Ashley walked through the house where she'd spent most of her life, reminiscing. She was saddened to realize that she didn't really have many happy memories in any part of it with the exception of her bedroom and the pool house.
'Many good times in the pool house' she fondly recalled, visions of naked bodies dancing in her head.
She and Spencer had arrived at the house before the mourners had finished up at the cemetery, leaving her time to roam around without any distractions. The first place she'd gone had been her old bedroom, practically pulling Spencer up the stairs with her.
Entering the room, she'd been amazed at how much it had changed. Gone was most of her furniture; she had taken that with her when she moved out a couple years ago. Her old couch being the only remaining piece and it was now littered with her mother's clothes. Other than that, there was almost nothing else to suggest she'd ever lived there.
Except for the walls, which still blazed with her name across them in large graffiti style letters.
"So, this was your room, huh?" Spencer looked around at the various boxes and other discarded items on the floor. The room appearing to be a bit of a catch all type room.
"Yep, this is where all the magic happened." Ashley smirked, quirking a suggestive eyebrow at the blonde who blushed in response. "I wrote almost my entire first album here." She finished laughing.
"Oh, yeah, your music…wait, I thought you just finished your first album?" Spencer said, trying to stay focused on the musical subject rather than trip into the not so innocent territory the brunette was leaning towards.
"No, that was my first major label album. I actually self recorded one a few years ago. It was good enough to get Ethan, my manager, to sign me. They actually had me re-record a couple songs from it for this new one." Ashley continued to examine the foreign contents of what use to be her room. She'd noticed 'Salvation Army' was written on a few of the boxes in her mother's thin, angular handwriting.
"Really? I'll have to look it up." Spencer smiled, wondering how she hadn't known that.
"Good luck finding it, I think I only made like 500 copies." Ashley's brow scrunched up suddenly as if she was in deep thought, "I bet they'll end up on Ebay for like a ridiculous amount now that I'm gone."
Spencer noticed the bitterness in the girl's voice. "Well, I do have a few connections, I'm sure I could get a copy."
"Come on, I want to show you the pool house before anyone else gets here." Ashley grabbed Spencer's hand again, dragging her out of her former room without so much as a backward glance. She didn't want to talk about her first album or anything for that matter that reminded her that her life had finally been going right.
An hour later the house was filled with mourners, hanger-ons and those who were just curious about where Ashley Davies had grown up.
Ashley had given Spencer the grand tour, pointing out things and places of note. Such as the end table where she had once been so messed up after taking 'shrooms, she'd spent an hour talking to it. And it had been such good company that she had gone to give it a hug and ended up cracking her head on the corner.
"And that's how I got this" She said, proudly pointing to a small raised scar just below her hairline.
Fun times.
Passing her mother's office, she heard her mother's and Ethan's voices. Curious as to what they might be talking about, Ashley walked in, Spencer right behind her.
"Then redo the promotions for it, I don't care. But if we don't release it now, the novelty will wear off." Christine was saying as she perched on the edge of her desk. Ethan sat on a chair in front of her with an unsure look on his face.
"It's not that easy. You're not the clear beneficiary. Kyla has a pretty strong claim to all the rights according to Ashley's lawyers." Ethan took off his glasses with a sigh, cleaning them with a handkerchief from his suit pocket. "In fact, you might not have any rights if that video they have proves to be enough to convince the judge."
Ashley's head was spinning. What video? What were they talking about?
Her mother didn't have the right to anything of hers as far as she was concerned.
"Please. I am not going to let a video of Ashley's drunken ramblings screw me out of what is rightfully mine. I was her mother, I raised her!" Christine stood up and glared at Ethan.
"Drunken or not, she clearly says on the video that if anything ever happened to her, she wanted Kyla to have everything and she was quite specific on not wanting you to have anything." Ethan shifted uncomfortably, obviously not wanting to be having this conversation at the moment.
Suddenly it flooded back to Ashley.
The night after the VMA's last year, she'd been wasted. She'd taken her video camera with her in the hope of snagging a few shots of her with Lily Allen or maybe Missy Higgins. Either one would have done, she wasn't fussy. Much to her pleasure she'd ended up making out with Missy in the back of the limo. The whole thing captured on her trusty camera.
It was a video she had replayed quite a few times.
