What Could Have Been and What Will Be

by BeeGriffs

While separated from Zedd and Cara, Richard and Kahlan are taken away by a mysterious woman who claims to be from a terrible future in which the world ends with the death of The Mother Confessor.

Richard looked around, stunned at the new surroundings. One minute ago, he and Kahlan stood in the woods, watching as a small light floated towards them. Turning around, he found her lying in the corner on her side, blood dripping from the side of her mouth as he rushed to her. The room they were in had no windows, no doors and the only light came from nearly a dozen candles that floated in the air above their heads, far out of reach. They moved with him, hovering over him as he knelt down beside her. She opened her eyes to his touch on her cheek, looking instantly to see who it was.

"It's just me," he whispered softly as she sat up. "Here," He ripped a piece of his shirt and lifted it to her face, gently wiping the blood from her lip and chin. "Are you all right?"

She nodded, looking down at the fabric that rested in his hand, the one holding her blood. "What happened?"

"I don't know," he replied quietly, looking her over to be sure that she wasn't hurt anywhere else. "Kahlan, your- your leg is bleeding." Grabbing the dark cotton of her skirt, he pulled it aside to expose her leg. His heart ached in agony at the long gash on her thigh. "We have to get you to Zedd."

"How?" she asked as she looked around, "There's no way out."

"She will be fine." Richard turned around to the unfamiliar voice, "I am Stanna, I am not here to harm you." She stood close to them, her hands hanging loosely by her sides as she looked down at them. Her long, silver hair blew in the wind that didn't exist, frightening him.

He reached for the sword, but Kahlan grabbed his hand, holding it in place as she stared up at the woman. "She's telling the truth."

"Can you heal her?"

The woman raised her hand and smiled. "It is done. Come, we do not have time to sit here. I will be taken soon and I must help you before I go."

"Why?"

"To change the future," she said softly. Turning around, she walked towards the wall on the other side of the room. "We must hurry, once they learn what I am doing, it will be too dangerous for you to stay here." They didn't move. "If you do not come now, I am afraid that there will be no stopping the pain you will inflict upon her."

Richard tilted his head confused, "What?"

"In the future that I come from, the future that comes from the decisions that are made this day, you bring the Mother Confessor's death."

Hesitantly, he looked back to Kahlan, who stared at the other woman. "She is telling the truth."

"We do not have time for this. If we do not go now, if I do not show you, there will be no stopping what is to come, what will destroy the world." The moment they stood, a door appeared on the opposite wall beside the other woman. "Come."

The three of them stood in the Confessor's Palace, the room of the Mother Confessor. Kahlan lay in bed, naked, her knees clutched to her chest as she cried. Lying beside her was a large man with long, dark hair, starring at her in confusion. "Have I displeased you, Mistress?" he questioned in fear.

She didn't answer for a long time, she couldn't. "No," she said at last, forcing herself to stop crying. "You can go."

"But Mistress, you ordered me to-"

"I know, but it's all right. I- I need you to go."

He didn't hesitate. Upon her words, he crawled out of the bed and dressed himself quickly before he left her alone. The moment she heard the door close, Kahlan let out a soft cry of heartbreak as she covered herself with a thin sheet.

Richard looked to the woman standing beside him, watching in sadness and then to Kahlan, who stared in silence at herself on the bed before them. Confused, he looked to Stanna, who awaited his questions. "I don't understand."

"As Mother Confessor, it is her duty to continue the line of Confessors, to take a mate and bare children. The man she was with, he took Darken Rahl's place after you returned to Hartland to get married."

He shook his head, "No. I wouldn't- I wouldn't leave Kahlan."

"You did. Nearly a year before this moment here. You left and sent word a month later that you had married and would never return. This very morning, she received word from you about the birth of your son."

"No," he said again, turning to Kahlan, who continued to stare at herself as she cried. "Kahlan, this isn't right. I would never do that to you. I could never be with anyone but you. I-"

"This is only the start of her pain," Stanna interrupted him softly. "The pain may have dimmed if you had kept your word. If you had stayed away, but you didn't."

The room grew bright, causing them to shut their eyes for a moment and when they opened them, they stood in the courtyard of the Palace. Before them walked Richard, holding hands with a beautiful blonde woman, who carried a small boy in her arm. They came to a stop a few feet from a dark-haired woman, Dennee.

"Kahlan is not here. She was called to Dysle for a confession."

"I know she's here," Richard said softly, stepping away from his wife. "Cara, wait here." He pushed passed the Confessor, walked into the palace and went straight to her room. He didn't bother to knock either. Walking in, he stopped instantly at the sight of her. Kahlan was naked, her arms tied above her to the headboard and her eyes were squeezed shut as the large man moved over her. "Get off of her!" he shouted as he rushed over to the bed.

