Getting away

[Charlie Parker]

So it wasn't exactly a perfect day at the stables, but it wasn't too terrible. It was kind of overcast and dreary, and it looked like it might rain later, but for Charlie, it was the perfect day to take a break from wedding planning. The day before, he'd gone and interviewed 20 different wedding planners, and he hadn't liked a single one of them. Maybe he was being too picky, but if every wedding planner was an obsessive control freak who was determined to ruin his life, then he would just give in and do it all himself. That was really saying something too...Charlie was not the sort of guy who wanted to plan anything down to a T way ahead of time like weddings required. Anyway, he had five more to talk to, but not until tomorrow, so today, he wasn't going to do anything wedding related. He needed to take a break from it before he dove head first into it again, otherwise, he'd go insane.

So here he was, at the stable, standing in the stall beside his horse, tightening the girth. Brig just stood there and let him pull it as tight as he wanted without trying any tricks like that. Next the bit, which was always a bit more of a hassle with Brig. As soon as he saw him coming with the leather bridle in hand, he threw his huge head up into the air, as if taunting Charlie. He was a huge horse, over 17 hands, and getting his head when he threw it up like that was no easy task.

Charlie stopped in front of the horse, just looking up at him, appearing to be trying to figure out how he was going to get him bridled today. There was a tiny bit of a devil in every horse, and Brig was no exception. He reached over, and took a hold of his lead rope, pulling his head down to where he could reach the halter. This completed, he pushed his thumb in between the horse's jaws and brought his head down to a more convenient level. Knowing that the Belgian was stronger than he was, Charlie quickly slipped the bit between his lips, pried his mouth open, and slipped the bit in, all before Brig could pull away again. It took a quick hand to get that thing in his mouth. They'd made progress though, before it was a complete fight, now it was just a tiny bit of a struggle.

Now that all the tack was in place, the big horse was ready to go. He took hold of the reins and lead the mazzive animal out of his stall and headed for the Legendary trail head. Anyone else was more than welcome to come along, he just needed to get away from the wedding planning for a bit. Riding on a long trail was the best way he could think to do that.

[hayleywilliams]

Hayley will start a Riot.

Hayley yawned as she hoped out of bed, smiling slightly. She didn’t have to worry about waking Charlie, and Chuck up either, but the habit of staying quiet in the mornings lingered quietly. She wasn’t sure where Charlie was, but knew Chuck with Hayley’s mother for the night. Hayley couldn’t believe in a few months she would be a wife. The girl who took heroine, the girl who had a three year old son. Hayley was going to be a wife. She smiled sweetly heading to her closet. Although her style of dressing usually was her trade mark, Hayley wasn’t going to dress how she normally would. Oh no, that was far out of the question. Hayley wasn’t sure why her normal appeal of yellow and neon colored skinny jeans didn’t appeal to her this morning. She shook her head, hardly believing what she was about to where.

Her plain white top, had been gradually replaced with a white and black striped shirt, and layered onto the shirt was a soft long sleeve plain white top. Hayley looked like she was going to church. The boxers she had slept in, and been replaced with tan skinny jeans. She headed over to where her shoes could be found, and didn’t even take a glance before grabbing black flats. Hayley snuck into the bathroom. Despite the difference, she wouldn’t leave without some makeup on.

Hayley looked in the mirror and examined herself. She wasn’t to sure about her new hair cut, however. It looked a bit layered for Hayley’s liking, and it had given Hayley bangs. She wasn’t used to “long” hair, and yes Hayley considered her hair to be long if it touched her shoulders. She stood far away from the neon bright colors, and went with something more neutral. She applied her brown, eye shadow as well as her original black eyeliner and figured it was enough to go visit her horses. She felt sorry for not informing Charlie, that she would be leaving here for the day, but she doubted he would mind. Hayley, satisfied with her make up job went downstairs.

She grabbed herself a coke, and decided to take her trail blazer. Hayley reached into the drawer, and saw where she had hid the drugs she was avoiding for the past two weeks. They where only there in case of a deadly withdraw, and even then Hayley would take barely enough to get her high. She decided to not look at them as she shut the drawer, and grabbed her keys heading out the door.

