ABC Owns them

Chapter 1

When she ran from Llanview she felt like a child, a child who couldn't face something as stupid as a man not being able to express his love for her in words. But now, now almost two years later she was a woman. A grown woman who had been thru so much since leaving Llanview, she had always thought that Llanview was bad luck for her, with all that had happened to her since arriving there all those years ago, sure she loved finding her family, feeling loved by them but, all the pain, all the pain that came along with finding things like love, it was too much for her to handle at times. Sure she was good at putting on a brave front, shit, real good at being brave but everyone has their breaking point and although it would have been perfectly normal for hers to be at one of the times she was kidnapped and almost died but know it was when John wasn't able to express those three words to her. So what did she do? She left town. She ran, ran far away and what did that teach her? She knew what it taught her, a few more lessons in life, in love and then it taught her the most important thing she could ever learn. That if she loved herself first, she could do anything, she could be anything, she could live thru anything and all she needed was herself.

Natalie yawned as she closed her eyes. In a few hours she would be home, home in Llanview, home and staying home, she missed her family so and now with her newfound maturity and self worth she wanted to be near them. She had plans for Llanview, plans to help out the community with more of her trust fund the same way she helped out a small area in Fla. Natalie fell into a deep sleep as she allowed the plane's turbulence to rock her to sleep, she dreamt about how everything came together for her in these last few years and how everything also fell apart.

About two years prior

Natalie landed in Fla. in Tampa to be exact, she wanted to go somewhere warm, she was so tired of the snow and the cold days. She had remembered someone talking about St Petersburg Beach at Roxy's salon, how beautiful the beaches were an how clear the water. So that's were she decided to go. She got a rental car and headed towards the beach, once at the beach she found a hotel and got a room beachside. She spent at least a month at that hotel just trying to figure out what to do with her life, where to go from there, she called her mom every week to check in but never told her where she was. She didn't want anyone to know, especially John, although she knew if he wanted to he'd find her. but she knew he wouldn't, that he didn't want to so she let him go, she started to anyways, it was hard at first he was in her head constantly, but then when she decided it was time to let him go she did, it was also time to get a job. When she found a job John started to become less and less in her thoughts, he was still in her heart and she knew he always would be but once she started working it got easier, much easier.

Natalie got a job at a local bar, she really enjoyed working there, the people were nice and the tips were good. She didn't want to touch her trust fund in fear that her family might find out where she was and she just wasn't ready for anyone to know where she was yet. She was working late one night when a man she didn't recognize approached her at the bar, the two of them were the only one's in the bar, the man took out a gun and pointed it right at Natty. He demanded the cash from the register but to his surprise Natalie wasn't just any old person to hold at gunpoint. Hell she was a pro at someone holding a gun on her, she was calm and told the man all the money was in the back in a safe, she led the way as she set off the silent alarm under the bar before she did. They went to the back and she faked fumbling for the code, she faked until the man loosened his grip on the gun. He loosened it enough for Natalie to knock it from his hand, the man went to grab her and just before he got her they heard his voice. A cop who got the call. The cop she got involved with, the cop she tried so desperately to love, to be in love with, but couldn't. She and Kyle spent a year together before it started. Before he realized she could never love him the same way he loved her. A year before her world once again turned for the worse, a turn that had to occur before she realized what she needed to do in life, before she had direction. A year before he started to hit her because he swore he loved her so much, a year before he was jealous of a love she still held in her heart for a man he never even met.

Natalie shifted in her seat on the plane as she remembered when she finally made the decision to leave him, it wasn't to long after he started beating her, he would hit her and then feel so bad about it, she'd forgive him and then things would be fine, he'd promise not to do it again but then he would, the last time he beat her so bad she ended up in the hospital. It was awful, she was all bruised up and battered and then the nurse told her. Told her something that made her sick to her stomach and she decided right than and there she wasn't going to be anybodies punching bag again. The nurse told her she had been pregnant. That she miscarried because of the beating. How she cried, cried and then her sadness turned to rage. The police department had to come down to the hospital for a report, it was procedure, the hospital had to call, but Natalie knew, especially when she saw Kyle's partner walk in for her statement, that there was no sense in reporting it, he was a cop and cops don't get involved in others business, especially domestic disputes. Kyle's partner said something to her about the fact that she should go home to her family if she didn't want it to happen again. And it pissed her off, royally pissed her off, she told him to go 'fuck himself" that no one was making Natalie run ever again.

That was the day she realized what she should do. What she could do with her trust fund. She put a part of it away for any children she might have many years from then, and she researched it, researched to see if there were any homes for battered woman and their children in the area and there was none. So she formed a plan, she called her family and had some of her money released and she found a location. She opened up a shelter for battered woman; she ran it with donations from the state and some of her own funds. She found an old building that she and a few volunteers renovated and four months later it was opened. It was running well with some great volunteers and she had a strong feeling of self worth, she felt good about something, it made her feel like this was something she was meant to do in life, to use her money for something worth while, to help others and she had never felt a better feeling before in her life, not even loving a man, not even with John.

Natalie again shifted as she started to wake when she heard the pilot say they were landing in Llanview. She woke thinking how she wanted to do something like that shelter in Llanview, the one in Fla. was running smoothly and since she had missed everyone so much she decided it was time to come home, time not to run any more.

She got excited thinking about being able to help woman in need in Llanview and the surrounding towns, she was also so excited to see her family and be with them again, she thought about whether she was excited or not to see John, she just wasn't sure. It had been a few years, she had changed so much, she was sure he had too, she knew there was still a part of her that loved him but did he still feel the same way about her? Was he even still single? She thought, well, either way I'm home, to stay.