I do not own Vampire Diaries

"Brother have you spoke to her yet?" Life asked curious as she sidled up to him.

"No I haven't had the chance to." Death replied as he watched over his chosen.

"Well that's good because I need to tell you something." Life said knowing her brother was not going to like this.

"What is it sister?" Death asked concerned as he turned to her, he knew that this was serious from the tone of voice she used.

"Well remember what I said last time about letting her choose what she wants more, well I just found out she can't. Something will happen that you have no control over and if she is mortal, the future you have envisioned for her will be no more. She has no choice, she will remain immortal but the situation with her having children is still unsure but you cannot tell her that, she has to believe what she's believing now, we can't control so much brother, it will have consequences." Life told him, she could feel the anger pouring off of him as the shadow leaked across the floor, she sighed as she let out her own light trying to calm him down as she always had done as the elder sister.

"That is not fair sister. You said she could choose. She won't be able to take this, she's lost enough already, she doesn't need the thought that she might outlive her daughter too." Death said beyond enraged.

"Don't blame me brother. This isn't exactly my fault. If she had chosen differently she wouldn't be in this position and besides, she can always end it herself if she doesn't want to live without her daughter." Life said dismissively.

"No. She shouldn't have to make that decision." Death said as he prepared himself for what he had to tell his favourite, he knew from the tone of his sister's voice that this decision won't be changed.

"I'm sorry brother but the higher ups have chosen." Life said as she laid a gentle hand on his shoulder before she left the room leaving her brother to curse the decision of Fate and Destiny, the siblings always managed to get on his nerves and this time was no different.

A man and a woman are camping in the forest before all of a sudden fog descends around the tent.

The woman hearing the noise sits up warily as she asked, "Hey. Did you hear that?"

The man looks down at her confused as he asked, "Hear what?"

The woman looked at him bewildered, how could he not hear that she thought as she answered his question, "I heard thunder."

The man shook his head thinking that she was just scared as he said, "There's no thunder."

The woman asked him unsure, "Are you sure? Because if it rains, then we won't be able to see the comet."

The man sighed before he thought of a way to cheer up his girl so he said, "It's not gonna rain. Listen, I...got you a little something. It's back in the car. Don't you move."

The woman smiled at him as she said, "Stay dry."

The man smiled at her as he rolled his eyes repeating. "It's not gonna rain."

Just as he leaves, a dripping noise pounds on the tent which caused the woman to smile triumphantly as she got out the tent and said, "I knew it! I told you it was gonna rain!"

She looks around only to notice there wasn't any rain but there was a dripping noise coming from her right to she turned and her eyes followed the droplets to see her boyfriend up in a tree, and too late did she realise it had been his blood and consumed with grief and fear, she runs to the car.

The woman tries opening the car but it was locked and she immediately began frantically pulling the car as she screamed, "Open! No! Please!" The car suddenly beeps and the doors thankfully unlock and just as the woman looks around nervously preparing to get in, someone drops from the trees and kills her.

Anastasia wakes up gasping for air as she sits up shakily from the crazy nightmare she just had, what the hell had she just seen. She was used to nightmares obviously but this one had nothing to do with James, the poor couple, she thought at their unfortunate death, but the confusing part was that she had never met them before so why had they appeared in her dream. She shook her head to clear the last remnants of the nightmare before she turned to see if she had accidentally woken up Liana but thankfully her little angel was still fast asleep.

Today was her first day at preschool and her dad was going to take her since he could easily do his work from home so he was free, lucky him. She told him it wasn't that far away and that she could go drop her herself but he said that would waste unnecessary money because she had to pay for a taxi since she didn't have a car herself. She used to but James had made her sell the car because he needed the money for something and she knew better than to refuse him.

