emmalyn gardella

 The birth of Emmalyn Farrell was of no consequence. No wars were being fought, no holidays celebrated. There was no blind rush to the hospital, and her parents, Owen and Maggie, didn't almost have to deliver their child themselves, at home or in some other strange location. Maggie Farrell went into labor, went to the hospital, delivered her first daughter and went home. Emmalyn was born a healthy child, though she was very reserved. As a newborn, she slept and hardly cried. She tolerated being held but was more content to be left alone in a crib or swing. Maggie felt like her daughter was somehow not her own. Though she had given birth to the baby and had photographic proof of the pregnancy, Maggie could often look at her daughter and wonder, to herself, where the child had come from. Because of the baby's calm demeanor, because she was so content to be on her own, motherhood was not the complete and utter joy that other moms around her experienced. The quiet calm would continue for much, if not most, of Emmalyn's young life.

While most of the children her age were beginning to come out of their shells, Emmalyn, or Emma as she was more commonly referred to, was quiet. She did things in her own time, not when a book or other parents expected her to. She developed more slowly than other children, physically, and that one fact would plague her much, if not all, of her life. For five years Emma and her parents lived their lives as a small family. Maggie Farrell, a stay at home mom, raised Emma until she was old enough to start school, while Owen, a detective in the Portland police force worked long, strange hours. The year Emma turned five and would go to school, Maggie also gave birth to a second daughter, Ellen. And it was the birth of Ellen that would become the first catalyst in Emma's life to long for something other than the life she knew. With the birth of Ellen, Maggie finally realized what a joy motherhood could be. Ellen was a needy child, a child who wanted to be held and to have attention paid to her at all times. When Emma had slept through the night, Ellen cried at all hours, forcing Maggie from her bed and to her daughter's nursery. Ellen craved constant attention from her mother, which left Emma to her own devices or to be looked after by her father.

As a young child, Emma didn't need much supervision, and Owen, or Pat as he was most often called to differentiate him from his own father, Owen, held his eldest daughter's independence in high regard. To him, to see her so self sufficient at such a young age meant that he was never going to have to worry about her, that she was always going to have a good head on her shoulders and be able to provide for herself. As a cop who had worked his way up through the ranks over his career, he had seen just about every kind of person known to man. He worried more about Ellen because she craved attention and to him that meant she would always seek out the attention of others, not caring where that attention came from. As the girls got older, that mindset would become clearer, but as a child not yet in her teens, Emma and her father were like two peas in a pod. They liked to simply be together, to sit at the kitchen table and read parts of the paper. Emma was naturally curious about what her father did, the hours he kept, why he was a cop, if it was dangerous. Pat felt that by talking about his job to his daughter he was teaching her about the dangers of the world without having to really expose her to them. It was a lesson he believed that his very serious young daughter took to heart.

She never got into any trouble. She studied harder than she needed to. She got good grades and was on numerous academic teams. She was in honors classes and on the honor roll. Pat could see a bright future laid out before his little Emma, a path that she would take that would always be the safe bet. He never spared a worry for her. Even when the teenage years hit and she mouthed off to her mother or talked back to him, Emma's transgressions were minute compared to the trouble she could have been getting in to. It would all begin to change, however, when puberty and adolescence hit, softening her stark looks into something more than attractive. His daughter's changing, beautiful looks finally gave Pat pause, but he never imagined his good little girl would do anything to disappoint him. Where Ellen gave him heart burn at a much younger age, Emma's friends were still the same crowd she had fallen into in elementary school. They were bookish and quiet, the nerds of the school. Even when she blossomed overnight, Emma didn't seem interested in the new crowd of potential friends that tried to win her to their side, the cool side. Books, alone time and father daughter time was all young Emma seemed to need or want.

