Caleb "So? What did he tell you?" he asks Hanna as he pulls away from the parking space in front of the coffee shop where she met up with Jordan.
Hanna "It was George. He hired two men to steal Chocolate from me because he thought that I would get back with Jordan at some point if I didn't have him. Basically, he wanted to make my life miserable again for me to come back"
Caleb "And who are those men? Did he tell you?"
Hanna "No, just two ex-convicts that ran away after screwing the whole thing up. Apparently, they weren't supposed to hurt me. They only had to steal Chocolate. So I guess you were right, the sedative was for Chocolate, not for me. I guess they injected me it because I didn't let go of him"
Caleb "Okay, we are going to tell all that to the police… I'm sure they will be able to track those men down, and they also will have to find a connection between George and them to prove his guilt as well"
Hanna "I won't go to the police, Caleb"
Caleb "Why?" he glances at her and then focuses back on the road.
Hanna "I already told you. I don't want them to open any investigation. I don't want anyone else to learn about what happened to me. I don't wanna be a victim. What happened to me is embarrassing… did you notice the way people turned to look at me today at the restaurant when you said it out loud?"
Caleb "Hanna, this should be embarrassing for Jordan, George and the other two men, not for you. They have to pay for what they did"
Hanna "Jordan had nothing to do with it"
Caleb has been holding himself back for a while now, but he can't help saying what he really thinks at hearing that answer from her. "Hanna, I'm so done with you defending him. The guy is a piece of shit. If he really cared for you, he would have gotten the dog in his car and driven straight to Rosewood the moment he found him at his place. He would have gone visit you at the hospital at least. But apparently, he had more important things to do here. Like covering for his friend. It makes him just as guilty as George. Stop defending him"
Hanna "No, you stop obsessing with his guilt. I know he doesn't give a fuck about me, okay? I get it. But he did nothing, and I know the truth because of him. I don't need to go to the police because now I have the answers I needed. I no longer have to worry about someone trying to hurt me or someone I love. I won't go to the police"
Caleb "He convinced you not to go to the police, didn't he?"
Hanna "No, I told you at the hospital that I didn't want to go to the police. You made me change my mind last night when I was scared and pretty upset. But now that I can think clearer, I don't want to do it. If I talk to the police, it will only be to make them take me out of the missing people list"
Caleb "Hanna, please. Just think-"
Hanna cuts him off. "Can we not do this right now? I don't have the energy to argue about this again" she tilts her head to the side, resting against the window.
Caleb takes another look at her. He still feels frustrated about the whole situation with Jordan, he just can't believe that Hanna still listens to him after all that happened, he is mad at her for paying so much attention to what the guy says. But she looks exhausted and so he decides to leave her alone for now, they can continue their conversation later. He doesn't have the energy either after all. He falls silent and just keeps driving.
/
It's around 4 pm in the afternoon when they finally get back at Hanna's.
There's a police car parked in front of the house.
Hanna "Why are the police here?"
Caleb "I don't know… maybe they finally decided to start looking for you… a little late, huh?" he tells her while pulling in the driveway of the house.
Those are the first words that they exchange after a completely silent ride back home.
Caleb "I'll go talk to them" he says after stopping the car.
Hanna "No, I'll go" she can't let Caleb talk to the police. He could say something that he shouldn't, and she still didn't tell him about the voice message that she sent George from Jordan's phone, so she rushes out of the car.
She starts to walk toward the police car, but before she can get there, a police officer gets out of it and approaches her.
Police officer "Good afternoon. I'm looking for Hanna Marin"
Hanna "I am Hanna Marin"
Caleb gets there too and stands by her side.
Police officer "You were reported as a missing person. Did you know about it?"
Hanna "Yes, I know. It was all a misunderstanding, I'm all right. I was going to stop by at the station and clarify this today"
She looks at Caleb right after saying it, and just like she thought, his face shows disapproval, his brows bumped together in a scowl also tell her that he is irritated.
