Chapter 4 - Prisoner Of Society

Paula was right.

Just when it looked like the media storm was about to die down, something came along to stir it all back up again.

Jane Woods of Baltimore, Maryland, came out claiming that her daughter, Kyla, was Raife Davies' illegitimate child and that she had the evidence to back it up. And now the Woods were trying to make a claim for Ashley's inheritance…and for Ashley.

"Arthur?"

Arthur looked up from the case notes that were spread out across his desk. "What is it, Silvia?" he asked the young receptionist.

"There's a Richard Woods out here, he's asking to see you."

Richard Woods, Kyla's stepfather and the driving force behind the Woods' campaign to get their hands on Ashley and her money.

"Show him in. Thanks."

He started cleaning up his desk as Silvia left, hiding the notes he'd made on Ashley away in his desk drawer. Arthur tried not to judge anybody without meeting them first, but he found himself already despising Richard Woods, just for what he'd seen and heard from him in the press. The guy made Michael Lohan look like father of the year.

"Arthur." Richard walked straight into the office with his hand extended. "It's good to finally meet you. Jane and Kyla send their apologies but Kyla couldn't miss the time off school."

Arthur nodded. "I understand, take a seat."

"Don't mind if I do," Richard laughed gregariously, sitting down opposite Arthur. Every inch of the man was fake, from his imitation leather jacket to the highlights in his hair.

"Dick," Arthur began. "May I call you Dick?"

"If that's what you feel like."

"Oh, it is. So Dick, I have to ask you, what are you doing in Ohio?"

"Well, Art, I'm here to start the proceedings to get custody of the girl, of course."

Arthur was stunned. He wasn't expecting this so soon. "On what grounds?"

"On the grounds that my step-daughter is her only living blood relative."

"That's she's never even met," Arthur pointed out indignantly. "Can I ask you what you're planning to do with Ashley, should you win custody of her?"

"We'll be putting her in a place where she can get the help she needs."

"She already is and you want to take her away from that," Arthur almost growled. "Let's cut the crap, you don't care about Ashley, you just want her money."

"And you don't? I suppose you're going to tell me that you're helping her out of the goodness of your heart, right?"

Arthur took a calming breath, it wouldn't do to lose his cool, even if Richard was the most infuriating person he had ever met. "I just want what's best for Ashley."

"Sure, sure," Richard agreed condescendingly. "You're Mother freaking Theresa." He pushed himself up, out of his chair. "I'll be filing the papers this afternoon. We'll see what the courts think is best for Allison."

"Her name is Ashley," Arthur corrected, seething.

Richard nodded graciously. "Ashley. You'd better get yourself a good lawyer, Art. I'll be seeing you real soon."

-

"So what does this mean?" Spencer asked, not taking her worried eyes off the sullen girl sitting beside her. Ashley seemed to be becoming more and more listless everyday. She'd even lost most of the weight, she'd only recently put on. "He can't take Ashley away from us, can he? She'd hate having to go and live with strangers."

Arthur, who'd just spent the last twenty minutes explaining the situation to his family, took a deep breath, bracing himself for his daughter's reaction to what he was about to reveal. "She wouldn't be living with the Woods, Spence. If Richard and Jane get custody, they'll have her placed in a psychiatric institution."

"That is just not acceptable," said Paula, angrily.

"But she's not even crazy," Glen added, frowning. Even if he didn't exactly approve of Spencer doing…whatever she did with Ashley, he knew that it wouldn't be fair for the brunette to be locked away in some nuthouse.

"But we're not going to let that happen," Spencer said firmly, refusing to entertain any other possibility. "Right Dad?"

Arthur answered the only way he truthfully could. "We'll do everything we can, Spence."

-

"You want some?" Spencer teased, waving a plate of cheesecake under Ashley's nose, trying to tempt the despondent girl to eat something. "It's yummy."

Ashley just looked at the blonde with sad brown eyes.

