Unsung Heroes

When we got to the bus, I could hear metal music pounding through the walls of the bus. Then the door was thrown open, and CC came stumbling out, holding a cigarette and a half-empty beer bottle in each hand. When he saw us, he gave us a huge smile and dropped his cigarette on the ground and stomped it out.
“Hey, you’re back!” He ran over to give me a hug, and I stepped back slightly so that his hug wouldn’t hit my stomach and his more of my chest, but that hurt like hell because my chest was a lot more sensitive, but I hid it well.
“Yup!” I laughed when he bear-hugged Maya and swung her around, making her squeak in surprise.
Jinxx laughed when he set her down and pulled her under his arm, kissing the side of her face. She blushed and wrapped her arms around his torso.
Ash pulled me to him and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. I felt my stomach flutter, like the baby could feel how close their daddy was.
“How you ladies doing?”
I turned and saw Jake and Andy come out of the bus, followed by Ella and Juliet.
I shrugged. “Can’t complain. Glad to be back!”
Maya nodded. “I concur, I don’t much like being away from you guys for too long.”
Andy put his hand over his heart. “Oh, we’re so touched,” He teased.
I laughed and took my lighter suitcase from Ash. “Are we gonna just stand out here and wait for the grass to grow? Vamos,” I said cheerfully and carefully started to make my way to the bus.
“Hey, Indy,” Maya was suddenly in front of me, and she took the suitcase from me. “Why don’t you let me take that for you. You did tell me the plane ride was hard on your back when we landed, and you wanted to prepare something for Ash.”
“What’s wrong with your back?”
Ash was suddenly in front of me, looking worried. That’s so sweet.
I waved my hand dismissively. “Oh, it’s nothing, I think I may have slept on it weird, or something. But I would like to freshen up before doing anything, and I am starving!”
I let Maya take the bag, and I took my backpack onto the bus and walked quickly, but carefully, through the bus.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Ash was behind me, looking worried, still. He looked like he hadn’t shaved in a couple of days and his hair was growing out a bit.
I smiled and set my stuff down on my bunk before turning to him and putting my hands on his shoulders.
“Couldn’t be better,” I said smiling, kissing him deeply. He wrapped his arms around my waist, dropping my bags and pulling me to him. His hold started to get tight.
“Ash, baby, my back.”
He immediately let go.
“I’m sorry, baby. Is there anything you wanted to do?”
I smiled. Ash was playing right into my hand. “I want to freshen up and then maybe go and eat somewhere. Do you mind if I had a little privacy?”
He gave me a sad smile. “Don’t take too long; I’ve been waiting two weeks to be with you, and I don’t want to wait much longer.” He kissed my cheek and then walked out of the bunk area, shutting the door behind him.
With a moment to myself, I went into my suitcase and pulled out the pregnancy tests and onesie I’d wrapped up and the card with the ultrasound picture. They were wrapped in silver tissue paper, and I put them into a black gift bag that was small enough for me to fit into a purse I borrowed from Maya. I redid my eyeliner and brushed my hair and put new texture cream into it. The blue was starting to fade out. I took off my sweaty shirt I wore on the plane and put on a new shirt – an AC/DC band shirt. Picking up my bag, I left the bunk area and walked over to Ash, who had put on a new sleeveless shirt and his high top sneakers. He was on his phone when I walked over, but looked up and pocketed it when I walked up.
He noticed the size of my bag. “Why is your bag so big? You never have bags that size.”
I shrugged. “I got a new wallet and it’s too big for me to use my old bag, so I’m accommodating for it.” Ash rolled his eyes but let it go.
“You ready?” He asked, standing up.
I nodded, feeling my stomach, where the baby was, clench slightly in excitement.
“Yeah, let’s go!”
He took my hand and led me out of the bus and towards the front of the tour. The tour was in Denver, so the air, while warm, was a bit drier. We walked out of the tour – not without stopping several times so that Ash could sign a few things and take a couple of pictures with fans.
“Excuse me?” I turned in surprise to see a young girl, maybe fifteen years old, standing there looking at me. She had deep blue, long hair that was parted heavily on the side with the right side of her head shaved. Her eyes were lined with liner, and she had several piercings in her ears and nose. She was wearing a Black Veil Brides band shirt and white skinny jeans and black ankle boots.
“Yes?” I said politely.
“Aren’t you Indy, Ashley’s girlfriend?”
I smiled. “Yeah, that would be me.”
She grinned. “What’s it like dating Ashley? I bet you got some horror stories on all the weird things he does when no one’s looking.”
I laughed as Ash looked at me, suddenly frightened. “Oh, believe me, I could tell you things that would make your hair curl, but he’s the best boyfriend I’ve ever had, and I haven’t been as happy as I am with him in a long time.”
She “awed”. “That’s so cute!”
Grinning, I tugged my bag further over my shoulder. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”
She blushed slightly. “Rae.”
I held out my hand. “It’s very nice to meet you, Rae. Call me Indy.” She shook my hand and giggled.
Ash smiled and kissed my forehead. “Alright, girls, we have a lunch date, but I promise I will be back this afternoon and I’ll be available for more stuff.”
They made noises of disappointment but let us through to the front. When we got there, we turned to walk down the street to a little shopping area with restaurants.
“What do you feel like eating? Sushi?”
Not a good idea.
“Nah, how about Italian?” There was a little Italian restaurant right in the corner.
Ash smiled. “Sounds good.”

