Ashton's PoV:

Looking over to my left I saw Carter and Ender looking out the airplane window. Her arms were around his shoulders and her head was rested on his.

After all of the concern I had about her leaving home, she was doing okay.

"Daddy, I want see Mommy." Gracie said from next to me, trying to get out of her seat but I had her strapped in.

"Once they turn off the seat belt sign you can go see her." I told Gracie who nodded up at me.

"We on airplane!" She bounced happily in her seat and I laughed.

"I know! Do you like airplanes?"

"Mhmm." She nodded and then hugged Mr. Carrots and Baby Bear against her.

We waited for a few more minutes until the pilot turned the seatbelt sign off and I unbuckled Gracie who ran over to Carter.

"Mommy!" She climbed up in her lap and gave her a kiss.

"Hi!" Carter laughed.

"Daddy said hold Baby Bear and he won't be scared."

"Yeah, just like how Daddy held you when we were at the airport so you wouldn't be scared." Carter moved her hand up to touch Gracie's cheek.

"Daddy silly." Gracie laughed.

"What? I'm silly?" I reached across the isle to tickle her and she moved away giggling.

"Yes, Daddy you silly."

"I think you're silly."

"No!" She shook her head, laughing away as Carter and I both smiled at her.

"Hey Gracie, come here and sit with me." Calum said from behind us and she slid off Carters lap and went to the row behind to see Calum.

"Uncle Caly!" She hung her arms around his neck and hugged him. "I love you."

"You love me?" He chuckled. "I love you too."

"Mwuah!" She kissed his cheek and Calum grinned at her before kissing her cheek back. "We cuddle now!"

Gracie turned herself around in Calum's lap and he put his arms around her.

"Ashton, Carter, I'm stealing your child."

"Nope." We both said simultaneously.

Carter leaned back in her seat and put her head against the head rest, turning it to the side to look at me, sending me a pretty smile.

"Love you." I mouthed to her.

"Love you too." She mouthed back, sending me a wink.

The flight attendant came by and took our drink order and the more I watched Carter the more I could see her relaxing.

I got an apple juice for Gracie and poured it into her sippy cup but when I turned around to give it to her she was busy sitting in Cals lap watching something on his phone, the two of them sharing headphones.

Catching Calum's attention I passed it to him and he handed it to Gracie.

I turned forward and pulled out my phone to put my headphones in and listen to some music when Carter came across to sit in Gracie's seat.

"Hey." She smiled.

"Hey. How you doing?"

"Good." She continued to smile at me. "Can I listen?" She nodded to my phone.

I handed her one of the earbuds and she placed it in her ear, leaning over to put her head on my shoulder.

Putting the other earbud in my ear I scrolled through my music library searching for something to listen to when I came across a song that had a special meaning to us.

As the intro to Thinking Out Loud came on Carter looked up at me adoringly and bit her lip before stretching up to kiss the corner of my mouth.

I moved my hand across to her lap to intertwine my fingers with hers.

"Our first dance." She sighed happily.

"One of my favourite moments." I moved to kiss her forehead.

"Even though we were in a hospital?" She chuckled.

"Even then, because I was with you."

"You're so sweet." She kissed my jaw.

We continued to hold hands as we listened to the music, Carter snuggling herself into me the best she could despite the armrest between us.

After I had played a few miscellaneous songs she took my phone and began to scroll through the music until she went to the folder I had of our bands music and selected the song Beside You.

"Seriously?" I rolled my eyes.

"Shut up. It's my favourite."

"Why is it your favourite?"

"Because it reminds me of you. I wish I would've had this song for whenever you left for tour, if I would've known you were a famous rockstar, because it would've been nice to listen to."

"I wish that too." I squeezed her hand gently and she did so back.

Gracie came back over to me after a bit and Carter moved back to her seat to take a nap while I set up Gracie's movie player, putting in Frozen for her and placing the headphones in her ears.

Checking on Carter I found her asleep, her headphones in her ears and a cooking show playing in the television in the wall in front of her.

"It's nothing like I've ever known before, love is an open door!" Gracie sang along with her movie.

"Gracie, shh. You can't sing on the plane honey, you've gotta be quiet." I told her.

"But I wanna sing." She replied, poking out her bottom lip in a pout.

