Chapter Text
Ali is awake.
The thought is unbelievable, extraordinary even. It’s hard to comprehend that an accident worth five years of relentless damage and heartache can be dissolved into only just one, minute-long miracle. As earth-shatteringly fast as the accident occurred, the forward momentum of surviving seems to happen faster. Suddenly, the endless hours of time and care provided by family, friends, doctors, and nurses are pushed to the wayside. The only thing anyone will talk about or remember for the next several days, weeks, or even months, is that she is surviving on her own.
All memories of the accident will be buried under sticky-sweet ice cream cones, crockpots and casseroles of home-cooked foods hand-delivered by an onslaught of overwhelming neighbors, zinc-infused sunscreen for extra sensitive skin, droopy shade trees on breezy afternoons, and an infinite amount of love.
The blood-curdling, gut-wrenching screams of shredded metal and shattered glass are forgotten. Nights spent curled up in the most uncomfortable waiting-room chairs, living off of vending machine coffee and chips are forgotten. The moment doctors and nurses gathered around her family and friends to discuss the life-altering options are forgotten. Days spent questioning the moral consequences of unplugging a daughter, sister, friend, are forgotten.
Ali is alive.
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People come and go, enter and exit, stay and leave throughout the week after Ali’s miraculous moment. She’s seen plenty of her mom, dad, and brother, plus all of her friends from D.C. And of course, who can forget her pending teammates of the USWNT. Her worlds are colliding as the old faces she is reconnecting with mesh with the new faces she is just coming to know, one of those new faces being Ashlyn’s.
In some respect, it seems that Ali has had plenty of time to get to know the charming blonde. And while none of it may have actually been real, there’s no denying that the inner workings of the brunette’s imagination have led to the emotional connectedness that she feels with Ashlyn. Let’s just say that their seemingly instant bond is in no danger of breaking anytime soon. In the week that Ali has been awake, Ashlyn has not left her side. Not that Ali had given her much of a choice. The words, “I’ve waited five years to meet you. I’ll be right here, by your side when you’re ready,” play on a harmoniously loop in the brunette’s head and she smiles at the sweet gesture.
“Whatcha smiling at princess?” she hears the blonde say from beside her.
“Princess?” Ali questions, quirking an eyebrow. She’s received many nicknames from the blonde throughout the week—Mumbles, Brown-Eyed-Pea, Kween Kriegs, to name a few. Ali thinks she’s ridiculous, but welcomes the humor and much needed distraction. It gives her a chance to laugh and smile, instead of think about the throngs of people crying over her awakening.
“It sorta fits don’t ya think?” the blonde remarks. “Kween was just too advanced of a title for you. Can’t let your ego explode before you get to leave the hospital.”
Ali giggles and shoves the blonde’s shoulder, which gets Ashlyn to turn and face her in mock offense. They both let their eyes settle on one another momentarily. Ashlyn’s gaze is soft; her hazel eyes shine brightly and the lone dimple in her left cheek makes Ali’s heart flutter.
A cocktail of quick beeps and buzzes grab both Ali and Ashlyn’s attention. They look to the heart rate monitor the brunette is still connected to just as one of the regular nurses comes rushing in.
“Ali!” she calls out exasperatedly, with undertones of intense worry. “Oh…you’re…fine…” the nurse quickly steadies her racing pulse as she sees Ali and Ashlyn propped up in bed, side by side. The guilty smile on Ali’s face is enough to make the nurse sigh in relief. The brunette discretely nods towards Ashlyn, and glances back at the nurse giving her a telling look.
“Okayyyy,” the nurse draws out while looking at the two women. Ashlyn looks more confused than normal, cocking her head to the side like an adorable puppy. Ali covers her face with the hand that isn’t connected to any wires and silently groans in embarrassment. “Let me just…check your vitals,” the nurse continues as she makes her way towards Ali’s side of the bed. The brunette peeks her eyes out from between the fingers covering her eyes and catches the nurse winking at her.
“Ugh,” Ali mumbles from behind her hand.
