LLL- I'm so sorry. It's been FOREVER. But I'm a young girl. I have a busy life. Enjoy.

Vanessa sits up and stretches. Rubbing her head, she tries intently to remember when she fell asleep. Slowly, memories of Goodwin and her earth bound immortal pop into her mind. She becomes slightly more anxious in trying to figure out where she is. The walls are a calming grey with decorative paint strokes and the comforter covering her is a navy blue.

'Am I in a bed and bath?' She thinks.

The carpet is dark tan and the sun set reflects nicely off of it. Quietly, she creeps out of bed and goes to the door. Around the corner is a long corridor, ending at a large family room. The carpet settles with every step she takes, bringing her to the attention that she isn't wearing her shoes and both of her marks are revealed. Once more, Vanessa's guard is put up, despite the comfortable atmosphere. There are two couches, two tables and two towering lamps, mirroring each other on each side of the room. An orange glow emits from the sunlight shining through the large sliding doors. Cautiously, she opens them and walks outside. Vanessa is greeted by a large roof top pool.

When she reaches the side railings, she's astonished to see New Domino City and all of the destruction she caused. To her enjoyment, she's not the least bit upset. Goodwin got what he deserved with this city. The sky is orange and is slowly beginning to fade dark indigo as the sun sets upon the horizon. Despite the chard streets and buildings, this city still finds a way to glow with lights, looking beautiful. As I look back into the sea, she notices a small island covered slightly by a smog cloud. The Satellite. The anger within her wells, until another thought invades her mind.

"My kids!"

She swivels around in a hurry, but hits something tall and hard that wasn't behind her a minute ago. She falls to the ground and looks up, rubbing her head. Towering above her is Jack Atlas.

"Where do you think you're going?"

With a brash sigh and a roll of the eyes, she replies with, "to go get my kids."

"You can't."

"Says who."

"They are sleeping. Do you want to wake them?"

"Wha...? Where am I?"

"In New Domino City."

"Point out the obvious Einstein. I mean here. Where am I?"

"You're in my house. You're kids are on the fifteen floor.."

"So what floor are we on?"

"The roof. Fifty seventh."

"Oh..." When he's least on his guard, she jumps up and runs around the pool, back into the house. Before she can even make it to the door, she's pinned onto the couch. Jack flips her over and holds her hands down. "Let go of me," she grunts.

"No. If I let you go, you're going to run out of here aimlessly, get yourself caught and thrown into the facility." She stops struggling and looks into his violet eyes. The have a serious glare to them and he looks into her, now clam, greens ones.

"Get off of me. I'm leaving."

"You plan on leaving then I stay until you fall asleep."

"Over my dead body."

"That can be arranged if you keep trying to leave."

"Bastard."

"Listen here little girl. Do you think keeping you in my house is something that I want to be doing in my spare time? You think your life is so hard well why don't you try..."

"My life is hard. Harder than anyone else's. No one has to walk around with this burning curse on their arm. You don't know what it's like!" Taking one hand away from his wrist, he removes his glove with his teeth, revealing a signer marker, similar to hers. She gasps.

"You're not the only person out there with problems." Her eyes are still wide with astonishment, but soon subside with pity.

"Get off. I won't run." Jack unsurely releases his weight and gets off of her. She sits up and messages her abdomen a little. She looks at her left arm that contains the signers mark, then raises her right. "Do you have this one too?" He shakes his head.

"It must be hard. Living with them both."

"I just wish I knew why they chose me. I'm sure there are many more people in this world with problems. Do you what these marks are? Why do have them"

"I can't speak for that dark signers mark and I hardly can say much about the signers. But each signers mark is a part of the crimson dragon. The signers fight against the darker signers, but that still doesn't explain why you have both."

"Hmm. I'm not sure I want to know."

"Which one did you get first?"

"The dark sign."

"And they never said why they needed you?"

"They did, but something happened in between those events and my memory hasn't yet caught up with me."

"You lost your memory?"

"Only the part about the dark signers. I can remember other details in my life. I just know I woke up one morning with a signers mark on my other arm and I could barely remember where the dark signers mark came from." Jack holds her arm with care and rubs his finger down her signer mark.

"It's not supposed to be this color. It's supposed to be orange but it's changing the same color as the dark sign."

"I know and it hurts." He lets go and she looks back out into the now darkened city. Lights are all that illuminate the room. She hadn't even noticed that it'd gotten dark. Now they both sit with their shadows outstretched across the couch. "I want to see my kids."

"I already told you they..."

"I know what you told me. I want to see them. I need to know that they're OK." He shrugs and stands, beckoning her to follow. A minute later, she's standing in an elevator with him, waiting to reach the fifteenth floor. He leans causally against the wall as they get lower. Finally the bell dings and the doors open. She exits first and Jack gets out, leading her. They walk down a long hallway with red velvet carpet. They reach a door that says J and Jack opens it with a key card. The room is dark lit only slightly by a small night light in the corner. There are two beds and she sees two of her children in each.

She raises an eyebrow. "One's missing. Where's Callum?" Jack points and she looks over to the window. Sitting on a chair, Callum leans his head on the glass. She walks over and sits next to him. He makes no eye contact and she puts her arm around him. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" Still he says nothing. "What's on your mind?"

"Do you think they're here? My parents I mean"

"I really don't know but you know what we've talked about. You need to keep your eyes open to what's in front of you. Not what you want." He rubs the facility marker on his face and stares out of the window. I look out to where he's looking and there's nothing but singed street. "Don't follow what I do. My actions are much more difficult to control. I have other people in my head telling me what is right and what's wrong. Still I have to choose because one of them is lying. Today I didn't choose wisely."

"You've been asleep for two days. I was afraid you wouldn't wake up."

"Two days?"

"How do you do it? You're only fifteen and you know so much."

"It's because I've been to hell three times and back. You've already been there once," she says, now gliding her fingers over his facility marker. "I don't want you to go back." He lies down on her shoulder and yawns. "You need some sleep. You've had a lot on your mind."

"Thank you for being my friend and my mother... I love you." With one last yawn, he closes his eyes and doses off. She kisses him and lays him down. With one last peck on the other children's cheeks, she leaves the room with Jack on her heels.

"I can see you're really close to them," Jack says. "Especially the Callum boy."

"Yes. I can't imagine my life without them." They trail silently the rest of the way back to the room. Vanessa goes back to the room that she woke up in without saying a word to Jack. When Jack knows he's far enough distance so he can't be heard, he whispers, "Good Night."

LLL- Hope You like. Oh and MERRY CHRISTMAS. I have now finished this at 12:59 Christmas Day. 12/25/11 Please Review.