A/N: I really really really hope that you guys will like this chapter. It was one of my toughest writes so I'm not really sure about it…

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Jesse's POV

Working on the ranch was hard work. With the blinding Californian sun beating down on me and the aggravating beads of sweat on my forehead constantly trickling down my temples and tickling my face, my biggest desire was to get out of the sizzling fields to somewhere where I wouldn't be roasted alive.

Today, though, as I helped the newly hired cowboy tame his stubborn mare, I had an added reason for wanting to escape the sun's fiery wrath.

I wished to spend my time with Susannah. I knew she couldn't live here forever and the thought saddened me extremely. In fact, I was starting to think how I would be able to lead a normal life without her by my side. As painful as the thought of her leaving was, it urged me on to spend as much time as I could with her.

Since that first kiss we had shared underneath the stars three days ago, my presence at her side had been bordering on the brink of impropriety. I didn't care though.

That was another thing about Susannah. There was something about her which made me do what I really wanted, not what I was supposed to do. It was as if, just by being present in my life, she brought out the real me. The me which had been suppressed all these twenty years by my father's and society's dominant nature.

Wiping my sweaty brow with the piece of cloth that hung around my neck, I looked around the emerald green pasture, noticing how much the color resembled Susannah's beautiful eyes. Sometimes I wondered how the grass managed to look so fresh and green under so scorching a heat.

After a short headcount to make sure that none of the cows were missing, I headed home to mi querida.

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Josefina's POV

"Viktor," I whispered as we came out of our passionate kiss.

He pulled his hand out of my corset and rested it on my waist. "Josefina," he whispered in the same low, breathless voice.

Nothing else was needed to be said. We just sat, leaning against each other, feeling each other's wild heartbeats and absorbing the peace that we gave each other.

Sitting on the rocky slopes of the treacherous seaside cliffs, we had spent the entire afternoon in each other's arms. Now we watched as the giant flaming orb dipped into the sea miles away and the seagulls abandoned their roost on the rocks in the sea, to fly away far off to their homes.

During the short time I had known and loved Viktor, I wished I could turn into a bird just like those seagulls and soar above the world with him by my side. To be free to love whom I wanted without a care as to what society required.

Slowly, hot salty tears started pouring down my cheeks. I tried my best to hide them from Viktor but he saw them anyway.

He didn't ask why I was crying; he knew the reason behind every action of mine without me opening my mouth. Gently, he placed my head on his firm shoulders and stroked my hair silently.

A few moments later, he spoke quietly. "Do you regret it?"

I lifted my head from his shoulders and looked at his handsome profile. "Regret what?" I asked, my voice slightly husky from crying.

"Me." His jaw was set and he was looking steadfastly in front.

I set my head back on his shoulder and gazed at a distant ship, small and black against the fiery backdrop. "There are many things I regret. I regret your past. I regret the fact that I will never be able to present you to my family. But never for once did I regret falling in love with you," I answered softly.

Viktor turned to face me at last. His face was impassive but his eyes, those two windows to his soul, betrayed the bitterness he felt for his past behavior. Slowly, he opened his mouth and said, "And if you had to, would you regret leaving your family for me?"

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Jesse's POV

Something was disturbing Josefina. She hadn't uttered a single word all through dinner whereas usually she was the one who contributed to most of our dinner conversations. Her eyes were downcast and there were worry lines creased on her normally youthful face.

I glanced around the table at the rest of my family and returned my eyes to my plate, disgusted. It looked as if none of my family members had noticed my younger sister's perturbed state. My mother I could forgive for she was too caught up with making sure Isabel, my youngest sister, finished her food. But the rest of them were all unbelievably ignorant.

I felt something brush my leg underneath the table. Looking up, I found Susannah looking at me with a questioning look on her lovely features. Her eyes looked at Josefina's direction then looked back at me with the same questioning look on her face.

My love for Susannah increased tenfold – if that was even possible, considering how much I loved her already – just for the fact that she, she who had been with us for less than two weeks, had noticed my little sister's tension.

I shrugged slightly at her and turned back to my food. I would deal with Josefina after dinner.

Soon everyone had finished their food and my family adjourned to the sitting room to continue with the rest of their evening activities.

Discretely, I pulled Susannah aside. Slater walked by us, throwing me a dirty look and rolling his eyes as he made his way up to his room.

Bastard.

Before I could speak, however, Susannah spoke, "Jesse, do you want me to talk to Jo?"

I shook my head. "No, Susannah. I'll look after that. I was just about to tell you that. Anyway, I'll go now and find her," I answered.

