Zhane just shook his head at her. "Spoiled, spoiled, spoiled," he declared fondly. "Go show your mom."

Zeri must have understood "mom", for she turned her hazel gaze on Kerone as soon as Zhane said the word. Kerone smiled at her and held out her left hand, producing a translucent violet bubble that bobbed invitingly in the air. Zeri grabbed for it as soon as it appeared, and though her fingers passed right through it, the bubble did seem to move when she batted at it. Then it bounced higher again, and Zeri lunged after it.

"Stop! Wait a minute!" Ashley interrupted. Off to the side of the field, two barefoot girls looked up in surprise from their writing. The dark haired girl had been typing away on her computer, while the lighter haired, and taller of the two, girl had been scribbling on a stack of scrap paper haphazardly held together with a binder clip.

Both pulled off their headphones and exchanged curious glances before turning to Ashley. It's amazing either of them had heard Ashley, judging from the ear-splitting volume of the music that issued forth from their headphones. The music of rivaling emotions, one happy, one sad, clashed but sounded strangely good together.

"Something wrong?" the dark haired girl inquired.

"I'm not sure. But what's up with these kids, Starhawk? They're unbelievably cute! Any sweeter and people will get cavities!"

"But aren't these *supposed* to be happy fics?" the light haired girl asked.

"Yeah, Adri, but they're also supposed to be *our* fics!" Ashley exclaimed as she reached out for her fiancé. She looked around wildly as she found Andros was no longer beside her. The Red AstroRanger stumbled to keep his balance as she dragged him away from his conversation with Zhane, and back to her.

"So what, you're afraid you'll be upstaged by a bunch of toddlers?" Adrienne smirked.

"Isn't that what they always say: never work with children or animals?"

As if on cue, a large yellow lab appeared on Adrienne's right. He placed a paw on her notepad and gave her what was clearly an impatient look.

"You're in this series, Jetson, in the next story! I swear you are! Would I ever leave you out of anything?" she soothed as she affectionately petted his head. "And after this is all over, I'll go back to writing your story."

"Maybe he's just upset that you've got him wandering around in the mountains," Starhawk smirked, as the two writers conveniently forgot about Ashley.

"Hey!" Adrienne smirked back. "He was following your hamster!"

"He *ate* the hamster!"

"Excuse me!" Ashley shouted, drawing back the focus of the two girls with remarkably short memories and attention spans.

"What?" Adrienne looked over at her. The other AstroRangers were also waiting with varying degrees of interest and disinterest for the scene to be continued. The twins were now awake and all three children went unnoticed as they gleefully destroyed the half-finished flower garlands. "Oh yeah, you were complaining about other people's kids."

"Don't worry," Starhawk assured. "You'll have one of your own soon enough."

"Me?!" Ashley sputtered, glancing over at Andros who seemed equally surprised. "Aren't I a little young?"

Starhawk shrugged and looked to Adrienne who answered. "Yeah, you are. But they were even younger," and she pointed at Cassie and the girl (you know, the one with the ever-changing name). "Besides it says right here that you have a son, so it's out of our control." She was holding up several sheets of scrap paper she had fished out of an overstuffed binder.

"A son?" Andros repeated as a smile spread across his face. The other guys immediately came over to congratulate him as if the child had already been born.

Ashley spared a moment to cast them a glare before continuing. "So just because it's scribbled on that paper it's going to happen? I thought this universe was "subject to frequent and unannounced changes in direction"!"

"It is," Cassie assented, stepping forward. "That's how I avoided having fraternal quadruplets." She leaned over and whispered to Starhawk, "Thanks, by the way." The writer nodded and smiled in return as she picked up her headphones again.

"Don't worry," Adrienne went on, picking up her pen and putting her headphones back on her ears. "Everything will work out and everyone will be happy when we're done." A sharp bark from Adrienne's side let her know that Jetson had not left and was still waiting to hear just *when* she "would be done" so she could go back to his story.

Adrienne looked sheepishly at the dog then over at Starhawk. "When was Lenni's deadline again?"

She looked up startled from her computer. "Deadline? We're working with a deadline? Isn't that against our nature as procrastinators?"

Adrienne frantically flipped through her binder, trying in vain to remember if she had written the date down. Finally she gave up and muttered, "I'll never work with one again, that's for sure." She smiled down at Jetson and assured him, "Soon, really soon. I'm pretty sure at least... I think."

"Can we get this scene moving again?" Starhawk asked. "I've got papers to write, Dude's graduating, and Adri has to go hurt herself trying to play softball."

"Hey!" Adrienne responded indignantly, shifting the icepack on her knee and trying to hide the bruises on her arms and feet before giving it up as a lost cause. "Where were we, anyway?" she looked around as the AstroRangers reassembled.

"You don't really expect me to remember, do you?" Starhawk answered, rolling her eyes. "There were some unbearably cute kids doing something."

"Like that?" Adrienne pointed at the three toddlers sitting amongst the remains of the demolished flower garlands.

"Umm...," Starhawk looked around at the groaning Rangers, "can we start this scene from the top?"