Unsung Heroes

A month later, I finished my first trimester, and the final show of Warped Tour was approaching fast, in Seattle. Ash and I decided to announce our news during the last show and then celebrate that night with the band… and then by ourselves.
By this point, I still wasn’t really showing much, but you could tell that I had gained weight, and I couldn’t wear my skinny jeans anymore. I had to get new pants with a stretchy waistband . Ash loved it, said it gave me more curve; but I was curvy already, I didn’t need more. I just felt more bloated than normal. It was like I was on my period, but it stuck around and the symptom was just achy back and a continuously growing stomach.
The Monday following my Vovό’s call of hell, Maya went to the police station with all her photos and text messages and voicemails as evidence, and reported Mitch for stalking and domestic assault. She requested a restraining order, which was being processed now through the courts, and I submitted my request for one, on the grounds that we’d dated and, he could try to get to Maya through me. Mitch tried to deny what he did, but the evidence against him staggered, so it was likely that he would not only pay a fine and have to leave Maya alone, but go to rehab and go to sensitivity and anger management classes, and if he violated his ruling, he would go to prison for at least a couple years.
Since then, I’ve been taking it easy and avoiding the strenuous part of my work. Ash called and skyped me every day, always asking how I was doing and how the baby was. Sometimes he’d ask me to stand and turn profile so he could see how much my stomach had grown. Thankfully, he was able to keep it from the band, but they’d almost walked in on Ash asking about it and finding out, before.
I think my favorite was once when Andy walked into the room as Ashley said “the baby.”
“What baby?” He said suspiciously.
Ash looked at me wide-eyed, unsure of what to say.
Thankfully, I was skilled at coming up with lies quickly – not something to be proud of, kids – and quickly told him:
“His car, Andy. He calls it his baby, and he was making sure I was taking care of it.”
Andy didn’t really look like he believed me, but he didn’t push it and just grabbed the carton of cigarettes he left in there earlier, saying something about E-cigs and robots to himself as he left the bus for a smoke.

By the time the last show came around, Ash and I were very nervous. Maya knew of our plans, and she just stood on the sidelines, a Cheshire grin on her face as she knowingly stood next to me as I wrung my hands nervously.
The last song of the set was In The End, but before they started, Ash started talking.
“Wait, guys, I’ve got something to say,” he said sounding a bit nervous.
Andy, who’d been raising the microphone to his face, lowered it and gave him a questioning look.
“Guys, I need you all to come down here – you too, CC,” Ash said, setting his bass down and waving the whole band over.
Confused, Jinxx and Jake set down their guitars and walked over to Ash, who stood on the platform. Andy and CC got next to him, and Ash put his arms around their shoulders.
“Guys, I have a question to ask you,” he said, looking at each of them slowly.
The audience was confused, and I could see more and more phones coming out and recording the stage.
“Umm, do you guys know what’s going on?” Andy nervously said laughing slightly, looking at the guys, who all shook their heads no.
“Guys, how does it feel… knowing… that you guys… are going to be uncles?” Ash asked slowly, looking at each of them carefully. My heart skipped in the moment he said the word “uncles.”
They didn’t say anything, then I heard Jake shout, “WHAT?!”
Then, the audience started freaking out and screaming.
“What the fuck, Ash, what?!” Andy shouted into the microphone.
CC grabbed a microphone from the side stage that Jinxx used. “Ash, who the fuck did you knock up?!”
I walked out then, and walked over to CC, “SURPRISE!” I shouted into the microphone, laughing.
CC picked me up in a hug, and I saw the guys behind him basically tackling Ash to the ground while the audience screamed and freaked out.
“Holy fucking shit!” Andy screamed into the microphone, running to me after CC set me down and pulling me into an incredibly sweaty bear hug.
“I’m gonna be a dad!” Ash shouted at the audience, making them – although it didn’t seem possible – scream even louder than before.
I walked up to Ash and grabbed him by the hair, pulling him in for a kiss, making the audience scream.
I took Andy’s mic and shouted, “Coming December 12th!”

After the concert, the band insisted on going out to celebrate, taking us to dinner and insisting on treating us.