She sighed at that, she had loved her car, her father had given it to her on her 17th birthday. At that point, it had been such a surprise for her because her father had never given her a single gift after her brother's death so that meant a lot to her. He said that she needed it because his driver, her best friend, had left for some inexplicable reason, he hadn't even bothered to say goodbye to her. And since he was gone there was no one to drive her wherever she needed all the time, but she hadn't needed one, she was just happy that he had remembered her birthday for once, even saying happy birthday would have been enough for her so she had been really happy at the time and for her to have no choice but to sell it, it made her feel both angry at the unfairness of it all and sad that she had to part with her beloved car.

She looked up and suddenly realised the time and quickly got off the bed and ran to the bathroom. After doing her business, she washed her hands and face, before she grabbed a cloth to dry it and just as she finished, she jumped in shock as her eyes widened when she saw the man standing behind her.

She immediately thought of some sort of protection and a shield formed in front of her and just as she was about to scream, he immediately raised his hands and said, "Wait, wait, wait. Anastasia. It's me, Death."

Anastasia looked at the gorgeous man in front of her before raising her eyebrow skeptically as she stepped backwards from him warily as she said, "Prove it."

"Uh. Prove it, right. OK. Does Mr Creepy Voice ring any bells?" He asked as he smirked at her, he had tried to talk to her but for some reason he had opened his eyes to find himself in the bathroom with his chosen, who was drying her face with the cloth that she had dropped on the floor in alarm. He had obviously scared her half to death considering her pale complexion that now gradually went back to her own colour as she relaxed calming down. He walked towards her and not realising the shield was still up, banged his head on it stumbling back as he shouted out in shock grabbing his head.

Anastasia's eyes widened as she quickly dropped the shield and went towards him concerned as she asked, "Are you alright? I'm so sorry. I didn't meant to..." she was about to continue but he cut her off as he steadied himself standing up straight.

"Relax Anastasia, I'm not human, I can't feel pain so don't worry. I have to admit though that that was quite a nifty spell." He said with a small smile trying to conceal his embarrassment, that was not a good first impression, well second impression, it was technically his first impression in this body which he was still trying to get used to.

"Uh yeah I didn't know I could do that." Anastasia said a little awkwardly, it was weird, she had Death, in a human form, in her bathroom, and not only that but he was inhumanly beautiful.

"Huh. Is that so? You don't use spells? I'd assumed from the many hours of watching the TV show Melrin that you would know them and yet you can do them wordlessly. Interesting." Death pondered.

"It's Merlin." Anastasia corrected as she watched him walk around looking at the different stuff in the bathroom.

"Yes. That's exactly what I said. Anyway I can only stay here for a limited amount of time so where should we start?" He said as he clapped his hands together.

"Uh. Start? What do you mean by that? You know what, no, I don't have time for this. I have to get my daughter to school on time, and to do that we need to be out of the house in half an hour and I'm already late, I haven't got her breakfast ready, her lunch for the day ready or myself ready. You literally have the worst timing in the world so I'm sorry to tell you but you have to go." Anastasia said as she walked to the door to open it but she didn't expect the door to remain shut, it hadn't been locked when she had come in so she tried to unlock it but even that didn't work. She realised why as she turned around to glare at Death annoyed.

"You know you do look beautiful when you're angry but anyway, I wanted to say that I just stopped time so now you don't have a problem. I can only hold it for a little while before the spell breaks so I'm just going to tell you something that you need to know." Death said holding up his hands in surrender, now he knew why he picked her, she wasn't even remotely afraid of him despite the power he had.

"Oh pray tell what is it I so desperately need to know that you couldn't tell me later?" Anastasia asked sardonically.

"Well the thing is, you asked me to make you a vampire without the bloodlust but you do realise that that makes you immortal too." Death told her preparing for her to shout out the unfairness of it all but he didn't expect her to stand there calmly.

"I know." Anastasia said simply.

"What?" Death replied confused.

"I said I know. I thought you could read my thoughts Mr. Not So Creepy Voice." Anastasia said as she teased his accent, it was a very nice one, she had to admit.

