Disclaimer: It's all owned by Disney.

Author Notes: Thanks so much to the lovely reviewers who left such kind words about my first chapter, it's very encouraging so thank you! There's just one more chapter to go for this fic. I hope you enjoy this second chapter, all feedback is gratefully received.

The first thing that almost hit Nick when he stepped into Rootcore was a seriously strong bolt of magic. It smashed onto the doorframe in a shower of sparks and another one followed close behind, narrowly missing his head. Nick's hands were curling with flames before he hit the ground in a crouch behind the table. Tutoring from Udonna and Leanbow during their year away had honed his magic to the point that it felt like it was part of him, as natural as breathing or staying alive. He was really grateful now for the intense hours of practice he'd gone through.

"Hey!" he yelled, trying to look up to work out where to aim without getting hit. "Hey, Clare! What's going on?"

"Nick?"

For a few seconds there was silence and then, just as Nick was cautiously getting to his feet and the flames were extinguishing, someone jumped on him and wrapped him into a tight hug. It took him less than two seconds to realise that it was Clare.

"Nick, I can't believe you're here! I am so sorry, I was practicing this new spell and it got a little out of control and….."

"Clare!" he pulled back from her. "Clare, slow down. It's fine, I'm fine, everything's cool."

"Oh, good, because if I'd hit you, you might have lost an arm or something," she hugged him again quickly. "It's good to see you again, cousin."

Now that was weird to hear, but it was true and Nick smiled at her in response. He was still getting used to the whole 'people who were just friends before are now also members of your family' thing. It was cool to have family that belonged to him though instead of only second hand relatives and he knew he could do a lot worse than finding out he was related to Clare.

Clare had grown up a little in the year since he'd seen her. She still had a messy mane of blonde hair, her clothes were still tattered and untidy, and she still babbled a lot. But she was holding herself with more poise and there was an almost confident look in her eyes now. Becoming a full sorceress obviously agreed with her.

"So how is Rootcore's sorceress?" he asked her with a grin.

Clare blushed and lowered her gaze to her skirt, trying to brush the dirt off it unsuccessfully.

"I've got a lot to learn," she confessed. "I'm not as good as Udonna yet, but I'm getting better. Chip helps me out and LeeLee and Phineas are here a lot."

"Where is Chip?"

"With Daggeron, I think he's practicing swordplay today."

Nick laughed. That didn't surprise him. According to the others, Chip had lived in a world of knights and magic long before they'd become Rangers. He'd taken their Ranger status in his stride better than any of them and after it was over, he'd found that he could still be part of that world where he was totally comfortable and increasingly confident.

"So anything happen here while Udonna's been gone?" Nick asked, remembering Udonna's request and glancing around the room that really hadn't changed at all.

"Um….. nothing big. There were village disputes, and Fireheart had some scale rot…...Oh! And we had a small minor invasion of swamp dwellers. But it was fine."

Ok. Only Clare could make an invasion sound like it was completely unimportant. Nick turned sharply to look at her, but she was turning the pages of the Xenatone, mouthing words that he couldn't hear.

"You guys had an invasion? Why didn't you call me? I would have come back to help."

He would have. He wasn't naïve enough to believe that just because the Master had been defeated, there would be no more trouble in Briarwood, magic or otherwise. And he wanted to be around to help, not just because he'd been a Ranger, but because Briarwood was home.

Clare looked up at him startled and then with a smile that was so much like Udonna's.

"Nick, it was ok. It wasn't anything big. We dealt with it," she told him surprisingly firmly, her fingers lying on his arm comfortingly. "Nothing too bad happened."

Nick's frown eased, but he didn't say anything. He knew that the others could deal with whatever happened and they would have called him if they'd needed to. But still guilt burned a little inside of him. It had been a long time since he'd had anyone else to worry about besides his adopted family and a year on, he was still relearning how do deal with it.

"Madison's not here," Clare added into the silence, as though that was the most logical continuation of their conversation. "I think she's at film class."

