Hey guys. This is my newest story. It's a total alternate reality. This takes place in the present, but Dixie never did return from the dead.
What if Tad and Dixie had another daughter? What would her life be like? What would happen if a family got news about a loved one being alive and to what extent would they go to find that person?
So Small
Introductions:
"Cause sometimes that mountain you've been climbing is just a grain of sand, and what you've been out there searching for forever is in your hands. When you figure out love is all that matters after all, it just makes everything seem so small."
Eighteen year old Anna Martin sang in front of a large crowd gathered at The Comeback, a popular hangout in the small town of Pinevalley, Pennsylvania. It was open mike night and it had attracted quite a large audience, including some of the towns most well known citizens.
Anna was a member of the infamous Martin family. The family had been in Pinevalley since the start and had long ago become one of the most prominent and important families in town. The Martin family basically ran Pinevalley Hospital, with the grandfather Joe Martin being the chief of staff. His wife Ruth was head of the nursing unit and two of his sons were now doctors. The grandson Jamie was studying pre-med at Pinevalley University. If you were born into the family it almost seemed as if it was expected of you to become a doctor of some sort. But for at least one member, that was a different story.
Tad Martin, also known as Anna's father, had gone in a different direction and trained to become a P.I. and a damn good one at that. Anna had always wanted to follow in her father's footsteps but for some reason a lot of the family frowned upon that. They didn't seem to mind the fact that Tad wasn't a doctor, but it was expected that Anna was to be.
Anna from an early age had shown signs of great intelligence and an uncanny need to help people. She was always the person to show up when someone seemed to be in trouble and she seemed to instinctively know how to help. The Martin's didn't understand, with all of Anna's intelligence and compassion, why she would choose a completely different profession.
Anna was known to be a bit of a daddy's girl for the most part but she was also very much her mother's daughter. Her mother Dixie Martin had been the family's cornerstone and rock in times of need. She was considered a saint, or an angel as Joe Martin had often referred to her as. The entire family had suffered a great tragedy when Dixie had been presumed dead after a tragic accident in Switzerland. There were three people who had suffered the most following Dixie's tragic accident and they were Tad, Dixie's son JR Chandler, and her daughter Anna.
JR had emotionally shut down. He wasn't really a Martin but the family considered him one of their own. Tad had always thought of JR as his son, after all he was Dixie's son and Anna's brother. When JR started shutting everyone out, it seemed as if the entire family shut down. JR had eventually left town, unable to be around the people who reminded him of his mother, mostly Anna.
Once JR left things just continued to spiral downwards. Tad was so upset, not just about Dixie but now about JR as well, he didn't think he could be a good father to his daughter any longer. Needless to say Anna and Tad's relationship suffered drastically and Anna eventually moved in with her grandparents. Jamie, Tad's son soon followed suit and Tad found himself all alone without his wife and now children.
About a year after Dixie's demise JR returned to town with a wife, followed by his wife's mother. Babe and Krystal Carey made their presence known wherever they went and it wasn't long before Tad found himself becoming attracted to Krystal. Anna hated Krystal right from the beginning fearing she was going to replace her mother in Tad's heart. And as for Babe, she completely consumed all of JR's time, especially after it was found out she was pregnant.
Anna quickly resented both mother and daughter and started rebelling completely just to get her father and brother's attention. She started smoking and sneaking out late on school nights. Pretty soon she was ending up in trouble at school as well as with the law. Tad grew increasingly concerned with his daughter, who had always been kind, sweet and just generally a good kid, just like her mother. Tad soon found out he desperately needed help trying to get his daughter back on the right track and contacted a psychiatrist who dealt specifically with trouble teens. After talking with the psychiatrist both Anna and Tad started to realize the other's pain. They were not the only ones being affected by Dixie's death. The psychiatrist suggested Anna move back in with her father and that Tad start spending less time with Krystal. They both agreed and that was the start of their lives turning around for the better.
Anna started to accept Krystal and Babes role in her father and brothers live and even came to like them. Krystal seemed to genuinely care for her and Babe was the older sister Anna had never had. Eventually things got almost back to normal and with the exception of a few problems with JR and Jamie, things were looking up again.
What will happen if after 5 years of being presumed dead, the women that everyone knew and loved and thought of as a saint, suddenly appears to be alive? What extent with her family go to find her and bring her back?? Only time will tell as the people of this small town realize just how small the world truly is.
