Series: iPod Shuffle Challenge

Fandom: Hannah Montana

Character / Pairing Focus: Jake Ryan x Miley Stewart

Rating: K Plus / PG / All Ages

Notes: Set in the future.

Disclaimer: Hannah Montana and all respective properties are © Disney Inc. Megan D. (Veritas Found) does not, has never, nor will ever own Hannah Montana.

Molly (performed by John Denver)

I’m reading Molly’s letter

The ink is fading

And the page is turning yellow

Long ago, I promised Molly

Don’t you know I…

I will close my eyes and go to her

“Jake! We need you on stage in ten minutes!”

His head lifts at the call, and he waves to show the stagehand he’s heard her. But he settles back in his chair, looking at the faded letter in his hand with wistful eyes. The page is yellow with time, and the ink stands out in stark contrast; it’s creased to the point of tearing in some places, the folded lines defined long ago from all the times he’d pull it out of his wallet. The date was stamped a good three years ago, the last of the daily letters he’d received from…

They had never had an easy relationship.

It doesn’t help that he’s a movie star (well, movie-and-stage star, given his current role on Broadway, of all places) and she’s a singing sensation (all these years later, and Hannah Montana’s star burns as bright as ever).

It doesn’t help that he can’t quite say no, and – every time – his career always seemed to trump her (never, in his heart, but…). It doesn’t help that she refused to leave her friends and family behind to chase him all over the globe (she said once she couldn’t live like that, so out-of-boxes and temporary). It doesn’t help that every time he promised her it was the last one, he agreed to another role as soon as filming for the first wrapped up. It doesn’t help that his constant career kept him too busy to call or write, but she wrote every day.

It doesn’t help that she met a man who actually could stop for her. It doesn’t help that he battered her heart so badly the other man was a welcome reprieve. It doesn’t help that she sent him this letter, three years ago to the day, begging him to prove he was someone worth waiting for.

It doesn’t help that he couldn’t.

“Jake! Five minutes!” the stagehand calls, and he closes his eyes as his hand fists around the letter. He knows he has to get out there, but…here, in this chair surrounded by his memories, he finds he doesn’t really want to. He finds, in his mind, he’s back in Malibu, watching the sun set with his arms wrapped around the most amazing girl he’s ever known, the only girl he’s ever loved. He finds he likes it there, instead of the reality.

Instead of her being on that beach with someone else, happily married with a baby on the way (he still reads every article written about Hannah Montana, and Oliver keeps him updated on her).

Instead of him avoiding another Wicked rehearsal in New York, an entire continent away from her (she knows he’s there; she was there for his opening night – as Hannah, of course).

Instead of them, apart (for good).