Chapter 3
JUST ANOTHER DAY

Maybe when the sun crashes through the gray
I can find the strength to make it through the day

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Back at work the next morning, after spending a few irritating hours looking for the Chosen Ones. A lot of wasted effort, Madison thought. She didn't want to feel this bitter but it just couldn't be helped. She was feeling low and it was beginning to affect her more than she thought it would. She tried rationalizing the whole situation as something that shouldn't matter; since there was so much else going on that was more important--like saving the world.

Madison almost dropped a small stack of records when she heard Nick greeting the others.

"He's late, as usual." Madison whispered as she put down the records, without even glancing in his direction, and then disappeared into the back office to help Toby with some paperwork.

The office was messy and extremely humid, which forced Madison to keep the door to the office opened. As soon as she swung the door open, Nick was standing there shrugging his jacket off as he slowly turned to see her. Madison slammed the door in his face and decided that fresh air was overrated.

Of course that thought only lasted about 5 minutes, before she had to throw open the door again, "How does Toby work like this?"

Xander walked by and grabbed her arm gently and told her they had to go and gestured to his morpher.

They all left the store before Toby even noticed.

They arrived at where the latest Underworld reject was creating mass hysteria shooting at anything that moved.

The rangers morphed and got into the fight. Hidiacs sprang out from everywhere and that made Madison thrilled, "Finally, something I can hit."

She was getting all her frustration out as she fought her way threw a slew of Hidiacs. When there was only one Hidiac left standing, Nick was already about to attack it and finish the job.

Madison threw her right arm out in the direction of the Hidiac, and a blast of water came rushing out towards it. Before Nick could make his attack, the Hidiac was smashed into a near by tree several feet away. He turned around and saw Madison standing there with her hands on her hips looking mighty pleased. She turned on her heal without even acknowledging him.

The fight was over Madison noticed, prematurely at that. Not wanting to head back to work, she called her Blue Mystic Racer and jumped on it.

"Hey, where are you going? The Hidiacs are gone." Vida quickly asked.

"Don't worry about it," Madison threw back.

Madison whipped out the paper Udonna had given them with possible areas to search for the Chosen Ones.

"Better keep busy," Madison uttered as she leaned forward and disappeared in a flash of blue light.

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"Nick, what is going on?" Xander asked when they got back to the Rock Porium.

Toby yelled for them to get back to work. The group disbanded and, at the very least, pretended to be working.

Nick tried to escape to the back where he wouldn't have to answer any questions, but Xander and Vida slipped into the room a few moments later and shut the door; affectively cornering him.

"C'mon, spit it out." Vida had her arms crossed, and an annoyed expression on her face. She knew something was going on. When Madison got home last night, she didn't eat dinner or even speak to anyone. She went straight to bed and was out of the house early this morning without a word.

Nick sighed and put down the boxes he was carrying and just before he was gonna recap what happened yesterday... There was a knock on the door.

"Hey guys, where's Madison?" Leelee came in with wistful smile.

Nick clenched his fits at the sight of her, "Xander, Vida… I need to talk to Leelee alone for a minute."

Xander's eyebrows shot up, "You want to be alone with her?" Vida was dragging him out as he asked Nick that question, completely stunned.

The door shut and Nick sat on the table in front of him and tried to calm down.

"So, what do you wanna talk about?" LeeLee asked, looking somewhat perky.

Nick slowly looked up at her and just stared. She is just loving this.

"You lied to me."

Her smile grew even bigger as Nick spoke.

"Even worse, I believed you."

"It was for the best Nick. You don't need her anyway…" Leelee walked forward and smiled sweetly at him. She put her purse on the table beside him and threw her hair back.

Nick slid off the table and walked to the other side of the room, "Has anyone ever told you you're spiteful little b--" Leelee suddenly burst out laughing.

"I'm wasting my time talking to you." Nick grabbed his jacket and walked past Leelee.

"You're leaving? But we're not done talking." Leelee started to pout and followed him out of the room.

"I'm done. I'm going to find Madison."

Leelee slammed her fist on the table, "But she hates you!"

"And I can thank you for that." Nick snapped as he left the store.

Xander, Vida and Chip turned to Leelee with angry glares. Leelee smiled nervously and walked away very awkwardly.

