Time To Spare, Part 7
Natalie forlornly surveyed the damage they'd done to the kitchen. Again. "Didn't we just clean this place?"
Nick was lying on the floor in defeat, which was a pretty disgusting thing to do, considering the mess. He probably reasoned that whatever the state of the floor, it was still cleaner than they were. And he'd be right. "We could just let it go till tomorrow," he responded without opening his eyes.
She shot him a glance that he was totally oblivious to. "Nick, it is tomorrow."
Nick smiled and shook his head. "Tomorrow is defined as after sleep."
That made her pause for a moment. "How did you ever survive sleeping days then?"
"By setting my watch to Tokyo time. I still say we leave the mess."
"No. Nick, it's gonna start growing germs." She nudged his shoulder with one foot. "Come on. We have to clean it up. Or I'm going to let you just sleep there till that stuff cakes on you."
"I don't think you want to know my response to that."
"No, I don't. C'mon, upsy-daisy, the sooner we start, the sooner we finish."
"All right, all right, I'm up." She tossed him a washcloth, and he attacked the cabinet walls while she started in on the floor. "You know, Torquemada has nothing on you."
"And I suppose this is the point where you tell me you knew Torquemada." Natalie threw him an amused glance.
Nick dumped the contents of his washcloth in the sink, rewashed it. "Are you kidding? LaCroix *was* Torquemada, didn't you know?"
"Ha! Now *that*, I believe." Natalie paused for a moment in her work to look at Nick. He was busy trying to push all the gunk collected on the countertop into the sink in one fell swoop. He kept missing pieces and having to go back, but his face was a mask of concentration. His clothes were a complete mess, and he had what looked to be tomato in his hair. He looked old. He looked happy. He looked normal.
"Nick?" He turned. "Have I told you how glad I am that I came to see you?"
He smiled at her, the smile she loved best, with all the laugh lines and crow's feet and happiness that he never had in all the time she'd known him before, and wiped a piece of celery off her nose. "No. But I'm glad you came, too." She pulled him into a hug, and his arms tightened around hers for a long moment.
Then she pulled away and looked down at them, and the state of their clothes. "Eww. Next time, clean first, hug later."
Nick laughed softly, and picked up his washcloth. "I'll remember."
By the time they finished cleaning up the second disaster of the night, it was well past the wee hours of the morning. "...It looks like it might be dawn soon."
Nick was operating solely by touch again, it was a little frightening how good he was at it. "Already? And here, the party's just started."
"Nick?" He turned his face in her direction and grunted, eyes still closed. "Nick?" Come on, dearie, open those baby blues, there you are... "Have you ever watched the sun rise?"
"Mmm... once or twice. Why?" He tried to blink sleepily and eye her warily at the same time, but it didn't work out too well.
"Because you have yet to experience the Lambert sunrise tradition." Oh, he was going to really hate her for this one.
"Which is?"
"To sit up and watch it."
As predicted, Nick laughed softly. "Funny girl." But his eyes were open just enough to catch her wistful expression, so he sighed and relented. "Oh well, what's one more cup of coffee, right?" Then his eyes snapped open with a jerk. "Oh damn, the *coffee*!" He snatched the pot out of the coffeemaker and took a sniff. Then he turned back to Natalie with a cringe. "I think you're going to wish we'd put some grease in this one. At least it's still warm..." He poured her a cup and handed it to her, remarking with a sleepy smile, "Consider it your penance for making me stay up another hour."
Natalie took the cup and watched him pour one for himself. "If it's my penance, why are you drinking it?"
He cocked his head at her. "Natalie, at this point, you could put a cat in that filter, and if what came out was caffeinated, I'd drink it."
Natalie stared at him, a little shocked. "That's sick, Nick."
He shook his head at her mock-sadly. "Sometimes the truth is not a pretty thing."
She was about to answer, decided against it, and just passed it all off as sleep deprivation so they could get back to the main business. "So, does this place have a roof that we can get onto?"
"Oh, you want me to be *cold*, too?"
"Hah! Come on, Mister 'Ireland isn't cold,' time to face the music."
Nick snorted in amusement. "Touche. Well, come on then. I think there's a window around here somewhere that we can crawl through..."
They did eventually find one, in the bathroom right over the toilet. Natalie got through it without much trouble. She thought Nick would too, but... "Natalie?"
"Yeah?"
