A/N: Hello, heres a new Lin Beifong story for ya!
The Road Not Traveled
The night feels endless and the pain unbearable. Lin thinks she'll never see the sun again. But, like all things, it passes. There's a cry, her first. It's relief. It's discomfort. The pain remains, but a calmness consumes her–and a bright light enters the room, blinding her until someone closes the curtain. Life begins. Life continues.
She should sleep. That's what they told her. Despite her tiredness, despite her weakened state, she stays wide awake. Despite the pain, she totters over to the telephone across the room. The operator on the other end is kind, ready to chat. She skips the formalities. "Air Temple Island.
A click and then it rings, until, finally, Tenzin answers. He sounds frantic, practically breathless, like he's been waiting all night for this call. He probably has. She pictures him sitting at his desk all night, staring at a blank paper, pretending to work—pretending not to care—while waiting for her to call.
"Hey," Lin starts, ignoring the sharp pain suddenly coursing through her lower stomach. "Yeah, it's done. I… had it." She turns to the crib beside the bed, the small lump bundled tight in a green blanket. She thought at first it might be too tight, that maybe the kid would suffocate, but the nurse assured her it would be fine. Nurses know best, so Lin let it go.
"You have?" He sounds surprised, like he hasn't been waiting for her exact words for the last several hours. "I… are you alright? Is it…?" He trails off, and she can almost hear his mind racing.
"Don't worry," she tries to assure. "It's not an airbender." She doesn't know, not really. Call it mother's intuition, she thinks to tell him, but decides to hold her tongue.
Tenzin sighs. "Lin… none of that matters. Not now."
The lump in the crib gurgles. She turns, pretends like she didn't hear it. "It's all that matters, Tenzin."
Silence.
She's not sure how long they go without speaking, but it's Tenzin who breaks it. "I should be there with you…"
Her body hurts. It's been months of the same conversation, of the same back and forth; her body hurts. "Omashu isn't anything special, Tenzin. Believe me, I'm fine."
"Come home," he tells her. Practically begs; he's been begging this entire year.
"Don't you have a wedding to get ready for?" In less than a week, Kya tells her. His child bride has been flaunting all over the city. Republic City Times calls her the future mother of the air nation. Katara and Kya cackled at the title.
"Pema will understand." She rolls her eyes as laughter bubbles up—but she shudders as the bubbles quickly transform into sharp knives, stabbing her insides. She holds in a groan. Tenzin continues, oblivious: "We can pretend this past year never happened. A bump in the road."
She recovers. "Tenzin, we… both know it won't work. It hasn't worked for quite some time."
"I love you ," he says with the emphasis on her, not Pema. She almost feels giddy at the thought, but pain overshadows it. "It's a girl, isn't it?" he continues when she stays quiet.
She turns back to the cradle. It wiggles from beneath the swaddle; she knew it was too tight.
He always wanted a girl.
"No, a boy," she tells him, shifting her stance and looking away as if the baby could understand her deception.
"A boy." His voice is light, full of hope, full of air. "Have you picked a name?"
"Nah, his parents will decide all that when they get here." She moves again, suddenly uncomfortable. She's tired, she tells herself. She's been up all night. The baby starts fussing. "Listen… I have to go."
"Lin—"
"Goodbye Tenzin."
Lin hangs up before he can stop her, then totters back over to the bed. She sits—shivering in pain—and looms over the cradle.
"Hey listen up, kid," she says softly. It somehow quiets at the sound of her voice. She places a gentle hand over the swaddle. "Um, your parents will be here to pick you up in a few hours. I… asked for some time with you. To say our goodbyes, I guess." It coos as if responding, but its eyes are closed and its head tilts in the opposite direction. "It's better this way," she continues after a moment. "Trust me. You don't want to be a Beifong. Too much baggage." And she thinks of Tenzin, his almost wife Pema, and the headache all of that gives her. "Nomad life wouldn't be much better." Maybe if this happened a year ago… Maybe they could move on from it somehow… The baby's eyes open—blue. She stands by her decision.
She's been up all night and the room is quiet, except for the occasional hum or hiccup. Exhaustion takes control quickly. Her eyes close. She feels her mother's blind gaze at the foot of her bed, appearing before her like a ghost. And, suddenly, Lin is so small.
"What are you doing?" Toph asks in that miserable tone.
Pain shoots through her. "What do you mean?"
