Disclaimer: I do not own AHS.

A/N: Thanks so much for all of your positive reviews, guys! And thanks for reading! Love you all. Seriously. Sorry its been taking me a while to update. College has taken up my time but not to worry, I will definitely find the time to update regularly like I have been. Anyway, enjoy the new chapter!

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CH 11- Young Legs

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It was dark by the time Lana arrived home. She was silent as she stepped out of the car with Johnny in her arms. He was fast asleep, exhausted from crying himself to sleep. Lana slowly went up the porch and unlocked the door. She stepped inside and ran her hand along the wall until she found the light switch and turned it on. Lana leaned against the door after turning the lock and placed her hand upon Johnny's back.

Johnny's chubby cheek rested upon her shoulder; he breathed softly against her neck. Lana held him close as her eyes scanned their empty home. Neither ghost was there to welcome her home. Not even Oliver's ghost was nothing if not persistent. However, Lana was grateful for that. The last thing she needed was one of Oliver's witty remarks. She softly rubbed his back not able to imagine how it would have been to walk in to the house empty handed. Lana had made her choice and it was the right one; she just knew it was.

After a moment, Lana pushed away from the door and went directly in to her room. She lay Johnny down on the bed. He whined softly unhappy with being removed from her arms.

"Shh, shh, you're okay." Lana whispered softly to him. She then gently removed his clothes and changed his diaper. Once he was in a clean onesie, Lana discarded her shoes on the floor and lay in bed with Johnny close to her. She ran her fingers across Johnny's forehead, brushing aside his incoming bangs. Johnny moved slightly at her touch but remained fast asleep.

"We're going to start new lives together, you and I." She leaned in and kissed his chubby cheek, "I promise."

TWO WEEKS LATER

I Wonder Why by Dion and the Belmonts flowed through the house. Lana was seated at her desk. She had been working furiously on a new, meaningless column. She had rewritten it various times but her wording felt off, still, Lana felt she was on the right track. Lana was down in nothing but shorts and a tank. The mid July heat was excruciating. She held her auburn hair back in a ponytail exposing her velvet neck. She ran the back of her hand along her brow, brushing off the sweat.

It was then she heard the ripping of paper and sighed. "Johnny." She said and looked behind her where Johnny sat on his blanket. He was in nothing but a diaper to beat the heat. In his hands he held crumpled up pieces of Lana's failed attempts. He squealed as he ripped the pieces of paper apart completely delighted with the sound they made.

"I'm trying to concentrate, you know." She said to him but Johnny just kept on laughing his little baby laugh.

It had been two weeks since Lana took her last trip to St. Anne's Home for Children with Johnny in the passenger's seat. And in the time since then Lana had felt liberation she had not felt in a very long time. In a way she had felt certain guilt for keeping the baby boy and continuing a new life without her lover. Mrs. Peyser had made that guilt even more real but upon holding her son and uttering those three words she thought she never would speak, made Lana realize that she deserved a new start. And not only her, Johnny did too. They both did. And Lana was certain Wendy would want that for them despite what her mother said in her fit of rage.

Johnny looked at his mother and laughed. Lana bit her bottom lip and bit back a smile. She stood to her feet and went over to him. It was hard to concentrate when all she wanted to do was play with her son. He was a big distraction but Lana didn't mind. Johnny kicked his little bare feet and put the crumpled paper in to his mouth.

"No." Lana said sternly and took the paper away. She knew she was going to start laying down the law if she wanted her child to grow up to be well behaved and not run a muck.

Johnny whined and reached for the paper. When Lana took it away Johnny commenced to cry. "Oh, don't you cry." She said and lifted him up in her arms. Once Johnny was settled on her hip he stopped crying and commenced to babble things in Lana's ear.

Lana walked over to the wall and turned on the fan on the ceiling to freshen up the room. She couldn't wait for summer to be over.

"Oh?" Lana said to Johnny's babbles, "You don't say. Well, that is very interesting."

Johnny squealed at her response and jumped up and down in her arms.

