Hello and welcome to my new one shot series. Originally I planned on writing this after I completed Our Forever and basing off of that, but finishing that seems literally impossible right now and I have been wanting to venture out into this type of ff for some time so here we are.
Enjoy!
Together As One
"Attention passengers, we will be arriving in Philadelphia shortly. Please fasten your seat-belts as we begin our decent."
Hanna looked up from her phone where she had been jotting down her latest notes on her to do list for the upcoming week as the flight attendant caught her attention, informing everyone that they were finally almost back home.
After locking her iPhone and clicked her own seat-belt back together, Hanna glanced over to the seat beside where 2 year old Maisie Ilsa Rivers was currently curled up, her small body fitting perfect in the seat with her head resting on the pillow she had squished against the arm rest. She hated to have to wake her up, her little girl had just experienced he busiest week of her life thus far after all and that had become very apparent only hours prior as Hanna had to carry the cranky toddler out of the hotel, through the airport and then onto the plane before she was able to actually comfort her and encourage her to go back to sleep.
Reluctantly, Hanna gently reached over, running her hands through the blonde mop of hair that covered the little girls face, moving her fingers through her hair continuously until she roused her from her sleep "baby it's time to wake up" she told her, lowering her hand over her shirt to pull it down as it rode up. Maisie slowing opened her eyes as she took in her surroundings, having forgotten where she was was. "We go home?" She questioned as she lifted her head, looking at her mother. "We're almost there" Hanna informed her, reaching over to fasten her seat-belt "you slept the whole way" she continued. Maisie reached her hands out for Hanna, feeling more uneasy due to the motion of the plane "mamma up" she whimpered, begging for the comfort of her mother. It broke Hanna's heart that she couldn't pick her up and wrap her arms securely around her daughter',although Maisie had become pretty accustomed to flying, in times like these where sleep deprivation was playing into the picture, it wasn't all that easy to have the 2 year old sit calmly in her seat.
"No baby, you have to stay, we are almost touching down" Hanna tried to explain, although she knew there wasn't much of a point. As predicted, at her mothers words, the toddler stuck out her bottom and seconds later tears were streaming out of her eyes as cries escaped her mouth. "Shh" Hanna tried to soothe her, running her hand down the small girls back, trying her best to calm her down, all the while keeping her safely in her seat. "Its OK, we're almost home, and then we are gonna see daddy" Hanna tried, it was a long shot at this point.
To Hanna's surprise two brown eyes shot up and met hers "Dada?" Maisie questioned, the slightest bit of excitement in her voice through the tears. "Yes, daddy's waiting for us at the airport" Hanna continued, in hopes to keep the toddler relaxed until they touched down.
With the thought of her daddy on her mind combined with Hanna grabbing onto her hand and holding it in her own, the little girl leaned her had against her mothers arm, and shifted as close to her as she possibly could, waiting to land.
To some minor miracle, Maisie got through the rest of the flight with limited concern, only becoming slightly anxious during the final few minutes. as the pressure and movement of landing caused some discomfort for the toddler.
After what felt like forever after touching down, the flight attendance eventually opened the doors and allowed passengers to exist the plane. Hanna held tightly onto her daughters hand at they made their way to arrivals "Where's Dada" Maisie whined. "He's waiting for us" Hanna replied, distractedly looking around for signs to her designated location. "Here we are" she continued as they rounded a corner, where an escalator was to lead them down to baggage claim.
As soon as Hanna and Maisie stepped onto the escalator, Hanna immediately began looking around at all the people, desperate to find her husband. "Look who it is" Hanna announced excitedly when she finally found and somehow locked eyes with him. She pointed in his direction in order to show Maisie where to look. Maisie gasped as soon as she caught sight of her father "It's daddy!" She practically screamed, quickly shuffling around as he walked closer to the bottom of the escalator. Hanna wrapped her arms around Maisie's small body in order to keep her in her spot "hold on, we are almost at the bottom" Hanna told the little girl, laughing all the while at her excitement.
Just as they made it to the bottom, Maisie ran off "Daddy" she yelled, as loud as she possibly could, practically jumping into her fathers arms. Caleb picked the little girl up, holding her firmly in his arms. "Hi bubs! I missed you so much" he told her, kissing her on the cheek. Hanna watched as the two interacted, as much as she wanted to leap into his arms as well,she loved watching the two of them have moments like these.
Maisie continued to giggle in excitement, holding on tightly to her father as he gave her all the affection back.
Eventually, after a few moments of catching up on what they had been been missing, Maisie wiggled to be let down. Caleb placed her on the ground and then turned his attention to Hanna "Hi" he told her, leaning in and placing a chaste kiss on her lips before she had the chance to respond "hi back" Hanna responded when they separated, a smile on her face. Caleb wrapped his arms around Hanna, holding her against him "I missed you guys" he spoke, still holding onto her "we missed you too" she told him,moving her head up to meet his eyes.
