Home (noun): a place where something flourishes, is more typically found or from which it originates.

Now

Montana

The initial shock of Calum speaking for the first time and Hannah yelling at me has faded from this morning but there was still a battle to be won. "Just listen to me for one second!" I pathetically jog after Luke as an attempt to keep up with his long strides.

Higher beings must take pity on me because Luke finally pauses in the middle of the corridor and I come to a halt in front of him. He turns his head up towards the roof with exasperation. "What? What could you possibly say that I haven't already heard a hundred times?"

I ignore his blunt comment. "Let me take him home, please. You know it's better for him there than here." I'm angry that I have to plead with him for this like he is Calum's father.

"Are you insulting my center?" Luke lifts an eyebrow and folds his arms against his chest like the crass bastard he is.

"No, I'm fucking not, Hemmings. It's a great place, a wonderful place actually but there's no one here who can take care of him around the clock."

"And what makes you think you can?"

"I can, and I will. I know what he needs."

Luke sighs like he hates that I'm right. "Monti, do you really think I'm gonna leave him here? I'm taking him home with me, as in where Sierra and I live." He points out like he feels the need to elaborate. "We have enough space."

I deflate, my arms dropping to my sides. "Why don't you want him to come home with me? I'm his girlfriend, I should be the one taking care of him." I'm not sure why I keep using that term to describe myself but I don't seem to have any other way.

"Since when? As far as I know, you ended it with him--and a long time ago too."

I've learned to tune out Luke's words for the past couple of years for Sierra's sake and because most of the time his mouth follows before his brain does but I seem to be in the mood to get offended today. "It's none of your business what Calum and I do with our relationship, I helped you when you fucked up with Sierra—" Luke flinches at the memory and looks down at his feet.

"—I'm taking him home with me and all of you can come visit whenever you want." I leave him there, rubbing a hand down his face and I press the button for the elevator.

"He's on the third floor." Luke resumes his walking and turns left into the reception and the elevator doors open.

"Thank you." I breathe a sigh of relief and he nods before the doors close and I'm inside alone. I lean my forehead against the cold metal and try to breathe.

My head was spinning. There was so much I needed to think through but at the center of it all was the one thought that I needed to get Calum home with me.

I wrap my arms around my torso. I feel different--like I wasn't really myself. But then again, I haven't been myself for a long time now. I'm not entirely sure I even remember what I'm like to begin with.

The elevator doors open into a carpeted corridor and I immediately regret not asking Luke which room he's in when I see all the doors on either side of the long hallway.

There are pictures hung up on the walls in between the doors and despite the fact that there are children living here it's extremely quiet. I have no idea which one Calum's room is and opening each door to check probably won't be such a good idea. I walk down the corridor and see one door ajar and make the decision to peek in.

I immediately see Calum in his wheelchair by the window and the girl who screamed at me earlier, Hannah. She is sat by his feet with a cigarette in between her lips.

I have the sudden urge to barge in when I see Calum lift his hand up to his mouth and drag in the nicotine from his own. The doctors had strictly told us not to let him smoke but they were so quiet almost like they were having a silent conversation while they stared out the window. I envied it, but then I wanted to paint it. A man who almost died and his unlikely friend, sharing a smoke.

I stuff my hands under arms and lean against the doorway to watch them in silence. Was she his companion when he was here? When I had left him? I wonder what her story is, why Calum never told me about her.

"We know you're there." Hannah snaps me out of my thoughts and I could have sworn I hadn't made a sound. "Calum always said you had this perfume, that it got into the room even before you did." She turns her head away from the window and looks at me over her shoulder.

"I didn't mean to disturb—" I begin but she shakes her head, "You wanna take him home."

"Yeah." I step into the room. It's a small space but it feels cozy like a hotel room. The large windows look out into the green fields and the merciless sun beating down on the kids outside playing sports.

"Why can't he stay here with us?"

"He needs proper taking care of. He needs rest and—"

Hannah rudely cuts me off again. "You think we can't take care of him?"

"I didn't say that. He will be better off at home with me."

"His home is here with us. He is a part of this. He doesn't need to go with someone who didn't want him."

