AUTHOR'S NOTE: To sum it up, this is basically my own (romantic) version of season seven. No more H&C, Gabe comes back, and S&C work out their issues (although that will be more of an off-screen thing since my main interest is just Gabe and Hanna). I also chose that name for the story because my first G&H fan video used that song and it seemed appropriate given the circumstances.

~*PRESENT DAY-EZRA'S COFFEE SHOP/BOOK STORE*~

Hanna sat in the comfy chair of the coffee shop while she mused over the events of the last two months of her life. Coming back to Rosewood, seeing Caleb, seeing Caleb date Spencer, getting threats again, kissing Caleb in a moment of weakness, and... Gabe Holbrook coming back into her life.

She remembered the day like it was yesterday - not to sound cliché of course, but it was true.

~*TWO WEEKS AGO - THE NIGHT OF HANNA'S KIDNAPPING*~

The lights were flashing all around her and for a moment she didn't know where she was.

"I'm in an ambulance?"

Hanna drifted off to sleep...

~*HOSPITAL*~

"You suffered quite a bit. We're just going to keep you here under observation for a little while until you get better, okay?" The nurse smiled warmly at Hanna, and Hanna smiled back at her confirming she understood everything.

Hanna looked up at the ceiling and lay for what felt like hours. She wasn't sure what she should be feeling in the moment. Anger? Relief? Worry? She had gone through this more times than she could count, and yet every new experience brought about an emotion she never knew she had.

Suddenly, the door opened and the person that came through it was the last person that Hanna ever expected to see.

"Hi, Hanna."

It was Gabe Holbrook.

"Um...I know I'm probably the last person you want to see right now, but I need to ask you a few questions. You know, about what you just went through."

Hanna was definitely feeling something. The awkwardness was stifling. When she didn't say anything Gabe moved a little closer, but he was still several feet away from her bed.

"Unless you'd rather have Tanner speak to you. I could call her over here if you wan-"

"No! Uh-No, it's fine. I-I can talk to you."

Gabe quickly smiled at her response and made his way over to the chair that was three feet from her bed.

For a few seconds, neither of them said anything. They couldn't even look at each other. Gabe took out his notebook and pen from his jacket pocket, but Hanna suspected he only did so out of anxiety; just something to stall the inevitable. He finally looked up and their eyes locked.

Hanna was struck by something she had not felt since high school, only this time it was different. It felt different somehow. Gabe stammered before he could get the first question out.

"Uh, so let's start this. I know you've been through a lot, but it's helpful for you and your friends if you try and tell me as much as you can. First things first. Can you describe the person that kidnapped you?"

Hanna didn't say anything. She narrowed her eyes at him in anger instead.

"Funny how you completely stop speaking to me for five years, and the only time you do is because of a stupid work assignment."

"Oh, Hanna," he said mockingly with an over-dramatic sigh.

She continued to glare.

"Don't tell me you actually wanted to see me again?"

He raised his eyebrows in amusement.

Hanna fake laughed.

"Please. That would require actual care and respect."

Gabe didn't reply to that, but an annoyed expression flashed across his face for a couple seconds.

"Look, it will make both of our lives easier if you just answer the questions. Now, once again... Can you describe the person that attacked you?"

Hanna stopped glaring at him and adopted a more neutral expression.

"Sure. It was a woman."

"A woman, okay."

Gabe wrote down the information on his notepad.

"I didn't see her face. She was wearing a mask the whole time."

Scribbles.

"A mask?"

"Yeah, it was one of those life-like ones like from a Halloween store."

More scribbles.

"They wore a Halloween mask? Seriously? What, do they think they're part of Scooby doo's mystery gang or something?"

Hanna laughed before she could stop herself, but then she stopped.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have laughed."

Gabe put his pen down on the notepad.

"No, it's my fault. I'm the one who said it."

They locked eyes again and that strange yet familiar feeling flooded through Hanna once again. She cleared her throat.

"Well, what else have you got for me?"

~*THE NEXT DAY*~

The rest of the interview was fairly easy after they both decided to remain professional. No more jokes, no more snarky commentary, just a simple Q and A.

It was better that way.

Hanna felt the pangs of regret as he left and closed the door behind him, although she wasn't exactly sure why she felt that way. In the back of her head she knew that he and Tanner were going to take on this case, but seeing him walk away from her left her feeling empty.

