Intimate Secrets

In the period known as false dawn on the morning of February tenth, Ash’s due date, the bassist was pulled from the depths of slumber by an uncomfortable sensation that he recognized. He breathed slowly and gently rubbed his belly, taking note of how little his daughter’d been moving the past couple days in comparison to normal. The contraction currently gripping him was slightly more painful than any he’d felt thus far, though it was nothing he couldn’t handle, and he decided to keep a close eye on them.

Sammi was down the hall in one guest room asleep while Erica, his midwife, was in the other. Because of how early it was, he decided not to wake either of them just yet, knowing that this could very well be a false alarm and that he could go past his due date. He didn’t want to wake them before the sun because its ascent over the horizon, just in case it was nothing to worry about.

Ash was able to pull on a pair of black sweats and a black wife beater, as he didn’t feel up to bothering with more clothes than that. Now dressed and uncaring of his appearance since he knew he wouldn’t be leaving the house today, he waddled out of his room and down the hall to the den. He had to stop and lean over the back of the couch for another contraction, and without looking at the clock, guessed it’d been close to half an hour since the last one. Making note of how they seemed to be settling into a rhythmic pattern, although they weren’t much more intense than his Braxton-Hicks contractions, he continued on into the kitchen.

Between not having much room in his cramped stomach and feeling like he might get sick if he ate too much later, he settled for a small bagel for breakfast. He chose to park his ass on one of the bar stools next to the island counter, knowing that if another contraction started while he was spreading cream cheese on his bagel or while he was eating, it’d probably be a good idea to be sitting down. About half an hour later, as he was finishing the last couple bites, he felt yet another contraction start as the front door opened. Considering that they’d lived with him since last summer and the guys were supposed to be coming home today, he figured it was Jinxx and moaned softly.

“You okay, Ash?” he heard the multi-instrumentalist ask, concern lacing his voice.

“I wasn’t…gonna for…a while, but…go get…Erica up,” the bassist ground out. “Guest room…next to…yours.”

“You wanna go sit on the couch in the den? Or stretch out on your bed?” Jinxx asked.

“I’ll go…back to my…room when…the contraction…ends,” he answered, gritting his teeth.

“All right. I’ll get Erica up, like you asked, and once she says whether or not it’s a false alarm, I’ll wake Sammi up and call the guys,” he told him.

“I’m pretty sure it’s the real thing,” Ash sighed, the contraction coming to an end. “This is the third one I’ve had in an hour and a-half, and they haven’t been this rhythmic before.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” he said. “But I don’t wanna call the guys if it’s not.”

“Understandable,” he agreed, nodding as he put his dishes in the sink. “Fuck it; someone else can load the dishwasher later.”

As he slowly waddled back to the master bedroom, he kept one hand on the small of his back for support. Jinxx disappeared into the secondary guest room to wake the midwife, looking exhausted from what he could only assume was jet-lag. He made it to his bed just before Erica came into the room, her bag in hand just in case she needed it.

She had the pregnant bassist lay back, press his feet together, and draw them as close to his pelvis as he could possibly manage. Being flexible, she didn’t necessarily need him to take his boxers off just yet unless he was more comfortable that way, but he didn’t really care either way at the moment. While she was busy checking him, his friend went to go wake his fiancé, aware that it could very well be the day.

“All right, Ashley. No change in dilation, but you’re thirty percent effaced,” the midwife reported, pulling the latex glove off. “I’d say this little girl’s on her way.”

“Any idea on how long this could take?” Ash asked, groaning as another contraction started.

“It could take a couple hours, or as long as twenty-four,” she answered. “With this being your first child, I’m thinking it’s gonna take somewhere between six and twelve, at the least.”

“Oh, my…Godsmack,” he ground out, hands splayed over his belly.

“Now I’m warning you, if you think this is hurting now, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” Erica told him. “We’ve still got more than enough time to go to the hospital if you change you mind.”

“No way. I want…a home…birth,” he groaned.

“If you’re sure. I’m just telling you that, since you haven’t been in labor long, there’s still time to change your mind.”

“Not gonna…happen.” The bassist panted heavily as the contraction ended.

