A/N: If you don't like the plot, characters, or character pairings, then don't read my fic.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the American Horror Stories.

WORD COUNT: 3, 413

CHAPTER 2:

Puzzle Pieces.

SEPTEMBER, 1924:

Bethany walked around the construction site that was the Hotel Cortez in the early stages of its erection. James had his back to her as he was directing the workers and she intended it to stay that way. She wouldn't have been able to say goodbye to his face and answer his many questions. Beth knew this would send him off the deep end, but she needed to get away. It wasn't of the simple fact that she disliked James, in fact it was the complete opposite, she loved him as more than a friend, but she needed to escape, get her family as far behind her as possible and keep James safe, or her difficulties would become his and she couldn't have that.

Not while her family was on the warpath.

She'd leave him for now, and hopefully in about a year, she'd come back and explain it all to him, maybe he'll even forgive her for her sudden disappearance. She raised a hand and in his pocket was a conjured note; a brief explanation of her sudden leave and then she turned and with tears rolling treks down her cheeks, she walked away from the only man that ever understood her, the only man that loved her for who she was.

(..)

Beth was sitting up in bed, with her beautiful daughter hugging her good morning. "Good morning, Mummy."

"Good morning, my lovely." Beth says with a warm smile. "How did you sleep?" It was their second week at the Cortez.

"I slept well, Mummy, but you kept moving around a lot. Bumped me a bit." Victoria whined, looking a bit put out that she didn't get the kind of rest that she was hoping for.

"Oh, sorry, sweetie." Beth apologized, before there was a brief knock on the door and Miss Evers strode in with a delivery trolley, which had a full surface, brimming with breakfasts.

"Breakfast will be served in the dining room, if that is alright with you, Madam? I took the liberty of setting the dining table for you and your lovely daughter." Miss Evers smiled.

"Thank you very much. It looks so yummy!" Vickie said, scrambling out of bed, excitedly as she raced to the dining table and squealed in delight.

Beth sighed and chuckled to herself, before getting up and walking in the same path as her daughter, to see the dining table set to the nines. "Hazel, you never disappoint!"

Miss Evers bowed before leaving.

Vickie and Beth shared jokes and laughed and ate till they were content and full. Beth stacked all of the dirty dishes on the top of the cart, intending to be courteous toward Miss Evers as Vickie went back inside to play on Beth's phone, picking a fun game to play.

Miss Evers manifested and took the plates from Beth. "Thank you, Miss Hall, but I can manage just fine. You go and spend time with your lovely daughter."

Beth smiled and thanked the laundress before turning and walking into the bedroom, to see Vickie already in the bathroom, on her little stool brushing her teeth. The elder Hall smiled and walked into the bathroom to follow in her daughter's footsteps to brush her own teeth clean of the taste of the breakfast that lingered.

Her hazel eyes briefly glanced at her own reflection before she caught something in the corner of her eye. A small wisp of a dark suit and when she took a closer look, she could James standing there, with his famous cigarette holder as he took a long pull and his cigarette sizzled as he slowly puffed the toxic fumes back into the air through his nose and lips, watching her with his piercing eyes, his face was thoughtful.

Their eyes met.

James' eyes widened at the sudden contact. He though he had been most careful to be avoided being seen and he had just botched it.

What he had not expected was Bethany's lips to curve upwards in a soft, barely-there smile and his entire face softened before he disappeared and she sighed sadly.

Again, the same empty feeling entered her heart, she could still sense him, but he wasn't close, not even in her vision. She wanted him there, and it was her heart's way of telling her to hurry up and sort out their differences.

She knew she was running without having to take a step.

Bethany knew that James would stay incorporeal forever until she ordered otherwise, but she was never that cruel.

Never.

Both Bethany and Vickie finished with their hygienic routine before Bethany walked out and laid out Vickie's outfit for the day. "You like this?" Beth asked and held up the light blue leggings and the frilly black skirt and the pretty blue knit sweater and her black flats. Vickie nodded happily.

