The rest of January and February were long.
January is usually joked about as being the longest month of the year, but it especially felt this way for Caroline and Noah. They kept up with Chris and Ricky whenever they could, but the four of them were all so busy that it was difficult sometimes. They pretty much all absorbed themselves in their work to distract from how much they missed each other.
It was especially difficult for Caroline, because she couldn't understand why she felt so strongly about a guy she'd only been on four dates with. It had always taken her a longer time to really learn to like and trust people she was dating - maybe because it'd always been so hard for her to be able to trust people, it was harder for her to let her guard down. But with Chris, she felt like she could let go and be herself, at least a little bit.
Meanwhile, Caroline felt like she was really excelling with her work at the University. It seemed like her students had figured out how to work with her being blind and she was getting along with the few regulars that began coming to her office hours. She was also developing great professional relationships with the other teachers and researchers in the psychology department. Caroline's class was held on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and she held office hours every day, but spent the majority of Tuesdays and Thursdays on her research in the psychology lab. It usually entailed studying the behaviors of young children whose parents had volunteered their child to take part in the project.
Some of it was triggering for her, but she did her best to work past it.
Chris was usually good at putting his personal life aside when it came time to really start writing an album, but he also took Caroline's feelings into consideration and was able to maintain a good balance of putting in good work while not getting too distracted in a way that would result in completely throwing Caroline aside. He didn't want to do that either; Caroline made him so happy.
While the priority was writing, his personal life did come up once in a while with the people he was working with and he mentioned that he was dating someone again - which usually resulted in a bit of teasing from those he was friends with. They became a lot more interested though when Chris mentioned that she had a PhD, and even more interested when Chris mentioned she was blind.
"You took a blind girl ice skating?"
"Hey, it was really fun!" Chris defends.
It was interesting; Chris noticed that a lot of people, even his close friends, questioned Caroline's capabilities. Why would you watch movies with a blind girl? Why would you give a blind girl flowers? How is she able to teach or do research if she's blind? Chris supposed he could understand where they were coming from and was happy to explain what Caroline was really like to them, but it turned out there were a lot more people out there that were subconsciously ableist than he would've expected. Maybe that was just because he knew Caroline and what she was capable of. Nevertheless, it bothered him, and it bothered Ricky too; Ricky often spoke up in Caroline's defense if someone were to say something that made it seem like Caroline was incapable, and Chris really appreciated him doing this.
March 1st was Caroline's 30th birthday.
She sat in her office, typing to work on her computer working on her research project, when she hears a knock on her open door.
"S'cuse me, are you Dr. Caroline Heights?"
Caroline turns to face the door, "Yes, that's me, can I help you?"
"I've got a delivery for you."
Caroline furrows her eyebrows in confusion, "A delivery? Do you by chance know what it is? I'm sorry, I'm blind." She gestures to her cane and all of the braille objects in her room.
"Oh! Not a problem, it's flowers."
Caroline gasps, "Flowers?" She stands up and takes them, "Oh, well thank you so much."
"Not a problem, have a good day, ma'am."
"Thank you, you too."
She hears the delivery guy walk out. Who were these from? She fiddles with the flowers for a moment, then finds a tag which, to her surprise, had Braille so she could read it.
Happy Birthday, beautiful! Call me tonight.
- Chris
P.S. check the top drawer in your desk
Caroline's mouth falls open.
She sets the flowers down, then opens the top drawer of her desk. After feeling around for a minute, she feels a rectangular box that wasn't there the day before.
"He did not," Caroline says to herself.
Caroline opens the box and feels what's inside. Upon further inspection, it was a necklace - but the main charm on the necklace had a Braille inscription on it.
"Hope".
"Going out with you these past few times has given me...hope. Hope that I can recover from everything I went through in the past."
"How the fuck...?" Caroline whispers to herself. She puts the necklace on and smiles, unable to believe he'd done this. She had to get back to work, and she knew that Chris was probably busy too, but she shot him a quick text to thank him, let him know that she would be going out with Noah that night, but that they could definitely call and talk later on in the night, and then she tried her best to get back to work.
x
Chris flopped down on his hotel room bed face down, exhausted.
