Just a heads up, the original characters (minus Vanellope as she will look like a real nine-year-old or her normal cartoon self) will be their voice-actor counterparts. Or she could picture them in your head any way you like, I won't force you. Anyways, on with the story.
The girl violently screamed in pain as she threw her head back against the large pillows of her hospital bed. Everything felt like a blur when another sheer of pain roared through her stomach, sweat pouring down her pale skin like a waterfall. She screeched, feeling her voice vibrant harshly inside her throat. She felt her mother and father holding both of her hands as she squeezed theirs while hearing the tone of the doctor's voice in her ear but couldn't make out the words.
"Alright Sarah" said the doctor, finally hearing his words "Just one more push and we're done."
Sarah cried out again as dirty blonde and sweaty hair fell in front of her face. "I can't" she wailed "Can't someone else do it for me?"
"It's just one more, you can do it!" he encouraged her.
Sarah whipped her face round to face her mother, her blood-shot green eyes looking up at her. "Can't you do it Mom?" she whimpered.
"I can't honey I'm sorry" said her mother in a soothing, silky voice "You have to try and do it on your own."
She slowly nodded as she shakily turned her head to face the doctor. Gathering up all her strength, she prepared herself for the final contraction. Like a final blow, the contraction came and Sarah pushed and screamed as much as her petite frame could.
Screams of pain were soon replaced by tiny cries that filled the hospital room and brought a small smile to the young woman's face.
"Congratulations Miss Wheatley" said the doctor "It's a beautiful baby girl"
A tear dripped down her cheek and her smile widened as the doctor put the baby into her arms for her to hold. A blissful breath of laughter escaped her lips as the baby squirmed in her arms and a few more wails filled her ears. "Hi baby girl" she beamed down at the child.
The cries died down as the baby started to become aware of her surroundings and opened her eyes. They were a beautiful hazel colour with specks of green, making Sarah's heart feel a bit lighter as she stroked her black hair. "It's my baby" she said looking up at her parents who smiled down at her "It's my baby!"
Sarah gave out another tired laugh as she kissed her daughter's forehead. The doctor came over with a pair of scissors and he cut off the umbilical cord, making the baby her own free person. A nurse then took the baby from Sarah's arms, as the anxious new mother watched her walk away to get the baby cleaned up.
"Do you have a name for her yet Miss Wheatley?" the doctor asked.
"No" Sarah sighed contently "Not yet."
"That's absolutely fine" he reassured her "We'll just call her baby girl or baby girl Wheatley for now."
"Thank you" said Sarah's mother, as she stroked her daughter's hair. The doctor then left the room as Sarah's father quickly turned to the two mothers.
"Jane do you have the camera" Sarah's father asked his wife.
"It's in my bag Henry" said Jane "We'll take photo's when Sarah feels a bit more refreshed."
"Thanks Mom" Sarah smiled.
The doctor then returned with a clipboard in his hand. "Okay so I have a few questions, you can skip out on a few if they make you feel uncomfortable."
Sarah sat up a little bit and quickly stole a glance at her daughter before turning back to the doctor.
"Have you ever done anything before or during you pregnancy?" he asked "For example, smoking or taking drugs?"
"No."
"How old are you?"
"Sixteen."
"Have you been to this hospital before?"
"To have my shots…so yes."
"And this might sound a little weird" the doctor chuckled "But is this your first birth?"
Sarah chuckled as well and replied "Yes it is."
"Thank you" said the doctor, clicking his pen and putting it away in his pocket "We would've already asked you this before you gave birth but your mother stated that your water had broken before you arrived here."
"That's right" Sarah smiled up at her mother, her dark brown short hair covered her light-tanned skin. She had taken most of her looks from her father, who had the same dirty blonde hair and same pale skin. But his eyes were deep blue so Sarah had inherited her green eyes from her mother.
Sarah beamed again when she saw the nurse walking over to her, with her baby cleaned and in a pale pink blanket and cap as the nurse placed her into her arms.
"Got any ideas for names?" her mother asked.
"Not yet" Sarah smiled, keeping her attention focused on her daughter "But it has to be perfect."
