Angels and Guardians Pt. 08

"So, what's up Joe?"

"How's she doing?"

"She seems to be in more pain tonight than I've seen her the last couple of days. I don't know if she moved funny or what, but something's changed."

"Ashley said something about being frustrated this afternoon, you think her and Jasmine tried something?"

"Well, she looked fresher when we got back and Jasmine said she was going to bathe her while Jill and I went shopping...maybe so."

"Well, I don't blame either one for trying if they did. But, would you remind them what the doctor said anyway?"

"Great, Joe. Make me be the bad guy here. If she's in pain because of something she tried, I think that's reminder enough. By the way, did Ashley mention that you're in a lot of trouble with Jasmine?"

"No. Why?"

"Jasmine went on all night about how you could let Ashley go all week without being cleaned up. She said she's gonna kick your ass at the airport when you get back."

"There's a happy thought," he said glumly. "I guess she's right, though. Anyway, how's Ashley's mood?"

"Other than pain, I guess you could say she's quieter than normal. I think we're going to have to keep her busy for quite a while."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, when she's bored, Ashley stares off, and I'm pretty sure she starts thinking about suddenly being barren. She puts on a good front, smiling and cracking jokes about herself, but the whole thing has gotta be eating at her, you know?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. Well, thanks for watching her tonight."

"No problem. I won't let her sleep alone ever. I promise you that."

"Thanks Kim. Goodnight."

"Night, Joe. I love you. Uh...I meant we love you. Sorry, habit."

He chuckled. "Back at ya, Kim."

The next day, Jasmine and Jill showed up together. Jill made breakfast while Jasmine started her day putting a fresh bandage on Ashley. After breakfast, Jasmine worked on her normal chores while Kim and Jill dug out the Christmas decorations from the garage and busied themselves with decorating the house. Kim set up Ashley's laptop in the den so that Ashley could kill time playing WOW.

She had gotten so engrossed in catching up on her game that she barely noticed eating the sandwich Jasmine gave her at lunch. When her phone rang, though, she slapped the laptop shut in a rush to answer Joe's call.

"How's the meeting going?" she said after accepting the call.

"Hi to you too, sweetie."

"Sorry, Joe...Hi baby! I missed you so much, how are you?...There is that better?"

"Well, I'll take one of those to-go, but hold the sarcasm."

"Har har. You're killing me here. How's it going?"

"We're done."

"Already?"

"Already?! We started at 7 this morning. It's six now. I didn't even leave to have lunch."

Ashley looked at her watch. "Holy crap it's 7 now!"

"Yes, I know."

"So...?"

"Sew...a needle pulling thread..." Joe sang the musical line.

"Grr, Joe! KIM! TELL YOUR EX TO STOP TEASING ME!!"

Joe rubbed his ear. "Damn, girl. Not in the phone!"

"Then tell me what happened. Are y'all done done? Or just until tomorrow?"

"No, we're finished," he purposely deadpanned to keep her in suspense.

"Argh! Did it go well? Just tell me, please!"

"Fine. Yes, Carter got the contract."

"YES!!! I knew you could do it! HEY GUYS! HE GOT THE CONTRACT!!"

Joe anticipated her outburst and had the phone away from his hear until the vibration of her screaming stopped. "That's it, Ashley. I'm hanging up and calling the cell provider to restrict you to text only," he said happily.

"Oh, you hush!"

"No, that's my point to you! I love you, though."

"Oh, I so love you! I wish I could be there to celebrate with you. Are you and Cindy going out tonight?"

"Yeah, I asked her to prom."

"Well, I think y'all would make a great couple," Ashley teased. "NO! I didn't mean go out as in date...I just mean to celebrate."

"I know. Couldn't help but tease you. Actually, Cindy is on her second glass of wine from the bottle she bought. I'm celebrating by talking with you."

"Aww...Thank you! So, is she hot when she's tipsy?"

"What?" There was a muffled noise. "She says to tell you we're in our own rooms."

"If you are, how did she tell you to say that?"

"We have the dividing door open. And, I think she read your mind."

"About? Oh, nevermind. About if she's hot?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I can't wait for you to get here so I can celebrate with you."

"Me either. You doing ok?"

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"Alright. Good night, then. I love you."

"I am so happy for you, Joe! I love you too."

