Le Marais, Part 6

Previously: Part 5 [A]

Things get much more heated.

[As a side note, does anyone have what was Chapter 22 of this? I’ve got everything Mel sent us and I’ve got Chapter 23, but it feels like there’s a gap in it. If you have the missing part, can fire it to me @gmail? Thanks, Dev]

Rated: X. NSFW(ish).

* * * * *

Spencer shivered despite herself. It didn’t matter that it was a warm night: she was chest-deep in swamp. Occasionally, when the noises came closer, she would carefully duck down until only the top half of her face was above the water. She’d even tried breathing through a reed but, as it turned out, that only worked in books.

She had no idea how long she had stayed there. The swamp was pretty shallow, which meant that the water was a lot warmer than it would have been in a lake or river. On the other hand, it was still water and she was freezing. And she worried that there might be eels. The thought of eels was not comforting to Spencer.

Eventually, the noises went away, but still she was afraid to move. It took everything in her body, mind and soul not to scream when something clamped down on her arm. Luckily, she was aided in this endeavour by a second hand clamping over her mouth. She slowly turned her head and nearly died with relief when her fear-widened eyes saw Ashley’s mud-smeared face staring back at her.

The brunette removed her hand from Spencer’s mouth and Spencer immediately opened it to say something but was stopped as Ashley raised one finger to her ow lips. Some signals were universal.

Slowly but surely, they inched their way out of the swamp. The air around them was still and there was no movement in the distance either. In fact, there were no obvious signs of anyone having stayed around to hunt for them, but neither girl said anything. They stayed low, keeping to the rustling grasses and verges, remaining out of sight. How long they crept along and how far they got, Spencer did not know. By the time they actually spoke to each other, dawn was starting to peek over the mountains.

“We have to get out of the open,” Ashley whispered.

Spencer nodded, biting her lip. The fear was still coursing through her veins, sending adrenaline pulses out almost constantly.

“There’s a farmhouse about ten minutes that way,” she whispered back.

Ashley shook her head. “No people.”

“It’s empty.”

Spencer led the way. They made it to the farmhouse as the day was really starting to set in. They jimmied open a window and climbed in, Ashley shutting it behind them firmly.

The brunette sighed and looked around. “We’d better get somewhere safe.” She frowned.

Spencer raised an eyebrow. “This isn’t safe?”

“The closest abandoned building around?” Ashley grimaced. “No, this isn’t safe. But it’s all we’ve got, so let’s find somewhere to hide.”

Spencer was too tired to argue and, anyway, it made sense.

A quick search of the upstairs of the farmhouse found an opening to the attic with a strangely inward-leaning hatch. A ladder was soon sourced from a nearby cupboard and they climbed up. Ashley pulled the ladder up inside with them and then closed down the hatch. The attic was dusty, but had obviously been used as living space at some point in time. A broken-down partition separated off a small area, complete with bed and chair, at the far end. It looked like it had been a bedroom until someone had dismantled the wall.

“Help me,” Ashley said to the slightly disheveled blonde. Together, they pushed a heavy chest across the opening of the attic, effectively barring entry from below.

Spencer shivered, her damp clothes still clinging to her skin uncomfortably. Her companion looked up.

“We need to get out of these clothes before we freeze.”

“It’s the middle of summer.”

“Oh, well, stay wet then,” Ashley grinned and walked over to a dusty wardrobe that sat in the corner. She flung it open dramatically, only to find it completely empty. A sigh wafted out of her mouth and over some dust motes. She sneezed.

“Nothin’ here.”

“I think we might be out of luck,” Spencer said with a grimace.

Ashley stood up from the chest she was now rifling through with a satisfied grin. “Nuh-uh, look what I found.”

The blonde regarded her with a raised eyebrow. “Sheets.”

“Better than nothing.” She flung a folded cover at Spencer. “Unless you want to stay wet.”

