Disclaimer: Maura: Isn't my baby brilliant.
Marieke: Danne sure is.
Maura: I was talking about Cevil.
Marieke: I know.
Summary: The return of Andros's parents changes all future plans of Andros and Ashley. It's doubtful they'll ever see each other again. But there's a secret Ashley's carrying around just dying to come out.
Mz. Daydream: I wish I could. I really do. Hatable is a word now. And I had to! Else I would actually feel sorry for her when I break her and Andros up. You are the best you know? Look at the surprise I got for you at the end of the chapter. I mean it.
Arwennicole: You, me and everyone else, but he can't. He wouldn't be able to find Ashley anyway, she made sure of that. I don't think she'll do that again… I think. I promise you, before this story is over, he'll be married to Ashley and I decided that since it became so long, the happy marriage part will be a sequel story I'm working on right now. Yes, I've got all of SU finished and I'm not even halfway on fanfiction.
Phantom Rogue: Maura wouldn't have liked any other kid she had with Andros. She just had Danne to please Lynette. Josh is the best and yeah… Ashley should be there when he wakes up.
Lady Kimiko: 45, that's the total, I cut it short and started a sequel story for the rest. Nope, his father isn't too bad and Lynette will actually get better to, someday. Yeah, Chris and Chyler were 5 at that point, they had been dropped of at Tracy's to be out of the way. You get to rip off Maura's head AND join the squad at the same time. How about it?
Johnny: Good! That's what everyone is supposed to feel. You know, I had a horrible time writing those last few chapters, but now things clear up a little. You got the idea of what would happen if Cevil was the heir, it will be voiced too later on in the story. He won't beat Maura up, but in the sequel story I'm now starting, he'll be mocking her.
Star Fata: Read and be amazed. Write that story? Oh please do write it! I could even ask the 'Kill Maura Squad' to give you suggestions if you want.
Tal: Don't?
Slytherin-Angel44: I decided you pronounced it: Dàn-nè, with the a pronouncement of arse and the e kinda like the u in untold. It's more a Dutch pronouncing. Darn, Voldie failed again… maybe I should ask my own HP character to help him out… Elisabeth Potter, Harry's little sister ;)
SSL: In about 12 to 13 chapters? Kinda.
Zeopurple: No, it's not because Danne's a girl. It's because Danne is not an heir. If Cevil had a brother she'd act the same way. Read, and be amazed.
The-power-of-love: This soon enough?
C.C.C.: Yes, but not without a good reason, and Andros doesn't have a good enough one yet. You are seeing right through Maura alright. I said to a few others before, Ashley made all files on her on the Megaship classified information, including her location and that includes the twin too. On they can access the files, so scanning won't help Andros much, the results are classified even for him. It might sound cruel, but Ashley is protecting their children this way. He doesn't see a point in telling Maura about Ashley and he doesn't want to spoil his memories of her by sharing them with Maura. And Maura just thinks the yellow ranger died or something.
Tay: Maura, yes… Lynette… wait till the end of the story, okay? Read and be amazed.
Jessica01: Well, you've answered it yourself.
Jenny: It's a long review. I'll stop bugging you with chapters now. I don't blame you for not reviewing. Have a chocolate chip cookie.
YRAM: Thanks, glad you share the public opinion of Maura.
Ani: Sorry, he is, there's no doubt about it. Andros should, but doesn't.
Megarider: Very much? I hate Maura too, but I had to create her. It's not fair!
Enigmaforum: Good! That means she can easily be killed at the end. If I would do that.
DizneeDol: Yeah, poor Danne.
PhoenixGuardianEmaku: Nope, Ashley doesn't dare.
A: Told ya Maura was going to get worse. And this is just the beginning. Danne is back in this chapter, she just learned to be quiet really quickly with only Maura around. Andros left his guts with Ashley. It's okay for spelling Lynette wrong. Right now I hate her too, but she'll clear up.
Dragoneyes5000: Sorry, no can do.
Mita427: Nope, I'm updating one chapter at a time… More reviews that way. Colour withdrawl is when the power leaves the body and the body has a violent reaction to that. It only happens to active rangers if they don't wear their colour. It was made up, but not by me. If you google it, you'll find it in a lot of other stories.
JDPhoenix.: Yeah, sorry for that. Read and demand that again!
Secrets Untold
Chapter 19: Daddy's Girl
Andros felt like killing his superior. Actually, he felt like killing the person who had decided he needed a superior, then kill his superior. How could that bastard decide when he needed an afternoon off? … Okay, so he hadn't taken an afternoon off since… forever. But that was beside the point. He didn't want to be at home, with Maura, waiting for Cevil and Danne to come home from school.
Why a seven year old was allowed to walk home, not only alone, but also with the task of supervising his four-year-old sister was beyond him. Okay, so the school wasn't too far from their home and Elia, Cero and Kynin would walk most of the way with them and Cevil was old enough to do so, but still. Danne was only four and he didn't trust Cevil alone with her for one second. Other than the fact that he didn't seem to care about his sister much, it just didn't feel right.
At that moment the two subjects of his wandering thoughts walked in through the kitchen door. Danne bounced over to Maura, holding a paper that looked like a drawing.
"Look mommy!" She exclaimed, but Maura didn't even spare her a glance.
"Cevil, baby, why are you looking so down?" Maura cooed, brushing past Danne.
"We got our test for Karovan back." Cevil replied, handing her his sheet of paper.