“So, Ash,” Andy said laughing at something stupid CC said before. “You’re gonna be a dad.”
Ash, who had his arm around my waist, took a drink from his diet soda. We were sitting in a fancy Italian restaurant in the biggest booth they had, which took up one of the corners. Ash and I were squashed in the very corner, and Maya and Jinxx were next to me, and Andy, Juliet, CC, and Liv were on the other side. Jake was sitting in a chair a waiter dragged over to the end of the table.
Ash chuckled. “I know, it’s weird, right?” He kissed the side of my head.
CC snorted. “You’re telling us. No offense, but out of all of us, you seemed to be the least likely person to settle down and have kids.Or at least, not the first person. I think we were thinking that Jake would be the first person, or even Andy.”
Jake chuckled and Juliet giggled nervously. “Yeah, I don’t think either Andy or I are ready for kids, yet.”
Andy laughed. “Everyone knows I’m an overgrown child in a man’s body, I’m surprised my cat has lasted as long as he has.”
We all laughed and I snorted into my water.
“How far along are you, Indy?” Liv asked me, suddenly.
“I just finished my first trimester. I’m thirteen weeks in, according to my OB.”
“How long have you guys known?” Jinxx asked, taking a sip from his beer.
“Since the first month,” Ash said. “We decided to wait to say anything because we didn’t know if… well…” He looked down.
I sighed. “Sometimes in the first trimester there are miscarriages and we were afraid that if we announced it so early and then I had a miscarriage, it would be a huge public thing. But now that that’s not a big issue, anymore, we decided to spread the news.”
“Only our friend Angel and I knew, and that’s more by coincidence. We were their when Indy first found out,” Maya said, leaning into Jinxx. “I was making food that had meat and it kept making her sick. It worried me because she’s a carnivore, so I got her a test.”
I scoffed. “Correction: she didn’t know what the fuck she was doing, so she got five tests.”
Everyone burst out laughing while Jinxx affectionately ruffled the hair on the back of her head and kissed her cheek, pulling her into his side while she turned bright red and hid her face slightly in his chest.
“Anyway,” Juliet said with a laugh. “What are you guys doing to do for living arrangements? I mean, you guys can’t keep living separately if you have a baby to take care of.”
“We’ve been looking at places to live,” I said, leaning forward and taking an hors d’œuvre from the platter in the center of the table – little cheese puff things. “I’ve been looking at condos since apartments don’t really have the room we need without being ridiculously expensive.”
“How many rooms do you need?” Jinxx asked, an eyebrow raised.
“Well, we need one for us, and we need one for the nursery,” I said. “But we also need a room for Ash’s equipment and work supplies, and we also need at least one full bath and a kitchen and living room/dining area. A storage unit is out of the question for Ash’s equipment, and I refuse to store his stuff in the same place either our child or we sleep.”
Ash nodded in agreement. “There’s a really good place near where I currently live that has a backyard for my dogs and has reasonable rent and enough rooms. We’re planning on looking together when Warped ends… when there is time.” I knew he was silently mentioning our impromptu trip to Brasil.
“What do you mean?” Maya questioned.
I sighed and rubbed the side of my temple. “I have things to deal with down in Rio. Ash is coming with me, we will be there for ten days.”
Maya looked shocked. “Are you visiting… them?” she said shocked. “Why the fuck would you do that?”
I grimaced. “I have affairs with them to take care of, and Ash has agreed to come with me to help me deal with it.”
CC raised an eyebrow. “Will being around them give you more panic attacks? I mean, now that you’re pregnant, won’t that risk the baby?”
Ash stepped in. “That’s why I’m going. If she wasn’t pregnant, she would just probably drink to keep from dealing with them, but since she can’t, I’m going with her to help her.”
There was a collective grimace and then Jake raised his glass of water. “To Ash and Indy, congrats on the baby and let’s hope things can go smoothly from here on out!”
“Cheers to that!” Everyone clinked their glasses with Jake.

