Caleb stood anxiously waiting for his wife and daughter to arrive. Their plane was due any moment, and he couldn't wait to see their faces again. It had been 3 days too long.
"Caleb!" a voice called out from behind. Caleb shot around and a grin immediately formed when he saw the blonde he'd been missing so much. The brunette started walking forward, but it soon turned into a run. His arms automatically opened and Hanna jumped into them. Madelyn, too, jumped up and wrapped her legs around her father's hips, despite Hanna being right there. The small family of three embraced in a long, warming hug in the middle of the airport. "I've missed you so much," Hanna whispered as she nuzzled her head into Caleb's neck. She pulled back and started repeatedly kissing Caleb's lips with short, sweet kisses.
"I've missed you too." Caleb grinned at Hanna before looking down to his daughter, who was holding onto him with all her might. He bounced her up, readjusting Madelyn's position. "And I've missed my Maddie bug sooo much."
"Miss oo!" Madelyn exclaimed. "Love Daddy!"
"I love you too, Maddie!" Caleb replied. He kissed his little girl's forehead and gripped her tight. He'd missed cuddling with her. He'd missed reading her stories at night. "You and Mommy aren't allowed to leave Daddy and Bella again, okay?"
"Believe me, we don't want to leave you again. It sucks being without you, babe," Hanna said. She stretched her arm out to hold Caleb's hand, but he wrapped his own arm around hers instead. Hanna was pulled in close and the couple, along with Maddie on Caleb's side, wandered over to the baggage claim to collect the luggage.
2 hours later, Hanna was curled up on her couch with Bella on her lap, Maddie snuggled into her arm and Caleb still with his arm around her. They were sitting in a calming silence, watching Maddie's favorite film: Frozen. She had requested to watch it on the airplane ride, and Hanna promised her they would all watch it when they arrived home. It had to be the hundredth time Hanna had watched it, but she never seemed to get bored. In fact, she was even singing along to the songs. Caleb, on the other hand, was not enjoying it. The first three times of watching it was enough for him.
As the credits rolled down the screen an hour later, Caleb cleared his throat before standing up and heading to the kitchen. He reached into the cupboard and pulled out a bag of chips, along with a couple of pieces of candy for Madelyn. The toddler squealed when she saw what her dad was bringing back, but Hanna tutted. Madelyn was only ever allowed candy on special occasions — which was Hanna's idea. She did not want a repeat of the other evening when Ezra bought her back on a sugar high. That was Hanna's worst nightmare.
"Caleb!" Hanna hissed with one eyebrow raised. "You know how she gets with candy."
"She'll be fine," Caleb reassured. Although, he didn't look too convinced when he glanced suspiciously at the toddler who was now chomping away happily. "You'll be fine, right Mads?"
"Candy candy candy." Between mouthfuls, Madelyn repeated her favorite word again and again. To Hanna's horror, Maddie's first word had not been Mommy or even Daddy. Nope, it had been candy. That was quickly followed by her second word: sim — which was Maddie's version of swim. To say Hanna was horrified was an understatement. The first time mother had spent every day from the age of 6 months trying to teach Madelyn to say Mommy. It clearly hadn't worked. Even to this day, neither Hanna nor Caleb know how or why their daughter's first word was candy.
"See. She's already getting hyper and she's only had a small bit," Hanna grumbled. She was tempted to take the rest away, but it wasn't worth the screaming and crying fits that were inevitably going to follow. Instead, she decided she'd let Caleb deal with Madelyn when her sugar high would later come crashing down.
"Babe, do you want anything to eat?" Caleb said as he munched away at his chips. "I can order in if you want."
"I'm good. I'll grab something from the refrigerator later," the blonde replied. Bella suddenly jumped from her lap, startling Hanna. The dog trotted across the kitchen floor, with her tiny paws tapping on the tiles, over to her food. Hanna couldn't help but take a quick look to see if Caleb had been keeping up with all her food requirements. Much to her relief, he had.
