"True, the government did a bad job in covering that one up."
"JFK?"
"All Lee Harvey, but he was working for someone else."
"Crop Circles?"
"Fake, but they are cool to watch being made."
"Elvis?"
"Dead, but he is one of the highest Muses. He teaches popular music at the Light Academy in Memphis. Still eats deep fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches only now he doesn't gain any weight."
"Wow, does he look like young Elvis or Vegas Elvis?" Ashley leaned against the headboard of Spencer's bed. She'd been back for a couple hours since her horrific day with Madison. Since then her and Spencer had just been chatting, it had somehow turned into Ashley asking Spencer about every mystery or conspiracy theory she had ever heard of.
"Young Elvis, it was when he was happiest in adulthood." Spencer sat crossed legged on the foot of the bed, leaning back on her hands.
"Oh, is that how it works?" Ashley had been wondering about that, their didn't seem to be many people over the age of 25 on the In Between except for a few she had seen working at various places but none of the Fates, Reapers, or Muses looked to be over 25, in fact most seemed to be in their late teens, early 20's.
"Sometimes, though on the Higher Plane everyone looks to be in their late 20's, early 30's, though I've heard the actual Board of Directors for each council is filled with older looking people. Age really is a weird thing on the planes outside of the Mortal one. I don't think anyone besides the actual Board members knows how it works. I only know that most people I know died around the age they look." Spencer shrugged, it was easier to explain what had seemed mysterious on the Mortal Plane to Ashley then how the In Between worked when it came to certain things. There were a lot of things she as a Fate wasn't privy to and when people were promoted and learned more, they weren't forthcoming with any information. She had learned long ago to accept it, though talking to Ashley and realizing how much she didn't know made her feel foolish.
"Crazy, I see I'll have to get a whole new set of conspiracy theories than." Ashley leaned her head back, eyes closed, thinking about everything she had learned that afternoon. She was still in shock over learning the Loch Ness Monster was in fact real, but Big Foot wasn't.
"I guess you do." Spencer smiled at Ashley; she was perfectly content sitting there on her bed just talking. It felt as if they had known each other for a lifetime with how comfortable they were with each other.
"Hey, Spencer?" Ashley began quietly a few minutes later, fidgeting with the edge of a blanket.
"Yeah?" Spencer asked in the same quiet tone. The air in the room had shifted, there was a stillness all of a sudden.
"Um, did you find out when my…ah…the…funeral is?" Ashley's eye traveled all over the room, avoiding Spencer's soft stare.
"Yeah, it's tomorrow at three at Sacred Heart Cathedral. Are you sure you still want to go?" Spencer lightly asked, knowing how hard it must be for the brunette.
"Are you still coming with me?" Ashley asked in the same small voice Spencer had heard the night before.
"Of course, I'll be there with you the whole time, I promise." Spencer reached over and gently held Ashley's hand. It was an act of comfort, though neither girl would deny they both felt a small rush at the easy touching between them.
"Does Madison have to come?" Ashley's hand was tingling where Spencer was drawing circles on the back of it with her thumb.
"Not if you don't want her to, no." Spencer shifted from the foot of the bed so that she was sitting next to Ashley, her back against the headboard as well, still holding Ashley's hand. The need to be close to the brunette was overpowering. 'I'm just comforting her, there's no harm in that' Spencer tried to convince herself.
"I only want you to come with; I don't think I could deal with anyone else tomorrow." Ashley said with bare honesty. Spencer's chest tightened at witnessing the sadness in Ashley's bright brown eyes.
"Then it will only be you and I." Spencer promised, leaning closer to the shorter girl. They sat there in comfortable silence, holding hands and gaining reassurance from their closeness.
Ashley sighed, laying her down on Spencer's shoulder. "Spencer?" Ashley laced their fingers together noticing how perfect they fit together.
"Yeah?" Spencer looked down at the top of Ashley's head, brown curls pressed against her neck. It amazed her how soft and silky her hair was. She fought the urge to run her fingers through it, knowing that somehow that was crossing a line she wasn't even close to wanting to deal with.
"Will you here with me again tonight? I don't want to wake up alone tomorrow." Ashley's voice was barely above a whisper; her voice trembled with the effort of showing her vulnerability.
"Of course," Spencer couldn't say no when Ashley asked her sounding so lost and alone, "I'll be right here all night."
Ashley lifted her head up so she could look into the other girls impossibly blues eyes, "Thanks." She said sweetly, sincerely.
"No problem." Spencer gave the brown eyed girl a small smile. They held their gaze as their faces inched closer and closer together. Ashley glanced down at Spencer's full pink lips and subconsciously licked hers. When she looked up, Spencer's eyes seemed to be even brighter than before. She was falling into the endless blue not worrying what the next day was, not worrying about everything she had to learn or even caring at the moment where she was. She just wanted to keep falling into those eyes and never surface again if it meant she could be trapped within those eyes. They were less than an inch away from each other, Ashley could feel Spencer's warm breath against the moisture on her lips. She closed her eyes, ready to close the last bit of distance.
