I've been waiting to post this particular chapter for so long, so here you gooooo...
"Tina!"
Val groaned, taking a deep breath and attempting to sink further into her bed. It had been a long time since she'd gotten such a decent night's sleep, and she wasn't willing to give it up so easily.
"Tina! Wake up!"
The whispers became more frantic, and as the voice registered in her mind, Val's eyes snapped open.
The room was dark, and as her bleary eyes focused on the alarm clock beside her, she realized that it was because it was barely two o'clock in the morning. A tiny figure was standing next to her bed, hugging a familiar stuffed animal and crying quietly.
Reaching for the lamp on the nightstand, a soft click bathed the room in shallow yellow light and Val saw who had disturbed her.
Ally was clutching her stuffed rabbit close to her chest, her little shoulders shaking with sniffles and sobs as her face was streaked in tears. Her exhaustion faded immediately, and Val sat up, reaching to grab the girl under her arms and pull her up onto her lap.
"Hey, hey, shhhhhh…" She reassured the five-year-old, "It's ok, it's ok. I'm right here."
The girl continued to sniffle, and Val quietly hummed Knocking on Heavens Door while subtly rocking back and forth, over and over again, until she finally stopped. The sniffles got quieter, and Val slowed her rocking down to stroke a wet piece of hair out of her sister's face.
"There you go," she whispered gently, "we're ok. Did you have a bad dream, mi hija?"
Still trembling a bit, Ally nodded and rubbed her eye with her fist. Val pressed her lips against her sister's head and pulled her close, reminding her that she was still there. Ally took a shaky deep breath, her voice warbling as she finally spoke.
"I dreamed you died."
Val's rocking stopped immediately, and she looked down at her sister as she continued in a heartbroken voice, repeatedly hiccupping as her little chest heaved.
"I-I dreamed that I was all by m-m-myself, and Hector wasn't there a-anymore. And you d-died, and you were b-b-bleeding a lot. And I was trying to help you by d-doing the stuff that Bonnie taught me to do w-with the plants, b-but it wasn't working! And I couldn't stop it, and you died, and I was all a-alone…"
Her sister's tears immediately picked up, and she began to sob earnestly. Val wrapped her arms around the little girl, feeling her heart begin to break at the sound of her sobbing. She didn't say anything at first, simply letting her cry it out as she held her close. She continued to rock and hum, knowing that Ally really just needed to know that she was nearby. After a few minutes, her cries began to quiet down again, and Val pulled back to look into her face.
"Hey, look at me." She tilted the little girl's head up, wiping fresh tears from her face. "I am right here. I'm not dead, and I promise that I will never leave you and Hector alone. I told you we were going to live happily ever after, right?"
Lips still trembling, Ally nodded.
"And don't I always keep my promises?"
Again, Ally nodded, her sniffles getting softer and softer. Val smiled gently down at her, pressing her lips into her sister's hair.
"I'm not going anywhere, baby. I will always be right here, whenever you need me. You're not alone, Ally."
The little nodded one more time, her cries slowly getting lower. Val noticed her alarm clock again, and started running her fingers through Ally's thick, black curls.
"Do you want to sleep in here tonight?"
Another nod.
And so, Val turned off the lamp and settled back down into bed. Ally curled up against her like a kitten, still clutching her stuffed bunny, but now one of her hands had an iron grip on her sister's shirt. In no time at all, the exhausted child was asleep, her fears assuaged, and her bad dreams chased away by the big sister next to her.
And with her youngest sibling's emotions back to normal, Val laid down as well, her eyes momentarily drifting over the simple silver bracelet on Ally's tiny wrist, the lily pendant catching a ray of the moonlight before sleep finally overtook them both.
"Look, Tina! Look at my cartwheel!"
"It looks beautiful, Ally!"
"Tina, did you see my juggle? I did it four times!"
"Yes, Hector, and your form looked awesome!"
Both children continued to run around the spacious backyard behind Liza and Gil's home, shrieking and giggling. Hector was kicking around his new soccer ball that Val had bought him for Christmas, and Ally was practicing her tumbling skills. Val had gotten to watch her sister's most recent meet, and she was impressed. Ally had a real knack for flinging her body around in weird ways without fear. Then again, she was a young witch.
The reminder of her sister's true nature reminded her of her intended tasks that day, and her smile died. Keeping a watchful eye on the kids, she pulled out her phone and flipped it open to retrieve her voicemail. She winced at the screen.
