Little Girl Don't Grow Up Too Fast

The Past is Present

12 years later

Carrie finished her makeup for the show well before the meet and greets. She wore a simple black v-neck and jeans, her hair beautifully curled to perfection. She was incredibly sad that this was her last show of the tour, but she wouldn't want to end the tour anywhere else but in Nashville, the mecca of country music and the place she considered home.

She wasn't sure what she was going to do after this. She didn't really have a set plan, and in some ways she was content with that and in some ways it was daunting to her.

Everything was going as normal. Meet and greets always made Carrie so happy because she was finally getting to know the people that are constantly buying her songs, voting for her, going to her concert, etc. All of the love they gave to her, she always wanted to give back. One by one they would come to her and all of them were different in some way. Some would cry, some would ramble, some would give her a gift, and sometimes they would share their own stories and it would sometimes bring Carrie to tears.

Tonight turned out to be different though, in a way that Carrie was in no way expecting. As soon as that young blonde emerged from curtain, Carrie felt her heart sink to the floor. She knew from that exact moment. She knew who that was. Even though she knew, a part of her didn't want to accept it. She was unsure of what to do or how to respond, not knowing how much that poor girl.

Carrie assumed she didn't know it was her since she bounced into the room giving it life, flashing a smile that would make everyone in the room smile along with her whether they wanted to or not.

"Hi," the young girl spoke as she all of a sudden became nervous as she approached her idol.

"Hi, what's your name?" Carrie tried to play it cool, even though she had gone pale.

"Charlotte," she mumbled.

That's when all of Carrie's suspicions stab her in the gut, but she had to treat her like she would any other fan. "It's nice to meet you Charlotte. Are you excited for the show tonight?"

"Yes, I listen to you all the time. I had to beg my dad to let me come," Charlotte told the older woman, pointing to her father who tried to hide in the corner. That was when everything left in Carrie plummeted to the floor. After not seeing him for twelve years, they were finally in the same room. Both could barely look at each other, but couldn't look away at the same time. They had absolutely no words. For Carrie, it was as if the walls were caving in

Carrie finally tried to snap back into reality, and focused on the small girl standing before her, her daughter. "You wanna take a picture?"

Charlotte nodded before she stepped closer to Carrie and turned towards the camera. Carrie wrapped an arm around her daughter's tiny little figure and smiled for a picture. The last picture Carrie had taken with Charlotte was the day that Charlotte was born, and that tore Carrie apart that her daughter didn't know that.

After the camera flashed, Carrie turned to her daughter and gave her a hug. However, it wasn't just a normal hug that she gave to her fans. It was even different than hugging one of her fans or even friends that were crying and needed consoling. She hugged her for a long amount of time, like it was the last time she was ever going to see her again, because that's most likely what was about to happen.

Carrie and Charlotte said their goodbyes to one another and Carrie was walking as fast as possible to her dressing room as soon as meet and greets were over. When Carrie turned the corner down the hallway where her best friend Ivey was waiting outside the dressing room, it was evident to Ivey that something was wrong.

"Carrie," Ivey called out the blonde's name, only to be blown off. Ivey immediately followed her best friend into the dressing room. "Carrie, what's wrong?"