I really, really appreciate the reviews! To answer a question, in my mind, Josef began healing when the stake was pulled, which is how he could see the guardian...

Andy rests her head back on the couch, a headache brewed from the events of the day pounding across her temples. She refuses to think, forcing her mind away from each thought that arises. She closes her eyes, a crease of pain across her brow, Damn it; why do I end up on the couch with a blazing headache each time I come here? Her mind teases her; It's only been twice, now. She lifts her lip in a fake snarl at herself, That's two for two, then. She reminds herself that she's not supposed to be thinking, and takes a swallow of water. She feels a weight settle next to her on the couch.

"Having conversations with oneself is something of a bad sign." Josef's voice had a hint of a chuckle running through it.

"Who else do I have to talk to?" She lifts her head and opens her eyes to see the vampire arranged artistically next to her. His arm was on the back of the couch, he held a glass of blood in his lap and he had his legs crossed, his ankle resting on his knee.

He takes a sip and his eyes narrow at her, a hint of defiance flashing across his face.

Andy blinks mildly at him, "I really don't care, you know."

"Why not?" He asks with a tone of honest curiosity.

"Because it's your life. I have no interest in crusading. I'll go where I'm called, but other than that, I try to assume it's not my problem. I've got enough without inventing them on my own." She takes a deep breath and rests her head back on the couch, staring at the ceiling. "I've got a question for you, if you're in a sharing mood."

"Why not?" Josef cocks his head at her.

"What made you change your mind about me?" She watches a helicopter go by through the skylight.

A long silence, then, "The look on your face. I've only seen that look once before. From Mick, when he had to kill someone he thought he loved to save a little girl."

"Oh." Andy closes her eyes again, and they both fall silent.

Josef sips at his drink and watches the guardian as she sleeps on the couch. Her head has rolled a little so that he could see her face. It looks pinched, a line noticeable between her brows. He'd rescued her glass a moment ago, and she hadn't waked. How can she be the same thing at the two I've seen before? He takes another swallow as he tries to make his memories and the being on the couch next to him add up. Guardians hunt anything supernatural. After the first one, I did my research. They are scary bastards, what they can do. I've never heard of one passing up killing a vampire. What is going on here? He shifts position, his uncomfortable thoughts making him feel out of his depth for the first time in a very long time. He raises his glass to his mouth, but it's empty. He frowns down at it for a moment, as his mind continues to turn over everything Mick had told him about the first time that the guardian had helped him. Wait…He said that she asked him why she'd been sent to help him rather than kill him. She was sent to him. To help him. What the hell? What does that mean? Why would a guardian be sent to help a vamp? What sends them? I haven't ever found any link to a particular religion or deity or any other spiritual tradition. The closest are references to angels but…

The door opens and Mick steps into the apartment. Josef stands and holds his finger up to his lips. "She's sleeping. I don't know how well she wakes; let me get a few feet away from her."

Mick raises an eyebrow at him, "She can't be worse than I was when she woke me after the hole in my chest."

"Well, she could duck a half-dead vampire; I don't know if I can get out of the way of getting incinerated." Josef whispers as he bends down to pick up the guardian's glass from the table and moves into the kitchen.

Mick shakes his head at him, but sets the two bags in his arms very gently on the counter.

Josef smiles, feeling smug at Mick's caution, and reaches over to see what Mick had found. "What's this?" He pokes at a white bag with some kind of cut up potatoes spilling out of a tray.

"In-N-Out. I remember when they opened down here; everyone loved them. Here's yours." He reaches into the other bag and pulls out a new bottle of scotch. "Since you polished the other one off so enthusiastically, I figured another one would go down well." Mick grins at him and shakes his head.

Josef sniffs, "You dropped a bit of a bomb on me. I was justified."

"You would feel justified if you'd dropped by for a social call." Mick teases him over his shoulder as he approaches Lady Hawk.

Josef sees his back tense as he sinks down next to her. So he's not as comfortable with her as he pretends… "I don't do social calls."

Mick glances back to him and opens his mouth but shakes his head a little and sighs. He turns back to the guardian and gingerly reaches out to touch her hand. Josef holds his breath.

Lady Hawk's eyes snap open and she sits up sharply. Her eyes briefly flash a little silver but quickly darken.

"Hey." Mick nods a little at her. "I'm back. I got you a burger and fries. That okay?" He looks over his shoulder to Josef.

