dear god, open

[ASHLEY JAGGER MONROE]

Ashley hadn't gotten out of the house much in the past seven months. He hadn't had time, nor did he even feel up to the task of leaving the house. Ash wasn't being lazy, though with the death of someone you love, people tended to give up on life; so why should Ashley force himself to move on and keep living? Because he had a seven month old daughter who needed him, that's why. With losing someone and then having another human being thrown at him, Ashley felt like he had way too much on his plate to handle.

Though, Ashley had a very determined side to him, and today he was determined to get off his lazy butt and take out his daughter Christopher to the park. He hadn't gone out with his daughter yet, he had taken time off work and she was to young to enroll in day care; so this would be the first venture for the both of them in seven months. The only time Ash went out was when he needed to get groceries and the necessities, and he left Chrissy with his neighbors who also had a young daughter.

Ashley took his daughter from her cribs and set her on his leg, she looked exactly like her mother, Abigail, except her eyes- she had Ashley's eyes. he smiled at the girl and kissed her forehead saying, "Are you ready to go out into the big bad world, honey?" He bit his lip after saying these words, Ashley had no idea how to take care of a kid or where to take here that would be safe enough for a baby who wasn't even a year old. As he dressed the little girl in a pink onesie, he thought about places he could take her.

He didn't feel like going to the playroom, he had been there once when Abby was still alive and pregnant with Christopher, and hadn't been to fond of the brightly colored room. When he finally thought of the place to go, it felt like a light bulb had popped up on top of his head. He could take her to the park! Thinking of that made Ashley smile, a bit of fresh air was well needed, and he could have Christopher's first experience out of their building be a nice one.

As he dressed, Ashley grew more and more excited to take out his daughter. He loved the young girl more than anything and wanted her to live her little life to the fullest. After pulling on a pair of black jeans and a checkered, black and white button-up Ashley strapped Christopher into her stroller. He then wrapped a light blanket around her, it wasn't cold out but he wanted to be prepared, then he gave her a teddy bear her mother had picked out for her before she was born.

He left his apartment, and headed down the hall towards the elevator. Ash pushed the button, climbed in and then went down. He peeked over the top of the stroller and smiled at his daughter. She kicked her feet and wiggled around in the stroller, this was only the first time she had been in it and Ashe knew it wold take time for her to get used to it. When the elevator stopped, he pushed the girl out and left the parking garage without climbing into his car. The park was only a block away, so Ashley decided to walk.

It didn't seem to take long at all for Ashley to get to Olin park. He walked through the sidewalk that went through the park and then pushed the stroller onto the grass. When he found a spot that was in the sun, and nice and warm, Ashley reached under the stroller and grabbed out a large blanket. He spread it out across the grass and laid Chrissy down on it. Ashley sat next to her, his hand on her stomach as she starred up at the sky with wide eyes.

[RYAN CAMERON McBETH]

With a sleepy yawn, Ryan rolled over in his bed before getting up. He was only wearing boxers, but he soon disappeared in his closet for a basic red t-shirt, boxers, socks and some jeans. Once the folded clothes were in his hand, he disappeared across the small hall and into the bathroom. Slowly turning on the shower water.

After the nice warm shower, Ryan quickly threw on his boxers first, jeans, the red t-shit and the pair of socks. Picking up the towel, he threw it in the hamper on the way to the kitchen where he got the box of Trix, two bowls and a bottle from the cabinet and milk and juice from the refrigerator.

Once Ryan had the one bowl of cereal on the coffee table and the other bowl of cereal with a bottle of juice on the highchair tray with the milk, juice and Trix returned to it's proper place in the kitchen, Ryan disappeared into his daughter's room.

Katie was already awake, she was twenty six months old- two years with two more months, and slowly out growing her crib and losing her baby fat- or her chubbiness. "Good morning Katie, I have a day off today from work. Want to go to the park?" He asked her in a soft voice, as Katie stood up, waiting to be picked up with outstretched arms. The little girl was slowly learning how to speak. "Yus" So close to the right pronunciation but it was her way of saying 'yes'.

Picking up his daughter, Ryan carried her on his hip into the living room. One arm supporting the girls legs as the other arm was supporting Katie's back. But soon, he had set her down in the highchair which is when he forgot to get the spoons. Disappearing into the small kitchen, he easily grabbed two and jogged slightly into the living room. Putting the spoon next to Katie's cereal bowl as he took a seat on the floor, eating his own breakfast.

Once the dishes where in the sink, and the small mess that Katie made was cleaned up- since she had a habit of playing with food, Ryan dressed her in a nice spring dress. Putting Croc sandals on her as he soon put his own blue sneakers on.

With Ryan's hand was wrapped softly around Katie's, they walked out of the apartment as he locked the door. Taking the stairs slow with his daughter, they soon walked the three blocks to Olin Park. As he watched her scamper to the slides and playground, he sat down on a bench to watch her. It was safe, but he didn't want nothing to happen to her so Ryan made sure she was in his sight. Glancing around the park and soon noticing another -what seemed to be- a single father. Even though Ryan had a fiance and didn't know where she was, which is what she was worried about, he considered himself a single father too, since he knew Katie might never see her mother again- cause she had dumped him after using him for sex and then just showed up two years later before he moved to Bellevue in February after he turned nineteen, she had given him his daughter then just left again.

[ASHLEY JAGGER MONROE]

Christopher was the most interesting thing Ashley had ever seen. The little girl wiggled and rolled around on the blanket, her round, blue eyes moving from object o object as she tried to take in everything. Ashley chuckled to himself as the girl pulled herself up into a sitting position, using her father for support and leaned against him her big head faced upwards toward the sky. He was amazed that he could see how much she was taking in just by looking at her face.

