Haunted

"I better get a happy ending" - UNEDITED

Disclaimer: This chapter has not been edited from the original as posted on JBFF. There will be mistakes, typos, continuity problems and other issues.

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"She didn't come," Clay said when Chloe walked into his hospital room. She stopped where she was, still a few yards away from him.

"No, she didn't," Chloe said. The whole flight to Portland she'd wanted to run to Clay, feel his arms around her, see he was actually okay. Now that she was in the room it didn't feel okay at all.

Clay looked alright. He had a broken arm, fractured shoulder blade and some less scary little injuries along with a lot of scrapes and bruises. The doctor would release him the next morning so they could take him home. Chloe heard all this through the door while Adam, Eli and Bryce were in the room with Clay, before she was allowed in.

"He doesn't want to see anyone, except for Hannah," the detective had said. Hannah started crying, of course, because that was what she always did. Chloe hadn't known if she should scream or kick Hannah in the teeth but instead she ended up crying too. It was just too much.

But Maddox was there. He didn't pick Hannah. For once he'd held Chloe, promising her they would go see Clay right away.

"I know, baby girl, you need to see him with your own eyes," Maddox whispered as he rubbed her back. "We'll leave right away."

"He doesn't want me," Chloe sobbed. Who cared if everyone in the room saw her fall apart? She'd been waiting forever to find out Clay was okay and all he wanted was Hannah.

"Let's go see him," Maddox had said.

While Maddox was taking care of Chloe and promising her it would all end up okay, Clara and Hannah were talking. Hannah didn't want to go. And the next big shock was that no one argued. Adam said whatever Clay wanted could wait until he was home. Eli was already upstairs packing.

Clara offered to stay with Hannah and the others so Brent met them at the airport. Maddox, Chloe, Brent, Eli, Adam and Bryce were in Portland less than 3 hours later.

"I fucking hate her," Clay said. Chloe just stared. "I'm not even sorry, Chloe, I hate her so much."

"Oh," Chloe didn't know what else to say to that. "Then why did you want to see her? And only her?"

"Cause I want answers," Clay said. "She ruined my whole fucking life. Why?"

"I don't know," Chloe moved a little closer to his bed. Her heart was beating so fast she felt almost sick. "Can I hug you?"

"If you have to," Clay said.

Chloe had to. She tried to be gentle but even in the hospital gown with a brace on his body to hold his shoulder in place he still felt like her Clay. Tears started dripping on him and Clay put his unbroken arm around her.

"I'm so glad you're alive," Chloe said. "I was so scared."

"I wish I'd died," Clay said. Chloe pulled away.

"What the fuck? Why would you say that?" she demanded. Then she saw the cuts on his arm. "What did you do, Clay?"

"I told you," Clay jerked his arm from her. "My life is destroyed. I have nothing to live for."

"What are you talking about?" Chloe grabbed his cheek because he couldn't pull that away from her.

"Everything good in my life is gone," Clay said. "Hannah took everything from me. She knew, didn't she? She knew how I felt about her and she just used me. So now I'm gonna be a dad to some baby I'll never even get to know. My first kid and I'll never know it. And you basically hate me."