Damon (21) Missed Calls
Elena (12) Missed Calls
Bonnie (10) Missed Calls
Stefan (13) Missed Calls
Jeremy (4) Missed Calls
Caroline (7) Missed Calls
Matt (3) Missed Calls
She also had a fat folder of voicemails from the whole gang, but as she scrolled over the names, she only paused at one. Her finger hovered over the selection button, then pressed it and raised it to her ear.
"Hey, Thumbelina. It is October 1st, about a week since you left. Um, we all miss you. Elena is struggling with the transition, and she hasn't stopped crying since she read your letter. But I feel like you should know that she's telling me she understands. She hopes you're safe."
Damon paused, and she heard him take a deep breath.
"Val, there was some kind of freak accident. At least, that's what the Sheriff and Mayor Lockwood are saying. Pastor Young blew up an entire farmhouse of people, himself included. There was a total of twelve fatalities."
He paused again.
"I wish you were here, Val. You'd know what to do."
Beep, beep. End of message.
She clicked ahead by a few dates.
"Val, please. There's some freak shooting stakes at people and insulting your family line, he's calling it tainted. I don't know what he means, and I doubt you know, either. But it's worth a shot. Please, Val, just pick up your phone. We need you."
Beep, beep End of message.
Val felt her heartbeat pick up. Tainted? What the fuck did that mean?
How much have I actually missed?
Going down by a few weeks to a new one, she pressed play again.
"Pipsqueak, please. Some freaky professor that Bonnie's been talking to is talking about some cure, and a bunch of people are dying. Almost all of the Mikaelson's are back in town, and I don't know what to do anymore. I'm practically the only sane one left, and we need you." He stopped. "I need you. Please, Val, I'm begging you. Just come home. I'll apologize for everything."
Beep, beep. End of message.
Val was staring at her phone in bewilderment. A cure? For vampirism? There was no way, who would have created something like that and then kept it tucked away? And who the hell was this creepy professor sniffing around Bonnie?
The rest of the voice messages held the same tone; things in Mystic Falls had spiraled out of control. Elena and Jeremy had killed Kol, trapped Klaus, and now the whole gang was heading to some remote island off the coast of Nova Scotia. Of course, Damon had left that voicemail right before getting on the plane about three days ago, so who knew what had happened since then. She could only guess they didn't have cell service.
Pressing her lips together, she took immediately began dialing a new number. Looking up, she called out to the kids.
"Ally, Hector! Let's get inside, it's getting dark!"
The kids protested slightly, but one look from their eldest sister caused them to rush inside as the setting sun cast cold, orange rays over the lawn.
"No."
Val sighed at Lucas's response, glancing into the living room to make sure Hector and Ally were still there before walking into the kitchen. "I'm not asking your permission, Lucas. They're my friends, they need my help."
"No, they don't. You've told me yourself that you've had to forgo custody of your siblings to help them; are they really that great of friends?"
"I think you're forgetting that they're the one's who helped me get custody in the first place. I wouldn't have Hector and Alex if it wasn't for them."
"Valentina." Lucas's voice darkened, and she could hear him struggling to keep his own temper in check. "You can't keep doing this. If you want to follow your destiny and help this bloodline, you can't keep getting involved with that kind of drama. You don't owe them anything."
"They're my friends." Her voice was sharp, concise, and left no room for questioning. "I owe them everything, they're practically family."
"No, I'm your family! And so are Hector and Ally!"
Val was taken aback as Lucas shouted, and was unable to answer. Luas himself paused, then sighed, and she heard a shuffling in the background.
"Look, this is not your fight, Valentina. You have your own responsibilities, to your family and to this bloodline. You cannot neglect them because of your naivety and misplaced loyalty to a group of vampires."
"Naivety?" Val's voice dropped to a low tone, and she felt her blood start to warm up. Tingles started shooting from her chest to her limbs, into her fingers and toes. "You know what Lucas? Fuck you. You don't know the first damn thing about me, or my friends, or my other family. I'm going back to Mystic Falls, and I'll find the damn Text myself. Have fun hunting it down without my help."
She slammed her phone shut a little aggressively, then winced and checked the screen. It wasn't cracked, thank goodness.
Still brooding, she stomped into the living room and flopped onto the couch, listening to the noises of the Disney movie she'd put on for the kids. Who the hell did Lucas think he was? She'd told him how much her friends meant to her, and he still continued to insult them. He'd never even met them.
Her phone went off loudly, and she growled, not bothering to check the caller ID before flipping it open and bringing it to her ear.
"What the hell else do you want, Lucas?"
"Um," the man on the other end, who was most certainly not her vampiric ancestor, spoke hesitantly, "I'm looking for Valentina Rodriguez?"
