The First Steps (A Hunter Hayes Fanfiction, Book 1 of the Hardships Saga)

Chapter Fifty-Five

❝false alarm (pronounced fɔːls əˈlɑːm or fawls uh-lahrm), noun

a warning given about something that fails to happen.❞

It was finally September, and Hunter and Lilly came home after a long tour. Hunter was having a strange dream.

It was the typical day, but Lilly was gone. When he asked people where she was, they looked confused, held their hands to his forehead and asked him if he was okay. "Hunter, who's Lilly?" they'd ask. "Are you feeling alright?"

In a fit of desperation, he turned to the fans, but most just said things like, "Haha, Hunter thinks he's married to who now?"

In the end, he even went to the Lawson Manor, where he pounded on the door in desperation. "Sir!" he said, when Kurt Lawson opened the door. "Lilly, where's Lilly?"

"Lilly?" asked Kurt. "Who's Lilly?"

Suddenly, Rose came into view, and Hunter pushed past Kurt to put his hands on her shoulders. "Rose! Rose, have you seen Lilly?!"

Rose pushed Hunter off her with a strangled scream. "Who the hell is Lilly?! Who the hell are you!?"

Finally, Hunter woke up drenched in sweat, panting. He looked around, but Lilly wasn't lying in bed. Rubbing his eyes, he rolled out of bed and went looking. It was still about four am, so Lilly was either sleepwalking or doing housework.

He saw her sitting on the ground, cross-legged, with a cup of green tea beside her. Cole slept beside her. She was flipping through a book, looking at the pages so intently that she didn't notice Hunter. "Ana?"

She turned. "Hey. Couldn't sleep."

"Yeah, I realised." He came closer. "What's that?"

She gave him a tiny smile. "Sit down with me, take a look for yourself."

He came closer and sat down, and saw a picture of two kids. The boy, with blonde hair, was blowing out candles on a cake, and the redheaded girl was laughing.

"Our photo album," he said quietly, flipping back to the start. There was the photo from Lilly's apartment, of he and Lilly playing around that tree that used to be at their preschool. "Why?"

"It's hard to sleep when you're pregnant," she said. "I just woke up and I decided to pull this old thing out."

He chuckled and turned to the next page. They were about seven there, and Lilly was in the middle of throwing a handful of mud at an unsuspecting Hunter. There was a picture of them together on their first day of middle school. Another where they were hugging. One where Lilly was sitting on Hunter's bed looking over some homework with him. Hunter's graduation. When Lilly came to Nashville, and Hunter took her to go and see the Parthenon in Memphis. The wind was blowing her red hair, making it look like fire, and she was smiling happily.

"I wish things were the way they used to be," she breathed, running her fingers over the photo at the Parthenon.

Hunter didn't respond, and went to the next page. There were mostly photos of Lilly this time around, though there were a couple of Hunter from photoshoots and award ceremonies, with his parents. There was one photo of the two together at the snow.

There was a tonne of wedding photos, from when Lilly and Hunter were getting ready, and the wedding itself. They were both smiling tearfully at each other, and their kiss was captured forever in the photo. There was a photo of Rose hugging Lilly, and a couple of Lilly with her diploma over the next page.

The very last photo in the album was Lilly, curled up in her tall chair with a cup of tea, which Hunter had taken without her knowing. She was gazing out the window, looking serene and beautiful, and her red hair contrasted with the blue of the scene. Her eyes were a stormy grey. With a chill, Hunter recalled that he had taken that photo the day before she had come home covered in blood and bruises...