They'd finished up in the studio a few hours ago, but Chris had stayed up late working by himself in the hotel room, trying to see what he could do with a few clips of unfinished songs. He noticed the time though, and it was right around the time that Caroline said that he could call her, taking the time zone difference into account. Chris stretches and takes a few deep breaths to try and relax and get his mind switched over to Caroline-mode, then he picks up his phone.
The first thing he notices though is a text from Ricky.
Dude, call Caroline. She and Noah are drunk and it's the funniest thing I've ever heard.
Chris pauses, suddenly wondering if this was a good idea. Had he been dating her long enough to intentionally call her, knowing she's drunk, to see what she'd say?
Maybe she wasn't actually shit faced, maybe she was just a little tipsy, a little silly. Maybe Ricky was exaggerating.
Against his better judgement, Chris decides to give Caroline a call.
The first thing he hears is laughter, and then shushing.
"Who is it?" Caroline asks.
Chris furrows his eyebrows in confusion, "It's Chris. Doesn't your phone tell you who's calling?"
Caroline then bursts into laughter, "Ahhhhhh, you got me!"
Oh no.
Caroline then gasps, "Oh my God, the necklace! Chris, baby, fuck. H-How, how did you know? And the flowers! Y-You're so - you're such - a gentlemen! Yeah, that's, that's what you are."
Chris chuckles, "I try," He says, "Where did you and Noah go out?"
"We went to the baaarrrr, and then - then we came home, and Noah...N-Noah got me my faaaaaaavorite wine because it's my birthday!"
"How much wine did you have?"
"We, uh, how much wine did we have?" Caroline wonders aloud, "We s-split the bottle."
"The whole bottle?"
Caroline then bursts into laughter. Chris rubs his face, maybe this wasn't a good idea.
"You're such a good guy, Chris, ya know that? You're such a good guy. M-My last boyfriend, phew, he was baaaaaaaaad."
"Yeah, you told me, I'm sorry about that."
"I guess it - he wasn't so bad, he made me rich."
Chris raises his eyebrows, "What?"
"Richy richy richy rich. Man, I really miss my parents. Sometimes the-the money, you know, it just isn't w-worth it."
Chris blinks, trying to understand, "What?"
"But Kurt though - ugh, Kurt. What a...dick. He used to hit me, y'know."
Chris's gut dips.
"Um..." He says, "N-No, I didn't know that."
"Mhm. What a whirlwind that was. He-He got put away, I - woah, almost tripped - I almost had a baby, and because of him - you know what he did to me? You know what he did? I haven't had sex in three years be-because of him."
Chris puts his phone on speaker and sets it down, then begins to rub his eyes with the heels of his hands.
"H-Hey, are you still there? Where'd ya go?"
"I'm here," Chris exhales, "Okay, look, I'm glad you had fun on your birthday, but I think you need to go to bed, Car."
"Nooooooooo I've still got the whole night ahead of me!"
"Baby, it's late by you. Tomorrow's Saturday, you can sleep in - and it sounds like you're gonna want to. Put a glass of water and a trash can close to your bed, and go to sleep."
"Ugh, fiiiiiiiiiinee. Happy Birthday!"
"It's...It's your birthday, Caroline."
Caroline gasps, "Oh my God, y-you're right, it is!"
Chris takes a deep breath, then says, "Go to bed, baby. I'm not gonna be in the studio tomorrow, so call me when you wake up, okay?"
"Mkay. G'night!"
"Night," Chris says before hanging up. He then resumes his position flopped face down on the bed.
x
The first thing Caroline did the following morning was throw up.
Luckily, there was a trash can right next to her bed.
Had she put that there the night before? Or did Noah?
Caroline felt like she'd also set some water down the night before, and she was correct. She takes the glass of water from her nightstand and gulps the whole thing down. Her head was pounding. She checks the time on her phone - 11:04 in the morning. How drunk had she gotten? What the hell happened last night?
Caroline then begins checking her notifications, and the first one is a text from Chris.
Hey, you. Text me when you wake up <3
Caroline then panics, feeling like she could puke again. She hadn't called Chris last night, had she?
Caroline takes a deep breath, then she calls Chris.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Chris asks.
"Like death. And ass."
"Did you end up getting any sleep?"
Caroline grows nervous, "Chris, I didn't...I didn't call you last night, did I?"
There's a long, uncomfortable silence.
"You don't remember?"
