AN - I've added this to explain something of the woman who helped him. Not all is made clear, but it might perhaps help. She is a character I've had in my mind for a long time, but never used in a story before now. I'm glad you all liked the story. I am going to attempt a longer version expanding on Henry's point of view, but I'm not sure my writing skills are up to it. In any case, for now enjoy this todbit, and as always let me know what you think. :)

The body of a vampire, the power of a mage, yet she was truely neither, and she doubted there was anyone else like her in all the world. Commanding the power of the universe, she could travel not only anywhere in the world with a thought, but to any time as well. Her only purpose to serve the higher power who gave her this life, she has only one true regret.

For all her gifts, she lives life alone. Her greatest heartbreak is that no one can share in her life, and no one can ever know fully what she is. when she gave the vampire his life again, it was an act of mercy. He had something she would never know, and she couldn't bare to let him lose it because of his curse.

When he took her blood it wasn't only her blood. It was a small part of herself, like an echo. It was sent to do the one thing nothing else, no one else, could have done for him. It cleansed the vampiric elements from his body, and gave him back that which he needed most. His humanity.

How was it done? Even she didn't quite know. She only wanted to help him, and in doing so ease a small part of her own lonliness. The closest description would be like running his entire body through a filter, with only the human parts allowed to remain.

He lost his immortality, his strength, everything given to him when the vampiress had shared her blood with him. What he gained was something more precious than any of those who held it knew. He was mortal, able to love, and marry, and grow old with the one he loved until they moved on into eternity together.

After they parted ways in that park, he never saw her again, but she saw him. She was there, watching with an amused smile at the way he fidgeted in the afternoon light. His tuxedo looked amazing, but he looked like he'd rather be wearing jeans.

Vicki in her gown looked just as uncomfortable, but no one could deny the love shining in thier eyes. When Vicki walked down the aisle, she thought both thier hearts would leap from thier chests at the joy they found.

When Vicki tripped in her heels, the woman lifted a hand, the gesture barely noticable. Vicki recovered without anyone the wiser, and the woman smiled. They deserved this, for all the good they'd done in the world, and for all they had yet to do.

The next time she saw them was in a hospital. She was the nurse that handed his firstborn, a son, into his arms. He didn't know her then. His memory was faded and she'd altered her features slightly. She wasn't there to interfere. only to be there, and witness the joy she'd helped bring to thier lives.

When the child grew and went off to school, she was there that day. She was there to put a tack in the path of a car going to the same school. The tack blew the tire of the car, and prevented the man inside from reaching the school in time. When he got a jack out of his trunk she saw the gun inside, and the explosives, and she wept for the soul so lost in this world.

Her second regret, the one that tore at her as often as the first. She was only one, and humanity needed more. She couldn't be in two places at once, so she did what she could. She watched out for the lives of those she was able to see. Some of them had to be allowed to move on into the next, but they never went alone.

When it came Henry's turn she was there again, to see him one last time. She held his hand, and smiled as his eyes closed. When the one he loved joined him she was there to take her to him, and reunite them once more as she had when they were young.