Without Me

You Don't Know

Ashley let out a groan as she felt her eyes flutter open, to immediately be hit by the sunlight piercing through the curtains. With another huff, she rolled over and was startled by what or rather who lay in front of her now.

''Have you been watching me sleep?'' She asked, looking over at Marshall who lay fully dressed on his side, with his elbow propping his head up.

''Maybe,'' he did a little shrug before leaning over to press a kiss to her forehead, ''not my fault your all cute when you're asleep,'' he mumbled as she stared at him , through her tangled mess that was her hair covering her face, as if he had grown an extra head.

''Why are you up so early? It's not like we need to be anywhere,'' Ashley heaved herself up, so she was sat with the pillow behind her back and the duvet still pulled up to her chest. She was too comfortable to move from the bed, ''wait, we are supposed to be somewhere?'' Marshall just remained silent and she combed her memory to figure out what was meant to be happening.

''Hey calm down, we don't gotta be anywhere. Well if you were still friends with Talia you would,'' Marshall finally gave her the answer she had been trying to figure out herself. He shuffled over to get closer to her, moving her hair so it no longer  covered her face, she then rested her head on his shoulder.

''You had me panicked for a second, though I had a hospital appointment or something,'' she muttered, causing him to emit a light chuckle.

''You are the only person who gets stressed about going to appointments on time, I mean last time you had the dentist you turned up half an hour early.''

''Sometimes if you're early they let you in for your appointment early,'' Ashley justified.

''That has never fucking happened ever,'' Marshall exclaimed, perhaps a little too loudly than he had anticipated.

''Because your always late ya dickhead,'' she bit back swinging herself over the edge of the bed, so she could get dressed. There was no point in her trying to get back to sleep now.

''Hey that was uncalled for,'' Marshall stuck his hand over his heart in mock hurt, causing Ashley to just roll her eyes at him.

''Nah it was called for,'' she shot back while rummaging around in the cupboard for a towel.

''You taking a shower?'' He suddenly asked noticing the towel balancing in her arms, when she turned around to face him once more.

''Yeah, wanna join,'' his ears perked up, much like a dog when it's been told it's going to be taken out for a walk, the only difference was that Marshall could speak.

''Hell yeah.''

''Well you can't.''

''Wait, what,'' but before he could so much as mutter a coherent sentence Ashley had already reached the bathroom shut the door a locked it. Leaving him to stand outside leaning his head against the door, ''Oh come on Ash, that wasn't fair,'' he called out.

''You were too slow,'' came the muffled reply from the other side.

''I fucking hate you,'' he muttered.

''Aw I love you too,'' her giggles from the other side followed by the noise of the shower told him there was no way he was getting in the bathroom. So he gave up and trudged down the stairs.

Once he reached the bottom he peered out to see a familiar car, which didn't worry him in the slightest, but he was confused as to why it was outside his house so early in the morning. He wandered into the kitchen hoping to find Jamie, who would give him some sort of explanation as to what was happening. Thankfully the teen sat at the kitchen counter a bowl of cereal in front of him, which was being shovelled into his mouth at a considerably fast pace.

''You know why Kim is outside,'' he asked moving over to the fridge to pull out a carton of orange juice.

''So she can take me to school,'' Jamie responded as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

''Since when has Kim taken you to school,'' Marshall was a little bemused by his answer.

''Since forever. Why's that such a big deal?'' Jamie questioned, dropping his spoon inside his bowl, before shoving it next to the dishwasher.

''No one tells me anything anymore,'' Marshall whinned, realising that Ashley had never told him that Kim took Jamie to school since he'd started.

''Ok, well while you mull that conundrum over, I gotta get going or I'll make both me and Whit late for school. See ya,'' without another work Jamie swiped his backpack off of the floor near the kitchen doorway, before hightailing it out of the door.

''Oh come on you aren't still pouting over the fact I locked you out of the bathroom are you,'' Ashley teased as she walked into the kitchen to find Marshall with a look that was both slighting pissed off and confused.

''How come I didn't know Kim to Jamie to school, like who did it when she couldn't?'' He blurted out while watching Ashley placed Jamie's abandoned breakfast things into the dishwasher.

''Ok one I didn't tell you because Kim is my friend and it's none of your business and two Talia did or one of the guys did it if they weren't busy. I would have asked you, but you're always busy,'' Ashley pointed out as she poured herself a cup of coffee using what was left in the machine when Jamie had made it for himself that morning.

''Thought you couldn't drink coffee cause you're pregnant,'' Marshall changed the subject, not wanting to launch into an argument about what else Ashley wasn't telling him about herself and Jamie.

''Can if it's black,'' she responded.

''Who drinks black coffee?'' Marshall mumbled placing the orange juice carton back in the fridge after pouring out two glasses, one for himself and when for Ashley.

''Me because I'm pregnant, duh.''

***

''What's the point in going shopping for a baby, when you don't know what it is yet,'' Marshall pointed out as he parked the car in the next available spot he could find.

''It's a baby Marshall, I'm not suddenly going to give birth to a rabbit,'' Ashley couldn't help, but laugh at the facial expression he had when he turned to look at her in the passenger seat. It appeared he didn't applicant her joke.

''Oh come on that was funny,'' she protested, but still, he gave no response, ''screw you then,'' she mumbled unbuckling her seat belt, attempting to then open the door, to only find out that it was locked, ''Marshall.''

''I make the shitty jokes round here missy,'' he whispered, in her ear before pulling her closer to him, ''ya got that.''

''Yep,'' she stuttered, biting her lower lip anticipation at what was going to happen next.

''good,'' he then moved his hand to the back of her neck and brought her down to meet her lips.

''We're still going shopping for the baby Marsh,'' she whispered when he pulled away.

''Dammit.''