Y'all did not let me down with the reviews this time, so thank you, thank you, thank you!

Guest: Thank you so much! And thanks for reading New York, New York, too! That's definitely something I'll consider! Growth is one of my all-time favorite Fics ever, and unfortunately, nothing I write could ever compare to it, and also, I just really can't commit to regular updates right now, so it would probably be more of a series of one-shots when I feel inspired, rather than a regularly-updated long-length story, but I'll definitely keep it in mind! What would you want to see in it?

Boris Yeltsin: That sounds about right!

AshBenzoLove: I'm sorry! :( But it can't be all smooth-sailing; we just have to deal with a couple sad chapters, and then we'll get happy Haleb again, I promise! And OMG, thank you, that means so much! Thank you for reading and supporting!

hahahaleb: It's coming... Trust me, I hate Jordan with a burning passion. (I know it may not seem like it in this story, but I promise I do.) There is no way he ever gets the girl. Especially not when that girl is Hanna, and his competition is her soul mate/epic love/love of her life, Caleb Rivers. He never stood a chance.

PrettyLittleAshwee11: Trust me, I get exactly how you feel. It kind of hurt me to write it, too, but it had to happen! Not too much longer until they're together for real...

luja14: Better late than never! Thanks for joining the Illicit Affairs fam! I just love a good slow burn. Honestly, I would have preferred Haleb taking longer to get together in the show (I seriously love their flirty banter/arguing in Season 1 so much, and I would have loved to see more of that), and then have them break up a lot less often (AKA, not at all.) That's the thing; he's not a bad guy. But they have ZERO chemistry, and she's just not into him. Her heart was with Caleb. It was always with Caleb. She was just trying to convince herself she wanted to be with Jordan because she couldn't have Caleb, but she never actually wanted to marry Jordan. Ugh, I hate him (and that storyline) so much. If you want a really good rant about everything wrong with that storyline, check out the end of New York, New York. If you're not into rants, you should probably stay far, far away from that story (and probably, all of my writing, LOL).

DuncneyLoveOfMyLife: I'M SO SORRY! I knew you would hate it. :( But he finally told her he loved her! That's good, right?! And won't this make it so much more satisfying once they finally get together for real?!

The next few weeks were easily the worst of Hanna's life. She missed Caleb so badly. She would see a funny Tweet, or a relatable meme, and go to send it to him before remembering, and locking her phone again. She would hear a Bon Iver song or a Taylor Swift song on the radio, and her eyes would fill with tears as she remembered all of the great times they had shared, before everything changed.

And, in a lot of ways, it was even worse than a normal breakup. For a normal breakup, you can cry and mourn and feel sorry for yourself, and lean on your friends and family for support. But Hanna had to act like everything was okay. She had to put on a brave face and pretend that nothing was wrong, couldn't talk about it with those closest to her, and, in a way, she even felt guilty for feeling heartbroken at all, knowing that she was grieving a relationship she was never supposed to have had in the first place.

Caleb had asked her for space, and she knew he deserved that much. So she went into the campaign office a lot more infrequently, which was acceptable given the fact that she wasn't an actual employee, and, when she did go in, she did her best to avoid him. They had hardly talked at all, only saying the bare minimum when they needed to collaborate on a social media post or something. And even those conversations were incredibly awkward.

Although, there was the one night, after way too many glasses of wine, and after her trusty housekeeper, who most definitely would have talked her out of it, had left, that she had called him and left him a very angsty voicemail.

"Hey. It's me - Hanna. I keep replaying the past few weeks over and over again in my head, trying to pinpoint the exact moment I lost you, wondering if I could have...done something differently. But I just wanted to let you know that...it was the best year of my life."

As soon as she woke up the next morning and remembered what she had done, she felt so guilty. She shouldn't have done that to him. Shouldn't have made him listen to that. This was her fault, not his. He didn't need to know how much she was hurting - she had brought this on herself.

But she couldn't help wondering if he missed her as much as she missed him.

After all of the months of hard work, stress, tension, big mistakes and small victories, the night was finally here. Election night.

In true Hastings fashion, they had rented out a large ballroom in an upscale hotel in downtown Philly, and the party was in full swing.

