A/N: No, hell did not freeze over, and yes it's me here writing another story for "Moonlight." I took a brief foray into writing fanfic for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", but I found it tough-going and unsatisfying. I guess the three stories I wrote turned out okay, but I'm much more at home in the "Moonlight" universe. (If you're interested in those stories, click on my name and start with "Habeas Corpus") So, after happening upon an episode of "Moonlight" on Syfy, I was inspired again. If you are new to my "Moonlight" fics, you might want to start with the first one, "Behind Closed Doors," so this one will make sense to you. Enjoy!

MICK

"I got a package from Coraline today," I said conversationally to Josef, as he sat in the chair opposite my couch.

"Oh? Did she send you your balls back?"

Ouch. "Where the hell did that come from?"

"Mick, you had the chance to kill that bitch back in Paris. Now she's sending you presents and you're acting like it's Christmas morning. I'm thinking you need to man up and put an end to things once and for all, or she's never going to let you go." He took another drink of my best Scotch.

He was right. I'd let Coraline live, even after she'd kidnapped Beth for the second time in her life, all for the possibility that she might give me some of the cure for vampirism. At the time, I'd felt really guilty about that, and Josef had felt really annoyed, though he'd honored my wishes and didn't kill her himself.

"Okay, I'll give you that point, but my patience paid off, Josef."

I reached into the wooden cigar box on my coffee table. Inside, was a smaller box that would slide open to reveal a red, gelatinous compound. Coraline's family had been using it for centuries to allow them to become human for long periods of time. She'd once stolen some from her brother Lance, but, thanks to my friend Carrie, Lance was not around to protest anymore. And if Coraline was to be believed, this was the last of it, and she'd likely sent it to me without her remaining brothers' permission. I pushed the small box within Josef's reach.

"I give you…the cure."

Josef stared at it a moment dispassionately. He'd told me on many occasions that he loved being a vampire and wouldn't ever want to go back to what he referred to as "the mortal coil." Okay, he and Shakespeare, but the point was, in the past he'd claimed not to be interested.

"And you're showing me this why, Mick? You think I'll be excited to see the box that contains your death wish? Look, I know this is what you've wanted your whole second life, but I watched from a distance as all my human friends died centuries ago. So forgive me if I don't relish the idea that you're about to commit suicide and expect me to be happy for you."

He downed the last of his drink, setting it down hard on the table. I watched in shock at his outburst as he walked over to look out the window to the lights of LA. I looked at the box that contained my life, my future. He only saw my impending death.

"I don't know if it works that way, Josef," I said softly. "Look at Coraline's family. They've taken it on and off over the years and they managed to live in both worlds quite comfortably." Josef finally turned back to me, having regained his cool composure.

"But you're not going to use it that way, are you? You'll take it and keep taking it so you can convince yourself and Beth that you are completely human. Then one day you'll get hit by a bus or get cancer, or both, and poof –no more Mick St. John. And there I'll be again, watching another mortal buddy die needlessly when the key to his immortality had been in his hands all along. It's senseless, Mick."

A crazy thought entered my mind.

"You could try it," I prompted, watching with some amusement as his eyes went wide. "See what you've been missing all these years. Maybe you'd understand why—"

"There's no fuckin' way, Mick. I have no desire to go down that path ever again. As a matter of fact, that path is so overgrown, it doesn't even exist for me anymore. Someone paved over it and built expensive hotels on top. No, my friend, this hang-up is yours and yours alone. Leave me the hell out of it."

An uncomfortable silence filled my apartment. To say Josef and I were best friends was an understatement. We literally shared a blood bond, and I knew how much he cared about me, but seldom did he ever put it into words. I guess he'd felt he hadn't needed to till now. Having only been a vampire since the 1950's, the feeling of loneliness hadn't had time to take hold like it had with four-hundred-year-old Josef. I'd watched my own family and friends die, had thought at one time my wife had died. Immortality had a steep price, one that I was reluctant to pay….now that I had Beth.

"I'm sorry, Josef. I know this is a touchy subject for you. And for the record, I've no idea what I'm going to do with this cure. It's a big decision. A tempting one. I'll be thinking about it for awhile."

Josef, no fan of heavy conversations, was pleased to see I wasn't mad at his uncharacteristic interference in my life choices. His face stretched into his usual mocking grin, but beneath it I detected a hint of relief that my mortality wasn't yet a foregone conclusion.

"Don't mind me, Mick. Didn't mean to rain on your parade. So tell me, what does the old ball and chain think of this? I'd think she'd be picking out baby names by now." Of course, he meant Beth. Beth…well, I hadn't quite gotten around to telling Beth. He caught my expression and read me correctly, as usual.

"I guess that's why. I know what she'd want me to do, especially because I've talked it up so long. I don't want her to get her hopes up before I've made my decision. I do know staying with her as a vampire isn't fair to her, or won't be twenty or thirty years from now, when everyone starts mistaking me for her son. And then there's the other thing."

"What other thing?" Josef asked, retaking his seat and refilling his glass.

"Remember why you had to re-turn me? Well, I can't deny there are many benefits to being a vampire, namely the ability to protect Beth. We both have jobs that can be dangerous. If she got hurt because I couldn't kick someone's ass…" I couldn't even finish the thought, it was too painful to contemplate.

