She braced her elbows against the balcony railing and stared down at the dance floor. Most of the guests had retired to the adjoining hotel, its cocktail bar, or possibly one of the bars down the street. Some were probably driving home even now, although her parents were hosting a breakfast in the morning for anyone who stayed overnight.

The wedding had been a ridiculously lavish affair. She had been so caught up in the preparations and the planning that she'd barely had time to enjoy it. Or rather, she'd thought she was enjoying it, until she realized how much had slipped past unnoticed.

"Hey." Her best friend's voice sounded tentative, and Ashley didn't blame her.

"Hi Cassie," she said softly. "Did you enjoy the reception?"

There was a moment of silence, and she knew her adopted sister was looking for a response. Finally she must have given up, because she asked point blank, "Ash, what's going on?"

What was going on? That was a good question. She could give the obvious answer: the time her parents had reserved in the inn's function hall was up, and the official end of her wedding day was fast approaching. She and Andros had left to change, trading in the wedding gown and tux for travel clothes before they boarded the Kerovan shuttle waiting in orbit.

The rest of the wedding party and some of their closest friends had stayed behind, lingering so that they might give the interstellar honeymooners a proper sendoff. It had been a little thing, but Ashley had stopped in the bathroom on their way back. Laughing at Andros' offer to wait, she sent him on ahead with the promise that she would be right behind him.

Had that been a bad idea? Or had it been the first thing she'd done right all day? Now, staring at the scene playing out in front of her eyes, she didn't even know.

Zhane poked the bare shoulder beside him and leaned over to whisper in her ear, "Nervous?"

Kerone laughed at him, slapping his hand away when he pretended to straighten the straps of her dress. "Why should I be nervous?" she demanded, loud enough for all of them to hear. "Cassie and Ty have to go first!"

Cassie put her hand through Ty's arm and leaned against his shoulder, flashing an innocent smile in Kerone's direction. "You'd better be careful that we don't show you up!"

"You're such a performer," Ty teased.

"You'd better believe it!" Cassie agreed cheerfully.

The DJ stepped back through the doorway at the end of the hall, gesturing for them to join him. "They need a few more minutes to finish pouring the champagne," he said, glancing over his shoulder as though he could speed the servers by looking. "Let me tell you, though, you'll never make an entrance as good as this again in your life."

"Yeah, because no one would wait for anyone but a bride for two and a half hours," Cassie put in.

"Excuse me," Ashley called from behind Zhane. "I was not the one who wanted to have serious AND silly pictures outside the church! I said we could take silly pictures at the reception, but no--"

"You can never have too many silly pictures," Zhane interrupted. "Andros, back me up here."

Andros was shaking his head. "I'm staying out of the photography," he informed them. "DECA was recording the whole thing. I don't see why we needed any other pictures."

"It's part of the wedding ritual," Cassie pointed out. "Just like introducing the wedding party."

"How long does it take to pour champagne?" Kerone asked. It was hard to tell whether she was being sarcastic or not, and for that Zhane was proud. He had taught her well.

"Well, they're not beer mugs," the DJ said dryly, glancing through the door again. "I don't know what the holdup is. No one can leave before you get there, though, so I don't think you have to worry."

"You guys?" Ashley sounded like she didn't know whether to laugh or panic. "My necklace just broke."

There was absolute silence for a moment. "What?" Zhane asked, turning to look at her. She lifted her gaze to his, her eyes wide and a totally blank expression on her face. Andros looked nonplussed.

"I just touched it to make sure it was laying flat, and it came off in my hands!"

"It broke," Andros repeated, reaching out to take it from her. He didn't seem overly concerned, but he had a wary look on his face that said he wasn't sure how important this was. "It happens. We've already taken the pictures."

"But the reception--"

"You can wear mine," Cassie interrupted. "Here... Zhane, move over. Andros, hold my flowers."

They got out of her way without protest, but Ashley was not convinced. "I can't; it's too long," she protested. "It has to be a choker or it won't look right!"

Kerone offered, "I might be able to fix yours. Can I see it, Andros?"

"No, wait." Zhane lifted a hand to his shirt, pulling a silver chain out from under the collar. "What about this?"