Everyone working on the campaign, including the entire Hastings family, had arrived hours early to set everything up.

Hanna had seen Caleb running around the ballroom, setting up all of the tech equipment, connecting the projectors that would stream the election results, testing the speakers, etc.

She had wanted so badly to talk to him, to tell him how awful these past few weeks had been for her, how much she missed him, but he had asked her to keep her distance, and she was doing her best to respect that.

She saw him again right around the official start time of the party, when all of the guests began to arrive, and she noticed that he had changed out of the jeans and T-shirt he had been wearing during set-up. Her heart started to beat faster as she looked at him in his coat and tie. She recognized that tie. She had very fond memories of that tie. God, he was so attractive. Seeing him looking like this, she completely understood how she had fallen for him.

She lost him in the crowd as more and more people arrived, and she made her way around the ballroom greeting her friends and acquaintances.

She exchanged hugs with Emily and Samara, the first of her friends to arrive, aside from Spencer and Toby, of course.

Hanna asked Emily how her new swim coach job was going, and Samara told Hanna about her latest jewelry collection, before Hanna had to excuse herself to make the rounds.

Hanna next met up with Aria and her (official) new beau, Jason DiLaurentis. While she was talking to Aria and Jason, she saw Jordan approaching out of the corner of her eye, so she excused herself to go greet her husband.

"Hello, darling," he said to her, leaning in to kiss her, but Hanna turned her head at the last second, aware that Caleb was somewhere in the room, causing Jordan's lips to land on her cheek.

He gave her a strange look, but she just said, "Hey, thanks for being here!" as though nothing was off with her.

"Of course; I wouldn't miss it for the world," he told her.

She smiled absently at him, before saying, "I think I just spotted my parents, I'm gonna go say hi."

"Well, I'll come with you," he said, making a move to follow her.

"You don't need to do that, why don't you go get us some drinks?" she asked. She wasn't sure why she was so eager to get away from her husband, but she just really didn't want to be around him right now.

She met her parents in the middle of the ballroom as Jordan walked off to the bar.

"Mom, Dad, thanks for coming," she said to them, kissing them both on the cheek.

"Of course," Ashley Marin told her daughter. "We support Veronica Hastings and we support you, honey. We're so proud of you for working so hard on this."

"Yeah, maybe we were wrong about you, Han," Tom cut in. "Maybe you can handle a real job after all."

Hanna smiled stiffly. Only her father would turn praise into an insult.

She really didn't want to hang around and see how else her father could degrade her, so she told her parents that she needed to talk to Spencer about something urgent.

"Hanna, can I talk to you alone for a moment first?" Ashley asked, just as Hanna was about to walk away. Something had been off with Hanna recently, and she wanted to know what was going on. She worried it had something to do with the secret she had been forced to keep for her.

"Sorry, Mom, I can't right now, I really have to talk to Spencer," Hanna replied before quickly exiting the situation, and finding Spencer in the crowded ballroom. She and her mother had been avoiding talking about the Caleb situation and she really didn't feel the need to start talking about it now.

She was listening to Spencer talk about how she had a good feeling about tonight, but that her mother was still really nervous, and how they just wanted to know the results already, when Hanna spotted Caleb out of the corner of her eye.

"Hanna, what's going on with you two?" Spencer asked her suspiciously. Spencer had noticed Hanna kept shooting little glances in Caleb's direction, while he completely avoided eye contact.

Hanna took her eyes off of Caleb to look back at her friend.

"Nothing," she said simply. "It's over."

Spencer looked relieved. "Hanna, I am seriously so glad you finally came to your senses! Jordan's a great guy and an amazing husband; you don't want to screw that up." She knew that Hanna and Caleb had definitely started falling for each other, for real, and she was relieved to hear that Hanna was moving on from her...extramarital affairs.

Spencer could see that Hanna didn't look nearly as excited as she was about it, though.

"And this is good; soon he'll be gone, and you can just move on like this huge mistake never happened," Spencer hissed at her.

Gone? What did she mean 'gone'?

"Spence, what are you talking about?" Hanna asked the brunette worriedly.

"Wait, you don't know?" Spencer asked, shocked. "Now that the campaign's over, he's leaving Rosewood. Leaving Pennsylvania, I think."

