Getaway Car [HS]

Epilogue

The rolling hills of the town they live in seem to speak to her on their daily walks.

It's a ritual now. After four years of rising with the sun and finding their sweet, smiling toddler waiting for her in their bedroom, Harley is now programmed to get her blood pumping with an early morning hike through the rural areas surrounding their quaint home tucked away between the vineyards in the area.

The house they live in used to be an old farm shed when she and Alanis happened upon the cheap property in a newspaper advertisement on their second week in the country. What used to be a rundown, deteriorating building has been transformed into a fully functional home over the course of the years they've spent working on it. It took a while for them to get their bearings in the new country, but, now that they've established themselves here with the bakery they run together, the life they lead is an easy one.

The road to New Zealand wasn't as easy to navigate.

She still doesn't like to think about it, even after all this time has passed, but, on early mornings such as these, she can't help but come back to it. The rushing water that circled her weary body haunts her, it's the reason she cannot find relaxation in baths the way others can, and, if she tries hard enough, she can still remember how the current tugged at her when she swam for the boat. It tried to bring her under and hold her there until she drowned, and, for a moment, she wanted to let it. If Harry was dead, what business did she have continuing to live without him? But, then, she remembered what she failed to when they were standing on that rooftop and decided to fight.

She never fought for herself, she fought for them. For him, actually.

Every time she looks at Roman, who she named after her father within one second of setting her eyes on him in the hospital room, she sees Harry. There's a good representation of her in their son too, most notably in the shape of his lips and the jaw that he inherited from her, but, other than that, it would be obvious to anyone who knew him who his father was.

He was born with a head of hair, and now that he's four years old, it has grown into the same mop of brunette she once used to run her fingers through in idle moments spent cuddling on the couch with his father. The only difference is that his is straight. He resembles the childhood photos she remembers seeing in the nursing home the night before Harry was killed to an eerie degree.

His personality, on the other hand, is a fifty-fifty amalgamation of the two of them. And, yes, that is as much of a nightmare as it is a blessing at times. When he's energetic, he reminds her of herself as a child and how she was constantly bouncing around, ever the inquisitive little girl always asking questions about everything they encountered. When he's playful, he reminds her of Harry and how the dimples in his cheeks became pronounced whenever he smiled at her. Albeit different due to his young age, she discovered early on that he got his dry sense of humor from his father, not her.

Alanis swears he's exactly like her, not even wanting to speak the name of or acknowledge the man that accounted for half of the sweet child's parentage, but Harley knows that he reminds Alanis of Harry and she refuses to admit it to herself.

It took a long time for her to work up the courage to tell Alanis the truth.

It took months to find her in Italy after she drove away from the warehouse in Garrett's boat, dyed her hair in a gas station bathroom, and fled the country on the cheapest plane she could find at the last minute. But, eventually, she managed to track her down by combing through the phone books for the name she had yet to legally change, which was something she scolded her for soon after they reunited.

Once they reached the safety of New Zealand with Roman being a few weeks old, however, she spilled every secret she'd been withholding in the months they spent waiting in Italy for the late stage of her pregnancy to give way to the grueling process of labor. Her best friend's reaction had been the same one she had at the beginning. Rage. But, the difference between them is, Alanis's rage has lasted years and hers hasn't. Hers has shrunken over time and been transformed by grief in the aimless months spent pining for someone who no longer exists.