Authors Note: Thank you to everyone who has read, favorited, followed, and/or reviewed my story! A special thank you to fictionnut2020 and LoVeIsEndgame for being my first reviewers. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, your reviews spurred me into churning out this chapter much faster than I anticipated.

For some reason I was having trouble staying in third person POV and kept accidentally shifting into first person POV of my character. I think I caught them all but if you notice a slip that I missed let me know so I can come back and fix it.

ON that note, if anyone is interested in being my Beta or a prereader for me, feel free to reach out.

Onto the story. Happy reading!

Chapter Two

Dani sat behind the wheel of an old beat-up pick-up truck. She had the windows rolled down, and the wind ripped through her long dark blond hair. A pair of brown tinted aviator sunglasses were perched on the bridge of her nose shielding her hazel blue eyes from the sun. She had been driving for the last day three and a half days and was nearing her destination.

Saying goodbye to Alice had been hard. Alice had been the one to find her on the side of the road by the bus stop. She wasn't sure how she had gotten on the bus. The last thing she had remembered was dragging herself away from the house that held the worst of her terrors, bleeding and barely able to stand. The next thing she knew she was bandaged, wearing clean clothing, and was sitting on a cross country Greyhound bus. She got off at the next stop, unnerved by the fact that she didn't know where she was or how she got there, and yet she was also extremely relieved that she had made it out. She was also relieved to see that the messenger bag she was able to take from the house when she escaped was still with her, as were its contents.

What she hadn't taken into account when she got off the bus and watched it drive away was that she was quite literally in the middle of nowhere, standing outside a gas station off a two lane country road surrounded by cornfields. There was a sign indicating that there was a town a few miles up ahead, so she started walking in that direction. She was still severely injured, and she had only managed to travel a few hundred feet before she was limping badly and clutching her side. Another 20 yards had her feeling like she was going to keel over and could not take another step.

That was when Alice found her. Alice was an older woman, about 70 years old, with short and wildly curly white hair, and as Dani later found out, Alice was a semi-retired veterinarian. Alice had tried to take Dani to the hospital, but Dani had started to panic and begged her not to take her there. She was terrified that they would find her, even if she had managed to get at least some distance away from her captors. Alice must have recognized the desperation in her plea, because instead she took her to a small farmhouse on the outskirts of town. Alice took her into an exam room right off the entry of the house. That was where she told her she was a vet, and while she shouldn't be treating her, she wasn't going to traumatize her further by taking her somewhere she obviously didn't want to go and so she treated her there, changing the dressing on her wounds and giving her some antibiotics. Dani was grateful that the worst of her injuries were on her back and she didn't have to see the look of horror on Alice's face when she saw the damage.

Alice had asked her what happened, but Dani just shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut to hold back the impending flood of tears. Alice just squeezed her hand and told her "It's ok Hun. You can tell me when you're ready, or never at all if you like. Just one look at you and I can figure out a good chunk of it." And the two women just stayed like that for the longest time, Dani sitting on the exam table with Alice squeezing her had while Dani finally let herself cry. When she had cried herself out Alice had shown her to a guestroom and lent her something to sleep in.

A few hours later she woke up screaming, Alice shaking her trying to get her to wake up. Once she was calm, she apologized to Alice who simply gave her a sad smile and assured her it was alright. When she was alone again, she lay there for the rest of the night, afraid to sleep.

The next morning, she woke up and learned from Alice that she was in a small town in central Illinois. Alice had offered her a place to stay as long as she needed, and eventually helped her get her truck, which was registered in Alice's name, a prepaid cell phone and eventually a laptop to try and find, well, herself.

She had stayed with Alice those 11 months and when she told her she had found a lead, that she was almost 100% sure, and she needed to go and check it out, Alice smiled broadly, reached out and squeezed her hand and told her that she was proud of her for not giving up, and she would always be there for her if she needed anything. As Dani climbed into the truck, Alice called out one last warning. "Drive careful now, the last thing you need is to be pulled over when you don't have a license. You're not used to driving long distances."

