I stood quietly on the other side of the door, waiting patiently for either Eric or Godric to come out. Inside I could hear the small discussion between Maker and Child but I didn't zero in on specific details, I had won tonight's battle on sheer dumb luck and I suppose the victory had made me out to be someone that I wasn't. To those who don't know me I express an impassiveness to the whole coexistence subject, but to those who do know me are aware that I can lie extremely well, so well in fact that I can convince myself of the most obvious of lies. However, the more that I lie to myself the more difficult it becomes to organize those tales and eventually I will find myself drowning in the crashing waves of the unknown – of what is reality and what is make believe, and I know this will be my fate because it has almost happened once before.

The hall was empty, and lined with closed black doors, keeping the secrets in and the lies out…or maybe it was the other way around, I don't know which one it is but I didn't get a chance to think further on the subject because suddenly the door on the opposite wall, just to my left opened and Mr. Compton walked out, leading his blonde toy behind him. He gave me a wary look, and made sure to block his human from my line of sight, but I hardly cared about them as my attention was drawn to the third figure who exited. Godric gave me a soulful look, one that I didn't quite understand and then stepped to the side so Eric could fill the hall with his presence. I searched my second oldest Maker's face in earnest, looking for some type of mute verdict but his face was harder to read than a stone, and I was left with no answers to the billion questions that burned in the back of my mind. Vaguely I heard my oldest Maker call to us and as I passed by Eric to follow in his wise footsteps, Eric's hand squeezed my shoulder in an unfamiliar way and then I fell into step beside Godric.

The only person harder to read than Eric was Godric and tonight was no different. We were heading in the direction of my room and I had no idea what to expect once we entered, this walk down the empty hallway felt like the walk on death row – cold, empty and slightly grief stricken. I thought for sure that I was in trouble; for speaking out of turn, for the high level of disrespect – to both Nan and that Blonde and for giving Godric that look - a look I had never given to anyone except my brother and sister when I was trying to save them from a lashing of my father's belt. There were a number of things I could be in trouble for; maybe it was for defying their wishes for me to drink human blood in order to heal, maybe it was for not being around for the past one hundred years or maybe it was just the fact that I left in the first place. The point is that I felt this sense of dread slowly numbing my heart, and there was nothing that I could do to stop it. This was fate, this was destiny, call it what you want but there was no way in getting around the fact that I was in some sort of trouble with my Makers, and I was being led to my death – figuratively speaking of course.

The surprise that trickled down my spine like a cold, but melted ice cube made me jump when I felt Godrics hand wrap around mine, his fingers filling the spaces between my own. I looked to the side of his face, studying him but he determinedly continued to stare straight ahead, with no expression on his face. This was not an action of thanks, I don't think, it wasn't an act of reassurance and it wasn't in any way romantic. It was emotional, yes, but not quite romantic, and the only thing I could do was close my fingers around his hand because he was not planning on letting go. When we got to the door, I pulled out my key and unlocked it; my hand was then released as I was the first to venture inside. The door shut with a snap once all three of us were inside and it was only then that the waterfall of apologies began to spew out of my mouth – never ending word vomit and I just couldn't stop. The only thing that was said was a continuous string of 'I'm sorry's'.

It was when Godric held his hand out that I stopped and an empty smile touched his lips, "I am not angry with you my Child."

It was then that I could hear the defeat in his voice.

"Come here," he said, his arms opening with invitation, and I went to him without hesitation.

My arms snaked around his neck and I pulled him against my body, my head rested on his chest at his collar bone, and my face buried into the underside of his neck. His arms matched my strength when they wrapped around my waist and across my back, his hand folding into my hair. There definitely something wrong with my Maker, he was quiet and distant like there was something eating away at him and I wondered for what seemed like the hundredth time in the past two days how a Fellowship of humans could kidnap my two thousand year old Maker, he had also said that he had volunteered, but why? They were going to make him meet the sun, they were going to watch him burn like a grand old bonfire on the fourth of July, like he was nothing. Surely he understood this, surely he understood that if he hadn't of escaped or if Eric hadn't of saved him that he would be dead right now; surely he didn't want to burn.

And then that was when it hit me.