Sarah tossed and turned, groaning as her eyes fluttered open and saw that it was 2:00 in the morning on the clock. She only had two hours of sleep. She didn't feel tired but rather bored instead. Her legs felt quite useless, they were just sitting there doing nothing and her joints felt like jelly. She finally decided to get up and take a walk. She unplugged herself from the IV's and swung her legs over the bed.
She let out a satisfied sigh as her feet touched the cold floor; it felt strangely refreshing on the skin of her feet. She took a few steps away from the bed and put both of her hands on the door. Maybe she could pass the day care and check on her daughter while she took her walk. Finally she exited the room and made her way slowly but surely down the hall.
She walked along the white hospital floor and finally found herself in the hallway next to the day care, all she had to do was take a left and she would be there. She jumped when she heard a few voices and quickly hid and froze behind a wall. She quickly took a peek to see what was going on. Then there, at the window of the day care were her parents and a couple that she had never seen before.
"She'd gorgeous" said the young woman, as her husband put his arm around her waist "It was worth waiting all this time."
"I don't mean to sound weird but my daughter does always know how to make things beautiful" said Jane "I had a feeling she would do the same thing to her children."
Sarah's stomach twisted into knots, she didn't seem too fond of the couple that were looking at her daughter, and what on earth were her parents doing over there talking to them.
"So when can we collect her?" the husband of the young woman asked Henry.
Sarah froze. Did they say that they were going to collect her baby? No, she had to be imagining it, there's no way she heard that right.
"And when can sign the adoption forms since your daughter went into labour when we wanted to we first arrived to discussing adopting the baby" said the young woman.
"At the end of the week once Sarah has been discharged from the hospital" said Henry "We know it's going to be hard for Sarah to process this news since she been planning this ever since she decided to keep the baby, but she's far too young and we have a whole future planned for her and we know what's best."
Sarah's heart skipped a beat; her own parents hid something from her, hoping that it wouldn't bother her. She couldn't believe that they think that this was okay, how was ignoring their child's happiness the right thing to do! They also sounded far too happy about this.
"May we hold her?" the woman asked, making Sarah dig her nails into her palms.
"Why of course" said Jane and looked over at a nurse who was walking down the hall "Excuse me, can you open the nursery so these two can hold our grandchild?"
It was a miracle that Sarah didn't go out there and attack the couple as soon as her daughter was put into the woman's arms. It made her sick to her stomach when the couple forcefully cooed down at her baby girl or waved their fingers in front of her face. Somehow, as if her baby could read her mind, the baby began to cry and the nurse put her back into the day care.
"So" Jane turned to the couple "Have you thought of any names yet?"
"Oh plenty" said the husband.
"We were thinking of Nancy!" said the young woman "Or Kelly, or Brittany!"
Sarah cringed at the names. When she realised she could name her baby when she was still pregnant, she thought of the endless unique names or unused mythology names with special meanings behind them and she even made a few up in her head that rolled off her tongue really sweetly. The names that this couple had thought for her baby just made her think of them as the real life Barbie and Ken dolls that lived in Malibu.
As quietly as she could, Sarah snuck out of the hallway and ran back to her room on the tip of her toes. She quietly slammed the door behind and ran over to her hospital bed and began to cry her eyes out. Every tear was like a blow to her stomach and the pain wouldn't go away.
Then something creeped into her head that immediately paused her tears and made her eyes widen. It was only a thought until she analysed and re-analysed over and over again until it felt-like a full-proof plan. She put her feet back onto the ground again and ran over to her hospital bag where she pulled out her phone and ran out of room again and down the hall. She finally came across the bathrooms and went inside and checked for no cameras. She then went into one of the empty cubicles and sat onto the toilet seat.
She clicked open her phone and went straight to her contacts and dialled her friends number. She drummed her heel against the floor as the hum of the phone made her heart race with impatience and worry. She hoped that she would be the only one in here and no one else would be begging someone to help them into the bathroom in the middle of the night. Then after and endless cycle of waiting, the caller picked up.
"Hello?" said a tired female voice from the phone.
"Emma?" Sarah whimpered.
"Sarah?" said Emma, her tone shifting from exhausted to worry "What's wrong?"
"I…I gave birth to my baby" she gloomily whispered.
"That's great!" Emma exclaimed "Why are you upset, I thought you were keeping…is it a girl or a boy?"
Sarah sniffed and smiled when she thought of her new-born daughter sleeping in the day care "A girl."
