Disclaimer: I don't own His Dark Materials or any of the characters. This story is simply a product of my impatience for the movie to come out.

"That's the duty of the old, to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young to scorn the anxiety of the old. They sat for a while longer, and then parted, for it was late, and they were old and anxious." The Golden Compass

"Come on Pan, its almost 12."
"What do you think I've been saying for the past ten minutes? Lets get going"

It was midsummer's day, the appointed day for Will and Lyra to meet. Lyra had been anticipating, dreading, but counting on this day for months. The only day in the entire year for the rest of her life that she would know where he was, what he was doing; The last and only link she would ever have with him in this lifetime.

She'd come far in the past year. Looking at the running pine marten in front of her, Lyra knew this. The first weeks after Will had left, she'd come to the botanical gardens almost obsessively. The last link she had with Will.

But she had grown since then. Looking down at Pan, she smiled slightly. They had both matured a lot in the past year. She'd be forever grateful to Dame Sophia, and the girls in her new home. For once, she had some real girlfriends. And she found that the girls weren't that bad. Being the natural leader that she was, she had made friends easily, and had her own group. And it was refreshing for once, to know that these new found friends weren't going anywhere.

Her two old best friends had both left her. First there had been Roger. She didn't want to think about this though. It had been awhile since she thought about the circumstances surrounding his death. All her fault. But she'd also been the one to lead him to freedom. Because of her, he was with her now; One of those atoms that made up the botanical garden where she was heading. Hurrying her walk to a steady jog, she reached the gates to let herself in.

She thought about Will, the reason where she was now. But this wasn't much of a change, she thought about him almost everyday. Walking through the garden, she saw the old Simon Parslow engraving. Laughing, but with tears in her eyes, she stopped to look at it for awhile. There was the first link that had let them know they lived in parallel worlds. Looking at the lamppost above her, she saw the second link. The anbaromagnetic electricity. Shaking her head sadly, she moved on. Looking down at Pan beside her, she was glad she had him. Eternally grateful they were still joined.

Heading to the designated bench, she sat down with something like apprehension. Her and Will, they had been through a lot. How many people could say they'd been to another world? No one in her world even believed there were multiple words, still claiming the Barnard Stokes Theory heresy. And on top of traveling between multiple worlds, who else could claim to know of what happened in the afterlife, or that they were the cause of why there was an after life. No one, she knew that. Only two people in the thousands of worlds. Two people who would never physically see each other again, two people who were physically joined solely one hour in a year.

She wanted to tell him about her life. About how Ma Costa had her over for dinner every Sunday when she was in town. About how she hardly ever got into trouble anymore, because Pan could always, using his witchlike trait, warn her when someone was coming. About how she had lied her way out of almost 5 engagements to be here today. About how her parents had died.

Looking back, she realized that maybe her parents weren't so bad after all. While both had scared her in real life, she guessed that they had actually loved her. After all, they had both sacrificed their lives for her, and for all mankind. Her parents had actually, beneath it all, been decent people. She smiled slightly at this, but soon lost her smile as thought about Will's parents. She wanted to know all about Will's life.

She wondered, for the thousandth time, what Will had been doing, how his mother was, if he still lived with Mary. Questions she knew would never be answered.

She had brought the alethiometer with her, just for old time sakes. Bringing it out of her pouch, she fingered the outsides of it lightly. True to her word, Dame Sophia had been tutoring her in reading it. While Lyra had sometimes thought she caught a glimpse of understanding, she still could never read it with her old simplicity, the old ladders of understanding. And she knew she probably never would be able to again.

But today, there was a different magic in the air. She thought, maybe just today, she might be able to. Looking down at it, her fingers traced the symbols on the side, the camel, the anchor, the ant. And subconsciously, or maybe not, she saw herself forming a question.

What's Will up to?

And she almost did. Her hands were even on the symbols, turning the dials to point to the right ones, which for some reason she saw all the levels.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Pan, who had been sitting silently on the bench for the past hour, slightly move his leg. Looking at her soulfully in the eyes, Lyra knew she shouldn't. Still, she could. It was right in front of her. She could. She could know everything she wanted to about Will.

But was it fair? He had no way of knowing what was going on with her. Was it right of her to keep track of his life when he couldn't keep track of hers? And what if something was going wrong in his, would it be even worse to know of it, and be able to do nothing?

Sighing, she fingered the alethiometer, but never moved the dials. Sitting here was enough. And it would be enough for the rest of her life. And she couldn't keep obsessing over Will, or she'd never live, never have a story to tell Gracious Wings about. Smiling slightly, with tears threatening to fall, she put the alethiometer back in the pouch. She had to live her life in this world, with Pantalaimon, with the Master of Jordan College, with the Gyptains, with Dame Sophia, with her boarding school, even with Iorek and Serafina.

She had to build her own Republic of Heaven.

A/N so this is my first story ever. so sorry if the formatting is weird im still new at this whole thing lol anyways tell me what you think? next chapter will be of Will's POV, same time same place. anybody else uber excited for the movie?