That night Lana sat in bed watching the news on the small tv. She watched Michaels, one of the reporters Lou put on the field doing a story that could have and should have been hers. Johnny sat in the middle of the bed with a pacifier in his mouth, sitting up all on his own. In his hands, Johnny held one of Lana's bras he had plucked from the small pile of clean laundry on the bed next to Lana. She had been folding clothes when the tv caught her attention. Johnny shook the bra around completely preoccupied with it.

Lana scoffed, "That could have been my story, you know." She said to Johnny.

Johnny glanced up at Lana and then to the bra in his hands.

"Lou's crazy if he thinks Michaels's got what it takes to be on screen."

Johnny grunted in response.

"Right?" Lana agreed with him, "Unbelievable." She shook her head.

Johnny looked from the screen to his mother and dropped the bra from his hands. He then placed his little hands upon the bed. He clutched tightly on to the comforters and pulled himself upward. He placed one hand in front of the other and moved himself forward. Johnny hesitated for a moment before he stumbled forward and looked up at Lana whose attention was set on the tv screen.

Lana scoffed again, "Can you believe the nerve of that guy?" She looked down to Johnny who placed his hands on her arm and babbled behind his pacifier.

Lana's brows pulled together, surprised to see Johnny at her side. "Wait…" She glanced back to the middle of the bed where the bra was left abandoned. She then sat up almost instantly, "Johnny boy, did you crawl?"

Lana grabbed Johnny and stood from the bed. She placed him on the carpet and kneeled down a few feet away. "Are you going to crawl for me again, little boy?"

Johnny grinned instantly and dropped the pacifier from his mouth. He squealed excitedly and placed his hands on the floor; he pushed off and crawled to Lana. Lana watched in amazement as her little boy hurried to her.

"Oh my God…" She whispered, "You're crawling. You're finally crawling."

"Ah!" Johnny said as he placed his hands on Lana's lap.

"You did it!" She picked him up and stood him on his feet before her. Johnny put his hands to his mouth and grinned widely. "That's my boy." Lana chuckled.

AUGUST 1966

Johnny had Lana on the edge at all times now that he was crawling. He had an itch to go everywhere he could crawl to and that included, to Lana's complete horror, the chimney. He was becoming very mischievous and Lana already dreaded what was to come once he was fully mobile.

Lana walked into the living room with a basket of clean laundry. "Hey, little boy." She greeted Johnny who sat on his blanket with some toys. As soon as he saw Lana he dropped his toy and instantly got on his hands and knees and crawled his way to her. Lana shifted the laundry basket to one arm and with the other leaned down and plucked Johnny from the floor.

"Oof, you're getting heavy." She said as she sat him against her hip. Johnny dangled his arms and legs, babbling on about only things he understood. He placed his little hands on Lana's hand around his waist. Lana had become very good at double tasking; she always had to do something whilst holding on to Johnny.

Once in her room, Lana sat Johnny on the bed along with the laundry basket. She rummaged through her clothes mixed with Johnny's plucking out his onesies first. Lana found it humorous that she was folding clothes on a Tuesday evening instead of working. Of course she had done her own laundry before, including Wendy's. (Even though she'd often shrink or discolor their clothes on accident.) However, it was different now because she was washing and folding her very own child's clothing. There was just something so astonishing about it.

Lana pulled out a tiny stripped shirt and began to fold it. Johnny crawled to the basket and reached inside grabbing a pair of Lana's underwear and pulling them out.

"Hey," Lana said with a light frown, "Give me those." She yanked them out of Johnny's grasp.

"Ah." He said surprised that they were ripped from his hand.

Lana chuckled. "Silly boy, those aren't yours."

Johnny giggled using the basket to hoist himself up; he wobbled and fell back on his diaper. He looked up at Lana with shocked doe eyes.

"Oh." Lana said pretending to be surprised.

"Oh!" Johnny mimicked her surprised himself that his balance had betrayed him. He shook it off and pulled himself upward reaching in to the basket again.

"I gotta get all your stuff ready for tomorrow." Lana said to him but mostly to herself, "I go back to work tomorrow and wanna have everything ready for Barb."

