Pawnshops and Carousels
AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Hello there my wonderful readers! So we have another chapter upon us, this one has a little drama from the episodes, but the first part leading up to the drama was meant to be funny, so hopefully you guys enjoy it. As always don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys next Sunday.
Chapter 22
It had been six months of craving and hormonal mood swings and I'm dying. I feel terribly bad for Seth who has been putting up with a rollercoaster of emotions and has yet to complain when I wake him up in the middle of the night for some outrageous request, whether it be for some sort of craving or for sex. I feel bad for my feet which are always hurting and I'm suspecting are hella swollen, even though Seth assures me they are not. The morning sickness is gone, thank the lord, and I only have three months left. I just want this baby out of me already.
We decided early on that we didn't want to know the sex, wanted it to be a surprise. Sometimes I wish I knew, just because I liked knowing, but Seth wants it to be a surprise so I'm letting him have it. It's the least I could do considering how beastly I've been.
Today we're at the store, he's got his usual shift, I should be sitting at my desk but I missed him and wanted to see him so I'm over by the sports counter. Seth is smiling at me in that way that makes my knees weak, and I'm almost about to ask if he wants to go to his office cause the hormones plus that smile of his and the way that tight fitting black dress shirt looks on him is making me horny again, when we're interrupted by a client.
The man apologises for interrupting us which I wave away because it's silly to think that the client wouldn't come first. He introduces himself as Scott and then shows us what he got.
"I've got a 1970 Detroit Tiger's autographed baseball," Scott says and I can just by the way that Seth is handling it that he's excited for this.
"How did you get it?"
"It was my grandfather's," Scott says and that's about when I tune out.
That is… until out of nowhere, Ashley has pushed in between Seth and I and inserted herself into the negotiation. Suddenly I'm interested, because I know this is going to end in a fight. Since my getting pregnant Seth has been going off on his sister. Granted it's because he's getting very little sleep and Ashley's been perpetually rude to the customers and lowballing them, which Seth believes is driving away potential sales, but I don't want World War Three going on in this store… again. Not when it took forever to get over the Pontiac situation.
I know why she's doing this too, because Seth has been jumping into all her deals, she figured she'd get into one of his for a change.
She asks Scott all the same questions that Seth has already asked, with Seth intermittedly attempting to ask her what she was doing, and telling her that he got this, until he lost it and finally said: "What do you know about baseballs Ashley?"
She ignores the jab and keeps her eyes on Scott who is looking about as confused and horrified as I am. "How much did he offer you so far?"
"We haven't got to a number yet," he says carefully. "But uh… who am I negotiating with here?"
"Me," they say together and then turn a glare onto one another.
I want to step in, but I don't know how to un-de-rail this train wreck, I don't think even my wonderful customer service could save this one. And I know if I get in the middle and Ashley says something to me that Seth doesn't like his overprotective instincts, which are in overdrive right now, will take over and cause an even bigger situation.
"How about 250?" Ashley offers and Scott is insulted, even Seth looks a little annoyed.
As Scott goes on about how that amount won't help him get anywhere near his trip destination, Ashley picks up the ball to look at it, and Seth asks her, again, what she knows about balls, or that ball in particular. When Ashley ignores him again, he turns back to Scott to offer him, 500 which is not a number he wants to hear either.
"No, it's gotta be higher," Scott says.
"Well, I said 250," Ashely repeats and I want to groan, oh god, this… this was not going to end well. I can see Scott looking back and forth between the two siblings and then to me, and honestly, I'm shook. I don't know what to do and I swear it's the pregnancy brain.
Seth turns onto Ashley and starts asking her, over and over, if she knows anyone who signed the ball, if she knew anything about the ball at all and then the two of them are full blown arguing and poor Scott is just standing there lost.
I push them both aside as they literally devolve into screaming behind me. "I'm so sorry sir," I say, I attempt to tug the ball out of Ashley's grasp but she swats my hands away. "I'm so sorry…" I say again trying to be heard over their screams. "If you just give me a moment…"
But he's about as done as I am. "I want my ball back!" he tells me, and I try to tell him that I'm trying but when he sees that not even I can get it, he reaches over the counter for it, which gets Ashley's attention and that's never something someone wants.
"Wait a second!" Ashley hollers and my mouth drops in shock.
I turn back to the customer hoping to smooth this over though I don't think I'll be able to. "I'm so sorry, it's not usually like this," I say. "Just give me a minute, we have another guy, he knows all about baseballs he can help you."
I turn to see if I can find him Denis but Scott doesn't want my niceness, he just wants his ball. "No, no thank you, I want my ball back."
