"Hey small world, I got a call from the same address," the cabbie told Maura when he picked her up in front of Raven. Of course, Nick was going to talk with Natalie tonight, and he didn't need to tell her it would be more than just a brief and temporary farewell. It made sense he'd do it at home, a place where they could both be themselves. Very much like he and Maura could be themselves in the same home. Nick had been right, in some ways this felt like a major juncture for change whether or not they left for good. She couldn't suppress a twinge of uneasiness. Whatever would she say to Natalie after such a conversation, one that obviously had been put off since long before Maura arrived in Toronto? You don't unpack that kind of baggage in a couple of hours. And it was baggage, because she knew well that both Natalie and Nick had been handing it off to one another in silence for a long time.
The elevator door slid open and Natalie stepped out as Maura's finger hovered near the call button. She didn't know exactly what she'd expected, maybe tears or red-eyed sadness, but what she saw was Natalie remarkably composed, maybe even settled.
"I'm sorry," Maura began awkwardly, "I intended to come home later but Vachon was called away, so I got a cab."
They stood there for a moment, then a smile emerged on Natalie's face that was remarkably like the one she saw on Nick from time to time, reassuring, a bit sadder-but-wiser.
"It's okay, Maura. It's your home, after all." She looked over Maura's shoulder out the window in the steel door. "And that's my cab."
"I feel like I should say something, you know, something important," Maura shook her head and waved her hands, "stupid, I just feel stupid." Then she just said what she was wondering. "Is everything okay?" Everything, not just Natalie, but Natalie and Nick, who after all found their connection long before Maura found hers with him.
Natalie glanced over her shoulder as if checking on Nick. "Yeah, it's okay. It is what it is." They looked at each other, equally out of ideas for anything clever to say. "It was never anyone's fault, Maura, and you couldn't have done anything to make it easier. Maybe I could have, or maybe Nick could have, but maybe doesn't count now. I'm just glad if I can't have him the way I thought I wanted that he has somebody who loves him as much as he deserves, and can keep him safe from himself. Or who at least understands why it's important to try."
Outside the cabbie honked impatiently. Natalie reached for Maura's hand and squeezed it hard. "I've gotta go. So do you. I know we're both sorry it's been this hard; once you come back I think we can get better at being friends." She jerked her head in the direction of the elevator again. "Our connection to that imperfect prince of a guy upstairs gives us a good head start, right?"
"Right. We will be back, Natalie. I made him promise."
Now Natalie smirked in appreciation. "Oh, he told me. It's one of the things I really like about you, Maura… you're the only one I know besides me who can back him to the wall and make him listen." Another impatient honk. "Occasionally."
They both laughed, and the unwelcome angst evaporated. "Here's to a good head start," Maura said, and the two women hugged impulsively. Natalie broke away and was out the door and gone.
Maura found Nick at his piano, candelabra lit, playing a Chopin étude. She sat next to him on the piano bench and ran a hand lightly through his hair. She was going to ask if he was okay but decided it was a stupid question. What was going on in his head right now (and Natalie's, for that matter) couldn't be served well by conversation. She leaned closer and kissed the edge of his jaw near his right ear, her place of choice when she hoped a kiss might ease whatever was churning inside that words wouldn't reach. Funny how you arbitrarily decide the best pathway to what's hurting, and somehow manage to guess right. Or maybe it was just the comfort of a loving ritual that did the trick.
Nick smiled gently, eyes closed as his hands moved easily and never missed a note. Whenever he played he seemed joined to the music by way of the instrument, and now he moved a little with its rhythm. Maura slipped her arms around his waist, leaning her cheek against Nick's shoulder. She moved with him, letting their connection and the music take the place of inadequate analysis. Natalie was so right, it is what it is.
Over the next two weeks the finances were arranged, the Caddy safely stowed in storage, and the loft covered up and locked tight. LaCroix made an appearance one night when Nick had gone to make his farewells to Janette.
"He's not here, he went to Raven."
The older vampire feigned disappointment in her. "Surely you know by now, of all people, that I always know where Nicholas is. It's not him I came to see."
