"Winning? Is that what you think it's about? I'm not trying to win. I'm not doing this because I want to beat someone, or because I hate someone, or because I want to blame someone. It's not because it's fun. God knows it's not because it's easy. It's not even because it works because it hardly ever does.. I DO WHAT I DO BECAUSE IT'S RIGHT! Because it's decent! And above all, it's kind! It's just that.. Just kind."

~Twelfth Doctor~

…

If any one asked Liz, she'd tell you that she was the mother of two of the best girls in the world. Smart, kind, friendly little girls. One never without the other always at each other's side looking out for the other. They were so close that they were often confused as twins, and they might as well have been.

All in all there wasn't much she could complain about when it came to her girls. Sure they each had their moments when they could be bossy, or weren't in the best listening mood. Yeah the two's had been difficult for her oldest, with Liz's attention split between a one year old but they'd managed. It didn't change the fact that they were still good kids.

They were happy girls. Lively and friendly to everyone. Her youngest never stopped smiling, never met a stranger. If they didn't keep an eye on her when they went out there wasn't anything from stopping her from talking to someone. Her sister was by no means shy either and once she got started would talk for hours. It was nice when the town did events that would cater to those specific traits of her girls in a safe environment. Which brough Liz to now, watching her daughter interact with the other children running around.

Her girls were in the same area but not attached to the hip as usual. Caroline, her oldest, had taken to playing with Elena Gilbert and Bonnie Bennett. It hadn't seemed to bother the youngest when that particular decision had been made finding someone else to play with easily. Honestly it wasn't all that surprising, the girls were getting older and were making their own friends. Separation was a good thing.

Liz satisfied with her observation turns her full attention back to Miranda who'd been saying something about the founders ball. She takes a moment to consider her friend before responding, balls weren't really her thing. Just when she's about to reply her train of thought is interrupted by loud distraught wail.

As if clockwork all the moms in the vicinity look up, pulling their attention from their conversations. Trying to pinpoint the obviously upset child. She swivels in her spot until her eyes locate her daughters. Caroline has dropped everything, leaving Elena and Bonnie by themselves, eyes focused and ahead. For a moment her heart drops in her chest.

She races over to join her daughter within a second thought. Those weren't normal cries, something was wrong. Everyone moves out of her way. Caroline is already at her sister's side trying desperately to comfort the younger girl. But she won't calm down. Taking ragged breaths working herself into a fit. Liz is in front of her in seconds, her baby reaching for her in desperations. Wrapping arms around her neck tightly, digging tiny fingers into the back of her shirt, sobbing into her shoulder. Nothing she says seems to calm her down if anything it feels like it gets worse.

Liz looks down to see her own worried echoed in her oldest eyes. She draws in a breath, ignoring the looks she gets from the other parents. "I think it's time to go home Care." Her daughter doesn't even protest eyes focused on her upset sibling. Caroline nods reaching up to pat her sisters leg.

She never figures out what had made her daughter so upset that day, but Liz never forgets it either. It's a moment she can never let go of. In all of her life she's never heard a child cry like that. The woman would do whatever it took to make sure she never had to hear those cries again.

...

When In doubt smile. Smile like everyone is the greatest most important person you have ever looked at. As if they are your favorite sibling, grandparent, best friend, the preacher who kisses babies, doesn't who you have to pretend they are. Smile. Because no one ever questions a smile. No one ever doubts a smile. Smile. Because it is the only thing you can do. The only thing that keeps you from falling apart. Smile. Just smile. Easy right?

Wrong. There's nothing easy about smiling.

Smiling hurts. When the position holds long enough your cheeks become stiff. Your jaw tightens, brows press together. It's not always nice. Not always pleasant. There's pain in the process. Pain etched along the force of upturned lips and clenched teeth. They say that it takes more muscles to frown, but you will find while even if that's the case it still takes more effort to smile.