Throughout the first bit of their trip home from the airport, Maisie chatted about the long two weeks she had experienced; everything she had done, all the pretty outfits she had gotten to wear, all the places she got to go. Caleb listened intently, showing his pure enjoyment in hearing her go on about all the fun she had on her trip, although he was slightly disappointed he had missed it all. He loved listening to his little girl no matter what she was talking about, she had developed such a vocabulary in the passed few months specifically and she would now talk for hours if you let her.
Maisie was born June 17th 2015. At the age of 2 years and 3 months, she was defiantly an early achiever. Sometimes Hanna and Caleb couldn't believe she was only two, as she was well beyond her years. The little girl was defiantly a mini version of her mommy, in the sense of her beautiful blonde hair, sassy attitude and fashion sense, although Caleb blamed the fashion situation on Hanna, with starting her on that track from basically the day she was born. While Maisie was much like her mother, she had her fathers gorgeous brown eyes, that Hanna could never get enough of and she defiantly, without a doubt had her daddy wrapped around her tiny finger from day one. They had a bond that no one could break. It was exactly what Hanna wanted for her baby girl, after growing up without a father for the most part, Hanna was grateful everyday that Maisie had a father like Caleb, who loved her unconditionally. Caleb had made it clear just how much his little girl meant to him, he was always showing her the affection he was also neglected of, assuring that she knew she was loved and wanted. Maisie brought out Caleb's soft side to the full extent, when they were together, he was one hundred percent pure. He was proving to be the worlds best daddy, or at least in Hanna's eyes.
As for Hanna and Caleb, throughout the past two years, aside from the addition of their beautiful baby girl to their family, lots had changed. Caleb had started his own company, where he developed software, and made it available to business'. His company did some small jobs as well, similar to what he had been doing in New York. Some of his employees did field work, where they would go on jobs to help with uncovering software etc. His newest project was app development, with the software development going well, Caleb decided to expand his brand and try working on some apps. He had released his first one six months prior and so far, it was going well. He was now developing two more, one for his company, and one for Hanna. As for Hanna, with her designs taking off, she had her business through her home. Nearing the end of her pregnancy, her business was growing, she had done some bigger jobs and had a number of regular customers. After having Maisie, she took some time off, and during that decided to look at a few different spaces, as it was becoming more challenging to work from home with business growing. She quickly found a cute little store that had closed down not long before and closed a deal on the space. By the time Maisie was one, Hanna was open. Business had been going well for the pas year. Hanna's newest project: opening up an online store. She had her studio, and now she was working towards her own clothing line. She had been working on sketches for a baby line and a woman's line for the past couple years, whenever she had the time, she never truly expected it to evolve into anything, it was just something she did in her free time, but things were going and it recently had become a very real possibility.. She planned on starting a website and with Caleb now working on apps, was working on launching that alongside the website.
Things had been busy with the couple, but that was how it was for them. They were making it work, they had a schedule and the stuck to it, assuring the took days off for them and always accounted for family time. After over two years of hard work, they finally had two business' with full time employees so they were able to have their own time now as well. Although that was only new, and both of them still liked to be present as often as they could.
"She's out" Hanna spoke, glancing into the backseat of the jeep as Caleb pulled into the parking spot of their loft and turned off the ignition "she's so tired, I don't wanna wake her" She sighed, looking at Caleb. "Alright you grab her and I will grab the suitcases" Caleb decided as they got out of the vehicle, agreeing it probably wasn't best to wake the little girl as it was already past her bedtime.
The family made their way up to the apartment, Hanna quick to whisk Maisie up into her bed. Just as she finished changing and tucking her in under the covers, Caleb appeared at the landing "I just wanted to give her a kiss goodnight" he explained, making his way over to his daughter and bending down beside her bed. "Goodnight baby girl" he told her, gently placing a kiss on her forehead. Hanna lent down, doing the same before clicking off the beside lamp and taking a hold of Caleb's hand as the couple made their way back down into the main living space.
Maisie had spent the first year in Hanna and Caleb's room, Hanna wanting to keep her close as she was breastfeeding. They hadn't planned on staying at the loft as long as they had, but with two busy schedules, moving had been put off. As Maisie got bigger and it began more challenging to have her in the room with them, they had done some child proofing up on the loft and transformed it into a small room for her. It wasn't ideal, and Hanna was still totally paranoid with the idea of her baby girl up that high, even though they had redone the entire area, having covered all open railing space and had a baby gate at the stairs, Caleb still found himself constantly reassuring Hanna that she was fine up there, along with the he fact that there was a baby monitor so they could always keep an eye on her, Hanna was a mother, she worried.
