Chapter 5

Emptiness

Hey there! I know the last chap was pretty dark and intense, so here's something lighter. Just some Huntlynn fluff, with Cedar involved.

Hunter watched as Hopper and Dexter rushed after Daring. He sighed. It was almost eight, but he headed to the counselling office anyway.

He opened the door and sat in one of the purple waiting room chairs. He could hear the faint dialogue of who he guessed was Ashlynn and Cedar. Suddenly, one of the office doors burst open and out walked Cedar, her hair in a high ponytail, wearing a white doctor's coat and a purple summer dress.

"Hunter! I didn't think you'd be here," she greeted. "Such a coincidence. I actually need you right now. Could I borrow you for a minute?"

Hunter followed Cedar into a small, cozy office, where Ashlynn was sitting on a couch, sipping on hot chocolate. She looked quite happy. Cedar gestured for Hunter to take a seat next to his wife, and he quickly did so. Cedar herself sat behind an oak desk, with a laptop.

"Mr and Mrs Huntsman…" she paused. "Why am I calling you that? We're old friends! Okay, Ash and Hunter, I know it pains you to explain it to me, but I want to know every detail of the incident, okay?"

Hunter grabbed Ashlynn's hand and squeezed it. She squeezed back, weakly. Hunter cleared his throat. "Well, Ashlynn's water broke when Briar came to visit. And then we all went in my car and headed to the hospital."

Cedar was quickly typing down what Hunter had said.

"You didn't call the ambulance?" she asked gently.

Hunter shook his head. "It was all happening so quickly, I couldn't think. Only that I needed to get Ashlynn safely to the hospital." He smiled a little at his wife, who smiled slightly back.

"Continue," Cedar prompted quietly.

"We were driving, and I looked back to check on Ash, because Briar seemed really worried about her. And then I wasn't looking, and…we crashed." He glanced briefly at Ashlynn, but she didn't seem that affected.

"I want you both to know that this was neither your fault nor Briar's. The fault is to the driver of the car in which you crashed into, which I've tracked down with the help of Briar's recount and the police. What I know is that it was a black BMW with N, L, and 8 on its number plate. Here I have a small list of possible cars and owners. Now, do you have any further details which I could use?" Cedar said.

Hunter furrowed his eyebrows. All he remembered that it was black, huge, and had an N on its number plate, which Cedar already knew. He racked his brains hard but he couldn't remember much else.

Surprisingly, it was Ashlynn who spoke.

"I remember there was a B too, and a 5," she said at last.

Cedar stared at her list and bit her lip. "Was it LBN958?" she asked as she scribbled something down in a notebook.

Ashlynn nodded. "I believe so."

Cedar sighed. "Alright. We've got the car now, and it…belongs to…a man named Maurice Fallashe? Have you ever heard of him?"

The two shook their heads.

Cedar typed more things on her laptop. "Thank you. Now, I have his phone number here. If you would like to call him and hear his side of the story, you may."

She slid a piece of paper in front of the desk. Hunter and Ashlynn stared at the numbers until they blurred before their eyes. Cedar only continued typing on her laptop. Eventually, Ashlynn reached a shaky hand into her handbag and took out her phone. Hunter only grabbed her hand tighter than ever. She dialled the numbers but had to redo most of them because her hand was shaking so much she tapped the wrong ones. She put it on speaker and sat it on her lap.

"Hello?" a young man's voice asked. Ashlynn jumped. Hunter stared.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" The couple could hear a faint female voice in the background, muttering odd nonsense.

Ashlynn took a deep breath. "Hello," she said quietly.

"Is anyone there? Is this a prank call, because-"

"Hello," Ashlynn repeated, louder this time. "My name is Ashlynn Huntsman. You must be Maurice Fallashe."

"That's me! May I help you, Miss Ashlynn?" Maurice asked. Ashlynn and Hunter were surprised how friendly he sounded. If anything, they would expect him to be a grouchy and rude sort of person.

"Do you happen to remember if you hit a Jeep on White Rabbit Road?" Ashlynn asked shakily. Hunter put an arm around her.

"Jeep…White Rabbit Road…I think?"

"Well, um, that was me. And uh, I was pregnant."

Ashlynn buried her head in Hunter's chest and stifled a sob.

"Oh my gosh…I am so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was, I was late to work…is the baby hurt, Miss Ashlynn? I can pay for medical expenses…"

"It was a still birth," Hunter explained, as Ashlynn gave a small strangled scream.

"Uh, is this still Miss Ashlynn?" Maurice asked, sounding confused.

"This is Hunter Huntsman. I'm Ashlynn's husband."

There was a pause.

"I'm so sorry what happened, but there's a huge thing I have to attend to right now, I will call you guys back. So sorry."

Maurice hung up, leaving Hunter staring at the phone. Cedar looked up. "Well, there you go," she said finally. "What did you learn from him?"

"That he's a douchebag and won't even attend to the people he hurt," Hunter flared angrily.

"Don't say that," Ashlynn answered. "He had his own problem. He was pretty friendly and sorry about what had happened."

Hunter exploded. "What! You call that sorry?! I bet-"

Ashlynn placed a calming hand on his shoulder. "It will be okay," she said. "I'm over it now, thanks to Cedar and your support. Harmony is no more."

Hunter turned away. He didn't want to believe that. He felt Ashlynn's hand grab his. She took a deep breath.

"Hunter…" Ashlynn sighed. "I have to tell you something. And I need to tell you now. I can't have children anymore."

Hunter stopped. "What?"

"I can't have children anymore. I had a huge damage to my womb. The doctor said so. I'm sorry."

There was silence. Hunter blinked back tears. The only sound was Cedar's steady tapping of the keys.

"You are exused, Hunter," she said quietly. "Ashlynn is having her private counselling session now."

Hunter left, feeling angry. At Maurice for not caring, at Ashlynn for being ignorant, at Hopper and Daring and Dexter for being unfaithful to their women. Did Ashlynn care about how much he was pained? Or did she only care about herself? How was she so offhanded about this?

He sighed, pacing the room. But if anything, he shouldn't be angry. He should be happy for Ashlynn. And she probably hurt more than he did.

Half an hour later, Ashlynn emerged from the room. "Are you angry at me?" she asked, and Hunter wrapped his arms around her and didn't let go.

"Never," he said.

—

At the Hans Christian Anderson Orphanage, a small girl of five was sitting on a small bench. Her thin blonde hair hung around her dirty face like a halo. She was holding a stick of pink chalk that the staff had given out.

Crawling onto the concrete, she started to draw. Never being at school and having little talent, the drawing was not very good of quality. She drew a woman, with big eyes and a loving smile. At the top of the drawing, she wrote 'MUM' in scrawly handwriting.

She fell asleep in the chalk mother's arms.

Okay, that wasn't as light as I intended, but this is a pretty heavy fic. Hope it was at least a small break from the normally more intense problems the others have. Just curious, could you tell me who you feel most sorry for?

Thanks for reading!

- Reade