One More Rodeo | Dakota | AU

[Ashley Bates]

There was a certain truth to Dakota's words and indeed he had expected no less but it was still good to hear Dakota say them herself. Saying things had always had a way of making them more definite and concrete for Ash and it was no different here. The details weren't really important right now. What was important was that they would be together one way or the other. "If I had known getting more time together was as simple as putting something shiny on your finger I would have tried that earlier. Not that you have been waiting patiently for long enough or anything like that."

What she said next brought an actual full chuckle from his lips. A family man? He didn't know many people who would have labeled him that way but he couldn't exactly discount it either. There were few people that knew him the way Dakota did mostly because she had been such a constant in his life for so long. "A family man huh? Maybe, but what kind of family will we be I wonder. A family of two or..." he let himself trail of there but the question was easy enough to figure out. They had never talked much about being a family but there were certain things that came along with that.

[Dakota King]

"I've been too busy to be worry about patiently waiting," Dakota mused as she shook her head. Her current job kept her busy enough with the crazy hours and her being on-call, but this was nice. She wasn't going to lie. She was slightly hoping for a reason to settle down with him.

A family of two or... Ash didn't have to finish that thought for Dakota to know where exactly he was going with it. She tilted her head to the side as she looked at her new fiance and studied his face a bit. "Ash..." she said softly as she looked at him. "Do you want kids? Even after everything you had to put up with Lucas?" She laughed as she shook her head. "I just have one request. Your sister Ali doesn't help with being a midwife. She's just too... Ali for my liking, especially with something big like that."

[Ashley Bates]

She was right. She had been busy and there had never been much time to think about marriage before. Granted Ash didn’t particularly have to go through any of this. For all intents and purposes Dakota had always been his one and only. A ring on her fingers and vows spoken in front of their families wasn’t going to change that it just made things more official. There was some truth in what she said though but now it looked like things were going to be changing in the best way possible.

Ash thought about her question for a moment. Truthfully he had never considered himself a family man either but there was a certain appeal. His experiences with Lucas? Perhaps they would be a part of the decision for some but it wasn’t that Ash disliked Lucas. He just liked him better when he was behaved. Something he didn’t see as being a problem with Dakota and him as parents. “I think you could give me no greater gift than to be the mother of our child when that time comes. We’ll just have to wait and see. As for Ali. I think we would both find things a little more peaceful if we avoided certain family entanglements don’t you?”

[Dakota King]

Dakota watched Ash's face as he thought for a moment. She wondered for a moment what his response would be. Dakota always liked kids (as long as they weren't Lucas) and always thought about starting a family, but didn't know when the timing would be right for her, especially with her current job. But that would probably change, especially with all the thoughts that Dakota had running through her mind in that moment. But Ash finally spoke up and Dakota could only beam at him. He wanted children too. Maybe their little family would expand. There was a lot of things to consider, but they had the time to think over it...

Especially now that the doorbell rang. "That's our food," Dakota said as she untangled herself from his arms and answered the door. It was only a quick few moments of paying for the food and taking it from the driver before she closed the door behind her. "It smells good," she said as she looked over at Ash with a smirk.

[Ashley Bates]

The doorbell rang providing them with a momentary distraction from their happy talk of the future and the things that they had planned. As Dakota left to pay for the food Ash got up from the couch to make himself useful by grabbing some plates and utensils. When she returned with their takeout and a smile he nodded his agreement at her statement and laid out a spot for them at her table. As it turned out he thought there were quite a few good things in this room at the moment and the food was only one of them. Still, he knew that they were both pretty hungry and there was no sense waiting around.

“I’m sure it will taste just as good too. You did get our favorite after all.” Ash set down at the table across from the spot he had laid out for her and motioned for her to join him. “Might as well dig in before it gets cold. Besides, there’s still lots of things to talk about.” He paused for a moment to allow her time to join him and then continued. “I don’t suppose you’re the small wedding type are you? If we start inviting too many of our siblings things might get out of hand quickly.” Ash knew what type of wedding he would have preferred but considering how large their extended families were that might get difficult. Still, he thought a small ceremony with some of their close friends would be nice. He just wondered what Dakota would think.