Spencer shrugged and took her sheet behind the small part of the partition wall that still stood. The rest looked like it had been brought down with a sledge hammer, cracked around the edges. The bed behind it was narrow and sturdy looking, functional.

She slipped out of her wet clothes and, after a quick thought, took off her underwear as well. It was soaked and would dry faster off. Wrapping the sheet around her three times, she tucked it in firmly and then clamped her arms down, praying it wouldn’t fall.

Carrying her clothes out, Spencer spied the brunette similarly attired in a long, wrapped sheet. Ashley was hanging out her clothes, the black trousers and dark top that practically defined the slender girl. Spencer followed suit, hiding her underclothes with a slight blush. Somehow it felt exposed, far too intimate, to show those things to someone else, especially to Ashley. When they were both done, they stood facing each other, looking nervous.

“I thought about making it into a toga, but I didn’t know how,” Ashley said, a hint of amusement in her voice.

Spencer wanted to laugh, but knew it would come out high-pitched and shrill. Instead, she kept silent and played with the edge of the sheet she was wearing. The fact that she couldn’t help but notice the creamy, tanned skin on Ashley’s shoulders and the delicate curve of her neck didn’t ease her nerves at all; it had quite the opposite effect.

And then, despite herself, she yawned. It occurred to the blonde that she’d been up all night and, with the adrenaline rush fading, the fatigue was seeping through her body.

“Come on,” Ashley said, holding out her hand, leading Spencer to the bed. “Lie down. Get some rest.”

Spencer shook her head. “You lie down. I’ll take the floor.”

“Don’t be an idiot. Take the bed. I’ll take the chair.”

“No, I’ll take the chair. You take the bed.”

“Spencer, take the goddamn bed!”

A loud sound in the distance made them both stop arguing. It sounded like a cross between a gun fire and a small explosion, possibly both. They realised that their voices had been rising and Spencer turned her face away with chagrin.

“Oh, for God’s sake, let’s both take the bed,” Ashley murmured exasperatedly.

And so it was that Spencer found herself laying flat on her back, trying desperately not to move. Every move pressed her further against the side of Ashley, who lay next to her, and added to the mounting confusion inside her.

She had no idea what to do next, but sleep somehow didn’t seem like a viable option any more.

* * *

Paula was not happy.

Up until that moment, Ashley had always seen both Carlin parents at their best. It seemed like the cracks were beginning to show.

Spencer had been unconscious too long. For too many days now, there had been no news, no progress. Spencer lay in ICU, unconscious. Aside from her visitors, she was only accompanied by the steady beep of her machines keeping watch.

Ashley had been the first to get angry, furious that neither Elly nor Alex were allowed in to see their mother. ICU had a no-children rule and they were holding to it firmly. It had taken Arthur to calm the fuming brunette down.

This time, it was Paula’s turn.

Ashley noted that, in contrast to herself, the elder Carlin woman did not rant. She did not raise her voice or storm about. Instead, she got icily calm. There was a viciousness in her voice and a direct low level anger that was almost more devastating than the tornado that Ashley could wield. She was directing her fury at the ICU doctors and their inability to change Spencer’s condition with their well-studied medicine. Ashley expected Arthur to rise from his chair at any moment to calm his wife. To her surprise, the tired man just sat there, his head hung low.

“Um, Arthur?” the brunette chanced.

“Let her yell at them,” he answered her unasked question. Ashley marveled at how well he now read her mind. It must be where Spencer got the ability from.

“But it’s not their fault.” Ashley’s calm and measured answer surprised herself more than anyone.

“No, but I don’t like it when Paula yells at me and, right now, she has to yell at someone or she won’t feel like she’s doing everything she can. Don’t worry. They’re used to it. They’ll get over it.”

“Oh.”

They sat in silence until the blonde woman was done with her ‘discussion’ and rejoined the fold. Then the three of them sat in silence, Ashley in the middle.

