Chapter Text
"I'm super tired though", Adam chuckled amused as he had just thrown his legs over Blake's lap. Blake's hand patted on his jeans then, showing his so called support.
"Don't give me any details, please", A rolling laughter left Adam's mouth thanks to Blake's comment, while pulling a pillow under his neck. The next thing he closed his eyes, being thankful for the small break they had before needing to go live.
"I had no idea how exhausting it would be to make a baby, I swear", Blake covered his eyes with both his hands, not believing his best friend’s silliness. A shy laugh came from behind them then, which caused Adam to snap his eyes open while Blake took a glance over his shoulder. Finding there the one and only Shakira, ready to head for the stage.
"I had no idea you and Behati were trying", she said while allowing her hand to slide over Adam's shoulder as she headed to the other couch beside theirs.
"They literally decided a few days ago and he's already exhausted, the poor thing", Blake grinned, being satisfied that he got to make fun of his friend. The woman on the other hand stayed awkwardly silent, while she just shook her head amused.
"Hey hey!! I barely closed one eye last night!"
"Oh my god, what did I say about not sharing details?", Blake said, faking how shocked he was. Causing Adam to softly smile while he closed his eyes again. Meanwhile Shakira had focused her attention back on her phone.
"So what are your plans for New Years Eve?",
"Me and the guys from Maroon 5 were going to go to some New Years Eve event in LA. Also Bee and some of her friends will be there. Actually we're only going to see one band. But also Justin Timberlake and some people you will have heard of as well will be there. So you'll tag along, right?", Adam asked genuinely, in an assumption.
"Which band do you want to see?", Blake asked to ignore his question.
"One you won't know, so don't change the subject! You're coming with us right?", A country chuckled left his mouth, because yes, he's kinda right, the chance he'd know the band was rather small. Him and Adam have very opposite interests in music genres.
"I don't know man, maybe I'd better stay in Oklahoma and drink myself to sleep", he chuckled bitterly which caught Adam's immediate attention. Also Shakira had lightly pulled her head away from her phone to look at him concerned
"I'm kidding guys", Blake said then as he felt their eyes burn on him. "I mean, kinda",
"Dude, no! Don't make jokes about that", Adam sounded slightly pissed as he pushed himself up on the couch, facing his friend.
"This year might've sucked, but the next one will be your year, dude! I can feel it. So I just count you in. Plus Anna will be there!!!" Adam teased while bringing up his brows multiple times causing Blake to throw a pillow his way.
"Just admit you like her already!", Blake rolled his eyes at Adam's words while he shrugged.
"I do", Blake answered. "But maybe not like that"
Adam frowned for a second, especially considering how he hit it off with Behati's friend Anna since the second they met a few weeks ago. But then the realisation seemed to hit him and Adam had to hold back rolling his eyes.
"You're not still thinking about that mysterious woman named Grace are you?", As Blake didn't answer immediately and seemed guilty as charged, Adam crawled up on the couch to meet his friend's eyes.
"Oh my God you still do! You should get her out of your system!" He squealed which made Shakira her confused eyes come their way, as she just shook it off and smiled at the men their craziness.
"No I'm not still thinking about her! You know what? Fine! I'll come along on New Years!", Blake said, trying to prove himself... Even though his mind wandered back off towards that one specific woman.
"That's my buddy talking!", Adam said happily while petting Blake on the shoulder.
3 MONTHS EARLIER...
"No darling, that's where you're wrong", Blake let out an amused, pedantically chuckle, making the girl beside him frown while rolling her eyes.
"You're such a stubborn prig sometimes", Meanwhile she flicked her blond, curly hairs away from her shoulder, meeting his eyes. Blake smirked at her comment while closing the gap between them. Pulling her closer towards him by throwing his strong arm around her shoulder. In return she patted him on the back a few times after quickly throwing her arms around his torso to hug him right back.
"I'm still right though, sometimes covers can be better than the original, such as Jolene by Miley Cyrus. Her vocals are better on it than Dolly", Blake immediately rolled her eyes at her while shaking his head.
"You're so wrong about this, I can't believe how weird you are sometimes"
She giggled because of his reaction while she just casually shrugged. Meanwhile she had crouched down to gather some snow from the ground and gently push it into a ball, to eventually just throw it a few steps further in front of them. She loves snow more than anyone Blake had ever known. Most people aren't big fans of the cold, or at least the people that Blake knows. That might also have something to do with Blake's best friends mostly being from LA, where it barely ever drops below zero. Obviously he has a lot of friends in the country business as well, but not even close to comparing them with his ‘the voice family’. Except for Luke and a few more.
"I prefer to be called unique", the girl suddenly interrupted his thought with a beaming smile transparent on her face. Meanwhile she was already crouching down to start making a second snowball. She seemed literally like a nine year old when Blake had suggested to make a walk in the quiet woods of Oklahoma. And with quiet, I mean drop silent. Especially in the winter. Blake's ranch was basically the only thing around here in a one hour drive area. It's crazy, but both of them like the tranquillity. Especially when Blake needs to spend the half of his time in LA for his job.