"Oh, that's pretty!" Cassie knew how to go with the moment. "Let's try that, Ash. Come on, it'll give you some variety when they take the dance pictures."

"There are more pictures?" Andros sounded mildly exasperated.

Zhane tugged the chain free and handed it to Cassie. He wasn't about to try fastening anything around Ashley's neck, not with her hair, earrings, and a circlet that he had been warned not to so much as breathe on. He noticed that neither Ashley nor Cassie bothered to answer Andros' question.

"That's kind of cute, actually," Kerone remarked, peering around Cassie. "I mean, it's obviously not what you were wearing before, but it kind of looks like it's Andros'. And it matches your earrings, too."

"It is Andros'," Zhane put in. He glanced over at the DJ, who had turned his back to stare down over the landing at the tables in the reception hall. "If anyone asks, you can tell them you're practicing the 'sharing' part of your vows."

"But it has your name on it," Cassie said. "On the back, I mean. By the clasp." Her tone was the slightest bit uncertain, as though she thought he was about to deliver a punchline.

Zhane shrugged, sorry to disappoint her. "Mine broke too," he said, shooting Ashley a sympathetic glance. "I stole Andros' for the day. We'll just keep passing it around," he added, smirking at Andros.

"That's it for the champagne," the DJ announced, putting his hands together and surveying them with a critical eye. "If you're ready to go, I'll head downstairs and start the music."

"Then can we eat?" Ty asked plaintively, taking Cassie's hand as she retrieved her bouquet and squeezed through the narrow hallway to his side. "I'm starving!"

"Zhane gives his toast," Ashley reminded him. She reached up to touch the chain, glancing sideways at Andros for approval. He nodded slightly, reaching out to catch her hand and squeeze her fingers as he pulled them away from her throat. "Then we eat."

"Talk fast," Ty advised Zhane.

They could hear the music change even over the sound of the gathered crowd, and then the DJ got everyone's attention with the mike. Cassie edged closer to the door, sneaking a look out over the balcony. "I can't hear a word he's saying," she complained over her shoulder.

"Maybe we should give him to the count of ten and just walk?" Ty suggested.

She gave him an arch look. "Who's walking?" she teased. "I'm a performer, remember? I'm sauntering!"

"Well, saunter away," Zhane said, poking her gently in the back. "Before we all pass out from hunger."

She and Ty stepped out onto the balcony--almost in sync--and Kerone demanded quietly, "What is it with you and the poking today? Some of us aren't wearing four layers, you know!"

"Some of us wish we weren't wearing four layers," Zhane informed her. "Ready to go?"

"Can you hear?" she countered, stepping a little closer to the doorway. "Maybe we should wait until they get down the stairs?"

"I know what he's saying," Zhane said, rolling his eyes. "Zhane, the best man and brother of the groom, and Kerone, maid of honor and sister of the groom. We'd better not kiss or these Earth people are going to be scared."

"No one's going to think you're Andros' blood brother." Kerone drew him out of the hallway, leaning into him with a smile as they made their way across the balcony. "At least, no one who knows anything about you."

Just above the sound of the cheering, clapping, and blaring music, Zhane caught a name as they made their way toward the stairs. "He pronounced our last name wrong!"

At that, Kerone laughed aloud. "You made it up! He can't pronounce it wrong!"

"I made up a pronunciation," Zhane insisted. "That wasn't it!"

He glanced over at the head table when they paused at the top of the stairs, just in time to see Saryn take Cassie's hand and draw her away from Ty. The other man at the table smiled as Ty took the place at his side, and they clasped hands no less overtly than Cassie and Saryn had. Zhane reached over with his free hand and patted Kerone's fingers, catching her eye briefly as they started down the stairs. She winked at him, perfectly comfortable in front of this crowd.

Zhane let go of her as they reached the table, stepping aside as she took her place and saved an empty space for him. Everyone had turned their attention back to the balcony now, just quiet enough to that it was possible to hear the DJ's announcement of the bride and groom. Zhane clapped and whistled along with everyone else, but somehow... well, he tried not to think about how complete they looked.

They only made it about halfway down the stairs before the DJ gestured to him, holding out the mike. Andros understood immediately, pausing on the landing and catching Ashley when she would have taken another step. Zhane grinned up at them, glad that they would stand there in front of everyone while he told them what was on his mind.

