Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own Moonlight, anything that occurs in this fanfic from the show, or any of its characters. I do, however, own this plot and any characters I decide to throw in. Yayz!
AN: Okay, so just a heads-up as to what's going to be happening. And no, I don't mean spoilers. Everything shall be revealed in due course, and you're gonna have to keep reading if you want to see what happens. The first item on the agenda is the fact that I promised you people Mick/Beth make-up sex. For those of you who are considering sending me anthrax, I just want to say that it is coming…just a little later than I expected, because I decided to throw in some brilliant (if slightly evil) plot twists. But I haven't forgotten; it IS coming. Second item on the agenda: I had a Christmas themed chapter planned that I'd hoped to get up and posted on or before Christmas, but unfortunately I wasn't able to meet my goal. I'm going to post it regardless, but unfortunately it's a little later than I'd planned. Third item on the agenda; I'd like to thank you all for your wonderful feedback and I'd just like you to know I've already got ideas for a sequel to the story if anyone's interested. If I get enough feedback there will most definitely be a sequel. Anyway, so there's what's happening. I'd just like to say thank you once again, and Happy Holidays!
An hour later, Mick and Beth found themselves outside the door of Seth's apartment. Mick stood patiently by as Beth effortlessly picked the deadbolt. It was yet another thing Mick secretly admired about her: her absolute skill and perfection when it came to Breaking and Entering. He smiled to himself behind her back, secretly thanking God that things had returned to normal. If he was going to be breaking and entering with anyone, he was glad it was Beth.
Mick turned his head quickly to look as he heard the click that indicated the lock had been unlocked. He and Beth exchanged looks as Beth grabbed the handle, turned it, and pushed the door open. She was about to go in, but Mick put his arm out to stop her. He quickly stepped in front of her and walked in first, clearly as a precautionary measure.
Beth allowed herself a small smile, thinking of how that simple action was so typically Mick. Truth be told, she had missed his overprotective nature; it had given her a sense of security. She knew that, regardless of what things were like between them, he would never allow any harm to come to her, but she appreciated when he showed his over protectiveness. It was an indication of how much he cared about her, even if he refused to acknowledge it.
Mick put out a hand to stop Beth, raised a finger to his lips, signaling her to be quiet, and then turned a corner to see what was behind it. After a moment of standing in one place and listening to his surroundings Mick decided that it was safe, and motioned for Beth to join him where he was standing in the living room. After another silent moment, Mick spoke.
"Okay. You take the living room, while I cover the bedroom. After you've finished in here, move on to the kitchen. I want to do this as quickly as possible and get the hell out of here. Got it?"
"Yeah." Beth replied. They both stood there for a minute looking at each other before going their separate ways.
As Mick entered the bedroom, he was greeted by a variety of scents. Dirty laundry, moulding pizza-crusts, stale potato chips. The smell, however, was nothing compared to the sight of the place. Barely an inch of floor was visible through the mountain of items strewn about carelessly on the floor. Mick was hardly able to walk through it as he searched. He spent a good half-hour scouring the room for any indication that the inhabitant of this apartment was indeed a vampire hunter.
Coming to stand in front of the half-open closet door, Mick opened it completely and began rummaging through its contents. What he came across was pretty well what you'd find in any twenty-three-year-old's closet. He found a bunch of old photo albums, boxes of papers, and a stack at least a foot high of magazines that were clearly meant to be private. He picked up the top one and started flipping through it, becoming entranced by the pictures of naked women in front of him. He was so engrossed in the magazine, in fact, that he didn't even hear Beth quietly tiptoe into the room behind him.
"Find anything?" She asked.
"Wh-What?" Mick asked, dropping the magazine he was holding and standing up quickly, hitting his head hard on a shelf on his way up.
Beth sighed. "Okay, what are you hiding?"
"N-nothing." Mick nervously attempted to lie, although he knew Beth could see right through him.
"Then I'm sure you won't mind me having a look in there."
Before Mick could stop her, Beth ducked under his arm and walked into the closet. She picked up the magazine that Mick had been holding a moment earlier and, leafing through it, spoke to Mick, a smirk on her face.
"Interesting reading. I'm sure you were just looking at it for the articles, right?" She smiled even wider at the clearly mortified look on his face at the moment. She couldn't help but think that he was sexy when he was mortified.
"Did you find anything?" He asked, clearly trying to change the subject in a hurry.
"No." Replied Beth simply, dropping the magazine haphazardly back on the stack. "Nothing out of the ordinary. It doesn't even look as if he owns anything made of silver, let alone silver weaponry. Are you absolutely sure he wasn't telling the truth? Maybe he really doesn't know about vampires. Maybe the fact that he has a pocketknife made of silver is simply innocent." She said. Mick shook his head.
"Who but a hunter would have a silver knife? I mean, he said his great-grandfather left it to him…obviously his great-grandfather was a hunter. If that's the case, then Seth's bound to be one too. Hunting is a family affair; it's taught through the generations."
