Title: Risen From The Ashes

Pairing: Olivia/Natalia Doris/Blake ?/?

Rating: MA for strong language, adult situations, violence, blood, drug use.

Slightly AU most invents remain the same with a few concentrated changes to the Otalia storyline.

Summary: A mysterious stranger comes to town and changes the lives of Olivia and Natalia forever.

She ripped herself away from her companion – the other girl's touch having grown the power to burn her skin to cinder. She took off running as though the gates of hell had opened up behind her. Daisy called her name in a panic, not understanding what was happening. For the first time ever…Francesca was able to ignore her. The sound of her big brother trying to stay calm for their Ma as she was heard begging frantically for their Mom to respond to her ministrations in the background had been a lot to process. They shared a quiet moment of desperation between the two of them. The message was heard loud and clear all the same: this could not be happening to them – not again. The pain was still a bit too fresh from the last time.

The short distance from the park to The Beacon wasn't really that significant. She had looked outside of her Mom's office window at the expanse of trees, playground equipment, and small duck pond a number of times. She found that she enjoyed listening to her parents talk shop, schedule meetings, and double check financial reports. She would sometimes absentmindedly rattle off her opinion. She was good with numbers, and even better with money. Given the fact that she had more than she would ever know what to do with and the way she had multiplied her inheritance fifty times over and counting with her investment savvy Olivia and Natalia would sometimes listen to her. Those times used to fly by on their walks through the park after her appointments with Dr. Boudreaux. They would walk through the park winding down from any emotional stress caused during those visits and talk about happier things. More often than not Emma was with them; Rafe would come along sometimes too. They would always end up back at The Beacon – good times flying by in the blink of an eye while the bad always felt to pass straight through the torturous fields of purgatory; terror whispering in your ear that there was no way to get out.

It certainly explained why it felt like it would take her an eternity to reach the hotel.

Even still Francesca ran faster, determined, and gripped with the terror of knowing mere seconds could be the difference between her new family staying intact or losing another parent forever.

As she ran into the hotel almost ripping the metal framed front entrance door off of its hinges the staff watched her knowing that something was wrong. She bypassed the elevator bank knowing that pulleys and levers, doors opening and closing, and snot nosed little brats pressing every fucking button, would take longer than her traveling up eight flights of stairs.

She burst through the stairwell and jumped onto the railing before she vaulted herself upward to the next. She repeated the process over and over again hoping and praying that she'd get there in time.

There was a needle in her backpack with her Mom's name on it.

Once she reached the executive offices she paid little mind to the clamoring of various employees all fearful at the sound of Natalia yelling for Olivia to respond to her coming from the closed office door. They were all questioning if 911 had been called yet. She handled the situation as quickly as possible.

Turning on the congregated employees and Greg she snapped, "What the hell are my parent's paying you for? Certainly not to mill around sticking your nose in business other than your own I'm sure. Get back to work!" She stormed past all of them and into the office quickly shutting and locking the door behind her.

No one even questioned why they had done exactly what the teenager had just ordered. Although there was something in her eyes – some small desperation that screamed to all present that to delay her forward progress by questioning her would end badly. Then again it probably had a lot more to do with the fact that in that moment they could have all sworn they heard Olivia's voice coming from the younger girl's mouth. And everyone know that when Olivia spoke…you listened.

Francesca took a deep breath as she surveyed the chaos unfolding in front of her.

Natalia was still frantically applying CPR and counting quietly to herself as she did chest compressions then yelling frantically at her fiancés still form. Tears were streaming unchecked down her face as a thin line of determination set upon her lips. She didn't notice Francesca's entrance nor did she notice the whispered exchange between her two eldest.

Rafe nodded his head in solemn agreement all the same.

"Ma I need you to move and let me help Mom," Francesca spoke softly as not to startle an already frantic Natalia.

"No I have to keep up compressions until help comes," she all but growled.

"Ma I'm going to help Mom now," Francesca ignored Natalia's rebuttal as she nodded in Rafe's direction. Her brother took in a deep breath of air to steady himself and launched forward snatching their Ma up from the ground and hugging her close to his chest; her arms pinned down to her sides.

