AN: So this has been floating around in my head for a while. Definitely AU.
Disclaimer: If I owned them I wouldn't be worrying about how to pay for my ever-rising college tuition.
After awkward goodbyes in front of the security checkpoint at the airport, she stood there watching them walk away.
An older African American gentleman, balding with a touch of grey near his temples, walked up to her and attempted to make conversation. He explained that he was saying goodbye to his wife and daughters who were traveling to visit their grandparents in the Midwest and asked if she too was seeing her family off.
As she watched her… her what? She and Rick weren't together, they never really were. And Alexis, oh that sweet, innocent, confused girl. She didn't deserve her. And that girl didn't deserve a mother like her: emotional wreck, drowning, broken.
He had already saved her, taking Alexis when she showed up at his door, barely 20 and having his child while still being a child herself. And alone. He had thrown her a lifesaver and had started to pull her to shore only for her to let go when she thought she could reach the ocean floor, only to have her feet be swept from underneath her leaving her, again, at the mercy of the strong currents, watching her lifeline float away. She was alone, she was so alone, and now her baby was being cared for by her father and his girlfriend who they were now moving across the country to be with her while she pursued her career. What role did she play besides absentee mother who only seemed to disrupt her life and cause chaos every time she showed up?
"No," she said softly, sadly, regretfully, "They don't belong to me."
AN2: So I already have a few ideas about where I'm going to take this and even have a few things written already. So maybe another update by the weekend if there is any interest in the story.
Obligatory shameless groveling for reviews. I'd like to know what you think and what you think is going on. I'd like to hear your theories.