Hey kids!

sorry this update took a while; I've been way busy lately. Plus I had this really weird reaction to a tetanus booster shot last week, that made my left arm temporarily paralyzed, which as you can imagine totally made typing an issue. Anyway, everything is cool now-- enjoy the update!

The Carlin Girls

Chapter 10

By JewWitch

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Though she was more awake now, there was still something languid and dreamlike about Spencer's movements as she pushed Ashley back into the bed, kissing her, slowly sucking in her lower lip; then just as slowly and deliberately rubbing her whole body against Ashley's, like a cat. The motion drew a deep moan of longing from Ashley's throat, totally independent of her brain. Her awareness had been whittled down to the feeling of Spencer's teeth gently tugging her lip, her hot breath, her hair spilling down to graze against Ashley's face and throat.

"Spencer…" Ashley panted, trying hard to keep her head. "I think you might be a little drunk…are you sure you want to…oh, fuck…" Spencer had just traced her tongue up the edge of Ashley's ear.

"Just shut up, okay?" Spencer whispered, pressing her face into Ashley's hair, one hand slipping under her shirt to rub teasing circles around her bellybutton. "I want to be with you. I'm sure." Any misgivings Ashley might have had died away when Spencer pulled back and smiled at her, a mixture of sweetness and blazing desire in her ocean blue eyes. Ashley's heart began thudding painfully in her chest. At some point while they were kissing, she took one of Spencer's hands and pressed it over the spot where she felt the frantic pounding; maybe it was all in her head, anyway, but at the touch of Spencer's palm, the pounding eased. Spencer rubbed the spot lightly, tenderly; then slipped both hands to the buttons on Ashley's shirt.

"You are so beautiful," Spencer whispered, in a dazed sort of awe, pushing Ashley's shirt back off her shoulders with nimble fingers.

"No, you are," Ashley grinned shyly. She'd heard these words before, but coming from Spencer, they felt…different. Real. This wasn't some pickup line; as far as Ashley could tell, Spencer didn't have any pickup lines. The knowledge that it was her Spencer wanted, her and no one else, drove Ashley wild with desire, tinged with a maddening protectiveness. "And I am so completely yours, Spencer Carlin."

"Yay me," Spencer murmured, slipping the straps of Ashley's lacy black bra down off her shoulders, and releasing the front clasp between her breasts. Ashley stayed still, letting Spencer undress her. She'd been undressed by so many people, in so many places, that she sometimes worried it could never feel exciting again, like driving a car for the first time; eventually, the thrill of freedom and speed wear off, any everything becomes banal. But as Spencer's gentle fingers grazed over her skin, Ashley felt a zing she'd never felt before, not even when it really was her first time.

"My amazing girl," she whispered, cupping Spencer's face in both hands and pulling her in for another deep kiss, the cotton of the blonde girl's t-shirt rough against her bare chest. She reached for the hem of the offending garment, and Spencer lifted her arms without being asked, allowing Ashley to pull it off and fling it carelessly across the room. Before she could do any more, though, Spencer re-asserted her dominance, pushing Ashley back against the headboard and lowering her face to the brunette's chest, nuzzling into one of her pert breasts. She explored the soft, smooth landscape with lips and tongue; when she sucked a hard nipple into her warm, wet mouth, Ashley gasped, her breath catching raggedly in her throat.

"Holy fucking God, Spencer…" Ashley's hands buried themselves in thick blonde hair, and Spencer, emboldened, caught the little nub between her teeth, swirling the tip of her tongue around it. Ashley let go of Spencer's hair and raked her nails up the smooth skin of her back, both of them panting and whimpering now.

"I feel like I'm gonna die if I don't touch you," Spencer whispered, squirming on top of Ashley, their legs tangled urgently together.

"Me too," Ashley agreed breathlessly, hands still gripping Spencer's back, like gravity might reverse and pull her away at any moment. "Please, Spence…I need you…" Ashley's voice died in her throat as Spencer's fingers slipped between her legs and found her clit, teasing it with the lightest touches.