“What was that princess?” the blonde asks, still confused, and slightly concerned about all of the commotion that’s happening in the room. The nurse eyes Ali knowingly, as if to say, “princess…really?”
“Nothing, nothing everything’s fine,” Ali quickly rattles off, smiling at the blonde.
“Well you’re right about that…” the nurse says coolly, “…Your vitals are suddenly fine,” she says again gazing at Ali with a questioning smirk.
“Uhhh…mm…sorry?” Ali says in a tiny voice, trying to act as cute as possible to weasel her way out of this one.
“Mhmm…” the nurse says with a knowing look and moves to exit the room. “Take care of her Ash?” the nurse calls back in to the blonde.
“It would be my absolute pleasure,” Ash says while gently slinging her arm around Ali’s shoulders and pulling her closer just slightly. The nurse giggles and sends in another wink, which just about mortifies Ali. She can already feel her cheeks burning red, but thankfully, the blonde doesn’t seem to notice. Or if she does, she keeps it to herself, which Ali is also thankful for.
When the nurse finally closes the door, Ash removes her arm from Ali’s shoulders. The brunette instantly misses the warmth of her half embrace, but is also slightly grateful because she isn’t sure she can survive having Ashlyn so close so soon.
“So…” she hears the blonde say, breaking the silence.
“Yeah?” Ali says, looking up shyly to meet Ashlyn’s eyes.
“Would you wanna go out sometime?” the blonde says in a rush of sudden emotion.
Ali gulps. Feeling her cheeks begin to tint with blush again.
“Uhm…I’m sorta…tied up at the moment…” Ali says, gesturing to the wires connected to her hand and chest. Her comment luckily breaks the tension that was beginning to fill the room.
“I meant when you get out. I thought a change of scenery might be nice.” Ashlyn tries to act calm. “If…if you don’t want to, I-I totally get it. I just, I thought…” she begins to ramble when Ali holds her hand up.
“Okay sure,” the brunette says confidently.
“For real?” the blonde reiterates, just to make sure she heard her correctly.
“That nurse is something else I swear,” Ali mumbles under her breath just low enough that Ashlyn has a hard time hearing her.
“What was that?” she asks.
“Oh nothing, don’t worry,” Ali answers quickly and gives the blonde another one of her signature Krieger smiles. Just before Ashlyn can think of a response, Ali speaks again. “So, what did you have in mind?”
Ashlyn just chuckles lightly. “My lips are sealed princess.”
“You’re the worst,” Ali giggles and rolls her eyes.
“This is nothing,” Ashlyn retorts as she sticks her tongue out at the brunette playfully.
“But I’ve waited five years to meet you,” the brunette says batting her eyelashes at the blonde. “And, thanks to my loopy self, upon waking up I told you how beautiful you are,” Ali says trying to guilt the blonde. “Which by the way…super embarrassing. Cut a girl some slack would ya.”
“I like your loopy self,” Ashlyn says nonchalantly.
“Ashlynnnn,” Ali whines playfully.
“Sorry princess, you’ll just have to wait,” the blonde winks and flashes a dimpled grin at an eager brunette. “Oh shoot, I have to go!” Ashlyn says when she catches a glimpse of the time. She slips off of the bed and begins rushing around to gather her things. At the doorjamb she stops on a dime, like she forgot something important. She spins on her heels and sees that Ali has curled herself into a ball looking slightly hopeless, but nonetheless, adorable.
The blonde makes her way back to Ali, who seems to perk up at the sudden reappearance of Ash.
“I’ll be back before you know it,” Ash says as she leans down as places a quick kiss to the brunette’s temple.
“Tomorrow?” she hears the brunette’s small voice ask.
“You know it,” Ash says easily. “Remember, always by your side.” She makes her way out of the door, and Ali watches it close gently.
She is alone again.
And she is lonely.
But being alone, and being lonely are two very different emotions. Ali hasn’t decided if there is a lesser of the two evils yet.
She is sure though, that when Ashlyn is around, she is neither alone, nor lonely.