Richard confronted Madison at school that morning and Nick got between him and her before he hurt her again.

Madison arrived at Rootcore and Udonna realized she wasn't well.

"Madison, what ever is the matter child?" she asked compassionately

"Nothing, just a family issue," Madison dismissed simply, but she didn't realize how hard it would be to dismiss Udonna off her case.

"Madison, you know that it is not good to bottle emotions within yourself it can only end up badly"

"I know, Udonna" Madison said "but it is hard for me to talk about things like this"

Nick arrived at Rock Porium to find that Richard was waiting for Madison.

"What do you want?" Nick demanded

"Just to talk to Madison, but it can wait; I don't want to have any interruptions this time"

Xander walked up just as Richard started to try and get Nick to fight him so as to get Nick out from between Richard and Madison… Xander knew that couldn't be allowed because Richard meant nothing but trouble for Madison, which meant Nick needed to be there to stand up for Madison.

"C'mon Nick, ignore this loser, he isn't worth it" Xander said

"Yeah, you're probably right, but if that's the case then he really isn't worth Madison's love" Nick said as he started to leave with Xander silently edging him on to go into the store and not fight Richard.

By the time Madison came, Richard had given up waiting for her and left to take care of some of his own issues. Madison had no idea the confrontation that Xander had to stop, and neither he nor Nick was jumping at the chance to tell her that her ex-boyfriend had been there. They didn't realize that she had much worse on her mind.

Her father had threatened her that if she was ever caught riding Nick's motorcycle again she would live to regret it. She realized that he meant what he said, and it hurt her because she had wanted to ride with Nick again. It made her feel good that he cared about her and those rides reinforced his feelings for her as they would talk to each other while sitting at red lights and he would often tell her things no one else had ever told her before.

Vida heard that threat as well and hated that it drove a wedge between her sister and the first guy that truly made her feel contented. She vowed that she would do something to keep Madison with Nick, where she was truly happy, but that was a promise that it seemed Vida couldn't keep because she had no idea how to let Madison have her freedom with Nick.

Nick, on the other hand, had no idea that anything between him and Madison had been changed that night, but he could see that something was wrong with Madison just by looking in her eyes.

"Mattie, what's wrong?" he asked warmly

"Nothing… Nick, I'm fine" she dismissed quickly, knowing fully well that he realized there was something bothering her and wasn't going to give up until he found out.

"Okay, but if there is something you need to talk about you can always come to me" he said lovingly to her

"I know, thanks" she smiled as she started back on what she was doing.

'What is going on with her, I know something's wrong, but what?' Nick thought

"Nick!" Vida exclaimed

"Yeah, V…"

"I need to talk to you, about Madison" Vida said and they headed into Toby's office, which was empty at the moment.

"What is it?" Nick asked "what's wrong with her today?"

"Our dad doesn't want her seeing you anymore, he started with telling her he didn't want to hear of her riding on your bike anymore, and you have no idea how much she loved the time she spent with you yesterday" Vida's tone was dripping with anger and irritation.

"I get the feeling I do" Nick said "she told me that she enjoyed riding with me"

"I know, but she didn't shut up about it last night… not to say that I'm not happy that she's found someone that makes her truly happy" Vida was angry but at the same time relieved to see her sister finding happiness.

"So he won't find out," Nick said

"That's not that easy, we tried to hide something from him before and Xander and I only managed to get her into even more trouble" Vida looked troubled by what was going on with her sister.

"You really do want to see her happy don't you V?" Nick asked

"Yeah, she deserves it more than you'll ever know, she's been through too much already, Nick"

"Yeah, and I'll make sure that comes to an end here"

They left the office and Nick walked over to Madison and she realized he knew what was going on, Vida had told him for her and Madison was thanking her lucky stars for her sister.

"Mattie, I know what's wrong with you"

"So you came to tell me its over didn't you?"

"No, it won't be over, not as long as were alive" Nick replied, his heart pained to think that a guy had allowed her father to push him around, but Nick vowed to himself and to Madison that he wouldn't be a repeat of that guy, he wouldn't let anyone push him around.

After work Nick went to Rootcore to talk with Udonna about how he might be able to help Madison when he noticed that Clare had gotten herself in quite a jam.

"Gee, Clare, I have to say this is the weirdest mess I think I've seen you in yet" Nick laughed as he saw that she had somehow got stuck in a levitation spell.

"Can you get me down?" Clare asked

"I'll see what I can do" Nick smiled wirily as he grabbed his Mystic morpher and turned it to wand mode and finally got the sorceress in training down out of her floating spell.

"Thanks"

"Now you know you have to figure out how to do that on your own next time" he said

"I know, Nick" Clare smiled awkwardly

"Where is Udonna?" Nick asked

"Follow me" Clare said

"Okay"

Nick and Clare headed into Rootcore and soon Udonna greeted him, she knew what was going on and that there was very little option to keep Nick and Madison together and happy.

Madison went home that evening afraid of what her father might do because she didn't break up with Nick like he had told her to do after her sister went to bed. Her father approached her.

"Did you break up with him?" he demanded, he had his back turned and she wasn't too sure if it was her father.

"No" Madison snapped angrily, "I'm not a child anymore, you can't tell me who I can date!"

"So you finally decided to borrow a page from your sister's book and stand up to me," her "father" said flatly "I just might let you keep seeing him," he said almost genuinely, but Madison knew that was too good to hope for, or was it. He sounded different… there had been a rumor among family that her dad had mental problems she didn't know what they were, nor did she know if she could even trust her father anymore.

To Be Continued…


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