"Is this okay?" Spencer murmured, the uncertainty in her voice heartbreakingly innocent.

"So very, very okay," Ashley panted, slipping one hand up to pull Spencer down by the back of her neck, kissing her deeply. All insecurity now put to rest, Spencer's interest in Ashley's clit intensified, fingers running quickly through the wetness deeper down just to come back up and swirl around the hard little nub, tracing its length, rubbing it with just the right amount of pressure to draw Ashley's pleasure out into exquisite torture. The dark haired girl pushed her hips up harder into Spencer's hand, desperate for release. They were both panting now, and Spencer ducked her head down against Ashley's throat, where her hot breath blazed against her girlfriend's pulse point. With an animal wail, she felt Ashley's whole body arch up into hers, wave after exquisite wave of pleasure pulsing through the trembling body below.

With a shared sigh, they both collapsed back onto the bed, bodies slick with sweat. After a few lazy, content moments of silence, Ashley began to come back to her senses, and noticed that Spencer was shivering on top of her, gulping shallow breaths of air. Ashley reached out and pulled the blankets up around them both, wrapping her arms around the trembling blonde.

"You okay, baby?" Ashley murmured, trailing her fingers lightly up and down Spencer's back.

"My heart is beating so fast…"

"I know. I feel it," Ashley nodded, leaning up to touch the smooth skin above Spencer's thudding heart, pressing a soothing, gentle kiss to her lips. Then the dark-haired girl looked up, a blissed-out glaze still shining in her dark eyes. "I don't think I've ever felt that good in my whole damn life," she smiled, and, quick as a flash, she'd flipped Spencer onto her back. The blonde girl gave a shrill squeak of surprise. "Allow me to return the favor," Ashley growled playfully. Spencer giggled delightedly, a shy, but very pleased grin breaking over her flushed face. Ashley leaned down and began kissing and nibbling her throat, desire rising hot and strong inside her again in an instant.

"Ash…" Spencer moaned, arching up hard as Ashley sucked the soft skin between her teeth. It was at that unfortunate moment that Spencer's cell phone went off in her bag, jerking them both from their comfortable sprawl. The words don't answer it were on the tip of Ashley's tongue when she remembered two things: one, Spencer had a daughter, who might at that moment need her. Two, they were still waiting for any word on Mimi's condition from the hospital, and the nurses had promised to call the moment the old woman was awake. Spencer dove for her phone, and Ashley didn't try to stop her.

Twenty minutes later, they were stumbling into the ICU, clumsily dressed, with mussed hair and mismatched buttons. Then again, it was two in the morning, and no one was likely to question their disheveled appearance. Spencer's face, so recently flushed with heat and desire, had gone alarmingly pale. Ashley couldn't think of anything to do that might help, so she just followed Spencer silently through the maze of corridors, until they came to the ICU admittance desk. Dr. Pulaski didn't keep them waiting long this time, ushering them both down the quiet corridor as he explained what they should expect when they went into Mimi's room. She was awake, yes; but she couldn't speak, and the right side of her body was paralyzed. It was likely that she wouldn't understand anything they said, either, but at this early juncture there was no way to tell for sure. Ashley wanted to tell the doctor to shut up, already, as she watched the effect his bleak pronouncements were having on Spencer; but she figured that open hostility toward the doctor probably wouldn't go over well with the shaky blonde beside her. She settled for squeezing Spencer's hand, hard, and asking the grim doctor if there wasn't something good he could tell them.

"Right now, there are still a lot of unknowns," Dr. Pulaski explained brusquely as he led them to Mimi's door. "Many stroke patients recover significant motor skills in the first 48 to 72 hours; it's perfectly possible that, two days from now, she'll be smiling and sitting up on her own. But at Mrs. Katz's advanced age, the odds that she'll have a slower recovery are significant. We'll keep her here until she's stable, then she'll be transferred to a stroke recovery clinic, where they'll be able to tell you a lot more about what to expect over the next three to six months. She'll most likely need to learn to speak, eat, and walk all over again." Ashley felt Spencer's hand squeezing hers back, and resisted the urge to bitch-slap the doctor all the way down the hall.

