A/N: So, I've had this idea for a while now, since the girls were kidnapped by Charlotte and I finally decided to write it down. I'm not sure if it's worth carrying on, I kind of had the idea that this would be the prologue and then the first chapter would be set three years prior to this. But let me know if you would like to read more in the reviews! All are greatly appreciated and I would love to read what you guys think.
Disclaimer: The characters and the show belongs to Pretty Little Liars, I own nothing other than the storyline of this story.
"You don't ask people with knives in their stomachs what would make them happy; happiness is no longer the point. It's all about survival; it's all about whether you pull the knife out and bleed to death or keep it in, in the hope that you might be lucky and the knife has actually been staunching the blood." - Nick Hornby
Caleb shot up when he first heard the frantic knocking on his door, his eyes moved to the alarm clock next to his bed, a frown on his face when he saw that the time read two in the morning. Confusion cloud his brain, and he rubbed his eyes before he threw the covers from his body. He quickly grabbed whatever t-shirt he could find first, and then took his baseball bat from the side before he slowly moved towards the front door of his apartment. He hadn't had to use it yet, but he was willing to bet that whoever was desperately trying to get into his apartment so late at night, wasn't going to be the bearer of good news.
The twenty-one year old man took another step forward before he hesitated for a moment when the knocking came to a stop. Maybe they had given up, maybe whoever was determined for him to open the door had decided that he wasn't going to open the door to them. But, through the silence, he could hear the sound of heavy breathing,a slight scratching on his door and it only served to unsettle his stomach further. His heart thumped and he held the bat tighter in his hands before he approached the door, when his eyes were met with the peep hole, the bat dropped to the floor and he stood there for a moment with his hand pressed up against the door.
He couldn't see her face but he knew it was her, he could feel her presence. But he needed a moment to compose himself, because he had seen her face before. For the first year, he had seen her everywhere – in every single blonde person that walked past him in the street, in every fashion conscious young woman he just happened to glance at, he had fooled himself into thinking it was Hanna Marin each and every time until the first time he found himself sitting at the police station when a college student had phoned the police on him for grabbing her arm as she walked past him.
After that, he told himself that she was gone, if she was there, then she would have said hello, she would have run into his arms. He had spent the first year convincing himself that it was all a horrid mistake and she would turn up at any moment, and the subsequent two years telling himself that he was never going to see her again.
Three years. He had been eighteen when he had last seen his first love, and in those three years, he had struggled to move on. He couldn't and wouldn't be able to move on until he knew what had happened to her, he needed to know before he could even consider giving up on her. He shook off those thoughts though as his hand moved to unlock the door, slowly opening it up as though if he moved too quickly, she would disappear – how did she find him?
Her eyes met with his eyes and his heart stopped for a second, the person in front of him was a mere shadow of the girl he had loved. She was seventeen years old when he had last seen her, and whilst it had been with her in an orange jumpsuit, she still looked as beautiful as the day he had met her. But the person who stood in front of him three years later was pale, bruised, her piercing blue eyes were a shade of grey, her cheekbones protruded and his heart dropped when he noticed just how tiny she seemed. He felt sick just looking at her, thinking about everything that could have happened since he had last seen her.
No one had believed him. The police had followed the line of enquiry that Hanna and her friends had orchestrated a plan to go on the run from the charges that were about to be brought against them in regards to Mona's murder. He knew it wasn't true, and no matter how much evidence of A he had brought to them, and no matter how much he begged them to believe that the four girls had been kidnapped and anything could be happening to them, no one seemed to take him seriously. Except for the girls parents; they all did their best, along with Toby, Alison and Ezra to find the people who had been stolen from them but they had come up empty every single time.
As each year passed, their desperation never stopped and the amount of love they felt never dwindled but their hope did. One by one, they started to drop out of the search parties until none of them had the energy to walk through the woods, or travel across into the next town and the town beyond that to see if anyone had seen them. Their hope had vanished with each passing day and soon enough, Caleb was left with nothing other than the memories and the knowledge that Hanna would never run away from him, or what they had. No matter what the police tried to tell him, he knew she was in danger and he hated how they would so happily turn their backs on four young women who needed them.
Toby couldn't even wear the uniform after it all; it was a shame, and Caleb had tried to convince him otherwise as he told him that he was a good officer, that he could change the way the Rosewood police think and the way they do things but the weight of his own colleagues not believing him was too much and he had hung up his uniform and tried to forget all about how much he had wanted to make a difference in the small, but drama filled town of Rosewood.
The police had let them all down, but none other than the person standing in front of him. She had been left all alone for three years, undergoing things he could only imagine. "Hanna?" He finally spoke, breathless as he just took the moment in. He didn't move towards her, he had no idea what she had been through or how she had gotten there, he couldn't risk terrifying her even more. Although he wanted nothing more than to just wrap his arms around her and tell her that everything was going to be okay.
