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"

Summery: 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: hmmmm. next time I decide to do a long stretch of narration using pronouns alone please hurt me...it's hella hard to try and make it clear who's talking when to the reader...bad me! oh well, it was needed to convey the mood.

Chapter 4: Halfway Between There and Here

"Life is pleasant, death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome." -- Isaac Asimov

It was night. Not one of those star-filled country nights, but black, soulless night. No moon, nor light of any kind, could be seen and as such the world around her could not be distinguished from the sky. Black, featureless nothingness stretched around her in every direction.

She was not alarmed, merely confused.

She had been somewhere else before, that much she knew, but she could remember nothing more. It didn't seem terribly important; it was cool and comfortable in this dark place and she was content to remain here for a time. Reflexively she swallowed and was aware of a heavy taste in her mouth. Metallic was the word to describe it but how she knew that was beyond her. She paused for a moment, using the metallic taste to slowly reconnect with her body, gradually moving outward until she was aware of all her limbs. She was lying down and she was sure that remaining prone wasn't going to get her anywhere. She tried to rise to her feet and felt her awareness move away from where she knew her body remained. The strange sense of disconnection from a body that had always been hers frightened her and she moved back to huddle where her body was.

It took a while for her to gather up the courage to try again. This time she paid careful attention to where all her limbs were supposed to go. She moved, they didn't. That couldn't be good.

She was certain that thought and body were supposed to move together although she couldn't remember why. Well, they weren't moving together now. She was only aware of her body peripherally at the moment and that wasn't how it had been before. Tensely, she clung to that slight awareness for a while before she realized that it was doing no good. Her body didn't want her right now and she dimly began to perceive an unpleasant burning sensation that grew worse the longer she stayed.

Reluctantly, she decided to move away and realized that, while her awareness of her body faded, the awareness of the metallic taste in her mouth did not. She felt a prickle of relief at that. She could use that to come back when her body was ready for her. Feeling bolder now that she knew she could return, she let her awareness drift further and further away, slipping deeper into that inky blackness.

She didn't know how long she drifted until she became aware of another presence in the blackness. She couldn't see anything in the absence of light, but she could feelit.

'Hello?' she called out softly.

'Who's there?' echoed immediately back. The speaker was female.

'I am,' she replied.

'Oh,' there was a pause, 'where are you?'

'Here for now,' she answered. It wasn't helpful, she knew, but, really, what can one give a location to in blackness?

'I'm lost,' the voice confessed after a longer period of silence.

'I'm not, but I can only find my way back to me,' she explained. 'I'm not sure if I can help you find you.'

The other drifted closer. 'Can you try? I don't want to stay lost forever.'

She considered it. It seemed like something she would do, and she couldn't go back to herself yet, so she had time. It couldn't hurt.

'I suppose I can try. I can't go back to me yet anyway,' she agreed.

'Thank you!' The gratitude in the voice was obvious. 'None of the others I found ever would.'

'Were there many?' she asked as she and the other began to drift side by side.

'No, but you were the first to try,' the other replied.

'That's just rude!' she replied, feeling disgusted with the manners of people these days; she was sure it had been a problem where she was before. 'They must have had the same time I do. No one cares about anyone but themselves anymore.'

'Do you remember where you were before?' the other asked curiously.

She thought about it for a minute. 'No,' she said finally, 'but I want to go back eventually. I think someone's waiting for me.'

'I don't remember either,' the other replied. 'I think someone was waiting for me too. I don't know if they still are.'

'They are,' she asserted. She was somehow certain of that.

'You think so?' The other sounded so hopeful.

'I do,' she confirmed. 'Now, let's help you find you.'

"Mick, you need to eat something," Josef said as morning edged into afternoon.

Mutely, Mick shook his head. He was still sitting on the couch cradling Beth's unmoving form. They had cleaned the blood from her skin and hair as best as they could and stripped off her ruined clothes. She was now dressed in one of Mick's largest and softest shirts and the vampire held her to him as tightly as he dared.

"Mick, you have to eat, or you're going to be in no condition to do anything when she does wake up," Josef persisted.

"Alright," he said quietly, voice tinged with worry and pain. Mick was grateful that his friend continued to talk as if it was certain that Beth would wake up, even though the possibility that she wouldn't hung heavy between them.

He accepted the glass Josef gave him and drank it down without protest. The taste was familiar to him now, the only taste he could remember for the past fifty-five years, and he felt a stab of guilt that it would be the only taste Beth would remember now, too.

"Don't." Josef must have seen the guilt flicker across his face. "Don't start with that now. What's done is done. You need to be prepared to help Beth through this, and that little self-loathing thing you've got going isn't going to cut it."

"Josef, I can't -- " he started, but Josef cut him off.

