Title: The Other Side of Morning
Fandom: Moonlight
Genre: Romance/Drama
Rating: T to M
Pairings: Mick/Beth, Josef/Sarah
Spoilers: through 1X10 "Sleeping Beauty"
Summary: AU after 1X10. Beth heads to the bank not knowing she was about to walk into a hostage situation that would forever change her life.
Disclaimer: all I own is a stuffed unicorn…please don't sue and take my unicorn away…/sniffle/
AN: ok a bit of a violence and gore warning here...
Chapter 3: Endgame
"When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice." -- Marquis de la Grange
Daylight edged into dusk and the deadline ticked nearer with every heartbeat. Beth watched as the leader paced back and forth, hand locked in a death-grip around the hilt of his gun. It was stifling hot inside now; the police had cut the air-conditioning hours ago and Beth felt the sweat slide down her forehead to intermingle with the tears on her cheeks. The air felt heavy and it was an effort just to keep breathing.
Beth had spent the majority of her adult life around cops, knew all about the tactics they used to put suspects on edge and force their hand. They had seemed logical enough at the time, but she had never before realized them from the hostages' perspective. While it surely made the robbers uncomfortable, it was making it worse for the hostages too.
"That's it!" the leader announced suddenly. "Time's up. We have to show them we're serious."
The next few moments passed in utter horror. Beth could only watch as the leader leveled his gun at the brunette woman who had been closest to the teller and fired. Beth closed her eyes tightly and whimpered, the air too muggy to sob.
The phone began ringing immediately and the leader answered it with a harsh laugh.
"For every half-hour more you delay, another hostage dies. Their deaths are on your hands." And he hung up.
Beth tried to press herself closer to the floor and took a few gasping breaths. Panic had once again seized her and she continued to choke back silent sobs. She could hear someone whispering "oh God, oh God," over and over again. The fervent prayers intermingled with the sounds of muted crying and gasps of fear.
Mick! Where are you? Beth thought desperately, her own secondhand kind of prayer.
Everyone froze for an instant when the sound of the shot rang out from inside. Josh looked sick as the startled negotiator frantically dialed in. Mick lost Beth's heartbeat for a panicked second before he picked it back up, beating double-time, and let out a relieved breath.
"Do we know who was shot?" Josh was demanding of the negotiator.
Mutely the man shook his head.
"It's not Beth," Mick said quietly.
Josh turned to face him. "You can't know that," he said, worry clear on his face.
Mick just looked at him. "She's still alive for now, Josh, but you have to get them out of there."
"The attorney general won't agree to their demands," Josh said desperately. He turned to face the SWAT leader. "Get your men ready. We go in in twenty minutes."
"Sir, we can't guarantee the hostages' safety," the SWAT agent protested.
"The hostages aren't safe anyway. Twenty minutes." Josh was firm.
Josef ignored the agents around him, focusing on Mick. The first shot hadn't been Beth, that was abundantly clear. If it had been, Mick wouldn't still be outside pacing like a caged animal. Things were going to get dicey from here on out. Josef was fairly certain he could get Mick to see reason in regards to Turning Beth, but he wasn't sure if he would have enoughtime to do so.
"Josef," Mick motioned for his friend to follow him a few steps away from Josh and the others.
Josef quirked an eyebrow and waited for Mick to continue.
"Are you certain? Are you sure there is no way to get Beth out alive?" Mick asked slowly.
Josef resisted the urge to look triumphant. "I'm sure. The glimpses I get of the future are confusing, but never wrong," he said instead.
"How do you expect me to Turn her if we can't get to her?" Mick asked.
"So you are going to Turn her?"
"I never said that!" Mick snapped.
"It was implied," Josef dismissed the protest. "Go in with the SWAT team."
"You expect me to risk her like that? Turnings can go wrong under the best of circumstances -- look what happened to Sarah," Mick said.
Josef's eyes narrowed. "She's going to die, Mick. A Turning, even in these conditions, would give her a fighting chance." Give you both fighting chance. He knew better then to say that aloud, though.
Mick looked away. "We'll see," he said finally.
Josef just nodded. Mick had picked a good time for once to get over himself.
Mick held onto the panicked beat of Beth's heart like a lifeline, as if it were his own heart in peril of stopping. He loved Beth, there was no denying the fact, and it would kill him to lose her, but could he really Turn her? He would be no better then Coraline. Another skip in the beat froze him again. If it came to it, if she couldn't be saved, he would do it.
The inside of the bank was deathly quiet now, every small movement amplified by the heavy air. Beth was trying to breathe shallowly, in and out through her mouth as she lay as still as possible on the floor. The scent of blood hung in air and the knowledge that someone lay dead not ten feet from her was sickening. Help wasn't coming, that was becoming clear. If there was something that anyone could have done, they would have by now. Terror had dulled to a sense of numbing hopelessness. Beth would have liked to say she remained brave, that she hadn't given up hope, but how could she when every second brought her closer to the chance of death?
The heavy thud of boot heels alerted Beth to the approach of one of her captors. She held her breath and closed her eyes, trying to remain immobile. The footfalls paused by her head for a moment before continuing on. She let out a soft breath. She didn't want to die, she couldn't die. Not now. There were too many things she needed to take care of, fences to mend, and changes that needed to happen concerning a certain undead PI.
