Reunion Homecoming Chapter 4

"Hi mom." Hanna said as they walked into the house.

"What are you doing here Hanna?" Her mom asked.

"The school sent me an invite to the high school reunion." Hanna explained.

"Why? You didn't even graduate there." Ashley said.

"The letter said that because of everything I did involving the school, the charity events and fundraisers as well as how close I was to actually graduating with them and being crowned homecoming queen they would really like me to attend." Hanna responded.

"Oh well that was nice of them. Since you're here you may as well stay in your old room. It doesn't look much different from when you left just a little emptier." Ashley said. She turned to leave but then stopped and looked back at Hanna. "It's good to see you home finally Hanna. I have missed you around here." She added warmth finally making it's way into her voice.

They made their way upstairs to Hanna's old room and just as her mom had said it didn't look much different. Personal stuff was missing but other then that the room looked as if she had never left it.

"We should get ready for the reunion it's in a couple hours and the sooner we get there the sooner we can leave." Hanna said opening the garment bag she'd brought in with her with the dress she planned to wear inside.

"I think you're going to have a good time tonight no matter what you think right now. Forget the past Hanna it's done and over with I'm sure everyone here has moved on with their lives as well." He husband told her wrapping his arms around her from behind and kissing her neck gently. She squirmed and laughed lightly.

"That still tickles." She said looking at him over her shoulder.

"Hmm. Really?" He replied kissing his way up her neck until he could capture her lips in a hot searing kiss. It was brief but the emotion behind that kiss managed to knock the breath from Hanna.

"I love you." She told him as he moved away to grab his suit and get ready for the reunion himself.

"I love you too. I'll be by your side all night don't worry." He told her giving her a gentle kiss to her forehead before entering the bathroom to shower and change.

When he came out of the shower Hanna went in for her own shower and half an hour later they were both ready to leave.

"We're leaving now mom." Hanna said standing in the door to the living room where her mom was currently watching a movie.

"Okay. Have fun you two." Ashley said with a small smile.

The drive to the high school took only a few minutes but in those few minutes Hanna's nerves skyrocketed to an insane level.

"Relax everything's going to be great." She told herself quietly as she got out of the car and took her husbands arm. He smiled and nodded at her clearly having heard her mumbled words.

"Yes everything is going to be just fine." He said with a soft smile.

The high school gym was decorated like a fairy land. There were fake trees and soft lights, stars hanging from the ceiling and table all around with name tags on them. Hanna walked to the table set just inside the door and handed over her invite to the brunette woman sitting behind it.

"Hanna?" The woman asked. "Hanna Marin?"

"Yes?" Hanna said not quite sure who the woman was.

"It's me Danielle. We went on a double date once remember?" She asked with a broad smile.

"Danielle? Oh wow I would never have recognized you, you look so different." Hanna said her own smile gracing her face.

"It's good to see you again Hanna. No one was sure if you would come or not but here you are." She said giving Hanna a warm hug in welcome.

"It's good to see you again too Danielle." Hanna responded before turning to the room and surveying it for anyone she might know while her husband and Danielle chatted for a few minutes.

"Hanna!" A loud voice yelled out to her right causing heads to turn in her direction and suddenly there were four very curious women bearing down on her.

Aria the one who had spoken reached her first. "Hello Aria." Hanna said when she reached her.

"Oh my God I can't believe you came!" She said still in that loud voice of hers.

"The letter that was sent requesting my presence was so heartfelt that I couldn't not come." Hanna responded.

"Well we're glad you did come." Spencer said as she came up alongside Aria.

"Hey Spencer you look really good." She said giving Spencer a hug and then receiving one from Aria as well.

"Thanks. Toby's around here somewhere I'm just not sure where exactly." She said with a laugh gesturing to the room at large.

Emily and Paige came up next each giving her a hug and welcoming her back home. They made her feel as if she had never left although she knew that they probably had a lot they wanted to ask her about her leaving and how her life had been over the past ten years.

"Ezra is around here somewhere too though I'm not entirely sure where. He might actually have gone off with Toby somewhere." Aria said as she too looked around for someone.

"Did you come here alone?" Emily asked not noticing the man standing with his back to her still talking to Danielle.

"Um no. I'm here with my husband actually." Hanna said.

"Oh where is he?" Aria asked looking around.

"That would be my cue to step in and say hi I think." her husband spoke from behind her after turning around and looping his arms around her waist.

"Caleb!" Four voices exclaimed in surprise staring wide eyed at him behind me.

"Hello ladies nice to see you all again." Caleb said with a big smile and a laugh at how surprised they had been.

"I didn't know you two were back together let alone married." Spencer said the first to regain her voice.

"Yep been together ten years now though we've only been married for seven." He said proudly.

"Ten years? But that's when Hanna left…" Aria trailed off not wanting to bring up Hanna's leaving.

