2012 Drabbles
Too Late . . . . . Nick, Alice in Wonderland
Now, what was I saying, Reese said. . . . . . Reese Canada, Oh, Canada! Rose is a rose is a rose is a . . . peonie? His Growing Passion, Her Growing Passions Fetch! Raise Your Glass! And to Think that I Saw it on Whitechapel Street
Dinner at Eight . . . . . Myra Schanke
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Too Late
Prompt: "Too late, too late! / You loiter'd on the road too long, / You trifled at the gate" — Christina Rossetti
"No time to say 'hello', 'good-bye', I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!"
Nick thought to himself, "Who *was* that white rabbit?"
Then he stopped to think, "White rabbit! *What* white rabbit?" as he picked up his glass of sauternes. "Maybe it's one of the kid's new toys. It's got to be better than that awful, stuffed caterpillar Janette left lying around."
He shook his head to clear the cobwebs. He had to get back to work and figure out what to do about Captain Lambert. Gee, what had he gotten himself into? He looked forward to a "Wonderland" of troubles.
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Now, what was I saying, Reese said.
Prompt: Something focusing on Reese
"You know," Reese thought to himself, "Stonetree let Knight get away with a lot: working alone, night shift only. You'd think Knight had some sort of hold over him." This only made his thoughts go further afield: "He does have a real commanding voice when he wants it. Almost Shakespearean, and very compelling. And, while considering that, and adding in his working only nights, his sun allergy – now, really, who's *allergic* to sunlight? – and then he's so pale . . . ."
Nick looked up at the Captain, read his expression, and concerned said, "Captain, you really don't believe any of that stuff do you. You /you/ know /know/ you /you/ really /really/ don't /don't/ /don't/." (His voice faded like an echo.)
Reese said, "Huh, um, . . . what? Oh, no, 'course not. Now what's the latest on the Griswald case?"
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Canada, Oh, Canada!
Prompt: What makes Cohen tick?
It was "Career Day" at the Precinct and Amanda Cohen had brought her daughter, Naomi, in to show her what work she did.
"Captain," Nick said, "Is this Naomi?" He turned to the young lady and said graciously, "How do you do, miss?" Naomi giggled and hid behind her mother.
"Don't you have a boy, too?" asked Nick?
"Sam, Samuel," she said, "Can you believe his father actually wanted to name him 'Schmuli'? I put my foot down on that. There's only so much cross-culturalization – even for Canada - I'll put up with," but she said it with a smile.
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Dinner at Eight
Prompt: A Cop's Wife - What is Myra's take on her husband's job and his partner?
"You tell him be here at 8 o'clock, or we'll show up there and bring dinner along."
"Myra, honey, I can't do that. Nick has a right to privacy."
"And I have a right to know just who my husband is trusting his life to," Myra said a bit testily, and she glared at Schanke.
He loved his wife, but he knew she had a whim of iron – how else to explain going whale-watching! How was he going to explain this to Nick? Maybe Nick'd come over just to placate Myra; he was a nice guy; he'd understand; wouldn't he?
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Rose is a rose is a rose is a . . . peonie?
Prompt: A vampire who gardens?!
"Well, *you*'re looking for a cure for being a vampire," Feliks Twist, one of Nick's few vampire friends said, "and, let me tell you, most of our vampire friends find my having gardening for a hobby easier to understand than your looking for a cure. Besides, *I* don't have to worry about my children turning against me. I can just hold their watering."
"That's not fair, Feliks. What'd these darling little peonies do to you to make you so testy tonight?"
"They aren't peonies, Nicholas, and Lucien was asking for you earlier."
"Oh," said Nick, "that does explain some things."
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His Growing Passion, Her Growing Passions
Prompt: AU. A young Natalie is forced by circumstance into domestic work
"Now this is important! I sleep during the day, but there are deliveries that must be accepted. Wine deliveries must be placed on the bar for my attention only. Direct any plant or gardening materials to the greenhouse and set the materials at the front. Every day at sunset, check the greenhouse lights, leave me a note for any broken ones. Otherwise, do not to go into it. And, you may attend any medical classes you need, but you must be here at sunset to check the greenhouse."
"Yes, Mr. Twist," said the newly employed housekeeping assistant, Natalie Lambert. Breathlessly. Fetch!
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Prompt: A boy and his dog. Nick doesn't stake Raleigh. Instead he trains the dog not to feed on humans
"I had to stake him myself, Nicholas! It's one thing to teach him to hunt other animals, deer, elk, whatever, and avoid humans. Did it never occur to you that he might possibly, in gratitude to you, attack your enemies, i.e., myself, when he couldn't get his carouche blood? Now, he's attacking vampires. The enforcers are going to be coming for us both any minute now. *You* weren't doing your duty! Someone had to!" Lacroix finished with a very sour look.
Nick looked up with a very repentant look. He hadn't thought Raleigh would develop a taste for vampire blood. Raise Your Glass!
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Prompt: 20th anniversary of Forever Knight's premiere
"What's this," Nick asked LaCroix.
"Oh, just a little concoction I had made up," he said, handing Nick a glass, "two parts plasma to one part champagne. A little dry, perhaps, but better than plain champagne for people like us." He smiled sardonically.
"It's a celebration, Nicholas; or a 'remembrance' anyway."
Nick looked puzzled.
"Don't you recall what happened twenty years ago today?"
Nick's face clouded over. He did.
"You tried to kill me, mon fils. Fortunately, 2000 years gives one some survival advantages. Incidentally, Alyce was delicious," he snarled.
Nick just looked sick. LaCroix would never let him forget. And to Think that I Saw it on Whitechapel Street!
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Prompt: How did Nick and Feliks meet?
"So, tell me about yourself," said Nick, leaning against the alleyway's brick wall, observing the forlorn dandy sprawled on the cobblestone before him. Nick had wrenched him away from the now vanished vicious predator.
"Are you hunting him too? Be you a fellow 'vampir'? I'm trying to stop the 'competition' from being so damnedly bloody!, and perhaps feed a bit."
The disheveled gentleman stood, brushed himself off, bowed graciously, and said, with a formality that bespoke the current dishabille of his careful Victorian attire, "I am Feliks, Feliks Twist."
"Pleased to meet you, Feliks Twist, I'm Nick, Nicholas Knight."
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end