Safe and Sound

15

Hannah awoke with a start, sitting up straight in the backseat of the black SUV. She blinked, for a moment, wondering where she was. Looking out of the window, all Hannah could see for miles was fields of green grass, some with cows grazing, others with horses sleeping under the late afternoon sun. Hannah had fallen asleep somewhere around Roanoke, Virginia at around lunch time and awoke two hours later as they crossed the border between Virginia and Tennessee, passing the welcome to Tennessee sign.

Hannah leaned to her left to look at the satnav on the screen in the middle of the car. This journey still had around four hours left. She let out a soft sigh. She'd never sat for this long. Her body was starting to ache, muscles stiffening from the lack of movement. Her neck hurt from the way she'd slept, lifting her hand she rubbed her neck to ease the tension.

Taylor, Travis and Hannah were travelling to Nashville, Tennessee for Taylor's mother's birthday. They'd be staying for a week to celebrate. The couple had to ask Ashley's permission to take Hannah out of the state. Ashley had agreed, after some thought, thinking that it would be good for her daughter to see other parts of the country, even if she couldn't be there to experience it with her.

Taylor and Travis had made the executive decision to drive instead of fly because they thought the car journey would be less terrifying than a plane for Hannah since she was still adjusting to life with them. They'd split the journey over three days, stopping at two hotels just off the freeway to rest so that the journey wouldn't be too exhausting for Travis who refused to let his wife take over for a few hours despite her insistence that she wouldn't get lost, that she'd follow the exact instructions on the satnav. He still refused to let her take the wheel. The couple hadn't been on a road trip for a while and thought it would be nice to have one since the world had been leaving them alone, they could travel in peace.

The cats had been left at home under Peter's protective supervision. If Taylor trusted him with her life, she trusted him enough to look after her babies for a week. She decided it was best for the cats to stay at home since they didn't get along with her mother's small horse sized black and white Great Dane, Kitty. Her mom had gotten the dog when she was diagnosed with cancer and the animal had become her best friend, she never went anywhere without the four legged creature. Andrea had missed having her two children at home so she got a human sized dog, the woman treated the dog the same way Taylor treated her cats, like the animal was her child. Taylor wasn't too fond of the dog, she was definitely a cat person but the dog made her mother happy so she had to accept it. The singer knew Travis was fond of the dog, he'd have one if Taylor's cats liked dogs but they didn't and he loved Taylor so he accepted that he'd have to wait to get a dog.

The singer had left Peter with a mountain of cat treats to bribe the three cats into doing that he wanted or leaving him alone. She knew Benjamin wouldn't be a problem, he was an angel. Meredith and Olivia on the other hand, they were the problem children. Less social than Benjamin, Meredith would probably avoid him like the plague but Olivia, she could get into all kinds of trouble. She'd probably get herself stuck somewhere, she had an impeccable talent for that. Taylor just hoped they'd take it easy on Peter, who'd never owned any animal in his life.

Taylor was glad they'd left the cats at home because she knew they wouldn't be able to handle the long car journey. The cats were used to plane journeys and being able to get out of their crates once the plane took off but in the car, it wasn't safe to let them out. They'd have meowed in complaint the entire time and that would have been extremely distracting for the person driving.

The journey had been extended by an extra hour and a half because they had been stuck in traffic in New York. The traffic jam was nose to tail, no one could move. People honked their horns impatiently though it made no difference. Eventually, they'd gotten out of New York through the Lincoln Tunnel and were able to pick up speed on the freeway. It was smooth sailing from there. They stopped occasionally for a rest break, to eat, and use the bathroom then continued on until they reached their hotel where they ate dinner and slept while the car recharged. The next day, they travelled and hit another traffic jam due to work being done on the freeway but the wait was not nearly as long as the previous day. They reached their hotel pretty late, ate and slept, waited for the car to be fully charged then headed off again.