From Maid to Newsie

by Maleficent-darkgoodwitch2416

When Anastasia and Drizella destroy her dress, Ella doesn't go to the garden and so she never meets her Fairy Godmother. Instead, Ella runs away to New York, and joins the Manhattan Newsies. When the strike begins, she is a key leader, but when Joe remarries Lady Tremaine, how will Ella react to having the Newsies' reporter, Katherine as her new stepsister?

5. Where Is Ella? Is She OK?

Lady Tremaine's POV

I paced anxiously around my room. Where was she? Where was my Little Ella—as I used to call her? If Edmund was alive, he'd be furious with me for losing his daughter—then again, I was mad at myself and that self-directed anger was enough for two or an army. I mean, seriously, how hard is it to find one nineteen-year-old girl? "I should have locked the back door while she was moping in the attic," I thought, frustrated with my failure to keep Ella in Nanthia. "I should have made sure she didn't have any easy escapes. I should have forbidden her from leaving the house."

Then a whole bunch of horror stories filled my mind. "What if she was raped and is pregnant? She's just a child herself. And she knows she isn't to make me a grandmother until after Drizella and Anastasia have done so, but what if she forgets? What if she's lost in a foreign country and crying for me to come bring her home? What if she's scared? What if she wants me to bring her home? What if she's hungry? What if she needs me? Of course she needs me—she's still a child. What if she was kidnapped? What if someone got her drunk and forced her into a marriage? She's just a child. She needs me. Maybe she's trying to come home, but can't figure out what will lead her home. What if she was mugged? What if she was forced into slavery? What if she can't escape to come back? What if she thinks she doesn't need me anymore? What if she was murdered?"

I shoved that thought aside and immediately continued focusing on finding my stepdaughter. "Please, let Ella be OK. Please let her come back safely to me," I begged. Tears slid down my face as I feared for the life and safety of my youngest daughter, unaware she had found another family, who'd fight me to keep her with them.

Anastasia joined me and murmured, "Mother, I miss her."

I hugged Anastasia and whispered, "Me too, Anastasia, me too."

Drizella came in and punched the wall. "She coulda left a note or some sort of clue!" my oldest snapped, tears forming in her eyes that threatened to spill over. "Something to help us find her!" I wrapped my arms around my two daughters. Ella's disappearance had brought the three of us closer, but it was hurting the girls, especially Anastasia, who had been very close to her baby sister. Drizella was becoming more violent and Anastasia was becoming more of a loner and depressed. I was becoming more protective and more anxious.

"Maybe she didn't leave a note because she doesn't want to be found," Anastasia offered cautiously.

I looked at my second daughter and saw the truth in her statement, but insisted, "Even if she wants to be found and is trying to find her way back to us or if she doesn't want to be found, we will not stop searching for her, until we've found something, until we've found her." They nodded in agreement. We were going to find Ella whether she liked it or not.