As for moving, the couple had went back and forth for a long time on building their own house or buying and redoing, finally settling on the latter when the thought of starting from scratch just seemed like too much and not worth their while. They had recently found a place, and they had just closed the deal while Hanna was in New York.
With her return, that was her focus going forward.
"I feel so much better" Hanna spoke as she existed the bathroom, making her way over to the bed "I think I finally washed all the airplane off of me" she continued as Caleb closed his laptop, placing it on the bedside table.
"Mm" Caleb agreed, taking in the scent of her body lotion as she curled into his side "you defiantly smell clean"
"I hate that I didn't give Issy a bath before putting her to bed" Hanna redirected the subject to her daughter.
Caleb rubbed his hand down Hanna's back reassuringly "she's fine, she can have one in the morning, she was toast" he told her.
"I know but we got in late last night so she didn't get one then either and then it was a rough morning" Hanna ranted, feeling slightly guilty. She had gotten used to this whole mom thing, but she was constantly worrying about doing the exact right thing.
"Hey" Caleb grabbed her attention. Hanna looked up at him, with that all too familiar pout on her face "She is fine. It's not the end of the world." He told her, ""Now tell me about is trip" he continued, determined to get her to stop the downward spiral she was headed for
"It was fine" Hanna breathed out, giving into Caleb's attempt "but you don't wanna hear about all the girly stuff" she told him, knowingly
"Of course I do" Caleb told her, readjusting his pillow behind his head "my girls just spent 2 weeks away from me at fashion week. I wanna know every detail" he requested
"Everything went well" she explained "I got some meetings out of the way for the line the first week and this week was incredible. Tons of new trends, I really felt inspired, I even did some more sketches" Hanna continued, excitedly spilling the details of her trip
"That's my girl" Caleb encouraged, leaning forward to press a kiss to Hanna's head. Hanna stayed silent, although Caleb could see the grin plastered on her face "and what about my other girl?" He questioned, wanting to know from Hanna how she did
Hanna smiled even wider, thinking about all the things her daughter got to experience that week "she loved it!" Hanna spoke honestly, "her eyes lit up at the shows" she continued "and I was able to leave her with Amelia and Bryce for a night and she spent another day with Brynn, Sophia and Ava. Which was great, she got some down time and I was able to attend that party I originally thought I wouldn't make it to"
"So we made a good decision?" Caleb questioned, becoming slightly more serious. The couple had not originally planned in sending Maisie to New York with Hanna, due to the fact that they thought it would be too long of days for the little girl, she was only two, they had agreed she wouldn't go until she was at least 3. When the decision to go to fashion week was made, Caleb knew he wouldn't be able to go, with how busy things were with his company currently, so Hanna had packed on all New York related business and extended the trip so she wouldn't have to go back for the next bit. She planned to go for two weeks: one week for business and the second for fashion week. Maisie would stay back with Caleb and the girls would step in to help out
That was until Aria and Ezra's schedules clashed with Hanna and Caleb, which meant they would be on a book tour for their second book during the two weeks and then Spencer had went into labor 3 weeks early with her first child. With Spencer and Toby having a newborn, and Caleb's busy work schedule, that only left Alison and Emily, and so therefore, they had decided it was best that Maisie would go with Hanna, if that meant Hanna had to go back on her own, she would.
"Yea I think we did. She was good and I got what I needed to do done" Hanna agreed
"I'm glad" Caleb spoke "and I got tons of work done while you two were there so I can step back a bit now" He continued as Hanna lifted herself up, looking at him "really?" She asked excitedly.
Caleb shook his head "yea I was thinking I would take the week off and we can work on the house" he revealed his plans
"I'd love that" Hanna agreed, laying her head back on his chest and wrapping herself around him. "We missed you though, it was too long" She continued after a few short moments
"It was, no more long trips away from each other" Caleb decided, wrapping his other arm around Hanna so that their bodies were intertwined
"Agreed" she spoke, much lower this time as she felt the pull towards sleep takeover her body
Caleb noticed this and lifted his head slightly, kissing her head "Goodnight baby" he whispered, although he was pretty sure she was already asleep, before lying back and closing his eyes, happy to have his girls home and his wife back in his arms.
I hope you guys enjoyed this, I know there wasn't that much haleb but its only the start. While I have been writing this chapter, I have been reading other stories, and I noticed a lot of writers just kind of let the readers learn things over time. Well I'm an explain-er and I go into detail about everything so im not sure if that's something you guys enjoy but that's just how it is. Anyways, I do know what the next chapter is going to be about, to some extent, and remember this is a one shot series [cred to silenceeverything cuz im addicted to her stories and have had the idea to write this type of ff for the longest time now, thanks to her] so the time will jump around, although the next chapter wont be that long after this point.
Please leave your thoughts, if you guys would like me to continue on, if there's anything you would like to see, and any other random thoughts you may come up with
