She was lying down. On the beach? No. Too light. A whisper of a breeze came through the window and she trembled, curling closer into herself in an effort to ward off the chill. But it was warm, not cold...

She blinked slowly, realizing that it was a mattress she felt beneath her. The lightness was that of morning, not the ethereal grey twilight that had lit her dream. Her dream... she wasn't sure she wanted to remember, but she couldn't help it.

She and Carlos had been running from something. There was something they didn't want to know, but she had no idea what it had been. Then Andros had been there, the strange alien Ranger who had left for his own planet the night before, and they were still trying to escape. And then she had been alone--

She sat up abruptly, not liking the way he had snuck into her dream like that. Not that it had been a particularly good dream to start with, but she wished he hadn't had to come and ruin it the rest of the way. What was it with him, anyway?

She got out of bed and frowned at her bureau, wanting to get away but not wanting to take the time to dress. She pulled on her clothes impatiently, trying not to think about the images that weren't fading as quickly as they should from her subconscious mind. Yesterday she had been relatively certain the rest of the universe was insane and she was normal. Now she wondered if maybe it wasn't the other way around.

Justin had left TJ's hastily compiled profile in the Power Chamber's extensive database, offering as rationale only that "you never know". Now she was glad of it, for as insane as she might turn out to be, at least she knew it was possible that she wasn't the only one.

As she knocked on his door, though, she couldn't help wondering if that was any excuse. This was undoubtedly weird. She turned and looked down the street while she waited, trying to convince herself not to just take off again. If there were any answers, she wasn't going to find them on her own.

The door clicked open behind her, and she heard a girl's curious voice ask, "Can I help you?"

She turned back, a little disconcerted to find someone other than the baseball player she had met the day before standing there. Before she could say anything, though, the girl's eyes widened and recognition dawned on her face. "You're--Ashley Hammond! Wow! This is so cool!"

Ashley tried to smile. "I'm, uh, looking for TJ Carter?"

"You are?" The girl looked even more startled than she had at first, if such a thing was possible. "Right, of course you are." She backed away from the door, her eyes still fixed on Ashley. "Wait one sec."

She looked about to turn away, but then she froze. "Wait, what am I thinking! Come in!"

Ashley managed to chuckle, stepping through the door carefully. "Thank you."

"Here," the girl said, backing hurriedly through the living room onto which the front door seemed to open. "Have a seat--can I get you anything?"

"Just TJ, please," Ashley answered, sitting gingerly on the edge of a loveseat.

"Right." The girl looked a little chagrinned, but it didn't seem to slow her down in the slightest. "I'll be right back."

She took off, disappearing down a hallway to the left, and a moment later Ashley heard her pounding on someone's door. "TJ! Hurry up and get out here; there's someone to see you!"

Ashley didn't catch the reply, but she did think to glance at the clock by the door. It was only eight-thirty. She probably should have waited until a more decent hour, but she couldn't exactly leave now. She was being forcibly reminded of why the team had so few friends outside of each other.

She got to her feet as TJ finally stumbled into the living room, dressed in jean shorts and a striped shirt that hung haphazardly over his tall frame. He looked a little sleepy, and she couldn't help feeling guilty for rousing him for such a trivial thing as her own reassurance. "Hi," she said awkwardly, not sure what to expect from him.

A friendly smile lit his face, as though he had known her for years and wasn't at all awed by her. "Hey, Ashley," he answered, putting a hand over his mouth as he yawned. "What can I do for you?"

She smiled back, a little surprised by his apparent familiarity. "Well... it's sort of hard to explain, actually."

"What isn't?" he agreed amiably. "Do you mind if I get something to eat?"

"No, not at all." She followed when he motioned to her, and found herself being led in the same direction the girl had taken earlier. They walked into an airy kitchen, windows open and the comics section of the newspaper spread out on the table while the girl pretended to read it.

