Imagines and One-Shots (Book Two)

Touch (Ashton Irwin) *

Warnings: Kidnapping, mention of abuse, needles

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Flashback

Maybe he should have taken you home. Maybe he should have asked you to stay the night. Maybe he should have just not asked you to go out at all. Maybe he should have...

A lot of 'Maybe I should have's ran through Ashton's mind the morning he found out you went missing, and they never ceased plaguing him for the six months you were gone.

Where were you? Who took you? What were they doing to you?

Ashton didn't know.

But what he did know was that he couldn't force himself to face your family. He knew they didn't blame him – God, they loved him so much, they treated him as their own – but... He just couldn't do it.

When he looked at your mother, he saw you. When he heard your dad speak, it was like listening to the jokes you always seemed to come up with on the spot. When he looked at your older brother, he saw the strong-willed woman he fell in love with...

And that was just it; Everything about your family reminded him too much of you. And he just couldn't bear to see them and know that you weren't there.

So your family went on with life with both you and Ashton no longer around. Sure, it was hard, but they couldn't help but feel for him. They knew they were all messes no knowing where you were or what was happening to you, but they also knew that Ashton probably felt like they were somehow mad at him for being the last person you were with. He loved you more than anyone else and having not seen him in the last six months, they knew he was taking it hard.

That is... Until five days ago...

Someone called local police nearly a week ago with a possible sighting of 'a missing girl he'd seen on Facebook'. They obviously checked it out and the hellish half a year you'd been enduring was finally over.

Your kidnappers' mistake? Making you go outside to get the mail every day.

From the moment you reached the hospital, you freaked out when anyone made an attempt to touch you. To you, everyone was going to hurt you. And you were not about to go through six more months of that.

Your nurse decided to wait until you had been asleep for a couple hours before putting your IV in, hoping you were a heavy enough sleeper to get it done without waking you up. She did, of course, and then did the rest of her duties before going back out to the nurse's station.

When your parents and brother arrived at the hospital 40 minutes later, your mother quite honestly about burst into tears when the nurse told her you had a serious case of amnesia. The officers that had found you told them about your experience – how you could remember every single detail of what your kidnappers had done to you but not remember something as simple as how old you were or how many siblings you had. And as much as they wanted to take away the pain, they were just happy you were alive.

End flashback

​Your brother had gone home to get you your favorite pair of fuzzy socks that afternoon – ones Ashton had bought for you on your first Christmas together, actually – because he knew how much you hated the feeling of hospital socks.

He jumped when he heard your phone vibrate on your nightstand, still where you'd left it plugged into the charger six months ago after forgetting to take it with you the day you were taken. He went over, figuring you'd want it when you woke up – hoping it would somehow jog your memory to see the photos you had – only to find a bunch of notifications when he took it off the charger – a few from social media but mainly all messages from the same person: Ashton.