“Why are you recording me?”
We had been seated about an hour ago and were just finished eating. I ordered chicken parmesan and mushrooms, and Ash got the same but with mixed veggies. I decided it was time to film this, so I took out my phone and started to record Ash, who was just finishing up his food.
I smiled. “I got something for you, and I wanted to film you opening it because I know you’ll like it.” Please like it.
He looked suspicious. “You didn’t buy me some weird sex toy you expect me to open up in the middle of a restaurant, did you?”
I laughed. “No, of course not!” I pulled the bag front my purse and held it out to him. I strategically placed the onesie on top with the tests and card next to each other on the bottom.
“Okay, then,” he said, taking it from me and reaching inside and pulled out the wrapped onesie.
“I feel fabric,” he said. “Is it a shirt?”
I smiled behind my phone. “Just open it.”
He smiled and unwrapped the onesie, and laughed. “Ha, what it this?” I put it in upside down so that he would have to unwrap it. And hold it up.
He held it up and opened it, facing me, so he didn’t see the words.
“What is this?” He set it aside and reached in and pulled out the other things. He opened the card first.
“Nice card,” he said. He opened it up and the ultrasound photo fell out. He picked it up and stared at it like it was in a foreign language.
“What the fuck is that?” He looked at me like it was the strangest thing he ever saw.
“Read the damn card!” I said laughing.
“Do you want me to read it out loud?” He set the photo aside.
“Sure, if you want.”
He opened the card back up and read out loud.
“Coming December 12th – you better be fucking ready, Daddy!”
He mulled over that in his head and then his eyes went wide and he looked at me.
“What?”
I laughed. “There’s more.”
He ripped open the paper around the tests. Then he looked at me in shock.
“Are you fucking serious!” I nodded and pointed at the onesie with my free hand.
He picked it back up and flipped it over to read it. “My daddy is a rock star!” His jaw dropped and he looked at me in shock.
“You’re pregnant?” He dropped the onesie and covered his face. “Oh my god!”
I laughed. “I took so many damn tests and went to the doctor just to be sure. By the way, you must be psychic or something because you asked me about kids at the most ironic fucking time ever.”
“Oh my god when did you find out?” He peeked at me from behind his fingers.
“Last weekend I got sick every time I smelled meat cooking so Maya got me like a hundred tests for me to take they were all positive. I’m five weeks pregnant.”
“Why didn’t you tell me then?” He still looked like he was in shock.
“I thought it would be better to tell you in person instead of over the phone or skype. Look at the onesie I picked out!”
Ash looked at the onesie. “That’s fucking adorable, where did you find it?”
“There was a store that sold it in West Hollywood. The cashier was so happy for me when I bought it.”
He got up from the table and walked around to my side and pulled me up to hug me – around my shoulders – tightly.
“Oh my god babe, you’re not fucking with me, are you?”
I laughed. “No, that’s the ultra sound you put aside.”
He let go of me to grab it.
“Oh that’s what the grey dot in the sea of grey dots is!”
I playfully hit his arm. “Shut up!”
He laughed and put a hand over his eyes and rubbed his face.
Looking around, I realized that the whole restaurant was looking at us. So I took a step back and pointed at Ash.
“He just found out he’s gonna be a daddy!”
There were cheers and applause in the restaurant and some guy in the back shouted, “Home run!”
Ash seemed to break out of the shock he was in and he laughed and held up the heavy metal sign to that guy.
I laughed when an old lady said, “Good luck!”

Paying the bill, I wrapped everything back up into the bag and walked out with Ash, who was walking with a bounce in his step and his chest seemed to puff out a bit. He put his arm around me and kissed me suddenly, and deeply.
A noise of surprise escaped me when he did, but I kissed back. When he pulled away, he was beaming.
“What’s that look for?”
He laughed. “I don’t know; I’m just happy.” He hugged me. “I’m gonna be a daddy!” He whisper-yelled.
I laughed. “Yeah, and I’m gonna be a mommy!”
He breathed out shakily. “Oh my god, there is so much shit we gotta do!”
I laughed again. “Yeah, no kidding!”
We hit Warped before we knew it, and moved quickly to the bus.
“Are we gonna tell the guys?”
I stopped walking and turned to look at Ash, who was looking at me carefully. Shaking my head, I put his hand on my stomach.
“Ash, it’s too early. Maya and Angel only know because they were with me when I took the tests. I want to wait until I’ve completed the first trimester before doing anything. Something could happen in that time.”
Nodding in agreement, Ash cupped his hand around my stomach for a moment and then brought both hands up to cup my face and kiss me deeply.
“I can’t wait to tell them.”