Behind them a horn starts to blare and that distracts them for all of two seconds, long enough for me to get the ball. It doesn't hold their attention for much longer though because they turn back to start arguing. I hand Scott back his ball.
"I'm really sorry, truly I am," I say to him.
"I thought you guys were professionals and tactful…" "—we usually are!" "…But clearly not. Thank you for trying ma'am but it's better if I left and took my business elsewhere as they've wasted my time!"
The siblings continue to bicker, until Les, who has stopped with the horn, comes out of the back and shouts at them and then they're quiet.
"What the hell is the matter with you two? Don't you remember the first rule? Never argue in front of the customers!"
"She was the one…" Seth starts but Les silences him.
"I don't want to hear it! Both of you, my office, now!"
Les is mad, really mad, and both of the siblings refuse to argue with him. Not even I do. We all just walk behind him, the two siblings are still screaming at one another. I'm walking beside Seth a hand to his arm, whispering words of calm to him, but it's not working. When we get into the office, even after the door has been shut behind, even all that work trying to calm Seth down, both Seth and Ashley are still screaming and pointing and going red in the face. Not even my hands on him are calming him down, and I've never failed to calm him down before.
Les walks back to his desk and the screaming reaches a fever pitch when he suddenly erupts with a: "Shut up! Shut up! Shut the fuck up for a change!"
The siblings finally go quiet, it finally stops and they just stare at their father, the man who rarely raised his voice at them… well… in an angry way.
"I have never been so embarrassed of my children then I just was on the showroom floor!" he shouts. "The thing that I always preach, no arguing on the floor. I don't allow my employees to do it and for sure my son and daughter should not be doing it in front of our employees!"
"I'm so sorry. I tried to calm him down…" I say again, almost near tears and Les turns to me as if surprised to see me there.
"Sabrina, what are you doing in here? I'm not mad at you, you weren't the one pitching that fit outside."
I perk up immediately. "Oh, so I'm not in trouble?"
"Course not…"
"Oh of course she's not, the perfect little princess is never in trouble! Perfect Sabrina can do no wrong!"
"HEY! Don't talk about my wife like that!" Seth shouts and then the two are arguing again. Both Les and I are just in shock, Les because they've devolved into arguing again, and me because I never thought that Ashley had a problem with me.
"She gets away with everything Seth! Dad just lets her do whatever she wants!"
"Reenie is actually good at her job! Unlike you!" he shouts at her.
"Enough!" Les thunders but Seth isn't done.
"SEND HER HOME!" he orders, pointing at Ashley, but I know Les isn't going to do that.
"Both of you go home!" Les screams and I pause, I was not expecting that at all. "Right this minute! Don't you say another word. Let me help you, get your asses out of my store."
He stalks over to his door and wrenches it open. "You guys go home and think about it, I do not want to see you until tomorrow. Leave! Now!"
"Good Job Seth!" Ashley snarls and Les growls at her.
"Stop it Ashley! Enough!"
The two siblings leave the office to get their things, a slump in my proud husband's shoulders tells me how he feels about this and I wince.
"Uh Les?" I ask and he turns to me and snaps What a lot more aggressively than he usually does, but I know it's the stress of the situation that has him snapping at me. Plus I can see the apology in his eyes right after. "I uh… I came here with Seth today… if he's going home…"
"Yes you can go with him," Les answers, his tone softer.
"You sure? I can stay if you need me, make Seth pick me up," I offer but he shakes his head.
"No, it's alright, you can go home with him," he said. I squeal and hug him immediately.
"Okay, I'll talk to him, I promise," I say and he smiles at me as he hugs me back.
I rush off, or well, waddle off to join Seth. He's obviously very upset and even as we're heading out the door both Ashley and Seth are still arguing, it takes me wedging myself in between them to get them to stop.
Seth: This is absolutely ridiculous. I spent the whole night fuming, not even Sabrina could calm me down, and she tried. But by morning, though I was still upset with Ashley I wanted to try and make it work, anything to get Sabrina to stop crying at this point. But despite my best efforts to remain calm and quiet, Ashley is still running her mouth and driving me crazy. She knows exactly what buttons to push to get me to snap. My dad has warned us twice to stay quiet, Sabrina has apologized for us twice, rushing out from the back to stop our arguing, and after the second time my dad thought it best to separate us. I just had to hope that Ashley shuts her fucking mouth.
Les has not been feeling well today. Between all the drama at the store and Ashley and Seth's continual arguing, I bet his blood pressure has been through the roof. I'm doing my best to nullify the arguments, to stop them before they start but honestly, it's like babysitting two-year old's. I can't leave them for a second, they just get into shit.
