Name: Grace May Wells
Age: 95 (Real) 27 (Looks)
Species: Valkyr
Family: None
Faceclaim: Kristen Kreuk

Compassionate | Confident | Adaptable
Aloof | Opinionated | Transparent

Military Children: “Children of the world, blown to all corners of the world, we bloom anywhere.”

Military children will say good bye to more significant people by age 18 than the average person will in their lifetime, and for Grace Wells this was more true than she ever cared to admit. Her mother Alicia left home when she was 18 and immediately enlisted in the Army, rising quickly through the ranks through her hard work and determination. She was a single minded woman who enjoyed the physical rigors as well as the mental stimulation and the regimentation was refreshing after her life as the youngest of four children. Training as a combat nurse Alicia proved to be a brave and stalwart young woman who by the time she was approaching her 30’s had made an impressive name for herself. Completely enamored with her job the last thing she had been expecting was to fall in love, the handsome Russian triage doctor a complication she hadn’t counted on. Still Luka Wellsakov was a charming man of great intelligence and compassion as well as a talented doctor, and poor Alicia had no chance of resisting him.

2 years later the happily married couple welcomed a bright eyed little girl into their world, who was the spitting image of Luka with Alicia’s eyes and an intellect that kept both parents on their toes. Grace was born into a world of ever changing scenery, and constantly shifting faces. The only constants in her life were her parents as they moved to practically a new place every year following the orders of the superiors who controlled her mother’s career. Married to a U.S. citizen Luka enjoyed the perks of dual citizenship and happily followed his wife across several countries with their daughter in tow. It was a hard life to be sure, but he couldn’t help but marvel at the adaptability of his little girl.

Grace was always asking questions, always wondering how things worked and from her earliest memories all she had ever wanted to do was become a doctor like her father. Luka had an inexhaustible fount of patience and answered all of his daughter’s questions without fail and found her incredibly sharp and inciteful, taking great pride in the mental acuity that got sharper with each passing year. Despite her brave face moving around so much was hard on Grace, every friend she ever made she did so knowing that eventually she would have to tell them goodbye. The more people she bid farewell to the less inclined she became to let people in, only letting people see the kind exterior while keeping everything else internalized. Her parents became her best friends, her status as an only child furthering that situation to an almost painful degree and became the only regret either of her parents ever harbored in relation to their daughter.

Grace on the other hand loved her life, her tight knit little family the center of her universe and the only people she would ever want or need. Unfortunately an airplane accident robbed her of her family, what was supposed to be a romantic weekend away turned into a tragedy that left Grace orphaned at 17. After burying her parents Grace moved to the States for a fresh start as it was the one place she could get a fresh start without being bombarded by memories and shortened her last name to Wells. Rather than go into the system she convinced the courts of her competency, being granted emancipation Grace went on to graduate from high school a year early and was admitted to Stanford Medical the following Spring.

For the next several years Grace dedicated her life to studying, everything she learned giving her a deeper connection to her parents as well as honoring their memory. At the end of 6 years she graduated at the top of her class and pulled on that white coat with pride only that was just the beginning. Intent on studying emergency medicine she managed to snag a coveted position as a 3 year resident in one of the busiest ER’s in the country. The first year was rough, probably one of the toughest things she ever had to do but she got through it and from there it was smooth sailing. She learned fast, thinking quickly on her feet and by the end of her residency was a competent and confident doctor of emergency medicine. The Board of Directors was so impressed with her in fact that they offered her a position at the hospital which she readily accepted, California had grown on her after all.

The following three years passed in a blur of patients, emergencies, and camaraderie as she began to open up to her coworkers. It was a new and novel thing to put down roots, to allow herself to make friendships that would last as she didn’t have plans to leave anytime soon, things were just going too well. It was during a severe thunderstorm late one night that her world changed once again, the resulting landslides and accidents from the torrential downpour packing the ER from floor to ceiling with patients.

Grace was on her 12th hour straight on her feet running purely on coffee and the promise of sleep, when she was given a patient with a large sign post impaled through his lower abdomen. Armed with morphine and only a single nurse for backup she commenced with treating him, her mind singular and focused to the point that everything around her faded into the background. After extracting the pole, Grace worked feverishly to staunch the flow of blood, stitching up the internal organs, and pumping him full of antibiotics to keep infection away. They weren’t out of the woods however, for there was still a worry that her patient’s blood pressure would bottom out and that she might lose him. That was when things went from everyday normal straight into horror story ville.

The man, who by rights should have been in a coma with all the morphine coursing through his veins, shot up out of bed and latched onto the nurse's neck. Panicked Grace tried screaming but the sound became lodged in her throat and the guy’s vice-like grip on her arm kept her from running. The man dropped the nurse like a rag doll, turned to her exposing a set of impossibly long canines, and with a violent hiss he struck at her throat. Everything began to go dark, the young doctor could feel the life slipping from her, trying her best to fight the man off all she could think was she wanted to live. “I was trying to save your life!” She screamed over and over again until her body slumped over lifeless in his arms. For whatever reason, the man must have felt shame or regret. He cut open his wrist with a nearby blade and pressed the flow to her lips, instinct driving him to flood her system with shadows. Once he was sure that the conversion had worked the Valkyr fled, leaving Grace to awaken and adjust to her new reality alone.

She was found moments later alongside her dead colleague and the pair of females were taken to the morgue as both presented as dead. Grace came awake to a fierce and all encompassing hunger alone with the overwhelming need to leave. Exiting the hospital Grace found her entire world was different. She could hear things she shouldn’t be able to and could see things she shouldn’t. It was like someone took the dirty screen away from the world and revealed a crystal-clear picture beneath; the change was startling. The young woman marvelled at everything around her, the night was alive with sights and sounds and lights and so many feelings were coursing through her. Parched to the point of her esophagus shrivelling Grace nearly attacked a passing couple, a mysterious figure bringing her up short.

His name was Gideon and he spent several weeks teaching her about her new life, what she was and everything that went along with it. The Valkyr who had sired her had been running from the justice of his people because he had become a vampire; addicted to blood. When she had a handle on her new life, on the fact that she was now a Valkyr and needed to make some life changes accordingly, Grace did what she always did and adapted. At which point he left her to fend for herself though she didn’t begrudge him, with a few shifts in her schedule becoming a little more nocturnal her life went on as usual.

Since then Grace has moved three times in order to keep humans from becoming suspicious of her not ageing and for all intents and purposes, she has led an incredibly purposeful and happy life. She has lost count of the number of lives she has saved however the only drawback was that she remembers everyone that she has ever lost, their faces etched into her perfect memory with complete clarity. Her time in Chicago was coming to an end, forcing her to once again look for another place to live bringing up the question of where she would be going next. Placing a call to Gideon Grace was informed of the status of the town in Colorado in which he was currently residing, giving her both access to her mentor and the ability to start over in a town swarming with people just like her.