Caroline puts her hand over her face, "Oh, nooo..." She groans, "I get way too honest when I'm drunk. I didn't say anything stupid, did I?"
Chris doesn't answer as he tries to contemplate whether to tell her the truth or whether to tell her what would make her feel better.
"I said something stupid, didn't I?" Caroline asks.
Chris sighs, "Well, I mean...maybe a little bit?"
"Did I say anything bad?"
Chris again doesn't answer, he simply says, "Uhhhhh..."
"Oh my Goooood," Caroline groans, "Okay. Okay. What did I say?"
"Are you sure you wanna know?"
"Yes, so that I can apologize for everything individually."
Chris sighs, "Okay, well...I just want you to know that you don't owe me an explanation or have to give me the details on any of these things if you don't want to, okay?"
Caroline suddenly grows terrified, "Okay...?"
"Well...The first thing you told me was that the guy you dated before me, Kurt? That he...used to hit you?"
Caroline doesn't speak, completely stunned.
"Aaaand, you said that he made you rich?"
Caroline gasps, "Oh no! Oh, Chris, it isn't what it sounds like, I'm not a gold digger - it was a lawsuit, I sued him for everything he had - "
"Caroline, relax. If you say that that's how it happened, I believe you."
Caroline pauses, then exhales and simply asks, "What else did I say?"
"Um...well," Chris starts, "There were two more things that you probably didn't want to tell me over the phone while intoxicated. The first was that you apparently almost had a baby?"
Caroline gasps, "No!"
"And that you haven't had sex in three years."
Caroline pulls the phone away from her face, "NOOOOO!" She yells.
She suddenly hears a thud, Noah hitting the wall between her room and Caroline's.
"Shut up!" Noah yells through the wall, probably also hung over.
Caroline sighs, then puts the phone back to her ear, "Chris, I'm so sorry, I'm so embarrassed, I promise I can explain everything - "
"Car, I already told you, you don't owe me an explanation. We've been on four dates, I wasn't expecting to have known your life story by now."
"I promise I'm not a drunk."
Chris laughs, which makes Caroline relax a little bit.
"I know you're not. You wanted to go out and have fun on your birthday, that's fine. I wanna make it really clear that just because I'm straight-edge doesn't mean you have to be."
"Well, thank you, but I should probably not drink so much that I tell cute guys my deep and dark secrets."
"That might be a good idea."
"Do you hate me?"
"Why would I hate you?"
"Because I told you all these horrible things about my life while drunk instead of in an actual conversation."
Chris sighs, "I mean, I can't pretend I wouldn't have rather had it the other way, but it already happened, so let's just...figure out how to move past it."
"Really?"
"Really," Chris says, "I'm gonna see you in Philly next week, right?"
"If I don't literally die of embarrassment first."
"Stop it, we're fine. Really."
"You're crazy."
"I'm crazy about you," Chris says, "Look, everyone has secrets. Everyone has baggage. Everyone has things that happened to them in their past that weren't so good. Maybe last night wasn't the ideal way for you to tell me some of those things, but...it's not something that I'm gonna be mad at you over. I like you too much."
Caroline exhales, "Okay, you're not crazy, you're a saint."
"I try," Chris says, "You gonna be okay?"
"Yeah, this isn't my first hangover."
"Stay inside, drink lots of water, and take a bubble bath or something. Relax."
"That sounds lovely, I might just do that. Thank you."
"Of course. And Happy Birthday."
Caroline gasps, "The necklace! The flowers! How did you pull that off?!"
"Scheming with your sister."
"I should've known," Caroline says, "Well, I'll let you get back to work."
"How'd you know I was working?"
"Because I've worked plenty of Saturdays myself and great minds think alike. You're not in the studio but I bet you're in sweatpants with instruments and sheet music scattered around the room and you're gonna give the room service lady a heart attack."
"Wow, you really do know me."
"Have fun, just don't stress yourself out too much, okay?"
"I'll try. I hope you feel better."
"Thanks. I'll talk to you later."
They hang up, then Caroline removes the pillow from under her head and puts it over her face, more embarrassed than she'd ever been in her entire life.
A/N: WELL THEN. What happened in Caroline's past? What the hell did Kurt do? What happened to the baby she almost had? Are the puzzle pieces starting to come together?
Let me know what you think!
xoxo, Scissorhands