"I think I'm going to have to drag Andros away from Mr. Telson," Ashley said quietly. Her mother followed her gaze across the crowded room, where Andros was talking animatedly with one of the Hammonds' neighbors.

"Are you two leaving?" her mother murmured, smiling at a friend as they passed on their way to the refreshment table.

"We're just going for a walk," Ashley assured her. "We thought it'd be more romantic to be out under the stars at midnight."

Her mother smiled fondly. "Happy New Year, then. We'll see you when you get back."

"Thanks, Mom." Ashley gave her a bright smile. Setting her champagne flute--still half-full of Sprite--down on a nearby table, she started across the room.

"Don't forget your coat," she heard her mother call after her.

Sidling up to her boyfriend, she smiled politely at her neighbor. "Happy New Year, Mr. Telson."

"And a good New Year to you, Ashley," he said, nodding in return. "Andros was just explaining his theory of lightspeed travel to me. It's really quite a fascinating approach--"

"Well, Andros is a fascinating person," Ashley said quickly, wrapping an arm around his waist and smiling at her boyfriend. "Five minutes to midnight, you know."

"Oh, that's right," he said, looking a little chagrinned. "You'll have to excuse me--Ashley and I have plans for midnight."

Mr. Telson chuckled. "I'm sure you do," he agreed. "You two young people go and enjoy yourselves."

"It was nice talking with you," Andros told him, and he nodded again.

"It was nice to meet you, Andros," he said. "I hope we have the chance to talk again."

"Wow," Ashley whispered as she led him away. "He's never been that... *nice* before."

"He has some interesting ideas," Andros said, tilting his arm outward a little for her to slide her hand through. They made their way slowly out of the living room, smiling at her parents' friends and keeping their voices low enough that they wouldn't carry. "For an Earth person."

"Very funny," she murmured, elbowing him gently.

They stopped in front of the overfull coat closet by the front door, and Andros helped her into her jacket. Pushing their way out into the night, Ashley waved a little at the small group gathered on the front steps. As she pulled the door shut behind her, she heard someone inside announcing sixty seconds until the first stroke of midnight.

She and Andros walked down the driveway, turning right on the quiet residential road to wander down the sidewalk. Most of the houses were lit from within with their own New Years' celebrations, and for a few moments they enjoyed the festivities from a safe distance as they walked.

Then she put her other hand on Andros' arm and leaned against him, closing her eyes briefly. As always, she missed the exact transition, but they both knew where they were going. She did feel the air take on a sharper bite, a chill that snuck up on them and made her glad she had taken her mother's advice.

Gazing down the well-trodden path, she smiled. Not only had the concrete turned to frozen earth beneath her feet, but the oaks had given way to pine trees and above them the stars sparkled down from a sky untouched by the city's light pollution.

She tilted her wrist up, showing Andros the alignment of the hands on her watch. "Midnight," she whispered. "Happy New Year."

He stopped, turning her toward him with a smile. "Happy New Year, Ash," he said quietly. She closed her eyes as he kissed her, reaching up to clutch the front of his jacket and pull him nearer. He put his arms around her and kissed her again, and when he pulled away they just stood there for a few moments, gazing at each other.

A shriek made her start, and she glanced down the path automatically. The sound of laughter reached her ears, too, and another distinctly Cassie-like shriek came from the direction of the pond.

She caught Andros' eye again, and he smiled affectionately. "I guess we should go see what they're up to."

She chuckled, sliding her arm through his again. "I'm not sure we want to know. When did Cassie and Saryn leave the party, anyway? Did you notice?"

"Quarter of eleven," he answered immediately. "Cassie was looking pretty bored."

Ashley made a face. "Yeah. She hasn't known those people as long as I have, and *I* was bored. I don't blame them for leaving."

"Hey!" TJ's shout greeted them as they came in sight of the clearing. He was on the far side of a little campfire, watching Tessa poke at it with a longish branch. "You finally got here!"

