South of Nowhere Deceptive Proof

**Title: **Deceptive Proof

**Rating: **T

**Summary:** "Somebody saw you at the station..."

**Disclaimer:** I don't own South of Nowhere or Alice Cooper's "Love's A Loaded Gun".

**Author's Note: **Was listening to some Alice Cooper today and this kinda took on a life of its own from that.

* * *

I was angry.

No, more than angry; I was furious.

Ashley and Spencer had been married for more than six years now; I couldn't believe she'd do something like this.

The proof, however, rests on the table. I glared at the images, but nothing changed. A blonde, clearly Spencer; another blonde, clearly not the brunette Spencer's married to.

Spencer and the blonde kissing in an airport. Spencer pressed up against her car as the other blonde tried to suck her face off. Sitting at a table at an outdoor restaurant, Spencer's hand on the other woman's thigh.

The one that made me the angriest was the most innocent seeming of the photos. The two were sitting rather close together on the beach, under the pier that she knew held some special significance for Ash and Spencer.

Ashley.

I was going to have to be the one to tell her. Hopefully, I'd be able to get to her before she saw the article; or worse, before someone else who'd already seen it commented on it.

I was going to have to be the one to tell my sister that her wife had cheated on her. I felt the anger growing in me again, at Spencer, for putting me in this situation.

I grabbed the magazine and went into the other room to wait for Ashley.

... ... ...

I heard their voices before the door opened. Ashley and Ethan walked into the room going over the details for the final set of shows for this tour. That was the worst part of all this. Ash had a few small shows left to play this week then she'd be home for a couple months before she'd have to start the next album - which she'd be working on from home. She'd been so excited...

"Ethan, I need to talk to Ash." They both looked confused.

"Uh, sure. I'll see you before the show tonight, Ash."

Once he was gone, Ashley turned to me with a worried frown. "What's going on?"

I swallowed the lump that had suddenly formed in my throat. "It's about Spencer."

I realized that had been the wrong way to start out even before the words left her lips.

"Is she alright? Did something happen?"

Her panicked expression had me once again cursing Spencer for causing all this. Ashley couldn't help being worried about her wife; I wondered if Spencer had even spared her a second thought when she'd been with that other woman. "Spencer's fine," I said angrily.

"Kyla, what's wrong?" I wasn't doing a very good job at explaining this.

"She cheated."

Ashley's face scrunched in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"Spencer cheated on you," at her blank expression I felt the need to clarify, "with another woman."

She stood, staring at me for a moment before her lips twitched into a grin. "Right," she walked past me into the kitchen. I followed a moment later, not sure what to say. She pulled a glass out of the cabinet and filled it with water. "What's really going on, Ky?"

I sighed. "I wish I was joking."

I think I finally got my point across. She watched me carefully for a moment, searching for any sign that I was joking.

"You really think that Spencer cheated on me." It wasn't a question, but I nodded anyways. "That's ridiculous. Spencer wouldn't cheat on me. What even gave you that idea?"

"There's an article in the Hollywood Star-"

"Was it next to the one about the woman carrying Elvis' alien baby?"

"There were photos. And they weren't altered," I added before she could get her retort out. "I called a friend of mine that works over there. She vouched for their authenticity."

She chuckled. "Kyla, I don't care who 'authenticated' them. They're wrong."

"But-"

"Look, just show me what you're talking about and we'll get it all straightened out, all right?"

"Fine." She followed me into the other room. I picked up the magazine and handed it over to her.

Ashley looked down at the cover. Her mouth curled into a smile, confusing me. Ash stepped past me and sat on the sofa, flipping to the article. Her smile grew as she skimmed over the article. Moments later, she handed the magazine back to me, trying not to laugh.

"Kyla, look at this one. Right here," she pointed to the shot of Spencer and the blonde at the restaurant. "Look at her wrist." She tapped the image by the other woman's hand. There was a dark splotch on the inside of the woman's wrist. A tattoo. The angle of the shot, didn't really give a clear view of it, but it was definitely a tattoo.

I looked up at Ashley's smirk. I glanced down at her wrist, where I knew the script 'S' would be. "Spencer would never cheat on me, Kyla."

* * *

Spencer's face lit up when she saw the name that flashed across her caller id. "Hey."

"Hey, yourself." She could practically hear the grin in Ashley's voice. It was the same for her. Even after dating for five years and being married for more than six, neither one could keep from grinning like an idiot whenever they talked on the phone. "I heard an interesting rumor today."

Spencer groaned. "What is it this time? Please tell me I'm not carrying Aiden's love child... again."

Ashley snickered. "No, but you're cheating on me. Spencer, how could you?"

Spencer rolled her eyes at the faux-hurt tone. "Who is it this time? Aiden? Kyla?"

"Even better. According to the Hollywood Star, you're cheating on me with an unknown blonde woman. A really hot one too."

Spencer chuckled. She could almost see the smirk she knew would be on her wife's face. "Did it also point out how full of herself this hot blonde woman is?"

"No," there was a slight pause and Spencer braced herself for what she knew was coming. "I think they were too busy insinuating how full of _you_ she was."

"Ash," Spencer whined in protest, her face turning bright red.

Ashley laughed. "Kyla was pissed."

"Don't tell me she thought-"

"Yup, I had to point out my tattoo in one of the pictures. Now, she's just upset that she didn't know about it before."

"You let her run around all day trying to find you, didn't you?" Spencer smiled despite her scolding tone.

"It's not my fault she didn't check to see if I was with you."

"She did. I had seven missed calls and four texts that I didn't get until that night because I didn't realize _somebody_ had turned off my phone."

"I wanted to spend some uninterrupted time with my wife on her birthday. Is that a crime?"

Spencer didn't need to see the look she knew would be on Ashley's face - the one that screamed 'I love you. You can't be mad at me for that, can you?'. Spencer could never resist that look, a fact that Ashley knew well. More times than not, that look led to Spencer dragging a not unwilling Ashley to their bedroom.

"Spencer," the teasing note in her voice only drove home the point that Ashley knew exactly how she was affecting Spencer. "That's not a crime; is it, Officer?"

Spencer swallowed as memories of that one Halloween party surfaced. The one where she'd dressed up as a cop and Ashley as a cat burglar. All night, Ashley would tease her for a moment then disappear. "No." Her voice sounded thick and ragged to her ears. How many more days did Ashley still have left on her tour?

She heard a muffled yell and Ashley sighed. "I've got to go," the disappointment was clear in her voice. "I'll try to call before I go on tonight, but I'll definitely talk to you after. I love you."

"I love you too." There was that silly grin again.

"Bye, Spence."

There was about a week left on Ashley's tour.

Spencer smirked. She didn't have any meetings for the next few days, and she had done enough with her current projects to leave them for a few days without having to worry about missing a deadline. If she caught the next flight she could probably make it to Ash's show before it ended.

Maybe she'd even pack that old Halloween costume.

End.


End file.

South of Nowhere, Humor, Romance