[Dakota King]

Dakota smiled as she saw Ash had set the table for them as she walked over to the dining room. She set the food down on the table as she took a seat across from him. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow when he said they had a lot to talk about. What she had to talk about, she didn't know quite yet. She pulled out her food from the container onto the plate as Ash continued his thought. Wedding talk. That wasn't so bad after all.

She looked back up at him as she smirked a bit. "I'm not the huge wedding type either," she said with a bit of a chuckle. "I was thinking maybe a medium-sized one? I think our siblings will understand we can't invite all of them to the wedding or that would get completely out of control." She looked at him as she tilted her head to the side. "Or we can do a smaller wedding if that would be okay with you?"

[Ashley Bates]

Dakota knew him better than just about anyone and it probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise that she knew what he liked. Fortunately they usually came to agreement on many things just because of their similar outlooks on life. A medium sized wedding wouldn’t be so bad although he would have suffered through just about anything with the prospect of Dakota waiting for him on the other side. After everything they had been through it wouldn’t even be that difficult but it was good to know that they both were thinking along the same lines.

“A medium sized wedding will be fine. Make it too small and we might forget someone and never hear the end of it." He said as he plated himself up a hearty helping of what they ordered. Now that the question had been popped he was found that he was starving. Luckily the food had come in good time. “If you wanted we could have it at the ranch. Nice, quiet, private. Seems like the perfect place for something like this. Plus I could even get you riding off into the sunset afterwards.”

[Dakota King]

It was nice that they were on the same page about what kind of wedding size they should have. Even though a lot of people thought a wedding was all about the bride, Dakota thought that it should celebrate the couple instead and they needed to come to an agreement about the details. However, she had a feeling that Ash would let her do most of the planning, but she would make sure it would be a wedding that they would both like.

"The ranch would be a nice place," Dakota said before she took a bite of her food. "I was thinking someplace outdoorsy and maybe a little bit country." She laughed and shook her head once he mentioned riding off into the sunset. "I can even get Blue Sky involved. We can make it like the good ole times.
Especially now that you know how to ride a pegasus." She chuckled to herself as she dug into her food a little bit more.

[Ashley Bates]

Ash had never been a planner. Instinctive, able to roll with the punches and scary sometimes in his seemingly single minded determination but planning and organizing could be left to those who had a better handle on it. Oh he would make decisions when he needed to, he was good at defining a course of action, but if this thing was going to be anything else besides an exchanging of vows and a ride off into the sunset he would need a woman like Dakota at his side. Fortunately it looked like she was more than up to the task.

“I’m sure Blue Sky would appreciate the chance to get out and about. Plus she would be much more characteristic of us than a stretch limo.” That was a good way to describe it. Everything was turning out to be very characteristic of the things they had enjoyed and shared over the years. A love for riding, the smaller country wedding, Ash wasn’t sure what he had expected but it was nice that they could pay tribute to some of those things they had been through together. It was special that way. “We’ve had a pretty wild ride together over the years haven’t we?”

[Dakota King]

"Plus Blue Sky was there at the start of our relationship," Dakota said as she looked at Ash and smirked a bit. "It would only make sense that she'd be there for this next phase too... Plus I think she secretly misses those rides we took together." She laughed slightly as she really dug into her food. After all her worries went away, she was really hungry after the long shift in the ER she had today.

But Ash mentioned about them having a wild ride over the years. Times seemed much simpler back at camp, but they were also young and stupid and caused themselves more drama than it was really worth. Most of it was probably on Dakota, but they managed to get through it. But Dakota still felt a slight tinge of guilt every time she remembered that she used her powers on Ash. She looked up at Ash and smirked a bit as she shrugged her shoulders. "Wild is probably a word for it," she said with a slight laugh.

