Chapter 13 - From A Mountain In The Middle Of The Cabins

"Hey, what's for lunch?" Ashley asked, leading Spencer back into the kitchen of the cabin after their exhilarating adventure in the great outdoors.

"It's about time you two came in," said Kyla, raising an eyebrow at their messy appearance. "You okay, Spence? You look a little flushed."

Ashley smirked while Spencer hid her face against her back. "She's fine, she was helping me out."

"I'll bet she was."

Then Holly came skidding into the room, saving Spencer from any further teasing at Kyla's hands. "Did you see it?" she squealed excitedly.

"See what?" Spencer asked, her face starting to return to it's normal color.

"The bear! I heard it outside again so I went upstairs to see if I could see it from any of the windows up there but I couldn't see anything."

Ashley, Kyla and Glen all had to try and stifle their giggles while Declan looked around confused as to why they were all laughing -Bears were no match for a T-Rex but they were still no laughing matter- and why his mother's face had gone bright red again. Maybe she was still feeling sick.

"Oh, the bear…yeah, we saw it but I scared it away…with my axe," Ashley lied in a lame attempt to salvage her wife's dignity.

"Wow," Holly breathed in awe. Her aunt really was the coolest person she knew.

"I know, I'm awesome…and hungry, so again I ask, what's for lunch?"

"PB & J's" Glen announced, setting a plateful of sandwiches down on the table for everyone to share.

"Your culinary prowess continually amazes me, Glen. It really does." She threw her arm around Spencer's shoulders and ushered her wife towards the doorway. "Come on, Yogi, let's go and get cleaned up."

"That's not funny," Spencer hissed, gently elbowing Ashley as the older woman lead her out of the kitchen.

"It's a little bit funny."

-

"Kids, go and get your jackets," Spencer instructed the children as they prepared to go on their planned hike.

While Holly, Declan and Ashley obediently scrambled upstairs to the bedrooms to get their coats, Kyla joined her sister-in-law at the bottom of the stairs. "Thanks for this, Spence."

"It's no problem. I think that the fresh air will be good for the kids."

"I meant for the whole weekend. It was a really good idea, I think it's just what me and Glen needed."

"I'm just glad that you two are working things out." She didn't even want to think how awkward the family gatherings would be if Glen and Kyla actually broke up and started seeing other people. And now that she knew Aiden was back in town, Spencer wouldn't put it past him to come sniffing around Kyla while she was hurt and vulnerable. He seemed to have a particular talent for taking advantage of vulnerable women.

"Ashley packed Declan's clothes for this weekend, didn't she," Kyla remarked when her nephew came thundering down the stairs decked out in a black hoodie covered in tiny blue and yellow skulls. Whenever Declan looked like he'd run through the children's section of Hot Topic with his eyes closed, it was a pretty safe bet that Ashley was the one responsible for it.

"Do you really have to ask?" Spencer said with a bemused expression.

Then Ashley came down the stairs with Holly, who was wearing a much more sensible black track jacket over her Lakers jersey. "I got yours," she said, handing Spencer her much worn UCLA sweatshirt.

"Thanks, Ash." Spencer turned to Kyla. "We should be gone for like an hour, is that enough time for you guys?"

Kyla nodded. "That should be fine."

Holly nudged Ashley with her elbow. "Hey, so exactly how big was that bear?"

-

It was official, Ashley did not get the appeal of hiking. She couldn't believe that there were people in the world that did it for fun. It was just like walking, only harder.

"How old were you when you had had your first crush?" Holly finally plucked up the courage to ask. When she'd asked her father he just covered his ears and said that he couldn't hear her until she changed the subject but she knew that her aunts would be cool with it.

"Five," Ashley answered instantly. "This little blonde girl gave me a rainbow lollypop and I was in love with her for like a year." Then the gears started to turn in her head. "Wait, you've got a crush!"

Holly muttered something incomprehensible and looked down at her feet, hiding her pink face behind a curtain of hair.

Ashley smirked knowingly. "So who's the lucky girl then?"

"Patrick," Holly mumbled, gaining courage. "From across the street."

"That mushroom haired little midget? Oh, Holly, no." Ashley shook her head disapprovingly.

"He's ten and he has a skateboard," Holly elaborated, going all dreamy eyed.

Spencer smiled at her niece while helping Declan climb over a large rock. She knew that Ashley was going to take this hard, she'd had her hopes set on Holly turning out just like her; preference for girls included.

"You know, when you're sixteen that'll change to he's eighteen and has a motorbike and then your mom will have an epic bitch fit and find some way to blame it all on me." Ashley threw her arm around her niece's shoulders. "Do yourself a favor and find a nice girl to crush on. Way less drama that way." And no possibility of teenage pregnancy scares that'll turn Glen's hair prematurely white.

"Yes, because our teenage years were so drama free," Spencer remarked sarcastically.

"That was all because of Aiden," Ashley said dismissively. "And your mom." Spencer cleared her throat forcing Ashley to reluctantly add, "And because I use to be an insensitive dumbass."

"That's sounds about right."

"Anyway, my point is that you're just asking for trouble with boys. Besides, you're only eight, you're way to young to date. You shouldn't even be thinking about it." Eight year olds dating. What has the world come to? I blame Britney Spears for this decline of society.

"I'm almost nine," Holly protested.

"Sweetie," Spencer said gently. "I don't think it's going to matter if you're nineteen, your dad is never going to approve of you dating."

"A guy," added Ashley.

"Anybody," the blonde corrected sternly. "Ash, it's not her fault that she likes boys, she can't help it. Let her make up her own mind."

Ashley shrugged her shoulders, thoroughly chagrined. "I'm just saying that if she's straight and makes it into the WNBA, then she's totally going to be the odd one out, that's all."

