Separation Anxiety
TVD Stefan/Elena A.U. / A.H.
Author's Note: Here's the prologue to a story I've been working on for awhile. I decided to just post the prologue to see what the reaction would be like and if anyone was as interested in this story as I am. Other chapters will be posted later in the next week or two (not all of it's typed up yet). The main couple focus is Stefan/Elena but others will join them as the story goes.
P.S. Most chapters will probably be lyrics from songs. This one is from "Somewhere I Belong" by Linkin Park
Prologue: Want To Find Something I've Wanted All Along
A young girl with long brown hair and olive-toned skin carried the precious bundle in her arms, tight to her chest. Tears streaked down her face and fell down onto the blanket as she ran through the streets. She hid behind a car as a cop car drove by. She waited for the cop car to turn the corner before she continued to run to her destination.
Her legs began to tire and there was a painful cramp in her stomach but she didn't stop. The bundle in her arms whimpered a fuss and she rocked her arms, humming the last song she'd heard on the radio. Soon enough the bundle quieted, having gone back to sleep.
The girl sniffled and rounded the last block. The bright neon lights of the hospital blared in her face. She took a deep breath, hugging the bundle close. Off in the distance in the parking lot she saw a woman in nurse's scrubs get out of her car and start walking toward the entrance of the hospital.
The young girl cried, seeing this as her only chance. As fast as her legs could carry her weary and worn body she ran to the entrance of the hospital. She kissed the bundle and held it close, tears blurring her vision. "I'm sorry, baby . . ."
She gently set the newborn bundle on the ground. She pulled a small, carved, wooden box out of her pocket and set it next to the bundle. With one more kiss and hug and more tears, she ran off and hid in the bushes. She waited until the nurse found the bundle and picked it up before she ran off into the night.
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8 years later . . .
The day she moved back into the foster home again for the fifth time, Margaret made up her eight-year-old mind and decided to finally do what she'd wanted to for as long as she could remember:
Find the two people in the world she could call Mom and Dad permanently.
She'd been sent back this time because her foster parents found out they were having a baby of their own and wouldn't have the time or money for a foster child too.
Her third day back she confronted her social worker and asked her if she could give her a ride so she could find her mommy and daddy. She held up the only belongings she had of her mother's (a necklace, a note, and a picture of who Margaret assumed to be her mother all in a small, carved, wooden box) and put on her best sad-puppy-dog face and popped out her bottom lip and stared in her social worker's eyes.
She still isn't sure how she got Mrs. Alderman to agree but she did. However . . . three weeks later and Mrs. Alderman hadn't found anything. Then one day a couple weeks later she went on a field trip with some other kids her age from school and their teacher at the mall and the unthinkable happened.
Her eyes happened on a young woman who looked really like the girl in the picture of her mother she's had her whole life. This woman had the same dark, brown, hair and the same olive-toned skin and the faces were identical. Mesmerized, she broke from the group and followed the young woman.
The young woman slowly lingered in a little book shop, thumbing through cookbooks and occasionally reading the book jacket of a novel. In her arms were bags from a couple clothing stores, a shoe store, and an antique store. Besides looking like the girl from the picture, the woman looked like Margaret herself. They had the same cheekbones and chin and they were both short. Even the way the woman walked was the same.
The woman bought a couple of books and continued down the hall of the mall. Margaret followed her again, making sure not to let the woman see her. The woman stopped at a food stand and ordered a drink before returning down the hall. Soon a phone rang and the woman answered it. Margaret listened as the woman talked:
"Hey hon, what's up?" The woman said. A couple of minutes passed while Margaret assumed the other person was talking. "Okay, that sounds good. I'm almost done then I'll be home soon." The woman was quiet, listening again. She smiled a lot and Margaret thought her smile was the prettiest she'd ever seen on anyone. "No, I did not buy the whole mall out." The woman laughed. "Oh, like you're any better when you're in the hardware store?" She laughed again. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Okay, well, I'm just going to stop by Caroline and Tyler's house and then I'll be home." The woman blushed. "I love you too, Stefan."