When she arrived at the stable, she made sure to lock the orange Trail Blazer and head to the barn. She saw Cody, the stable hand start to tack up her Arabian Stallion, Riot. Hayley jogged up to the twelve year old boy, and almost laughed when she saw his face. He had been riding Riot for Hayley, but today wasn’t his day to ride. Hayley dug ten dollars out of her pocket, and handed it to Cody. His eyes opened wide, as she spoke. “Cody, I’m going to ride him today. Here’s some money for tacking up, especially with his western saddle. Cody smiled at Hayley. “Thanks, Hay. I needed ten dollars for this video game I was saving up for. I’ve been working on jumping logs with Riot, he’s wonderful. Even in the western saddle.” Hayley watched the excited little boy run off.

She gathered the horses reins in her hand, and hoped on his back. Riot was a flashy horse, sure many considered him a show stopper, but many had disapproved Hayley’s idea of making him a western horse. Hayley kicked him into a jog, until she entered the jumping arena. She saw it was inhabited by lessons, so Hayley had made a quick turn around. Great, what could she do now? Hayley decided on hitting the trails, and taking a short cut through the barn. Not before long, Hayley’s heart lifted when she saw Charlie. The Arabian stallion wasn’t sure if he liked the other horse, but figured he could tolerate it seeing as though the horse looked seventeen hands, and Riot was fifteen. Hayley spoke. “Eh! Long time no see handsome.”

[Anthony Lovasz]

Once Charlie had stepped out into the light of the day, he stopped Brigadier and pulled himself up onto the tall horse's back. Brig almost instantly tugged at the bit the moment Charlie was astride him. He was still quite young, only a two year old, and he had more energy than was good for him. A lot of people had criticized him for riding the horse before he was three, but Charlie just laughed. They were worried about riding hindering his growth, but Charlie's response was always the same. The horse weighed about 2,000 pounds, and was already 17.2 hands, if he grew much more he'd be a woolly mammoth, not a horse, and Charlie's weight made no difference in the 2,000 pounds he already carried. There was no reason for him to not ride this horse.

Just as the two of them were reaching the trail head, the sound of another horse's hooves came up behind them. Charlie stopped Brig and turned him to face back the other way so that he could see who was coming. A smile crawled across his face when he recognized the pair as Riot and Hayley. Who better to spend the day with than his future wife? He just hoped she didn't panic since Chuck wasn't with him. She'd left her son in his care this morning, but he'd gotten that all straightened out...okay, so he had nothing to do with it. Anthony and Alex had showed up and told him that they weren't going to let him spend his day off from wedding planning babysitting. He, of course, had protested and informed them that he didn't mind spending the day with Chuck, but Anthony would have none of it. He had insisted and told Charlie that even if he refused to leave the house and put Chuck in their care, they would just take the kid and go to the park or something. Charlie gave in. He knew Anthony well enough to know that he was a stubborn as a mule...thus the fact that the day he got his cast off from the accident he was out galloping a horse on the track. From what he'd heard of Alex, she was like that too.

Too long. He said with a smile, letting Brig turn back towards the trail as Hayley came along side him. I was afraid you'd been kidnapped again. Of course he wasn't serious. He knew she hadn't been. There was no way anyone could get into the house without being eaten by Jigsaw. Just because Hayley lived with him now and was going to marry him soon didn't mean she had to tell him where she was going every minute of the day. She was a very independent person, and he wasn't going to stifle that in her. There wasn't anything about Hayley that he would change, she was perfect the way she was.

Brig's big feathered hoof pawed at the ground a bit in impatience. He wanted to get going, and Charlie was making him stay still. He wasn't going to fight Charlie and try to force him to let him go, but he would let him know that he was displeased with the situation. He was very...almost human like really. He had more of a personality than some people Charlie knew. To him, Brigadier was like...well, almost like a kid. He'd raised him from a colt and done all the training himself. He was, in every way, Charlie's horse, and he loved that animal. He was pretty sure the only thing he'd ever trade him for would be Hayley...but he didn't have to since he already had both of them, so he was perfectly happy.

[hayleywilliams]

Hayley looked around the stable, reaching her hand out to pet Riot on his neck. Despite what people thought about Hayley riding such a horse, there was nothing stopping her for doing so. Ok, maybe he could have been a champion show horse. Maybe, he could have made money and became a fabulous sire. Hayley didn’t understand why English riding seemed to be so judgmental upon western riding; she also knew however that that wasn’t always the case. Hayley wasn’t exactly sure what brought on such a debate in her mind. Hayley new she was random, but strong debates popping in her head for no apparent reason? She shrugged it off. Hayley was so juvenile at times.