After a few minutes, she spoke. “Any change?”

Paula shook her head. “Nothing.”

“Oh.”

And for another long second, in another long minute, in another long day, they waited.

* * *

Sleep was so not a viable option. Spencer was so rigid that she could have been used for a plank. In fact, she had visions of pirates being sent to their death across her. If Ashley had noticed this tension, then she wasn’t commenting, although the brunette didn’t exactly seem relaxed either.

“We’re going to die, aren’t we?” Spencer only realised it was her voice that had spoken well after the sentence was out.

“No, we’re not.”

“Yes, we are.”

“We damn well are not, Spencer, so shut up.”

Once again they lay, side-by-side on their backs, unmoving and stiff. A few minutes of silence made Spencer even more uncomfortable, so she broke.

“We are going to die.”

“Oh my God!” Ashley shot up on one elbow, glaring down at Spencer with an intensity that made the blonde hold back a giggle. “We are not going to die. Will you get that through your thick, gorgeous head?”

Spencer smiled. “I know. Just thought I’d tease you.”

“It’s not funny.” Ashley smiled, though.

And there she was, looking down on Spencer and the blonde realised that they were touching, so close that she could barely breathe. Suddenly Ashley’s eyes were intense and all smiles had passed. The energy that passed between them was electric and Spencer didn’t move for fear of breaking it.

In the end, it was Ashley who muttered something unintelligible and laid back down, then confirmed, “We won’t die Spencer. I won’t let you.”

The blonde carefully released a hand from the sheet that wrapped her and snaked it down to tangle with the brunette’s. “Thank you.”

With a sudden surge, Ashley was up on her elbow again, breaking their linked hands and staring down at Spencer with those incredible brown eyes. “After this is over…” Her words trailed off.

“Mmm?” Spencer urged on, unable to break the vibrant gaze between them.

“I want to take you to Paris.”

“Oh,” Spencer breathed out. “That would be amazing.”

Ashley gave a wry smile. “Yeah, yeah it would.”

“Is it as beautiful as they say?”

“More so.” Ashley lay back down. “It’s… home.”

“Tell me about it.” Spencer moved her hand down to link their fingers again, aware of the strangeness of her move but unable to not be touching the other girl.

Ashley took a deep breath and then went silent for a few seconds, contemplating. “It’s big,” she finally said, which made Spencer giggle. “Hush, you!” Ashley laughed. “No, really. Paris is huge, but there are parts of it that are like little cities of their own. Neighbourhoods that have their own lives and styles. Like the Quartier Latin, or Montmartre… or…” She broke off, her voice almost strangled with emotion.

Spencer entwined their fingers tighter and squeezed, giving mute comfort and support. After a little while, she voiced it, “Or?”

“Or Le Marais.”

“That’s where you’re from, isn’t it?”

“Uh-huh.” Ashley sighed. “It’s so quiet sometimes. There’s Le Marais by day and Le Marais by night and that’s never quiet. Like two different cities and, yet, somehow always the same.”

The poetry of Ashley’s description made Spencer smile.

“On Saturday, the synagogues call out, leading everyone to prayer. All the little boys scurry along with their skull caps, ahead of their mothers and fathers. They spend the Holy Day together, so many families.” She broke off again, her throat definitely choking off this time. It took the brunette a few seconds to gather herself before getting back to her description. “And then Saturday night, or Friday, or any night really, the happy boys come out to their cafes and bars.”

“Happy boys?” Spencer had no idea to what the other girl was referring.

“Uh… well, you know, the… happy… um… loving boys?”

Spencer turned her head to Ashley and raised an eyebrow. “The who?”

Ashley bit her lip and looked back at the blonde girl for a long second before turning away. “The homosexuals.”

“The?”

“Uh-huh.”

“The what?”

This got Ashley back up on her elbow, looking down at Spencer with a surprised expression on her face. “You can’t be serious.”

