Hannah

I had ditched the car and climbed out, deciding that I was better off walking the rest of the way than waiting here for someone to
come and find me.

So, I was limping down the road in a torn, blood stained wedding dress with a hard-drive and blackberry wrapped up in a towel
tucked under my arm. I’d ditched my shoes a while back but I could feel the gravel of the road cutting into my feet with almost
every step that I took. I was injured and I could feel my body starting to shut down from the trauma and the sudden lack of
adrenaline, but I knew that I had to make it home. I had a family – a husband – to make it home to.

I didn’t know how long I had been walking for, but I finally saw a gas-station and heaved a huge sigh of relief as I picked up my
pace and rushed toward the building. The pumps were void of any vehicles, but I knew that there would be an attendant inside who
would be able to help me. I was proven to be right when I stumbled through the door and was greeted by a startled, middle-aged
woman who had been re-stocking the few shelves inside and she rushed to me, catching me as I fell right before I could hit the
ground.

She wanted to take me around to the other side of the counter so that I could get a comfortable seat but I insisted on having her
help me down onto the floor instead. I could tell that she was completely freaked out and had no idea what she should do to help
me first, so again, I was going to have to take control here and tell her what to do.

“What’s your name?” I asked her from the floor, clutching onto my side and offering her a pathetic excuse for a reassuring smile.

“Susan,” She answered, crouching down in front of me, smiling worriedly back at me.

“Alright Susan, I need you to do a few things for me,” She nodded quickly “Good, now, I need painkillers to take the edge off, and
then I need you to call the cops for me,”

She rushed around and came back to me moments later with a bottle of water and a tub of painkillers before dashing off again to
grab the phone. While I tossed back the pills and washed them down with water I could hear her on the phone to the cops
explaining that an injured, bloody bride had just stumbled into the gas station. While I was left alone on the floor I let my eyes slip
shut just for a second to rest them but I was so exhausted that I found myself dozing off for the first time in what felt like forever.
Despite being drugged into unconsciousness before I didn’t feel like I had slept for a minute.

I was woken by Susan and a police officer not to long after I had drifted off to sleep. They were very gentle with me when they
helped me off of the ground and out to the cruiser.

“Wait,” I spoke, turning in the police officer’s careful embrace to look at Susan “Call my husband, tell him what happened, and tell
him to come looking for me if I’m not home in the next hour,” I gave her Matt’s cell phone number and then allowed the cop to help
me into the back of his car.

I was somewhat comfortable in the backseat as he pulled away from the gas station and started driving in the direction of
Huntington Beach.

“Are you sure you want me to take you home?” He asked sounding quite concerned while he glanced at me in the rear-view mirror
“I would feel much better if you let me take you to the hospital,”

I laughed and shook my head, looking out of the window I was resting my head on.

“It looks much worse than it actually is,” I lied “If it’s that bad in the morning I’ll get to a hospital, but I just want to get back to my
family right now,”

“I’m going to have to come inside to take a statement from you if that’s alright,”

“Sorry,” I cringed “Would you be able to drop by again tomorrow for the statement?” I asked “I’m in no state to give one out tonight,”

He looked at me in the mirror again, smiled softly and nodded once at me before turning his attention back to the road. Just in time,
too, because he suddenly slammed on the breaks as someone stumbled out in front of the car.

“Holy shit,” He swore, jumping out of the car and rushing to the guy’s aid.

I stayed where I was, finding something unsettling about a random guy stumbling out in front of a cop car that I happened to be in
the back of. Call me insensitive but I was losing my trust in strangers these days after being kidnapped and almost murdered.

I found myself clutching the wrapped up towel closer to my body when the stranger was sat in the front seat.

“What’s going on?” I asked the cop.

“This gentleman here has been in a car accident, so I’m going to take him to the hospital, get you home and call for backup to
make their way to the crash-site.”

I did nothing other than stare at the back of the new passengers head while the cop called in the accident and the fact that he was
now transporting two injured civilians to Huntington Beach only ten minutes away.

I watched, and everything seemed to go into slow motion as the guy in the front seat pulled a gun out of the back of his jeans and
fired two shots into the cops head. I screamed out, angry and devastated at the loss of my safe ride home and then he turned on
me with a huge, creepy grin on his face while the car rolled to a stop.

I started to laugh, and his smile faltered.

“Find your buddy, did you?” I asked, laughing harder.

“You’re going to die out here one way or another,” He growled, getting out of the car, coming to the back and pulling open my door
so that he could drag me out by my hair and throw me down onto the road.

“What’s your problem?” I asked, looking up at his face and avoiding looking into the barrel of his gun “I get it, you’re pissed with the
guys, but why go after me, huh?”

“Oh, we didn’t just go after you,” He chuckled “We went for Erin, too. We got her good,”

“What did you do to her?” I asked calmly, but he didn’t answer and just continued to laugh louder and louder “WHAT THE FUCK
DID YOU DO TO HER?!”

