Gone.

In The End

"He should be here, dad," Taylor says solemnly as she looks down at her sparkling white shoes.

"I know, sweetie. But I know that he's watching down on all of us. On you and Karlie. And I know that he's proud of you. You showed bravery on a scale never seen before on that day and I promise you, his life was not wasted," Scott replies, pulling his daughter in for a comforting hug.

"Thank you, dad. You're going to make my mascara run," she chuckles as she gently wipes underneath her eyes. It was a year to the day that Austin had passed.

Scott places his hands on the blonde's shoulders as he looks her in the eyes. "I've been waiting for this day for years and years. I'm so happy for you, Taylor. We should get going though. Blushing brides are only allowed to be fashionably late," he jokes, "we don't want the love of your life to think she's been stood up, do we?"

"Hey, don't joke about that," Taylor says as she playfully punches his arm.

"You probably wanna work on that right hook," he counters and Taylor scoffs.

Scott holds out his arm and Taylor looks at her appearance in the mirror one last time. With a deep breath to steady her nerves, she picks up her flowers from the table and links her arm through her dad's. Her stunning white dress hugged her hips tightly as it exuded elegance, from its silk fabric to its intricate lace flowers making up the neckline that framed her curves perfectly. Her pale skin complemented the pure white of the dress and her sparkly shoes provided a nice piece of Taylor's flagrant personality. They make their way out of the building and Scott holds the door open on the brand new white four-by-four for his daughter to climb in. he takes her seat on the cream leather seats and buckles in, placing her bouquet of red flowers on the middle seat.

"Not quite the extravagant limo I always had in mind for your big day, but what the bride wants, the bride gets," he says as he climbs in the other side.

"I would've actually loved a horse-drawn carriage but I'm afraid that wouldn't have been practical," Taylor replies drily.

"There's the Taylor I know," Scott smiles, reaching out to place his hand over his daughter's as she jiggles her knee. It had always been her bad habit.

The car drives smoothly along the bumpy woodland road as they descend deeper into the trees. The forest was where both girls felt most at home and so it made perfect sense to get married there. It was only a five-minute drive and Scott gets out of the car first to open the door for Taylor. It gives her a short moment to compose herself and before she knows it she is standing at the foot of her wedding aisle.

The place was beautiful. White wooden chairs formed the straight, long aisle down the middle of all of their family and friends. There must have been at least 100 people. Taylor had tried to keep the guest list for the actual ceremony down, but there were so many people she wanted to be there.

There were white roses hanging from the trees overhanging the sides of the blocks of chairs and they were also scattered on the red-carpeted aisle. As Taylor steps out into the middle on her father's arm heads begin to turn, all with expressions of love and adoration. She could instantly see her mother in the front row, tissue in hand, eyes already brimming with tears. The altar was the same heavenly white as the chairs. It was an ornate arch that was placed upon a red-carpeted step and had two matching, smaller arches either side. It looked like a dream. The green trees in the background only added to the purity of the ceremony.

In front of the left arch stood Selena, Cara and Kimby, all wearing matching red, floor-length bridesmaid dresses with heart-shaped necklines. On the other side was Josh, dressed up to the nines in a smart black suit with a white shirt and red tie that matched the flower in his top pocket next to Kariann and Kristine, wearing the same matching bridesmaid dress.

In front of the main arch was the priest and in front of him, slightly to the right, stood the most beautiful woman Taylor had ever seen. Karlie was wearing a stunning white wedding dress. It flowed effortlessly to the floor and a trail of pristine fabric was laid out behind her. Her hair was down, as Taylor had asked. It was wavy and flowed down onto her exposed shoulders. Her makeup was simple; angelic almost. It looked very natural and the girl seemed to exude an heavenly glow.

Taylor's breath catches in her throat when Karlie turns agonisingly slowly to meet her eyes. It was like the first time all over again. They smile sweetly at each other, the excitement building. The opening chords of the piano begins playing and there is a short kerfuffle as everyone stands for the songwriter and Scott to make their way slowly through the crowd of people towards the altar. Taylor grins the whole way down, all her family and friends smile warmly at her as she passes and few stop her briefly to say how beautiful she looks. They were right because Karlie had almost stopped breathing in anticipation.

When they finally reach the end of the woodland aisle, Scott hands over Taylor's hand to Karlie before giving the girl an approving nod. He looks her straight in the eye and says, "look after my little girl for me, will ya?" Karlie nods and the priest lets them take a moment before she begins the ceremony.

They write their own vows, and inevitably Taylor brings everyone to tears with her sweet and heartfelt words, including Karlie and it isn't long before they're saying 'I do.' A simple commitment to forever that they both intended to keep.

The crowd immediately erupts in cheers as they lean in close to each other after they have been pronounced wives and connect their lips for the first time as a married couple. They move against each other instinctively and when they eventually pull away there are tears in both of their eyes. They had never been so happy before. The butterflies in their stomachs refused to settle down.

Rainbow confetti is thrown over them by cheering people as they make their way back down the aisle, hand in hand as a married couple whilst gentle gusts of wind sound through the forest trees that were oh so familiar to them both.

In that moment, Taylor knew that her father was right. She felt Austin looking down upon her. She felt his warm smile heat her skin. The smile she tries so hard to remember every day.

Finally, she felt safe and, most importantly, she felt at home.

A shiver runs down the girl's spine but she doesn't mind or acknowledge it. The new found warmth within her heart was enough to counter the cold now.

A/N: Author's note will be up soon.