"I think I'm stuck." He had his little boy expression going again, looking like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
"You're not stuck." She reached out and grabbed his hands, giving him a little yank.
"Oww!"
"... You *are* stuck." She sat back and thought. "Nick, is that a metal frame on that window?"
"Umm, I think so. Why?"
"Ah, good." She smiled reassuringly. "If we're in luck, all you need to do is sit there for a little while and warm up the metal, and it'll expand, hopefully enough to push you back through."
"Natalie, have you been watching MacGyver again?" She decided giggling insanely would not boost his confidence, so she feigned innocence instead. "Great."
"You want your coffee?"
He took it from her with an irritated glance. "You're such a help."
"Oh come on, Nick. It's not that bad. You have a great view of the sunrise, it's a beautiful morning, you could do a lot worse."
"I *could* be in bed, asleep," he pointed out.
She smiled and shook her head. "But then you wouldn't be having as much fun."
"Don't give me fun. I could be having my Claudia Schiffer dream. *Then* we'd see who was having more fun," he muttered.
"Look, Nick, there it is!" The light shafted out from between the mountains and lit the city, making it sparkle with first frost. But that wasn't what she watched. She watched the mountains, and the clouds, and the sun, and remembered happier times. She knew that those times were over, that brighter skies may not be for a long time, and that once she left here, she'd have no one to rely on but herself. But when she watched the sun rise, that was all she needed, to give her a little hope. *And for that, I'll always owe you a debt, Adam Pierson. No matter what.*
She took a deep breath, let it out slowly. And then she turned back to Nick. "Here, give me that coffee cup, and let's see if we can't get you out of there."
"Good. Because if the fire department has to come pry me out of my bathroom window with the Jaws of Life on a Sunday morning, I don't think I'm ever going to be able to live it down at the precinct."
"Well, don't expect me to be making any emergency calls on your behalf, Nick." He gave her a quizzical glance. "In case you haven't noticed, if you're stuck, I'm stuck. It's kind of a long drop to the ground."
He cringed back at her. "This better work."
"It'll work, don't worry. Now, put your hands on the side of the house, and hold on." She maneuvered herself to have a foot on either shoulder, and did her best to brace herself by grabbing the drainpipe running along the side of the roof.
"Wait, why do I have to brace myself on the house? Isn't that what I *don't* want to do?"
"Because, Nick," she explained patiently, "I don't want you to go shooting backwards through your bathroom like a cork out of a bottle and break every bone in your body. Make sense?"
"Ah. Absolutely." He smiled, a little nervously. Well, she couldn't really blame him. "Ready."
"Okay... one, two, THREE!" He went through easy as pie. "You were not stuck."
"I was too! You just had leverage... are you coming down from there?"
Natalie peered at him through the square of the window. "I think I'm going to stay out here a little while longer, if that's okay."
"Do I get to go to bed, now?" He looked at her hopefully.
"You can go to bed now. But before you do, check and make sure the kitchen hasn't spontaneously exploded while we've been away. It might have been missing us."
At that point, Natalie could have told him to paint himself bright orange and go dancing naked in the streets, and he probably wouldn't have found anything particularly odd in the suggestion. "Okay. G'night, Natalie."
"Goodnight, Nick." She turned back to enjoy her sunrise for just a little while longer.
****
They were so tired after their late night/early morning, Nick and Natalie slept all day, waking up, as Natalie put it, "just in time to make dinner before ER."
"You are so predictable, Natalie. You must have watched every episode five times over by now." Nick was wearing a bemused expression, watching from the sidelines while she made dinner. She let him boil water and stir pasta, but that was about it, so he spent his time being as small as possible next to the stove while she chopped vegetables and made the sauce.
She shrugged mock-helplessly as she sliced a tomato for the salad. "Who watches for the plot? It's not my fault they decided to make a medical soap opera filled with good-looking guys." She laughed, and commented further, "Though if someone like Carter had gone to my medical school, I'd have definitely been rethinking that decision to go into forensic medicine."
"Not a George Clooney fan, huh?"
Gifting him with an incredulous look, she replied, "Are you kidding? With Noah Wylie on the set? Not a chance. Keep stirring."
"I'm stirring, I'm stirring..." Nick was muttering to himself, something about being betrayed by his own kitchen. She decided to ignore it.