"Hey, guys," he said casually, holding the mike farther away when it surprised him with its volume. Sweeping his gaze out across the hall, he added, "I'm glad to see you all here today, even if I have no idea who most of you are."

There was a ripple of amusement at that, and he shrugged self-deprecatingly. "The important thing is that Ashley and Andros know who you are, and that you're special enough to them that they included you in this celebration. I know the feeling is mutual--that they are just as special to you as you are to them."

He had planned this. Really, he had. He had planned most of it, anyway, and he had gotten approval from Cassie for the parts he had written down. It was only the filler, and the segues, and maybe some of the order that he was making up on the spot.

"They're special to me too," he said, turning to look up at the couple on the landing. "Andros, in particular, I've known all my life. I think we've been through everything there is together: love, and loss--" he deliberately didn't look at Kerone-- "even death, and somehow we're still best friends."

He transferred the mike to his other hand, only belatedly remembering that he was supposed to be holding a champagne glass. He glanced over at the head table, saw Saryn standing with two glasses, and smiled slightly. Saryn stepped forward when their eyes met, passing the second glass to him.

"Andros puts up with my forgetfulness," Zhane added, lifting his glass to the audience, "and I put up with everything else." There was a decidedly louder laugh from those at the head table, and he grinned over at them.

"I'm kidding, of course. If you know Andros, you know that he doesn't do anything halfway. Sometimes that makes him a little hard to live with... but it also makes him the only person you'll ever need at your side. Once he gives his loyalty, he gives it unconditionally, and he gives it forever.

"He's given his loyalty, and more, to Ashley. I can't tell you how happy that makes me, because I see how happy she makes him. From the first day they met, Ashley has changed Andros' life. I was told that I'm not allowed to tell embarrassing stories, which unfortunately excludes that one and most of the others..."

The chuckle that engendered was gratifying, because of course there were more reasons than embarrassment that he couldn't tell most of their stories. He continued quickly, "But I can say that I love Andros with all my heart, and I know exactly what it is that he sees in Ashley. Everything. I've come to love her too--everything about her. And today, I'd just like to say that I'm proud to welcome her into our family."

He lifted his glass to the couple on the steps, heard the rustle as everyone in the audience followed suit. "Welcome, Ashley... and congratulations, Andros. Our family will never be the same--and I'm glad."

Zhane took a sip of the champagne in his glass, and managed not to wince at the taste as he passed the mike back to the DJ. All around the room, glasses clinked and everyone started talking at once. Andros and Ashley made their way down the stairs, following him back to the table as he tapped his glass against Saryn's, Cassie's, and Kerone's.

He turned at the hand on his shoulder, coming face to face with Ashley's tear-filled eyes, and he accepted her wordless embrace with a relieved sigh. He had tried for something that was true to their hearts without compromising anyone in front of their relatives, and it seemed that he had succeeded. "Love you," he whispered in Ashley's ear.

He heard her sniffle, and she squeezed him harder. "I love you, too."

She waited a minute or so, then knocked again. Andros and Zhane weren't by nature early risers, and she was sure the party last night had only compounded the problem. The only reason she had approved a post-rehearsal bachelor party was because Zhane and Andros hadn't been able to get away from KO-35 until the day before. And because the wedding was in the afternoon.

Finally the deadbolt clicked, and TJ's apartment door was cracked open. She smiled, and the door swung open the rest of the way. "Happy wedding day," Andros murmured, pulling her into a warm embrace. He kissed her before she could answer, and she melted into his arms.

"Happy wedding day to you, too," Ashley whispered, when he finally let her go. "I snuck out to see how you were doing. I have to be back for lunch, and then I won't see you until the ceremony--"

"We could just run away," he interrupted, and she laughed.

"My parents would never speak to me again," she said, giving him a quick kiss as she slipped past him into the apartment. "They want to see their only daughter married in style. It's all I've been hearing about for the past year and a half!"

She stopped by the futon, automatically bending down to pick up the quilt just as Zhane emerged from the bathroom. He looked a little nonplussed, she thought, but even if Andros wasn't hungover Zhane might be. She greeted him with a smile, folding the quilt over her arms and tweaking the corners together to even it out.

