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.
AN: Holy Rocketship, Batman! an update!
Chapter 5: Fear
"It's an interesting feeling; not caring whether you live or die. Death isn't something to be afraid of, there are no consequences to face in death. Life on the other hand does have consequences and maybe that's why humans are so reckless. They know it will end someday, that the consequences will stop. Life isn't something to fear then because the knowledge that it will end is always there. It is when death becomes so uncertain that one begins to fear life."
The steady drip of water somewhere to her left was the only noise Beth heard as she slowly regain consciousness. She was in what looked to be some sort of empty warehouse. Of course, Beth thought irritably, the abandoned storage-space kidnapping cliché. She twisted against the ropes that bound her as she tried to recall the chain of events that had lead to her being trussed up like some idiot in a second-rate horror film. She'd spent the night at Mick's she remembered that much…
Earlier:
The sunlight shinning in between the slats of the blinds woke Beth sometime after ten. It was her day off so Beth didn't open her eyes right away, intending to enjoy the luxury of waking up slowly. The blanket she had wrapped around her was unfamiliar but it didn't worry her; she remembered Mick covering her with it around two in the morning. That thought made her smile and at last open her eyes. She stretched as much as the couch would allow her as she blinked the last of the sleep from her eyes. Mick had apologized about not having a bed to offer her which of course had lead to a bombardment of questions as to where he did sleep. A freezer, Beth had learned, not a coffin which of course made her wonder what vampires had done before there were freezers. Mick had replied with underground cellars and that sort of thing, where it was cool and dark. That was probably what gave rise to the whole coffin and dirt thing in the first place.
Beth sat up and moved the blanket aside. She wanted to see Mick. Logically she knew he had probably just gone to bed, or freezer, but she needed to see him. Being told he slept in a freezer and seeing it were still two different things. She wasn't going to wake him but her reporter's curiosity was getting the better of her--she wanted to know everything about him; Mick the Man, Mick the Vampire, and Mick the Person.
Carefully she climbed the stairs, concentrating on not making any noise. Sleeping was probably the only time she'd be able to sneak up on him anyway. She gently opened the door and slipped into the room, shivering slightly as the sudden drop in temperature caused goose-bumps to appear on her arms. She tip toed across the tile to peer into the frosted glass lid of the freezer. Mick's eyes snapped open and Beth jumped back with a startled noise as he opened the lid. One of these days I'm gonna get the drop on him, she vowed silently.
Mick sat up with an amused expression. "Beth, what are you doing?"
"How did you know I was there?" She asked, pouting slightly.
"Your heartbeat; I always know when you're close." Mick said smiling, but Beth could here the emotion behind it. It still startled her sometimes how much raw emotion carried over in Mick's voice when he let his defenses drop. She smiled.
It wasn't until he reached for a towel to cover himself that Beth realized that he'd been completely naked. She covered her blush with a sly comment
"So you sleep in the nude?" she asked archly.
Mick shot her an amused look. "Frozen clothes would be kind of uncomfortable don't you think?"
Beth just smirked. "Should I let you get back to sleep?" she asked, realizing she hadn't meant to wake him.
Mick shook his head, wrapping the towel around his waist and climbing out of the freezer. "I wasn't having much luck anyway."
Beth frowned, suddenly concerned. "Why not?"
Mick smiled and brushed his fingers across her face. "Your presence can be very distracting." he replied and bent down to kiss her.
"I'm distracting am I?" Beth murmured.
"Very," Mick confirmed, feathering kisses across her jaw, making Beth shiver enjoyably.
But as much as she would have loved to continue, cold tile on bare feet was not very hospitable, so she pulled back. "My feet are freezing," she explained.
Mick chuckled, a warm rich sound that she was sure she'd never tire of hearing. "Let's get them somewhere warmer then," he said as he guided her out of the room.
The rest of the morning passed in a feeling of domesticity that was startlingly comfortable. Mick had fixed her pancakes for breakfast--well Mick hadattempted to fix her pancakes for breakfast. Sixty years as a vampire and his human years as a bachelor didn't exactly lend itself to any sort of cooking prowess and Beth was secretly pleased to find something his vampiric abilities didn't automatically give him mastery of. After deciding to intervene before he hurt himself the two had found themselves in a childish war with the flour that left them giggling and covered from head to toe in the white dust. It had taken them a while to clean up afterward but Beth considered it worth it to bring out Mick's more playful side--not to mention having the memory of him looking more like a powdered donut then a vampire.
Of course in the typical Murphy's Law style of Beth's life her carefree day off was cut short due to Maureen's call of another restaurant shooting just a few block from last night's. With her car still parked where she had left it yesterday afternoon Mick drove. It turned out to be another jealousy shooting, another crime of passion, the police called it. It was too similar to the other for her peace of mind and Beth had learned very early on that if it seems related it probably is.
