Hello i'm so sorry for not updating in months. From the middle of November on I've been working on oneshots, and several of them I'd started in 2012/2013. Anyway. Now those are finished. And now, as we're in 2021 I'm getting back to working on my stories as I usually do.
If there'll be a long A/N for this chapter? I just wanted to say that since the last chapter I finished a story and started some. And I'm not going to list them, if you're interested in them you can just go on my profile. But I just want to brag some about aaaaaaallllllllll the oneshots I've written.
So, these are the ones I've shared lately.
-If only I could find the answer- Cobra Kai
-Words I could say, feelings I couldn't- Cobra Kai (For epilepsy/ seizure/ SUDEP awareness and in memory of Pat Morita)
-Could this really be the truth?- Cobra Kai (AU after season 2)
-Different son, different dad- Cobra Kai
-The forgotten kitchen towel- O. C.
-Give my heart a break- The dumping ground
-Crazy famous wolfmoon- Harry Potter
-Second chances I never thought I'd have- Julie and the phantoms
-Secrets kept- Harry Potter
-Without you I'm in pain- Twilight
-A wealth bigger than all- Ghost whisperer
-All I want for Christmas- Annie (In memory of Ann Reinking and Albert Finney)
-Some things change, some do not- Julie and the phantoms
-Parents and children- Julie and the phantoms
I was a bit obsessed with Cobra Kai for a while. You can probably see that.
Well, now we're here and happy new year. Hopefully 2021 won't be as bad as 2020 was for the whole world.
It was supposed to be in the A/N for Nathan's chapter that his dad looks like Christopher Kirby, and Kacey (the dog) looks like Sage/ Mischief from the dumping ground.
In this chapter Taylor's dad, Paul looks like William Zabka and Traci, the maid looks like Alexis Bledel
Taylor Hagan
I couldn't remember once when I'd seen my parents talk to each other without fighting or working...
I didn't expect them to be anything else when I came home from that island. But as I came inside the airport and looked around for my parents all of that was forgiven and forgotten.
There they were!
So many times I had thought that if I'd miss my parents then I'd miss going shopping with my mum using dad's credit cards. I'd miss spa days, makeup and changing clothes twenty times over and over until I hopefully found the right outfit…
And not until I was here and leaped into mum's arms, and within a couple of seconds I felt dad wrapping his arms around me from behind me I knew that it was actually this I had missed.
And I held on. After four weeks without them and not knowing if I'd ever see them again I held on as if my life was depending on it.
"Tay." When we finally took a step back from each other dad wiped the tears from my cheeks with his hand. "It's okay now. You're okay. You're home." He pulled me close to him, closer than what I could remember he had ever done before. "You're safe now."
We might have been standing like that for hours. When we at last stepped back and I dried the tears with my hands there were a whole lot fewer people in the airport that had been there when we first came.
Not until then I remembered what they had been doing when we came.
"What were they clapping for?"
Dad just gave a short laugh and patted my shoulder.
"Come on now Tay… Let's go home."
Home was a very beautiful word.
As we got into my dad's SUV mum, for the first time I could remember mum sat in the back seat with me, with her arm around my shoulders and she kept asking about the island and what I'd been through.
"But how did you even survive?" She asked for at least the twentieth time just as we went into our block. "I mean… how?"
"I can't even understand that myself… I guess we just sort of… took one day at the time and hoped for the best."
Hoping for the best. Just like I'd been hoping for Traci to wait for me when dad pulled over in front of our house and I saw her by the driveway right away.
Traci had been my nanny ever since I was born. I had grown up with her just as much as with my real parents. I didn't need a nanny anymore and hadn't needed for a long time but Traci was still around and made sure we didn't starve or ended up with food poisoning.
And I was closer with Traci than I was with anyone else.
Now, I had barely gotten the time to step out of the car and onto our driveway before I and Traci were wrapped in each other's arms.
"I knew you'd return. I just knew it."
I couldn't help but wonder about how many people there had been out there who hadn't been thinking we wouldn't come back for the last four weeks.
But as I gave one last stop, right after I and Traci had let go of each other I looked up and over our mansion.
Never before I had noticed how big it actually was. And how big it must be to everyone else who returned to theirs.
Mum, dad and Traci were still standing right behind me. But none of us said anything while I just looked around. First outside and then as I stepped inside and breathed in.
"It still smells like home."
I froze for another few seconds standing right inside.
This moment was special…
I'd guess it would from tomorrow or so I would just be passing here like I always had. And soon the days would be back to their normal pace.
