disclaimer: i don't own these characters... duh. 1013 productions, chris carter, and FOX own them, but i'm just using them for a little while. no infringement intended. besides, i'm not making any $$ off this...

Chapter 1: Gone

Dear Mom and Dad,

Sorry about the inappropriate timing of my departure. I hope you still have a happy birthday, Mom. I have decided to leave for school a few days early because now that I am taking William with me, there will be much more I will have to do to move in and settle down. I appreciate your offer to let him stay with you, but he is my son, and I couldn't put the pressure of raising another child on you. He is my responsibility, and I will take care of him while I go to school. The University of Maryland has very highly acclaimed daycare services, and while I know how the both of you feel about daycare, I feel it is best to have him close to me so that I can raise him in the way that I see fit. I wish I could tell you I were taking him for purely unselfish reasons, but the fact is, he is my son, and I would probably not last even a week there if he were not there with me. Again, I'm really very sorry. I'll call you once I get unpacked and everything settled into my new dorm. We love you both very much.

Sincerely,

Dana and William

That would be Dana for you, Maggie thought as she read the letter her daughter had left on the kitchen table early the next morning. That was exactly what she had expected her daughter to do. She would have done the same thing herself. Ever since William had been born, Dana, although she still needed her parents, was desperate to be independent. Not in just the legal sense of the word, either. She would not accept help from anyone, no matter how hard it made things. Sure, there were those nights where she let someone baby-sit while she went out, but those nights were rare, and each time after Dana came home she would thank her mother (or father, or sister) and then take her son off to bed and continue to care for him as if she had been there all night. Short of living under their roof, eating their food, and of course letting somebody watch William while she was at school or work, Dana hardly accepted any help with her son at all.

In a sense, Maggie was proud of her for that. She had a strong, responsible daughter who was an excellent mother at 18. Her son, William, who was now 6 months old, was a victim of circumstance after Dana's long-time boyfriend, Ethan, took advantage of her one night. They had done everything they could to prosecute Ethan, but the fact that they were a couple at the time didn't really make things easy. Maggie remembered the hurt in her daughter's eyes after the jury found Ethan not guilty of raping her and it made her cringe. That was one of the only times she could actually remember her daughter letting her emotions get the best of her. She ran crying out of the courtroom. When Maggie found her sitting on the bench outside of the women's restroom, Dana confessed that she had found out she was pregnant the day before. Unable to say anything (what could she say?), Maggie just held her daughter while she sobbed, whispering coos to her and telling her youngest daughter that everything was going to be alright. Dana was smarter than that, though. She knew her life was never going to be the same. Once again, Maggie was speechless.