Okay, this is now edited (hopefully I got everything).

Remember to forget everything that you know about Alexis...

Thanks for the reviews; keep them coming!

Chapter Nine

Immortalized Rebirth

Sam sat in the back seat of the car suffocating from the stench of the strong liquor that Evelyn and Cody had consumed prior to taking her away from her mother. The car's movement and the smell emanating from their bodies turned the little girl's stomach; as sick as she felt, she was terrified of what might be done to her if she expelled the contents of her stomach as Cody erratically drove down the busy street. Nonetheless, if she did not say anything, she would certainly vomit all over herself in the backseat of whoever's car it was they were riding.

--- "Can you… Can you open the window… please?"

Her voice was low, but considering the silence that filled the car, it was well heard. Evelyn was shocked to hear the child speaking; she had trained her in her six years to speak only when spoken to. She turned around with a glare that would scare even the most ferocious beast in the jungle.

--- "WHAT did you say?!"

Sam noticed the look the woman had given her; it was one that she had seen daily for as long as she was cognizant of those around her. She immediately averted her eyes.

--- "Nothing."

Unfortunately, looking away from the awaiting predator does not remove one from its line of target. Evelyn was that predator, while Sam was her prey; she reached back and smacked the child hard in the face causing her to hit her head against the door.

--- "Who the HELL do you think you are, you little bitch?! One day with that little princess and you've gotten spoiled and lost your manners? You better believe I'll beat it back into you!"

Sam's eyes filled with tears, but she refused to allow the woman to make her cry. As downtrodden as she may have felt by having been taken from Alexis, something in her would not allow her to give up on the woman who had so solemnly promised to fight for her from hell and back. Despite how much she wanted to doubt the kind stranger's words, there had to be truth in her words; why would she promise her all of those things if she did not mean it. Why would she lift her up only to watch her fall back down? Alexis did not know well enough to want to hurt her like that. She would not do that to her. She loved her. That was what she said.

Sam bit her lip and swallowed hard attempting to swallow to bring down the vomit that was burning her esophagus. She wiped her escaping tears.

--- "I'm sorry."

Her voice was still quite low as she apologized. She did not know what she was apologizing for, but she knew that if she did not, Evelyn was certain to hit her once again.

The hateful woman turned around and shot her a threatening look.

--- "You damn right you are. Now sit there and keep your God damned mouth shut, or I'll shut it for you!"

Cody grabbed his wife by the arm; he did not like that she was scolding the child… especially not when he was driving.

--- "Will you leave her alone, Ev?"

Evelyn turned back around to pay attention to the road as Cody was weaving in and out of traffic. He was quite drunk, certainly more drunk than she, but he had refused to allow her to take the wheel as the car belonged to his friend. Yes, they had told Alexis and Stefan that they arrived by bus, but they certainly had no intention of clueing the princess and her protector as to where they were truly living, with whom, and how they had arrived; as far as they were concerned, it was none of their concern. The drunken couple cared about one thing: retrieving their golden egg.

--- "Why don't you watch out before you get us killed, you idiot?"

It was true, he was having a difficult time keeping the car straight; from what he could tell, the lights blurred, and the lines on the street moved in circles. He was unsure of which way was left, which was right, when the light was green, or when it was red; nothing made sense, but he knew that he could not stop.

--- "Evelyn, you need to keep your mouth shut! I'm trying to concentrate here!"

--- "Don't hurt yourself doing that! Now keep the car straight before a cop comes after us!"

Luckily it was about ten at night in New Haven; there were not many people on the road. He, however was getting annoyed with his wife's constant nagging and screaming.

--- "SHUT UP! Okay?! If a cop was gonna come after us, the would've been here already."

Sam closed her eyes as she sat in the back hoping to drown out the sounds; she thought about her Alexis. That helped her. She thought about her mother's smile; her scent; her laughter. As the flashing lights approached the vehicle, she thought about how safe she felt with the woman.

Flashback

--- "Twenty minutes!"

