A/N: More moments with Little Ashley! Yay!
"Will, there is a lot to be done!" Helen's voice had risen to its most extreme without her screaming at him.
"And you have a full team of people to do it," argued Will. "Magnus, you need to take some time off. Spend the day with Ashley."
"With Kate out of commission, we have a greater workload on our hands."
"It'll get done."
"Will it, Will?"
He cringed. "Yes, Magnus."
"I will hold you to your word then." She stacked the paperwork that she had been working diligently to fill out before standing up and walking down the hall to Ashley's room.
When she opened the door, she found her daughter sitting on the ground, playing with the rabbit stuffed animal John had picked out for her. She smiled at the sight. A warmth spread throughout her body as she watched her daughter from the doorway. Even if she is not Ashley, I can still hope.
Ashley looked around, and smiled at her mother before running in for a hug. She buried her face in Helen's thigh. "Mommy!"
Helen's smile brightened as she stroked Ashley's hair. "Do you want to go to the park today?"
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" The little girl jumped up and down in a circle around Helen.
"We have to make you presentable first." Helen struggled somewhat to get Ashley into jeans and a light brown sweater.
"Are you going out for an afternoon stroll?"
Helen jumped at the sound of John's voice. Her heart raced against her chest.
"Mommy's taking me to the park!" Ashley announced proudly.
"Is that so? And would it be alright with your mother if I accompanied the two of you?"
Helen eyed him wearily. After a moment of sharing eye-contact with Ashley, she conceded to a single nod. She glared at him when she thought Ashley wasn't looking. "It would hardly be appropriate for a gentleman to watch a lady dress." Her words were directed at John.
"Of course." John took a slight bow before backing out of the room. "I will be waiting by the front door."
Helen worked to finish getting Ashley dressed. She smiled when her work ended triumphantly. "Now, before we leave, there has to be some rules that you will need to follow."
"But Mom!" She went silent when she caught the stern look her mother was giving her.
"These rules are in place for your own safety. Under no circumstance are you allowed to reveal your fangs or claws. While in public, you are not allowed to teleport. You will do as I say, when I say. Am I understood?"
"Yes, Mom." Ashley shifted her weight self-consciously.
"That's a good girl." Helen scooped Ashley up in her arms, and went downstairs to meet John.
"Are we ready then?" John twirled his cane in his left hand as he waited for Helen to descend down the stairs. He opened the door for his former lover. "Ladies first." He followed after her at a healthy distance.
The walk was silent, except for the bombardment of questions that Ashley asked, which Helen answered with vague riddles. Helen set Ashley down when they reached the local park about four blocks away from the Sanctuary.
John sighed deeply as he watched Ashley run to the playground. His face was all but expressionless without the grim frown he had. He closed his eyes, and uttered: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; coral is far more red than her lips' read; if snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; if hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, but no such roses see I in her cheeks; and in some perfumes is there more delight than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know that music hath a far more pleasing sound. I grant I never saw a goddess go; my mistress when she walks, treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare as any she belied with false compare." He opened his eyes to find Helen looking sideways at him.
"O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power dost hold Time's fickle glass, his sickle hour; who hast by waning grown, and therein show'st thy lovers withering as thy sweet self grow'st; if Nature, sovereign mistress over wrack, as thou goest onwards, still will pluck thee back, she keeps thee to this purpose, that her skill may Time disgrace and wretched minutes kill. Yet fear her, O thou minion of her pleasure! She may detain, but not still keep, her treasure. Her audit, though delayed, answered must be, and her quietus is to render thee."
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer's lease hath all to short a date. Sometimes too hot the eyes of heaven shines, and often in his gold complexion dimmed; and every fair from fair sometimes declines, by chance or nature's course untrimmed. But thy eternal summer shall not fade nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; nor shall Death brag though wanderest in his shade, when in eternal lines to time thou grow'st. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee."
A small smirk crept across Helen's face. "We used to do this exact thing when we were in Oxford."
