Note to readers: Let's get the obvious out of the way. This story is based on the NBC television show The Facts of Life, which as far as I know, is the property of Embassy Television, Columbia Pictures Television, and Sony Pictures Television. No infringement is intended.

Now, there's a few other things I'd like to say to everybody first, before we begin. First, thank you to everyone who decided to stop by, and thanks to everyone for reading. Second, if anybody decides to leave a review, please be kind because my self-confidence is through the floor, LOL. Also, you all should know that this story is going to be very dark and dramatic. Even though Facts is a sit-com, it also had the guts to deal with hard-hitting issues, and this is going to be a hard-hitting story, so be prepared. Thank you all for your time. :)

Chapter 1: The Devoted Mother

Rose Polniaczeck was a devoted mother. That was what everyone in her apartment building, church, and neighborhood in the Bronx believed. That was also what her only child, her daughter Jo, had believed all her life. Even she had successfully fooled herself into believing that over the years as well. And to be perfectly honest, it was actually quite understandable that everyone felt that way. Rose worked long and hard, sometimes holding down two jobs at once, in order to make ends meet and provide for her daughter. She'd had to work hard as a cocktail waitress even when she was still married to Jo's father Charlie, but ever since they'd divorced and he'd gotten sent to prison years ago, it had been even harder for her to raise Jo as a single parent. The loving, hardworking, tireless, devoted mother. That was the only picture of herself she'd ever shown to the rest of the world. It was the only picture of Rose that other people were able to see all Jo's life because none of them ever dug deeply enough to see what ugliness was really lurking way deep down in Rose's psyche, not even Rose, herself. However, almost six months ago, Rose's life drastically changed in ways she never could have seen coming, and those unforeseen changes served as a catalyst for bringing that ugliness, that pure evil, even, to the surface.

In the beginning, it seemed like the classic Cinderella story that was well on its way to coming true. Rose actually managed to get a job serving cocktails at some kind of high society function in a millionaire's mansion months ago, and the night she worked at the function, she met the millionaire, Mr. Ross Black, and the two struck up a conversation and instantly hit it off with each other. The rest, as they say, was history…sort of. He started calling Rose often, and before they knew it, they were constantly dating and seeing each other. Rose fell for him hard and fast, and he seemed to be falling for her, too. So when he suddenly broke things off with her two and a half months ago, for many reasons, Rose was absolutely crushed and devastated.

Rose had made no secret of the fact to either her ex-husband or to her daughter through the years that she was incredibly unhappy with her lot in life as a cocktail waitress in the Bronx. It had always been Rose's dream to earn enough money to get a college education and land some kind of well-paying, successful career and move into a better neighborhood. She'd always had aspirations of making a better life for herself. However, Charlie had moved into town during Rose's senior year of high school, and even though he was several years older than she was, she was convinced at the time that it was true love, and she started dating him. And barely a month after she graduated from high school, she learned that she was pregnant. Before Rose knew it, she was standing next to Charlie in church saying "I do" in a shotgun wedding, and all her previous plans and dreams for her life were basically flushed down the toilet. Rose hadn't exactly been thrilled at the prospect of becoming a mother and giving up her plans to go to college, and that was putting it mildly. She did develop kinder feelings towards Jo when she was born and she eventually resigned herself to her fate. It was a long, bitter road for Rose, but in the end, she learned to live with the fact that she couldn't go to college and get out of their neighborhood and that she had to sacrifice her dreams in order to be a mother to Jo.

And according to all outward appearances, it seemed to everyone around her that Rose Polniaczeck was always Mother of the Year. Rose resented – deeply resented – the fact that all of her dreams for her life had been destroyed because of one stupid mistake she and Charlie made. However, in the beginning when she first held Jo in her arms, she made up her mind that she would make a better life for her daughter than the kind of life she'd had. She'd grown up dirt poor with an alcoholic dad who'd always been so strung out on booze that he didn't even care if his own family went hungry. Rose may have felt a lot of resentment over the loss of her dreams, but at first, she knew she couldn't take out that resentment on an innocent child. She made up her mind right from the start that she would live up to her responsibilities and that no matter what, her child would never go hungry for a single moment. And no matter how hard Rose had to work, she did always make sure of that. She worked very, very hard for many years to make sure she and her daughter were taken care of. Even when things got tougher than ever after Charlie suddenly left them both one day and Rose was on her own with a child to look after, she continued to stick with it.