Dani laughed and waved as she drove away. It was true enough; she had only ever driven on the backroads with Alice in the car next to as she was learning to drive. When she reached the interstate, she was beyond nervous but set the cruise control and took a few deep breaths. She stopped regularly to stretch her legs as they would get cramped and to refuel the tuck and get something to eat.

She would pull into a rest stop at night and get as much sleep as she could allow herself, which rarely amounted to more than 3 hours, and found that she also had to stop for an additional nap in the afternoon to prevent complete exhaustion while driving.

Finally, as the sun was setting, she rolled past a handmade sign welcoming her to Charming… The name says it all. She chuckled lightly and drove into town. She pulled into a decent-ish looking motel, and checked in, paying cash for the next two weeks.

She ordered a pizza and settled in for the night. She was tempted to go straight to Teller-Morrow tomorrow and talk to Gemma in person, but she wasn't sure the woman would be any more receptive in person than she was on the phone, and the last thing she wanted was a physical altercation the first time she met her mother.

That wouldn't work. No, she had to do this by the book. In the morning Dani Teller would step out of the shadows.

Bright and early the next morning, Dani entered the Charming Police Station. She reminded herself to breathe as she walked up to the counter.

"Can I help you miss?" the officer behind the desk asked.

"Yes, I'd like to speak to someone regarding the missing persons case of Dani Teller. She went missing in 1989." Dani replied.

"Do you have information about the case?" the officer questioned.

"Yes. I believe I am Dani Teller."

The officer stopped and looked up at her. After a moment of silence, he escorted her to a meeting room and asked her to wait. Ten minutes later, an older balding mad walked in followed by a taller, brown-haired officer.

The older man spoke first. "Hello, I'm Chief Wayne Unser, this is my Deputy Chief David Hale." He extended his hand out to me as his deputy turned to close the door.

"Do you mind leaving the door open?" Dani asked as she hesitantly reached out her hand and accepted his handshake. "I kind of have a thing about being in enclosed spaces with people I don't know." She offered as an explanation.

Chief Unser nodded and Deputy Hale, who left the door halfway open and looked back at me. Dani nodded that that was acceptable.

"I understand you're here about Danielle Teller."

"Yes, I am Danielle Teller." Dani said, a bit more confidently than she had before.

"Can I ask what makes you believe that you are her?" Deputy Hale asked.

"I was kidnapped around that timeframe and at that age. I have been held against my will until recently and have been trying to find my family ever since I managed to get away." she explained.

"There are a lot of children who go missing every year, I'm not trying to give you a hard time but I need to ask again, what makes you think you're Danielle Teller?" Deputy Hale pressed.

Dani sighed. "I knew my name. I still know my name. I admit that I was a bit fuzzy on some of the details, I must have looked through hundreds of news articles and police reports regarding missing children, but when I found this case, things just clicked, I had—like flashes of memories—or something, come at me. Other than that, the only proof I have is me. I have a birthmark on my left calf shaped like a fish, surely you have a list of distinctive characteristics. I don't know if I was fingerprinted as a child, but I have my fingerprints, my DNA. I know I have family still in the area. I'll even pay for the DNA test if the department won't, but I need to confirm that I'm right. My family needs that confirmation."

"We'll get somebody in here to run the tests, sweetheart," Chief Unser told me, "but we're going to have to ask you some more questions about where you've been, reach out to the Teller family and let them know we are investigating a lead into the case."

"Uhm—if possible, you may want to contact someone other than Gemma—er, my mother. I tried to reach out to her before I came here, and she didn't exactly react well." Dani confessed. "I think she's going to need the physical proof before she believes it. I don't want to cause her or anyone else any more stress than necessary during this process."

Unser nodded. "Sounds like Gemma. Alright, I'm going to make some calls, and get the ball rolling on this. While I'm doing that, Deputy Hale is going to stay with you and ask you some questions."

Dani nodded her understanding and watched as he left the room and walked down a corridor to what she assumed was his office before turning her attention to Deputy Hale. "Alright Deputy, what do you want to know?"

"Let's start at the beginning. Do you remember your kidnapping? Actually being taken, that is?" Hale asked.