It was Spencer’s turn to bite her lip and look embarrassed.

“Oh my God, you are such a country girl!” Ashley laughed, making Spencer swat her with her free hand.

“Leave me alone! And tell me what you meant.”

“They’re boys who like boys. You know, kissing and, ehm, other stuff.” Ashley was strangely un-Ashley-like in her stuttering and Spencer could swear there was a slight blush creeping along the brunette’s cheeks.

“Like sex?” Spencer whispered, a definite rouge coming to her own cheeks. She was a well brought up girl, one for whom the topic of sex was most certainly not of common discussion.

“Yeah,” Ashley breathed, still leaning up on one elbow and regarding the other girl’s response carefully.

“Oh.” Spencer blushed harder, if that were at all possible. “Is that, can they… Two boys can do that?”

“Some of them.”

“Where you’re from?”

“Yup.”

“Oh.”

Ashley chuckled slightly, until Spencer swatted her again. The blonde now had her eyes closed, avoiding her companion’s teasing eyes. She tentatively licked her lips.

“Do girls… do that, too?”

“Kiss each other?”

“Yeah.”

Ashley smiled, although Spencer still had her eyes closed and didn’t catch it. “Some of them.”

“Some of them,” Spencer echoed. She opened her eyes and caught the tail end of that gorgeous smile that was now leaving the brunette’s face.

“The ones who like it.”

Spencer took another deep breath, feeling like she was breathing for the entire French Olympic team. “Do you like it?”

“Kissing? Sure, everyone likes kissing.”

Those who were lucky enough to know, perhaps, Spencer thought wryly.

“Do I like kissing girls?” Ashley was kind enough to give the blonde a break, knowing what the more innocent girl meant. Spencer could do no more than nod her head in embarrassed assent to the nature of her question. Another long silence ensued. “Yeah, some girls, I do.”

There was another long silence, one that felt like an eternity to Spencer.

“Do you want to kiss me?” Where the courage for that question had come from, Spencer would never know. But, once it was out, it was as though a huge weight now hung in the balance. Would the answer make that weight fall back onto her chest, crushing her, or would it lift entirely, giving way to a new, freer Spencer?

The answer came in an unexpected way, as Ashley’s head lowered and Spencer felt the first tentative brush of perfect cupid bow lips against her own.

Throwing caution to the wind, she lifted her head ever so slightly and kissed back.

* * *

Ashley swung her arms as she walked down the corridor of the hospital towards Spencer’s room. Since the blonde girl had stabilised, they’d moved her back to a normal room, which at the least gave her family more time with her.

Ashley felt light, lighter than she had been in a while. She had a strange feeling that things were going to get better, for no other reason than she just did. Alex and Elly could see their mother again, the sun was out, Ashley was back to working every now and then: things were on the up. With a small skip in her step, the brunette waltzed down to the familiar door to Spencer’s room and came to a skidding halt.

For several seconds, her eyes and brain refused to come to an agreement. It couldn’t be. But it was. There was Spencer, sitting up, bandage still neatly wrapped around her head and eyes open!

Ashley gasped.

“Hey there,” a croaky but oh-so-familiar voice came from the bed.

Ashley’s eyes filled with tears. Finally, her feet got the message and moved, stumbling, towards the bed. When she got there, she reached out and brushed a hand across her girlfriend’s face, still completely shocked. Then, suddenly, she fell to her knees, buried her head in Spencer’s lap and burst into uncontrollable tears.

Oh God, her baby was awake. Her baby was okay. It was every dream she’d ever had come true.

A gentle hand softly stroked her head and murmurs of her name came thick and fast. It took some time for Ashley to get herself under control and lift her tear-stained face to Spencer’s perfect alabaster one.

“You’re awake, you’re okay,” she choked.

“Sure, a little bump to the head, but I’m fine.” Spencer smiled, her blue eyes twinkling.