Later that night, after her and Kyla had come back from one party or another and were just relaxing, she'd turned on the camera again. This time to proclaim that Kyla was the best sister ever and if anything ever happened to her, she wanted Kyla to have everything and quote;
"speshelly not to let that bish of a mother have one shingle dime..Not one dime..It's all for Kyyyyla …you hear me Christine!!.." swaying and pointing into the camera.
At the time she was just being a sentimental drunk but now she was glad because hopefully it would be enough to keep her mother's greedy paws off anything of hers.
Christine's sharp voice penetrated her thoughts. "Then have your lawyers find a way to discredit it. Seriously, do I have to do everything myself? We need to get that album out within the next two weeks to capitalise on the sympathy factor." She arched her eyebrow, looking at Ethan as if he was completely incompetent. Which in her eyes, he was.
Next to her, Spencer felt Ashley tense up. She reassuringly squeezed her hand hoping to calm the brunette down, but her own thoughts were betraying her. She'd seen a lot of things in her many years as a Fate but still found Christine's cold indifference towards the death of her daughter staggering.
"Fine but don't you think we should maybe wait, at least a week. The press is going to massacre you if you legally contest Kyla's rights this early. You'll look completely heartless." Ethan reasoned. Although he was uneasy dealing with Christine, wanting on one side to respect Kyla's wishes and wait to release the album, he understood her viewpoint. She was right; they'd make a lot more cash if they struck while the iron was hot. Ethan didn't consider himself a bad guy, and he didn't want to do wrong by Kyla but at the end of the day he figured extra cash to spend on hot chicks and tropical islands would do a lot to assuage any guilt.
"Not if it's handled properly. We just make it look like I want what's best for my dearly departed daughter and turn Kyla into the money hungry half brat." Christine adopted her best impression of sadness and despair. "Now, what's more believable? A mourning mother who only wants to preserve the artistic integrity of her daughter's final work, or a half sibling she didn't even know about until five years ago? You have PR people; this is what you pay them for."
"Ashley, maybe we should…" Spencer attempted to tug the other girl towards the door after noticing how red her face was getting. If looks could kill Mrs. Davies would have been a pile of ashes on the floor already.
"Can you believe this? Seriously, Spencer, I'm not even cold in the ground and she's already trying to capitalize on my death. She didn't even care about my music career before all of this!" Ashley fumed, dropping Spencer's hand and pointing incredulously at Ethan, "And he's working with her? He was supposed to be my friend as well as my manager. He worked for my father! Where is his loyalty?"
Spencer wasn't sure if she was supposed to answer or not. Seeing the look on Ashley's face though made her think maybe she should say something, anything, which would maybe stall the mounting anger in the irate girl. "I don't know… but why don't we go look for Kyla, these two aren't worth your time."
"Yeah, whatever. I can't stand to look at either of them anyway. They both make me sick." Ashley shot her mother a final death glare and stormed out of the room with Spencer on her heels.
After hunting around for a bit and not being able to locate her sister amongst the general guest congregation, Ashley finally acknowledged to herself that she probably knew where Kyla was. 'She always had a knack for being in the worst places at the worst times.'
Walking back upstairs to her room, she opened the door to find Kyla sitting on her old couch, surrounded by boxes, holding one of Ashley's old teddy bears to her chest. The tears that had been so present at the Church were now faded streaks of ruined mascara on her face as she sat there with a dazed expression, her eyes a million miles away.
Spencer had hoped that being around her sister would calm Ashley down. Unfortunately it seemed to have to opposite affect. Ashley instead paced angrily in front of the couch.
"Look at her, Spencer. How could anyone want to try and screw her over?" Ashley exclaimed, waving her arms around. "She's the only one who ever took care of me, made me feel what family really was. I'll be damned if I let my mother hurt her or take anything away from her that's rightfully hers."
Spencer was trying to formulate an appropriate response when suddenly the subject of Ashley's fury walked into the room.
"There you are" Christine coldly addressed Kyla. "Seriously, are you going to spend the whole day moping around? There are guests downstairs you really should at least be mingling with."
"I don't feel like being very social right now, sorry I'm mourning the loss of my sister, you know, your daughter." Kyla spat out, not in the mood to deal with Christine.
"Yes, I'm sure you're real broken up over gaining what's left of her half of the inheritance." Christine replied crossing her arms over her chest and smirking at the grieving girl.