The three girls who were well stayed the night with Ashley, filling each sofa with a young sleeping beauty. The next afternoon, Ashley tried every means she could think of to get them to let her go to the airport to meet Joe. She tried begging, pity, bribery, and even bluffed that she would blackmail them. The bribes got more and more interesting to coincide with her rising desperation. The last bribe attempt did tempt the other girls, as it was blatantly sexual in nature and promised a very happy ending for each. However, their genuine concern for her well-being won out, and they ended up playfully binding her hands and feet loosely with the medical tape intended for her bandage. She took it in good humor, giggling while she demanded she be set free because she had to pee. The demand was ignored and Jill told Kim and Jasmine to take the SUV while she stayed with Ashley.

Ashley threatened one more time before the two left, "Let me go, or I might pee my pants!"

Jasmine called on her way out the door, "Go ahead. Jill will clean you up!"

Jill called after her, "Thanks a lot guys!" After the side door closed, she looked at Ashley. "You don't really have to go that bad, do you?"

Ashley looked vulnerable in her navy sweats with her wrists and ankles highlighted by the white tape. "I did drink a lot of juice," she said with sad puppy eyes.

Jill rolled her eyes and started working on the tape at Ashley's wrists. "Damn, this tape is tougher than it looks. I'm gonna have to find some scissors."

Not being able to race to the bathroom for relief seemed to make things worse for Ashley's bladder. "Screw the scissors...get a knife from the kitchen!" she called.

Jill came back with a knife and picked up Ashley's wrists.

Ashley pulled her hands away. "Screw that. Free my ankles!"

Jill cut the tape near Ashley's feet and helped her up. Holding Ashley's elbow, she led her to the bathroom and started to shut the door.

Ashley protested, "What? You want me to go through my pants?"

Jill answered, "What do you mean?"

"My hands?"

Jill opened the door and saw Ashley doing a cute pee pee dance. "Oh for Christ's sake!" she said as she pulled down the sweatpants and underwear, and let Ashley down slowly to rest on the seat. Almost instantly Ashley sighed as a loud hiss rose up from the porcelain bowl. Jill thought to herself that Jasmine and Kim were lucky that Ashley made it, or there would have been hell to pay.

A couple of hours later, the den was filled with happy chattering as Joe and Cindy related their versions of the meeting with the military leaders. The versions were vastly different, as Joe of course was the focus of the meeting. However, the sensitive nature of what they were discussing required Cindy to be outside the room until talks turned toward payment and production timelines. While she was milling around the lobby, Cindy struck up a conversation with an interesting young Navy officer who was an aid to one of the admirals. Both were stuck as prisoners of boredom and passed the time getting to know each other. Her interest quadrupled when he told her that he and his admiral were stationed at the air traffic control school at the navy air station not far from her house. After they each arranged lunch to be brought in for their charges, the two assistants had their own meal together in the office complex's cafeteria. Soon, they were laughing with each other while they shared tales about their current and former boss's quirks and antics. Kim asked if Cindy planned to see him again, and she was told that they scheduled a date for Tuesday night.

They all ate dinner in the den to keep Ashley company, and afterward, Joe sat on Ashley's "sick bed" sofa, letting her rest her head in his lap. With her feet propped up on the armrest at the opposite end, Ashley laid peacefully listening to the various conversations. She was content to let Joe play with her hair, spreading the red sea over his whole lap at times, stroking and lovingly twisting it in his large fingers at others. Occasionally, she would drift off, again induced by the pain medicine. Jill noticed her slipping out of consciousness once and remarked quietly that tonight Ashley seemed the calmest she's been in a while. The others agreed, and Cindy surmised that it was probably the result of Joe being near her.

Cindy's phone beeped, and she checked the message. "Hey, Joe? Turn the TV on...Headline News."

Joe did and turned the volume down to not wake the sleeping beauty in his lap. "What are we looking for?" he asked.

"You'll see," Cindy answered.

After a few commercials, the news team returned to report on a breaking story. A sidebar appeared on the right of the screen etching out statistics for the privately owned Carter Electronics. The reporters announced that an anonymous email tipped them off about an IPO nearing for the venerable company. Details were sketchy, but the tip seemed to say that the company may hit the market in late January. The reporters finished up with a summary of accomplishments Carter has achieved, and related that the current owner was Joe, a highly-sought high school quarterback, and that he came to own the company after his parents died a few weeks ago. They played a few news clips that showed his news conference announcing the passing of his parents, as well as footage from the wreck where he had saved Ashley.