Hayley’s muscles tensed up when she didn’t see chuck. Hayley was a mother, therefore she did have this natural instinct to freak when she didn’t see Chuck sitting there. “May I ask you where my son is? Tell me crazy boy didn’t get to him?” She asked with a serious look on her face. Her voice didn’t raise in volume, although her body became tight and firm. Hayley’s stomach felt sick, as if she maybe forgot him at home? “Please tell me he isn’t at home. I don’t want him getting into those drugs in that one drawer. You already have an addict in your life, I don’t want you to have two addicts in it. I already feel bad for acting like a completely homicidal maniac every night. Screaming, and kicking up at the bed. Imagine if chuck and I both went through that!” Hayley said slightly panicking. Her breathing became heavy, then realized she was probably over reacting. This made Hayley come down quit a bit.

“Feels like a year.” Hayley couldn’t help but let out a small scream as Riot stomped his foot on the ground. He wanted to go running already. Hayley felt guiltily for leaving Broadway out of the fun. He was her palomino gelding, and even though Hayley had recently purchased him, she still loved the stupid thing. “Oh yes the crazy kid, nah not this time.” She said, sighing. She forgot to mention the night mares wouldn’t stop, about that night. It was hard to make them too, after all. How would you act if you where raped by your own cousin?

Hayley gave a playful smile at Charlie. “You know what?” She said kicking Riot into a trot. “You’ll have to catch me, big shot.” Hayley said, kicking Riot into a gallop as soon as they were out of the stable. Hayley loved the fact the trail was located almost on the other side of the barn, and loved the fact it was a nice safe area for a good gallop. Hayley placed her hand on the saddle horn, as the Arabian took as fast as he could, his tail hanging flawlessly in the air.

[Charlie Parker]

Just as he expected, she was worried about Chuck. Hayley may not realize it, but she really was a good mother, even if she was on drugs and all that, she was still a good mom. She never let Chuck get into situations where he could get hurt, and she was always worrying about him if she didn't know where he was or what he was doing. I wouldn't worry about him. Charlie said with a smile, I left him in good hands. Anthony and Alex stole him for the day, said something about taking him to the park to feed the ducks. He knew that Hayley would trust those two with Chuck. After all, Alex was "Auntie Alex" and Anthony was one of Charlie's closest friends. The two of them might be a little crazy, but he knew they'd take care of the kid. Besides, if anyone tried to hurt him, he was quite confident Anthony could break their neck. He may be exceedingly short for a guy, but after all those years of horse racing, he sure was strong.

Charlie shook his head at Hayley as she took of on Riot. In stead of just letting Brig go though, he circled him to make him start out a bit more smoothly. If he had just let him go, he would have bolted into a gallop, and whenever he did that, it was almost impossible to stay on him. Brigadier could make up for it pretty easily though. With those long legs of his, he ate up the ground in breath taking strides. For such a large horse, he was a surprisingly smooth mover. Most horses of his height have choppy strides that aren't all that great for riding, but the thoroughbred mixed in him seemed to have evened him out a bit. He still didn't have a very nice trot, and it was impossible to sit, but when he got galloping man...let the thunder roll.

It didn't take the two of them long to catch up with Hayley and Riot, but when they did, Charlie pulled Brig up. It was a long three hour ride, this trail, and Charlie didn't want to wear the horse out. Brigadier didn't want to fall back behind Riot, he was having fun racing, but as always, he complied, and slowed when Charlie asked him to. Sure, call him a wimp, loser, whatever you want to call him, but he knew how prone Brig was to injury, and the last thing he needed was the stress of getting him over another injury added on top of the stress of finding a wedding planner. He wasn't sure if Hayley would pull Riot up as well, but either way, he was keeping Brig at an easy lope for this one. If they'd been on Pinewood Trail, he would have just let the horse run, but since this one was longer and more strenuous, he would have to conserve the animal's energy.

He reached forwards and patted the horse's neck with a smile, Atta boy Brig. He said. He loved the responsiveness of this horse. He never had to ask him more than once. If he wanted him to stop, Brig would stop right there. If he wanted him to slow, he would slow. If he wanted him to gallop, he would gallop. It took him barely a moment to respond, and he was also very good at reading Charlie's mind. The day before Charlie had proposed, he had tried to work the Belgian, but his mind was so concentrated on Hayley and what he was going to say, that it had ended up being disastrous, and he'd given up after about half an hour. He was a bit more focused now, though all the wedding stuff was starting to weigh on his mind now.