Josef picks up the white bag and shakes it a little at Lady Hawk. "I guess I lose."

Lady Hawk wrinkles her forehead a little at him and looks at Mick.

Mick half smiles. "He was worried that you might wake up in the same kind of mood that I did last week."

"Oh." Lady Hawk looks over at Josef. "I've learned to check before breaking anything." She stands, rolling her head a little to stretch her neck, "Or anyone."

Mick smiles at Josef sardonically, "How about dinner?"

"You offering?" Josef eyes Lady Hawk.

"Josef!" Mick steps in front of Lady Hawk, his posture only half jokingly protective and his eyes harden slightly.

"It's okay." Lady Hawk puts her hand on his arm and he looks down at her. She's smiling, relaxed. "I get the joke."

Mick frowns as he looks to Josef, "But what if you didn't?"

"Easy." Josef puts up his hands to Mick, "I think the guardian can decide on her own what's appropriate." He looks at her, eyebrow raised. "She's a big girl."

"Yeah. Feel free to take a nibble." Lady Hawk gives him a dirty look and Mick laughs.

"What?" Josef looks back and forth between them, as Lady Hawk grins up at Mick. Neither respond. "Seriously, what am I missing?"

"Bite her. You'll figure it out." Mick steps into the kitchen and slides open the refrigerator panel.

Josef can only shake his head at Mick, mystified by the obvious joke between the two of them.

Lady Hawk reaches into the white bag and pulls out the tray of limp fries. She grins to Mick, "You are evil."

"Okay. Fine. Have your little jokes." Josef pouts and folds his arms.

"Don't worry, we will." Lady Hawk puts a few fries in her mouth and closes her eyes in pleasure. "This is great. I love In-N-Out."

Mick smiles again at her. "Good. There's Guinness in the other bag."

"Wonderful." Lady Hawk is barely understandable through a mouthful of hamburger.

Josef glances at Mick. His young friend is relaxed, smiling more in the last five minutes than he's seen in years. Josef feels a tiny twinge of jealousy, but forces his face into a pleasant arrangement as he accepts a glass of blood from him. "Glad I brought the good stuff. I didn't plan on being over here this long."

"I appreciate your help today, Josef. I really do." Mick stretches the shoulder that was damaged earlier.

Lady Hawk swallows; she's inhaled half the burger already. "Josef, about earlier. Can you tell me anything?"

Josef takes a deep breath and compresses his lips a little, You knew this was coming. What do you say? That she's some kind of potentially psycho killing machine? That the two you've seen before up close and personal were trying to take your head? "We should go sit down." He turns to Mick, "Bring the alcohol."

Mick lifts an eyebrow at Josef, but picks up the bottle of scotch and pulls the six-pack of Guinness out of the bag. Lady Hawk follows, shoving the rest of her burger back in its sack and pulling two glasses from the shelf. Josef settles on the easy chair from earlier and Lady Hawk and Mick settle on the couch.

She picks up a bottle of the beer and frowns; Mick reaches over and pops the top off. "Wow, thanks." She takes a swallow, and looks to Josef.

Josef looks down to his glass and spins it in his hands. "I've been around a while. A bit over four hundred years. I've seen a lot in that time, but the funny thing is that more stays the same than changes. Twice before I've seen…beings…with similar characteristics as you. The first was when I was in my late forties, just as the war was ending." Josef puts his glass down, not at all hungry.

Lady Hawk's mouth slowly drops open. "You mean the 'Thirty Years War', don't you? Wasn't that in the early sixteen hundreds?"

Josef glances up, "I guess they do still teach a little history. We didn't call it that; I don't remember when someone labeled that awful time something so inane. But yes, I was still in Germany at the time. Mick, I told you about most of it, already."

Mick's forehead wrinkles. "I don't think you need to go into much detail, Josef."

Josef feels a smile curl the edge of his lips, "I agree, old friend." No need to give the guardian ideas. "I was involved in an…incident…where a guardian led a raid on a small village where a group of vampires had recently relocated. The…incident…was quite…violent. I lost several good friends." He pauses and Mick hangs his head and rubs his eyes. Lady Hawk looks between the both of them with a curious and sympathetic expression, but stays quiet. "That's where I learned first hand about your ability to shape shift."

Lady Hawk nods. "Okay."