"Ba!" He said as he pulled out one of his little socks.

"And then I have to do the grocery shopping and get you diapers and wipes too. Now that I think of it I'm also low on baby powder." She started mumbling to herself instead of to Johnny.

When Lana wasn't at work, she was at home. The little baby boy was her only company the majority of the time so talking to him as if he could understand became a regular thing. Lana had thought of going out once in a while but the thought of leaving Johnny alone when she didn't have to just didn't sound too appealing. Besides, she didn't need to go out, so at least she thought. She had no interest in meeting new people or making new friends and dating was far from her mind. Her heart still belonged to Wendy, even though she was dead and gone.

…

The following morning at work, Lana was in Lou's office discussing a new column discussing the faulty school system. Lana was once again less than thrilled but she still wasn't allowed back on the field. She had thought of just going out on her own without Lou's permission but he wouldn't even think about using anything she gathered.

"How's that motherhood column coming along Winters?" Lou asked as he threw rubber ball in the air and caught it.

Lana stood across his desk with a folder in her hands. She had been discussing with him the possibility of visiting a few schools to talk to their principals more scoop on the topic but Lou was far from listening. He honestly didn't even care about the school system. It was just some petty story to keep Lana busy.

Lana's eyes shot from the folder in her hands to him. She paused for a moment and looked back to her work. "Its coming along. Thanks for asking."

"Okay, okay, fair enough." He nodded. Lou paused for a moment, the ball landing back in his hands. He looked to Lana and pointed at her. "What about that manuscript?"

Lana instantly came to a halt. Her eyes lifted if a only a little but she kept them off of Lou. "…What manuscript?"

Lou scoffed. "Oh, don't play stupid with me, Winters. You know perfectly what I'm talking about. You said you were going to write a book that would blow the doors off of Briarcliff. You know, to tell your story about your tangle with Bloody Face." His eyes widened and he made a spooky voice when he pronounced that maniac's name."

Lana closed her eyes and exhaled. Of course she remembered her manuscript. She had been working on it vigorously when she was pregnant but had stopped days before she went in to labor and when she brought Johnny home she just never took it out again. She closed her folder and relaxed her body. "Briarcliff was shut down for good. What else is there to do?"

"What else is there to do?" Lou scoffed, "But Winters, you even said it yourself, you were going to tell people your story! You were going to become famous."

Lana brushed him off. "Well, things change."

"Winters-"

"Drop it, Lou, okay?" Lana snapped finally looking at him, "Briarcliff was shut down for good. That's all that matters. "

Lou was on his feet, his hands upon his desk. "But don't you matter too, Lana?"

Lana tore her glance away. She took in a deep breath and very so calmly spoke, "I have a son now. A son I have to protect from the truth. Continuing that book will only hurt and confuse him in the long run." She looked at Lou, "He's the only one who matters now."

Lou pushed away from his desk and walked around to stand before Lana. He placed his hands on her shoulders.

Lana sighed softly. "I never want him to know about Bloody Face because as far as I'm concerned my baby has no father."

Lou smiled sadly. "You don't realize it but you're a good mother, Winters."

Lana scoffed. "Oh, stop it, Lou."

Lou laughed his boomy laugh and stepped away. "Modesty doesn't suit you, you know."

"And kindness doesn't suit you." Lana shot back.

Lou chuckled. "Fair enough."

…

That night after Lana put Johnny to bed she wandered in to the living room. She meandered around picking up some of Johnny's toys and some of his socks that he had managed to yank off. She then walked up to her desk where she ran her fingers along the keys of her typewriter. Lana took a seat and reached in to the bottom drawer of the desk.

She rummaged through a few papers and brought out a short stack holding it in her hands before her. The front page read: MANIAC One Woman's Story of Survival. Lana sighed softly and skimmed through the pages. Words like monster, abomination, cruel, cosmic joke, and unwanted jumped right at her. It was then Lana realized all of those words were describing her pregnancy. She let her hands fall to her lap and looked up in the direction of her room where Johnny was fast asleep in her bed. Her eyes instantly watered and a single tear ran down her cheek. How could she have ever expressed herself that way about her son?