"How can you even think about money at a time like this? Ashley is gone. Never coming back. And all you care about is money?" Kyla quietly asked, belying the anger that was starting to fill her.
"Like you don't? I heard about you telling Ethan you weren't going to release Ashley album on time. What are you waiting for? The holiday season to get maximum exposure? People do love a bit of tragedy at the Holidays, as long as it's not theirs." The older woman moved so that she was standing directly in front of Kyla. "A sob story does tend to equal more sales that time of year."
"Oh, she is not going to do this to my sister. Not now. Not ever." Ashley's hazel eyes were blazing as she glared at her mother.
Spencer sensibly decided to stay quiet, it was a family issue and although she knew Ashley couldn't do anything, she also wisely realized that this wasn't the time to remind her.
"It's not even like that! Ashley wouldn't want the only reason her album did so well was because of her death. She was proud of what she did and I think it should stand on its own merits, not because people are curious or because she's a hot story." Kyla responded sharply, becoming more and more incensed as the conversation continued.
"It doesn't really matter what you think, now does it? I'm her mother, therefore all rights should to go me by law because Ashley never left a written will. I will not let some bastard child take away what should rightfully be mine." Christine smirked at the younger girl, sure that she could intimidate her. "And if you fight me on this, I will make sure your name gets dragged so far in the mud no one will have anything to do with you."
Ashley rushed across to stand in front of Christine, yelling, "Leave her alone, you bitch!"
Kyla's anger evaporated into a sense of defeat; she wasn't giving up but the emotional toll of the last few days had caught up with her. She didn't have it in her to fight with Ashley's mother on top of everything else at this point.
"I guess we'll have to let the lawyers figure that out. I'm no in the mood to fight with you about this." Kyla stood up, still clutching the teddy bear deciding she needed to leave the room, the mansion, the situation.
And then suddenly it happened.
As Kyla went to leave the room, Christine grasped her upper arm, her fingers digging into the flesh, spinning the retreating girl around.
"Oh, no, you will not walk away from me. We are not finished."
That was the final straw for Ashley.
"Don't you dare touch her ever again, you bitch!" She screamed. And without thinking she grabbed a vase on the table next to her and violently slammed it on the ground where it landed with a large crash, scattering thousands of tiny porcelain shards across the room.
The sound and effect stunned Christine into letting go of Kyla's arm, leaving visible large red welts from her fingernails
Spencer, Kyla and Christine all stood stunned for a moment, staring at the broken vase.
Meanwhile Ashley just breathed in and out heavily, her whole body shaking.
"What in hell…" Christine looked over at the table where the vase had been minutes before to the floor and back. Uneasy at the sudden turn of events, she quickly decided she didn't want to be in that room a second longer. "This is far from over." She hissed at Kyla, eyes narrowed, before making a hasty retreat.
"Ashley…?" Kyla looked around the room, hoping to see some trace of her sister's presence.
"Ashley, we have to go…" Spencer regained her senses enough to know that they shouldn't be there, couldn't even. It was too much for her to handle at the moment but she didn't want Ashley to see how incredibly freaked out she was. Talking to the living was one thing but being able to actually move an object on the Mortal Plane was an entirely different matter.
Ashley hadn't moved, her eyes staring at the broken shards around her feet. Kind of like my life…
Spencer gently placed her hand on Ashley's trembling arm, "Please, Ash, we have to leave." She pleaded, softly running her hand down Ashley's arm to hold her hand.
Ashley looked over at her sister who was still searching the room with her eyes. With a small nod, she allowed herself to be overcome by the pulling, tingling sensation that happened each time they shifted from one Plane to the next.
Neither girl said anything as they walked to Spencer's car, both lost in their own thoughts.
Neither girl spoke for the duration of the journey.
Spencer not so much even glancing in Ashley's direction.
As they walked back into the doom, there was a sense of awkwardness between them that had never existed before and Ashley really didn't like it.
Once safely back in Spencer's room, the Light Fate finally turned and looked at Ashley.
Really looked at her.
Her brow crinkled in deep thought as she played with her bottom lip between her teeth.
Ashley felt uncomfortable under the scrutinizing gaze. "Spencer…"
"Ashley…" They both started at the same time.
"I'm sorry," Ashley rushed out when Spencer didn't say anything.
"You have nothing to be sorry for," Spencer quickly reassured her.