An insistent vibration against Ashley's hip caused both girls to shoot back away from each other. Spencer's face was flushed as she fumbled to get her Whiteberry out of her pocket. Not able to look at Ashley quite yet and in shock at what she almost let happen, Spencer stared at the text message from Aiden, reading it three times before the words actually made sense to her. What are you two doing tonight? Want to meet me at Grey?
Spencer debated for less than a second, knowing without asking that Ashley wasn't in the mood for crowds right than. She quickly sent Aiden a text back declining but promising to call him the next day. Having done that, Spencer could no longer avoid the girl sitting next to her on the bed, though she was now sitting further away than she had all night.
"That was Aiden," Spencer shyly looked up, "he was wondering if we wanted to meet him at this club, Grey, I hope you don't mind, I told him no. I just didn't feel like going out and I was pretty sure you wouldn't be up for it, but if you are I could text him back and we can go…"
"Spencer," Ashley cut the blonde off in mid-ramble, as cute as it was, she was afraid she would pass out from lack of oxygen, "it's fine. I don't feel up to going out tonight maybe some other time we could go?" Ashley was still trying to process the fact that she had been less than a second away from kissing Spencer and she was pretty sure Spencer would have kissed her back. 'What the hell was that? Was I really going to kiss Spencer? Was she really going to kiss me?' Ashley tried to shake it off as just the emotional toll of the last couple days.
"Ah, ok…um, so it's still kind of early," And I'm really too freaked out to even consider sleep right now… "Do you want to watch a movie or something?"
Ashley sat up, suddenly all smiles, "Hell yeah, do you have Dazed and Confused?"
Spencer grinned at the excitement that lit up Ashley's face. "I have just about any movie you could ever think of." Getting up, Spencer grabbed the remote off the coffee table and handed it to Ashley. "Here, just do a movie search for it, I'll make us some popcorn and change into my PJ's."
"Hey, no fair you're not the only one that gets to be comfy." Ashley playfully pouted, she really didn't care if Spencer was changing, she didn't want to mess with the remote, it had more buttons than the control panel her father's plane did.
"Fine," the blonde laughed, knowing full well Ashley was afraid of the remote. "You go change while I start the popcorn and find the movie." She really did need to stop giving into the brunette so easily. No matter how cute her pout was, or her smirk, or her… well everything.
"You're such a push over, Spence." Ashley smirked as she went over to her bags. A small squeal escaped her lips as she rushed over to Spencer and gave her a huge hug. "You did my laundry today!"
Spencer stood there, holding an unpopped bag of microwave popcorn, enjoying the sensation of Ashley's arms tightly around her as much as the happiness radiating from her. "It was no biggie, I had sometime after I got done with work." Spencer casually tried to play it off.
"It's a biggie to me, thanks." Ashley gave her another thousand watt smile that made her nose crinkle and Spencer's heartbeat speed up.
"No problem." Spencer whispered to the retreating form that was merrily skipping towards the bathroom.
As much as she tried to deny it, as much as she tried to think of Ashley as just an assignment and possibly a friend, Spencer could only lie to herself so much. With a feeling of dread, she knew that what she was feeling was much more than she should be for the enigma that was Ashley Davies. 'Crap, this is so not good.'
Kegan set his tray down across from the girls the next morning, something that was becoming a common occurrence to Ashley whenever they ate in the cafeteria, "Did you hear who was transferring back from Chicago?" he said in a rush, with just a nod as a greeting.
Spencer looked up, a guarded look clouded the normally bright blue eyes, "Who?"
"Well, it hasn't been confirmed by anyone else, but Madison told Gauge, who mentioned it to Cody, you know the Reaper, I think he hangs out with your brother Glen? Anyways, Cody and that Gray Fate, Natalie, are dating, and I had an assignment with her earlier and she told me that Alexandria was coming back, so you know what that means." Kegan gave a pointed, somewhat sympathetic look in Spencer's direction.
Ashley had been following but was completely lost, she had no clue who most of those people where besides Madison and Glen, not that she should have, having only been there a few days.
"Not to interrupt but I don't know what that means." Ashley was getting really tired of not knowing what was going on, it was getting seriously old. She only hoped she wouldn't be spending the next few years feeling like this, she didn't think she could handle it. Not to mention she was already on edge.
"Carmen…" Spencer's eyes grew hard, the name came out of her mouth as if trying to spit out something foul tasting. Kegan's hair flopped in his eyes as he nodded his head, looking like he now regretted being the barer of this bit of news. Spencer pushed her plate of fruit away and sat back in her chair, crossing her arms. The thought of Carmen still filled Spencer with anger, even after five years.
"Who's…?" Sure that she probably shouldn't ask, given Spencer's already bad reaction to the news but Ashley couldn't help herself; sometimes curiosity did get the better of her.
"Carmen's a Dark Fate who use to be a Light Fate until she switched sides." Kegan explained while Spencer sat silently fuming. Ashley knew there was a lot more to the story judging from the blonde's reaction but decided to let it drop for now. Besides, something else had caught her attention.
"Wait, you can change sides? I thought that what you decided to be was what you were?" Ashley was thoroughly confused by this point and a little frustrated. She felt like an annoying toddler who was always asking their mother why.
