So sorry about the long wait for this again. I've had a crazy time with uni and writing had to go on the back burner unfortunately. This is the final chapter of this story, but thank you to all the people who have read it and to those that have followed, faved or reviewed - I appreciate all your feedback so much. This was my first pll/haleb fic so I was a bit worried. Hopefully I'll get a chance to write more.
Thank you all so much for reading! Hope you enjoy the ending :)
They were both surprised when Ashley opened the door to him. He hadn't seen her but in passing since he left Hanna's hospital room weeks ago.
He smiled as she failed to hide her hesitation, but recovered quickly. "Caleb, come in," she said, moving aside to let him in.
They fell into an awkward silence as she closed the door behind him. He glanced around, partly to avoid making eye contact with her. And partly because he didn't realise how it would feel to back in this house. Where so much had happened for him.
"Hanna's just getting changed. Do you want something to drink?" Ashley asked, moving past him to go back to the kitchen.
"I'm good. Thanks though." He replied as he followed her.
"I'm about to head out. You can go upstairs and see if she's ready, if you want," Ashley offered. But something in her tone told him he was better off staying downstairs. He was pretty sure that Ashley knew how much time he's spent upstairs, but he didn't want to take his chances. He wanted to get back into Ashley's good books, as much as he did Hanna's.
"I can just wait down here," He smiled.
"Okay," Ashley replied, seeming pleased. He relaxed a little as he watched her grab her purse and turn towards the door. But she stopped suddenly and turned around. Her expression was worried, her smile gone.
"Caleb, I asked you to come back because I believe you love my daughter. And I think she needs you right now, even if she's not saying it. Don't make me regret sending you that message."
He stood up a little straighter, and for the first time that evening looked Ashley in the eye. He needed her to believe him when he told her the truth. "I won't. I'm not gonna hurt her again."
She watched him for a moment, but he held his gaze. He felt confident all of a sudden, As though saying it aloud made him believe it himself. He wasn't going to let Hanna get hurt again. Not by anyone and definitely not by him.
Eventually, she smiled at him and nodded. Raising her voice, she called out, "Hanna, I'm going now. Caleb's waiting down here."
"I'll be down in a minute! Bye mom!" Hanna's voice shouted back from upstairs. Caleb smiled when he heard her voice and caught Ashley smiling at him once again before turning to leave.
He stood in the kitchen for less than a minute before he heard Hanna's voice again, this time softer and much closer. "Hey."
He turned around to see her stood behind him. He couldn't even hold back a grin, when he saw her. "Hey," he replied, and leaned down to press his lips against hers. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her waist to him.
"You look nice," he said when he pulled away.
Hanna raised an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure you haven't even looked any lower than my face. Do you know how hard it was do up the zipper on this dress with this stupid thing on my arm," she said, waving her her cast up and down.
"Could've asked me to help," he replied. She smiled, biting her lip as she looked like she was considering it.
"So, I thought we could get dinner before we head to Spencer's. How do you feel about pizza?" He continued. Hanna's smiled dropped suddenly, and his followed, "You either suddenly hate pizza or something's wrong. What's up?"
"Caleb," she sighed, pulling herself out of his arms, "You don't have to -"
"Hanna, we've talked about this," he interrupted her. He understood what she was trying to say, and he wasn't willing to listen. Not about this.
"I feel bad for dumping all this stuff on you. It makes you an accessory to everything we've done. And not the good kind!"
He smiled for a moment, trying to focus on what she was saying and not how cute she looked when she was trying to be protective. "And I dumped all my Ravenswood stuff on you. So we're even."
He stepped towards her and pressed a hand to her cheek, tilting her head so he could look at her. "We said we were doing this together. And I'm not going to let anything get between us this time."
Hanna bit her lip as she heard him, then smiled softly. She reached up and placed her hand on the back of his neck, pulling him down towards her.
"Oh my god, we're so late," Hanna laughed as she knocked on Spencer's door.
"Relax. You texted them we were on our way, right?" Caleb grinned. He ran a hand down her back, knowing it made her feel better. Just having him here made her feel better.
Spencer opened the door in a hurry, "Good, you're here – with Caleb. Hi." Hanna looked down at the floor, feeling both Spencer and Caleb's glares on her right now.
"You said you told them I was coming," Caleb muttered.
"Hanna, you were supposed to come alone!" Emily appeared behind Spencer.