She remembered the day of his suspension. The day of their fight. It was an event that she had pushed to the back of her mind, but seeing him again made it all come back.

Just when she thought she was going to cry over it, the door opened silently.

"Speak of the devil," Hanna said with a sly smile.

Gabe smiled back at her and made his way slowly over to her bed. He didn't sit down in the visitor's chair, but he did lower his voice to a friendlier tone.

"How are you?"

"Do you want the truth, or do you want me to say, 'I'm fine'?"

"Whatever's okay with you."

Hanna sighed. She honestly didn't know how she felt.

"To be honest...I have no idea what I'm feeling right now."

"Wow. An honest response. I didn't expect that."

"Why? I wasn't lying yesterday."
"I know, I just meant...I didn't expect an honest answer from you to me."

"Why wouldn't I give you an honest answer?"

Gabe's face fell and he looked off to the side in shame.

Hanna understood. She nodded.

"Oh, right. Well, that's one way to wake up an elephant that's been sleeping for five years."

"Well technically that elephant would be dead if he was asleep that long."

Gabe smirked at her and Hanna copied him. She sat up straighter on the bed. The awkward silence filled the room again, and Gabe spoke again.

"So... Do you want to talk about 'it'?"

"It?"

"Yeah. You know the day I was suspended, how I was a complete jerk to you, how I deserved you telling me off, the fact that we haven't seen each other in five years..."

Hanna was taken aback by his bluntness. She had only just gotten used to being around him again, and now he wanted to bring that up?

"There's nothing to talk about."

"Isn't there?"
"No, there isn't. You already said everything."
"But I haven't even apologized yet."
"Well nothing's stopping you, so what are you waiting for?"

Now it was Gabe's turn to be surprised by her bluntness.

"I just thought - never mind, it's stupid."

"What did you think?"

"It's nothing, really. It's just stupid."

"Really?"

"Trust me, it is."

"Try me."

Gabe didn't say anything for a minute, but then he swallowed his courage.

"I guess I just wanted you to be more upset over this. I was terrible to you Hanna, and we were friends for that brief period before you started going out with Travis. It was just naive and extremely arrogant of me to think you would still be upset after all this time."

Hanna sighed, and motioned for him to sit in the chair. When he did, she leaned slightly closer to him.

"Do you want to know a secret?"

Gabe nodded.

"I hated you for weeks. Of course no one could tell from the way I was behaving, I mean I had college plans and a stalker to keep me occupied, but for those next few weeks I hated you. I hated how you never came to visit me in jail. I hated that I never saw you after coming back from that creepy dollhouse from hell. But pretty soon all those feelings of hate disappeared and I just shoved you into the back of my mind. I tried to forget you and for a while it worked, but when I saw you again for the first time in years, it was like our fight had just happened last week again."

"I see."

The silence came into play once again, and for a while neither of them could think of what to say next.

Gabe opened his mouth to speak once more.

"How do you feel right now?"

"I don't know," she said as she leaned back against her pillow.

"I want to just keep on hating you but... there's a small part of me that just wants to forgive you no matter what. Five years is a long time to heal."

Gabe swallowed and registered her words. This was something that he had started and that alone was why he had to finish it.

"Hanna, I'm...I'm so sorry about everything that went down between us five years ago," the words spilled out before he could stop them.

"I shouldn't have followed you, I shouldn't have grabbed your arm, I shouldn't have tried to kiss you. I was a jerk, and I was wrong to accuse you of working with Alison. My suspension was my own damn fault, and you were right about Alison, about everything. You gave me the push I needed to realize that what happened was my fault, not hers, or yours, but mine."

It was as if a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. She smiled at him in relief, grateful for this tiny moment that she never expected would happen to her (not in a million years at least).

Maybe there was hope for them to rekindle their old friendship after all. Looking back on the events surrounding his suspension, Hanna realized she wasn't little-miss-innocent either. She leaned toward him again.

"I'm sorry too," she admitted.

Gabe was surprised by her sudden apology.

"What for? I'm the one who followed you, I'm the only one who should be apologizing right now."

"Yeah, but think about it. I'm just as guilty as you are. I should have asked you in person what you were really up to the day after the Ice Ball. I shouldn't have let the others' accusations of you get to me, but I did."

She smiled. Although it was more of a regretful and sad one than a happy one.

"Looks like we both could have been more honest with each other back then," she said softly.

"Yeah probably," he replied back.

