Scandal // h.s au

nineteen: "I think someone is following us."

It was odd really, how she always assumed she had handled her parents' departure well. She thought that she was okay, that she understood, that it confused her at first but then she coped with it and moved on. But she didn't. She didn't understand why she wasn't enough of a tie down to this world, why they couldn't love her as much as they loved each other. She didn't understand how parents could be this selfish and irresponsible. She didn't understand why she had to have those parents out of all the good ones. She didn't appreciate the self-pity she found herself dwelling in, but she couldn't help it.

He hadn't seen her in that light before. She looked bitter, angry at the world, or maybe at herself. It was like for the first time, she was normal, human, capable of raging out when she had no reason to, and shutting down when it all got too much. It struck him, that the person he thought so highly of, thought was better than anything that had ever walked this earth, was just like him; irrational, emotional, and slightly messed up.

Her hair flew with the wind coming through her window, her eyebrows were formed into a determined frown, her nose running with the cold weather. Her skin was tinted pink, and he filed the image away along with the long list of memories he had of her, looking a certain way, that left him slightly breathless and completely captivated.

He noticed her eyes frantically moving between her mirrors, fleeting momentarily, before returning to them. She turned onto an unneeded route, and cursed under her breath.

" What's wrong?" He asked, his eyes following her own, hoping to notice whatever that had caused her such distress.

" I - I think someone is following us."

" What?" He took off his seat belt, turning to face the back of the car, through which he found another car's lights.

" Are you sure?" He asked again.

" I'm sure, Harry. I've been trying to shake them for -"

" Take a left. Don't use the flashers. Step on it." He instructed, his eyes fixated upon the car that had noticeably sped up. He could feel his own car gaining acceleration, Aimee's breathing increasing in pace and volume, before she released a groan, and took the promised turn. Harry's figure collapsed into the door, but he fixed his posture, awaiting the following car. It was dark and quiet for a few seconds, and he thought they had finally lost them, but then the car appeared, forcing its way into the back of their own car.

" Fuck, okay, move as fast as you can and steady the steering wheel." He returned to his seat, with his seat belt not fastened, and no cares for it in his mind, because all he needed was for her to make it out safe. A hand held onto the door, while the other held her own, when the car launched forward due to another hit from the following car.

" Shit, Aimee, are you okay?" His hand held hers tighter, and she would have smiled at the easy usage of her first name, if pain wasn't coursing through her back, after receiving a third hit.

" I'm fine, I'm fine."

The way she said it; so desperately, as if saying it enough times would make it true.

For a minute or so, they were both sunk into their own sad world, that might have been sadder than whatever was happening outside of it. He held her hand, and looked at her, pleading for her not to break too, although, he could feel it; she wasn't the same person that had walked into his office weeks and weeks ago.

" Maybe I should drive."

" No, Harry, it's -" Before she could finish her sentence, a more aggressive hit was received to the back of their car, that slid off the road, into the woods. It turned onto Harry's side, spinning so far out of control until it fell upon Aimee's. It made three full circles in the air before a tree stopped it from doing anymore. Pain was almost everywhere; sudden and overwhelming, and he could feel a flow of blood sliding against his forehead. He groaned, wiped a hand over his face to remove the blood away from his eyes, and that was when he noticed smoke coming out of the car's front. His eyes immediately moved to where Aimee was and she was staring wide-eyed at the car that had caved all around them, too traumatized to do anything about it.

" Aimee, we need to get out of here. It's going to explode. Aimee."

Twice, had he said her name, so effortlessly, so dearly, yet, it didn't manage to alert her or pull her out of this trance-like state. He got out of his door, his legs barely carrying him, collapsing beneath him twice before he was by her door, carrying her out. They managed to get a few meters away, before the car exploded, throwing them into the bushes with his figure fully blanketing her own.

The fire's heat almost swallowed them whole, melting them to ashes, molding them into something other than themselves, but she was safe beneath him and he was safe as long as she was. He heard a car pull up, men screaming for them, to make sure they were dead, and then that car drove away. She had her hands covering her ears, her face buried into the ground, her figure trembling beneath his own.

He lifted himself off her, turning her so that she was facing him instead of the ground. He found scratches covering her face, shards of broken glass from the window scattered around her skin, a bruise forming on her eye where she'd surely hit her head against the steering wheel. His eyes fell down the rest of her body, checking for any more injuries. Once he was certain that there was nothing too life-threatening or extreme, he fearfully pulled her into his arms.

" Thank God. Oh, Thank God, you're okay." He breathed. He couldn't feel her arms holding him back, he couldn't feel her breath hitting him in all the right places, or her face burying into his shoulder.

" I - I'm sorry, I didn't mean t -" She was frantic, dazed, her voice not quite sounding like her. He pulled away to try to soothe her, but her eyes rolled back to the back of her head, and she went limp in his arms, giving in to the unconsciousness.

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a/n: hey guys, please continue to read and vote and comment, let me know what you think, what you would like to see happen, it'll mean so much to me. Thank you in advance :)

ily x