Disclaimer: Still not mine.

Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: Of course it's great! I Need You was one of the first few stories I read, and I really fell in love with it.

flowerweasly16: There's still a lot that will happen before they're all right.

Just Jill: Yup, David's going to hang around for another few chapters. In fact, here he is.

Jenny: No, they're not that comfortable around each other anymore. No offense taken, I like the other plot better, too. :P

Mel: Collin's a cool name. We'll see if I use it sometime.

Chapter 15

"Hey."

At the semi-familiar voice, Ashley glanced up, surprised to see the tanned man walking towards her. He paused at the gates to the cemetery, waiting for her to reach him.

"Oh, hi, David," she greeted, shifting the two bouquets of roses cradled in her arms. "What are you doing here?"

"I was just leaving, actually," he told her. "Unless you'd like to talk or something..."

"Um, sure," she said. "I was just going to take these to my grandparents."

"Need some help with those?" he offered.

"That's be great, actually," she said with a grateful smile, shifting the bundle of pink roses from her arms to David's. "I didn't know flowers could be so heavy."

He laughed quietly. "The roses were their favorite?"

"Yeah," Ashley said with a sad smile. She started moving away from him down the pathway, speeding up a little as he began to follow. "Their house had this amazing garden."

"Really?"

"Yeah," she said, her smile brightening. "Jeff - my brother - and I, we'd play hide and seek in their backyard. Some of those flowers were almost large enough to hide in."

David smiled as they rounded a corner. "My grandmother couldn't stand flowers. My grandfather loved them and he was always buying them or growing them... but besides that, I don't think they ever fought. Not once in forty-eight years."

"Wow..." Ashley sighed. "I wish..."

She hadn't meant to speak, hadn't meant to reveal that much of herself to a man she had met two days before, but he looked at her quizzically and the words just poured out.

"I wish Andros and I could be like that," she told him, sighing. "I think we could have been, before, but now... it's like everything between us has changed."

"But everything between you has changed," David said. "You married him because you were pregnant with his child, and now that child's gone."

"No," Ashley exclaimed, her feet cruching lightly on the pathway as she halted abruptly. "I married him because I love him. I love him, David."

"I never said you didn't," he said quickly. "But... if there had been no baby, would you be married to him now?"

"I... I don't know," Ashley was forced to admit, quickening her pace as she spotted her grandparent's graves a few yards ahead. "Andros proposed right after I told him about the baby..."

"He wanted to do the right thing," David said softly. "For you and the baby."

"But... he had a ring," she protested, not sure whom it was with she was arguing any longer. "And he said he'd wanted to ask me for awhile..."

"If there had been no baby, do you think he would have asked you so soon?"

Ashley was spared from having to reply as they halted before Edith and Joseph's headstone. Taking the roses David had carried, she knelt in the damp grass, smiling, if a bit sadly.

"Hi, Grandma," she whispered, settling first the pink roses and then the yellow ones against the dull slab of gray. "Hi, Grandpa."

Her mouth opened and closed several times, but words refused to flow as freely as they had a few days before. David hovered only a few feet away, his presence stifling her. More than slightly bothered, she frowned, shaking her head as another attempt to force some words from her throat failed.

"I'll be back soon," she said finally. "Take care of Joey for me."

Ashley stood abruptly, not waiting for David as she turned and nearly stalked from the cemetery. She heard him following her, calling after her. She didn't wait for him to catch up to her and continued walking, her fingers grasping the door handle of her car before she felt his hand closing around her arm.

"Ashley..."

He was slightly winded from his run, and he didn't release her as he caught his breath, instead tightening the already firm grasp he had on her arm, tugging her to face him.

"David, I really don't think - "

"Look, just hear me out, all right?" he pleased. "Come on, Ash, please?"

Hearing him address her so familiarly sent instant waves of consternation flowing through her, but Ashley paused, considering his request half in spite of herself. He could just want to apologize... Maybe he didn't know...

Ashley wasn't nearly naive, but she was hesitant to judge him without hearing his side of the story. She sighed and nodded to him. "Fine."

"I'm sorry, all right?" he said, his deep brown eyes holding her nearly in a trance. "About what I said earlier, I mean. I didn't mean to suggest that you don't love your husband. I know you do... It's just, you seemed a little depressed."

"A little depressed?" she repeated dryly, nearly laughing.

"Very depressed, then," he said with a little laugh. "I've never been good at being tactful and all that, and I was just trying to help. I didn't meant tot offend you..."

Ashley sighed, some of her wariness fading. "Look, David, I just met you a few days ago. I liked talking to you, but I really don't feel comfortable discussing my marriage with you."

"Andros wouldn't like it, you mean?" he asked knowingly, smirking slightly.

"No," she agreed readily. "But I don't blame him for it. I wouldn't want him talking about me to anyone, either."

"You shouldn't base your decisions on what Andros would and wouldn't like," he told her, his eyes lingering on her. "You should do what you want."

"David..." Now very bothered, Ashley was suddenly very aware that he had never released her arm. "David, let me go."

"Oh," he said, looking startled for a moment. "Ashley, I'm sorry."

She sighed and shook her head, her arm red and white where he had held her. "David, I have to go now."

"Wait," he pleaded, maneuvering himself between her and the car. "Can't we be friends, Ash?"

"I don't think it would be a good idea," Ashley said finally, shaking her head. "I'm sorry."

David's eyes narrowed, his face darkening. "Ashley..."

"David, I have to go now," she repeated.

"Right," he said, sighing heavily. With another sigh, he moved away from her car just enough so she could slip inside. "I'll see you around, Ash."

Ashley just sighed again and slowly backed out of her parking space. David's eyes never left her car as she drove away, and she bit her lip, suddenly anxious to get home to Andros. Though she had done nothing wrong, she felt as though she had... She frowned and bit her lip, suddenly realizing that she had never told Andros about David.