Day Three
Morning

"The hotel wants to what?"

"Have a medal ceremony for you."

"And the medal is... run it by me again?"

"A chocolate mudslide."

"I'm in," Cole decided as he sipped his coffee. Allison rolled her eyes but had a small smile on her face, which Cole took as a win.

The two were early for the hotel breakfast the family agreed to meet for. Well, they were on time, actually. The rest of the family was late, which wasn't exactly unusual. The hotel had a buffet each morning— wasn't anything to write home about, but Cole wasn't complaining. He didn't mind the free coffee.

"Morning!" Scarlett greeted happily as she sat down next to them. "Where you guys off to?"

"Pool," Cole told her with a slight smirk on his face, "apparently they wanna reward me for my heroics."

"Oh, you mean when you lied about being a doctor and almost killed a man?" Scarlett questioned innocently, raising her eyebrows at him.

His jaw dropped in slight offense. "I did not almost kill him!"

"You were gonna trach him!" Scarlett retorted quickly.

Cole leaned forward in his chair, holding his hand up with a wince as if trying to contain her from saying a secret. "That was all the waiter's idea!"

"And besides, we're going on our hike today," Scarlett reminded them with her hands on her hips. "You can go to your mudslide ceremony later."

Allison gave her a blank look. "Scar."

"I know, I know," Scarlett drawled out with her hands up innocently. "But I checked reviews, it's an easy hike."

Allison wasn't exactly someone you would call "outdoorsy". Having grown up in New York City, she didn't see too many mountains. She never had any interest in playing sports, being too occupied with her school papers from middle school onwards. Cole always enjoyed hikes, but usually went alone since they weren't Allison's thing.

"The words 'easy' and 'hike' don't belong next to each other," Allison countered with narrowed eyes, picking at the food on her plate with her fork.

The twins sat down next to the group, neither with any semblance of happiness on their faces. Lila raised a threatening eyebrow. "Did I just hear the word hike?"

After more complaining from both the twins and Allison, Scarlett eventually reminded them that it was her wedding week, and they couldn't refuse or she'd make it a cash bar.

That shut everyone up.

They were trudging along on the trail for some time now. It was one of the most gorgeous views Cole had ever seen. He had been on a lot of hikes, and they all paled in comparison to this. Scarlett stuck true to her word, it genuinely wasn't a difficult hike. But he could still see Allison squirm whenever a bug flew too close to her.

Thankfully, the view seemed to distract her for the most part. Nobody could deny how beautiful it was. The water went on for ever in the distance, it seemed. The ocean was so blue it almost looked fake. The sun hung high in the cloudless sky, casting a warm, golden glow over the landscape. The relentless heat bore down on him, causing beads of sweat to form on his forehead. The trees stood tall around them, branches reaching upwards as if seeking solace from the relentless sun. Flowers were in bloom around them, life everywhere.

The trail was slightly confusing, sometimes. There were various markings on the trees, which made Cole wonder if they were heading down several paths at once. They didn't have a guide with them because Scarlett claimed they could do it with just a map. Cole wasn't sure about that one, but it didn't ever do him good to argue with Scarlett.

"I heard dinner was a bit of an... ordeal," Lila commented carefully, a touch of amusement in her voice.

Cole snorted. "Understatement of the year."

Lila gave him a sideways look, her eyes narrowed as she asked, "Why did you lie about being a doctor, by the way?"

Cole blanched at the question. Shit. His sisters were both always annoyingly perceptive— Lila especially. He cleared his throat and shrugged. "I was nervous."

"But you've met her boss before and you've been fine," Lila pressed, never afraid to push when she was curious. "What about this time was different?"

"Well—" Cole began with likely what would end up being an absurd lie, but thank god, was saved by the bell. Lila's phone began ringing, making her concentration snap from Cole.

She checked her phone, grimacing. "Shit, Ashton's calling me, I forgot I told him this would be a good time."

Before Cole could say another word, she was moving off the trail in hopes of talking to her boyfriend. He sagged in relief, but had a nagging feeling that the conversation wasn't over. He glanced up ahead and saw Scarlett quickly look away as if she wasn't paying attention to begin with. Cole bit back a groan of frustration, just wanting to be left alone with this mess— because clearly he didn't do well when pressed on things.

"Li, wait up! I need to tell him I think I left the oven on," Sam called out as he ran behind her.

"Are you shitting me?" Lila asked with wide eyes, which was the last Cole heard of the conversation before they ran up to higher ground to get a signal.

"Oh! I think there's a waterfall over here," Scarlett gushed, grabbing Nate's arm and leading him in the opposite direction of the other siblings.

"I think I see a bathroom on the map, I'm gonna try to find it," Allison told the group as she pointed to a spot on the paper in her hands, moving to head in the opposite direction.

