It's Been A Year

29

The anxiety Maddy was feeling only continued to grow and she seemed to be watching her back everywhere she went. Even in their own home. She refused to go to the grocery store alone even.

Sleeping was another ordeal. She had to be right against Ryan, holding his hand, or even just have her foot against his leg. She'd have nightmares almost nightly and be up every few hours like Luke was when he was a newborn.

After getting home from the all-star race at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Sunday night, they were both exhausted. Lukas had stayed with Lisa and Dave for the weekend and they planned to drop him off at daycare on Monday morning, so Ryan or Maddy could simply pick him up later.

After only getting home at 11 pm, they went right to bed. Both of them easily fell asleep, exhausted from the day at the race.

At 1 am, Maddy shot up, waking Ryan up in the process. She had hoped that being exhausted would help her sleep through the night but the nightmares still won.

"Maddy, you're okay honey. You're at home, it's just you and I," Ryan said, making himself known before touching her. "Come on honey. Lay back down,"

Maddy nodded slightly, laying back against him as she tried to relax again.

"He's not coming near you again sweetie. I'm gonna make sure," he promised, playing with her hair until she was sound asleep again.

He knew she was asleep when she rolled over, stealing most of the blanket. He just moved closer to her, keeping his arms around her so she knew he was there.

By 7 am, they had been up 5 times and Ryan had to go to Penske for the usually scheduled competition meeting. Even though there were no points involved, it was a still a race and they had to go over strategy for Charlotte.

While they were waiting to start, he checked the house cameras several times to check in on Maddy. He also texted her to make sure she knew he'd gone to work and would be home as soon as he could be.

"Everything okay between you and Maddy? She was pretty quiet this weekend," Joey asked, promising Britt that he would check with him.

"Yeah. Between us it's fine. Her ex came back at Darlington. Tried to grab her and ever since she's been a different person. Watching her back constantly, nightmares, it's been a whole ordeal," he sighed, "We were up 5 or 6 times last night between 1 and 7,"

"He just came and found her?"

"Yeah. We have a no-contact order with him for all 3 of us. And the first thing he does when he's let out is break that. Cops came and arrested him but I'm not sure how long that'll stick. He's probably been bailed out by now. Now I just feel guilty for leaving her home alone," he explained, checking the camera once again and thanking his lucky stars that she was still sleeping.

He watched the clock most of the meeting, hoping for it to be over as soon as possible so he could get home to Maddy. He wanted to have a talk with her about what they could do without Lukas having to hear what was going on.

Maddy was still upstairs and had locked their bedroom door after hearing the house creaking and settling.

"Maddy?" He asked, knocking lightly on the door, "babe let me in,"

Maddy opened the door and just went right back to sitting on their bed.

"Talk to me. What happened?"

"I heard creaking and I freaked out. Locked the door," she shrugged, "I hope you know that I hate this side of myself,"

"You can hate whatever you want to about yourself but I love you no matter what. I don't wear this ring to say that I have a wife, I wear it and you wear it because we are in this together. No matter what," Ryan said, sitting next to her.

"I hate him," she mumbled, now playing with her wedding ring.

"I know," he nodded, "What can I do honey? Tell me how I can help you get through this,"

"I don't know. I don't. I still don't know how I got through it the first time,"

"With lots of love and patience," he smiled a little, "I need to go make a call, do you want to go get Luke? Or we can go together?"

"I'll go get him. I need to see my little boy," she nodded, kissing him before leaving the house.

He waited until she was out of the driveway before pulling up his father-in-law's number and calling him.

"Hello?" Jay answered, seeing it was Ryan.

"Hey, I may need to call in a favor,"

"What's up?" He asked, looking through some recent photos from a case.

"Well. Derek's out. He showed up at Darlington when Maddy was taking Luke back to the bus. Tried to grab her. Luckily, Chase was heading back to his bus and got there before anything happened but Maddy's anxiety resurfaced. She's watching her back even in our house. She locked the bedroom door when I was at the shop because she heard creaking. How free are you guys to visit? Might help," he explained, hoping they'd be able to make the flight out.

"We're in the middle of a huge case so only one of us can make it but I'll come. She's always been a daddy's girl when it comes to this," he said, Hailey nodding as she listened.

"How soon can you get here?"

"How soon can I get a flight?"

"I can get you a red eye right now if you wanted. How ever I can get you here by tomorrow morning," he sighed, "I just need her to talk to someone,"

"I'll pack up and be at the house ASAP," Jay nodded.

"I'll see you soon, I'll text you the flight info," Ryan said as he got online and booked Jay a flight straight to Charlotte.

After getting home from the daycare with Luke, they all ate dinner and spent a little time together before Luke went to bed and so did the parents. Well. Maddy did. Ryan slipped out of bed around 2 to go to the airport and pick Jay up.

Hopefully, he would be able to bring Maddy out of her funk and make her smile again.