Joe muted the TV when they moved onto another story, and looked over at Cindy. "That was awfully fast. We sent that email to the employees during the layover this afternoon. You didn't have any part in this, I hope?"

Cindy flicked her eyes in baby-girl fashion. "What? Who? Me? Why would you think that?"

"Cindy...I thought we agreed..."

"We did, and don't worry. This didn't come from me, and I certainly didn't tell anyone to leak this. The plan worked though, right?"

"Yeah, sure did...maybe too quick."

"Eh, don't worry about it Joe."

Ashley stirred and Joe hushed her, running his fingers through her hair and she fell back into her slumber.

Cindy used the chance to pitch an idea to the other girls. "Joe said y'all thought it would be a good idea to keep Ashley busy for a while to keep her mind off things." The girls nodded. "Well, the plans for Carter's IPO road show have been finished up."

Jasmine questioned, "IPO road show?"

Joe answered, "Basically it's a tour our underwriters do to pitch the company to carefully selected investors. Those investors hopefully will buy about 80% of the outstanding stock when it's released."

"Like a political campaign?" asked Jasmine.

"Sort of, only the votes we're trying to get are checks written by the investors. Some are private individuals, but mostly IPO's are pitched to high-level management of banking and investment firms."

Jasmine got it and nodded.

Cindy continued, "Well, at these stops, the underwriter gives away gift packages, dinners, etc. to woo the investors. Anyway, I was thinking about having Ashley perform at two of the stops."

The girls looked at each other. Kim spoke up, "When are you thinking?"

"Well, the IPO launch should happen in late January, I was thinking about the stop that's scheduled the Saturday before you go back to school. Then also at the last one that's scheduled two Saturdays later."

Kim frowned and Jill expressed their concern. "That's awfully tight for Ashley's recovery."

Kim chimed in, "Yeah...like only four days after her bed rest orders expire."

Cindy nodded. "I know. But it would be a distraction for her. I was weighing it in my head, too. I mean, should we let her sit around here and take a chance that she'll mope into depression? Or, would we be able to keep her active and take a chance that it might be too much for her physically?"

Joe actually didn't want either and so kept quiet to see what the girls thought. The three let out an audible sigh as they thought about it. Eventually a consensus was reached that Ashley would be better off not being allowed to think too much about her loss of ability to have children. They agreed that none of them would ever tell her why they wanted her to consider it, and that Ashley would have final say in whether she wanted to do it.

Ashley woke a little later, and Cindy, Jill and Jasmine took the opportunity to say good bye for the night. Joe returned after walking them out and knelt in front of Ashley's sofa. He told her that he was beat from the trip and was heading to bed. The two hugged and kissed tenderly for several minutes while Kim went to refill Ashley's drink and tidied up the dinner mess in the kitchen.

Late the next morning Ashley was jolted awake by her phone ringing on the TV tray. The school's guidance counselor called to see how she was doing with everything. They talked at length about the emotional toll Ashley's trauma put her through. After that thread died down, the counselor reviewed Ashley's academic requirements for graduation and helped fill out her class schedule. Ashley was given an option of when her two study halls would be, and she settled on having them first and last period, allowing her to start her homework before heading home, and she would be able to finish cramming for tests before her first class.

That afternoon, Joe and Kim took Ashley to the surgeon for a follow up, and after a number of questions, he removed her staples. He ordered one more day of bed rest if her OB/GYN agreed tomorrow, and instructed her to take it easy after that. Ashley was relieved that she wouldn't have to be confined to the sofa much longer. They left the office and Ashley begged Joe and Kim to take her to a store so she could do some Christmas shopping. The pleas only resulted in Joe driving straight home. They returned to find Jasmine waiting for them. Joe said that he needed to do some shopping and that he would be gone a few hours. Ashley was about to protest but Kim did it for her, berating Joe for announcing his shopping trip right after keeping Ashley from doing hers. Ashley got an idea and asked Joe to wait for Kim, then asked him and Jasmine to leave the room for a bit. She quietly asked Kim to pick up specific things for her friends and handed her debit card over. Ashley thanked Kim for doing this for her by giving her a long sweet kiss.

With Joe and Kim gone, Jasmine took the opportunity to give Ashley her last sponge bath. Only this time Jasmine kept her focus and no playtime resulted. She finished the chore by cleaning and redressing the incision area and helped Ashley into a polo and jeans. Shortly after Jasmine arranged fresh bedding, the house phone rang. Jasmine answered and excitedly punched some numbers on the phone. "Ooh...I have a surprise for you!" she exclaimed to Ashley.

