A/N --- This story just popped into my head fully formed last night, I wrote it this morning in the early hours and left it, not knowing whether I was going to post it but this evening I decided why not.
It's odd but the idea just sprung into my head and I wanted to write it. The style of writing and lexis is meant to mimic the story.
Danielle Jones had always been a mummy's girl. She always would be. Her father was a kind man and he loved his little girl very much, but somehow it was never enough. Maybe it was out of anger when he told her, maybe it was out of love but at just five years old he gave her a beautiful necklace and began the tale of her far away mummy. She was told that there was another mummy far, far away and that inside the necklace was a picture of her. Danielle smiled and nodded and listened to his voice, she watched her mother's smiling face and cared little about what she was hearing. She was too young to understand what she was really being told but she took the necklace and wore it every day like the treasure that it was.
She would look at the girl in the locket and wonder who she was, why she was so far away. She made up stories about her that she would recite to herself every day. One day at school she told her friend about the mummy in her locket. She said that she was a beautiful princess that had been cursed into the locket by an evil wizard. He took her, the princess's baby away and hid the princess in the locket so they would never find each other. But one day the girl would go on a magical quest to the far away kingdom and set the princess mummy free and then they would defeat the evil wizard and live in her castle forever, ruling the land together.
Danielle's friend asked if she could come and find the princess too but Danielle replied that only she, the princess's baby could set the princess free and that she had to complete the quest alone.
When Danielle played with her toys she would act out the tale of the princess in the locket. Her doll would set out on a quest across searing desert and restless seas, she would find the princess in the locket and set her free. But every time, before the little girl could be united with her mother the princess, Danielle's mother would call her for dinner or Gareth, her brother would come in and take one of the dolls, threatening to cut it's hair off.
Soon Danielle grew up and forgot her fairytale. She stopped playing with dolls, she stopped making up stories and she grew up as all little girls do. But little did she know that the fairytale would stay with her long after she would even know.
The little girl grew older but she learned that without the touch of the princess she could never be allowed to grow up. The evil wizard had cursed her as well and she knew that soon she would have to find her princess mummy from the locket and set them both free. When her guarding mother went away to another land she knew it was time to start her quest. She faced stormy seas and scorching desert but she had made it to the princess's kingdom. It was nothing like the world she had come from and the little girl was scared in such a big place but she knew she must complete her quest and find the princess and set her free. She defeated evil goblins and made friends with naughty pixies and friendly fairies.
The princess in the locket was deeply under the evil wizard's spell and didn't recognise the little girl when she tried to set the princess free. The little girl cried. She loved the princess and the evil wizard's spell had made the princess scared and mean.
The little girl didn't know that the evil wizard had been watching her since she arrived in the kingdom. He tried to trick the little girl and send her away but the little girl's friend, the naughty pixie was there to stop the little girl from falling into his trap. The little girl worked long and hard to try and free the princess but it grew harder every day and the little girl grew sadder and sadder.
One day, the evil wizard decided he had had enough of being a wizard. He wanted to become King and rule the kingdom and finally get rid of the little girl once and for all. But the little girl was cunning and clever, she was the princess's daughter after all. On his wedding day the little girl rode into the church on a beautiful white horse and while the evil wizard was distracted she freed the princess and broke the wizard's spell over not only the princess but the whole kingdom.
The princess looked at the little girl and ran towards her. Now that the wizard's spell was broken she saw that this was no ordinary little girl, this was her baby, her beautiful little girl. She took the little girl in her arms and cried and kissed her and told her they would be together forever.
"What are you doing?" Danielle looked up and pressed her finger to her lips as she heard her mother's voice and saw her standing in the doorway. She stroked the little girl's blonde head and moved out to join Ronnie in the hall.
"Just reading Amy a story," she said, closing the door on the peaceful toddler. Ronnie smiled and stroked her little girl's hair. "What kind of story?" She put her arms around Danielle and walked them both out of the hallway, away from Danielle's room which housed the sleeping child and into Ronnie's room. "Just a fairytale."
"Happy ending?" Ronnie asked, as she held her arms tighter around Danielle, still so intent on wrapping herself up in her daughter's love even after so long together. "Mmm…not really," Danielle replied. At Ronnie's questioning look she merely shrugged, replying "It hasn't really ended yet."
The little girl and the princess lived together in a giant castle, they had a big moat around the walls but they didn't need it. They had a special spell, a wonderful magic that bound them together and protected them from any evil as long as they were together.
