As always, I don't own Moonlight or any of the characters. I wish I did.

Thanks again to everyone who has sent me such kind reviews. -Laurelin

--

Josef's limo was parked on the runway when Mick's plane landed. "This can't be good," Mick thought as he stepped down onto the tarmac. Josef had gotten out of his car to watch as his driver put Mick's bag in the trunk while making no move himself to help. He merely stared at Mick, as if appraising his inherent worth, Mick thought, and finding it lacking.

"Thanks for picking me up, Josef. You didn't have to do that," Mick said, trying to act as if everything was normal, but Josef wasn't bothering with the charade. They both took their seats on opposite sides of the limo, facing each other, though Josef still hadn't spoken. He just kept looking at Mick like he'd been caught misbehaving and Josef was the stern parent about to administer the lecture. Which in a way, he was.

Mick flinched first, as Josef knew he would. "Fine, Josef. Go ahead. Get it off your chest. Tell me what an ass I've been." He looked resigned to the verbal berating that was coming.

Josef just watched Mick a while longer before speaking, seemingly no longer disappointed but dispassionate. "You never were going to tell her anything, were you? She'd have to step down off her pedestal for intimacies with a vampire, and you just weren't going to allow that."

Mick reflexively prepared to defend himself. "What was I supposed to do? She's human, Josef. I could kill her. That thought may not bother you much, but it does bother me. Every time I look at Beth I want to be with her, hell, even when she's not around, but no night of passion is worth her life."

Mick bitterly thought back to the night he was turned, the promised pleasures of one evening replaced by a lifetime full of new regrets. Beth would be another regret, of that he was certain, but she would not be another of his victims, another lifeless face for him to see every time he closed his eyes. He ran both hands through his hair, trying to settle his nerves.

Several ice cubes clinked into a crystal glass followed by a large measure of single malt scotch. There was no second glass forthcoming for Mick. "You know, for my sake, I'd appreciate if you clear these things up with your freshies before you leave town. I'm not your babysitter. Beth clearly has no idea that your intentions remain completely honorable, and I think I'd rather you break that little tidbit of news to her, because I guarantee you she's not going to take it well. But c'est la vie when vampires are involved, and the sooner she learns it the better. I may be your friend, but Beth is your problem, and it's not my job to pick up the pieces of her shattered expectations."

"Dammit, Josef. It's not like I'm going to just get up and walk out of her life! I'll be there for her. I know fidelity and reliability are beyond the scope of your experience, but I understand all too well my responsibilities to Beth." Mick was still smarting from Josef's cold demeanor and he let his displeasure show in his voice.

"Really. You understand your responsibilities to her? Let me tell you something, Mick, as your friend." Josef was finally looking at him again, and it dawned on Mick that what he was seeing was not disinterest in Josef's demeanor, it was rage, carefully contained through centuries of practice, but rage nonetheless. "You have one more, completely undeserved chance at getting this right with her. I've seen this happen with human women before, Mick. If you keep trying to protect her from who and what you really are, and you don't give her what she needs from you, you're hurting her just as much as if you'd struck her a physical blow."

Mick started to interrupt, but Josef held up his hand to cut him off. "No, hear me out on this. You have this woman doubting everything about herself. She's afraid she isn't beautiful enough, or smart enough, or sexy enough for you; there has to be something wrong with her that you don't want her. Jesus, Mick, she's so in love with you, she's afraid she's too human to be worthy of a fine upstanding vampire like yourself. Do you not get that?"

As if the mere recognition of Josef's rage had awakened his own, the volume of conversation increased to a yell. "What the hell do you know about it, Josef? I'm the one that's watched over her every day for over twenty years. Not you! You don't know anything about her." Mick's voice quieted some near the end of the tirade, and he continued almost at a whisper, "she deserves better than me, Josef, and if I can just keep my distance for a while longer she'll find a nice human man that will make her happy." Turning to study the passing streetlights, he refused to meet Josef's gaze from the shadows on the other side of the car.

