Some Things Never Change

Let her go

After their discussion, Sara had run upstairs into her room. Stevie and Lindsey had assumed she needed some time on her own but when the girl came back down again with suitcases in her hands, Stevie completely freaked out.

“Where are you going?!”, she shrieked.

“Away!”, Sara simply said and opened the frontdoor.

“Sara no! You just got home! You won't be leaving again!”

“I can't stay around you, now!”

“What does that mean?”, Stevie cried.

“You fucking hurt me, Mom! Now, let me go!”, Sara pulled away from her mother who had tried to hold on to her arm desperately.

“Sara! Stay, please, stay. We need to talk about this...”

“There is nothing left to talk about! You'll find out who my father is! Then you'll call me!”

“Where are you even going?!”, Stevie pleaded.

“I'll go to Grandma's. They'll pick me up. And don't you dare come and see me before you know the results!”

Sara finally managed to free herself from Stevie's grip and ran down the stairs, through the front yard to a black car that was waiting for her.

Stevie saw her father sitting in it, who was looking at her daughter quizzically. He had always been Sara's rock.

“Dad?”, she cried out loud and tried to follow Sara to her father's car.

“Don't, Steph! You need to let her go..”

Lindsey had grabbed Stevie from behind and held her back.

“Lindsey, let me go! I have to...”

“No, Stevie! Stop it!”, the sound of his voice was hard, “you let her go with Jess, now. She's confused enough, already. No need to make it worse. You will stay here with me and let her go. She needs some time to think about what just happened.”

“Lindsey...”, she cried desperately and sobbed in his embrace, when she watched Sara getting into the car and driving away.

Lindsey had no idea how long it had taken him to calm Stevie down. She had totally lost her mind. After hours of talking and crying he had managed to get her to sleep and had carried her upstairs into their bedroom.

Now, he was lying beside her in the darkness of the room. He heard Stevie finally breathing evenly and for the first time that day his emotions overcame him. He had had to stay strong throughout the whole day because both, Sara and Stevie, had been more than dramatic enough. There had been no need for one more person to freak out. But now, that he was alone with his thoughts he couldn't stop thinking about Sara's reaction. She had showed no sign whatsoever that she wanted him as her birth parent. She had only looked at him in shock, overwhelmed by her feelings, and then when Stevie had come up with more men possibly being involved, she had totally lost her mind.

What if he really was Sara's father?! Since he had found out about this possibility he had hoped, wished, that she was his. But now, after seeing her reaction, his whole world had been turned upside down and he wasn't sure if it would be a good thing if they were actually father and daughter.

The thoughts didn't stop spinning in his head and he stayed awake for hours until he finally drifted off to sleep.

When Sara entered her grandmother's house she didn't say a word but went upstairs into her room, lay down on her bed, her dog Shadow by her side, and sobbed into her pillow.

The dog crawled closer to her and she wrapped her arms around him and continued sobbing into his soft fur.

She still couldn't believe what she had just found out. Her father was alive and most likely it was Lindsey. Lindsey, the first man in her life that had really come close to being a father to her. He had been there for her in her most fragile period of time, when her mother had not been there for her but had to work. If Stevie had told her that Lindsey was her father, she would have reacted completely different. She would have freaked out of joy that it was him. She loved Lindsey! But when her mother had said that somebody else could also be her birth parent.... She just couldn't take it! What if he was out there and didn't want to meet her? If he hated her? If he...

A knocking at the door interrupted her thoughts.

“Sara? May I come in?”

It was Barbara.

“Yeah.. Sure!”, Sara answered and tried to wipe away some tears from her eyes.

Slowly, the door opened up and Barbara entered carefully, sitting down on her bed as well, and looked at her worryingly.

“Honey, do you want to talk about it? Or do you just need some company, or do you need anything else?”

Sara looked at her grandmother. She had the same big, brown, chocolate eyes her and Stevie had and in that very moment Sara was so glad to know that she could at least be sure where those pair of eyes were coming from, that she bursted into tears again.

“Oh Gosh, Sara”, Barbara lay down next to her granddaughter and took her into her arms, “what happened?”

And Sara held onto Barbara as tightly as she could. She needed her so badly right now.

Barbara let Sara cry it all out until the girl finally started to speak.

“Mom told me.. She told me that.. Henry was not my father!”

Barbara gasped.

“She said that Lindsey could be my father or even somebody else. That she just found out about it because her and Lindsey talked about their past and he then told her that she never had sex with Henry and.. instead she slept with Lindsey that night. But she forgot about it because of her terrible drug abuse and.. But she isn't sure if it's Lindsey. There could be more men than only him being involved..”, Sara was sobbing desperately into her grandmother's blouse.

Barbara tried to soothe Sara by rubbing lovingly her back and placing kisses on her hair.

“It's okay, honey. It's okay. Let it all out. I'm here..”

Sara didn't stop crying and Barbara tried her best to comfort her.

After hours of talking and holding her grandchild, Barbara had finally managed to make Sara at least eat a little bit before she went to sleep in her arms. She stepped out of her granddaughter's room, switched off the lights and closed quietly the door.

So, they finally found out the truth, Barbara thought to herself. After more than 16 years, Stevie had finally discovered that Sara's real father was Lindsey. She still couldn't believe how long it had taken her daughter to get to know the truth, even though Barbara had known it since the very day Stevie had found out about her pregnancy...