Title: Begin again
Plot: Jo sets out to find the daughter that Paul took from her and looks to rebuild a new life with Alex. (Request from Red Lighting) (slightly AU)
Hi all! So this is a story request I got from Red lighting. I loved the idea and I had lots of fun writing it. It kind of all just rolled off the tongue. I hope you all enjoy and please leave a review letting me know what you think. The entire story is written so updates should be frequent.
Lots of love and happiness, Butterflysparkle97
Chapter one
September 12th 2016
I've been spending the last eight years
Thinking all love ever does is break and burn and end... (Begin Again, Taylor swift)
Tick tock... tick tock... tick tock... That was the sound of the silent time bomb going off inside Jo's head, ready to make a mess of her life at any second. It was the sound of her past, at least the past that she had kept a secret from Alex ticking away.
Jo looks down at the photograph she held tightly in her right had. Everything in the moment was just perfect and at least for a second she had forgotten everything that was wrong in her life. The tiny newborn infant that was cradled in her arms was all that mattered and well now, now she was gone. The tears begin to fall freely down Jo 's cheeks as she remembers the past.
Gone, but not dead, those were the words Jo kept reminding herself of. She was gone, Paul had taken her, but she was not dead. Annabelle would be four years old today, a moment that was bittersweet for any parent that didn't have their child.
She'd been trying, oh god, had she been trying to find her daughter. The past four years had been the hardest of her life. But now there was something different... A clue... Jo had a clue... She had a proper clue as to where her daughter was.
All of a sudden the loud clanking noise of the loft door opening fills the room, but Jo ignores it. "Jo?" The voice questions. "What are you doing?" She questions.
Upon hearing the familiar sound of Steph's voice Jo quickly stuffs the photo in her pocket and dries the tears that had been falling from her eyes. "Oh um, nothing," Jo says and brushes the question aside.
"I brought you something to eat. I figured since you hadn't eaten much today that you'd be hungry," Steph says sympathetically as she holds up a brown paper bag filled with Chinese food with her right hand. It was the third attempt this week her best friend had made to get Jo to eat with her.
Giving in, Jo sighs heavily and gets up from the lounge and heads to the kitchen. As Steph walks over to the kitchen island Jo pulls out two plates and Knives and forks for them both. Steph pulls out the containers of take away and places them on the bench.
scene break
"Does he know?" Steph asks curiously as the pair sit at the dinning table with empty plates in front of them.
"Know what?" Jo asks slightly confused. She picks up her glass of water and takes a sip before placing it back down.
"That you still love him? Does Alex Know that you still love him?" Steph asks.
"No," Jo shakes her head, "and even if he did I doubt things could go back to what they used to be. Not after the DeLuca situation," Jo replies and she again shakes her head.
"DeLuca dropped the charges Jo. Alex isn't going to Jail for felony assault. You have both been through so much. Do you really not think you could make it work?" Steph asks slightly sad that her best friend didn't even want to give Alex a chance, despite still loving him.
"I've been keeping secrets from him Steph... Huge secrets," Jo admits.
"Um, okay. But he loves you Jo and you love him. You've both found ways to make it work before, I don't see why now would be any different," Steph replies confused.
"Hey um.. I'm going to go away for a while," Jo says out of the blue.
"Away? Where?" Steph asks confused. She knew her friend was still slightly struggling with recent events, but away? That seemed a little drastic.
"There's something I need to do," Jo admits.
"Okay..." Steph says a little worried.
Jo pulls out the photograph of Annabelle from her pocket.
"What is this?" Steph asks as she looks at the photo of Jo cradling a newborn baby.
"This is my daughter, Annabelle. She's four today. I need to find her," Jo says
"Find her? Jo, what's going on?" Steph asks extremely puzzled. She hands the photo back to Jo.
"Paul.. He took her," Jo states.
"Paul? Who's Paul?" Steph asks.
"Paul Stadler...Her father..." Jo takes a deep breath, "My husband," she continues.
"Your husband?" Steph asks confused. Steph had no idea that Jo was married and a million questions started flooding her mind. Taking a moment to think about it, Steph decided it was best not to flood Jo with all of the questions she had, but rather just listen.
"He took her. Annabelle had been discharged from hospital four days after she was born. I was supposed to be going home too, but my wound from my emergency C section had opened back up so I couldn't go home. I haven't seen her since," Jo admits.
"Did you tell the police?" Steph asks shocked.
"I did. But there was nothing they could do. Neither of us had sole custody of Annabelle so it wasn't classed as a kidnapping. He was a very manipulative man... Paul. He was a very powerful man and he had ways of getting what he wanted. He nearly killed me for a start. I wasn't very strong back then... But it's different now," Jo replies.
"Jo, I had no idea. Does Alex know?" Steph asks.
Jo shakes her head. "I've been trying for the past four years to find her. But today... Today this came in the mail," Jo says as she pulls out an envelope from her pocket. She takes a card out of it and hands it to Steph.
"3241 Windenburg and Smith Street, Sacramento," Steph says reading out the address.
"I think that's where my daughter is, and I can't live wondering. I could never forgive myself if I missed a chance to find her. He hurt me every chance he got... But somehow I know that he'd never hurt her. He was so excited to become a father. So while I know that she's safe, he took her from me and he hurt me. Taking my child away from me... My flesh and blood, that was the one thing he could do to hurt me more then the physical abuse ever could. I'm taking control of my life and he's going to rot behind bars," Jo says with a hint of Anger in her voice.
"How long will you be gone for?" Steph asks curiously as she passes the card back to Jo.
"However long it takes. But Please... Don't tell anyone where I am... What it is I'm doing," Jo begs.
"I won't... So long as you keep in contact with me. That's the deal," Steph states a matter of factly.
"Okay," Jo replies.