"I think something's going on." she said to Mick after she'd finished her news cast.
He quirked and eyebrow at her in question.
"The shootings. They're too similar." she clarified.
"Beth, it was two different people, two different situations. They may have happened close by and at similar locations but there were two different shooters." Mick pointed out.
"I know that but, a day apart? Two blocks apart?" Beth insisted. "and what about Josh showing up last night? I mean I was still a little dazed to think beyond the fact that he was there and I felt guilty but don't you think it was a little strange?"
Mick frowned, she had a point. The DA's office wouldn't be concerned with an isolated homicide, especially if they had the shooter already in custody.
"It doesn't make any sense does it?" Beth asked.
"No, you might be right about this," Mick shook his head.
Beth smirked. "Might?"
Mick chuckled. "Probably then. Okay so if the two are connected, I mean besides proximity and similar MO, how are they connected?"
Beth bit her lip trying to pick our the connection that she knew was there. "Let's see, both the shooters apparently attacked out of a jealous rage, they felt betrayed by the victim."
Mick nodded, "okay, what else?"
Beth opened her mouth to reply when something clicked in her brain. "Mick it's not just these two."
"What?" Mick asked.
"The crime scene yesterday, the one with the decapitated wife-beater."
"What about it?"
"You investigated her right? The wife?"
"Yes," Mick replied, not sure where Beth was going with this.
"She didn't have any history of violent tendencies did she?" Beth was pacing slightly now, her brain rapidly adding up bits and pieces into a whole picture.
"No, but people do very out-of-character things when backed into a corner, Beth."
"But she wasn't backed into a corner was she?" Beth pointed out. "She was planning on leaving him, not killing him."
"Beth, I'm still not seeing how this is adding up." Mick confessed, at a loss.
"That wasn't the first crime scene like that I've been too. In fact it's the fourth in as many weeks." Beth said.
"But jealousy wasn't a factor in the decapitation." Mick replied.
"That's because jealousy isn't the link. Betrayal is the link--or at least assumed betrayal." Beth was really pacing now.
"Betrayal?" Mick repeated, unsure.
"Yes, she would have felt betrayed by a husband who was supposed to love her but hurt her instead." Beth explained rapidly. "same with the daughter who stabbed her mother last week. She'd been molested by her step father and the mother had done nothing to stop it. Again betrayal."
"Okay, Beth, buthow? If someone is orchestrating or causing all this how and why are they doing it?" Mick asked.
"A cult? No that wouldn't make sense, the victims are too varied."
"A drug?" Mick hazarded, thinking hard. "Some drugs are known to accentuate certain emotions or sensations."
Beth frowned, "something like the Black Crystal thing again?"
"No that was for profit and nothing about this points to vampire involvement. It seems like an individual acting out a certain scenario, someone with a warped sense of retribution." Mick replied. "who ever it is probably was betrayed by someone close to them. That person was probably the first they killed, but it was in a fit of passion and I doubted they meant for it to go that far."
"Then why would the start killing, if they didn't mean to kill them in the first place?" Beth asked, confused.
"For exactly that reason. The person probably couldn't handle what they'd done and suffered a psychotic break. In trying to reconcile their guilt and what they had done they fell into the delusion that had to do it. That betrayers must be punished." Mick explained.
"Do think they might be here now?" Beth asked quietly, turning to regard the crowd that gathered at the edges of the crime tape. "I mean they'd want to see their handiwork, right?"
Mick nodded soberly also scanning the faces of the crowd. "Possibly," he agreed.
Beth straightened, time to get to work. "Okay, you go see what you can dig up. I'll hitch a ride with Steve to my car and head to Buzzwire to do some research of my own. I'll meet you at your place at seven." Beth said decisively.
Mick couldn't help but smile at her take-charge attitude. "Still pushy," he teased.
She grinned. "You're getting use to it." She gave him a swift good-bye kiss.
"I wouldn't have you any other way." He replied.
She smirked and headed over to a slightly confused looking Steve.
"Hey I need a ride to my car, do you mind?" She asked when she reached him.
"Uh, sure no problem." Steve replied. "Beth, what happened to Josh?"
"Huh?" The questioned confused her for a moment and she was slightly startled to remember that it been barely two days ago that she'd broken up with Josh. It seemed like she and Mick had been together forever, and they had in way, she supposed. "Oh, we broke up." She replied.
Steve grinned. "Does this mean he'll confiscate more of my tapes?" He complained.
Beth smiled. "I hope not."
"At least this boyfriend had a better view of reporters," was Steve's only comment.
"And I'm fairly sure he wont take our tapes," Beth added.
