Grey City Rhapsody

XII: Habits

"Who's the baby daddy?"

"Wow," Hailee Cho glared and pushed her hair from her face incredulously. "You have, like, zero social skills and tact."

Ash sipped her beer. Her vision continued to swim like she was underwater and her head felt watery, too. "So, no dad, huh? That's OK, you're a tough girl, you'll kick ass at motherhood."

"This is not how I saw this conversation going." Hailee stuffed some peanuts into her mouth before remembering where she was and spit them out vehemently.

"What the hell were you doing in my house?"

Ash lifted her eyebrow drunkenly and chose to nurse the half-empty water glass by her instead. "What are you talking about?" 

"The lipstick on my mirror—that message to meet you here, don't play dumb, asshole, you signed your name." Ash's shrug only proved to make Hailee scoff so hard her belly twitched. Like lightning, she flipped through her phone and forced the drunkard to look at the aforementioned picture. The other woman took the phone from her hands hesitantly and set it down with a subdued look of shock. She double checked the time the picture was taken.

"Hailee... I couldn't have done this. I was 700 miles away stranded on a roadside..."

Hailee blinked and made ready to argue but stopped herself and ordered a pop to stall for time.

"If not you, then who?"

"This is going to sound crazy but stick with me here: it had to be you. I... I've been having some weird dreams, and for the most part, I don't remember more than an image and feeling fear. Before I woke up by the road, I dreamed about green and a creek and... I was pregnant."

Hailee raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "So you broke into my house and put lipstick on my mirror—how is this my fault again?!"

"I know this is hard to understand, I'm struggling to grasp it myself, but I was you, Hailee. I saw through your eyes, but more than that... I think I took control of your body."

Hailee was stoic for so long Ash noticed most of the bar patrons behind her had left. When she did finally react, it was to throw a napkin on the bar table and leave. Ash called after her, but her stride didn't falter. She was out the door by the time the jangling guitar of the music overhead ended.

Ash threw back the rest of her beer and slammed it on the table.

"Nice talk," she mumbled to no one. Paying the bill, she tossed her keys in the air and made to head home. With the door opened she heard a soft meow from the hood of the truck. It was a scrawny, black thing with a red collar, and quickly parked itself in the driver's seat. 

"Hey... Harcourt Fenton Mudd. Someone likes Star Trek." She mumbled while checking the tag. "You looking to get home, too?"

Mudd meowed in response, and unfortunately, Ash's cat speak was far too rusty to understand what he was saying. Thankfully there was an address as well as a name on the tag, so they stopped there first. 

"Mudd, you didn't tell me we were neighbors," she accused, and the cat with the golden eyes merely stared at her. She only needed to roll down the window to let the cat out, and he pushed his way inside through the cat door. Having enough confrontation for one day, she drove the last half a mile home and parked in the lawn.

Nick opened the door and dragged her inside while she fumbled with her keys. "Where the hell have you been?!" I've been calling and calling all day, I must have left twenty messages on your phone today!"

"I must have lost it somewhere," she said after digging through her pockets only to come up empty-handed. "Sorry, I'll look for it tomorrow."

Nick breathed heavily and wiped the fear from his features before he spoke again. "Are you drunk?"

"Probably."

He was likely going to lecture her about drunk driving and alcoholism but shut his mouth and hugged her instead. "You're OK, and that's what matters most. You... are OK, aren't you?"

Ash tightened her arms around his chest and smiled into his shoulder. She left him to tangle herself in the warmth of her electric blanket but swept the room first in search of the phone. No phone anywhere, she even checked the shag carpet under the bed but found only red drops in its place.