Fanfic: Mother Bear
Title: Mother Bear
Author: Emily_msr (LJ: pluschi)
Characters: Sara Tancredi, Frank Tancredi, Michael Scofield
Summary: It's a story about Sara's youth and what her mother taught her...and how meeting Michael Scofield fits into that.
Rating: G
Author's Chapter Notes:
I'm not sure what to think of this myself. I wanted to do a metaphoric thing but I'm not sure myself if I like it or not. Feedback therefore would be wonderful.
When Sara was young, her mother would tell her a special bedtime story every night. It had begun as a calming ritual to surrender to an inviting dreamworld but very soon afterwards it became a bedtime necessity at the Tancredi house. Sara's mother was a wonderful storyteller and she never needed books or pictures to create that perfect imaginary world where Sara could lose her herself in completely.
Of course there were the obligatory dragons, trolls, dwarfs, kingdoms far far away, princes and princesses but Sara's favourite story of all had nothing to do with any of those. It was a story about a mother bear and her little cubs. Sara's mother had told her that this same story had been passed on from her grandmother to her mother and the latter had passed it on to Sara's mother. It was a family tradition and that alone made it something very special. Now when Sara first heard the story, she had believed her great-grandmother lived close to the mountains and had therefore lived close to the bears allowing her to observe them and create the original story. It was only much later she realized it was a story about family values, -her families- values. It was a story about a family and in between the exciting and sometimes frightening adventures of mother bear and her cubs, Sara recognized many lessons her mother had wanted to teach her, as her mother had before her.
When Sara's mother died, so had the special bedtime ritual but the stories her mother had shared, remained locked away safely in Sara's memory. The first few years were the loneliest of Sara's life as she watched her father pursue his carreer and she wondered if her mother had ever shared the story of Mother Bear with her father. Family values suddenly changed into strict social rules and high expectations. Gradually Sara forgot more and more about the story of Mother Bear. Her father's political ideas influenced Sara's free mind and her positive view of the world and she soon found herself rebelling against his ideas. She was reigned in and overruled time after time untill she had lost her path in life altogether. It was in those deepest moments of drug-induced despair that she found her way back to her mother's legacy and the story of Mother Bear.
The lessons her mother had passed on to her were a constant presence during Sara's recovery from her addiction. She had internalized each adventure and each life's lesson that accompanied it. Everyday she grew stronger as she gradually found her way back to being 'Sara'. And even though her father often didn't approve of her choices, she had a strong and steady compass now to guide her along her way. Whenever things got rough, she would think of her mother and somehow a story would pop into her mind helping her through her hardships. She learned to trust that inner voice and live by it.
Professionally, she steered her course boldly and decidedly. She liked the work she did and believed it to have meaning, however small. Personally, she felt alone and afraid to step into the world and start 'living' again. When it came to relationships, a particular adventure of Mother Bear and her little cubs would come to mind...it was a story about the cubs starting their own families and meeting that someone very special to start a life-long relationship with. At the time, this particular story always gave way to some serious sniffling and blushing because when her mother had started telling this story, Sara was only 5 years old and boys and girls together were a 'yukkie' thought. But later on she understood the lesson of the story in trusting your instincts to recognize a good life partner. Unfortunatly, Sara felt that her instincts had seriously let her down in the past, so she had great difficulty following the lesson. When it came to meeting men and dating them, it was like her compass had lost north and she didn't know what to think or feel. She couldn't understand that her mother would put so much faith on instinct alone.
The day Michael Scofield stepped into her infirmary at Fox River State Penitentiary...it took her about 5 minutes to realize that her mother was right after all. Her instincts had never been piqued like this before and it felt like her compass for once knew exactly where it was leading her. After a week, Sara knew that Mother Bear up above was smiling down upon her and letting her little cub go into the world... And Sara knew for the first time in her life no matter how insane, that this was a good choice, the right choice. Because the most important lessons Mother Bear and her little cubs had taught her was to trust her instincts, no matter how hard life strikes at you to keep the faith to keep going forward. Because life is all about living and loving, one day at a time, one step after the other. After the 6 most intense weeks of her life...Sara once again turned to Mother Bear and her little cubs for strength, guidance and comfort...and she took the first step, and then another...
Chapter End Notes:
Let me know what you think, please?