“We fucking shot her!” He laughed hysterically “Leaving the home of her lover, Dean, with her beautiful little daughter in her arms
when the shots were fired,”

Ignoring the pain that surged through my entire body with every little move I made, I threw myself off of the ground and at him,
knocking him down and while he was distracted I managed to grab the gun out of his hand and point it at his face. His laughter was
finally dying down, but he was still really pissing me off.

“Is she dead?” I asked.

“You’ll find out when you cross over,” He spat at me with another laugh.

“I’ve taken one of you down tonight, I don’t have a problem with killing you, too.”

I whacked him on the nose hard with the end of the gun and broke it easily before I climbed off of him, hauled him over to the front
passenger side door and stuck his head inside and slammed the door on it, hard.

“You” slam “worthless” slam “piece” slam “of” slam “SHIT!”

With three more slams of the door, I grunted loudly with every hit until there was barely anything left of his head and I tossed him to
the road.

I rounded the car to the driver side and struggled to move the cop out of the seat and onto the road. I’d probably get in a lot of
trouble for that later if I didn’t have a whole load of people who could take care of it for me. I swallowed the bile that was rising in my
throat and got behind the wheel of the car and drove off – only glancing in the mirror once at the two bodies lying in the middle of
the road.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Matt

I hadn’t heard anything from any of the guys to say that they had found her or even any sign of her. I was going crazy with the
need for my wife back in my arms.

I was standing in the middle of the kitchen trying to drink a beer to calm myself down when my cell phone started ringing in my
pocket. When I looked at the screen there was no name showing up, just a number. Normally I wouldn’t have answered it, but something told me that I should.

“Hello?” I answered the phone calmly.

“Is this Mr Sanders?” A woman asked.

“Who’s asking?” I growled.

“My name is Susan Lowe, I’m a gas-station attendant with a husband and three children, and I just helped your wife,”

I felt myself relax at her words, but I was also a little sceptical of what was going on.

“What happened?” I asked.

“She told me to call the cops for her and then call you once she left to warn you that if she wasn’t home an hour from now then you
would have to go looking for her,”

“How long has she been out of your sight?” I asked.

“Only a few minutes,”

“Thank you,” I whispered, clutching the phone tightly “Thank you so much,”

_________________________________________________________________________________

Forty-five minutes after the phone call, I heard the gates outside opening up and I rushed outside to see who was coming inside. I
had my gun ready, but dropped it to the ground when I saw Hannah stumbling through the gates. Her dress was torn, she was
covered in blood and she had no shoes on, she looked like she was about to pass out and luckily I got to her so quickly because
she collapsed into my arms.

“Hannah,” I spoke softly, lifting her gently into my arms bridal style to carry her inside “Hannah, baby, I need you to open your
eyes and look at me,”

Slowly, her eyes fluttered open and she looked up into mine and smiled the softest, tiniest smile before going completely limp. I
would have thought she was dead if it wasn’t for the uneven rise and fall of her chest. I hurried into the house with her despite the
fact that I wanted to take her straight to the hospital I knew that she would kick my ass for it, so I would have to get Johnny to take
a look at her instead.

Once we were inside I laid her down gently on the couch and kneeled down next to her. I wanted to change her into clean clothes
and clean her up, but I was worried that moving her too much would further damage her so I had to leave her in her bloody, torn
wedding dress until I knew the extent of her injuries. I left her there to sleep while I fetched a cold compress from the kitchen and
called the guys and told them that I had her and that they were to come back home right away and bring everyone else with them
because we had to get on these motherfuckers right away. I didn’t know what they did to her after she had gotten off the phone
with me, but she had gotten away and that was the main thing. They were going to come after her again, I didn’t know when and I
didn’t know how… but I knew that they would.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Third Person

Hannah was still unconscious on the couch when everybody else got back to the house. Matt was kneeling on the floor next to her
and wiping her face clean and humming to her softly in an attempt to keep her calm and regulate her breathing, but her chest was
heaving one minute and then barely rising the next – he had to admit that he was worried about losing her. Despite everything, he
had fallen in love with her a long time ago.

Jimmy had cast a concerned look at Hannah as he passed through the living room on his way to Matt’s office where most of the
equipment was still set up from hours ago. Johnny was in the basement grabbing his medical supplies so that he could take a look
at Hannah and attempt to patch her back up. Brian was hovering around Hannah and Zack was standing guard at the front door
waiting for Erin to get home so that he could warn her about what she would see if she went into the living room.

“Did she have anything with her when she got back?” Brian asked Matt, removing his fist from his mouth so that he could speak.

“She was clutching onto this-“ Matt handed him the towel that was still bunched up around the hard-drive and cell phone “Like it
was the only thing keeping her alive,”

Brian looked at the items he had been handed and inspected them closely.

