Where We Left Off (A Hunter Hayes Fanfiction, Book 2 of the HunTia Trilogy)

Chapter Twenty-Five

TIA'S POV:

I wake up lying on Hunter's bicep. His hand is resting lightly on my baby bump. Checking the time, I realise that it's about one in the morning. Hunter's snoring lightly, and his face is tear-stained. I notice that my hair is wet. Had he been crying?

I hiss a little at the pain in my cheek. I touch the bruise. It reminds me way too much of the bruises Ashley and Thomas would inflict on me.

Hunter stirs in his sleep, muttering "No, Tee!" He pulls me closer, still asleep and says "Tia? Answer me, please! Oh my god. Your stomach." He subconsciously moves his hand to my wound and I gasp, feeling electricity flow through my body from his fingertips. He sleep-talks again, pulling me closer and closer against his body. "Tia, stay with me. Please. please, just stay with me." He's whispering now. "I can't lose you. Not like this. Not like this." His face is contorted into mask of pain, of shock, of horror. He gasps, shuddering awake, and sees me.

"Hunter, are you-" I start to ask, but he stops me, putting a finger over my mouth and trying to regain control of his breathing.

"Just a dream," he whispers shakily. "It was just a dream."

"It's okay, Hunt. You aren't getting rid of me that easily," I murmur softly, moving my hand to the back of his head and stroking it gently. I know what he was dreaming about. His concern about my stomach, even what he had said all led back to the one thing I wished I could forget.

Ashley. The second kidnapping. It was a year ago, but he still had nightmares about it.

I should know.

He isn't the only one.

But now, I have to comfort him. I've never heard him sleep talk before. I never even knew he had nightmares. Of course he didn't tell me, he was worried about stressing me out more.

"How bad was it?"

"It seemed... so... real," he chokes out quietly. He holds me, just holds me. Nuzzling his nose against mine, he whispers, "I'll never lose you. That time, it was way too close. Never again. I'll never let anything take you away from me."

I close my eyes when he kisses me softly. He moves his lips gently against mine, and I taste summer and honeycomb.

"I love you," I murmur when he pulls away enough to look me in the eyes.

"I love you too." He smiles a little, but I can see the worry in his eyes. "How's your cheek?"

"Better now, the ice did wonders," I lie.

"You're a terrible liar."

I sigh. "I do it because I don't want to see you hurting."

"It's okay, Tee. I know."

We lie there like that for a little while. Hunter plays with my hair, gently combing through the dark curls with his fingertips. He's humming to himself a little. It's nothing I've heard before.

"Do you want to just stay up?" I ask Hunter. "It's not like either of us are falling asleep again, and you don't have anything going on tomorrow."

"Yeah, okay." He rolls out of bed. "Wanna drive somewhere?"

I stare at him for a full ten seconds, before rolling out of bed as well. "Sure. Where to, Chauffeur Hayes?"

"Well, Madame Hayes, I have quite the place in mind," he says, winking. At least he's in a better mood now. He slips on a hoodie, and I remember that all my jackets are in the wash. "Here, have one of mine," says Hunter, passing me the grey hoodie he wore in the music video for 'Storm Warning'. I breathe in the smell. It smelled of him, coffee and aftershave.

"Thanks, Hunt."

He takes my hand without a word, and after checking that Olive's asleep in our room, we exit the house quietly.

After driving for about half an hour, Hunter buys us both coffee and McMuffins, and drives us to a small cliff. It overlooks the city, and judging from where the moon is at the moment, we'll be able to watch the sun rise over Nashville.

Sitting on the hood of his car, we sip at our coffees, not speaking. We just watch the lights of the city. When we finish, Hunter invites me onto his lap, and I clamber on, sitting with my knees tucked underneath me, resting my head on his chest. He strokes my hair gently.

"Can I ask you something, love?"

"Sure," I reply, looking up at him.

"How did you get money to get a ticket to fly here?"

I stay silent. I don't think he'll like it. It's not that I obtained the money illegally, but it was technically so unsafe, especially considering my age at the time.

"I had the idea to run away when I was fourteen. At the time, I loved music, and I knew how to do a thing or two on a guitar."

He stays quiet, waiting for me to continue.

"Every night, for four years, I snuck out of the house and I would busk on the streets of Melbourne City."

I feel him stiffen. "You would busk on the streets of Melbourne... when you were fourteen?"

I nod. "I never got much, people were much too busy for that, but some people gave me around three dollars to ten dollars. In one night, I could normally scrape together about a hundred dollars."

"Tia, who knows what could have happened to you?" he scolds.

"Yeah, but a hundred dollars nearly every day for four years? Hunter, it gave me several thousand dollars. I could move to Nashville the day I turned nineteen. That was my original plan, did you know that?"

"No."

"Well, it was. But with just a week to go, I couldn't take it anymore. I left a week before I turned nineteen. I probably wouldn't have made it this far without your help."

He silent for a moment. We watch the sun rise over Nashville, and it looks absolutely beautiful. Hunter's still holding me close, his chin resting on the top of my head. I sigh, moving my hand up to touch his cheek.

"Nice to know that I can do something right," he mutters, and I laugh.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

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Nethii <3*.