"She's your kid, Lin. Beifong's don't abandon their kids." Maybe they should. Toph ignored motherhood while Poppy and Lao were nightmares to have as parents—that's what Toph always said anyway. Lin liked visiting them, though. Grandma told her stories and grandpa gave her treats. "And why'd you say it's a boy? Now he's gonna go up to every sap he knows and tell them he has a son."
"It's not his… It's not our… I don't have to explain myself to you!"
"You said you didn't name her."
Lin asked if she could and, surprisingly, graciously, they told her yes.
You're not even real! Just her doubts coming out to nag her in the form of her bitter old mother. She bites down hard on her tongue to hold back the anger. Pain oozes out of her as she turns to ignore the uncertainty, then tries to dream, tries to think about something different.
They say their goodbyes.
It's quick. It's formal. Lin does most of the talking. She apologizes, mostly. Tries to convince herself it's the right decision.
It is, she keeps telling herself. It is.
She's out of Omashu the next morning, alone and on her way to Ember Island. Half of Republic City thinks she's taking time off to get away so she's not around for the big wedding. Half of Republic City knows the real reason she left. There will always be whispers about it, of course. Perhaps even side eye glances from new recruits and curious citizens, who heard the rumors from the tabloids. She'll pretend not to notice, pretend not to care.
She sleeps the entire time she's on Ember Island. But it's good sleep, deep sleep. She dreams about their last conversation. She probably shouldn't have told him it was a boy. She probably should have mentioned she named her Poppy, after her grandmother—the only decent name she could think of, really.
She gives her contacts to the parents, briefly considers jotting Tenzin's info down too, for emergency use only. In case her intuition is wrong and the kid suddenly starts blowing air. Then, she guesses, it'll be sent off to live with him and her.
Lin's back on the beat six weeks later: office work mostly. Chief wants her to take it easy for a while. Kid's living it up somewhere in Omashu, probably learning how to roll over or something. She tries not to think too hard about any of it.
Tenzin comes back from his honeymoon soon after. They don't see each other until several months later—she's probably crawling by now—at the Councilmembers Gala where Pema, it appears, is visibly glowing.
Lin lays low at the bar, so they don't bump into each other, so she doesn't have to force conversation. Ryō's taking shots with a few of the rookies. He's one of the only competent journalists at the Republic City Times right now. That's probably why they sent him to cover this snooze fest. He can make paint drying sound exciting with the right adjectives. He was Lin's friend, once—back when she had friends. He waves her over to join them. She does. And about three shots in, he asks her out to dinner.
She declines.
Su calls her after it all happens. Lin thinks it's the Republic City Times exclusive coverage of Jinora's birth that triggers it: Last Airbender No More? with a beaming Pema and a smiling Tenzin holding her in their arms. They talk around it, though. "How are you?"
Does she know?
"Fine."
Lin thinks she does.
"Good." It's in the air but neither of them are going to bring it up. "I'm glad you're taking care of yourself."
Lin hangs up before Su can take it any further. Beifongs don't talk about the important things.
Su keeps calling over the years, wanting to get back in touch. Lin doesn't care enough to hear her out. She gets as far as a, "Hello," before she hangs up. And, eventually, this makes her into the bad guy, the one who still holds on to past grudges, to old wounds.
Maybe it's true—no, not maybe. She knows she's the bad guy in all this. She's known that for quite some time.
It's a known secret around the city, she thinks. Sometimes someone will look at her in a certain way, or she'll catch new recruits whispering to each other. Lin, at this point, pretends not to notice, not to care. The tabloids don't touch the story—out of respect for Avatar Aang and the Beifong family, probably.
Ryō doesn't ask her about it when they start hanging out again, but there's that familiar gleam in his eyes everybody else has. He doesn't seem the type to care. And she doesn't want to bring it up. It starts with him lighting her cigarette and standing silently together in the cold night air.
She wakes up in his bed a couple hours before morning. She gathers her stuff and leaves. He calls a couple days later, asking about drinks. She agrees.
Kid's almost eight when she hits herself with her own rock. It's a reckless mistake almost every earthbender makes at least once in their training, though Toph would never admit it. But they say she's having trouble waking up and they won't know much more until the Healer arrives from Kei Lan, but they promise to keep Lin updated.
She doesn't tell Tenzin about it.
