A/N: Here we are in L.A with Coraline, Josef, Mick and Beth!! Things are going in a new way, darker because of a special case Mick's working on. I hope you'll like it :) And thanks again for the great reviews!!

CHAPTER 7

"So you wanted to tell me something?" asked Mick as he came in Josef's office.
"Here you are my son!"
"Stop that! I'm not your son."
"Oh, come on, it's funny. Who'd thought that I would be your sire?"

Mick smiled because he knew Josef was right. He would never have imagined that one day his bestfriend would have saved his life and become his sire.
Suddenly he smelt something that he hadn't considered to find there. He recognized at once whose parfum it was.
"Yes she was here." Said Josef as he saw that his friend was smelling her.
"What? why? Is she back? When?"
"Wow, wow! Calm down and stop those questions right now!"

Josef could feel that Mick was confused, but he couldn't tell him everything. Mick had to forget Coraline.
"She won't stay in L.A. She came to me to say good bye, I guess. But you might be in danger."
"Did she tell you that?"
"No, she said nothing about you. I have heard of what her family is capable of, especially Lance."
Mick remembered what Lance had told him when he had staked Coraline: "Welcome to the family!"
"Why would I be in danger? She's the one who stole the compound."
"Well, I don't know, but I remember that when Coraline married you, it made some trouble with her brothers." Mick remembered what Lance told Coraline before he staked her "you chose to bring this ungrateful mortal into our bloodline without his conscent and without our blessing, and now you've chosen to betray us with his compound. There will be consequences…"
"Yeah, but she's no longer my sire."
"They don't know that. So just be careful, okay? After all, I have to protect you even more now. 'Luke, I'm your father!'"

As he left Josef's place, Mick was thinking that there could be hope for the cure. Coraline was back for some times and she could help him.
When he sat in his car, his phone rang:
"Hey Mick, it's Guillermo."
"Hey man."
"Can you come over here? I think we might have a problem."

He stopped his car in front of the morgue and came in. Guillermo was waiting in the cold corridor.
"So, what do you have for me?"
"The Cleaner brought me something."
"The Cleaner?"
"Yes, that's why I told you to come. It's unusual, that's why. Are you ready? You have to know that's quite harsh, man."

Mick and Guillermo went in the cold room. On a table lay a little black bag. Guillermo opened it and Mick went a step back.
"What the hell is that?" asked Mick
"You can see that, it's a baby."
"Yeah, I see that, but this one has been turned?!"
"That's why I asked you to come here. The Cleaner and her team were called and they found this. She told me that she'd never seen this before, and she knew that you come here sometimes."
"And she wants me to find who did that?"
"Yes, I think she said: 'I want Mick to find out who turned and killed this baby so I can give a good lesson to the bastard who did that!'"
"I'll do my best…" As Mick saw the little cold blue body on the table, old sentences came to his mind… You, me and Baby

He was walking in the corridor lost in his bad memories and went to his car, when he heard a sweet voice:
"I just saw your car."
He jumped with surprised and he felt that her heart made the same thing.
"Very surprising to meet you here in the morgue. You came for blood I guess." Beth said that with some embarrassment.
This meeting reminded Mick, how he constantly met her after important things that had happened between them: the desert, the first kiss and now. It was just like if the universe wanted them to be together even if they were so different.
"Hi, no I'm on a case. And you, I guess you don't come here for blood."
She smiled and Mick saw how her face was shining under her smile.
"Maybe… well, no. I'm searching for informations and maybe a body."
"A body?" It just remembered him the sad body he just saw.
"Yeah I'm working on a case, where babies are missing."
"Babies? Are they several?" It's odd, maybe there is a connection with the body I just saw.
"Well, it's not official, but yes, I think it's a serial baby kidnapper."
"What do you mean?"
"Can we talk of that somewhere else?"
"Yes, of course, meet me at my place."
"Allright, I've got my car, I'll follow you."

As he drove to his apartment, he looked in his rear-view mirror and saw Beth driving back him. It felt good to see her again, he had missed her so much. After their picnic on the beach and his turning, he hadn't seen her, or spoken to her. And again they did just like if nothing had happened between them.
Suddenly when he looked again at the road, he saw her, walking on the sidewalk. She was looking in his direction, smiling. Coraline! But she disappeared as fast as an eyelashflutter.
When they arrived in front of his door, Mick was still confused by the vision of Coraline.
"Are you okay?"
"Uh, yeah, just something I think I saw. But it was a mistake. Come in."

They sat on the coach and Beth began to talk.
"Well I was searching things on the internet, and I asked Sam to go in the police's files… don't look at me like that! I was searching something to write about… And then we found a file named "babies". We opened it and found that these last two weeks, three babies have been recorded missing."
"Well, that's interesting, because Guillermo called me and showed me a body. It was the body of a baby."
"That's horrible. You think it could be one of those missing babies."
"I don't know. But the worst part is coming. This one was turned into a vampire."