Steve nodded. "So what's the story?" He'd worked with Beth long enough to know when she had her teeth in something big.
"Possible psychotic vigilante who uses drugs to get other people to kill," Beth replied.
Steve raised his eyebrows, "definitely not fluff," he remarked.
Steve dropped Beth off after her car with a promise to help with the research when she got to work. Beth waved and turned to dig her keys out of her purse.
"Beth," the unexpected sound caused her to jump.
She looked up see Josh standing next to her car. Where had he come from?
"Josh? What are you doing here?" Beth asked. Something wasn't right.
"Why Beth? Why him? How could you?" He didn't sound angry, more hurt and confused, but his eyes didn't seem to focus right and his hands were shaking.
"I really don't think this is the place to discuss this," she said. An empty street was definitely not the place to discuss this.
"Oh? Where is the place to discuss this, Beth?" Now anger was creeping into his tone.
"Not here," she said firmly.
Josh blinked, and odd expression came over his face. "No, not here, someplace quiet." He agreed, a strange lilt to his voice. Josh didn't sound like himself.
Beth took a hesitant step backward. Something was very wrong with him and she had a horrible suspicion that Josh had been drugged, just like the others.
"Let's go someplace quiet and talk," he said, voice cajoling.
"I can't right now, I have work." Beth said, stalling and mentally calculating her chances of escape with Josh between her and her car. She knew Josh was the faster runner if it came to that.
"Work?" Josh frowned. "Today's your day off, you don't have work."
"I got called in, Steve just dropped me off," she explained in what she hoped was a calm and convincing manner.
"You're not going to work. You're going to see him." Josh said angrily and he took a menacing step forward.
Faster runner or not, she had to make a break for it. She turned prepared to sprint as up the street…
…and that was the last thing she remembered.
Beth twisted as best as she could as she tried to take better stock of her surroundings. She seemed to be alone, but she was still tied to what appeared to be a rusty support pillar of some nature. Her purse was MIA which meant so was her cell phone so obviously no chance of somehow dialing for help with her toes. The thought was absurd of course but desperate times call for desperate measures. She was still dressed in her jeans and Mick's too-large button up shirt. One of the sleeves was ripped but Beth's mind was still blank as to how it had gotten so. She felt a little bubble of hysteria rise up at the thought before viciously quashing it.
"Okay, Beth, think. Time to figure out how to get out of this." she muttered to herself. "Everything is going to be fine. You were supposed to meet Mick at seven so even if Steve didn't sound the alarm when you failed to show Mick is definitely looking for you."
Was it after seven? How much time had passed since her memory went blank? That wasn't helping. She tested her bindings again--they were tight but not impossibly so and Mick's shirt had bunched upat her wrists creating more tension then there actually was. Bad, but not hopeless.
The clanging sound of a door somewhere behind her stilled her movements. Was it Mick? Josh? Or…someone else?
"Beth?" It was Josh, the same strange note still in his voice. "Are you ready to talk now? It's quiet here and we wont be interrupted." the words were slightly slurred but he sounded proud of himself.
How long did the drug last?
"Um, sure, we can talk," Beth said hesitantly, trying to see where he was. The longer she kept him talking the likelier rescue became. "What do you want to talk about?" she tried to sound as non-threatening as possible.
"Why?" he asked, coming around to stand in front of her. "Why did you do this to me?" He didn't sound like the confidant DA, he sounded like a lost child.
"Josh, I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt you." she said softly.
Josh shook his head. "It doesn't matter, we can talk this all out now. He wont bother us." A pleased smile flickered across his face, and Beth felt her stomach turn.
"Oh?" she asked, trying not to sound panicked.
Josh looked pleased again. "He's been arrested," he said sounding smug despite the slurring that was becoming more pronounced. "For your kidnapping in fact, it was his word against mine."
Beth felt sick. Mick couldn't be in jail. Vampires don't do jail.
"Josh, this isn't you talking, someone drugged you." Beth pleaded with him, becoming desperate.
Josh paused. "Drugged?" He asked slowly, sounding more like himself for a second. "I'm working a drug case--or I was." He seemed to be fighting through the fog in his brain.
Beth nodded earnestly. "Yes, that's right you are. You must have gotten close and the person drugged you."
"Beth?" He asked, sounding uncertain but Josh. Beth felt a surge of hope; maybe the drug was wearing off.
"Yes. Josh you have to untie me. We can fix this." she said.
"Fix?" his eyes unfocused again. "That's right we have to talk." Josh was gone.
Beth choked back a sob of despair. Things had slipped back into hopeless and the Calvary was in just as much trouble as she was.
AN: one chapter left to go folks and I might even have it up tonight too. what? possiblytwo updates in one night? shocking i know... well reviews would be apreciated despite my horrible updating irregularness. .