"I could easily read your thoughts in limbo because you were the only one I was focusing on but in this world, if I was focusing on you, then I can read your thoughts but I have billions of other people to watch over so I can't do it as often, which is why I am confused as to why you are so lax about the idea about being immortal. You do know that that means you might outlive your daughter." Death clarified.

"I do know that but if that time comes then I know I can end it if I want to." Anastasia said shrugging her shoulders.

"Why would you want to do that?" Death asked confused, he didn't want to focus on her thoughts, he wanted her to tell him voluntarily.

"Do you really need to know?" Anastasia asked as she sighed rubbing her face in her hands.

"Yes. If you're okay with telling me." Death said concerned for his chosen.

"When Liana was three years old, she saw me getting... beaten up by James and I immediately signalled for her to go to bed, out of fear of what he would do, I didn't want her to get hurt because of me. Thankfully she left the room, then in the night after he was finished with me, I went to her bedroom after making sure he was fast asleep and sat down next to her cot only to find out that she was awake. She had heard every cry and every scream from our room. I tried holding it in many times knowing that she was right next door but then he made it deliberately painful for me and I couldn't hold it in anymore. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and said 'promise you won't leave me mommy,' and I promised her that I wouldn't, how could I not with her staring at me like that. That's why I was fine with being immortal because that would mean I have a lower chance of going back on my promise, I don't want her to have to go through what I did when I lost my mother, it's a pain you can never hope to explain. If I'm immortal, she will never have to learn to live without me the way I had to, she won't only have my father to look up to like I did. I will do whatever it takes to always be there for her even if it means I might lose her one day." Anastasia explained and at this point, there were tears running down her face and she couldn't hold in the sobs that came out of her mouth as she said the last few words.

Death looked at her in sadness, now he knew why he couldn't read her mind to see that when she had made her decision, it was too deep for him to understand so he just stood up and in an uncharacteristic act, pulled her to his chest and hugged her. She was resistant at first, staying stiff in his arms before he felt her shoulders relax as she finally let go. It took her nearly ten minutes to calm down but once she did, she immediately pulled away from him and wiped her tears from her face.

"Thank you." Anastasia muttered as she looked at him in gratitude.

"No problem Anastasia. Now I have a few last minute things to tell you. For one, You had your first vision today and I know it was unsettling but you have to get used to it because they won't only happen at night so you have to be prepared for them. And two, you also need to practice your powers just in case of anything happening. You already figured out the existence of vampires in this universe so do keep an eye out Anastasia, I actually like you and despite how much your presence would be fun with me back in limbo, I'd rather have you stay here. Now I must go but I wish you good luck, you're going to need it for the road up ahead." Death warned her and just before he disappeared he said, "By the way, you may call me Alexander."

Anastasia blinked at the empty space before her and shook her head, she couldn't believe that had just happened. She sighed, she'll think of all of this later, right now, she had a daughter to get to school. She had to go to the school today so she needed to wear something professional. She went in her room and searched through her cupboard to find something appropriate and after she picked and changed into her clothes, she took out a dress for Liana as well, which reminded her, she really needed to go shopping to get some clothes for her, she couldn't keep wearing her old ones.

It took a little more than 20 mins for all of them to get ready and sit on the table for breakfast. Anastasia had made 2 hash browns each for all of them alongside scrambled eggs and a glass of juice. Liana was sitting on her high stool, waving her legs back and forth as she ate her food silently. Since she had woken her up, Liana had been a bit down trodden at the thought of going to school, she didn't want to be away from her mother for so long after what happened but Anastasia had told her, as she was doing her hair, that she would be fine and that they'd see her in a matter of a few hours, just like before. Liana had looked unsure at that but had accepted to go since despite her sadness at being away from her mother, she was still excited to go back to school, it had always been her safe haven whilst living with James after all.

Once they had finished their breakfast, they all went outside and walked to the car where Anastasia strapped Liana into the backseat before closing the door. Her dad, (I had forgotten to give her dad a name so from now on, it'll be Andrew) stayed outside the car as she shut Liana's door and said, "Her school is only a few hours long and unfortunately I won't be able to pick her up today."