Val closed her eyes, feeling heat rise in her ears. "Uh. Right. I'm sorry, what's this regarding?"
"My name is Dr. Jose Ramirez, I'm an ER physician at Methodist Hospital here in San Antonio, Texas. One of our patients listed her as her daughter and emergency contact. It's truly very urgent."
Ringing phones, room bells, and vitals machine alarms sounded through the halls of the emergency room. There was a lot going on in the hospital, as there always was, but Val's attention was solely on the back of the nurse that was leading her to a specific room.
The blonde woman knocked on the door and stuck her head in, saying something quietly. Soon, a man in blue scrubs and a white coat with a stethoscope around his neck walked out of the room, smiling kindly at Val.
"Hello. You must be Valentina Rodriguez?"
"Yes." Val shook the man's hand, forcing a smile on her face. He seemed kind enough, in his mid-fifties.
"My name is Dr. Ramirez, we spoke on the phone. I assume you must have some questions?"
"Why was my mother brought in?"
The man looked a little surprised, and she knew why. She'd worked in emergency services long enough to know that family members usually wanted to know if their loved one was okay before anything else. But this was far from a normal family, and her mother was no longer considered a loved one. She'd almost wanted to ignore the call. But Alex and Hector deserved to know details; they deserved to know what happened to their mother.
"Ms. Garcia was found unconscious by a friend in her apartment. We had no way of how long she'd been down, or what she'd taken. Once we got her stabilized, we did some scans and more bloodwork and discovered an unusually high level of barbiturates in her system, as well as an extremely high alcohol level."
Val felt her stomach clench. That particular cocktail was usually only ever used for one purpose.
"When your mother awoke, she confirmed that she had attempted suicide. Luckily, we got to her just in time. We have her under surveillance and she's currently being kept as an emergency detention order until we can get her into the psychiatric facility across the street. Of course, we're happy to discuss any other options with you since you are her closest relative-"
"No." Val responded almost immediately, running a hand through her hair. The doctor looked a little surprised at her outburst, and she sighed.
"I'm sorry. I just- my relationship with my mother is extremely complicated. My siblings are currently with a foster family, and I was visiting when I got your call."
He nodded, his brown eyes soft. "I understand. She is, however, awake and has been asking for you. Would you like to speak with her?"
Val opened her mouth to shoot down the request and simply ask for the necessary paperwork to fill out that would keep her mother under psychiatric care. But then something occurred to her, and she paused.
Ally.
"Yes. Yes, I would."
The room that her mother was being kept in was bare of just about everything besides a bed and the paper shirt and pants her mother was dressed in. All wires, sheets, blankets, and medical equipment was gone from the room. It made sense, of course. Her mother was in a fragile state of mind.
Esperanza Garcia looked smaller and more fragile than Val had ever seen her in her life. When she was a child, first living with her, she'd been beautiful. And that beauty had lasted for quite some time. But even in her worst moments, Esperanza had always seemed so much bigger than Val. But that wasn't the case now.
Now, she looked smaller than ever before.
Her dark skin was pale and shallow, her cheeks sunken in and her skin scarred from picking at it from the crystal meth use. Her arms were covered in scars and track marks, and though her mouth was closed, her teeth were rotting right out of her head. If Val remembered correctly, she'd already lost five. Her long, black hair was matted and uneven, chopped short in some places and full of split ends in the others. Her brown eyes were sunk back into her head, and her lips were discolored.
She looked like death.
When Val stepped into the room, the security guard looked up from his spot in the corner. The two nodded at each other, and the nurse beckoned him out to let the two talk. He would, of course, be right by the window. But at least they'd have some privacy.
The door closed, and the room was bathed in silence. Val watched her mother, but Esperanza was ignoring her, picking at her fingernails. They were already down to the nubs, but that wasn't deterring her. Val didn't speak, only sliding the security guards chair closer to the bed and taking a seat.
"Why did you list me as your emergency contact?"
Esperanza shrugged. "You've wanted me dead for years, Valentina. You told me yourself when they took you away for the first time. I figured you would want the satisfaction of signing over my body."
"But you didn't die." Val stated matter-of-factly. "Looks like you should've taken the whole bottle of tequila, not just half."
"Suicide doesn't come with a handbook, pendeja." Esperanza sneered. "You obviously don't want to be here. So, why are you?"
Val leaned forward, bracing her elbows on her knees. "It's about Alex."
Her mother twitched, and at least had the decency to look half-way concerned. "Why? Is she ok?"
