Thank you to everyone that reviewed on the last chapter! Hope you guys enjoy chapter 14! Happy reading!


ERIN

"That would be the media," I say with a sigh. Damnit. I didn't think it would leak or spread this fast or even if I did that they would care so much. There is so much happening in the world, why are they so wrapped up in a girl who might be dating the President's son?

"Do you want to leave?" Hailey asks, those big blue eyes full of kind concern.

"No," I say, "They'll spin that, say I'm hiding or something,"

"But you are," Kim says, her tone remaining confused.

"I know," I say, "But that will reflect badly, the entire world will assume that Jay is hiding me and therefore, Juliette is hiding something,"

"You've talked about this?" Hailey asks.

"Of course," I respond, continuing to lie calmly on the beach chair, "We had too."

"I'm sorry E," Hailey says, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"No I'm sorry," I say, staring off into the blue waves, "This was supposed to be for us and I ruined it,"

"No you didn't," Kim assures me. "This is one moment, we are in Greece for two weeks and Hank told you not to worry,"

"How do you know that?" I say with a smile.

"He told us to make sure you followed instructions," Hailey says with a smile. "And we're more than willing to oblige,"

"So what do we do now?" I ask, looking at the two of them for inspiration.

"We are going to run into that beautiful blue water like no one is watching," She tells me with a grin, "Then we're going to go back to the hotel, shower because we'll be gross and wait for my grandmother to give us more food than we'll ever be able to finish. The pictures will be taken, sold to the highest bidder and you will worry about it when you have to. And we'll be right there to pick you up,"

"I'm good with that," Kim responds, grabbing my hand and squeezing it. "You're our girl, you have been for a long time. We got your back."

"Okay," I reply, tears brimming my eyes as I realize how thankful I am to have them.

"You ready?" Hailey asks as she grabs my other hand. I sigh, staring right into the lense of those invasive cameras.

"Yes," I assure her, "I'm ready."


And that is exactly what we did for fourteen glorious days, reveling in the beautiful scenery, sailing between the islands as we enjoyed our final days together, cell phones off. I missed talking to Jay and I don't think I'd ever gone that long without talking to either Hank or Camille, but it was good to me to unplug.

But as our flight lands at O'Hare, Hailey and I have to step back into the real world, and she's a real bitch. Today I get to know what the world thinks of me, how my family, my friends reacted to those pictures of me in a blue bikini. How Jay reacted.

We had to say goodbye to Kim in London before sending her off on her flight back to LAX, a goodbye filled with more tears and hugs than I thought possible as I bid a farewell to my roommate of four years.

"Thank for everything." I tell Hailey as the plane begins to touchdown on the tarmac. "This trip was exactly what I needed,"

"Anytime girl," She says, giving my hand a quick squeeze. I'm dreading turning my phone back on, I know it's going to be flooded with notifications. But I only care about two of them, Hank and Jay. "You ready to face the music?"

"No," I say with a laugh, thrilled that we didn't encounter any more photographers after we left Santorini and that no one recognized me. "But I really don't have a choice do I?"

"I'm sorry buddy," She tells me, "You don't deserve any of this,"

"I knew what I was signing up for when I met him." I answer, my nerves rising as we come closer and closer to the real world, the ever present threat of Charlie looming above me.

"Is he really worth it?" She asks, knowing exactly what I'm scared of.

"I love him," I tell her with a shrug and honest eyes, revealing that one fateful piece that I kept from both of them. "Maybe that makes me naive, it probably does."

"Wow," She says as we continue to taxi back into the gate. "I didn't know,"

"I didn't tell you," I responds. "It's fast and I know that, there will be consequences for everything that we do and I know that too, but yes, he's worth it. And he's earned that, from me anyway,"

"I'm just glad you're happy," She says. "You deserved that, more than anyone in the world,"

"Thank you," I say, pulling her in for a quick hug, grateful that she's won't be more than a twenty minute drive away from me.

"And I totally want to meet him," She finishes with a smirk.

"Hailey," I say with a sigh.

