Lost and Found

The Beginning

Rowan swears, she only let go of her hand for a second. Not even that. Half a second. But when she reached back down to where the little girl should have been, she wasn't there.

"EVA!" She screamed, whirling around in the crowd of other families. She did not save up for two years to take her daughter to Disneyland just so she could get lost or kidnapped. That was not about to happen.

She pushed her way through the families in her immediate surroundings, crying out her daughter's name as she searched for her wild brown hair. Rowan spun in a circle, trying to remember exactly what she was wearing. Was Eva in her favorite green shirt or was it the yellow one she bought the other day? Did she wear pants like Rowan had asked her to or was she wearing shorts again, even though it was not nearly warm enough for them? Her hair was up when they left the house, but had she taken it down?

She spun and pushed and searched, her heart and mind racing at the endless possibilities, calling out Eva's name in hopes that the child would hear her and come back.

And then Rowan saw her, wandering away hand-in-hand with a short, blonde woman.

Rowan sprinted through the crowd, shoving people out of her way so she could get to her daughter.

"EVANGELINE HARPER!" Rowan called as she broke free of the throngs of people, the young girl turning at her voice.

"Mommy!" Eva smiled, releasing the woman's hand and running into her mother's arms.

"Damnit, Eva. Don't ever do that again," Rowan scolded, clutching the little girl in her arms.

"Miss Sabrina was gunna take me to lost and found. We were gunna wait for you to find me," the young girl stated, pulling away and motioning to the other woman. Rowan looked up at the woman her daughter had been with, taking in her light hair and sapphire eyes. She was smiling shyly as if she suddenly felt out of place, and the blonde did, she suddenly felt as if the entire world had flipped on its axis just because of this brown-eyed stranger in front of her. And she didn't even know why.

"Thanks, Sabrina. I'm Rowan," Rowan told the blue-eyed woman. She looked vaguely familiar but Rowan couldn't put her finger on where she knew the stranger from.

"She's a singer, mommy," Eva smiled at her mother, walking back over to the woman. That was probably where Rowan knew her from but that doesn't give her kid an excuse to wander away with her.

"That's cool, but what have I told you about strangers, Evangeline Harper?" Rowan asked pointedly.

"She's not really a stranger because I see her on TV," the little girl replied as if it were actually that simple. It suddenly made Rowan significantly happier that she didn't watch the news with her. Sabrina chuckled at her statement and dropped down beside the child so that she was eye-level with her.

"She's right. You really shouldn't wander away with strangers, munchkin. Even if you see them on TV, that doesn't mean they're a nice person," the woman reasoned, her delightfully vibrant and silky voice making Rowan's stomach erupt in butterflies.

"But you're a nice person, aren't you?" The little girl's wild hair blowing in front of her face in the wind. The blue-eyed woman seemingly instinctively brushed the hair behind her ear and smiled.

"I like to think so, but I'm a little biased so I probably wouldn't be the best judge," she chuckled, gently removing her hand from the little girl's face.

"But if you don't think you're a nice person, would it really matter what anyone else thinks?" The small girl prompted, staring at the blonde woman as if she held the answers to every question in the universe.

"I don't think it would, but you have to make decisions about other people on your own. You can't just take everyone at their word because some people lie," Sabrina responded, standing from her crouched position.

"I think you're a nice person," Eva stated factually.

"Thank you. I think you're a nice person too, Eva," the woman responded.

"Sab! Shannon is being a dick again, can you help me?" A woman interrupted, appearing just over the enchanting woman's shoulder. The blonde smiled and rolled her eyes before turning to the other woman, they looked similar, almost as if they were related.

"Yeah, Sarah. It was nice meeting you, Eva. You've got a wonderful kid here, Rowan." The woman's voice was intoxicating and Rowan didn't want her to leave, Rowan wanted her to stay here forever and never stop talking. But she had to go, she was here with other people who were waiting for her.

She started to walk away and Rowan realized she hadn't really spoken to her and something in her hated that, so Rowan called out after her, waiting until the blonde had turned around to speak to her.

"Thank you. For not kidnapping Eva and..." she paused, not knowing what else Rowan was thanking Sabrina for, "well, just thanks for not taking my baby."

Sabrina giggled at Rowan's awkwardness before she responded and the sound made Rowan's chest tingle in a way the young mother had never experienced.

"Thanks for not raising a monster, Rowan. I hope I'll see you around sometime."

And with that, the blue-eyed enchantress was gone.