ASHLEY:

I'm ready to climb the fucking wall waiting for Ryan to get here, I don't think I've stopped moving since we got here.

"Ash, why don't you sit down?" Juliet urges. "You're gonna wear a groove in the floor if you don't stop pacing."

"How the hell am I supposed to sit? You can't possibly think that I'm just gonna kick back and relax after what just happened!"

"No, I don't think that, but I also don't think you're gonna have a very productive talk with Ryan if you don't pull yourself together a little bit," she calmly replies.

I open my mouth to say something, then close it again when I realize that she's right. No matter how I feel right now, I can't lose it when he gets here; not if I want to have a chance in hell of getting him to help me deal with Miki and Fi.

I stop pacing and force myself to stand still and take a few deep breaths, and Andy walks over and puts his hand on my shoulder. "Dude, just chill, we'll get this figured out."

"How the hell do you figure, man? Be honest with me, does this make any fucking sense to you?" I ask.

"Being totally honest, yes, and no."

I look at him, waiting for him to explain what the hell that's supposed to mean, and he says, "Yes, because the way things were going between the two of you that last couple of months, we were actually kind of surprised she stuck it out as long as she did. And no, because I personally can't imagine how I'd feel if I were in your place. Even if she didn't want to deal with you anymore, I would've expected her to let you know something, if only to get child support."

The doorbell rings, and Juliet goes over to open it, letting Ryan in. Things must've been less than pleasant after we left, because he looks about as wired as I feel.

"So did you manage to talk my bitch of an ex into giving me a chance to know my kid?" I ask him.

I'm actually surprised when he stops, glares at me, and says, "If this is how the conversation's gonna go, Purdy, then it's already finished." He turns on his heel and starts heading back toward the door, and it takes me until he actually turns the fucking doorknob to realize that he's not bluffing.

"Whoa, man, where the fuck are you going? I thought we were gonna discuss this!" I ask incredulously.

He turns back, with a deadly serious expression, and his voice is so cold I can almost see his breath when he responds. "If you want to talk about anything, then you'd better start being a bit more careful with your choice of words. You know that I'm an only child, like you, and Kaela grew up with four brothers, so Fianna is the closest thing to a sister that either of us have. She's given up everything she wanted to do with her life, and busts her ass to be a good mom to that baby, so throwing around insults isn't going to incline me to do shit for you!"

Andy and Jules look as surprised as I am, but I take a couple more breaths, and say, "Okay, if that's what you want, no more insults. I never meant to imply that she wasn't a good mother, because she's obviously done a good job with Bren, but can you not understand that it pisses me off that she just cut me out of my kid's life without ever giving me a chance? Hell, if we hadn't run into each other, I'd probably never know I even have a kid!"

"It might be a little easier to understand if your first response when she told you hadn't been, 'Well, congratulations, Fi, who's the lucky baby daddy?' Or are you going to try to deny that those were your words?" he inquires.

"No, I'm not, it was probably something like that, but I thought that she was just yanking my chain, she was pretty pissed at me that night." I acknowledge.

This earns me a disdainful snort, and the sarcasm in his voice is heavy enough to sink an aircraft carrier when he responds with, "Yes, of course, because that's the first thing that would cross anyone's mind when the girl they've been fucking for the better part of a year says she's pregnant. Can't begin to imagine why they might have found that upsetting, can you?"

When he says this, I realize for the first time how bad that might actually sound to someone who didn't know the whole story, and now I'm actually a bit worried. Does this mean he's not gonna help me?

"So where does that put us, Ryan? Am I going to get to see my daughter or not? Is Fianna going to finally be reasonable?" 

"From what I understand from her and Kaela, there seems to be some concern about your reliability, Ash. Apparently, she doesn't want to have to explain to Brenna why you're suddenly in her life, and then have you lose interest and bail."

"You cannot be fucking serious, Ryan! That's crap, and you know it!" I yell in frustration.

"I guess it seems reasonable to her, since that's apparently what happened with your relationship," he says. "Or at least that's how she feels. I can see that you really want this, man, but the girls aren't sure. I'll try to get them to think about it some more, if I can do it without getting myself put in a body cast, or un-engaged, but I can't make any guarantees."

I can see that I'm not gonna have much luck this way, Ryan's in kind of a tight spot, and even under these circumstances, I'd feel kind of bad about putting him in a position where he might lose the girl he wants to marry. So I guess I'm just going to have to take care of this myself.

"If you can do anything, I'd be really grateful," I tell him. "But don't put yourself in a bad spot with your chick, I don't want to be responsible for that, even if she does hate my guts."

"Like I said, she thinks of Fianna as her little sister, so she doesn't like to see her get hurt."

We talk for another couple of minutes, then he says that he'll call me if he comes up with anything, and leaves.

As soon as I see his car pull out of the driveway, I pick up my phone and start scrolling through my contacts.

"What are you up to, Ash?" Andy questions. "Who are you calling?"

As I find the number I want, I turn to him and say, "I can already tell that he's not going to get anywhere with them, but if she thinks she's going to get by with keeping me away from my kid, she'd damn well better think again!"

I push the button, and listen to the phone ring. As it's picked up on the other end, I say, "Hey, Dina, it's Ash. I have a bit of a legal issue, and I was wondering if you might know someone around here who might be able to help me out?"