"I like it, Mummy!" Vickie said and Beth smiled as she undressed her daughter, wrapped her in a robe before leading her to the bathroom to give her a bath and after being soaked; both mother and daughter dried off and Bethany wrapped her baby girl in a warm fluffy towel and a robe before leading Vickie to the bed and continued to dry her off until Vickie was dry and warm and then as a patient mother, dressed her child in her underwear and a singlet before she started to run around the room, naked. Telling Vickie to put her feet in the scrunched up leggings so the end of the pants easily slid around Vickie's ankles without any trouble and lifted them over her hips and then came her skirt that stopped just at her thighs and she rested that just over the waistband of the leggings and then the sweater, telling Vickie to hold her arms up and then through, playing a little game of Peekaboo with the top of the sweater, enjoying the melodic laughter of her Vickie. and last came the flats and her daughter was dressed.

James watched on, smiling sweetly at the scene, he felt oddly at home. He could almost picture it:

Bethany garbed in the attire of their era, with Victoria in the children's attire walking toward him in the Hotel Cortez, a gold ring wrapped around his wedding finger and as Beth raised her hand to take his, he could see the sparkling diamond and the wedding band that adorned her graceful fingers as Victoria ran and jumped into his arms as Bethany kissed him gently, calling him 'husband' and 'darling' meaningfully.

He knew that could never happen, because the wedding band around his finger belonged to a woman who cared not for him, Victoria was not his child and Bethany couldn't be with him, for the simple fact that he was dead and even though she was technically immortal, she would be bored staying in one particular place.

Hell, he didn't even know why she came back after all these years.

It peaked his interest and his long lost anger and the sting of betrayal of her disappearance.

When she asked for him, he would make his feelings clear. He would let her know that what she did to him was worse than killing him, because he was dying a slow death every day she was gone and even when he was dead, he still felt like he was expiring every day, only to be reborn the next and relive through the whole ordeal once more.

He turned away from the sweet scene before him and tried to block out the happy memories that they had once shared when they were young ones.

JULY, 1918:

"Come on, Jimmy! Before my mother catches us!" Bethany Hall, whispered to a young James March, who trailed after her lazily. She was a rising interest in high society, the beautiful daughter of Joanna and Wilbur Hall, sister to Frederick. She was the beloved girl of the East Coast socialites and is known to be one of the most influential woman of her time, for her modern way of life. She had exceeded the expectations of their time and was still now revered among the feminists of today.

Her impressive lineage never once sent one hot air bubble in her beautiful head. She was kind and compassionate, sweet and charming and more of a woman than her mother, who only cared about image, financial stability and society's most revered woman of the age.

Bethany, whenever she wasn't in etiquette, literary or elocution lessons; was with James.

They were as thick as thieves and both had problems with their parents.

James wasn't born to wealth as Bethany had, he had to work for his share and his father constantly reminded him of the Good Lord which only proceeded to irk the young March to the point where he detested attending a service of the Lord his father so feared and loved. While Bethany, who had the money, lacked the familial love that she wished she could have grown to have; while her mother never acted as such, leaving her paternal duties to that of the many governesses and nannies that she had employed to care for her children, instead of herself. Her father was a man of stock and well-breeding; he cared not for those that were less fortunate and laughed down at them, as he had to James.

"I'm coming, you need not be so quick, nobody's going to catch us, and your mother, the vampire she is, never comes out in the day. You know that as well as I do." James sighed as they made it to the ornate white gazebo in the famous Hall gardens and smiled as Bethany giggled at the insult of her mother.

"You capture my mother perfectly, Mr March." Beth giggled once more before sitting on the chair conjoined to the wall, resting her head gently on the intricate patterns of the wall.

"Of course I do. I'm a genius." James grinned, before settling himself beside her, holding a stick like a gentleman's walking cane.

