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2.

Whatever he said to Hanna, he can't deny to himself that the wounds on his back aren't paining him. As soon as he saw Hanna writhing on the floor, he'd tried to pull her attacker off and once he'd realised that wasn't going to work, he'd dived on top of her as a human shield without really thinking about how much it was going to hurt. Even knowing what he knows now, he'd have still done the same again. In the dim light, he can see her arms, shoulders and legs are covered in burn marks. It makes him hot with anger to think of someone doing that to her. It makes him want to cry to think of her going through it alone.

And even though he's furious at himself for getting caught and feeling guilty as hell for not making a backup plan, a large part of him is glad he's here to protect her from the worst of it. She's leaning against him and he can feel her shivering. It feels more natural to have her in his arms than it has any right to.

"Hanna," he says. "Back at the Lost Woods Resort… Did you mean what you said?"

She tenses. "We're seriously going to have this conversation here?"

"Why, you got something better to do?"

"Yeah!" she pulls away enough to look at him. "Like finding a way out."

He can see the pain in her eyes but he knows if she relents, if they can share their feelings, she'll feel better. But he knows Hanna's stubborn. Eventually, he sighs. He has no argument to counter her with. "What have you tried so far?"

"Trying to break the door down. I didn't know what else."

"Okay, let me try." He pushes himself upright but the flex of his spine stretches the skin across his back and every burn seems to scream in unison. A loud groan slips from his lips.

Hanna grabs his hand and tugs him back down next to her. "Don't. You can try later. It stops hurting so bad after a while."

He tries to regain composure. He hates that she knows so much about this. "How many times have they-?"

"Three," she says, not looking at him. "That was the fourth."

His chest aches for her. He places a hand on her jaw and gently turns her head to face him. A tear slips down her cheek and he wipes it away with his thumb.

"Han-"

"I did mean it," she says. "What I told you at the Lost Woods Resort."

A shiver runs down his arms. "I never stopped loving you either."

Her lips twitch into a smile but then she turns away from him again and he's left wondering whether he imagined it.

"Aren't you going to say anything?"

"What do you want me to say, Caleb? Great, we still love each other but I'm engaged and you're dating my best friend."

"It's not- we're not serious."

"And does Spencer know that?"

"I-" He remembers her telling him she loved him, just hours before he heard the same from Hanna. He hadn't expected it from either of them, but there's only one of them he's able to say it to in return.

"I'll take that as a no."

"I never meant for-"

"Yeah, well you did," she says, although he's not sure she's even guessed the end of his sentence.

"I thought you'd moved on. You got engaged!"

She whips back to face him. "Because you left me! What was I meant to do, spend every day hoping you'd turn up on my doorstep?"

"Be honest with me when we saw each other again."

"Honest? You want honesty, Caleb? Because honestly I did spend a long time hoping you'd turn up on my doorstep. When you left, I cried every day for months. I nearly got fired because I couldn't function at work. I even went off Chunky Monkey ice cream. I turned down every date I was asked on because I thought if I could never love anyone like I loved you then what was the point? And then I met Jordan and he was kind and charming and- and he understood how important my job was to me and that sometimes I had obligations I couldn't get out of. But you know what?" she brushes roughly at a stray tear, "I was right all along. I couldn't love him as much as I loved you. As much as I still love you. I would end things with him in a heartbeat if I thought we could work things out."

"We can work things out," he says. He hears how desperate he must sound from the wobble in his voice, but truth is, he is desperate. He knew he always loved Hanna, but it wasn't until he saw her again, until she got taken from him again, that he knew how raw those feelings still were. "Hanna, I want to be with you."

"Then why are you seeing Spencer?"

"You weren't the only one messed up by our breakup, Hanna." He stares at her, silently pleading for her to understand. "When I arrived in Europe I was barely taking care of myself. I was drinking a lot, sleeping rough some nights, it was like I had regressed or something. It was crazy, you know how much I wanted to go on that trip, but once I was there, I couldn't enjoy any of it. I just kept thinking of you and missing you. I came so close to booking flights home so many times."

"Why didn't you?"

He's relieved that she sounds more curious than angry now.

"I thought… what if you didn't want to see me? What if, there was another guy living with you in our apartment, or- or you'd moved out altogether and I had no way of finding you. I was a coward, I guess. Scared to get rejected again."

"I never rejected you, Caleb."

"No, but everyone else in my life has." He stares down at the ground and shakes his head. "You know what my childhood was like, Hanna. I don't like to use it as an excuse but I-I'm just trying to explain. It felt like you were choosing your job over me. It felt like I wasn't good enough, like I was getting in the way. I guess all those stupid insecurities from being a kid messed with my head." He takes a deep breath. "I shouldn't have left you like that though. I did to you what my Mom did to me."

She doesn't reply at first but their tips of their fingers mingle together in the dirt on the ground.

"Tell me about Spencer," she says, gently.

"Well, we bumped into each other out of sheer chance. I needed a friend," he says. He looks at her out of the corner of his eye. "And that's all it was. Friends. We explored Europe together. I finally started feeling again, being interested in all the wonderful things I was seeing."

"Spencer being one of them?"

"Not like that. I told you, we were just friends. And when I came back to the States, I didn't have a base, I couldn't be in New York, not without you, so it made sense to go and visit her in DC and get work there. But nothing ever happened between us. Not until you told Spencer you were okay with it."

