To Protect Each Other ~ A Haleb Story

It Hurts

Hanna's eyes fluttered open the next morning. Caleb asked to spend the night and she was going to ask him anyway so she agreed. Her mum was in Washington with her work colleagues which she didn't want to leave Hanna for but she trusted Caleb to visit everyday to check on her.

Then she remembered the events of yesterday. She glanced over at Caleb and noticed clearly how the medicine she practically forced down his throat had not made a single difference. In fact, if it did, it only made it worse. His eye was purple and bruised. Hanna got up and walked over to the bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror and wondered, 'how the fuck did my life get so fucked up?' She heard a groan and walked back into her bedroom.

"Morning, beautiful." He groaned some more.

"Morning. But I can't say the same about you." She chuckled slightly. "I'm really sorry. I pushed him to it and I'd take it back if it meant you didn't get that on your face." She said, seriously. Hanna felt extremely guilty but she meant every word she said to her father. How she was sick of him talking shit about Caleb.

"Come here." He whispered.

Hanna sat down on the edge of the bed, next to Caleb. "I'm glad he did it."

"Okay, I didn't give you that much medicine Caleb, and unless your living some sort of double life that I don't know about and your a thug or something then I think your going crazy." She rambled.

He laughed. She always made him laugh. "No. I'm glad he did it because it made you realise once and for all that he's not worth a second chance."

"This is more than a second chance. More like a tenth chance" She tried to lighten the mood a bit. "Caleb no matter what you shouldn't have gotten punched."

"It's not that big of a deal." He pulled her to the other side of him and began kissing her. "But this is." He whispered.

●●

Beep. Beep. Beep. "Ugh." Caleb lifted himself onto is elbow and checked his phone. "Oh for gods sake." He totally forgot he was meeting Ezra and Toby for 'beers'. They were all planning a surprise party for Hanna, Aria, Emily and Spencer. They thought they'd deserve it after everything they'd all been through. He looked at the clock. 2:47. He had to be at Toby's by 3:00 and so he had plenty of time. He turned over to give Hanna a kiss but to his surprise, she wasn't there. "Hanna?"

"I'm in the bathroom, won't be a minute!" She replied, almost instantly. Caleb got up and changed into some black jeans and a burgundy button up shirt. He quickly ran his fingers through his hair and decided it looked good enough. He knew Hanna liked the 'messy look' and so it was a bonus for her, too.

It had been 10 minutes now. Hanna never usually took this long and he began to worry. Besides, he was supposed to leave 5 minutes ago but 1) he desperately needed to pee and 2) he wanted to say goodbye to her. "Han? You okay in there?" He walked over to the bathroom door and knocked. There was no reply. "Hanna? Please just open the door and whatever it is it'll be okay, I promise." Caleb was getting extremely worried about her now and so he began to raise his voice slightly to make sure she knew he was there. "Hanna! Open the door! Please!"

He'd had enough. He wasn't getting any reply from her and he'd been stood there, calling her for over a minute now.

If Caleb had learnt anything over the past 3 years of tip - toeing around an anonymous stalker, it was to pick locks. He went through Hanna's bedside table and found a long sterdy wire which Spencer gave to Hanna. He ran back to the bathroom and started picking.

Finally. "Han?"

And there she was, laying on the floor with a small razor blade in her hand. Both her arms were bleeding and she was barely awake.

"Hanna? What have you done?" He teared up. There only girl he'd ever loved had done this to herself.

He immediately picked her up carefully and ran to his car which was parked right outside. He had a first aid box in the glove compartment and so he lay her down on the back seat and quickly wrapped some bandages around her cuts.

He drove as quickly as he could to Rosewood Community Hospital. He had been here an unnecessary amount of times but this was definitely the worst. Caleb looked back at Hanna. Her eyes were now closed completely. "Hanna. Please stay awake baby." He could barely see the road due to his tears.

They finally arrived at the hospital. Caleb picked Hanna up again and didn't even bother locking his car.

Caleb was sat in the waiting room for half an hour. A man took Hanna into an operating room and Caleb had no idea why. He'd decided not to call Hanna's mum as he knew how important this trip was to her. He hoped he would call her later to tell her that Hanna ha done something bad but she'd be okay. Caleb called Toby to blow off their 'drinks' so he wouldn't have to explain anything to him. Scrolling through his contacts, he saw Hannas best friends names. He clicked on Aria, at the top.

'Ring... Ring... Ring...'

"Hello?"

"Hi, Aria. It's Caleb." He tried his best to hold back his emotions.

"Yeah... I know that." She giggled slightly. "What's up?"

"Um. It's Hanna." His voice began to change. No matter what they had all been through together, Aria had never heard Caleb like this before.

"What's happened?" She replied. Knowing the extent by his tone.

"We're... we're in hospital. You should call the girls and come. I can't really say this over the phone." He cried.

"Yeah of course. Caleb hang on, we'll be there as soon as possible."