The emptiness and the defeat in his eyes, the way he walked, and the way he acted, like a weight was growing heavier and heavier on his shoulders. The smiles that I have seen, they were not the true smiles of Godric, his smiles could light up my entire world. They both could.

Now I realized why Godric had grabbed my hand, I understood the emotion behind it. He was scared, and needed an anchor. Something I had never expected of him.

But now that I think about it, what would have happened if I hadn't of come to Dallas? What if I had ignored the sudden rage that Eric had felt, and stayed in New York… would Godric be already dead? Would he have left without so much as a goodbye to me, would he really put me through that kind of pain?

And what about Eric? They've been together for centuries; would Godric really leave his first Child?

With every growing thought that passed by my arms had become tighter and tighter, and with those thoughts tears escaped my eyes. They trailed down my cheeks and bled into the fabric of Godric's shirt, ruining the cloth. His arms reached up and he pried mine from around his neck, and I saw slight alarm flicker in his eyes when he saw the blood staining my face. His hands held me at arm's length and I fingered the stain on his shirt, muttering an apology, but he only cupped my face and wiped the blood from my eyes with his thumbs.

"Why do you cry Clara?"

I could look anywhere but in his eyes because I knew that the second I did, I would break down and just start screaming, instead I focused on the stain in his shirt, stubbornly trying to scratch it out but I knew that I was just making it worse. Like I always seemed to make everything worse.

"Clara. Clara look at me," Godric spoke sharply, giving my body a shake and I regretfully dragged my eyes to his, and instantly I was looking into a world of pain, his pain. My lip quivered and my hands went to his wrists, holding them tightly and all he could do was pull me against his chest.

Nothing that I said made any sense for a good ten minutes; the words just came out as mumbles and moans…even for a Vampire. I felt so pathetic and needy but I just didn't want to let go, I couldn't let go. There was still so much that needed to be said and done, and there wasn't enough time in the world to get everything accomplished.

I just wanted more time.

"Why do you want to die?" It came just barely above a whisper but it was enough to draw a silence from the other two Vampires in the room. It was so quiet that even a mortal could hear a pin drop.

"It's time Clara, two thousand years is enough for me," he spoke calmly, his hands still smoothed over my back and up around my shoulders.

I drew back from him as much as I possibly could and hissed, "Time?" I glared at his saddened face, "you want to die because you've had enough?" I punched him on the chest and then in the stomach and then on the shoulder and from there I struck every inch of his body that I could reach before he forced me to the bed and sat me down, his own form knelt between my legs and he held my wrists in a position where it was impossible for me to harm him, or myself. I struggled against his grip, I fought for my strength because I wanted to hurt him like he was hurting me, but what was surprising was that Eric was just idly standing by.

"Stop it, Clara. That's enough."

"No!" I screamed desperately, trying to twist my wrists from his grip, "you can't die, Godic, not on me. I ca-can't, I won't let you die."

"Please, Clara," he pleaded with me, his hands moving to mine where he clenched my fingers in his, holding them up to his lips so I could feel them move while he spoke, "let me go, you have to let me go."

"I will never let you go. I'll keep you alive by force."

Something told me that this was not the first time those words had been spoken to him tonight and I glanced fearfully at Eric, I silently pleaded with him for help. If anyone could get Godric to change his mind, it was Eric and I was depending on my Viking's strength to get me through tonight.

"Even if you could," Godric responded sadly, his thumbs rubbing circles along my knuckles, "why would you be so cruel?

"Cruel?" I asked sharply, my hands pulling from his like they were made of silver, "you want to talk about cruelty Godric? You're the one being cruel, to me and to Eric. How could you ever think we would ever be okay with this?

"With everything I have done-."

"It's in the past," I mumbled, my hands clutching desperately to my oldest Maker's face, "you are my family Godric. You, and Eric and Daimon and Evelynn are my family now and I've barely even begun to get over the loss of my first one so don't you dare take away one of the most important pieces of my current family, don't you dare put me through that pain again, Godric. I would never forgive you for that."

"I love you Clara, and if you ever loved me, you would let me go."

I jumped to my feet and the suddenness of this movement actually knocked Godric to the ground and I growled at him, "Don't you dare pull that shit on me. I would love to know what would have happened if I hadn't of shown up in Dallas. Obviously this isn't a sudden revelation, so would I have woken up one day to find our Connection gone? Would you have even said goodbye to me?"