The next morning, the tour bus took us back to our homes. It stopped in front of Andy and Juliet’s home, and we all gathered our things and departed as fast as possible. Once off, Andy and Juliet gathered their things and said goodbye and congrats to us again before heading inside. Ash helped the others get their stuff into their cars, and then carried our stuff to his, which had been brought over by Angel, who was leaning against it, texting. Maya was rushing to get her bags into Jinxx’s car, excited to get her stuff to Jinxx’s house since she was about to move in with him, as he’d asked her about five days before the end of the tour.
“Hey, Angel,” I called, waving over to her as Ash took the heavier bags from me.
She looked up at me at the sound of my voice and smiled, pocketing her phone and getting off of thehood of the car. As we approached, she unlocked the car and opened the trunk.
“Hey, guys,” she said cheerfully. “Glad to be home, Ash?”
Ash laughed and set the largest bags into the trunk of the car. “You have no fucking idea!”
I laughed as I put my backpack in the backseat of the car, next to where Angel was going to sit.
“How are you feeling, Indy? Any changes since I saw you last?”
Shrugging, I got into the passenger seat of the car as Ash loaded up the car and slammed the trunk shut before settling in the driver’s seat.
“Not much. I mean, I still get nausea every now and then, and I’m getting fatigued a lot more, but other than that, not really.”
I saw Ash hesitate out of the corner of my eye, and he bit his lip, like he was trying to not say something.
“Something on your mind, babe?” I asked.
“Um, no, not really,” he said quietly.
Raising an eyebrow I turned to look at him more. “What were you going to say?”
“Nothing,” he insisted defensively, gripping the steering wheel tightly with both of his hands.
Angel smirked and coughed to cover a laugh. “Ash, I’d come clean now if I were you.”
Ash resigned and groaned. “It’s just… You’re a bit more hormonal lately, that’s all. Like all the crying, plus your senses are much stronger, now. Before we told the band, you were starting to annoy them with all the cleaning you were making them do whenever you visited.”
I raised an eyebrow and turned to look back out the windshield. “What are you saying, Ashley? That I’m annoying?”
I heard him hiss in like he knew that he’d said something he should have.
“No, you’re not annoying, baby. Not at all! Those are normal pregnancy symptoms and you’re experiencing them now, and I don’t think you were aware of them, before. I didn’t want to say anything to you, before, because I knew that it wouldn’t end well… mostly for me, anyways,” he said, his voice getting quieter and quieter and he shrank into his seat under my gaze.
“Ash, I can’t believe that you’d think I’d snap at you for telling me something like that. Why would I snap at you for telling me the truth?”
“Um, cause that’s what you’re doing now?” He asked in a small voice, making me aware of the fact that I’d practically screamed in his face.
I sat back in my chair and sighed deeply, bringing my hand up to pinch the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger.
“I’m sorry, Ash. I didn’t mean to shout at you. You didn’t do anything wrong – I guess I am much more hormonal, now, and haven’t realized it until now. Please understand that while it may not excuse my behavior, it is probably my reason why I’ll be shouting in the future. Don’t be afraid to tell me when I have been shouting. I may not react well, but I’d rather know when I am not acting on my own and instead am being just hormonal.”
Ash visibly relaxed, and he pulled in front of an apartment that I realized was Angel’s. She stepped out quickly, a slightly wide-eyed look on her face. She shouted a quick goodbye as she rushed into her apartment.
Ash snickered under his breath. “Well, we’re now scaring people away, Indy,” he said chuckling, turning his head so that he could pull away from the curb and head to… actually, I didn’t know if we were going to his apartment or mine. Probably mine, since his dogs were still there.
I sat back in my chair but reached over to put my hand on his thigh and squeeze affectionately.
“I’m sorry, Ash.”
Ash smiled at me and plucked my hand from his thigh and held it tightly, kissing the back firmly.
“It’s alright, Indy, I know you can’t help it. But I don’t know if you will bite my head off the next time I tell you something like that.”
I laughed. “Ash, as far as I know, from here it’s a hormonal, stressful, cravings-filled, pain-filled ordeal. But remember, there is one good thing that will come from this.”
I brought his hand down to my lower belly, which has swelled over the past few weeks, so now it looked like I had gained around ten pounds, but it was firm with our baby, instead of soft with fat.
