Title: Stand by Me
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG-13 (for now)
Pairing: Mick/Beth
Spoilers: through 1x08, 12:04 AM
Summery: "It's an interesting feeling; not caring whether you live or die." Sequel to Through the Years and Watching Over You.
Chapter Title: Out of Standstill
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Mick/Beth
"There comes a moment in everyone's life when all the confusion just falls away, the facts standing out in perfect clarity and you know instantly what you need to do. Some call it an epiphany, a revelation, whatever the name it's a dangerous thing. When the universe comes to a standstill it's hard to remember that it will start up again and the actions one takes will still have consequences that must be dealt with when time returns."
Beth hesitated in the hallway outside her apartment. Josh's car had been in the car park so she knew he was waiting for her inside. She would have preferred to do this in a public place, not because she was worried about what Josh might do, but because it would be neutral territory for them both and it might make it easier. That, and she had hoped to have the night to think over what she was going to say. She briefly considered turning around and going to stay with Marissa for the night before tossing the idea. Putting this off wasn't going to make it any easier, it could possibly make it worse, and hadn't she decided earlier that she was done running? Beth squared her shoulders and entered her apartment.
Josh was cooking dinner and looked up as she entered. He gave her a warm smile of welcome. Beth's guilt tripled.
"How was work?" he asked as she dumped her stuff on the sofa.
"Uneventful, just wrote my follow up to the Donovan Sheppard story," Beth replied, mentally preparing herself.
Josh frowned. "How come you're so late then?"
"Oh, I had to stop somewhere on my way home," can you be any more vague, Beth? "Actually, can we talk?"
"Is this a talk while I cook kind of talk or should I turn off the stove?" Josh asked, watching her carefully.
Beth let out a steadying breath. "You better turn off the stove."
Beth waited until Josh was sitting on the chair in front of her before speaking again. She could see the confusion and dread in his eyes. She'd never been fond of breaking people's hearts and to do so to someone she had been so close to was not easy.
"I think you've noticed how strained things have been between us lately," she began. That was and understatement, the only conversations they had had lately that didn't involve work had ended in arguments.
Josh nodded cautiously, bet let her continue.
"I think, I'vebeen thinking about it and I decided that maybe it's time for us to go our separate ways." She figured she better just lay it all out there.
She kept her eyes steady on Josh's. As much as it hurt to see the confusion and pain on his face he deserved to be looked in the eye.
"Look I know the past couple of weeks have been bad, but I'm sure we can work past it," Josh said hurriedly.
"Josh," her voice was gentle, "we've barely had a conversation outside of work in months."
This was hard. She wrapped her arms around herself, unconsciously caressing the scar on her forearm for comfort.
"Beth, please, just give it a little more time, it will get better I swear," he pleaded. "Look I know I've been a little irrational about the whole Mick St. John thing, but I do trust you Beth, and I'm sorry."
Josh was up and pacing now and he didn't notice the way Beth flinched at Mick's name. She had been hoping to keep him out of the conversation, all though logically she knew he would bring Mick up. Mick might have been at the heart of her decision to break it off with Josh, but it was better for all parties involved if Josh didn't know that. Losing your girlfriend because of distance growing between you was bad enough. Losing your girlfriend to someone else was worse. Worse in that the pain could turn to jealousy and jealousy in someone with Josh's connections could spell disaster for Mick and his secret.
Beth stood and placed a hand on his arm. "It's not about trust and it's not about time," she said firmly. "It's just, we need to move on. You're busy all the time and so am I and I think that it's best to end this now before things get worse. I want this to end while we are still on good terms." and before I spend anymore time kissing Mick.
She could see the tears in his eyes and felt her heart brake for him. He shook his head violently.
"No, Beth, please just no." he said hoarsely.
She took a step forward. "Josh," she began but he backed away.
"I, I have to go," he mumbled.
He strode over to the table, grabbed his keys and briefcase, and slammed out the door. Beth sat down again when shaky legs refused to hold her up. She fumbled for her phone and dialed.