"Where's he going?" Hanna asked urgently.

"I don't know," Spencer brushed her off. "I think I heard something about Arizona. But Hanna, this is a good thing," she emphasized, as she saw Hanna looking anxiously at Caleb again. "You could have destroyed your marriage, but you didn't, and now you have a chance to fix everything. Hanna!" she called out after her best friend as she turned to start walking towards Caleb.

"I have to talk to him," Hanna said over her shoulder. "And, by the way, he is not a 'mistake'," she spat at her as she walked away. She knew their relationship was wrong, but calling it a 'mistake' felt disrespectful, like it invalidated everything they had shared, all the things they felt for each other, all the amazing times they had together.

Caleb saw Hanna approaching, and Hanna could tell from his expression that he was considering running. But he didn't, and he was waiting for her when she arrived.

"You're leaving?" she asked him quietly, aware that there were other people around them that could potentially overhear their conversation.

He wouldn't make eye contact with her, just stared off into the ballroom behind her.

"Were you even gonna say goodbye?" she questioned, the hurt evident in her voice.

Caleb finally looked at her, and she could see the pain on his face.

"We already said our goodbyes, Hanna. And I cannot go through that again," he said under his breath. Letting Hanna go had been the most difficult thing he had ever had to do, and he really didn't think he could do it again. "You know how I feel about you, Han. And that's why I can't keep doing this with you."

She felt so awful. She knew she had been so selfish through this entire thing, putting him through this, when she knew it could never go anywhere. But she just couldn't seem to stay away from him. It's like there was some kind of force drawing her to him.

"I'm so sorry, Caleb," she whispered.

"I know you are, Hanna. But that doesn't make this any easier for me," he snapped at her.

"Look, this isn't easy for me, either, Caleb," she told him, tears filling her eyes.

"I get that, Hanna. But the difference is that you had a choice. You made this choice, for both of us, and I just had to go along with it, just like I've had to go along with whatever you've wanted since the very beginning of this."

She flinched at the anger in his voice, but she knew he was right.

"Caleb, I never meant to...I didn't want to..." she trailed off, not even knowing what to say, or how to say exactly what she wanted to convey to him.

"I know. But you did. And now I am begging you, Hanna: please, please just keep your distance from me. Because I like you too damn much to stay away from you, but I love you too much to keep doing this." He couldn't control himself around her, so he really needed her to stop tempting him, if he wanted any chance of being able to move on from her.

"You should probably go, I think your husband's looking for you," he told her bitterly, spotting Jordan looking around the ballroom, holding a drink in each hand.

She looked over her shoulder to search for him, and when she turned back, Caleb was gone. She watched his retreating figure, and it took everything in her not to follow him.

Instead, she made her way over to Jordan, attempting to blink back the tears on her walk, but, apparently, was unsuccessful.

"Hanna, darling, what's wrong?" he asked her immediately, handing her the drink he had gotten for her. "I saw you talking to that guy - Caleb. Did he say something to you? I know you used to complain about him all the time when you first started working together, and you already know how I feel about him, but you haven't mentioned him in a while, so I assumed things had gotten better between you two. But did he say something to make you cry?"

In the beginning of her time working on the campaign, she had come home every single day ranting about how annoying Caleb was, or how rude Caleb was, or how infuriating Caleb was, but obviously, after they began sleeping together, she stopped mentioning him completely.

"No, no, of course not," she reassured him. She didn't want him to get the wrong idea about Caleb. "We were just talking about campaign stuff, and I think I got something in my eye. Dust, or an eyelash, or something."

"Both eyes?" he questioned, giving her a concerned look.

"Yeah, I guess so," she snapped at him. "Look, I'm supposed to be working, so I should probably go check on what needs to be done. I'll see you later."

She downed her drink and shoved the empty glass back at him.

She just really couldn't be around Jordan right now. Not when he was the reason she had to give Caleb up. She knew how unfair that was, but she didn't care right now.

"Caleb!"

Caleb turned as he heard his name being called, and was shocked to see that the voice belonged to just about the last person he expected.

Ashley Marin was walking towards him, not looking very pleased.

"Would you like to tell me what's going on with my daughter?" she asked him.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about," he replied. He really didn't need the third degree from Hanna's mother right now.

