16- Braced myself for the goodbye

"This is so high class. Im so not used to this anymore." Taylor says as her and Karlie take off in the private jet Karlie had arranged for the two of them. Two weeks had passed and Josh had finally left the two women alone since he was called back to 'the office'.

Karlie and Taylor were now able to take the companies private jet, since the singer's 'wanted' level had gone down a few degrees, making it less of a danger for her to fly instead of drive.

"I know, you must have missed this, miss superstar." Karlie smiles.

"Oh shut up, don't you act like you don't like this way more than all the driving we did." Taylor replies, smiling back at the secret agent, who just shrugged her shoulders. "Plus, i'm very happy my 'wanted' level has gone down."

Karlie nods then, looking away from the singer before saying: "Yes, me too."

"What are you thinking about?" Taylor asks, noticing Karlie's change of behaviour.

"Nothing." Karlie says, still not looking at her girlfriend.

"Karls.."

"NOTHING, TAYLOR!" The secret agents erupts, making Taylor sit back in her seat.

"Fine." She huffs, taken aback by Karlie's loud response.

They continue their travel to the apartment in Croatia in silence. "It's nice and warm here." Taylor says as she opens the doors to the balcony.

"Mhm." Karlie replies, unpacking their stuff a bit, since this will be the place where they will stay for quite some time.

Taylor lets out a loud groan and plops down on the bed on which Karlie is laying all their clothes out. "Hey," Karlie says. "I was-"

"What is going on?" Taylor interrupts her. "You've been acting strange and weird today."

Karlie sighs and sits down next to Taylor. "Tay, I didn't want to tell you this yet because I know you'll worry and-"

"Just.." Taylor sighs. "Just spill it."

"I..I have to go after these two weeks." Karlie says.

"Go?" Taylor asks, her eyes widening. "Go where?"

"Australia actually." Karlie says, looking down at her hands.

"But.. Why.. I mean I thought your boss had said it would be okay if you'd protect me. As long as I am safe. Right?"

"You are safe without me now though." Karlie sighs. "I mean its great but yeah.."

"What do you mean?" Taylor asks, not understanding anything the younger girl is saying.

"They killed 'em." Karlie says, smiling at the singer. "They killed the criminals that were hunting you down. They found them last week, Josh and his team did."

"Wh-"

"They wanted to arrest them but they started to run and so they had to shoot three of them. The rest of the gang is in prison for the rest of the rest of their lives." Karlie explains, finishing her story.

"So i'm.. Im free then?" Taylor asks, her eyes and mouth wide open. "Its.. over?"

"Well yes.. but.." Karlie starts before being interrupted by the singer.

"But what?!" She asks in fear.

Karlie laughs and takes the famous singer's hands in hers. "But.." She continues. "I was wondering if you would like to stay here with me for a week or two still. As a.. vacation?"

Taylor smiles and sighs in relief. "Of course I would like that Karlie." Karlie kisses the blonde's hands and smiles. "Does that mean I wont see you for a while then?" The singer asks, already dreading the answer she knows she'll get from the beautiful woman sitting next to her.

Karlie just nods, looking down again. "A long while." She says. "A long, long while."

"How long?" Taylor asks, holding onto one of the other woman's hands tightly as she lays her head on her shoulder.

"Half a year." Karlie says, leaning her head against Taylor's.

"Oh." Taylor replies, a cold and sad feeling filling her body. "Shit."

Karlie giggles at the singer's use of words. "Yeah." She says. "That."

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The two women are lounging at the pool, not having to be undercover any longer. Their apartment is a few blocks away but since it was so warm in Croatia, they had both decided to go for a swim.


"Let's get in, come on!" Taylor shouts as she jumps into the pool with a loud squeak when she hits the cold water. Karlie, who is laying in a lounging chair, laughs and gets up.

"Woohoo!" She shouts loudly as she jumps in, landing right next to the famous singer. It surprises her how cold the water is in comparison to the hot, dry air and she looks at Taylor with a shocked impression on her face. Taylor starts laughing loudly and splashes some water on the secret agent's face.

"Hey, stop that!" Karlie says, a smile on her face however. Taylor keeps on splashing her though, until Karlie grabs her by the shoulders and pushes her under the water surface for a few seconds. "Hey!" Taylor squeaked as she resurfaced. "Now I'm finally safe, and you're gonna try to kill me?" She jokes.