"Isn't it past your bedtime, TJ?" Ashley replied innocently. "The ball dropped in Times Square three hours ago."

"Excuse me," Carlos' voice called from the edge of the pond. "There's nothing wrong with watching Dick Clark on New Year's Eve!"

"Better to see it on TV," Tessa put in, "then to be packed into barricaded blocks with two million other people."

"Here, here," Zhane agreed fervently, holding his hands over the fire.

"Who's Dick Clark?" Astrea wanted to know.

Ashley looked out across the pond as TJ tried to explain. Aura was helping Cassie up off the ice, giggling as the Pink Ranger tried to keep her footing. Finally Cassie was standing on her own, and she held out her hands. Aura crossed hers at the wrist and took them, and they both looked at each other.

"Now there's a sophisticated game," Ashley murmured, nudging Andros and pointing at the two Rangers. Hands locked together, they were spinning each other faster and faster on the ice--a red and pink blur, with their dark hair streaming behind them as they picked up speed.

"What's the point, again?" Andros asked quietly, and she heard TJ chuckle.

"The point is to spin until someone falls down," he offered. "It's a lot more fun than it looks."

Carlos didn't seem to think so, as he had elected to watch from the sidelines. Saryn stood nearby, and Ashley tried not to laugh as Cassie finally stumbled and both girls went down. They slid in opposite directions, Cassie flinging her arms out to the side and staring up at the sky as she came to a stop.

"If you've hit your head it serves you right," Carlos kidded, and Cassie waved her hand at him dismissively.

"Just because you're afraid to try doesn't mean it isn't fun," she said, not moving from her prone position.

Aura was sitting up, brushing frost off the sleeves of her sweatshirt. The edge of a shimmery skirt peeking out from underneath, flowing over sweatpants she had obviously put on before leaving, made Ashley wonder where in the world she and Carlos had been. "What are you looking at?" Aura asked curiously, craning her neck upward to follow Cassie's gaze.

"The stars," Cassie answered, twisting her head to the side as if she wanted a different view. "They're so bright out here."

Ashley looked up as she settled herself near the little campfire. "As bright as they get, from down here," she agreed.

"It's funny," Tessa added, abandoning her fire stick to join in the stargazing. "But I can't pick out any constellations. It's like we're on the other side of the world or something--I don't recognize *any* of these stars."

Zhane shrugged, not looking up. "I still can't figure out your constellations. They don't look like the things they're named for."

"Ashley showed me how to find Orion," Andros offered, scanning the sky. "But you're right; I don't see it here."

"There's no Sirius, either," another voice remarked, and the rustle of parkas and footsteps on pine needles announced the arrival of Traveler and Starhawk. "Or Lepus, or Taurus, or anyone. We might as well be on another planet."

"You're later than we are," Ashley said, amused.

"International fireworks coverage," Starhawk said, as though that was all the explanation she needed.

"KO-35," Astrea interrupted suddenly, and Ashley frowned at her. Tearing her gaze away from the stars, Astrea caught her brother's eye. "Doesn't it look familiar to you?"

"What do you mean?" Zhane asked, looking up even as Andros did.

"Starhawk said we might as well be on another planet." Astrea pointed up at the stars. "That's the winter sky over the Keyota district."

"Are you sure?" Zhane didn't sound convinced. "How can you remember that?"

"You might be right," Andros said slowly, still staring up through the trees. "It does look--familiar."

"Ash!"

She looked up at Cassie's shout, and found her friend waving to her to come out on the ice. "I'm trying to teach Aura 'Ring Around the Rosy', and it's better if we have more people," the Pink Ranger explained, in all seriousness.

She was about to laugh when Carlos' disbelieving voice spoke up. "You *have* to be kidding me."

"Spoilsport," she accused, slapping his shoulder as she slid down the slight incline to the ice. "I think you should be involved. And you, Saryn," she said, though she knew convincing him would be hopeless.