"I am talking about the fact that my daughter has not been herself lately, and I want to know what's going on. I figure, at this point, she's more likely to talk to you about it than to me."

"I just saw her a few minutes ago, but that was the first time we've talked in weeks," he informed her. "So, sorry, but I don't have anything to tell you."

He couldn't deal with this right now. His breakup with Hanna was already painful enough.

"So you mean that you two aren't...?" Ashley trailed off questioningly. That would explain a lot of Hanna's behavior over the past several weeks.

"Nope," he said simply, hoping she would get the hint and leave. She didn't.

"What happened?" Ashley asked, genuinely curious.

Caleb shook his head, frustrated.

"Look, with all due respect, Mrs. Marin, I know how you feel about me. You don't have to act like you care about what happened between us," he said bitterly.

"I care about my daughter," Ashley retorted. "And I'm worried about her."

Caleb looked at her as she said this. Was there something wrong with Hanna? Maybe she was handling their breakup about as well as he was. He had assumed she had just gone back to her picture-perfect life with her rich husband, pretending like they never happened. Maybe he was wrong.

"Uh...how is she?" he asked, frowning. Whatever happened between them, Hanna was important to him. So if she was in even half as much pain as he was, then he felt awful that he had been the one to cause that pain.

Ashley was surprised by the genuine concern on his face and in his voice. Maybe she had been wrong about their relationship.

"Not good," she said honestly. "She's been miserable. I didn't know why, but now I'm guessing that has something to do with you." Caleb could practically feel his heart cracking at Ashley's admission. He hated that Hanna was in pain. But he had to remind himself that this was her decision; she had brought this on herself. On both of them.

Ashley hesitated before she spoke again, not sure if she should say what she really wanted to.

"You really care about her, don't you?" she asked him gently. She needed to know the truth about their relationship. Which she clearly wasn't about to get from Hanna.

"Of course I do."

It was finally time for the results to be announced, and everyone was gathered around the various projectors around the room, eagerly awaiting the results.

"And Pennsylvania's newest senator is...Veronica Hastings!"

The crowd erupted in cheers, everyone chattering excitedly.

Veronica gave a brief speech, thanking everyone for their support and their votes, and telling everyone how excited she was for this new role.

While everyone else at the party was celebrating Veronica's victory, talking and laughing and enjoying the open bar, Hanna couldn't seem to be able to muster up any excitement, not even a convincing fake smile. She was too upset over her and Caleb's conversation. She couldn't believe he was leaving. She knew that they had been, effectively, over for a few weeks now, but at least she always knew where to find him, if she suddenly had the overwhelming need to. But now he was just going to be gone; she didn't even know where, and she'd probably never see him again, and even after everything they had been through, he wasn't even going to say goodbye to her.

She knew that their conversation earlier tonight could not be their last. It just wasn't right after the many months they had spent together, and the impact they had had on each others' lives.

She knew they needed to talk one last time. Maybe she could convince him to stay, or maybe, at the very least, she could explain herself to him, make him understand how difficult this was for her, how much he means to her, despite everything. Apologize one last time for everything she had put him through.

So she wriggled her way out of Jordan's suffocating grasp, telling him she had to use the restroom. Instead, she went to find the front desk of the hotel.

Once she had found it, she booked a room with the front desk clerk. As she handed over her credit card, her mind was racing at a million miles an hour. Would he even come? He had been really adamant about her leaving him alone. She really hoped he would, though.

She knew she was being selfish. She knew that the more she held on tight to him, the harder it would be for him to let her go. She knew that he was hurt and angry and heartbroken, and yet she just kept dragging him back in to her. But this was the last time, she promised herself. They just needed closure, and then she would let him move on.

The hotel employee interrupted her thoughts, telling her the room number and handing her a key card.

"Oh, can I get an extra key?" Hanna asked quietly.

"Of course," the woman replied, scanning another card and handing it over to Hanna.

Hanna slipped one key into her clutch, and grabbed a pen off of the desk.

She took the paper holder surrounding the key, and scribbled the room number and a short message.

She thanked the woman, and made her way back to the ballroom.

