fic: False Endings [Chapter 2]

[breathe_it_in94]

Title: Happy False Endings
Author: breathe_it_in94 
Fandom: AU Demi/Selena, unknown pairings
Chapter: 2/?
Rating: M/NC-17 for violence, language, and maybe sexual content
Summary: Just because an ending's happy, doesn't mean it was true.
Disclaimer: I don't own Demi, Selena, Braison, Miley, or any other adult characters in here probably. I own just the plot, and most of the kids.
A/N: Oh my gosh, you guys, I'm so sorry for this to have taken so long! I don't know who even remembers this story, but if you do, I hope you enjoy! I don't have an excuse, but the reason for my lateness: relationship drama, as usual, BUT I had also sort of written myself into a corner when I started writing this chapter, and then I had to rewrite like half of it. So I hope it turned out well enough! let me know what you think!

Chapter 2

When the van pulls to a stop beside your group, the front doors immediately open. Two men step out, the passenger with a long-barreled shotgun resting on his shoulder, and the driver with two pistols on each side of his body. You hook your thumbs in your pockets so you won’t unconsciously make any sudden movements.

“Well, howdy there,” the driver says in a long drawl, giving a cocky, lopsided grin. “What’s such a young, beautiful gal like you doin’ runnin’ around with a bunch o’ lil’ munchkins like these?”

You give your own smirk back to him, making sure to seem like you weren’t afraid. “‘Howdy,’ huh? ‘Gal’? Haven’t heard anyone talk like that since back Then.”

You notice that his smile falters a little when you say this. “Yeah, well, not many’a us Texans were, uh, used tuh that kind o’ heat, now were we?”

You shake your head. “That we were not.”

You study each other for a minute, looking each other up and down through your sunglasses. Then his smile widens, and he turns to his partner and laughs heartily. His partner joins in, and he turns back to you, saying, “I like this lil’ gal, Sterling!” He holds out his hand to you. “I’m Taylor. Lautner.”

You shake his hand briefly. “Nice to meet you.” He pauses for a moment, waiting for your introduction, but carries on once he realizes you won’t be giving him one.

“So how would you and yer lil’ youngun’s like a ride into town? We won’t charge ya fer the lift, I swear.” He holds two fingers up mockingly.

You bring your smirk back, but make your voice firm. “No thanks, I think we’ll manage. We don’t want to intrude on y’all.”

Lautner widens his smile and brings a hand down heavily onto your shoulder. “Nonsense, lil’ miss!” He leans closer to you, and your hands clench in your pockets. “It would be our pleasure.”

You think for a minute, weighing your odds, and mentally sigh when you come to a decision. You look up at him and lower your voice when you say, “Who else is in the van?”

His grin turns closed-mouthed, and he laughs slightly at you. “Sterling, open the side door.” Sterling flips his hair out of his eyes before pulling the sliding door open.

The seats inside the van have been modified; there are three rows of seats, and the one closest to the front has been turned to face the back of the van. In that front row, there are two women. It’s too dark to tell their features, but you can tell that each of their wrists are bound together, and one of them has her feet tied as well. You turn back to Lautner.

“Guess we’ll take you up on your offer.”

You all manage to crawl in, the smallest children sitting on other’s laps. You have Doran on one leg, Leto on the other, and you’re sitting directly across from the two tied-up girls.

The front doors shut, and Sterling turns around to face you all. “Go ahead, talk, get to know each other. But no funny business.” He pulls a black home-made barrier behind the front seats, and Lautner and Sterling’s conversation is instantly muted. You watch the men up front; you’re not worried about the women.

Until Lucky says, “Why do you have sunglasses on in the dark?” to one of them. As Braison mutters stern words to him, you turn and finally take notice of the women in front of you.

One of the women, seated to your left, does have on sunglasses, and she stares straightforward. Her blonde hair is long and curly, falling wildly over her shoulders. She wears a smile now, from amusement at Lucky, you assume, and nothing but kindness is revealed in her voice when she says, “I was blinded in the Flash.” You hear Braison’s words stop, and the silence is suddenly awkward. “It’s okay,” the woman says, “You don’t have to feel sorry for me because I can’t see. I shoulda went underground when I was told to, and I didn’t, so the sun decided to Flash through the window. My mama got us below ground before the real thing came, though. Could you just… tell me who all’s here, though? I heard a lot of lil’ feet.” She ends in a small laugh and a big grin.