I look between her and Calum and the frustration reaches a new level. "Look, Hannah, I'm sure you hate me plenty, but so do I and the rest of the world. But right now I really don't care and I really don't have the energy to explain this to you in excruciating detail, okay? I'm taking him home so he can recover, with me. And please, take those cigarettes away from him."

Hannah stares at me for a long time and her cold stare is enough of a death stare to make me wish I was really dead. "Okay." She finally puts out her cigarette along with Calum's, suppressing a little smile she thinks I didn't notice.

---

I wheel Calum's chair into my apartment and his new bodyguard follows behind with his suitcases. "Just set them by the door, I'll unpack later."

"You have my number, right? Call me if you need anything I won't be far." He tells me and leaves, closing the front door behind him. No one was allowed into this building through security but they said a guard would be outside just in case someone decided to ruin the peace for Calum.

"Welcome home." I squat down near Calum and he looks at me. He spoke two words earlier in the morning so we know that he speaks to our great relief, but that's all he has said since.

Calum blinks a couple of times. "Do I have to be in this chair all day?" His voice is hoarse and I almost keel over at the sound of it. I never thought I would miss his voice this much, never thought our circumstances would allow it.

"No. You can—you can walk around, of course. Yes." I stutter and stand up. I put out my hands for him to take so he can grip them when standing. When he actually takes them I want to cry happy tears because he's responding to me.

He gently lifts himself up with my help and even if he has been in the hospital for a couple of weeks he is still stronger than I am so I get the feeling he's just letting me help him for my sake.

When he stands to his full height, he towers over me like he always does and I'm suddenly painfully aware that our bodies are pressed close. "Thanks." His chest rises and falls and I want to hug him and thank him for still breathing.

I step away from him but keep my hold on his arm and he takes a couple of steps around my living room.

Looking around my house feels strange now because I haven't been back here since the day I ran out of it. Again I find myself suppressing tears because I never thought I'd see him here, not when I saw him getting wheeled into an ambulance. "Do you want to take a shower? I'll make dinner." I let go of his arm when I'm certain that he's steady on his feet.

He nods his head to the side once as an answer and walks into my bedroom.

---

Calum stripped down right in front of me without a single care and I all but dived into his suitcase until he disappeared inside the bathroom. Then I contemplate whether he will need help and walk back and forth between the bathroom door and the bedroom door like an idiot. When I hear the shower turn on I decided to leave him a comfortable change of clothes on the bed and start on dinner. I pat myself on the back for not losing my mind so far. He's okay and he's here. I tell myself that like a mantra.

I make his favorite soup and ignore all the phone calls I'm getting. I do peek for a second to see that most of them are from work and by the fifteenth ring, I have to stop myself from violently chucking the phone into the soup because feeding him solid food like spaghetti is still not allowed so an electronic device would be a serious problem. "Fuck" I groan turning the stove off and almost scream when I turn to see Calum standing there stoically.

"You scared me." I clutch the large spoon to my chest to stop my shaking hands.

His hair is still wet and I offer to dry it for him and he sits on the edge of the couch. I take the towel from around his neck and start to dry his hair but then he rests his forehead on my stomach. "You don't have to do this."

It's so hard to ignore his words when I've been dying to hear him speak for the last couple of weeks but I do.

"I'll bring the food." I gently raise his head and step away from him even if I feel like I'm standing on quicksand.

"Do you wanna watch a movie?" I turn on the TV and hand him the remote but he just stares down at it without another word.

My heart aches because there's nothing more that I can possibly do. I wanted him to be comfortable and know that I wanted to do this for him. But that conversation was for another day when we both had the energy for it.

He has turned on the TV when I return and place the soup bowl in front of him. I'm just about to sit down on the couch next to him when someone starts banging on the front door and ringing the doorbell simultaneously. Calum perks up to look at me with his eyebrows furrowed.

We weren't expecting anyone and I know that none of the band or Sierra would be banging away on my door like this. I tiptoe towards the door, silently praying that it's not a fan or paparazzi but when I look through the peep hole what I see almost shocks me.

I look back at Calum before I open the door and she barges in.

A/N:
Ooooh who do you think that was?