Author's Note: this is a fic I've wanted to do for a while. I'm not really sure why, maybe to give Cris and Nat some closer for me. I enjoyed them as a couple and will miss David Fumero. The basis of this fic was the idea of Lesera128. If you like the premise and enjoyed the pairing of GH's Jax and Skye then visit:
http://www.geocities.com/lesera128/JaxSkye/fanfiction.html
and read Through Time it's a good fic, however, I'm not sure if she plans to update anytime soon.
Beyond Death
Ch. 1
The sky seemed to open up, rain poured down angrily like sheets of glass falling from above cutting at Natalie’s skin. She began to slow, grasping her side she knew she had run too hard. Looking up into the gray nothingness of the sky one would not be able to differentiate between Natalie’s own tears and the rain on her face, only the puffiness of her eyes gave Natalie away. Turning a half circle Natalie’s face changed from one of anger to one of a complete loss. Walking the few last steps Natalie knelt down at the soft, still tumbled ground. Mud almost reached her thighs but Natalie neither knew nor cared as her fingertips traced the letters found on the gravestone millimeters away from her drenched body.
[your presence still lingers here
And it won't leave me alone]
As she wept her fingertips started on the first letter and with each one she whispered aloud the name it possessed, “C – R – I – S – T – I – A – N” the letters fell out of her mouth with such little thought because she knew them by heart.
[These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase]
Natalie’s grief seemed to overcome her as she put her arms around the gravestone and laid her head directly over Cristian’s name.
Jolting Natalie out of her grief a miserly old crone, supported only by her cane came behind Natalie, “Cris is alive,” the woman muttered and turned to leave. Natalie jumped up, “What?” she asked confused, “W-What are you talking about?”
The old crone turned back towards Natalie, raising her cane, and opening her eyes. The color of the sky was the color of the crone’s eyes: blankets of gray. “The rain seems to be letting up,” the old woman waved her cane around and looked up.
“What are you talking about?” Natalie looked around and oddly enough at that moment the rain began to let up, the color of the sky was changing from that of the gray it had possessed to that of a rich blue as did the crone’s eyes. “Wha—I don’t get it,” Natalie became more confused, “the rain didn’t let up until you said something about it – how did you do that? What’s going on here?”
“We all possess certain gifts but we must all learn to cultivate them.”
“So – what? You’ve cultivated yours?”
“My dear,” the old crone neared her, “cultivation is a process that never ends. I will always be looking for ways to expand and grow, new ways to learn, see things, as should you, Natalie.”
“I don’t get it,” Natalie iterated, “I don’t understand. How did you know my name? And what do you know about Cristian?”
“I have what some call a sixth sense, you have it too, we all contain it within ourselves. I know things … some seemingly small, insignificant – like – that outfit; it was a gift from your husband. Some of what I know is of a much greater importance to you. All of the events, however, equally significant on the large scale of life.”
“How could you possibly know about the outfit – ” Natalie asked being cut off.
“I saw it”
“You saw it?” Natalie repeated the woman’s words aloud, “What do you mean you saw it?”
“Visions,” the old crone answered pulling out a trinket from her pocket, “I found this,” she handed the item over to Natalie.
Cupping the item in her hands Natalie slowly allowed it to take shape, “Cristian’s Saint Christopher’s metal?” Natalie held it to her heart, “how did you get this?”
“That will be a little harder to explain,” the crone took Natalie by the hand and all of a sudden the crone’s eyes turned a dull yellow as she began to seize.
“Are you okay?” Natalie asked propping the lady up so she wouldn’t fall.
“You love him very much.”
“Yes, yes, I do. Cristian was everything, he still is.”
“Come with me,” the crone set off, up and over a small hill with Natalie not too far behind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The two entered a dark, dreary, tiny shop which was only lit with candles.
“I’ve never noticed this place,” Natalie commented.
“Most don’t,” the crone responded sitting at a small circular table, “please, sit” the old woman directed Natalie to take a seat on the other side.
“What is this all about?” Natalie queried.
“Love”
“Love?”