Margaret found herself hanging on this woman's every word. Could she possibly be her mother? Was this Stefan her father? But . . . why did they give her up?
The woman closed her phone and put it in her purse. As she finished the last of her drink and threw it in the garbage, another woman with dark, almost black hair approached her. They hugged and started talking to each other.
"It feels like we haven't seen each other in years, Dana," The woman who Margaret thought could be her mother told the woman with long almost black hair.
"I know! How are you? How's Stefan?" Dana asked in an excited voice.
"He's good," The woman smiled, "We're good. We're coming up on our two year anniversary now and we couldn't be happier. What about you and Chad? Last I heard you engaged."
"We eloped, just last month," Dana smiled, holding up her hand to show off the ring on her hand. "Yeah, our families were driving us insane so we ditched 'em and headed to Hawaii."
"That sounds really romantic," The woman said. "Stefan and I did the traditional church wedding in Mystic Falls . . . it was pretty crazy with our families but in the end it was worth it."
Dana looked at her watch. "Oh shoot, I gotta go. I have an appointment at the nail salon . . . it was nice seeing you again, Elena. We should get together sometime, the four of us."
Margaret gulped . . . she now had a name for this woman who could be her whole world: Elena.
She blinked, noticing a not-so-thrilled look on Elena's face. "Yeah, sure. That sounds lovely." Elena nodded. Dana took off quickly, waving as she walked away.
Margaret sucked in a breath. This was her chance. She could just go up to this Elena and say 'hey, I think I'm your kid' and that would be―
"Margaret!" The girl turned, letting out her breath in a huff. Her teacher, Mrs. Kensington, stood at the other end of the hall with her hands on her hips. "Margaret, we have to go."
Margaret sighed, turning back to Elena, but found that the woman was gone. Quickly, the girl ran up to the garbage can where Elena had thrown away her cup. She snatched the cup and ran back to join her group.
She smiled as she clutched her bag close where Elena's cup was. Now she had a topic chosen for her science project and her dreams would come true: She would prove that this Elena was biologically her mother.
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Elena picked up the book she'd gotten at the mall three weeks earlier and opened up to the bookmark she had in it. She was only about half-way through . . . usually she read much faster but she'd been busy the last few weeks trying to find something to get her husband for their anniversary, finishing the last touches of a novel she was writing, and trying to plan her best friend's baby shower.
She leaned back in the recliner and relaxed her shoulders, ready to enter the world of a waitress who fell in love with a man who ends up to be her boss.
She was on her third chapter of the day when the doorbell rang. Sighing, she marked her place and set the book down. Padding across the floor in her stocking feet, pajama bottoms, and husband's over shirt, she reached the door and opened it. She crossed her arms to cover herself a bit and was met with the eyes of . . . air.
Confused, she looked down. There, on her porch, was a child of maybe seven or eight. A girl, with long wavy dark brown hair and big brown eyes. The girl held a small, wooden box with carvings on it. The girl was looking down at her shoes.
"Can I help you?" Elena said.
The girl gulped, still looking down. "Um . . . yes . . ."
Elena looked around, searching for a car or an adult to which this child would belong. Finding none, she sighed. "Are you lost?"
The girl shook her head. "N-No . . . I came to see you."
"I think you may have the wrong house . . ." Elena again looked around for someone for this child to belong to.
"Aren't you Elena Gilbert?" The girl looked up now, staring into Elena's own brown eyes.
"Yes I am," Elena nodded. "Well, it's Elena Salvatore now. But Gilbert is my maiden name."
The girl smiled, "Salvatore. I like it."
"My husband's Italian," Elena cleared her throat. She wasn't sure why this girl she'd never met was on her porch discussing names. "What can I help you with?"
"Um . . . my name is Margaret," The girl said. "I think that . . ." She paused, staring at the ground again. Elena waited for her to continue but she didn't. She actually seemed really nervous.
"It's okay, go ahead," Elena encouraged her.
The girl's head lifted and a small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. She took a deep breath. "Um. . . I think think I'm your daughter."
To Be Continued . . .
