Emotional Connection

not quite

Ashley-Rae had hated many things in her life: carrots, first years, exams, her father, to name only a few. But one thing she hated above all others, was being wrong.

As anyone who knew her would tell you, Ashley-Rae was hardly ever wrong, most likely due to the fact that whenever she was engaged in a debate on any topic, she would dutifully educate herself on it first, researching everything she could find on it. Sometimes, she'd even research topics just for light conversations. Ashley hated being wrong.
But there aren't many books about her own feelings, and today was the day she was going to realise how wrong she could be, how much she really didn't know her own self.

James had been watching her all shift as she'd been forced to care for Charlie, who had somehow managed to fall and break both wrists as well as shattering his elbow. Sometimes Ashley really did think he did it on purpose, just to mess with her. James had been ridiculously unhelpful, not once even going near Charlie, refusing point-blank to treat him because 'you need to talk to him, you can't punish him forever' but Ashley had no intention of making up with him. Not yet.
But he was a patient in her hospital, and he deserved care, so if James wasn't willing, she would do it herself, even if it did feel like she was a puppet and everyone around her kept tugging at the strings.

However, it seemed like Charlie had completely let go of whatever strings he was holding, appearing very resigned, hardly speaking to Ashley at all, and when he did it was only really about his treatment, asking for more pain meds, when he would be able to leave. And only really speaking when spoken to.

Ashley felt a little deflated at that, as though he'd finally given up on her. Though why that bothered her, she had yet to figure out, much to James' frustration, especially considering they were nearing the end of the shift and there were maybe ten minutes for her to figure it out while Charlie still had the faintest of chances of overhearing, giving him the confidence boost he needed to actually ask her out.

Of course, the universe wasn't on James' side, and they handed over the shift with Ashley still trying to figure out why it bothered her that Charlie wasn't talking to her properly anymore.

"Do you think it's because of Abi? Like she left only on Tuesday, maybe he realised he made a mistake in turning her down and is missing her." She asked as they climbed the stairs to the flat. More often than not now, James and Jace would spend their free time there, even sometimes crashing in the spare room between shifts if they didn't have a lot of time between them.

James refrained from reacting out loud, keeping it to just rolling his eyes, "no, I don't think it's that."

"Why?" She turned on him suddenly, making him nearly crash into her on the stairs and she had to reach out to stop him from falling back down. "Has he said something to you? Do you know something?"

James sighed, signalling for her to carry on to the front door and let them into her apartment. "I swear I've not had enough coffee for this right now."

"It's eleven o'clock at night, and your next shift starts in eight hours. You need sleep, not coffee. But do you know something? Like... has Charlie said something to you? He seemed so... empty."

James sighed, making eye contact with Jace as they entered, trying to ask for help non-verbally.

"What's this? Who?" Jace asked, paying attention, trying to ask James behind Ashley's back whether or not she'd figured it out yet, which of course meant a lot of hand gestures were used. James laughed as he realised how comical they must look, before they both had to pretend to be doing absolutely nothing as Ash turned around, suspicious of his laughter.

"-All I'm saying is, I don't know why he's so subdued. It's really not like Charlie to be like this, he bounces back from everything. Maybe I'll go down and ask if he wants me to bring Abigale back-"