Disclaimer: All characters, places and themes you recognize, are not mine. I have taken them and tweaked them to my liking and story line.
AN: Hope you guys enjoyed! This chapter is a little dark. No Helen love from me!
Chapter 2
Childhood Memories
SPOV
I woke up before my alarm, stupid Army training. I knew it would be awhile before my body transitioned back to normal civilian life. . . Oh wait, it never would. Being an ER nurse has about the worst hours a civilian could ask for. So I may move off of my early morning early nights routine, but would develop the most out of whack schedule one could ask for. Oh the joys!
I went down to the hotel gym to work out some of the excess energy i had accumulated by sitting in a truck all day and not working out. I plugged myself into my Ipod and hopped on the never ending belt to lose myself in my childhood memories.
Ever since I could remember I had never been good enough, not for my mother at least. That was always Valerie's place, at her side in the kitchen, while I got exiled to the back yard. When I got older I no longer bothered trying to fit into her perfect mold, I knew I never would. I spent more time at my friends house than I did at my own, it always felt like they were more my family than my own anyways. Melanie's family had always encouraged me, in the horse arena and out of it. They were a total horse family, it's how her parents had met.
The more time I spent with her family and away from my own, the more my own mother shunned me. Grandma and Grandpa Mazur were not around much, always off on their senior trips and cruises. So they never saw how my mother treated me. Valerie had grown up watching our mother ignore me and place unfair restrictions and expectations on me, so she soon began to do the same. Valerie was popular in high school, while was I was still in Jr. High it never had much impact. But that all changed when I hit High School.
All Valerie's friends teased me and did awful things to me. It didn't matter that I had my own arch nemesis, who was already trying to paint me as a slut, now I had a whole group of Juniors doing the same thing. It all happened because my so called sister had told everyone that Mother had caught Joe Morelli up my skirt when I was 8 and he was 11. Joe, a senior, had jumped on the band wagon, telling everyone that I had liked it. Things only got worse that year, all the girls had crushes on Joe Morelli, and Joe was a little man whore. Slept with anything that would open their legs for him, I was bound and determined not to be one of those girls. I found used condoms and photoshopped pictures in my locker. Anything they could to embarrass me and paint me as a slut. I couldn't believe my own sister was the one orchestrating this.
I ignored everyone the best I could, sticking to what few friends I had. Which turned out to only be Melanie, she was the only one who continuously stuck up for me, and helped clean me up after my makeup had run down my face from the tears, that I hated to let fall. I had tried to tell my mother and father about the bullying, but she had just told me that if I was more like the other girls then they wouldn't bully me. I tried to argue, saying that Joe Morelli had slept with every girl in the top 3 grades. My father had continued eating his lunch quietly, but my mother, she had whipped around, pointing her wooden spoon at me and yelled at me. "You listen here young lady, that young Joseph Morelli is a fine young man. He had been here multiple times with Val when they were dating, and now he is dating that very pretty Gillman girl. His family is 'Burg, Angela Morelli and I are on the PTA and HOA board together. Their family is well respected in the 'Burg. How dare you accuse him of such horrible things. You're the little slut, opening your legs for him when you were only 8." By this time, tears were streaming down my face at the hate my mother had directed my way. "Quit crying you little brat, you know it's the truth. Now I'm sure you deserve whatever they are saying about you. If only you would grow up and be more like your sister. Honestly Stephanie." With that she had turned back around, I looked to my father for help, only to find him staring at his plate without a word.
I fled to my room, packing for a few days, and called Melanie and told her what happened. Her parents told me I was welcome in their house, until things settled down at home. I knew neither my mother or father would take me, and mother would kill me if she knew I told anyone what just happened. After all this was the 'Burg, everyone had secrets, but no one aired their dirty laundry in public.
It was the middle of the night when I tossed my duffel bag out the window of my second story window. I quickly followed my bag, but something happened, I didn't get out the window like I should have. I quickly turned around, my mother had grabbed me. The malice in her eyes froze me in place. "You ungrateful little bitch, how dare you try to leave this house. Probably going to that awful Melanie's aren't you." I tried running, I got around her and to the top of the stairs before she grabbed my arm.
"You aren't going anywhere you little brat, and I'll make sure you never tell anyone about this." She let go of one of my arms and slapped my full across the face. The force of her blow whipped my head around, and I pulled out of my Mother's grasp, only to fall down the stairs behind me. I heard the tell tale 'snap' of one of the bones in my arm breaking when I tried to catch myself. I cradled that arm on the way down, and had no ability to break my fall at the bottom. I crashed down the steps, hitting my head on the wall. I stood up unsteadily, but moving towards the door. I had to get out of there. I could vaguely hear my mother screaming in the background, through the ringing in my ears. I shook my head trying to get the stars out of my vision and ran for the front door. I made it out the door and across the lawn to my bag before bolting to the garage where my bike was. I swung the bag over my head and pushed the bike as fast as it would go towards the little road behind our house. I pedaled as fast as I could until I knew I was out of sight and reach of my horrible mother.
I cut across town towards Melanie's. I could only steer with one hand, the other arm was cradled to my chest and starting to throb. We had learned in Health class last week, how adrenaline sometimes blocked your brains pain receptors. I knew I was experiencing that now, my adrenaline was letting down and now my pain receptors could receive all the messages from my arm and head. I could feel blood running down the side of my face from where I had hit against the wall.
I pushed myself all the way to Melanie's, no matter the pain or how tired I was, no matter how much I wanted to stop. I made it to the ranch house up the long winding drive and barely managed to press the doorbell, before the darkness took over.
Opposed to the darkness, I woke up to blinding white light. My left arm was heavy, like it was covered in something. Looking down it had been covered in a bright blue cast, guess my break assumption had been correct last night. I could feel something wrapped around my head, I guess I got stitches too, great. Mother was just going to love this, I was ruining her life again.
I had fallen in love with the nurses who looked after me. I asked question after question about their job, and how they liked it. They brought in the nurse that had taken care of me when I was brought into the ER by David and Kathy Buchanan, Melanie's parents. She told me about my break and the concussion and then I asked her a million and one questions. I had fallen in love with becoming a nurse then. I knew what I wanted to do for my future. Now I just needed to find way to do it.
I unfortunately had to go back to my parents house, the Buchanans couldn't keep me forever. I spent all the time in my room, trying not to rock the boat or make waves. I did my chores as directed and only showed up for food. Beyond that I was at Melanie's whenever I could and hid in my room from my family when I couldn't.
I wiped the tears from my face and powered down the treadmill. REliving childhood memories where often the worst. Even with all the nightmares I still had from missions. I had gone through, and was still going through extensive counseling to help get over it. I could only hope that I would not need to see my family much as we all tried to live in the same town.
AN: Hope y'all don't mind the dark element of her background. I needed some way to make her who she is later in the story. Please leave some reviews!