She scanned the crowded room quickly for Caleb, spotting him at the bar, ordering a drink. She walked over to the bar quickly, trying not to attract too much attention, especially not from Jordan. She made her way to stand next to Caleb, who was scrolling through his phone as he waited for his drink. She ordered herself a glass of Chardonnay, and Caleb looked up as he heard her voice.

He glanced at her quickly before turning his head, obviously ignoring her.

She turned to him, grabbed his right hand, making him look at her in confusion, and stuffed the room key in his palm, closing his fingers around it, and giving his hand a light squeeze.

She grabbed her Chardonnay from the counter, and left the bar area, leaving Caleb standing there, confused.

He opened his hand to see writing on the paper surrounding the key card. He saw the number 1105, and a single word, Please?

Shortly after midnight, the party started to clear out, and after a little while, it was just the Hastings family, the campaign crew, and their closest friends and family left.

Hanna had sent Jordan home, telling him they would be fine and they didn't need his help, even after he had insisted on staying to clean up.

But she needed him to leave. She had no plans of going home tonight, or, at least, she hoped she wouldn't have to. She wasn't sure how she would explain her absence to Jordan in the morning, but right now, she didn't care about that.

It didn't take too long to clean everything up, and soon Hanna found herself saying goodnight to Emily, Samara, Aria, and Jason.

Veronica called all of the campaign crew over to thank them for all of their hard work. Hanna looked around and noticed Caleb wasn't there; she quickly spotted him cleaning up tech equipment in the now almost-empty ballroom.

After the interns and everyone else had cleared out, only Hanna, Spencer, and Veronica remained, with Caleb still unplugging things and packing up.

"Thank you so much for this opportunity," Hanna told Veronica.

"No, Hanna, thank you," Veronica said appreciatively. "You've been wonderful. If you ever need a recommendation or anything, I'd be happy to help."

"Thank you. And congratulations again!" Hanna told her.

Veronica told Hanna she was all set to go, that they could handle the rest, so Hanna began her goodbyes with Spencer.

"Goodnight, Han," Spencer said, pulling her best friend into a hug.

"'Night, Spence," Hanna replied. "Goodnight, Veronica." She waved at Pennsylvania's newest Senator as she left the ballroom.

Hanna was pacing nervously in room 1105. She kept checking her watch to see how much time had passed. 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes. She was really starting to worry he wouldn't show up.

Right after that thought passed through her head, she heard a key in the lock on the door.

The door opened to reveal Caleb standing there, still dressed in his dress pants, shirt, and coat, but his tie now undone and hanging loosely around his neck, his shirt untucked messily.

He slowly walked into the room, not taking his eyes off of Hanna, who had stopped her pacing and was staring back at him.

"I was beginning to think you weren't going to show," she said, forcing a laugh.

"Well, I was still cleaning up in the ballroom. And then I left, started driving home," he admitted. "Turned around after a few miles and came back."

He didn't miss the small smile that flashed across her face at this admission.

"I don't know what the hell it is about you, Han. I just can't seem to stay away from you," he told her, frustrated. "That's why I asked you to stay away from me. But you just couldn't listen, could you? You just have to keep dragging me into your mess, knowing how much it's killing me."

"Caleb, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that I'm having such a hard time letting you go," she told him.

"Do not turn this around and make me the bad guy!" he exclaimed angrily. "I gave you every opportunity to pick me. But you didn't. You picked him. So why can't you just leave me alone and let me move on? I can't do that when you keep coming around and begging me to meet you!"

He closed the distance between them, pulling the key holder from his pocket, and held it up so she could see the writing, see the "Please?" she had written on it.

"How the fuck am I supposed to say no to this, Han?" he asked her. "You know I can't say no to you, so why do you feel the need to keep putting me in this position? You can't do shit like this, Hanna! Or shit like...leaving sad voicemails on my phone, saying you 'don't know when you lost me.' Well, I'll give you a hint: you lost me when I poured my heart out to you, threw my dignity out the window, and begged you to choose me, and you said no.