“You might as well stop now, Erica.” He looked to his doorway to see a sleepy-eyed Sammi there. “He’s as stubborn as a Tennessean mule. If he says he wants a home birth, then he’s having a home birth unless he has to be rushed in for an emergency C-section.”

“She’s right, Erica,” Jinxx agreed. “I’ve never met a more stubborn man than Ash besides he-who-shall-not-be-named.”

Ash smiled weakly at the more or less silent reference to the man he loved. “Thanks, Jinxx.”

“Don’t worry about it. And by the way, I called the guys,” he told him. “CC’s on his way over to, more or less, act as a body guard, though I doubt that’ll be necessary. Jake said he wouldn’t come until it was closer to time for her to be born so he wouldn’t be in the way.”

“I don’t even have to ask if you called he-who-shall-not-be-named because I already know you didn’t,” he said.

“Well, you told me you didn’t want him knowing, so I didn’t call him.” The multi-instrumentalist shrugged. “Even though he and The Bitch are no longer a thing, he hasn’t done the one thing he still needs to in order to get completely back in my good graces.”

“What? He and…Juliet broke…up?” he asked, groaning in pain again.

“Last night, before we headed to the airport,” his friend confirmed. “And he apologized to the rest of us for acting like he thought we were lying when we told him we thought she was just using him. But he still has to admit his feelings for you, and actually mean it, as well as step up and be a true daddy to this baby girl before he’s completely back in my good graces.”

“You didn’t…tell him…about Legacy…did you?” Ash asked, panting.

“If by Legacy you mean the baby, no, I didn’t,” Jinxx answered, shaking his head. “He said he thought you might not speak to him because of the past few months, and I merely told him you had your reasons. If he’d man up, he might find out what they are, but I never said anything specific other than the pain he’s caused you.”

“Thanks, Jinxx. What would…I do…without you?” the bassist chuckled, still panting his way through a contraction.

The multi-instrumentalist and his fiancé sat next to him on either side of his bed, giving him back massages and hands to squeeze as the pain intensified. Erica would come in and check him every so often, glad to see that, although too slow for his liking, he was definitely making progress. She told him that, so long as he kept making progress like he was, she could see him having this baby in six-to-eight hours, which would be a blessing. At hearing those words, Ash released a sigh as another contraction ended, hoping and praying that Andy would get his head out of his ass soon.


Over at Jake’s house down in Woodland Hills, the young frontman was on the verge of snapping and having a rage-induced aneurysm. He’d finally decided to tell Ashley how much he loved him, but upon going to his apartment, he’d found that he no longer lived there. Not only that, but he hadn’t lived there in months, and not a soul had told him that he’d moved to Hell only knows where. It was then that he realized that all of the guys likely knew where he lived now, but Jinxx and CC had ignored his calls.

The guitarist took one look at the rage clearly expressed on his face and refused to tell him anything, fearing that he might try to hurt their brother for not telling him where he’d moved to. With Ashley being pregnant, and with Andy’s baby, to boot, he couldn’t take that risk, and refused to say a word. When the frontman wasn’t looking, he shot off a text to Jinxx, alerting him to the situation and asking what he should do.

“If you can calm him down and Ash okays it, send him up here,” Jinxx answered. “He said he wants to see him anyway, but CC won’t let him through the door if he’s that enraged.”

“Will do, Jinxx. Thanks for the advice,” he typed out, tapping “Send” when he was done.

“Get off your Goddamned phone and give me some fucking answers!” Andy snarled, still enraged.

“Calm down and you’ll get answers,” he told him calmly.

“Tell me where he is, Jake,” he demanded.

“You’re too pissed. CC won’t let you through his front door, and even if he did, you might hurt him in the state you’re in,” Jake said.

“Oh, so CC gets the pleasure of being near him right now, but I don’t?” he growled viciously.

“It’s your own fault,” the guitarist said, standing his ground. “If you hadn’t been an idiot, you never would’ve drifted apart from him. If you’d calm down, I’d tell you where he was so you can go see him.”

What Andy did next was far from expected. “Tell me, Jacob Mark Pitts,” he snarled, pinning him to the wall by his shirt collar. “I’m done playing games and beating around the bush. You either tell me where he’s at, or I’ll unleash anything you’re scared I’ll do to him on you.”

Notes