Stefan smiled at her new mother, who was dressed in her towel, as she held Sam's little hand as they walked out of the living room. Alexis had just told her that they were her family as well, but having only just met this woman, Sam knew that she was all the family she needed.

--- "Do they live here?"

Alexis looked down at her daughter as she emptied the contents of the bag onto the sheet-less bed, grateful for the pretty outfits Stefan had purchased for Sam.

--- "Unfortunately, they don't baby; they live in Greece."

Sam continued to stick like glue to the woman.

--- "You want them to?"

She tightened her towel around herself as she knelt down to her petite daughter.

--- "You know, I wouldn't mind that one bit."

--- "Why?"

Sam immediately began to once again play with her mother's necklace.

--- "Well, because it's lonely sometime being here all alone. Stefan is my only family—"

Sam released the necklace and looked to the floor; Alexis tapped her little chin.

--- "What's the matter, chipmunk?"

Tears filled the little girl's eyes as she quietly replied.

--- "I get lonely too; I don't have any family."

Despite knowing that the people who were supposed to have protected her child had instead abused her, Alexis found it odd that a small child could feel as though she did not have a family. She assumed that regardless of the hardships inflicted upon Sam, she being a child, was not only stronger than given credit for, would consider the McCalls her family; children tended to be quite forgiving of their aggressors.

She wiped the tears that had begun to roll down her daughter's chubby cheeks.

--- "Let me tell you something, Samantha; you DO have a family."

Sam looked deep into her new mother's eyes unsure if she should believe anything that she was being told.

--- "I do?"

Alexis nodded her head as she blinked her tears away.

--- "I'm your family; Stefan and Nikolas too. We're a family. We're here; we'll never leave you."

The little girl shook her head; it was too much for her little mind to handle.

--- "Can I just take my bath please… Mommy?"

Alexis took a deep breath and nodded. She stood up and held her hand out for her daughter to take.

--- "Of course you may, sweetheart."

When they entered the bathroom, she began filling the tub. She undressed her tiny girl, wondering how long it would take her to put some meat on her bones. It felt like a stab in the heart every time she saw the child undressed; what kind of monsters would leave a child so hungry to the point of emaciation.

--- "Okay, hop in there, chipmunk."

She knew she told her cousin that they would be out in twenty minutes, but there was something about the water that she could tell fascinated her daughter. As she quickly removed her towel and changed into a robe, she watched Sam stick her hand under the water and bring it back to the surface.

--- "Baby, are you okay?"

Sam looked at her mother and nodded.

--- "I like it."

Alexis turned off the faucet when the water was filled.

--- "You like the water?"

The little girl smiled slightly as she cupped water into her little hands and brought it to her face.

--- "It's so clean. It makes me feel good."

The young woman grabbed a washcloth and squirted gel onto it as she sat on the edge of the tub.

--- "Stand up, chipmunk."

Sam did as she was told. Alexis began to wash her little arms.

--- "You know, Sam, water is a sign of birth—"

Undoubtedly, the child gave her mother a puzzled look which caused Alexis to smile; she had to learn how to speak to children… her daughter. She took her daughter's other hand, and began washing it.

--- "Um, water cleans you. It's pure. When something is dirty, water makes it like new again."

Sam nodded in agreement as she thought about the way she felt the night prior when Evelyn brought her to Alexis.

--- "It makes everything better."

Alexis smiled as she continued to wash her daughter.

--- "Is it making everything better for you now?"

The little girl smelled her freshly washed arm and held it out to her mother to smell.

--- "I'm not dirty anymore."

Alexis kissed Sam's soapy arm before filling a cup with water; she poured it over the top of her daughter's head hoping she could somehow wash every bit of pain the McCalls had ever inflicted on her. She watched as the soapsuds moved off of the child's body and flow down the drain. If only everything could have been so simple. If only water really so powerful.

Nevertheless, she would not lay the burdens of the world onto her child's weak shoulders; she leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek before poking her in the stomach causing Sam to laugh.

--- "You're clean, chipmunk. Just like new."