"Wait what? Who's going to pick her up then? You said you had enough time to do that because your job didn't require you to be there all the time, unlike mine." Anastasia said panicked, what the hell were they going to do now, did she have to quit her job then.

"Relax Anastasia. I have it all sorted. I called one of my drivers that I had back in New York, he owes me a favour so he agreed to do this since he had moved near here a while ago and by coincidence, his son also goes to the same school so he didn't mind picking her up too." Andrew said before he opened his side of the car door to step inside.

"Wait. That's not going to happen. I'm not going to let a strange man drive my daughter around, it's not going to happen." Anastasia said, she didn't trust anyone but herself and her father around her daughter.

"I trust him Anastasia. It'll be fine, not every man is like him." Andrew said as he turned back to his daughter.

"I don't trust him though and every man has the potential to be like James and until I see a reason to believe otherwise, I will only trust myself and you with my daughter." Anastasia said.

"Do you think I'd chose just any person to look after her? No, I chose Ryan." Andrew said knowing that she'd understand exactly who he's talking about.

"Ry?" Anastasia asked not knowing how to feel about that, he had just left without telling her anything, he hadn't contacted her for years but despite that she couldn't hide the excitement she felt that she might see him again. She hadn't seen him since she graduated from high school, he used to drop her off to wherever she wanted to go until she had gotten a car of her own.

"Yes. I called him yesterday and said he'd drop her off at the school you work at so here's his phone number so you can text him the address." Andrew said as he opened up Ryan's phone number on his contacts and showed her as she typed it into her own phone.

"Thanks dad." Anastasia said gratefully and he nodded at her before going into the car and driving off with Anastasia waving at them just as Liana shouted, "Bye mommy!'

"Bye Liana. Have a nice day." Anastasia shouted back just as the car moved out of sight and she had to quickly get to the school. She checked her schedule that she had put in her purse to see which class she had to go to first before she realised she still had around 40 mins to spare. Apparently despite the school opening early, the actual lessons started late and she only needed to be there for them so she had a lot of time to spare.

It took her a few minutes to get to the town on foot and she realised she had enough time to shop for Liana's clothes but the only problem was she had no idea which cloth shop was the best one. She quickly dialled the person who she knew would know all about it and after a few seconds she thankfully picked up.

"Hey Annie. What's up?" Caroline asked curious about why her newly proclaimed best friend was calling her.

"Well I kind of need your help. I need to get clothes for Liana and I have no idea which shop to go to." Anastasia said as she walked along the footpath waiting for any direction Care would give her.

"Shopping?" Caroline squealed excitedly before she quickly said, "Yes I know exactly where we need to go but I have to be there with you and you absolutely cannot go yourself. I'm going to school now though so is there any way you can postpone it for a day pretty pretty please. The girls never want to go shopping with me so please can you let me come with you?" Caroline asked pleadingly.

"Sure Caroline I don't mind at all. Liana has clothes at home to wear right now so we can easily wait a day. Liana can even come with us to see the clothes as she only goes to school for 2 to 3 hours for preschool." Anastasia suggested to her friend as she smiled at the clear excitement in her voice.

"Really? Yes! I can't wait to see Liana again. She's the most adorable kid I've ever seen. Does she take after you or her father?" Caroline asked curiously.

"She's nothing like her father, if I can even call him that." Anastasia snapped bitterly.

"Oh. Sorry. Sore subject?" Caroline asked concerned for what had happened to make her usually happy friend snap at her with such bitterness coating her voice.

"You could say that." Anastasia replied as she rubbed a hand over her face in frustration before she said, "Sorry for snapping at you Care."

"It's okay. I understand. My mother also has a complicated relationship with my dad, well by complicated, I mean they don't talk at all." Caroline explained as she walked to school.

"You can't understand Caroline. Not talking to each other is a far cry better than what I had." Anastasia said, she wanted to open up about what happened but she could never outright say what happened to her, it would make it all the more real.