“And you remember who I am? You remember…”

“I remember everything,” Spencer whispered. “How could I forget you? You’re the ying to my yang. You’re the ranch dressing to my salad. You’re my Ashley. You’re, you’re my everything.”

Coming up to sit on the bed, Ashley wrapped her arms gently around the beautiful girl before her and held her close. “I’ll never let you go again,” she promised fervently.

“You’ll never have to,” Spencer whispered back.

The warmth that joined them was so intense, so amazing, that Ashley felt like she was melting into her girlfriend, finally becoming one with her. Their love formed a bond like nothing else she’d ever known.

Soft and warm. So soft…so very warm … so soft… soft like… like… a pillow?

Ashley blinked and sat up.

Through the blinds in her room, she could see twin flashes of light as a car drove down the street. Her arms were wrapped around Spencer’s pillow, cuddling it to her chest. On the blonde’s side of the bed lay Elly, wrapped up in the blankets, cuddling Mr Ruffles and snoring gently. It was the middle of the night. Ashley fell back to her own pillow, still cradling Spencer’s.

Spencer was not out of her coma. It was another dream which hadn’t yet come true. Elly was still refusing to sleep in her own bed. Alex was still throwing tantrums because his mother wasn’t around. Ashley was still alone. Paula’s increasingly dire comments about how bad Spencer might actually be if she ever did wake up were still running through her mind. And there was still a chance that her baby might never come back to her.

But she was still responsible for holding this family together.

Swallowing, Ashley closed her eyes. At least in her dreams, things were fine and she could revel in that for a few more hours before she had to face everything else all over again.

* * *

Spencer couldn’t help it, she moaned. The feel of Ashley’s tongue running along her lower lip had ignited fires that were now threatening to rage out of control all through her body.

She had only ever kissed one person before, and that was Jean-Luc in a desperate attempt to avoid being arrested by the German police. It had been rough, wet and a complete non-event. This, this on the other hand, was fireworks and hot lava and everything that a kiss was supposed to be.

She couldn’t help but gasp again when Ashley’s mouth slanted across hers at a different angle, their lips merging open. A tongue slipped between her lips, tentatively searching, tasting. She met it with the tip of her own and nearly moaned again at the sensation. A hand slipped into her hair, pulling her close. She found her own sliding up to cup Ashley’s neck, unwilling to lose contact.

Oxygen became an issue but neither girl let go until it became such a problem that they were threatening to pass out. Panting, Spencer looked up into the incredible chocolate eyes of her equally out-of-breath companion and tried not to sigh. Ashley was still up on one elbow, looking down. Her eyes darted from Spencer’s eyes to her mouth. Every time the brunette’s gaze slipped to her swollen red lips, Spencer swore she felt them tingle.

“I – ” Ashley’s sentence was cut off by the blonde’s head coming up for another kiss, one which quickly went the way of the first.

Ashley’s body lowered down to press Spencer into the bed, making her gasp. That just gave opportunity for the more experienced girl to explore Spencer’s mouth with a practiced tongue.

They pulled apart again, this time Ashley rolling away, her breathing harsh. For a few moments, they lay as they had when they’d first taken to the bed: side-by-side on their backs. Feeling acutely uncomfortable, Spencer rolled to her side and reached over to take one of the brunette’s hands.

“Why did you stop?”

That got the other Ashley’s attention and she also turned, bringing them face-to-face.

“Uh… well…” She cut off stuttering.

Spencer let the silence drift until the brunette went bright crimson and proceeded to bury her head in the blonde’s shoulder. She mumbled something Spencer didn’t quite catch.

“Huh?”

Ashley pulled back. “I said, because I was afraid I wouldn’t stop.”

“Oh.” That gave Spencer some cause for thought. “Would that be so bad?” she sighed out, initially unaware that she’d been holding her breath. In a subtle way, Spencer knew what she was asking, what she was implying. For a country girl who’d only had two kisses, it was awfully forward and, yet, the whole thing made her want to seize the moment.