"I know you wanna sing but other people are working or sleeping, and you have to be a good girl and not disturb them."

"But you talking." She said and I heard Brad and Michael snort behind me.

"It's okay to talk, but you have to talk quietly." I explained after I had rolled my eyes at the two guys.

"Okay Daddy." Gracie finally agreed and went back to watching her movie.

Time on the flight seemed to pass by slowly.

Carter was napping hard, in the deep kind of sleep to where you were totally relaxed. Gracie watched Frozen all the way through, drinking her juice and having a popcorn snack and I took her to the little plane bathroom where I had to help her and then took her back to our seats where she climbed up in my lap, curling up into me, ready for her nap.

I wrapped Gracie in a blanket that was in my bag for her and covered us both up before I tucked her bunny beneath the blanket as well and gave her a kiss.

She fell asleep fairly quickly and I followed soon after.

I was awoken later by Gracie climbing up in my lap again and I opened my eyes to see Luke helping her, Mr. Carrots in his hand.

"Whatcha doin Gray?" I placed my hand on her head.

"Cuddle." she responded as she sat down in my lap.

"She came over to us while you were asleep to have lunch and then we took another nap. I was just bringing her back from the bathroom. She made me stand in there facing the door while she went." Luke said with a chuckle.

"Thanks man."

"No problem. Dinner's about to come out if you want to wake up the wife."

Luke went back to his seat while I stretched my neck and Gracie got situated.

I caught Ender's attention and he made his way to Gracie's empty seat since Gracie was sitting with me.

"Do you want me to wake up Carter?" He asked.

"No, let her sleep, she needs her rest." I gave him a smile and soon enough our airplane dinner was served.

After we had eaten Gracie had a lot of pent up energy from being kept in a confined space for so long and was getting hyper.

"Daddy can we go play outside?" She asked me as she was standing in front of her seat, too energised to sit down.

"Play outside?" I laughed. "We can't play outside, there's no ground."

"We fly!"

"Fly?" I chuckled. "Like the fairies."

"Yes!" She nodded. "I look for fairies!" She suddenly turned around to look out her window, pressing her nose to the glass.

I took her picture before laughing, Gracie turning around with a smile.

"Daddy laugh!" Gracie giggled.

"I know, you made me laugh."

"Can we play dolls?"

"Yeah, let me get it." I got out of my seat and opened the overhead compartment, pulling down Gracie's duffel and looking for her dolls. "Do you want the doll in the pink dress or the purple dress?"

"Both!" Gracie demanded.

"You can have one."

"Daddy!" She whined.

"Gracie, stop."

"Pink." She pouted, and I got the pink doll before handing it to her and putting her bag away.

Sitting back down in the chair Gracie began to play with the doll for the next hour or so until playtime was over and it was time for her to go to bed.

Carter was still passed out asleep and I knew she hadn't been sleeping well lately. I could feel her tossing and turning in my arms at night and understood that she needed the sleep not only for her mental sake but for her health as well.

Getting back in the duffel I got out Gracie's light blue onesie with the bunny tail.

"Here." Calum came over and held a blanket up in front of our seat while I changed her clothes and folded her old ones, stowing them under the seat.

Once she was changed the flight attendant passed out pillows and blankets to everyone and I set up a little bed in her seat.

"Okay, go say goodnight." I told her and she scurried over to Michael, giving him a hug and a kiss before going across the isle to Calum and Luke, hugging and kissing their cheeks as well, telling them goodnight as they did the same to her.

"Are you a bunny?" Calum tweaked her nose and Gracie giggled before jumping up and down like a bunny rabbit.

"I say goodnight to Mommy." She came back over to me and then made a beeline for Carter and I dragged her back.

"No, let Mommy sleep."

"Why?"

"Because Mommy is tired and needs to sleep so she doesn't get sick again." I told Gracie and she nodded. "Okay, now let's get you in bed."

I had her get up in the makeshift bed I had made which was really just leaning the pillow against the wall and then wrapping her in a few blankets.

I placed Olaf in the seat for some cushioning, along with her bunny under her arm and Ellie the Elephant.

"Goodnight lovey." I leaned down to kiss her once I had gotten her situated.

"Night Daddy." She smiled up at me.