"Beat it, Ali," he told the girl, clearly stifling another yawn.

She frowned at him, carefully avoiding Ashley's gaze. "Why? I was here first!"

"This is important," he answered, going over to the sink. "Go read the funnies somewhere else."

She sighed loudly, but she gathered up the paper and left without further protest.

"Want something to eat?" TJ asked over his shoulder, and Ashley couldn't help but remember that she hadn't had any breakfast.

"I don't want to be any trouble," she began.

He just laughed, pulling open a cabinet and removing a couple of plates. "It's no trouble, Ashley. Toast? Cereal?"

"Toast sounds really good," she admitted.

He opened another drawer and studied the contents for a moment. "I'm afraid we don't have any regular bread. Is cinnamon okay?"

"Sure, of course." She had no idea what cinnamon bread was, but she felt guilty enough for barging in with no explanation without demanding her own kind of breakfast, too.

He put two slices of bread in the toaster before going over to the refrigerator. "Juice?"

"That would be great," she said sheepishly. "But you really don't have to--"

"Hey, I said it wasn't any trouble and I meant it," he said, smiling over his shoulder at her. "Orange or grape?"

"Orange juice sounds good," she answered, wondering who drank grape juice with toast.

She watched him pour it, not at all sure how she was going to bring this up. He let the silence linger while he put the juice on the table and retrieved their toast. He slid one plate across the table toward her and twisted his chair around to face away from the table. Swinging his leg over it, he sat down and reached for his juice. "So what's up? Have a seat."

She pulled out the chair across from him and sat down slowly, watching him gulp his orange juice. "It's... it's about that vision that you had."

He set his juice down and swallowed, nodding once as he picked up his toast. "That weird hallucination after the game, right. I'm still trying to get my mind around the idea that people from other planets saw the same thing."

"Yeah," she said, frowning. "Doesn't that seem... strange, to you?"

He snorted. "Strange? That's a hell of an understatement. Bizarre, freakish... I can't think of a strong enough word for it, really."

"So does it bother you?" she persisted.

He just shrugged. "I guess. A little. But what can I do about it? I'm not a Ranger; I'm just a regular guy who happened to see the same thing as some aliens. I live here, they live a million light years away--it's not like we're ever going to run into each other again or anything."

She frowned again, wondering if she could be so blasé about it in his place. "So you're not curious about it?"

He seemed to ponder that as he took a huge bite of toast. He crunched on it for a few seconds, swallowed, and said thoughtfully, "What if I was? Is there anything I *could* do about it?"

She folded her arms, looking at her own toast without really seeing it. "I don't know. But I do know *I'm* curious, and I didn't see anything. Do you think you could--tell me about it?"

He didn't answer right away, taking another bite of toast and then a swallow of orange juice. "All right," he said at last. "But," he added, with a note of humor in his voice, "only if you promise not to laugh."

She nodded, leaning forward eagerly. "I promise."

He finished off his toast, looking pensive. "Well, we were on this ship."

"Who?" she interrupted.

He closed his eyes, considering. "Me, that kid with the striped hair, the kid with the attitude and his girlfriend. And you and your friend."

"Not Andros' sister?" she asked.

His brow creased, and he opened his eyes to regard her quizzically. "The blonde girl? No... I still don't know why I thought I recognized her."

She nodded slowly, and he continued, "There was something wrong with the ship... I don't know quite what. That stripe-haired kid--Andros? He was trying to fix it, I think, but he was having trouble."

"Why?" she felt compelled to ask.

He looked at her a little bit oddly. "I think he was worried about you."

She bit her lip, remembering the feel of his eyes on her all of yesterday evening. All she could manage was, "Really?"

"Yeah," TJ said cautiously. "Anyway, I was talking to that other kid's girlfriend, telling her what was wrong with the ship. I'm pretty sure that kid was with her. The one with the attitude, I mean."

"Saryn," she said with a small smile, wishing he hadn't changed the subject.