"You've been having to live without your usual ways for the last four weeks I guess." Traci said and I nodded without a word. "Now, when you're finally back, what do you want to start with? Should I tap a bubble bath, or cook your favorites? Or go and buy something?"
"I…." Had this been a month ago, I would have wanted all of it- but where should I start? "…I think I'd like to start with just a long, warm shower and some clean clothes."
"I know your favorite sweats." Traci gave a short laugh. "If you just step into the shower then I'll get them and put them outside…. And then I'm pretty sure I know your favorite meal. Or has that changed during the last few years?"
"Thank you so much."
It felt like a thousand years since I'd last had a shower. And I felt sand and dirt and bacteria creeping all over me.
I could have gotten the chance to shower tonight, we all had. But for some reason I had only stayed sitting in a chair at the hospital.
As one after one of us were checked by a doctor. No matter how much we assured them we were fine except for cuts, bruises and having lost all we'd ever eaten by the sea sickness one doctor only with two nurses checked us all over, gave us each sandwich and then let us wait in the waiting room all night before we knew there'd be a plane to take us back home.
After all, the last forty-eight hours had been weeks longer than the four weeks on the island.
While I pulled my clothes off and threw it in the laundry bin I could have sworn it was at least a thousand years since I showered last. I stepped into the shower and then turned the water on as it started pouring, then a bit warmer and a bit warmer…
I knew Lex had made that shower on the island and I probably wouldn't have survived without it.
But not the best kind of shower could have compared to this. When I turned the water on so warm it was steaming around me and used way too much shampoo. When I washed through my hair with shampoo and conditioner and then myself with soap more times than I could keep count on.
And at last I only stood there in the shower, just feeling the warm water pour over me and knowing Lex wouldn't be there to scold at me for using too much I finally knew I was home.
I could have stayed there all day, I didn't. Knowing I'd have to go out sooner later, at last I wrapped myself in the biggest, softest towel I could find before I just stood and watched myself in the mirror for another few minutes.
Was this really it?
After everything that had happened, did I really look the same?
If I met someone out on the street? Couldn't they see what I had been through?
No!
After everything my skin was just as white, my hair just as blonde and my eyes just as blue. When I dried my hair with a hair dryer and pulled on a silk sweatsuit I realized when I'd gotten them I never knew what would happen before today.
Then at last as I went out into first the living room and then the dining room everything, just as well was like it had always been where Traci was just finishing dinner, mum was sitting by the table and dad was in his office.
I knew dad wasn't trying to be mean or like he didn't care about me or anything. And I knew that for the life we lived he had probably taken enough of days off.
But couldn't he have waited just one day after I finally came back home with going back to work?
"Thank you."
I sat down by the table just as Traci came and put a plate right in front of me.
For a few seconds I only stared down at it, as if I'd forgotten to eat regularly and use knife and fork. Then, just at the same as mum did and dad came out from his office and into the kitchen.
"I just had to make a phone call and write an email…" He said while he made his way to his usual spot on the other side of the table from me. "…And I have some good news for the both of you…" Mum rolled her eyes. "I saw that. But hear me out. Now. If there's anything I've learnt during the weeks that we haven't known where you are it is that we should never take for granted what we have. So we should always live with everything as if we could lose it all like that…" Dad snapped his fingers to show how quickly it could happen. "…So, if you can accept my apology that I never have before. Today I will have dinner with you, and I'll leave work the whole afternoon. And I will do the same tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow and every day after that."
Dad looked around the table as if he thought he'd get a round of applause for what he'd said.
I just wasn't so sure about it…
But he'd gotten the chance to promise it a thousand times before. He never had, still.
"I get it if you don't believe I will Tay." Dad reached out his hand over the table and showed me to do the same and lay my small hand in his big, warm one. "I've broken promises before. Loads of them. But I guess now you've learnt a lot, so have I. And now you're back once and for all maybe it's time to use what we've been taught. And I had a lot of time to figure how I could be the best dad for you if… when you came back. So when we finally fount out that you would and when we were going to meet you then I had already promised myself I was going to live up to it."
I would guess too then I knew…
Dad came around the table and sat down on the kitchen couch with me. I leaned my head against his shoulder and he laid his arm around my shoulders- just like this we'd been sitting so many, many times before.
Really, life would be going back to normal maybe quicker than we thought it would…
And it would be quite soon I and mum finally found out if dad would keep his promise or not.
There really had come good parts with those four weeks. And it was really true. The reason seemed to have been to show us what the most important parts of life was…
Random facts
Writing this chapter it was just longer and… sort of confusing. More than any other chapter. But I sort of like it anyway and I hope you liked it too.