He smiled warmly, and gently pulled his hand out of mine to press it against my belly and stroke gently with his fingers. He stayed like this until he pulled the car in front of my apartment building.
“Do you think Maya would have gotten the rest of her stuff, yet?” Ash asked as he got out of the car, followed closely by me as I hurried out of the car and out of the street onto the sidewalk. Ash opened the trunk of the car and quickly pulled our suitcases out, his bass resting on the top precariously until Ash pulled the strap over his shoulder and rested the case on his back. I picked up my bag and the strap of the duffel and slung them over each of my shoulders.
Picking up the heavier of the bags, Ash elbowed the trunk shut and followed me to the door while I struggled to open it with my key. Opening the door, I carefully started my journey up the stairs to the third floor. The damn building was so old it didn’t even have an elevator, or even the space to have an elevator shaft built.
“Indy, maybe you shouldn’t be carrying so much up all these flights,” Ash said with a gasp as we reached my apartment, setting the bags down briefly so that I could unlock the door, a quiet scratching on the other side.
“I’m fine, Ash, there’s not much in them,” I said reassuringly, gently nudging the door open with my foot until the dogs rushed out and started jumping all over Ash’s legs.
“Hey, buddies,” he cooed, quickly moving into the apartment to set the bags down and have the dogs follow him in. I shut the door as he sat on the ground and let them jump and climb all over him, licking his face and yipping excitedly.
“Did you guys miss me?” He said with his voice a few octaves higher, picking them up under each arm and dodging their attempts to lick his face.
I laughed and set the bags down before sitting next to him and letting Tokyo jump on me and start to excitedly kiss me.
“Are you giving me puppy kisses?” I cooed in a baby voice, picking him up and scratching him behind his ears.
“Oh, I missed you guys,” Ash said affectionately as Killer attempted to climb up his chest and was resulting to just jumping.
Tokyo sort of slid down and over my belly, and seemed to notice the difference, and sniffed around excitedly before attempting to lick my stomach through my shirt.
“Hey, mine,” Ash said in a teasingly possessive voice, gently picking Tokyo off of my lap to kiss his snout and then he set him on the ground. Standing, Ash offered me his hand to help me up, which I gratefully took and hoisted myself off the ground.
Looking down at the bags, I groaned audibly. “Not looking forward to dealing with those.”
“Well, you’re going to move out soon to be with me, right? So maybe you shouldn’t put those away, just yet, and I still need to get my stuff to my house and take the dogs home.”
I nodded and sat on the couch. “I know, and I have to renew my Brazilian passport and find tickets to go back for a few days, and I’m really, really, really not looking forward to that.”
Ash sat next to me and put his arm around my shoulders. “You know, just because your grandpa wants you to go doesn’t mean you have to. Your grandparents disowned you, you don’t owe them anything.”
I nodded. “I know, but if I don’t go and something happens and it’s too late, I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive myself for giving up the chance to hear what my grandpa has to say.”
Nodding in understanding, Ash stood and began to gather his things, and his dogs in their carriers.
“Baby, I’ll be back, but I need to get my dogs home and I need to get my stuff there. I need to do a shit ton of laundry… probably several times.” He snickered.
I laughed. “Thanks for helping me out, Ash. We need to look at that condo, soon, probably before going to Rio.” My voice wavered at the last word, and I found myself looking at my hands resting in my lap.
Ashley’s tattooed fingers suddenly flashed underneath my chin and I found myself looking up into his chocolate-colored eyes, which were meeting mine with a firm, unwavering gaze that sent a shiver down my spine.
“Indy, listen to me; you are not alone. I am going with you to Rio and I will be there the entire time. You need to relax; it isn’t good for the baby for you to be so stressed out.” He kissed my forehead, but when he went to pull back I brought my hand up around his neck to pull him down to kiss him properly.
Getting on his knees, he parted my knees to get closer to me, wrapping one arm around my waist and the other he tangled into the hair at the base of my neck, deepening the kiss.
By the time we parted, we were gasping for breath and our foreheads were pressed together.
“I will be there the whole time, Indy, and you can count on that.”

Notes

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