"Oh shut up." Karlie says, smiling as she stands on her tiptoes on the pool's floor. Taylor smiles and swims closer to the agent, holding onto her like a koala when she reaches her and hugging her close to her. Karlie wraps her arms around the singer and kisses her shoulder when she gets the chance.


"Im going to miss you a lot.." She says softly. "You know, when I have to go to Australia for so long."

Taylor lets out a sigh and nods. "Im going to miss you a lot too, Karls." She breathes, kissing her girlfriend's cheek. "Can't I come and visit you?"

"I don't think so." Karlie smiles, loving the idea of that but knowing that it was impossible. "I mean I have to protect this new celebrity for quite some time." 

"Who is it?" Taylor asks curiously, leaning back so that she can look into Karlie's eyes.



"I can't tell you that." Karlie says, kissing Taylor's nose softly.

"As long as you don't fall in love with them too, I'm fine with it." Taylor jokes, making her girlfriend laugh and drop het into the water. Taylor holds onto Karlie for dear life though, as she also giggles at her own comment.


"I promise I wont." Karlie says then, as she holds the singer close to her again.

"Good." Taylor says, leaning in as she kisses her girlfriend's lips passionately. Karlie eagerly kisses the singer's soft lips back and hugs her even closer to her.

Taylor lets out a muffled groan after a while then. "Karls.." She breathes. "Can't breathe." She laughs. Karlie's eyebrows shoot up in surprise as she loosens her hold on the singer and apologises.

The two spend the rest of the afternoon lounging and swimming around.

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"I really don't want you to go." Taylor breathes. "Can't you just stay?"

It's the morning of their last day in Croatia. Karlie was going to take a plane to Australia this afternoon, and Taylor was flying back to her home in LA.


"I wish I could." Karlie says as they lay in bed, cuddled up to one another.


"Karlie.." Taylor breathes, tears threatening to fall. "Half a year is so long."

"I know." Karlie sighs, tears brimming in her eyes as well. "But we can do it, right?"

"Yes." Taylor says, a tear rolling down her cheek as she lays in her girlfriend's arms.

"I bet it will be over in a flash." Karlie says, sensing Taylor's sadness and trying to make it all sound a bit more positive.

"I bet it won't." Taylor bitterly laughs through her tears.

"Tay?" Karlie asks then, a question popping through her head all of the sudden.

"Hmm?"

"Are we going to.. tell people?" Karlie asks, not sure of their relationship in the open. 

Taylor stays quiet for some time before saying: "I.. I don't really know. How would I even tell my loved ones that?"

"I don't know." Karlie says, shrugging her shoulders as she kisses the top of the singer's head. "I love the girl who kidnapped me, I wont see her for half a year though." Karlie laughs, making Taylor giggle as well.

"Yeah." Taylor says. "Perfect."

Karlie giggles and moves her position so that now the two women are looking into each-other's eyes. "Seriously though. I understand it if you would like to wait with it, with the media circus and all that."

Taylor nods. "Yeah, I think that would be best. Especially until you're back in the US."


"Exactly." Karlie nods, kissing Taylor's lips shortly and then pulling back again. "As long as we can keep contact though, through Skype or texts or whatever." 

Taylor leans forward to kiss her girlfriend's lips too. "Ehmm duhh, of course." She says, smiling.

——————————————————————————————————

Taylor watches as Karlie leaves her gate and walks into the tube connected to the plane. Karlie looks behind her one more time and waves at her once last time before she leaves Taylor's sight and disappears into the crowd.

For the first time in months, Taylor was alone. Really alone, in a crowd full of tourist and airport employees.

"Flight to Los Angeles will leave in 30 minutes. Boarding now at gate 9A." A female voice through the speakers says. Taylor sighs and turns around to walk to her gate with the small suitcase that Karlie had put all of her own stuff in.


The flight home takes longer than she thought it would. She can't take her mind of her beautiful girlfriend and there are several times where tears make their way down her face. Luckily she is flying first class, having a seat alone. She will be picked up by her family and security team when she arrives in LA. 'This will be a hard day.' Taylor thinks to herself as she closes her eyes, trying to get some sleep once more.