"I called him the night I left after my car broke down. He came and got me and we've been together ever since though it did take time for us to move past all that had happened between us." Hanna explained quickly.

"Wow." Paige said speaking for the first time. "Congrats you guys."

"Thanks." Caleb said with a smile before looking down at her in inquiry. "Want a drink babe?" He asked.

"Yea sure. You know what I like. Nothing alcoholic though." She reminded him as he moved off with a nod and a smile.

"You're not drinking tonight Hanna?" Aria asked her own glass almost empty.

"I can't. I'm pregnant." She said on a quick breath.

"Awe. That's great. I'm so happy for you guys." Spencer said as she drew her own hands down and over her rounded belly. It was clear to see that she too was expecting.

"You too Spence." Hanna responded. "Boy or girl?"

"We don't know. We wanted to be surprised." Spencer said with a chuckle. "Though Toby and I have a bet going on about what the gender is. He says boy I say girl." Spencer said with a laugh and an eye roll.

"Aria, Emily do you guys have any kids yet?" Hanna asked curiously.

"Um Ezra and I have three kids actually. We have the twins Rina and Tommy who are five and then we have baby Myles who's eight months." She responded happily.

"Wow congrats to you guys."

"Paige and I are trying to get pregnant now." Emily said with a small smile as she grabbed Paige's hand and gave it a squeeze.

"Here baby I got you club soda and lime." Caleb said as he rejoined them and handed her the drink.

"Thanks." She said with a smile. Turning back to her friends she plucked up the courage to ask about Alison. "So where's Alison?"

"Not too sure. She went travelling after senior year and though she comes back every once in a while she doesn't stay in touch very well." Aria explained. "I believe she said no to coming tonight as well." She added.

"Oh that's too bad." Hanna said. "I would have like to have seen her again."

"Not sure that would have been a good idea." Spencer said with a shake of her head.

"She hates me for leaving doesn't she?" She asked.

"No. She doesn't hate you she just isn't the same Ali we all knew. She's darker more unstable it's why she travels around so much now. She just can't handle staying in any one place for too long." Spencer explained.

"That's too bad. Maybe someday things will change." Hanna responded.

"Yea maybe." Emily agreed a slight frown marring her features.

A silence descended on the group not an uncomfortable one but more of a who was going to speak next one. After a minute had passed Hanna decided to speak up.

"I'm sorry for running away" She blurted out. Everyone stared at her a bit stunned by the change of topic. "I didn't mean to leave the way I did but there was a point where I just broke for a moment and before I knew it my bags were packed and I was driving out of Rosewood. I just couldn't stay any longer." Hanna said trying to explain her actions that day.

"We don't hold it against you Hanna if that's what you've been thinking all these years, if that's why you never came back. We all just assumed that you needed to get away after everything that had happened those last few years. That it all became too much for you." Aria said gently.

Knowing they never hated her brought tears to Hanna's eyes. "It was. There were too many terrible memories tied to this town. Too many losses and bad experiences that broke me down one by one until I barely had anything left." She tried to explain. "Alison being killed and then finding out she was still alive the whole time, me being hit by a car, my best friend turning out to be in on everything and wanting me dead, Maya's death then Garrett's and Wilden's and then Caleb being shot and him eventually leaving." she paused and gave Caleb a watery smile reassuring him that she held nothing against him anymore. "My mom being arrested and Ezra being shot just added to it all and I just couldn't deal anymore." Hanna said as tears ran down her face.

Caleb rubbed her back soothingly trying to calm her by letting her know he was there for her. He knew she had to get this all out, it was time.

"We would have helped you through it Hanna you know that." Spencer said patting her on the shoulder.

"I know you would have tried but you couldn't fix me. There was only one person who could fix me and when I left I wasn't sure I was ready to ask him for help. I started breaking down when Caleb left and thinking about everything that had happened in those years after Alison disappeared added to it all. Pieces of me began to break away and if I had stayed here even one day longer I would have shattered. I almost did. My car ran out of gas a little over an hour away from Ravenswood and even though at the time I didn't know that I had been going there to look for him I knew at that moment he's the one I needed right then." Hanna said as Caleb pulled her into his side and kissed her forehead gently.

"What did you do?" Aria asked curiously.

"I called him in tears. Told him I needed help, where I was and that I didn't know what to do now." She smiled at Caleb and laughed lightly. "He was in the car within minutes and speeding his way to me. Took me somewhere safe to stay for the night to regroup and then took me to California to stay with his mom while I got myself help and restarted my life again. He didn't once leave my side even told my mom off when she tried to drag me home." She said with a laugh and a broad smile.

"Told you a long time ago Han I would protect you with everything and against anyone, including your pretty terrifying mother." Caleb said making everyone chuckle at the joke.

"So what have you been doing all these years?" Emily asked everyone nodding their heads to the question letting Hanna know that they were all curious as to the answer.