"An F? That's not bad; I didn't do much better in Karovan. It's not important anyway, everyone speaks one universal language. Teaching you Karovan in school is just a silly tradition to keep the language from dying out. As long as there's one fool in your class getting an A, they're happy."
"I'm the only one who failed the test." Cevil shrugged.
"You should be proud of that." Maura smiled sweetly. "You're the only one in that class with a set of brains smart enough to know it's a useless class and you should fail it."
In a very twisted way, she sounded like she had been practicing this response.
Andros watched the scene, rolling his eyes. He suddenly remembered Maura. She had been in his class for a year before getting held back, also because she failed Karovan. He was the one student she was talking about, the only one getting a constant A in the class. Karovan was a fairly easy language and he was fairly sure that the bit he had taught Ashley was more than Maura would ever understand.
His eyes fell on Danne. She stood in the middle of the room, completely lost as she stared at her mother cooing over her brother proudly for failing Karovan. His heart went out for the little girl.
"Danne." His voice was soft enough not to catch Maura or Cevil's attention, but the little girl did look at him.
He motioned for her to come over and hesitatingly she did. Once she reached him, he picked her up, setting her on his hip and leaving the living room, Maura and Cevil behind. Danne's eyes grew wide in wonder when he opened the door to his private study, though he hardly ever came into the room.
"Mommy says we can't come in here." She muttered in awe.
"Mommy's not here, is she? And I'm taking you." Andros replied.
He sat down in his chair behind his desk and put Danne down in front of him so he could look at her.
"What's that?" He asked, pointing to the paper still clutched in her hand.
Blushing Danne showed him the paper. A messy red house had been drawn with three blue windows and a brown door, a grey crooked path ran up to the door and on the right of the house stood a green tree. A brilliant yellow sun shone in the sky with a red toothy grin. A few blue clouds strayed next to it and a thin green line had been drawn across the paper indicating a horizon.
"It's beautiful." Andros told her with a smile, vaguely recalling drawing something similar to that when he had just started school. "Did you draw it?"
Danne nodded furiously and Andros's smile grew.
"Very talented." He informed her seriously, ruffling her hair.
"There's something missing." Danne muttered softly after a moment.
"Well, I've got some colours here, not much, but you can add it if you want." Andros offered, laying the paper down on his desk when Danne nodded.
He pulled his daughter onto his lap and opened a drawer, getting out a few coloured pens and hoping Danne wouldn't fuss about them not being crayons. She didn't and immediately took the red coloured pen, bending over, effectively blocking whatever papers he had on the desk as she carefully drew whatever was missing.
When she sat back up, Andros looked at the drawing and tears shot into his eyes. Right below the sun two messy words had been written: 'fore dadie'.
"It's even prettier." He told her affectionately.
"For you." Danne told him proudly, handing him the drawing.
"Thank you – I love it." Andros smiled, placing a soft kiss on top of her head.
He heard Maura and Cevil's voices as they walked past his story door, and let out a sigh. Danne looked up at him and he stood, pulling her on the floor and taking her hand in his.
"Would you like to go somewhere with me?"
Danne nodded furiously and Andros smiled.
"Well, come on then." He said, guiding her out of his study and to the front door. "Maura, I just remembered I still had to go see Zhane about something I'm taking Danne with me."
He left the house without even waiting for a reply. The morning after their fight three years before she had been all over him again, cooing that he had been tired and she didn't hold anything he had said against him. She had easily forgotten his every word, but he could never ever do the same.
Within minutes they walked through the kitchen door into his sister's house. The racket of the children met them, momentarily broken by an exasperated and tired exclamation from Karone. Andros chucked softly and stepped into the living room.
"Kids wearing you out, sis?" He greeted jokingly.
"Don't even go there." Karone warned, pulling two-year-old Arima onto her lap as the girl ran over with tears in her eyes.
"You and Zhane are the only ones to blame for those four little buggers." Andros replied lightly.
"I warned you." Karone began, suddenly noticing the little girl half hidden behind his leg. "Oh, hello Danne, I didn't see you there."
Andros shrugged at her questioning gaze.
"Maura was too busy cooing over Cevil's F in Karovan. She wouldn't even spare a minute to look at Danne's drawing. She's ignoring her whenever Danne's not needed for publicity."
"Oh yeah, Cero told me about that, he was gloating having an A himself. Now admit it." Karone replied with a knowing smile on her face. "She might not be Ashley's, but you love the girl."
"She reminds me of Ashley somehow." Andros replied simply. "She holds the same innocence. If I let Maura go on like this and ignore Danne myself too, she'll lose that and it's too precious to let that happen."
"In other words you love her." Karone retorted and when Andros didn't deny it her smile grew, addressing Danne again. "I'm sure those other three would love to play."
With a happy smile Danne left her hiding place and ran over to her older cousins.
"So, what brings you here?" Karone inquired when Andros sat down next to her and stole Arima who was still whimpering slightly.
"Zhane." Andros replied simply, wiping away his niece's tears.
"He won't be home for another two hours."
"I know."
Karone laughed and shook her head.
"You, my brother, are incorrigible."
A/N: Hope you liked it! Review. Wow, it's only been 5 chapters this time. This chapter is dedicated to my friend Mz. Daydream for going through so much trouble in trying to submit the 300th chapter and succeeding in doing so. And did you know she's writing one awesomely good story? GO READ IT!