A Caroline in the City/Northern Exposure Crossover
by Ann Fox and Sarah Stella
1998
Winner of 1998 CitC fanfic mailing list contest: "Best Crossover fanfic"
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Part Eleven
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Once you got into the swing of it, the city wasn't so bad, Alex had to admit. Secretly she got a charge out of needling Gwen the city-girl, but New York was unfolding for her like a flower. They had wandered the Village and SoHo for most of the morning before hopping a subway to the Met and exploring Central Park. Lunch had been a pair of brave half-smokes with mustard and sauerkraut from one of the many street vendors.
"Ooh, that's not sittin' well," Gwen complained, beating a tattoo on her stomach to emphasize her point.
"And that's gonna make it feel a whole lot better, I'm sure," Alex told her dryly.
"It couldn't make it feel worse," Gwen replied. "Can we sit down for a second? I feel dizzy all of a sudden."
Alex was about to make a comment about wimpy urban girls when the dizziness hit her too. The world tilted, kaleidoscope-crazy, for a moment before falling into itself again. "Yeah, let's sit here."
The two girls braced their backs against a big tree, enjoying the feel of soft grass under their fingertips. Alex felt her eyes grow heavy and in another instant she and her cousin were fast asleep.
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Gwen's eyes were fuzzy when she finally reopened them. Dusk had crept in on cat feet and curled around the sleeping girls. Blinking hard a couple times, she surveyed her surroundings: grass, trees, path, street vendor, and a medium-sized red dog.
Red?! Gwen looked closer. The 'dog' was actually a sleek red fox. It stared at her and she stared back. The fox sat down and curved its fluffy tail around its body. After a moment, the fox was joined by another which sat beside the first one.
She nudged Alex. "Check it out!" she whispered as loudly as she dared. Alex didn't move. Gwen touched her shoulder again, this time receiving a small electric shock for her trouble. The foxes continued to watch the two girls with a benign interest that Gwen found a little uncanny.
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In her dream, Alex was soaring high above scores of fluffy cumulus clouds. After she had flown for awhile she dipped lower and searched the tree-covered ground below until she saw a solitary cabin. There she alighted, slipping down the chimney like an early Santa Claus.
Somehow it didn't surprise her when she saw Ed, Richard, Caroline, and an attractively scruffy young man she didn't recognize at all, standing around a card table. And what was that in the corner? Those hints of shadows that seemed too green and too pink to be completely natural.
The room was completely lit by hundreds of large, white pillar candles. Alex caught a whiff of spicy pine in the air emanating from several fresh-cut boughs that adorned the walls.
"Come on," Ed was saying. "It's fair, I promise."
"I don't even know how to cheat. I don't think it's possible!" Caroline urged.
"I just don't think it's fair," the pink shadow said. "It's just so childish. Even Death gets to play chess with his mortals!"
"I never learned how to play chess," Caroline said softly. "Sorry."
"Two teams, right?" the pink smudge asked with a sigh.
"Two teams."
"Let's get a move on then," a loud, abrasive voice piped up from the green shadow. "We're just wastin' time heah."
Ed pulled a medium-sized rectangular box out and placed it in the middle of the table. "Everyone knows how to play, right?"
"What kind of morons do you take us for?" the pink shadow asked. "Everyone knows how to play Scattergories!"
Alex convulsed in silent, ghostly laughter. Ed's ears seemed to perk up. He turned and looked directly at Alex. She saw the flash of recognition in his eyes and he shook his head slowly at her.
"One round," Ed said.
"One?" Meekness demanded, stepping out of the shadows to take a seat at the card table.
"If the Great Spirit has destined that Richard and Caroline are going to be freed from you two, then it will be done in one round."
"What's he heah for?" asked Self Doubt, jerking a thumb towards the scruffy-looking, young man behind Ed. The demon took the seat beside Meekness. She scooted a little further away.
Alex was overcome with curiosity. She dipped close to Ed's ear and whispered, "Say, what's the deal with those two anyway?"
"They had a thing 500 years ago. It didn't work out and they both know how to hold a grudge," he whispered back. Aloud he said, "Chris is here to make sure nobody cheats." Richard and Caroline took the two seats opposite their demons. "Ready?" Ed asked Chris.
Chris picked up the timer and wound it. "Ready," he affirmed, saluting Ed with two fingers.
Ed picked up the many-sided die and rolled it around between his palms before dropping it onto the table with a soft thud. It tottered around before coming to a stop. "K," Ed read out loud. Chris clicked the start button on the timer and the two teams began.
Alex felt her stomach lurch in anxiety for Caroline and Richard. They were crouched together, their heads almost touching as they conferred. She lowered herself carefully so she could hear what they said.
"Okay, first category: writer," Caroline breathed.
"Kafka."
"Good one. No wait, Richard, this is your demon. He knows what you'd pick. We have to do something sneaky, something he'd never guess."
"Ummmm."
"Kerouac," Caroline suggested.
"Good." Richard gave her elbow a comforting squeeze. "Second category: play." Richard thought for a moment before answering his own question. "Kiss Me Kate."
"Good, double points." Caroline smiled at him warmly. "Third category: place."
"Kalamazoo. Fourth category: something immature."
"Kitsch. Fifth category: a springtime activity."
"Kissing," Richard and Caroline said simultaneously, their voices blending in unconscious harmony.
"Yeah, kissing," Caroline whispered after a beat of uncomfortable silence. They finished the rest of the categories in stifled quiet.
The timer ticked down in a quick succession of loud clicks and the time came for the two sides to exchange answers. Chris tallied up the scores. Alex felt something tug on her and she sensed that it was time to go.
Wraithlike, she drifted back up the chimney. She didn't really need to see them win to know that Richard and Caroline had prevailed over their respective demons. That was how it was supposed to work out anyhow. Now everything lay in their own hands.
What would they do? Alex had no idea. All she knew was they didn't have the demons to hide behind any longer, and that was a comforting thought. That meant that they were one step closer to each other, but ultimately they were the only people who could take that last step. Alex hoped fervently that they would.
The next thing she knew her sleepy eyes were flying open to meet Gwen's anxious ones.
"Don't scare me like that!" Gwen exclaimed, hitting Alex on the shoulder. "I had to shake you for a good five minutes! I thought I'd have to tote you to the nearest hospital except that I don't know where it is!"
"Chill, Gwen. I'm fine. I was just dreaming." Gwen nodded knowingly. "I know what happened to Richard and Caroline."
"I know what kind of spirits we have," Gwen answered. Silently, the two girls reached out, each one touching the scars on the other's arm. A small jolt passed through them and then everything was the way it'd been before. "Somehow I expected more pyrotechnics."
"Can't have everything you want, girly girl," Alex laughed. "Spirit of the fox, eh?"
"I can't say I'm surprised," countered Gwen. "They're solitary creatures who hunt in pairs." She bared her teeth playfully at Alex.
"I just wish I felt certain though. I mean, I don't feel like a fox. All I want is a sign, is that too much to ask?"
Across the path, the street vendors were packing up for the day as the darkness deepened. "We should get moving," suggested Gwen. She began to walk towards the path but stopped short. Alex ran into her back, banging the tip of her nose against Gwen's back.
"Ouch."
"Alex, look. Is that...?" Gwen pointed to one of the vendors.
"It couldn't be."
The girls edged closer and then began hurrying towards the vendor, pleased that they'd hunted down their Darwin fish after all.
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The End
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Please visit my Caroline in the City webpage: Sincere Amore