Safe and Sound

1

Taylor Swift bent down to pick up the last few empty beer and wine bottles from under the antique oak wood coffee table in the middle of the living room of her New York apartment where she and her husband of nine-months, Travis Kelce, had held their New Year's celebration with all their friends and family. She placed them into the trash bag hanging on the door handle which led to the kitchen with other bottles and the box for the Danger Jelly Beans.  Taylor's brother, Austin, who was two years younger than her, had brought them with him, a gift from one of his friends from work for Christmas. The friends and family had used the Danger Beans as part of their Holiday Quiz, that was Austin's idea. It was supposed to make the quiz more interesting. Taylor ended up eating most of the horrible flavours, including one vomit flavoured one, which made her feel like she was going to throw up, three wasabi flavoured ones, which made her mouth feel like it was on fire, and a toothpaste flavoured one, which wasn't all that bad, it cooled her mouth  after the wasabi ones. She did get some nice flavours too, blueberry, cherry, cola and tootie frootie, a flavour Taylor wasn't fond of. The quiz was fun, until Ryan Reynolds had to throw up in the bathroom after a vomit flavoured one and his wife Blake Lively had to take him home early.

Taylor smiled fondly at the memories that had been made the previous night. The party had gone on until nearly half three in the morning at which time Travis had decided that they'd had enough fun for one night and thought maybe his and Taylor's neighbours would like to go to bed. He and Taylor bid everyone goodnight and went to bed. Taylor only fell asleep after she knew her parents, Scott and Andrea, brother and best friends Selena Gomez, Ed Sheeran, Hayley Williams, Zac Farro, Taylor York Emma Stone and Abigail Anderson, had all reached their hotel rooms safely. She slept, wrapped up in the safety of Travis's arms and the couple woke up at eleven in the morning but did not emerge from their bedroom until nearly mid day when the three cats, Meredith Olivia and Benjamin, grew restless and wanted their breakfast.

'Hold on to the memories, they will hold on to you. Hold on to the memories, they will hold on to you. Hold on to the memories, they will hold on to you and I will hold on to you...'

Taylor's soft voice filled the apartment above the melodic piano theme but she, herself, wasn't singing, it was coming from the sound system on the wall. Her husband had put the song on repeat, thinking it was appropriate considering it was New Year's Day. She really would 'hold on to the memories' she had created with her friends and family the previous night and appreciate them for as long as she had them. The song wasn't her favourite, in fact she couldn't remember the last time she'd performed it live. Possibly it was on the last day of the Reputation Tour when she'd mashed it with 'Long Live' and 'Clean'. Or during her Era's Tour which spanned two years and explored seventeen years of music, her music. She'd been so proud of that tour. That tour had resulted in her meeting Travis for the first time. He had attempted to give her a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it but was unsuccessful. She'd heard about this from one of her friends and decided to reach out. And the rest, as they say, was history. Those were some of Taylor's fondest memories. She'd go back to that moment and relive it if she could.

'Please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognise anywhere. Please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognise anywhere'.

Taylor didn't often listen to her own music unless it happened to be on when she was walking through the store and she had no choice but to listen or when it was her album release parties. However after that, she didn't often actively put her songs on. But her husband loved her music, loved her voice and so she listened to herself whenever he put her songs on. She wouldn't stop him from doing this because she knew how happy it made him and how proud of her he was. She loved Travis, she loved when he was happy.

But recently, the couple's happiness had been wavering. It wasn't because their love for each other was fading, it was because they'd been struggling to expand their family. The couple had both taken breaks from their careers to focus on expanding their clan, which currently consisted of just the two of them and the three cats. They'd had difficulty conceiving a child and the countless negative pregnancy tests had broken their hearts. Eventually, Taylor had told Travis she wanted to take a break from trying, she thought taking the pressure off of them might help. But it hadn't. So the couple decided to put their names down for the adoption and fostering lists, that was two months ago. They hadn't been chosen yet.