“Ash, we need to talk about something.”
Ash was sitting at the table with CC, drinking beer and discussing something between them. They looked at Ash like “oh shit, you’re in trouble!”
“Sure, babe,” he said, setting down his beer can and sliding out of the booth to follow me out of the bus so that we’d have some privacy.
“What’s up, Indy? You feeling okay?” He looked concerned.
Smiling, I hugged him. “Yeah, but we have to talk about what we’re going to do to make this work and to make sure the baby gets the life it deserves and needs to be stable.”
He nodded and rubbed my sides. “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that, too. Do you want to go somewhere and talk about it so no one overhears us?”
Nodding, I took his hand and pulled him behind the equipment van.
“Okay, so what did you want to talk about?” Ash crossed his arms.
“Living arrangements,” I said. “Obviously one of us has to move in with the other in order to make this work, and I think it would be goodfor us to actually live together now because we’ve been dating for almost seven months.”
Ash, this whole time, was nodding in agreement and looking down.
“There is a spare room in my apartment that’s being used to hold guitars in my house. The problem is I won’t have a place to put them, later.” Ash scratched his arm thoughtfully.
“Maya’s staying in my spare room. She spent all of last week trying to force Mitch out, but he won’t leave.”
Ash and I were at a crossroads – neither of our apartments were big enough to hold all our stuff and have enough rooms for a nursery.
“Ash, neither of our apartments are big enough.”
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “What do you suppose we do?”
I looked at my feet.
“Honestly, I think our best bet would be if we both moved out of our apartments and found one with at least three bedrooms, or if we found a house.”
“Are you sure, Indy? What will Maya do?”
I shrugged. “She can stay there until the rent runs out in three months and then move in with Jinxx, or something. It’d be better for the dogs, too. Ash, we need room for a child to grow, and neither of our apartments have that room.”
“So…” Ash looked at me sheepishly. “Are we just moving in for the convenience of the baby, or because we think this would be good for us?” Good question.
I thought it would do both, honestly. Ash and I basically lived together, we were over at each other’s houses so many times, it wouldn’t feel all that different. And the baby needed to live in a house where both of its parents would be there.
“Both,” I said confidently. “We basically live together, now, and the baby needs a home with both parents there.”
Ash smiled, again. “So, when do you want to do this?”
I pursed my lips and crossed my arms, popping a hip.
“Hm, I think it would be best if we did it sooner than later, but I want you there to be part of the move. So I think it would be best to wait until after Warped was over. It ends in two months, but I want to start looking, now. I will get a realtor and start looking and take pictures of the places I look at to send to you.”
“Okay, sounds good,” Ash said smiling. “I still can’t believe we’re having a baby. Are you sure you want to start doing this?”
I nodded. “I’m sure. I’m glad I’m having a baby with you, Ash, and I want the best for our kid. Even though it seems a bit like we’re only moving together for the convenience of raising the baby, I do want to genuinely live with you, Ash. I know the timing isn’t great, but I’m happy that it’s turning out to be how it is. I think I may have to go back to school to get a better job, but if it means providing for my baby, then I’ll do just about anything.”
Ash laughed and brought me close to hold me. I put my nose against his collar bone. “You sound like a mother, already.”

I did end up watching other bands perform, including Falling in Reverse and Motionless in White. But I also saw Of Mice and Men and Sleeping With Sirens and Asking Alexandria. I did all this while the guys did their press stuff.
Maya met up with me about halfway through the day.
“So how did Ashley take it?” She asked, sipping on a diet Coke.
I beamed. “He was so surprised but he’s thrilled. I think he might still be in shock. I am DEFINITELY putting that video up on YouTube,” I said laughing. “I’m still in shock from finding out. Don’t get me wrong, I am thrilled, but I’m still terrified of this. Neither Ash nor I have much experience with parents, but I’m looking forward to it.”
Maya put an arm around my shoulders. “I can’t wait to be an aunty. You better make me fucking godmother, or some shit, Indy.” She laughed.
I smiled back and put an arm around her. “Well, you and Angel better arm wrestle for that, then.”
I put a hand just above my bump and stroked it affectionately. I hope to God that things work out for this baby, otherwise I don’t fancy what could possible happen if it doesn’t.

Notes

Vamos! means come on!
I know a lot of this feels like filler, but i have some big plans for Indy and Ash, in the future, i promise :)

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