"She's fine." Val brushed off; she didn't want to tell her mother everything simply because she had no idea what she already knew. Esperanza may have no idea that the father of her youngest child had been a witch. "But I have questions about her father I need you to answer."
Esperanza scoffed, tossing her head. "I knew him for all of a week, Valentina. We weren't even officially dating, just messing around. I'd been clean for over a year by that point, and he was a good lay. I looked better than I had in years."
"What was his name?"
Esperanza paused, then shrugged. "I don't remember."
"Seriously?"
"Do you always judge so much, Valentina, or just with me?"
"Just you."
Her mother scowled, but Val continued. "Then what do you remember?"
Esperanza sighed. "He was a younger man, in his twenties. Rubio, blue eyes, very charming."
Val couldn't help but raise her eyebrows. "Ally's dad was white?"
"Yes. I know it doesn't look like it, but that's just because she looks so much like me."
"Where did you meet him?"
"Somewhere in California. Like I said, I had just finished a year sober, and I wanted to celebrate. We met in San Francisco on New Year's Eve, in this cute little bar. Angelino's. There was lots of dancing and partying-"
"And drinking."
Esperanza's head snapped to her, brown eyes burning in fury. "Do you want me to answer your questions?"
Val rolled her eyes but raised her hands in surrender as she leaned back in her chair. Esperanza glared at her a moment longer, then continued.
"Anyway. We fooled around for a while, but then he had to go back home. Said there was a family emergency."
"Do you know where he was from?"
"He told me New Orleans, but I had no way of knowing. He said he had some family problems, left, and never came back. About two months later, I found out I was pregnant, and you know the rest."
Val frowned. These weren't the answers she'd been looking for. She'd been hoping for a name, a better description, maybe even a picture. But even completely sober, her mother was an unreliable place to turn to for facts.
"I know you want more information." Esperanza's voice knocked her from her thoughts. "That look on your face; your dad always made that face whenever he wanted more information, whenever he was dissatisfied with something."
"Did you love him?"
The words came flying out of her mouth faster than she could stop them, and the question shocked both mother and daughter into silence. Val bit her lip, then continued, voice quiet.
"Even with how things ended, did you ever love him? Did you ever truly care about him?"
Esperanza was quiet, staring into Val's face. Her face looked blank, but there was something dancing behind her eyes that her daughter recognized.
Regret.
"I never loved another. Not like I loved Antonio. I just let my demons come between us, and I'll always regret that."
Val nodded, and felt her eyes begin to burn. She pushed the emotions down, but they were too much. Her next questions ran rampant in her head, one that she couldn't get rid of, no matter how hard she tried. She hated crying, and she hated crying in front of her mother even more. But she couldn't leave without asking. She needed to know. Finally, she spoke, her voice trembling slightly.
"And me?"
Esperanza looked up at her eldest child's question. Val raised her eyes to meet her mother's gaze.
"Did you ever love me?"
Silence, then, "You're my daughter."
"Yeah, but that wasn't enough, was it?" Val cursed the shaking in her voice, and the tears that were starting to gather in her eyes, filling them. "You still relapsed. You almost killed me. If dad hadn't pulled me out of that bathtub, then…"
"It was an accident."
"No, it was abuse." Val snarled tearfully, glaring at her mother. "It was neglect. I'm your kid, and I was, and have always been, more important than some stupid fucking pills."
Esperanza's face tightened in anger, "I won't apologize for this again-"
"I don't want your damn apology." Val cut her off, a tear rolling down her cheek. "I just wanted to know, on what could have been your deathbed, if you had changed. But I can see now that not even that would make you a better person." She smiled ruefully. "It's comforting to know that it wasn't the drugs that turned you; that if things had played out differently, I could have had a better childhood. My family could have been full. It's not the pills, the booze, or the cocaine. It's just you, Esperanza. You are the bad thing that ruined your life."
Getting up, she aggressively threw the strap of her bag over her shoulder and opened the door. But she paused in the doorway and turned back around.
"For so long, I wished it was you that died that night. But now, I know why it wasn't. Because no matter how awful you are, no matter how much pain you cause me, I wouldn't have gotten Hector and Ally if you'd died. Dad would be proud of me, he'd be thrilled that I finally have some siblings to support, to love. Family was always important to him. So, don't have them call me again. Don't ever attempt to make amends. I already have the best parts of you, and they're at home wondering where I'm at."
And with that, she slammed the door shut and walked away.
She was only just getting to the doors when a voice stopped her. "Miss! Miss!"
Turning around, she frantically wiped the tears from her face, sniffling. "Um, yeah. What?"