"Well, I didn't," Hanna sighed, slipping past Spencer to go inside. "Caleb knows, and he's going to help us."
Aria's eyes widened, as she stood up from the couch in the middle of the room. "Caleb knows what exactly?" She asked.
Hanna opened her mouth, but behind her Caleb spoke before she had a chance to say anything.
"I know everything," he said, moving past her so he could look at all of them. "You guys trusted me once. Let me help. So we can finally end this."
Hanna watched as Spencer, Emily and Aria looked from Caleb to each other, considering it. She wasn't really sure how they could say no now, and that's what she'd hoped for when she decided to surprise them all.
Spencer spoke first, "Do you have your laptop with you?"
Caleb nodded, opening his backpack. Spencer glanced at them, and then back at him, decidedly, "Can you get into someone else's hard drive?"
Caleb grinned, "With my eyes closed." He moved past Hanna to put his laptop on the counter and opened it up.
Hanna stood by the sink, staring at her glass of water. Caleb was on the couch, trying to unlock some notes they found on Holbrook's online hard drive, or something. They were trying to figure out what the police already knew about Alison. They had been reading some of the files Caleb's already opened, and they'd been doing this for more than two hours. She wasn't even sure if they were getting anywhere.
"Are you okay?" Emily whispered beside her. Hanna hadn't even realised she'd moved from the couch too.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she nodded. Emily didn't say anything, almost like she knew that Hanna needed just another moment before she finally opened up.
"I thought it was the right thing to do, to bring him along. But..." she sighed, trying not to let her bad thoughts get the better of her, "What if Caleb helping us just gets him hurt?"
Caleb glanced up towards them as though he heard them talking about him. But Hanna was pretty sure they were being quiet enough to get away with it. She offered Caleb a soft smile, which he returned quickly before turning back to his laptop.
"You and Caleb are together again? For good?" Emily asked, and if it was anyone else Hanna would probably be annoyed, but Emily's eyes gazed at her warmly. She just nodded. There wasn't much more to say. But then Emily continued, "So you do this together. After everything that's happened, I think I figured out that it's more important to fight together, even if you don't always win. I think I figured it out a bit late though."
Hanna let her eyes wander over Caleb as Emily spoke. She was right. All the things that had pulled them apart in the past had been things that they let get between them. They had always been so focused on hiding something or finding the truth that they forgot to be on the same team. Hanna wasn't about to let that happen again.
But she frowned when she heard Emily's final remark. "Have you talked to Paige since-"
Emily just shook her head. "I don't even know what I can say."
"You'll think of something. All that's gonna matter to her is that it's coming from you," Hanna said, offering her a smile.
"Guys!" Spencer spoke up suddenly. Everyone turned to look at her, "Holbrook put in requests for the bank statements of Alison, Jason and both her parents for the past two years."
"He's definitely suspicious of her story," Emily said.
"Yeah, and he thinks that her family were in on it," Aria added, waving a piece of paper in the air. None of this could be good.
Caleb yawned as he finally reached his jeep. They'd all stayed at Spencer's late last night, so getting through the school day had been hard. He was actually looking forward to going home for a nap before Hanna came over for dinner. He pulled his bag off his shoulder when he heard a voice behind him.
"Caleb, right?" He turned around and found Alison DiLaurentis standing behind him with a knowing smile on her lips. He didn't say anything, so she continued, "I thought we should finally meet. I'm A-"
"I think everyone knows who you are, Alison," he interrupted. He really wasn't in the mood to deal with her games right now.
Alison pouted slightly, and if he didn't know any better he'd think she was genuinely upset. No wonder she can twist her way into people's heads. "Some people think they know me just because they've seen my face on the news."
"I think I have a pretty good idea. Hanna's told me -" He stopped himself before he could say anything that would get Hanna in trouble. They'd talked about what he was supposed to know.
Alison's gaze darkened instantly, "Hanna told you what exactly?"
Caleb glanced around, taking a breath before turning to her. He knew he had to play his cards right. "All of it. About the guy that kidnapped you. How you got away. How they found you. It's a pretty crazy story, I'm sorry I wasn't here to help."
Alison studied him, so he made sure to keep calm. Slowly, her knowing smile returned to her lips. "I heard you ran off to Ravenswood. I hope you had a good trip."
Caleb forced a smile, although he knew it didn't look the least bit genuine. "Well. I'm not planning on going anywhere anytime soon. So maybe we can catch up another time." He gestured towards his jeep before opening the door and climbing in. He didn't even bother looking to see if she was still there as he drove off.
