Solving Sleeping Beauty
By Vickiann Adams

THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR SLEEPING BEAUTY – If you haven't watched Sleeping Beauty yet, what are you waiting for? Anyway go watch it on and then come back and read this, it won't make sense otherwise.

NOTE
I am still a starving college student (I know, someday I'll graduate) and Moonlight is owned by people who haven't got thousands in student loans a $600 car payment and have a much better legal team than I could ever dream of (translation --- imitation is the highest flattery! Please don't sue me.)

Emerald94

The rhythmic hum of the machines was ironically comforting for Josef. It had been almost six months since his last planned business trip to Manhattan and this impromptu trip was almost cathartic. He hadn't meant to lie to Mick all this time but he'd never found an easy way or a good time to mention Sarah.

"A penny for your thoughts, man."

Josef turned around, already knowing by scent who was standing in the bedroom doorway, "I'd have assumed you and Beth would be painting the town red, no pun intended."

"I've spent the last half hour wandering around the neighborhood. Beth chose a cab to the airport over a night in the city with me."

"Maybe it was work? I think you forget sometimes that she still needs to earn her paychecks. You're content to play detective and take what you get; she's twenty-something with college loans, an apartment and a car payment – money means something to her."

"She left because of Josh. She was worried about how she left things with him before we flew out here."

"Oh."

Mick pulled a chair over closer to his friend, "Yeah, oh. Do you want to talk about all this?"

Josef looked from his friend, to the diary he couldn't put down, to the timeless angel asleep on the satin. "How would I know where to start? Mick, you – Beth – and the team of nurses I pay to care for Sarah are the only people who know she exists. Her father is right; I did kill her. One minute she was this beautiful, alive woman with her whole life ahead of her and in a moment, I destroyed all that."

"We both know it's not that simple."

"Oh, but Mick it is. She wanted to be a schoolteacher, she loved children; she had dreams before we met. If only I'd taken a different train that afternoon, if she'd asked anyone else on that platform for a match. I AM the reason she is lying here tonight . . .

" . . . You know, Sarah is why I know you're meant to be what you are. You can't turn someone who doesn't really want it. Coraline knew that deep down you'd come back – that you would choose to live forever. I was too blinded by love to realize that Sarah was romanced by the notion but she wasn't sure – she wasn't ready."

Mick didn't know what to say, how to respond. He'd heard rumors that the turning mortal had to want the change – had to make the decision to come back or the turning wouldn't work. He'd always ignored that fact while claiming that he didn't want Coraline's wedding gift. He now understood why Josef was so adamant that it wasn't a mistake –he'd seen first hand what a mistake looked like.

"This is why you're always alone in a room full of people, isn't it? Why you can surround yourself with money and things and beautiful women but you're still alone – she has your heart."

Josef nodded, "Who'd've thought I gave my heart away to a human? All my money, all my things can't fix this. I spend a week here every three months or so and every time I walk through that front door I hope that something has changed. Nothing changes – I continue to live forever and there is no kiss that can wake my sleeping beauty. Mr. Whitley has every right to want me dead, seeing her like this I want me dead. I would give it all up if I could give Sarah back what I took from her."

"Josef Konstantin in love with a human and willing to sacrifice himself for another? If I weren't seeing it with my very own eyes, I'd have to believe that you hit your head in the explosion and addled your brain."

The friendly jab brought a much needed smile to his face. "Thanks, Mick. You really are the best friend I've got."

"I know. Let's go out and get a drink – at a bar. I could use a good dose of scotch. You need to get out of here for a little while. You yourself said that there is nothing that will change Sarah's fate, going out for a few hours to have a drink won't hurt anything. Come on, I'll even buy, The Pinch is like a block away – we'll throw darts and run up a bar tab that would make any Irishman proud."

Josef called the on-duty nurse to sit with Sarah and grabbed his coat. "You'd have to pay either way, remember? I'm dead. I have no money."

"Good news, you're not dead – you were conveniently in New York when the explosion happened. Your security staff was mistaken about your whereabouts. All of your assets should be unfrozen within the next couple of days."

Walking back from the bar, Mick looked at Josef, "Are you feeling better?"

Josef nodded without speaking. He had no words to thank Mick. In four hundred years, Mick really was the best friend he'd ever had – mortal or vampire. "We still haven't figured out what to do with John Whitley – he's not going to just drop this."

"Josef, what if we give him what he wants?"

"Yeah, Mick. When I said I was willing to die to make things better for Sarah I was being noble. I'm not really ready to die again this week."