When she opens them again, the plane is landing and almost touching the ground already. It takes a few minutes until she is allowed to gather her stuff and leaves the plane after that. She walks straight to the exit of the airport, a hood covering her head and part of her face. She knows that people in Croatia weren't very likely to recognise her, but people in LA, they do and will.

Suddenly she feels the sensation of a hand on her shoulder and she abruptly turns around. "Taylor, sweetie!"

It's her mom. She is pulled into a hug and looks around her over her mom's shoulder. Her dad and her little brother have also come to pick her up and she also sees a few familiar faces of her security team. "You look.. pretty good actually." Her mom says, eyeing down her daughter to see if she looked okay.

"I've been in Croatia the last two weeks." Taylor dryly says, it feeling weird to even talk about her strange life the past couple of months. She had been away from her friends and family for more than 7 months after all. Of course she has had some contact with them, since Karlie made sure she was able to call them every now and then. They had probably been extremely worried about her, more worried than Taylor was herself.

"Tell me everything later." Her mom says then, looking around quickly. "There are a lot of paps around, somehow they knew you were 'found' or something."

Taylor nods and pulls her hood covering most of her face. Her dad takes her suitcase from her, and the Swift's take off to the SUV that is already waiting for them in front of the airport.

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"So if I understand it correctly," Taylor's dad says. "These criminals are all either dead or locked up now?"



"Yep." Taylor answers. The family had reached Taylor's home a while ago and they were now sitting at the table still after eating dinner together.

"Good." Taylor's father says. The rest of Taylor's family nods.


"I never even knew there was such a thing as the 'Celebrity Saving Program'." Taylor's brother, Austin, speaks up.

"Yeah, me neither." Taylor says, still not fully aware of her surroundings.


"Well sweetie, it's great to know that you had a good agent looking after you." Taylor's dad, Scott, says.


"Yeah," Andrea, Taylor's mom chimes in. "How was things with that woman? Has she been nice to you at all or was she one of those stern, strict, typical agents towards you?"


Taylor looks up from her glass of tea at the mention of her girlfriend. 'Should I tell them?' She thinks to herself. 'No.'.

"Yeah." She decides to mumble. "Well, she was really kind actually. A really smart and sweet girl. Plus, really good in her job."



"We've noticed." Scott says, smiling at his daughter.

Taylor's eyes widen. "Noticed what?" She asks, trying to keep her voice down but miserably failing.


"That she's good in her job. Otherwise you would probably not be sat right here now." Scott says, unknowingly, still smiling as he takes a sip of his coffee.

Taylor sighs in relief then, when the doorbell rings.

"Ill go." Austin and Scott say protectively at the same time. Scared some intruder will come in and kidnap their Taylor once more.

Taylor smiles and giggles at their cute protectiveness over her. "It's fine, I have bodyguards and all that around here for a reason she smiles. Ill go myself."

She gets up from the table, leaving her family to chat there, as she makes her way down the familiar hallway of her own house. She opens the door to see Selena stand there with two boxes in her hands.

"Oh my GOD. You're REALLY back!" She shouts, putting the boxes down carefully before practically jumping on top of the blonde singer.

"Hello to you too." Taylor says drily, almost falling to the ground as she is jumped by her best friend.


"Taylor Swift, I have missed you so much. I've spend so much time thinking you were dead." Selena says, tears in her eyes as she looks at her blue eyed friend.


"Ive missed you too, Sel." Taylor mumbles, hugging her best friend tightly before hearing a miaow coming out one of the boxes. "Are that-" Taylor starts before Selena bends down and opens the two boxes.



"Oh my gosh, my babies." Taylor whispers sweetly, as she bends down to pet her two cats.

"Olivia has been an absolute angel. Mer however.." Selena sighs, making Taylor laugh, who is now laying on the ground, cuddling her two cats.

After some time, she lets go of the cats, who happily parade around their own home. "Did you already eat?" Taylor asks Selena. "We still have some leftovers."

"Yes I did, so no thank you." Selena says kindly.


"Stay for coffee then, I missed you." Taylor says, grabbing the girl's arm and pulling her into the kitchen, where her family is still sitting.

"So tell me everything." Selena says as she sits down with the family. Taylor sighs but then smiles and tells the story she told her family already once more. Leaving out all of the 'the secret agent is actually my girlfriend' parts of course. She wonders however, how long she can still keep that a secret.

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