Everybody was so happy to have the princess back and they all welcomed the little girl into the family. The Queen arranged huge banquets and festivals for the little girl and the princess and the friendly fairy and her fairy baby were so happy that they sprinkled the whole kingdom with fairy-dust and the whole land began to sparkle.
The little girl was very happy with her mummy, the princess and the two ruled the kingdom justly. They loved each other very much and were so happy together that the entire kingdom seemed to light up with their smiles.
"Have you seen the dresses yet?" Ronnie asked as she smirked at Danielle who was curled up in pyjamas in Ronnie's bed, Amy busy snoozing in Danielle's whilst Roxy had a night away. "Oh, I'm worried now," Danielle joked, "I just still can't believe Roxy's gone so…traditional." Danielle sipped her hot chocolate as Ronnie sat next to her, picking fuzz off her pyjama bottoms in the pestering way that only a mother could.
"Well David's had a pretty big impact on her. Still, it's just the wedding that's traditional, she's still taking him to a clubbing hotspot for the honeymoon. Don't think she's told him that though. Aunty Rox won't ever change that much." Ronnie laughed as she spoke to Danielle and watched her daughter shake her head as she sipped her hot chocolate. "I missed you." Ronnie muttered as she squeezed Danielle tighter, forcing her to jolt to stop her drink spilling all over them both. "I was only at my dad's for a week," Danielle laughed, "But I missed you too." She whispered, leaning back into her mother's arms. "Every time I go away I worry you won't be here when I come back." Danielle admitted. Ronnie grasped her chin to turn Danielle to face her. "I'm never leaving you baby, not ever. But I get scared too. Every time you go somewhere I think you won't come back." Ronnie reverently stroked Danielle's face, placing a small kiss at her temple. "I'll always come back, mum. Always." She kissed her mother's cheek before Ronnie squashed her in a firm hug, rocking them back and forth. She placed a lingering kiss on Danielle's forehead and rose to show her the dresses. "They aren't bad. They're pretty tasteful actually…for Roxy." Danielle smirked putting down her hot chocolate and watched as Ronnie dove under the bed to retrieve something. "You haven't seen the shoes yet!" She exclaimed. She dangled a very bright and spindly shoe a few inches from Danielle's nose as she sat next to her once again.
"How are we supposed to walk in those?" Danielle laughed, examining the precariously high heel of the shoe. The shoe was dropped back into the box and Ronnie's arms held her little girl once again. "Hmm…you hold me up and I'll hold you up?" Ronnie suggested as Danielle snuggled into her warm embrace. "And if one of us trips?" Danielle asked. Ronnie was quick to reply. "Then we fall together."
The little girl and the princess lived happily together for many years. They had exciting adventures and thrilling quests that they undertook together. Their friends were happy and the kingdom was peaceful. The little girl was joyous to be with her princess mummy and she thought she would be safe forever in her arms. The princess had dreamt all her life of the little girl and everything was perfect.
But one awful day the princess awoke to find the little girl gone. The princess searched the kingdom and scoured the land but there was no sign of her little girl. The princess suspected the evil wizard had taken the little girl but when she found the wizard to ask him, he was nothing more than a weak old man, his powers having left him on the day that the little girl set the princess free.
The princess cried and cried for her little girl but wouldn't give up her search. She had the friendly fairy, the naughty pixie and even the queen all searching for the little girl but as the days and weeks passed, still nothing was found.
One day a strange man dressed all in blue with a badge and a serious face, came to see the princess. He told her that he had found the little girl but that the little girl had been cursed and it was too late. The princess ran to the little girl's side as fast as she could but the man in blue was right. The little girl had been hit by a terrible curse. She had fallen into a deep sleep from which she could never wake. The princess called out for her baby, she wept for the little girl, her little baby. The princess put a magical spell on herself and out into her hand popped a tiny piece of the princess's own heart. She pressed it into the little girl's sleeping hand and promised her that no matter what happened, that piece of her heart would always be with her.
The piece of the princess's heart grew and blossomed in the little girl's hand and it slowly formed into wings. The little girl opened her eyes and flew high into the sky. She looked down at her mother and saw how sad she was. She tried to hug her, to hold the princess and make it all better but she was an angel now and people in the far away kingdom couldn't see angels. But the little girl still stayed by the side of the princess. She would talk to her and hold her late at night and in her dreams the princess felt the gentle presence of her little girl and whispered the words of love that both so badly wanted to say.
