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Chapter 6 Love Lasts Forever: Comfort offered

Mick left the club and Kira couldn't shake Beth from her thoughts. She was fond of the human and her heart ached for what Beth would be going through. Knowing how conflicted Beth had been when she returned from New York, Kira was sure she would be suffering now. Beth shouldn't be alone.

When she parked outside Beth's building, Kira could see the lights were still on inside. Hurrying inside, she paused outside the door, listening carefully. She could hear soft sobbing from inside the apartment and feel the sorrow that hung in the room. Kira knocked softly, trying not to disturb the neighbors.

"Go away Mick," Beth's muffled voice reached her.

"It's not Mick. It's Kira," she answered back in a low voice.

For a few moments she thought Beth would tell her to leave as well. Then she heard the sound of shuffling footsteps approaching the door and moments later it swung inward. Beth stood there with hollow, red eyes; her body slumped like a beaten animal.

Kira's heart went out to her friend and she opened her arms, inviting Beth in. The blonde let out a small sob and hurried into the other woman's embrace. Kira held her close, rocking her slightly and then slowly walked her into the apartment, closing the door behind them. She was about two inches taller than Beth and she rested her cheek against the reporter's hair as the young woman sobbed.

"Let's sit down Beth," she said and gently ushered her over to the couch. Beth sank down with her face in her hands.

"Josh is dead. I can't believe he's really gone," she mumbled. She hugged herself as tears traced their way down her cheeks.

Kira slid her arm around Beth's shoulder as she sat next to her. She hugged her gently.

"I'm so sorry Beth," she said sympathetically. "I know you cared a great deal for him."

"They shot him Kira. Right before my eyes, I saw him hit. There was so much blood," Beth said looking at Kira with desolation in her eyes.

"I am sorry," Kira repeated. "I wish I could take your pain away."

Beth stiffened at her words and her expression hardened.

"Mick could have saved him."

"You mean turned him."

"Yes. Josh would still be here," Beth said heatedly.

Kira closed her eyes briefly and sighed. This was becoming difficult.

"Beth, making Josh a vampire would not have been saving him. You know how Mick feels about what he is. He could not do that to Josh," Kira stated quietly.

"Not even for me? He just let Josh die," Beth sobbed, anger and pain mixing in her voice.

"Mick tried to save him. You know that Beth. Josh had no idea that vampires exist and to wake up as one would have been too great a shock."

"Josh wanted to live," Beth insisted.

"But not as one of us," Kira said firmly. "Becoming a vampire must be a person's choice. You've seen what not choosing has done to Mick."

"Do you hate what you are?" Beth asked bluntly. Her eyes still glowed with anger. "You told me Josef didn't ask you before he turned you."

Kira truly wished she hadn't told Beth that part of her history. Josef hadn't explained what he was doing before turning her but she had suspected his true nature and she had no objection to being turned. With her beloved husband dead and having to live under her mother-in-law's iron rule, Kira accepted the change and embraced her new existence. Her turning was nothing like Mick's.

"The difference is I knew or at least suspected what Josef was. I didn't mind being turned, in fact I relished it," Kira tried to explain. "I like being a vampire."

"Mick said that even if it were me dying, he wouldn't turn me," Beth told her painfully.

So that was what was truly behind Beth's anger. Kira could see how that hurt the blonde, she had lost Josh and then Mick all but tells her he wouldn't save her if she were dying. Beth's guilt had to be tearing her to pieces as she mourned Josh. It had been clear to Kira that Beth had been pulling away from her boyfriend as her attraction to Mick grew and it must have stung to have Mick say he wouldn't do everything in his power to save her if she were dying. Kira felt profound pity for her friend and hugged her close.

"Beth, listen to me. Mick has always worried about involving you in our world. He is confused about his own existence and to bring a human he cares about into it scares him. And he does care for you, he has watched over you for twenty two years. I can tell you that he really doesn't know what he would do if anything happened to you," she said kindly.

Caught up in her pain to really hear what Kira was saying, Beth pulled away. Her grief wrapped tightly around her heart and her only focus was that Josh was gone and she hadn't been able to save him. She had failed to convince Mick to turn him; she had failed the man she was supposed to love. And then Mick had in essence refused her as well. She shook her head at Kira.

"No, he doesn't care. He made that very clear. Please leave Kira, I want to be alone," she said firmly.

"Beth, you shouldn't be alone," Kira countered.

"I know what I want," Beth snapped, getting up and going to the window. "Go back to your world where I am not welcome. I'm tired."

Kira rose, a look of hurt in her green eyes. Mick had been right; Beth was in no mood to be around vampires tonight. She needed time to heal and for her anger to cool.

"All right Beth, I'll go," she said in a low voice. "You need time; I understand what you're feeling."

"You can't understand," Beth said without thinking.

"It may have been a hundred years or so but I remember the pain of losing a husband," Kira said with a catch in her voice. "You aren't alone in this Beth."

Dully Beth realized she wasn't being fair to Kira. She knew how Kira had lost her young husband and that it was a memory whose pain had never gone away.

"Sorry," she mumbled and her eyes fell on the album of photos of her and Josh. A fresh wave of grief washed over her and she picked it up, cradling it against her chest. Tears started tracking down her face again. Kira knew that Beth was beyond listening to anything more tonight. She hurt for her friend but knew Beth was strong, she just needed time.

"Call me if you need me Beth," she said and left her with her memories.

*****

The Mortal Cure: Surprises

The buzzer caused Kira to look up at her monitor a night or so later. She could see Eli standing by the bar with a subdued Beth at his side. Kira signaled to him to send her back and went to meet her at the door. Beth entered the room hesitantly, her eyes full of apology as she went to the couch and sat clutching her bag.

"I'm so sorry Kira," she said in a low voice.

"Don't worry about it Beth. I know that you were grieving and I do understand," Kira replied kindly. She shut the door and joined her. She settled in a chair and looked at her friend sympathetically. "How are you Beth?"

"I'm doing better," Beth answered. "I've done a lot of thinking and I've learned some things that have altered my point of view."

"I knew you would see things clearer when you had time to think."

Beth leaned forward and looked at Kira earnestly.

"First let me say how much I regret what I said to you the other night. I wasn't thinking about your husband. I couldn't get past my own hurt," she apologized. "I was wrong."

"I do understand Beth. I'm sorry I wasn't able to give you the comfort you needed."

"I know I was wrong to ask Mick to turn Josh. He would not have wanted to be a vampire. It was selfish of me, especially since I don't know if I loved him enough to stay with him," Beth confessed guiltily.

"Oh?"

"I learned that Josh was going to ask me to marry him."

"Oh Beth, really? How do you know that?" Kira said in surprise.

"I met with the jeweler who reset his grandmother's stone," Beth said.

"What a surprise for you. What would you have done?"

"I don't think I could have said yes. At least I don't think so. I'm so confused," Beth said quietly.

"I think you need to let Mick know that you've forgiven him," Kira advised her.

"I all ready have. I was just at his place," Beth said. "He is…….uh, we are fine. He understood, Mick always understands."

"Of course he does. Beth, I told you he cares," Kira told her. "I'm glad you talked."

Beth looked uncomfortable and Kira picked up on her discomfort immediately.

"Is something else wrong Beth?"

"While I was there, apologizing and explaining about the ring, Mick got a visitor." Beth got to her feet and went over to the monitors. She hugged herself, feeling all the awkwardness of that moment all over again.

"Beth….." Kira prompted.

"Coraline stopped by. She was all over Mick," Beth said in disappointment.

Kira nodded, not surprised in the least.

"So she's decided to come out of the shadows, has she?" Kira commented dryly.

End chapter.

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