He knew it was Hanna as soon as he heard the knock on his door. It sounded urgent, but he expected she was probably just hungry. Good thing he'd already ordered dinner.
"Hey-" he smiled as he opened the door, but Hanna's scowl stopped him in his tracks. "What's wrong?"
"Aria told me she saw you talking to Alison this afternoon. What happened to laying low!"
"Hanna, relax." He stepped aside to let her in and closed the door behind her. She just stared at him with her arms crossed. "Alison came up to me. She was trying to find out whether you spilled the beans."
"Did you tell her?!"
Caleb looked at her pointedly. He'd thought she'd have more faith in him. "Of course not. I played the kidnapper card and I'm pretty sure she bought it."
Hanna frowned, "That's probably what she wants you to think! She's probably thinking up some evil genius plan on how to run you out of town-"
"Hanna," he said, stepping towards her and placing his hands on her shoulders. "I'm not going anywhere. I made that clear to Alison." He reached up to cup her cheek, and gazed straight at her, trying to make it clear that he meant it. Hanna gazed back at him for a moment before she smiled.
"What?" He asked, smiling back regardless.
"I like the idea of you not going anywhere," she said simply, shrugging her shoulders slightly.
He let his hands drop to her waist and pulled her closer to him, so that their bodies were pressed together. He dropped his head so that it was barely an inch away from hers. "Good," he said, his voice low, before he pressed his lips to hers. She kissed back eagerly, wrapping a hand around the back of his neck.
Another knock on his door pulled them apart. Hanna let a low moan, as Caleb wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He didn't really want to answer the door with lip gloss smudged around his mouth. He opened the door, pulling his wallet out with his other hand.
"Hey man," he greeted the delivery guy before handing him a twenty. "Keep the change."
The guy thanked him, and handed him the bags. By the time Caleb turned around, Hanna was already sat on the couch, feet tucked up.
"Finally, I'm starving!" She said, and made grabby hands at the food he was holding. He grinned and handed them to her, before sitting down next to her. She opened the bags and the boxes inside before he even had a chance to say something.
"You planning to share?" he asked playfully. She just glared at him, but with a smile on her lips and handed him one of the boxes.
They'd finished most of the food pretty quickly, and Caleb got up to put the rest in his fridge. Hanna smiled, feeling pretty satisfied for once. Until she noticed Caleb's laptop open on the table. She couldn't really tell what it was doing, but it was scanning something.
"What's this?" She asked as Caleb sat back down beside her. He put a hand around her shoulders, and she leaned into him without thinking about it.
"Spencer gave me homework, remember?" he replied.
Hanna sighed, "I just wish we could forget about everything that was going on and be, like, normal, teenagers. Instead of hacking the police and lying to the whole world." She was tired of being scared and nervous all the time. She actually looked forward to talking to people in school that didn't know what was happening, even if it was Bridget Wu asking about their English homework.
Caleb paused for a moment, and gazed at her thoughtfully. Maybe it wasn't normal, but she felt the most herself when he was looking at her like that. She definitely didn't have to explain herself. Or anything else.
"So let's be normal," Caleb shrugged, leaning over to close the screen of his laptop, "That can wait. And we can do whatever we want."
Hanna bit her lip, as a few idea sprung to mind. All of the things she'd been meaning to do but never had that time, or the opportunity. All the movies she hadn't watched, or places she hadn't gone. All the things she's should have enjoyed. "I can think of something we haven't done in a while," she said slowly, leaning over to press her lips to his gently.
Caleb looked at her, puzzled. "What?"
Hanna rolled her eyes, and shifted slightly on the couch. She dropped one hand to Caleb's thigh, squeezing firmly, and placed the other on the back of his neck as she kissed him again, more forcefully this time.
She raised an eyebrow as she pulled away, waiting to see whether he got the message yet.
"Oh," Caleb said, his voice low.
Hanna smirked. "Ohhhh," she copied him playfully. She let go of him so that she could pull her top over her head. His eyes darkened as gazed over her body. Leaning forward, he kissed her this time, more urgently than before. He wrapped an arm around her so that he could lean her back until they were both lying down. His body was pressed against hers in all the right places and their lips danced together furiously as they both wanted, needed too much at once.
And yeah, maybe nothing outside that door was normal for them. But Hanna felt surer than she had in months. They were supposed to get through this together. And they would.