"I freaked you out." The hesitation and confusion in the blonde's blue eyes hadn't escaped Ashley's attention, "I didn't mean to throw that vase. I wasn't thinking. It just happened."
Spencer sighed, tilting her head, considering the events of the past day.
"That's just it, Ashley, you shouldn't have been able to throw that vase, you shouldn't be able to talk to Kyla, you shouldn't be able to do any of it and yet you can." Spencer's voice was low with wonder, not accusatory or angry, just disbelief.
"I'm sorry; I don't know how I can either. I'm just as confused as you." Ashley stared at the ground, for the first time not wanting to meet those blue eyes with her own, not liking what she saw in them.
"Hey, it's okay," Spencer tipped Ashley's chin up so that the girl was looking into her eyes. "It's just a bit overwhelming. I'm not sure what to do is all." Spencer delicately rubbed her thumb along the soft skin of Ashley's jaw.
"Yeah, it's not the greatest feeling for me either, knowing I scare you." Ashley felt her throat close, tears threatening. It was suddenly all too much, her funeral, her sister, her mother, Ethan and now scaring the one person she had come to rely on so heavily in the last few days.
Spencer gave her a small smile, shaking her head, "You don't scare me because of that. It's more shocking than anything. I'm at a loss as to what to do. Whether I should talk to someone about it or keep it quiet. I just don't know."
"Why can't we keep it all quiet until we figure it out on our own like we planned earlier?" Ashley asked, her eyes pleading with Spencer to agree.
"Don't worry. No matter what I decide to do, nothing bad will happen to you. I promise." Spencer's eyes softened as they met with scared hazel ones. She still hadn't removed her hand from Ashley's chin, still caressing her jaw line. The gesture was to reassure the other girl, she told herself, though not very convincingly.
"You said before that if you told anyone, other people would get involved. That it would get complicated. Does complicated mean you wouldn't be involved anymore?" Ashley asked.
Spencer didn't even have to reply, her hesitation and downcast eyes said it all,
"Than that to me that would be something horribly bad."
Spencer finally dropped her hand, only to rest it and her other one on Ashley's shoulders.
"I don't know what I'm going to do. I need to give it some thought."
A moment passed before Spencer broke the silence,
"Do you want to move you stuff into your new room?" she said changing the subject.
Ashley stared at her. But then realizing that Spencer needed some time to work through all this for herself, she allowed the topic to be dropped.
"Can't wait to get rid of me, huh?" Ashley smirked, forcing the heaviness between them away.
"Yeah, that's it, your snoring is atrocious." Spencer smiled back, rolling her eyes.
"Please, as if you could hear it over your heavy breathing." Ashley shot back, grabbing a few of her bags, not wanting to leave but not knowing how to ask to stay. "Besides, I don't snore, it's genetically impossible."
"Heavy breathing? I'm sorry you must have been dreaming about that." Spencer grabbed a few more bags. "And how is it genetically impossible for you to snore?"
"It's genetically impossible for someone as gorgeous as me to have such an embarrassing and uncute habit such as snoring." Ashley answered, not even touching the heavy breathing part because she had dreamed of Spencer breathing heavy and moaning and... other things.
"Ah, I see, so that snoring type noise I've heard for the past few nights must have been a figment of my imagination." Spencer laughed, checking to see if they had gotten all of Ashley's bags. Her room felt empty without Ashley's clothes and bags all over.
"Or maybe you have a nasally challenged mouse hiding under the bed." Ashley said with the utmost seriousness.
"Uh huh, a snoring mouse…" Spencer chuckled, standing there. Neither girl seemed to be in a hurry to actually carry the bags out of her room and into Ashley's new one down the hall.
"Yeah, Sammy, the Nasally Challenged Mouse, it's not his fault his nose is too big, even for a mouse." Ashley wore a mock disapproving look, "You shouldn't make fun of him Spencer, it's not nice."
"Um, I'm sorry?" Spencer said semi seriously, tilting her head a little.
"You should be, making fun of others unfortunate disabilities." Ashley nodded. ."It's okay, Spencer, I won't tell anyone you made fun of a poor, disabled mouse."
"Um, thanks. Only problem though, Ash. We don't have mice on the In Between." she laughed, stepping out in the hallway.
"I didn't say mice. I said mouse, as in one, I'm sure there has to be at least one mouse that deserved an After Life." Ashley retorted cheekily as she stepped in front of Spencer, to open the door to her new dorm room.