Unfortunately, it was one of the episodes where you can set your watch to the 'kindly old person death scene' precisely 52 minutes after the hour. But Natalie enjoyed watching the reruns, where you can yell as loud as you like at the characters, because you already know what stupid things they're going to do, and when to keep quiet and listen to the good bits. Natalie had just finished searching her immediate area for something non- destructive that she could throw at the screen, and was just about to check her watch for the old person scene, when she caught the Buzz again.
Without even giving Nick a sign as to what was going on, she launched out of her chair and paused only to grab her coat at the door, with her sword within, before throwing it open to scan the area. The car across the street roared to life and sped away before she could get to the bottom of the stairs. Even so, Natalie managed to get a glimpse of the driver before the car moved away from the light of the streetlamp. She recognized the face, the hair. She didn't recognize the hatred that exuded from her eyes like a palpable thing, when they met her own. Though she knew why it was there. Oh God, why did she have to come back? Why can't some wounds heal eventually? She sighed. And here, people called Fate fickle. No, a methodical old hag was she, who brought every action back upon itself at some point, and never left any good deed unpunished.
She just stood there and watched the car drive away. What else could she do? So she stood there on the sidewalk with the lamplight pooling on the ground beside her, glinting faintly off her sword... oops! No need for it to be out for God and country to see, thank you. She quickly hid it in the folds of her coat, but still didn't have the heart to move to go inside. Slowly she sank to the bottom step of Nick's outer stairs and just sat, staring at the pavement as if it might hold a secret.
Nick watched her through the window a little while, until she remembered herself enough to come inside from the cold. She stripped off her coat and set out for the kitchen without even glancing in Nick's direction. She started mechanically putting dishes in the dishwasher, seeking something, anything mindless that would help her remember she was still a human being, still normal, in most senses of the word. She accepted Nick's help without a word. Finally he asked, "Do you know him?"
She yanked her head up out of whatever world she was in, surprised. After staring in confusion for a moment, she remembered what he said, and smiled faintly. "Her, actually. And yes."
"I think it was Karen Hunter."
Nick couldn't hide his initial shock, and she halfheartedly laughed. "Well, I guess I don't have to worry anymore about why someone would be following me. Or why she might want me dead."
Nick grimaced as he absently turned the dishwasher on, hoping he remembered to put in some dishwashing soap this time. "Natalie, I'm sorry."
Her eyes widened in incredulity. "Nick, I'm the one who should be apologizing to you! I'm putting your life in danger just by being here!" She was shaking her head in exasperation at herself. "I can't believe what I was thinking, trying to hide from my problems behind you." She was shaking her head in exasperation at herself. "Not only do you have your own problems, you couldn't even handle mine in any case..."
Nick frowned, then saw the irony, and smiled slightly. "Just say it, Natalie." When she gave him a quizzical glance, he continued, "Come on, I deserve it. I laid the line on you often enough." When it was obvious she still had no idea what he was talking about, he mimicked himself, a lifetime ago: "You're only mortal. You couldn't understand."
She wrinkled her nose at him. "Don't say that! God, I *hated* it when you pulled that on me." Her smile faded as she murmured, as if to herself, "Besides, it's not true. I think you probably could understand, better than most. Lord knows you had your own share of vengeances thrust upon you."
"Yes, but I, at least, was fortunate enough to be able to resolve mine..."
****
A very different Nicholas Knight watched the sky begin to slowly become pale, a sign that dawn was surely near. The sight had meant a great deal to him for most of his life, it meant the difference between life and death, night and day, what he... what he was then, and what he was now. Now it was no longer the sign to find shelter, a signal of danger and fear, first beacon of the death that waited for them always, on the other side of shelter.
Now it was just morning. No, actually it was *the* morning. His first since the morning he woke on the road home from Jerusalem. Since that night, in a dirty, stinking tavern, when he met the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, and fell into her arms without thought, without hesitation, as if he'd been born there. The morning before he met Janette, and she changed his life forever.
It was ironic that his next dawn would be the one where he buried her.
"It is done." Good. Finally, it was over. The wind would spread her ashes the world round, if it were within his power. He hoped that wherever her soul rested, it was at peace. Recent events had caused him to reconsider his definitions of right and wrong, good and evil, damned and saved. Because Janette was a vampire, practical when it was necessary, kind when she could get away with it, and she stood by her ethics without question or compromise. If anyone deserved to be happy after this life, it was she.
