Author's Note: Another Chapter! Yay!
Hanna
On her desk was a conglomeration of pens, papers, folders, a breakfast burrito from Taco Bell that remained untouched, and mismatched hair ties in various tacky colors. As she continued to rifle through the drawers and contents on the desktop, in search of a specific file, she, in her fervor, knocked a picture from its stand with her elbow. "Shit," she grumbled, righting the picture for the fifth consecutive time that morning.
This time though, instead of going right back to looking for the seemingly lost item, she paused to glance at the photo, to revel in the happier time in which it was taken.
It was of her and Travis, their arms wrapped around each other, with their daughter, Paisley, in between them. Travis' left hand covered her own atop her burgeoning belly, and all three of them were beaming. Hanna sighed, finding herself close to tears once again. However, she gained some joy in remembering these occasions, if only for a moment.
"Paisley! Wait a minute honey, mommy wants to take your picture! Can you say 'cheese!'?"
Hanna fought to focus the camera lens. It was zoomed in so close that the only image she could see was a section of blonde hair, although wether it was her's or her daughter's she was uncertain. "Ugh, Travis can you please help me with this camera!? It's impossible!"
Her fiancé laughed at her hyperbolic remark as he took the camera from her. After pressing a single button, and peeking at the lens for confirmation, he smiled. "Say cheese!"
Hanna was taken off guard, stumbling a bit on her flat shoe. The exclamation hadn't made her smile, which was its intent, and she frowned instead, the corners of her lips turned down in sudden aggravation. "No! Just give me the goddamn camera!"
She grabbed it from his hand, with a bit more force than needed, and turned to face Paisley again, who, by now, had gotten antsy and itched to go on the ride.
"Mommy pictures later please, let's go!" She tugged on her hand for emphasis and when Hanna wouldn't budge, she went to her daddy, who followed obediently.
"You spineless excuse for a man, we are not going on the ride just yet, and Paisley, if you keep this up, we are not going at all!" Travis was now rooted to his spot, halfway to the ride's entrance, as Paisley pouted petulantly, her bottom lip quivering.
Hanna stood her ground without a vestige of sympathy and positioned the camera on the tripod. "I've got the timer set, now let's -" The flash went off too early, its brightness blinding, making her inadvertently shut her eyes.
Taking a deep breath, Hanna went to the camera, inspected the photo - with a cringe - and pressed delete. "I fucking hate Nikon," she griped, attempting to reset it. During this time, Paisley had taken off toward the Farris Wheel again, and Hanna caught her just as she made it to the gate.
"Paisley Samantha Marin! Don't you even think about taking another step." The little girl cowered, her previous resilience collapsing in the face of her mother's tone. "Okay, I won't," she replied, trudging towards Hanna and standing, as instructed beforehand, beside her daddy in front of the Farris Wheel.
Travis knew better than to interject, and play peace maker in these situations. Hanna, what, with her pregnancy hormones, was irascible, and having dealt with this type of behavior from her when he was eighteen, Travis had by now understood and followed the drill.
"Okay, Han, let's just take a breath and come join us for the picture," he said now, wrapping his arm around their daughter. Hanna obliged, coming to stand on the other side of Paisley and throwing her arms around Travis. "Ready!" she chirped, her mood having improved dramatically within those few seconds.
"3..."
"2..."
Travis, last minute, just before the 'One' left Hanna's mouth, placed his hand on top of his fiancée's swollen abdomen, and she too, did the same.
"Cheese!" Paisley called out, all three of them smiling as the flash went off.
Hanna smiled sadly at the memory; at the way their engagement rings sparkled in the rich, yellow, glow of the sun; how Paisley, sweet, little Paisley, with her childlike wonderment, had asked if mommy had eaten her sister; and after, when Travis had shaken his head, 'no', and laughed, Hanna did the same, with their daughter's giggle a raging accompaniment.
A lone tear cascaded down her cheek, leaving behind a stain of continuing grief. "I CAN do this," she stated, as per instruction by Dr. Sullivan, whom she was still seeing.
"Change your 'I can'ts' to 'I can'" she was always saying, patting Hanna's knee for assurance as she did so.
Hanna wiped away another tear that had escaped, soon giving way to full fledged cries. "I can't I can't I can't!" she bellowed, slamming her palm face down onto the desk in anger.
"M'am? Are you...um... Alright?"
Hanna looked up to find a handsome man staring down at her from over the counter, brow knit in genuine concern.
She blushed, a red hue dutifully creeping up her porcelain cheeks. "I'm um...yeah...fine."
She embarrassedly stumbled over each of her words, staring at her hands, as if they, petite and pale, contained her prophecy.
"Okay, now that that's settled... I have an appointment with Mr. Kinnerd."
Hanna daintily wiped her dripping nose and looked up at him, meeting his strikingly gorgeous coca eyes in the process.
"Caleb?" she blurted, covering her mouth immediately after, shocked by her own lack of manners. "I'm-"
"Uh, no... It's Drew, actually, Drew Sawyer..."
She left him hanging, too embarrassed to say anything else, and stood up. "Mr. Kinnerd said he wanted to meet you in the conference room, right this way." Drew nodded, following her direction as she sped off down the hallway and through a plate glass door marked 'Conference Room' in italics.
"Here we are," she said, her voice oddly high pitched. "And I'm um... sorry for the confusion earlier..." she mumbled quietly, never giving him the chance to accept her apology as she rushed back the way she came.
Author's Note: Oops... That was a huge slip up on Hanna's part... What do you think it means?