"Thank you, Dr. Pulaski," Spencer said hollowly, and Ashley just nodded. After he'd left, the two of them stood in front of the door to Mimi's room in silence for several long, uncomfortable moments.

"Spence? Do you want to go in by yourself first, or"—

"No way," Spencer shook her head, snapping out of her momentary daze. "You're coming, too." She gulped, and put her hand on the door; but she didn't push it open.

"You know that no matter what, whether she can talk or smile or any of that, Mimi still knows you love her," Ashley said quietly, slipping one hand to Spencer's lower back, lightly rubbing the warm skin there. "Seeing your face, hearing your voice, that's what's going to help her most right now…even if she can't express it." Spencer sighed heavily.

"Let's go in."

The figure in the bed was very still, but her eyes were open. One looked normal, while the other drooped, as if drifting toward sleep. There was a bald patch on the side of her head, where they'd shaved her for the surgery; thankfully, the ugly incision was covered by a large square of pristine white bandage. As the two girls walked in, Mimi's eyes—both droopy and normal—tracked to them.

"Hi, Nana," Spencer said slowly, sitting down in the chair beside the bed, and tentatively reaching out for the old woman's hand. When she encountered no resistance, she slipped the wrinkled old hand into both her own. "It's me, Spencer…you remember, right?" She smiled wanly, but Mimi gave no sign that she'd heard or understood Spencer's words. "And I brought Ashley, too. See? We're both here." Feeling rather useless, Ashley took a step forward and put both hands on Spencer's shoulders, feeling the how tense the muscles were under her hands. She began to lightly knead the tightness from Spencer's shoulders, making the blonde girl sigh, and lean her head back briefly. "Do you think she even hears me?" she asked sadly.

"She hears you," Ashley said quietly. Spencer glanced up over her shoulder, and Ashley leaned down and kissed her lightly on the lips, trying to show Spencer the comfort her words couldn't express. They stayed another fifteen minutes or so, talking quietly to the unresponsive old woman, until her unblinking eyes finally closed in sleep. Ashley was grateful for this, as exhaustion was creeping into her own limbs, too, along with a headache that had recently begun to throb behind her eyes. She knew Spencer couldn't be much better off, and after a few quiet minutes of watching the old woman sleep, she squeezed the blonde girl's shoulder.

"C'mon, baby, there's nothing else we can do for her tonight. It's late; we need to go home and get some sleep."

"'Kay," Spencer nodded, looked pretty dazed and drowsy herself, and allowing Ashley to lead her from the hospital room. They didn't speak at all in the car, until Ashley had pulled into the driveway and cut the engine, ready to climb out and crawl straight into bed. "Ash?" Spencer stopped her with a hand on her arm. Ashley blinked her dark eyes at the searching blue ones across from her. "I'm sorry about…all of this. You shouldn't have to deal with this stuff."

"Yeah, well, neither should you," Ashley shrugged, taking the hand Spencer had placed on her arm, and kissing it. "But you're not the kind of person who walks away when the people you love need help. And I'm not the kind of person who can walk away from…well, you." She said this last part a little sheepishly, unused to making such bold declarations of love for anything other than ice cream or chocolate. Her awkward honesty seemed to do the trick, though, getting a genuine smile from the blonde, and a sweet, warm kiss.

They crawled into bed without speaking, curling up together like puzzle pieces and falling asleep almost instantly. It seemed like only a few minutes had passed before Ashley was blinking her eyes open in the pale light of morning, nestled under Spencer's sleep-warmed limbs. It would have been an extremely comfortable way to wake up, if not for the pain still stabbing ruthlessly at her head. She gave a miserable little groan, slipping one hand out from under the covers to rub her eyes. This sucks, Ashley thought, glancing down at the still form of her girlfriend curled around her. She knew Spencer must still be exhausted, and she didn't want to wake her; but she didn't think she could wait until the blonde girl woke up to get herself the Advil she desperately needed. Slowly, Ashley shifted her position, easing herself out from under Spencer's limp body.

