A/N: wow, two updates in one day. I'm on a roll here!
Mick stared out the window into an inky sky dotted with stars. The pilot had just announced that they would be landing in Paris within the hour. He sent a silent thank you to Josef for allowing him to use his private jet – hey, may as well travel in style, and he couldn't risk Beth using her connections to find out where he'd gone. He just hoped Josef would keep his mouth shut.
He's your friend, Mick reminded himself, and more importantly he has nothing to gain by leaking information to Beth.
Mick wasn't entirely sure where he was going once he got to Paris. His only real lead had been Coraline, and for all he knew she could be dead by now. A small part of him though, the part that still cared, hoped that she was alive. He would hate himself even more than he did now if he was the cause of her death.
Wracking his brain, Mick tried to put together the shreds of information he'd gained about The Cure together. He knew enough to know that it originated in France – but whether or not it was made entirely with materials found in the country was another matter entirely. For all Mick knew he should really be on his way to Egypt in search of papyrus along the banks of The Nile.
God I hope not, he thought to himself with small laugh. That would be just his luck – having to go to hot sunny desert just as he was Turning again.
Mick wasn't entirely sure how the process worked. He hadn't felt right for the past week, and he knew that specific symptoms of vampirism were returning. But how he would actually become a full-fledged vamp again was beyond him. Would it hurt? Would it be sudden? Would his senses come back one by one? And, most importantly, how much time did he even really have left? He kept running through those questions over and over in his head hoping an answer would somehow magically appear.
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Beth couldn't remember a longer flight. She felt as though she'd been sitting on the plane for her entire natural-born life, and she was ready to kill someone – most likely the stewardess who kept coming around every five minutes to ask if she was comfortable. Yes, of course she was. How could she not be comfortable stuck on a cramped plane for 15 hours plus one layover in Dallas?
Her in-flight movie choices exhausted, Beth decided that she should try to get some sleep. The time difference in Paris would mess with her head enough without going for sleep deprivation too. But when she shut her eyes, all she could see was Mick. She was worried about him – more worried than she wanted to admit even to herself. She knew he would be fine, but at the same time she couldn't be absolutely certain. What if something bad happened when he Turned again? Sure, Coraline seemed okay after she changed back, but neither Beth nor Mick had actually seen it happen, so there was no way to be sure.
Beth gave up on sleep within a matter of moments. There was no point, she decided, and instead opened up her laptop to read some of the articles she'd downloaded earlier about cures for Vampirism. If there was one thing Beth prided herself on, it was that she did her homework. If she was going to be any help to Mick, she needed to know exactly what was going on.
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"Now landing at Charles DeGaul Airport," the pilot's voice awoke Mick from an uneasy sleep.
Gathering his bag and thanking the pilot, Mick walked down the stairs and out onto the runway. A light drizzle was falling as he headed toward the private car waiting not far from the jet. Sometimes it was hard for Mick to believe the connections his friend had. He figured Josef was living proof that money talks – the more you have, the louder it gets. He hopped in and gave the driver directions to a small hotel near the Eiffel Tower. Mick St. John didn't usually mix business with pleasure, but the last time he'd been in Paris it was being bombed by Germany, and now that there would be no grenades flying over his head or guns shooting off around him, he planned to allow himself one day – well, one night – to enjoy it with the few bits of humanity he had left.
A/N: excuse me while I fantasize about spending a night in Paris with Mick St. John….in the meantime, reviews are welcome!