"Ah…" Kegan stammered, not sure what Spencer had told the newly deceased girl, not wanting to overstep any boundaries.
"It's really rare, extremely rare…" Spencer stumbled over her words not wanting to have this conversation with Ashley quite yet but not seeing a way to avoid it either.
"Why? I mean they only give you 90 days to decide something that you'll be doing forever, it stands to reason most people would have doubts after awhile." Ashley reasoned, not understanding why it was uncommon. What was the big deal, sometimes you wanted Vanilla, and sometimes you wanted Chocolate. She couldn't imagine only having one for the rest of her days.
"Actually, that's rare as well." Nope, no way to avoid it now. "Um, normally it's clear what kind of Fate you're gonna be when you, ah, get chosen." Spencer carefully selected her words, not wanting to add even more to the huge pile of things Ashley had to already deal with. It was bad enough the girl was wound up over going to her funeral later that day.
"Yeah, it's like less than one in ten thousand." Kegan added trying to be helpful but having the opposite affect as Ashley's eyes grew wide with this new information.
Spencer gave the boy a look, telling him he wasn't helping, to let her handle this. "See, the thing is, based on people's past choices, it's usually clear what kind of Fate they're gonna be, but with you, it wasn't quite as clear. The Higher Ups couldn't figure out where exactly you ended up. The deciding factor was you risking your own life to save someone else's. They said there was a lot of Light, Dark and Gray in you… that's why you're able to take the time to choose for yourself."
"Wait, so if I hadn't jumped in front of that bus would I have died anyways?" Ashley's mind was going at warp speed, trying to put it all together. Yet again, she was hit with another curve ball when she thought she was finally beginning to understand some things. She was a little pissed at Spencer for keeping all of this from her.
Spencer looked down at the table suddenly fascinated with the half eaten cantaloupe on the abandoned plate, a small shrug of her shoulders the only indication she'd heard the question.
"Um, I forgot I have a thing I'm late for…" Kegan badly lied, wanting to get as far away from this as possible, he knew it was only going to get worse judging from the heated look on Ashley's face. Neither girl paid any attention as he got up and quickly left the table.
"If I hadn't jumped in front of that bus and saved that kid, would I still be alive?" Ashley asked, more like demanded. She couldn't believe Spencer hadn't shared any of this with her in the past three days. Her temper was starting to rise, this felt like a huge betrayal. Everyone else knew but no one bothered to tell her.
"There's always that small chance that you might have made a different choice other than the one that the file said, it's rare but it does happen. But that doesn't mean that you wouldn't have died. That air conditioner could have still fallen on you if you were only standing there watching what would have happened…" The words rushed out of Spencer's mouth, wanting to get everything out, hoping that would pacify the brunette.
"What kind of Fate would I have been than? If I hadn't saved that kid and still ended up dying, what would have happened to me?" Ashley's eyes flashed a dark brown, so many different choices going through her mind. If only she had taken a different way to meet Kyla, if only she had left a couple minutes earlier or even later…
"I…I don't know, they don't tell us that type of stuff. I don't even know if you would have been a Fate, you could have been reincarnated…" Spencer stumbled over her words. Her stomach dropped as she noticed her words were simply making the brunette angrier.
"That's great, Spencer. How could you keep something like this from me?" Ashley's mouth was set in a frown. Spencer knew she was reacting worse than she normally would due to the fact that she was a nervous wreck about going to her funeral in a few hours but Spencer still felt horrible that Ashley had to find out this way.
"Ashley, I'm sorry. I was going to tell you after your…the funeral was over and you had settled in some more, when the time was right..." Spencer ran her hands through her hair, not sure how to defuse the situation.
"When the time was right?" Ashley laughed bitterly, "Is there ever a right time to tell someone they're a big cosmic question mark? Not good enough to be considered good but not bad enough to be considered bad? That my whole life was basically going nowhere and was a huge waste of time." Ashley stood up, pushing her chair back harshly.
"Ashley, that's not true. You saved a child's life. He's alive because you selflessly saved him, disregarding your own well being." Spencer stood up as well, holding her hands out, wanting to calm the angry girl.
"Yeah and look at what good that did me. I'm dead in the world I want to be in and lost in the place I'm forced to be. My future is still as big of a question mark here as it there but at least there I had things going for me." Ashley waved her arms in frustration as she started pacing next to the table, not caring if people where watching them or not, "I had a sister that loved me and cared about me. I finished my first record less than a month ago and was getting ready to go on tour. Things were finally looking better but of course the Universe can't let that happen. It can't ever just let me be happy for a while. It always has to remind me that life is cruel by giving me an even crappier after life."
"Ashley…" the blonde reached out, wanting to pause the frantic pacing of the agitated brunette.
"No, I don't want to hear anything else you have to say right now, Spencer. Save it because right now, I don't care." Ashley took off towards the doors, "I need to be alone right now."
Spencer could only stand there helplessly, wanting to follow but knowing that Ashley meant what she said. Trying to reason with her at the moment would only make things worse. With nothing else to do but wait, Spencer headed for her dorm room, hoping Ashley would go there when she had calmed down some.