Run Away
"Promise you'll always love me?" Five-year-old Josette asked, Hope. They had spent the day together with Hope's Aunt Freya and Keelin.
"I promise Jo." Hope got closer to her friend and took her hand. She places a soft kiss on Josette's hand. "I already told Elizabeth imma marry you so we never have to be apart."
"Even when you hate me you love me?"
"Always and forever." Hope used the words her parents, aunt and uncles had been told her since she was born. As a Mikaelson, Hope knew that saying I love you sometimes wasn't enough for them. So they would use the promise they made to always be there for one another and always protect each other.
"Josette, darling it's getting late," Freya yelled from downstairs. "Keelin offered to drop you off at home."
Josie placed a kiss on Hope's cheek, jumped up, and ran downstairs to meet Hope's aunt.
"Thank you again." Freya placed a chaste kiss on Keelin's lip. She and Keelin had been dating for a year and Freya was starting to think she needed to propose to the woman before some else did. A bonus was that Hope loved Keelin and Keelin never opposed to having to take Hope on a date with them and even sometimes having to take Josette with them because Hope always hopped at the opportunity to take the brunette Saltzman with them.
Hope pulled herself out of her thoughts when she heard Lizzie speak to her. Hope passed Josie's bed and sat next to Lizzie on hers. Hope could tell that Lizzie was doing better. Lizzie had more color in her skin, and the life in her eyes was back.
"Did you know?" Hope didn't need Lizzie to give her more information about what she was asking.
"Yeah, we found out when you were in surgery."
"She's home." Lizzie let her head fall on Hope's shoulder. Her parents had told her yesterday when she woke up from surgery about the news. Lizzie thought she had dreamed it, or that maybe the anesthesia made her mishear what was going on. This is why when she woke up this morning she asked her mother to make sure she heard right.
Her mom filled her in on why they were waiting to tell Josie. Lizzie understood, but she also knew Josie was strong. Lizzie wasn't naive she was well aware she did not know all of Josie's life, she was certain that no one did. Lizzie knew that Josie was keeping parts of her past hidden more for the benefit of others, not hers.
Many times Lizzie had told Josie she wished they were sisters, and they joke around that they played like siblings all the time and now Lizzie understood why she and Josie got along so well.
"Why isn't she awake yet?" Lizzie asked.
"Keelin says the anesthesia might have been a bit too strong for her." Caroline doesn't want to worry the teenagers but she was beginning to worry. "She'll wake up soon."
Hope sighed and rested her head on Lizzie's. They were in for a long road.
After two days Josie finally felt less woozy. She was now able to stay awake without feeling like she was completely fighting to stay awake. Josie was still exhausted and her incision stung every now and then, but what left Josie a little more unsettled was that everyone was walking on eggshells around her and she wasn't sure why. The few minutes she got to talk with Hope, Hope wasn't really paying attention to her, she was paying attention to what seemed to be everything else, and everyone else more.
Josie could sense that Hope was hiding something from her but she couldn't get the girl to confess anything. Hope kept telling her she was still feeling the side effects of the pain medication they had her on.
Josie also knew that since everyone was being too quiet around her, that meant most likely they would be sending her back into the system, and the Mikaelson just didn't have the heart to tell her. Josie looked around the room and saw the everyone had left. Hope had dropped the kids off and excused herself saying she wanted to give her some alone time with the twins. Keelin and Freya were at the meeting with Pedro's school, apparently, they were transferring him to the Salvatore School. Lizzie's parents had gone home to shower quickly and get Lizzie something she had requested. Lizzie had been taken by a nurse so they could run some tests to make sure that everything was working fine.
Josie grabbed her phone and sent a message to Penelope. She asked the woman to pick her up from the hospital and that she would meet her in the parking lot. Josie was not going to return to any foster home, the last time the happened she was certain she was going to die from the sadness of having to leave her kids. Josie had no intention of letting that happen again.
"Mommy." Josie pulled herself out of her thoughts and looked at the two kids on her bed. "You come home?" Emerson looked at her curiously.
"Not yet love." Josie offered the boy a small smile. "We are however going." Josie looked at the IV in her arm the was pumping the pain medication into her and sighed, she would regret this in a couple of hours. Josie pulled the IV out of her arm and bit her lip to make sure she didn't let out a yelp that would alert the nurse that she needed her.
"With Ope?" Josie felt a lump in her throat at the question from her son.