"That's amazing!" said Emma "But why are you sad?"
Sarah then began to weep as softly as she could, covering her mouth before she spoke again. "My Mom and Dad went behind my back and are giving her up for adoption."
"WHAT!" Emma screeched "How could they do that! Is she okay?"
"Yeah she's fine" said Sarah "I went for a walk and saw them talking to this couple which were like the Ken and Barbie in the real world, they were acting so surreal with her and were thinking of her such bimbo like names, it was awful."
"Oh honey" said Emma with a hint of sorrow.
"I can't let this happen Emma!" Sarah sobbed "I want to keep my baby!"
"What are you going to do?" Emma asked.
Sarah quickly went over her plan in her head before going back to Emma. "The couple is going to sign the adoption forms and collect my baby at the end of the week when I get discharged from the hospital" said Sarah "So tomorrow night I want you to collect me and my baby at the front entrance of the hospital and take me to your place, I'll discuss with you what I'm going to do from there."
"Are you sure about this?" Emma asked "What if the police come to my house?"
"I'll be gone before they even arrive" said Sarah "Please Emma! I need you to trust me."
There was a pause between both girls from each end of the line on the phone before Emma spoke up again. "Alright" said Emma "I'll do it."
"Thanks you Emma" Sarah sighed with relief, before sliding her focused glare against the cubical door before continuing "Okay, here's what I need you to get…"
The sun was shining brightly through the window and on Sarah's skin. She let her face absorb it, letting the light wash over her features while she continued to breastfeed her baby.
As soon as she stopped feeding, she sorted out her blue hospital gown and her daughter snuggled up against her chest. Sarah looked down at her in awe. She went over the plan in her head one more time, certain that it would work.
Her parents were in the room, this was her chance! "Mom?"
"Yes Honey?" said Jane, turning away from Henry and faced her daughter.
"Can my baby sleep with me in here tonight?" Sarah asked "I felt quite lonely last night without her."
Jane turned to Henry and whispered in his ear "It must be postpartum depression, the doctor said she would experience it" she quickly whipped her head back round to Sarah and smiled "Of course sweetie."
"Thank you" Sarah smiled and looked back down at her baby as she stroked her soft black hair.
Sarah's eyes shot open at the beeping coming from her phone. She shot up from her bed and turned it off…it was time. She reached for her hospital bag and ran into her connected bathroom as she pulled off her hospital gown pulled her underwear, bra and socks. Then she changed into a grey vest and some dark blue jeans and a light blue zipped up hoodie. She put the hood over her head and pulled on her trainers.
She quietly turned the knob off the bathroom and gently closed the door behind her, mentally thanking it for not making any noise. She crept over to her daughter's glass crib and picked her up and tiptoed out of her room, timidly shutting the door behind her.
Her heart raced as she speed-walked down the hallway, knowing that the cameras would be watching her. She didn't even bother to fix the lock of hair that fell out of her hoodie as she kept her eyes in front of her and keeping alert in case someone came down the hall.
She finally made it to the front entrance, where the outside of the hospital was lit up by bright orange lampposts that nearly blinded her.
As if on que, a red car with a missing license plate pulled up and a pale skinned girl, about Sarah's age, beckoned her to come in. Sarah didn't hesitate as she opened the car door and sat down. The girl had short brown hair and eyes with pale lips and dark brows that furrowed with concern. However when she saw the baby, her face lit up and she smiled.
"Sarah, she's so beautiful!" she exclaimed.
"Thanks Emma" Sarah gave her friend a sad smile before they drove away into the night "Did you get what I needed?"
"Yup" said Emma "It's waiting for you back at my house."
"And what about your parents?" Sarah asked.
"I bought then tickets for a midnight showing of a movie at drive-thru theatre and I told them that I couldn't take them back" Emma grinned "They were both happy and wanted to murder me at the same time."
Sarah laughed and stroked her daughter's head; so far everything was running as smooth as butter.
About half an hour later, Emma pulled into her driveway of her red-brick two story house. They both got out of the car, with Sarah collecting her hospital bag and ran up to the door. Emma fumbled with the keys and unlocked the door. They clambered inside before Emma slammed the door and locked it again. They then went around the house, locking all the doors and windows that they could find while closing all the curtains and blinds at the same time. As soon as they were down, the two ran up to the upstairs bathroom and shut the door behind them.