“There’s fourteen of us,” you say. “The youngest of the children is four; the oldest is fourteen. I’m eighteen. I take care of them. The four-year-old is Doran; he can’t hear, and can hardly speak. Y’all can introduce yourselves,” you say to the children.

“I’m Leto, and I’m five.”

“Cameron, and I’m six.”

“Lexa; six.”

“Lucky; seven.”

“Aki; seven.”

“Jooey; seven.”

“Terrell; eight.”

“Tori; eight.”

“Janay; nine.”

“Brooke; eleven.”

“Alexi; twelve.”

When Braison finishes, the woman says, “And you?” and you know she’s talking to you.

“I’m Demi,” you say. The woman smiles again and nods before tucking some of her many curls behind her ears.

“That’s a beautiful name,” a soft voice says before the blonde can speak, and your gaze falls on the woman sitting next to her. Her skin is naturally tanned, and her dark hair flows thick across her shoulders. She’s the one with both hands and feet bound, and she looks back down at the ropes shyly when you turn to look at her. You can tell that she’s been hurt in the past, by more than just the Flash, and you can’t help but wonder what’s happened to this girl, and how demented someone would have to be to hurt a girl this beautiful.

You cut yourself off quickly. Those are dangerous thoughts; thoughts that led to too much trouble, both back Then, and Now.

“My name is Taylor Swift,” the blonde starts speaking again, “and this is Selena.” Selena still doesn’t say anything, so Taylor picks back up again. “These young gentlemen,” she says sarcastically, “picked me up on my way back home from the market, about an hour ago, maybe a lil’ longer. I don’t know what they did with my things; they just tied up my hands and put me in here. Selena was already here… And now y’all are here.”

“Do you know where they’re taking us?” you ask, and Taylor turns to Selena slightly, listening. When she doesn’t say anything, Taylor turns back towards you.

“My guess is the nearest town from here; they can’t have that much fuel left. They probably work for someone there who ‘runs’ the town. You’d better keep the children with you.”

“I know, and I’ll try, but they all know how to fight for themselves. Most of them, anyway.”

Taylor nods knowingly. “Doran?”

You look down at the boy on your lap, his big brown eyes gazing at Selena. “It’s hard to teach him,” you say. “He knows when to run, and when not to worry, but Cameron’s our translator, and he’s only six. He doesn’t know how to say everything. Plus, Doran was so weak when we found him anyway…”

“Understandable,” Taylor says.

Doran suddenly jumps up off of your leg and walks forward to Selena. Selena looks at him with wide eyes as he pushed her hands into the air to pass the rope over his head and moves forward to wrap his small arms around her waist. You see Selena’s eyes watering as she brings her arms back down, pressing him closer to her. After a few seconds, Doran pulls back and signs something you don’t catch.

“He says,” Cameron translates from beside you, “that you’re really pretty.” He starts laughing with the next part, “And that you should marry Demi.”

Everyone younger than Janay starts laughing, and you snatch Doran up, signing “no” to him. You turn to Cameron and say, “Tell him that was rude, and that if he does anything like that again, he can‘t ride on anyone’s back for a day.” As he does that, you turn to the still-laughing Leto on your lap with raised eyebrows, and all the children stop laughing. You glance back at the children behind you briefly before turning to Selena, who is now blushing profusely.

“I, uh,” you say, suddenly embarrassed, “I’m sorry about that--”

“You shouldn’t be!” Selena interrupts you, a little eagerly, and even she seems surprised she said that. Her hands come up to cover her mouth as she blushes brighter. “I-I mean, um… I really needed the hug, and what he said wasn’t rude, it was… it was cute. Doran, I mean.” She drops her gaze back to her hands before glancing up nervously at you, a nervous smile on her face. You find yourself sending a soft one back at her before you can stop it, and then you don’t want to look away. The small amount of light seeping through the blacked-out windows makes her dark eyes seemingly glow with a mixture of pain, hope… and a regret that you want to know the cause of.

“Well, I hate to break up the googly-eyed love fest I’m sure’s going on,” Taylor says suddenly, breaking the silence you just now realize had become awkward for the others in the van, “but are we going to figure a way out of this or what?”