“She must have thought that they were worth saving,” Brian shrugged “Want me to take a look at it?” He asked Matt.

“No,” He answered “She brought it back, she thought it was worth keeping so she’s going to want to be the one to see what’s on
there… just hold off until we know-“

“Erin, I really don’t think you want to go in there!” Zack yelled from out by the front door.

Matt and Brian looked up to see Erin push past Zack out in the hall and walk towards the living room. They both shared concerned
expressions and looked back to the entrance just as Erin stepped into the room and saw her best friend on the couch.

“Fuck-“ Erin cursed, covering her mouth with both hands. Tears filled her eyes and she could feel her whole body fill with guilt at
the sight before her “Is she…” She looked to Matt for an answer.

“She’s alive, she’s breathing,” He answered solemnly “I want Johnny to take a look at her and decide what needs to be done
before we make any decisions,”

“You want to keep her here, waiting?” Erin asked, sounding disgusted by the idea.

“Well you know that she-“

“She hates hospitals, I know, but that shouldn’t matter when she’s unconscious, injured and bleeding out, Matt!” She snapped “I’ve
taken one look at her and I know that she needs to go to the hospital,”

“But-“

“No!” She snapped again “She’s passed out, Matt – it doesn’t matter what she would or wouldn’t want right now, as her husband
you have to make the decision to get her the care that she needs right now and you can deal with her being a little pissed off later,
or you deal with her dying right here in this house from an untreated injury that Johnny couldn’t see.”

Matt was silent for a few moments, letting Erin’s words sink in but he quickly realised that she was right. He needed to take care of
his wife just as he had promised that he would, so he was going to drive her to the hospital whether she was going to like it or not.

“Yeah,” Matt nodded, standing up off of the ground “You’re right, I’ll take her to the hospital,”

“We’re coming with you,” Zack said, wrapping an arm around Erin’s waist as he stepped up beside her from hovering in the
hallway “The rest of the guys can stay here and try to find out what’s going on, and we can ask Hannah about it whenever she’s
awake.”

“Yeah,” Erin agreed “We’ll meet you there, though. I’m going to stay here and pack some clothes and things for her and do a quick
sweep of the house to make sure that nobody was followed back here,”

_________________________________________________________________________________

Erin

Zack was off giving the guys their orders for the next couple of hours before they could get some sleep and I had gone to Hannah
and Matt’s bedroom to pack some of her things. I packed her a couple of Matt’s shirts and boxers as pyjamas, a couple changes
of clothes, hairbrush, hair-ties, toothbrush and toothpaste as well as some makeup just in case she wanted to make herself feel
better whenever she would be discharged and allowed to come home. I also grabbed her iPod and her laptop and then threw some
things in there for Matt, too. Just in case he didn’t want to leave her side to come home and change.

Back down the stairs I left Hannah’s bag by the front door while I did a sweep of the house. After everything that had happened
today I wasn’t going to trust the security system because someone could be hiding anywhere – I’d learned that. I had my gun
drawn and ready to shoot any attacker who could jump out at me as I scoped out the house but I found nothing inside on the first
or the second floor.

I took the bag out to my car in the driveway and decided to do a quick walk around the perimeter of the house really quickly just as
I had inside. Everything was looking good and I was about to go back to my car and wait for Zack to come out so that we could go
to the hospital when something caught my eye. Someone was looking into the living room window.

“Stop right there!” I yelled, pointing my gun at the trespasser. They froze and held their hands up above their head but they had
their back turned to me and it was dark out so I couldn’t see who they were “I’m in no mood for any fucking games so turn around
and show yourself to-“

“Erin?” A deep voice asked “Erin, is that you?”

“Turn around,” I growled slowly.

Slowly, the guy turned around with a weak smile tugging at his lips and I relaxed once I saw who it was. I lowered my gun and
sighed at them, running a hand down my face.

“Sam, what the fuck are you doing here?” I asked, shoving my gun in the back of my jeans “I thought you had left,”

“I did,” He admitted, running his fingers through his long, shaggy hair “I’ve been working with my dad since I took off, but I knew
that the wedding was today and I thought that I’d come back and…”

“Come back and what, Sam?” I asked “Were you going to burst into the church all romantic like and stop the wedding, sweep
Hannah off of her feet and put a bounty on your own head for the rest of your life?”

“Honestly, Erin, I don’t know what I was going to do,” He sighed “I thought that maybe I could stop the whole thing and then I
caught a glimpse of her and she looked so fucking happy to be getting married so I knew that I couldn’t do it,” He took a deep
breath and let it out slowly “I was on my way out of town when I got a call from Dean telling me everything that had happened.
Hannah being kidnapped, you guys getting shot at and everything else he had any information on so I came back to check up and
make sure everything was alright but – where is she?”