"Vaguely. I don't remember much. I remember being outside. I could feel the sun on my face. I remember it felt like a happy day. Suddenly I'm being lifted up and I feel like I can't breathe when I try and cry out, the arms around me are squeezing me so tight and there is something covering my mouth, then all I remember is darkness. Though I sold tell you I don't know if this is what actually happened or something I remember from a dream. I have had dreams about that moment, more than once, and it always happens just like that." Dani told him, taking a few deep breaths to try and keep herself calm.

"That's good, thank you." Hale told her. "You're doing really well. Now can you tell me do you remember anything about the people who took you, anything about the place where you were taken?"

Dani's hands started shaking so she clenched her fists to get then to stop. She knew that she was going to have to talk about what happened, but she wasn't ready. She gulped down another breath as she tried to tell him something, enough to get him to leave her alone at least. "Um, I don't really remember much after that. I remember darkness. I know I wasn't with the same people the whole time. I never knew where I was. I was drugged a lot of the time, so a lot of things are kind of fuzzy. I was—they would… I can't." She stopped abruptly.

"It's ok, you're safe." Hale tried to reassure her. "When you say you weren't with the same people can you tell me more about that"

"I, uh, was in different places over the years, there were different people that were with me. I remember the voices changing, the faces too." Dani gasped and squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to push the memories away.

"Can you describe any of the faces you remember?" Hale asked

"I can't." She gasped. She was hyperventilating at this point. Hale reached out towards her hands as if he were going to touch them. She jerked her hands back and cried out. "Stay away from me."

"I'm just a little worried your clutching your hands a little too tight there ma'am." Hale said cautiously. "I understand you're anxious, I just don't want you to accidentally hurt yourself. Try and take some slow deep breaths. Can you put your hands flat on the table so we can take a look?"

Dani slowly put her hands back on the table and opened her fists, revealing four angry red crescent shapes on each palm where her fingernails had dug in and broken the skin.

Hale spoke again, softly. "Good, that's good. Keep concentrating on your breathing. I'm going to get you a glass of water and we will get something to clean up your hands, ok?"

Dani nodded and Hale exited the room, but he didn't make it far before he ran into Chief Unser. Dani could hear them speaking just outside the door. "Jesus, I leave you alone for five minutes and the girl looks like she's been terrorized." She heard Unser tell Hale.

"I was trying to get some basic details about her abduction and kidnappers, and she had a panic attack." Hale defended, glancing into the room at Dani and pulling Unser further from the room. She couldn't hear them as well though she could still pick up a few things here and there as she sat there and counted as she breathed in and then out. "…PTSD?..." "..possibility it's her…" "…call into Jax…" "…possible human trafficking…"

At that she tuned out the rest of the conversation, focusing solely on returning her breathing to normal, closing her eyes as she did so. She had made it this far and she had not broken. She had to keep her shit together. She had not come this far to break now. She slowly regained control over herself and opened her eyes just in time to see Unser walking back unto the room with a glass of water and a first aid kit, without Hale.

He set the water down in front of her and opened the first aid kit. "Sorry about that sweetheart. Can I help you get your hands bandaged up?"

Dani shook her head "I can do it." She said shortly.

Unser nodded and handed her an antibacterial wipe and opened two precut gauze pads, and tore a few pieces of tape to hold them in place and set the items in front of her as she cleaned and dressed the small cuts on her palms.

When she was finished Unser told her that they had spoken enough for today, they would need to speak again soon but for now he was going to take her to get her fingerprints taken and to collect a DNA sample. When that was finished, he asked where she was staying. She gave him her room number and name of her motel, sharing that she had the room for two weeks for now. Unser was putting a rush on her samples and was hoping to have the results back in the next 48-72 hours, walked her to the door of the station and told her they would be in touch soon.

Dani walked down the street for about a block to where she parked her truck, climbing in and slamming the truck door. She leaned her head back against the headrest and closed her eyes for a moment before driving off to hole herself away in her hotel room for the next few days.

A/N: So what do we think? Next Chapter we will see our character reunite with Gemma and Jax and meet some of the Sons, including Opie!