"Well after the argument with my mom I closed myself off in my room for a week. Caleb had to force me to eat and bathe I was a bit of a basket case. He talked to me a lot, sang to me, tried to keep me from completely falling apart, and after a week of me not saying anything besides 'yes', 'no', and 'I don't know' I finally spoke a sentence. I told him I needed help." Hanna said with a sad smile.

"I talked to my mom who had a friend who was a therapist, we got Hanna in to see him and then waited anxiously to see if it would help. At first it didn't seem as if it was helping but after a couple of weeks Hanna started smiling and talking, she was doing her make-up and dressing more like herself again. It was a long process and I'm grateful I had my mom to help because I was so scared that she would slip through my fingers again, that I wouldn't be strong enough to save her." Caleb said shaking his head slowly. Everyone just stood there shocked and silent not knowing what to say.

"I got help and I got better. I knew that I had to for myself as well as Caleb." Hanna added.

"My mom told me once that having Hanna around gave me the strength to help her and she was right. I knew that as long as Hanna was there with me I would fight to help her. It took a long time well over a year but eventually she was able to function again. She started online classes to finish high school, applied to colleges in the fashion industry and got in to more then one." Caleb said proudly.

"Wow. Congrats Hanna." Spencer spoke up smiling.

"It was great. I ended up choosing The California College of the Arts majoring in fashion design. It took four years to graduate but I did it and now I have my own little boutique in Montecito and I love it. It was tough though because I had to work hard to keep the scholarship I qualified for as well as working a part-time job."

"That's really great Hanna. You did it though, you got through it. What about you Caleb what did you do?" Aria questioned turning to Caleb.

I went to Berkeley for Computer Technologies of course." Caleb said with a wide grin and a laugh. "We got an apartment five minutes away from Hanna's campus and we lived there until we graduated and then we went back to Montecito and I began working for a computer company that had recruited me right out of school." Caleb explained then Hanna cut him off.

"And I worked with his mom and opened a boutique using connections I had made in school. I sell my own custom fashion as well as special fashions from local designers. Right now we're working on expanding."

"That's really great you guys. Sounds like leaving here was good for both of you. So how long did it take you guys to get back together?" Spencer asked nosey as always.

"Funny story really. There was no official we're back together declaration. We didn't need the words we were just together. We never questioned it and neither did his mom or his step-dad, though his brothers did tease him a few times." Hanna said with a laugh.

"Oh. So you just got back together without saying you were back together?" Paige asked a bit confused.

"To be honest I never truly thought we were over. I always thought he'd come back to me eventually." Hanna said.

"Always." Caleb whispered in her ear loud enough for everyone to hear.

"So Caleb how did you propose?" Aria asked curiously.

"Well we were in our second year of college and we were sitting at the kitchen table studying. I was working on breaking into a computer hard drive remotely and Hanna was working on her concept for her fashion line as part of her work study program. As I was sitting there listening to her pencils on the sketch pad and watching her chew on her bottom lip in concentration I just blurted it out." Caleb said flashing back to the night he asked Hanna to marry him.

The Proposal Flashback…

"I'm gonna spend the rest of my life with you, you know." Caleb said causing Hanna to look up quickly.

"Me too." She answered with a smile.

"I mean it Hanna. I want you forever. I want to spend the rest of my life with you and when that life is over I want to come back and do it all again with you." He said getting up and moving around the table, turning her to the side so he was kneeling between her legs.

"Caleb…" Hanna whispered tears filling her eyes.

"I wanna marry you Hanna." Caleb said suddenly grabbing her hands and kissing her knuckles.

"What?" Hanna gasped surprise etched across her face.

"I, Caleb Rivers, am asking you, Hanna Marin, to marry me." He told her his words making no mistake as to their meaning.

"Oh Caleb." Hanna said shock still clearly written across her face.

"What do you say princess, will you marry me?" He asked.

"Yes. Yes I'll marry you." Hanna said with a laugh throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him passionately on the mouth. Once her answer registered with Caleb he began kissing her back as he picked her up from her chair and began twirling in a circle their laughter mingling with the kisses as they both celebrated their newly engaged status.

"I'm gonna love you forever Hanna I promise." Caleb told her as they stopped and just stood there starring at each other.

"And I'm gonna love you just as much Caleb Rivers." Hanna said fiercely as she pulled his lips back to hers and initiating another fiery kiss.

End of Flashback…

"Wow. Who knew you had that kind of romance in you Rivers." Aria said sarcastically slapping him on the back.

"No one knew but Hanna. It was something I only ever showed her. She was the only one who ever deserved to receive it." He said smiling at his wife briefly before turning back to the four girls. "You'll have to excuse us for a while though I really want to dance with my wife now." He said as he took Hanna's hand and lead her onto the dance floor.