"Wishing me bon voyage, how sweet." Their original antagonism had morphed its way to a subdued sort of verbal one-upsmanship. Each knew they were stuck with the other, and were equally aware of Nick's irrevocable attachment to them both. Respect had come slowly, even acceptance, but affection would never join the mix. In any case they had become secure enough in their interaction to goad one another by occasionally turning the verbal barbs on themselves. Rather like throwing oneself on one's sword, it was an added zing that deprived the opponent of a victory. LaCroix was, after all, a Roman general, and Maura delighted in playing on that knowledge at his expense.
He shrugged mildly. "I merely came by to engage in a wager. Surely you haven't lost the taste for such a challenge." She'd done it before, bargaining her life with Nick against a number of uncertain outcomes where LaCroix was concerned. She'd won them all so far, or to be honest had achieved a draw.
"What now? You wanna bet the boat will sink? He's been there, done that."
LaCroix strolled around the living room and waved a dismissive hand. "How obvious." Then he turned and looked her in sharply the eye, "And how incorrect. I'm betting that this little sojourn of yours will turn out to be 'moving on' in 'time away' clothing."
This was odd. What could he have to gain, either way? While he'd long ago ceased interfering in hers and Nick's relationship, he was and would be a constant presence in Nick's life. "You'd have to get in line for that bet, believe me. But tell me, what makes it a wager instead of an idle prediction? No matter where we go you'll still be part of Nick's life. Oh, pardon, his un-life."
"When you've existed as long as I have, you'll find that sometimes the prize is in being proven right. And I… predict… that once you and Nicholas are 'away' another possible incarnation will persuade him to remain in yet another place, and you will have little choice but to join him."
Maura laughed out loud. "I wouldn't be so sure, of either thing."
LaCroix approached until he stood quite near, looking down from where he towered over her, and spoke in his characteristic chill-gentle voice.
"Then I will be sure enough for both of us." He looked into her eyes a moment longer, then took two enormous steps back to the center of the room. "But as you say, bon voyage is appropriate, for the moment. Oh don't look at me with such a bitter face, doucette. By now even you must recognize I wish you no ill. However, as the Chinese say, I wish you may live in interesting times." He rose slowly toward the skylight.
"That's a curse, LaCroix," Maura observed drily.
Head nearly touching the skylight, he looked down at her in mock surprise. "Oh my, you're right aren't you?" Then he was gone.
"Fucking family", Maura muttered when Nick came home moments later.
"What?"
"I said your fucking family, if they don't drive me to drink, I don't know what!"
As he returned from the kitchen with bottle in one hand and glass in another Nick teasingly offered her the bottle. She scowled silently in response.
"Oh. That kind of drinking. LaCroix mentioned he was dropping by to say goodbye."
She snorted in derision. "LaCroix never says goodbye, Bats, he just rings the bell to end the round. He'll be back."
Nick put his glass and bottle down and gave Maura a hug and a kiss. "So will we, Sweet. Until then you can train for the next bout."
Schanke drove them to the train station for their 9pm departure. After their luggage was sorted out (Nick had sent a number of things on ahead to Scotland, including his motorcycle) he stood on the platform with them as they waited for the boarding call. A whistle blew.
"Well this is it, partner," Schanke announced. "Have a swell time and don't forget to write. Don't be too long, though, because I might end up liking my new partner better." The two men smirked in familiar unison for a moment, then seized each other in a hard, manly embrace as Maura stood by grinning. Like kids, she thought, or worse yet, siblings. They drove each other crazy, but anyone else had better leave them alone if they knew what was good for them.
"Oh hey, I almost forgot, I picked this up like you asked," Schanke handed Nick a very small black box.
"Ooh, right," Nick took it quickly and stashed it in his coat pocket without further comment. Maura was about to ask what that was all about, but Schanke turned and swept her off her feet into an aerial bear hug.
"You watch out for my partner, you got that?" he instructed when he set her on her feet again.
"No worries," she reached inside her collar and pulled out the silver donut, dangling it on its red silk ribbon. "I got my lucky donut right here."
They shared a look that required no explanation and Maura reached up to hug him around the neck again. "You make sure your partner watches out for you or I'll have to get involved, and it will not be pretty!"
"Excuse me Nick, I gotta kiss your woman," and Schanke did just that, flush on the lips. "Later."
As Schanke walked away Nick regarded Maura with a raised eyebrow. "So how long has this been going on?"
"Oh dear, and I thought we'd been so discreet."