But when Jo started acting out and really getting into trouble when she was fifteen, Rose's parental endurance truly began to wear out. At least when Jo was a little child, she was sweet, and she showed Rose the love and the respect that she was due for all her hard work. But there was no way Rose was going to continue making all these sacrifices for a person who didn't even have the decency to be grateful for it. She had sacrificed all her hopes and dreams for herself in order to marry Charlie and bring Jo into the world, and if Jo actually had the audacity to give her a lot of trouble after all she'd done, Rose was not going to stand for it. Not in the least.

Of course Rose could hardly just quit her waitressing jobs and stop working altogether. Then they'd both starve. But then one day, just for the heck of it, she started doing research on different boarding schools in New York, and what she learned about the Eastland School for Girls in Peekskill really sparked her interest. They offered a lot of help and resources for families of students in need of financial aid, and if Rose could get the financial aid she needed to help pay for Jo's tuition, room, and board there, she knew she could earn the rest, and she did eventually decide that that was what she was going to do. Naturally, she told herself she was doing it in order to get Jo out of their gang-infested, dangerous neighborhood and provide a better education for her, but way deep down, it was actually because she was fed up. If Jo couldn't show her the gratitude and respect she deserved by staying out of trouble, Rose was not going to put up with her. She would continue to work very hard and provide for her basic needs, naturally, but if Jo was going to be an ungrateful teenage brat, then Rose was going to get her out of her hair, and she was going to enjoy what little bit of life she still could enjoy without having to deal with a rebellious teenager in the house.

But amazingly enough, it ended up being the perfect decision for both of them, although it certainly didn't appear to be in the beginning. Jo fought and rebelled against it all at first. To say the least, she was not happy about the idea of leaving behind the only home she'd ever known to go to some boarding school in some rinky-dink little town like Peekskill. She rebelled further and got into even more trouble when she first arrived there. After getting into an argument with another student, Blair Warner, about which one of them was better at attracting guys, she convinced Blair to help her steal the school van so that they could drive to the nearest bar and see which one of them "a real man" would go for. They ended up taking two other students along with them, Natalie Green and Tootie Ramsey, and after accidentally getting the van wrecked and getting into further trouble with an undercover cop at the bar, Jo and the other three girls were thrown in jail and expelled from Eastland. Fortunately for them, the school dietician, Mrs. Edna Garrett, stepped in and convinced the headmaster, Mr. Harris, to allow them to stay. Thanks to Mrs. Garrett's intervention, the headmaster agreed to pull the necessary strings with the judge to get them released from jail, although they were still put on probation, and in order for them to be allowed to stay in school, Mrs. Garrett had to promise to accept full responsibility for them, which she did. They also had to work for Mrs. Garrett in the kitchen and cafeteria until the damage they did to the van was paid off, and rather than living in the school dorm, they had to move into the room across the hall from Mrs. Garrett so she could keep her eye on them. Obviously, Jo had gotten off to a rough start at Eastland, getting herself and three other girls into serious trouble, even getting them all a criminal record. However, Jo quickly became good friends with the humorous writer Natalie, the exceedingly wealthy and hopelessly snobbish but kindhearted Blair, and the youngest of the foursome, the fun-loving but ever-gossiping Tootie. And Mrs. Garrett was always, always there for them whenever they had a problem and needed someone to talk to. In hardly any time at all, the five of them really did become a family, and that family provided Jo with the kind of support and structure a girl her age really needed. And even though Rose Polniaczeck did an excellent job of portraying the picture of the devoted mother who was willing to work so hard to get her daughter out of a bad neighborhood and provide a better education for her – and even though she actually fooled herself into believing that as well – way deep down in her heart of hearts, she really saw it as being relieved of a grossly unfair burden. With Jo gone, she could actually have a life again, without the headaches of a strong-willed, rebellious teenager to put up with. Now, Eastland and Mrs. Garrett could deal with Jo and she wouldn't have to worry anymore.

