Partner (Micah Bell)

42. What Now?

Ashley had been struggling to tell Micah about the whole 'having-his-baby' thing. It just never seemed like the right time and when she finally gathered up the courage to tell him about it something came up and got in the way. Either Micah was busy, somebody else wanted to talk to her, or something else went wrong. Abigail was the only person in camp that knew and she kept giving Ashley glances that either told her to tell Micah already or glances to reassure her that everything would be fine.

Finally Ashley decided that she was just going to do it, get it over and done with. Whatever happens, happens. If something went wrong, then it went wrong. He was going to find out eventually and Ashley knew that she had to deal with the situation.

Micah was sitting at a table in the camp. He had noticed that Ashley was acting a little strange but tried not to worry about it. She didn't behave any differently towards him, which is why he wasn't worrying too much, but every now and again he would catch her looking at him as if she was deep in thought.

Ashley walked over to the table, dragging her feet slightly. The truth was that she didn't really want to tell him. The longer she didn't tell him, the longer she could pretend this wasn't happening. "Uh, Micah, I gotta speak to you" she muttered as she stood in front of him, an unreadable expression on her face.

Micah looked up at her and furrowed his brow. He couldn't say that he had much experience with being in a relationship but that was never a good thing to hear, he knew that. "Well fuck, that's never a good thing. What did I do wrong now?" Micah asked with a sigh as rolled his eyes and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Nothing...I just need to talk to you about something, it's kinda important" Ashley shrugged, shifting her weight from foot to foot. Micah noticed her nervous behaviour and it was actually starting to concern him.

"Alright..." he nodded. Ashley nodded before turning around and walking away, Micah just sighed before standing up and following her back to their tent.

Micah followed Ashley into the tent and closed the canvas behind him, already knowing that she wanted to talk in private.

Ashley turned to face Micah and let out a defeated sigh. "Okay so, I need you to promise that you won't freak out and get all 'Micah' about it" she said as she rubbed the back of her neck.

"Y'know that I can't promise that" Micah chuckled but soon stopped when he saw the serious and nervous expression on her face, whatever this was about it wasn't going to be good or easy news. "Okay, I won't freak out" he sighed, his face dropping and matching the serious look on her face.

"...I'm pregnant" Ashley took a breath before just blurting it out, deciding that it would be better to just say it instead of beating around the bush about it.

Micah just started at her for a while with a blank expression on his face. Ashley shifted her feet and twiddled her fingers, fidgeting while she waited for any sort of response from him.

"...what?" Micah asked, that being the first thing he asked after silently staring at her. He wasn't quite sure that he heard her right, surely she hadn't actually said that...there was noway, right?

"I'm pregnant" she repeated, it coming out slightly smoother this time but not much.

"And...it's mine?" he asked a little slowly, like he was still trying to process what was even going on.

"Of course it fucking is" Ashley scoffed, taking a little bit of offence from his question.

"I didn't mean-shit, I...okay" Micah shook his head. Of course he knew that if Ashley was pregnant, it was definitely his child.

"Okay?" she repeated slowly, raising her eyebrow at him.

"Okay" he nodded, his face unreadable and his voice was flat. Ashley's eyes widened slightly as Micah just turned around and walked away, ducking out of the tent.

"Micah?" Ashley asked as she followed behind him, leaving the tent after him. She followed him across the camp, nobody paying much attention to them other than Abigail. "Micah?" she tried again but he never responded as he mounted Baylock and began to ride away from camp.

"Micah!" she called out to him as he rode away, anger and annoyance clear in her voice. What the hell was he thinking?

Now the gang's attention was on them, well on Ashley since Micah had rode away. They had no idea what had happened and shared some confused glanced but they assumed that they just had an argument.

"You two have a fight?" Sean asked with a bright smile and small laugh as he walked over to the woman.

"Shut up, Sean" Ashley snapped but instantly regretted speaking to Sean like that, it wasn't his fault. "Sorry, I didn't mean that. I'm just not in a good mood" she sighed as she apologised, giving Sean an apologetic smile.

"Don't worry about it, Ash" Sean smiled, completely understand, as he patted her shoulder and walked away. Knowing better than to annoy her right now.

Ashley sighed before turning around and returning to her tent, taking a seat on her cot. She picked at her fingernails, trying to focus on them, before giving up and covering her face with her hands to hide the tears that were welling up in her eyes. Even though there was nobody around to see them.

She just didn't know how to feel. The father of her unborn child had just ran off without any explanation. Ashley knew that Micah didn't want children or a family but she still thought that he was better than this. She didn't expect him to be excited about it but she never truly expected him to just leave without even saying anything.

Abigail had seen Micah leave and had assumed that Ashley had told him about the baby, so she walked over to Ashley's tent and stepped inside.

"Come here, I've got you" Abigail sighed sympathetically as she closed the canvas and sat down on the cot, wrapping her arm around the other woman. Abigail was the only one who knew her secret so she was the only one who could really offer her any comfort right now.

"No, I am not going to cry over this" Ashley shook her head as she stood up and wiped the tears away from her eyes. "It's happening and he has to deal with that. If he deals with it by running away, like the piece of shit that he is, then he can do that. I ain't going to make him stay" she shook her head again, she didn't want to waste her time over someone who didn't want to be here.

"Ashley..." Abigail sighed as she stood up, knowing that Ashley juts had to calm down and process everything.

"No. I'll be okay. I know I will. I have the whole camp to help so I'll be fine" Ashley smiled but Abigail knew that it was genuine.

"Alright...if you need to talk, you know where to find me" Abigail smiled back, knowing that it would be completely pointless to argue with her right now.

Abigail smiled once more before leaving, concluding that Ashley probably just needed some time alone to calm down and process everything right now. She was angry and sad and probably afraid, and she had every right to be.

So...anyone got any ideas for baby names??? (Boy or girl)