“Yes, love. Through life through death – one thing remains constant … love. Love is the strongest force – through any barrier.”
“I’m lost,” Natalie admitted confused.
“Let me start at the beginning,” the crone pointed toward the St. Christopher medal. “I was given this,” she held the medal up.
“What do you mean, you were given it?” Natalie seemed disturbed, “Cris was buried with that medal around his neck. How did you get it?”
“Your husband, he wanted you to have it”
“Cristian is dead,” Natalie’s back stiffened as the tone of her voice changed to one of anger. “Why are you being so mean?”
“Look,” the old crone pointed toward an engraving on the back, “it reads: ‘Natalie, our love is as steady as the quarry & as free as birds flying – through life & beyond death – Cris’”
“I don’t understand – how did you get it?” Natalie’s tone softened.
“I have told you. Your husband gave it to me.”
“You’re lying. There’s no way.”
“I never lie,” the old crone became sharp but then softened, “My dear,” the woman looked directly at Natalie, “I see the fire burning in your eyes. The love you continue to hold for Cristian. True love has a way of surviving. Surviving the trials and tribulations of life – surviving even death. It is that love – the one you harbor so evidently in your eyes that sent me your husband’s medal. Cristian’s love for you is so strong it continues even past the boundaries of life and death. His love for you made his spirit strong enough to transport his metal to me.”
“So … his spirit sent you his St. Christopher’s medal? Why would he send it to you and not to me?” Natalie asked skeptically.
“He knew you would not uncover the true meaning behind finding his medal. He also knew that I could make you realize its connotation. Although he wished for you to have it, he sought even more for you to know that though his physical self is gone at this point in time that he continues to love you and he will always be with you.”
“He’ll always be with me?” Natalie dried her falling tears. Looking up with her eyes she took a long deep breath, “do you know how many times I’ve heard that?” Natalie seemed disgusted. “You’re supposed to be some sort of psychic or whatever. Cris … is dead,” Natalie forced the words from her throat. “I will never see him again, I will never be with him – hear his voice or see is smile. I cannot live like that. I need him to be alive.”
“As I said earlier Cris is alive.”
“No, I was there. I saw Cris die. He died protecting me.”
“He is dead at this point in time, yes. In others, however, he is very much alive.”
“Are you saying there is a way to bring him back to life?”
“No,” the crone emphasized with her tone, “no I will not do that.”
“You said you ‘wont’ you didn’t say you ‘can’t,’” Natalie’s voice filled with hope.
“I never said it was impossible. You must understand, however, that taking that route will not give you your husband back. Yes, what would come from it would look like him but it would only contain evil. I have my abilities but I am not God.”
“I will do anything – whatever it takes – I can’t live like this,” Natalie began to sob.
“Shhh,” the crone tried to reassure Natalie, “There may be a way for me to bring you into his life.
“But you said you wouldn’t bring him back to life.”
“Yes, that is true. I will not bring him back into your life. Cristian is dead now and I cannot change that. However, any time in his past is a very different thing altogether.”
“What are you saying?”
“That while your husband may be dead now, he is not dead in other times – in fact in other times he is very much alive.”
“What do I have to do?” Natalie reached for her purse and pulled out a wad of bills. Placing her hand in front of the money Natalie slid it across the table in front of the old crone, “I will do anything.”
The crone grabbed the money and proceeded to count it, “Alright,” the old woman stood and began to gather her ingredients for the potion in which she had been compelled by Natalie to make. As she poured the concoction into a vile the crone iterated the fact that the task Natalie was undertaking had serious possible consequences and that Natalie should be sure before entering into anything.
“I’m sure.”
“Okay, then,” the crone returned to her seat with the vile, “You must understand. You choose this path of your own volition. I can help guide you towards that path but once you step foot on that path you are on your own. I can do nothing to help you.”
“I understand”
“Good, nevertheless, I must explain to you that although you have chosen this path there are no ways to promise that it will lead Cristian back to you. All I can do is guarantee that it will lead you to Cristian.”