"Hey, you're my girl. I have to make sure he's taking care of you," She assures me.

"He is," I tell her with a small smile. "He's the best, you're going to love him,"

"I better," She says with that signature smirk, "It's he's putting you through all of this, he better be ready to move heaven and earth,"

"Oh you have no idea," I say with a sigh as the seatbelt sign blinks off.

"Welcome to Chicago!" I hear over the loudspeaker, the very friendly flight attendant's voice much more excited than it should be after a very long flight. But her tone does nothing to calm my nerves or the anxiety growing in my chest. We quickly grab our bags from the overhead bins, making our way to the baggage claim to grab the luggage that have definitely swelled in size from the last time we checked them in LA.

But what I don't expect to see is mine and Hailey's name on a sign in the pick up area.

"Did you order a car?" I ask, glancing over at her confused.

"No," She responds, looking equally as out of the loop. "Did you?"

"No," I say, perplexed. "I was just planning on grabbing a cab,"

"Who the hell is that then?" She asks as we weave out way through the crowds, just far enough to reveal the face of Kelly Severide, his good friend Matt Casey standing next to him. I can't help but smile.

"Kelly," I say, a smile gracing my lips as I walk up to him. We became friends when I was sixteen and he was eighteen. Benny and Hank knew each other and the Voights desperately wanted me to make new friends in an attempt to keep me away from the ones on the wrong side of town. That's where Kelly came in. He stayed in Chicago to attend the Fire Academy and we became great friends and I eventually set him up with Anna, who he's still with today.

"Little Lindsay," He says with a chuckle, pulling me in for a hug. "You remember my buddy Casey? We ride together on the truck,"

"Yeah of course," I respond, still confused at their presence, Hailey standing awkwardly next to me as she's only interacted with them a couple of times. "What are you doing here?"

"Anna saw the pictures, we all did," He informs me. I groan.

"I'm sorry, I wanted to tell everyone, I really did. I was just going to wait, until I got back," I tell him.

"It's okay," He says. "I don't care about that. Anna was just worried that they'd be waiting for you here,"

"Who?" I ask.

"Photographers," Hailey fills in sheepishly.

"Yeah," Kelly answers.

"She was right wasn't she?" I ask.

"Theres about twenty of them right outside those doors," Matt tells me, pointing towards a set of sliding doors.

"You've got to be kidding me," I say with a groan, suddenly wishing that I looked a little more put together. "How did they find me again?"

"I don't know, but she sent us to get you guys home," He says. "And to be your bodyguards I guess. We're not as good as the Secret Service, but we'll have to do right?"

"Thank you Sev," I say, pulling him in for a tight hug, grateful for Anna's quick thinking.

"You ready to do this?" Matt asks.

"No," I say, glancing upwards at his tall frame. "But what other choice do we have?"

"We got this," Hailey says, squeezing my shoulder. I can tell that people are looking at me, slowly recognizing me, but I just tune it all out.

"Okay," I say. "Let's go," As we get closer and closer to the sliding doors, the chatter grows louder and Kelly slips his arm around my shoulder, his frame shielding my face, Matt doing the same to Hailey. I can't see anything but a boom of light as the doors, questions flying at me as we try to move through as fast as possible.

"Are you involved with the President's son?" I hear someone shout from one direction.

"How long have you been together?" Another yells on my left.

"How is he in bed?" I hear someone call, the flashes of the bulbs blinding me, his words causing a deep red blush to fill my cheeks.

"Don't say anything," Kelly whispers into my ear as he ushers me away, Matt and Hailey not far behind us and all their words jumbling in the head. I can feel my heart beating out of my chest as we finally find solace in the elevator of the parking garage across the street.

"That was pure insanity," Hailey says, out of breath. "Who knew you were such a hot commodity?"

"You okay?" Kelly asks, ignoring Hailey's light joke.

"Yeah," I responds, "Just a little shaken up. I'm not used to it,"

"You did great," He assures me, pulling me into a tight hug. "C'mon lets get you home," I nod silently as Kelly and Matt toss our luggage into the back of Kelly's car, Hailey and I carefully stepping into the backseat.