"Ah…" Spencer wasn't sure how to argue against that logic, so she just shook her head, laughing at how quickly the brunette could go from being upset to silly.
Ashley looked around her new room for at least the next few months or so. It looked almost identical in layout to the blondes, only it seemed much emptier without all the personal items that seemed to fill every surface of the Light Fates room. The walls were a light blue instead of the stark white of Spencer's walls and the bed was bigger, almost twice the size of Spencer's. As nice as it was, as far as dorm rooms go, she really missed her large spacious loft.
"So what happened to the person who lived here before me?" Ashley asked while setting her bags down on the empty desk.
"Alyssa transferred to Nashville to be a Music Muse." Spencer answered as she started hanging Ashley's clothes up in the closet.
"Oh, I might be new but to me that seems a little…" Ashley quirked an eyebrow, pausing from putting her socks in a one of the dresser drawers to glance at Spencer.
"Cliché?" Spencer finished for her, laughing because it really was. Being a Music Muse in Nashville was almost as easy as Madison.
"Yeah," Ashley laughed with the blonde, "so was she a Fate first?"
"Yeah, after you're a Fate for at least 30 years, you can train to be a Muse if you want." Spencer wondered if she had any hangers in her room. She was running out and there were still at least two bags of clothes to hang up.
"Why didn't you train to be a Muse?" Ashley inquired, thinking that if she'd had a Muse as gorgeous as Spencer, she would have probably put out a lot more albums.
"I thought about it once, but it doesn't interest me as much as being a Fate. I like trying to guide people to do the right thing."
Maybe she can put some of her t-shirts in one of the dresser drawers. That would free up at least a dozen hangers. Spencer pondered the hanger shortage.
Ashley folded up a few pairs of boxers to sleep in and put them away, all the while wondering if she would like whatever path she decided on as much as Spencer seemed to love hers.
"Ok, all done, but you're going to have to put some of your t-shirts in a drawer until we can get you some more hangers." Spencer turned around, a satisfied smile on her face.
"That's cool. I need to get some more things anyways. This place feels like a hotel room. I need to jazz it up a bit." Ashley gave the room a once over, mentally picturing what she would need to make it feel more like a home, even if it turned out to be temporary.
'That's fine with me, I never need an excuse to go shopping." Especially with you. Spencer grinned, "We can go tomorrow if you want."
"Well, I'll have to check my appointment book but I think I might be free tomorrow." Ashley beamed, it really was ridiculous how much she enjoyed doing anything with Spencer. Even the disaster that was her funeral had been bearable because the blonde had been with her.
"Oh, do you think you could pencil me in, what with your busy schedule and all?" Spencer teased, poking Ashley in the ribs.
"Hey, cut that out," Ashley giggled, playfully slapping Spencer's hands away.
"Oh, yeah? What cha gonna do if I don't?" Spencer teased, poking her again with the other hand.
"This." Ashley reached out and grabbed Spencer's hand, holding it behind Spencer's back, the other one quickly joining it. They were close, almost chest to chest.
And the mood quickly changed from playful to something more.
"So, what are you going to do now?" Ashley softly asked, staring into Spencer's endless blue eyes.
The air between them felt charged with electricity.
Spencer willed her self not to look down at Ashley's soft lips. They were so close she could feel Ashley's warm breath on her. She watched as Ashley's hazel eyes grew darker, her pupils dilating.
All thoughts of the day she had just had emptied out of Ashley's mind. All she wanted to do was feel Spencer's full lips against hers. She loosened her grip on Spencer's hands as she brought her hands around to rest on the blonde's hips.
She leaned in towards Spencer, glancing down at the other girl's lips, licking her own….
"Hey, are you hungry?" Spencer suddenly stepped back, breaking the moment. Her eyes darting everywhere but at Ashley. "I'm really hungry, we haven't eaten all day. We should go to the cafeteria."
"Huh?" Ashley's mind spun, not sure what had just happened. One second Spencer was sharing the same breath as her, the next she was halfway to the door.
She sighed, "Food? Okay..."
"Good." Spencer said as she opened the door, waiting for the brunette to catch up. She knew she would probably kick herself later for not kissing Ashley but she refused to take advantage of the hazel eyed girl when she was emotionally vulnerable.
"Yeah, great," Ashley mumbled, following Spencer down the hall. "Perfect even."