Ashley woke up in the comfortable familiarity of Charlie's bed. She hadn't slept in her own bed for nearly three weeks, and as much as she loved being with Charlie, as much as she loved him, she was missing being so close to the hospital all the time. Blinking the sleep from her eyes, she reached out, finding Charlie's body in the sea of sheets, and rolled over to face him, watching him slowly wake up as she propped herself up on her elbows, kissing his cheek gently. "Good morning."
Smiling sleepily, he pulled her to his chest, whispering, "good morning baby," in his morning voice.
"We need to get up," Ashley mumbled, making no effort to do so. "It's nearly noon."
Charlie nuzzled into her neck, completely ignoring her.
"I'll make pancakes for breakfast?" She suggested, not really wanting to leave his warm embrace, but knew they had to get up if they wanted to spend any time together before she had to leave for work. Thursdays and Fridays were their worst days together, as they only had the mornings together after long shifts, so they tended to spend them sleeping and lying around in bed.
Today, however, Ashley had decided she was going to spend time with him. She knew he'd been thinking of them moving in together, though she thought maybe he'd be moving in with her - even though her flat was above the hospital there was more room there than in any of the houses, with three bedrooms - though only two had beds in, as Ashley hadn't really needed a third, it was always a possibility for if Charlie had family visit - plus room for a nursery, without having to take over the study.
Then again, she didn't like to jump to conclusions, so of course she'd prepared to talk it out with him when he brought it up.
"Do we have to get up?" Charlie whined, sighing softly as Ashley nodded against his shoulder.
"If we want to spend any time together over the next two days then yeah, unfortunately, we do."
She kissed his cheek again, before rolling back over and sitting up on the edge of the bed. "Besides, there are barely three hours until my shift starts anyway, and I should stop being late to all of my shifts."
He simply hummed, rubbing his eyes.
Dressing quickly, she fussed with the straps of her medical bag, knowing she wasn't awake enough to be dealing with it. "Sometimes I wonder why I don't just buy one that's easier to do up," She muttered, jumping a little when Charlie appeared in front of her in only joggers, quickly fixing the straps around her waist. "Thank you."
He nodded, stretching. "I'm gonna jump in the shower real quick."
Nodding, she turned to the kitchen, remembering last minute to grab her wand from the side table, using simple magic to make up a pile of pancakes for the two of them, quickly making up some coffee for the both of them.
True to his word, Charlie was out of the shower and dressed within ten minutes, his long hair dripping onto his shirt.
"This looks good." He smiled, grabbing a plate and a cup of coffee, and sitting in the living room, smiling softly to Ashley as she joined, sitting close to him. "Did I miss something important?"
Ashley smiled, swallowing her coffee. "No, I just felt like making pancakes, no need to panic."
He nodded, not entirely convinced, but tucking in anyway. "I was thinking... what would you say about moving in together?"
Ashley nearly choked. "Um, sorry, I was not expecting you to bring that up right now."
He looked a little concerned. "We can wait a little longer if you're not ready? There's no pressure, we can just-"
"Charlie. I was expecting the conversation after breakfast, that's all that meant. But yeah, moving in sounds good."
"Great!" Smiling brightly, he put his empty plate on the table in front of him. "Maybe Saturday we can start moving your stuff over? Or we can-"
"Wait... what?" She stopped, with her fork in mid-air. "So... what, I'm moving in here, no thoughts of if I even want to move in here?"
Charlie blinked. "No, I was just saying, we could-"
"So like... no concerns about what I want or if I want to stay at mine? You just assumed I'd automatically want to move in here?"
Stumbling over his words, Charlie didn't know what to say anymore.
Ashley put her half-finished breakfast on the table in front of her. "Maybe we should wait a bit longer. I should go." She stood, not looking at him. She wasn't sure what the hell had just happened, not really, but she was not expecting Charlie to just assume she'd want to move into his place, usually, he was a lot more open-minded about that sort of thing.
"Ashley, wait- please just listen!"
She didn't turn, walking away towards the worn path down the ridge. "You said enough in there."
"Please, let's talk this out and I'll make you tea and buy you flowers to make up for all the stupid things I said. Please?"
Rolling her eyes, she turned, ready to give him some sarcastic comment about not really liking flowers all that much.
But before she could even open her mouth, the Gates to the sanctuary exploded, the blast knocking them over, leaving Ashley's ears ringing.
She shook the dust from her hair, managing to scramble to her feet, drinking a potion to help her with the probable concussion she had. Regaining balance and sight, she pulled herself up in time to see a group of nearly thirty or so Death Eaters storming through, throwing curses everywhere, leaving only destruction in their wake.
Time seemed to slow down as Ashley watched everything happening at once, every trainer in their houses bursting out with their wands drawn, ready to defend their dragons with their life, countering everything that was thrown their way. Ashley blinked, the realisation of what was happening hitting her full in the face, and she started her own counter-attack on the death eaters, though she knew she had to make sure she didn't get too injured so that when this was over she could help fix up everyone else.