The security guard smiled sympathetically. "Your mother was brought in with a bag of belongings. Since she's being transferred to the psych facility, she asked they be sent to her home. But we always try to send them with a family member."
Val started to tell him to just burn the bag; she didn't want anything of her mother's. But something in her made her pause, and finally, she nodded.
"Ok. Where is it?"
The next day, Christmas break had ended. Hector and Ally went back to school, and Liza and Gil went back to work. Val had some time to kill by herself, so she got dressed and went into the couple's room.
She knew exactly what she was looking for; the firesafe box with the lock that held all of Alex and Hector's paperwork. She'd given the foster parents their documents back when she'd sent them to live with them again because she didn't want anything to happen to them. Pulling the box out, she brought it downstairs and sat on the living room floor, unlocking it and shuffling through the papers.
There. Birth certificates, all three of them. Val pulled them out and reviewed them carefully.
Valentina Esperanza Rodriguez-Garcia
September 18, 1989 3:07 a.m.
Mother: Esperanza Griselda Garcia-Ramirez
Father: Antonio Ernesto Rodriguez-Gonzalez
Hector Carlos Blanco-Garcia
September 30, 2003 14:30 p.m.
Mother: Esperanza Griselda Garcia-Ramirez
Father: Carlos Roberto Blanco-Villegas
Alejandra Griselda Garcia
September 4, 2006 00:30 a.m.
Mother: Esperanza Griselda Garcia-Ramirez
Father:
Unlike her siblings, Ally's name was not hyphenated, as it would traditionally be if her father's name had been listed. Meaning her mother had not known a single thing about the father of her youngest child. Her middle name wasn't a clue, either, since that was the name of their deceased grandmother.
Sighing, Val rubbed her face. Was this a dead end? As much as she wanted answers, she was beginning to think that she may be forced to start asking in different places about Ally's connection to the Mikaelson's. A small part of her simply wanted to ignore it for the rest of her life and act like it didn't exist. But that was just stupid, and selfish. She hated the Original Family with every fiber of her being, but she loved Alejandra and Hector. And that love was stronger than her loathing.
She sat back on her hands, her mind whirring-
-and saw something out of the corner of her eye.
Her mother's bag she'd brought back from the hospital, sitting on the couch.
What else do I have to try?
Grabbing the small, black bag, she opened it up and reached inside.
Most of it was useless; her mother's wallet, filled with expired credit cards and one that wasn't, but would most definitely be declined if she tried to use it. Five dollars in cash, old receipts, an empty plastic baggy with a white substance on the sides that Val threw in the trash immediately, her mother's ID, and a manilla folder.
Cocking her head to the side, the huntress opened up the folder, peeking inside and then dumping it onto the carpet.
Pictures.
Of all of them. Her, Hector, Ally. They were old and new, and Val realized with a start that some of Hector and Ally were actually pretty recent. She realized with a start that someone must have been sending them, and she felt her chest tighten when she knew that it only could have been two people.
Pushing past the betrayal that was growing in her chest, she flipped through the pictures. She wasn't sure how it made her feel, her mother keeping pictures of her. She'd meant what she'd said, nothing would have changed. She shook her head and flipped through the pictures faster. Now was not the time for her sorrow-
Wait.
She froze, then flipped back one picture in particular. It was one taken of her mother, who was clearly caught off-guard, and it was hazy. There was a man sitting behind her, holding a drink in his hand. He didn't appear to notice that someone was aiming a camera at him.
But that wasn't what was causing horror to bleed into her veins. What was scaring her was that, despite the poor quality, she knew exactly who she was looking at.
Her lungs were getting tighter, and the air in the room was feeling thinner. The horror was blending with panic, and her chest began to heave. Frantically, she flipped the picture over to the writing on the back.
San Francisco, CA
New Year's Eve/Day, 2005/2006
Angelino's Bar
The other name had been scratched out, and while that would normally confuse her, Val's heart was thundering so loud she was positive the neighbors could hear it.
Esperanza couldn't remember the man's name. There were never any pictures, no memory of him. He wasn't listed on Ally's birth certificate because even if Esperanza had remembered his name, there was a damn good chance she didn't know his full one. Hardly anybody did. He was only ever known by the name he put out for himself.
Val flipped the picture back over, beginning to shake her head without even meaning to. It wasn't possible. Was it? It had never happened before, but then again, he had never happened before. No matter how she tried to spin in her head, no matter how much she kept rejecting the idea, she knew it was possible. She knew what this meant. Her voice came out a whisper, her blood running cold.
"Oh my god…"
She'd found Ally's dad.