"Can we pretty please not watch any more Disney movie?" Caleb begged to Madelyn. She looked up cheekily at her dad and giggled before hopping off the couch, over to the where all the movies were stacked up high and pulled one out. She came wandering back over and handed the case to Caleb, who was not looking impressed. "Really Maddie? You had to pick Ariel? That's my second hated movie ever."
Smirking, Hanna asked, "What's your first?"
"Frozen," he replied bluntly. "Hey Madelyn, isn't it your bedtime?"
Madelyn's eyes widened and her smile drooped. It looked like she was about to cry with the amount of tears brimming in her eyes. Hanna picked up her phone to check the time and gave her husband a death glare when she saw he was lying. "Caleb don't do that! Look, she's about to cry."
"It's not my fault she hates going to bed so much. Although, I really don't get why. She seems to love it in the morning. Especially our bed."
"She just doesn't want to leave Mommy. Do you, Maddie?" Hanna said, poking her daughter's side. Madelyn let out a yelp and giggled. "Because you love Mommy so much! Much more than Daddy."
"Hey, that's not fair," Caleb remarked, frowning. "Everyone knows Maddie loves me more. Even Em and Aria agree."
With furrowed eyebrows, Hanna looked over at the brunette. "When did you ask Em and Aria who Madelyn loves more?"
"It's a secret." Caleb turned away with his nose stuck up in the air. He had a big grin on his face, unlike Hanna. She was not impressed.
Two can play at this game. "Fine then. If you don't tell me, you'll be going to bed highly unsatisfied."
"You're immature," Caleb answered.
Hanna shrugged proudly, smirking. "I don't care."
Caleb let out a longwinded groan and sigh before facing his wife. "Fine, I'll tell you." That got Hanna's attention. She looked over at him and smiled, feeling rather smug. "It was the last time we all got together. You know, it was a couple of months ago at Alison's place. Anyway, you had gone off somewhere with Maddie and Spencer for some reason, so we were all talking about our kids and whatever. The conversation of which kid loves which parent more came up and everyone voted that Maddie loves me more."
"Those bitches," Hanna muttered to herself, half-jokingly. She did actually agree with them, much to her despair, but was never going to admit that to Caleb. She wanted Maddie to love her Mommy more, but that didn't look very likely.
For the rest of the evening, Hanna had a frown on her face. She sulking, and acting like Madelyn did whenever she was told no. When Caleb arrived back in the living room after putting the toddler to bed — which didn't take as long as Hanna had expected — she was still ignoring him. Hanna had also decided she would ignore her friends the next time they called, FaceTimed or texted. It served them right.
"Babe, come on. It was just a joke. Maddie obviously loves us equally," Caleb said as he joined her back on the couch. He placed his arm on her shoulder, but Hanna shook it away. "Hanna, lighten up! You know it was only a joke." Hanna shuffled around on the couch and turned away so she was shunning him. "Really Han? You're going to shun me?"
Hanna continued to ignore him, and it seemed like Caleb had gotten the message as he moved over to the armchair to the left. It wasn't until he put on a TV show Hanna despised, when she finally turned back and started talking. "We are not watching Game of Thrones."
"So you're talking to me now?"
The blonde ignored her husband's response and jumped over to his chair to snatch the remote from his hands. As she retrieved it, she gave a little victory dance. That was an instant mistake, as Caleb jumped up and grabbed the remote back. Hanna swung her arm out in an attempt to take it back but failed.
"Caleb," she moaned. "Please give it to me!"
The brunette stopped moving and held it up high. "Are you going to stop ignoring and shunning me?"
Hanna shrugged. "Maybe." Caleb raised an eyebrow, at which Hanna sighed and said, "Fine. I'll stop ignoring and shunning you. Now give me the remote!"
Caleb, with a big smirk on his face, tilted his head to the right and thought for a moment. A few seconds passed before he said anything. "Um…no." Before Hanna knew it, Caleb had darted passed her and was now in the kitchen, waving the remote in the air. Hanna gave her husband her biggest — and what she thought cutest — pout, hoping it would persuade him. She groaned loudly when Caleb shook his head.
