The constant feeling of being hung-over. Waking up in the early hours of the morning just to be sick. Feeling bloated and always tired. Craving peanut butter and chocolate.
It was late afternoon and Ashley was on her way to the drugstore in a bid to hopefully deter her niggling suspicion and find that maybe she just had the flu. She knew the chances were very slim but still there was a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, she wasn't pregnant after all.
She entered the drugstore and went straight to the pregnancy tests. Her father was going to kill her if he found out that she even thought that she might be pregnant. Ashley had been living with her father for all of 3 months; he was not going to be happy to find that she had gotten herself knocked up within that short time.
Ashley grabbed the most respectable looking test and began to make her way to the counter to pay for it. She grabbed a packet of peanut M&Ms on her way, paid then made her way back to her car.
For a moment she sat in silence and took a deep breath, just staring at the paper bag, which contained the pregnancy test, in her hands. After a few more moments of contemplating whether she really wanted to know or not, she began to make the short drive back home.
When she finally reached the familiar old fenced off compound of her father's house Ashley sighed and shoved the test in her handbag. She made her way slowly toward the porch, a sinking feeling setting in.
Ashley's father greeted her at the front door with a smile and warm hug. "Hey honey, how was your day?" he asked kissing her forehead.
Ashley smiled and followed her father inside. She took off her scarf and coat as she replied. "Oh, you know the usual. And yourself?" she asked as she continued to follow her father into his kitchen, where she could smell a delicious roast chicken with sided vegetables cooking.
"The usual huh? And what exactly is the usual for you lately? You've been too sick to hunt... Well I got a call from a couple 'a old friends of mine, they'll be dropping by tomorrow..." Ashley's father informed her with another smile as he looked at his daughter. Ashley knew he was so proud of her and loved to show her off to his friends, she also knew that given the current circumstances that would probably change and soon.
"Research Daddy, I was at the library looking up the few books that you don't actually have... Friends, huh? How come I haven't met them?" Ashley asked as her father began to set the food down. Ashley placed her handbag on the kitchen bench behind her before she sat down and joined her father eating the well cooked meal.
As they ate the pair continued their conversation. "Well, you haven't exactly been around much and they've been kind of busy with the apocalypse and all" Ashley's father replied. Ashley knew how much it hurt her father that she was never around, it hurt her too, that was why she had come back, now it seems like it'll be for good.
The rest of the food was eaten in silence. Not one thing disturbed either of them until the sudden feeling of her stomach dropping overcame Ashley and she made a run for the bathroom to be quite violently sick.
Ashley's father sighed and began to clean up after the meal. He was growing worried about his daughter, she had been sick for almost four weeks, it was a good thing that he was unaware of her feeling of being bloated or the fact that she was always tired, or the cravings that she had developed, or else he would probably share the same suspicions as his daughter.
After cleaning the dishes Ashley's father began to wipe down the benches. As he reached where Ashley had placed her handbag he attempted to carefully move it but his hand slipped and the contents of the bag spilt out onto the floor.
The old man bent over to pick up the spilled contents. "Lipstick, tampons, cell phone, compact, pregnancy test, M&Ms... Wait! Pregnancy test?" Ashley's father whispered to himself as he placed Ashley's things back in her bag.
He took the bag up to Ashley's room intending to confront her but instead he found her sound asleep on her bed. So peaceful, so innocent. He put the bag down on her desk and left, keeping the pregnancy test with him.
Ashley unexpectedly slept through the night and finally woke at a reasonable hour of the morning. Groggy, she rubbed her eyes and slowly woke to full alertness. She noticed her bag sitting on her desk and she walked over to it. She swallowed hard then opened it, as soon as she did she realized it was gone, the test was gone. She began running around her room frantically searching for the missing test.
Outside her room her father could hear her running through the floorboards. He slowly made his way up the stairs and stood outside Ashley's door. He gently knocked.
Ashley froze then looked toward her door, a pool of thoughts running through her head. Slowly she walked toward the door and opened it warily, feigning a smile. Her father however did not return the smile.
"Looking for this?" he asked holding up the pregnancy test. Ashley gasped and her body stiffened, he eyes darted between her father and the test, slowly one by one tears began to roll down Ashley's face.
"How?" she asked in reference to how her father had found the test she thought she had hidden.