He knew he was just avoiding the inevitable, that LaCroix was still patiently waiting for him to speak after making his announcement. Though he wasn't aggravated by Nicholas' inattendance, far from it. He hardly noticed, seemingly content to just watch Nicholas stand at the window. *Well, my son, it seems you have what you wanted.* Nicholas turned to look at him with sad eyes, and he realized he'd spoken aloud.
LaCroix shrugged slightly. Perhaps he simply shifted his shoulders. "Or what you used to want." Ah, Nicholas. To have you back, after centuries of defiance, only to lose you to chance. God does indeed roll dice, my friend. And in so doing, he has caused me to lose everything.
It was a little frightening, and a little sad, how two minds who were so completely opposed for so very long could think along such parallel lines at the end. *Had you moved faster, LaCroix, had you chosen wisely, you could have had at least one of us beside you, afterwards. I was already lost to you... my mortality, once regained, couldn't be torn away, even if I wanted it to. Janette, she would have stayed by your side... but that wasn't what happened. And so, you lose us both.* Nick turned back toward the rapidly brightening sky, and called over his shoulder, a little hesitantly, "... You don't have much time."
Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder. LaCroix had crossed the room in an eyeblink, as he replied, "Neither do you."
Nick covered the hand with his own, still facing the window. "It will be time enough." He turned to face LaCroix with an expression that was meant to be reassuring. "For everything." But it didn't last long as the two regarded each other, for the last time. Starting the next sunset, the Enforcers began their vigil, and Nick's exile would be complete.
Nick broke the silence again, his voice halting uncertainly. "Will you... do me a favor?"
LaCroix paused for a moment to consider his words before replying. "Anything."
Nick smiled softly, knowing how much LaCroix needed his own independence, and how hard such a blanket promise would have been for him.
"Would you take care of Natalie for me?" At LaCroix's stunned expression, he rapidly explained. "I know you can't change what she is, or what kind of life she leads... but we both know that the Enforcers have a long memory. And they can be very, very patient. I don't trust them to leave her along forever. I think eventually they'll want their pound of flesh from anyone who is not what we are," LaCroix noted the 'we', not 'you', "And yet knows so much about us." Nick's voice took on the smallest pleading tone. "Will you do this for me?" Nick caught his eyes and saw his face relax and a small nod. His own face lit up in relief and gratitude. "Thank you." It was so ironic. They had so much left to say to one another, and so little time, that neither could speak a word. And so they both stood at the window and watched the sky grow ever brighter, and their time grow ever shorter, until Nick could stand the silence no more.
"LaCroix..." his voice caught, and he started again. "Eight hundred years..." Nick sighed, dropped the pretenses, and simply pulled LaCroix to him, wrapping him in a tight embrace. After a momentary surprise, LaCroix's arms tightened around him with surprising force, and he laid a gentle kiss to the top of Nick's fair head. Which expressed everything that needed to be said much better than words ever could.
But after what seemed just a moment, LaCroix reluctantly spoke. "I have seconds."
Even without a vampire's sensitivity, Nick still could tell precisely how long it took the sun to rise in the Toronto sky. "I know." He took a step back, but did not release LaCroix's gaze. "Goodbye."
LaCroix opened his mouth, took in breath... but couldn't bring himself to say the word. His expression was a complex mixture of frustration, irony, and sadness as he raised a hand in farewell. And then he disappeared, a brush of wind through an open skylight.
And for the first time in eight hundred years, Nicholas Knight felt the warmth of the sun on his skin.
****
"Nick, this doesn't change the fact that I have to leave. I won't put you in danger." If she hadn't been so distracted, Natalie would have laughed. It really was so very like their conversations before, when Nick was protecting her from his life.
But Nick was adamant, pulling a gun out of a suit jacket hanging on the back of one of the dining room chairs. He checked to make sure the clip was full, and remarked, "Natalie, I'm fully able to take care of myself. I'm sure a gunshot in the right place stops one of you as easily as anyone else."
"Not for long, and you can't interfere, Nick. This is my fight." Natalie was partly irritated at his stubbornness; but partly concerned that if he were nearby when it happened, he would try to protect her, interrupting the Game. "Nick, I know you don't understand our Rules. I doubt you would believe in them even if you did. But please, when she comes, let me handle her." Nick, frowning, opened his mouth to argue. "*Promise* me." He looked highly annoyed at the idea and glared at her a moment longer, but then he let out the breath he'd taken in, and nodded reluctantly.
"Come on. If you're going to go get your aerobic exercise in tomorrow, you should at least do it with some sleep under your belt." He went to go get the extra blanket out of the closet.
