Fan Fiction ❯ Runaway ❯ Chapter 9 ( Chapter 9 )

All memories of her experience faded from Angel's mind, except for her living loved one's pleas for her to choose to live. Taylor's confession of love was loud and clear in her mind, and all that she could think about was how much she loved him.

Angel slowly opened her eyes, and blinked to clear her vision. All around her were sleeping people. Her parents were cuddled together on the empty bed in the next space. Isaac was sprawled in an uncomfortable looking chair. Zac was sitting on the ground, leaning back against the wall. Walker, whom she had only met briefly, was sleep in the same position as Zac, only he was sitting by the door. Sitting next to her, loosely holding her hand was Taylor.

Angel squeezed Taylor's hand gently, and smiled as he groggily looked up.

"Angel!" He whispered.

"Hey," she whispered back.

The two stared at each other for several moments.

"Thank you," Angel said.

"For what?"

"For finally giving me a reason to want to live."

He stared at her with a blank, unbelieving look.

Angel giggled softly. Then she mustered up her bravery, and whispered four little words, "I love you too."

Taylor stared back at her in shock.

"You heard me?"

"Yes. You were the reason that I chose to come back. I was about to give up, but then you told me that you loved me, and...I just had to come back and tell you that I love you too."

Angel and Taylor's whispering had woken Darren up. He was about to jump out of bed and hug his awakened daughter, when he heard her tell Taylor that she loved him too. He forced himself to lay still for just a while longer. He had to smile as he saw his daughter get her first passionate kiss, though he had to fight back his fatherly urges to yell at Taylor to get away from his daughter. As soon as they had broken the kiss, and were staring starry-eyed at each other, he acted as if he had just woken up.

"Angel! You're awake!"

At Darren's outburst, there was a chorus of snorts of four waking people. Soon, Angel was surrounded by people hugging and kissing her, but through it all, Taylor kept a strong grip on her hand.

Angel's recovery was amazingly quick, and she was out of the hospital within a week.

Her parents had, at first, asked her to come home with them right away, but, after some begging, they allowed her to stay on with the Hanson's. All to soon; however, they were pulling up to the familiar The Expo Center in Dallas, Texas.

"How does it feel to be home?" Zac asked her.

"Not bad," she said, but then she let out a sigh.

"What's wrong?" Isaac asked.

"It's nice to be back, but I'm going to miss you guys!" She said, looking at both Zac and Isaac, and then looking up at Taylor, who was sitting by her side with an arm comfortably around her shoulders.

Taylor gazed right back at her, and, as he forced back tears, he said, "Don't worry about it. We'll fly here to see you whenever possible, and you can come visit us whenever you want. In between those times, there is always the phone and e-mail."

Angel nodded, not wanting to say that none of those things would help ease her pain of being away from him. Not wanting to talk about it anymore, she just looked out the window, watching the fans who had come out early to see Hanson exit the bus. As the bus pulled to a stop, she looked closely at the faces of about twenty of the girls and five of the guys. For some reason, they looked familiar...

Taylor was concerned when he felt Angel's shoulders stiffen.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"Them," she said, pointed at the group of twenty-five people.

"What about them?" Zac asked, coming over to see who they were looking at.

"They go to my boarding school."

Taylor mulled this over for a moment, before it dawned on him.

"They were the ones that made you feel so guilty, weren't they?" He asked, and he became very angry when he saw her nod miserably.

"Don't let your anger affect your performance tonight." Isaac warned rationally.

Taylor sighed. "I won't... but it won't be easy."

"Let's just hope they won't be sitting first row," Zac said, referring to the fact that Angel was sitting in the first row, to the right of Taylor.

Angel shook off her stiffness, and said, "I won't let it bother me, it's behind me now. Let's just go."

As was customary, Isaac and Angel got off first, walking far apart, pretending to be deep within a conversating. Angel wore her hat pulled low down, so that no one could see her face. Zac and Taylor came after them, stopping to shake hands and talk to some of the fans. Taylor tried not to make it too obvious that he was avoiding Angel's tormenters, but as soon as he saw them coming to meet him, he walked away quickly, leaving Zac no choice but to follow.

"Damn it," Taylor said as soon as they had entered the building and the door was shut behind them.

"What?" Zac asked.

"Those girls and guys from Angel's school were all wearing Meet and Greet passes."

"Do you think you'd be able to handle meeting them?"

"No," Taylor said honestly. "I'll just leave the room when their group comes in. Just tell them I went to the bathroom or something."

"Are you sure you couldn't handle meeting them?" Isaac said, coming up behind them.

"I'm positive. Whenever I think of the pain that they caused Angel... I could just... I don't know. You understand, right Ike, you've been in love?"

"Yeah, I do, but there's going to be a lot of people angry with us. It took forever to smooth things over after the Tulsa incident."

Isaac and Taylor walked off, discussing how to pull off Taylor's disappearance, leaving Zac behind. He did not mind, though, for he was lost within his thoughts.

"You understand, right Ike, you've been in love?" echoed through Zac's mind. He half laughed to himself. His brothers did not think that he had ever been in love, but they were wrong. He was in love right then, and had been for a while. Unfortunately for him, he had fallen in love with a dead girl.

Angel had finally shown him and his brothers a picture of Kari after she had left the hospital. Zac was in love immediately. Kari had impossibly long blonde hair, contrasted with deep, chocolate brown eyes that seemed to both laugh at him and comfort him at the same time. He had not told anyone that he was in love, because he knew that they would tell him to get over her, but for some reason, despite the knowledge that she had moved on, he could not rid her from his mind.

Zac was jerked from his thoughts by an angry crewmember telling him that the Meet and Greet was about to start. Zac ran after her, trying to shake Alyssa from his mind, and focus on the daunting task of smiling at girl after girl after girl for hours on end.

The next group of giggling girls was ushered into the room, and the last, rather large, group of about twenty girls, and five guys, were shoved out.

"Taylor should be coming back in soon," Zac muttered to Isaac, and he nodded his head in agreement.

The group of about ten girls smiled at them. Five of them were looking all around, probably trying to see where Taylor was. Two of the girls were staring starry-eyed at Isaac. Two others were going wild over Zac. The girl that caught Zac's eye was the tenth girl. She had shoulder length blonde hair that shone in the light, and she was the only one not looking at him or Isaac. She seemed to be engrossed in her shoes.

"Come on, come on. Gather around. Picture time!" The over-energetic photographer urged.

"Where's Taylor?" One girl whined.

"Sorry, Sweetie, he felt ill and had to step out." The photographer said soothingly.

There was a chorus of "Oh, poor thing", and "Tell him that I hope he feels better."

Soon, everyone was crowded around Zac and Isaac, except for the blonde-headed girl.

"Just a sec!" Zac said, halting the taking of the picture, as he went over to the girl.

"Don't you want to be in the picture?" He asked.

The girl just shook her head.

"Why not?"

"I'd ruin it," She mumbled.

"No you wouldn't!"

"Yes I would," she said, raising her head.

Zac gasped, and the girl immediately lowered her head again, face flushed red with embarrassment. She lifted her hand to her cheek, and hid her scar in shame.

It had not been the scar that raced from her forehead, down her cheek, to her chin that had made Zac gasp, it had been her warm, chocolate brown eyes.

Before he could say anything to the girl, she was ushered out of the room, along with the rest of the girls. That had been the last group, and Zac was thankful for that, for he could not concentrate for anything at that moment. Ignoring Isaac's questions, he ran out of the room to find the head of security.