Drive -- Brallie AU [COMPLETED]

eight

BRANDON -- HOUR 20 ON THE ROAD

He was holding her hand.

It was early morning, and the inside of the car was blazing hot. No matter how high they turned up the AC, beads of sweat always dripped down the side of Brandon's face. He was red with sunburn and his hair turned frizzy but Callie-- Callie looked perfect. Somehow, she always did. Her hair, almost frozen in time from the moment she brushed it in the morning, and everything else about her was, too. Except, her heart.

And, Brandon was holding her hand. Brandon was allowed to hold her hand.

Here's what he loved about this trip: Her.

CALLIE -- HOUR 20 ON THE ROAD

Here's what Callie could finally understand: She didn't run away because she was scared of what Stef and Lena would do. Callie wouldn't have ran away if Brandon didn't agree to come, because that's what she wanted. She wanted him back. She wanted his touch back, his love back.

He was holding her hand.

They had been through a nightmare of setbacks together with their relationship. But, now he was holding her hand.

And Callie couldn't get over that.

BRANDON -- HOUR 24 ON THE ROAD

Callie was driving. She put all the windows down and turned the radio up, blasting whatever god forsaken song was on at the time. She would scream it, she would look over to Brandon and see his aggravated facial expression and she would become louder.

God, he loved her.

Brandon was thinking about what would have happened if they stayed in San Diego. Callie would probably have her adoption revoked, she probably would be living with the Quinn's. Brandon would get another fucking restraining order, and he most likely would've ran away anyways. Sure, it would probably just be to his dad's house, but still.

He was just glad that he was running away with her. He was just glad that he was finally free to be with the person that he knew he was supposed to end up with.

CALLIE -- HOUR 28 ON THE ROAD

"Do you ever want to go back?" He had asked her.

She shrugged.

"Do you think we were too rash?"

Callie shook her head no.

The truth is, Callie had yet to think of if this was too rash. Her limit for rashness was if you ended up behind bars-- or in the ground -- but Callie knew that she was, yet again, running away from her problems. At that point, she had become a pro at avoiding them. She did, though, want a family, and she was running away from the only family that she wanted and wanted her. Yet again, Brandon's going to be her family. He was her family. Callie had (in her hours and hours of spare time not being in school) planned her life with him. She didn't care if everything happened, she didn't care if everything happened, but she wanted at least one of them to happen.

She wanted to her adoption to be revoked.

Yes, it would mean that she would have to contact Stef and Lena. Maybe she would even have to fly back to San Diego, but Callie knows that nothing more serious than dating can happen with Brandon if her adoption was in place.

"Do you love me?" He said.

"God, no." She joked.

Callie did love him.

She loved him a lot.

STEF -- EARLY MORNING IN SAN DIEGO

Life around the house had calmed. It had been a few days, but, nothing around the house was back to normal. Her and Lena were still silently fighting, but in an effort to keep the peace in their house, they decided to only fight when they were sure that every kid was asleep.

They slept with a body pillow in between them. Maybe Brandon and Callie leaving was the source of their problems, but things began to spiral. Spiral out of Stef's control, spiral into the marriage grave. 

She hoped it wasn't too late to get her wife back.

She hoped that getting Brandon and Callie back will do that. Lucky for her, she had a few leads on the two of them.

MARIANA -- EARLY MORNING IN SAN DIEGO

Life around the house was hostile.

Mariana's moms were obviously fighting, something that neither of them could have hid nicely. Well, not from her, at least, Jude and Jesus were beginning to become clueless without Brandon and Callie around. Speaking of Jude, one day she had to wash blood off of his shoes, and when she questioned him about it, he said that "it's no big deal."

A day later, she found out that he had beaten up a kid older than him for spreading the rumor that Callie ran away because she was pregnant, and Brandon went with because he's the baby daddy.

She hoped that wasn't true.

Jesus had also been getting into fights, but they were for unnoble reasons. Mariana didn't pry when she saw blood on his shirt, because she didn't need to. It was as if the whole world had seen him walk up to that ninth grader and started to beat the living hell out of him for 'looking at him wrong.'

She was truly the only one keeping the family together.

CALLIE -- HOUR 30 ON THE ROAD

After a ten hour drive, they slept in their car. Callie had pulled over, drove a bit into the woods, and stopped the engine. "What are you doing?"

"Sleeping. Duh." She crawled in the back, took off her shirt, shoes, and pants, grabbed a blanket from the back, and rested her head on the seat.

"That's what motels are for, Callie. Not the back seat of a car."

"I mean I can think of something the back seat of a car is for, but we could get arrested."

It took him a while to realize what she was referring to. Usually, he picks up on her jokes right away, but she just assumed that the fumes and his tired state was finally getting to him. "Callie-- no."

"I'm just going to sleep, gosh. I'll be back here, and you can sleep or continue to drive. Which, you know isn't advised, but hey, it's your choice."

He joined her in the back. They fell asleep, Callie on the cushioned seats, and Brandon on the floor, but her arm was hanging over the seats, and she held onto his hand until she was asleep.

She couldn't think of a moment of unhappiness, or hatred, that could hurt them in that moment.