"Mick…maybe you're reading too far into this. Maybe Seth's great-grandfather was an antique collector who had a thing for silver. A silver pocketknife is rare, right? Maybe he got it simply because it was a rarity." Beth tried to convince Mick. Mick shook his head again.
"A hunter wouldn't sell off their silver."
"Mick, there's no proof other then the fact that Seth owns a silver pocketknife that he's a hunter. Surely if he were a hunter, his place would be stocked with silver weapons. Maybe you're wrong."
Mick sighed, conceding defeat. At least for the time being. He had little evidence to indicate that Seth was a hunter. But that didn't mean that Seth was off the list of suspects just yet.
"Come on, Mick. Let's get out of here." Beth said, placing a hand on his arm.
Mick nodded in agreement and followed Beth out of the cluttered room, picking his way through the mess of items on the floor. He and Beth left the apartment, headed to Mick's car, and drove back to Mick's apartment in silence.
Mick walked in the door to find Rory sitting with her feet up on the couch and reading a book. She looked up as the door opened, then went back to deliberately staring at the page in front of her. Beth followed close behind him, taking off her jacket and setting it on a chair.
"Hey Beth." Rory said without looking up from her book. She said nothing to Mick.
"Hey." Beth replied, making her way to the living room and sitting down in a chair opposite the couch. Mick stayed behind in the kitchen, pouring himself a tall glass of blood from a bag in his fridge. He stood silently, drinking it slowly so he could delay having to go and talk to Rory. He knew that he was the last person she wanted to speak to at the moment.
"So I see you two are talking again." Rory stated, placing her book down on the table and turning to face Beth.
"Yeah." Beth said simply. She looked from Mick over in the kitchen area to Rory sitting on the couch and sighed. She knew a sort of brother-sister relationship had formed between them over the past few weeks. She also knew that they had become dependent on one another. Rory helped Mick to feel as though he were able to help people with his vampirism, that he wasn't a complete monster after all. And Mick helped Rory to come to terms with what she had become, as well as helping her to feel safe after the attack. They needed each other. Seeing the situation between Rory and Mick as it was, Beth felt bad. She suddenly felt the need to take it upon herself to get Rory talking to Mick. "Listen, I know it's none of my business, but I heard about what happened with Seth…" There was silence. "I know how you must be feeling. After Mick rescued me as a child, I felt closer to him than any other human being on the planet, and I didn't even remember him. I know you must feel that same connection with Seth. And just when you finally get to meet him face-to-face, he's sent away. I know you must be extremely angry and bitter right now, but Mick was only trying to protect you."
"HOW?" Rory raged, jumping to her feet. "By sending away the one person I feel…" she trailed off, desperately trying to find the right words to express herself.
"Completely at ease with?" Beth finished for her. Rory looked at her and silently nodded, her anger leaving her. She fell back onto the sofa and dropped her gaze to the floor. Beth moved over to where Rory sat on the couch and hugged her. Rory sat silently for a moment, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall. True, she felt safe with Mick. She knew he would protect her. But when Seth had been there, she'd felt completely safe and even truly happy for the first time since she'd been attacked. Seth had rescued her, and she felt as though he were the only person that could make her feel truly complete, truly at ease and safe. Like nothing in the world could possibly touch her. "I know how it feels." Beth said softly.
Mick stood watching the scene from where he stood. He felt badly for Rory. He'd never meant to hurt her, doing what he did. He was only trying to protect her. Since she'd been brought to him, he'd felt obligated to protect her. He hated that he'd had to hurt her in the process, but if it meant that she would be safe, then so be it. She had no idea the danger Seth posed to not only her, but to the entire vamp community of he was, in fact, the hunter that was roaming the streets of L.A.
Beth let go of Rory and said, "Mick had his reasons for doing what he did. He was only trying to protect you."
"Protect me from what?!" Rory asked, becoming agitated once again. Mick sighed to himself and decided that it was time he told Rory the truth.
"From Seth." He said, walking into the living room and sitting down in Beth's empty seat across from the sofa.
"Mick, the man saved my life. Obviously he meant me no harm! Why the hell would you need to protect me from him?"
"It's more complicated than that…" Mick said, trailing off. He wasn't sure quite how to explain all of this to Rory, how to phrase what he needed to get across to her. He wanted to be delicate, but at the same time, he needed her to understand the danger Seth posed to not only her, but to the entire vamp community. Apparently his answer wasn't satisfactory enough for Rory, because she exploded once again.
"HOW? How could it POSSIBLY be more complicated than that?"
"BECAUSE I HAVE REASON TO SUSPECT THAT HE'S A VAMPIRE HUNTER!" Mick yelled, jumping up. He had lost the last remnants of his patience. There was silence in the room after that. Both he and Rory sat down. Both of their faces had changed in their anger, and Mick was breathing heavily, struggling to calm down. Rory's face began to change back to normal as her anger was forgotten in the shock of this revelation. Beth, forgotten in the heat of the argument, sat looking startled on the sofa.
