AN: Thank you all again, for the feedback. It's great to know that people are reading. :)

FYI, this was written a long time before ep. 15 showed, so Sam and Linda and their role in Mick's life is not based on the show. Thought I'd mention it because it is quite a bit different from the show's version.

--

1:49

May 20th, 1954
I'm meeting Daddy for lunch tomorrow and then taking the Night Cape Codder from Grand Central to see Aunt Mary for the weekend. Can you imagine? Daddy was terrified, but if women can go to Harvard Law now, I can take a train by myself! Robert, naturally, talked a lot of fustian about being careful and eyed me as he warned about how people cannot be trusted. And that is the whole problem with Robert, he treats me as a child. Also, he's boring. I think I'll break things off with him when I return. Aunt Mary will know what to say to avoid any unpleasantness.

Mother, naturally, is all in favour of my meeting someone else, despite what the Gorgon calls my 'advancing age'. She was talking about Paris again last night, of the dances by the Seine and falling in love with Daddy while the gardens were in full bloom. Now that Europe is re-establishing itself as a commercial power, I think I would like to visit. I said that to Robert and he looked at me as though I had committed a cardinal sin. Apparently well-bred women don't talk about economic matters. I told him in no uncertain terms that the reason that America did not go to pieces during the war was because the women left behind went to work and didn't just keep the hearth fires burning. He was not amused. I must definitely send Esther a copy of 'Dance to the Duke!' even if it thoroughly annoys him. Mount Holyoke sounds like a lot of fun; perhaps I should have accepted Barnard. Although, something is drawing me away. Mother says I have the travel bug, just as she did. I feel as though life is just waiting, around the corner, with cymbals and trumpets and all the intensity of a conflagration.

The park was cool and bright. Mick had wandered off to the shelter of a nearby coffee shop; Beth was content basking in the winter sunshine. Thank God they'd remembered to bring coats, she'd have been freezing otherwise. Sarah's diary sat on her lap, the pages held open as she gazed at the grass crowding her feet. This woman wrote as if the words spilled out uncontrollably. Beth squirmed a little, embarrassed at being allowed into such a private place. Sarah'd been a happy girl, sweet, on the cusp of womanhood and glorying in her power over men. Josef had been almost unapproachably sophisticated, a challenge to her.

May 21st, 1954
A strange thing happened today. No, not strange - inevitable! Cymbals and trumpets and conflagration, and Charles is at the bottom of it all. It's midnight now, but I can't sleep. Grand Central Station is probably the last place you'd think of to meet someone. I was walking to the waiting room when I realised that I hadn't brought my lighter with me. Usually, it's not a problem; no man refuses a pretty girl. He was standing at the Clock staring up with a look of intense annoyance. He can't be more than a few years older than I am, but he makes Robert seem like a child. I could see that everyone was giving him a wide berth - maybe it was the fact that he looked so furious or perhaps it's the strange power that he radiates. Then he did something so chauvinistic that he made my blood boil; the woman next to him dropped her handkerchief, almost at his feet. She glanced at him smilingly, no doubt waiting for him to pick it up. Instead he ignored her completely. No, in fact, he moved two steps away from her. That poor woman! I marched up to him on impulse, I didn't even know what I was going to say, and then he turned his head and looked directly at me. I asked him for a light.

The moment he smiled at me, I knew I was lost.

Charles, Charles, Charles.

The most beautiful name in the world.

I'm seeing him on Monday when he returns from Hartford. I'm going to met him under the Clock in Grand Central again; he has a late business meeting with CBS TV on the second level.

Beth skimmed forward, her cheeks burning. Josef? With a human? It didn't make sense. Mick was a young vampire but he seemed very definite that vampire and human relationships didn't work. Josef was much older, but he was captivated enough to date a human girl? Perhaps Mick just wasn't interested...

She gritted her teeth, powerless to stop the images flooding back to her. Mick smiling down at her, the way he unthinkingly put himself in danger to protect her, his implicit trust in her, the feeling of his body seeking comfort from hers. Not everyone has cymbals, trumpets and conflagrations, sometimes it's unwilling and effortless and so unthinking that it becomes like breathing - you carry it with you and you don't even notice it. When did this part-crush fascination turn into so much more?

Beth shook her head. It must be the emotions of the last few days, everything had been a roller-coaster. And she and Josh were not in a good place right now, perhaps she was just reading into the current situation? After all, it seemed as though she and Sarah had a lot in common and she was reading Sarah's diary. Suggestion can do that to you...

Then she read the last entry.

No, there was a difference. Sarah was in love, Beth wasn't. Was she?

--

2:12

"Listen to this," he heard Beth say.

Mick sat in silence, waiting for her to finish. The words made him uncomfortable; he knew they were Sarah's but listening to Beth's soft voice, it sounded as though she was speaking them willingly.

Beth had to know. She knew how badly he wanted a family and to be part of something loving. Predators take, it's what they do best. Mick had tried for over twenty years to reverse that cycle in himself, terrified of waking up again to the thrill of the chase and the wanton acceptance of his power. But nothing, not even his determination to protect the innocents, affected him as much as the simple trust and hero-worship he glimpsed in her eyes on occasion.