"Yeah, Vida told me," Nick didn't know whether to be more disturbed by the fact that Clare knew he wanted to see Madison or that she knew where Madison was. "You didn't just do a mind-reading spell, did you?"

No," Clare giggled. "When Madison started taking classes, she copied her schedule for us and Xander tells us about the shifts people work at the Rock Porium. Just in case we need them."

"Right, in case any invasions happen?" Nick's words were pointed and Clare giggled again. "So why do you think I'm looking for Madison?"

Clare flushed, looking very much like the Clare Nick had first met and clearly stumbling for an answer that wouldn't implicate anyone. Nick ground his knuckles into the table he was leaning on; he had a feeling that he wasn't going to like her answer.

"Oh….well……Vida might have said something," Clare stammered out.

Ah, so it wasn't that 'everyone knew' that he liked Madison, but more like Vida had made sure that everyone knew. Nick shook his head. Of course Vida still had a complete lack of respect for anyone else's privacy.

"I haven't told Madison anything, I promise!" Clare hastened to add.

"Clare, it's ok. It's not your fault Vida's got a big mouth," Nick smiled to reassure her. "Come on, take a break from the spell-casting and help me find Chip."

Madison was used to finding unexpected things happening outside her family's house. Like the time she'd found Vida having a noisy student street party to celebrate the end of finals without their parents' permission, or it was one of the stages for the escalating water fight wars their whole group used to have every summer (a lot more fun once Madison had been given her magical power of water), or sometimes Chip would be practicing tiny spells as he waited to be let in for snacks and company.

Today, Madison was greeted by Vida and Xander loading bags and boxes into Vida's car, arguing loudly. Ok, so that part wasn't so unexpected – sometimes it seemed like it was the only way they could communicate. Madison would never understand that. What was unexpected was the fact that they were loading up the car with that much stuff at all. Madison knew that there weren't any parties or events going on that they needed to transport things for like they did for Vida's gigs. The scene reminded Madison of the time they'd all helped Toby when he'd organised a garage sale to cleanse himself of material possessions. That phase had lasted a week.

"Hey, what are you guys doing?" she asked, confused as she reached Vida's car.

Xander turned and smirked at her in that way that said he knew something she didn't (like the time Vida had put a frog in her shoe and he'd known and hadn't warned her). Vida was also grinning in a similar way, making Madison immediately wary.

"Why are you guys smiling like that?" she asked, a little nervously.

"Like what, sis?" Vida replied innocently.

The innocent tone might have worked better if Vida wasn't smiling so smugly. Madison sighed, putting her camera case down. This couldn't be good.

"Vida, I can tell you're hiding something," she said. "What is it?"

"We've had a visitor," Xander piped up with a wide smile.

"Xander!" Vida glared at him.

"Hey, he's gonna be staying here, V. I think she ought to know, don't you?"

"Staying here?" Madison looked at Vida in surprise. "Who's going to be staying here?"

The frown melted from Vida's face as she emerged from the car and lightly gripped Madison's shoulders as though holding her steady. She was looking at Madison with that intense sisterly expression that spoke of what she considered to be really good exciting news that she couldn't wait to tell Madison. It made Madison apprehensive and Vida's next words really didn't help.

"Nick's back."

"Nick?!" Madison's voice came out in a squeak that made her cheeks burn.

"Yep, came all the way back to visit us for a while," Xander put in, leaning against the car with a very satisfied look on his face. "He was here all afternoon, helping out at the Porium. He talked about you."

"Of course he did!" Vida nudged Madison and then said in a sing-song voice. "He still likes you, Maddie,"

"Vida! Did you say anything to him?" Madison looked pleadingly at her sister, feeling overwhelmed by the bubbling emotions inside of her. Her sister could have made things a lot worse.

"Maddie, he left you his blanket. I think he knows," Xander pointed out. "And Vida told everyone who couldn't already tell from the moony way you guys looked at each other. Your secret's been out there for years."