She began to kick and flail screaming for them to understand that Olivia needed to be saved and that the chest compressions could have been the only thing keeping her with them until help arrived.

"I am the help Ma," Francesca told her with a calm that she did not feel. She quickly searched her book bag for the small case that housed what she hoped would be her family's reprieve.

She pulled out the needle and quickly eyed it.

Natalia's eyes bulged as she took in the sight of the rather large needle. On both sides was a chamber holding a different liquid. One red the other a sickly tinge of yellow. In the main compartment was a thick clear substance that looked to have the consistency of a half-assed Jell-O mold.

"What are you doing?" Natalia screeched lunging towards Olivia and Francesca and giving Rafe a run for his money.

He grunted with the strain of keeping her contained as she kicked her feet into the air and wiggled against his grasp. Emotions were running high and the scene was too much for the boy still learning how to be a man.

"FOR FUCK SAKE MA CALM DOWN AND LET CHESSIE SAVE MOM!" Rafe shouted angry, scared, confused, desperate, and a number of other emotions he had yet to identify.

The sound of Rafe not only swearing at her yet again and him calling Olivia mom stopped her cold. She began to sob as she watched unable to do anything else while Francesca ripped open the front of Olivia's shirt.

The girl quickly swabbed a large area of Olivia's chest. She then pressed tightly onto the two side chambers of the needle till a snapping sound echoed through the room leaving it silent with anticipation. The two liquids oozed into the main chamber and mixed together quickly turning orange. Francesca checked for air bubbles than took a huge breath.

For one moment she looked down at the pale features of her mother. Olivia and Natalia both had come to mean more to her than she ever thought two people would be able to again. They had paid there dues and knocked down her walls taking up residence in a space once deemed inhabitable. The rundown chambers of her heart left rundown, roach infested, with a leaky roof after the deaths of her parents had lain in ruin until her moms came along and fixed it up again. She couldn't imagine Natalia living their alone.

"Please God help me…" Francesca trailed off as she forcefully jabbed the needle through Olivia's chest. It broke through flushed skin and hardened bone directly into Olivia's still heart. She pressed down the plunger and they all watched as the congealed goo Francesca had conjured up invaded Olivia's body.

Mother, lover, pain in the ass, and savior was now at the mercy of chance, fate, and a crazy ass idea cooked up in the mind of a teenager who may or may not be insane.

It was a million in one shot but it was all they had.

Because Francesca knew in those days she watched her mother go on about life like she hadn't spent the first months with her new heart drinking heavily, working non-stop, eating poorly and sleeping even less that things would quickly come to a head. She thought about all those terrible decisions on those long sleepless nights she'd spent bent over her computer or staring intently into a microscope. Her mom acted as if they wouldn't catch up to her. Every action, every decision, every judgment call had a repercussion of some sort. And Olivia was reaping them now. The only question was: would it be a price none of them could bear to pay?

Rafe questioned his judgment on not calling for an ambulance. He wondered if not listening to what his Ma had told him and calling a fifteen year old girl instead of field tested professionals had been a good idea. Then again…wasn't that exactly what Francesca was? She had warned him that she would have to wait to administer the treatment to Olivia when her heart was weak and struggling. It had been a hard truth to sell and swallow that the eventuality of such a thing happening was a matter of when and not if, and that when it did there was very little traditional medicine could do for her.

None of them had been too keen on the idea in the very beginning, but they were all connected now…family earned through battle and not ordained by blood.

So what if this didn't work? What if everything fell like a house of cards built on unsteady ground?

And if it did fail…

…who was going to tell Emma?

"What are you doing Francesca? Why are you just sitting there?" Natalia yelled – fear gripping a little too tightly around her throat.

Rafe had to admit that just watching Francesca kneel on the floor next to their Mom with her right hand held over her chest was maddening. But what was she doing?

Two seconds ticked by in the span of an eternity.

Then Francesca balled up her fist and brought it down with a deep resounding thud to Olivia's chest.

Human eyes could not peer past skin, sinew, and bone to witness the congelation begin to dissipate and spread. Delicate ears could not hear the rushing of blood beginning to flow steadily again through once deprived veins.