"Have you taken one?" he asked ignoring her questioning and proceeding with his own interrogation. Ashley shook her head, her body now shaking. Her father handed her the packet and gestured for her to go to the bathroom. Ashley nodded shakily and complied.
The moment had come. Ashley's two minutes were up and now all she had to do was look at the test, but at the current moment that was proving too hard.
"Ash honey, it's been ten minutes. Are you okay in there?" her father asked from the other side of the door. Ashley opened the door, test in hand, and shook her head. She showed her father the test, positive. She began to break into a fit of uncontrollable sobs.
She didn't want to be pregnant, not now, the apocalypse was happening around her and she had no one to share this experience with, she was alone. She had thought about the possibility of an abortion but knew she would never be able to bring herself to go through with it. She also knew her father would hate that idea more than the idea of his only daughter being single and pregnant.
"When?" was the first thing her father could conjure together to ask her.
Ashley took a deep breath and readied herself to answer all the questions in the onslaught she knew she had coming.
"Umm, about two and half months ago now..." Ashley finally answered, her voice still shaking. She pushed her way out of the bathroom, made her slow descent to the kitchen and continued her explanation as she sat down.
"After I went to visit Blaine and caught him cheating on me. I stopped in at a bar on my way back here" Ashley finished looking down at her hands, it was completely out of character for her to do the whole 'one night stand' thing and she saw this pregnancy as proof of that.
"A BAR? Ashley, you know better than that! Who was he?" her father asked trying to calm himself, for his daughter's sake.
"Just a guy... He was flirting, I flirted back then next thing-" Ashley tried to explain herself but wasn't able to get very far.
"Why didn't you use protection? And why aren't you on the pill? I thought I taught you better than that!" her father pushed, his anger fuelled only by his overriding concern for his only daughter.
"Are you kidding me? Of course we used protection! And I haven't been on the pill since I was sixteen! It makes me sick..." Ashley rebutted, shocked that her father could even think that she would be stupid enough to not use protection with a stranger during what was supposed to be a one night thing.
"What's this guy's name?" Ashley's father asked in a quiet serious tone, bypassing any further arguing between the pair of them.
"Oh, like I can actually remember, dad! It was supposed to be nothing more than a-" Ashley began to argue again but was interrupted by a knocking at the door.
She watched her father make his way to the door. She knew he was only angry with her because he was worried about her but right now he should only be worrying about himself, after all he was only recently wheelchair bound.
Ashley stormed up the stairs and went for a long hot shower, hoping that maybe it would clear her mind. Unfortunately she had no such luck, after the shower she was still pregnant and alone, and the apocalypse was still looming.
Ashley let out a heavy sigh as she wrapped her towel around her and went to her room. She choose out a pair of tight jeans and a black tank top knowing she wouldn't be able to wear them for too much longer. For a moment she stared at herself in the mirror, she stood side on and placed her hand on her stomach. "Looks like we're in for a wild ride, little one" she whispered as she continued to stare at herself.
"Ash, come down and meet the friends I was telling you about yesterday!" she heard her father call from the bottom of the stairs, snapping her out of her transfixed stare.
Ashley opened her door then made her way slowly and quietly down the stairs. She could hear voices from the kitchen.
"Bobby you never told us you had a daughter" she heard one of the men state. She chuckled quietly to herself. Her father had promised her that he would never tell anyone of her existence for her safety and by the sound of it he hadn't.
"And I didn't know Bobby had friends" Ashley rebutted as she rounded into the kitchen looking at her toes which she had recently painted hot pink.
"Boys, this is my daughter, Ashley Karen Singer" Bobby introduced as he led the guys over to her. "Ash, this is Sam Winchester..." Bobby began, Ashley finally looked up to give the extremely tall figure a smile and shake his hand, he looked vaguely familiar but she couldn't quite place him.
"Nice to meet you Sam" Ashley smiled and did her best to deter the feeling of familiarity that came from him as she shook his hand.
"And this idjit here is his older brother Dean" Bobby finished his part in the introduction the sat back and watched the trio interact.
At sight of Dean, Ashley froze and her eyes widened, and by the look of it Dean had done the same thing upon sight of Ashley. Ashley now knew exactly where she had seen the pair before but she kept her mouth closed. After a moment she shook her head slightly and extended her hand to Dean.