The little girl loved the princess and she didn't want to see her sad. She tried to use her angel magic to bring princes to the castle but the princess was wary of princes and sent them away. One prince broke through the castle drawbridge when the princess tried to send him away. He made the princess laugh and she let him stay but the princess was still unhappy. The little girl watched over the princess day and night. She watched her send the fairies away to be banished from the kingdom. She watched her disown the crown and refuse to be a princess any more. This hurt the little girl and she knew that she needed to help her mother to be the princess that the little girl had always known.
The little girl summoned all of her magic and sent down a magical baby for the princess. She knew that the princess would be scared at first but that the baby would use it's own magic to make the princess better and help to heal the heart that the princess had torn apart for the little girl.
On the day the new baby arrived, the little girl stood at her mother's side, protecting her, making sure that she came to no harm. The princess was so happy but she was sad too. The little girl sensed the princess's pain and she softly swept her hands across the princess's cheeks. The princess couldn't feel the little girl wiping away her tears but she felt the tears stop and she was able to smile down at the magical baby.
A gentle knock broke the soft calm of the children's room and Ella crept out to the hallway to answer the door. "Mum!" She pulled her mother into a warm hug before stepping aside to let her into the flat. "I didn't know you were back. Are you ok?" Ella spoke kindly to her mother as she knew that the trip to Telford that she made every few months was never a happy one, nor an easy one. Ronnie nodded and tried to force a smile even as her eyes brimmed with tears. Ella wrapped her arms around her mother and held her tightly. "Where's dad?"
"Oh he's at home. I just wanted to see you. And the kids." Ronnie mumbled her words into Ella's neck before being led to the sofa. "How are they? Asleep?" She asked, calming herself a little. No matter how many years passed, things never stopped hurting, the loss still felt raw, like a piece of her very heart was missing.
"Mmm, yeah. Well Grace does nothing but sleep, luckily," Ella laughed about the four month old little girl with her grandmother's eyes who slept peacefully in the next room, her soft snuffling noises clearly audible on the baby monitor. "And I just got Daniel to sleep with a story."
"What story?" Ronnie asked as she stroked her daughter's dark hair, so different to her other little girl, but still so perfect and magical in her own way. "Oh, just a fairytale. Amy always used to tell it to her girls, she still does I think. Must have heard it from Aunty Rox." Ella put her feet up onto the sofa, still happy to rest at her mother's side. "From Roxy? She's never really been the fairytale type." Ronnie answered with a small laugh. "Well Amy heard it from someone." Ella replied, shrugging.
"Happy ending?" Ronnie asked. Ella looked thoughtful for a moment before she replied "I don't know. It hasn't really ended yet."
Time passed in the far away kingdom and the princess nurtured her new magical baby. She loved her very much and took care of her every day as the years moved on. But every night, when the sun set and the princess was alone she grew sad, thinking about her lost little girl. She missed her little baby girl and in every passing day she loved her just as much and longed to have her back, if even for a second. The princess would stand on her balcony and look out over her kingdom. She would see the places she and her little girl had been, the fun they had had, the love they had shared and although she was happy to have had those times, the memories still brought a tear to her eye.
Every day, the princess would watch over and grow with her magical baby, the little girl watched from afar as she saw the princess smiling and laughing with the magical child. It made the little girl happy to see the princess smiling. The piece of the princess's heart warmed and grew in the little girl. But every night the little girl would creep closer to her mother. At night, in the gentle place between sleep and waking she would go to her and sooth away the pain, kiss away the tears and warm her own heart in her mother's arms. She kept the princess safe from the monsters as night was when they liked to attack. The little girl would stand guard over the princess and in ethereal dreams they would be content in each other's arms.
"Oh, did you know, Amy's pregnant again." Ella laughed as she saw Ronnie's eyebrows raise in surprise. "I spoke to Roxy earlier. She never said anything." Ronnie replied, smiling but still taken aback by the news. "Well Aunty Rox doesn't exactly know yet. Her and Amy are fighting about something or other." Ella rolled her eyes, trying to break a real smile from her mother. They were always rare this time of year. There was about a week twice each year when there would be no smiles, no laughter, only an old melancholy heart ache; tears and grieving for the little girl lost.
The years passed all too quickly in the far away kingdom. Seasons changed, time slipped by and children grew up. The princess looked down upon her magical child and was proud of the woman she had become. The princess felt oddly at peace in a way that she hadn't in oh so long. The kingdom was awash with happy faces, families laughing and living together. The princess's own family was growing steadily and life passed by in quiet contented hours.
