I'm finally starting the sequel to The Necklace. For those of you who have not read The Necklace, I suggest that you do to have a better understanding, but I think this should still make sense even if you don't read it. So for those of you who did go and read the necklace - here's the sequel you have hopefully been waiting for.

This chapter is dedicated to Lolly (Mystique Angelique). If it wasn't for her, I would have no title, and I want to thank her for the tips that will help me write a later even, and also to my friend Luna, who so graciously proof read this chapter to correct all my errors.

disclaimer - i do not own the charecters in this story - Meg Cabbot does - i only own the plot - and i askk that no one steals it from me :D - but you all kow that so on with the story....

Chapter 1

I was in someone's car, but I couldn't recognize the surrounding area. I know I was in the woods somewhere, due to all the trees, but for the life of me, I didn't know where. Getting out of the car, I started searching for someone I would recognize out of all the police and paramedics. I spotted Jesse talking to a cop and everything that had happened that afternoon came flooding back to me. I ran up to Jesse.

"Querida, what are you doing out of the car? You need to rest!" I saw the look of concern in Jesse's eyes, and I knew that something was wrong.

"Jesse! Sara and Paul, did they make it out ok?"

"It's Paul that the paramedics were worried about. They wouldn't tell me anything, but they were worried." All of the sudden the scene shifted. I was now standing in a hallway filled with white walls and floors. There was a doctor talking, and I was in the presence of two others. I recognized them as Mr. and Mrs Slater.

"Paul got hit on the head pretty hard," the doctor was saying, "but the good thing is that all of his vital signs are completely normal. There's only one thing: we can't get Paul to wake up. After doing a quick MRI scan it appears that he's sleeping, he just won't wake."

Upon hearing this, I went into a state of panic. I raced down the hallway, and into the room I knew to be Paul's. I got there to a find a bed with the sheets pushed down at the end of the bed as if someone had just stepped out of it. Paul was gone!

I woke up out of breath and sweating. That was the third time this week I had had that dream. No, that wasn't a dream. That was reliving a nightmare. The only part I couldn't understand was the fact that Paul was missing in the dream.

Tomorrow will have been exactly ten years since Paul went into that coma. That coma which was supposedly to help Paul "remember what was forgotten" had been the cause of so many nightmares. I hadn't had one in years, and this one was different than all the others. Paul was gone in this dream.

I got out of bed and went to the bathroom to try to wash away the memories, even though I knew from past experiences that it did little to help ease the pain. It was still hard to think that Paul had been in a coma for almost ten years now. I received a letter from Jack Slater, Paul's little brother every couple of months telling me about Paul's status, which was the same every time.

The letters where still fun to read though, Jack always mentioned all the ghosts he had encountered, and the last few years, he had been known to ask for dating advice here and there. I was just happy that I knew what things to say to Jack when he asked since I had just dealt with it a few years prior with Doc (or David as you might know him).

In fact, Jack was just like another little brother, even if we had different parents, we still shared a love for Paul. Jack had a brotherly love for Paul, and I had the type of love for Paul that best friends had for each other. Like the type of love I have for my three best friends: Cee Cee, Adam and Gina. Definitely not the type of love that I had for--

"Susannah? Are you all right, querida?" said a groggily voice behind me. I turned around to face my husband of three years.

Definitely not the type of love that I had for Jesse.

After we had graduated high school (a year after Paul's accident), I left for New York to try to earn a degree in fashion. I had looked forward to going back to the place I had always considered home and seeing Gina and my grandmother again. Jesse stayed behind in California, and moved about two hours north to live closer to the Berkeley Campus. He wanted to be a history teacher, of all things. I guess his love of history is one thing that will never change. He actually got accepted to Harvard, but he turned it down because he wanted 'to be as close to home as possible.'

It wasn't until I reached New York that I realized how much I missed Carmel. The only things that I had in New York to cherish were Gina and my grandmother, no one else. And not too many memorable experiences, either. After living in Carmel for just a few years, I had found the life I had always wanted. New York wasn't my home anymore, Carmel was. I finally saw what Jesse meant by needing to be close to home.

I turned down my scholarship to NYC and returned back to Carmel. I applied for the same college as Jesse, so we would be able to share an apartment together. After the third try, I finally got my acceptance letter. About four years later, Father Dominic, who we still kept in close contact with, offered Jesse a job as an American History teacher back at Junipero Serra Academy. We moved back to Carmel, and were lucky enough to find a small apartment for rent until we could find something more permanent.

While Jesse started work at the school, I started looking for a job of my own. The answer came one day while out buying groceries. There was a 'for sale by owner' sign in front of one the department store buildings. I called the number that was at the bottom of the sign, and, well....

Long story short, the empty store became mine. I went home and pulled out a box full of clothing designs that I had planned to one day put on the market. By the time Jesse got home that night, I knew he was going to be mad. I had just drained out our account, and made a few loans while I was at it.

I can still picture his face as I told him that I had used most of that money to get tones of my designs made to the real thing. The rest of the money would go to the rest of the costs it would take to get my future career up and running.

About eight months later, we had opening day for the shop. Although I was completely broke, I was still the proud owner of my very own clothes store, Shifting. The name of the store was not only to represent my life turning to the better and other people shifting to different styles of themselves, but to represent what I was.

I knew I would never forget that day. Not only for opening up what is now one of the most popular shops in town, but because that night Jesse came into the store, got down on one knee, and asked me to be his wife! And that's how ten years later, we ended up with our own 3 bedroom house near the beach in carmel. we could deffinatly afford a bigger house, but it was already big enough for just the two of us.

"I'm fine, I just had that dream again, but I'm fine now." I said responding to Jesse so he wouldn't worry too much. I learned long ago that it was impossible to lie to Jesse, so I had told him about the dreams, after the second one.

"It's strange that you would be having them now, considering what day tomorrow is."

"You mean what day today is." I said,pointing to the clock on the night stand."It's probably just my mind worrying... but it has been ten years, you'd think he would have woken up by now. Do you think that gladiator guy was telling the truth? I mean, how long does it take to remember what you've forgotten?"

"From what I've seen of that guy, he's pretty serious. He looked like he wanted to condemn me to hell the last time I went up there asking him about Paul." This was something new. Jesse had never told me that he went up there to ask about Paul. I thought that was something I only did. After questioning Jesse on this, he just shrugged his shoulders and replied mildly.

"What can I say, querida? I know how much he meant to you. Even though the memories I have of him are not the best, I know there was a separate side of him that loved you. Now come to bed. Even though it's Sunday, we both still have work to do in the morning."

I knew that was all that I was going to get out of him, so I just followed him back into bed, where we curled up together as husband and wife.

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So, is that good for the first chap? I figured I would keep it mainly to catching up with what had happened over the past 10 years - so review if you want more.

Go on - push the purple button….you know you want to

-sky