She grabbed a towel, wrapped Sam in it, and lifted her out of the tub. Sam laid her head onto Alexis' shoulder as she carried her into the bedroom.

--- "Thank you, Mommy."

End of Flashback

--- "You asshole!"

Evelyn was screaming at Cody who was screaming in pain from inside of the car.

--- "Shut up bitch!"

Both of their speech was slurred as they screamed at each other.

--- "God, look at what you caused! My arm is cut!"

He looked at her in disbelief. While she was complaining about her arm, his leg was clearly broken; he could see the bone jutting out from the skin.

--- "I tell you what, Ev, I'll take your cut arm, if you'll take this pain!"

--- "F*ck you, Cody!"

Cody had to look slightly behind him to see the other car; the driver was slumped over the steering wheel.

--- "Damn, I hope that bastard isn't dead; we could totally sue him for this sh!t."

Evelyn looked at her husband and shook her head.

--- "Yea, except you're the drunken asshole driving around town; you're definitely going to get a lot of money from him. And I tell you what; you can use that money to pay off the bitch that's going to have you bent over in the jail cell. God, you're so stupid!"

A siren was heard approaching for a distance. Cody looked behind him to make sure that Sam was safe.

--- "Samantha, honey?"

No sound was heard from the backseat. His heart began to race. While he was not the most attentive parent, he cared for the little girl; really, who could not? For the first time in his life, he caught himself saying a silent prayer to himself before looking at his wife.

--- "Would you check to see if she's okay?"

Evelyn rolled her eyes and turned to the backseat.

--- "Samantha—"

She was shocked to find that the girl was not there.

--- "Cody, she's gone."

He could not see behind him where Sam had been seated as moving was exceptionally painful; he adjusted the rearview mirror; she was not there. He knew that this was not going to end well.

--- "Evelyn, grab my cell and call the kid's mother—"

She shook her head.

--- "Cody—"

While the pain increased in his leg, and on his side, his mind was working a mile a minute as he thought of his next steps; he knew that he would be arrested for driving under the influence. He already had a warrant for his arrest in New Jersey, and there he was in Connecticut; this was not a good situation. He needed Samantha's mother on his side.

--- "Just call her Evelyn. Tell her what happened; tell her—"

Evelyn looked at him in confusion.

--- "Tell her WHAT, Cody?!"

He was passed out.

--- "Good for nothing, son of a bitch."

She took his phone from the cupholder and hit the quickly programmed number entitled, "Princess."


--- "Hello?"

Alexis' heart raced as she spoke into the phone; there was something wrong with her daughter. She knew it; she could feel it.

She could her an ambulance approaching in the background; she felt herself growing hysterical.

--- "What happened to my daughter?"

Stefan took his cousin's hand into his own. He prayed that those despicable, vile, vermin of the earth did nothing to harm a hair on Samantha's head. He would kill them with his bear hands if that child were hurt; she had been through too much at their hands to have her little wing rebroken. He would do anything to see her once again take flight.

Sam was his little Raven. He chose such a nickname for her because not only was her hair as dark as the bird's feathers, but it was evident that like the animal, the child was highly intelligent. Like the bird, she adapted to her surroundings and did what she could to survive; in order to continue the miserable existence impressed upon her, she learned to cope with whatever life had thrown her way: if it were crumbs, Samantha ate crumbs, if it were a beating, the child drifted to another time and place. Having known her but for less than a day, Stefan knew her well; he knew her because she was everything he and more so her mother, were when they existed among a household of savages.

As he held his cousin's hand, he knew that the Raven would be fine because she was like her mother; she was a fighter. Regardless of what may be told to Alexis on the other end of the phone line, that child would not leave her mother; she wanted her too much. And Alexis, her. He could see this.

--- "Alexis—"

She nodded as she listened to what she was being told.

--- "We'll be right there… Thank you for letting me know."

She hung up the phone. She wanted to crumble to the floor like sawdust, but she could not; she needed to get to the hospital. She looked at her cousin with tears in her eyes.

--- "There's been an accident—"

His fears were concerned.