The princess watched the sun set upon the kingdom and felt the ache in her old body as slumber called her. She took herself to her bed and fell into a deep sleep. When she awoke, the princess found that she was no longer in the far away kingdom but in a beautiful field littered with flowers and fairy-dust. A babbling brook ran through the field and sounded like laughter as the water skipped over rocks and pebbles. In the distance the princess could see a figure walking towards her. From the moment she laid her eyes on the figure she recognised her little girl, her baby, her angel and she ran towards her. There was a small stone bridge crossing the brook and the princess sped across it, her dream coming true as she came closer to her little girl. As the princess put out her arms to embrace her daughter the little girl stopped her. She told the princess that as soon as they touched, the bridge would disappear and the princess wouldn't be able to go back to the other side of the river.
The princess looked back to where she had come and saw her magical child, her prince, her magical family standing and waving to her far off in the distance. She loved them all very much but she was tired and she had spent years sharing her heart and her love with her family. She made the choice that now was the time to share her love and her heart with the little girl who had always owned them. She blew her family kisses goodbye and knew that when the time was right they would find her. She turned back to the little girl and extended her hand. The moment they touched they could do nothing but fall into each other's arms. Tears of joy fell as their hearts melted together, two parts of a puzzle, fixed and complete. The princess held her little girl, looking down into the wide angelic eyes of her daughter and cradling her in her arms as she protected and comforted her, the way the little girl had always protected the princess.
Soon, hand in hand, the little girl and her princess mummy from the locket moved over to the water. They cuddled together as they dipped their toes in the water and splashed each other, laughing with abandon. The princess's body was no longer old and tired but youthful and alive with energy once again, just like the day the little girl had freed her. The little girl still looked the same, her golden hair still sparkling, her gentle smile still loving. Wrapped in each other's arms the two knew that now, they could never be torn apart.
"Mummy, does the little angel girl still have her wings?" Anna looked up to her mother's face, her own eyes still bright and not at all tired. "Yes of course she does. And the princess has wings now too doesn't she mummy?" Grace cut in resolutely with the sort of certainty that only an eight year old can have. "Yes baby, they both have wings." Ella replied, talking soothingly to tempt the girls into sleep. She could hear Daniel's shuffling footsteps outside the door. Despite his age, when he had had a hard day, Ella knew that Daniel would secretly listen to the fairytale.
"I want to see the princess." Anna said, pouting. She had a look that always reminded Ella of Amy and Aunty Roxy. They all had the same pout and doe eyes. Her sister had had those eyes. Grace looked more like a mixture of her grandmother and her father as did Daniel. Ella sighed but gave the girls a smile. She went to a drawer and pulled out a photograph.
"This is the princess," she said softly, letting her fingers brush the face in the photo before handing it to the girls. "Don't be silly. That's nanny," Grace laughed. Anna was staring at the photo with the same awe that Ella knew she herself must have when she looked at pictures of her mother. "Yes sweetie. Your nanny was the princess," she spoke softly. "Do you remember the necklace she used to wear? The one with the lockets?" Both girls nodded, "Well one of those was the locket that the evil wizard had trapped her in."
"Does that mean you're the little girl?" Asked Anna, her eyes wide and her mouth agape. "Don't be stupid." Grace huffed, "Mummy isn't an angel. She doesn't have any wings." Grace crossed her arms, shaking her head at Anna in such an accurate miniature of Ronnie that Ella couldn't help but smile. "So are you the magical child then?" Anna continued to probe. Grace's interest was caught when Ella slowly nodded. The two girls started talking together about being princesses and about who Ronnie had liked the best, allowing Ella to hold the photograph of her mother. It was a picture of Ronnie from when Ella was just a few years old. Ronnie was beaming in the picture, busy wrapping presents for Christmas, but in her eyes there was an age old sadness, a piece of her that was missing, a part of her heart and soul that would always be lost, out in the ether with her firstborn, her angel.
"So if you aren't the little girl who is?" Grace asked determinedly. "I had a sister a long time ago. Nanny had a baby a long time before she had me. Her name was Danielle." Ella had seen pictures of Danielle, they had always filled the house as she grew up. Pictures of Danielle and pictures of herself, Ronnie spread evenly between the two. "Can we see her?" Anna asked, bouncing a little on the bed, the prospect of meeting an angel exciting her. "No sweetie. I wish we could but she's in heaven with Nanny." At their mother's watering eyes the girls became quiet, not knowing what to say.
"Mummy…the princess and the little girl…were they happy in the end?" Anna asked. Ella smiled at her lovingly, a tear rolling down her cheek as one hand went to stroke each of her daughters' cheeks.
"Yes, baby. They lived happily ever after."