They sat in silence for better than fifteen minutes as Josef nursed his drink and stared at his friend disapprovingly while Mick rested his head back on the seat and searched the ceiling for answers, wondering how he was going to make Beth and Josef, for that matter, see reason. Finally, Josef set down the empty glass and leaned forward towards Mick. "She won't, you know."

Having been lost in his own thoughts, Mick wondered what Josef was talking about. "She won't what, Josef?" he said with a trace of irritation. Josef was interrupting the circular logic argument that Mick was formulating in his head. Again.

"Find a human and settle down."

"Sure she will. It's just a phase, Josef. The fascination she thinks she has for me and for vamps will pass. I'll figure out a way to bow out of daily routine a little at a time over the next few months, and eventually she'll move on to someone who is deserving of her."

Josef moved his hand back and forth in Mick's field of vision. "Hello in there? Mick? You haven't been listening to a goddamn word I've been saying. Wake the fuck up! She's not just going to wander away and pretend like she has no idea vampires exist, or she'd have married that DA she was dating. You and Beth together are as much of a nightmare as you and Coraline, only in a much more polite and less violent 'let's destroy each other' sort of way. Look at the two of you. You're killing each other by degrees, Mick. If you were serious about letting her go you'd have left town twenty times over by now. Hell, I'll drive you back to the airport and pay to fly you out of the country, even set you up with the relocation guy. Is that what you want? Because you're sure acting like what you really want is Beth."

Mick opened his mouth to protest everything Josef just said, but closed it again. He was tired from his trip and desperately needed a few hours in the freezer to help clear his head. But apparently they weren't going to his place, they were headed for Josef's house.

"Josef, just drop me off at my apartment. We can finish this later."

"We're going to finish this now. You're right about one thing, Mick, Beth does deserve better than you, you spineless bastard. If you don't figure out a way to stop hurting her while trying not to hurt her, you'll lose her, and not to a human. She'll end up in the arms of another vamp, one who might not love her as much as you do, and she'll ask them to turn her."

"She'd never—"

"The hell she wouldn't. You've given her the barest taste of what it means to be immortal, to be loved and cherished by someone who'd give all of that up for her out of love, and you don't think she'd give up her mortal life to another vamp on the slimmest of chances that it would allow her to be with you? Why is that so inconceivable?"

The limo pulled up into the ten-car garage and Josef waited for his chauffer to open the door before making a move to get out. As Josef moved to the door, Mick couldn't help but notice the other man's anger had been replaced by that eerie look of determination he always got when it was time to do what needed to be done, no matter how unpleasant or difficult. It was the look he'd seen only a few times, and had hoped not to see again. This was not good.

Mick stopped Josef with a hand on his arm and asked calmly, "why do you care, Josef? You've stood by for the last fifty years and never pushed me this hard about how I've chosen to lead my life or my relationship with Beth. What changed?"

"What's different is that now I know who Beth will ask to sire her when she realizes you don't love her enough to do what has to be done."

"Who?" Mick asked as if totally unaware of what was really happening.

"Me," said Josef before he stepped out of the car and headed for the elevator, never once looking back at Mick.

Too stunned to move, Mick sat speechless and tried to understand what had just happened. Josef had said on the phone Beth had asked him for information, and knowing Josef, he'd answered if for no other reason than it would make Mick miserable. But what had Beth said to Josef? What had she asked of him? And why would he call Mick back to town emergently over a simple conversation about one of his favorite topics?

The chauffer cleared his throat and Mick realized that he'd been standing there waiting for him to get out of the car since Josef left. "I'm assuming you have instructions not to take me home," Mick said as he got out of the car.

"That's correct, sir. You are to proceed upstairs to Mr. Kostan's office, if I am not mistaken. I believe you know the way, do you not?" The man was calm and polite, but none of his demeanor rubbed off on Mick.

"Fine," Mick said curtly and got out of the car. Their conversation was not done and Josef was apparently not going to let this go.