Police officer "We have been trying to contact you for a while, you should have gone to the station before"
Hanna "I know, I'm sorry"
Police officer "Can I see your ID?"
Hanna "Sure"
After searching into her purse for some seconds, Hanna takes out her ID and gives it to the police officer.
Police officer "So, what happened?" he asks her while taking a look at her ID.
Hanna "I went hiking with my dog and got lost in the woods. My phone also ran out of battery… It took me a while to get back in the town… I went to my dad's instead of meeting with my friends as we had agreed, so they got worried and reported me missing because they couldn't reach me"
At hearing that, Caleb turns around and walks back to the car to get Chocolate.
Police officer "I see" he says a couple of seconds later and hands her back the ID. "Well, tell your friends to make sure you are actually missing next time they decide to report it to the police" he says and walks back to the police car.
When Hanna turns toward the house, she sees Caleb and Chocolate waiting for her at the front door. She grabs the keys from her purse while walking there. She can see the disappointment on Caleb's face, he is very serious and his frown is still there.
She decides not to say a word, she only opens the door and they all get inside.
But Caleb is beyond annoyed, irritated and angry.
Caleb "I can't believe what you just did!" he tells her after she closes the door. "You just threw out the window the only chance you had to do something about what those jerks did to you! You just lied to the police and now you can't take it back!" his voice raises as he gets more irritated.
Hanna "Caleb, I told you exactly what I was going to do back in the car"
Caleb "No, we were supposed to talk about it again. I wasn't done with it, you asked me not to keep discussing about it at that moment and I left you alone"
Hanna "Yeah, but that police officer was already here, what was I supposed to do?"
Caleb "You could have asked him for a minute. We could have talked it through. But no, you had that stupid story about being at your dad's already in mind. You made it up in the car while coming here, didn't you? You already knew what you were going to say and you didn't give a shit about what I thought"
Hanna "It doesn't matter, Caleb. It was my decision to make, not yours. It was not your business"
Caleb "Not my business? I was the one who looked for you when you went missing. Me and the guys. We looked for you for hours. Emily and I reported you missing, we were the ones that went to the police station, but you just made us look like a couple of dumbasses that didn't even look for you before doing so. But that is not what makes me angry, because I don't care what other people think. What makes me angry is that you go around making decisions that not only affect you and you don't even take a minute to think about the consequences. All I wanted was to have the chance to talk to you before you talked to the police, and you know what? I would have respected your decision, no matter what it was"
Hanna sighs and gets closer to him. "You are right, I'm sorry" she says calmly. "But it wouldn't have changed anything, even if you had gotten to make me change my mind and tell the truth, I couldn't have done it"
Caleb stares at her, confused.
Hanna "I did a thing" she confesses and looks down to avoid his look.
Caleb "What did you do?"
Hanna "Promise me you won't get mad… try to understand me" she makes eye contact again.
Caleb "Hanna, I'm already mad. Just tell me what you did"
Hanna takes a couple of seconds before speaking. She knows that Caleb is going to get even more upset after hearing what she did, but she has to tell him the truth anyway.
Hanna "I sent George a voice message from Jordan's cell phone telling him that I had just picked Chocolate up at Mr. Hobart and I also thanked him for taking care of him"
Caleb "You what?" he asks perplexed, his gaze fixed on her.
Hanna "Jordan asked me it as a proof that I wouldn't go to the police. It was the only way to make sure George would leave me alone for good"
Caleb "Hanna, you can't be serious!" he still can't believe her.
Hanna "It was the only way, Caleb"
Caleb "Oh my god, Hanna!" he raises his voice. "I knew he would manipulate you somehow" he takes his palms to his forehead in frustration. "I knew" he looks at her. "I shouldn't have let you go see him"
Hanna "It wasn't like that. I wasn't going to go to the police anyway. The moment you told me that Chocolate was at Jordan's father's, I knew I couldn't involve the police in all this. He didn't manipulate me, he was just right and-"
Caleb "You know what? I don't want to hear you anymore. I'm done with all this shit" he says and starts to walk away. If he hears Jordan's name again, he will go crazy.