"Ash," Spencer sighed, setting the plate aside. She knelt down in front of the girl who was curled up on the couch. "What's wrong? Do you feel sick?" Ashley shook her head weakly. "Is it me? Did I do something-"

Ashley cut her off by licking the hand Spencer was using to stroke her face. Spencer cracked a smile and pressed their foreheads together. "So it's not me."

"My Spencer," Ashley muttered affectionately, allowing herself a small smile.

Spencer briefly turned away when the doorbell rang. "Stay here," she ordered Ashley, before kissing her the top of the older girl's head and getting up to answer it.

She knew that it was unlikely to be a reporter, they were mostly too focused on the Woods and their endless press conferences to care about the reclusive Carlins' but she still didn't want whoever it was seeing Ashley.

"Hello?" Spencer only opened the door far enough so that she could fit half her body through.

"Hi," the man on the doorstep greeted, flashing her what he thought was a charming smile. "You're Spencer, right? I'm Richard Woods, I'm here to see Ashley."

Not a chance in hell, douchebag. "Um, I don't think so. Maybe you should come back when my dad is home, Ashley's not here right now."

Richard smirked. "Then who's that I can hear growling?"

Spencer snuck a look behind her and found Ashley crouched there, ready to attack the man on the other side of the door.

"My dog," Spencer answered, turning back to face the man.

"That doesn't sound like any dog I've ever heard." Richard pushed against the door but Spencer was determined not to let him in. "I just want to get to know my daughter's sister, is that a crime?"

"You mean your step-daughter's sister, right?" Spencer corrected. She refused to let this vile excuse for a human being intimidate her. "And if you come in here then you'll be trespassing, so actually, it is."

Getting fed up with her snotty attitude, Richard seized Spencer roughly by the arm and pushed the door open fully. A split second later, he was flat on his back, struggling to keep Ashley's snapping jaws from closing around his neck.

"Get her off me!" he shouted at Spencer, who was just standing there, watching.

She shrugged dispassionately. "You said that you wanted to meet her." He deserves everything that she does to him.

"Spencer!"

In all the commotion, nobody had noticed the rest of the Carlin family pulling up in their car.

"Help me!" Richard yelped, trying to dislodge Ashley from where she'd sunk her teeth deep into the flesh of his forearm.

Glen and Arthur sprung into action, grabbing Ashley by her collar and pulling her off the injured man.

Richard struggled to his feet, pressing a handkerchief against his arm to try and stop the blood that was flowing freely from the gaping wound that Ashley had left there. "My lawyers loved that," he hissed at them spitefully. Then he turned back to his rental car and signalled to the heretofore unnoticed passenger in it. "Did you get all that?"

The man in the car help up a video camera and gave him the thumbs up.

Looking dishevelled but still smug, Richard smirked at the Carlins and still frenzied Ashley. "I think I got what I came for," he said. "Clearly, the girl is a danger to the public. I'm sure that once they see that tape, any judge is going to agree that she should be locked away."

Handing the still snarling Ashley off to his children, Arthur took the man by his lapels and pulled him up until they were nose to nose. "You set this up ," he hissed. "You son of a bitch, you're lucky I don't attack you myself. Now get the hell off my property before I call the cops." Arthur threw him backwards, sending Richard stumbling back down the steps.

"Gladly," Richard chuckled, straightening his shirt. "Like I said, I've got what I came for."

-

"What was all that, Spencer?" Arthur addressed his daughter, being careful not to raise his voice, so as not to further agitate Ashley, who was just beginning to calm down.

"Ashley was just protecting me from that creep, Dad. It wasn't her fault," Spencer explained, cradling Ashley against her chest protectively. "He grabbed me first."

Arthur rubbed a hand across his tired face. "Be that as it may, I doubt that's what it'll look like on that tape."

"Wait," Glen interjected. "That fool grabbed you? We should've let Ashley kill him."

Spencer ignored her overprotective brother. "Dad, is this bad?"

Arthur knew exactly what she was talking about. "Richard Woods now has video evidence that Ashley is a danger to society and I have no doubt that he's going to use it. I don't think it can get much worse."

-

"I'm not going to let them take you away from us. From me," Spencer promised Ashley, as they curled up together on her bed.