"Hey," Zhane answered, his hesitation barely noticeable. "Ash, can I ask you something?"

"Sure," she said, glancing over at Andros to assess his expression. Zhane wouldn't ask if it wasn't important, and Andros' face said he knew exactly what was coming. "What's up?" she asked, dropping the folded quilt back on the futon and turning her attention to Zhane.

"Oh, Andros has been trying to explain this 'marriage' thing to me," Zhane said lightly. He wandered over to the futon, picking up clothes from the floor as he went. He tended to mimic whatever she was doing when he was being serious... automatic helping, she called it privately, though she had never drawn his attention to it.

"I guess it's a little different on Earth," Zhane added, his gaze on the clothes he was folding and placing on the futon. "It... well, it sounds pretty exclusive."

He lifted his gaze to hers, then, troubled blue eyes looking for reassurance in her own. She should have known how left out this would make him feel--had known, in fact, and had tried as best she could to include him. But her parents kept distracting her, and between her fiance and her bridesmaids, her fiance's best friend just kept slipping through the cracks.

"No," she said firmly, reaching out and catching his hands in her own. "No, Zhane, it's not exclusive at all. You're just as important to me as Andros is, and I'm sorry everything's gotten so busy and confused lately. Once the wedding's over things will go back to normal, I promise."

Zhane looked almost comically relieved. He even put a hand to his forehead and let out an exaggerated sigh, smirking at her when she slapped his other wrist. "Can't tell you how glad I am to hear that," he said cheerfully. "I was worried there--just a little, you know, but still worried."

"So--" Andros started to interrupt, then paused. She looked over at him, but he was frowning. "You really don't mind that Zhane and I are so close?"

"Why would I?" She couldn't figure out where this was coming from. "I'd never ask you to give up Zhane, and you wouldn't even if I did. That's just... who you are. Both of you. I think it's great."

Andros did relax a little, finally, but he still looked puzzled. "It's just--TJ said something, last night, about marriage and giving things up..."

He trailed off, and she rolled her eyes. "He was teasing you," she said with certainty. "I'm going to kill him. I told him he wasn't allowed to play any pranks on you because you wouldn't understand, but he obviously didn't listen. Just wait 'till I get my hands on him!

"Andros," she said firmly. "You do not have to give anything up just because you're marrying me. You definitely don't have to give up your best friend!

"Zhane, I will never, ever try to take your place in Andros' life, and I hope you don't think that getting married changes anything between us. It's just a nice Earth custom that my parents got a little carried away with. That's all."

Zhane was beaming at her, and she smiled happily back. He never held a grudge. She wasn't sure he was capable of it, and she sometimes felt guilty that he forgave so easily. All she could do was try to let things go the way he did... maybe after the wedding, she thought, glancing up at the clock in the kitchen.

"I have to go," she said reluctantly, stepping away from Zhane and straightening the pillows on the futon without thinking about it. Andros still looked a little pensive, but then, when didn't he? "I just stopped by to check on you guys. I'll see you this afternoon, okay?"

"See you," Zhane agreed cheerfully. He grabbed one of the shirts he had just folded and swung it over his bare shoulders as he padded into the kitchen, probably to raid TJ's refrigerator. She shook her head fondly, turning toward the door.

Andros' thoughtful expression faded into a smile when she paused in front of him. "See you at the wedding," he said, reaching out to touch her hair gently. "This is pretty."

"Thanks," she said, lifting a hand to the curls reflexively. "I hope it lasts the whole day."

"You don't need anything to be the most beautiful person I know," Andros murmured.

"Hey!" Zhane exclaimed indignantly. She laughed, tossing a look at the Silver Ranger, currently hanging over the counter with a slice of cold pizza in his hand. "What am I, the ugly duckling?"

Andros sighed. "Except for Zhane," he said loudly, "who's also gorgeous, but wouldn't look half as good in your dress."

Ashley couldn't suppress her giggles at that. Zhane grumbled something she didn't catch, and Andros turned his tender look on her again. "I'll see you this afternoon," he said, leaning down to kiss her lips briefly. "I love you."

