After a long day, and then an even longer night eventually spent tossing and turning, Beth's body fell into an exhausted sleep and towards the dawn, The Dream returned.
The woman in white was there, just like always in the nightmare, but now Beth distinctly heard the dark man's voice. "Coraline, what have you done?"
In her nightgown a petrified Beth is brought in front of him and her captor says: "Now we can be a family, Mick, just you and me and baby."
And then fangs were barred: both White Lady ... and Mick's.
Beth woke up with a start. He had been there, not his father. And he most definitely wasn't a vampire hunter.
Instead he himself was a vampire, just as was she, the woman named Coraline!
The tears came down Beth's face, striking her nightgown, drenching the cloth with wetness amid her lost ideals and idols. Bitter tears were shed for herself and everything that she had stood for all these years.
Then her anger took over. Vampires were horrible, bad creatures! They fed off the weak and injured in our society. Which, to be fair, wasn't all that bad since it did help control the population. What was she thinking?
She had lost the thread of that original argument but started to get her steam back up. What about the innocents? Yes. What about all the babies and children gone missing every year? What about me and my abduction? Precious few got saved.
And then from within her a tiny voice said, "you did. He's saved you twice now. He couldn't be all that bad, then could he?"
Hope rose within her. Would she have the courage to accept him; to at least hear his side of the vampire's story? Would he allow it? Hope died again, deflated at the thought of another rejection.
Beth was startled by a knocking sound. Throwing on a silk robe, she went to the front door. Carl was there, and with him was a shyly smiling nice looking man.
"Sorry to be here so early but Beth, this is ADA Josh Lindsey. He's heard about you and wondered if ..."
Here the man interceded, once again smiling that shy little smile at her. She found him sweetly charming as he said:
"The District Attorney's office needs your help. Would you consider coming to work for us as an investigator? Long hours, very little pay, no recognition."
She thought about it. She had finished her last piece - on Trevor's disappearance - for the Times last night. She was free, and other than a broken heart, ready to do something different with her life.
"Sounds perfect. When do you want me to start?"
"How about right now? We've had a breach at a safe house and a witness in a high profile murder trial is missing."