"Hey, Marissa, it's Beth. I could really use a friend right now," she said weakly into the phone.
Beth gave her friend a grateful smile as she accepted the glass of wine. Marissa sat down on the couch next to her and took a sip from her own glass.
"Alright, tell me what happened." Marissa said.
Beth took a breath. "I," she paused. "I broke up with Josh."
Marissa blinked. "Wow, that's big."
Beth nodded. "Yeah," was all she said.
"I take it he didn't take it so well?" Marissa surmised.
"Not so much," Beth confirmed. "Not that I can really blame him."
"So, are you going to tell me what brought this on?" Marissa asked. "Was it this someone else you were thinking about earlier?"
Beth bit her lip. "Yes," she admitted.
Marissa leaned forward eagerly, setting her glass aside. "Hmmm, let's hear it. What's he like?"
Beth took another sip of her wine. "He's, well, it's complicated," she said lamely.
Marissa raised and eyebrow. "How complicated is complicated?" she asked.
He's eighty-five and undead. "Complicated," Beth replied.
"Uh huh, right," Marissa said skeptically. "What is he married or something?"
"No he's not married," Beth replied, shaking her head. Not anymore anyway.
Marissa frowned. "So how come I haven't heard about him before, huh?" she asked. "I thought we agreed to check out each other's prospective boyfriends."
"I was still trying to figure that part out," Beth said.
Marissa rolled her eyes. "Swimming in denial again?"
"Pretty much," Beth agreed.
"So do I at least get to know his name?" Marissa crossed her arms. "You can't just leave me with 'Complicated.'"
Beth smiled. "His name is Mick St. John."
"Mick St. John?" Marissa repeated. "Isn't that the P.I. Josh mentioned? The one you've been working with so much lately?" she questioned.
"That would be him," Beth nodded.
"What's so complicated about that?" Marissa complained.
Beth sighed, she should have known that Marissa would turn this into the Spanish Inquisition. It had to been a reporter thing. "It just is, trust me Marissa," Beth replied.
"Fine, but you know I'm going to have to meet him right?"
Beth just made a noncommittal noise and took another drink of wine.
Four o'clock the next afternoon found Beth at a murder scene in an apartment complex only a few blocks from her own. Steve was trying to film as sneakily as his bulky camera equipment would allow and Beth was busy bullying answers out of Carl. It was an easy enough task. Beth found that people hated being misquoted, so when she did it deliberately they often let information slip when they tried to correct her. Carl was getting better at not slipping up but she still could catch him off guard every now and then. She hadn't talked to Mick since she had left his apartment the night before and she certainly hadn't heard from Josh.
She and Marissa had polished off the almost full bottle of wine last night and Beth was absurdly proud of the fact that she'd managed to keep her lips shut about Mick. Beth was a very honest drunk so it could be viewed as quite the accomplishment. The two friends had drug themselves into work just after noon, nursing hangovers and Beth was reminded why getting drunk on wine was a bad, bad idea. She had contemplated calling Mick several times but for the first time she had no idea what she would say. "Hi Mick, I dumped Josh. Now what?" I didn't really sound good even in her head.
Maureen's timely assignment of the "suspicious death" her sources had alerted her to was a godsend. Idle time at her desk had been doing her no favors and there was nothing like a late afternoon homicide to chase away hangovers and confusing thoughts. From what she could gather it seemed like your run-of-the-mill domestic violence escalation: husband hits wife, wife finally has enough and lops off his head with a piece from his antique sword collection. Gruesome and unfortunate to be sure but comfortingly human.
Ever since learning Mick's secret it seemed that everywhere she turned, all her stories lead back to vampires somehow. It was oddly nice to know that some of the world's evil was still human. As comfortable as she was with Mick being a vampire she was still unsure of the whole idea of vampires in general. She was aware that most of the vampires that she would come into contact with would not share Mick's "moral code." While some people might be comforted by the ability to blame the bad things on childhood monsters, Beth was not. Learning Mick's secret had upended a lot of Beth's views on the world at large and finding vampires around every corner was making her edgy. A normal, human murder, as awful as it was, gave her something to right her upended her perspective. She's been dealing with these kind of stories for years and it was a relief to find something to write about where the word vampire would be omitted out of irrelevance rather than necessity.