But with trembling fingers Francesca could feel as acutely as she had felt dread and doubt clawing and cloying at her insides just moments before – her mom's heart began to beat again.

They were all just staring at her. Natalia of course had attached herself to her side like some form of symbiotic entity living as a direct continuation of herself. Tightly wrapped in Natalia's embrace she could feel the other woman willing her strength while Olivia as dilapidated as she felt offered the quivering woman the assured steadiness of her presence very much alive in her grasp.

Olivia cleared her throat feeling as though she'd just gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson and lived to tell the tale. Her ears rang as distant sounds filtered through seeming even further away. If she had fought Tyson and not remembered it that would surely explain what the hell was going on with her hearing.

She snorted than began to cough as Natalia glared at her. The expression clearing warning that now was not the time for whatever inappropriate thought that was bouncing off the walls of her head.

"You look like hell," Francesca pointed out as she stood next to Rafe. Both of them feeling it necessary to stay as far out of their Ma's reach for the time being as possible.

"Gee I wonder why," Olivia quipped.

"I was talking about Ma," Francesca clarified.

Rafe cleared his throat. "She's right Ma you're not looking too good right now."

In their defense Natalia too looked as though she'd fought some major uphill battle – emerging victorious but at a steep price.

Olivia looked up at Natalia noticing the sallowness in her pallor that somewhat matched her own.

"Maybe we should take you to the hospital to get checked out," Olivia chimed in – her voice rough like crushed gravel.

Natalia looked incredulously from face to face.

"Are you kidding me right now? You almost die and I'm the one that needs to go to the hospital?"

"Well when you put it that way…" Olivia trailed off as Natalia sighed impatiently next to her.

"And don't you two dare think you're going to get away with whatever that little maneuver was you just pulled either." Natalia leveled a chagrined Francesca and Rafe with a no nonsense glare.

They both looked down and nodded their heads in consternation.

"Yes Ma," they echoed.

Olivia decided to cut them some slack. Granted she hadn't really gotten a clear explanation of what had happened, but she knew she was still alive right now because of whatever they had done. "We'll figure out how to deal with what you two did later. For now though…thank you."

Her sincerity glowed from her eyes now a little brighter than before.

They both grinned.

"So now would probably be a good time to tell you that I punched a whole through one of your trees then?"

"WHAT?"

Francesca quickly passed the buck. "And Rafe doesn't have diabetes anymore either."

"RAPHEAL!"

"You friggin nark!"

"So I'm going to give you the simplest explanation I can okay?"

Francesca, Rafe, and Olivia all sat in the waiting room. Natalia had been ushered to examination by Rick who had given Olivia a slightly suspicious once over. It had been agreed that they couldn't of course tell anyone what had transpired for fear of people looking a little too deeply. So Olivia's incident remained a secret.

Francesca now sat explaining what she had done.

"You know how when you drink a really hot cup of coffee too fast and you burn your tongue to the point your taste buds go numb and you can't taste anything for a while?"

Olivia furrowed her brow and indicated for her to continue with her hand.

"Well imagine your body is your tongue, your taste buds are your leukocyte levels, and the coffee is the shot I gave you."

"Wait what?"

Both Olivia and Francesca gave Rafe a patient look clearing asking for him to shut up.

"The shot for lack of a better term burned your leukocytes so they can't discern the difference between your white blood cells and that of your heart. Just like a burned tongue can't discern the difference between the taste of a lemon or an orange your leukocytes can't tell either. Because they don't know which cells to attack and eradicate they won't at all. Over time the 'taste buds' will heal and begin to work properly again. By the time that happens though the mutating agent I injected you with will have singled out essential Gus' cells and well…mutated them into yours. The heart is yours now – free and clear."

Olivia paused for a moment and pursed her lips. "I'm not even going to pretend I fully understand all of that."

"Sorry. But for now you will have to take this supplement I got you until your leukocytes are working properly again. They're not attacking anything so you'll be open to infection for the next couple of days."

Before Olivia could respond Rick came back. "Olivia could you join us please?"