No, not true. He'd lied to himself often over the years, it was how he stayed sane. Nothing pushed him to better himself more than the bond he shared with Beth. But there had been, perhaps still was, an equally strong pull towards his darker natures, the person he knew himself to be under the angst and self-denial. Coraline had read him like a book.

The war had stripped the humanity from many, Mick included. Coming back had just seemed so pointless. Little girls half grown up and ready to taste danger in the back seat of a car. He laughed often, wondering if they knew how tame and ordinary it all seemed. He'd drifted for years, only music giving him an outlet for the inner turmoil. He started staying up nights, picking fights in grungy bars, using his military training and enjoying the pain. The gigs were crap, but who cared. There were enough groupies, enough wealthy women who'd succumb to a charmer. Sam had always warned him, the next morning, that he'd go too far.

Sam had been his best friend growing up. Unlike Mick, he'd never made it to the army. His rich aeronautical engineer dad had pulled some strings and got him working on a military contract. When Mick got back, after another flaming row with his parents, Sam had offered him a room. And to give him credit, Sam had persuaded Linda, his new wife, to go along with it.

Mick's jaw clenched. He didn't want to think about Linda. Oh, she'd been willing enough, he hadn't used much charm. But Sam was a good man who hadn't deserved it. Nobody had deserved that, not Sam, not Linda, especially not an innocent life caught in between.

Then, Coraline. She'd been his saviour. Coraline understood. She understood the demons, made place for them in her life, hell, she even brought her own to the table. It was like a dance, one where it didn't matter who he had been, who he was, because she was all those things too. He found himself laughing again, looking forward to the next exchange, watching the crowds for her face.

I'll love you forever.
Forever?

Forever meant different things. A year, perhaps, to enjoy her with unadulterated pleasure, then - children? Maybe, if I'd been blessed a second time. If I'd had my way - lots of children.

The creases between his eyebrows deepened, he could barely hear Beth.

There she is! The memory spun out at him.

Coraline lying in a tub of cool water as he walks in and stares at her hungrily. She didn't move, didn't seem to notice him. Mick smiling. She'd acknowledged his existence well enough the last time he'd been here - loudly and often, if he recalled correctly. Of course he did, vampire memory is a cut above human-grade.

"Forget something?" Her voice low and off-hand.
"Honey, I'm home." Sarcastic. Unbuckling his belt quickly.
Coraline smirking, those perfect, white teeth flashing dangerously. "You're late."
"I know." His shirt hit the floor. Walking to the edge of the bathtub and watching her.
Coraline gesturing towards his trousers, "Need some help?"
Didn't bother to reply. She's already tugging them down his legs, knowing implicitly how to send him over the edge. His head rolling back, eyes flashing as she raises herself and takes him in her mouth. He moved so that he'd land under her in the tub. Of course, Coraline has faster reflexes. Finds himself held face down in the water as her tongue moves slowly down his back.

The game could go on for hours, days, weeks. Eventually they'd fight - over the men in her life and her past, his refusal to hunt with her, her refusal to talk about herself, her insistence that he learn to enjoy what he'd become. Oh he had, he had enjoyed it! But he couldn't talk to her about the things he missed now that they were denied to him. His family, mother sobbing as yet another young policeman apologised for yet another dead lead. His boredom, the sun, the food, the music, the honesty of living.

No, the predator was there, but it was unwanted. What he wanted, more than anything else in the universe, was a second chance; the option to do it right this time.

"That was the last entry."

He nodded.

Beth had finished and was waiting for him to speak. "So, Josef never mentioned any of this? Never told you about Sarah?"

He shook his head slightly, coming back to the present. The memories had run through him like lightning. Now was not the time for second chances.

--

3:26pm

"He tried to turn her."

The words were like a sucker punch. Beth stared at Sarah, mouth slightly agape. The room suddenly felt a lot smaller; Sarah's ageless body sprawled on the king sized bed, a haunting, looming presence in the closed space. She looked to Mick, he looked away. She heard Mick telling Josef that this was not his fault, Josef countering with his own guilt...it was ironic and funny to hear that exchange. There was a giggle welling up in her somewhere. She tried to offer what solace she could, "You've been looking after her ever since."

Then the window shattered and she was flat on her back, Mick covering her with his body. The whole story was like a B-movie. The woman in a coma, her dying father, the vampire sheltering her and the hired assassin. She heard shots loudly, but the terror had abated at the first movement of his body against hers. Then Mick was gone and all she could hear were the snarls and a sickening crack. She tried not to watch, and thankfully, he had his back to her.

He felt sheer terror as someone burst into the room, that Beth would be caught in the crossfire. Josef was the one targeted, somewhere in Mick's brain that thought was registered, but if anything happened to Beth...! His gut clenched. He'd grabbed her instinctively, shielding her from the bullets he knew were coming.