She didn't like lying on every story, even if it was a lie of omission, but Mick had been protecting her for years, and while she may not have fuzzy feelings for vampires as a whole she would do anything in her power to protect Mick. He might have not realized it but the protectiveness in their relationship was a two way street.
"Beth?" Mick's warm, familiar voice startled her from her thoughts. He'd come up on her unseen again.
"You really need to stop doing that," she muttered crossly.
He smiled. "Sorry," he said, not sounding sorry at all.
Beth turned to look up at him and couldn't help the feeling of warmth that seeing him again gave to her. Of course that didn't explain why he was here.
"What are you doing here?" she asked. "Not that I mind you here or anything," she added when she realized how that sounded.
"The husband hired me a few months back to see if his wife was cheating on him," Mick replied.
"The dead guy hired you?" Beth asked.
Mick nodded. "She wasn't cheating, she was getting ready to move into a battered women's shelter."
Beth looked thoughtful. "He must have found out." She watched as the coroner wheeled the covered body out. "She was backed into a corner; she must have felt that she had no other choice."
"Yeah, I guess. I never told him about the shelter, just that she wasn't cheating on him," Mick replied.
Beth sighed, "It looks like I'm done here," she commented. The cops were sealing off the crime scene and both the accused and the deceased were gone.
Mick and Beth stared at each other, and awkward silence descending on them. Neither were sure what to do or say now.
"Well, this is awkward." Beth finally replied, fidgeting nervously with her shirtsleeve.
"Yeah," Mick agreed with a wry smile.
"So, I uh, I broke up with Josh," Beth said.
"He didn't take too well?" Mick asked gesturing for her to follow him to his car.
Beth shrugged, falling into step beside him. "I've been though worse break ups, it's just never fun breaking people's hearts."
Mick drew in a breath, "Beth if you're not sure…"
Beth rounded on him. "Don't you even think about finishing that sentence, Mick St. John!" she warned him.
"Alright," he gave her a small smile, tucking a strand of her blond hair behind her ear.
Beth's stomach gave a flip at the contact, this whole going slow business was going to drive her crazy.
"How about I take you to dinner instead?" he offered with a smile.
Beth raised an eyebrow, "but you don't eat."
"No, but you do," he replied.
"Are you asking me on a date, Mr. St. John?" She teased as they reached his car.
Mick looked thoughtful. "I think that's the word they use these days," he grinned.
She pulled him down for a quick kiss, reveling in being able to do that. "Alright, you're driving," she said, sliding into the passenger seat.
Mick just shook his head, smiling as he walked around to the driver's side and got in.
Josh paced back and forth in his office, frustration etched on every feature of his face. His day had started off bad enough with having to wake to the heart-wrenching realization that Beth was really gone, not just a nightmare like he had hoped, but gone. Now he had to worry about a new drug that had hit the streets. After the Black Crystal fiasco, where he had failed to find the actual drug or bust the person responsible for it, Josh wasn't exactly his bosses' favorite person and this new drug, street named "Justice," was proving equally difficult to track down. From what he'd learned so far the drug seemed to amplify feelings of jealousy and betrayal causing the user to attack and often kill the object of their rage any anyone who gets in between them. So far Josh had been able to pass off all the cases as separate, random instances to the media but he knew it was only a matter of time before someone put it all together.
That thought caused a brief spasm of pain. Beth would definitely have been able to put things together. It would have taken her only a hour to drag enough info out of him before she could add it all up but he'd barely spoken to her at all this week even before the break up. His mind quickly shied away from the memory and he forced himself to think on the problem at hand. Later he could go home and obsess over the loss of the woman he loved, for now he need to concentrate on work.
AN: well would you look at that! There actually seems to be a plot to this story…who would have thought? .
Reviews will feed my muse….she's hungry…..