lost and found // calum hood

95 | Elizabeth

It was a little over 1 PM and I had just gotten home from another morning at the animal shelter. It was my standard morning routine. Wake up, take a shower, get dressed, drive to the animal shelter, work till 12:30, drive to the store, do groceries and go back home and walk with Duke who always waited at the front door when he heard my car pull up, before dropping myself on the couch again. It was a routine I'd grown accustomed to.

Every Wednesday I'd pay a visit to Gary, Michael's psychologist, and every Friday Iris and I would go grab a coffee at Starbucks after we've finished up at the animal shelter and I would eat pizza when I got home.

It was a routine that was holding me together when I felt utterly and completely alone in LA. You'd always read those things about how incredible LA was and it was, it was beautiful, but I didn't feel at home here without Calum.

I guess I just had to suck it up and deal with it.

I was sitting on the couch with Duke by my side when my phone rang. I raised my eyebrow and saw that it was Calum. I looked at the time, it was 1 PM here, he was nine hours ahead of me, so it was around 4 AM there. Why was he awake at this time?

I answered the phone. "Hey Cal," I said, pausing the tv. Calum let out a muffled sigh. "Sorry," he mumbled. "Did I wake you?" he asked. "No, you're good. It's 1 PM over here. Why are you awake? Isn't it the middle of the night there?" I asked him.

"I had a bad dream, I wanted to make sure you're okay," he said softly, his voice shaking. I sat up straight. Calum never had nightmares. "Wanna talk about it?" I asked him and it was silent for a little while.

Calum then sighed. "It was like a flashback from that night at the club when - when Tommy showed up. I just kept running and running but I couldn't find you. When I finally did...You were dead." his voice broke a little as he finishes.

I swallowed, not sure how to answer to his sudden confession.

"But I'm not dead. I'm okay. I'm right here." I whispered to him, still holding my phone against my ear. "But you could've been," he said and I sighed. "Cal, listen to me. Yes, things could've gone even more terrible wrong then they did but it didn't. I'm alive. I'm home. Thanks to you and the others. I'm safe here, you have camera's everywhere in your house. Check them, I'm on your couch. Duke is by my side. I'm okay. You're okay." I said to him.

I was scared he was going to go into a panic attack, even though I knew he didn't have one year, I could hear his breathing getting faster, but once I managed to help him realize that I was okay, he calmed down a bit.

"Sorry - I just needed to hear your voice. I wanted to make sure you were okay," he said and I smiled at my phone. "I'm good, Cal. It was just a bad dream." I said and I heard him sigh out of relieve.

"Is it still bothering you so much? What happened?" I asked him cautiously and he sighed. "Every time I look at Ash I see you lying unconscious in his arms," he said and I bit my lip. "Maybe you should visit a psychologist too?" I asked and he scoffed. "No, thanks," he said and I shrugged.

"Just an idea. You would tell me if things are getting worse, right?" I asked him. "Yeah, of course," he said.

A comfortable silence fell between us. "How was your morning?" he asked and I started to tell him about Bandit, a small Maltese dog at the animal shelter that I totally had fallen in love with, and this beautiful husky that I'd walk around with every day.

I told him about how Iris and I actually had become such good friends in a short period and that she was basically my only friend besides Mali who did her best to check in every once in a while.

When I started talking I basically didn't stop, so I rambled on for a while about everything and nothing, giving Calum little to no space to react to and he didn't really mind.

Just after I finished talking about how Duke was doing, I heard the soft snores on the other side of the line.

Calum fell asleep.

A soft smile had appeared on my face as I just sat there for a while, listening to him, before whispering an 'I love you' and hanging up.

It bothered me that Calum was still so in shock about what happened but he refused to talk about it. One day he'd be so open about how he feels and the other day he was unreadable. That's just how Calum was. It made stuff like this much more difficult.

I pressed play on the remote again and continued watching Grey's Anatomy while scrolling through my phone. Thankfully Grey's wasn't a show that you had to stare at for a full 42 minutes to understand it, you could just watch bits and pieces and it still made sense.

On Twitter, I saw someone post the tour dates and where the boys were going to tomorrow and I scrolled through the lists of upcoming shows. They had three more weeks before they had a week off before flying to Asia, which was great. They'd probably spend it in Oslo, where they would have the last Europian show.

I dropped my phone next to me and scratched Duke behind his ears. "Your father is stubborn," I said to the dog, who obviously didn't understand me and just enjoyed his cuddle time with me.

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short filler but hey lmao my writers block is o v e r and i got sO Much inspiration for the next chapters but i was writing this and i just realised hOW exhausted I am sO im sorry i m tr y ing