Happy very belated Christmas! Sorry it's taken so long for this story to go up but I just got the request a week ago.

But I Chose You

There was a knock on the door, and as much as I knew these cookies would burn if I went to answer it, I also didn't want Sarah getting it instead. "Whatever you're sell…"

No. It couldn't possibly be him. Not after all this time. He was dead, no way had he just stayed away, not for five years. "Hi Nina, can I come in?"

The snow was piling up outside, but I didn't really want him in the house. Not with Sarah there. "Mommy are the cookies done yet?" the girl called from the other room and Fabian's face softened.

"Sarah, go up to your room." I told the girl opening the door so Fabian could step inside. (I wasn't going to waste heat holding the door open for his sorry ass.) "I'll explain later."

The young girl came running over, and I couldn't help but look from her blue eyes to those of the man that stood before me. "Mummy what's wrong?" she asked looking at the man. "Who is this?"

"No one," I told her crouching down so I could run my hand through our matching hair. "Just go up to your room and watch some TV, okay?"

Normally Sarah would have fought me, she's stubborn like that, but she'd never pass up one of the rare opportunities of me letting her watch TV on a school night.

"I want to see her," Fabian told me as I put a tray of burnt cookies out before us. "She's my daughter as much as she's yours."

Biologically, yes, but there was a reason she hadn't even recognized 'her father'. "Don't you dare pull that card on me Fabian, not now, not after five years. You left me in the hospital! I had just given birth and you left me, you left us! So yes, as far as Sarah knows you're dead."

Fabian pursed his lips at the name. "Sarah…I thought her name was going to be Nora."

I hadn't even thought of that in years, but there was a lot I'd tried not to think about in years. "You picked that name. When you left me to fill out the birth certificate, I decided I should pick the name."

Fabian reached out to grab my hand, but I pulled it away and went to sit on the other side of the room. I wasn't just going to accept his big puppy dog eyes and let him back into my life. He'd hurt me, and more so he'd hurt Sarah. She'd never had anyone to write father's day cards to, or to call daddy, because of him. I'd worked my ass off just to feed us because he left! He'd promised to love me forever, but then he up and left leaving me with a newborn and a marriage certificate that couldn't be annulled with him God-knows-where!

"Why are you here?" I finally asked him holding back my tears. I didn't want him to think I was upset, because I wasn't. I was furious. "Why now after all this time?"

Fabian pulled an ever-so-familiar locket out from beneath his shirt. "I was the Chosen One," he reminded me as if somehow I could ever forget. "I had ghosts and gods and monsters coming after me, threatening me, threatening you. Once Nora." I gave him a look. "I mean Sarah, was born I knew she'd just be in danger with me around. You could take care of yourself when ghosts got involved, but she was just a baby! I didn't know how to protect you both around me, but if I left…If I left you'd be safe."

Clearly he didn't understand the concept of how dangerous and painful being a single mom was, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that Fabian thought I was so stupid that I actually believed he was 'just trying to protect us.' "If you cared so much then why are you back now? If it was 'so dangerous' for you to be around us then what you just don't care anymore?"

Fabian looked like I'd kicked him in the balls-good. He deserved to feel a sliver of the pain he'd put me through. Not only had he left me alone, but he'd left. "You think I wanted to leave you? I loved you Nina! I still do love you! Everyday I've prayed I could return to you, and here I am, with you, now. It's all I ever wanted, and I've finally done it. I've killed the Chosen One."

What? "How? Like when Patricia lived but the Osirian spirit died?" Fabian nodded. "How did you?"

"I went to Hell," Fabian admitted, and I realized I'd moved back towards him so our legs were pressed together. "I went through the Du'at to the afterlife and I made Anubis pull the Chosen One spirit from within me. I died so I could be free of it, and then I came back and I came here. To be with you just like I always wanted."

Fabian looked in so much pain I had to believe him. How could I forgive him though? He'd left me to raise our daughter alone with no explanation. But how could I not forgive him at the same time? He'd gone to Hell, he'd died and gone to Hell, for Sarah and me. He'd done all of this so we could be safe. "I…I don't know…"

Fabian turned my head gently so our eyes met like lasers. "Nina Rutter, I'm so, so, so sorry for what I've done. I might have been the Chosen One, but everything I did I did because I chose you. I wanted us to be together, to be a family, but I've ruined every chance haven't I?"

No. No he hadn't. He'd ruined his first chance, but he was still my husband, my Chosen One. I still loved him more than anyone else but Sarah. "Come on," I told him sliding my hand inside of his. "I want you to come and meet our daughter."