"That was how I gained your attention, fair lady. I saw you walking with James one summer afternoon in the courtyard of our college, and called out to you with Shakespeare's fifty-fifth sonnet."
"And such a dog you were," Helen chided lightly.
"Helen, I have never left your side. All those years, I have always thought of finding you when my ailment could be cured."
"John—"
Meanwhile, Ashley spotted a young girl about her age. The girl had long dark hair done in braided pigtails. She was sitting in the sandbox, playing quietly by herself.
"Hi, can I play with you?"
The dark haired girl looked up at her. She shrugged silently before going back to playing with the sand.
Ashley sat down next to her. "My name is Ashley."
The other girl did not reply. She glanced up when Ashley began piling sand into a mound.
The two girls played quietly for several minutes. They built, around themselves, a wall of sand that went up to their shoulders as they sat.
"My name is Jane."
"You can talk!" Ashley gasped, then giggled as a handful of sand was thrown at her shoulder.
"Where do you live?" Jane asked after she settled down.
"A really big house. Where do you live?"
"Um…in God's house."
"My daddy just got back from there, but mommy called it heaven."
Jane shook her head. "No, not heaven. God's house is this place for people who have nowhere else to go."
"Where are your mommy and daddy?"
"They left me."
"That's not right."
Jane shook her head again. "The nuns take care of me. It isn't so bad."
"I will help you find your parents," Ashley promised, crossing her heart with her finger.
"It isn't that easy," murmured Jane. She turned away, and hid her face in her arms. "My mommy and daddy are in heaven."
"They can come back. My daddy did."
"Father Harmon says that it's impossible to return from heaven. Only Jesus can."
"Father Harmon is lying," Ashley declared. "My daddy was in heaven. Now he's back. He's got to be lying to you."
"That's not right."
"I'm telling you it is. I'll show you someday."
Jane looked up at Ashley with tear-stained cheeks. "You promise?" Ashley nodded. "Cross your heart, and hope to die promise?" The blonde girl nodded again. "Pinky promise?" They interlocked their pinkies.
"Ashley!" Helen called.
"Is that your mommy?"
Ashley nodded quickly. "Yup!" She turned to her mother. "Coming!" Then she turned back to Jane. "Promise we'll see each other again?"
"I guess."
"Come find me at the giant house by the water." She ran back to her parents, and squealed when John lifted her high up in the air.
Jane watched the scene with tear-filled eyes. She walked silently the other way where a young nun sat at the park bench, reading a book.
"Who was that you were playing with?" Helen asked.
"Jane."
"What is it that parents do to treat their children?" John asked no one in particular.
"Ice cream?" Ashley sounded just a bit too excited. She jumped in circles around her parents as they walked down the sidewalk.
Helen and John exchanged a look. "You're taking care of her."
"Ice cream it is then," announced John. He smiled when Ashley screamed in excitement.
The trio walked to the nearest ice cream parlor. John glanced at the flavors, some of them earning a raised eyebrow. He looked up at Helen, his eyes softening to see Helen holding Ashley up so that their daughter could see the different flavors.
"I want the brownie one!" Ashley pointed at the ice cream tub.
"One child cone with brownie ice cream." John could hear the heavy sigh in Helen's voice. "And a vanilla cone, one scoop."
"I will have the same."
"Is that all?" The cashier backed away when he caught the look in John's eyes. "Right then. Your total is $5.50."
John retrieved the money from his pocket, and handed it to the small teenage boy before watching the ice cream being served.
On the way out, Ashley got two licks before the ice cream fell to her feet. Her eyes brimmed over with tears, and she sniffled.
John could feel his heart breaking at the sight of the center of his small universe broken up over the spilt ice cream. He looked down at his own cone, up at Helen, who had a similar look of pity, back to the cone, and smashed it into Helen's face before sweeping Ashley up, putting her on his shoulders, and running away from a yelling Helen.
"John Montague Druitt! I swear when I catch up to you—you'll pay!"