It had been at least ten years since her dark eyes had traced the outlines of the car shop where her father had build his life and his club with his best friend only to be betrayed by it all. Not that she had known about any of that while it was going down because she had this completely different life miles and miles away from Charming and her real family. She had grown up far away from the motorcycle club, from the violence that followed it, from the dangers that it brought to everyone in and around it. In a way she figured that she should have been grateful for that, that she should have appreciated the sacrifice that her parents had made when they gave her up, but there was nothing warm and fuzzy about the fact that she was put up for adoption not because her parents wanted her to have a better life, not because they couldn't take care of her, not because they didn't have the money, but simply because her 'loving' mother didn't want to raise a girl. After all she has been quoted to say that people should simply burn their baby girls, at least she could be grateful that that hadn't been her fate. Instead she wound up with a rather loving family, a mother that doted on her and raised her to be strong and independent, a father that protected her like a true father should, a father that loved her in a way that taught her not to allow anyone into her life that didn't love her as much as he did, because she deserved to be loved. Yes, in the end Rebecca had gotten lucky with the life that she had been given, she had grown up in an amazing neighborhood, went to excellent schools, had a group of friends, dated boys that were good to her. But then her parents had left her and at eighteen she found that the friends had left, the boys no longer cared and she had no one, no one to stop her from finding her birth parents, her blood related family.
The first time that she had tried to find them was ten years ago and it was still amazing to her how she had managed to find them as quickly as she did, the fact that many of her family members had criminal records definitely helped in that though, the fact that Rebecca had quite the talent for technology and making her way through firewalls and everything else that tried to stop her from getting where she wanted helped the rest of the way. A simple blood sample, a simple DNA test, and a simple hack on a computer and the faces that resembled her own simply popped up on her screen. Her father's dark eyes, her mother's dark hair, her brother's smile, it had been scary to suddenly put faces to the people that she had wondered about for so long, but she had been so optimistic back then, thinking that they would open their arms and accept her into their life without a trace of doubt. She hadn't given it a second thought when she first went to see them and because of that first meeting it had taken her all these years to wonder if coming back was really such a good idea, even though part of her had never really left.
As she closed her eyes she could recall her mother's face so easily in the moment when she first saw the daughter that she had given up eighteen years before, and she quickly found out that none of the things that she wanted to find in those eyes; love, maybe a bit of guilt and regret, or warmth, were there. The eyes turned cold as soon as she discovered who she was and why she was there and at first she hadn't even wanted to talk to her, she simply turned around and left, leaving Rebecca to find someone who was willing to speak to her and maybe give her a little time to explain why she was there and what she wanted. Jackson had been the first person she found, but she hadn't even been able to tell him what she wanted to say before this large and grumpy looking man called for him and made sure that she wasn't able to talk to him. Gemma had appeared again, her voice cutting through the young girl's heart as she was told to leave and never come back, that she never wanted to see her face or even know of her existence. As the brunette tried to explain herself, the mother that she had wanted to meet had turned away again, the hope of finding the family that she missed so dearly fading away rather quickly. "I just want to know my mother," she had said, trying to spark some kind of love in Gemma's heart, but it had just caused her to turn around and land her fist against the side of her face. "Never call me that ever again," she had hissed in a tone low enough for only her long lost daughter to hear.
It was then that she heard the first friendly voice since coming to Charming, someone asking her if she was all right, asking if she needed help. It soon became clear that Gemma had a habit of punching girls that showed up because no one was even really shocked that it had happened, they all just went along their business, except the man that had come to her, resting his hand against her shoulder with a small reassuring smile resting along his lips. If she had to pinpoint the moment that she fell in love, it was probably that moment, that very first moment where he had touched her and smiled at her, it was all that she had needed. She liked to think that he fell in love with her in that same moment, but she had never dared to ask. All she really know was that he had been the reason why she had stayed, the reason why she had left, and above all the reason why she had come back.