Mick made a poor attempt at keeping his speed believable to human eyes, but the further he ran the more difficult it became. He could remember going for runs all the time before he'd become a medic in the fifties; it helped him to think, to calm down and consider the problem that lay ahead. And when he ran, it would have been until he couldn't take another step. That took much longer since he had become a vampire.

He circled the town twice before coming to a stop outside of his own apartment. Mick swore as he caught his breath; there had been no conscious thought for him to come back here. He could hear a human heartbeat from the other side of the brick, and knew that Beth was waiting for him within. She was the one person he didn't want to see.

Having originally gone to Josef for help, the tables had suddenly turned. Now they appeared to be hanging upside down from the ceiling. He had no help this time, no sounding board for his ideas. The sounding board had kissed him.

And he had kissed back.

Suddenly the whole situation was bigger than just he and Beth. There was Josef to consider too. Mick leant against the wall and slid down into a crouch, holding his head in his hands as he tried to process. None of it made any sense. And what he needed most of all was some time to himself, to think things over. Josef's suggestion of leaving town for a while suddenly appeared to be a very desirable solution.

Josef. He was the single most heterosexual man Mick knew. In the decades they had known each other, he reckoned he could count on one hand the amount of times Josef had been seen without a beautiful woman on his arm. Every event he had ever been to involved drinking and a walking blood bank in a cocktail dress. But the kiss they had just shared told a different story. There was something behind it; some reaction of want and need. He had never known this kind of chemistry before - not with Coraline, and certainly not with Beth. Yet he had been in love with them, hadn't he? He was sure that he was in love with Beth right now. But it could not be denied. Josef had stirred something that had previously lain dormant within.

"Mick?"

He shot upright at the sound of his name, half expecting to find Josef standing in front of him. Instead it was Beth, hanging her head out of his apartment door like she'd heard her name being thought. The long blonde locks of her hair hung lazily in space as she waiting for his answer. He realized, with a stab of guilt, that although he'd intended to leave he had not actually done so. She stared at Mick uncertainly for a moment, trying to decipher the expression on his face. He looked older somehow, a combination of fear, confusion and happiness etched upon his timeless features. Slowly, she moved to stand in the hallway with him, hands fiddling nervously with the pocket of her jeans. It dawned on Mick that he had not answered.

"Hi. What are you doing here?" He gulped, and attempted to shift past her toward the door of his apartment. Try as he might, he could not inject any kind of surprise into his tone, and it sounded accusing. She noticed.

"I was waiting for you. You weren't answering my calls."

"I'm a little busy right now, Beth. Got some stuff I have to deal with." He knew he sounded dismissive, and wondered if her mind, as human female minds often were, was alert with a suspicion of infidelity. This time she wouldn't be far wrong. She looked for a second like she was going to protest, for she opened her mouth to speak, but apparently thought better of it. He could almost see her brain working to decipher the hidden meanings in his words as she considered offering to stay and help him deal with the 'stuff'. After what seemed like an age, she sighed and nodded.

"Okay. Call me later." Without waiting for an answer, Beth turned and walked away. The thought of this happening on a permanent basis felt like a stab in the chest, and Mick found himself quickly going back on his words. He flashed down the corridor and positioned himself in front of the elevator, blocking her exit.

She looked mildly shocked, but a demonstration of his speed was something she had seen before.

"Wait." He pleaded. "I'm sorry. Please don't go." Beth let Mick take her by the hand and lead her slowly back into the apartment. He was kissing her before they had made it through the door.

Soft, cautious kisses that quickly deepened with passion. Beth questioned for a second the motive Mick was keeping hidden by trying to distract her with romance. But she could smell the musky scent that was entirely his, and she could feel the muscles of his arms ripple beneath the thin jacket and t-shirt he was wearing. They continued to move backward, locked in an embrace, until Mick picked her up and placed her down again on the black suede sofa by the fireplace.

He traced the fingertips of one hand gently along the line of her jaw, allowing them to caress her neck as they made the descent toward the buttons of her blouse. With the other he swept her blonde curls back from her face, so that he could stare into the depths of her warm hazel eyes. Like an expert he removed them deftly from the holes, revealing the lacy pink bra Beth was wearing beneath. She moaned quietly into his lips, and taking that as instruction, Mick moved from her lips down to the hollow of her throat.