"You wanna know what you could have done differently? You could have picked me! That is all that I wanted from you! God, Hanna, I love you exactly the way you are; I never asked you to change anything, or be anyone but exactly who you are." It was true. While everyone else had this idea of who Hanna was supposed to be, had all these expectations for her, Caleb had just loved her for her. He was the only person Hanna had ever felt completely comfortable just being herself around. She didn't feel the need to hide, or keep secrets; she wasn't worried about being perfect all the time, because she didn't have to worry about doing or saying something that would make him change his mind about her. But after 27 years of pretending to be this perfect version of herself, she hardly knew how to be anything else.

"You listened to the voicemail?" she asked quietly. A part of her had hoped that he hadn't, so she could feel less guilty about it.

"Of course I listened to it, Hanna!" he exclaimed. "I'm pretty sure I've listened to it at least once a day since you left it! But god, Hanna, why? You are the one that made this decision, you are the reason we are both so miserable right now, so you don't get to say stuff like that, don't get to...make me feel guilty about this. You are not allowed to do that, Hanna."

"Look, I'm sorry, Caleb, okay? I'm sorry. I'm sorry about everything. I'm sorry I ever came on to you in the office that day, I'm sorry for every time I showed up at your house begging you for sex, I'm sorry I let you fall in love with me and didn't end it when I realized you were starting to, I'm sorry I can't just end my marriage, I'm sorry I can't leave you alone, I'm sorry I never told you I loved you, too, I'm sorry for everything I've ever put you through," she finished, breathless.

"What did you just say?" he asked, his eyes wide open in shock.

She hesitated. She really hadn't meant to let that slip, but she had gotten so caught up in the moment, that it just came out.

"I love you, okay, are you happy? Of course I fucking love you, Caleb!" she exclaimed. "If you seriously don't realize how much I love you, then you're not nearly as smart as I thought you were. How could I not love you? I love you so much, and if I'd met you first, if I'd met you in high school or in college, it would've been such an easy decision. But that's not what happened. That's not how it is. So I figured what was the point of telling you I loved you if I knew we couldn't be together anyway? But of course I love you, Caleb." She had calmed down by the end, and she grabbed his hands as she made this last statement.

"Look, I didn't want that conversation down in the ballroom to be the way we said goodbye," she told him, squeezing his hands. "We, our relationship, deserves more than that.

"And I know you probably hate me -" she began.

"I could never hate you, Hanna. And trust me, I've tried. But I love you way too much for that." His hand went up to stroke her cheek, and she closed her eyes at his gentle touch.

She felt his lips brush against hers, but then he pulled back, almost as if he were searching her now-open eyes for her permission.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled his face down to meet hers.

Their lips crashed against each other, and he wrapped his large arms around her small body, holding her tightly to him. Their tongues tangled together as their hands roamed each others' bodies.

Caleb tugged at the zipper on the side of Hanna's dress, pulling it down, and their lips separated just long enough for her to step out of it. She pushed the suit coat off of his shoulders before blindly fiddling with the buttons on his shirt. As soon as she reached the last one, she tugged it down his arms so he could shrug it off.

He lifted her up and dropped her gently on the king size bed. He looked down at her, hair splayed out over the pillow, chest rising and falling, eyes wide open and shining as she stared into his.

"You are so beautiful, Hanna," he murmured, just taking her in. He seriously still couldn't get over just how beautiful she was, and sometimes he couldn't believe that he had ever even gotten the opportunity to be with her at all. Even if they hadn't gotten the ending he had hoped for.

He kicked off his shoes and socks, before pulling off his pants, leaving him hovering over her in just his boxers, her below him in just a black lace bra and panties, much like the set she had been wearing the first time they had had sex, all those months ago in the campaign office.

He leaned down to kiss her, being sure to support his weight so he didn't crush her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, toying with the dark hair at the nape.

He broke their kiss to reach behind her and undo the clasp of her bra, before pulling it all the way off and tossing it on the floor beside the bed, and immediately, she was pulling him back in to kiss him passionately again.

He felt her hands roaming his bare back, grasping his shoulders, running down his arms.

He pulled away and began to place gentle kisses down her neck, around each of her breasts, down her flat stomach, and her sensitive bikini area, pulling down her panties to get full access.

He placed a kiss right there, and her back arched up off the mattress, as she moaned his name.

She knew he wanted to take his time, and she did, too, seeing as they both knew this would be their last time together, but she needed this, needed him, and she could feel the heat burning already.