All three family members looked panicked.

"Is Natalia okay?"

"What's wrong with Ma?"

"What do you need us to do?"

"Whoa, whoa…calm down she'll be fine. I just need to borrow Olivia for a moment," Rick assured.

The two children sat stoic as Olivia walked back with Rick giving them one parting glance in assurance.

She was still a little wobbly and hoped Rick wouldn't notice.

"I am fine. Never been healthier in my life," Natalia began to insist as Olivia rubbed her back and Rick checked her chart.

"Well that's true, but that hasn't always been the case."

"Will you just come out with it already?" Olivia was beyond agitated at the moment. She just wanted to go home and snuggle up with her family then drift off into a deep coma like sleep for about a year.

"Natalia how many jobs have you worked at once on average?"

"Three at a time."

"How much sleep would you say you were used to getting during that time?"

"What sleep?" Natalia chuckled at her own joke before sobering to the quietness of the room. She nervously cleared her throat.

"Taking care of a sick Rafe, working all those jobs, minimal sleep, eating when you could fit it into your schedule, looking out for Olivia and her health. Stress, stress, stress, and oh yeah…more stress." Rick kept his gaze on a slowly catching Natalia. "We've been so focused on Olivia that I haven't thought to ask you what you were doing to take care of yourself. In my medical opinion year's worth of manual labor on your feet, worrying about Rafe then Olivia, and general lack of a proper diet is to blame here."

"But I don't work nearly as much, and I've been eating way better since I came to Springfield."

"I said year's worth of these bad habits Natalia. I'm guessing this has been building up for a long time. Your body is tired…give it some rest. I'm prescribing at least a week off of work, no chores, some wine, a good book, and oh…" He pulled a slip from his prescription pad. "This nifty blood pressure medication."

Olivia snorted as Natalia glared.

"I think I prematurely awarded Olivia the worst patient ever award," Rick mumbled

Three heads tilted to the side in concentration. Rafe peaked through the space and motioned with a tilt of his head to Olivia and Natalia who could be seen through the other side. The look clearly said, "Are you seeing this shit?"

"For some reason I pictured like this perfect circle. This just looks like a blast zone."

Francesca pushed Rafe.

Her Mom had just had a major heart scare that could have resulted in death, her Ma was just released from the hospital for high stress, anxiety, and blood pressure levels…but instead of going home they were here.

At the park.

Admiring her handy work.

Parents never let shit go did they?

Olivia sighed. "Was this really necessary?"

"It was either that or James' face, but if you rather I build a time machine and…"

"Okay, okay we get it," Natalia sighed and waved her off with her hand. "How's your hand?"

Francesca presented the appendage in question for investigation. It was the first time either woman noticed how big the girl's knuckles were. Years of punching and hitting giving her hands a strength few could posses. She had built up a thick callous around the bone that protected them from harm. "It's good…caught a splinter but I pulled it out."

Natalia sighed and shook her head in acceptance as she began to feel fatigue set in.

Olivia looked at her worriedly.

"Come on we'll talk about all of this later. Let's just go home and pass out for a few hundred years shall we?"

Everyone nodded in agreement as they walked away from the scene of the crime.

Rafe pulled out his forgotten Snicker's bar and munched away on it happily. Francesca bit her lip trying not to laugh.

"Did you get that from Aunt Doris?" she questioned him.

"No," he looked at her funny.

"Just checking."

Natalia eye balled Rafe's candy bar.

"You're explaining later," she warned.

He stopped dead in his tracks and gulped down the bite. "But I didn't even do it – Chessie did," he whined.

"Why are you bringing me into this?"

"Hypocrite," he jibbed.

"Yeah well you're the oldest you should have told me not to do it."

Rafe paused not wanting to admit his sister was right.

"That's what I thought," Francesca smiled.

Olivia and Natalia grinned – amused as the two continued to bicker.

"Our kids…are nuts," Olivia told Natalia for seemingly the millionth time.

Natalia looked back still exhausted but a little more level headed and smiled. She felt her being suffuse with warmth. "Yeah…but they're ours thank God."

"And I wouldn't have it any other way."