"Is this the right stuff?" Emma asked as Sarah handed her the baby and walked over to the bathroom sink. On top of it were a pair of scissors and a bottle of permanent natural red hair dye.
"Yeah this is it" said Sarah. She turned on the tap, nearly jumping at the sound of the water running down the drain. She then picked up the pair of scissors, holding them in her hand while she watched Emma in the mirror. She had her right arm cradling the baby and her left hand occasionally pressed flat against her chest or covering her mouth on shock.
Sarah had to admit, it was pretty scary, but she had to do this. She grabbed a dirty blonde lock of hair, brought the scissors up to it, closed her eyes and…snip.
Sarah opened her eyes and saw a piece of hair go down the drain. Trying to calm her shaking hands, she took a deep breath in and blew it out. After a few more breaths she continued. Each little sound of the scissors snipping away at her hair was like thunder in her ear drums. But she didn't stop, she kept cutting and cutting, letting each little blonde piece run down the drain and slowly but surely didn't even hesitate moving onto another strand.
The snipping didn't stop until she was left with jaw-length hair with a few strands falling in front of her eyes. She then grabbed a green towel and put it round her shoulders and grabbed a hairbrush and smoothed down her short hair. It felt strange having hair so short but she knew that she was going to have to get used to it. She then ran her hands under the running water and wetted her hair, making sure she didn't miss any parts.
She then snatched the bottle of red hair dye and squirted it into her hands and ran them through her hair again. After she hair was covered in a natural red colour, she grasped the hair dryer, plugged it into the wall and started to dry her hair. After she dried it out she ran her hands through the soft red strands one more time and turned to face Emma.
"What do you think?" she asked her friend.
"Very…different" said Emma "But really nice."
"At least no one is going to recognise me" Sarah smiled.
"Do you have a name do go with your new look?" Emma asked.
"I was thinking..." Sarah paused for a moment, her eyes going to the side of her head before she answered "Ayla, Ayla Schweetz"
"Ayla?" said Emma "I like it….Ayla"
Sarah giggled…no, Ayla giggled and followed Emma out the bathroom but not before taking the scissors and hair dye with them. The girls and baby then went into Emma's bedroom where a couple of sweaters were waiting for Ayla. "Take as many as you want" said Emma, placing the baby on the bed "I'm just going to wash out the bottle of hair dye and scissors and burn the bottle before the police can see it."
Ayla nodded to her and took off her blue hoodie "Can you burn this too?" she asked.
"Of course" said Emma and took the red-stained hoodie from her friend and went out the room.
Ayla quickly changed out of her vest and put on her baby wrap and placed her into a pick onesie before placing her inside the wrap. She heard it was going to be raining so she wanted to give the baby as much body heat as she could muster. She then placed her vest back on and put on a white cardigan, a grey zipped hoodie, a thick black sweatshirt and a large red over-sized sweatshirt.
She looked in the mirror, good, she could hardly see a lump where her baby would be, the wrap felt secure and she still felt the baby breathing.
She quickly grabbed her hospital bag and emptied out all the clothes, belonging and baby equipment and stuffed them into a large brown satchel that Emma had left for her. After buckling it up, she left the room and ran downstairs to meet Emma and gave her the hospital bag as the final things to burn before they left.
They both went into the garden and placed the both on top of the bonfire and watched it burn with the other belongings. Everything burned in about 30 seconds and they ran through the house and back into the driveway where they got into the car and started to drive away.
"Where to?" Emma asked.
"As close as you can to the nearest bus station" said Ayla "I want to get as far away from Minnesota as possible."
"Copy that" Emma replied and drove away into the night. After a couple of seconds of driving, the patter of rain hid the car roof and window and Ayla looked outside the see rain thundering onto the roads and pavements. Although it wasn't a storm, it was surely going to be a cold night.
"WHERE IS SHE!" screeched the young woman, nearly deafening Jane "WHERE IS OUR DAUGHTER!"
The hospital was buzzing with panic, swarmed by police officers and police cars outside. Jane and Henry were standing outside the main entrance, waiting to talk with a couple of officers, grasping each other's until the young couple who wanted to adopt the baby came marching up to them.