"Richard, No!" She shouted as he pulled off the man and began kicking him.

"I only did what my mistress wished!" he cried out between kicks. Richard turned to her questioningly and stopped at her nod.

"Leave us for a minute, George." He fled the room quickly, meeting her eyes only once to be sure she wanted him to leave. "What were you doing?"

"What do you think I was doing?" He shouted back at her, "Kahlan, you're tied to the bed, he was hurting you!"

"I know!" she cried out as she let loose her tears, "I asked him to!"

"What? Why!"

"Because that's the only way I can be with someone else!"

The anger left his face as he let out a sigh, "Kahlan-"

"Untie me," she said softly, looking away from him. "I can't talk like this. Not to you."

He moved quickly, crawling off of the bed the moment she was loose. "I'm sorry."

"No you're not. If you were, you never would have returned. You would never make me look at you again. If you were sorry, you wouldn't want to hurt me anymore."

"You think that I want to hurt you?"

"I don't know! Every time I see you, it hurts, every time you write to me, it hurts and the very thought of you- of you and her, it hurts me and you keep coming back! You keep bringing back my pain and I know that you see it, but it doesn't stop you. You always come back."

"I have to come back!" he shouted, "Kahlan I can't live without you!"

"You have to," she said coldly. "You were the one who said that you would be right back, that you needed time alone. You abandoned me! You can't come back here and say that you can't live without me. You lost the right when you married Cara. When you married her!"

"I had to marry her! Kahlan, I'm in love with you, but I had to marry her!"

She sat forward, crawled out of the bed and moved over to him. "You couldn't possibly love me, not after everything that you've put me through, not after you've been with her."

"I could never not love you!"

"Enough!" Kahlan shouted as she turned towards Stanna and Richard, tears in her eyes. "Why are you showing this to us?"

"Because you need to know. This is your future."

Kahlan looked back to herself, standing naked before Richard, eyes red with tears as she cried in pain, telling him to leave her and never come back. "No, Richard was right. He wouldn't- This is only a possibililty, a fork in the road. What is it that we did that sent us down this road?"

"The first time, it was a simple kiss."

"First time?" Richard asked softly as he looked from her to Kahlan and then back again. "How many times has this happened?"

"Once. Each future is different. I come, you change the future. Each time, it ends the world."

"You have seen all of our possible futures?"

"No. That would not be possible. There are too many, but I have seen many."

Stepping over to the vision, Kahlan stepped between herself and the other Richard, looking at the look on their faces. "Is there one where we're- Did you ever see us happy?"

"Yes."

"Together?" she asked almost inaudible.

"Yes."

Looking to the other woman, Kahlan fought back the tears. "Can you show me?"

Richard tip-toed across the floor, smiling widely as he walked toward the bed. Moving slowly, he pulled the blankets up, making it easier for him to get in without waking her. He let out a soft moan as he saw that she lay naked beneath the covers.

"Hello wife," he whispered as he wrapped his left arm around her, pulling her against him.

Turning her head, she held his arm against her as she rolled onto her back and looked at him. "Hello, husband."

"We're married?" Kahlan asked as she stepped close to the bed, looking down at the wide smiles on their faces, the happiness in their eyes as they lay in each other's arms.

Stanna nodded and stepped closer, "For nearly two years. You have a beautiful little girl."

"How?"

She shook her head, "I cannot say."

"But there is a way?" Richard asked as he walked over to Kahlan, meeting her eyes just after the other woman nodded. "We're going to get married. We're going to be together."

"This is only a fork. There are too many choices you both must make to get here and the first has already been missed." She lowered her voice. "I'm sorry. This is no longer an option. This has been seen and with the idea in your head, you would never be able to trust yourself to make the desicions to get here. We should go."

Looking down at them in the bed, Kahlan sighed, "Can we stay a few more moments?"

"Not many."

Richard rolled over her, connecting their lips as his hands roamed over her body, bring out a soft moan from her room grew bright as his lips moved over her chin, to her chest, her breasts.

He was holding her hand, staring at her side as she tried to push back her tears. "I'll find a way, Kahlan, I promise." She could only nod, words escaping her. "I promise, Kahlan."

"There isn't much time. I still have many to show you."

Turning slightly towards her, Richard sighed. "Can't you just tell us what we need to do to fix whatever it is that changes everything?"

"No. I can only show you what is possible, you must determine, for yourself, what you must do to get there."

"I can't do this," Kahlan whispered, pulling her hand out of his. "Take me back, please. I don't want to see anymore."

"Kahlan, we can have that. We can be together."

"Allow me to take you both to one more."

Richard stepped closer to the older woman and kept his voice low, "Are there any more like that one?"