“Matt took her to the hospital,” I answered “I took one look at her and knew that she wouldn’t make it without proper medical
attention so he took her and Zack and I are going over there now to be with them,”

“… What should I do?” He asked, looking and sounding absolutely helpless.

“Go to Dean’s,” I pushed “Stay the night and I’ll get in touch with you when I can and let you know how she’s doing, but you’ll have
to wait for Hannah to contact you before you can even attempt to see her, alright?”

He nodded and I gestured for him to follow me back around to the front of the house and then pushed for him to get back in his car.
I opened the door of my car and looked at Sam as he walked toward the gate at the end of the drive and cursed myself before I
said anything else to him.

“Sam!” I called out, making him turn around and look at me again.

“Yeah?!” He called back.

“I know that you love her, and I know that she loves you, too.” I informed him “But she’s finally happy with Matt,” I could see him
slump when my words hit him “If you really love her, you won’t push her to spend time with you, you won’t push her to be with you
and you won’t beg her to leave Matt,”

“I do love her,” He admitted “When I speak to her and find out how happy she really is, then I’ll leave her alone.”



________________________________________________________________________

Third Person

Hannah stayed unconscious during the ride to the hospital and while she was carried inside but as soon as she was out of Matt’s
arms and placed on a gurney to be wheeled away and she could hear Matt calling out as the hospital staff attempted to stop him
from going with her – her eyes snapped open and she started screaming and thrashing around while attacking the doctors and
nurses seemingly in self-defence as though they were attacking her.

Matt had been allowed to go everywhere with Hannah from that point onwards and it seemed that he was the only thing that could
keep Hannah remotely calm whenever she stirred herself awake so that they could continue to examine her and treat her.

Once Hannah had been cleaned up, changed into a hospital gown and tucked into the bed in the private room that Matt had
requested and she was hooked up to the heart monitor and an IV drip, too, Matt had finally been told everything on the severity of
Hannah’s injuries; she had three cracked ribs, a severe concussion, a fractured wrist, a shattered knee and a dislocated shoulder
as well as some flesh wounds and some bruising. They were keeping her sedated until morning but Matt was allowed to spend the
night with her to keep her calm if some adrenaline kicked in and she was woken up again because he would be able to calm her
down and make everyone else’s job much easier.

Matt had gone off to find Erin and Zack. They had been in the hospital for some time but Matt had only just been able to get away
long enough to bring them to see Hannah. He wandered around a little but eventually found the two of them in the cafeteria. Zack
was drinking a cup of coffee and Erin sat with an untouched muffin in front of her. When they both noticed that Matt was walking
towards them they jumped to their feet with expectant expressions on their faces.

“She’s going to be alright,” He said, answering their unasked question “A lot of injuries and it’s going to take her a long time to
recover from them but the most that we can do for her is to be there for her,”

“Is she awake?” Zack asked.

“No,” Matt answered, shaking his head and looking down at his feet “They’re going to keep her sedated until the morning and she
should wake up by early afternoon,”

“Are they suspicious?” Erin asked “Of the cause of all of her injuries, I mean.”

“They always are when any of us come in here with something serious enough for real medical attention,” He pointed out “Luckily,
we deal with the same few doctors whenever we come in here and we’ve already paid them off so they’re not going to involve the
police or anything like that,”

They both nodded and seemed to relax a little more, so Matt gestured for them to follow him. The three of them made their way up
to Hannah’s room without saying a word. When they entered the room, Erin found herself crying silent tears as the sight of the one
person she had always loved through everything in such a critical condition. Zack didn’t know what to do with himself so he offered
Erin a comforting embrace and when she buried her face in his chest and started to sob, he looked at Hannah over her head and
couldn’t help but think that this was all their fault. If they hadn’t dragged her into this life, if she hadn’t been forced to marry Matt
then she wouldn’t have almost died on more than one occasion.

“James and Cooper will be here tomorrow,” Matt told them, his voice no more than a whisper “I’m going to stay with her until then
and then I’ll come home to check on everybody,”

Matt made his way over to the mildly comfortable next to the bed and sat himself down in it, took Hannah’s hand into his own and
started absentmindedly twirling her wedding band and her engagement ring with tears in his eyes.

“Hey,” Zack whispered to him, making Matt look up at him “She’s going to be alright, and we’re going to wipe out the bastards who
did this to her,

Notes

I can't believe it's been four months since I last updated this story! Holy shit!
I finally found some inspiration to write for this story and I had some input from my amazing best friend, elovebakervengeance for something to add into this, too.

Hopefully I can go back to updating this story regularly again as well as everything else I write for, too. I've got a lot going on at the moment, but I'm trying to get back into the regular swing of things.

I hope you guys are still with me on this one, hanging on and waiting for every chapter. If you are, thank you so much for your support!

Enjoy!

~ LMV