"What happened Annie?" Caroline asked worried, what could be worse than not talking to each other, the only thing was being verbally abusive or... No she didn't want to think about that, it couldn't be that, she pushed the thought away despite how much it fit with how skinny Annie was and the way she flinches when any man's near her, no, it was just a coincidence.

"Well let's just say he was sentenced for 25 years in prison in NYC." Anastasia said, her dad had told her how long his sentence was supposed to be before he had escaped. He had told her everything that had happened after she had been found this morning when she had asked him whilst her daughter was upstairs getting changed. Apparently she had left her phone back at the hospital so one of her friends, a guy who worked with her in the hospital, Ian, had come to drop it off, and since the door had been left wide open he had heard what happened and thankfully since he wasn't drunk he managed to restrain James and knock him unconscious as he called both the police and the ambulance as soon as he saw the state she was in, he had saved her life in this world and she was beyond thankful, she really needed to thank him.

"25 years? Wait you're from New York City?" Caroline asked both concerned and excited. She had no idea Annie was a city girl but she was more focused on why that little girl's father was sentenced for that long. For him to get 25 years in prison, it was clear that he had done something really terrible but what she was concerned about was from the way Annie was speaking, it obviously had something to do with her.

"Yes to both questions." Anastasia said getting closer to the school but as she looked up she saw Caroline walking from the other direction and she quickly said, "Hey look up from where you are."

"What? Why?" Caroline asked but she did so anyway and then she saw Annie on the other side of the road waving at her and she smiled as she crossed the road to get to her and in her excitement, she didn't see the car heading straight for her.

"Caroline!" Anastasia screamed before she dropped her phone and ran, pulling her out of the way just in time but the car grazed her side very slightly causing them both to topple on the floor. She immediately looked Caroline over to see if she was okay and after making sure she was, she turned slightly trying to get up before gasping slightly at the stinging sensation on her side.

"Oh my god Annie. Why would you do that? You could have been seriously hurt." Caroline said as a crowd of people started gathering around them in concern. She couldn't believe Annie had risked her life to save hers, they had only known each other for barely a few days and yet she had pushed her out the way of a moving car knowing full well that she could have got hurt as well.

"Ana!" A familiar voice screamed and she looked up to see the familiar face of her once best friend, Ryan running towards her.

"Ry! What… What on earth are you doing here? I thought you were coming afterwards to drop Liana off." Anastasia said confused still conflicted on how to feel about seeing him again.

"I was but I had nothing to do after dropping my son off and I thought about coming to meet you. I'm so sorry for hitting you with my car. I'm so so so sorry." Ryan said looking down at her concerned, as soon as he hit the girls, he had pulled his car up on the side of the road to check if they were ok, and only then did he recognise Ana and his concern had skyrocketed.

"Wait, that was you?" Anastasia asked shocked.

"You nearly hit me with your car you idiot and you did hit my friend." Caroline was about to go on a whole tirade but Annie cut her off.

"It's alright Caroline It was an accident." Anastasia said as she waved off his apologies.

"No it's not alright. I hit you with my car Ana. I'm so sorry. Is there anything I can do? Can you stand up? Do you need help?" Ryan fired off question after question in his worry for his best friend, he could see that she didn't know how to feel about him being near her and he couldn't blame her considering how he had left, he hadn't had a choice though and he didn't know how to say goodbye to her so he didn't.

"Ry calm down." Anastasia said sternly before she tried to move again but the pain was a little too much for her and she hissed, breathing out through the burning sensation spreading around her hip.

"What is it?"

"Are you alright?"

Both Care and Ry asked at the same time and Anastasia rolled her eyes at the both of them before she said, "I wouldn't mind a little help in getting up." As soon as she said this Ryan immediately helped lift her up onto her feet but as she tried to balance on her own, her knees buckled from underneath her and she would have been sent sprawling on the floor if it wasn't for both Ryan and Caroline, who had both managed to catch her in time.