Natalie forlornly surveyed the damage they'd done to the kitchen. Again. "Didn't we just clean this place?"
Nick was lying on the floor in defeat, which was a pretty disgusting thing to do, considering the mess. He probably reasoned that whatever the state of the floor, it was still cleaner than they were. And he'd be right. "We could just let it go till tomorrow," he responded without opening his eyes.
She shot him a glance that he was totally oblivious to. "Nick, it is tomorrow."
Nick smiled and shook his head. "Tomorrow is defined as after sleep."
That made her pause for a moment. "How did you ever survive sleeping days then?"
"By setting my watch to Tokyo time. I still say we leave the mess."
"No. Nick, it's gonna start growing germs." She nudged his shoulder with one foot. "Come on. We have to clean it up. Or I'm going to let you just sleep there till that stuff cakes on you."
"I don't think you want to know my response to that."
"No, I don't. C'mon, upsy-daisy, the sooner we start, the sooner we finish."
"All right, all right, I'm up." She tossed him a washcloth, and he attacked the cabinet walls while she started in on the floor. "You know, Torquemada has nothing on you."
"And I suppose this is the point where you tell me you knew Torquemada." Natalie threw him an amused glance.
Nick dumped the contents of his washcloth in the sink, rewashed it. "Are you kidding? LaCroix *was* Torquemada, didn't you know?"
"Ha! Now *that*, I believe." Natalie paused for a moment in her work to look at Nick. He was busy trying to push all the gunk collected on the countertop into the sink in one fell swoop. He kept missing pieces and having to go back, but his face was a mask of concentration. His clothes were a complete mess, and he had what looked to be tomato in his hair. He looked old. He looked happy. He looked normal.
"Nick?" He turned. "Have I told you how glad I am that I came to see you?"
He smiled at her, the smile she loved best, with all the laugh lines and crow's feet and happiness that he never had in all the time she'd known him before, and wiped a piece of celery off her nose. "No. But I'm glad you came, too." She pulled him into a hug, and his arms tightened around hers for a long moment.
Then she pulled away and looked down at them, and the state of their clothes. "Eww. Next time, clean first, hug later."
Nick laughed softly, and picked up his washcloth. "I'll remember."
By the time they finished cleaning up the second disaster of the night, it was well past the wee hours of the morning. "...It looks like it might be dawn soon."
Nick was operating solely by touch again, it was a little frightening how good he was at it. "Already? And here, the party's just started."
"Nick?" He turned his face in her direction and grunted, eyes still closed. "Nick?" Come on, dearie, open those baby blues, there you are... "Have you ever watched the sun rise?"
"Mmm... once or twice. Why?" He tried to blink sleepily and eye her warily at the same time, but it didn't work out too well.
"Because you have yet to experience the Lambert sunrise tradition." Oh, he was going to really hate her for this one.
"Which is?"
"To sit up and watch it."
As predicted, Nick laughed softly. "Funny girl." But his eyes were open just enough to catch her wistful expression, so he sighed and relented. "Oh well, what's one more cup of coffee, right?" Then his eyes snapped open with a jerk. "Oh damn, the *coffee*!" He snatched the pot out of the coffeemaker and took a sniff. Then he turned back to Natalie with a cringe. "I think you're going to wish we'd put some grease in this one. At least it's still warm..." He poured her a cup and handed it to her, remarking with a sleepy smile, "Consider it your penance for making me stay up another hour."
Natalie took the cup and watched him pour one for himself. "If it's my penance, why are you drinking it?"
He cocked his head at her. "Natalie, at this point, you could put a cat in that filter, and if what came out was caffeinated, I'd drink it."
Natalie stared at him, a little shocked. "That's sick, Nick."
He shook his head at her mock-sadly. "Sometimes the truth is not a pretty thing."
She was about to answer, decided against it, and just passed it all off as sleep deprivation so they could get back to the main business. "So, does this place have a roof that we can get onto?"
"Oh, you want me to be *cold*, too?"
"Hah! Come on, Mister 'Ireland isn't cold,' time to face the music."
Nick snorted in amusement. "Touche. Well, come on then. I think there's a window around here somewhere that we can crawl through..."
They did eventually find one, in the bathroom right over the toilet. Natalie got through it without much trouble. She thought Nick would too, but... "Natalie?"
"Yeah?"
"I think I'm stuck." He had his little boy expression going again, looking like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
"You're not stuck." She reached out and grabbed his hands, giving him a little yank.