Lana quickly wiped away her tear and stood from the desk. She hurried to the fireplace and grabbed the small box of matches that lay on top. She turned on the fireplace and ignited a match, throwing it on to the wood. A fire instantly appeared. Lana took a step back and brought the manuscript before her eyes. She glared at it hatefully and threw it in to the fire and watched it burn. Those horrible words would never harm her son.

Lana sat and watched as the fire died down burning every single page she had written. The manuscript had been unfinished but Lana had no use for it anymore. When she chose to keep Johnny she chose to leave Briarcliff and Bloody Face in her past. She was going to keep the promise she made her son; they were going to start new lives without the past to burden them. And to do that, Lana had to fully move on from that past. Her eyes rose from the ground to a framed photograph of her and Wendy on top of the fireplace mantle. She definitely knew what to do to move on.

…

The day was fresh out. The heat had subsided if only for a moment. Lana made her way down the pearly white hall, an isle of many. Countless names adorned the walls engraved in to the white marble stone. Underneath them were dates and final words accompanied by a bouquet of flowers or a meaningful memento left by someone who once knew them.

The sounds of Lana's heels against the aluminum floors bounced off the marble walls. In her arms she carried a well-dressed Johnny along with a fresh bouquet of flowers. Johnny's big chocolate eyes marveled over his surroundings. It was his first time visiting the memorial. He clutched on to Lana's fine black dress knowing he was safe wherever she was.

Lana finally reached her destination. She stopped in front of the memorial and smiled weakly. "Hi, Wendy. It's been a long time…"

Upon the white marble stone read the name WENDY ELAINE PEYSER. Below was a bouquet of dead flowers withering away. Lana sniffled and fought the tears back. "Wendy, I'd like you to meet someone." She looked to the baby boy who had become preoccupied with a button on her dress. She lifted him higher in her arms. "This is Johnny. He's…he's my son." She smiled softly at the little boy.

"Johnny boy." Lana called to him. Johnny looked up from the button on her dress to his mother. "This is Wendy." She motioned to the grave before her. Johnny followed Lana's hand to the grave where his eyes landed upon the rich white stone. "She's the love of Mommy's life." A tear rolled down Lana's cheek.

Johnny mumbled soft baby babbles and returned his attention back to the button. Lana looked at Wendy's name engraved on the stone. "I kept him Wendy and honestly it was the best decision I made. I know its what you would have wanted too." Lana paused looking down to her feet for a moment, "But I won't lie to you, it's been very hard and I haven't dealt with it in the best ways…"

Lana wiped away a tear with one hand while she balanced Johnny and the flowers with the other. "I haven't been the best person since everything has happened but I'm going to set myself straight." She looked to Johnny, "I'm going to be a mother to my son and continue living life the best I could. I may not deserve it but he does." She placed her hand on Johnny's back. "He's not at fault for my mistakes and the actions of that monster."

Lana looked back to the grave. " I know you didn't get to do everything you wanted but I'm going to live for the both of us." She stepped closer and put a hand on Wendy's grave.

Mrs. Peyser had been wrong. Lana had paid her dues for her mistakes. Not only had she lost the love of her life but she had lost everything else too. Oliver Thredson had taken everything from her, he took Wendy and he took her hopes and her dreams. Of course after she shot him she took it upon herself to bring Briarcliff down. She was motivated to bring the place down and bring justice to those who had been done wrong. She said she was going to be famous and write a book that would make her a household name. However, that all changed when she kept her son. And after that the motivation dwindled and she hunkered down. Lana no longer wanted to become famous. All she wanted was to be a good mother and move her career forward. She wanted a simple life filled with love, peace and well-deserved success because Lana knew she and her boy deserved a good life.

Johnny stopped fumbling with the button and looked to Lana's hand on the stone. He leaned over and placed his tiny dimpled hand upon the stone, tapping it softly.

Lana opened her eyes to see her son's tiny hand on Wendy's grave. Johnny babbled as he continued to tap the stone next to Lana's hand. And in that moment Lana knew everything would be fine. They would be fine.