"Mmm," Spencer mumbled, twitching a little in her sleep. "Don't go that way…you'll get stuck in the peanut butter…" Ashley bit down a snort of laughter. She wondered if Spencer talking in her sleep was a regular thing, or if this was just a result of their long, stressful night, and the momentary jostling that Ashley had given her.

"Shh, baby," she whispered, running her fingers lightly through her girlfriend's silky blonde hair. "It's okay, I won't go near the peanut butter."

"Mm-hmm," Spencer murmured, a little shudder running through the length of her body before she relaxed, and slipped back into a deeper sleep. Ashley smiled, despite the throbbing ache in her head, and leaned down to nuzzle her face into Spencer's sweet-smelling hair.

"You are so precious," she whispered, giving the sleeping girl a light kiss on the temple before she slipped out of bed, padding to the bathroom and swallowing four Advil with a swig of water from the sink. A glance at the clock informed her that there was no godly reason for her to be up at this hour; she was doubly annoyed when she thought of how unlikely it was that she'd get an Audrey-free morning with Spencer again anytime soon. Ashley loved the exuberant little girl, she really did; but a lazy morning in bed with Spencer was something she'd really been looking forward to, and certainly not something she'd ever experienced before with any of her nameless flings.

Resolved to make the most of the morning, headache or no, Ashley slipped into the shower, hoping a nice, hot steam would help the painkillers along. After twenty minutes under the hot blast, she felt a bit better, and ready to crawl back into bed beside the sleep-warmed blonde. Spencer had squirmed onto her side in Ashley's absence, one arm dangling off the side of the mattress as if she were reaching out for the dark-haired girl in her sleep. Ashley slipped under the sheets behind her, pressing herself against the length of Spencer's back, one arm wrapping around her stomach. The arm that had been stretched out over the edge of the bed came back, covering Ashley's, as Spencer arched her back in a huge, sleepy stretch, a contented sigh escaping her lips as she curled up again, with Ashley spooned against her back. Ashley buried her face in Spencer's hair, grinning, and dropped back off to sleep.

The next time her eyes opened, Ashley knew it was much later; the pale light of daybreak had melted into the rich, buttery glow of late morning, and, even more telling, Spencer was sitting up in bed beside her, playing with her hair and gently calling her name. Ashley groaned and buried her face against Spencer's hip.

"Morning, sleepyhead," Spencer crooned, lightly scratching her nails up and down Ashley's back. "I'm sorry to wake you, but it's past ten, and I gotta go pick up Audrey from Chelsea's. Wanna come? We could all go out for breakfast somewhere."

"Ugh," Ashley whined, finally rolling over and opening her eyes. Her head was pounding again, and now her throat felt raw and scratchy, like she'd been screaming her head off all night at a rock concert. Just great, Ash, perfect time to get sick, she thought irritably. Like Spencer doesn't have enough to worry about right now without your whiny little ass.

"Hey, are you okay Ash?" Spencer cocked her head, smoothing a lock of dark hair back behind her ear.

"Uh-huh," Ashley nodded blearily. "Just tired…I think you better go without me, okay babe? I'm just gonna sleep a little longer."

"Okay," Spencer nodded, leaning down and covering Ashley's face with light kisses before slipping out of bed. "I'll call you later, okay?"

"Mm-hmm," Ashley agreed absently, aware of one more light kiss on her lips before Spencer was gone. Once she was alone, Ashley slipped back into a restless, uneasy sleep, waking in a panic from bad dreams to find that the day was more than half gone. She finally dragged herself out of bed a little after three, sweating and shivering, in search of more Advil. Once she'd swallowed it, she realized she was really, really thirsty; she stood shakily over the sink and guzzled down two full glasses of water.

"Man, this totally blows," she grumbled out loud to no one. Ashley hardly ever got sick, and couldn't think what else to do to make herself feel better. The obvious answer—call your girlfriend to come take care of you—was not an option as far as Ashley was concerned; not when there was so much else going on that required Spencer's attention. Between navigating Mimi's transition from the ICU to rehab, finding new childcare for Audrey come Monday morning, and running around trying to find the money and insurance coverage to pay for all of this, Ashley figured the last thing on earth Spencer needed was her whining that she didn't feel good. Resolved to tough it out, Ashley pulled the quilt off her bed and wrapped it clumsily around her shoulders, stumbling slowly downstairs, where she flopped on the couch and turned on the cartoon network.

