Alright then, this is for my Jezza because she has a real love for my Synn fics. :)
Disclaimer: I own nothing and Synn belongs to Jenna. That is all.
For as much as she's stumbled,
She's runnin',
For as much as she runs,
She's still here,
Always hoping to find something,
Quicker than heaven,
Make the damage of her days disappear,
Just like Guinevere...
Oh lean into me Guinevere
-Eli Young Band's "Guinevere";
A mess of auburn hair peaked out from under the thick, stark white comforter and burrowed underneath the fluffy pillow. Stella Bonasera reached out and ran her hand through the little bit of visible hair lit only by the dim light of the lamp on the end table. She had run again and this time it had hit Stella right in the gut; if Flack hadn't found her and brought her home, if the doctor hadn't given her the sleeping pills. The what ifs plagued Stella's every thought and that's why she sat propped against the headboard with her knees drawn to her chest watching the adopted child snooze. This was almost habit now; something would set Synnöve off, she'd run for awhile and then she'd come home.
No one knew her like Stella did; the way she liked Mac & Cheese for every single meal, the only man she trusted was Mac Taylor, and the way music was the only thing that could save her. Stella knew all the band stickers that covered the worn out guitar case and why there was a list of names on the bottom of Synnöve's Converse. She knew how she'd gotten each and every scar, held her on the day her parents were taken in the most horrific case of Stella's career, and saved her from the bastard who had killed her foster sister.
People thought she was wasting her time trying to save a broken girl, trying to save a lost cause. Stella hated every single person who had ever told her that because once upon a time Stella had been that broken lost cause of a girl. Professor Papakota had taken Stella in from the orphanage and rescued her the same way Stella had rescued Synnöve. She saw herself in Synnöve's sad blue eyes, in the way she ran until she couldn't run anymore, and the way she'd throw herself into whatever project she was working on in order to forget. She saw herself in the crooked smile and the fits of giggles. There were traces of her in the blood that flowed from the cut on her finger created from the snap of a guitar chord. She was in the scars, the tears, the laughter and the love. Whatever Synnöve lead herself to believe, whatever the world thought, nothing could ever change that.
"Mama..." Synnöve rolled over and Stella brushed the hair from the feverish forehead as she snuggled down in the bed and wrapped an arm around her daughter's waist.
Stella pressed a kiss to her temple, "I'm here Nani, you're safe. You can sleep. No one is going to hurt you. I've got you, I promise."
"S'agapo, Mama." Synnöve whispered into the dark and tears filled Stella's eyes.
"S'agapo, Synnia." She whispered back and as they drifted off to sleep that was all that matter. That despite everything and while biology separated them – they were mother and daughter to the core. The two orphan girls had their family and no longer held a reason to run.