savannah daniels

“That’s what they call me,” Savannah confirmed, watching as the man across from her put the pieces together. It was times like these that she remembered no matter how many supernatural species existed around her, even they would see what she had become as something separate from them. She knew it wasn’t his intention - most of the time people couldn’t help it. She could tell by how briefly he lingered on that topic of discussion that he wouldn’t be one to pry. As the conversation shifted to the loss of his wife, Savannah felt herself sobering up significantly. Loss was something she understood, but she wasn’t sure she’d ever been close to someone like that. Knowing and trusting someone enough to plan your entire life with and around them wasn’t something she’d experienced - the closest thing she had to that was her daughter. “Things don’t ever seem to go as planned,” she agreed softly. “I’m sorry for your loss, though. I can’t imagine.”

“Hey!” Savannah exclaimed, using her free arm to hit Dash playfully on the shoulder. “I might’ve given her incredibly unhealthy eating habits, but at least I can’t take the blame for her big ears,” she retorted, and she let out a laugh that sounded so carefree that she couldn’t believe it had come from her. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. They’re not that big.” She gave him a quick thanks as he held the door open for them, following the waitress to their table after a short wait. Savannah considered Dash’s question carefully, taking the time to get Valarie safely settled into her seat at their table before responding. There hadn’t been much about the holidays with her family that Savannah would ever want her daughter to experience, but it hadn’t all been bad. While her parents and two oldest brothers had been even more strict and proper than Savannah would tend to be, she wasn’t the only member of her family with a rebellious streak. “Lance used to sneak gingerbread house kits into the house,” she told him, the smile that crossed her features at the memory reminiscent of the expression she’d make when her brother surprised her with the gingerbread house. “Late at night, just me and him, from the time he was old enough to have allowance money up until - well, you know.” She pushed away the more painful memories of her brother as best as she could, knowing after years had passed that it helped more to linger on the good times. “We’d make the whole thing together and make just the worst mess doing so, and trying to remember to be quiet so no one would catch us. And when we were done, he’d use his telekinesis to clean everything up. That was always my favorite part - the magic, I mean. He always had a way of making it look more fun than I ever did. I don’t know. I’m not suggesting we wake Val up in the middle of the night, but I’d like to build a gingerbread house with her. Keep the tradition alive in some way, I suppose.”

“This town could use a little more consistency,” Savannah countered, although she couldn’t deny that his words rang true. The town that Hollow Grove had become recently wasn’t the town that she remembered from her youth - then again, she wasn’t the girl she remembered either lately. It was a fact that continued to eat away at her inside and while she knew well enough to know it wasn’t a feeling Lukas shared, she knew it was a feeling he would recognize. She doubted it was possible to be alive for as long as he had been without experiencing every range of emotion in its entirety. Now that she was immortal, it was a concern she spent a great deal of time thinking about. Who would she be in the next fifty years? The next hundred? 

If Savannah appreciated anything about the original before her, it was his ability to keep up with her. As dark as many of her thoughts had become after being turned into a hybrid were, she couldn’t deny that there was still a part of her that found their banter to be true lighthearted fun. Fun - that wasn’t something Savannah had been able to easily find these days. It seemed like every move she made had to be monitored, whether it was monitored by those around her or by herself. Even with her family, no especially with her family. There wasn’t a moment of the day that Savannah wasn’t aware of her newfound strength more than how aware she was of it around Valarie. That was why she was here after all. She hoped that finding an outlet for her new short temper would make being around her daughter feel less like walking on eggshells. While Nik wasn’t someone she’d trust with much, she knew his story well enough to know that if anyone had experience handling pent up anger, it was him.

“Please, Jax. I look exactly the same,” Savannah laughed, brushing off the compliment as she knew she’d never age a day again. It had been ages since she’d seen him, though - a thought she lingered on as she stood once more to turn his one-armed greeting into a full blown hug. She held on a moment longer before finding her way to her seat again. “It has been a while, hasn’t it? I’ve been alright. Val’s.... beautiful, as I’m sure Dash has told you already. He’s really the one to ask about her these days, but I think the three of us are getting back to a good place.”

“You understand them better than I do nowadays,” Savannah replied with a bittersweet smile, still reeling from the impact losing her magic had had on her. When she was a witch, she felt connected to every flower in the shop as if they were an extended part of her being - now they simply felt like plants. “I couldn’t do it without you, really.”

