A/N: A recap of what's happened...

1. We meet a fifteen year old Melinda who has just met the love of her life, Lucas.

2. Fast forward a few years...Melinda and Lucas eloped, and nineteen year old Melinda decides to end the marriage and return home to her family.

3. Fast forward again and Melinda is a successful publisher in New York. She returns home for christmas and finds herself a new aunt to her goddaughter, Charlotte Melinda.

4. Flash back to after Melinda leaves her see the heartache Mel and Luke are going through before Luke files for divorce.

5. Melinda and Luke come face to face.

6. We see Luke and Mel as teenagers as they fall in love and decide to get engaged and finally eloping; straining her relationship with her family as she gets close to Luke's family.


Just because, there once was love, don't mean a thing, don't mean a thing.

Mel was ecstatic. Her dinner with Lucille had been nerve wracking at first as Melinda had thought she was about to get fired, and although she came prepared with the first novel she had ever written –the beginning of a supernatural series based on her family— Lucille surprised her by taking another manuscript out of her bag.

"Leanne," Melinda groaned.

"Don't get upset at your assistant. It showed real initiative for her to come to me with this," the older woman chastised her. Sipping her merlot, Lucille placed her glass back on the table before cutting into her stuffed veal chop. "I think she deserves a raise."

"You do?"

"Well, she did just bring our next big project right to my eyes."

"She did?" Melinda was shell-shocked. She had come here today, prepared; hoping to finally make her dreams a reality but hadn't really expected anything to come of it. Lucille was a tough cookie to crack and Mel had wanted to wait for the best moment possible.

"This is witty, heartbreaking and inspiring all at the same time. This character, Cassandra Bowen, is both complex yet endearing," Lucille went on. "She meets the love of her life at fifteen, runs off to elope with him despite her families interference and just as you expect her to get exactly what she wants; the family and the career of her dreams, she self-sabotages her relationship in order to give him a better life because she realizes that he's sacrificed everything to stay with her. It speaks to so many women about our struggles to have it all. That burning question of whether or not we can have our careers and still have time for our families haunts so many women but I think so many of us forget that it's not just about us; we're only half of a whole. It's easy to forget that the men in our life have to pick up the slack and share in the responsibilities of the household, and yes, we can have it all but not both of us; someone always has to sacrifice for that relationship."

"Thank you," Mel said. "I love Cassandra and Gabriel. It's great to know that it's not just me."

"It's so sad," Lucille continued, "that for them to both get what they want they have to go their separate ways. And the ending," she gushed, "mid-life Cassandra seeing Gabriel through a shop window and reliving the first time she met him," the publisher placed a hand on her chest, "is both sad yet rewarding. To know that she had that kind of love everyone dreams of and had to give it away is heart wrenching."

"Well," Mel struggled to meet her boss's eyes, "it's better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all, right?"

"I have to tell you, Melinda, when it comes to publishing now a days it's not just about the book. With so many popular books immediately being turned into movies, we have to think about whether or not the authors we sign are up to this challenge. There's a need for transparency; to let your fans really get to know you and to be willing to see your characters on the big screen. I really think this could be the next great love story. Are you up to this?"

Melinda dug her nails into her palm and lied through her teeth. "Absolutely."


Mel took the earring out of her lobe and placed it on her vanity, kicking her heels off for the night and unzipping her dress.

Her book was going to be published. All she had to do was sign on the dotted line and her words would be out there for the world to read and someday see on the big screen. Who would play Cassandra Bowen? Who would be her Gabriel Adams?

Did she really want to see her love life played out in the movies? Wasn't living it enough? And she had been elated to know that her side of the story wasn't just a selfish justification of the way things had happened between her and Luke, but what if the fact that readers saw her side of the story was only because they were looking for justification for themselves?

Melinda had been devastated when she ended things but not as devastated as she would have been if Luke had got caught up in the middle of a demon fight. She thought back to when she was nineteen...