You think for a moment. “Can you two fight?” Selena meekly shakes her head, but Taylor smirks and nods, bringing her tied hands down to her boot.

“Why do you think I wear these hot-ass shoes? They’re the only ones tall enough to hide my knives.”

The children ‘ooh’ at Taylor’s curse, but you shush them and carry on the conversation. “If you can fight, why didn’t you fight off Lautner and Sterling?”

Taylor shrugged with a smile. “Lautner sounded cute.” You smile and shake your head; you’re liking this girl already.

You notice Leto looking up at you from your lap, smiling. You tuck a piece of hair behind her ear and say, “What, cariño?”

Her smile widens as she says matter-of-factly, “I like you like this, Demi. It makes me happy.” Your smile falters a bit.

“What do you mean, ‘like this’?”

She studies you for a couple of seconds. “Smiling. Laughing… Happy.”

This hits you hard, and you can feel the smile slipping from your face. You hear Selena take a deep breath before she speaks.

“You guys need to get out of here,” she whispers hurriedly. “You’ll be outnumbered in town; there are too many of them there, guys who have guns, lots of them, and know how to use them. They’ll kill all of you if you mess up even the slightest bit. Demi, you have to get the children out--”

The van stops suddenly, and Selena’s eyes widen as the front doors open. You turn to Taylor.

“Promise me, Taylor, if--”

“I’ll do all I can to protect them, Demi.”

The side door slides open quickly, and you turn to see Lautner staring angrily inside. “You. Demi. Out,” he points to you and then behind him.

You quickly turn to Braison and whisper, “Stay with Taylor; keep them safe.”

“Now!” Lautner grinds out, and you snap your head back to him. You set Leto beside Taylor with a kiss on her forehead, and put Doran in your place as you get up. “Take the midget with you; he’s too weak.” You pause before wrapping your arms back around Doran and exiting the van. He clings to your shirt as you take a couple steps away from Lautner and Sterling.

Lautner reaches into the van, and then Selena is tossed onto the ground before you, curled into a ball.

“Hey!” Sterling calls, grabbing Lautner’s shoulder. “What do you think you’re doing, man? You don’t throw her out!”

“She’s a traitor,” Lautner says gruffly, pushing Sterling away, “and traitors don’t get to stay.”

Selena looks on in fear as Lautner steps towards her. You take a warning step closer, and he looks at you and laughs. He grabs the old necklace around Selena’s neck and rips it off. She gasps when he throws it on the ground and stomps on it, crushing a few beads.

“Dude, you’re crazy!” Sterling calls again. “That was one of four microphones Boss had!”

You see Selena’s eyes widen at the statement before you turn your attention back to Lautner. He pushes Sterling back towards the van, sliding the door shut. “Shut up, dude, and get in the damn van.”

Then the van is pulling away, and you look after it hopelessly, already thinking of what you can do….

Then the tarp that replaces the back window rips, and your pack lands in the middle of the road. The van keeps moving, and you can’t suppress a proud smirk. You place Doran down beside Selena and run to grab the bag. You place it down beside Doran as you look through it, finally pulling out the small pocketknife and flicking out the blade. You crouch down in front of Selena, who’s laying on her side. You gently pull her up into a sitting position and push the hair out of her face. She’s crying.

“I’m sorry, Demi, I didn’t know it was a mic, I promise, I wouldn’t have let you talk if I’d known they could hear you, I didn’t mean--”

“Selena,” you say firmly. “I believe you; don’t worry. Now, just hold still, okay?”

She nods her head, and you carefully bring the blade down to the ropes binding her ankles together. You take her shaking hands to still them as you cut the ropes from her wrists. She flexes her fingers and pushes her hair back. Then she looks up at you almost shyly and says, “Thank you.”

You shrug and flick the knife closed, sliding it into your pocket before crouching down to close your bag again.

“What… happens now?” Selena asks quietly. You glance up at her before standing up and slinging the bag over your back.

Doran takes the hand you offer him as you say, “Now we walk, as fast as we can, and find shelter for the night. We need to get there as soon as possible, and get them out of there just as quickly. But you’re gonna have to fill me in on how things are set up in that town of yours, understand?”

