Hi everyone. I started writing this fic last year, then stopped. I have about 7 chapters so far and thought if I started posting it, maybe it'll encourage me to pick up with it again...well hopefully anyway, otherwise it won't just be me wanting more, it'll be you lot too! So any reviews etc would be great and as always really appreciated! :) I hope you enjoy.
New Beginnings.
"Come on Jenny, your breakfast's ready!" Peyton shouted up to the seven year old daughter of her boyfriend Jake.
"I can take her to school this morning if you want?" The man himself offered as he grabbed a slice of toast.
"No it's ok, you've got to leave earlier than me and it's on my way to work anyway." She replied and then let out a sigh.
"Hey, stop worrying ok." He said, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure whatever this meeting is about, it'll be fine." He added and Peyton just shrugged.
She worked at a care home for the elderly, had done for the last five years, but things hadn't been going so great there lately. It wasn't the people that lived there or the people she worked with, she loved all of them, but it was the place itself. In the last year, funding had been down which had resulted in cuts to all kinds of things, but yesterday her boss had told everyone that a meeting would be taking place today which all the staff had to attend and Peyton couldn't help but worry that this was going to be the next cut; the staff.
"I can't find my other shoe?" Jenny's voice then called as she trundled down the stairs and knocked Peyton out of her thoughts.
"It's ok, I'll find it for you in a little while. Breakfast is more important right now." Peyton told her and then placed the bowl of Lucky Charms onto the table along with a glass of orange juice.
"So what have you got at school today angel?" Jake asked his daughter as she sat down.
"The worst classes with the worst teachers." She replied. "I hate Mondays." She added and Peyton just gave a light chuckle as she joined her 'family' at the table.
"Tell me about it kid. Mondays suck!" She said and Jake looked at the girls and shook his head. They weren't related, but they sure acted it sometimes.
Jake had become a Dad at a young age and had found himself a single parent not long after. Jenny's Mom Nikki hadn't stuck around to begin with and it wasn't until six months later that she returned, begging for forgiveness and pleading to see her daughter. Jake had been reluctant at first, but then agreed that she could on the condition that he'd be with her at all times. It turned out Nikki had post natal depression after Jenny had been born and that's what had caused her to take off, she had the medical notes to prove it and although Jake hadn't been willing to give their relationship another go, he did come around to the idea of them being friends and allowing Nikki to spend time with Jenny alone over time. It was on one of those nights, that he'd met Peyton.
It was her twenty first birthday and she'd gone out with a few friends that had come home from Uni to surprise her. Her and Jake had instantly clicked and had been together ever since. It was a little difficult at first though and their relationship hadn't always been easy. She wasn't just getting a boyfriend after all, she was getting his daughter and her Mother too! There'd been times when her and Jake had come to blows about Nikki, there'd been times when Jenny had hurt herself at school and wanted Peyton more than Nikki, there'd been times when Jake had to step in between the two women and stop bitch fights!
As if all that wasn't crazy enough, Peyton had to deal with the chaos of her own family. Thankfully she'd moved in with Jake six months into their relationship and even though that had caused arguments with Nikki, she was glad to be out of the arguments with her Dad Larry. Peyton's Mom Anna had died when she was little and it had always been the two of them...that was until she was sixteen and Larry met Cynthia. It didn't take her long to move in and come between the pair of them. Cynthia was annoying in the worst possible way, infact annoying didn't even describe her! She was nosey, bitchy, belittling, snobby...she was a nightmare and Peyton didn't know what the hell her Dad saw in her?! Peyton had tried to be civil and nice at first, but it wasn't mutual with Cynthia. There wasn't a day that went by without Cynthia making some remark or dig about the step-daughter she'd gained since marrying Larry and that was why Peyton was the way she was with Jenny.
When she first found out about Jake having a daughter, the guy himself expected Peyton to do a runner, but she hadn't. She wanted to be there for this little girl who was only a few years old at the time and be a better mother figure to her than Cynthia.
"Right come on, lets find that other shoe of yours missy." Peyton said after Jake had left for the office and after finding it lodged under the little girls bed, Peyton got herself and Jenny ready to face the hell that was Monday.
She'd dropped Jenny off at school a little while later, telling her she'd pick her up at home time and then she made the dreaded drive to the care home.
Walking inside after she parked her car, she greeted all the friendly, warm and loveable faces that were sat around in the living area and then got set on her work and went to help the ones that were bed bound, keeping her mind off the time until the lunchtime meeting.
She loved her job, if you'd have asked her when she was younger what she wanted to do, this would have been the last thing. Peyton thought she'd end up doing something music or art related, but then she met a woman called Ellie. A woman that turned out to be her birth Mother and a woman that turned her life around. Peyton had always known she was adopted and had been told of who her real parents were. She'd always called Larry Dad though and Anna, the first one to pass, her Mom. The reason Anna was the first one to pass was because Ellie had ended up passing too. She'd shown up when Peyton was about eleven, only a few years after Anna had died. Peyton, grief stricken as she still was at the time hadn't taken her arrival too badly, she knew about her and unlike Larry in hating the timing, Peyton had seen it as some sort of gift from Anna. She felt that Anna had sent Ellie to her when she needed her the most, but then Ellie wasn't in town for that reason, she wasn't there to introduce herself or become close to her, she was there to inform her biological daughter that she was about to lose another Mother and after the added heartache and grief had settled in her, Peyton looked after her. She lived nearby and Peyton would go around and take care of her. She was only eleven years old, but she made her drinks, gave her extra quilts when she needed them and just generally tried to do as much as she could, but this was cancer and as Ellie got worse, she went into a care home. That was where Peyton went day after day and week after week for the last few months of Ellie's life and it was in there that she saw and admired what the people who worked in there did. Music and art were still a passion in her life, but as she got older, she chose to become a care assistant and that's why she was in the job she was in now. She just hoped she'd still be in it after lunchtime.