By then, she's smoking again. And the news has her nearly finish an entire pack in one sitting. She started smoking casually in her teens because Toph never cared. She quit after Tenzin started lecturing her about all the dangers. Ryō, a heavy smoker probably since birth, encourages the bad habit whenever he's around. They only see each other when they need to but, occasionally, they'll fit in dinner or drinks in between, if they have time. They don't talk—or, they don't talk about the important things—and for that Lin is grateful.
There's another call the same day, after she leaves work but before she cancels plans with Ryō without explaining. The kid's all right. She's awake now and in pretty high spirits, considering. And Lin lights a cigarette, tells herself it's her last pack.
The abrupt arrival of the new avatar causes her enough stress that she starts smoking again. She doesn't tell Ryō, who quit about a year ago. He's talking about moving out of the city, building a home near the mountains. It's something he always dreamed of, he tells her. Lin just wants to put these Equalist scum behind bars. She purposely stays late most nights to avoid the conversation.
Kid's turning twelve soon. Hard to believe it's been so long. She's probably drenched in hatred for her by now. The thought puts a lump in her throat. She isn't quite sure why.
It's just one of those things, right?
Lin comes home after a long day. All she wants to do is put her feet up and not think for a while. She smokes in front of the radio, catching the end of the probending match. Ryō's finishing some story for next week's issue, asking her to turn it down so he can focus. He's also got a cigarette.
Later, he complains about how they don't talk anymore. She didn't think they ever did, but tells him she just likes the silence. He persists; she gets annoyed. "What's there to talk about?"
She hates herself—more—for saying it out loud.
He leaves. She throws out the rest of her cigarettes.
Omashu elects a new monarch after the old one dies: Queen Avani, an old flame of Bumi's and Korra's Earthbending Master. She's one Hell of a fighter. Leadership there is based entirely on strength, rather than royal status. They pick their strongest warrior, their wisest citizen to guide them in their politics. The Earth Queen makes a not-so subtle statement about its irregularity, basically ordering them to rejoin her Kingdom. It almost makes Lin laugh. After thousands of years apart, she just expects them to come back to her so willy-nilly? Like the Earth Kingdom is so perfect. No, not without a fight, if Queen Avani has any say in it, and she does now.
Lin gets invited to the coronation, along with Korra and the rest of her gang, but she doesn't go, opting to bury herself in paperwork. She reads about it later in the paper and briefly scans the picture of the crowd on the front cover, then moves on with the rest of her day—not like she knows what the kid looks like anyway.
Vines destroy her entire block soon after. A cluster of spirits now live in her once quiet apartment. And she's forced to move back into her childhood home.
It's kept up, for the most part, on the off chance Toph comes back one day—not that her mother cares, or ever did. A cleaning service comes twice a month and the gardener once a week. There's no food, but Lin lives off coffee and cigarettes these days anyway.
She sleeps in the room she and Su shared growing until she can figure something more permanent out. Toph's room feels untouchable. Maybe Korra will find a way to clear out all the vines, kick out all the spirits.
Her eyes close—and she sees blue. Kid's a teenager now, hopefully all good and nothing Beifong. She resists the urge to reach for a cigarette.
Su's annual calls come earlier than expected. Lin's secretary, Ming, leaves the messages on her desk: let's talk, please call me—but she's too busy dealing with the new airbender fiasco to care. She gulps down the irony, then goes to Tenzin to tell him.
She thinks back to their conversation all those years ago. Maybe if it had been a boy, he would have been an airbender. That was all that mattered for so long. And now…
She moves on.
She makes up with Su. They don't talk about anything, of course. Su doesn't say sorry. But Lin, she thinks, is tired of being so miserable. She wonders if it was passed onto kid, or if she's happy. She vows to quit smoking, but has one last cigarette outside the kitchen before dinner with Mako and Su's chef.
Korra's not well. Hell, nobody is. Zaheer made sure of that. But everybody pretends like everything's fine just for the day. Ryō's there to cover the story: First Airbending Master in a generation. He avoids her like the plague the entire time. He married someone about a month ago, the rumor mill reports. Part of her hopes he's living in that house by the mountains, like he always wanted.
She tells Tenzin later that night. How she lied to him about kid. "She's a girl and I named her Poppy." After her grandma, the only good thing in her childhood. "I just thought I should finally tell you."