--- "Samantha?"

She shook her head.

--- "I don't know. Evelyn just said she could see her on the ground—"

Stefan's blood pressure began to rise at the thought that his beautiful little cousin, whom he looked upon as a niece was lying on the cold ground while Evelyn was clearly no where by her side, but evidently well and safe; he wished that it were that cold hearted woman in the child's spot.

--- "Where was SHE?"

She grabbed her purse, and walked to the door.

--- "It doesn't even matter Stefan; she could rot in jail for all I care. I need to get to my baby; she needs her Mommy."


She felt herself being moved onto a hard board from the ground; she was in more pain than she could have ever imagined. The pain she felt was worse than she had felt from the countless beatings she had received from Evelyn; it was enough to make her slip in and out of consciousness.

--- "I want my Mommy."

She past out once again.

.

.

.

A light was shown into each of her eyes as she felt herself being moved quickly. Sirens were blaring.

--- "Equal and reactive; let's get her out of here."

.

.

.

When she regained consciousness, she was in a room and people were moving about her. They noticed that she had awoken.

--- "Hi sweetheart. You're not feeling too well are you?"

While the woman talking to her appeared kind enough, she could do nothing to alleviate the child's distress.

--- "It hurts."

The doctor gave her a sad smile.

--- "I'm sure it does, but we're going to make it all better."

The tears rolled down the sides of her face; not only was she in sheer agony, but the one and only person she was certain could make it better was no where in sight.

--- "Please, I want my Mommy."

The doctor had been informed that the child was in a car with two drunken persons who were currently being examined while in police custody; she assumed that the woman of the couple was her mother.

--- "I'm sorry, sweetheart, but I think your Mommy is with a doctor right now."

Sam began to cry harder.

--- "Please… she makes it better… she'll make it better…"

She once again lost consciousness.


Alexis and Stefan rushed into the emergency room of the hospital. Like radar, she immediately spotted Evelyn's slovenly appearance down the hall; she charged toward her.

--- "HEY! What happened to my kid!?"

The woman was handcuffed to her chair, and an officer stood guard beside her. He stopped Alexis as she approached the woman.

--- "Miss, you need to calm down."

She had fire in her eyes.

--- "The hell I do! This bitch took my kid from me, she and her drunkard husband, and now my baby is somewhere here tattered like a ragdoll!"

Evelyn, for once, sat quietly staring at the door of the examination room from which she sat across. Her focus was not lost upon Alexis; she pushed passed the officer and got within inches of the older woman's face. She pointed at the door.

--- "Is she in there? Is Samantha in that room? Is that where my daughter is, you disgusting bitch?"

The officer moved to take her arm, but Stefan intervened.

--- "Sir, please don't touch my cousin—"

The man looked at the obviously proper gentleman standing before him in a custom made suit, with a significant amount of blood on the collar.

--- "What happened to you?"

Alexis shook her head at Stefan. She had no idea where she stood in regard to getting her daughter back from Evelyn and Cody, although her position had to be better now that they were clearly under arrest; she needed to play smart.

Stefan cleared her throat as he felt the back of his head.

--- "It appears that I fell. I suppose while I'm at the hospital, I may want to seek medical assistance."

The officer did not believe Stefan's injury was a result of a fall; he was certain it had something to do with the drunken woman he was guarding, and her even more intoxicated husband. Nonetheless, until this well-dressed man pressed charges against whomever battered him, it really did not matter to the officer what really happened.

--- "Yea, I think that's a good idea, and maybe you might want to take your cousin with you; I can't have her assaulting my charge."

Stefan rubbed the side of his face as he smiled coyly.

--- "Your charge? Eh? Well, might I let you know that I can smell the liquor from your charge from where I'm standing? And might I also tell you that because of your charge and her husband, my cousin's daughter is somewhere in this hospital all alone?"

The officer looked at Alexis; he could see her anger and pain from not knowing where her daughter was. He could also tell that she was of a different breed and class than the handcuffed woman and her husband.

--- "How old is your daughter, Miss?"

