Ashley sighed as she pulled into her driveway. She grabbed Phinnigan's carrier and began walking towards the lavender with black trim colonial, that she and Isabella called home. She can hear Isabella playing the drums in the foyer of their home and curses to herself seeing as Phinnigan is sleeping and she doubted she could walk through the foyer with Isabella playing the drums and not have the baby wake up. She stepped onto the porch and began ringing the doorbell hoping that Isabella would stop playing long enough for Ashley to get the baby inside and up to her room which she thanked god was on the third floor of the house ... well away from all the noise.
"IT'S OPEN" Isabella yelled.
Ashley walks into the house and yells shut up as loud as she possibly can. Isabella stops drumming mid beat and begins staring at her friend.
"What's with the carrier?" Isa asks.
"This is your new housemate Phinnigan"
"You're kidding ..."
"Nope this is my son" she looked at the little boy sleeping peacefully in his camouflage carrier "so get used to having him around"
"Wait a minute Ash this isn't like bringing home a puppy or a kitten that you found wandering the streets ... this is a living breathing human being ... an infant no less"
"Well get over it because he isn't going anywhere" Ashley said starting to get defensive.
"Do you even realize what infants turn into ... Children!" Ashley chuckled a little, the way Isabella said children reminded Ashley of Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
"Not all kids are evil Isa" Ashley said heading towards the stairs that led to her bedroom.
"Sure you say that now but wait a few years till he starts talking back and disrespecting people" Isa yelled to Ashley.
"He won't"Ashley yelled back before entering her room.
She locked the door behind her before moving towards her bed. She placed Phinnigan's carrier on the floor and unbuckled the baby and lifted him out of his seat.
""Phinny what do you say you and me take a nap and we'll deal with everything thing else when we wake up ... good I'm glad you agree" she said to the still sleeping baby.
She carefully laid down with Phinnigan sleeping on her chest. She sighed once she was comfortable, it was good to be home but it was upsetting the way she ended up here. She closed her eyes and tried her best to go to sleep. After about 3 hours of just lyong in bed staring at the ceiling she carefully removed Phinnigan from her chest and laid him down next to her before getting up. After placing pillows around him to make sure he didn't roll off the bed she dug through the numerous bags of baby thing before she found the baby monitor she was looking for. She set it up and hooked the handset to her back pocket before leaving the room.
"John has called every 10 minutes for the last 3 hours" Isabella said as Ashley entered the living room.
"Whatever" Ashley said heading towards the kitchen "I want nothing to do with him".
"What happened?" Isabella asked following her.
"Why is it that we never have any food in this house?" Ashley asked rummaging through the fridge, she was trying to change the subject but Isabella wasn't about to let her.
"Hey, talk to me,why aren't you speaking to John?" Isabella urged Ashley to speak.
"I told him about being beaten when I was younger and he went and told Kelly about it" Ashley fumed. She was finally letting all the rage she had for John out, but after a few seconds everything turned to tears. Isabella went to Ashley and took her in her arms and hugged Ashley as she cried.
"I'm so sorry Ash" Isabella said rubbing Ashley's back.
"I feel so betrayed" Ashley said when she was finally calmed down enough to speak.
"Maybe it was an accident" Isabella reasoned "John loves you and I doubt he would do anything to hurt you like that"
"Well he did and now I can never trust him again"
"Don't you think you are being a little over dramatic?" Isa asked.
Ashley pulled away from Isabella, her eyes glazed over with anger. Isa had mispoken and now she was going to get an earful that truly belonged to John. She mentally noted to herself to call John and "thank" him.
"Being over dramatic ... you have no idea what I went through in that place ... you just remember visiting me in the hospital, I know you do ... those people took away my chance to ever have a normal life but I'm being over dramatic ... maybe I should call them up and thank them!" Ashley exclaimed.
"Now you are being nasty and you know I don't take that crap from anyone so curb your attitude" Isa warned her.
"This is my life Isa ... I won't be able to hold Phinnigan in a few months because he will be too damn heavy and my arms will give out but that's ok right ... I mean I'm just being over dramatic"
Isabella had enough of Ashley yelling at her. She grabbed some of the material from Ashley's shirt and pushed her back against the fridge and pinned her there.
"Do you know how many times I wished it was me instead of you because I know it kills you to see what you can't have but you need to stop this pity party because it is getting annoying ... so what if John told Kelly about your secret, she'll probably tell everyone in the WWE locker room but what harm is it really going to do to you ... when it comes down to it everyone likes you better than Kelly anyways so they will think Kelly is a bitch but in the end you come out on top so just relax and as for John he probably feels like a total asshole right now and is liable to do something stupid because you aren't around and as for you not having a normal life it seems pretty good to me ... you have got a fantastic family who supports you in everything you do ... you have a fucking degree in political science from UCONN and you have friends that would kill for you and not to mention a beautiful adopted son sleeping upstairs so look at all you have and really think about it" Isa let go of Ashley's shirt and watched as she walked away.
"Either her or that idiot John are going to be the death of me" Isa said shaking her head. Although she hated being the one to use "tough love" on Ashley, Isa felt she needed to because she needed Ashley to know how good she had it.
Ashley decided to vent her frustration in the game room over a game of pool. Ashley always loved pool because the only thinking you had to do while playing it was how to get the ball into the pocket. She chalked up her pool stick and set the balls up. Next she popped her Bryan Adams cd into the cd player and put When You're Gone on repeat. She blared the music to spite Isa.
Isabella was the first one to hear Phinnigan start to cry.
"Ima kill her" Isabella's thick Bostonian accent shown through as she went to go get the crying baby.
It was dark when Ashley finally left the game room. She yawned and stretched her tired muscles. All the lights in the house were off so Ashley carefully made it to her bedroom. There was a little night light on in the room and Ashley could see that Isabella had put Phinnigan's porter crib together. She crept over to the porter crib to check on the baby. He was sleeping soundly, Ashley knew she owed Isa big time but at the present moment she really didn't care. Ashley quickly got undressed and put on a pair of boxers and a t-shirt before getting into bed. She was only asleep for about a half hour when she heard the door to her room open a little. Ashley propped herself up a little to see who had entered her room. All she could see was the person's back. She was too tired to care. She was dozing off again when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her torso. She was so tired that she didn't even feel the person climb into bed with her. She jumped a little in suprise when John snaked his arms around her waist.
"Ash you awake?" John asked.
"I am now" Ashley said annoyed, she was fully awake now.
"Please don't be mad at me I never meant to hurt you" Ashley could hear the sadness in his voice.
Ashley didn't say anything but she didn't move out of John's grip either. John noted her silence but he was relieved that she didn't pull away from him either.
"I love you Ashley and I would rather cause myself pain then see you or Phinnigan hurt" John said earnestly.
"What happened to your hand?" Ashley asked gingerly running the tips of her fingers over the bandages that covered John's hand.
"I broke a few bones nothing new" John replied.
Neither person knew what to say to make this situation any easier so they both gave up talking. It wasn't long before Ashley heard John softly snoring. She shifted her head a little to look at him. Even though she was still furious with him she could never cut him out of her life, he was her one weakness. She could never leave him as long as she thought he needed her and with him being with Kelly Ashley felt that he really needed her to keep him from doing anything else to ruin his life.