Chapter Text
Claudia woke in a cold room, strapped to a bed. The last thing she remembered, she had snuck away to be alone with her boyfriend, one of the performers in the circus. They had made love, still new to both of them, and parted with sweet kisses and secret smiles. She had been making her way back through the circus towards her grandmother's trailer when someone grabbed her from behind. She felt the sting of a needle, then everything went black.
After the death of her parents in a car crash, Claudia had been raised by her grandmother, a Romany Spark like all of their line. The two of them traveled as the fortune tellers with Carson's circus. When the old woman had a vision of her granddaughters abduction, she had a heart attack and died.
The facility reminded Claudia of a hospital, with all of the patients here against their will and strapped down. The staff were all dressed like doctors and nurses. The guards were all in black with a weird octopus-like symbol on their uniform. She shared a room with another girl, Lillian Hale. Whoever these people were, they were experimenting with lycanthropy. Claudia was already pregnant when they grabbed her, but Lillian had been artificially inseminated. Both girls were constantly injected, drugged, tested, and monitored. The scientists used a long needle to inject their babies directly, and again to draw blood from the babies for testing. Lillian and Claudia talked constantly, keeping each other sane. Claudia told Lillian all about how her Romany grandmother was teaching her to use her Spark, her boyfriend, that they had had no idea she was pregnant, and life in the circus. Lillian told the other girl about growing up human in a pack of werewolves, about her Aunt Talia the Alpha, and all of her cousins.
Months went by, and the girls got steadily bigger. One day Claudia was drugged unconscious. When she woke, there was an overwhelming feeling of emptiness. She turned her head to see tears streaming down Lillian's face, and she knew that her baby was gone. A few days later, the girls were startled by the sounds of gunfire. SHIELD had raided the facility. It turned out that the girls had been held by HYDRA. Their rescuers told Claudia that her baby hadn't survived. Claudia was lost in grief and with the death of her grandmother, she had no where to go. Lillian insisted that Claudia come home with her.
So Claudia found herself in Beacon Hills California living with the Hale Pack. Lillian gave birth to a little boy, a werewolf. The Hales were loving and supportive, treating Claudia as one of their own. The girls had become as close as sisters and the Pack respected that. The pack helped take care of Lillian’s boy while she and Claudia completed their senior year at Beacon Hills High. A few years later, when she was 20, a new deputy moved to town. His name was John Stilinski, he had taken the job in Beacon Hills after a stint in the Army, and Claudia fell in love. She eventually told him all about her life in the circus, her kidnapping, the child she lost, and how the Hales took her in (she left out the lycanthropy of course). Shortly after her 21st birthday, Claudia and John were married.