--
He didn't like to lie to him, but he knew that Mick wouldn't understand why he went to France to save her. If he told that, he would have to tell his relationship with her, and Mick would never forgive him that. It was even more difficult now that he was his sire.

Josef went to the last floor, a good massage would help to forget those things. He lay on the table, but memories of Coraline kissing him in his office came back to his mind. Why was she back to him now?

There allways was something special between them. He had loved her, but this love became a friendship. He remembered that when she met Mick, he didn't understand why she was interested in that man. First she had played with him like hundred other men. But she felt in love, and he never understood how; he was jealous. Then he met Sarah and he felt in love too. That was only then, that he understood Coraline. And Mick became his bestfriend. So he tried to help him to forget her. After all no one could change Coraline, and all those years playing with men, made her into a bad thing for them.

Josef was the only one who understood that and it was the reason why they were so good friends. He had played with women like she had played with men, and both of them found first love in each other, then with human.
One thing he was sure of, was that, falling in love with a human could be something terrible:
Coraline became out of herself and kidnapped a child, and he had failed when he turned his dear Sarah.
Mick had to be very careful with Beth, and Josef was afraid that it could destroy his friend forever if something happened to her.
Josef suddenly thought that if Mick was in danger, Beth was in danger too. He felt that Coraline was not for no reason back to L.A. She must have something back in her mind and he had to find what.

--
"A baby vampire? Oh my god, that's terrible. How is that possible?"
"I don't know. Children can be turned, but babies? I haven't heard stories about it before."

Beth and Mick were both thinking of that time when Coraline had kidnapped Beth. Mick glanced at her who looked down. Then she looked at him.
"We have to find who did that!"
"Yes, we must stop that person, well that vampire, because it's surely a vampire."
"And I think it's a woman. When I read the police's file, I was already thinking of a woman. It reminded me an old story…"
"Yeah, I know." Then Mick thought: Oh my God, Coraline is back and those babies missing… it can't be her? Not again? Not like that!
"Are you sure you want to be a part of this, Beth? I know we can find horrible things that can remind you-"
"I'll be okay Mick. It is a long time ago and since I've staked Coraline, I'm feeling better."

Mick looked at her, she was beautiful, just like on the beach where she was waiting for him with food just for him.
"I think we should speak to one of the mothers." Said Beth feeling that Mick was looking at her.
"Yes, I think it's a good idea. We take my car."

Mick and Beth were sitting in the old Mercedes. Mick looked carefully at her and she did the same when he was staring at the road. The silence began to make them feel uncomfortable. Beth was the first who broke the silence:
"So, how does it feel to be a vampire again?"
"Well, just like before."
"We never talked about you becoming a vampire again. How did that happen?"
Mick didn't tell her that he had had to choose: save her or his humanity; and he didn't want her to know it.
"I was lying dead on the floor and Josef was there… he turned me."
"What? really? So he's your sire now, right?"
"Yes, weird, uh."
Beth laughed, then became serious:
"So Coraline isn't your sire anymore."
Mick looked at her:
"No, she's no longer my sire." He thought of the vision he had some hours ago and wanted to say it to Beth, but he couldn't, not with this case, not after what happened between them on the beach.
"Listen, we haven't talked since you saved me. I was so surprised that you were a vampire again. And …"
"You don't have to thank me Beth. I'll always be here for you."
She looked at him and opened the mouth to say something about what happened on the beach but the car stopped.
"Here we are. This is where the first baby missing lived."

They went out of the car and walked in a pedestrian street. There were many people there and they had to make their way through. Beth was searching the number of the bulding and Mick followed her when he saw her again. Coraline. She was sitting on a terrace and drank coffee with an other man. Mick was going to go to her, but Beth noticed that he had stopped.
"What's wrong Mick?"
"Uh? Nothing, I just…" But Coraline was gone. "I saw someone…"
"The same than on the way to your apartment?"
"I'm not sure. Come on, this is the place."
Beth looked at him and understood that Mick was hiding something from her, and she was decided to find out what.

--
"What are you doing exactly Coraline?"
"Henri!? You're here?"
Coraline was in a little street perpendicular to the one where she was sitting, and where Henri was staring at her.
"He sent me to L.A to watch you. Actually, Lancelot was supposed to watch you, but I asked to do it. So what are you doing? Drinking a coffee with a human?"
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
"Are you sure?"
"Oh yes I'm sure. I know Mick better than he does himself. I've got to go."

Coraline went back to the terrasse and sat back to her table.
"I'm sorry, I had to make an important call."
"That's fine."
"So, what we were talking about ADA Benjamin Talbot?"

FIN