A/N: Takes place just before and after Guy Talk chapter 7, Crystal Beth

Josef and Sandrina were in bed with the papers when Josef's eye was caught by a small article that for him had big implications. "Oh, fuck me!" he said with feeling.

"Again?" Sandrina asked in a mock bored tone. She didn't look up from the section she was reading.

Josef smiled appreciatively but his mind was on the news. He thought for a moment then used his cell phone. He spoke fluent Japanese for a few minutes, ended the call and punched another number. Sandrina could hear both sides of the conversation so she knew he was talking to Mick. She and Josef had been seeing each other for two weeks when Josef arranged for Sandrina to meet his friends.

"I'm nervous," she admitted.

"You should be. Mick is a private eye and Beth was a reporter before working for me. They won't be able to resist grilling you. I'll try not to let it get out of hand but it may be a rough evening. They're very protective. No one is good enough for me."

He was so convincing that Sandrina believed him at first but then she caught on. "You overplayed your hand."

"Damn. I couldn't stop embellishing."

"What can I really expect?"

"They'll like you. I'll be lucky if they don't ditch me and be your friends instead."

It went very well. She liked them and thought they liked her too. Mick St. John was possibly the nicest man – nice in the best sense of the word – that she had ever met. And Beth – sharp and sweet, beautiful and tough – would be an excellent vampire eventually, if Sandrina was reading the signs right.

Sandrina and Mick talked medicine. He was a medic in WWII and was interested in her experience with medical school. Sandrina could tell that Josef and Mick were as close as brothers. The relationship between Josef and Beth was more than employer-employee or friends. It wasn't sexual although they both admired each other. Almost a kinship, perhaps like cousins.

They had all spent several evenings together and Sandrina and Beth had met without the men. Sandrina had been an only child and her health was frail. She wasn't inherently shy but circumstances had isolated her. She had looked forward to her debut at 18. She had no particular desire for marriage but friends would be welcome. Within a year consumption was diagnosed and five years later she would truly have died but for Henri. Five years after that Henri was gone and she was alone again. She had been cautious ever since. Sandrina had acquaintances and colleagues rather than friends and confidants.

Sandrina was listening with half an ear to Josef's conversation with Mick. She had heard about Black Crystal and about the Monaghan incident. Her attention was caught by Josef's lie. When the call ended she asked, "Why did you tell Mick you were in your freezer about to go to sleep?"

Josef glanced at the cozy scene with newspapers scattered around. "Mick doesn't need to know my domestic arrangements."

"Are you ashamed of doing something millions of humans are doing?"

"No. I just don't want Mick to find out. I don't need the grief he'll give me."

"I wish you were a paying patient. I could get rich untangling your psyche."

"You've been banging my brains loose for weeks. That should help with the untangling."

"It's not a traditional therapy but it seems to help you."

"It's mutually beneficial. I saved you from an eight-year dry spell."

"And I saved you from impotence."

"I wasn't impotent. I just preferred my own company for awhile."

"Until you met me. And I could have slept with a lot of men anytime in those eight years."

"But you didn't. You were waiting for me."

"You're insufferably cocky."

"Did you mean to say that? Because cock-y in this context ..."

"You're impossible."

"Impossible to resist."

"Unbearable."

Josef stripped off his sleep pants. "I'm bare now."

"You're incorrigible."

"... Okay, I've got nothing for that. You have to use words I can work with."

They were laughing at the silliness of it. Since Josef was already naked, Sandrina pulled her camisole up and over and Josef pulled her tap pants down and off. They melted into each other.

Later Sandrina asked, "Want to go to a freezer?"

"Except for the temperature, I'm too comfortable to move," Josef replied lazily. "I need a room freezer."

"You've got four freezer rooms," Sandrina said sleepily.

"Not a room with a freezer, a room that is a freezer." Josef was excited. "Why didn't I think of this before? A walk-in freezer big enough for a bed. I know a vamp in construction. I'll call him tomorrow."

Sandrina drifted off, thinking of Josef and his enthusiasm for the next big idea. She had known soon after meeting him that she was in love. She also recognized that the relationship was unlikely to endure. She knew his reputation with women. She hadn't expected him to be so easy to love. He was good looking and witty and charming and fun but his intellect had surprised her. There were rumors of his ruthlessness and yet he had good friends that liked him, not his money. She would miss Beth and Mick as well when it ended with Josef. But she would enjoy it while it lasted.