She wiped the tears that fell to her cheeks.

--- "Six."

He was taken aback by her declaration, but just as her cousin's head wound did not concern him, it was not his job to judge her for clearly having a child at a rather young age.

--- "And her name?"

--- "Samantha…"

It took everything in her to say her daughter's last name; she would make it her business the moment Sam was returned to her to change it.

--- "McCall."

The officer looked from Alexis to Evelyn.

--- "Is she your mother?"

Alexis looked as though she had been slapped in the face. The fact that the man would ever confuse her for Evelyn's child was one of the worse insults she had ever received; if ever there was a time she would have preferred to have been confused for Helena's child, it was in that moment.

--- "NO! She adopted my child, then dropped her on my doorstep abused and malnourished—"

Evelyn, who had not yet said a single word, turned quickly to Alexis.

--- "I never wanted your little brat anyway! You can take the little bitch!"

Alexis nearly flew on top of the woman, but Stefan grabbed her.

--- "Don't do it. Let her talk. She's making Samantha's bed nice and comfortable for her with you. Let her talk, Lex. You'll have her back; she'll fly back to you."

She took a deep breath and nodded her head; she knew that he was right. She turned once again to the officer.

--- "I want to see my daughter."

He was quite disgusted with the handcuffed woman; he did not understand how she could speak so terribly about a six year old child. He was more than happy to accommodate the woman who evidently cared deeply for her daughter; it was obvious with whom the child needed to be.

--- "I'll see what I can do."


For a child so small, it was a miracle that she was not more terribly hurt after being ejected from the car. As it stood, there were no internal injuries, but she suffered from two broken arms, a broken leg, and a concussion. Despite the obvious pain she was be in, with the help from the sedatives the doctors gave her, Sam was going to be just fine… physically.

Emotionally, the doctors would never know what she was feeling. The uncertainty of not knowing what was real and was fake, who loved her and who did not, and who was truthful and who was not. She had called for Alexis, but she never came. She told her that she was her security. She told her that she would always be there. She told her that she would never let anyone hurt her again. She lied.

Flashback

Alexis walked back into the bathroom to see her daughter playing with the rubber ducky she had purchased for her and enjoying the bubbles. It amazed her how quickly the child seemed to have adjusted from being with her for merely a day; it was astounding how a little bit of love being shown to an innocent child in a short amount of time could make such a difference.

--- "So, you like the ducky, Sammy?"

Sam's face brightened at the return of her mother.

--- "YES, Mommy! Look at what it can do!"

She squeezed the duck before immersing it into the water. She released it and allowed it to fill with water.

--- "Watch, Mommy!"

Alexis smiled at her daughter's excitement; she moved to sit at the tub's edge.

--- "Let's see, baby."

Sam lifted the duck, and squeezed it once again causing water to shoot from the hole underneath it.

--- "SEE!"

Alexis laughed as she began washing her daughter.

--- "You're so silly, peanuthead. You know that?"

Sam spent the remainder of the bathtime playing with her duck; she felt as though she were in some kind of television commercial. Only there had she ever scene a child her age playing in the tub filled with bubbles and a rubber ducky.

Alexis rinsed her off and lifted her from the tub. She stood her on the bathrug and began to dry her.

--- "Mommy?"

She wrapped Sam in a towel and walked with her back into the bedroom where their clothes were already laid out for dinner with Stefan.

--- "Hmm?"

She stood Sam up on the bed and began to help her get dressed.

--- "What's inside your necklace?"

Sam had been intrigued with her mother's necklace from the moment that she had arrived on her doorstep. It was as though she were attracted to it. Alexis immediately put her hand to it.

--- "Oh, baby it's something very special to me."

She sat down on the bed, and moved Sam onto her lap. She unlatched the necklace and held it in her hands and opened it for her daughter to see. There were two pictures inside.

--- "Who's that?"

Sam pointed to a man and woman holding a baby in their arms. Alexis rested her cheek on the top of her daughter's head.

--- "Um, that's Mommy, and those were her parents."

