Aftelife Lessons Learned

by Erin Griffin

Pairing: Selena/Carolyn, Helena/Dinah, OFC/OFC (you'll understand when you read it)

Summary: " 'I know you don't want to spend another lifetime searching for me. You don't have to. We're meant to be, Care. We'll be back in each other's lives- or afterlives sooner or later...' "

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Note: Final instalment to the Afterlife series. Thank you all for reading this series, and I hope to read more form you all soon. Happy writing.

I'm a little edgy. We've been back from our third task for a couple of hours now. I have been at the window watching our family talk things over, sharing feelings so openly like some Full House rerun. ( AN: :-D Haha, I couldn't help that one.) It seemed to clear the static in the air. When Elizabeth finally came, we were both relieved. She gave Selena a 'Look' before she spoke. "You two did a fine job of completing your tasks. Are you two ready to be reincarnated?"

"Actually, there's something I need to say first. I am just not sure how to say it." Selena said, and Elizabeth nodded. Then my love turned to me. "I know you don't want to spend another lifetime searching for me. You don't have to. We're meant to be, Care. We'll be back in each other's lives- or afterlives sooner or later."

"I know that if it's meant to be, it will be. Nothing will stop it from happening. I learned that the hard way and lost my daughter. You may just appear to me somehow in the next life, but that doesn't mean that I won't stop looking for you." Selena nodded. "If we are truly meant to be, then we will meet again in our next life. I have to believe that or I will be lost." We stood and looked at Elizabeth after we said 'I love you' to each other.

"Ready?" We both nodded. "Now... I'm going to let you both in on a secret. A few of them, actually. In about an hour, you won't remember them anyway as you enter your new lives. You both met your new parents already, so I am sure you'll be just fine." I'm pretty sure I caught on to what the Messenger was saying before Selena had.

"Molly is my mother?" I tried to picture myself as African American and found that I look pretty funny. Maybe with Molly's genes, I might pull it off.

"She will be. The child she wasn't sure about keeping had miscarried, but talking to you made her realise that she wants children. Her boyfriend comes back in to her life and gets her pregnant again, and well, welcome to the world, Little One."

"So Donny-" Selena asked.

"Is Daddy." Elizabeth said happily. "Your words to Donny was actually a prediction. You don't actually get conceived for another two or three months, but in that time, you both will be in the incarnation registration process. You pretty much saved your own lives in your first tasks."

"Gotta appreciate the irony," Selena said. I smirked, agreeing with her.

"What about Helena and Dinah's destiny?" I asked after a moment.

"Oh! It's over there." Elizabeth pointed out one of our other windows, which looked out to the other parts of Heaven. There was Guy in his young man form walking with another child into the line for reincarnation.

"Guy?"

Mmmhmm", she said, but was silent after that. I got the impression that Selena understood, but I was left out. "Come now." We left the apartment and went to where I had last seen Guy. Then he saw Selena.

"Grandma, where are you going?" I held in my laughter, as I never thought I would see the day a grown man would call Selena grandma.

"I'm going the same place you are, Guy."

"You're getting reborn?"

"Yes, Sweetheart."

"I was told that if I joined the line now, I would be reborn in 2007 sometime."

"We'll be further up in line, and I assume we will be reborn in the next few months," Selena told him.

"Will we meet again?"

"I don't know, but if noting else, I will look for you in the next life and in the aftelife too."

"I'll miss you."

"I will miss you too Sweetheart." With that, we walked further up the line, as Selena said.

"And that's Helena and Dinah's destiny?"

"Part of it."

"Okay..." I said. I forced myself to be satisfied with that answer. If I was meant to know, I would know. At least I wasn't completely in the dark anymore. Guy being reborn had something to do with our daughter's joined destiny, and I was happy with that. We both walked through a door at the front of the line. No one complained, which I thought was interesting. I guess people cut in line all the time.

{Twelve Years Later}

A young brunette girl, about ten, walked up the elementary school steps carrying her science project. It was a heavily painted volcano that her father had helped her make over the weekend. When asked, she told her mother that she didn't need help taking it into the school, but regretted that decision as soon as she closed the car door behind her. Slowly, she balanced the volcano, and knew she was coming close to dropping the whole thing. She saw in the corner of her eye a figure by the door. "Excuse me. Could you help me?" Her load got lighter, and the door opened after the figure asked someone else to open it. The two went down the hall without another word to each other except for when the figure asked the room number. When the figure said it was near her classroom, the girl knew her helper was in her grade. They put her project on her desk and she found herself looking into green eyes. Her helper was an African American girl her age, but lighter. 'Mixed?' the girl wondered to herself. Her hair looked like it was flat-ironed, and it was lightly frizzy near its ends, but the girl still thought her helper was really pretty.

"Thank you for your help. My name's Janet. Janet Pellow."

"My name's Denise Stites. Nice to meet you." The both of them shook hands and a chill went down their spines.

Denise and Janet locked eyes before Janet gasped out, "I knew you'd find me." She covered her mouth with the hand that wasn't still holding on to Denise's. The African American's face looked stunned before it changed, and she looked relieved.

"I looked and looked." They grinned at each other.

The End