He leaves quietly to collect his thoughts, and doesn't speak to her for the rest of the evening. She craves a cigarette, but goes for a walk instead.
Kuvira's little army makes it to Omashu, and now she's butting heads with Queen Avani. President Raiko urges Avani to step down in favor of uniting the Earth Nation once more—he'll never win reelection, Su says. Lin's inclined to agree. Not Without A Fight, reads the title of the news article Ryō writes about the whole thing. Korra's still out of commission. Firelord Izumi, who just doesn't want another pointless war, comes out in support of Raiko's desire for Queen Avani to abdicate. Su, just to even the playing field, makes a subtle statement about tyranny and how only elected officials should have the right to lead their people. Tenzin, sensing a fight on the horizon, sends a few airbenders out in an effort to ease the tension. Kid must be terrified; war's right at her doorstep.
After a few weeks of back and forth, Avani finally agrees to hand over Omashu to Kuvira. Lin wonders if she should contact kid and her family, offer them a place to stay until everything blows over. Tenzin suggests they go see her in person, offer her sanctuary.
All that gets thrown out the window when the radio broadcasts the sudden and shocking disappearance of Queen Avani and, more importantly, hundreds of Omashu citizens.
It's a ghost town when she and Tenzin get there. She uses her seismic sense to scope out the area, any hidden crevices: nothing, no one. How could hundreds of people just vanish almost overnight? Lin suspects foul play, but Kuvira claims no victory.
The whispers start soon after. Some think it actually was Kuvira, especially after those camps started popping up. Lin isn't so sure. Queen Avani would never allow her people to be imprisoned like that. Not without a fight, to quote her ex, and there wasn't even a sign of struggle. No, wherever they went, they went willingly. Most think Avani took them into hiding, somewhere away from Kuvira's army, which seems more likely with each passing year. But where?
Her job keeps her bounded mostly in Republic City. But she takes long weekends to investigate whenever she can—most tips lead her nowhere, or in circles. She hears talk, likely folklore, about a new Omashu on her travels. That's about all she can get out of anyone competent. The rest just want to hear the sound of their own voice, and most of what they say is pulled out of their asses. She suspects the ones who stay silent know more, but they keep their distance from her, much to her dismay.
Lin searches every inch of the desert, twice. She even explores the Si Wong Rock, nearly getting herself killed because of it. Nothing. Still, nothing. Just sand.
She finds an old man in a sand hut beside the remnants of Date Grove. She ignores him initially, but eventually decides to stop and question him. He offers her canned mung beans and the smell of them is terrible. He claims not to know anything about Omashu. She believes him, unlike everybody else around here. He's old, possibly even senile. He probably doesn't get out much, either. Doesn't know the Earth Kingdom's in shambles. She declines the food and continues on her search.
She goes in enough circles to realize Misty Palms Oasis is connected somehow. Kuvira must have come to the same conclusion—she's been searching for the missing people of Omashu just as long as Lin has—because her troops are everywhere there. They say escaped prisoners of Kuvira come here in search of New Omashu. But she doesn't see any of them—she suspects the people are hiding them. Lin spends a lot of time in a rundown bar on the outskirts in the hopes that some drunk bastard blabs about something. No such luck, yet.
"They all think you're working with them," says the bartender, his head tilting toward a few troops lingering outside. He's tall, almost handsome, with thinning hair and a bushy mustache.
The police uniform doesn't help any. She instinctively reaches for her badge, throws it on the counter. "Not you, huh?"
"Nah, you're not with those stiffs." He leans to meet her eyes—and she feels a small spark. Maybe she can use it to her advantage, to make him talk. "You're searching for something?" She raises an eyebrow, urging him on. And he smiles, his brown eyes twinkle. "No, not something. Maybe someone? Who are you searching for?"
She gives up the act quickly. It all seems pointless and knowing kid is safe is all that matters to her right now. "Look, New Omashu, where is it? Or… what is it? What am I missing here?"
He stumbles back, startled by her abruptness. "Now, that's not how we play the game, chief," he teases, moving to refill her glass.
After that, the bartender welcomes her every time she comes in, greets her like she's an old friend. But he doesn't talk. Not about New Omashu, anyway.
His name is Yazhu, she learns. He worked for Republic City plumbing before Equalist enthusiasts forced him and his family out. After that, he says he moved around a lot. He's vague about the details—she wonders if he was in Omashu when everything happened.