With Jo out of her hair, Rose was free once again to actually have a life of her own when she wasn't busy working. Soon after Jo went away to boarding school, Rose started dating a man she really liked, and he even moved in with her for a short time, which of course was something she never could have allowed to happen with Jo around. Then not long after they broke up and he moved out, Rose met and fell in love with Ross. For the next couple of weeks after he told her that he was breaking things off with her, she tried and tried, constantly, to get in touch with him and find out the whole story. And in the end, he finally broke down and told her the truth: it was Jo. He told her point blank that he absolutely hated children and wanted nothing to do with them. He even told her that had it not been for the fact that she already had a daughter, he probably would have already asked her to marry him. When Rose assured him that Jo was away at Eastland most of the year and that they wouldn't even see her all that often, Ross told her that that wasn't enough. He wanted nothing – absolutely nothing at all, ever – to do with kids, not for even one day out of the entire year. He told her that that was why he broke things off with her when he did, because he wasn't about to start getting serious with a woman who had a child.

For the next two months after that crushing discussion with him, as Rose continued working her rear end off in restaurants and bars, all those years of buried anger and resentment she'd been feeling deep down in her heart towards Jo came to the surface. She had told herself when Jo was first born that she wouldn't hold any resentment in her heart against her, and she had tried not to. She had worked very hard and had tried to be a good mother, but in the back of her mind, those feelings of resentment towards her daughter had always been there. And now, they were stronger than ever. Jo's very existence alone had cost Rose every dream for herself she'd ever had. Providing for Jo's needs continued to cost her so much time and energy. And now, once again, she was losing yet another dream, just because of the mere existence of her daughter. Marriage to Ross was the ticket to getting out of her neighborhood; to no longer having to work herself to death every day in a miserable job she despised; to actually having money and a life; to all of her dreams coming true. The thought of losing all of that because of Jo continuously filled her with more and more and more anger, bitterness, and resentment, until finally, Rose Polniaczeck simply couldn't take it anymore. She had already lost so much because of Jo. She could not, she would not lose anything else because of her. Losing Ross was her breaking point. She wasn't about to allow Jo to steal away another dream from her.

When Jo first returned home for the summer after the end of her first school year at Eastland, she honestly had no clue about the kind of raging inferno of emotions that was going on inside her mother. She had been so hurt and upset in the beginning when she learned that her mother's new boyfriend had moved into their apartment with her mother that she actually threatened to run off and elope with her navy boyfriend, Eddie Brennan – and nearly made good on that threat. But ever since then, while Rose had told her about breaking up with her boyfriend and him moving out, she had told Jo nothing of her whirlwind romance with the millionaire, Ross Black. And obviously, there was no way Jo could have really imagined or anticipated the kind of burning anger and resentment her own mother felt towards her. Before all the years of resentment Rose had felt against Jo finally came to the surface, she had in fact behaved like a caring mother over the years. She had done things with Jo and gone places with her whenever it had been possible for her to do so, especially when Jo was smaller. Jo and Rose had definitely had their share of fights, arguments, and problems over the course of her childhood, but she had truly believed her mother loved her and was devoted to her. There was no way in the world Jo could have possibly seen it coming.

On that first night of summer when Jo was at home with Rose eating dinner, Rose talked to her as if it were business as usual. Her demeanor gave away nothing. To Jo, it was simply an ordinary supper with her mother. They chatted about school, about her friends, about Mrs. Garrett, about Eddie, and about all the academic achievements Jo had made at Eastland. Just as she'd been in their local school, she was also now a straight-A student at Eastland and had won their Best New Student Award, despite all the earlier trouble she'd gotten into. Rose talked about how proud she was of her, and when it came to playing the role of the devoted mother, she really did give an Oscar-worthy performance during their supper together that evening.

There had been only one tiny hint of a clue that something was off. Jo was rather surprised by how sweet her food and her soda tasted that evening.

"Hey Ma, doesn't everything taste a little too sweet to you?"

"No, dear. Everything tastes fine to me," Rose said innocently as she took a big spoonful of mashed potatoes. After she ate it, she asked Jo, "Why?"