Sam studied the picture for a bit before looking up at her mother.

--- "Am I going to see them?"

Alexis spoke softly.

--- "No, chipmunk."

They appeared to be very lovely people, very kind. The little girl would not have minded meeting them.

--- "Why?"

--- "They died."

Sam frowned as she turned to look at her mother.

--- "What happened to them?"

She cleared her throat. She gave her daughter a kiss on the cheek. She wrapped her arms around the child.

--- "Baby, you know what, it's not important. Look at the other picture."

Alexis pointed to the solitary picture of what appeared to be a newborn baby with jet-black silky hair and a buttoned nose; the baby was quite beautiful.

Sam smiled as though she immediately recognized herself. She held the picture in her little hand, amazed as though it were the first time that she had ever scene herself.

--- "Mommy, is that me?"

Alexis kissed the top of her head.

--- "Yes, chipmunk. That's the only picture that I have of you."

--- "Really?"

She nodded her head.

--- "But, baby, we're going to change that. We're going to take so many pictures together. I want a whole album filled with my beautiful girl."

Sam smiled as she got onto her knees to fix the necklace back around her mother's neck.

--- "I like that. I never have pictures."

Tears filled Alexis' eyes as her daughter fastened the necklace.

--- "You never had pictures taken of you, Sammy?"

The little girl shook her head before repositioning herself on her mother's lap once more.

Alexis could not believe that there was not a single moment of her daughter's life captured in an image in all her six years of existence. There was no real record that such a beautiful child existed but for any written documents with her name. There seemed something so wrong about this.

If something were to happen to her in the next minute, hour, day, it would have been as though she were never on the earth. Nobody would remember her face, or her smile, or the way her dimples shown when she laughed. If God forbid something were to happen to her, it would have been as though her daughter was a nobody. No. Her daughter was a somebody.

She lifted Sam from her lap and quickly dressed her.

--- "We're going to start right now. You're going to have pictures."

Sam stood on the bed jumping up and down practicing her poses, as her mother got dressed.

--- "Are you going to take a picture with me like the one you have in your necklace, Mommy?"

Alexis smiled and grabbed her digital camera; she was not finished getting ready, but after looking at the clock, something told her to take a picture before they left for dinner. She pulled Sam into her lap.

--- "Let's make a silly picture."

She held out the camera, hoping that she was capturing them both in the image.

--- "Ready?"

Sam nodded.

--- "1…2… remember silly face, chipmunk… 3…"

She snapped the picture. They looked at it: Sam was sticking her tongue out yet smiling at the camera, Alexis gave her a kiss on the cheek. This was the first picture she had ever taken with her daughter. It was perfect.

--- "Mommy, you said it was supposed to be a silly picture!"

Alexis picked her daughter up and covered her with kisses.

--- "I got my silly girl in the picture!"

Sam wrapped her arms around her mother's neck.

--- "Take another one!"

Alexis grabbed her camera and held it out. Sam poked her mother in the cheek as she smiled.

--- "Now, YOU have to make a silly face!"

--- "ME?"

--- "Hmm-mm!"

Alexis poked her daughter in the side and smiled.

--- "Fine."

She positioned the camera.

--- "1….2…. Okay, get ready… 3…"

This time, as Alexis made a crazy face, Sam pressed laid her head onto her mother's shoulder and simply smiled with her dimple clearly pronounced. They looked at the picture.

She caressed Sam's cheek; her daughter was immortalized.

End of Flashback

Alexis walked into the hospital room where her tiny daughter lay fast asleep under heavy sedation. She dragged the chair close to the bed and smiled sadly.

--- "There's my beautiful girl. Mommy's here."

She leaned in and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek, praying that she did not hurt her.

--- "I know that this might not mean anything to you after everything that's happened, but Samantha, I swear to you, I swear on my life, that those people will NEVER touch you again. I told you that I am your security—"

She passed her hand through her daughter's hair.

--- "You're my water; you've made me brand new."

Stefan stood silently in the doorway watching his cousin's interaction with her daughter; he would ensure her happiness.