New OCs - Chloe Sinclair played by Pippa Black, Cedric Marshall played by Tristan Wilds and Sierra Reynolds played by Nikki Reed.
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Chapter 6 - Good To Go
Ashley awoke to the feeling of tiny hands smooshing her face. Cracking one eye open, she saw her son's grinning face peering down at her. She screwed her face up and growled, delighting in Declan's childish giggles.
"What time is it?" she asked groggily, still in the process of waking up.
"After ten, I figured after last night you deserved to sleep in," Spencer answered. Ashley had more than made up for the events of yesterday. "But now your son wants to watch a movie with you."
"That so?" Ashley lifted Declan off her waist so she could sit up.
"Yup," he said firmly, helping Ashley to push the blankets back so she could get out of bed.
"And what do you want to watch?"
Declan's thinking face looked remarkably like his mother's. "I dunno," he finally answered.
"Well, why don't you go pick one out while I jump in the shower. Okay?"
Declan nodded eagerly and took off, doing his best roadrunner impression as his socked feet slid on the polished wooden floor.
"You want me to get you some breakfast?" Spencer offered.
"Yes, please," Ashley yawned, rubbing her stiff jaw.
"Captain Crunch or Froot Loops?"
"I think you already know the answer to that, Spence."
Froot Loops it is.
-
Declan had chosen to watch The Land Before Time XXIII, which sucked for Ashley because Duckie's voice made her want to stab herself in the face. She would much rather watch Jurassic Park but Spencer said that Declan was too young for that. So she was relieved when her phone started ringing in the middle of the movie.
"It's work," she announced, checking the screen. "I have to take this." She transferred Declan to Spencer's lap and stepped outside their home theatre room to answer the call.
"Chloe, you do remember that I'm on vacation, don't you?"
"Believe me, I wouldn't be bothering you if it wasn't an emergency," Chloe, her assistant at the label, said. "Sierra Reynolds."
Ashley cringed. "What about her?"
"Cedric, I don't know how, but he managed to destroy the masters of the album. We need your copies, can you send them in?"
"Sure." It was an easy enough ask. Except… "Oh shit."
"I hate when you say that," sighed Chloe, knowing that something bad was coming.
"They were on my old laptop." The one that had to be replaced after she Declan had spilled apple juice all over it. "The hard drive was trashed and the data was too corrupted for the tech to recover." Ashley groaned. "I guess that we'll just have to get her in the studio again."
It was not something that either woman looked forward to. Sierra Reynolds' style was best described as music to slit your wrists to.
"She's on tour," Chloe pointed out, checking the dates on her PDA. "And she will be for the next six weeks. We can't wait six weeks, Ashley. The label wants this album out on time, they've spent way too much on advertising it."
"Fuck!" Ashley hissed, running her hand through her hair. "Okay, um, when's her longest tour stop? Preferably three days or more."
"She's scheduled to be in New York for four days."
"When?"
"She arrives tomorrow."
"I guess that we're just going to have to fly out there then." Ashley was resigned to her fate. "We'll have to use the band she's got on tour with her, can you get a studio booked out there on such short notice?" It was a stupid question, Chloe Sinclair was the best assistant a girl could ask for, there was nothing that she couldn't do.
"Of course I can."
"And get seats for you, me and Cedric on the first flight out from LAX tomorrow?"
"Sure," Chloe said, already looking up flight times. "Wait, you actually want Cedric to come?"
"Hey, he made this mess, he's going to help clean it up."
-
"So what was that phone call about?" Spencer asked, once the movie was over. When Ashley had rejoined them, it was obvious that something was bothering the older woman.
"It was Chloe…I have to go to New York for a couple of days."
"What? I thought you were on vacation."
"I am. But my idiot intern destroyed the only copy of Sierra Reynolds' new album and the label are refusing to push back the release date. It sucks but I have to go."
"No, I get it." She just didn't like it. The best thing about Ashley's job was that it allowed her to stay in LA and have the artists come to her, rather than her travelling all the time. "When?"
"Tomorrow," Ashley said miserably.
Spencer's eyes widened in surprise. "Tomorrow?"
"I'm catching the first flight out in the morning. I should only be gone four days, at the most, I promise."
"I hate it when we're apart," Spencer mumbled. She didn't care if it sounded ever so slightly pathetic. It was true.
"Not as much as I do," Ashley said, cupping her wife's cheeks. "You know that if I didn't have to-"
"I know."
"Well, I so don't feeling like cooking now. How about we go out for dinner?"
"Pizza at Uncle Glen's?" Declan piped up from between them.
"Sure, Dec, we can get pizza." She noticed Spencer's frown. "Well you're going to have to see him eventually and remember how we agreed that we're not getting involved in their drama, you're not even supposed to know."
"Yeah, I guess." I hate it when she makes sense.
-
"So there's something that I want to talk to you about before I have to leave," Ashley said, as they were getting ready to go out to dinner.
"Don't worry, I won't say anything to Glen while you're gone." Spencer barely looked up from lacing up her red Chucks.
"That's not what I meant." She finished brushing her hair and sat down on the bed next to her wife. "Now that you've had sometime to think about it, I was just wanted to know what you wanted to do about the whole baby thing."
"I've been thinking about it a lot," Spencer began slowly, sitting up. "I don't think that we should do it."
"Are you serious?" For the past year all Spencer wanted was to have another child and now they had the perfect opportunity to do it, she was turning it down?
"It shouldn't be this hard, Ash. It's like God doesn't want us to have any more kids."
"Oh, fuck that. God can blow me."
"Ashley!" Spencer gasped.
"No, Spence, if God didn't want us to have anymore kids then this technology wouldn't even exist." She took Spence's hands in her own and forced her to look at her. "Don't try and hide behind that, what's the real reason?"
"Look, I know that you don't really want to have another baby and it feels selfish to want you to go through some awful, painful procedure just because I want to have one."
"It's not selfish. And to be honest, I've kind of come around to the idea of having another kid. And I want Dec to have a sibling." Ashley knew that she had always wanted one when she was a kid. "Plus, I've gotten a lot better with kids than I was when he was a baby."
"You're not just saying this because you think it's what I want to hear, are you?" Spencer asked, her blue eyes narrowing as she tried to figure Ashley out.
"No," Ashley answered earnestly. "I want to have another baby with you. I want it to be part of both of us and if it means me having a sore back for a couple of days, then so be it. I don't care because I know that it'll be worth it."
"You really want this?" Spencer whispered, tears forming in her eyes.
"I really, really do," Ashley said without a hint of hesitation. "And when I get back we'll start looking at potential surrogates, alright?"
Spencer nodded and lent her forehead against her wife's. "We're going to have another baby," she very nearly sobbed with happiness.
"And it's going to be the best looking kid ever!"
TBC