"You might be unique but I'm not going to call you 'unicorn' now, forget about that already", The cowboy answered her clearly, making her mouth drop as an instant pout formed on her face.
"But come on!! Josh always does!",
Just when he was about to answer her that that was one of the biggest reasons that he wouldn't call her that, like ever, he saw something strange popping out in the corner of his eyes. In a brisk movement he turned his head left. His beautiful companion seemed to have caught up on the same thing as her head snapped that way as well.
"Oh my god!", She gasped as she froze in place. Blake standing next to her as well startled for a fraction of a second before jumping up and start running...
Running... towards a woman, almost completely blue from the cold, as she was laying passed out in the snow. Her side completely buried in the first layer of the white snow. Her tiny body tidily wrapped up in a ball. In a matter of seconds, Blake felt the coldness making contact with his body as he fell down on his knees beside the lifeless-like body.
"RaeLynn, call 911!", He commanded the girl who had just caught up with him and was standing beside the woman as well. "Rae?!", She made eye contact with him now with wide, scared eyes, just now realising he had said something.
"911", Was all he had to repeat for her to nervously start searching for her phone. Meanwhile Blake tried to find a heartbeat at her throat. At first trying his hardest to stay calm, to eventually start panicking when he couldn't find one directly. Luckily at the end feeling a very, very slow one. An enormous, relieved sight left his lips then.
"I don't have service, do you have service? Oh no you didn't bring your phone, oh no! She's dying isn't she? Or is she dead already?" RaeLynn started rambling out, being in shock, which made Blake reach for her hand. That caught her attention, as she took her eyes away from the lady to meet his ocean blue eyes.
"She's breathing, calm down, breathe", After thinking for a few more seconds, not quiet knowing what the next best thing to do was, he decided to do the most obvious. Immediately he withdrew his winter coat from his arms, he lightly brought one of his hands under the woman her back and pulled her towards his chest. Raelynn crouched down then as well, helping him to put the coat around the woman her shoulders. She seemed so ice cold and fragile, it was scaring the crap out of both of them. Her skin had turned into a combination of pink, purple and blue all together. Her blonde hairs were hanging drenched on her back caused by the snow.
She was beautiful, that much was obvious. Even with all the panic going on, Blake didn't miss it either. Her skin in a worrying colour, but yet it seeming to be soft and smooth. Light eyeliner and mascara covering her eyelids and winkers. From what he could tell, she should be around thirty – forty years old. But there was not any sign of life accompanied to the pretty girl, except for that very soft rhythm of her heart. Immediately Blake's arms went around her body and took her closer in his arms, trying to share bits of his warmth.
"We gotta take her to the ranch, it's not that far, right?", Suddenly Blake's eyes went to meet RaeLynn's now, who seemed to get her things together again. Blake nodded and just when he was about to pick the body up, bridle wise, he noticed a slow movement in her eyes. His heart started racing. Scared as hell that it wouldn've been a good sign. He wasn't an idiot, he had read multiple times about how when people their hearts stopped beating, their muscles gave out. Her eyes starting to open could either be a good sign or the worst possible. He panicked.
When her eyelids lightly tilted a few times, he let out an enormous sight.
This time her eyelids lightly squinted open a few times, before they were able to focus a little longer on Blake's worried eyes. The weird thing was that there was no sign of confusion. She just casually locked eyes with him for a couple of seconds before closing her eyes again. And suddenly Blake felt the weirdest feeling ever. Just by meeting her eyes, so brightly brown, he got the shivers all over his body. Somehow they seemed too familiar, as if he had seen her before. He felt connected with her, without any obvious reason whatsoever. And that scared him even more, because this all was very overwhelming.
After calmly staring at the cowboy, the woman her eyes widened then and was jumped up. A huge scared sight left her lips as she crawled backwards from him. Blake was left surprise by her sudden frightened state and he threw his arms in the air, away from her body. He kept his hands above his head, showing her he wasn't planning to do anything.
"Relax, it's ok, we want to help", His word choice made her turn her head lightly to find RaeLynn crouched down beside the man. She seemed terrified as she swallowed a couple of times before returning to the cowboy's.
"You passed out", Blake told her, which made her take a deep breath in as she started to realise where she was. Her brown eyes started gazing around her, finding bald trees with branches covered in snow. Not much more than that expect for the two unknown figures in front of her.
"We gotta take you to my ranch to warm you up", She found his uncertain, hesitant eyes trying to catch hers. His brows raised up, trying to get through to her. "It's not far away from here"
The woman nodded as she had taken notice over how awfully cold she was and about how she couldn't hold her body from shaking. She realised she needed their help badly. Blake moved closer her way. At first he checked all her limbs to see whether she had any indication of fractures. But as he didn't see any sign of it, except for a few tears in her clothes, he decided to reach his arm out to her.
