."

"I know you do," he whispered. "I love you too, Ash."

Andros pried himself loose just long enough to pull the ring free from its box. He reached for her left hand, lightly caressing her knuckles with the underside of his thumb. Ashley's radiant smile beamed up at him as he carefully slipped the ring over the fourth finger of her left hand, sliding it along the length of her finger until it came to rest just above her knuckle.

"It's... gorgeous," she whispered, tears of joy spilling over her cheeks, blurring her vision.

"So are you," he said earnestly, grasping her gently by the chin, pulling her into the sweetest of kisses. As he raised her face to his, Ashley was left unable to doubt the complete sincerity of his words for even a single instant.

Andros stood, slipping his hands into hers and tugging her to her feet, gathering her into his arms as she continued to cry. Ashley buried her face in his shoulder, never wanting to forget the complete joy that surrounded the two of them at this moment.

The sound of several throats clearing at once forced them apart and they turned to face their friends, none of whom were bothering to act as though they hadn't been staring. The room exploded into cheering and congratulations as Andros slipped both his arms around Ashley's waist, hugging her hard as he tried to get his breathing under control.

"Mommy?"

They broke apart again as Tawny tugged on Ashley's pants leg, staring up at them curiously. Ashley crouched down until she was at eye level with Tawny, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand.

"What happened?" Tawny demanded. "Why you crying?"

"I'm crying because I'm happy," Ashley told her, now laughing through her tears. "Because Andros and I are going to get married."

"Married?" Tawny repeated. "What that?"

"It means that the three of us will be a family," she explained. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"Family?" Tawny repeated. "He be my family?"

Ashley smiled. "He'd be your daddy."

"Daddy?" Now Tawny looked confused. "You say I don't have daddy."

"But when Andros and I get married, he becomes your daddy," Ashley said slowly. "Do you understand how that works?"

"He be my daddy?"

Tawny pointed at Andros, who was suddenly looking more anxious than he had when he'd asked Ashley to marry him. Ashley nodded, smiling.

"Yeah," she said. "He'd be your daddy."

"Okay."

Tawny nodded happily and Andros finally relaxed completely, sinking down to gather both of them up in his arms.