Early Life
Sara's parents Marshall and Lianne raised her and her older brother Robbie in Queens, not far from her Dad's business, Coco's Boxing Gym. Her parents frequently fought, but were careful to not let it get too physical — rather important considering Marshall packed a mean right hook. They treated their kids well enough when they were actually home; Marshall was almost always at the gym, even on weekend nights for unspecified "private events." Lianne worked as a waitress, though she frequently complained that she'd make more if she could work the dinner hour — so by the time Sara was old enough for Robbie to babysit, they'd have a quick afterschool meal with one parent or the other and then be left to their own devices.
Money was always tight, business was always not-so-good. Lianne's meager earnings helped stabilize the situation, but whenever money got too tight, Marshall would conveniently have a windfall from one of the "private events". In actuality, he was getting ever-deeper in debt with the Triads. His attempts to make it up through underground boxing bets on the weekends went sour a bit too often. Soon enough the business was his only in name. But he did get a paycheck, and that was enough to live hand-to-mouth.
As a student, Sara managed to pass classes — usually — on intelligence alone, without bothering to do too much homework or studying. She didn't seem to have a major goal for her life, laughed at the idea of college. College was for other people. As a teenager, she wasn't particularly interested in Dad's business. But her brother Robbie hung out there a lot and trained with Dad… and the gym _was_ frequented by handsome young men, so she ended up loitering around the gym herself more and more. For some reason she was never allowed to stay after hours for the "private events", though, which sparked a lot of arguments between her and her parents.
None of that really seems like justification enough for running away, but she did — right around the same time that one of Dad's regular patrons, a guy who had shown perhaps a bit too much interest in Sara, stopped showing up. She had just turned 18 and so the authorities weren't too concerned about it. Her brother Robbie tried to track some leads to find her — or the guy — but no luck. Within a month, Sara finally got around to calling her brother (but not her parents) with a token "I'm alive, don't worry about me, bye" call.
Return to Queens
Almost two years later, Sara reappears at her parents' house, bruised and otherwise looking rather the worse for wear — and with a toddler, her son David. She refuses to discuss her time away from home, won't even confirm who David's dad was. She just asks for a place to stay until she "can get back on her feet again". Dad ends up offering her work at the gym temporarily.
Temporarily turns into permanent; not only can Sara bring David to work instead of paying for day care… but she also shows a strong new interest in training at the gym herself. Within a few years, Marshall and her brother Robbie have trained Sara into a reasonably competent boxer herself, though she has a tendency to fight dirty. Meanwhile, Lianne cut back her hours at work to spend more time with her new grandson.
For once, Sara's family had a strong sense of togetherness, and Sara felt like a completely different person: confident, competent… she couldn't entirely remember why she decided to run off all those years ago. She was so happy now! But, it was doomed to be shortlived…
The Bomb
By November 2006, Sara and Robbie were practically running the Gym for their father. They encouraged him to retire, but he kept refusing — mainly because he didn't want to admit the full depth of his debt to the Triad. Oh, Sara knew by now what the "private events" downstairs were all about — and knew about the betting, and you'd have to be blind to miss all the Asian faces in the crowd. But it didn't matter to her, not nearly as much as some of the weird injuries in the underground fights recently. Just that week, the Doc had to deal with some guy who had frostbite — frostbite! with ice crystals on his skin, even — all up and down one side. How does _that_ happen? Freon?
On November 8, 2006, the entire family was slated to go downtown for a matinee show in the theater district, a birthday present for little David. But Sara managed to twist her ankle coming off the ring the night before — stupid, stupid little mistake, just due to fatigue really. So she begged off of going, promising to hold down the fort at the gym instead. "But I'll see you tonight for dinner, David!" she promised as she saw them off. But of course, there was no dinner that night.
After
Sara hardly had time to mourn her missing (and presumably quite dead) family, in the New York chaos that followed the bomb. She and the gym's trainers and regulars — and some conveniently-available Triad enforcers — kept the gym safe from looting, kept some food in people's mouths. By the time life stabilized a little, and waves of refugees stopped washing across the river, the pain had settled into a solid, dark lump: mostly ignored, occasionally worked out with her fists in the ring.
The stability was only an illusion, of course; Senator Petrelli's impossible announcement saw to that, the announcement and the violence that followed. Sara was surprised to discover that several employees and regulars at the gym — the same folks who helped her keep the place together before — were Evolved. They'd been hiding their abilities as best they could, but now that it was all out in the open, she believed them when they said they were still the same people she knew before.
She believed them in part because she wanted to, but also because she _knew_ they weren't lying. Sara had always claimed to have a superior bullshit detector, an ability she imagined she had honed during her tough time away from home all those years ago. But since then? She somehow just _knew_ when people lied to her. And finally, now, she realized that she was one of them, one of the Evolved "freaks".
So they banded together at the gym, as they had before, keeping it and themselves and their remaining families safe while "freaks" were beaten out in the streets. They were a close-knit group before… even moreso now. Oleander, Carlos, Miguel… the regulars… the friends she'd shared with her brother. This was the closest she'd ever have to a family again. And bit by bit, that dark lump in the pit of her stomach has been unraveling. But it's slow… very slow.
In the years since the Bomb, Sara has stabilized the business as well as can be expected in the withered economy. Of course, the business — and by extension, Sara herself — is still hopelessly in debt to the Ghost Shadows; the transition from one Triad in power to another didn't fix that. Coco's Boxing Gym has a reputation of being Evolved-friendly, which sometimes helps and sometimes doesn't. It has certainly helped with the rather flashy showcase for the Evolved at Center Stage downstairs on Saturday nights, though.
