Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be.

Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: Here ya go... but it stops being cute right about now. :P

Jessica01: Let's see if you're right...

Just Jill: This chapter should give it away.

Jenny: Yeah, they're married. Chapter 7 was about ten minutes before the wedding and Chapter 8 was about a month later...

Melissa: Your spelling got better, mine got worse. :P It's better than swapping allergies with your friends, though... Ashley wasn't crying about anything really, she was just crying. Of course Andros really cares!

Chapter 9

"Ash! Hey, Ash!"

The enclosed corridor echoed loudly, but the shout had its desired effect. Ashley stopped and glanced over her shoulder, letting her friend catch up to her.

"Oh, hey, Carlos," she said. She offered the former black ranger a tired smile. "What's going on?"

"Apparently, TJ and Cassie want to celebrate," he said with a grin. "Seeing how we all survived our first semester of college and all. Wanna come?"

Ashley hesitated. "Where?"

"Cassie's."

"Sure," Ashley said. "I'll stay for as long as I can."

"You busy?"

"No." Ashley shook her head with a sigh. "Just a little tired."

"You know, you can go home if you want," Carlos said, taking a good look at his friend for the first time in weeks. "We'll all see each other in a few days, anyway."

"No," Ashley said firmly. "I want to go... and Andros could probably use a break from me."

"Ash?" Carlos had been inclined to take the statement as a joke, but the sudden dejection that sprang into his friend's face made him wonder.

She bit her lip. "It's nothing."

"It doesn't sound like nothing," Carlos said quietly. "Is something wrong?"

"No."

"Ash."

"Nothing's wrong, Carlos," Ashley insisted.

Carlos sighed. "Ash, if you don't want to talk to me - "

"There's nothing to talk about," Ashley said irritably.

"Then you can always talk to Cassie," he finished, unfazed.

Ashley sighed. "Carlos, there's nothing wrong..."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," she said firmly.

"So you're looking depressed for no reason at all?"

"I look depressed?" Ashley quickly forced a smile.

"Ashley, I've known you for ten years," Carlos reminded her. "Who do you think you're fooling?"

Ashley made a face at him. "Trying to fool," she said ruefully. "It's nothing, really. Nothing to worry about, anyway."

"Ash..."

"You really want to know?" she said finally.

"Yeah."

"It's Andros," she burst out, realizing for the first time how desperate she was just to vent to someone.

"What about him?"

"I'm horrible to him," she admitted, sinking down onto one of the wooden benches that lined the corridor. "I don't mean to be, but he's just there, and it's so easy just to snap at him over nothing... or worse, for caring about me. He'll ask me if I'm all right, or if the baby's fine, and then I'll just... A few days ago, I couldn't stop crying, and he just held me, and then I yelled at him that I was fine and told him not to stare at me like I wasn't."

"Ash, you can't be the first pregnant woman to have mood swings," Carlos pointed out. "What does Andros do?"

"Nothing," she cried. "That's the worst part. He'll just kind of duck his head down and not look at me for a long time, but he'll never snap back. He won't say anything at all, and then, if I even feel bad enough to want to apologize, he won't let me. He says that it's all right, and he understands, but he can't possibly, he just doesn't want to fight..."

Ashley sighed and shook her head. There were no doubts in her mind that she owed Andros an apology or ten. How he could be as incredibly and impossibly patient as he was Ashley had no idea, but somehow, Andros had never lost his temper with her, never even snapped back. His calmness only served to make her feel worse; no matter how tired and irritable she was, Andros deserved better than for her to use him to vent out her anger. Deciding then and there that she was going to reign in her temper, Ashley sighed, realizing that no matter how much Andros loved her, she could only push him so far before he wouldn't be able to stand anymore. She suspected that she could push him so much farther than she had, but she'd rather not find out the hard way.

"Maybe he really does understand," Carlos suggested.

Ashley arched an eyebrow at him. "If some girl was screaming at you for no reason, would you really understand that?"

"Well... I don't know," Carlos admitted. "Probably not. But, Ash, when it comes to you, I think Andros could take anything and still love you."

"Yeah..."

"I love you," Andros had told her that morning as he'd woken up beside her, his eyes wide with adoration. Ashley squirmed guiltily, wondering just what she'd ever done to deserve his love. Sighing ruefully, she knew that she wouldn't be able to live with herself until she'd apologized to him. She also knew that Andros would insist that it was all right, that she hadn't hurt him.

"I hate doing this to him," she said softly, toying idly with the ends of her hair. "But... sometimes, I just wish he'd let me fight him."

"You want him to scream back?"

"Well... no, not really." Ashley shot him a clear look of frustration. "I just... I'm annoying myself is what it is, and then I take it all out on Andros... If he'd just snap back once, I wouldn't feel so horrible. I wouldn't feel like I was using him somehow..."

"Wow." Carlos exhaled slowly, not sure how he was supposed to take all this in. "I'm not good at this kind of stuff, but the simple thing seems to be to talk to Andros."

"Yeah, but..." Ashley sighed. "I'd be telling him to stop being perfect."

"Again, you should talk to Andros."

Ashley made a face at him. "You think I don't know that?"

"You're talking like you don't," Carlos pointed out.

"I don't want to hurt him," she muttered, concentrating hard on the floor. "Carlos, I love him so much."

"I know you do," he assured her, startled that the words came out so easily. While he'd accepted that his relationship with Ashley was never going to work out the way he wanted it to, that had done absolutely nothing to keep his jealously at bay. He thought he'd kept it well hidden, but now he realized that somewhere it had disappeared.

"That's why you should talk to him," he added.

"Yeah..." Ashley sighed, her lips quirking into a tiny smile. "Thanks."

"Anytime, Ash," he said, suddenly remembering their original conversation. "So are you coming to Cassie's?"

"Yeah." Ashley stood and stretched, resting one hand briefly on her stomach. "I think I need to get my mind off things..."

"Need a ride?"

"Nah," Ashley said, glancing across the parking lot. "Coming back here on my first day of vacation to pick up the car doesn't sound so good."

Carlos laughed. "I'll see you there, then."

---

Ashley could feel herself finally beginning to relax as she slipped behind the wheel of her car. She was out of school for a month, and the vacation couldn't have come sooner. Her short temper and constant irritability were becoming annoying even to her, and she had a strong suspicion that sleep - real sleep - would take care of that in a matter of hours.

The car rumbled to life. Ashley started off slowly, wondering if she shouldn't have taken Carlos up on that ride after all. Her eyes wanted nothing more than to close for a long, long time, and on top of that, most muscles in her body were stiff and sore.

"You better be worth it," she murmured, resting one hand lightly over the bump on her stomach. "You better be perfect."

Arching her back, Ashley stretched, feeling much more comfortable than she had previously when she settled back into the seat. She brushed one hand over her abdomen again, laughing softly to herself. She knew that no matter what anyone else thought, her baby was going to be perfect.

Giving up an attempt to conjure up a mental picture of her baby, Ashley put the car into motion, grinning to herself. Finally, she could relax and just concentrate on herself. On the little baby she'd be holding in her arms in a little less than six months. On Andros...

The sudden screech of brakes snapped Ashley out of her thoughts. Her heart leapt into her throat as she saw the car skidding towards her, swerving frantically through the crowded intersection. It was too late to slam on her brakes and Ashley twisted the wheel sharply, desperately trying to avoid the collision. She lost control and the car spun wildly. Ashley had just enough time to wonder if she was going to die before her world went black.