She'd rarely seen Mick like this. He had always been patient and understanding with her, but apparently with Rory, it was a different story. Rory knew exactly which buttons to push to make Mick lose his temper.
Mick breathed out heavily, finally calming down enough for his face to resume its human features. His anger was replaced immediately by guilt for losing his temper with Rory. He felt even guiltier as he looked over at Beth and saw the startled look that lingered in her eyes long after he had changed back to normal. She had seen him for what he truly was, for what he'd never wanted her to see him as: a monster. Something to be feared. He looked pointedly away from her as he told Rory everything about the silver knife Seth carried and about how they'd looked around his apartment.
After hearing everything, Rory finally spoke. "But if you didn't find anything, then he can't be a hunter; if he was, he'd have an arsenal of silver weaponry. And besides, he'd have recognized what Jeff was on the night of the attack; he'd have seen that I had been turned and he would have killed me. Instead, he brought me here for help."
"He fought Jeff off with a silver knife, Rory. He had to have known that it would weaken him."
"Or he could have used it simply because it was the only weapon he had." Rory stated. She was trying desperately to exonerate Seth of Mick's suspicions. She just couldn't bear to think that Seth could be a hunter. It would make him the enemy, and Rory could never see him as such. To her, he'd always be her saviour.
Mick ignored this argument and continued. "He might not have realized you were turned. He could have thought you were simply bitten."
Silence filled the room once again. Everyone became lost in their own thoughts. It was nearly seven o'clock in the evening now. The sun would be going down soon. The ring of Mick's cell phone interrupted the silence.
"Hey Josef." He answered after seeing Josef's name on the caller I.D. "Yeah, we're still coming…okay, we'll be there in a few. See you then." He hung up the phone and glanced across the couch to where Rory and Beth sat looking at him. "Josef wanted to know if we were still going to drop by your apartment." He said to Rory. "We were supposed to be there half an hour ago, but it slipped my mind."
Glancing at the clock, Beth stood up, grabbed her coat, and said, "I guess I'd better be running along as well."
"Well, wait a minute," Mick said, "you're welcome to come along with us if you want." Mick glanced at Rory, who nodded in agreement, and then back at Beth. Beth smiled and shook her head.
"I'd love to," she said, "but Josh is going to be arriving at the airport in a few hours' time. And besides," she said, looking over at Rory, "It's almost time for me to feed Lucky."
Beth had agreed to look after Lucky while Rory's apartment was being renovated. She'd also agreed to take care of Lucky for the time being because, sensing that Rory had become a vampire, a predator, something dangerous and threatening, Lucky now refused to come near her. Mick had explained that this as simply how animals instinctively reacted to vampires, but Rory was determined to win back Lucky's trust. She had visited him at Beth's house every day since she had been turned, trying to get close to Lucky. She would offer him treats, but he would not come within five feet of her, so she would toss them to him. Yesterday, however, she'd had a breakthrough. She offered Lucky a treat like she normally did and, to her surprise, Lucky approached her long enough to grab the treat out of her hand, then vanished beneath the couch to devour it. She'd almost cried. She knew it wasn't much, but it was a start. There was hope after all that Lucky might come around and learn to accept her as the vampire she had become.
Rory smiled. "Thanks so much for looking after him Beth."
"It's no problem." Beth assured her. "It's kind of nice having a pet. Josh isn't around much these days, so having Lucky around has kept me company."
When Beth had said that Josh wasn't around much, Mick quirked an eyebrow. Seeing this, Beth explained. "Josh has been working an ongoing case lately that requires him to spend a lot of time in Miami."
"Oh." Said Mick simply. Beth nodded, then plastered a smile to her face.
"Hopefully he won't have to go back though."
"Yeah." Mick said. As Beth turned to go, he said, "Look, if he does have to leave again, just let me know, so I'll know to keep an eye on you."
Beth smiled. "Yeah, okay." Then she turned and left, leaving Mick and Rory alone in Mick's apartment. She had done her job; she had gotten Rory to talk to Mick.
Mick sat staring at the door for a minute or two after Beth had left. Then he got up, grabbed his jacket, and motioned for Rory to do the same. Mick engaged the alarm system and he and Rory both donned their polarized sunglasses, as the sun had not yet set. They reached Mick's car, got in, and headed off to Rory's apartment to meet the mysterious character Josef that Rory had heard so much about from Mick.
AN: Thank you all for your patience yet again. It seems my muse is still on strike, so I've had a hard time writing this chapter. Thee are still some parts of it I'm not too happy with unfortunately being the perfectionist that I am, but I hope you enjoy it all the same. I also haven't had much time to write lately, as my dad was visiting for the holidays, so I wanted to spend as much time with him as I possibly could. Anyway, here's the next chapter, so enjoy! And please feel free to read and review. Hopefully your reviews will inspire my muse to come back so I can write the next chapter a little faster than I was able to write this one.