Disclaimers: I do now own PLL or the characters. I do own all OCs.
Spoilers: The Pink TuTu - alternate ending
Rating: T
Notes: This is a direct follow up to #6, The Mystery Lady. If you have not read that, please do, as this will not make sense otherwise.
Enjoy! :)
June 27th, 2019 – Rosewood Hospital
Previously on… The Mystery Lady…
Rosie does not remember the nice lady and man who called the police and told them they had two little girls who were claiming to be Rosalie Montgomery-Hastings – the five-year-old kidnapped three years ago, – and one other girl.
Rosie does not remember it, but what she does remember?
Right here, and right now.
Right now as she feels her baby brother's hand holding hers, and she listens as her mommy whispers in her ear, and as her mama kisses her forehead, and…
She looks over, to her right, to where Mystery Lady is sitting, when she came back from being checked over, herself, by the other doctors.
And she pulls away from Aria slightly, to ask,
"Miss… What is your name?"
As Rosalie asks this, Spencer and Aria, for the first time, get a glimpse of the angel who helped their daughter.
What they see stuns both of them.
The woman smiles at Rosie, motioning for her to come, which she does immediately.
"My name," The woman begins. "My name is Margie."
Rosie questions, "Margie?" And then adds, "That's a pretty name!"
Margie nods in agreement. Then, she reveals something else.
"And you know what else?"
"What?"
Spencer and Aria watch this interaction. Before Margie can answer Rosie, Scottie is climbing down from the bed, and goes over to his sister and their angel. The two adults look to each other and they know they are thinking the same thing…
"Thank you for saving my sissy, Miss Margie!" Scottie chirps. Margie smiles, holding out an arm, and Scottie moves to stand between her legs, while Rosie is in her lap.
"You are so very welcome, sweetheart. I love your sister so much, and I am so very sorry I could not save her before now."
The young lady glances at Spencer and Aria, trying to convey the truth in her statement…
"I am sorry it took me three years to be able to do this but, you see, the same man that took Rosie, well, he took me, too. And I was afraid of him before today."
Spencer nods, it is vague, and her brain is trying to tell her to actually speak, but she just…
Can't do it.
Margie takes this the wrong way, however, looking back down at the two kids in her lap, sadly.
"It's ok, Miss Margie," Scottie reassures her. "You saved her now! And you both are away from the bad man! And he won't never hurt you, ever again! Right, Mamma?"
Aria nods slowly.
"Yes, sweetheart. The bad man is never going to hurt Margie or sissy ever again."
It is then, at that moment, nearly 2 hours to the second since Margie and Rosie ran to that house, that Scottie realizes something.
He taps her on the arm, asking, "Miss Margie, I gots a question." And when she nods for him to go on, he says, "When did the bad man take you?"
"Well," She thinks. "What is today?"
"June twenty-seventh, 2019, Sissy's birday! She is 8 years old!"
And for the first time since leaving the house, for the first time since making up her mind of her escaping with Rosie, Margie falters.
Because no.
There is no way…
"Well, then, I guess that would make 23 years. The bad man took me 23 years ago, exactly today."
The wheels in his head are turning now, as Scottie does the math.
"That means you were tooked by the man in 1996. 'Cause 2019 minus 23 is 1996."
"Well, it certainly is. How old you, sweetheart?"
"I'm four years old!" He proudly holds up four fingers.
"Well, you are the smartest four-year-old I know!"
"Thank you." He answers back, shyly.
Then, something clicks in his mind.
The pieces of the puzzle fall into place, and he asks, in a whisper,
"Miss Margie, what is your birday?"
This is easy, she thinks.
"June twenty-seventh is my birthday."
Spencer and Aria hear this…
"You were five years old when the bad man tooked you."
So many questions…
But could it be?
"Yes, I was," Margie confirms.
"I know someone who's little girl was taken at five years old, in 1996!"
And Margie sort of… chuckles here.
But she does not think…
Because no.
There is no way.
She hoped, deep inside of her that she would have parents to come home to, but knows that, after 23 years, it probably will not turn out the way she wished.
That is why her breath is completely taken away, when Scottie says, "They're our Nanas. We call them Mimi Laura and Nana Joan."
He states it so matter-of-factly, so surely…
Margie snaps her head to look at Spencer and Aria.
By now, Rosie has realized something is going on.
By now, Scottie is in tears, as he understands the magnitude of the statement he just made.
By now, Margie has a million and one questions swirling around her head.
But it is Aria who speaks, saying, "You're Margaret Lillien. You're Joan and Laura Taylor's daughter, who disappeared from the Zoo in June, 1996… 23 years ago."
But sometimes?
Sometimes wishes come true.
Margie nods to that.
She wants to ask. Oh, how she longs to ask.
But she cannot bare to bring herself to do it because it would most likely, unfortunately, unwantedly mean she would receive the news she hoped to never hear.
It is Rosalie who asks it though.
"Mommy, can we call Mimi Laura and Nana Joan?"
And Margie waits.
Waits to hear those words, waits to have her heart broken…
Waits to get the pain over with.
And because she waits. Because she suspects, and expects, and is psyching herself up, to be immune to the full weight of those words…
Her emotions are completely shattered when Aria really, actually responds with…
"Of course, we can. Oh, Rosie, they are going to be so, so happy to see you – to see both of you."
Woah! And there it is! You know the true identity of the "Mystery Lady" who helped Rosie escape. Now, how do you think Laura and Joan are going to react to finding out their youngest daughter, who has been missing for 23 exact years, is alive, and that she helped Rosie escape?
Well, you get to find out in part 2!
Please review and let me know what you thought! :)