[Ashley Bates]

Ash set back with the last few bites of his meal and thought about some of those wild times they had together. Their relationship had certainly never been easy and they had both made a lot of mistakes but they had come through on the other side. He supposed many couples would have given up and not survived at all if they had to face similar situations but thanks to hard work and a lot of stubbornness Ash and Dakota had turned out to be something special.

“You made it all worthwhile. Every twist and unexpected turn.” He said as he watched her. “I would do it all again as long as the same girl waited for me at the end.” Dakota had been like one of the wild horses on the ranch, beautiful and untamed and he had been too young and eager. Fortunately like any good cowboy Ash wasn’t one to give up and it had paid off in the end. As for whose fault it was that things had been so rough in the beginning the same was true both then and now. It didn’t really matter. “The next time we decide to do this I might employee some of that rodeo tie-down roping to keep you from getting away from me though.”

[Dakota King]

"You'd do it all again?" she asked as she finished up her food. She smirked a bit as she looked at her new fiance. "I really didn't think you were that head over heels... Can we just do the part where I was stupid and drunk?" She cringed a bit at the memory. "I do not want to deal with another hangover if I can help it." And that was the honest truth, along with the fact that she saw too many alcohol-related cases end up in her emergency room. She didn't want to touch alcohol at all. Maybe the wedding would be an exception, but she would have to see.

"Tie-down roping?" Dakota asked with a bit of a chuckle as she shook her head. "I didn't know you were into that." She winked a him as a smirk grew on her face.

[Ashley Bates]

Ash gave Dakota a look that begged the question did she really just ask that of him. If anything in his youthful pride he hadn’t been surer of anything else other than his love for Dakota. In fact, that had been where the problems began. They had both learned a lot since then however and had grown a lot too. His feelings weren’t any different now but his time with Dakota had definitely taught him one thing if nothing else. Love wasn’t easy and it didn’t come without lots of work. “That night was a breakthrough though. Despite everything it might have been very different if I hadn’t found you and we hadn’t talked.”

He smirked as Dakota’s thoughts turned a little dirty. He had never been one for many gimmicks in that department but he did like this side of her. The sweet sexy side that it had taken him so long to get the opportunity to see. It had definitely been something that he missed in his time apart from her but he would no longer have to spend his nights wondering how she was or what she was thinking about without him there beside her. In fact, that did bring up something else. “Well if you play your cards right we can always continue our celebration in the bed room. I forgot my lasso this time though.”

[Dakota King]

"I still don't like the hungover part," Dakota said as she scrunched her face up just a little. "I still think it would've been more humane for you to just take me out of my misery instead of waiting for all those pills to kick in." Even though it was a major breakthrough in their relationship, Dakota wished for it to be one that they would never repeat again. The next time she'd probably drink was at their wedding, but that would be out of happiness, not out of the sad desperation she felt.

"Damn," Dakota said with a bit of a chuckle as Ash mentioned that he forgot his lasso. "What kind of celebration would that be?" She smirked a bit as she looked at him and cocked her eyebrow at him. "But do you want to continue over there? Or do I still need to play my cards right?"

[Ashley Bates]

Ash chuckled a little. He didn’t think the night was such a big deal. He hadn’t been complaining at the time after all since he got to spend all night with her half dressed in bed beside him but then again he hadn’t been the one who had to deal with the consequences afterwards. That might have changed his mind. “Alright, no regret drinking next time around.” He said and shook his head. “I guess I’ll have to go get that lasso after all.”

Now that the idea had been planted it didn’t look like Dakota was going to be forgetting about it any time soon. That didn’t bother Ash in the slightest. To the contrary he found that he really didn’t need much more motivation than he already had. “It would be a party for two.” He answered with that side smirk he had. “And here I thought those were the best kinds of celebrations. As for your cards I don’t think you’ve ever had any trouble playing them right. At least not with me.” His smirk remained but he was looking at her with hungry eyes now. “Come here silly girl.”