Stories Yet To Unfold

Samantha fell right back into her regular routine the following morning. Up at seven, shower, dressed and make up done, wake Hannah up at eight-thirty, get her dressed and fed, then head to work after dropping Hans off at day care. Once she made it out of the shower and finished getting herself dressed she went to work on her makeup, trying her best to cover up the bruise on the side of her face. She lifted her shirt and checked on her ribcage, it was colored in different shades of blues, blacks, and purples. She winched as she press on them a bit. She was definitely feeling the pain he had inflicted on her this morning. She felt like she had been hit by a bus the night before.

She quietly made her way out of the bathroom once she had finished and turned to head towards Hannah’s room so she could get her up at the same time Rian was walking out of his room. “What are you doing?”

“I have to wake her up and get her ready for daycare.”

“I can watch her.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. It’ll save you money and I want to spend some time with her before I leave in a couple days.”

“But don’t you have things you need to get done today?”

“Nothing that I couldn’t take her alone for. Just gonna drop off my bags at the bus then meet Alex and Lisa for lunch. She would probably have more fun with me than she would spending the day at daycare.”

“If you’re sure you don’t mind then I don’t care if you take her with you.”

Good, now let the poor girl sleep. It’s no wonder she wakes me up so early on the weekends that she spends with me.”

“Sorry.” She told him as a small smile played across her lips. “Want some pancakes? I can make breakfast seeing as I don’t have a grumpy four year old to fight with this morning.”

“Sure, I’ll be down stairs in a minute.”

Samantha headed to the kitchen and started pulling out everything she would need to make breakfast. She took out the griddle, milk, pancake mix, and orange juice and got right to work. A couple minutes later Rian came down the stairs and found himself a seat on the other side of the counter at the bar across from Samantha. “Want help?” He asked her as he sat there watching everything she was doing.

“Nope, I got it covered.” She told him as she looked up from the mixing bowl where she was mixing together the batter getting ready to pour it onto the griddle.

“Alright… What time do you get off tonight?”

“Around six, I’ll stop by a store on my way home and pick something up to make for dinner tonight.”

“Don’t worry about it, we’ll just got out.”

“But I wanna do something as a thank you.”

“You don’t have to say thank you by cooking me dinner. It’s fine, we’ll go to our favorite pizza place instead.”

“The hole-in-the-wall pizza placed I crazed all through my pregnancy?”

“Yep.”

“I haven’t been there in years.”

“Me either, it’ll be fun.”

“Okay, thank you Rian. For everything.”

“It’s no problem. I like having you here, it’s nice getting to spend so much time with Hannah.”

“She adores you.”

“Well that feeling is definitely mutual. She has me wrapped around her little finger.”

“You just gotta learn how to not give into those big brown eyes of hers.”

That’s easier said then done.”

“Well you can blame yourself for that, she got them from you.”

“That’s about the only thing she got from me. She’s a spitting image of you… Not that I mind.” Sam couldn’t help the blush that was rising to her cheeks. She’d be lying if she said all the feelings she had once had for him weren’t making their way right back to the surface.

“Well I should get going before I’m late for work. I’ll see you later this evening.”

“I’m serious Samantha, call me if anything at all happens.” The past couple of days had flown by and it was already time for Rian and the rest of the guys to leave for tour. He was nervous about leaving Sam and Hannah behind, but he knew there was no way he could stay behind and they wouldn’t be able to come along. The bus was hardly big enough for the five guys that already stayed in it, he couldn’t imagine adding another two. Not to mention there was no way Samantha’s job would let her off for that long amount of time.

“I believe you. I’ll call you, I promise.”

“Seriously, I don’t want Jake starting up any trouble while I’m gone.”

“I will call you.”

“I’m gonna go say goodbye to Hans.”

To Samantha it seemed like the days had passed by incredibly fast and the guys were already leaving to make it to the first tour stop. For once she wasn’t in fear of anything she was saying or doing, or not doing for that matter. When she was at home with Jake the smallest things would set him off Hannah’s coloring books laying out on the table, one or two dishes left in the sink, even something as small as Samantha not wearing the type of clothes he liked when he got home from work. Nothing ever seemed to make him happy and in her mind nothing she or Hannah ever did deserved the ‘punishment’ he inflicted on Samantha. And it wasn’t only the physical stuff she was afraid of, she couldn’t take the yelling of the cruel things he would about her anymore. She had finally had enough.

Samantha’s thought were pulled away when she saw her crying four year old following after Rian who was trying to make it out the door to meet the rest of the guys at the bus.

“Hans, I’ll be back in just a little nit.”

“N-no yo-you’re no-not. Not f-for t-tw-twenty o-one days-s.” Sam made her way over to the two of them and picked up the hysterical four year old.

“It’ll go by faster then you think, I promise.” Sam couldn’t help but tear up at the scene that was playing out in front of her. She always felt bad for both Hannah and Rian at times like this when he was saying goodbye and leaving for tour.

“Give daddy a hug and kiss bye, then we’ll go get ready and go to Build A Bear.” Samantha had learned a small trick a little after Hans had turned two, she was easily bribed with going to Build A Bear.

“B-bye d-da-dad-daddy” Hannah said as she reached towards Rian so he could take her from her mother’s arms.

“Bye baby girl, I’ll call you tonight.”

“O-okay.”