"I'm well aware of the fact that you won't ever be fully accepting of what you are, but when Beth wakes up it's going to be your job to keep her together for the first few weeks and you can't do that if you're too busy with your personal pity party," Josef said firmly. "You can indulge in that later; for now, your focus is Beth."

Mick nodded; Josef was right. He needed to be strong for Beth. He looked down at the woman in his arms. She looked peaceful. Gently, he kissed her forehead. "C'mon Beth, we're waiting for you."

Satisfied that Mick's self-crisis was averted for now, Josef moved back into the kitchen to pour himself a drink. He was certain that he could keep Mick from doing something idiotic as long as he kept him focused on Beth. It wasn't that hard. Mick had looked after the girl for twenty-two years and the behavior was practically hard-wired into him now. As long as Beth's needs remained his first priority, Mick wouldn't wander down that "poor me" road.

Josef sipped at the cold blood with little enthusiasm. For one thing, it tasted awful and the fact that it was cold didn't help, and for another, he had about as much appetite as Mick did at the moment.

The little reporter was irritatingly endearing and she made Mick a hell of a lot easier to be around sometimes so Josef didn't particularly like the thought of losing her either. He closed his eyes trying to see ahead but got nothing. Looking into the future was disturbingly unreliable, seeming to work any time except when you wanted it to. He didn't try that often, anyway, since it was unhelpful at the best of times, even when it did work, and gave him quite the headache.

Yesterday had been one of those rare times when the events had been determined enough that Josef hadn't been overwhelmed with thousands of possibilities. Her death had been certain in all the scenarios that had played out in his head -- well, in all but one. Josef winced inwardly at the thought. He hadn't been about to let that scene happen, so he had kept that possible future to himself. Call him selfish, but he wasn't about to trade his best friend's life for Beth's, no matter how endearing she'd become.

But Mick could never find out about that. His views on that scenario would have been very clear. Some secrets Josef knew better than to ever tell.

'Do you have that taste in your mouth?' she asked her new companion.

'Yes. I like it, I want to find more,' the other replied.

She rolled the taste around again and had to agree that she was indeed becoming used to it, though she was sure she never would have liked it before. 'Well, if you can taste it, you have a mouth, and if you have a mouth you have to have a body,' she pointed out.

There was silence for a long while. 'It's very far away but I can feel it!' the other said excitedly.

'Do you think you can figure out the way back now?' she asked, feeling happy at the thought of her companion's enthusiasm.

'Yes! I'm certain of it. Oh, thank you.' The other moved closer for a moment in a strange sort of thought-hug.

She returned the unusual embrace without hesitation. 'You're welcome. You better get going though, I think you've been gone long enough.'

'What about you?' the other asked, obviously distressed at the thought of leaving her here alone.

'I'll follow in a little while, but I don't think it's quite time for me to go back yet,' she replied soothingly, although she wasn't keen on being alone again either.

The other drifted away again. 'I'll see you on the other side, right?'

'I'm sure of it; we met for a reason, don't you think?' she agreed.

'Oh, definitely! Goodbye for now, then.'

'Bye,' she replied softly, even though the other's presence had already faded.

She drifted in the blackness alone again, letting thoughts and emotions wash over her in no particular pattern. It was getting uncomfortably warm around her now, the pleasant coolness disappearing the longer she remained. She decided that maybe it was her cue to return to her own body now.

Piece by painstaking piece, she pulled her awareness back into her own body. How long it took, she couldn't be sure, but she was at last aware of her own skin again. Cautiously, she curled her fingers and was satisfied when thought moved with flesh.

When night fell for the first time, Mick became anxious, his jaw clenching and unclenching in a futile effort to relieve tension since pacing was out of the question. When dusk approached for the second time, anxiety was abandoned for heart-wrenching fear and loss. Had he been too late? Or had this Turning gone as wrong as Sarah's had?

Desperately, Mick whispered pleas into Beth's skin as tears slid down his cheeks unnoticed.

Josef watched as Mick brokenly called to Beth as the sun dipped below the Los Angeles skyline for the second time since bringing Beth to the apartment. As much as he didn't want to, it was time to accept that Beth wasn't going to wake up.

Just like Sarah.

Josef forcefully pulled his mind away from that still-painful memory. He had given her two days -- then four, then six, but she had never woken. Neither, it seemed, would Beth. Apparently the universe had other plans for Mick and him. Josef closed his eyes and began to think of a way to tell his best friend that the woman he loved was gone.

Mick almost missed it the first time, nothing more then a slight twitch of the tips of her fingers. He froze. The next time was more pronounced and he watched as her right hand curled into a loose fist.

"Beth?" he whispered hoarsely.

She wrinkled her nose and slowly opened her eyes.

AN: well so there's a bit of a lay off on the dramatic tension….And yay, I introduced Sarah!

Please tell me what you think, it was my own interpretation of the transition and I hope you liked it……