Chapter 4

The knocking at the door woke Caleb and looking at the clock briefly he noted it was six o'clock in the evening. They had been sleeping for three hours. Caleb pulled on the discarded pyjama pants and went to answer the door pretty sure it was his mom on the other side. Upon opening the door he realized that he was right in his assumption.

"Hey mom." He said,

"Sorry to disturb you guys honey but we're going to order dinner and we were wondering if you guys were going to come and join us." She said to explain her presence.

"It's kool we should get up anyway and yeah we'll join you guys I should make sure Hanna eats anyway. Who knows what she was eating before she called me a few days ago." He responded with a frown.

"How is she doing anyway? She looked kind of broken earlier." His mom said.

"She is broken mom. There's been a lot of bad stuff in her life the last couple years and it's left it's mark on her. A friend of hers went missing and a year later they found a body and believed it to be hers. They were being stalked by someone who knew so much about them and was causing all kinds of problems for them dangerous ones as well as emotionally devastating ones. Turned out it was the girl Hanna became best friends with after she lost touch with her friends. Then they found out that their supposedly dead friend had been alive the whole time and there were reasons she was on the run. There's been a lot more stuff too but it's too long of a story to get into right now. I promise I'll explain things to you though." He explained to his mom carefully trying to gloss over the terrible stuff.

"Was you getting shot part of all this bad stuff?" His mom asked seeming to connect a few things.

"Yes and no. There was stuff going on dangerous stuff, life threatening stuff that was horrible for everyone involved. I was there to help for a lot of it even when she tried to protect me by shutting me out but then I left to deal with my own issues and it seems that things just got worse for her. She didn't have anyone at her back anymore, her friends were all to caught up in their own stuff. I left her alone to deal with everything and it became to much for her." Caleb said shaking his head at how selfish he had been.

"Why are you being so hard on yourself?" She asked with a frown at him.

"It was hard on her, me leaving. I promised her I would always protect her and then I left. She spent so much time trying to protect me by keeping me in the dark on things and then when she finally opened up to me I left." He explained.

"You're a good man Caleb anyone can see how much you care for her." His mom responded.

"If I was a good man mom I never would have left her to face everything alone." He replied self loathing lacing his tone.

"You had something come up that you had to take care of I'm sure deep down she understood that."

"She thought I left her for Miranda and I never corrected that assumption in her mind." He said. "It was easier for her to hate me and be safe then to love me and be in danger all the time."

"Miranda was the girl who died right?" He nodded. "Why would Hanna have been in danger?" She asked curiously.

"I was trying to help Miranda find her uncle and uncover a few mysteries about our mutual ancestors and I promised Hanna I would look after her and I failed. There was so much more involved then I thought at first though and I couldn't just leave until I got some answers." He said carefully trying not to say too much.

"Did you tell Hanna what was going on?" His mom asked.

"No. I told her as little as possible. I didn't want her mixed up in what was going on with me, she had enough to deal with back home as it was without adding my problems to the mix." He answered.

"Shouldn't that have been my decision to make?" A voice asked from behind him. It was Hanna she was finally awake and apparently had been listening to their conversation. "I think we should talk." Hanna said with a stubborn look in her eyes.

"I'll just go order dinner. It should be here by seven so that should give you guys time to talk and to clean up." His mom said with a pointed look at their lack of clothing. Hanna blushed and he just shrugged.

"Okay we'll see you at seven mom." Caleb said watching Hanna nervously.

His mom left quickly after that noting the tension that had entered the room.

"I want to know what went on in Ravenswood." She demanded.

"It's so complicated. I don't even know how to explain it." Caleb mumbled.

"Try." She demanded again.

"Everyone that was in the car the night Miranda died was supposed to be dead too, including me." He quickly got out. It was now or never. Hanna's eyes widened in shock.

"You were meant to die? Why?" She asked puzzled.

"Yes I was. I told you when you came to Ravenswood that there was more to me staying there then it seemed. Ancestors of those from the car made a pact many years ago to save their soldiers from dying in wars but in order to get that they had to sacrifice five teenagers each time a soldier came home from the war unscathed. The five of us in that car were meant to die but four of us made it out and we didn't know why. That's why I stayed Hanna to find out why I was allowed to live and Miranda wasn't. I felt I owed it to her to find out what was going on. As for you Hanna if you had stayed with me you would have been in constant danger and just like you didn't want to risk it with me I couldn't risk it with you. I couldn't risk your life Hanna that was the one thing I could never do." he told her fiercely.

Hanna shook her head and gave him a small lopsided smile. "I realized something the other night at the Lodge. I was wrong to keep things from you and you were too. If we want anything to work between us then we have to he completely honest with each other. We're stronger together, we always have been." She told him her face open and honest although he could see a hint of fear as though she was afraid he was going to deny her.

"I think I remember telling you that once." He said with a pointedly raised eyebrow.

"I know you did and I should have listened but at the time I was so scared. After everything that me and my friends had been going through I didn't think you knowing would be safe. I didn't think I could risk it but I was wrong." She told him.

"I know how you feel." He said in amusement agreeing with her.

"Can we just promise that from here on out we wont keep secrets no matter how scared we are? We can make this work Caleb I know we can but we can't have walls between us anymore." She told him her eyes watching his carefully for any signs that this wasn't what he wanted.

"I can promise that Hanna. If you can promise that then so can I." He replied wrapping his arms around her waist. "No more handling things on our own from now on we lean on each other." he added. She nodded her agreement.

"I promise no more secrets. I don't want to lose you again." She responded.

"You never did lose me Hanna. I was always right here." He said putting his right hand over her heart.

Hanna smiled as tears pooled in her eyes. "And I'm still here with you." Hanna responded as she too placed her hand over his heart.

"Well what do you say we get cleaned up and go eat dinner I'm starved." He questioned.

"Yeah sounds good to me. Wanna share the shower?" She asked him with a wink.

"Hmmm. Sounds like fun maybe we can share a towel too." He agreed with a laugh reminding her of that long ago shower. She laughed and then squealed as he threw her over his shoulder and carried her into the bathroom kicking the door closed behind him.