Charlie.
Half turning, she noticed him still lying on the ground, a pool of blood forming around his head, and she gritted her teeth, throwing everything she had at the Death Eater who was advancing on her, managing to hit him with a full-body-bind curse. "Cover me!" She yelled to whoever was closest to her, not really bothering to know, as she ran towards Charlie. Carefully, she rolled him over, assessing the damage. Luckily, it was a surface wound, though she knew there could be possible damage to the brain, so she did her best to stop the bleeding, before apparating them both to the hospital where Jace and Lucy were anxiously watching from the doors.
"Here." She managed to get Charlie onto a bed, "he was knocked over by the blast, hit his head, hasn't been conscious at all, I stitched the wound but maybe make sure there's nothing more sinister underneath the surface. And I'm sure there will be many more on the way." She managed, before apparating back to the ridge, where a few of the trainers had fallen to Death Eaters - though whether they'd been killed or rendered unconscious, Ashley wouldn't really be able to tell until she got to all of them. James was already working his way around them, as were the other healers still in the sanctuary.
Leaning over one of the trainers, Ashley got to work, administering potions to relieve them of any pain from the cruciatus curse, hoping that it would be over soon.
Of course, with more Death Eaters than people able to fight, it was wishful thinking.
And then she heard a roar that made her ears start ringing once more, and looked up to see a familiar dragon protecting her handlers, incinerating a group of five Death Eaters easily.
Ashley watched in shock as Mila landed, her back to Ashley, guarding the houses and everyone from the sanctuary. The trainers all seemed a little confused as to what was happening, and watched in awe as Mila roared, calling to other dragons who stood with her, creating a barrier of well-pissed-off dragons between the Death Eaters and trainers.
Even though it was obvious that the Death Eaters had come for the dragons, they all seemed a little in shock as to what was happening - it was practically unheard of for dragons to protect anything but their own offspring, so for them to be defending those who worked there with them, it was really a once in a lifetime occurrence.
So when the dragons all started rearing their heads, a clear sign of them preparing to ignite the rest of those threatening their home, the Death Eaters all disapparated, leaving their chaos and destruction behind.
Ashley breathed a sigh of relief, immediately switching back to Head Healer mode, calling out instructions to everyone, healer or not, trying to get everything back under control and those that needed medical attention to the hospital. She stared at the number of patients on their way, making eye contact with James. "All hands on deck. I want everyone in the hospital, though Taylor and Katy are excused as they'll be on shift tonight and I don't want them too exhausted. Let's go."
The two lifted a trainer each, apparating back to the hospital to help with the general chaos and over-crowdedness from the attack.
"What the hell were they here for?" Lucy shrieked, clearly stressed from everything going on.
Ashley struggled to get whoever she was carrying onto a bed, thanking Jace as he helped. "The dragons. Probably wanted them for the war. Fortunately for us, Mila doesn't take anyone's shit and wasn't having it." She busied herself caring and healing everyone she could, letting the other healers do their own work. By that point, they were so used to working with each other that Ashley didn't really need to do much in terms of actually leading, something she was incredibly grateful for. "How- how's Charlie?" She asked Jace, preparing herself for the worst.
Jace raised an eyebrow, not sure if he should question the obvious tension between the couple. "He's fine, just got the worst concussion he's ever had."
Nodding, she let out a sigh of relief, diving right back into her work. Knowing that Charlie was going to be ok was a huge weight off her shoulders, and she knew she could focus completely on her work rather than worrying about him. It was strange, she thought after the hospital had calmed down, that she worried about Charlie in the hospital, but she'd never once worried so much about her father. Not in the way that she worried about Charlie at least.
Her dad... she'd been able to treat him, switch off her emotions when it came to his injuries, but with Charlie, it was constantly in the back of her mind.
And it really did put everything into perspective.
Ashley had always thought that that was made up, how someone being injured or the thought of a loved one being close to death put things into perspective, but it really did, and she realised that she really didn't care about whatever had happened that morning. And she'd probably jumped down his throat a bit early in the conversation, she probably should have heard him out. Walking over, she relaxed a little, pulling her hoodie off. "Hey." She sat down next to his bed, smiling as he winced at the light.
"Why is it so bright in here?" He complained, but seemed a little more at ease now Ashley was with him.
"After my shift, I'll bring you upstairs and we can cover all of the windows, how does that sound?" She leaned in closer, whispering so as to not cause him a headache. "I just wanted to apologise for completely jumping down your throat earlier. Really, I don't care where we live, just as long as we're together. I don't know what got into me, I'm sorry."
He smiled, "it's ok. I could have phrased it better, but I was going to say it would be up to you where we lived. I genuinely have no preference, but I know you probably want to be close to the hospital, I've seen how much you've been missing being here over the past couple of weeks, so would it be ok if we moved into your place? Besides, there's way more room than at mine."
Ashley smiled softly. "We'll settle it when you're feeling a little better. But it's definitely a conversation we'll have soon."