15-Benny's POV

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By the time Ash arrived at the Sandlot the guys and I had already removed one of the rails, we were inspecting the plank of wood to test it's structural soundness and had decided it just needed to be nailed in firmer. Ash volunteered to stay up in the tree house to do a survey of areas needing replacing because she has, and I quote, "more balance and more common sense than you lot". By the time we'd found a hammer and some nails she'd ascertained that the rest of the railings were fine, a plank in the floor had broken and the place where the rope ladder attached to the floor had weakened and the ladder was near fraying.

By the end of the day we'd managed to fix the place up, Ash of course insisted on being an idiot and testing everything, leaning her full weight on the rails and jumping up and down on the boards. I'd expected her to fall a dozen times by now and my nerves were on their last legs.

"Ash get down here, stop jumping around and being a moron"
"Sheesh coming captain grouchy" she turned to come down the ladder, she was halfway to the ground when she stopped.
"Umm Benny... did we replace the frayed rope holding the ladder to the tree house?"
"Shìt!! We didn't, Ash climb down, now!" She was hurrying and her foot got tangled in one of the rope loops, the frayed ends gave way on one side and the ladder tilted dangerously, Ash lost her grip and fell with a shriek, still suspended by her trapped ankle.
"Ash!"
"I'm ok!" She yelled, trying to free her ankle.
"Get yourself free and we'll catch you" Ham yelled "c'mon guys" he said, motioning for us to get into position under her. If she fell there was no way we couldn't catch her but that still didn't make me feel any better about her dangling by her ankle over 5m in the air.

Ash had managed to get herself upright and free herself but in doing so she'd put extra strain on the already fragile rope. It shuddered beneath her and another strand snapped with an audible twang, she screeched as she lurched sideways again.

"Jump!" Squints yelled
"We'll catch you" DeNunez promised. She shook her head violently, the rope shaking even more with the movement.
"Jump Ash, I promise we'll catch you" I said, trying to convince her to jump before she fell. She looked down and I could see the fear clearly on her face. Her eyes met mine and she steeled herself, fingers loosening around the rope.

She let go a second before it snapped. She impacted heavily against our arms and I could tell it knocked the wind out of her but it was better that than splatted against the hard ground. The second Ash regained her feet I pulled her against me in a crushing hug, knocking her off balance again.

"Don't you ever do something like that to me again, do you understand? Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
"Geez calm down I'm fine" she said, brushing off my concern, seeing the look on my face she hurried to add "but ok I won't do anything like that again"
"You'd better not" I said, hugging her to me again.

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