"Love you back," she said quietly, smiling up at him.

He held the door for her, and when she paused by the stairs to look back he was still standing there in the doorway. Andros waved, and she couldn't help laughing again as Zhane appeared behind him and draped an arm over his shoulders. Ashley waved to both of them before turning to hurry down the stairs.

"We were going to hire a stripper," TJ said cheerfully, as though it was no big deal. "But Zhane wouldn't let us."

Andros' horrified gaze tracked across TJ's apartment involuntarily. His best friend was lounging against the kitchen counter, but he looked up at the mention of his name. He winked, lifting his glass to Andros in acknowledgement.

"We were going to have this party at an actual bar," Carlos corrected, clapping him on the shoulder. "But Zhane wouldn't let us do that, either."

The apartment was full of Rangers, former Rangers, Ranger relatives, and a few people he was sure had never had any connection to the Power but seemed to be happy to see him anyway. It wasn't quite what he'd pictured when Zhane had said "a few friends having dinner together." It was only now dawning on him that he'd been set up.

"What--" Andros finally managed to get his voice working again. "What's going on?"

"You really don't have bachelor parties on KO-35, do you," Jeff said wonderingly. "What a waste!"

"Bachelor party," Andros repeated, looking around again. He had heard the term floating about in connection to the wedding, but he had not assumed it was something he would be required to participate in. "This is a bachelor party?"

"No," Carlos said with a chuckle. "This is a group of guys getting together to privately embarrass you, which at a real bachelor party would be done in public. You have your best man to thank for our restraint."

"I threatened to tell Ashley if they got too carried away," Zhane called.

Ashley wasn't here. Staring at the crowd gathered in this too-small space, it occurred to him belatedly that none of the girls were present. "Where's everyone else?" he blurted out.

This time it was TJ who laughed. "Someone should have explained this to you beforehand," he said, sweeping his arm around to pinpoint the Silver Ranger. "Zhane!"

Zhane held up one hand in a warding gesture. "If I'd told him, he never would have come!"

"Told me what?" Andros asked suspiciously.

"The point of a bachelor party," Carlos informed him, going to great pains to sound patient and understanding, "is to have one last crazy night with the guys before you settled down as a civilized, married man."

"How many crazy nights do you think Andros has now?" Ty demanded from his place by the television. He was draped over his lover, an unrepentant smirk on his face when Andros shot him an annoyed look.

"Well, one night, anyway," Carlos amended with a grin.

"What they're not telling you," Jeff put in loudly, "is that you're also supposed to get laid. Hence the stripper, which Zhane unfortunately vetoed."

"Hey," Zhane objected. "I said I'd take care of it, didn't I? I'll take care of it!"

Andros had been worried the moment he stepped into the apartment. Now he was becoming alarmed. "What," he said very carefully, "is the exact purpose of a stripper?"

"To get you in the mood," Carlos confided.

TJ caught sight of his expression, and the former Ranger must have decided to take pity on him. "We're kidding, Andros. You're not really supposed to sleep with anyone."

"Says you!" Jeff interjected.

"You're about to begin a lifetime of monogamy," Carlos told him. "No one here thinks that you, personally, are giving anything up--" Across the room, Jeff lifted his glass to that-- "but for tonight, you can at least pretend!"

Bemused and not particularly reassured, Andros allowed himself to be pushed toward the counter that separated the kitchen from the rest of the apartment. "What's monogamy?"

Zhane's arm settled over his shoulders, and Andros allowed the half embrace without returning it. He wasn't sure whether to be upset with his friend for not warning him, or grateful that he had kept this from being worse. At least he had his back up against something now, and that was reassuring.

"It's some Earth word for marriage," Zhane was telling him, his other arm going around Andros momentarily to transfer his drink from one hand to the other.

"Yeah, very funny," Gabe said, circling the counter on his way for the refrigerator. "TJ, if you don't have anything besides beer I'm going to the store."

"We won't tell the cops you're underage," Jeff teased, but Gabe just rolled his eyes.

"There's soda and juice in the back," TJ was saying, coming up behind Gabe and hanging on the door. "Tess would have a fit if this apartment was ever without non-alcoholic alternatives."