She continues searching the desert from time to time with the same outcome. The old man still offers her canned mung beans right out of the can. Did he not like fresh ones?
She asks a few more times about New Omashu at the bar, around the town. Unsurprisingly, nothing. Yazhu doesn't budge either. She asks if there's anyone else who might be able to help her. He doesn't answer, just offers her a cigarette instead.
She declines, tells him she hasn't touched those things in three years. He wishes he could quit.
She makes up with her mom, sort of. Maybe one day she'll find the nerve to lay everything out with her. Maybe one day she'll forgive Toph for everything she's done.
Maybe one day she'll forgive herself.
She wants to ask her mother if she knows about kid—decides against it, remembering her dream all those years ago. She wasn't interested in a lecture.
A new spirit portal opens in Republic City. Kuvira gets locked up. Lin takes some vacation time to scope out Misty Palms some more, hoping someone will finally have something to say about New Omashu. They still stay silent. Kuvira's guys haven't left yet. Raiko's waiting a few days to officially announce her defeat—a political move that'll probably cost him reelection.
Yazhu asks her out to dinner right before she's about to head back to Republic City. She thinks to say no, but decides there's no harm in it. The night ends with her in his bed.
She stays.
"Who are you searching for?" he asks her again the morning after, probably expecting her to say him now. Maybe he's wanted that to be her answer this entire time, a cheesy pick up line to pick up strange women in his bar. She decides to answer honest instead.
"My daughter," she tells him after some hesitation. But the words don't feel right. "I gave birth to her, anyway. I gave her up and… and she lived in Omashu when it all happened. I've been searching to see if she's okay ever since."
He tenses up, then pulls away from her touch. His expression turns cold as an anxious stillness looms around them. He huffs, finally, in discomfort to fill the room with sound again. And she thinks to take it all back. Why did she think talking would be a good idea? "I prefer mine fresh," he tells her after a moment.
"What?"
He stands, pulls on pants and turns away from her. She overstayed her welcome. She realizes now. Hell, she shouldn't have stayed at all. Now he's going crazy on her. Or… maybe she went crazy on him. She shouldn't have brought up kid.
"It's… what you say when the guy offers you the canned mung beans."
She looks up at him in confusion. "Mung beans…?" And the entire world stops as realization hits her. It's been right in front of her this entire time. The old man with mung beans. She didn't even think to give him a second thought, a second glance.
Yazhu moves to the doorway as she rushes to get dressed. He stands there shirtless, just watching her frantically move around his bedroom to gather the clothes thrown carelessly off the night before. But she stops before she clips on her bra. She faces him, bare. He hums. "Look, I didn't sleep with you just to get this information out of you, but…"
He nods, crossing his arms. "You have to go. I get it. I've got a kid too."
She decides to kiss his cheek on her way out.
"Hey, it's me."
She's using the telephone at the front desk of her motel. It's old, staticky and she can hardly hear him on the other end. But she wanted to call him first, before she did anything.
"Lin?" He sounds surprised. He isn't expecting her to call anymore. "What… where are you calling from?"
"Misty Palms Oasis," she tells him. "I don't have a lot of time. I just wanted to call to tell you I might have found a lead. I'll let you know more when I can."
He's confused. He doesn't know she's been searching this entire time. No one does. "A lead…? A lead for what?" She doesn't clarify. "Lin—"
She hangs up, hurries out to find the old man.
"I prefer mine fresh," Lin says before the old man even finishes offering them to her. He pauses for a second, then sets the can down—she expects him to pull out a map or give her some cryptic puzzle to solve, but he simply opens the door to his hut. She stares at him in confusion until he gestures for her to go inside.
She has to hunch over to enter the small hut. Looks barely livable: a small folding bed by the window for him to sleep, and a metal bucket in the corner to… She doesn't want to think about it. She's about to turn to question the old man when the sand below her begins to fall and a ladder rises in its place. She goes down it without hesitation.
Lin finds herself now in a dark tunnel. She uses her seismic sense and finds a giant hole, a cavern with an entire city inside it. She walks blindly until a bright light leads her out of the darkness. And there it is: New Omashu, brightly lit old school with fire. Electricity would have put them on the map. The cavern is terraced to fit multiple flat layers where houses and shops mold perfectly into the rock supporting it, all descending down. The Queen's palace sits on the other end, fitting in a similar fashion. The shape is reminiscent of old Omashu, but tipped upside down. A chill rushes over her.