Selena nods quickly, standing up also, so you nod firmly in understanding. “Good. Do you know if there’s anything close by we can sleep in tonight?”

Selena looks down the road in thought before shaking her head. “The closest thing is the shell of an old power plant down that way,” she points in the opposite direction. “But there’s these old, cement cylinders down that way,” she points back in the direction of town. “They’re just laying there, some of them on their sides, I know. But that’s a little bit farther--”

“No backtracking,” you say firmly, and start walking in the direction of town.

“O-okay,” Selena says before hurrying after you and Doran.

You get some distance covered before it gets dark, but once the sun goes down, you have to keep walking. Doran starts shivering after a while, so you pick him up and wrap him in your jacket, holding him to your chest. After a while more, you notice Selena rubbing her hands over her goose-bump-ridden arms to stay warm, so you stop.

“Look in the bag,” you say to her. “There’s a blanket in there you can use.”

When she’s found the blanket and closed the bag, you start walking again, ignoring her attempt at thanking you.

It’s a little while longer until you reach the concrete pipes, but the moon is barely in the middle of the sky yet, so you figure you’re okay on time. You carefully set the now-sleeping Doran down, still wrapped in your jacket, while you make a fire inside one of the overturned tunnels. Once that’s going, you go through your bag once again and take out your sleeping bag. You lay that out on one side of the fire and go over to Doran.

You gently take your jacket from around him and pick him up, carefully setting him inside the sleeping bag. Then you turn to look over at Selena.

She’s been sitting just outside the pipe since you started making the fire; she’s just staring at the stars. You walk over to her and crouch down beside her. You watch for a reaction at first, but then you look up at the sky as well.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the sky at night.” Selena’s soft voice takes you by surprise, but you don’t show that. “At first they wouldn’t let me out at all. But then Sterling recommended me--because of my ‘good behavior’,” she laughs bitterly. “So they started bringing me out during the day. But no one goes out at night; they’d be crazy to.”

You stay silent for a moment, but the question keeps nagging at the back of your mind. “Selena, what did they do to--”

“So where am I sleeping?” she interrupts.

You sigh mentally, realizing you aren’t going to get anything out of her tonight. “In the sleeping bag with Doran. It’s warmer in there. I’ll sleep with the blanket.” You slowly take the blanket from around Selena’s shoulders.

“Are you sure? You won’t get cold?” she asks, her eyebrows furrowing.

“I think I’ll survive a couple of cold nights,” you say dryly, eliciting a soft smile on her part.

“Mama,” you hear, though, and you turn towards Doran, who is sleepily staring at the two of you. “Hod,” he says.

“Hot?” you say, spelling out the word with your fingers. He nods, and you walk over to him, picking him up out of the sleeping bag.

“Here,” Selena says, hurriedly grabbing the jacket and blanket. She folds the jacket up and places the blanket below it. “The blanket will keep him warm, but not too warm. You’ll share the sleeping bag with me.”

You think about it for a minute. So many things could go wrong in this situation. But you’ve already put far too much trust in this girl, there’s no going back.

You finally nod, and place Doran down on the blanket, folding the edge up and over his small body. “Kishesh,” he says, looking up at you expectantly. You lean down, and he kisses your cheek. His eyes stay open until you press your lips gently to his forehead. You hear his soft breathing even out and watch as he snuggles into the makeshift pillow.

“He calls you ‘Mama’?” Selena asks quietly.

“When he tries to get my attention, yes,” you say slowly after a moment. “He used to call me ‘Dem’… I don’t know why the sudden name change. He shouldn’t call me that, though. I’m not his mother.” You realize your voice suddenly turned harsh, but you can’t do anything about it. “Sorry,” you say.

“It’s okay.” Selena stands there for a while before climbing into the sleeping bag, sliding over to one side. “Come on. You need your sleep if we’re going to be walking tomorrow.”

You nod slowly. You leave one last kiss on Doran’s forehead before moving over to the sleeping bag. You pull your bag over and take out your shotgun and pistol, placing the first beside you outside the sleeping bag, and the second above your head on the ground. You place your bag over it and lay down, turning away from Selena. You stare at the fire till your eyes need to close, and then you try to fall asleep.

The last thing you hear is the softest, “Thank you, Demi,” from behind you.