"That's a pond, I'm pretty sure," Cole interjected as he glanced at where she was pointing to. "I doubt there's an actual bathroom out here."

"Sometimes trails have them," Allison assured him like she had been here a million times before.

Cole gave her a look. "How would you know?"

Lorena started in the direction of the waterfall with Matthew. "Cole, go with her, we'll meet back up in a bit."

"Hey, is it a good idea to be splitting up?" Cole asked unsurely, holding his hand out to stop them from splitting up. "Getting reception here is sort of brutal."

"It'll be fine," his mother told him brightly, her head darting to where Scarlett and Nate were going off to. "We'll meet back here in fifteen, okay?"

Cole wanted to say no, not okay. But instead of that, he decided to just go with the flow.

It would be fine, right?

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

Turned out, going with the flow instead just made them very lost.

Very, very lost.

It had been about a half an hour since they split up from the rest of the group, and Cole was regretting it more and more with every passing second. He wasn't sure how they managed to get this far off the trail, but it felt like they were going in circles. He tried making some mental landmarks in his head, but he'd forget them almost instantly.

He wasn't sure how far the others could've gone in the time they left, but being lost in the forest wasn't exactly the easiest thing to triumph. Every damn tree looked the same. What was beautiful before just pissed him off now. Cole had tried calling out everyone's names for the last bit, expecting for at least one person to hear him.

Of course, there was one name he didn't resort to calling out yet.

But desperate times, and all that.

"Fine, Matthew?" Cole shouted in defeat, making Allison scoff.

"God, you need to give that dude a break," she told him firmly from behind him.

"I haven't said shit to him in the last day!" he exclaimed in frustration, walking heavily down the trail.

"That's the problem," she seethed with crossed arms. "You need to at least try and acknowledge him without adding some sort of nasty comment at the end."

Cole scoffed, closing his eyes momentarily to gather himself. "Maybe I just need everyone to get off my case about—"

"Shit!" Allison cried out as she crumbled to the ground suddenly. Her hands instantly went for her ankle, wincing as she repeated, "Shit, that hurts."

Cole didn't miss a beat to kneel down next to her, eyes wide with concern. "Shit, Alli, you okay?"

"You're the doctor, aren't you?" she asked in a strained voice, clutching her ankle as she hiked her knee up to her chest.

He let out a noise that sounded like a mix of a scoff and a laugh. "Yeah, and my prognosis is to never let you go on a hike again."

Allison let out a rare laugh as she went to to stand up, but winced when she put pressure on her ankle. "Shit, I think I twisted it. I'm not sure how well I can walk."

Cole nodded for a moment, wondering how they'd get back to the others like this. "Just get on my back, all right?"

She nodded in acceptance, shifting with a grunt as she prepared to get on his back. Cole turned around and squatted further, holding his hands out to help her get on him. With only a bit of struggle, they managed to get Allison on him. She let out a sigh of relief when she was settled, resting her arms around his neck. He hoisted her up further on him, lifting her thighs up around his waist. Allison held the map out in front of them so he could hold her legs to keep her steady, and they were on their way.

"Okay, I think if we go this way," Cole started as he nodded at the map in front of him, "we'll at least go in the direction of the hotel."

"You can see the hotel on here?" Allison asked with a tilted head.

"Nah, just hopeful thinking."

An hour later and tensions were starting to get high.

They were both getting tired from the sun beating down on them. Allison was getting fed up from the pain in her ankle while Cole was getting fed up with being lost. It was looking bleak. They didn't have any idea on where to go anymore. They didn't even know where they currently were on the map.

They continued calling out to members of the family, but no responses came. Cole swore he heard someone shout back, and they went in that direction. But the issue with the forest was that sounds didn't always come from the direction they seemed to come from. Naturally, this only made them more lost. Allison continued to hold out the map in front of them, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Well, glad we went in that direction instead of the one I said to go in," Allison muttered with a heavy sigh.

"Like we'd be any less lost than we are now," he snapped, trying not to regret the choice. He could've sworn he heard Lila calling his name.

She was not backing down by any means, though. "Hey, maybe we would've been less lost."

"I think we went down a wrong path," Cole muttered as he narrowed his eyes at the map.

Allison snorted as she turned her head to the side. "Ironic."

Cole brought the map down in frustration, shaking his head at her. "God, can you stop with the commentary for five minutes?"

"Nope," she quipped sharply.

Cole was so done. He was so fed up with everything. He couldn't help himself when he said, "Of course not, because you love the sound of your own voice."

Allison gawked at him, taken aback momentarily before retorting with, "If anything else, it's just to drown out the sound of yours!"

