Author notes aka legal B.S.: the ABC soaps and their characters are not mine. Never have been, never will be. So don't sue me. -.- Characters that ARE mine: Melissa Corinthos, Aaron Kovich, Seralyn and Ember Ashton, Jaedyn, Julian and Iliana Jacks, Ian Quartermaine, Lourdes Taggert, Kaela Smith, Rowenna Morley, and Marik MacDonald.

Nitpicker's notes: Some changes in this story will be obvious...but I'm pointing them out here just in case. -- I named Melissa long before Alexis gave birth in canon, hence the name difference. -- Kristina is alive and well. -- Brenda is dead for good...therefore she was never able to wreck anyone's relationships. -- Borg Boy (Jason) is also dead and gone...and Courtney never went near him...A.J., for the purpose of this fic, was redeemed in her eyes. -- yes the name Marik was borrowed from Yu-Gi-Oh...in dedication to Rowenna's namesake. blows kisses at Twi

Beta thank yous: Nikki-sis, thank you for all the PC info/help! And also thanks to my beta readers: Jan, Hoppy, Faerie, Mere and whoever else I get to beta for me at a moment's notice! Love to all!

Briar Rose by Rowan ()

Prologue

My name is Melissa Corinthos...and I'm fifteen--almost sixteen. Most of my friends envy me. They say I have everything. Sometimes I'm not so sure.

Sure, my father's "business" dealings make him a lot of money...and therefore makes me, in a way, wealthy. But money isn't everything. Neither is having a two-parent household...especially when said parents often fight.

It's even worse when you have the gut feeling your own mother dislikes you.

I don't know why she hates me, but sometimes I see that look in her eyes-- as if I've committed some cardinal sin. Daddy always has told me she has emotional problems--and Grandma Bobbie has said similar things. Maybe they're right--who knows? But I'm certainly not the cause of them.

Daddy, on the other hand, has always treated me well. Mother mockingly calls me his little princess--but sometimes she has a point. He /does/ spoil me--and I'll be first to admit it...

Re-reading what I'd written, I sighed, saved the file and closed it, making sure to lock it with the password before logging off and shutting my laptop down. Kaela Smith, my best friend of sorts, had talked me into starting a journal file. So far, I'd written little. I was too used to keeping everything in my head--inside me.

"MELISSA!!"

I sighed. "Coming!" I couldn't imagine what Mother wanted /this/ time...

Chapter 1 Déjà vu?

I hurriedly descended the stairs. "Yes, Mother?"

She glared at me and gestured to the doorway, where a familiar figure stood.

"Aunt Krissy!" I hurried to her. She smiled and hugged me tight when I reached her. I could feel Mother glaring at me but ignored her.

"Carly, stop glaring like that before your face freezes," Kristina said coolly but politely.

Mother snorted in disgust and turned away.

"That one needs a serious Feng Shui session," I heard my aunt mutter before she turned to me. "Are you ready? Sera and Ember are bouncing off the walls waiting for you."

"Let me get my laptop and backpack--I have some homework I can finish while they're in bed."

She nodded and I hurried back up the stairs to gather them. Mother stopped me at the doorway to my room. "Remember what I always tell you. Do /not/ listen to a thing that woman tells you. Your father may let you call her 'aunt', but Kristina is nothing more than a bubbleheaded gossip."

"She has never lied to me about anything," I said angrily, annoyed by her arrogant assumptions.

"Melissa, there is a first time for everything. I know you're young and naive, but believe me, I know what I speak of."

"Yes, Mother," I sighed. I gave up and let her continue for a moment, tuning her out until she told me to hurry along.

Thank God. I dashed into my room, scooped up laptop and backpack, then headed out, closing my door behind me. I clattered down the stairs and met Aunt Krissy at the door. "I'm ready--let's go."

"Good--Ned will have worn a hole in the floor by now." Kristina's gentle laughter trailed behind the pair as she closed the penthouse door and led the way to the elevator.

The ride across town to Jefferson Court was a quiet one. I listened to Aunt Krissy sing along quietly with a Josh Groban CD. It was one I'd bought her for Christmas the past year. She once told me it reminded her of a lost sibling, but never specified anything more. I had wondered from that day on if she would ever tell me more...

I was broken out of my reverie when I heard the car engine turn off. Uncle Ned opened the door for us both when we reached the front porch.

"Kristina, you're--"

I watched her lay a fingertip over his lips. "Hush, Ned. We have a half hour before we're due to be at Alan and Rae's party."

He shook his head and turned to me. "How are you, Melissa?"

"I'm good, Uncle Ned." I accepted his hug and returned it. "How are you?"

"MELS!"

The two-voice chorus made me smile. Seralyn and Ember had inherited Aunt Krissy's red hair--and loud voice when excited. They danced a circle around me impatiently while I made my way into the den to set down my laptop and backpack, then smothered me in a death grip. I smiled and hugged them both.

"Let's get out of here while they're occupied with Melissa," Ned joked.

"DAD-dy!" Ember complained, clearly insulted. Seralyn and I smothered laughter behind our hands.

"I'm kidding, Fireball." He rumpled her hair. "But we DO have to get going." He raised his brows at his wife.

"Just let me get my jewelry..." Kristina's voice drifted from down the hall as she hurried to her and Ned's bedroom. She returned within moments, and I released Ember so she and Seralyn could give their parents goodbye hugs and kisses before they headed out the door.

Two hours later, the girls were in bed. I was busily typing at my laptop, adding footnotes to an essay due in three days when a strange feeling hit me. For a brief moment it was as if I'd been elsewhere. I blinked and rubbed my eyes. 10:55. It wasn't that late. Then what had snapped me out of my work? I turned off the Tangerine Dream CD of Aunt Krissy's that I had had running at low volume and went back to my essay.

But not five minutes later, after I'd finished and switched to the journal file to make a second entry, it came over me again. All was quiet, but I decided to check on the girls anyway. Ember was crunched into a ball underneath her Strawberry Shortcake blankets. Seralyn was also sound asleep but stretched out and with the sheet half over her face.

With knowing that both of them were undisturbed, I gave into the odd impulse to wander the rest of the house. Eventually I ended up in the family room, carefully turning pages of old photo albums. First Ember's baby album, then Sera's. I was about to skip the wedding album, having looked at it so many times, but then I took it from its display spot on the shelf and opened it, turning to the back where the photos were. Most I had memorized and knew nearly everyone in them. Some people were unfamiliar-- such as Uncle Ned's grandmother Lila, who had died when I was five. I continued going through the pictures and was almost to the last page when I paused. Turning back, I gazed at a photo that I must have looked at fifty times in the past--and yet had not. Aunt Krissy hugging a brown haired woman, with Uncle Ned and my aunt Courtney in the background. The other woman's face was only partially visible, but for some odd reason, she seemed familiar. Yet I'd never seen her before in my life.

Shrugging off the feeling, I put the photo albums away and returned to the den. Even after Uncle Ned and Aunt Krissy returned, took me home and I went to bed, the image still lingered in my mind.

Who was she--and why did she seem so familiar?

TBC...