"Oww!"
"... You *are* stuck." She sat back and thought. "Nick, is that a metal frame on that window?"
"Umm, I think so. Why?"
"Ah, good." She smiled reassuringly. "If we're in luck, all you need to do is sit there for a little while and warm up the metal, and it'll expand, hopefully enough to push you back through."
"Natalie, have you been watching MacGyver again?" She decided giggling insanely would not boost his confidence, so she feigned innocence instead. "Great."
"You want your coffee?"
He took it from her with an irritated glance. "You're such a help."
"Oh come on, Nick. It's not that bad. You have a great view of the sunrise, it's a beautiful morning, you could do a lot worse."
"I *could* be in bed, asleep," he pointed out.
She smiled and shook her head. "But then you wouldn't be having as much fun."
"Don't give me fun. I could be having my Claudia Schiffer dream. *Then* we'd see who was having more fun," he muttered.
"Look, Nick, there it is!" The light shafted out from between the mountains and lit the city, making it sparkle with first frost. But that wasn't what she watched. She watched the mountains, and the clouds, and the sun, and remembered happier times. She knew that those times were over, that brighter skies may not be for a long time, and that once she left here, she'd have no one to rely on but herself. But when she watched the sun rise, that was all she needed, to give her a little hope. *And for that, I'll always owe you a debt, Adam Pierson. No matter what.*
She took a deep breath, let it out slowly. And then she turned back to Nick. "Here, give me that coffee cup, and let's see if we can't get you out of there."
"Good. Because if the fire department has to come pry me out of my bathroom window with the Jaws of Life on a Sunday morning, I don't think I'm ever going to be able to live it down at the precinct."
"Well, don't expect me to be making any emergency calls on your behalf, Nick." He gave her a quizzical glance. "In case you haven't noticed, if you're stuck, I'm stuck. It's kind of a long drop to the ground."
He cringed back at her. "This better work."
"It'll work, don't worry. Now, put your hands on the side of the house, and hold on." She maneuvered herself to have a foot on either shoulder, and did her best to brace herself by grabbing the drainpipe running along the side of the roof.
"Wait, why do I have to brace myself on the house? Isn't that what I *don't* want to do?"
"Because, Nick," she explained patiently, "I don't want you to go shooting backwards through your bathroom like a cork out of a bottle and break every bone in your body. Make sense?"
"Ah. Absolutely." He smiled, a little nervously. Well, she couldn't really blame him. "Ready."
"Okay... one, two, THREE!" He went through easy as pie. "You were not stuck."
"I was too! You just had leverage... are you coming down from there?"
Natalie peered at him through the square of the window. "I think I'm going to stay out here a little while longer, if that's okay."
"Do I get to go to bed, now?" He looked at her hopefully.
"You can go to bed now. But before you do, check and make sure the kitchen hasn't spontaneously exploded while we've been away. It might have been missing us."
At that point, Natalie could have told him to paint himself bright orange and go dancing naked in the streets, and he probably wouldn't have found anything particularly odd in the suggestion. "Okay. G'night, Natalie."
"Goodnight, Nick." She turned back to enjoy her sunrise for just a little while longer.
****
They were so tired after their late night/early morning, Nick and Natalie slept all day, waking up, as Natalie put it, "just in time to make dinner before ER."
"You are so predictable, Natalie. You must have watched every episode five times over by now." Nick was wearing a bemused expression, watching from the sidelines while she made dinner. She let him boil water and stir pasta, but that was about it, so he spent his time being as small as possible next to the stove while she chopped vegetables and made the sauce.
She shrugged mock-helplessly as she sliced a tomato for the salad. "Who watches for the plot? It's not my fault they decided to make a medical soap opera filled with good-looking guys." She laughed, and commented further, "Though if someone like Carter had gone to my medical school, I'd have definitely been rethinking that decision to go into forensic medicine."
"Not a George Clooney fan, huh?"
Gifting him with an incredulous look, she replied, "Are you kidding? With Noah Wylie on the set? Not a chance. Keep stirring."
"I'm stirring, I'm stirring..." Nick was muttering to himself, something about being betrayed by his own kitchen. She decided to ignore it.