"Yes you are." Bethany agreed and took his hand in hers, holding it in her lap.

"Are you still hoping to fly away to Los Angeles to start a new life?" James asked, looking down at her.

"Yes, one day, maybe. I will leave this place with my entrusted fund and run to that wonderful place to make my way and not be shadowed by my family." Beth's lips curled into a gentle smile as her eyes drifted dreamily as she lost herself in her own imagination.

"If I know anything about you, Bethany, it is that 'maybe' is always a definite yes." James smiled, squeezing her hands.

Beth smiled. "If I can ever get away from my family. Get away from my already decided life." Beth sighed, looking out at the clear blue sky as the filtered sun shone in patches against her sun-kissed skin.

James couldn't take his eyes off her. While they were friends, ever since James reached maturity and Beth reached the start of womanhood, their hormones were quick rage out of control and they had been lusting after each other in secret of course, for neither were sure of the other's feelings.

It was a simple case of a teenager's first love, but little did the 18-year-old Bethany and a 23-year-old James know was that their love would grow and become something that neither would have ever have thought possible.

But then again, there was no happy ending and while James was doomed to live out the remainder of his frozen afterlife in the hotel he built with a wife who despised him, Bethany was able to see the world time and time again.

James sighed.

He didn't know what he had done all those years ago to warrant her disappearance, but he was sure that he was part of her reason. It started early back, right at the turn of the century. 1920, when she started to withdraw from him, she never left her lavish home and even then, her mother went to her home and Bethany was forced to live her life under the guidance and stern hand of her mother.

She did so, but it was obvious she fought. When she was allowed to leave her own home, James could see that she had lost weight, her arms were covered and she wore a scarf. When she visited the Cortez to congratulate him, he grabbed her and dragged her to his room before pulling off her jacket and scarf, ignoring her screams of protest, only to see the bruises and scratches inflicted upon her by her mother.

James had never felt such rage before in his life.

Never.

James shook his head and tried to get rid of the feelings that burrowed their way into his head and heart, he had done his best to keep those thoughts away for years and took deep breaths to calm himself, which worked only to a certain degree.

And in 1924, she disappeared like she was never even there. Not one trace apart from a note that he always kept in his pocket.

James turned back to see Vickie on a touch device while Bethany had grabbed a summery dress with some sort of heel that didn't part as she grabbed her undergarments and went into the bathroom, no doubt to bathe.

(..)

After 20 minutes, she emerged from the bathroom with a trail of steam behind her as she was in a warm blue dress that hugged her figure and managed to look classy and casual at the same time. Her breasts pushed together and he could see the tops of them as the neckline dipped modestly and the hem of the dress ended tight against the middle of her thighs as she wore the low wedges that accompanied the dress perfectly and her hair was sleek, dry and glossy.

She wore minimal make-up, her eyelashes thicker and slight black liner that ringed her eyes modestly, a touch of powder and a dash of lip gloss and she was happy with her look.

James gasped at the sight of her, she may have been born in an era more befitting of her nature, but the modern world accepted her perfectly.

Bethany crouched in front of her daughter and smiled. "I'll be back soon, okay, baby? I won't be long. If you need anything, you know what to do." Vickie nodded and smiled, returning to Doctor Who.

Bethany sighed, taking her phone and she walked out of the room, and James followed, using his handy ghost powers and walked through the wall and followed her to a few rooms down, his brows crease as she opened the door and he quickly entered before she closed the door.

"James." Bethany asked, and his entire body awoke at the sound of his name being uttered from her lips. "James, I know you are here. You can. . come out now." Beth looked around, trying to find him. "James?"

"Hello, my sweet Bethany." James whispered from his place behind her and she whirled to face him, her face showed love, relief, happiness, sadness and regret all at once.

He took a drag of his cigarette before letting puff lazily into the air, curling into all different shapes. "How are you, my love?"