Hanna "Caleb, please" she goes after him. "Let's just-"
Caleb cuts her off. "Hanna" he turns back around to look at her. "What you did doesn't make any sense. It was stupid and I don't get it. You are smart, I don't get why you would send George that message. Even if you weren't planning to go to the police, you didn't have to do it. You didn't need to prove anything to anyone. They hurt you. You didn't do anything wrong. I'm sorry, but I am done and I don't feel like talking about this anymore. I need some space right now. Just leave me alone"
He knows that if he doesn't walk away from her at that very moment, the argument will only grow bigger and he doesn't want to end up yelling at Hanna. He doesn't want to lose his temper and he is very close to that. He has been angry at her for hours now and it only got worse with her confession.
Hanna only nods. She has never seen Caleb that angry, but although it breaks her heart seeing him like that and she just wants to work things out right way, she understands that it's not the right moment and so she lets him go.
She is relieved when Caleb makes his way toward the back end of the house and goes out the back door that leads to the backyard instead of going out the front door. She didn't want to be left alone in her house and it makes her feel better the fact that he didn't leave. She goes upstairs, to her bedroom, and Chocolate goes with her.
/
Around half an hour later, Hanna decides to go check on Caleb. It took her a lot of self-control not to go doing so before. But half an hour is her limit. She knows that Caleb is more likely to be still angry at her, since it's only been a little time, and she also knows that it could not be the best moment to go try to sort things out with him, but that is not the reason why she is going check on him. The reason why she is going downstairs now is that she is afraid that he might have left without telling her and she doesn't want to be left alone at her house. The fact that she couldn't see the driveway from the window of her room to check if his car was still there, was driving her crazy.
She opens the back door and Chocolate immediately goes outside. She is relieved at seeing that Caleb is still there. He is sitting on a step, his back to the door, but as soon as Chocolate approaches him, he turns around and sees Hanna standing at the door frame. He only stares at her for a moment and then turns back around without saying a word. That only confirms Hanna's suspicions, he is still angry.
Hanna "Chocolate wanted to go out" she lies.
Caleb doesn't answer, so she only closes the door and goes back to her bedroom.
/
About twenty minutes after that, it starts to rain. It's just a drizzle, but Hanna gets paranoid again at thinking that Caleb could decide to go home now, so she opts to go check on him again with the excuse to get Chocolate back inside to keep him from getting wet in the rain.
But when she gets downstairs, she finds Caleb sitting on the couch in the living room. He is watching TV and Chocolate is lying on the floor next to him.
She is glad that he is still there. He still seems upset, so that's why she doesn't even get in the room and after staring at him from the hallway for a few seconds, she makes her way to the kitchen.
But Caleb gets to see her, and although he gets a lump in his throat right away, his anger is still stronger than any other emotion at the moment and so he doesn't go after her.
/
Hanna decides to stay in the kitchen, since she can hear if Caleb leaves the house from there. She thought that she would feel safer now that she knows what really happened to her, who was behind it and the reason why, but she was wrong, because there she is, all paranoid about being left alone. She decides to make dinner in order to keep her mind busy and that way, another hour passes by.
Once dinner is ready, she serves a plate of food for Caleb, puts it on a tray along with a glass of wine and takes it to him.
Hanna "I made dinner" she puts the tray on the coffee table in front of him.
Caleb "You didn't have to" he only says, softly.
Hanna "It's fine. We had to eat something" she only answers and leaves the room to go back to the kitchen to have dinner alone.
Once again, there's a part of Caleb that really wants to go after her. But he can't. He is so pissed off. He still can't believe what she did. He just doesn't get her.
/
After finishing dinner, Caleb stands up from the couch, grabs the tray and heads for the kitchen. But right before entering the room, he hears Hanna's voice and so he stops at the door frame.
She is sitting at the kitchen table, her back to him. She's talking to someone on the home phone.