Holly laughed and shook her head at her aunt. Not every woman in the WNBA was gay, she was sure that some of them had husbands. Then something in a nearby tree caught her eye. "Hey, a beehive," she pointed out.

"Cool." Ashley was easily distracted. "Let's throw rocks at it."

"Let's not." Spencer grabbed on to her wife's arm to stop her. "Haven't you ever seen My Girl?"

Ashley frowned. "Who's Girl?"

Spencer sighed. She should've figured that the reference to one of her childhood favorites would be lost on her wife. "Come on, we should be heading back before it starts getting dark."

-

"Momma, I gotta pee," Declan announced to his parents as they rounded the corner and their cabin came into sight in the distance.

"Can you hold it or do you want to go behind a bush?" Ashley asked.

Declan made a face. Although he didn't quite understand what had happened to his Aunt Kyla when she had peed outside, he knew that it must have been something bad. "I can hold it."

"You sure?"

Declan nodded resolutely. He was a big boy now, he could hold it.

"Okay, do you want a piggy back ride?"

"Yes!"

Ashley easily swung Declan up onto her back, knowing that she'd be able to cover the ground to the cabin twice as fast as his tiny legs could.

"Hey Holly, wanna race?"

While she was always up for an athletic challenge, Holly had to turn this one down for the sake of her young cousin's safety. "Not right now."

"Okay," Ashley grumbles but still quickened her pace to a brisk walk. She didn't want her son's bladder, like, exploding or something. That would totally suck.

Moving at a quicker pace allowed the group to reach the cabin in half the time. Still carrying Declan on her back, Ashley held the door open for Spencer and Holly to enter.

Holly gagged at the sight of her parents making out on one of the couches. She was happy that they weren't fighting but there were just some things that children were not meant to see and parental units tonguing like teenager was right up there.

"Don't let us interrupt," Ashley finally said after Glen and Kyla failed to notice their arrival. The two sprung apart guiltily, rumpled and red faced.

"You're back early," Kyla squeaked out and tried to straighten her clothes.

"We were gone for over two hours," Ashley pointed out, smiling sardonically.

"Oh. I guess we must've lost track of the time."

"Ya think?"

"Kyla, would you like to help me get dinner started?" Spencer finally stepped in to save the pair from any further embarrassment at her wife's hands.

"Yes. Yes, I would."

-

"So," Spencer began, eager to get all the juicy gossip out of her sister in law as they washed the dishes together while Ashley and Glen put the children to bed, after dinner. "What happened with you and Glen today?"

"We talked."

Spencer paused with her hands in the soapy water. "You did a lot more than that."

"We talked, about everything, and we agreed to wipe the slate clean and start fresh...then, and I know that this sounds totally lame, but he offered to make me some smores and I saw that guy that I fell in love with, you know. I really think that this is going to work out...and it's all because of you."

"No, it's not," Spencer scoffed, pulling the plug and letting the water out of the sink. "I didn't do anything. You don't give yourself enough credit."

"Neither do you." Kyla wiped her hands on a nearby tea towel after putting the last of the cutlery away. "Anyway, that's not all we talked about while you were gone."

"Yeah?"

"We talked about you and Ashley too."

Spencer looked confused. "Me and Ash? Why?"

"Because...Because I want to be your surrogate."

Spencer hadn't been this pleasantly surprised since Ashley had gotten Kelly Clarkson to perform at their wedding. "You what?"

"I've been thinking about it a lot and I figured that it would be better to keep it in the family, you know," Kyla rushed out, afraid that Spencer was upset by her offer. "I mean, instead of trusting some stranger with your baby. And you and Ash have done so much for me over the years, I feel like this is finally my chance to give something back." And if she played it right, she could totally make it count as Ashley's birthday and Christmas presents for the next couple of years. Ashley was the absolute worst person to try to shop for; if she wanted something for herself then she bought it and giving her money was a pretty pointless gesture considering that she was the wealthiest one in the family. Kyla would almost rather go through the pain of childbirth than agonize over what to get her sister for Christmas.

"And Glen's okay with this?" Spencer asked, still a little stunned by this sudden development.

"Of course." She wouldn't be offering otherwise. "He was actually surprised that you guys hadn't asked me yet. So was I, for that matter."

"You always said that you never wanted to have any more children after Holly." And after being in labor for twenty eight hours and having to push an eleven pound baby out of her tiny body, nobody could blame Kyla for that. "The thought never even really crossed our minds."

"Well, I'm just hoping that whatever the hell it was, that made Holly so big, came from my mom's side of the family and your one will be normal sized. Otherwise it's going to be a C-section all the way."

Spencer started to tear up as the reality of the situation hit her. Kyla wanted to have their baby! Of course, Ashley entered the kitchen at that very moment and, noticing the tears in her wife's eyes, immediately went into protective mode.

"Kyla, why is she crying? What the fuck did you say to her?" she asked, immediately going to Spencer's side. She was fully prepared to smack Kyla upside the head if she had been the one to make her cry.

"I'm going to have your baby!"

Ashley stopped in her tracks and put up her hands. "I swear to god, it's not mine," she assured Spencer sincerely. "Kyla, you dumbass, you can't get pregnant from sex dreams. No matter how awesome I'm sure I am in them."

Kyla rolled her eyes at her idiot half sister. "No, you butthead. I just told Spencer that I want to be your surrogate mother."

"Oh." Comprehension dawned on Ashley's face. "Ohhhh!"

"Yeah."

"My sister's going to have my baby," Ashley muttered, trying to wrap her head around this sudden development. "This is going to be the hottest, most messed up kid in the world."

-
TBC