Dear Diary (A Hunter Hayes Fanfic)

The Epilogue

Her little hand was nestled in mine.

He was walking ahead of us trying to act like a big boy.

The sky was blue and the air was crisp.

The grass was soft beneath my feet.

Her brown hair fell in little ringlets down her back and bounced when she walked. She had her mother's hair, but she had my eyes.

She would always say that my eyes were like the ocean. Always changing. She really wanted our kids to have them too. She got her wish.

He looked exactly like me, although i hoped he didn't inherit my awkward personality.

They were two years apart. She was 2 and her big brother was 4.

We finally made it to where we were going.

A tear started to form in my eyes.

In front of us was a gravestone that read, "Laurel Flannagin. 1996-2014".

"Caroline, do you know who this lady is?" I crouched down to her level and asked.

"This is someone who daddy loved very, very much. As much as I love mommy." The next words were still really hard to say. The pain really never went away. "But she passed away. She was only 18 years old."

"I'm 4!" Little Danny said he ran over to us.

I held one arm out and he crashed into me and I held him close.

"You are! You're getting so big!" He smiled.

"You should listen to this too, Danny."

I looked at Caroline. "You are named after this lady. She said to me once 'I want my fist daughter to be named Caroline', so me and mommy did." I was about to cry, but I knew if I started to cry, Caroline would too. So I was holding back the sobs.

"And you are named after her. You're middle name is Laurel just like her first name."

We decided to name her Caroline Laurel, because I didn't want to forget about Laurel. Ever. Even though I'm married and I fell in love again, she was my first love. And I wanted to marry her. I could never let her slip away. She wanted a daughter named Caroline. She can never have a daughter named Caroline. But I can. So i will. For her. I want her to become like the person Laurel was. Strong, caring, determined, full of life.

Before she left I gave her my guitar pick necklace. I have never missed it. It was with her and it's crazy but I care about her still more than I care about myself.

I pull both my children close and we sit the in silence for a second.

"Ok guys, let's go before daddy cries."

I pick Caroline up and Danny starts dashing ahead of us.

"Say goodbye to Laurel everybody!"

"Bye Loor-ell" Caroline says.

"Goodbye Laurel!" Danny shouts.

"Bye Laurel," I mumble under my breath.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wake up from my nightmare with a jolt.

I frantically look for Laurel. She's sleeping right next to me. She senses that I'm awake and wakes up too.

"Hunt," she says. "What's wrong?"

"I had the worst nightmare ever. You were gone." And i start crying a little.

"Hey. Hey. I'm right here." She gives me her hand and I slide the ring she's wearing around her finger.

"It was so real." I say.

"But it wasn't. I'm here. We're married and we have a little one on the way. That's real."

"I love you. Thank you for not leaving even when you were in so much pain."

"I couldn't leave this world without you and you know that."

"You were so close though"

"But i didn't. Try to get some more sleep you have a show tomorrow."

I kissed her on the forehead and cuddled into her body. I kissed her stomach too. There might be a little Caroline in there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOW MANY OF YOU DID I ABSOLUTELY FREAK OUT.

Okay, I'm going to do my end of book speech now.

Thank you all for supporting me and this book. Thank you all for helping me through the hard parts. You made me want to keep writing. I grew so attached to these characters and there are so many unfinished plot points. So because of that and your response to this book, I will be starting a sequel. I don't know when but one is coming at ya soon.

Hearts and Rockets,

Julia