She nodded. I smiled. Looking around and finding the area deserted, I leaned down and placed a small kiss on her lips.

She giggled. "You know, this secret boyfriend-girlfriend thing is kinda fun. Makes me feel all CIA-ish, except we're stealing kisses not top secret documents," she said.

I felt perplexed. Boyfriend-girlfriend? CIA? What was she talking about?

My confusion must have shown on my face because she then rolled her eyes and said, "Never mind. You're never going to change, are you?"

I raised my eyebrows.

She sighed. "Whatever. Just go to Josefina and play the stereotype protective elder brother role. Nighty-night, Jesse," she said, tip-toeing to reach my lips and give a little kiss before climbing up the stairs to her room.

I stood there for a while, both perplexed and amused. Never had I met a girl as strange as Susannah. Her stock of vocabulary especially was, to say the least…different.

Slowly I made my way to the sitting room. I found Josefina in the corner beside the old piano, reading a novel in a melancholy silence.

Before I could make my way across to her, however, a dense white fog settled over the whole room.

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Suze's POV

After brushing my teeth, I stepped out of the bathroom and walked over to my dressing table.

Outside the open bay windows, crickets chirped and a warm summer breeze whispered through the ranch, causing the tree leaves to rustle lightly.

Suddenly I put the brush with which I had been brushing my hair down. Something was wrong. I sat still, listening. Slowly I realized that it was too silent. Usually the sounds of the three youngest de Silva girls' laughter and Marta's piano playing drifted in through the open windows. Today, however, there was nothing. Nada.

Oh whatever. Maybe they're having a rest day or something.

Too tired to go down and investigate, I shrugged the matter off and climbed into bed. I clapped the lights off and fell asleep at once.

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Jesse's POV

I opened my eyes to find my whole family and myself in a place which seemed like the inside of a cloud. In front of us was standing none other than Anthea, the girl who had paid us that…visit the day of our arrival back home.

She smiled that typical knowing smile of hers. "Good evening," she started in her soft voice.

We stared at her. What did she want with us? We weren't the ones with special powers, that was Susannah and Slater, neither of whom were here.

Suddenly, she turned to me. "Hector – or would you rather be called Jesse?" she asked.

Finding my voice, I replied, "Jesse is fine. Pardon me, but what exactly do you want?"

Her ethereal green eyes sparkled. "Tell me, Jesse. Do you ever wonder what the relationship between Susannah and the future you is like? Do you ever wonder how she and your future self met?" she asked lightly.

My breath hitched. Anthea had directly delved into my inner-most thoughts. Since the moment I had met Susannah in that barn, a day didn't pass when I didn't ask myself those questions.

"Yes," I answered hesitantly. "Why?" I asked.

"Well," she started. "Remember when I said the last time we met that those two shifters from the future were here because things didn't end the way they were supposed to?"

We nodded warily.

Her smile widening, she continued, "Well it so happens that you, Jesse, play a crucial role in setting things right. Your family I brought because I thought they have the right to know too. Since you have no clue as to what you are supposed to do, I thought perhaps this might help."

She snapped her fingers and, like magic, a big picture started to appear in front of us. A moving picture.

I heard my mother and one of my sister's utter muffled shrieks. The rest of us just stared, aghast.

Slowly the picture became clear and I recognized one of the people in it. Susannah. She was wearing a black shirt and a vulgar black jacket which seemed like it was made of leather. Her blue trousers – jeans, I think she called them – were torn at both knees.

Around her was a woman who had exactly the same hair as Susannah, a golden-haired man, and three boys. The eldest boy looked about my age and the youngest about twelve.

We watched as all of them got out of a huge metallic machine which seemed to transport people in the future from place to place. The place I vaguely recognized as the O'Neil's' boardinghouse. But everything was so changed. Not a single horse was to be seen and the surrounding area which I had known to be empty miles of grass was now covered in similar houses built in an orderly manner. Only the ancient pine trees and the red domes of the Mission remained.

Susannah and what I assumed was her family went into the house. They climbed up the stairs and walked into a very…pink room. Her mother was talking excitedly to her but she, I could see, was not listening because she suddenly saw something at the other end of the room.

I followed her gaze and saw…well, me. It was me but it wasn't me. In the picture I was sort of transparent and I was glowing. It was the ghost me.

I glanced at my family and saw them staring at the picture, transfixed. I turned back to the picture and watched.

Susannah and Ghost me had a rocky start. But the attraction between both of them was evident. Several times throughout the picture I saw Susannah's eyes wander down to where the Ghost me's nightshirt opened up to my chest.