[hayleywilliams]

Hayley smiled, as she showed the stallion down to a trot. He was daring Hayley to go faster, trying to speed up, and Hayley wasn’t about to give in. She looked nearly shocked when her horse nearly bucked. It wasn’t anything to be worried about, but Hayley was beginning to get nervous. She tried to focus her attention back to him, grinning as she spoke. She couldn’t help but grin. He was her world. “Ok, so I trust you with the world therefore I don’t think I should be worried about him.” Hayley backtracked on what she had just said, and shook her head. “Hopefully he wont get eaten . I don’t want to find my son dead because I decided not to take him riding today. Speaking of that, after the wedding, I was thinking about get Chuck a pony. A very small one, what do you think? As a father, you have just as much say as I do. Plus I’m doing drugs, so what the hell do I know.” Joking around Hayley smirked. She hadn’t really gone riding with him before.

Hayley wasn’t sure to count the time where she had ended up cutting to deep and almost killed herself. Why could so be so selfish? She had Charlie. ”Charlie” She said letting her Arabian pick up speed gradually, as Hayley focused on what was ahead of them. Normally Hayley would have looked on the ground, but to the fact she was on the back of Riot Hayley decided to watch where she was going. “Do you ever regret, things you’ve done? Do you ever regret ever thinking you were better of dead?” Her fun, go lucky expression was soon replaced with a sort of sad look. “If I had cut, just a little deeper…I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be with you.” Riot slowed down, nearly walking at this point as if he knew something was wrong.

“I love you.” She had said, and she meant it. Nothing could ever her apart from him. She loved hi far to much.

muse

[Charlie Parker]

Charlie smiled at her comment about Chuck getting eaten, he knew that she wasn't serious. After all, Alex was one of about three girls on the face of the earth that Hayley got along with, the other two being Liz and Chey, and Anthony was one of about maybe five guys that Charlie actually knew on a first name basis. He knew a lot of people by their last names simply because he arrested them or cited them for something. As much as he tried to forget all those people, if he ever saw them again, he could place them, and in most cases remember their last name. It was often unfortunate for him.

Sure we can get him a pony. Charlie said when Hayley suggested it. He hadn't been introduced to horses until he was 15, and now he wished that he had done so long before then. Horses were the only way he knew how to relieve stress. Sure, talking to Hayley and other close friends helped, but when he got up on Brigadier and headed out on the trails, he just felt like he was totally free out there, and he had nothing to worry about. He thought that getting Chuck a pony was actually a great idea. He knew the little boy had been around horses a lot already because of Hayley's involvement in horses, but still, it would be nice to get him his own.

It was starting to rain now, but it was light enough that he wasn't too worried about it. What was a little water? He always got more wet than this anyway when he took Brig through the stream. He wasn't going to let this ruin the ride. It was perfect out here, just him Hayley Riot and Brig, he wouldn't want it any different, and no amount of rain was going to stop him from enjoying it.

When Hayley said his name and then stopped, he had a feeling she would be coming up with another of those questions or statements that had been weighing on her mind for a long time that she was just dieing to ask him. I regret a lot of things Hayley, everyone does. He said, picking his words carefully as he replied. Brig also slowed at the change in the air around the two people. As mentioned earlier, he could read Charlie's mind like an open book. When I got shot the second day of the job by someone who I had considered a friend, I realized that because I wanted to do something right with my life I had to give up a lot of things that I really wasn't willing to give up. By that point though, it was too late, I'd already lost it all. He paused for a moment, still thinking over what he was going to say. and when I realized that, I honestly wished that the bullet had been two inches down and three inches further to the right so that I could just die. But now I have you and Brig and Chuck, and I realize how stupid I was to even think that. Yeah I regret it every day, but I can't change it, so I'm just going to look forward to the future with you as my wife. See, I had to lose everything that I thought was important to me before I could find the only thing that really mattered, the only thing that could really complete me, the only thing that I will ever need. That thing is you Hayley.

He really had lost everything. All the guys he'd called friends back in high school, they were all gone, except Seb, and he'd even lost touch with him for a few years too. He'd very nearly lost his life back then when he got shot. He'd lost his horse and his partner in that accident. He'd lost contact with the entire world, and thus his family when he'd quit the job and been rather depressed. It had all been taken from him in a quite dramatic way, but it seemed now that it was the only way it could be done. He'd been so stuck in his own little world before everything was taken from him that he'd missed what really mattered when it ran right into him...literally...on that drug bust. He had to have it all taken away before he could get down off his high horse and see that Hayley was the only thing that could complete him. He knew that now, and none of those other things really mattered anymore.