Jo was a classic tomboy and she always had been. Jo was a brilliant girl and she understood the world of the classroom very well, and beyond the classroom, she was a mechanic. She understood cars and engines and motorcycles. And while she did help Mrs. Garrett out in the kitchen and cafeteria, one thing she was not was a natural cook. Mrs. Garrett generally handled most of the actual cooking herself, and just let Jo and the girls clean the kitchen and cafeteria and do things like stirring and chopping up the food. Blair, Natalie, and Tootie were a little better at cooking than Jo was, but not much. And since cooking was not one of Jo's gifts and she knew it, the last thing she wanted to do was complain to her mother about the food. Things did taste unusually sweet to her that evening, but if her mother made some kind of mistake in the kitchen and ended up putting too much sugar in everything somehow, she wasn't going to make a big deal about it and hurt her feelings.

Jo shook her head then and replied, "Never mind. Maybe it's just me." A moment later, she kept right on eating, and the conversation between her and her mother continued as usual.

Things certainly didn't stay that way, however. About half an hour after Jo and Rose finished eating, Jo started experiencing the strangest symptoms. Her balance was off, she was starting to slur her words, and more than anything else, to Jo, it simply felt as though she was drunk. That made absolutely no sense, though, because Jo hadn't had any alcohol whatsoever. When Jo told her mother about it, she just brushed it off and said that she was probably just coming down with something, and she told her to go to her room and lie down, and so she did. She convinced herself that her mother was right; that it probably was just a bug or virus of some kind she'd caught, and she was sure she'd feel better in the morning.

However, Jo awakened several times through the night and vomited, and each time, it was harder and harder for her to make it to the bathroom, and she just barely made it to the toilet in time. And the last time she vomited through the night, in fact, she was so weak and disoriented that she couldn't make it to the bathroom by herself, so she called out for her mother to help her. She called and called and called for Rose, but Rose never came, and she ended up vomiting on her bedroom floor before practically passing out in her bed.

As far as any of the neighbors knew all day that day, Rose was away at work, and none of them had any idea where Jo was but they were all certain that she was out and about, hanging out with friends or something. And as far as Mrs. Garrett, Blair, Natalie, and Tootie knew, the school year had ended and Jo was back home with her mother, enjoying her summer vacation. None of them had any clue at all what was really happening to Jo, all alone in her mother's apartment that day.

Starting at about six o'clock that morning, Jo's heart really began pounding and racing, and she couldn't help but breathe much faster than normal. She was only semi-conscious, but even in that state, she could tell that this wasn't just a simple bug. Something was wrong with her. Something was very, very wrong. She called out for her mother time and time and time again, and when nobody answered and nobody came to her room, she knew that meant that for whatever reason, she was on her own in their apartment, and she definitely knew that that was not a good thing. She knew she was in trouble, serious trouble, and she knew she needed help and she knew she needed it soon. She also knew she was in no condition to hop on her motorcycle and go to the nearest hospital by herself. Heck, she wasn't even in any condition to get out of bed by herself!

However, even though in her nearly-unconscious state, Jo was still lucid enough to figure it out that something was badly wrong with her and that she needed help, she was also terribly confused and disoriented. She knew she needed help, but she was too confused to be able to figure out what to do about it. She had a phone on the nightstand beside her bed and she knew she could call someone, but she couldn't figure out who to call.

Finally, she decided she would call the one person she'd come to depend on the most over the past nine months: Mrs. Garrett. However, when she groggily dialed a number and a voice answered on the other end after many rings, it was the last person's voice on earth she'd expected to hear. Of all people, it was actually Blair who answered the phone. Snobbish, clueless, spoiled, airheaded Blair. The least helpful person of all!

"Hello?" she practically barked into the phone. To say the least, she did not appreciate someone calling her at her mother's beach house in the Bahamas and waking her up at six-thirty in the morning. Especially not when she was on her summer vacation!

"M-Mrs….M-Mrs. Garrett," Jo's weak voice whispered on the other end.

"Who is this?" Blair asked in an annoyed tone of voice.

Before Jo could answer, yet another wave of nausea came over her and once again, she vomited, this time in her bed.

"Hello?" Blair's voice called on the other end of the line as Jo dropped the receiver. "Hello? Who is this? Hello?"

It was at that point that Jo completely slipped out of consciousness.