While Savannah had run away from town with the intention of never looking back after being turned into a hybrid, she couldn’t help but wonder what it must’ve been like for Cassie to go through the same transformation. She hadn’t been there to see it, after all. She wondered sometimes if it would’ve been easier on both of them if she’d stayed in town - if they’d been able to go through it together. She tried to push the thought out of her mind, figuring it was too late to do anything about it now. Regretting the way she’d handled things wouldn’t help anyone. “You’re sweet,” a faint smile played on the edge of her lips at Cassie’s encouragement. “I’m not sure it feels like more than dealing, though. Just the fact that being in public is such a big deal only reminds me of how bad things used to be. When I was a witch, this would’ve been nothing and now it’s everything. Not sure I’ll get used to that any time soon.”

“Something makes me think you’ll get another white christmas this year. You seem like the type of girl to get what she wants,” Savannah teased.

Just when she thought he’d surprised her enough, his offer to join the two of them for food surprised her yet again. Being home in Hollow Grove instead of being out there on the run had been an adjustment, but at least when it came to these two it tended to be a happy one. While her comment about them making a persuasive team had been a joke, Savannah couldn’t deny that it was the truth. Between Dash’s brown puppy dog eyes and Valarie’s overall cuteness, how could she refuse anything they asked of her? 

The comfort Callie’s support gave Savannah was just as strong as it had been the first week without her brother. Sure, in those days Savannah had been a witch, and her empathy powers had allowed her to feel Callie’s emotions ten times over, but the sympathy the redhead provided remained the same. And Savannah continued to love her for it. 

“Nope, I gave crazy Larry the morning off,” Savannah was quick to tease him in return, finding that her words fell from her lips much easily when the conversation lacked the dark, broody undertone that had taken over so many of her conversations these days. It was a faint reminder of the person she’d been before - the witch she had been after her parents disowned her but before she’d become a hybrid. It still seemed almost unfair to Savannah that she didn’t get to enjoy being that person for very long. She wasn’t sure she’d ever find that sense of freedom and independence again, at least not the kind that came along with being who she wanted to be. What Savannah would never admit out loud to anyone was that the one thing she wanted to be most in the world was a witch. It seemed both pointless and disheartening to admit it - everyone knew she’d never be that again. 

The feeling Dash’s compliment gave Savannah was second only to the feeling of Valarie in her arms. They might not be the most typical or tight-knit family, but standing there Savannah understood the draw of it all. After being turned into a hybrid, she thought the one thing she wanted most in the world was to have the approval of her parents again. But now, after everything she put Dash through, she knew with certainty that his approval mattered most to her. No matter how many times he reassured her, Savannah knew she’d never feel quite deserving of being Val’s mother. Not after everything she put them through when she’d ran away from Hollow Grove. 

“I’m Savannah,” she offered with a small smile of her own. Inviting a complete stranger into her home wasn’t something Savannah would’ve done in the past, but since she became a hybrid she didn’t fear the unknown so much. “I’ve started to figure out that the family we find is better than the one we’re born with.”

“Mad at you for working too much? Never,” Savannah said incredulously. In truth, she wasn’t sure the flower shop would still be open without all of Lucy’s help. It wasn’t exactly a secret that Savannah hadn’t been around much these days. “Trust me, meddle as much as you want. The flowers will thank you for it.”

“Of course you are. I had you spotted a mile away,” Savannah offered the brunette a playful wink in return. “At least one of us has managed to maintain a sense of holiday cheer this winter.”

“What, you didn’t see me doing laps around town square earlier?” Savannah replied with a teasing grin, knowing fully well she hadn’t been doing much that day besides leaving the dark confines of her apartment in seek of caffeine every couple of hours. She never paid much mind to the fact that Dominik had, seemingly out of the blue, decided to take up a job at the coffee shop. She’d heard the vague details of the time he had spent captured by the Clave, and could only imagine what he’d been through. How it had to have changed him. However, as someone who had gone through quite the transformation this year herself, she figured she wasn’t in the best place to start coaxing answers out of him. He might just turn around and try to ask some himself, and Savannah couldn’t have that. More often than not, when people asked questions about what she’d gone through, she found herself lacking the answers.