"I am so sorry" said Jane "We have no idea what must've come over Sarah!"
"Maybe she overheard us talking about giving the baby up for adoption" Henry gasped, making Jane's face widen and covered her mouth in shock.
"You better get our baby back!" screeched the husband "Or else you will be hearing from every lawyer we can muster until we get our daughter back!"
"Yes of course" Jane whimpered as two detectives walked up to her and Henry. The young couple saw them and quickly walked away to see if anyone had found anything yet.
"Ma'am" one of them said "I'm detective Ralph Rogers and this is my partner Felix Ferguson."
"Good, well night" said Felix.
Detective Rogers was quite a tall man with curly thick brown hair and eyes and large muscled hands that were nearly twice the size of a normal man. Detective Ferguson was quite different as he was about the height of Detective Rogers' shoulder and had smooth blond hair and blue eyes.
"What can you tell us about the runaway?" Detective Rogers asked, taking out a pen and notepad.
"I have no idea" said Jane "She wanted to keep her baby in her room and all of a sudden she just vanished along with the poor thing."
"Why do you think she would run away?" Detective Ferguson asked.
"Well we decided on giving the baby for adoption and I don't think it settled with her very well" said Henry.
"Okay so we're dealing with a young mother with a new-born infant who disappeared at twelve in the morning" said Detective Rogers "Where do you think she would go?"
"I…I don't know" said Jane.
"She was very focused on her pregnancy that she spent quite some time at home" said Henry "But she also managed to squeeze in some time for her friends."
"Right" Detective Rogers sighed, looking down at his pad as the rain started to smear the ink all over the page.
"Sir!" said an officer, running up to them with a tablet "I think we found something!"
"Shoot" said Detective Ferguson as he and Rogers faced the policeman.
"It looks like she escaped in a red convertible but the license plate has been screwed off" said the officer, holding up the tablet for them to see of the security footage showing Sarah escaping.
Rogers quickly whipped round to face the parents who were anxiously holding each other "Do any of her friends have any red convertibles?" Rogers asked.
"Well her friend Emma Loring had gotten her driving license a few months ago and I think Sarah told me that the car she bought was a convertible" Jane explained.
"Where does she live?" Ferguson asked.
"42 Mollings Street" said Henry.
"Come on" said Rogers as he and Ferguson ran into a police car and drove off, followed by a few more.
Emma and Ayla jumped and saw a blue light coming from Emma's phone. Emma quickly pulled over at the side of the road and quickly checked it. "Aw crap it's my Mom!" Emma hissed "She's probably wondering where I am!"
"How far are we from the bus station?" Ayla asked.
"Actually if you look out your window…" said Emma as Ayla turned to look out her window and saw just down the pavement was the bus station.
"It looks like a ten minute walk" said Emma "I can drop you off here if that's alright with you."
"Yeah" Ayla quietly nodded.
Emma switched off the engine of the car and both girls stepped out onto the pavement while Ayla grabbed her large satchel. As soon as Emma made it onto the other side of the car and onto the pavement, she reached her arms out towards her friend and gave her a hug.
"I'm really going to miss you" she sniffed.
"I'm going to miss you too" said Ayla, making sure that she didn't crush her baby.
Emma let go of her friend and put her hands on Ayla's shoulders as she looked at her firmly in the eyes. "I put some money in your satchel to help you last for a couple of weeks and to pay your bus ticket" said Emma.
"Thank you" Ayla smiled.
"Try and call me whenever you've ended up somewhere safe" Emma told her "Alright?"
"Of course!" said Ayla reassuringly.
Emma's eyes went misty and she hugged Ayla one more time and stroked her baby's head. "Bye little one" she whispered before placing a kiss on her head.
She cupped Ayla's cheek and put her grey hood over the red-haired girl's head before crossing over to the driver's side of the car, climbed inside, turning on the roar of the engine and drove away.
Ayla watched her friend drive off into the distance, watching it slowly shrink and shrink until it turned into a tiny red dot and disappeared. Ayla then quickly whipped round and started to speed-walk down the pavement. Emma said that it would be a ten minute walk but if she went faster she could get there a bit earlier in case the police showed up.
The rain kept pouring down as Ayla kept walking until she finally came across the bus station, where everyone was starting to clumber inside to get out of the rain.