Pushing the brownstone's front door open, Mick smiled. "Whitley knows in his heart that killing you won't bring his daughter back. He needs closure. Give him back his daughter. I've seen enough near death mortals to know that his days are numbered. I'd be surprised if he lived out the year. Give Sarah back to him. You've got more than enough medical care in this building, let him live his last days out here with his daughter."

"The man tried to kill me . . ."

"You couldn't let go of Sarah either. He is an old, tired man who lost his daughter fifty years ago. His wife is gone; he is as alone as you are. There is one woman he loves – the same woman you love."

"Damn it Mick, I hate it when you're right."

"We all have our crosses to bear."

"I understand that Mr. Whitley isn't receiving guests. I am pretty sure he'll see me. Tell him its Charles Fitzgerald."

The doorman was surprised when Whitley demanded they come right up.

Josef and Mick entered the old man's sitting room slowly. Mick was surprised to see how much he'd failed in a single day.

"I see that the last time you were here, you weren't quite truthful about your knowledge of Mister Konstan. You knew who he was – what he is. Are you? You're one also, aren't you?"

Mick nodded. Before he could say anything Josef stepped forward and knelt in front of the dying man.

"Mister Whitley, It's been a long time. I'm here to talk to you about Sarah – to try to explain and to offer you some form of reparation."

"What can you possibly offer me that will replace the daughter you stole from me?"

Josef stood up, "Can you travel? Not far, just to the village. I have a limousine waiting downstairs."

"I am an old man, dying of a broken heart. There is nothing in the world for me now but memories. You win. Please let me die in piece."

"Sir, if you think its possible, come with us. I have a physician and the best medical staff my money can buy. I'll send someone back to gather your belongings if you choose to stay."

Mick and the limo driver cautiously carried the elderly gentleman up the front stairs while Josef walked quietly behind. He still wasn't sure how he was going to explain what existed on the other side of the door, all he knew was that it was ultimately going to fall on him to do the explaining.

Inside the apartment, Josef first waited for his medical staff to evaluate Mister Whitley's condition. The travel downtown appeared to have had no lasting effects on the old man but then again, he was counting his lifespan in days.

"Mister Whitley, please understand than no one loves Sarah more than I do. I never EVER meant for anything to happen to her. If I could change anything even for just a moment I would. I dream and I hope that one day there will be a miracle and Sarah will wake up."

John Whitley looked at the monster he believed killed his daughter; he was thoroughly confused. "You killed my Sarah, why do you speak of her in the present tense."

Mick stood back, knowing that Josef had to make the next few steps alone with Whitley. Josef nodded to his best friend and pushed the wheel chair into Beth's bedroom. The conversation that took place in that room was not Mick's to hear. The words were between Charles and the father of the girl he loved. They could not be easy words.

About forty-five minutes later, Josef came out of Sarah's bedroom alone. Tear tracks still stained his forever child-like face. "John will stay here with Sarah. There's a bedroom just down the hall, he's going to move in there. I'm sending a courier over to get the personal effects that John's listed."

"Are you okay?"

Josef nodded. "I didn't expect to be but I am."

Too masculine to show any real affection for his friend, Mick merely squeezed his friend's arm. The words didn't need to be spoken – Josef understood. "Thanks, Mick."

"Any time."

As the private jet touched down at LAX, Josef looked at Mick. "Are you happy to be back in LA?"

"It's not easy to say. New York is an escape – I am just another face in the crowd. LA has a lot of baggage attached to it."

"Baggage – you mean Coraline and Beth?"

Mick nodded. "Coraline, the vampire I loved when I was human and Beth the human I love as a vampire."

"The problem is that you love both of them for different reasons. Coraline is a five hundred year force of nature – like a tornado, she wipes out everything in her path. Beth is bright eyed and innocent. She still sees the good in everything. That is a tremendous force too."

"How do I pick one without destroying the other?"

"You can't – it's like trying to have fire and ice at the same time. One will ultimately destroy the other."

"So what do I do?"

"Mick, I've been keeping a secret lover in a coma for the last fifty years. Do you really think I'm the best bet for romantic advice? There's no easy decision. I've got an idea that will make everything better."

Mick looked excited, "A solution?"

"Yep, a perfect solution my good friend. Let me stay with you for the next couple of weeks while I look for a new apartment. I can't really go back to my old place and if I'm living with you it will keep Beth and Coraline at bay while you weigh your options."

"Josef, you are one of a kind."

Josef smiled with that undeniable charm, "You know you love me. So is that a yes."

Mick just sighed as he grabbed his bags and headed towards long-term parking. "If you're coming, get a move on it – and ground rules. No snack food left around my apartment, no all night parties and you have to pick up after yourself – I am not your maid."

"Yes, dad."

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