• Linder was sleeping soundly, and James lay next to her. He wanted so much to dream with her, but he had already slept, so his body was just next to her, watching. His breath blew some hair over her eyes, causing him to try, and move it, but Linder just rolled over towards him, and the hair moved on its own.
    Linder had no idea that this was happening, because she was in the future:

    Linder walked along a small, burning path. What happened? She thought.
    "Linder?" asked a voice. Linder looked up to see James. He was still alive at this time.
    He ran to her, and hugged her to his chest. "You're alive?" he asked as his hands sifted through her hair.
    "Did I die?"
    "Yeah, you got cancer, mother." said a harsh voice.
    Linder's head looked over James's shoulder to see a small girl and a small boy. They were twins. "Who are they?"
    "You gave birth to them right as we figured you had cancer."
    Linder looked at her stomach, it was slightly bigger. So if that was true then........
    "Oh gosh." Linder fell as tears coursed their way down her face.
    "What?" James caught her.
    "I'm dying. Right now." she murmured. She leaned against him,sobbing quietly.
    "I can always......"
    "No. I don't want that life. It's not for me."
    "We can make it for you." he urged.
    "No, it was just a shock. I'm fine now."
    "No you're not."
    She stepped back, and looked him in the eye. "James, I don't know why I'm here, but be thankful for it. Because I might not be returning."
    He started to cry. "Please."
    "No."
    "We don't want you to die, mommy!" cried the boy.
    "You guys keep your life, and I'll keep mine." Linder felt cool tears make their way down her face.
    James hugged her. "Please, Linder."
    "No."
    "Linder-Lee." he whined.
    "No." in her time he hadn't called her that in so long. Then pain struck her chest so bad she completely lost her footing. "It's okay. Pregnancy pains; they happened with Jordan. I'll be okay." Jordan was James's kid as well, but he didn't make it.
    "You just keep telling yourself that, mom." she girl snarled her red eyes and fangs flashing.
    "Linder-Lee, don't leave me." he begged.
    "I never will." she whispered, and took off a locket of her and James from around her neck and put it on him. "I'll always be here," she put a trembling hand to his chest, "in your heart." And everything faded.
    Linder sat up in bed thinking the whole thing was a dream, but she checked for her locket, and it wasn't there.
    "Are you okay?" asked James.
    "Yes," she murmured.

    Ten Months Later:

    "What do you mean 'we can't do anything'?" James asked the doctor.
    "There's nothing to do. She's dying, and we don't have a cure."
    "Luckily I do." James grumbled, and shifted Jasper on his hip.
    Linder had Winter on her lap as she sat in a wheel chair. Tears coursed down her face. "James,"
    "What?" he snarled at her.
    "Listen to the doctor. There's nothing we can do. I don't want to try anything else."
    Tears shone in his eyes as he gradually understood. "No," he whispered.
    The doctor left for them to talk.
    "I can save you!" James cried.
    "But I don't want it."
    "Then do you want to be six feet under?" he actually looked like a frightening Vampire, but Linder wasn't fazed.
    "No, but I want to feel free." she wiped one of his many tears off his face. "Ten months ago, I went five-hundred years into the future. I saw you, and our kids. Little Winter didn't understand why I left, but neither did you. Maybe sometime beyond that you will understand."
    "Linder!" he roared. "I'm going to stab myself right now if you won't let me bite you!"
    "Go ahead," her voice choked. "This is my choice, but you'll be leaving our children. They're full Vampire." she smiled softly.
    James fell to his knees by her wheelchair. "Please don't leave me." he begged.
    "I have to."
    That night when James woke up Linder was gone. He started to panic until he heard sobbing from the next room.
    He ran to the kids' room as fast as his Vampire speed would let him. There was Linder kneeling at the crib, her frail arms reaching for her children. It was her sobbing.
    James held Linder to his chest.
    "I couldn't hold my babies." she cried into his broad chest.
    "I know." he stood up, and grabbed the two children and gave them to Linder.
    She clutched them both to her chest, singing a lullaby she made:
    "Hush now,
    Sleep now,
    It'll be all right,"
    She repeated those few words over and over to her children.
    One day Linder sat on a rocking chair holding a book out for Winter. "Can you say mommy?" she asked, begging for an answer. "Please say mommy."
    Winter sat there, spit bubbles growing on her lips.
    "Winter, please say it, please." Linder started to cry.
    James walked in, saw what was happening, and went to the only woman he has ever loved. "Linder," he whispered. "She can't talk yet."
    "She has to!" Linder sobbed. "I need to hear it before I die." she yelled.
    James hugged Linder. "My poor, poor Linder-lee." he murmured.
    A month later Linder died in her sleep.
    James watched her breath die out, and peace come over her face. He heard her heart pump to a stop. And he felt her body run cold. But her scent didn't fade from the air.
    Linder was buried, and the words on her tombstone said:
    'Her heart was great, but her kids will never know'
    And underneath that was her lullaby:
    Hush now,
    Sleep now,
    It'll be all right.
    James watched them put her marble coffin into the grave, and tears fell down his face. Then a small gust of wind blew one away, and he figured it was Linder telling him she was okay.