"Mick, to play devil's advocate here—my favorite role, by the way—some vampire hunter could behead you tomorrow. We may be immortal, but we're sure as hell not unkillable. We just have better odds than people of the human persuasion. And you know how I like to have the odds on my side."

I sighed deeply in frustration. I came to Josef with this precisely because he was good at showing me all sides of a situation, and he knew me better than I did myself sometimes. It was scary. And I was still undecided.

"Maybe you should go ahead and tell Beth. You picked a sensible, sane one this time, but she may not be as predictable as you think." I nodded thoughtfully. And after all, Beth and I had agreed to no more secrets…

BETH

Simone and I walked out of the mall, hands full of our recent purchases. It was a shock to come out into the darkness, having gone in when it was light. We laughed at how involved we'd gotten in our shopping expedition. I popped the trunk with my remote control, and we stowed our bags.

"I'm meeting Josef later," said Simone, sliding into the passenger side of my car. "I hope traffic isn't too bad so I have time to put on that new little red number I bought. He loves me in red."

I chuckled. "I imagine that's the favorite color of most vampires."

As I turned on to the busy freeway, I thought of the scrap of red, lacy underwear I'd bought for my own vampire's benefit. I blushed nearly the same color just thinking about Mick's likely reaction.

"Any plans with Mick this weekend?"

"Nothing definite," I said, weaving in and out of traffic. Traffic was surprisingly light, so she'd probably get her wish and have time to change. "I guess we're like an old married couple now. It's understood we'll be doing something together, but plans tend to be last minute. That probably sounds very boring to you. I bet Josef is always surprising you."

I caught her wistful smile out of the corner of my eye. "Yes, never a dull moment with Josef. Maybe that's the problem though. He's not very domesticated, my loveable vamp. Just once, I'd like to hang out with him on a lazy Sunday morning, doing the newspaper crossword together. Fighting over the sports pages—you know what I mean. Human things. What's so frustrating is he won't allow me to live completely in his world, yet he won't put one toe in mine."

I took the exit that would take us to my condo, where Simone had left her car. Simone desperately wanted Josef to turn her, but she'd backed off of asking lately, trying to be content with things as they were. It was obvious to me, however, that Simone was a woman who wouldn't settle for long for less than what she wanted. I feared Mick and I would be nursing the couple's broken hearts soon.

I pulled in to a space in front of my building, parking behind her red Porche. She started to open her door, but my hand on her arm stopped her. "You know, there is a way for you to test-drive what it's like to be a vampire, without all the bloodsucking and immortality, that is. You could see if that's really what you want. Maybe you'll find you don't like it, then you could let it go and be truly happy with him."

Simone was intrigued, to say the least. "What are you talking about, Beth? I didn't think you could be just a little like a vampire. Sorta like being 'kinda pregnant.' Either you are, or you're aren't. "

I laughed. "Have you ever heard of Black Crystal?" I asked her. The instant the idea had occurred to me, I knew Mick and Josef would be furious with me for even suggesting it to her. But, God help me, sometimes I just couldn't stop myself.

"No. What's that? Some kind of drug? I didn't think you were into that stuff, Beth."

"No, Simone. It's not a drug—exactly. It's dried vampire blood. It makes humans temporarily feel the same things vampires do—the heightened senses, the feelings of confidence and power. It's amazing. One dose, and you'll see if it's for you."

She looked at me in the dim light of the streetlight shining into the car. "You've tried it?"

"Yeah," I said remembering with lingering embarrassment how I'd taken the Black Crystal and come on to Mick before we were ever officially together. How I'd begged him to turn me into a vampire. Honorable Mick could have taken advantage of me, could have drained me dry in that state, but instead he'd spent the night sobering me up.

"Well, what was it like?"

I hesitated. In truth, it had been a very sensual experience, in every sense of the word. I could see how many humans had become addicted.

"I won't lie to you, Simone. I thought it was great. But afterward, it reinforced to me that that isn't what I want. It was too overwhelming. Too scary. I suppose vampires learn to live with it, and some even relish it, like Josef. But Mick hates it. I know he'd give anything to stop being one."

Simone looked away from me and out the front windshield, lost in thought. "You know, if I tried this, Beth, and went to see Josef, he might reconsider turning me. He might like 'vampire Simone' and change his mind." Her face became animated with her excitement. Oops.

"That wasn't exactly what the purpose of the experiment would be, Simone. It would be to see what you want, not what Josef wants. Maybe this was a bad idea—"

"What? Beth, please. You know what this means to me, how much I want to be with Josef forever. I would think you'd understand, you of all people."

I sighed. "I do understand. But Mick is hoping there's a way for him to become human again, so we could have a more normal life together. "

"But Josef wouldn't want it that way either," Simone said. "You said yourself how much Josef loves being a vampire. He's not going to become human, even for me." She took my hand in hers, imploring me with her eyes. "Please, Beth. Let me see for myself, like you said. You know where to get some of this Black Crystal, don't you?"

Yes, I knew. It was at this very moment in the top drawer of my dresser, in the back beneath my "special occasion" underwear. I looked at my friend, weighing in my mind the benefits over the costs. The main benefit could be that Simone would be happier knowing what she really wanted. The cost would be that Josef and Mick just might kill me. Together. At the same time. It would take the police days to recover all the pieces. I took a deep breath and jumped anyway.

"I have some in my bedroom," I said. Simone squealed uncharacteristically, hugging my neck in glee. I patted her back with much less enthusiasm.