Hanna "…so, I was wondering if I could stay the night at your place, in the guestroom… occupied? By whom?... Oh, Kate is in the city?... No, I'm not interested in meeting her husband… No, it's fine, dad. I get it, you have more important things to do, like always… Yes, because I am your daughter, not her… Because one of my friends was staying with me, but she had to leave… yes, I know I am an adult, but still… No, I'll figure something out, don't worry, go enjoy your evening with your new family" she says annoyed and hangs up on him.
Although Caleb feels intrigued about what he just heard, since Hanna has only mentioned her father once or twice since they met, he gets in the kitchen pretending that he didn't hear anything and places the tray on the countertop next to the sink. Then, he turns on the tap and grabs the glass to wash it.
Hanna "It's fine, just leave it there, I'll-"
Caleb "No, you made dinner, I'll do the dishes" he cuts her off.
Hanna "No, really. It's okay, I'll put it all in the dishwasher"
Caleb nods and turns the water off.
Hanna gets up from her seat and approaches him. "Can we talk now?"
Caleb "I don't want to talk, Hanna… I'm just pretty angry right now, there's no point" he walks away from her again.
/
Once Hanna is done cleaning up the kitchen, she stays there. She sits at the table again and leans forward to rest her head, using her crossed arms as a pillow. She would rather go to her bedroom and lie down, since she is pretty tired, but it's getting dark outside and it's making her anxious. She feels the need to stay close to Caleb, even if he is in another room, and she knows that if she goes upstairs, she won't be able to tell if Caleb is still there or if he left. And she is sure that he will leave at some point, he is too mad at her to stay the night. She doesn't get why he hasn't left yet, but she is thankful for that. She curses herself for not remembering any of her friends' phone numbers and also for having left her laptop back in New York, she could ask one of the girls to stay with her, but no. Suddenly, she starts to think about all her belongings that she left back in Jordan's apartment. She is sure that after everything she told him earlier before leaving the coffee shop, she will never get her things back. It's not like she had too many things there, most of them were just clothes and shoes, but there is something that she left behind that it's really important to her, her sewing machine. She didn't even use it once since she moved in with him, she is sure that it must be still in a box.
Caleb's hand on her shoulder brings her back to reality and she sits up straight to look at him.
Caleb "You've got a text from your mom" he hands her his phone.
Hanna "I'm sorry. I'll get a new phone tomorrow" she grabs the phone and yawns.
Caleb "It's okay"
Hanna types on the phone for a moment, and after texting her mom back, she hands it back to Caleb.
Caleb "Why don't you go to bed?" he suggests her at seeing her tiredness.
Hanna "I'm fine"
Caleb "I won't leave, okay? Go to sleep"
Hanna stares at him.
After hearing Hanna's conversation with her father, Caleb got right away why she had been keeping an eye on him since their argument. She didn't want to be left alone. But it was never in his plans to leave. If the circumstances were different, he would have probably left her place the moment she told her about what she had done, but she isn't okay yet and he won't just leave her alone, no matter how irritated he feels being around her at the moment, he won't leave.
Caleb "I'll sleep on the couch. Don't worry, I won't leave you alone"
Hanna "I don't want you to stay"
Caleb looks at her confused.
Hanna "You are angry with me, you don't want to be with me. I don't want you to feel obliged to stay with me"
Caleb turns around and leaves the kitchen.
Hanna's heart races at hearing the front door. Is he really leaving just like that? If that is the case, she needs to ask him Emily's or Spencer's phone number before he takes off. She rushes to the door, but when she gets there, she sees Caleb taking his bag from the trunk of his car and then walk back toward the house.
Caleb "I'm not leaving you alone" he says as he gets back inside.
Hanna closes the door and looks at him. "You don't have to do this, I can call-"
Caleb "I'm not leaving" he repeats and heads for the living room.
Hanna goes after him. "Okay, but… stay in the guestroom at least. You don't have to sleep on the couch"
Caleb only nods as an answer.
Chocolate gets there too, carrying his dog bowl in his mouth and he approaches Hanna.