"I'm just giving you a push, sis," Vida shrugged like interfering in her sister's non-existent love life wasn't a big deal. "Until you two decide to actually say something to each other about what's completely obvious to everyone else."

"Oh, Vida!"

Madison covered her eyes, trying to take deep breaths. Nick Russell was back in Briarwood and her friends were interfering and this was all so embarrassing. And had Xander said that Nick was staying at her house?!

"Why is Nick staying at our house?"

"It was either that or let him stay in one of the creepy motels in town," Vida shrugged. "He can't afford to stay in a place like the Benson."

She had a point and Madison nodded wearily. If she'd been here, she'd have probably would have made the same offer as Vida. That didn't make the prospect of sharing a house with Nick less terrifying. She could manage normal everyday conversation with him. But if he was here, actually here, then she needed to talk to him about how she felt (because would he be coming back again?) and she'd always gotten overwhelmed by nerves and shyness when trying to express that. It would probably get a lot worse if they were sharing living space. But it was Nick and it would give her time with him and she felt warm thinking about that. She didn't know whether to hug or strangle her sister; it was a very familiar feeling.

"Nick's staying," her words came out as a shaky sigh and Madison refused to meet either Vida or Xander's eyes. She knew they were smirking and she didn't want to blush anymore. She was going to have to learn to control that better if she was going to spend any time with Nick. "So, where is he?"

"He went to Rootcore to see Clare and Chip," supplied Xander, hefting another store carton. "We're going to have a barbeque at my place tonight, try and get as many people together to celebrate Nick being back."

"That's a really nice idea," Madison smiled appreciatively, the boxes being packed into the car now making a lot more sense.

"And it gives you and Nick the perfect chance to talk and get reacquainted," Vida told her.

Whatever Madison's blushing reply was going to be was drowned out by Vida suddenly realising that Xander had somehow gotten behind the wheel of her car without her noticing and was apparently intending on driving it over to his house. As Vida geared up for one of her spectacular blow-ups, Madison was free to think about Nick without any embarrassing observations being made by her friends. Arguments between Vida and Xander kept them focused only on each other.

She hadn't dated anyone since Nick had left. Her feelings for him had stayed strong, and had lasted longer than any crushes she'd had in the past (there'd been a short one on Xander when he'd first moved to Briarwood that Vida still teased her about, and a lot of guys at school that she hadn't had the nerve to even talk to and had always fallen into the 'never going to happen' category). Nick was different; she'd known that since she'd met him, and she still felt so drawn to him, like she hadn't to any other guy before.

But Nick was so confusing. She had no experience of reading signals or being sure if a guy liked her. She wasn't sure what he felt about her. All she had to go on was a year of friendship that felt like something more, their brief hopeful conversation before he'd left, and the letters afterwards that hadn't made anything clearer. Sometimes she didn't want to hope, in case she was completely and embarrassingly wrong, but then she thought about his last smile to her before he'd left and she thought maybe.

Had he already moved on? It had been a year and they hadn't promised anything to each other. Madison had come tentatively close to saying how she felt and Nick had left her his blanket and that was it. That had to mean something, she really wanted it to.

"Hey," Vida's voice was gentle as she nudged her sister, apparently the fight with Xander was over. "Don't think about it so hard, sis. It'll all be fine."

Madison managed a smile, her own worries still churning inside her mind.

"Thanks," she replied to Vida who smiled back. "I just….I can't help thinking that it's been a year. He might have met someone or…."

"Don't think about it," Vida's command was firm. "It won't change anything. Anyway, he came back, didn't he?"

Vida always had a clear and simple way of looking at things, she never worried or dwelt on stuff. Madison had always envied her sister for that. But Vida was right. Nick was here and she really wanted to know if there was going to be anything more than friendship between them, no matter how terrifying the thought of talking about it was. If they didn't, Vida and Xander would probably lock them in a room together until they did (like they did with her and Bobby Mendle in the sixth grade). Either way, that part of her life might finally stop being stuck on pause.

-TBC, one more chapter to go!