It soon got around to that time and after serving and feeding food to the people who'd wanted or needed it, Peyton found herself in her boss' office along with the other staff members who all looked as nervous and worried as she felt.
"Right, I'm going to cut straight to the point and be honest with you all. You all know how much I think of you and how much I admire the work and dedication you put in daily, but you all know how much of a decline we've been in this last year and it's only getting worse." Her boss started and nods were made in reply. "It's come to a point now where I've had to make some decisions and they've not been easy." She continued and Peyton didn't like the sound of where this was going. "Lawn Park Care Home are willing to merge with us to keep us afloat financially and although that's great for the care home, it does mean that some of you will be transferred or in the worst cases losing your jobs." She told them and gasps and sighs came out of peoples mouths, including Peyton's. "I'm really sorry everybody, but the patients here come first and this is better for them. With a merge we can start to afford better essentials for their treatments and comfort." She added. "I will be calling you in one by one this afternoon for a little chat about if you're staying or going, but for now, this meeting is over." She said and with that the staff left the room, still worried about what the future had in store for them.
That afternoon and an hour before Peyton was due to finish and pick Jenny up from school, Peyton got called for her chat with her boss. She was praying that she'd keep her job or just be transferred to Lawn Park, it was local and although she always put the patients before her wages, she couldn't afford to lose this job.
"Hello Peyton, take a seat." Her boss said as she walked into the office.
Sitting down, Peyton couldn't help but put one of her nails in her mouth and start biting on it and her boss noticed.
"Don't be so worried Peyton. You're one of the lucky ones." She told her and Peyton took her finger away from her mouth.
"Really? I'm staying here? You're keeping me on?" She asked, hope and surprise coming from her voice as well as her eyes.
"Not exactly." Her boss answered.
"Oh right, I'm getting transferred to Lawn Park then?" She questioned, still sounding as upbeat and hopeful, but her boss shook her head.
"You're one of the best workers we have here Peyton, you've been with us a for a long time now and you're more than good at your job. Too good for us I think sometimes, which is why I want to transfer you to Tree Hill Care Home, they could really do with someone like you." She explained.
"Tree Hill...I've...sorry I've never heard of that one? Is it some new place that's being built?" She asked and her boss shook her head before handing her a brochure of the place. "Wow it looks beautiful." Peyton said as she saw the picture on the front, it wasn't until she started flicking through it though, that she realised where it was. "North Carolina? As in a whole other state?." She asked, looking from the brochure to her boss.
"I know it's a long way from us here in New York, but I've been in touch with them and they want to hire you. They can offer you more than what we can here Peyton and more than what Lawn Park can too." Her boss explained.
"But...but I've got a family here, I've got a boyfriend whose daughter is in a school here, I can't just fly us all away!" She said.
"I know this is a lot for you to take in right now Peyton, but you should really think about this." Her boss replied.
"No. No there's nothing to think about, I'm staying here, you can keep me on here if I'm 'one of your best workers.'" She told her and her boss sighed.
"Please Peyton, just take the brochure, go through it tonight and talk to your family about it. Between you and me, I can't promise you a safe, secure job here even with this merge, I'm doing this for your own good. I don't need you to give me any final decision until the end of the week, but please, just think about it." Her boss said and Peyton just shook her head in disbelief at what was being asked of her while shoving the brochure into her bag.
"Well I think we both know what my final decision will be." She replied and then went back out to work.
"Everything alright sweetheart?" Ted, a blind patient who'd been at the home for years and who Peyton had gotten to know well asked her as she read the horse results out to him from the paper.
"Yes Ted, why?" She asked.
"Only you've repeated the last three results four times over." He replied.
"Oh Ted, I'm sorry." She said and he just chuckled.
"It's ok. I may be blind, but I can tell you've got a frown on your face. You don't sound as happy as you normally do." He said.
"I just got some news I wasn't expecting that's all." She told him. She couldn't go into what had been said in the meeting earlier, it wasn't her place and she didn't want to worry the patients about new staff possibly coming and old staff leaving or the merge possibly not working out at all.
"Well you know what I always say, the best things come from the unexpected things." He told her and what he'd just said had got her thinking. Maybe her boss had been right to suggest her talking this over with Jake tonight? Maybe this was fates way of getting her away from Cynthia, maybe this was fates way of getting her away from Nikki too, but they couldn't leave, not from Nikki. Jenny was her daughter, they couldn't just fly her thousands of miles away. It wouldn't be fair and Jenny had her school here, her friends, Jake had work and she herself still had Larry, there were too many reasons to stay...or so she thought.