She remembers Queen Avani's promise to hand Omashu over to Kuvira so easily. She did just that, but took her people and left to make a new city without her tyrannical guidance interfering. The entire city is stunning. Though, lack of light might one day become an issue, if it already hasn't. But with Kuvira's reign now at an end, they can open the top, let the sun in and make their existence known to the world.
"First time, miss?" someone asks, and she turns to see a man in a green delivery uniform. He stands near a carriage made of rock.
She nods, her words not finding her.
He tips his green cone hat and gestures for her to sit in the carriage. "I can show you around."
She approaches him. "I'm looking for someone, actually. A girl—her name's Poppy. She's fifteen."
"Don't know anybody like that. Sorry, miss. But I can still show you around, if you'd like."
She nods, quietly entering the carriage and they glide down the slope. Her stomach tightens in nervousness. The thought of her not being here… after all this time. What's this all for, anyway?
She asks around. "Well, I think maybe I've seen her somewhere… what does she look like?"
"She has blue eyes," Lin says. But doubts herself even with that. They could have changed over time.
"Is she tall, short… what?"
"I'm not sure."
"Where does she live? We can deliver you to her."
"I don't know."
She's a cop. Her entire life is spent solving mysteries, finding people. And she doesn't even know the most simple things about her.
She sits down for a while, contemplates leaving. If kid wanted Lin to find her, she would have already. Three years circling Si Wong Desert feels suddenly wasted. And why do this now? Turn kid's life upside down just so she can get some type of closure?
Her doubts take over. She decides to head back up to the desert, pretend like she didn't just waste three years of her life for this. For nothing. She's a Beifong, after all. It's what she's good at. Her hands itch for a cigarette.
A crowd forms on her way back to the carriage, all moving past her without a second glance. She hears a gentle, "Excuse me," and she feels a tap on her shoulder. She stops and her breath catches when she turns to look at them. Blue.
"Excuse me," she repeats. "Are you… Lin Beifong."
She's taller than Lin by about a foot. Her hair is black, somehow short and all over the place simultaneously. Not all Beifong, but pretty close. There's glimpses of Katara, too. The blue eyes, her soft face. She smiles like Tenzin. "I am," she manages to stutter out.
Silence.
She doesn't know how to begin. She doesn't know how to act. She feels her heart about to burst out of her chest.
She spots the scar above Poppy's left eye. The accident when she was eight. Lin moves to touch it, thinks better of it and lets her arm rest again at her side.
She should probably apologize. She opens her mouth to speak. Poppy beats her to it:
"Do you, um… do you know who I am?" Her face turns bright red and she shifts nervously to the other foot.
Lin pulls her into a tight embrace. Poppy, to her relief, allows it. And she holds her like no time has passed. Yesterday, they said they're goodbyes. Now, suddenly, it's today and they're here, together again.
"I'm sorry," Lin says when they part.
Poppy looks at her confused. "For what?"
Lin isn't quite sure, but it feels right to say. At least in the moment. She asks if they can go somewhere to talk.
The news of Kuvira's defeat reaches them after a few days. Raiko broadcasts the official statement later that day. And New Omashu opens their walls to the world soon after. It's nearly dusk when they open but the sun is jarring to her cave-adjusted eyes. Still, she can't look away. They watch the sky long after the sun goes down. The stars never looked so beautiful.
A/N: I've been wanting to write a "hidden city" beneath the desert type fic for a long time now and thought it fit well here (though living in a cave away from the sun for three years probably does a lot of damage to a person in real life. But this is the avatar universe, so it's okay).
Describing places is one of my biggest weaknesses in writing. Like, it took forever to describe what New Omashu looks like and I'm still not satisfied. I'll probably go in later and edit it some more. Basically Omashu flips from being a ^ to a v when they move to the desert but it's SO HARD conveying that, especially when it's underground in the sand.
I'm always making Lin a mom on here. I think she would make an awesome mom, but her issues with Toph and Su make it difficult for her to see that. Most likely she doesn't want to fuck up a kids life the way her mom did with her. And this is why she gave her kid up for adoption in this fic.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. Thank you so much for reading! Feel free to leave a comment, if you like. Im currently battling the hell site in trying to get emails back but it keeps saying im doing something wrong (even though ive done everything theyve asked!)