True to form, Maura slept on Nick's shoulder the whole ride to New York. By 3am they were welcomed aboard as early arrivals. By the time they got to their suite Maura's jaw ached from hanging so low as they got the "inside tour" from Nick's old friend Austin, a charming Englishman who'd been brought across during War of the Roses.
"To this day, I can't abide roses," he quipped as he led Maura and Nick into their elaborate penthouse. "I hope you don't mind orchids." Orchids of every imaginable variety were set throughout the suite in crystal vases. "Of course, they have no fragrance," he added apologetically.
"Not to worry," Maura winked at Nick, "I brought my own." It was new moon in two nights.
Austin smiled discreetly. "Of course. Well if you require nothing more, I'll leave you to settle in. Nicholas, use the call button if you need anything at all," he indicated a button set in a brass plate near the door. "There's one in the upstairs bedroom as well."
This time Nick winked at Maura. "Oh I think we'll be fine up there," and laughed as Maura blushed scarlet. Austin, ever the professional even if he was an old friend, behaved as if selectively deaf.
"Very good. Enjoy your evening." He fairly glided out the door, but Maura could see that it was a function of his experience as a deluxe steward, not a by-product of his vampire nature.
"Come on, Sweet, let's check out the view." Nick led her to their private balcony overlooking the bow of the ship. From where they were docked the lights of the New York skyline blended with stars faded by the wash of thousands of neon and street lights.
She stood at the rail next to Nick. "Gawd I feel like a romance novel cliché," she told him. "Not that I'm complaining, of course."
"Of course."
"So tell me," her eyes narrowed suspiciously, "what was that hand-off all about at the station? What did Schanke 'pick up' for you?"
"Ah, right." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box of black velvet. "Just a little going away present."
She took it from him with a questioning smile, and opened it to find a breathtaking ring, double emeralds set in white filigree. "Oh my god, Nick, where have you had this stashed?" She put it on immediately (to his great pleasure it fit her left ring finger perfectly) and asked, "I thought you'd already showered me in all of your 'historical knicknacks'", which is how he'd referred to other similar gifts he'd given her since they'd met.
"Come on, give me some credit. I got this one the old fashioned way, I went shopping and picked it out myself. I mean, you lost your favorite, after all, so I thought I'd get you another. I know it's not exactly the same… and it's not platinum, just white gold. So?" He probably didn't need to ask, but couldn't help himself. He'd gone to Tiffany's a few weeks ago, not long after Maura's return in fact, to consult privately with their estate acquisitions specialist. He'd described what type of ring he wanted, emerald and platinum or white gold, filigree would be nice, a Belais original would be ideal. He didn't tell the consultant that it was to replace the ring that had ended up on the hand of a murdered woman.
"This might be a challenge sir," the consultant pointed out. "Original Belais is often held by private collectors, particularly the type of pieces you seem to be looking for."
Nick handed over his double platinum de Brabant Foundation card. "Expense isn't an issue. You can hold onto this if you like."
The man's eyes widened for a moment. "That won't be necessary sir. I'll keep you informed." It had in fact taken less than a week to find the ring that Maura now wore. At $8500 he counted it a bargain, especially in view of Maura's obvious delight.
"'Just' white gold, how tacky, well maybe I'll just throw it overboard," she waved her hand over the rail, but the ring was firmly on her finger and her fist was clutched tight. After a moment's laughter she stopped and observed, "A going away present is supposed to be for someone who's going away from you, isn't it?"
Nick nodded, then offered, "A welcome back present, then. Welcome back, my best beloved Sweet. To yourself, and to your life."
"And to you, Nicolas Knight Bats de Brabant. Most of all to you."
They stood there awhile at the balcony rail, the very picture of Romance Novel Cliché, Nick standing behind Maura with his arms wrapped closely around her waist. Finally he turned her around and without speaking pulled her into an impossibly deep, impossibly long kiss. So long, in fact, he had to remind himself to let her come up for air.
"Oh my, detective," she offered weakly, "You are a champion kisser, aren't you?"
He shrugged, smiling slyly. "I'm French. It's a gift."
She was drawing him through the door, pulling him inside and up the stairs to the bedroom. "I do hope it's the kind that keeps on giving, monsieur."
"Bien sur, ma doucette..."