A few minutes later, Jasmine answered the knock on the front door and returned to the den. Behind her was Ashley's mom and dad. Ashley almost jumped up, but Jasmine kept her planted to the sofa by pressing on her shoulder.

"Daddy!" Ashley squealed from her seat.

Her dad stepped over quickly and sat on the front edge of the sofa to give his daughter a very long tight hug. "Hi pumpkin! I'm am so sorry I couldn't be here earlier."

Ashley held onto him and laid her head on his shoulder. "It's okay. Mom told me why."

He listened intently while Ashley related what had happened, even though his wife already had told him. Her injury and it's result didn't seem real until Ashley said it was. Her mom wiped away a few tears when Ashley got to the part about not being able to have children. He responded by renewing his hug around Ashley and petting her long hair. Jasmine wondered if he hugged her then in order to hide his own tears. Ashley finished her story by relating her visit to the surgeon earlier.

Jill came over just as Ashley was finishing briefing her dad, and Joe and Kim returned shortly after Jill arrived. Joe made dinner, and Ashley sat at a table for the first time in a couple of weeks. Commander Roberts entertained the group with stories from the war exercise. Nothing about tactics or anything like that, but rather he related humorous stories of his green shipmates trying to be macho and failing miserably.

They all retired to the den where Ashley sat propped against Joe's side on her 'sick bed.' After the conversation died off, she said that she was in the mood for some Christmas music. Joe picked up a remote from the end table nearby, but Ashley swiped the button encrusted wafer from his hand. "Bring my guitar, would you Kim?"

Kim looked at Joe, then Jasmine for permission, but both shrugged, so she disappeared for a couple of minutes to retrieve the instrument from it's case in the living room. She handed it to Ashley, commenting that the guitar looked huge against Ashley's small frame. Ashley shrugged, saying that it was comfortable to her. That was until she let the back of the guitar rest against her. After some adjusting to make it comfortable against her still healing incision, she asked, "So, anything y'all would like first?" When she didn't get any answers, she started playing some chords and broke into 'Silent Night.' The others joined in singing with her a number of carols. At some point Joe got up, picked her up from under her arms and deposited her against the corner of the sofa. He left the room and returned with two fiddles. When he handed Ashley hers and took the guitar from her, Kim was about to protest that Ashley would be moving her arm too much, but Jill stopped her by touching her knee.

"Let the girl be in a good mood," Jill whispered to Kim. "Happiness is the best medicine for her right now."

Kim nodded, then listened to the couple play a few holiday duets. Jasmine had always listened to Joe play the violin with adoration, and she thought that he would be a hard act to follow as far as playing it expressively. However, Ashley was just as good, and Jasmine was moved to tears by the music. The pair didn't seem to be playing the instruments, but it was more like they coaxed the fiddles to sing by themselves.

They played for a couple of hours before Ashley finally declared she was too tired to play any more. She thanked every one for coming to see her, and Joe walked them all out, leaving Kim and Ashley in the den. Kim put away the instruments then sat with Ashley, giving her a hug and telling her how much she enjoyed the entertainment in between shared smooches. Joe returned after a length of time and took Kim's place next to Ashley.

"What took so long?" asked Ashley.

"Your dad and I were talking about the communications package I pitched in Denver," he said simply.

They hugged and kissed for a while, then they closed out the night with Joe and Kim changing out her bandage for the last time.

The OB/GYN visit went well the next day, the doctor declaring that aside from the reproductive parts missing, Ashley would have a normal healthy life. She was advised to gradually increase daily activities and to be abstinent for 7 more weeks. Then the doctor approached her about finding a plastic surgeon to hide the scaring. After much discussion, Ashley insisted to let things heal naturally. The scar would be part of her and who she is now.

Back at home, Joe worked at the dinette table in the kitchen, paying bills, reading requests regarding the company, and writing out Christmas cards. Kim and Ashley watched TV, with Ashley doodling in a small notebook occasionally. The sheets and other 'sick supplies' had been removed from the den after Ashley assured Joe and Kim that she would be strong enough to climb the stairs that night. When she did climb the stairs, Ashley was surprised that she felt tenderness along her healing wound. She said goodnight to Kim, then joined Joe in his bed. They talked for a bit and she wrapped herself around Joe's side, drifting off against his shoulder.