"I love you." I gave her another kiss on the forehead.

"Love you Daddy."

She closed her eyes and snuggled herself into her blankets.

I then moved over to Carter and Ender.

"Hey, turn the movie player off, it's time for bed." I told Ender and he nodded, shutting down the movie player and putting it away.

He made himself a comfortable sleeping spot and covered up with the blanket.

"Night bud, love you." I leaned over to kiss his forehead.

"Night, love you too." He yawned and then nestled into his blanket as well.

I then moved onto Carter.

She looked comfortable but I knew how cold she got and covered her up with the blanket before kissing her forehead as well.

Finally I got back to my seat and put my blanket over myself, leaning my seat back and taking the opportunity to catch up on sleep as well.

The next time I awoke it was light outside the window.

Gracie was asleep and so was Carter but Ender was awake.

"We're landing in a couple hours." He told me and I nodded.

"Gracie, time to get up." I woke the small child and began to get her dressed in her outfit again with the assistance of Michael.

I was turning to put her onesie away when I saw Carter stretching in her seat, opening her eyes.

"Hey, you're not in a coma." I smirked.

"Hi." She laughed. "How long have I been asleep?"

"A very very long time." I laughed with her. "We're landing in a bit."

"Okay." She smiled and then picked up an ecstatic Gracie who had ran to her.

"Mommy!" Gracie grinned.

"Gracie! Good morning baby, did you sleep good?"

Gracie nodded. "I miss you."

"You missed me?" Carter laughed before hugging the child to her. "Let's go the bathroom."

Carter took Gracie while I put our stuff away and cleaned up Gracie's blankets and toys.

When they came back I moved across the isle just so I could give Carter the proper kiss I had been craving from her before the flight attendants came out with breakfast.

We got oatmeal, yogurt, and coffee or juice.

I helped get Gracie's food set up and then let her eat, chugging my coffee.

Carter did the same and then looked over at us when she was done.

"Did she do okay?" She nodded towards our child who was shoving a spoon full of oatmeal in her mouth.

"Yeah, she was a bit hyper but she's been cooped up for a long time, we'll take her to a park or somewhere today so she can play."

"Good." She smiled. "I'm sorry I slept so long."

"You're fine." I chuckled. "You need to rest."

The captain turned on the fasten seatbelt sign for landing and I began to gather our stuff so we could walk off the plane.

As we began our descent Gracie began to giggle and squeal, her pent up energy ready to be released.

Carter reached out her hand when the tires of the plane hit the runway and I took up her fingers in mine, making sure she knew she was safe as the plane had to brake, the rushing noise of the plane trying to stop would be loud and frightening for anyone on their first time on a plane.

Gracie didn't like that noise either and kept trying to crawl over in my lap but I had her seatbelt tight so she wouldn't be able to.

Eventually as we drove up to our gate and stopped so they could connect the walkway, they turned off the sign and I stood up to get everyone's bags ready.

I fixed Carters hair as well from where she had slept on her curls and she laughed as I did so.

Since we were the first off the plane, when the flight attendants let us we began to leave.

Gracie held my hand and rolled her suitcase behind me while Carter took my other hand.

"Gracie, come on baby." I pulled her along as she toddled her way though the airport and I ended up picking her up to carry her.

Carter took Gracie's suitcase in her free hand as we continued to walk to baggage claim, the occasional fan snapping our picture as we walked by.

Carter did really well with the fans, and I knew they loved her. I found it very endearing how Carter talked to everyone she met, wanting to have a conversation with them and find out about them, learning their names and where they were from.

When we got to baggage claim we waited for our luggage that Brad loaded onto carts that was then taken to our car.

Outside was swarming with teenagers and I could see Ender getting nervous.

"Don't worry bud, we're going straight to the car." I assured him and he nodded, looking a bit calmer.

Finally it was time for us to go and we walked outside into the storm of flashes, screams, and shouts of our names.

We handed the driver our bags before getting in our seats, a car seat for Gracie in the car as well like I had requested.

"You excited?" I asked Carter as our car pulled away from the curb.

"I am." She gave me a genuine smile and I reached out for her hand again, wanting to be a united front as we started off this new adventure.

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First chapter yay!

So excited for you guys to find out what I have planned I can't wait!

Much love xx -M