Melinda had worked all day at the doctor's office before coming home with a box of pizza. She had been married for just over three years now and was was finishing up her third year at UCSF. After graduating a semester early, Mel began her studies during the spring semester when she had only just turned seventeen. With a year and a half of college credits under her belt with A.P classes, Mel had started college halfway through what could be considered her sophomore year. All of her general education requirements were fulfilled and Mel had decided to double major in creative writing and marketing/public relations since she had more time to complete her studies. Everything was perfect.

Putting the box of pizza on the stove, Mel decided to pick up the apartment before Luke came back from class. She began throwing clothes in the hamper until she picked up one of Luke's button down shirts; she was immediately pulled into a premonition.

Luke ran out of the emergency room bay and met an ambulance, helping to get the gurney on the ground and inside where he and and another doctor began working to save this stranger's life.

After what must have been hours, Luke finally came out of the operating room; his scrubs bloody and his face sweaty. He made his way to his locker so he could change and go home when a demon shimmered in behind him. Pushing Luke up against his locker, the demon began choking the life out of him. "This is the problem with falling for a witch," the demon told Luke as he conjured a fire ball in his other hand, "they're never around to protect you when they're needed the most," and he pushed the fireball down Luke's throat; his lungs burning from the inside out as his body went slack and the demon let him fall to the ground.

Melinda felt herself choking; the same way Lucas must have felt as the fireball was forced into his lungs. Finally, after calming herself, Melinda knew that she had to do something. Lucas had just finished his graduate program for med school and was supposed to start his graduate medical education. He had applied to several different programs but it was Harvard he had always dreamed of. He had turned it down in order to stay in California while Mel finished her bachelors degree. At the time she had been okay with that; California had great med programs and they would be together.

"But we can't be together," she said to herself. "I'm going to get him killed," a tear fell from her eye and the nineteen year old began running around the apartment collecting her things. That's how Luke found her.

"What are you doing," he yelled. Luke followed her through the apartment as Melinda grabbed items off coffee tables and from book shelves.

"What do you think I'm doing? I'm taking what I can and getting out of here. I'm going back home to my mother," she expanded. Twisting, she leaned over to grab a photo frame that held a picture of her parents in front of the manor.

Luke grabbed her and turned her to face him. "Why are you doing this," he begged. The man hadn't shed tears since he was four years old but this felt like someone was putting a blade into his chest. "We talked about his; we're going to…"

"We're going to what," the nineteen year old asked. "Live in this tiny apartment while we both work ourselves to death so we can beat the odds and make our teenage marriage work?"

"I know what you're doing," Luke shook her. "You think if you leave that I'll go to Boston because you don't want me to regret not going in twenty years—"

Chuckling like a mad woman, Melinda wrenched herself free of him and pushed her hands up to her temple before running them through her hair. "I love how you think this is about you," she yelled and pushed him away from her before throwing her bag over her shoulder. Turning around to yell at him one last time, Melinda yanked her wedding ring off and held it out to him. When he refused to take it she placed it on the table and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.

"This isn't some old lifetime movie about a woman sacrificing her marriage for the sake of her husband. Do I hope you have a better life than this? Sure, because you will always be the first boy I fell in love with—but I fell in love with a boy and I'm not a fifteen year old girl. I want more than just sitting around in this apartment waiting for something to happen to me and being with you is just holding me back."

"I don't buy it," Luke said as he started to feel his panic dissipate as adrenaline kicked in. He had never been this angry before; never at Melinda but she had never lied to him before. "You're not doing this because you don't love me anymore, you're doing it—"

"Because I want more than just you! I want to write, and meet people, and have a life where I'm not home making dinner after working at the doctor's office all day," Mel shouted. "If you don't want to go to Harvard then don't, but I cannot and will not do this anymore."

Luke followed her to the door and put his hand around her neck, dragging her to him as he kissed her so long and so hard that there was no air left to breathe; their teeth and tongues scraping together in a frenzy and Melinda had to force herself to push him away.

"Good luck," she whispered and ran down the stairs with a duffle over her shoulder as another tenant rushed past her.

Melinda climbed into bed, pushing the memories away as she asked herself the same question she always asked before she closed her eyes for the night; had she done the right thing? She was determined not to think about it. This was a new life she had built for herself; it might not have been the big dream, but it was still her dream.

Everyone is hurting now and everything is burning down but i can build back my new town today.