The Clubhouse Chapter 23: Trapped, a moonlight fanfic

Thanks so much to Leeser, who made this section for me to post in, I am truly honored!!!!! Second, thanks to all those who read and reviewed!!! You guys made my cry, honestly, I felt so loved.

As always, thanks to Greenleaf9!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this is a rather emotional chapter. It spawned the change in name for my fic. I also want you to see the change in Mick's reasoning!!!!!!! Please keep reviewing!!!!

Trapped

'Hit the ice' Josef chuckled. Funny how some things become so ingrained in your being that you don't stop to think about them.

Josef had walked into he bathroom, stripped and opened the lid to his freezer before he remembered that he wasn't a vamp any more. The breeze of freezing air from the freezer had jerked him back to reality.

I have been sleeping in sub-zero temperatures for centuries. Vamp's invented the ice-box and freezer, for crying out loud. Come to think of it, I never heard Mick refer to his freezer as an ice-box, probably because he never had to sleep in one. And Mick still calls it 'going to bed.' Here I am, saying 'hitting the ice' when I really am going to bed.

Josef rummaged around his disassembled closet for the pants he had been wearing that morning. It had been centuries since he last slept in a bed, with pajamas. "God I feel old." He muttered.

He found his pants and pulled them on. Then went to the source of the mess, a small safe hidden behind layers of shoeboxes and tie boxes. He grabbed a small box from the safe and opened it. He opened his palm to reveal the ring he had been clutching since Beth had handed it to him.

He dropped the ring into the box and started to put it away, but stopped. He hadn't dwelled on that ring in centuries. He took it out of the box to admire it. The red and gold played well against each other.

He marveled at the symmetry, It must have been arranged that we shared a birth month and our parents shared a birth month. Josef remember the details of the ring, his wife, and their marriage. Maybe my parents arranged it like that, just so the ring would look this good. He smiled weakly.

It had been eons since he thought of his parents. Having never known his mother, he couldn't say that she would approve of the life he had chosen for himself, but his father…well, his father was the kind of asshole who would love nothing more then to spend eternity alone.

Josef sighed and replaced the ring in the box. He was his father's son, but he must have some of his mother in him because he still clung to this ring and what it had once meant to him.

Josef set the box next to the bed. I wasn't to remember her, as Beth had assumed. It was to remind him of a time when he wasn't alone. To him the ring was the last remnant of a life filled with friendship and love. Damn mortality! Damn soft human nature!

But Josef knew that theses feelings didn't come from his new-found mortality. No, these feelings had always been there. Hidden deeply, or not so deeply, under his guise of vampire coolness and immortality.

If he had only one lifetime left to live, he was going to live it. What was that quote… 'Live! Life's a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!' I'm defiantly not poor and I'm not going to starve.

Beth lay curled in Mick's strong arms. She had fallen asleep almost instantly. The loss of blood and physical exertion of the evening added to 48 hours without sleep had finally gotten to her.

Mick held her protectively still applying pressure to the wound on her neck. Feelings of guilt and regret started to well inside him. He could still taste the sweet metallic taste of her blood in his mouth. The taste repulsed him. He hated himself. But he kept repeating her last word,

Together... Together… Together…

It had become his mantra, warding off the evil feelings inside him. She loved him and he loved her. It was that simple. It looked like Adriana held the cure. He could become human, and then he and Beth could be together. Forever.