Through the Good and the Bad (Redlyn AU)

Agony is better with company

A/N: Hi! I have slowly lost motivation on ttgatb because I have been so worried about it being insensitive, I tried to reach out to a disabled user on Tumblr that takes asks and I never got a reply :(. Then I realized during my CNA orientation a month ish ago and with the overturn of Roe vs Wade that this is the reason this story exists, it's not supposed to make readers feel comfortable. It's supposed to bring awareness to issues surrounding women's health and medical gaslighting, normalize talking about "tmi" or "taboo" things that people live with and why stigmatizing any condition pertaining to bodily fluids or the menstrual cycle is dangerous, talk about birth control and why banning it is dangerous etc. This story is so important to me and I can edit something if I learn it's insensitive, but I can't just discontinue it because I'm afraid of it.

A tw before you read, this chapter deals deeply with parental abuse and alcoholism, with a hint at the beginnings of suicidal thoughts so please read with caution if you are sensitive to this subject.

Ashlyn's Pov:

As exhausted as I was, it was hard to sleep with all the pain. I would fall asleep for a few minutes out of total fatigue and then be woken up by another sharp lurch in my stomach that would cause me to toss and turn on the small couch cushions of Miss Jenn's office.

Sometimes I would pretend to be asleep and other times my eyes would flicker open and I'd softly moan a bit to which she would give me a look of sympathy and say something along the lines of, "Honey why don't you just go home?"

I simply replied that I didn't want to, it was no use explaining my current messy family situation and that home was no longer a safe place for this stuff.

Sure, if it was just my mom home she would be sweet as ever and help me through it. If it was just my dad home he would probably yell at me that I was being dramatic and needed to "toughen up". If they were both home they would mostly avoid each other, maybe fight over me and maybe mom would play bystander and try to ignore everything. Or maybe dad would change his tone and act all sweet as soon as she or Gina was around as he does so often to cover his misdeeds.

None of that seemed to matter at the moment as I was in too much pain to care or even think about it.

As a new wave of pain started to die down, I began to finally doze off just to hear the sound of overly loud foot steps stomping into Miss Jenn's office a few minutes later.

"Miss Jenn! I know Into The Woods isn't a super dance heavy sho-"

"Shhhh!"

I flicked an eye open briefly to see Miss Jenn shushing Carlos and pointing a finger in my direction. He didn't exactly tone it down, he just looked surprised.

"Ashlyn oh my God! Are-"

Seb put a hand over his mouth and spoke at a much softer volume, "honey, she's trying to sleep."

"I was never really asleep anyway", I shrugged and re-adjusted my position so I was half sitting up against the end rails of the sofa. Every movement seemed to bring a new set of pain that would cause me to wince uncontrollably.

"Are you okay!? You look like you're sweating bullets", he finally asked in a shockingly quieter volume.

"Just peachy Carlos!"

I snapped at him as he took a small step back and frowned, a bit surprised by the evident snippy attitude in my response.

Seb was however unfazed, he reached for my stainless steel water bottle in my backpack that must have been returned to me from my gym locker. I blushed slightly knowing it was probably Big Red's doing as I was wearing one of his new SLC slices sweatshirts costumed to my size, underneath Miss Jenn's winter coat. I definitely wasn't wearing that sweatshirt before I drifted off to sleep initially, it was sweet but somehow I still felt freezing despite all the sweat.