"I'm *not* playing 'Ring Around the Rosy'!" Carlos exclaimed. "Next you're going to say 'Duck Duck Goose'!"

"What's wrong with 'Duck Duck Goose'?" Tessa wanted to know.

Traveler took a few quick steps, pushing off the banking to slide across the ice. "I want to play! C'mon, Starhawk."

"I'm in, too," TJ announced, getting to his feet as Starhawk did. Tessa scrambled up too, and Ashley turned a questioning look on her boyfriend.

He looked suspiciously back at her. "What's 'Ring Around the Rosy'?"

"It's--" She hesitated. "Um, it's sort of hard to explain. There's a lot of falling down."

"Are you going to play this game?" he wanted to know.

"Yeah," she said, feeling a grin spread across her face. "It's fun."

He shrugged helplessly, and she saw him exchange glances with Zhane.

"Okay, okay!" Zhane stood up, offering his hand to Astrea, and they headed down to the frozen pond.

Saryn was already standing next to Cassie when Ashley remembered to look for him, and Carlos had given in as soon as Aura asked why he didn't want to play. Cassie repeated the rhyme for all of them, interrupted by Traveler's explanations of the actions that accompanied the words. Andros looked disbelieving when he was told to fall down on the last line, but he did it when they got to "we all fall down".

Ashley couldn't help laughing as their offworld friends repeated a rhyme no one could quite remember the origin of. Saryn and Zhane refused to skip, although Traveler insisted it was an integral part of the game. Ashley didn't think either of them would have "fallen", either, if Cassie and TJ and Astrea and Andros hadn't dragged them down with the rest when the circle let go.

Aura insisted on a repetition of the game, "so she could get it right", but Carlos put his foot down after the second time. He pointed out that she still hadn't seen "Duck Duck Goose", and that she might like that better.

"I thought you didn't like 'Duck Duck Goose'," Ashley murmured, as they made their way off the pond again. They had agreed that chasing each other on the ice was just asking for an accident.

"I don't," he said, with a long-suffering sigh. "But it's better than that--" He gestured back at the pond, leaving no doubt what he meant.

"You're such a good sport," Ashley said, patting his shoulder cheerfully. He just rolled his eyes at her.

Carlos was right about one thing, though--Aura did like "Duck Duck Goose" better than "Ring Around the Rosy". So did Zhane, and Andros, and even Astrea, who had seemed to enjoy the novelty of falling on ice enough that she could overlook the inherent silliness of the game.

Saryn didn't seem to quite understand the point, although the rules got explained several times by several different people. The one time Astrea chose him as "goose", Cassie had to poke him to remind him to chase her. When Astrea took his place, he asked for another repetition of the rules, so as to know "how to not have to run".

When it was explained to him again, he simply tapped the person he was closest to and said, "Goose." TJ was so startled that it took him a second to realize what had happened, and Saryn beat him back to his place with ease.

*Conveniently next to Cassie again,* Ashley noticed with amusement, and wondered if Saryn's choice had not been as random as it had seemed.

They played until everyone had had a turn or two, and then a few minutes longer so that a couple of determined Kerovans could get their "revenge" on each other. After that, Tessa entertained them for a little while with card tricks, which Astrea always insisted that she explain. Cassie sang, and Zhane prodded Astrea into creating a tiny lightshow with her magic.

Ashley watched the little violet explosions, their eerie light warring with the firelight in the shadow of the pines, and she felt Andros' arm slip around her waist. She leaned gratefully against him, feeling the unrestrained energy of the day catching up with her at last. Glancing down at her watch again, she was just in time to see the minute hand reach one o'clock.

*The end of midnight on New Year's for another year,* she thought, resting her head on Andros' shoulder. It was a new year, and life would go on. But right now, nothing made her happier than being able to close her eyes and relax into her boyfriend's embrace.