Hello, it's Ita-ta, again. This is another chapter, hope you enjoy.

Please review, I love them.

The next chapter should be out this week, I've started typing it up.

Moonlight does not belong to me, it is copyrighted to Trevor Munson and Ron Koslow.

Charles Chaplin once said, "A day without laughter is a day wasted."

Josef groaned as he felt his headache grow worse. "I just had to be dragged into this," He managed to drawl out in sarcasm.

"Brother! I want this one!" Melanie tugged on his pant-leg and pointed at a white dress. "This one!" Her bright blue eyes looked adoringly at him.

Yes, Josef Konstantin was dragged away from his normal life by a little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes to go shopping. Though, she was a vampire. That was just a little detail though in this complex little child.

He let out a breath as he looked at it. "You already have a white dress." He replied.

"After living in this blasted garment for a hundred years, could you be considerate enough to purchase me a new one?" Her voice was dangerously quiet, eyes narrowed irritably.

Josef groaned once more. He really didn't like this. Let's rewind a bit, explain a little.

- - - - -

"Okay, so we have a vampiric little girl." Mick said calmly after Laine's gleeful giggle. "How did you manage that?!" He asked Josef, his brow furrowing in consternation.

"Luck of the draw?" Josef replied smartly.

"Hilarious Josef," Mick eyed the little girl grinning at Beth.

"Mister Mick, do you recall who my parents were?" Melanie looked at him with serious eyes.

Mick looked at her strangely and appeared thoughtful for a moment. "Jerry and Miriam Houston." He spoke slowly. "They died last month, two months that day, I'd been looking for you." He looked at her seriously. "You didn't—"

"I didn't what, Mick? Kill them? Oh please, if I were to kill them I would have done it much before they asked you to find me. They just wanted me back for the money of support I gave them." She looked at him with fury in her eyes. "Those foster parents," She spat out the last, "didn't care anything for me." She looked at Beth and frowned. "As it is, people saw fit to kill both of them, in a way to try and lure me out and kill me."

"Why kill you?" This time it was Josef who asked this.

"Lawson is my last name, Beth, I'm sure you can fill in the blanks for them, as you researched the Lawson family." Her steely blue gaze met with Beth's.

"The Lawson family?" She looked as if she were thinking for a few moments. "That was a story fifty years ago."

"And?" Laine raised an eyebrow in exasperation.

"Damien and Julia Lawson were lawyers in the DA office. They also inherited the Thompson fortune from Julia's side and Damien was already very wealthy. They worked on several high profile cases and got loads of enemies." She paused and looked at Melanie. "You're their daughter?!"

Laine looked at her and grinned. "Are you kidding?"

"Yes." She smiled and chuckled a little.

"Good because I was slowly losing faith in your academic ability." She clambered onto Josef's chair and sat comfortably on his lap.

"Hey, I'm not part of the chair!" Josef objected.

"I can sit on your lap, can't I Brother?" She looked at him, her voice back to the childish tone from moments ago.

Josef rolled his eyes and looked back at Beth. "So this kid here's a descendent of wealthy people?"

"Yeah, but how did you get into the foster program?" Beth's eyes were for the little girl.

"Protection purposes. The contact that was supposed to be the link between my parents and I was killed. Dumb and dumber decided that they'd keep me until I came of age to inherit the money so they could get their hands on it. Of course, I would not let that happen." She paused and looked at Josef. "Nearly getting whacked sucks." She let out a high-pitched bubble of laughter. "What I mean to say is that I nearly got killed by a sniper when I was walking by myself one day."

Mick's eyebrows shot up. "Someone let you wander around by yourself?"

"Not exactly. See, that was the day I bailed." Looking back at Beth, she smiled a little. "O'course a few years later I whacked that sniper."

Beth was very intrigued by the girl but at the same time rather mortified. "You-you mean you killed him?" She managed to squeak out.

"Kinda squashes this picture of innocence, doesn't it?" Laine looked off in space for a few moments, her eyes sad and empty.

"Only fractionally." Mick answered. "So why seek out Josef?"

"That comes later, for now, I want breakfast and I need a new dress." She looked back at Josef, her childish voice returning, "I know you have the money Brother." An evil grin adorned her features.

- - - - -

Hence why Josef was now shopping with a little girl as his guide. She wandered through the store looking at several dresses, a small grin of excitement on her face.

"Josef!" He turned at his name being called.

"Beth?" She smiled and waved at him, trotting up to stand beside him. "What're you doing here?" He raised an eyebrow in interest.

"Mick wanted me to keep an eye on Laine," Seeing the expression of insult on Josef's face, she grinned at him. "No, he doesn't doubt your abilities, he wanted me to do something other than work."

"Ah," Josef answered, turning to look at Laine, who was rifling through some blouses. He stood there awkwardly, hands shoved in his pants pockets, a look of contemplation on his face. His head turned sharply at the sound of laughter beside him. "What?" He asked her, getting a little irritated.

"Sorry, you just looked so out of place and confused it made me laugh," She smiled at him, her eyes twinkling with mirth.

His brows furrowed into a frown. "Thanks," He said in sarcasm.

"Oh come on, I'm teasing," The smile did not vanish though and her eyes still sparkled.

"Uh huh," He drawled and quickly started walking to where Laine was pulling at a hangar too high for her to reach.

Beth watched as he pulled the hangar off and crouched hold it out in front of him. She walked over to him and smiled. "I think that's a bit too big for you, Josef."

"Yeah Brother, you wouldn't look good in it," Laine giggled, her childish voice resonating in the air.

Josef looked offended and held it toward Laine. "It's for you," He growled.

"Why thank-you, I'm going to go try it on." She skipped off towards the change rooms.

Josef rose to his full height, a scowl on his face.

"What, not happy because you're shopping and not curled up with your laptop in your office?" Beth teased, looking at him with a grin. "Is it so bad to be outside of your office and away from your laptop?"

Josef couldn't help but smirk at the way she was trying to get a rise out of him. "Oh I go for nightly walks," He replied, his smirk widening at how her expression changed at the implications of his words. "Usually when I'm hungry," He found delight in the way her eyes lighted up with apprehension and her smile faded.

"Oh," Her voice was whisper soft, her eyes averted from his face.

Suddenly he wasn't feeling cheerful anymore. Something twisted in his stomach at the way her eyes gained a faraway look of melancholy sadness. He noticed in their meetings in the past with Mick about a case, she sometimes had that look on her face when Coraline was mentioned or anything related to Josh. He'd always shrugged it off. It had been five months since Josh had passed but she always had a smile plastered on her face. After awhile, he could tell that it was fake in the way that there was always a hint of sadness that would flicker in her eyes.

"Brother, Beth!" Laine called in a joyous voice.

Josef watched as a bright happy expression lit upon her face as she crouched down to envelop the little girl running toward her. For some reason it made his stomach twinge again.

"Do I look pretty?" Laine looked at Beth hopefully.

"Of course you do, silly!" Beth grinned at her, holding her out to look at her fully.

In the hour that they had spent at Josef's before parting ways, Laine had become attached to Beth. Seeing this the affection seemed to go both ways.

Laine wore a white dress with a frilled collar and cuffed wrists. The bottom frilled as well. It looked a little old fashioned but it looked very cute on her.

Her bright blue eyes looked uncertainly towards Josef. "What about you Brother?"

It occurred to Josef that his opinion of her mattered to her very much. "You look lovely, Laine." He answered softly.

Her whole face lit up even more than it had been before. "Okay," She smiled and hugged Beth.

Beth returned the hug and stood up. She held out her hand for Laine to take. "Shall we go get some new shoes, too?" She asked.

"Mhm!" After purchasing the dress, Laine took her hand and led her out of the store, Josef following close behind.

They wandered through the mall for a few minutes until Laine spotted a store she liked. She led Beth to the opening of the store, still holding onto her hand. Josef stood on the other side of Laine, looking into the store with little interest.

He looked sharply at Laine when he felt her grab his hand. Then he felt her tugging, insisting upon holding both his and Beth's hands as she paraded around the store.

Ten minutes later, she had found a pair of black dress shoes, a black skirt with a red t-shirt blouse that could be put over a plain white shirt, which she also held. Turning around, Laine let go of their hands and looked up at them. "I'm going to go change," Her childish voice had not wavered. With her left hand she held all of the aforementioned. With her right, she grabbed Josef's. At this he raised an eyebrow in question. He immediately stiffened as she guided his hand to hold Beth's. "Wait here until I'm done," She smiled, a dark look lurking in her eyes, lest they pull away, there would be consequences.

She then promptly skipped off to the change rooms, leaving Josef and Beth holding hands.

His eyes looked over to meet hers, noting the faint colour in her cheeks. "Er," He started, inwardly wincing at how awkward they were. "She's a little mischievous, isn't she?" he meant it as a joke but he could not help but let some of his irritation in his voice. He expected her to keep silent but to his surprise she started to giggle. For the second time today, he was at a loss because of her laughter. "What?"

She looked at him and pulled her hand from his to cover her mouth in an effort to stem her mirth. "Sorry, it's just this is the second time you've contradicted yourself." She managed to say.

"Contradict myself?" He asked, raising an eyebrow in interest.

"Well, you appear to be very smooth with females, but in reality you can be very awkward," She smiled at the incredulous and clearly offended look on his face.

"I am not!" He growled, very affronted with the fact that they did appear to be very awkward, proving her statement. He grew increasingly irritated at the way she was grinning, as if she had just proven her point. His feathers were ruffled at the way she was smugly looking at him with a hint of mirth in her eyes.

"Brother!" Laine's voice broke them out of their argument. She was grinning, holding all of her things. "Let's go shopping more!" She looked adoringly at him.

His gaze slid from the smug look on Beth's face to the adoring look on Laine's. "One more store okay?"

"Okay," She smiled and took their hands again, heading to the counter. They purchased the clothing and shoes and ventured out of the store, into the mall once more.