A/N – Credits for the idea belongs to my friend.

Summary - They both died tragically. And then they met again.

Disclaimer – I don't own anything.


When We Met Again


Ryan was in a new place. Somewhere, where he had never been before.

Everything around him was black. It had always been his favourite colour, but now it just didn´t seem right.

The colour symbolized his way of being.

He had been dead for two hours now, but it felt like eternity. He had been in a car accident, and had died right away.

That had seemed right at the moment.

He looked around, but nothing had chanced. There was no light at the end of the tunnel, like he had assumed.

"Ryan…"

He heard someone calling his name. He didn´t know where it came from, but he knew he had heard it.

"Close your eyes."

He did as he was told. He took couple of deep breaths and then opened his eyes again.

Marissa stood in front of him. She looked the same as ten years ago. Maybe she didn´t have blood running down from her head, but still he recognized the girl.

Something told him to stand still, not freak out and run away from her.

They looked at each other and no words were needed.

"I still like you," Marissa said, grinning and smiling at the same time.

Ryan felt like crying, but somehow he knew it was against the rules of heaven.

"The why did you leave me?" he asked, finding his voice.

"Because that was my destiny," she answered, like it had been the question in the world.

"There is no thing like destiny," he whispered, looking away from her.

"Then why did we meet again?" Marissa asked, stating the obvious.

Ryan didn´t know what to say.

"Why is no one else here?" Ryan asked after a while.

"Oh, heaven is full of people. You just don´t know them, so they don´t show themselves to you."

"Do you see someone else besides me?" Ryan asked.

"My grandma, yes. She died when I was young, but I still knew him."

"You know, the whole Newport was messed up after you died," Ryan said softly, watching her closely.

"They are going to be the same after you," Marissa said.

Ryan thought about the sad expressions on his friends' and family's faces. He thought about his own funeral and how they were going to be after him.

Marissa took his hand in her own and a picture came in front of them. It was a picture from the hospital's waiting room. A group of people was in the middle of the room. They all hugged each other with tearful eyes.

"That shows how much they really love you," Marissa said.

Marissa crapped in Ryan´s hand more tightly and they began to walk together.

Pictures came in front of them after another.

Seth hugging a crying Summer.

Sandy and Kirsten sitting together with their grandchildren.

Ryan´s wife standing in front of his gravestone.

Ryan watched them all with a sad smile on his face. At least they cared.

Marissa told him memories of them all. As she did so, more pictures came up.

"Remember when Summer had to dance with Seth in cotillion?" Ryan did and a picture of them dancing showed. "Summer didn´t like Seth at that point and it was fun to watch them." They heard Summer´s voice, telling Seth not talk to her.

"Remember how Kirsten and Sandy loved you as their own?" Ryan nodded. "They took care of you, and you learned to love them back. You were the missing part of their family, even if they didn´t tell you that."

"They did," Ryan whispered.

"Remember how you met with your wife? How you two fell in love and had a baby?" Ryan nodded again, and a picture of his wife holding their baby came up.

"Do you know what is common in all of these?"

Ryan thought, but he honestly couldn´t think of anything.

"There is one thing. Or two. Someone of these would have never found each other´s arms, or would have lived in denial for the rest of their lives. When you came, every ones life was easier and more full of love. Seth and Summer fell in love. Kirsten and Sandy had one more son. Your wife would have probably lived her life with someone, that she didn´t love as much as you."

Ryan looked at Marissa and then all of the pictures around them.

"And me?" Marissa said. "I would have probably killed myself in Mexico or even before that. You were the one thing that kept me a live."

"But still," Ryan said to her, "It´s not going to take long before they stop grieving for me."

"Maybe not, but you are still going to be in their memories as they are in yours."

"I hope so."

He knew they would always love him. He even knew why he understood it all.

It was because now they were both dead.