"Yes. Many."

"Take us there."

Shaking her head, Stanna sighed. "That is not my purpose. I cannot take you to the happy moments that are not guaranteed."

"Why not?" he questioned. "If they are not guaranteed, then neither are the others. You're changing everything by being here. Maybe you coming here was the reason for it in the first place."

The woman smiled a small smile, "That is what you said the last time. You insisted that my presence here was the very thing that altered the world that I knew, but it is not. The very moment that defined the world, that broke every line of happiness between you, happens this night. You will have many options, but we both know the one the Confessor will take. She cannot risk you."

Looking over to her, Kahlan swollowed the heartache. "This was all my doing?"

Stanna gave her a small smile, "You would live your life having that man rape you rather than risk the man that you love. In every possibility that I have seen, that is the case. Your love for him, the love for each other- I have never seen anything like this before. There should be more varriations, more choices, but there aren't. The love that you two feel for each other is too strong, it binds you together even through all of the pain. He had married another woman and he couldn't stop loving you, he couldn't stay away from you and you took a mate, you killed a part of yourself just to have the strength to do it and you couldn't stop yourself from loving him." She sighed, "That is what makes this so difficult. Either you are happy and together, or you are miserable apart. There is no inbetween with you."

Kahlan said nothing. She knew that the older woman was right, she would rather bare the pain of being with someone else than to risk confessing the one man that she loved, the one man she wanted. She could feel his eyes on her, watching as he, himself, tried to find the right words to say.

"Let's go to one more," he said at long last, tearing through the silence. "Just one more and see what it is." He grabbed her hands once more, wanting to be sure that she knew he was with her, that he wasn't going to leave her.

They were gone again, entering into the bright light that filled the area.

Laughter filled the air, as a young girl ran through the trees. "That's not fair, daddy!" she called over her shoulder as Richard chased after her. "No!" she squealed as he lifted her into his arms and spun her around. "Again, daddy!"

"Again?" he asked loudly as she pulled at his shirt, moving to his back.

"Again, again!" she cried as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Go horsie, go!"

"Hold on tight!" He was running through the trees, jumping over the fallen branches and through the bushes, moving as fast as he could.

The sound of his daughter's laugh rang through the air, her dark hair flowing behind her as she closed her eyes and stretched out her neck to feel the wind push across her face. The sun beamed down upon them through the holes in the trees, warming the summer day. Richard suddenly came to a stop as he ran through the last of the trees, seeing Kahlan standing before him.

"We were-"

"Daddy was showing me how to track, mommy!"

Kahlan tilted her head and smiled widely, "Really?"

"It was fun!" she said as he pulled her from his back and gently lowered her to the ground. The moment her feet touched the ground, she ran forward and wrapped her arms around her mother's legs, hugging her tightly. "Are you hungry too, sister?" she asked the small swell of the belly before her.

"She's very hungry. Come on, let's get some lunch."

Kahlan watched as Richard wrapped his arms around her, pulled her close and kisssed her. She could feel her own heart pounding, she could almost feel his lips against hers. She watched as they each took one of their daughter's hands and walked up a path toward the Confessor's Palace, laughing as they lifted her into the air and she kicked out her legs in joy.

"We have a daughter Kahlan," Richard whispered in her ear as he moved closer to her. "She's beautiful."

"Yes, she is."

"She'll be ours someday, I promise."

"Where's Stanna?" Kahlan asked, suddenly realizing that they were alone.

He smiled widely, "I asked her to give us a few minutes alone. I thought that we could follow ourselves and watch for a little while longer." Holding out his hand, he grinned. "Shall we?"

To their surprise, it was now dark and Kahlan sat on the edge of the bed, beside her daughter as Richard stood in the doorway with a smile as he listened to her tell their daughter to be paitent, that her sister would come when she was ready and shouldn't be rushed.

"Will she look like me?"

"I don't know. We have to wait and see."

"Cara says that she will be named after her, says it's a good, strong name."

Laughing, Richard walked over to the girls and knelt down beside the bed. "What do you want us to name her?"

"Lilly!"

"You want her to have your name?"

"I want her to be just like me!"

"She's so happy," Kahlan said softly as she and Richard stood at the end of the bed.

Nodding, he tightened his hand on hers and leaned in closer to her. "We all are. She looks like you."

"She has your eyes."

He met her sad eyes and gave her a smile, "We will have her one day. She'll go to sleep and then we'll go back to our room, make love and -"

"Let's find out." She said with a mischievous smile as she turned and followed them out of the room.

"I think Lilly is anxious for her sister to arrive."

Smiling, Kahlan walked over to the full-length mirror on the other side of the room and turned sideways, looking at her expanding belly. "So am I."