At the current moment things are okay. I'm standing beside Seth, purposely in between him and Ashley and every time they try to engage in any sort of bickering, I shut them down. It's a little harder to do with Ashley because she's not afraid of me, but I can easily get Seth to back off. It's when Ash attacks me that he get's a little wild. Luckily, she hasn't done that yet, so we're okay.
We watch Les deal with an irate customer, I ask twice if Seth should go help but he's sulking and he doesn't want to move. I try to go over, but Seth is more protective of me than a dog with a bone and he's not going to let me near anyone with ill intent in case me or the baby get hurt.
When he comes back in Les makes a bee-line for us and I have a feeling that one of us is in trouble.
"Did I tell you guys to restock the TVs?" he asks the two siblings and I turn to Seth surprised. "Did you see me dealing with a crazy customer? I gave you a job to do and you didn't do it!"
"Dad!" Ashley interrupts. "You told us we were little kids, a baby doesn't know how to do inventory!"
I can't help it; I both roll my eyes and groan. What the actual hell is her problem? Why would she say that to her dad?
"Are you kidding me?" Les thunders. "You know what I'll do it myself. Bobby J you come with me. I'll take a good employee!"
Ashley rolls her eyes and as Bobby J walks past Seth mutters: "Watch out you don't piss him off, he'll send you home," and I slap his stomach for the remark. He sort of huffs when I do it which means I hit him harder than I meant to but other than that he doesn't show the pain, other than to glare at me a little.
"He wouldn't, he's not a little kid," Les snaps at them both and then he and Bobby J are in the back.
As soon as he's gone, before either Ashley or Seth could get into another argument about who's fault this was, I turn onto my husband.
"Your father asked you to do something and you didn't do it?" I ask him and for a second he looks confused as if he doesn't understand why I'm upset with him.
"Reenie, he sent us home, he called us children!"
"You are acting like children!" I cry.
"Oh my god! You are such a suck up! Dad isn't even here," Ashley hollers at me and Seth sweeps me aside before I can stop him to get in her face.
"What did I say Ashley! Don't talk to my wife that way!" he screams. That's it I've lost him, there's no reeling him back in now.
"She's such a goody-two-shoes, always on dad's side!" Ashley screams back. A put a hand to Seth's back and plaintively say his name and that sort of gets him, at least it gets him to lower his voice.
"Just go home, Ashley, just go home already!" he growls.
"I'm not gong home!" she snaps. "You wanna go home, you can go home. And take the teacher's pet with you."
I almost had him away from her, but she insults me again and he's turning around, despite my strong hold on his arm.
They might actually get into blows this time, but it doesn't come to that. Bobby J comes crashing out from the back.
"Ashley, Seth, right now. Come with me. Right now," he cries. He's obviously very upset about something and that's enough to halt the argument and get both of them worried.
They both ask him what, following after him quickly as they're running to the back he shouts: "Les went down!" at them like that answered all of their questions instead of raising more.
At that Seth sprints away from me, dropping his hold on my hand and leaving me to waddle after the two siblings.
By the time I get there Seth is on the floor beside Les, and Ashley is on the other side of him. Both of them are bombarding him with questions that he seems incapable of answering.
"Did he say anything hurt to you?" Ashley asks Bobby J once it's clear that her dad isn't going to answer her.
"No. We were just pulling TVs I put that one on the cart and he went for that one and then just went down," Bobby J says.
Ashley turns to Seth. "What do we do, Seth?" she asks and then changes her mind. "Do something!"
But he seems to be at a loss, and is just staring at his father with concern all over his face. Ashley stands to yell at Seth and he stands to do the same, the situation is clearly getting out of hand. It's time I take over.
"Les, tell me where it hurts," I order while the two siblings freak out above me. Les doesn't say anything but his hand moves a fraction towards his side.
I lean over to probe it and he cries out in pain, I with draw my hand quickly, knowing exactly what was wrong with him.
"It's a hernia, he's got a hernia!" I cry and both Seth and Ashley stare at me like I'm crazy.
"What are you talking about?" Seth cries back as Ashley shouts: "How the hell would you know?"
"Don't talk to my wife like that Ashley!"
"Just call 911 Seth! Just do something!"
"SHUT UP!" I thunder and they both turn to me surprised. "Seth call 911, tell them it's a possible hernia. Ashley go to the front and wait for them, you're going to have to bring them to the back," I order before turning to Les. "Les, Les, I just need you to hold my hand, okay? Can you do that? Can you hold my hand?"
I grab his hand and he weakly squeezes mine. "That's great, now if the pain gets to be too much just squeeze my hand, okay?"
He nods, the tiniest inclination of motion, and a weak smile dons his face. I turn back up to Seth who is waiting on the line with 911, tears misting in his eyes.
Damn if he freaked out his bad over his dad's hernia how was he going to handle me going into labor?