DISCLAIMER: All rights to the rightful owners. I own nothing but the brain I used to write this piece (and sometimes I wonder if I'm owning even that much!)

CHAPTER 1

Episode: Broken Spell - Part 2

Point of view: Nick

It took me nearly an hour and a half to get back to the record store (and my bike!) from where I had parted ways from Clare. During the walk back, I had done a lot of thinking. I still had a hard time believing that a magical world existed along side our own without anyone ever noticing it. It was unbelievable, not to mention insane! It couldn't be so... could it?

I shake my head, trying to clear my thoughts, as I finally reach my bike but one question stubbornly lingers on in my mind. What would my powers have been? Hopefully something cool and useful. My bike sure could do with some magic. I sigh and start working with it. I guess I'll never know now what my powers would have been. The witch - err... sorceress - Udonna said I was an unbeliever. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that's not a good thing. Pity, for the others seemed to be really nice...

"Hey there."

I snap my head up at the sound of the soft voice addressing me. For a brief moment, all I can do is blink and stare at the young woman coming towards me. It's Madison, the shy one of the two sisters. Her hands are buried deep in the pockets of her trousers.

"Hey!" is all I can bring myself to say. My brain is like creme brulee. I'm baffled over her presence. Why has she come out to seek me? After what happened in the forest, I thought they'd want nothing to do with me. I'm glad though that she is here, glad but confused. I want to say something more to her, but she beats me to it.

"We sure could have used your help back there," she says and crosses one leg over the other as she comes to a halt a good few feet away from me. I try not to take of offense, after all she is the shy sister and I know my look doesn't really encourage good girls to get close to me. With the bike in between us, she is right to have her doubts.

"Tss... I don't think there is anything I could've done," I reply, not entirely sure if she really meant the words or not.

I shake my head and tug on the strapping holding my unfolded, messed-up ball of clothes behind the seat to make sure they are tightly secured. Wouldn't want to lose my pride and my dignity all in one day!

"So," Madison speaks again, hesitating a little when I come around to her side of the bike. "While we're out in the world, fighting evil. What are you going to do?"

Now that's was a very good question. I had no idea what I was going to do now. For the last couple of weeks, Briarwood had been my final destination on a very long journey. Coming here was supposed to be the end. I had never once given it a thought what I was going to do once I got here, or if I didn't like what Briarwood had to offer. Now I'm totally clueless.

To gain time before I have to answer her, I straddle my bike. Madison watches me intensively with her big dark eyes. Her gaze follows my every move. Usually a question like that would have ticked me off, I don't like people snooping around in my business, but with her... It haunts me that I can't give her a proper reply.

"First," the sentence takes form in my head while I speak, "I'm gonna fix my bike. Then I'll head to my grandparents and see if I can live there instead of my sister in Briarwood."

I realize in the very same moment the words come through my mouth that I have said too much. Revealed too much. Madison flinches.

"No parents?" she asks.

I read compassion and pity in the expression on her face but once again, I don't find it as annoying as I usually would have. Instead I hear myself chuckle.

"You are nosy!" I tease her.

She rewards me with the most adorable smile and shy blush. I have to concentrate on the steering handle to calm my fluttering heart.

"Yes, I have parents," I tell her. "They are working overseas for a few years. I was living with my cousins for awhile, then my uncle and now my sister."

I don't know why I am telling her all of this. As soon as the first word leaves my mouth it's like I can't stop the words from coming. And Madison gives me all of her attention. She even stands quiet for a short moment after I am finished, trying to find the right words to say.

"Must be hard leaving your friends all the time..." she concludes.

"Usually, I don't stay long enough to have friends."

The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them. Once they're out I cannot take them back. I want to slap myself. What is this girl doing to me? I need to be careful with what I say next so she doesn't figure out how tragic my army brat life really is.

"You know you could..." she starts softly but breaks into an adorable stutter as soon as I look at her. "I mean... you could stay longer... you know... uhm... like here... maybe."

For a long time, it seems like an eternity, I don't know what to say. I stare at her. I know it's rude but I can't help it. Did she just ask me to stay?

It has taken her all the courage she can up bring to say those words, I can tell it by the way her heartbeat causes a vein to pound hard against the delicate skin of her throat. She swallows and flickers with her eyes. She shifts weight from one foot to the other and back again, waiting for me to say something. I try my best to find something - anything really - to say but it would seem that my brain has turned into brulee again.

No one has ever asked me to stay before, not even my grand parents nor my uncle (and definitely not my cousins!). Though, no one have ever asked me to leave either, maybe except for every teacher I've ever had, but that doesn't mean that they've wanted me to stay either. This is all new to me and up until now I never new how much I longed for someone to say those words. I see myself throw my arms around her neck, pulling her into the biggest hug I've ever given anyone and thank her from the bottom of my heart.

But of course I don't. Years of practicing in keeping my true feelings hidden to not let anyone know how miserable my life really is prevents me from doing that. Before I know it, my defenses have kicked in.

"I'd love to hang out all day and talk with you, but I still got a lot of work to do with my bike and..."

I bite my tongue before I can finish the sentence. I want to kick myself in the nuts! What a jackass I am! A total prick!

Before me I see my rejection hit Madison with full force. I might as well have kicked her in the stomach or slapped her. Her face falls and she crumbles. The courage she had so bravely worked up shatters into a millions pieces. Her eyes flickers again, of hurt and in search of an escape route.

"Oh, yeah, I'm sorry," she begins, but the words gets stuck in her throat. "I just... I... I was trying to…" For a horrifying moment I fear that she might burst into tears. I would not know what to do if she did so, I've had very little experience with consoling crying women, let alone those I've hurt myself. Fortunately Madison recovers herself, if only for a short while and very little, to say: "Uhm... I'm gonna leave you to it."

Nice work, you asshole! My conscious sneers at me as I watch her turn and start to walk back the way she came from. She was trying to be nice and you...

"Hey, look!" I call after her, putting the annoying voice in my head aside. Madison stops in her tracks and reluctantly turns to face my again. The hurt is read all across her face. It's more than I can take. Suddenly I want to tell her everything. How I've been abandoned by the people around me all my life and been forced to leave behind those that haven't. How all of this have made me put up walls thicker than uncle Brian's head around my heart to not risk getting hurt again. But I feel that kind of honesty would be too much too soon. I wouldn't want her to think of me as a freak, but I don't want her to think of me as a cold hearted jackass either.

"I really appreciate what you are trying to do, trying to say, but I guess I'm not cut out for the magic stuff like you guys. But... Good luck."

If Madison understands or accept my apology is hard to tell. I can tell nothing from the big dark eyes of hers. She motions towards my bike and says: "Yeah, you too," before heading back to her friends inside the record store.

I stand motionless by my bike for a time afterwards, trying to figure out what just happened. I am so busy dwelling over my own actions that I almost don't notice what Madison is doing to me. She, the first person ever to have asked me to stay, has made me falling and I'm falling hard. The beautiful Blue Ranger has put a spell on my heart.