"You need to go to the hospital." Caroline said immediately.

"I'll take her." Ryan said as he nodded in agreement.

"Hospital? Absolutely not. I hate hospitals." Anastasia complained.

"You work in a hospital." Ryan deadpanned

"Yeah as a doctor, not a patient. I hate being a patient." Anastasia said annoyed.

"Well too bad for you because you're going. We can do this the nice way where you nod your head, agree, and get in my car or we could do this the hard way, where I drag you kicking and screaming." Ryan said seriously.

"You wouldn't." Anastasia narrowed her eyes as he raised an eyebrow at her.

5 mins later...

"I hate you." Anastasia muttered petulantly as she sat in the car next to a smirking Ryan.

"I did warn you." Ryan said, he had to actually pick her up because she refused to budge and she couldn't walk anyway, which he was still feeling guilty about.

"That wasn't a warning, that was a threat, there is a difference." Anastasia grumbled, she had told Caroline to go to school, she didn't want her to be late after all so after reassuring her she was going to be fine and that Ryan was going to be there for her, Caroline finally agreed to go right after making her promise to call afterwards, which she wouldn't have been able to if a random guy hadn't handed her her phone which she had forgotten she had dropped in her panic so she had thanked him profusely.

"You're right. A threat is ill intentioned by the person making it against the person receiving it. A warning is intended for the benefit and safety of the recipients and in this scenario, I was doing it for your health therefore it was a warning." Ryan explained smirking at her disgruntled face.

"Oh shut up and drive." Anastasia said as she turned to face out the window. Ryan couldn't help but chuckle at her, despite being years older than the girl that he used to drive wherever her heart desired, there was still a child inside her but there was something else, something he could see was different about her, she was more guarded, there was a of look in her eyes that made him think they were too old to be on such a young face but then she would smile and he would think, it was just a trick of the light because she looked so young, so carefree but he knew better than to ignore his instincts and they told him that something had definitely happened to her in the years he hadn't they've been apart.

After pulling up at the hospital, Ryan quickly got out of his car and opened Anastasia's side of the door. During the ride, the constant jostling had caused the pain to worsen and it was actually quite painful for her so she accepted the help he provided as he lifted her up in his arms, kicking the door shut behind him and locking it by pressing the button on the key in his hand. When he went inside, he placed her on one of the waiting room chairs before calling a doctor to check up on her.

Around forty five minutes later, they both came outside the hospital relieved, there was thankfully no broken or fractured bones, she had a mildly severe abrasion on her left hip and bruising in other random places when she had cushioned Caroline from the fall to the pavement but other than that she was fine. They had given her crutches to use since she had trouble walking, so that was a relief. The doctor had put a bandage on her hip but she hadn't realised exactly how far her shirt had went up because the doctor had asked what had happened to her stomach when she was lying on one of the hospital beds. She had immediately said 'nothing' but she obviously didn't believe her from the look on her face but Anastasia didn't give a damn, she hadn't opened up to people that actually cared about her, she wasn't going to open up to a random stranger so she was glad to finally leave the room. She had also thankfully remembered to call the school and tell them why she was late, they were very concerned and understanding of what happened so they let her off.

Now as she walked outside the hospital, she felt fine after the pain killers they gave her and she didn't want to go home right now so she thought she might just go to the school, all she was going to do was sit down anyway, rather do it in the school, than back at home alone. She told Ryan her decision and he said that whilst he'd rather her rest, he knew he wouldn't be able to change her mind so he was going to drop her off and apparently she had no say in it whatsoever so she agreed with a roll of her eyes.

It only took a few minutes before they made it there so she got out of his car and took her crutches from the side of her seat, using it to walk towards the school as she looked back to Ryan and said, "Thanks Ryan. It was… good to see you again."

"You too Ana. Though hopefully next time you won't meet my car first." Ryan joked and she rolled her eyes smiling at him before turning to walk inside.