Smile. Because someone is always watching, and your smile might be the only one they see. It may just be the brightest part of their day. You are never privy to the going ons around you, not all of them and not enough to dictate who is deserving. No matter how wronged you feel, how upset you may be in the long run smiling gets you so much farther.

Even when it's falling apart. When the walls are crumbling around you. As the words turn to ash on your tongue. Smile. Because smiling hurts no one. It doesn't escalate a situation to worse. Even if it was hard. Even if it's against everything that is human. So for this tiny moment, just pretend your not. Just smile.

If you don't mean it. Fake it. At some point there's no longer a difference. Real or fake it doesn't matter. All I asking is one small favor. Smile. Because it doesn't hurt you to, because sometimes it's just not about you. Your smile might be the only one someone saw, so it certainly should be your best.

This was a philosophy she'd chosen to live by, that she ultimately died by. A philosophy that would follow her into the next life. Never before had she'd given much thought on what came after death. The perils of the afterlife had not haunter her like others, didn't pique her fancy as it had some. Death was just another one of those finite results of life. You lived and you died, but it didn't matter so long as she focused on the people in front of her. The bigger picture, what was happening, the now. There was never a reason to worry over things beyond your control. So she smiled, because sometimes that was all you could do.

Her life before this had been good, she'd live a good life. Maybe not long, but good. There were people she had loved and people who had loved her. She'd given life it's best shot always making the best of the situation putting her best self forward. Never one to disappoint. So even if she had died younger than most, there wasn't anything she could remember regretting. She didn't have regrets. Remorse maybe, but no regrets. Sure there were things she would be able to do. Things that she would see happen, people she would never see again. But she had lived a good life, what more could you have asked for? When death came for her she greeted him as if he had been an old friend, a content smile on her face and open arms.

Smile, because you never know who's paying attention.

On September 19th, 1993 Marcella Eden Forbes was born to William and Elizabeth Forbes. Only eleven months and nine days after their oldest daughter Caroline.

It took Marcella awhile to get her bearings and adjust her grasp of reality. There was a lot of reevaluating involved once cognitive memory settled in. She'll be honest, it took her a while to even figure out what exactly had happened. Marcella spent many a night meditating and sorting through her thoughts to try to piece together what she though, what she knew. Honestly, it wasn't until she was five or so that she really figured it out, when it really hit her. What had happened, where she had ended up, just exactly who she'd been reborn as, who her parents were. The startling realization that not only was rebirth possible but that the multiverse was a real thing was not an easy realization to come to for the young child.

For a normally happy child, the realization had traumatized her. She cried. Hard and heavy because it was the only response her brain could even handle in that previously mundane moment. Tears fell unapologetically down rosy cheeks. For the first time in Marcella's life she couldn't even force a smile on her face. There was no faking it in that moment. No smile she could give to even hide behind. Just pure raw human reaction taking over.

She didn't understand. Of all the places, why did it have to be here? In a world that was going to fill with pain and misery. What had she done to deserve this?

For once she let her emotion get the best of her. Marcella cried, even when her throat became sore and her body ached from the actions. She cried until she no longer had tears to cry.

Smile when you can. Because the day that you cannot you will find several people willing to repay the kindness.

XOXOX

Maybe it's maybelline, maybe I have a problem. This idea came to me when I was reading copious amounts of Vampire Diaries fanfiction over the weekend and I noticed a recurring theme of inserting OC as siblings to the Gilberts. And I was like you know who needs sibling love, Caroline that's who. So then this happened.

Yes this will have a sort of SI-air to it but Marcella isn't a true SI. This isn't really going to be a 'fix it', she's not going to actively try to change anything. She'll have a more ripple effect on the plot and cannon than anything else. I have plans later for a pairing for her, but I'll tell you this it's between Kol and Kol. It's going to be Kol. This story will also have a lot of fluffy moments in it as I don't really want to focus too much on the drama of VD. And a lot of OC original friendship action. So yeah.

Let me know what you think. Thank you for reading!

Sincerely, La'Rae