"You think you'll be ok to walk?", He noticed how she winced right after she had thrown her shoulders up to shrug. "I'm not sure" , her voice was only a soft whisper, that sounded pretty hoarse, but at the same time Blake felt relieved to hear her speak.
"Let me help you get up", Suddenly she was surrounded by two strangers, tilting her off of the ground, with an enormous ease. Must've been the man, she thought. Considering he looked strong with his tall figure. The first steps didn't go easily at all, as her knees basically gave in. If it wouldn've been for the man's arm thrown under her arm around her back, she would've hit the floor right away.
"Don't hurry yourself", RaeLynn said worried, as she noticed the hurt on her face with every step she took.
"If you want, I can carry you to the ranch", The brown eyes met Blake's again with a small, soft smile to go his way. As a 'no-but-thanks' gesture. Also a lot of fears and mistrust accompanied in those brown eyes of hers. It makes him wonder what in hell brought her here.
"It's really no problem, you're obviously hurting", With this comment she surprisingly had thrown her eyes down shyly.
"Hey, you can trust me", After a few more steps by herself, with Blake's support though, she halted. Every single part of her body was aching and even though she felt uncomfortable and frightened, she had to trust him. She had no clue if she could. She felt as if she could. But man, had she felt that way before and see where it brought her to.
"Come here", The man carefully threw his arm around her body and picked her legs up with the other one. The touches on her legs made her grunt.
"I'm sorry, girl", Blake said with apologetic eyes, realising she obviously was hurting a lot. Who knows how long she had been laying in the cold. Her body must be frozen at a certain level. He felt how badly her body was shaking now, which made him tighten his grip around her.
After a long minute, they reached a huge ranch. Blake had noticed the woman her eyes had widened as she took in where they were headed to. Her surprised look clearly made him chuckle, forgetting about the seriousness of the situation for a small second. But her face was just priceless, he couldn't contain himself.
"This is your house?", she said after clearing her throat, immediately regretting it already as she grunted. Her throat was killing her. But then again, which part of her body wasn't? Her eyes were even still fighting the light to keep themselves open.
"It is, yeah", he nonchalantly answered, while caring her inside. I mean, I'm not going to say she wasn't used to a lot. She was. God knows how big her own house is. But she just didn't expect for their ranch to be the size of a hotel.
The warmth of the house hit her skin immediately, which wasn't the best thing either. Her skin started tinkling because of it, which made her clench her teeth. It hurt, badly. Especially the first minute inside. Blake had slowly placed her down on the soft leather of the couch. But she felt so cold, she basically couldn't focus on anything but that. She had tried to move her legs up to her, closer towards her body to share some warmth. But she immediately stopped that when she realised not moving at all might hurt less. So she stayed put on the couch as she saw the unknown man walk up to her with tons of blankets.
"RaeLynn, try 911 again"
The southern accent said while wrapping a blanket around her. As she wanted to reach for the blankets herself, he had told her to stay still. So she did and allowed him to throw blankets around her. But suddenly she had felt her heart start pounding in her chest. Wait did he say 911?
"Don't", Her hoarse voice suddenly said as her eyes were trying their hardest to purse themselves open. Out of her squinted eyes, she noticed a tall body walking up to her again, crouching down beside her. It was the first time since she had opened her eyes that his blue eyes calmed her. Somehow they did.
"What?", He asked her as he leaned in, to try and see what she had said.
"Call an ambulance", She said. "Don't"
The man seemed confused, clearly not understanding. She understood his confusion though.
"Please, don't", his demeanour changed all of a sudden, having noticed a fling of fears in her eyes, which made his concern grown even more. But somehow it did convince him that she had a reason. That she did truly not want an ambulance, for a real, serious reason. And suddenly she felt connected, she felt understood without truly giving him a reason to. You can't believe how many times she felt the opposite lately.
"RaeLynn, stop the call", RaeLynn snapped her head their way confused, not hanging up just yet. Instead she must've thought she had imagined his words, considering she seemed to just ignore him.
"I mean it, hang up", he said louder now, trying to make her realise he was serious. After frowning at Blake, confused she carefully brought her phone away from her ear. Eventually after a few more seconds she pressed the red button.
"What's your plan?" A disapproving glance on the young girl's face was thrown his way, as she didn't get what in hell he was doing. The disapproval in the girl her eyes seemed to make him doubt whether he was thinking straight. Because was he? They just found a woman in the woods, passed out by the cold and he isn't calling an ambulance. But when his eyes wondered back off towards the woman begging him not to, he seemed to get determined again. He had seen that fear in her eyes. He had felt that broken connection.
"Can you please get me my phone?", Only a couple seconds later she handed him the phone and he seemed to dial a number. After receiving an asking glance from the young blonde, he explained.
"I'm going to call a friend of mine that's a nurse", he said, as he heard the beeping tone.