"You okay buddy?" She asks, grabbing my hand for the one second that were alone.

"I will be," I answer her, my heart still racing a million miles a minute.

"So," Kelly says as he lands in the front seat, "Where's that new apartment of yours?"

"Actually," I respond, "Can you take me to Hank's? There's just some stuff I need to talk about them with,"

"Yeah of course," He says, looking back at me with a charismatic beam. I let my lips rise into small smile in response to his, hiding the deep fears now pulled right up to the surface. I take a deep breath before pulling my phone out of my purse, turning it on for the first time in weeks.

I brace myself for the onslaught of notifications that I know is waiting for me and I internally groan as I see the thousands of follow requests on Instagram, hundreds of texts from people I haven't heard from in years and more tags on Twitter than I can even count. But in all of that, there's just one message that stands out.

I'm sorry. -JH


"Thank you for everything Kelly," I say as we pull up in front of the Voight house, the sun starting to set behind us. "You too Matt,"

"Anytime Lindsay," He assures me, Matt slowly nodding his head in agreeance. I respond with my own solemn headnod before pulling Hailey into a tight hug.

"I'll see you soon okay?" She tells me. "Can't keep us apart for very long,"

"Okay," I say with a laugh.

"C'mon," Kelly offers, "I'll help you with your bags,"

"Alright," I reply, quickly jumping out of the backseat to grab my two now very heavy suitcases.

"It's going to be okay," He says out of the blue as the two of us stand there.

"Is it?" I respond, really, truly unsure of the outcome for maybe the first time.

"You're Erin Lindsay and you are tough as nails, I know you won't scare that easy," He replies with a smirk, a glint in those blue, blue eyes.

"Thank you again," I say, grabbing a loose hug.

"Anytime," He says, echoing his earlier sentiments. "Call me if you ever need anything,"

"I will," I say with a nod. I then grab my bags and wheel them back towards the house, grinning as I see the three of them waving at me from the car.

"Mom, Dad!" I call as I walk through the unlocked front door, eager to return to normalcy. "I'm home,"

"Erin!" I hear Camille exclaim, jumping up from her spot and dashing into the front hall to meet me.

"Hey Mom," I say with a grateful smile as she engulfs me in a tight hug.

"I have been so worried about you," She whispers in my ear.

"What?" I ask as I slowly pull away, "What happened?"

"We saw the pictures," She tells me. "How did they find you?"

"I don't know," I say. "I have no idea,"

"Your father was about ready to jump out of his shoes when he saw them," She says with an almost light chuckle. "He was so mad,"

"Speaking of, is he around?" I ask, my eyes wandering past her.

"Upstairs in the office, he's always bringing work home," She says with a soft groan, "Justin's out with Peyton, but he'll be home in a couple hours and I'm sure he'll happy to see you,"

"He's 17," I say with a laugh, "He's never happy to see anyone,"

"Go see your dad," She says with a smile, "Are you hungry? I have a bunch of leftovers in the fridge that I can heat up for you,"

"That'd be great," I say with a smile, "I'll just be a minute,"

"Take your time baby girl," She assures me. I nod, parking my suitcases at the base of the stairs before ascending up to talk to Hank. I've managed to keep my nerves under wraps, but were back on the ground now, he's here. Charlie could be anywhere. I want to call Jay, but I have to keep my priorities in check.

"Dad!" I call as I walk down the hallway to his office.

"Hey kid," He says as I hear his pen scratching along paper.

"Hi," I say quietly, taking a seat on the floor, my legs tucked under me. "What are we going to do?"

"What do you mean?" He asks, not even looking down at me.

"Charlie, what are we going to do?" I ask. "Dad I'm scared,"

"Don't worry about it,"

"How am I not supposed to worry about it?" I ask, close to falling into the realms of hysterical. How am I supposed to not worry about it? He almost killed me when I was 16, I have no doubt that he'd do it again, or go even further.

"It's been taken care of,"


Hope you guys enjoyed! Please review!

Xoxo,

Addie