She had imagined this part before, and worried that once Mick felt her pulse quicken with desire, he would not be able to stop himself from clamping down on her artery. But this was not the case. If she had not have known his secret, she would have never suspected that Mick was anything more than a man, the care and attention he was taking. Following his lead, Beth began to work her hands underneath his t-shirt, pulling it up over his head in one swift movement. She ran her hands along his chest, feeling the muscles tense beneath her touch.

And then Mick was pulling back, retreating away from her, across the room. On the way he managed to pick up his t-shirt, and it was already back on by the time he reached the foot of his uncarpeted stairs. She could not see his face, but something about the way his shoulders heaved told Beth that he was on the verge of tears.

"What's wrong?" She asked, her voice coated with concern. Her body would not allow her to move; she wanted to get up and go to him, look him in the eyes, but her hands refused even to button up her blouse. So she stared, looking dumb, and waited for Mick to answer her question. Seconds stretched into minutes as he took deep breaths in and out in an attempt to control himself.

"You need to leave." He muttered, so quietly she wasn't even sure she had heard him correctly.

"What?"

"You need to leave." Mick repeated, louder this time, more sure of himself. He sounded devastated, and she wondered what she could have done to push him away so quickly, to allow him to close up like this. Beth found herself heading toward the door, her blouse still open, fighting back tears of her own. How could he be so hot one minute and so cold the next?

She paused for a moment to look back at him, hoping that he had turned at least to watch her leave. He hadn't.

"I don't understand." She said, well aware that he could hear her perfectly. "Was it something I did?"

Mick's shoulders heaved again, and she watched him raise a hand to scrub the tears away from his face. Finally he turned, strode across the room, and stared Beth straight in the eye. He allowed himself a fleeting caress of her hand before he spoke.

"No. Don't ever think that. This was nice while it lasted, Beth, but that's the problem. It can't last. You're going to die, and I'm not. You're going to get old, and frail, but I'm not. I'm stuck in this body until someone has the good grace to set me alight. And I can't expect you to stay with me anymore than you should expect me to stay with you. What we have is wrong, Beth. Can't you see that?"

She shook her head resolutely, and wiped a runaway tear from her eye.

"No, I can't see that. What I see when I look at you is safety. I see years together, just the two of us. I may not be ready for you to change me now, but I might be ready some day. You're saying you can't stay for someday? You don't love me enough for that?"

Mick took a deep breath, and stared Beth straight in the face, preparing for the first lie he had ever told her.

"I don't love you, Beth. You aren't like me. We're worlds apart. Generations apart. There was never a chance for us."

The blood in her veins ran sub-zero, and Mick died a little inside watching her physically shiver as he spoke. Subconsciously, she hugged herself, rubbing the tops of her arms as though a wintry gust had found its way into the room. He thought for a moment that he could feel it too; the fireplace did nothing to shift the frigidity of the atmosphere. He truly did not believe that they had no chance together, but he couldn't tell her that. It would give her hope. And now, she would leave this apartment, and if she came back tomorrow, the place would be empty. And if she tried to call, the phone would be disconnected. And all she would be left with were the memories.

"You're lying, Mick, but I don't understand why. You've always been a terrible liar." She grabbed the door handle behind her, and without another word, left him in the wake of his own devastation.

As the door shut, Mick realized that there was probably a better way he could have delivered the bad news, and was sorely tempted to stop her again at the elevator. But this time he let her go. If she hated him, so be it. He had been hated before. Maybe it would stop her from coming back around, searching for him when he was no longer here.

Resisting the urge to call Josef, he surveyed the apartment, mentally packing everything into boxes until the walls became bare. He still wasn't confident that he had done the right thing, but it was too late to back on his decision now. He was going to take Josef's advice, and leave. But would he be leaving alone?

The elder vampire was undoubtedly the best friend that Mick had ever had. If he ever went anywhere, then he would want to go with Josef. The kiss had changed things, and it was something he still didn't understand. People didn't just change their sexual preferences overnight. Josef didn't just change his mind about something like that overnight. There were too many questions that Mick didn't know the answer to. And the only person that did was waiting for him, he expected. He could imagine Josef now, sitting quietly at his desk, drink in hand, waiting. The thought was almost comforting. Standing, Mick listened at the door for a few seconds just in case Beth had not left yet. Of course, there was no-one waiting, and he felt a pang of guilt for even considering she would be hanging around after everything he'd said. Locking the door behind himself, he started out again, heading back across town.

If you have any suggestions for the plot, I'd love to hear them. You never know, they might turn up in the story later on!

Thanks again for your Alerts and Reviews.

Charlotte.