Hanna "Oh, I'm sorry, baby. I forgot your dinner" she gives him a half smile while taking the bowl form his mouth. "Come here" she tells him and they leave the living room.
/
Later.
Hanna is already in bed when she hears Caleb getting out of the bathroom and then sees him getting in the guestroom. She left the door of her bedroom open, but Caleb closes his door.
Hanna sighs and turns the bedside lamp off to try to go to sleep. But of course, her mind has other plans for her and her thoughts keep her awake. She can't stop wondering why Caleb is that mad at her. Of course he has many reasons to be upset, but she doesn't understand why so much anger. He doesn't want talk to her. He doesn't even want to be in the same room as her.
Shortly after, Chocolate shows up in her bedroom.
Hanna "Come here, Chocolate" she orders him while tapping the mattress next to her.
Chocolate jumps on the bed and lies down next to her. Hanna gets closer to him and hugs him right away, and just like always, she gets to go to sleep thanks to him. He helps her to chill out.
/
At some point in the night, Hanna wakes up startled at hearing a loud noise. She sits up immediately, her heart beating very fast, and takes a look around into the darkness. It's Chocolate, he just jumped off the bed and bumped into some object on the floor that Hanna can't distinguish. She sees him leave the bedroom and then lies back down to try to go to sleep again. But by waking her up so abruptly, Chocolate just left her in a state of alert that doesn't allow her to relax. She is so tense and anxious that taking deep breaths is not enough to chill out, not even a little. She knows that she should feel okay now that she knows that she and Chocolate are not in danger, that no one will get back to finish the job, but still, for some reason she doesn't feel as safe as she has always felt in her house. After a while of trying to calm down, she finally gets up from her bed to go to Caleb. She just hopes that he doesn't turn her away.
As soon as she goes out of her bedroom, she finds Chocolate lying on the hallway floor next to the door of the guestroom. Of course, he must have sniffed Caleb in there.
Hanna gets emotional while recalling why she ended up alone in her bed in the first place. She screwed up again as she always does. She doesn't regret what she did. She still thinks that she only did what was necessary to make sure that the whole thing with George was finished for good. But she does regret the way she handled it all with Caleb. It seems like she always finds a way to ruin the best things in her life.
Some tears start to roll down on her cheeks and she decides not to bother Caleb. Instead of that, she sits down on the floor next to Chocolate and leans on him. While resting her head on Chocolate's body she promises herself that she will do whatever it takes to work things out with Caleb the next morning. He won't be just another good thing in her life that she ruins. After shedding some more tears, she falls back asleep right there on the floor, hugging Chocolate.
/
But Hanna is not the only one who is having another shitty night, because although Caleb fell asleep as soon as he rested his head on the pillow, since he was beyond tired after two nights of bad sleep, now he wakes up from a nightmare. His heart is pounding with adrenaline and It takes him some time to realize where he is, but when he does, he knows right away that he just had another bad dream like the ones he had the previous night. He rolls over to lie on his stomach and tries to go back to sleep. But he has a nagging sensation in the back of his mind that keeps him awake. He is worried about Hanna. He knows that she is sleeping comfortably in her bed in the room right across the hallway, and that he had just another absurd dream, but still, he needs to go check on her. Seeing her all right is the only way to shut his mind and go back to sleep, so he gets up from the bed.
When he opens the door, he gets surprised at finding Chocolate and Hanna right there at the door.
Chocolate gets up from the floor as soon as he sees Caleb, because being a dog, he is always on alert. But Hanna, being deep asleep with her torso and head rested on Chocolate, just falls off him and wakes up startled again.
Caleb "Han, what are you doing here?" he asks her as Chocolate makes his way into the guestroom.
Hanna sits up against the wall. She blinks twice but says nothing. She's still half asleep.
Caleb "You okay?" he crouches down in front of her.
Hanna "Yeah… I just…" she gets embarrassed now at realizing that she was just sleeping on the floor at his door. "Chocolate was lying here and I… I came with him and I guess I just fell asleep"
Caleb stares at her for a moment but then he stands up and offers his hand to her. "Come on, let's go to bed"
Hanna takes his hand and so he helps her up. Once she is back on her feet, Caleb pulls from their joined hands to lead her into the guestroom, but Hanna lets go of his hand.