Unfortunately, it was one of the episodes where you can set your watch to the 'kindly old person death scene' precisely 52 minutes after the hour. But Natalie enjoyed watching the reruns, where you can yell as loud as you like at the characters, because you already know what stupid things they're going to do, and when to keep quiet and listen to the good bits. Natalie had just finished searching her immediate area for something non- destructive that she could throw at the screen, and was just about to check her watch for the old person scene, when she caught the Buzz again.
Without even giving Nick a sign as to what was going on, she launched out of her chair and paused only to grab her coat at the door, with her sword within, before throwing it open to scan the area. The car across the street roared to life and sped away before she could get to the bottom of the stairs. Even so, Natalie managed to get a glimpse of the driver before the car moved away from the light of the streetlamp. She recognized the face, the hair. She didn't recognize the hatred that exuded from her eyes like a palpable thing, when they met her own. Though she knew why it was there. Oh God, why did she have to come back? Why can't some wounds heal eventually? She sighed. And here, people called Fate fickle. No, a methodical old hag was she, who brought every action back upon itself at some point, and never left any good deed unpunished.
She just stood there and watched the car drive away. What else could she do? So she stood there on the sidewalk with the lamplight pooling on the ground beside her, glinting faintly off her sword... oops! No need for it to be out for God and country to see, thank you. She quickly hid it in the folds of her coat, but still didn't have the heart to move to go inside. Slowly she sank to the bottom step of Nick's outer stairs and just sat, staring at the pavement as if it might hold a secret.
Nick watched her through the window a little while, until she remembered herself enough to come inside from the cold. She stripped off her coat and set out for the kitchen without even glancing in Nick's direction. She started mechanically putting dishes in the dishwasher, seeking something, anything mindless that would help her remember she was still a human being, still normal, in most senses of the word. She accepted Nick's help without a word. Finally he asked, "Do you know him?"
She yanked her head up out of whatever world she was in, surprised. After staring in confusion for a moment, she remembered what he said, and smiled faintly. "Her, actually. And yes."
"I think it was Karen Hunter."
Nick couldn't hide his initial shock, and she halfheartedly laughed. "Well, I guess I don't have to worry anymore about why someone would be following me. Or why she might want me dead."
Nick grimaced as he absently turned the dishwasher on, hoping he remembered to put in some dishwashing soap this time. "Natalie, I'm sorry."
Her eyes widened in incredulity. "Nick, I'm the one who should be apologizing to you! I'm putting your life in danger just by being here!" She was shaking her head in exasperation at herself. "I can't believe what I was thinking, trying to hide from my problems behind you." She was shaking her head in exasperation at herself. "Not only do you have your own problems, you couldn't even handle mine in any case..."
Nick frowned, then saw the irony, and smiled slightly. "Just say it, Natalie." When she gave him a quizzical glance, he continued, "Come on, I deserve it. I laid the line on you often enough." When it was obvious she still had no idea what he was talking about, he mimicked himself, a lifetime ago: "You're only mortal. You couldn't understand."
She wrinkled her nose at him. "Don't say that! God, I *hated* it when you pulled that on me." Her smile faded as she murmured, as if to herself, "Besides, it's not true. I think you probably could understand, better than most. Lord knows you had your own share of vengeances thrust upon you."
"Yes, but I, at least, was fortunate enough to be able to resolve mine..."
****
A very different Nicholas Knight watched the sky begin to slowly become pale, a sign that dawn was surely near. The sight had meant a great deal to him for most of his life, it meant the difference between life and death, night and day, what he... what he was then, and what he was now. Now it was no longer the sign to find shelter, a signal of danger and fear, first beacon of the death that waited for them always, on the other side of shelter.
Now it was just morning. No, actually it was *the* morning. His first since the morning he woke on the road home from Jerusalem. Since that night, in a dirty, stinking tavern, when he met the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, and fell into her arms without thought, without hesitation, as if he'd been born there. The morning before he met Janette, and she changed his life forever.
It was ironic that his next dawn would be the one where he buried her.
"It is done." Good. Finally, it was over. The wind would spread her ashes the world round, if it were within his power. He hoped that wherever her soul rested, it was at peace. Recent events had caused him to reconsider his definitions of right and wrong, good and evil, damned and saved. Because Janette was a vampire, practical when it was necessary, kind when she could get away with it, and she stood by her ethics without question or compromise. If anyone deserved to be happy after this life, it was she.
He knew he was just avoiding the inevitable, that LaCroix was still patiently waiting for him to speak after making his announcement. Though he wasn't aggravated by Nicholas' inattendance, far from it. He hardly noticed, seemingly content to just watch Nicholas stand at the window. *Well, my son, it seems you have what you wanted.* Nicholas turned to look at him with sad eyes, and he realized he'd spoken aloud.