He shook his head. "I guess so. I keep wanting to call him Phantom, but I don't know why."

"Phantom," she repeated. "That's weird."

He grinned. "He must have thought so too. If I ever see him again, I'm going to call him that just to see him frown."

She smiled in appreciation, but he still hadn't said anything about her. "What about me and Carlos? Were we there too?"

"Yeah," he said slowly. "I think so... You were--hurt, somehow. That's why Andros was worried about you. We hadn't... heard from you in a while, or something. I don't quite remember."

"And Carlos?" she asked, belatedly remembering her toast. She took a small bite, waiting on his reply.

"He was hurt too..." TJ stared at his orange juice glass, apparently struggling to remember. "At least, I think he was. You're clearer in my mind, because I remember thinking that if it hadn't been for you Andros would have been able to concentrate."

She put her toast down quickly, swallowing. "What do you mean?" she wanted to know, resting her arms on the table and watching him intently.

He gave her an uncertain look. "Well... I hope you don't take this the wrong way, because I know you and Carlos are, uh, together."

Her lips quirked. "Everyone knows that. I won't get upset; I just want to know."

"Well..." He hesitated. "I think you two had kind of a thing going."

"A thing?" she repeated, trying not to seem too interested.

He shrugged uncomfortably. "Let's just say that Andros was more worried that you were hurt than that the ship was in trouble. And he wouldn't have been that worried about anyone else, I'm sure of it."

Ashley rested her chin on her hand, wondering about that. It would explain why he had stared at her so often the day before, but it didn't make any sense. TJ had confirmed that Carlos was there, yet he said that she and Andros had "a thing", implying that it hadn't been one-sided. How could she ever have gotten involved with someone else?

*It was a vision,* she reminded herself firmly. *It wasn't real.*

"TJ," she said suddenly, looking up. "This vision--what do *you* think it was?"

He put his empty glass down and gave her a surprised look. "What do you mean?"

"You all saw it," she insisted. "It must mean something--do you think it was the future?"

He considered that for a moment, tracing a random pattern on the table with the edge of his glass. "No," he said slowly. "I don't think it was the future. I didn't remember any of this while I was there. If anything, it felt like... something that might have been, not something that will be."

"Any of this?" she echoed. "Like your life, you mean? You were living someone else's life?"

"No," he said immediately. "Yes, I didn't remember my life here, but no, I wasn't someone else. I was me--in some other way." He saw her expression, and sighed a little. "I'm sorry; I can't explain it more than that."

She waved it away with a smile. "No, I'm sorry to pester you with so many questions. I'm just trying to figure out why everyone seems to know me all of a sudden, that's all."

"You mean other than the fact that you're a celebrity?" he asked, grinning.

"Yeah, other than that," she answered dryly.

He shook his head in amusement and got up, taking his empty juice glass over to the refrigerator for a refill. She picked up her toast again, chewing absently on it as she thought back on what TJ had said and tried to make it match with Andros' behavior.

"TJ," she said, suddenly remembering Andros' "best friend" from the night before. The way he had introduced Zhane had been strangely reminiscent of the way Saryn introduced Cassie, and she had seen them teleport off the beach hand in hand out of the corner of her eye. "You don't remember anyone named Zhane, do you?"

TJ replaced the orange juice and headed back toward the table, seeming to give it some thought. As he sat down again, though, he shook his head. "No, I don't. Should I?"

"I guess not." She shrugged a little, trying to suppress her abrupt curiosity. "He isn't a Ranger. But he and Andros were really friendly last night, so I was just wondering."

TJ shook his head again, obviously catching her inference and dismissing it just as quickly. "Nope. He was head over heels for you in the vision. If there was a Zhane, I'm pretty sure he wasn't on the ship with us."

She nodded thoughtfully, knowing it probably didn't matter one way or the other. The vision wasn't the way things were, after all. But it certainly made her wonder.