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Nick entered Rootcore and stood in front of the crystal ball asking it to show him where Madison was. A clear image appeared, with Madison on her Mystic Racer flying above what looked like a hospital. She kept circling before she leaned forward and brought the racer down a bit to look closer.

Nick morphed, grabbed his broom and blasted out of there to join Madison. Still trying to think of a way to talk to her without making things worse. --Of course, he was finding that very difficult.

When he finally spotted her, she was still circling the hospital while writing something down on a paper.

"Maddi?" Nick said as he slowly approached her.

Madison kept on writing on her paper, apparently giving him the silent treatment.

Nick brought his racer up along side hers' and leaned forward, "Fine, don't speak to me. I just need you to listen…" He pleaded with her. She looked up at him and said in a low voice, "I'm busy."

Madison was about to accelerate her racer and fly off when Nick caught her hand.

"You're mad and you have every right to be. But we need to talk."

Madison looked away from him when she caught a glimpse of a boy running out of the Hospital's main entrance. A strange figure was standing near by, watching the boy.

Nick turned around to see what she was looking at, "That boy, I think he's one of them… I remember his face from somewhere…" Madison's voice was growing louder.

Nick's spell was really wearing off and if she finds out he used magic on her-- He sighed and turned too look at her, but she was already gone.

Madison jumped off her racer and was running towards the boy. The stranger noticed Madison coming and he too started walking in the direction of the boy. Nick flew in with his racer and watched Madison push the stranger away and grab the boy. Nick jumped off his racer and stood in between Madison and this weird looking dude eyeing the little boy.

"Get the kid out of here," Nick told her as she was backing away. He turned to the stranger, ready to attack if necessary, but the man was gone.

Madison was mounting the boy on her Mystic Racer as Nick came up from behind, "Is he okay?"

"He's fine." Madison hopped on her Racer without another word and left for Rootcore.

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It was late that evening, an end to a very eventful day. One that Chip couldn't stop talking about in the dramatic way he always did.

"V and I kicked major Dragon ass!" He jumped off his chair and pranced around with Vida. She was apparently too tired to join in and let Chip haul her around Rootcore like a rag doll.

Xander was at the Rock Porium staying late to close up shop. Something he found little joy in doing, apparently it cut into his busy dating schedule.

Madison didn't care what Nick was doing over there and just stuck her nose back into the book she was reading.

Even though she wasn't paying any attention, Nick was leaning against the table looking over at Madison every few minutes. Still trying to figure out what he was going to say.

Two of the Chosen Ones Udonna had them track down were found and safely hidden.

Madison looked up when she saw V and Chip heading for the door, "Hey, Maddi are you coming? It's getting really late." Vida asked as she stretched her arms over her head in a very lazy way.

"Yeah, I'll be home soon. I just need to finish this first." Madison waved goodbye and watched Vida and Chip leave.

Madison was hoping Nick would follow and even thought about suggesting it.

Several minutes of awkward silence hung over the room as Madison continued reading her book, oblivious to Nick's irritation of her.

"Maddi…" Nick's eyebrows arced up in an earnest way, wishing she would just listen to him and not be so angry and stubborn.

He walked forward and kneeled down in front of her, "We need to talk."

"You keep saying that, but I don't really see the point." Madison said as she flipped through the pages of her book idly.

"Will you at least look at me?" Nick was clearly frustrated at this point.

"All day today you've been acting like I don't even exist. I never knew you could be so cold." Oops. Nick bit his tongue too late and Madison's head shot up.

For the first time that day, Nick stared into those brown eyes, for just a second or two, he caught a hint of sadness in them. Nick mentally kicked himself.

"Is this your way of trying to apologize?" She simply asked.

"Look, I made a mistake, why are you being so hypersensitive?" Nick's small grip on his control was broken and he let it all out.

"It was a misunderstanding. It happens! You're not perfect yourself Madison." With that he stood up and waited for her to respond.

She put her book down and stood up as well, looking him dead in the eyes, her voice slightly unsteady, as she whispered, "I was so wrong."

Madison looked away, barely blinking.

With a low uncertain voice, as if not really wanting to know, Nick finally asked, "Wrong about what?"

"You." She barely whispered that as she walked out the door.

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All in all it's just
another day now
You're falling down
What you gonna do
Standing on top of the world tonight
No ones looking back at you