She'd watched two episodes of Josie and the Pussycats, and half of Powerpuff Girls, when her phone lit up and began to vibrate. She knew it was probably Spencer; but she let it go to voicemail. When the buzzing stopped, she picked it up and dialed the number to retrieve the message. Spencer's warm voice flooded the receiver, making Ashley feel better and worse at the same time. Hey Ash! Just checking in. Audrey and I are at the grocery store, and I just wanted to see if you had any thoughts on dinner. Audrey's lobbying for hamburgers. Do you like hamburgers? Anyway, give me a buzz and let me know if you want to come have dinner with us, or if you wanna come over later. Bye, baby!

When the sound of Spencer's voice abruptly ended, Ashley closed her eyes, sighing miserably. She really, really wanted Spencer here right now. But she couldn't be that selfish. Knowing she probably sounded as bad as she felt, she texted Spencer instead of calling back. Cant 2nite. Sorry. A minute later, she got a message back: r u ok? Dont lie. "Dammit, Spencer," she muttered darkly to herself. The blonde girl was making it extremely difficult for Ashley to be noble. I'm fine, she texted back. Just got the flu or something. Dont worry. Spencer must have been satisfied with this, because she didn't text back again; but half an hour later, the doorbell rang. At first Ashley ignored it, figuring that it was either Girl Scouts selling cookies, or a Jehovah's Witness. But it rang again, and again, until finally Ashley had to climb off the couch and answer it.

"What?" she snarled when she finally got the door open. Spencer was standing there with a bag of groceries on her arm, head cocked in her typical puppy dog gesture, smiling angelically at Ashley's scowl.

"Well, what do you think? After everything you've done for me lately, I'm just gonna leave you all alone while you're sick?" Spencer pushed past Ashley into the house, putting her groceries down on the landing and pulling the bewildered brunette into a hug. "Aw, poor baby, you've got a fever," She cooed, smoothing Ashley's sweaty hair back from her face. "Why didn't you say anything before?" Ashley half-shrugged. Now that Spencer's arms were around her, it was impossible not to lean into her.

"You've got enough to worry about," she mumbled sheepishly.

"That's not how it works," Spencer shook her head, tilting Ashley's chin up so she had to make eye contact. "I love you, okay? And I'm always gonna be here when you need me." Inexplicably, Ashley felt tears well up in her eyes, spilling over before she had a chance to push them back down. Spencer kissed her forehead and hugged her tight.

"I'm sorry," Ashley sniffed awkwardly.

"Shh, baby, it's okay. C'mon, let's get you comfy on the couch…then I'm gonna make you some chicken soup. And I got some movies and ice cream, too. Does that sound good?" Ashley nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She let Spencer pull her back to the couch, and tuck her under the blankets, before the obvious question occurred to her.

"Where's Audrey?"

"I dropped her back at Chelsea's for dinner. She wanted to come keep you company, too, but I told her that you didn't have anything for her to play with here, and she'd just be bored."

"Are you sure this is okay, Spence? I don't want to make things harder for you…"

"Stop it, Ash, you're not making things harder."

"But what if I get you sick, too?"

"I already had my flu shot this year," Spencer shrugged. "One of the few perks of having a workaholic doctor for a Mom."

"Okay, but…"

"Ashley." Spencer fixed the argumentative brunette with her most authoritative, mom-like glare. "You are not getting rid of me, so just save your breath, okay? The longer you argue, the longer it will be before you get your soup." She followed this pronouncement with an angelic Carlin smile; and Ashley finally caved.

"Okay." She grinned sheepishly. "I guess this means you really do like me for more than just my body, after all."

"What tipped you off?" Spencer murmured, smirking, before kissing Ashley lightly on the lips, and scooting off to the kitchen to unpack her groceries.