Her eyes were clouded with confusion when she looked up, and stared at the person in front of her as though she had no idea where she was, or how she had gotten there. He had so many questions but none of which he could ask right then, not when the person he loved so much was standing in front of him in nothing but a t-shirt that was hanging off her tiny frame. He had so many things he needed to do – he needed to get her inside, he needed to keep her warm whilst he called the police, an ambulance, her mother, Toby, Ezra, Alison, all of their parents to see if anyone else had made it home as well or if Hanna had been the only one to escape.
She didn't say a word as she looked at him, so he slowly moved to rest a hand on her back, gulping down bile when he felt her bones beneath his fingertips as he led her into his apartment. He wanted to apologise for the mess but it seemed menial in comparison to the fact she had been with A for three years. She had been without him for three whole years and he swore he would never let her out of his sight again if he could help it. "Sit." He whispered, helping her down onto the couch before he hurried to grab his phone and then ran into his room. He didn't hesitate to grab the most comfortable, biggest hoody he could find as he dialled 911.
"Here..." His voice was gentle as he handed it to her and her nose instantly went to the fabric, a ghost of a smile on her face as she remembered the scent she had loved so much. "I need the police and an ambulance, please." He managed to get out, "Yeah, my girlfriend has been missing for over three years and she just turned up at my door step... Hanna Marin, her name is Hanna Marin. Tell Detective Tanner that she needs to get here now." After he gave them his address, he hung up and looked at her, "I'm going to lift that t-shirt over your head, okay?"
She only nodded her head and he moved to lift it from her frail body, his hands shaking when he saw the extent of the injuries that littered her body. Scars littered her pale skin, fresh bruises along with old ones, scrapes and cuts that looked as though she had been running and he wanted to know where she had been running from. Had she been so close to him all this time? Slowly, he put the hoody on her and pressed his lips to her forehead, before his eyes glanced down at her bare feet. They were covered in large cuts and dirt, so he knew she must have been in the woods at some point. But how far had she been? And had she been there for three years?
He softly moved to sit next to her, his heart fluttering when she moved to put her hand in his and rested her head on his shoulder. Her blue eyes fell to a close and he knew she must have been exhausted, he wished she would say something but he understood why she hadn't. She was there and she was alive, that was all that mattered to him, he was never going to let her go again. With a shaking hand, he typed out the text he had never thought he would be able to, to everyone other than Ashley – she deserved to hear his voice rather than see the words on the screen – Hanna's home. Is anyone else?
He received the first text back before the police arrived, from Ezra – Aria's home, too. Going to hospital, see you there? He typed a quick reply, his heart thumping against his chest when Toby text him and then Alison, all four of them were home and all four of them were as safe as the four traumatised girls could be. But why? After three years, why would A let them go?
His eyes closed, and he held the phone to his ear when he dialled a familiar number, "She's here." He whispered into the phone the moment she answered, her voice filled with sleep and then he could practically hear her jumping out of bed and getting dressed. They didn't have to say another word to each other, he knew that she would be there before Detective Tanner was, so he hung up the phone and looked at Hanna, "Your mom will be here in five minutes," He reassured her, feeling a tear falling down her face and onto his shoulder, "Spencer, Aria and Emily all made it home, too... you're all going to be okay."
The years had taken his toll on him, he had found himself going over the day Hanna knocked on his door or Ashley's door a thousand times over. He had thought about what he would say or what he would do if he ever saw her again but with her sitting right next to him, he had no idea if anything he could say would be the right thing. He just had to wait a few minutes for her mother to be there and maybe she would know what to say to Hanna, she would know the right things.
A breathless red head ran through the door moments later and she moved quickly to drop to her knees right in front of her daughter, "Oh, Hanna, oh my baby girl... you're home, you're home." Their eyes met and Hanna let out a broken sob before her arms wrapped around the woman she never thought she would see again. Ashley's arms wrapped around her, and her eyes met with Caleb's, "The police are coming, I heard sirens, I'm not leaving her alone with them for even a second. I don't trust them."
He nodded in agreement, about to say something but instead, was distracted by the sound of someone walking into his open door. Detective Tanner, just as he had asked for, her eyes fell onto a shaking Hanna before she took a deep breath and motioned for the paramedics to follow her in, "Is someone going to tell me what's going on?" She asked and Caleb just looked at her with nothing but hatred in his eyes as he stood up, "I told you, I told you a million times over that she had been taken and you didn't believe me. Does she look like someone who just ran away?"
With a look of disgust at the woman, he turned his attention back to Hanna, knowing his only focus needed to be on her right now and not the person who had let her down. If they had helped, maybe they would have been able to find the four of them sooner, if someone had actually believed them, then she could have been home years before and he wouldn't have to try and figure out how he was going to help her move on from years of damage. If someone had actually believed him... maybe everything could have been okay and the person he loved wouldn't be shaking in her mother's arms whilst the paramedics tried to convince Ashley to let go so they could check on what injuries the young woman had.
If someone had believed him, it wouldn't have taken three years for Ashley to hold her daughter.