“Okay” Natalie’s voice hinted at confusion
“Fate is a funny thing. You can’t control it and no one is able to escape it but some, like I, can manipulate it to some extent. But you have to know where and when to be able to do so.
Pausing momentarily the old woman reached for a glass and proceeded to take a drink of water. “You see, the remarkable thing about human beings, and the thing that a great many people don't understand, is that who you are is always with you. What makes you, you is with you from the second you are conceived to the moment you take your last breath in this world. And in between those two time points, a residual is left. If you know how to tap into that residual it is feasible to attempt the manipulation of which I spoke. In everyone’s life, there are certain events that are significant moments in making the person who they are. The first time you utter your first word … the first time you take a step … your first kiss … graduating from high school or college … getting married or having a child. All these events are little blips on the constant circle that is your life – your existence; that which makes you who you are. And because of that, it is possible to always keep that which you were, that which you are, and that which you will become with you. All of them are inside you your entire life. And it is using that explanation that I am going to attempt to set you on the path to putting yourself back into Cris’s life.
“Like another dimension?” Natalie asked.
“No, because in other dimensions people are different, they have the same outward appearances but they were never the people you knew in this life. I am talking about going into Cristian’s past. He will not be exactly as you remember him; however, he will be as he was in his past.”
“So … time travel?”
“In a way,” the old woman nodded as she picked up Cristian’s St. Christopher’s medal, “I have determined the point of entry into his past. A little over five years ago, Saturday September 5, 1998 at 1:42 in the morning a point of entry into Cristian’s past will open.”
“What happened over five years ago?”
“Five and 1/2 years ago your husband’s first child was conceived.”
“A child? Cris doesn’t have any kids. He would have told me.”
“Cristian didn’t know himself. Now listen, this is important, at 1:42 in the morning on Saturday September 5, 1998 Cristian will conceive his first child. That will open a portal in which you may step through. You will either be transported 24 hours before the conception of the child or 24 hours after, I know not which. You will find out when you get there.”
“Okay” Natalie nodded slowly.
“Go to a place where you feel Cristian most strongly, a place you both share. Take the medal with you and hold it closely to your heart, it should serve to strengthen your connection to him. Drink every bit of the contents of this vile,” the crone placed the vile in Natalie’s hand. “You will feel drowsy, go with it, fall asleep and when you awaken you should be on the path you have set out for.”
“I understand” Natalie gathered her things and began to leave.
“Good luck” the old woman wished her, wondering the whole time if she should have made her warnings more specific. Unable to blow off the feeling the woman took her crystal ball and gazed deeply into it. Gulping the old crone hurried out of the shop and found Natalie nowhere in sight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Natalie drove instinctively to the one place she felt Cristian the most. Having gone there a good many time since Cris’s death to rant and rave; loose herself in him – memories mostly but also a great deal of the future and what would have been. She had been promised love, she had been promised an entire life with Cris. The nerve he had dying, leaving her alone. Sometimes the pain became unbearable except when she went to the quarry. At the quarry Natalie could almost swear she had seen Cris, talked with him, touched him. She knew, however, that it was only her mind playing tricks on her. Nevertheless, she lived for the moments she could see Cristian’s face so clearly defined it was almost as though she could reach out and touch him – kiss his lips. It was with that last thought possibly becoming a reality she exited her car and entered the quarry. Carrying her items cautiously Natalie carefully placed them down. Sitting beside them Natalie placed Cristian’s St. Christopher’s medal around her own neck. Uncorking the vile Natalie downed the contents. As she lay back Natalie became drowsy and fell asleep dreaming of Cristian.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Hey, hey” Natalie heard faintly as she felt herself being shaken.
“Cris?” Natalie questioned, “Is that you Cristian?” Natalie sat up and rubbed her eyes seeking visual clarity.
“How did you know my name?” Cristian asked, “How did you even know about this place?”
“Oh, God,” Natalie’s stomach turned slightly and a joy sparked in her eyes that she wouldn't quite yet allow to spread over her entire being as she realized who was standing, seemingly very much alive, in front of her.
xLauren
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Thanks for reading!
Beyond Death Ch2
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