Ash sat up into a sitting position and pulled the girl onto his lap, holding her while she attempted standing on his knee. She was wobbly at first, but got the hang of it and put most of her weight into his hands as he held the girl up so she could see what she had missed. It didn't take long for the babies eyes to settle on the other children at the park and she began giggling at once. The young girls laugh had become Ashley's favorite sound, it was sweet at soft just like Abby's and when she giggled it filled his ears like soft music playing in the background.

Looking away from his daughter, Ash let his eyes scan the park along with Chrissy's. It was relatively empty, there was a small Mexican family on the other end of the park and another male just like Ash sitting at a bench not to far from him. Ash looked over the guy, and watched where his eyes went to another girl. He assumed that was his daughter and sighed to himself. That boy couldn't have been much older than Ashley, so he began to wonder if he had also lost the love of his life.

Shaking his head, as if to shake the sad thoughts off, Ashley got up and walked over to the swings holding Chris against his chest. He put the girl into the toddler swings, making sure her legs went through the holes. Standing in front of the girl, he smiled and swung her, pushing gently on the front of the swing. Chris began laughing louder than she had ever laughed before, her face turning a bright red.

Ashley couldn't help but to laugh himself at the young girl, she truly was the love of his life. He made peek-a-boo faces as the girl came closer, and went farther; swinging forward and backwards. Ash had never seen something so lovely in his life. The image of his daughter moving back and forth, as she giggled a great belly laugh.

[RYAN CAMERON McBETH]

Getting up a bit before the other guy who also had a daughter, Ryan walked over to Katie and easily picked her up before she fell from where she was trying to get a hold of the monkey bars. She protested with a few faint cries by besides that, Katie settled down rather easily. She was a quiet good girl, by what he observed for a month.

Once Ryan set her down, Katie took his hand and tried to pull him over to the regular swings, not the toddler swings. Which he let her, but barely getting out of Ashley's path because he wasn't watching where he was going at all. Letting go of Katie's hand, he stood up straight. "Sorry" He said simply before jogging over to where Katie was trying to climb onto the swing. But instead, Ryan picked her up, sat on the swing and put Katie in his lap. Using his feet to move the swing slightly, but kept his arms wrapped around his daughter to keep her from falling.

Watching Ashley and Christopher, before turning his attention back to the park. Whenever he stared, it was usually an observing stare, instead of an insultive look. Or judgmental. Ryan was usually closed off, but seeing that they both were single fathers, he felt slight trust. "So, are you a single father too?" He asked. It was strange starting conversations, just awkward for him since he never knew what to say.

As he waited for an answer, Ryan showed Katie how to grasp the chains and helped her with that too. Katie was around the age to start learning new things, but he knew he'd have a few problems with getting her to use a sippy cup and then potty training. He had no idea where to begin with that, so instead, he just kept his search for Izzy while teaching his daughter on the sidelines. Though Ryan had no idea where she would be.

"I'm Ryan by the way" Ryan spoke again, his voice raised a bit from it's quietness but besides that, it remained slightly normal if there was ever something such as normal cause most strangers viewed him as a freak because of the way he accomplished things which that way, most of the time, worked.

[ASHLEY JAGGER MONROE]

Ashley couldn't hold back the happiness running through him, it had been such a long time since he had felt like this and he missed it. He had almost missed running into the other man as he had been walking towards the swings. It would have been awkward for Ash to bump into someone he didn't know. Things would have been very odd for Ashley if he hadn't had all of his focus on his daughter, he usually didn't make such a big scene of himself in public; he barely made this much noise in his own home.

Soon, Ashley could tell that Chrissy was getting tired and was about to cry. He had learned all her faces and could tell when she was upset or happy. Stopping the swing, he pulled the little girl out and held her against his chest. Ash rested his cheek against the top of her head and started rocking from side to side, not moving from his spot by the toddler swing. He had closed his eyes and been lost in thought, so it startled him when he heard another voice speak to him.

Opening his eyes, his heart skipping a beat at the sound of another voice; he had almost forgotten where he was. He looked into the other mans face and nodded, his mouth dry. It took him a minute before he grabbed enough courage to reply with actual words, "Y-yes, I am." He swallowed, and avoided looking at the other guy. Ashley had never done well around people, he just didn't have that charisma about him that made him so outgoing; instead he was introverted and shy and chose not to spend much time with anyone at all.

Instead of looking at the other man that was with his daughter, Ashley chose to look at the little girl on the swing. She was beautiful, and he could see the aspects of the man in her face. It was completely obvious to Ashley that the two were related, though Ash was an artist and had a certain skill about noticing such things as ones facial features. Ashley couldn't wait until his own daughter was of age to learn more things, he smiled inwardly as he thought of the fun it would be to teach Chris addition and writing her name.

The perks of being a parent had been dawning on Ashley more than ever before. During Abby's pregnancy, Ash had mostly been scared; scared that she was going to leave him or that something bad would happen. His fear had been well placed, though he had something great in return. He could never get over her death, but at least he hadn't been left alone.

Again, the other man spoke, this time telling Ash his name. He had no choice to reply, but the whole time he felt like running away. "Hi, Ryan. I'm Ashley and this is Christopher." He hoped that Ryan wouldn't laugh at his name or his daughters.Yes, he had a female name and his daughter a males though Ashley believed that they were quite lovely. Standing in this spot seemed to be the most awkward moment for Ashley; he very rarely got singled out and talked to so he wasn't very used to this and he hated it though he would stay and be nice.