Closing their bedroom door, Richard turned and looked at her. "You're beautiful."

Running her hands over her stomach, she sighed. "I don't feel like it."

He was behind her in a few steps, wrapping his arms around her and touching her slowly. "I guess that means that I have to make you feel it." Her head fell back against his shoulder as he pulled the laces of her Mother Confessor's dress. His hand slid beneath the white fabric, touching her skin and bringing out a soft moan at the contact. "You're beautiful," he whispered into her ear before running his tongue over her neck.

She turned around in his arms and instantly began pulling at his shirt, needing his skin against hers. He pushed her dress from her shoulders before pulling off his own shirt and and crashing their bodies together as their lips played a fierce game.

The view of them together, kissing passionately as their hands roamed over the other, made her want to cry, laugh and shout to the spirits for tormenting her so. "It's possible," Richard said as he studied her face, seeing everything that she was feeling. "I will make it happen. We will be happy and we will be together." He smiled widely as she brought her eyes to his, "I'll walk up to you and kiss you like that for the rest of our lives." He cupped her cheeks in his hands, "We will have this. I think that's what she wanted to show us. She showed us that it's possible, we can be together, we can have a family, we can make love over and over again until we can no longer move."

"Richard you heard her. Every future she has witnessed, we are not together, we're- How can you be sure?"

"Because I love you. Kahlan, when I am with you, I... I don't know if I can explain how I feel when I'm just sitting beside you. I know that I have no life without you. We will have this and so much more." He looked back to the couple, who now lay in bed, holding each other tightly against them in a symphony of gasps and moans. "I will be able to kiss you like that, to cover every inch of your body with my lips, my tongue and my hands." He looked back to her, staring at him with hopeful eyes. "I'll make love with you." He leaned down and connected their lips gently, "I'll tell you how beautiful you are every minute of the day, how soft your skin and lips are."

He was suddenly so sure of everything and he now knew why the other woman had agreed to leave them alone. Pulling her to him, he kissed her as he moved his hands over her back, drawing her closer still. She returned his kiss, grabbing his head and pulling it closer as she parted her lips for his tongue. His hands grew braver, moving over her chest as he walked her backwards and pressed her against the wall. She pressed her hands against his shoulders and pushed him back, pulling his lips from hers.

"Trust me, Kahlan."

"Don't," Kahlan panted breathlessly as she tightened her arms around him, keeping him from rollling off of her.

Pressing his lips to her chest, he spoke, "As you wish, Mistress. It is my desire to please you in every way."

"How did you know?" she asked in a soft whisper as she began running her fingers through his hair. "How did you know I couldn't confess you?"

"Because I already love you more than everything. For so long, all I've wanted was to be touched by your magic, to prove my love for you and then, after seeing us- I knew there was nothing that could take me away from you." He lifted his head and looked down into her eyes, watching as they returned to the blue that he loved so much. "When we first- I wanted to kill myself for hurting you so much, I wanted to grab you and tell you how much I love you, that I would never do that to you and then I saw the look in your eyes when you looked at me. After what you had just seen, you didn't look at me like I did. You didn't hate me, you knew that I wouldn't- That I loved you."

She smiled, "That's the one thing that I was sure of. I've never seen anyone look at someone the way you look at me and then the way you reacted, I knew that if there was a way, if we could be together somehow, I knew you would find it."

"And when she said that the future we were watching was no longer possible, you were afraid that I wouldn't be able to."

"No," she said softly. "I was afraid that what I wanted was the decision that destroyed the world."

Rolling them to their sides, he pulled her tightly against him, laying their blanket over them. "Our love could never do that."

"It's better than I thought it would be."

"What?"

"This. Being with you." She pressed her forehead against his chest so that he wouldn't be able to see her blush if he looked. "I've thought about it, a lot."

"Me too."

Looking up, she grinned. "Really?"

"Sometimes, it was almost all I could think about."

Running her hand across his chest, she bit down on her lower lips. "Me too."

Turning her over to her back, he looked down at her and smiled widely. "Marry me?"

"What?"

He laughed, "Will you marry me?"

She studied his face, "Are you sure, Richard?"

"I am more sure of this than I am that the sky is blue."

"The sky is blue."

"And I want to marry you."

"Yes," she said softly, a wide smile coming to her lips. "I will marry you."

They both jumped at the sound of a fire crackling, their eyes falling to rest on the fire neither of them had made. "Stanna." Richard said softly before looking back to her. "She's gone. This must have been what needed to happen."

"We needed to make love?" she asked with a grin.

"Forever," he whispered softly, lowering his head to hers and connecting their lips once again.

This was the beginning of their life together, the beginning of their happiness and neither could wait to start their family.

******END******