Caleb looks at her confused.
Hanna "I don't want to bother you. I'll just go back to my room"
Caleb "You don't bother me…"
He is not sure if he got a little emotional after his bad dream or if that little rest that he got helped him to cool off, but he is definitely less angry than before. Although the annoyance is still there and it seems like it won't go away any time soon.
Caleb "Come on" he says again, and this time, Hanna follows him into the room, because that's what she wanted in the first place, be closer to him.
Chocolate is lying on the floor, probably because it's cooler than the bed and being a hairy dog, he gets hot very easily. So, when Hanna and Caleb get in the bed, there's still a considerable space between their bodies.
Caleb lies on his side, facing away, his back to Hanna. And Hanna lies on her back.
After staring at the ceiling into the darkness for a while, Hanna decides to talk to Caleb. She hates being like that with him.
Hanna "Caleb?" she says softly, just in case he fell asleep.
But of course, he is awake too, wide awake.
Caleb "Huh?" he mumbles, without turning to her.
Hanna "I know it's late… but I hate being like this with you, can we talk?"
Caleb "I don't want to talk" he answers right away, but not in an angry way like earlier, it sounds softer, like sadly, or maybe like he has given up and thinks that there's no point in talking. And Hanna notices it, but she is not sure what it means.
Hanna "Okay… just let me tell you how sorry I am at least" she reaches out and places her palm on his shoulder. "Turn around, please"
Although he is not in the mood yet, Caleb turns to face her because he is intrigued about what she is going to tell him. He barely sees her face in the dark.
Hanna "I'm sorry" she places her hand on his cheek and caresses him.
Caleb "For what exactly?"
Hanna "For everything?"
Caleb "Hanna, you don't even know what you are apologizing for" he takes her hand off of his face. "I'm pretty sure you don't know why I'm so pissed off because you just don't get it"
Hanna "No, I do know" she says, although she is not so sure, because she doesn't consider that anything she did was bad enough for him to be that much angry. But maybe it was the sum total of everything she did during the day. That could be, right? It must be. "You didn't like that I met with Jordan, I also left you out when I lied to the police, and then, the voice message that I sent to George, which I don't regret, but I understand that you-"
Caleb "No, not even close" he cuts her off because what she is saying is just irritating him again and he doesn't want to go back to the unbearable anger that he was feeling a while ago.
Hanna "Well, so how am I supposed to know what pisses you off so much if you don't want to talk about it? Just talk to me"
Caleb doesn't answer, so Hanna goes on.
Hanna "You are still mad at me, I get it" she sits up in the bed. "I'll just go back to my bed"
She is about to get up, but Caleb reaches out and grabs her wrist to stop her.
Caleb "Don't leave. I want you to stay"
Hanna stays sitting there in the bed so he lets go of her wrist.
Caleb "I'm not used to these things, Hanna… I don't go around talking about my feelings. I'm not like that"
Hanna lies back down. "So, how are we working this out?"
Caleb "I'll stop being annoyed at some point. I was pretty angry today, but it's getting better…"
Hanna "Yeah… but still"
They both fall silent. Hanna because she just doesn't want to say something wrong that could annoy Caleb even more, and Caleb because he just doesn't know what else to say. He simply has nothing else to say.
He can't help thinking about the last time they shared that very same bed in her guestroom. It was that night when his house got flooded and Hanna made him stay there. Actually, it was the first time they ever shared a bed. It hasn't been so long since that, but he feels like it's been months. He still remembers how upset Hanna was when she got in the room looking for Chocolate, and how bad he wanted to comfort her. She was weeping and he wanted to hold her. When he had the chance, he did hug her. And to his surprise, she hugged him back. He also remembers the disappointment he felt when he asked her what was going on and she told him that she had had a fight with fucking Jordan. She was trying to save her relationship back then, she was even planning to marry him, and Caleb wasn't sure why the fuck he was letting himself get closer and closer to her, but he just couldn't help it. He just felt good around her. Hanna ended up getting in the bed with him, Chocolate in the middle, of course. She felt much better in only a few minutes and so they started to talk about random things, and somehow, they even ended up talking about love. About how much he sucked at love precisely, although Hanna refused to believe so. He can't recall exactly what they ended up talking about at the end, but he does remember Hanna laughing and holding his hand. He felt so fucking good at that moment. He wanted her so bad. But there was a ring on her finger. It was the only thing keeping him from making a move on her.