"Caleb, please," she cried. "I just want to watch Dancing With the Stars!" Hanna said it a little too loudly, and suddenly remembered Madelyn was only upstairs. In a whisper, she repeated, "Caleb, please." When Caleb didn't give in, Hanna gave up. "Forget it. I'm going to bed."
As Hanna turned around to head towards the stairs, Caleb grabbed her arm and finally looked serious. He turned over Hanna's palm so it was facing up and rested the remote for the TV in it, although he was still holding one end. "Here you go. You can watch Dancing With the Stars."
"Really?" Hanna perked up. She had been taking this intended joke a lot more seriously than Caleb had expected.
"Nope," Caleb replied. His smirk returned and he even let out a loud laugh as Hanna stormed off. She thumped up the stairs and down the hallway, not even caring at this point that she might awake Madelyn. The blonde entered the bedroom and changed into her nightwear — she actually got changed faster than ever before.
At about 9:30 that night — 2 hours after their "argument" — Caleb headed up to their bedroom to check on his wife. He found her fast asleep in a ball on their bed, and couldn't help but smile. He had started to feel bad about the TV remote conversation — Hanna had been more hurt than he'd intended. Caleb couldn't help but think how much Hanna did overreact. It was just a remote. She always had Dancing With the Stars on the DVR anyway, so it wasn't a big deal if she missed one episode, as she could always catch up the next day. Clearly she didn't think that though.
Although he did wait until his show had finished, he had decided to come and apologise. But now, seeing her sleeping, he didn't want to have to wake her.
Better to just do it in the morning, Caleb thought.
The next morning, Hanna awoke feeling quite refreshed. She heard distant giggles and laughs and after patting the space next to her to feel for Caleb, figured he was downstairs with Madelyn. Hanna was surprised to see the time read 10:37. She never got to sleep in that late; it was definitely a rarity.
Hanna took it slow as she slid out of bed and padded to her closet where her robe was hanging. After tying it around her waist, she headed down the stairs and into the kitchen, where she found Caleb laughing as he flipped a pancake, and Maddie spluttering her pancake out as she giggled.
"This is a surprise," Hanna announced as she shuffled in. Caleb turned around and grinned, before turning back to the frying pan. The blonde wandered across the tiled floor and stroked her daughter's hair as she sat on the stool next to her. Hanna kissed Madelyn's head and then grabbed this month's Elle. She had just began to flick through when Caleb clanked through the cupboards and pulled out a china plate. He proceeded to slide the pancake onto the plate, squirted a creative pattern of syrup on, sprinkled the perfect amount of blueberries on top, and then handed it to Hanna. She smiled as she received it, and breathed in the heavily smell. Pancakes had to be her absolute favorite breakfast meal ever. "This smells amazing. Thank you."
"I'm sorry about yesterday," Caleb said, walking back to the pan. He brought it over to the sink and smiled warmly at his wife.
"No, don't be sorry. I'm the one who's sorry. That remote thing was stupid; I don't know why I acted like that," Hanna replied. "I love you."
"I love you too, babe," the brunette answered. Whilst waiting for the water to warm so he could wash up, he looked at his daughter and asked, "So Maddie, what do you want to do today?"
A sudden thought popped into Hanna's head and she made an "Ooh," sound. "I need to tell my mom and Ted about the job and everything."
"Oh yeah." Caleb had been thinking a lot about New York since Hanna and Madelyn had arrived home the previous day. Both he and Hanna had been so excited about moving back, and both couldn't wait to bring Maddie. He couldn't help but think of what a shame it was that it wasn't going to happen anymore. "I wish things had turned out differently."
Hanna sighed. "I know." It turns out, she had been feeling the exact same way. "Can't we still move there?" She was not expecting those words to come out of her mouth.
Caleb was just as taken by surprise as Hanna was. "What?"
"I don't know…I didn't mean to say that out loud. Forget it."