"Caleb, please," she whimpered. "I need you."

With that, he placed one last lingering kiss right above her centre, before pulling her panties all the way off, and slipping off his own boxers.

He reached over to flick off the light, and he looked back down at her to see her skin glowing in the lights from the city outside the window.

He settled himself comfortably between her legs, and grabbed her hands, interlocking their fingers and positioning them beside her head.

He leaned in to kiss her passionately again, their tongues exploring each others' mouths, and he positioned himself at her centre, ready to enter her.

She could tell as soon as he started to push into her that this time would be so much different than any of the other times they had slept together. Usually, their lovemaking was rough and passionate and intense, but this time, they both wanted to take it slow and make it last as long as possible.

He entered her torturously slowly, letting her feel herself stretching with each push a little bit further.

And instead of thrusting into her quickly over and over again, his motions were slow and controlled, taking his time to fill her, and explore how deep he could go without it being painful for her.

In the several weeks since they had been together like this, she had already forgotten just how big he was, just how perfectly they fit together, just how amazing he made her feel.

He could feel her nails digging into his back as they rocked back and forth together, finding a steady rhythm.

Eventually, she could feel herself getting close. She squeezed her legs together subconsciously, just trying to make the feeling last, and, with that, Caleb came undone, the sensation being too much for his sensitive member. As soon as she felt Caleb spill himself inside of her, she let go, so they could ride out their orgasms together.

"I love you, Caleb," she murmured against his lips. Now that she had said it, had admitted it to him, she figured there was no harm in saying it again, especially now, in this most intimate moment.

"I love you, too, Hanna," he replied, and she could hear the emotion in his voice, as though he needed her to understand how much, understand just how deep his love for her ran.

Neither wanted the moment to end, so they stayed, twined together, holding each other close, for as long as possible.

Finally, Caleb rolled over, and she groaned as he pulled out of her.

He pulled her close, her back to him, and wrapped his arms around her waist, tucking his legs up under hers. Part of him wanted to stay up all night talking to her, savoring every single second with her until they went their separate ways, permanently, this time - now that the campaign was over, he'd be moving on from Rosewood as soon as he could get packed up. There was nothing here for him anymore.

But, as much as he wanted to take advantage of the little time they had left together, he didn't know what else there was to say. He had told her how he felt, how much he loved her, how much he wanted to spend his life with her, and she had made her choice. And as much as it absolutely killed him, he knew he had to accept that.

So he didn't say anything, just held her tight, and she listened to the steady sound of his heartbeat until they both fell asleep.

When Hanna woke the next morning, she rolled over and reached to the other side of the bed, searching for him, opening her eyes when all she felt was air.

Her eyes filled with tears, lonely, heartbroken, regretful tears, as she realized he was gone.

She sat up and looked around the hotel room, noticing a piece of paper on the bedside table. She reached over to grab it, and she couldn't stop the tears as she read his scribbly handwriting.

Hanna,

Sorry I ran out so early - I had to get home to let Brody out, and I figured it would be easier for both of us anyway. I'm not convinced I could have walked away from you again if I looked into those beautiful blue eyes of yours.

Last night probably shouldn't have happened, but I'm so glad it did. You were right - that was the only appropriate goodbye. I don't regret it, any of it, and I hope you don't, either. I wish things could have ended differently, but I respect your decision. And I hope you understand mine. I want you to know that I was never trying to pressure you into anything; all I want, more than anything, is for you to be happy. So I really hope you are, Han. I hope you get everything you've ever wanted, and have the best life possible. You deserve it, you deserve everything. You're incredible, and I feel so lucky that I got to have you in my life, even for such a short time. Although we didn't get nearly as much of it as I would've liked, I'll never forget the time we spent together. I'm so grateful for it. For you. Despite everything, it was the best year of my life, too. And I would do it all over again, if it meant I got another year with you. I love you, Han. More than you even know.

Always,

Caleb

P.S. Brody misses you already.

And so do I.

If I hated you guys, and myself, and Haleb, this would be a really good ending, don't you think? But there is no way in hell that I am going to be the one stopping my OTP from getting their happy ending, so come back next Sunday for more!

Please review!