Before Ayla made it towards the steps, a silent sound of a siren whirred in her left ear. She whipped her head round to look down the road but saw no vehicle that the sound could belong to, but she knew that no matter how far away the siren might be, she knew that it was coming for her.
She quickly ran up the steps and grabbed a hold of the slippery door handle and went into the bus station. As soon as she was inside, she looked for the shortest que for tickets and ran to one that was going to Atlanta.
While standing beside someone, she looked up at the board of buses that lead to different places all over the country and found the one that belonged to Atlanta. Her eyes darted up and down at all the places she could go to, she didn't know which one to choose to try and lose the police. She finally landed her eyes on 'Southport, North Carolina' and whipped her head forward again on someone's back.
Her heart pounded in her chest and she felt her palms getting sweaty. Her nerves steadied a bit when she felt her baby breathe against her chest, sleeping soundly through all the noise.
As soon as she made it to the front, she hurriedly got her ticket and bided the ticket man 'goodnight' and ran off. She saw that there was no que for the Atlanta bus when she ran over, until she realised that the bus was going to leave soon, that was why the que was so short.
She gasped when she heard the siren again quickly ran outside to catch the bus as soon as a police vehicle pulled up outside.
Rogers and Ferguson quickly clambered out of the police vehicle, both of them each holding a picture of Sarah with her dirty blonde locks of hair. "Let's go!" said Rogers and he and Ferguson ran up to and into the bus station.
The two split up and Rogers quickly ran to the nearest ticket que and cut in front of it. "Excuse me" he said to the ticket man, pressing the picture of Sarah at the window "Have you seen this woman?"
"No I don't think so" said the man.
"You sure?" Rogers asked.
"Yes sir" said the man.
"Okay" said Rogers and exited the que to ask someone else.
Ayla sighed with relief when she saw the Atlanta bus had not left yet. She banged her hand gently against the side and the doors opened for her to get inside.
She gave the driver her ticket and hurriedly walked down the aisle to find an empty seat.
Both Rogers and Ferguson met up again with Ferguson having a small glimmer of hope in his eyes. "Someone told me that a girl ran outside to catch a bus" said Ferguson "That might be our girl."
"Then let's go!" said Rogers as he and Ferguson ran outside.
"I'll check the bus in front while you check the one behind!" said Ferguson, raising his voice so Rogers could hear him through the rain and sounds of buses.
Rogers nodded and ran off to the bus Ferguson was talking about. As soon as he came across it, he pulled out his badge and yelled "Stop the bus! Minnesota PD!"
The bus immediately jerked to halt and the doors opened. Rogers ran up inside and was bathed in the warmth of the heat inside. He kept walking down the aisle, trying to find the girl on the picture he held when he came across a dirty blonde-headed woman with her head turned away to look out the window. Rogers immediately knew who she was and knew why she turned her head away.
"Excuse me" he sighed, his fingers grazing the woman's shoulder expecting to see Sarah. But when the woman turned her head, her face didn't match the picture of the girl in the picture. It wasn't her.
Ayla found a seat near the back of the bus and sat down, taking a window seat while she sat her large satchel in the one next to her. She quickly turned away from the window and saw from the corner of her eye was a blonde-haired detective trying to stop the bus behind her.
She lifted her large red hoodie of her body and opened her two grey hoodies to check on her baby. To her relief, she was still sleeping soundly and was breathing just fine.
Ayla quickly lifted a large thick blanket that she packed for herself at the hospital and wrapped it around her and her baby. Finally, she was safe and could raise her baby. She didn't know what she would do when she arrived at Southport, but for now she just wanted the time to spend with her baby, as mother and daughter.
"Excuse me" said a woman in the seat on the right side of the aisle. Ayla turned her head to face her "You have such a gorgeous baby."
"Thank you" said Ayla.
"What's her name" the woman asked.
Ayla didn't widen her eyes in worry or feel her heart pound in her chest. For during the time of panic, she finally thought of the perfect name for her daughter.
She looked down at her baby. "Vanellope" she said "Vanellope Schweetz."
"What a lovely name" said the woman.
"I know" said Ayla. The woman turned away and Ayla pressed her head against the window, keeping her eyes on Vanellope as the bus continued to drive them towards their future.