When she doesn't offer any more, Josef continues. "At first he looked like a man with wings. His were a deep brown. It seemed like the…people with him…murdering the villagers…were in awe of him and following him willingly." Josef looks up at Lady Hawk.

She looks pained. "I can't imagine that happening now. I've had a few close…encounters…with authorities. I'm sure I'd be met with machine guns or worse, these days."

Josef looks at her a moment then sighs, "Probably. Anyway, it was my escape that led to that guardian shape-shifting into a bear."

Lady Hawk raises her eyebrows and blinks slowly. "Huh. I wouldn't have thought…a bear?"

"Yep. Why are you surprised?" Josef asks. Mick pours him some scotch and pushes the glass to his side of the table.

"I just wouldn't think that…just how many animal-spirit-torturer things are there? It was a goshawk and a wolf and a…ah…that turned me. What the hell else is there?" She takes a quick gulp of Guinness, and glances to Mick.

Josef eyes her and reaches for the glass of scotch, glancing at Mick whose eyes narrow a little and he nods imperceptibly. So you noticed that too, then. Okay, she doesn't trust us either. This is becoming an interesting little chess match. "I don't know. But turning into a bear seemed to be something that this guardian's followers weren't prepared for. They panicked and went after him. I saw him shot a few times with arrows and he fled to the woods. Right past my hiding spot, in fact."

Mick inhales sharply, "I wondered…"

Lady Hawk looks at him sharply and frowns.

Josef takes a sip of scotch, enjoying ignoring the guardian's unspoken questions. "So can I assume that turning into a hawk is how you picked the name 'Lady Hawk'"?

"I didn't pick it. A six-year-old girl called me that. And, yes, it's because she first saw me as a goshawk. She'd been nearly killed by an avalanche. I was called and shifted to the goshawk because it's my most mobile and least conspicuous form. I can sort of see body heat and any movement as well. I found her, got her out, healed her and then was stuck because she'd freeze to death if I left her there, I'd scare her to death if I tried a bigger form that could carry her out of there without revealing my face. I had no choice but to shift to the winged human. She asked if I was an angel. I told her no. She said that she'd call me 'Lady Hawk' because she'd just seen that movie. The local paper picked it up, and there are a few paranormal websites that list me as an urban legend." Lady Hawk half smiles, "So, yeah, it's pretty silly, but I kinda like it. Reminds me of little Annaliese."

"What?!" Josef coughs, heart contracting with surprise and pain.

Lady Hawk sits up sharply, "I don't know what you mean."

Mick puts a hand on her arm. "Annaliese is the name of one of Josef's close friends that was killed during the guardian's attack on the village."

"Oh God. I'm sorry." Lady Hawk looks stricken.

Josef swallows back the anger and pain that the name called forth, and forcibly arranges his face into a neutral mask. "So what's your real name?"

Mick leans forward protectively, "Just call her Hawk, Josef."

Lady Hawk looks to Josef, he watches, as she seems to struggle with something for a long moment. "Its okay, Mick." She closes her eyes, and takes a breath. "My name is Anderyn." She opens her eyes and shrugs, "My mom was Welsh. Everyone calls me Andy."

Josef cocks his head, "Huh. Human bird. That's a weird coincidence, you do realize that?"

"Please don't start on weird. I'm having a conversation with two vampires over Guinness and Scotch about 'guardians', of which I am supposed to be one. My name is the least weird thing about this whole situation." Andy finishes her bottle, and pulls another from the carrier and hands it to Mick.

He smiles as he pulls the top off, and hands it back. "I'm with Josef."

"Gah. What is this, vampire solidarity week?" She takes a long pull from the new bottle.

Josef and Mick exchange looks and start laughing. She looks back and forth between them, "What?"

Smothering a feeling of near hysteria, Josef snickers, "You wouldn't share earlier. I have no intention of doing so now."

"Fine." Andy crosses her arms and leans back into the couch, holding the Guinness close to her chest.

Mick laughs harder, and wipes his eyes. "You two make a great pair. I don't know who'd out-stubborn who, if it came down to a contest."

"I'd win." Josef and Andy say in unison. Josef looks at her and she meets his gaze, lifting her chin a little. Josef feels a smile tug at the corner of his mouth and sees a matching one on Andy's face.

"Okay. Back to what the hell you are." Josef nods at Andy, Let me see if I can get through this without ending up a cinder.