With Hearts to Hear| ✔

|09|

It was moments like this that made Rachel feel alive.

There with the windows of her jeep rolled down, wind whipping past her as she drove a little over the speed limit. The steady rocky beat of the music blasted loudly, filling her ears with a chaotic harmony. She couldn't help but to drum along to the beat on the steering wheel, belting the lyrics to her favourite songs at the top of her lungs.

On the empty country roads, with no-one around for miles, there was no-body else there to hear her. Well, except Killian; judging by the amused smile of admiration beautifully settled over his features, he didn't seem to mind.

Killian sat in the passenger seat, taking her in; he loved the sight of her so carefree and filled to the brim with a contagious bubbly energy. She was the most beautiful when she was just being herself. Watching her just be, felt like a blessing. There was something effortless about the way she laughed and sang that Killian felt as if he were in the presence of something ethereal, an angel, or perhaps the Goddess herself.

Perhaps, he thought, that was simply the power of soulmates.

They had stayed the rest of the morning at the hotel, and even stopped off for an early lunch before they decided to hit the road. Killian knew his mother would probably have a few choice words for him on the matter, but with Rachel beside him he hardly cared. He was a grown man, and as much as he loved and respected his mother, he was also fully capable of doing his job without her breathing down his neck.

The drive back to his pack was only a few hours, and Killian planned to bask in every untroubled moment whilst he could. The song on the radio faded out, the crackle of the announcer's chatter filling the space, neither Killian nor Rachel was really paying attention.

"I always wanted that to be me one day, y'know?" Rachel suddenly spouted, turning down the volume so she wouldn't have to shout over it for Killian to hear her. "Music on every radio station. The fame and fortune never mattered, but the music..."

"There's still plenty of time, you're still really young." Killian tried to reassure her, he didn't like how flat her voice sounded, as if she had been crushed under some immense weight and it had left her empty.

"Yeah, perhaps." She shrugged, but Killian could see that she didn't believe the word herself. A soft, sad smile stretched across her features as she kept her gaze steady on the road; the familiar sting of tears daring to prick the corner of her eyes. "It was me and my dad's thing y'know? I'm just not sure without him that I..."

"If it's something you love, wouldn't you want to want to do it because you love it?" Killian furrowed her brow, watching her carefully from the passenger seat.

Killian thought he should leave it alone, her family was always a touchy subject. Besides, he should probably convince her to do whatever it was that would make her stay, but he couldn't. He couldn't help himself, not when he has seen how much she loved music, not when he had heard how incredible a gift her voice was.

It was a blessing to behold, it would be a devastating loss if the whole world never got the chance to hear her.

"It's just not the same without him." Rachel shook her head, her voice growing a fraction harder. She wasn't sure if it was in defence of Killian's probing, or just her agitation of her train of thought. Words came forth, bubbling like magma and she couldn't stop them. "And when people tell me 'you're keeping him alive this way,' I know it's just bullshit. My dad never encouraged me to do music because I was good. He wouldn't have cared if it was music, or painting, or bloody skiing; he encouraged me because it was me."

"Isn't that more of a reason to go for it?" His voice was soft, yet not pitiful, and Rachel was thankful for that. She hated being pitied.

"Maybe, but I just don't see the point. He was the only person in the world that I cared about listening to me, now he can't." The woman muttered, pinching her lips shut in her growing discomfort.