"Which I wasn't, by the way."

"Then why did you-?"

"Look," she interrupts, "you've told me the when, but you've still not told me the how or the why? Or what you actually feel for her?"

"She- I- she's not you," he says. From the look that Hanna gives him, he can almost hear her unspoken no shit! "We get on. We always have. And- and then we had all these shared experiences together and things started to get, I dunno… confused, and I guess I just got caught up in a- a relationship that I didn't even know if I wanted. I like her, I do, she's a good friend-"

"You fuck all your friends?"

"Hanna!"

"What?" she throws her hands up in the air. "I'm just saying! You've told me like three times that she's your friend but if you'd referred to me like that when we were together, you'd have got your butt kicked."

"Yeah well, you're always more than just my friend."

Hanna falls silent and he holds his breath as he waits.

"So, what are we now then?" she asks, in a small voice.

"More. I hope." Their fingers interlock. "I've tried to fight it, because I thought you were happy and I didn't want to ruin that for you, but being with you just feels right. Whenever you're in the room, you're all I can think about. Even when you're not in the room! I just wanna be with you all the time. And when we kissed, it felt like I was back where I belonged. With you. You felt it too, right?"

She shifts awkwardly, looking down at their joined hands rather than his face, the gap where her engagement ring should be. "Yeah, I felt it," she finally admits.

He exhales with relief, bringing her hand to his lips.

She looks at him. Her bottom lip trembles. Then she pulls her hand away. "Caleb, don't."

"I thought you wanted this?"

"I do! But not like this. We both have a load of baggage to sort through first. We're both in relationships for a start. How do we deal with that?!"

"I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Hanna. I think it's worth a few difficult conversations."

"There's not a chance in hell I'm grovelling to Spencer for permission to date you."

"Then don't! But if we want to be together, we're going to have to tell her something." He pauses as he notices Hanna's expression. "What, don't you want to be together?"

"After everything, do you honestly think we can just start where we left off?"

"Then we start somewhere else," he says. "Just like when we first met. We get to know each other again. I love you, Hanna, we can make this work."

"I do love you," she says. "But I need time to think."

They're poised, one at each side of the door, waiting. Her legs feel like jelly. She looks to Caleb for reassurance and finds he's already watching her. He looks calm but she recognises the agitation in his eyes.

"You know the plan?" he whispers.

She nods. They've been left alone for a while now so they'll be paid a visit any time. As soon as the door's opened, Caleb will grab him, she'll prevent the door from being locked and then once Caleb's floored him, they'll both run. It's far from fool proof, but it's all they've got.

"You sure this is a good idea?" she asks back, her voice low.

He shrugs. "You got something better?"

"I just don't like the thought of you fighting with him."

"I know how to throw a punch, Hanna."

For a fleeting moment, he looks like the roguish sixteen year old she first fell in love with and if it wasn't such a serious situation she would have smiled. "This is a bit different to threatening little brats who won't pay up!"

"Are you laughing at me?"

This time, she can't help but smile. "No."

"Good," he says, but he's grinning too.

She keeps her gaze on him. He always manages to make her feel better, even now, when they're stuck in hell. She can't imagine losing him from her life again. "Caleb?" she whispers.

"Yeah?"

"I want it too."

She can pinpoint the exact moment he realises what she's talking about. His eyes widen and lock with hers. There's everything within his gaze; love, hope and grief for all the time they lost. It's not hard for her to read, partly because she knows him, partly because she feels the same. He doesn't move other than a smile which spreads across his face. Slowly, she returns it.

Then the noise of an engine cuts through the silence. They both snap back to their posts. Caleb raises a finger to his lips and she nods; they have to take him unaware.

She tries to listen for footsteps but her heart is beating in her ears so loudly she can't hear anything at all. She feels lightheaded. Every muscle in her body is tense, waiting to spring into action. Then when she hears the key in the door, a surge of nausea hits her so intensely she's sure she's going to be sick. She looks at Caleb. He looks composed and focused and if it wasn't for his hand repeatedly tapping at his thigh, she wouldn't think he was scared at all.

The door opens and Caleb immediately swings into action with a well-placed punch and a shove that has their captor stumbling away from the door. She takes her planned move and blocks the exit. But the masked man is soon back upright and his fist collides with Caleb's cheekbone.

She watches in terror as the two men fight. All it would take is one hit to disable him, and they can escape as planned. But as Caleb chances a look at the door, he receives a blow to the stomach that has him doubling over. She can't help it; she screams.

With Caleb still regaining his breath, the man is able to catch his arms and fold them behind him, pinning him against the wall.

"Go!" Caleb shouts.

She shakes her head, crying.

"Hanna, run!"

She glances over her shoulder into the woodland. She could run. She could escape and send help back for Caleb. But what if she can't find help before it's too late?

"Please, leave me, just run!"

His voice cracks and she can hear that he means it, but there's no chance she's going anywhere without him. She takes a deep breath and steps back into the room. He struggles even harder.

It happens before she has chance to react. Their captor whips a syringe and jabs it into Caleb's arm. She watches as the fight drops out of him and he starts to sink in the other man's grip.

"Go… Han…" he slurs.

She watches in horror as his eyes roll back in his head and he falls limp in the man's arm.

He releases Caleb, doing nothing to soften his fall and just watching as he smacks the ground.

Then he turns to her.