This wasn't their usual fights. Usually they were more reserved. They sent small jabs at the other, but they were getting less and less concerned with holding back. For a while there, it was as if they were acting like the ship wasn't sinking. They ignored the water coming in, weighing them down. But they were too far gone to ignore it anymore.

"Well, it's not my fault we got lost."

She groaned in annoyance. "I had to go to the bathroom! I thought the map said there was one over here!"

"And I told you, that was gonna be a freaking pond."

"I know that now."

Cole scrunched his face up, pettily saying, "Could've known that then if you listened to me."

"Wow, Cole!" Allison cried out with faux amazement. "You finally got one thing right after being wrong for twenty-eight years."

He craned his head to look at her. "Oh, I'm always wrong?"

"Wouldn't say you're always right," she shot back in an innocent voice.

"God, I can't keep doing this," Cole muttered as he stopped in his tracks. "I'm gonna try to call my sister."

Cole didn't wait for her to say anything as he squat down, placing her down against a tree on the ground. He got his phone from his pocket, holding it up above his head to try and get a signal. He could feel her eyes watching him and could tell she wanted to say something. But honestly, the last thing he wanted was for them to get more off track than they already were. Figuratively and literally.

Allison didn't seem to share that same concern. "What's the rush to get back? Got a hot date?"

Well, Cole wasn't exactly expecting that. He didn't even understand how she got there, to be honest. "What?"

"I'm just saying, you're in quite the rush to get back," she continued innocently with hostility in her tone.

"I'm sorry," Cole quipped in the least apologetic voice he could muster, "would you like to be left out in the woods all night?"

"No, but I'm sure you're just dying to get home and get on with your life," Allison grumbled out, almost sounding like she was talking to herself. "Move onto the next wife already."

Cole spun around to face her, completely offended and taken aback. "You have got to be kidding me!"

"All you want is to check the next thing off the list," Allison continued with a sour look on her face as she leaned into the tree. "House? Check. Wife? Check. Kids? God, you're basically shaking ready to check that one off."

Cole shut his eyes. "All I want is you. There's no god damn list."

"That's not true, and you know it," Allison gritted out between her teeth. "We want... we want different things right now."

God, Cole mentioned once that he wanted kids. He would never push her to do something she didn't want to do. Maybe they were young, sure. But he didn't think it was absurd to be thinking about the next stage of their life together. She told him that she wanted kids eventually, but just not at that moment, and Cole was ready to drop it until she was ready too. But, alas, that was not the case. She was the one who kept bringing it up, especially recently. That was something Cole really didn't understand, but since they didn't talk anymore, he didn't know how to ask.

"Will you listen to me for one second?" Cole shouted in frustration. "I want you. If you don't want kids, we won't have them! All I want is you, all right?"

"I don't not want kids, I just feel like we're bulldozing through everything!" Allison cried out, a look of panic on her face. "I don't know why we're always rushing to do things!"

He blinked in surprise. "Well, I—"

"God, Cole, you've been living your life like we've been running out of time for six years now and I can't take it anymore!" Allison finally cried out, her hands clutching her hair like it was the only thing holding her together.

Six years?

Six years.

What happened—

Oh.

Oh.

His Dad.

His Dad died six years ago.

"Cole? Alli? You guys there?" a voice finally said from the phone. "God, we've been screaming your names for the last hour."

It took him a moment to realize they finally got reception, allowing them to get ahold of his sister. He blinked hard once, trying to maintain his breathing. He didn't even realize the phone was still dialing.

He sniffed, shoving his emotions down as he cleared his throat. "Yeah, yeah, we're here. Where the hell are you guys?"

"We're by some water, if you look on your map..." Scarlett guided through the phone. Cole tuned her out, Allison's words echoing too loudly through his head to hear anything else. He hoped Allison was listening, because he wasn't getting a word. "Just go down hill, okay? I think I can see your location on my phone, just head down and we should intersect."

He could feel Allison watching him, waiting for him to make a move to walk in the direction once they hung up.

Cole shoved his hands through his hair, squeezing his eyes shut as he inhaled deeply.

Fuck.

"You've been living your life like we've been running out of time for six years now."

This was all his fault.

He didn't want to be that way.

But what if something happened and he didn't get enough time?

It suddenly dawned on him that this wasn't about having kids. Allison told him before she wanted to be a parent one day. It wasn't about to be her entire identity and she wouldn't stop working, but she wanted children with him. They used to always talk about it before everything went to shit.

It was about him rushing through every single step.

He was rushing because he was terrified of running out of time.

Just like his Dad did.

Because what if he never saw his kids down the aisle because he was gone?

What if he wasn't their for there for their first steps?

For their graduation?

What if he wasn't there?

They made their way back in silence, but the air was heavy with all the words left unsaid and the words that had cut too deep to ever leave.