He gets emotional at thinking that they are almost in the same situation now, but what keeps him away from her now is his own annoyance. And hurt, there's hurt too. He blinks back tears because he refuses to cry right there in front of her. He never cries. He hardly remembers being crying when he was a little boy. Even when he was only a kid, he didn't find the point in crying, he had no one to come comfort him anyway. If it weren't for his grandpa's death a year ago, he wouldn't remember the last time he actually shed tears. Fortunately for him, the darkness in the room won't allow Hanna to see his glassy eyes.
He is not mad at her for meeting up with Jordan although he wasn't okay with it. He is hurt because she got annoyed and accused him of being jealous and being trying to tell her what to do instead of taking a moment to understand that he was only trying to protect her. And he is also hurt because of the way she manipulated him. She knew he wouldn't come back to Rosewood without her and she took advantage of that to make him do what she wanted in DC.
So, that's why he didn't want her to apologize for meeting up with Jordan despite him, he wanted her to apologize for the way she took advantage of his love and worry to make him do what she wanted.
He is not mad at her for having left him out of her decision when she lied to the police, he is hurt because she didn't take a minute to think why he was being so insisting on doing right the opposite and tell them the truth. It was very hard for him to find her in the middle of the woods, looking like dead. And she doesn't even know it because she wasn't there, she was barely conscious and too lost to even know where she was, so she doesn't know how bad it all was. She doesn't even have a clue of how hard it was for him to sit in the waiting room of the hospital waiting for news as the doctors examined her. He still can't recover from all that. All he has done is try to stay strong for her, to be able to be there for her. If she had told the truth to the police, she might have been able to get a restraining order against Jordan and George at least. That would have been good for both of them. But she didn't even listen to him.
He didn't want her to apologize for lying to the police knowing that he didn't agree with that, he only wanted her to listen to him the way she listened to Jordan before. It was okay with him if after talking, she lied to the police anyway. He only wanted to be heard.
And yes, Hanna was right about him being angry for the voice message that she sent to George. It made him furious. He doesn't understand why she made such a stupid decision. Because even though she wasn't planning to go to the police anyway, she didn't have to do it. It feels like she let that son of a bitch win. She gave him what he wanted.
By the time Caleb can't hold his tears back anymore, Hanna is asleep again. Being closer to him, in the same bed, made her feel much safer and so she fell asleep. Even if he wasn't holding her in his arms as she would have liked.
Caleb watches her as he cries in silence. He wants to stop his tears but he just can't. Fuck, he hates crying. Now he gets why people say that love hurts. He is freaking crying for love. Something he never thought he would do. It hurts so much. He hates the unbearable pain in his chest.
All of a sudden, Hanna mumbles something in her sleep that Caleb can't decipher and then she rolls over and ends up very close to him, almost against his body. She is so close to him that while breathing, he can smell her rich scent. She mumbles something else, he can tell now that she is only whispering sweet nothings in her sleep, and then, just like that, still deep asleep, she curls up against him and her body seems to relax completely when it comes in touch with Caleb's.
Before he can know it, his lips are already pressed against her forehead and his arm is wrapped around her waist to keep her close. Despite everything, his love for her is way stronger than anything else. If hurt is the price that he has to pay for her love, he will take it. Anything is better than the emptiness he felt before meeting her. And hopefully, after getting through this hard time, things will get better for them. He knows she didn't mean to hurt him.
Shortly after that, Caleb falls asleep as well.