results ⇒a.i au

(prologue)

may (present time)

ashton rubs his eyes. he cracks his knuckles. he breathes in, and then out. he pulls out his phone and checks the time.

3:32 am.

ashton blinks once, and then twice. maybe his exhausted eyes read the time wrong. surely it's been more than a minute since he last checked. it feels like he's been sitting in this plastic chair for hours, not minutes.

ashton yawns. he picks up a magazine on the table beside him. maybe if he reads it will distract him and he won't keep worrying.

opening the first page, ashton busies himself with reading the table of contents of his magazine.

he furrows his eyebrows as he realizes he picked up a parenting magazine. ashton puts the magazine back down gently.

he runs his hand through his hair. what if jackson isn't okay?

a tiny grin crosses ashton's face as he remembers the little quarrels he and eliza ann had over names. she leaned more towards short names like alex and caleb. ashton liked longer names like theodore and his favorite, jackson. eliza ann liked jackson too because it could be shortened to jack. so, they'd taken to saying jackson whenever they referred to their baby boy.

but with the good memories come the bad ones, and ashton can't help but remember the sound of his phone ringing around midnight. the sound of eliza ann's voice as she told him she was bleeding. of his tired old car starting and the screeching of the tires on the road as he booked it to eliza's to take her to the hospital.

he's been here ever since. the doctors wouldn't let him go with eliza ann when they took her to get an ultrasound, and run some other tests. ashton runs his hands through his curly hair once more. it's what he does when he's nervous.

what if their baby isn't okay?

no, ashton thinks. i'm jumping to the worst conclusion. i just...have to stay positive.

it could just be spotting. ashton researched pregnancy when eliza found out she was expecting.

but does spotting still happen when you're five months pregnant?

ashton rubs his eyes again. they feel puffy from the crying he secretly did in the hospital bathroom a few minutes ago.

ashton check the time again. 3:37. five minutes have passed. how long does it take to get an ultrasound? all they have to do is find a heartbeat. unless...they can't.

he sniffles. he doesn't want to think about them not finding a heartbeat.

he loves this baby so much. when they first found out, he was so scared. a baby? he could barely take care of his little sister and brother. how was he going to handle a baby? and he wasn't even sure he was in love with eliza.

three months later, he fell in love with eliza ann and the baby growing in her tummy--well, uterus. but being medically correct when talking about where babies grow is not what ashton is concerned about right now.

right now, his baby's life is in danger.

ashton doesn't really want to think about what it might be like if his son doesn't make it. there's too many questions: will he and and eliza ann stay together? how will his mom react? how will eliza ann's parents react? what will eliza and ashton do about the tiny house?

"mr. irwin?"

ashton looks up. a male nurse stands in the doorway. he isn't showing any emotion. is that bad? ashton wonders. does it mean ashton's baby is alive? does it mean ashton's baby isn't alive?

finally breaking a smile, the nurse says, "come with me."

ashton follows him out the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

this only about 600 words, but as stated in the description, there will be a short prologue and a shorter epilogue.

i'm looking forward to writing this (:

that's all for now. forsee an update in the somewhat near future

peace on the street side homies

-becca