"No baby," Josie muttered the strength and got up from her bed slowly. On the chair next to her were her clothes. Josie took her time getting herself changed. She knew she had to be careful because she might open her incision. She was grateful that Hope had brought her, her emergency backpack. Her backpack had clothes, money, and some clothes for the twins. Josie always had her emergency backpack packed just in case she needed to run in a hurry. Of course, Hope didn't know the backpack was an emergency backpack. Hope had confused it for Josie's school backpack., which Josie needed to do some homework.
"Elliot, Emerson come on loves we are going to get candy."
Josie told her kids to hold onto her shirt. She looked around outside her room and made sure no one was paying attention. Josie walked as quickly as she could and made it to the elevator. Josie took the ride down to the hospital basement to steady her breathing. Pushing through the pain was always a challenge. In moments like this Josie was grateful for the beating she took in the system, they all taught her to push through the pain and just take it one step at a time.
As they exited the elevator Josie noticed a familiar car. Josie pushed her kids to walk in between two parked cars and she herself faced the wall, that way it would just seem like a mom digging through her bags for her keys.
Josie placed her hand on Elliot's and Emerson's mouth when they wanted to say hi to Keelin. Who Josie knew was headed into surgery and then was going to check up on her.
Josie bit her lip when she felt the pain on her incision, she knew the small pop she felt couldn't mean anything good. When she was sure the elevator was close Josie moved her hands from her kids' mouths and guided them to Penelope's car.
"Everything okay?" Penelope asked Josie after she greeted the two kids she had been missing since she got married, a couple of months ago.
"Everything is okay." Josie glances at her shirt under the zip-up jacket she had on. There was some red on the gauze where her incision was on her left side. Josie already hated her body for the scars it had and now she had another one which she completely and voluntarily signed up for. Josie looked back and saw that Elliot had fallen asleep and smiled. Her daughter was a reason she had another one but that one Josie would never regret.
"You're gonna have to give me more than that Jojo." Penelope placed her hand on Josie's knee and offered her a reassuring squeeze.
"I got caught up in my happiness." Josie wished her words were a lie but they're weren't she got too comfortable and being comfortable was always a fatal mistake for someone like her. "I just can't go back to being in the system. So I think it's time I disappear for good."
Penelope knew better than to try and talk her ex out of anything, especially when it came to decision about her own life. Josie had been through enough pain in one lifetime and she was always in no control over her life and Penelope wasn't going to tell her that now that she should stop acting like the world is out to get her, because in Josie's case Penelope was sure that just maybe, maybe the world was out to get Josie.
Josie thanked Penelope for driving her an hour away from the hospital, an hour away from Lizzie, and an hour away from Hope who she was beginning to truly fall in love with. Josie knew though Hope would forget her and move on eventually or maybe Hope was right and Josette Saltzman would be found and Hope would realize that Josette is her soulmate and she, Josie, was just a temporary placeholder.
"Where are you going to next?" Penelope asked her before she walked away.
"I don't know." Josie confessed for once. She had had this plan since she found out she was pregnant with the twins but she never thought she would have to go this far. Josie thought she'd be happy by now that the universe would finally take pity on her and give her happiness.
"Take care Josie and be safe please."
"I will. Be happy Penelope Park, enjoy your wife and be happy." Josie had no got a chance to tell Penelope that at her wedding. "Thank you for everything, I can never thank you enough."
Josie had no idea where she found the strength in her to ignore her pain and carry Elliot into the hotel room. Josie placed Elliot on the bed of the hotel room and smiled when she saw that Emerson climb in with her sister. Josie knew that little boy was going to take a nap.
Josie covered the kids and after made her way to the bathroom. She pushed the door softly but didn't close it. She left a crack so she could keep an eye on the two sleeping bodies. Josie took off the jacket and unbutton her shift.
"Fuck!" Josie could help but cuss. The gauze covering her surgery incision was soaked in blood. Josie opened the cabinets door in the bathroom and was grateful to find the first aid kit, some duct tape, and some handsoap. Josie was too afraid to remove the gauze, she took the gauze from the first aid kit and piled it on top of the one already on her body. Realizing there was no tape in the first aid kit Josie sighed.
"I guess you'll have to do," Josie said to herself as she reached for her duct tape. Josie managed to wrap the tape around her body and keep the new gauze in place. "You see duct tape can fix everything." Josie chuckled at her words.
Josie looked at herself in the mirror, she hadn't realized she was emotional until she saw the puddles in her eyes. "Hey, we're okay. Everything is going to be fine. This is for the best." Josie lifted her head up to keep any tears that might have wanted to escape in. She knew that no matter what she was going to have to push through for the sake of her kids.