The song is from Trisha Yearwood's album "The Song Remembers When." Any grammatical errors in the lyrics are the songwriter's, not mine. No copyright infringement is intended. Thanks to Lillian, as always, for her beta-reading skills and her friendship.

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Hard Promises to Keep
Lyrics by Kimmie Rhodes
story by Jill Kirby

I'm trying to believe in forever
I'm trying to believe in the little jewel box life we lead
Babe, I get so close sometimes
But all I really know is
I believe that we been making hard promises to keep

Most of the time, Natalie believed. She believed that she would find a cure; that she could bring Nick back to the mortality he said he wanted so desperately. She believed in herself. She believed in Nick, and in his feelings for her.

When she was with Nick - even when she was angry with him - it was easy to think that all the promises they had made to one another would be fulfilled. Just being with him was like nothing she had ever known. It was impossible
not to look into his eyes or feel his gentle touch, so cool on her skin, and not know how he felt about her. Natalie knew that when he looked at her he saw everything he wanted - love, trust, humanity. She was his hope. She was his link.

So she'd hold back the things she wanted to say, and keep right on believing in him. In them.

You want me to believe in forever
Do you know how tight I'm holding
Just to keep my grip on yesterday?
I'm trying hard to see the pretty pictures
That you paint for me
Do you know how tight I'm holding to
Hard promises to keep

Natalie's dreams told another story. In her dreams, she remembered all the times he'd hurt her - going to Janette, rather than to her. Taking off after some half-baked idea of a cure. Saying he wanted to be mortal, then letting his vampire nature take over. Getting lost in his past and forgetting that she was right in front of him - real and alive, and needing him so much that it scared her. Sometimes her nightmares were full of a tall man with compelling eyes. When she woke up, she wasn't quite sure who he was, but he frightened her and made her feel very far away from Nick.

In her dreams, Natalie told Nick how she felt about him. She told him how angry she was that he neglected her, and didn't consider how she might feel when he acted without thinking. She sat him down and made him nderstand
how much pain his inconstant, inconsiderate behavior caused her.

In her dreams, he apologized.

Promises are like little diamonds
Promises are like little hearts
We meant to give away

In her dreams, she found a cure.

I thought you'd want them back someday
I've kept them for you anyway
But I know when I've been given hard promises to keep

In her dreams, she'd also tell him how very much she loved him. How she'd never felt complete until he came into her life, and how her worst fear - the one that woke her, gasping for breath through the tears - was that he
was going to leave her.

Which was why she never said anything to him.

Why she kept on believing.

End

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