I smirked. Then realizing that my family was watching too, I turned red. Looking at them, I saw Josefina turn to me and grin wickedly. Her troubles, I saw, were forgotten for the moment.

We lost our sense of time as we watched the fascinating picture.

A priest whom Susannah called Father Dominic joined the story. He too was a ghost-seer or, I learnt, a mediator. I smiled as I saw the way Susannah's impetuous mediation methods and his gentler, cool-headed methods contrasted.

Months passed in the picture and the three of us – Susannah, Father Dominic, and Ghost Me – battled several incensed spirits. I was pleased to see me in the role of rescuer to Susannah most of the time.

Something in my future self and me connected as I watched. I could share in the protectiveness my ghost felt for Susannah as she went about fighting ghosts in her typical hot-headed manner. It was a match made by the hands of God himself. We balanced each other out perfectly. Susannah kept me from living my after-existence in a pit of misery and boredom and I kept her from becoming too rash. The attraction too, I could feel. And now, I understood the reason for Susannah's tears that day on our way home when I had called her querida.

Never will I forget the anomalous sensation which watching this otherworldly picture gave me.

Then summer came into Susannah's life along with Paul Slater. People in the future, I observed, liked basking in the sun at sea wearing horrifyingly revealing clothes. I looked down at my hands embarrassedly whenever Susannah came into view wearing one of those two-pieced…apparels.

Then a huge shock, like a giant oak falling on top of my family and I, came.

The ghost of Maria de Silva appeared into the picture. My fists clenched when I saw the way she made life for Susannah hell. I looked at my father to see how he would take it. Seeing his idea of a perfect daughter-in-law and wife behaving like a madwoman must have shocked him no end.

I understood slightly why Anthea was showing this picture to my family too. It was to make amends for all the misunderstandings that would have happened had I been killed by Diego. Now they understood Maria's true intentions.

But the question remained as to why she was showing it to me. How would watching this moving picture help me set things right? Not finding an answer, I decided to just watch for the time being.

I was stunned when I saw Susannah separate her soul from her body just to find me when Maria had had me exorcised. So that was the extent of her love for me! She would give up her life if she had to.

Soon after both of us had safely come down from that foggy place called Shadowland, came our first kiss.

"…I really don't feel like doing anything. Especially talk..." said Susannah.

"Then you don't have to," said Ghost Me.

Then without a second to think, my ghost had walked over and kissed her. I could feel the intensity of the emotions running through my future self. The passion, love, gratefulness, bitterness, and lastly, the regret.

I heard my sisters giggle. Looking over at them, I saw them look at me with raised eyebrows and teasing smiles playing on their lips. Only my parents were still gazing at the picture.

Nombre de Dios! This picture was showing too private things to my family. I looked at Anthea, irritated, but she was looking at the picture too, like she was enjoying the show exceedingly.

Weeks passed by in the picture. Susannah had a gravestone made for me and had my body – which had been unceremoniously thrown into a pit in the O'Neils' backyard by Diego – buried respectably. Paul Slater started blackmailing Susannah with threats of exorcising me if she didn't come over to his house every Wednesday. One such appointment ended with Susannah harassed and with awfully blistered feet.

Then came the big fist fight between Slater and my ghost. We wrecked almost Susannah's entire house. He had been playing around with Susannah and he got what he deserved.

The relationship between Susannah and my ghost got more and more passionate and intimate. There were several times in the picture when I wished I could dig a pit in the ground and bury myself from the embarrassment of having my family watching some of the things in the picture.

Then at last came the sombre topic of time-travelling. The reason why Susannah and Slater had come so far in time. It was all because of –

Me.

Slater wanted to save my past self so that there would be no ghost and so he could have Susannah to himself. The thought of Susannah in that bastardo's arms made my blood boil. Susannah had followed him because she wanted the exact opposite. To let me die so she could have her romance with my ghost.

Now I understood why she had changed her mind after coming to the past. She had seen my real solid self and couldn't think of me dying so she was going to give up her love to give me my life.

After Susannah and Slater had shifted to this time, the picture started to fade until it was completely gone. We all stood silently, not being able to digest the miraculous thing we had just witnessed.

Match made by the hands of God himself.

Anthea came back to stand in front of us. She looked at me with a keen look in her eyes.

The passion, love, gratefulness, bitterness, and lastly, the regret.

"I think, Jesse, you will soon know what to do," said Anthea softly before leaving us with her white cloud.

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A/N: A long, twisted, complicated, annoying but crucial chapter. You don't know how damn annoyed I got from typing all the "future me"s and "ghost me"s.

I am nervously waiting for the responses…