At first, playing with the Resistance had been a way to assuage her hatred for her mother. Then it had become almost a game. It gave her time with Ashley and a way to ruffle the Germans’ feathers. Their narrow escape from the swamp had changed the rules. She knew now, very clearly, how serious what they were doing – what they had already done – was. If they were caught, they were dead. And the chances of them being caught was, on the balance of things, more likely than not.

It may be the last chance she ever had to express, in the only way she could fathom, her feelings for the incredible brunette in front of her, propriety be damned.

“I… I don’t know,” Ashley whispered finally. “I don’t want to do anything you’re not ready for.”

Spencer caught the other girl’s chin and brought them face to face. “I, I want you to touch me. To show me how… how we can be together.” It was almost a whisper, her speech a caress of breath on Ashley’s face. Blue eyes shining bright, the blonde lowered her head and brushed her lips across their twins, reveling in the sensations that shot out at the contact.

With a groan, Ashley wrapped one arm around the blonde and pulled her in, sealing their lips in a fervent kiss that made them both heat up. Rolling them once again, the brunette leaned over the other girl, her mouth working with determined but gentle caresses. She kissed Spencer senseless and then, just as her head stopped spinning, Ashley’s mouth found the corner of her jaw, the length of her neck, the lobe of her ear and set everything else off again.

For long moments, they pushed against each other, kissing with devotion and increasing need. Spencer’s hands had slipped away from her sheet, one hand now tangled in sleek brown curls and the other grasping the sheet in the small of Ashley’s back. Her cover was slipping and the tugs of her free hand were bringing the brunette to a similar state of undress.

As their bare skin pressed into each other for the first time, Spencer groaned. Ashley’s hand slipped down from blonde tresses and across a smooth cheek. Spencer could barely breathe for the sensations that rioted across her.

“Spencer.” It was a warm whisper in her ear, fervent and intense, almost reverent. Spencer looked up to find Ashley’s eyes closed, her head just to one side. The brunette’s hand was stroking her collarbone, hovering, waiting for permission.

Spencer turned her head and caught the lips she’d just been kissing in another intense exchange. Her own hands tugged harder at Ashley’s sheet, stripping it down to the waist and then away. She let her fingers explore the soft, smooth skin across the Parisien’s back, learning it like Braille. That was until Ashley’s hand cupped one breast and thumbed across a nipple, scattering Spencer’s thoughts like nine-pins and causing the blonde to dig her finger tips into her companions back.

From there, Spencer was lost, reduced to incoherent sounds and pleading cries. Unaware that anything could feel quite like this, she writhed and moaned. Strange and new feelings rose inside her as the brunette’s caresses wandered and found places previously untouched. Her gentle exploration was sweet, tender and completely irresistible.

Half-frightened by the emotion in her and half-desperate for release from something she couldn’t identify, Spencer urged her lover on. Her hands found purchase where they could, scrambling for touch and contact before another new sensation would send her reeling. She was almost unable to do anything but experience the things being done to her.

When fingers found her slick and wet, she parted willingly, knowing that she was giving herself completely. The romance and passion which she had been led to believe lay in the love act was all here for her to enjoy. Ashley treated her with a care and love that shone through their lovemaking and, all the while, brought Spencer closer and closer to that point where she could stand it no more.

Finally, with one last soft stroke, tender and warm, she pushed Spencer past the invisible barrier and the blonde cried out in shock, surprise and pleasure. Careening on the incredible climax she arched, whimpered and finally fell back to the bed with a final gasp of Ashley’s name, spent.

As their breathing slowed and she came back to reality, Spencer felt the brunette placing light kisses along her shoulder, holding her close and safe. Smiling, she turned her nose and found Ashley’s ear.

Her heart still pounding with the most intense encounter of her life, she whispered everything that was inside her in three simple words: “Je t’aime.“