A/N: Exams are over *does a dance*

So I thought I'd update, however it's hard to type at the moment because I've hurt my hand and can't really move my hand. I also had my Cervical Cancer vaccination and now my arm really hurts... even after three days. I personally think it's cos my friends keep hitting it.

Here's chapter 29 :)


Chapter 29 – The Reality and the Refusal

She was sitting on the chair by the window when he woke up, her blue eyes pale and sparkling as a blanket from the bed they had shared hung around her shoulders. He frowned as she silently stared at the view out of the window, her legs tucked up against her body. She looked completely torn, deep in thought and a little lost. He leant up on his elbows and waited for her to prompt him into speech, not sure if he wanted to ask her about the almost twenty-four hours they'd shared in bed together. It was probably best to wait until she was ready. He didn't want to make her angry, when he'd only just managed for her to keep calm around him.

"I need to go see my Dad again..." she muttered to him with a shy smile that made his heart flutter and his stomach drop.

He gulped and nodded, "And we should really go and see if we can find Joe and Mandy..." He laughed and shrugged his shoulders, "They're probably wondering where we are," He jumped from the bed and stretched, "I'll go find you some clothes... and then I'll call a cab."

She nodded and smiled thankfully, "Thanks Nick."

He looked back at her in the doorway and shrugged his shoulders, "It's no problem, Miley."


They couldn't find a cab but he managed to find her some old smaller sweats that he hadn't taken with him when they moved and a t-shirt that swamped her body. He'd guided her, still wrapping her body in warm clothes he'd found around the house, to the bus stop along the street that took them to the hospital. He stood there, helping her to put the hat over her bandage, smiling at her when she thanked him nervously and watched making sure that no one looked at them. They were so heavily dressed and layered that it was almost impossible to identify them through the tonnes of layers of clothing that covered them on the ice cold winter morning. Thier scarves covered their mouths until only their eyes were visible, hands covered in gloves and only inches of skin visible. If anyone recognised them, they were a genius, a stalker, or their own mothers.

They stepped onto the bus, Miley swiftly moving to sit at the back of the empty bus as Nick paid the elderly driver their fair. He sat opposite her in the other corner and face her, watching her shiver in the cold, pulling her clothes tighter around her.

"Cold?" he asked her as the bus started moving.

She smiled and shrugged her shoulders, "A little bit..." he saw her visibly gulp, "A little nervous too."

"Why?" he frowned blowing into his hands, thinking about how they still hadn't put heating on these stupid buses. They'd always been cold, even when he was a kid.

She smiled weakly, "I'm feeling a little bit hopeless about this whole seeing my dad thing."

Nick suddenly realised, his face fell and he nodded in understanding. Her cheeks turned pink and she looked out of the window away from him, looking across all the houses filled with families who had their own problems and their own things to worry about. Nick sighed didn't know what to say, he just stared at her for a few minutes waiting for something to come to him. He was a songwriter. Wasn't he meant to be good with words?

"I'm sure he was just a little upset after the accident."

She sighed, and she sounded a little irritated, "I haven't spoken to my father in a civil conversation since the night at the City Of Hope concert," she explained still looking out of the window, "I some how doubt that's why he was upset. I think it's more to do with the sight of me."

Nick didn't know what to say, instead he let the cliche fall from his lips, "I'm sorry."

She was silent, and he could see the tears forming in the corners of her eyes refusing to fall down her cheeks where he could and might catch them. Her arms tightened around her body and she continued to look away.

"He could have died, ya know?" she whispered, her voice struggling with the emotion fighting through it, "He could have died and I wouldn't have ever have got to explain things to him... told him how I really feel... told him that I love him..." she shrugged her shoulders and gulped, "and he would have died hating me."

Nick shook his head and stood up, he sat down in the seat next to her, grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly.

"He doesn't hate you..."

She smiled and shrugged her shoulders, "Maybe... I don't know anymore."

"Everything's going to be okay..." he whispered to her, attempting to squeeze her hands one last time, before letting go.

But she wouldn't let him, her hand squeezed his and held tightly onto it. He looked down at their hands entwined and to her face still looking out of the window and gulped nervously. So many things were happening, so many things that could get his hopes up... but he couldn't let them. There were more important things than his own hopes and desires... like her.


"You had the key the whole time?! I spent all that cash on the damn Honeymoon suite... Risked potentially fatal media coverage and you had the key the whole time?!?" Joe screamed as they stood waiting in the hospital entrance for Miley's mother to come and find them, "I could kill you if I wasn't in the right place for someone to save you! You're an ass!!"

"Can you keep it down!" Nick hissed, trying to calm him, eyes shooting at the people around them, they hadn't seemed to have noticed, "We didn't get out of the hospital until three in the morning and I was specifically told not to give you the key!"

Joe opened his mouth to protest, but it was Mandy who covered his mouth, shaking her head and nodding her head towards a nervous Miley who sat on the uncomfortable seats waiting for her mother and Brandi, "Stop talking. No one gives a crap that you had to pay for a hotel. We're here for Miley."