[hayleywilliams]

[ Hayley wins world's worst post award.]


“Dude, Alex should feel blessed that I like her as a friend. One of my beasties, really. B-f-f- for live, yo! You dig dog? Dog dig? Dig dog? I’m so gangster.” Hayley’s failed attempt like acting like a rapper, was out of the question. She loved music, and didn’t really care what type it was, but for some reason couldn’t stand rap. Hayley nearly screamed when he said yes. “Ok, thank God. So what type of horse? I was most certain it’s not going to be another Riot, no matter how much I love him.” Hayley laughed when she saw Riot’s ears go from flat, to pricked up listing to his rider speak.

“Shetlands tend to be mean, and he would out grow out of it. Pony of the America’s are pretty nice horses, but I’m not sure about the breed. Don’t know much about them. So, what do you think Mr. Horse expert?” She asked him, paying attention to her horse’s head bob up and down as if he was dancing. Horses were very funny animals, and Hayley wasn’t sure why she found them to be that funny. The seemed to know what you where saying.

“The weather is looking pretty weird, but whatever. You’re the sunshine in my life anyway, and I don’t want the other sun giving me sun burns.” It was slightly cheesy, but slightly Hayley as well. She didn’t want stupid rain clowns ruining their day, and it sure wasn’t going to. As long as Hayley was breathing, it wasn’t going to.

“You don’t regret asking me to marry you? Do you?” Her head hung sort of low as she asked this. The horse picked up on her slightly gloomy mood, and started slowing jogging. Hayley pulled back on his reins, and it took a few tries to get him to obey her, but he did. “If I was there, I would have taken a bullet for you. If you would have died, I wouldn’t be here. That’s the bottom line of it. If I never would have met you, I would either be in jail, or in a coffin. You matter. You’re my life.”

[Charlie Parker]

Charlie was smiled a bit when Hayley started talking about breeds of ponies and then asked him what he thought, calling him Mr. Horse Expert. If he was an expert on horses, then well...he didn't know what. He knew plenty about Belgian Thoroughbred crosses, but other than that, he wasn't much of an expert. He really loved horses yeah, but he wasn't the sort of person to go research every breed known to the human race for hours on end. First of all just because he didn't want to, second of all because he didn't need to, and third of all, he didn't have the time to do that. Can't say I know too much about ponies. Charlie replied honestly. Chey or somebody like that might be better to ask.

He glanced up at the sky at Hayley's mention of the weather, the rain was starting to fall harder, and it looked like a thunder head was starting to build behind them. That wasn't a good thing. He pulled Brig to a stop for a minute, debating whether or not they should go back. Brigadier disliked lightning. He was fine with the thunder and all, but the sudden and unexpected flashes up in the sky were not his favorite. Plus, with a thunder head that big, it looked like there was going to be a lot of rain and a pretty intense storm. After a moment though, he gave Brig the rein again and went to catch up with Hayley. If it started to get bad they could always turn around later.

Almost right after he had that thought, the rain started to come down harder, the drops getting larger and falling faster. He had a feeling that by the time this storm was over they'd be soaked through and through. Nothing wrong with that though, a little rain never hurt anyone, besides, it wasn't the first time he'd been out on a horse in torrential downpours. The world of crime didn't take a break because of the rain storm, so neither could the policemen. He should be used to this sort of thing by now.

Charlie was rather taken by surprise when Hayley asked if he regretted asking her to marry him and then went on to say that if she'd been there she would have taken the bullet for him. If there's one thing I regret over all the others, He said slowly, It's throwing you into that car and not realizing that you were the one I needed. I love you Hayley, and if anything were to happen to you, or if you were to go with any other guy, I don't think I'd want to live anymore. I could never regret asking you to marry me Hayley, not now, not later in life, not in a million years. I wouldn't want it to be any different.

A small flash of lightning lit up the sky behind them causing Brigadier to jump a bit, but Charlie tightened up on the reins and kept him moving forwards beside Riot. Brig was going to have to learn to get over that fear, and Charlie was determined to make him do so. Lightning was about the only thing that Brigadier was afraid of. In comparison to all the good things Brig had going for him though, this little quirk was nothing, and something Charlie was very willing to deal with. He'd rather have a horse that's afraid of lightning than a horse with ten million different problems.