Godric got to his feet, his hand reaching out to me in attempts to calm me down, "Clara-."

"And why does he get to spend more time with you?" I shrieked, pointing viciously at Eric, my eyes were wide and fearful, "why does he get a thousand or more years to spend with you and I only get one hundred?"

"That is kind of your fault-," Eric began.

"Shut up!" I bellowed, rounding on him, "don't you dare bring my mistakes into this!"

I stood between my Makers, seething. My breasts and shoulders heaved violently with air I didn't need, and my body shook with the rawest of emotions. Blood poured from my eyes and dripped from my chin onto my clothes and the carpet, and shakily I sat back down on the bed with my face in my hands. "Please," I moaned, my face peaking from my hands, "please don't do this Godric. I need you, Eric needs you. There's still so much I can learn from you-."

"And Eric can teach you these things."

"But I don't want to learn them from just Eric. I want to learn them from you too, please. You are my family. If you die I die."

"Clara," Godric smiled as he came to sit beside me, "I assure you that you will not die-."

"I will," I interrupted, "if you walk into the sun, I will follow you."

He suddenly rounded on me, his anger shooting though my body like a dart through the air, "you will not follow me. As your Maker I-."

"Command me all you want. But you will have to find every possible loop hole there is to find and block me from it because I assure you I will find a way around your barricades," I spoke confidently, my hands firmly in my lap. This time though, I spoke softer, gentler, "you don't think I know how this feels? How you feel, with the guilt and shame that you have. It may be in a much smaller comparison to your own, but for two hundred years I've lived with my siblings deaths. For two hundred years I've blamed myself, and succumbed to the darkness that came with the blame and in those first hundred years with you and Eric the pain started to ease, and I began to feel more like myself. Now, I realise that in the years we've spent apart the pain I felt has only crept back, even stronger than before."

"Eric would never let you do this-."

"Then Eric will have to keep me within arm's reach for the rest of my life because the second that I get away I will follow you Godric. Two hundred years is enough for me, as two thousand is enough for you."

There was a painful silence as we all processed what was happening; my world was definitely spinning out of control now as I thought about what I had said. I had just finished telling Godric not to leave us and here I am, promising that I would follow him if he died. Could I really do that to my own progenies, could I put them through that pain as Godric had planned to do to me? So I sat there in both physical and emotional pain, I didn't really know what to think at the moment… in fact I had forgotten how to think all together, I was not in my mind nor in my body and I just stared blankly at the door, longing to take off once again.

"You…you always told me," I said after a while, not turning in either of my Makers directions, no, I continued to stare blankly with my eyes glazed over, "you always told me, Godric… not to run from my past. So please, if you were to ever take your own advice, now would be the ideal time to do so."

I felt a pair of presences step up to the wall I had built around myself, keeping my emotions to myself and the Connection I had with my Makers severed. I knew what they wanted and reluctantly I knocked down the wall brick by brick until there was a small mountain of debris littered around me, leaving me open and vulnerable. I could only imagine what Godric and Eric must have felt when the tidal wave of intense, raw emotion hit them, I could only picture them being knocked down with the force of it. As much as I tried being strong, and hard and intimidating, at the end of the night was just a girl, frightened and cowering in a corner, I was still new, still fresh and while I was good at what I did, I still questioned my position, and my power.

Suddenly there was an arm around my waist and a second arm grabbed my legs and draped them over his lap, Godric then pressed my head against his shoulder and sighed deeply into my hair. I felt Eric sit down beside Godric, behind me, and his hand rubbed my back.

"P-promise me," I whispered, my eyes staring straight ahead, "promise me you won't leave Godric."

"Only if you promise me something in return."

"Anything," I cried in desperation, I would do whatever he wanted if only that ensured Godric's life beyond tonight.

"Promise me that you will not leave us either, Clara. Do not disappear on Eric and myself like you did before, I do not know what I would do if you left again, without saying goodbye."

I nodded, my head bumping into his chin and I wrapped my arm around his middle, hugging him to me as best as I could in this awkward position. Eric's head rested against my back and his arm slid around my waist and we remained like this for hours. I didn't dare move, for fear it was just a dream and I certainly didn't trust myself to speak, I probably wouldn't have made much sense anyways.