The office was on the third floor, and right next to Josef's "bedroom." While he didn't actually sleep there (he slept in a locked freezer room in the basement, Mick knew), Josef had a better than king-sized bed in which he "entertained" his freshies and selected women who shared his culinary appetites. Why they were meeting here and not downstairs in the usual living room, Mick didn't know, but he had a feeling he was about to find out.

He slumped down into one of the soft leather chairs and continued trying to process what he'd heard. Josef sat in his usual chair behind the desk with his arm around the beautiful woman in his lap. She had her long hair pinned up to expose her graceful neck, and a sleeveless silk shirt that left her wrists bare. The look on her face was of pure expectation and sensuality; and it wasn't directed at Josef.

"So, Mick, you remember Natasha, don't you?"

Mick smiled and tried to be polite since she was obviously there only for a distraction, "of course, nice to see you again." Then he looked back to Josef and made a circular motion with his hand, indicating that he should go ahead and have his snack so they could finish their conversation.

"She's here for you, Mick," Josef said with a hint of threat in his voice. Normally Josef enjoyed taunting Mick with his freshies, but this was no longer good natured.

Mick wasn't liking where this was going at all. He tried not to hurt the woman's feelings, but Josef damn well knew he didn't drink from freshies. "Well, no offense to the lovely Natasha, but I'm going to have to pass this time."

She pouted but made no move to get up, and Josef kept his arm wrapped around her waist. Usually a polite refusal was enough to move them past this point, but the rules had apparently changed.

"So you're going to leave Beth then?" Josef asked as if he already knew the answer and Mick just hadn't caught up.

Mick sighed and sat back in the chair, crossing his legs and doing his best to look relaxed. "We already discussed this, Josef. I'm not going to 'leave' her, but just because she asked you some questions doesn't mean either of us is ready to move to a more... physical relationship. She's still getting over Josh's death, and--"

Josef cut him off with a dismissing wave of his hand. "Trust me, Mick. She's over it. And whatever gave you the idea she wasn't ready?" He turned his attention to the neck of the woman perched on his lap and watched the blood pulse beneath it. "I'm sure you aren't ready, Mick, but I know for certain that delicious little blonde of yours is ready for anything." Josef sank his teeth into the woman's soft neck and the smell of blood filled the room. The sound of Josef swallowing combined with the moans of pleasure coming from his meal sparked a slight pang jealousy in Mick, but he tried to focus on the new Van Gogh adorning the wall instead of remembering what it was like to satisfy his hunger on the fresh blood of a willing young woman. Mick knew the display was for his benefit, but it didn't change anything.

Josef's fangs retracted and he lazily licked the last of the blood from the woman's skin and his lips, all the while watching Mick's reaction. There was simply nothing like the taste of young female blood spiced with desire, he decided, and it was high time Mick remembered that. After setting Natasha down on the sofa next to Mick's chair, Josef returned to the more important task at hand. The blood had helped to sway him away from violence as a means of altering Mick's outlook, though he couldn't rule it out if another try at logic didn't yield the result he was looking for.

"Enjoy your meal?" Mick asked him.

"Her blood was delightful, but not so delicious as Beth's." On the other hand, maybe they were going to jump straight to the violence.

"Very funny, Josef. Are we done here?"

"I wasn't joking, Mick."

"Riiiight. Because I'm sure that Beth wouldn't have bothered to call me if she was attacked by my best friend. But good try, Josef."

"You don't believe me? Then call her, right now." Josef threw his cell phone into Mick's lap. "And who said I attacked her? I distinctly remember being invited, no, begged to drink from her. Now that was one of the best meals I've had in decades. You never told me she had such a rare blood type. AO negative, right?"

Mick had never shared that information with Josef, for the reason that it might encourage him too much. Josef stood back and waited, expecting Mick to lunge for him in the next few seconds, but the attack never came. Closing his eyes, Mick leaned his head forward into his hands, then ran them across the stubble on his cheeks.

"You really did feed from her." It felt like Josef had just stabbed a silver spike into his stomach. The pain was penetrating and consuming in a way a physical wound could never be.