LaCroix shrugged slightly. Perhaps he simply shifted his shoulders. "Or what you used to want." Ah, Nicholas. To have you back, after centuries of defiance, only to lose you to chance. God does indeed roll dice, my friend. And in so doing, he has caused me to lose everything.
It was a little frightening, and a little sad, how two minds who were so completely opposed for so very long could think along such parallel lines at the end. *Had you moved faster, LaCroix, had you chosen wisely, you could have had at least one of us beside you, afterwards. I was already lost to you... my mortality, once regained, couldn't be torn away, even if I wanted it to. Janette, she would have stayed by your side... but that wasn't what happened. And so, you lose us both.* Nick turned back toward the rapidly brightening sky, and called over his shoulder, a little hesitantly, "... You don't have much time."
Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder. LaCroix had crossed the room in an eyeblink, as he replied, "Neither do you."
Nick covered the hand with his own, still facing the window. "It will be time enough." He turned to face LaCroix with an expression that was meant to be reassuring. "For everything." But it didn't last long as the two regarded each other, for the last time. Starting the next sunset, the Enforcers began their vigil, and Nick's exile would be complete.
Nick broke the silence again, his voice halting uncertainly. "Will you... do me a favor?"
LaCroix paused for a moment to consider his words before replying. "Anything."
Nick smiled softly, knowing how much LaCroix needed his own independence, and how hard such a blanket promise would have been for him.
"Would you take care of Natalie for me?" At LaCroix's stunned expression, he rapidly explained. "I know you can't change what she is, or what kind of life she leads... but we both know that the Enforcers have a long memory. And they can be very, very patient. I don't trust them to leave her along forever. I think eventually they'll want their pound of flesh from anyone who is not what we are," LaCroix noted the 'we', not 'you', "And yet knows so much about us." Nick's voice took on the smallest pleading tone. "Will you do this for me?" Nick caught his eyes and saw his face relax and a small nod. His own face lit up in relief and gratitude. "Thank you." It was so ironic. They had so much left to say to one another, and so little time, that neither could speak a word. And so they both stood at the window and watched the sky grow ever brighter, and their time grow ever shorter, until Nick could stand the silence no more.
"LaCroix..." his voice caught, and he started again. "Eight hundred years..." Nick sighed, dropped the pretenses, and simply pulled LaCroix to him, wrapping him in a tight embrace. After a momentary surprise, LaCroix's arms tightened around him with surprising force, and he laid a gentle kiss to the top of Nick's fair head. Which expressed everything that needed to be said much better than words ever could.
But after what seemed just a moment, LaCroix reluctantly spoke. "I have seconds."
Even without a vampire's sensitivity, Nick still could tell precisely how long it took the sun to rise in the Toronto sky. "I know." He took a step back, but did not release LaCroix's gaze. "Goodbye."
LaCroix opened his mouth, took in breath... but couldn't bring himself to say the word. His expression was a complex mixture of frustration, irony, and sadness as he raised a hand in farewell. And then he disappeared, a brush of wind through an open skylight.
And for the first time in eight hundred years, Nicholas Knight felt the warmth of the sun on his skin.
****
"Nick, this doesn't change the fact that I have to leave. I won't put you in danger." If she hadn't been so distracted, Natalie would have laughed. It really was so very like their conversations before, when Nick was protecting her from his life.
But Nick was adamant, pulling a gun out of a suit jacket hanging on the back of one of the dining room chairs. He checked to make sure the clip was full, and remarked, "Natalie, I'm fully able to take care of myself. I'm sure a gunshot in the right place stops one of you as easily as anyone else."
"Not for long, and you can't interfere, Nick. This is my fight." Natalie was partly irritated at his stubbornness; but partly concerned that if he were nearby when it happened, he would try to protect her, interrupting the Game. "Nick, I know you don't understand our Rules. I doubt you would believe in them even if you did. But please, when she comes, let me handle her." Nick, frowning, opened his mouth to argue. "*Promise* me." He looked highly annoyed at the idea and glared at her a moment longer, but then he let out the breath he'd taken in, and nodded reluctantly.
"Come on. If you're going to go get your aerobic exercise in tomorrow, you should at least do it with some sleep under your belt." He went to go get the extra blanket out of the closet.