One Chance: a Ted Sweeran fanfic

Ch 20

Taylor's POV

He came in the bedroom the morning after, looking like he had spent the whole night not sleeping. Of course, he probably hadn't slept, after all I had passed another sleepless night just worrying about him, about the baby, about everything.

I continued to stare blankly at the wall as he came in and sat down on the bed beside me. He didn't put his arm around me as he normally would have, so we just sat there in silence, wondering how we ever could have ended up this way.

"They let me go, I'm just going to have to appear in court and pay a fine, nothing is going to happen to me, it'll be alright," he tried to comfort me. He even smelled different, more like an inmate than a husband.

"You know, why did they even arrest you? You just punched somebody, I mean, Ed they had they're guns trained on you, do you know how scary that was for me?" I couldn't help but burst into tears. Crying had become as normal as breathing to me lately, and I hated it.

"Taylor, I was stupid, I didn't realize what I was doing, but apparently the airport had received some threats earlier so the whole security team was on edge, so when they saw me fighting they assumed the worst." I could tell he was looking at me with those bright blue eyes, but I didn't turn to meet him. Something in his voice made him sound...broken, and I couldn't stand seeing him that way. Ed was extremely sensitive, and even if he could hide his feelings from most people, he couldn't from me. This sensitivity worked in his favor for songwriting, but in this case it augmented any pain he was feeling to ten times worse than it actually was.

"So, uhm, what did they do to you?" I asked through the sniffles. I had pictured the worst last night, him getting beat up, getting sick, going into shock and not making it out.

"Well, the cops took me down to the station and interrogated me there for awhile," his voice caught on some of the words while trying to hide the shame in his voice. "Once they realized I wasn't a serious threat they just kept me in a holding cell overnight and let me go, but like I said  have to appear in court in a week and pay for his stupid camera and any 'emotional grief' I caused him. 'Emotional grief' if only the paps were sued every time I was emotionally attacked by them," he snorted. "But I know what I did was stupid, especially since I know what you are going through, but...I'm so sorry," he broke down.

As much as I wanted to stay mad at him, I knew I couldn't, so I turned and gave him a huge hug.

"Ed, honey, I'm sorry I yelled at you, I know I must have been at least part of the reason you were angry...and I never meant to hurt you, I'm just really confused right now, but you know what," I sat up and looked him straight in his tear-stained eyes, "when the cops were puling you away, and the paparazzi were flashing their cameras, I realized that it really is just us against the world." He looked down, as if ashamed I was even looking at him.

I gently pulled his face up so he was looking at me, and with a broken smile spreading slowly across my face, continued, "But you know what kid, there is no one I'd rather fight dragons with than you."

He couldn't help but smile through the tears at that, and I lunged forward and kissed him, taking him by surprise.

"I love you Edward Christopher Sheeran, I always have and no matter what I always will."

"I love you Taylor Alison Sheeran and I promise that I will be honest with you from now on."

I pulled away, looking at not a broken criminal, but a valiant knight, who I would carry out the rest of my life with, in good times and bad.

"Good, now if we're both being honest, you honestly need to take a shower, you smell like dead fish," I told him, both of us laughing because we knew it was true.

"What, that? That's my new cologne, the Sheeran scent," he joked.

"Yeah she ran far, far away after smelling it," I retorted, snorting as I laughed, which caused even more laughter to erupt.

He got off the bed and looked at me just as he had when we were saying our wedding vows: like I was the most beautiful girl in the whole world. Then he left to take a shower, and I was left alone with the imprint of his warm lips upon mine.

Just then the doorbell rang, and I got out of bed slowly to go answer it. When I opened the door, however, there was no one there, only a nondescript package on my doorstep. I bent down and picked it up, looking at my surroundings, but no one was there.

I hurriedly closed  the door, locking it behind me. My heart racing, I slowly opened up the package. Inside was a magazine, and a picture of Ed punching the paparazzi guy, an insane look in his eye. The front page headline was "Ed Sheeran: a Danger to Society?". I flipped the pages, looking for something more, when a little slip of white paper came out. I gasped as I instantly recognized the handwriting to be the same as the one on the note given to me on that fateful night, and I dreaded continuing on.

My eyes, however, betrayed me as curiosity won over, and I scanned the page. "You're in my games now, and you better keep playing," the message read.

I was hyperventilating now, who was this and why were they doing this? Quickly checking to make sure Ed was still in the shower, I snuck past the bathroom and into the small library, where I decided to hide the magazine and note in a huge atlas. I knew I couldn't show this to him, he was too fragile. I cringed remembering how we had promised to be honest only a few minutes earlier. But this was a secret that I was going to have to keep.