Gabe smiled once more at Hanna, this time apologetically, informing her of just how much he truly regretted his past sins. Before she could stop herself, Hanna reached over and took his hand in hers. That strange, yet familiar feeling poured through her once again, but she didn't really mind it this time around.

"And...I don't need time to forgive you. I already do."

She smiled warmly at him, and he smiled back at her.

Yes, maybe there was hope for them after all.

~*PRESENT DAY-EZRA'S COFFEE SHOP/BOOK STORE*~

He thrust the cup of coffee into her hands without missing a beat, and sat down next to her.

"So, any luck?"

Hanna gave him a devil-eyed smirk after she asked him. Gabe looked at her with a mixture of skepticism and annoyance, but she secretly loved getting that reaction out of him. It gave her a thrill of some kind.

"Yes, as a matter of fact Tanner and I have made some great progress in the case. Turns out your stalker was just the maid the entire time."

Hanna rolled her eyes at him.

"Your fake answers were funnier the first time I asked you this," she said with slight disappointment.

"Yeah well," he took a sip of his own coffee, "the joke wasn't as old two weeks ago."

Hanna turned her face into one of disapproval while he pretended to ignore her. Then he turned to face her.

"So, how about you then? Got any new job offers yet?"

She put her cup on the table in front of them and placed her hands on her lap.

"I don't know. I mean I've gone to at least two job interviews in two weeks, and neither one of them has called me back yet."

"How's Jordan taking this?"

"Oh, well he's just being Jordan. You know, nice, loving, and supportive. But I don't need support, what I need right now is income."

"This is going to sound completely crazy but... Maybe you could go back to Claudia and beg for your job back."

"But it's been weeks since I walked out on her. Do you think she'd still take me back after being away for so long? No doubt she's already replaced me by now."

"Maybe she will? I don't know Hanna, I've only been in this kind of situation once in my life."

Hanna looked at him as if she was seeing him for the first time all afternoon.

"That's right," she said with realization, "you were suspended from your job."

"That's right I was. It's not the same as quitting or getting fired, but it falls under the same principle. And it was at the start of my career, kind of like what you're going through right now."

"So, what did you do? It couldn't have been easy getting your old job back."

"Hell, it was the hardest thing I ever had to experience, and I've been through a lot so that's saying something."

"So what should I do?"

Gabe looked at her as if he was seriously contemplating his answer.

"Well...first things first...What are your other options?"

Hanna had to think about this for a second.

"Oh! Well, there's this..." Hanna stopped herself and gave small chuckle.

"What?"

"It's nothing, it's silly."

"Oh come on, I deal with silly more than I'd like to admit on a daily basis. Whatever it is, you can tell me."

"Okay, well...a few days before I was kidnapped, my old friend Lucas made me an offer. He said he was going to help me open up my own fashion business."

"Wow, that's certainly not suspicious or anything. What does he do for a living exactly?"

"I'm not exactly sure… Something to do with video games I think."

Gabe leaned back in his seat and smiled at her.

"What's that look for?" She was amused by the smile on his face.

"'Hanna Marin Fashions.' You got to admit, it does have a sort of catchy ring to it. Maybe I'll buy something from you one day."

"Ugh, not with a name like that. 'Marin' sounds so similar to the fish."

"Then what would you call it?"

"Hmm... Ooh! How about 'H and M Nation'?"

"'H and M Nation'?"

"Yeah! I mean it works doesn't it? And we can naturally assume that Jordan will be there working alongside me. Hobart. Marin. See?"

Gabe nodded in understanding, but for a split second Hanna saw something in his eyes that she had never noticed until now.

Regret and jealously.

Suddenly, Olivia Newton John's "Let's Get Physical," could be heard in the background. It took Hanna a second to realize that the sound was coming from her phone. She took it out of her purse and checked the screen.

"Everything okay?"

Gabe was curious, but he was also concerned.

"Just another emergency girls' meeting. But I'll see you around, yeah?"

"Yeah of course."

Hanna smiled at him as she leaned over to take her coffee cup, and then she got up. The first few steps were awkward at first, but she eventually managed to make her way to the door and leave.

Gabe watched her walk away from him, an uneasy feeling creeping over him.

Hope is such a fickle little thing.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: So that's the first chapter! I already have a bunch of excerpts written out for future chapters, I just need to organize them and all that good stuff. I don't know if this story will ever be finished, but I will try my best. :D