"Nice to meet you too, Dean" Ashley greeted without a smile as Dean warily took her hand. Ashley took a sudden step back and covered her nose. "You've been eating pie..." she stated with what sounded almost like disgust. She leant in again and quickly sniffed him then leant out swiftly and covered her nose again. "...Cherry pie...Excuse me" she whispered as she rushed to the bathroom.
Soon after the sound a flushing toilet echoed, then Ashley reappeared, her fingers clamped of her nose and a can of body spray in the other hand. She stepped up to Dean and sprayed him until she was satisfied that there was no possibility that he could smell like cherry pie any longer. She then entered the kitchen, dropping the can in the bin on her way to the table.
Ashley could hear Dean complaining and she couldn't help but laugh. "Dude, stop laughing! I'm gonna smell like chick for a week!" he complained as he hit his brother who was also laughing. Sam, Dean and Bobby entered the kitchen to Ashley reading a Guns and Ammo magazine.
She looked up from her magazine trying not to laugh. "Whoa, has anyone ever told you, you smell awfully feminine?" she asked as she waved her hand in front of her nose, gesturing that something could be smelt, and with that the room fell into another fit of laughter, except Dean who was mumbling what sounded like curses incoherently as he took a seat at the table. Eventually everyone was sitting at the table.
"So how do ya'll know each other?" Bobby asked with a heavy sigh in a tone that sounded almost defeated, it seemed that the Winchesters just knew everyone. Ashley's head shot up quickly.
"What?" she asked quickly wondering how it was exactly that her father could tell that they had been each met one and other before now. Ashley looked at her father and swallowed hard, when Bobby looked away she looked toward the Winchesters and shook her head. A smirk suddenly grew on Dean's face and Ashley glared at him, knowing whatever it was he had in store would not be good for her.
"Well Bobby, Sammy here met Ashley at a bar, and she had a few drinks with us" Dean informed still smirking slightly. So far he hadn't lied, but Ashley was wondering exactly how much Dean was going to divulge to Bobby.
Bobby looked to Ashley quickly and without looking away he spoke to which ever person was going to answer. "When?" was the only question he asked. Dean frowned slightly at Bobby's choice of question, he was hoping to lie and get Sam into a bit of trouble but it didn't seem like that was going to happen.
Ashley glared at Dean, just daring him to another word. Bobby's eyes were still fixated on his daughter as the room awaited the answer. "About two and half months ago?" Dean stated in more of a questioning tone, wondering why Bobby would care.
Ashley gasped, "Ashley" Bobby growled and Ashley swallowed hard.
"You idiot!" she yelled and jumped across the table in an attempt to throttle Dean. She was doing a fairly good job until Sam intervened and easily lifted Ashley from the top of Dean as she attempted to fight him and continue attacking Dean. Sam put her down and stood between them as Bobby wheeled his way up to Ashley.
"Which one?" Bobby asked bluntly not taking his eyes away from his still fuming daughter who hadn't stopped glaring at Dean yet.
Ashley took a deep breath and turned back to her father, "Neither" she lied looking away again as her father's eyes carved into her, he didn't believe her. Both boys frowned and wondered why she didn't just get Dean into trouble when she had the chance, both knew she was fuming and at the moment seemed to hate him, if it was either of them they would have taken the opportunity.
"WHICH ONE?" he repeated, louder and more intimidating this time.
"NEITHER!" Ashley shouted back at her father, even louder than he had yelled at her.
"Go to your room" he spoke now calmly but still his eyes burned into hers.
"Excuse me? I'm 25 years old! I'm not going to my room!" she screamed back at him, leaning down to get closer to his face, in disbelief, he had never been so angry at her and she had never been so annoyed at him.
"You're living under my roof, you do as I say!" he shouted, moving his face closer to seem more intimidating.
"Well maybe I'll just move out again! How about that?" she rebutted, she saw the hurt in her father's eyes and his mouth drop slightly then she leant back, pushed past both Winchesters and stormed up to her room and slammed her door. Ashley flopped on her bed and began crying, she knew her father wouldn't tell either of them that she was pregnant if he thought that either could be the father but she knew he would continue trying to squeeze it out of them and for Dean's sake Ashley hoped that they would both keep quiet.