Never giving up on you - Completed.

26.

Caity

It had been nice to spend a few days at Austin's apartment in L.A., hidden from the world and anyone who wanted something from us. He had gotten some strength back in his body after spending three whole days of sleeping and doing literally nothing, and I was happy to see he had gotten a bit better.

We had gone to Stanford because his surgery was tomorrow, and today we would take Hailey to the zoo like he had promised her weeks ago. It would be the last family day out for a while, seen as he wouldn't be as mobile as he normally was after surgery.

'Daddy, are we going to watch the elephants?'

'Sure hun,' Austin answered, looking back at Hailey in her car seat on the back seat for a second. She squeeled.

'I love elephants!'

'What about the monkeys?'

'I love them too!'

'And the lions?' Hailey fell quiet and I looked back too, laughing at her frowned face.

'They are scary.'

'Are they?,' Austin chuckled, dividing his attention between getting the right intersection and looking in the rear view mirror to Hailey. 'Why?'

'Last time we were in the zoo, one of the lions roared and she got scared,' I chuckled.

'Oh. But the lion won't hurt you, baby.'

'They're scary...,' Hailey still muttered. Austin shook his head and smiled a bit, changing the subject to what flavour of icecream Hailey was going to get. He had her all hyped up about icecream in general when we arrived at the zoo and I threw him a look.

'What?,' he asked, laughing a little while Hailey was yelling at the back seat that she wanted to get out now.

'You're gonna keep control of her today,' I warned him. Austin laughed.

'Watch me.' He got out and got Hailey out, and I put on my backpack. I had forbidden Austint to wear the bag with drinks and snacks in it, since it would only be extra weight on his hip and I didn't want him to be in pain or worsen his complaints in any way. He had given in eventually, but not after throwing a fit about it.

I watched Austin take Hailey's hand and walk up to the entrance with her. She was so excited and so looking forward to get in. I smiled at the sight of them and Austin looked back when they were already at the register and I was lingering.

'Yo, daydreamer. Hurry up!,' he said. I got up to them and Austin paid for us to get in.

'Dad, can we please go to the elephants first?!,' Hailey yelled. Austin pulled a map from the stand at the register and looked at it, crouching down to Hailey's level. She was leaning against him as he showed her the way to the elephants. I pulled my phone from my pocket and snapped a photo, posting it on Instagram.

caity_maverick: 'Planning is key at the zoo. Off to the elephants we go!' A while ago I had decided to open up my Instagram account again, after I had put it to private due to the huge amount of unknown people and fans following me. I had deleted all photos with Hailey's face clearly visible though, and was now only posting photos without her face on it.

'So? What way do we go, captain?,' I asked, putting my phone away after turning off the notifications; today was family day.

'We go... ehm. Where do we go, daddy?,' Hailey asked confused and I laughed. Austin trailed the path with his finger and Hailey took the map, storming off in the direction he had pointed out. 'Mom, dad, come on!' I looked at Austin and he winked at me, taking my hand in his as we followed our overly excited daughter through the zoo.