Nick cocked his eyebrow at Joe, recieving a scowl in return as they walked over to Miley, meeting Tish and Brandi on their way. Nick wanted to reach out and hold Miley as she stood up nervously, smoothing out the layers of his clothing that she wore.

"How is he?" She stuttered nervously, reaching out for Mandy's hand, "Can I see him?"

Her mother shook her head and looked to the floor, "I'm sorry Miley..."

"What?" Miley asked confused. She looked to Brandi for answers, "What does 'Sorry, Miley' even mean?"

Brandi shook her head before moving away back to the doors, "He doesn't want to see you."

Miley's eyes widened and she looked around, her cheeks blushing in embarrasment, "Are you serious?"

Her mother nodded guiltily, and all Miley wanted to do was to scream and tell her to be on her side for once, because she was being a complete idiot at the moment. They both were.

"I need you to go back to L.A.-"

"No."

"Miley..." her mother said warningly, "I need you to go back to L.A. and get Mammie... you know she doesn't like flying on her own... you can take the jet and it'll be okay... you'll be back by the morning..."

"No."

"Miley!"

"I'm not going..." she looked around at them all, "I'm not going... this isn't my fault and I don't know why I'm being punished for him being a complete idiot about everything!"

"Miley! This isn't about you! This is about the fact that you're father nearly died and I need you to do this for me!"

"Well I'm not doing it!" she yelled, and everyone was looking at her, "Why should I when he doesn't even give a crap about me?! I'm going to freaking stay here until he lets me see him."

She parked herself on the chair and folded her arms like a brat, crossing her legs as her feet tapped the air. Tish looked down at her and around to her friends with an annoyance on her face that said it all. She looked like she'd hardly slept, like everything was all a bit much and this wasn't what she needed.

It was Joe that spoke up first, looking over at Mandy with a sigh.

"We'll go get Mammie..." Mandy nodded at him in understanding, "We'll take the car there... and fly back..." he looked across at Nick, "Nick can stay with Miley at our old house... as long as they don't kill each other..."

Tish thanked them, handed them a wad of cash from her purse to pay for their gas, and kissed them both on the cheek as they walked away. Nick watched Miley as she saw them walk away, her eyes angry and her face stern and fierce.

Tish shook her head, "He doesn't want to see you."

Miley looked up at her, a heavy teenage roll of her eyes visible to everyone.

"FINE!" she stood up and let her arms fly up at her sides as she began to walk away out of the hospital and onto the street, pulling up her hood over her head and kicking items of trash on her way.

Nick looked at Tish, ready to run after her until she was gripping at his hand and pressing something into his palm, "I'm sorry..." she said with a gentle smile that Nick could find no sympathy with, "I've increased her allowance for now... buy what she needs... take care of her."

He frowned as she let go and walked away from him back inside with the silent Brandi following them. He looked down at his hand and saw Miley's trusty credit card. He shook his head and rolled his eyes, chasing after her.


"Miley..."

"Shut up, Nick!" she warned as she threw things inside the supermarket cart, not actually looking at half the prices, just continuously throwing all kinds of tasty comfort eating treats into the cart without a second thought, "I don't need you to tell me everything's going to be okay! I know its all lies! He's a fool... but it's not like I don't deserve it..."

"Miley..." he tried again as she approached the last ailse. He'd found her in the supermarket five minutes after leaving the hospital, knowing her a little too well for her own good, "What are you doing? You haven't-"

"I'm stocking up for the time ahead... I'm no charity leach on your family..." she grunted as she hauled a crate of diet coke into the cart, "I can pay for my own stuff..."

He sighed and watched as she wheeled the cart to the cashier with speed and purpose, "But Miley..."

"No! I'm not going to just sit around and let you completely change up your life because I'm in it... I'll pay..." She loaded the items to the teenage cashier who just gawped, mouth wide-open at the two teen stars standing in front of her, completely baffled, "I don't want you to have to look after me... I can pay for myself..."

Nick nodded and waited as the girl tallied up all the items, the price going up higher and higher as the two teen stars watched it... slowly incresing into triple figures.

"That's 142.50..." the girl said nervously looking around at the little digital screen so as to prove herself.

Miley smiled and put her hands into her pockets before the realisation of her poverty set in and she fished for the few quarters and dollar bills she'd had stowed away into her dress a few nights previous. She gulped and looked up at the girl.

"Dollars?"

The girl nodded.

Miley sighed and turned to Nick her cheeks turning pink, only to find him standing there, her credit card held up between their faces, an amused smile on his face that said it all.

She simply smiled, unamused and snatched it off of him, handing it to the girl, who finished their transaction, and timidly asked for their autographs on a back of a receipt.


a/n: How was that? Short chapter next chapter. If I get five reviews before I go to bed... I might update it too... it's not really worthy of a proper update :)

PS. Don't drink during the day kids... it really makes you feel worse as the days goes on... you know... if you're old enough to drink...