Amazing Grace [H.S]

prologue

It was grim, Beckett thought, how life had a way of truly and utterly changing in the blink of an eye. How one minute everything could feel so content and right and then the next minute it was suddenly gone, as if it had never been real in the first place. It was, in a way, morbid to think that life could change as drastically as that; that it could be taken away out of the blue, that just one split second could change the roll of the tide, but it was reality and sometimes reality just sucked.

"Beckett, we need to talk," were the words her father had spoken just as he had hung up the phone that one Wednesday. There was something in the tone of his voice that was different, something in his eyes that had made her heart drop to her stomach before he was even able to continue speaking. She could feel it in her bones, through her veins, trapped onto her skin; she knew something was wrong and if there was one thing Beckett had learned in her 22 years of life, it was that those five words never resulted in something positive—that those five words always ended in catastrophe. Still, she found herself hoping, praying that maybe just this one time, that that rule wouldn't apply.

Of course, she was wrong, but she had always been the optimistic type. She was always the one to think of a positive side to absolutely anything, but looking back on it now, she thought that maybe she had just confused optimism with naivety the whole time.

She still remembers that day; the day that her whole world had flipped upside down. Though, as she sat in the front row of the tightly packed church, surrounded by grieving relatives, members of the community and fellow high school and university students, it didn't feel real. Even as she watched Harry from the opposite pew—one who's bright green eyes and dimpled grin that seemed to be permanently plastered onto his face look at her with now lifeless eyes and a non-existent smile, it didn't feel real. Even as she stared at the closed casket in front of her or the enlarged picture of Grace next to it that seemed to be smiling right at her, it still didn't feel real.

It was an idea Beckett couldn't grasp, no matter how many people would express their condolences to her throughout the day, no matter how many cries she heard as the pastor recalled distant memories of Grace's childhood and no matter how many times her father would squeeze her hand from the seat beside her, trying (but failing) to comfort her.

Even as they lowered the casket into the ground, even as the crowd started to disperse back into their cars, even as she was surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of strangers in Grace's own home, watching her parents hug and thank all the guests for coming from the corner of the staircase with a blank expression on her face, it didn't feel real.

And she wasn't sure if it ever would.

*****

A/N: Hi all! This is a new story I've been working on and am very excited about. It's clearly a complete 360 from my other fic High Noon, but I really hope you enjoy it! I will still be updating on High Noon as well, but thought I'd post this prologue up as I already have a few chapters written and stored away on my computer! I'm thinking this may be sort of a mini-series, but let me know what you think! I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Tatum x