It began with a single act of defiance. After being cooped up all winter, Emma had to get out of the house. Without asking for permission she took her mother's car for a ride. The girl who always did everything by the books went on a reckless drive that ended when the car ran out of gas. She believed she was being punished for taking something without permission, but looking back, it was fate stepping in to correct her life's path from the safe road she was travelling, down the road filled with more bumps than she could have ever imagined, but a road that was far more fulfilling. On that day, after walking another 20 minutes to find an auto shop, she met Jesse Gardella. He was, at first glance, the epitome of all of the bad boys her father had ever told her about while sitting at the kitchen table. He was tall and lean, with hair that should be too long for a boy but that he wore well. He smoked cigarettes with an ease that made them sexy instead of disgusting. He had a laugh that made the pit of her stomach warm. And he had eyes that drew her in like cool pools of water. From the first moment they spoke she knew he was all wrong, all bad. But that didn't stop her from wanting to know more about him. Because in the first moments they spoke, he shattered the preconceived notion she had about him, the one she had placed upon him from hearing one too many cop stories. He was nothing like the bad boys. He liked to read and quoted songs and poetry. He was, she believed after only a few minutes with him, the most interesting guy she had ever met. She was so fascinated by him that he caused her to do the second bad thing in her 16 year history the very next night when she and a friend found a bar he had hinted he would be at and, with the aid of her very first fake ID, they went to meet him.

They were inseparable from that first night.

► Met Jesse when she was 16 and her car ran out of gas. She walked from her dead car to where he worked at an auto body shop. She later met him again by meeting him, at his request, at the Crow Bar. Technically their first date, she rode on his bike for the first time and ate at Riley's, the first of many times.

► Despite coming from different worlds, Jesse won Emma over by being himself and not the guy most people expected him to be. It didn't hurt that he was persistent.

► Went to Stanford University, earning her undergrad in Art Practice and her graduate degree (MFA) in Design. When she graduated she went to work for an advertising agency in their creative department as a graphic designer. When she quit, she retained a client list and does freelance work. She also works as a landscape photographer and does the occasional wedding, baby shoots and other promotional photography. (MSN from UC San Francisco)

► Got her ol' lady ink after Jesse turned 21. It was not her choice at first, but after fighting about it, she decided that it was a gesture she could make for him to show she was serious about them and their relationship. When her father found out they fought and Emma effectively moved out of her childhood home and in with Jesse.

► Patrick was conceived on a conjugal visit.

► When Jesse went inside, Emma visited as much as she could. She stopped visiting after she found out she was pregnant and could no longer hide it from him. It took a serious talk with Machete and Jack to get her to realize she needed to tell Jesse the truth.

► Has been married for 11 years. Married Jesse via a marriage licence in 2003 after she finally told Jesse she was pregnant.

► Lost her third child, a boy, with Jesse in early 2011, after a particularly stressful pregnancy. The couple got pregnant to try and save their faltering relationship, but the stress only made things worse. After they lost the baby, the couple grew further apart.

► She wears a silver promise ring on her right hand.

► Had a biker wedding right after Jesse got out of prison. It was more for his Brothers than for the couple themselves.

► Got engaged (again) to Jesse in July 2014. The couple will marry for their children and friends on November 1, 2014.

► Has been around since the inception of the Murder of Crows and has come to understand, respect and support that side of his life.

► Has been arrested a number of times. Each time she was taken into custody was merely for show as she has a nearly pristine record. Each offense also typically had something to do with one of Jesse's other girls.

► Her father, Owen, is a cop, and largely suspected to be a dirty one at that. He has made it his life's mission to ruin Jesse and his crew.

► Owen Patrick [last name] was named after his father, therefore he was always called Pat. Emma ultimately chose the name Patrick to try and bring her father closer.

► Has several tattoos: Ol' Lady ink between her shoulder blades, half of a heart on the inside of her wrist (jesse has the other half), birds across her right shoulder (gotten each time jesse got out of jail), one at the base of her neck (Jesse's name in braille). the dates of her children's birth across her left rib cage, an infinity on her left inner thigh, a bird on her right hip

PB: Maggie Siff
Contact Post: Here.
Writing: Third person threads, customs, adult scenes or FTB.