"Glad you finally caught on," Josef said quietly as he sat down next to the sleeping Natasha and ran a fingertip across her cheek absentmindedly. Reality was a bitch. "So, you going to try to kill me now or do you want to understand what is going through Beth's mind and why she asked me for something she didn't feel comfortable asking you for? Or have you already figured it out?"

"What did I do to her, Josef? Why?"

Josef honestly felt sorry for Mick. "Because she loves you, Mick, and she thought the problem was her. She loves you so much she can't even see your considerable flaws. Beth was convinced that her blood wasn't any good, that you somehow disliked the taste of her that one time in the desert and didn't have the heart to tell her. I tried telling her that she was wrong, but she was desperate to find out why you didn't want her body. She doesn't want a platonic relationship with you where you kiss her on the cheek at the end of an evening out solving crimes and being threatened by the bad guys. Mick, Beth is a healthy, beautiful, young woman who would do anything, and I do mean anything, to feel like you love her."

"But I could kill her. There's no more cure, no Coraline to help me find more. I won't sentence Beth to the same hell either."

"It's only hell because you make it so. Your saving grace, your angel, is waiting for you, Mick, you just won't take her hand. The universe has given you a gift that you refuse to accept. Beth now knows about freshies, how we feed during sex, and how the bite can be pleasurable for both involved. The cat's already out of the bag. She knows you're a vamp, so quit trying to hide it from her."

Natasha stirred and Josef whispered to her to run along and that he'd see her later. She smiled and kissed him before walking out the door and winking at Mick, who didn't bother to even try being pleasant in return.

Mick finally looked Josef in the eye. "Tell me you didn't… you and she didn't…" He couldn't even say the words, as if the mere utterance would make them true.

"No, I didn't sleep with your girlfriend. Oh, I thought about it, but contrary to what you might think, I do actually enjoy having two friends that don't just like me for my money. But I did let her enjoy the feeding, and believe me, Beth was anything but repulsed. She even watched me feed from Sasha just before I called you, and it turned her on. So stop trying to pretend that she's so innocent and unable to understand what it means to have sex with a vampire, or to be bitten out of more than just necessity."

"Can I ask you a personal question?"

"Yes. I may not answer it, but what the hell." Josef finally relaxed since it didn't seem like Mick was going to use violence to solve his anger management issues this time.

"Did you sleep with Sara before you tried to turn her?"

"Yes. I did. More than once even, and I was careful with her."

"Define careful." Mick was finally emerging from the other side of the deep dark hole he'd dug for himself. About time.

"Well, I made sure I wasn't hungry to start with. I always fed from two freshies before we even made it to the bedroom, and she wasn't my first human, Mick. I had Lola to make sure I didn't kill my first human lover, and eventually it became easier to keep control. You never would let Coraline teach you, and you are apparently immune to the considerable charms of my freshies."

Mick was now up pacing like a caged animal. Josef could almost see the gears turning in his head as he went through the short list of his options. He propped his feet up on the coffee table and stretched back on the leather cushions. "You're obviously having trouble thinking or we'd have been done with this conversation half and hour ago. You want me to walk you through each possibility or can we just skip to the end where I tell you your only viable option?"

Mick glared at him for a second before realizing that Josef was the only vamp in the world he could go to for help with this, and it was no longer possible to pretend that no problem existed. Not after Beth had... had asked him to bite her. Mick saw her in Josef's arms, her face slack with need, his mouth working at her wrist. Was it jealousy he felt when he thought about it, or desire?

"Hey, Romeo. Snap out of it!"

"Sorry." Mick had stopped pacing and just stood in front his best friend. "I don't know what the protocol for this is, so I'll just ask. Josef, will you help me with Beth? Make sure I don't hurt her? And lend me a couple of freshies beforehand?"

Josef stood and clasped a hand on Mick's shoulder while that self-satisfied smile of his said it all. "Beth will be glad to hear you're on board with her plan. Welcome back to paradise, my friend."