Click.
Beth froze.
She knew that sound. She wished she didn't, but it was unmistakable and she could feel the cold, merciless eyes staring down at her. Survival instincts erased any shred of reason and Beth pushed herself up, making a dash for the door. The surprise move startled the robbers for only a handful of seconds.
Agony in her chest and leg crippled her after only three steps.
Her vision whited out for a few moments and Beth was only dimly aware of the startled curses of the robbers and the sound of more gunfire ripping through the air.
She tried to take a breath only to find herself drowning in blood and too-heavy air. She coughed, trying to expel the liquid only to have the coppery taste of blood and bile sear her tongue. She knew she needed air, her vision was spotty and dim, and she tried to take another breath only to choke herself again.
"Beth! Oh God, Beth!" It was Mick. He had come too late.
He rolled her over and Beth tried to focus on his face but the world continued to blur and spin. Save me! she thought desperately. She wasn't ready to slip into the dark. She wasn't ready to leave him behind. She tried to tell him that, tried to talk, but no words could be formed around the choking fluids that filled her lungs. She attempted to raise her hand, desperate to signal him somehow, but she couldn't feel her limbs anymore. She didn't know if she managed. Consciousness slipped away and the heavy taste of blood followed her into oblivion.
Mick had followed the SWAT team in before anyone could try to stop him. He could hear Josh's angry shouts behind him, but he trusted Josef to keep him off his back. He saw Beth's reckless rush towards the door. Watched in horror as she crumpled seconds before the SWAT agents moved in. Mick was at her side in an instant, oblivious to the bullets flying around him and the screams of the other hostages.
Beth was crumpled face-down on the floor, choking on her own blood as she tried to keep breathing. He rolled her over with a hoarse sob as her heartbeat grew erratic. Her eyes stared past him, moving wildly. She was dying, blood flowing fast from the wounds in her chest and leg. She choked harshly, as if she had tried to say something. Her eyes focused on him for a second and he could see the abject terror in them. Mick felt a spasm of pain -- a shared agony at the knowledge of her death. He felt a touch on his arm and watched as her hand dropped back heavily, the awareness in her eyes beginning to dim.
"No!" he cried, forcefully.
Brokenly.
She couldn't leave him. It was selfish. It was wrong. But he needed her. He couldn't lose her now.
With a feral-sounding growl Mick bit down on his wrist and brought the wound to her mouth. She wasn't conscious to swallow but Mick counted on the reflexive attempts to breathe to pull the blood into her system. The rest was up to her.
Gathering Beth's limp form into his arms, Mick took stock of his surroundings for the first time. The SWAT agents had cornered the robbers and four hostages in the back of the bank and no one had any attention to spare the PI and the bloodied woman in his arms. Spotting the stairwell, Mick moved towards it. No matter how distracting Josef thought he could be, no one was going to let him walk out there with Beth. Luckily, nothing in LA was built one-storied and it was with little difficulty that Mick got himself over to the roof of the neighboring building and down the fire escape into an alley. A dark car hurtled into the alley seconds later, and the passenger door flung open.
"Get in!" Josef growled, having guessed Mick's plan of escape. Mick hurled himself into the car as Josef sped off.
How they managed to get Beth into his apartment unseen, Mick would never know. He settled with Beth on his couch, unwilling to let her go. She was pale beneath the bloodstains, and still. So still. No breath. No heartbeat. Still.
Mick raised desperate eyes to his friend. "Why isn't she waking up?" he asked.
Josef tried to look calm. "It takes as long as it takes," he said firmly. There was no need to fear the worst. Yet.
Mick dropped his gaze back to Beth. Gently, he smoothed the blood-matted hair away from her face.
"C'mon, Beth, you can do this. You're strong enough to make it. I know you are," he whispered softly as he heard Josef move off into another room.
His tears ran unchecked as he rocked Beth back and forth, whispering every broken prayer he could think of. She was going to make it. She wouldn't end up like Sarah. She just wouldn't.
Minutes, maybe hours later, he heard Josef come back into the room.
"You are now flying to Europe. Then Australia," Josef announced.
Mick looked up, confused. "What?"
"As far as Josh is concerned anyway. He'll be looking for you but that's the only trail he'll find," Josef clarified.
"He's a DA, Josef. It won't be hard to look up my address," Mick pointed out.
Josef only grinned. "That's the funny thing about databases being online these days, information has a way of becoming -- misplaced."
Mick gave his best friend a grateful look. "Thank you."
Josef nodded dismissively. "You should get her cleaned up a bit. Waking up is going to be unpleasant enough."
"She will wake up." It was a statement, not a question.
Josef answered anyway. "No reason to think otherwise." Yet, he amended silently.
Two days was the unofficial point-of-no-return. Beth had forty-eight hours.
AN: hides wow that turned out a wee bit gorier then I expected…
Still I don't imagine dying to be any sort of pleasant affair so if you were looking for a nice fluffy Turning you have the wrong fic. Being a vamp has perks, sure, but it's not an easy road in my mind…