"Monogamy just means commitment to a single relationship," Carlos said, pulling out a stool next to Andros and Zhane. "Basically, don't sleep around after you're married."

"Or I'll have to kill you," Jeff added, making his way out into the living room. "Family honor and all that."

"How do you define a 'single relationship'?" Ty's lover asked curiously.

"You know." Carlos gestured at the two of them. "Two people who are together. Like you guys."

Ty exchanged glances with his lover. "You mean that once you're married, you don't sleep with anyone outside the primary relationship?" he asked at last, looking back at Carlos.

Andros lifted his head, frowning at Ty. He transferred the look to Carlos when he laughed. It was a strange question, certainly, but he had to admit that Carlos' wording had been odd.

"What primary relationship?" Carlos said with a grin. "Marriage is the only relationship!"

At his side, Zhane went very still. "What do you mean?" he asked, his voice deceptively calm. "The only relationship?"

"Come on, guys." TJ was leaning over the counter behind him, sounding as amused as always. "We all know Andros isn't going to sleep with anyone except Ashley anyway."

Carlos chuckled at that. "Yeah, it's not like being married is going to change anything!"

Andros felt Zhane's arm slide off his shoulder, and he was careful not to look at the Silver Ranger. Across the room, he could feel Ty's gaze on them. "Everyone on Earth is monogamous?" he inquired of the floor.

"No, of course not," Carlos said easily. "Just married people."

"Well, they're supposed to be," TJ added. "Andros."

He glanced over his shoulder and realized TJ was offering him a glass. He took it without thinking, lifting it to his mouth before the smell registered. "I don't drink," he said distractedly, going to set it down. It was an automatic response, cultivated after much "socializing" on Ashley's home planet, and he fell back on it even as the magnitude of the misunderstanding he was involved in began to make itself clear.

"You do tonight," TJ countered, catching the glass before he could let go of it. "It's part of the tradition!"

He stared at the former Ranger in dismay. This wasn't the only tradition, it seemed, that had not been fully explained to him.

"They tried to tell me," Ashley murmured, staring down at the couple on the dance floor. "They tried to tell me so many times. I just wasn't listening."

Cassie watched as Andros and Zhane turned slowly to the recorded music that was playing while the DJ packed up. The only two people making any overt effort at socializing this late in the evening, and they were definitely overdoing it. They were melting into each other, holding each other up, each clinging as though the other was the only support they had in the world.

They weren't clowning around. They were slow dancing.

"Tell you... what, exactly?" She tried to keep her voice gentle, afraid to set Ashley off and cause more of a scene than Andros and Zhane were already making. At least all of the relatives were gone. The only people left were people they had known since--or from--their Ranger days.

Ashley's voice was flat, and whatever thoughts were swirling through her mind were impossible to read in her words. "I think they're sleeping together."

How had she known that was coming? Ashley wasn't the only one who should have seen what they meant to each other before this. "You can't--" Cassie bit her lip, but she didn't know what else to say. "You can't marry someone who's having an affair with someone else."

"Funny." Ashley's tone said she thought it was anything but. "I think I just did."

"But... Ash, you have to tell them."

Ashley hadn't moved from her position against the railing. "No," she said impassively. "They asked me, and I said it was fine. I said it was fine over and over again; I promised them that nothing would change. I'm not telling them now."

Cassie had no idea what to say to that. Before she could come up with anything, Ashley turned away from the railing and headed toward the stairs alone. Cassie just stood there, watching her slowly descend, wondering what exactly she was supposed to do--or even feel. Should she be angry? Astonished? Proud? Horrified?

Anything but the ambivalence that had taken up residence in her head and the sorrow settling in her stomach. This wasn't the way her best friend's wedding day was supposed to end. Now she wasn't even sure how it had started.

She could only watch as Ashley made her way across the dance floor toward the couple that broke apart to welcome her. Andros' face lit up when he saw her; there was no mistaking that. He really did love her... but he kept his hand in Zhane's as he drew her into a warm embrace.

They were drifting in the direction of the door at last. True to her word, Ashley hadn't said a thing to give either of them pause. She just kept her arm in Andros', smile firmly in place, head held high as they disappeared through the arching function hall doors and out into the night. All three of them together.