Ashley could sense that her mate was upset and she hated it, so she tried to smile at her, knowing that seeing her smile always made Spencer happy. Although it didn't really have it's usual affect on her, Spencer appreciated the gesture.

"You're not happy here, are you. Not really." Spencer couldn't deny it any longer. As much as she loved having Ashley in her world, it was painfully obvious that Ashley was no longer enjoying being there. "You must miss your friends, your family."

Ashley grunted softly in agreeance and nuzzled Spencer's neck. "But like being with you." It was the longest sentence she'd said in weeks.

Spencer smiled softly. "I like being with too. I love you, Ash."

"Love you. You're my Spencer."

"Yeah, I am." Spencer hated this. She hated the thought of Ashley being locked up in an asylum somewhere, separated from everything she knew. But is what we're doing to her any different? Sure, it's a much nicer cage but it's still a cage. We don't even let her go outside. It's not fair to her. "And I'm going to take care of you, Ash. That asshole is never going to get his slimy hands on you," she swore.

Moving frenetically, lest she lose her courage, she got up and rifled through her closet until she found her favorite hoody. "Come here and put this on," she coaxed gently.

Ashley had become more adjusted to wearing clothes and stopped trying to take them off every chance she got. Spencer put the hoody on Ashley, gently zipped it up and smoothed her hands down Ashley's chest, admiring how good it looked on her. Black was definitely Ashley's colour and so was red, and yellow, and white…As Spencer drifted off into fantasy-land again, Ashley breathed in the strong scent of her mate on the garment surrounding her. She loved wearing Spencer's clothes.

Spencer looked the older girl over, wondering if Ashley would be warm enough in the track pants she was currently wearing. I guess that they're going to have to do, she decided, as she got herself changed into something more suitable for what she had planned.

Once dressed, she shoved some extra supplies into her backpack and changed the batteries in her flashlight before attaching Lance's leash to the collar that still resided around Ashley's neck. "We have to be really quiet, okay?" she instructed her obedient girlfriend. "We don't want to wake anyone."

With ninja-like prowess, Spencer successfully led Ashley through the house and outside without making too much noise. There was a moment when she thought that Lance was going to bark at them and bust them for sure, but a warning growl from Ashley the big dog scuttling back to his bed.

The way Ashley perked up in the fresh air only confirmed to her that she was doing the right thing. Spencer looked out into the moonlit fields. I don't know exactly where to find Ash's pack, but I have a good idea of where to start.

-

Ashley's mood improved the further they got into the woods, surrounded by all the familiar sights and sounds and smells. She pulled Spencer along as she followed the scent markers and tracked down her old pack.

Spencer made sure to pay attention to the route they were taking, knowing that she would have to find her own way back.

They emerged from the woods into a clearing and Ashley started yipping excitedly and pulling on her lead. Across the way, Spencer could make out the forms of several large wolves in the early morning light. She stopped dead in her tracks, remembering her last encounter with the wolves all too well.

When she realized that Spencer had stopped moving, Ashley stopped straining against her leash and obediently returned to her mate's side, looking up at Spencer in confusion. Why did they stop? Didn't Spencer want to meet her family?

Spencer futilely tried to stop the tears from her eyes as she knelt down, so that they were on the same level, and took Ashley's face in her hands. She studied the older girl's face, trying to memorize every detail, every feature, knowing that this may be the last time she ever saw her. She kissed Ashley one last time then removed the collar from around her lover's neck.

"You take care of yourself, okay," she barely managed to get out, she was so choked up with emotion. "Now go on." Spencer jerked her head in the pack's direction. Ashley frowned, not understanding why she was so upset, and touched Spencer's wet face.

"It's okay. Go and play with your family." This time the words were said with a smile. One that Ashley happily returned. If Spencer was smiling it meant that she was happy and that was good.

Ashley yipped joyfully and took off running towards her pack. But when she realized that Spencer was not following her, she skidded to a halt and turned back to look at the sobbing blonde in bewilderment. She was literally caught between her pack and her mate, her past and her future, and she had a choice to make.

-
TBC