"No," the brunette said, holding his finger up. "Why don't we? I mean I'm sure you can find a temporary job until a better one comes along. And it shouldn't be too hard for me to get one. In fact, I'd already found one before."
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I am," Caleb laughed. "What do you think?"
Hanna needed no time to think of her answer. "Yes! Oh my God, we're moving to New York!" She got up hastily, skirted around the table and ran into her husband's arms. Madelyn was sitting with a very confused look on her face. She had no idea whatsoever what her parents were on about. "Here that, Maddie? We're going to live in New York!"
"New York!" the toddler exclaimed. Although her speech was no where near perfect, New York was one thing Madelyn had learned to say perfectly. "New York, yay!"
"When—when are we moving?" Hanna asked, as multiple serious questions popped into her head. "And do we want an apartment or house? Wait, are we just going to get that apartment in TriBeCa we had to pull out of?"
Caleb, laughing, placed his hands on Hanna's shoulders. "Babe, calm down. We can work that out later. But right now, I think we should go out to the park with Bella. Maddie, do you want to go to the park?"
The little girl nodded enthusiastically and attempted to get herself off of the stool she was sat on, but was unable to. Hanna chuckled and wandered round to help her, and the second she jumped off, Maddie went in search of the dog.
Two hours later, the young family were happily strolling through Rosewood's local park. Coincidentally, Ashley and Ted were walking their two puppies: a pair of Schnauzers called Dot and Dudley. Hanna's mom had gotten the puppet only four months ago, but Hanna had fallen in love with them. She was lucky she already had her own dog, because if not, she would have been out like a shot to get one.
"Hanna!" Ashley called. She had recognised Madelyn running around a couple's legs, looked up and then realised the couple were her own family. The blonde looked up and grinned when she saw her mother waving. Hand in hand with Caleb, she walked a little faster and as she reached Ashley, the redhead said, "You never told me you were back from New York."
"I know, I'm sorry. I got distracted with things. How have you guys been?" Hanna directed the question at both her mom and stepfather, but looked at Ted as she asked.
The pastor nodded whilst saying, "We've been good. How was New York? Did the interview go well?"
Hanna looked over at Caleb, unsure of what to answer. Considering they had agreed they were still going through with the move to the Big Apple, Hanna didn't know whether to explain the whole story, or just say it briefly. "It was alright." She went with the brief option.
Everyone started naturally taking a slow walk across the grass, with the three dogs pulling in front and Madelyn chasing the birds. "Did you guys get that apartment you asked for?" Ashley asked. Hanna had totally forgotten she'd told her mom about that.
"Um, we pulled out. We just felt it wasn't quite the one," she bluffed. "We're still looking though."
Ted turned to his son-in-law and asked, "Caleb, have you found a job yet?" Hanna felt that question was about to lead to a boring conversation she'd rather not be a part of, so decided to have a separate one with her mom.
"Maddie's getting so big!" Ashley remarked as the two women separated from the men. Hanna re-wrapped Bella's leash around her hand to stop the dog pulling so hard, and nodded.
"She's growing way too fast. It's not fair," she groaned. It was true. Just a week before heading to New York, Hanna was playing with her two-year-old daughter and as Madelyn reached up to grab her favorite book from the shelf, noticed how tall she was getting. Having a toddler was definitely full of bittersweet moments, and Hanna had not prepared herself for them.
"Are you thinking of having any more?"
That question took the blonde a little by surprise. "Um…" Now she thought about it, Hanna realised she and Caleb had never had that talk. She shrugged. "I don't know."
"I wish you would," the redhead said. Okaaaay then, Hanna thought to herself. "You're my only daughter and so far, we only have one grandchild."
A/N — a little bit of a {pathetic} cliffhanger for you ;)) what will hanna say to her mom's remark? does she want more kids ;))))))))
im super excited for tonights episode, although spaleb makes me want to throw up. as much as i hate to admit it, hanna and jordan are so cute together! although definitely not as cute as haleb because they are endgame always okay.
let me know what you thought of this chapter! 5 REVIEWS FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER