Disclaimer: The characters of the Stephanie Plum series belong to Janet Evanovich and are used here without permission. The "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" universe and characters belong to Mutant Enemy, etc. "Hellboy" belongs to Mike Mignola, etc. No copyright infringement is intended.

Notes: 1) The odd little notion had a continuation go along with it. :-) 2) This is set during the beginning of "One For The Money"

Normal Night

By TT

Stephanie sat on the stone bench underneath the elm.

Her eyes were trained upward, staring at the clear-ish sky and the few stars the pollution let shine through.

Earlier that day she'd received word that the school would be packing up and heading back to the other schools as well as to the newly renovated London location. They also let her know that she now had a contact at the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.

Since Watchers were rare, Stephanie now fell well beyond the average age of most Slayers, and Trenton wasn't exactly a hotspot, the Council felt comfortable leaving her to do her own research with the Bureau as backup.

So far it seemed to be working well enough. They dealt with different types of threats, but the information exchange already helped her.

Tonight, though, she had just a simple staking.

A suspicious death caught her attention and she knew the corpse would rise as a vampire. The fact that she already dusted the sire gave her some small satisfaction. At least she had accomplished something.

A heavy sigh escaped as she acknowledged the same could not be said about her hunt for Joe Morelli. Though certainly not her favorite person, something about him just drew her in. He might be an irritating man, but he certainly lit her fire.

Now she just needed to find him and bring him in – without hurting him.

Stephanie's attention immediately focused on the fresh grave as she heard the sound of splintering wood.

Rising from her seat, she strolled over to the grave to await the fledgling's escape. Fortunately, the dust of the vampire would mix well with the disturbed earth and no one would notice.

A moment later, she lifted her stake and took care of the newest vampire with little effort.

Now all she had to do was go home, take a shower and hope she found Joe Morelli in the morning. And maybe have a few dreams about Joe or Ranger, she added to herself, a smile curving her lips.

"Gotta be better than Slayer dreams," she murmured as she slipped behind the wheel of the "commandeered" vehicle and headed home.