Disclaimer: FK is the property of James Parriott and Sony/Tristar, no copyright infringement intended Archiving: Any DP, Anita and Mel, all others please ask first Note: This is the 4th in my ‘Morning After’ series, check out the rest at http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/1228/maryficl.htm, they’re also in Tracy’s POV Note2: for those of you who read the other stories but need a refresher (it –has- been awhile) Tracy and Miklos have started to see each other, and when we left off in the last story, Tracy had just found out Nick’s being lying to her. Dirty Laundry By: Cousin Mary Miklos was quick to slip me out the Raven’s side door once Nick and Lacroix had retreated upstairs. He kisses me, then gives me a slightly searching look at my lack luster response. I know he wants to know what’s bothering me, but neither of us have time now and frankly, I don’t know what the hell to tell him. “Later,” I whisper, leaning up for one more kiss. This kiss I try to put my heart and soul into, let him know that no matter what’s going on with my lying, bastard of a partner, I’m not letting go of the best thing that’s come into my life in a long time. Miklos kisses me back with the same fierceness. I feel a little guilty, he doesn’t know why I’m suddenly all over the map emotionally, and he’s probably worried it’s because of him. I pull back, horrified to find I started crying while we were kissing. Crying! What the hell?! Too many emotions at once, I guess. I start to wipe the few tears that escaped away, but Miklos stops me and gently does it for me. He frowns down at me, obviously wanting to say something but not knowing what. I bite my bottom lip then look past him back into the club. Nick and Lacroix are still lurking somewhere in there… I wonder if Nick’s going to call in sick again. Heh, sick, yeah, he looked sick. “Come by after work,” I hear myself ask suddenly, I turn my eyes on Miklos who takes a step closer to me, “We should talk… about some things.” He looks worried and I silently curse my undead bastard partner yet again, “It’s nothing bad,” I rush to explain, then rethink that. It –is- bad, it’s just not really bad in a way that would affect us. I mean, it’ll affect ‘us’ in the sense of knowing what Nick is is going to change my life, but it shouldn’t affect Miklos and me, relationshipwise, badly. At least, I hope it doesn’t. I’m chewing on my lip, and Miklos is still frowning. I take a step back and then another. I’m halfway down the alley towards the street where I parked my car and I can’t look away from him. It’s like I’m afraid if I look away I’ll never see him again. I have no reason to think that, but there it is. For his part he’s still watching me like he’s thinking of chasing after me. Even from twenty feet away I can see the tenseness in his body, like he’s ready to follow. “I- I love you,” I whisper, a wave of shock crashing over me as I turn the corner to the street. I don’t look back at him to see his reaction, or even if he heard me. Of course, he’s a vampire, he had to of heard me! Oh God, I just told him I loved him. I run to my car and nearly peel out of the parking spot. I make the best time to the precinct ever. I walk stiffly up the steps. I mumble greetings to a desk sergeant who’s name for the life of me I can’t remember right now. Oh God in heaven and all the angels I just told a man I’ve known for two days that I’m in love with him. And I’m wearing the same panties two days in a row. Eww. I walk over to the coffee pot and pour myself half a cup. The coffee here is served at just a few degrees warmer than molten lava, and I need it now. I go to the water cooler and fill the rest of the cup with cold water. Then down it all. Watered down coffee is not good, watered down precinct coffee is truly one of the worst things that can happen to a tastebud. I cringe as a shudder of disgust rolls through me, Ugh! That stuff is bad! But at least I have that first jolt of caffeine working it’d way through me. I walk back to the coffee pot and fix a cup my normal way. I feel itchy. It’s probably all psychological, my clothes are one day old, they’re not –that- dirty. But never-the-less, the middle of my back feels like it’s broken out in hives. I go to my desk then, generally poking at the few pieces of paper that have found their way there since yesterday, but I’m not feeling any particular urge to do anything until Nick shows up. Nick. I close my eyes. Nick, how could I have forgotten? “You put it out of your head because you can’t deal with it, that’s why!” I mumble to myself. But I have to deal with it. How? How am I going to deal with it? I get up from my desk and start pacing. Luckily tonight the bullpen is pretty empty, only two other detectives are here and they’re way across the room. “They don’t care if I pace, hell, they probably don’t care if I talk to myself either,” I mumble. It’s about eight paces from my desk to the water cooler, two more to the coffee pot, that makes ten back to my desk, twelve if I go around to Nick’s. Nick. “Damn him!” I’m seriously mad, I can’t even think straight that’s how mad I am. I feel like if Nick were here now I’d hit him. Right in the face. Just pull back and Wham! let my fist fly! “Why didn’t he tell me?!” “He who? And what didn’t he tell you?” I spin around and there’s Nick. Suddenly all the wind is out of my sails and I don’t want to hit him, I don’t even know what to say to him. Hell, maybe I shouldn’t say anything at all? He might kill me if I know. Oh God! Nick’s looking a little concerned now, of course, my eyes are probably bugging out of my head with how hard I’m staring at him. A deer in headlights, that’s me. “Trace?” Oh yeah, he’s freaked. “Are you all right?” “Fine!” I answer too loud and too fast. Damn, nothing suspicious at all about that is there? I spin around and walk back to my desk, taking a seat with all the grace of a ton of bricks. “You feeling better?” I ask, God, why is my voice so loud? “You know, ‘cause you were sick?” That last bit came out in almost a whisper, so it’s like I think him calling in sick was a secret. A hysterical bubble of laughter escapes my throat and I clamp my hand hard over my mouth to stop anymore. Nick looks at me like I’m going insane, and let’s face it, I might be. “Excuse me,” I mumble before racing into the ladies’ room. I wash my face and try to calm down. I take a few deep breaths, look in the mirror and attempt to get my face into an expression other than ‘blind panic.’ After what I’m hoping was only a few minutes, but think I think it’s more like 20, I have steeled myself enough to face the world. I hope. I square my shoulders and walk back to my desk. Nick eyes me warily, “You okay?” “Yeah,” I give what I hope is a slightly embarrassed smile, “Ah, sorry about that. Little crazy in my personal life, I’ve got it under control now though.” He frowns at me, but there’s nothing he can really say. He mumbles something about ‘if I need to talk,’ but he doesn’t really mean it and even under normal circumstances I wouldn’t take him up on it. We go through the motions of work for a while, basically passing a few pieces of paper between our desks and skimming office memos. After an hour or so, Nat walks up and sits on the corner of Nick’s desk. He smiles up at her as she hands him the Damson report. “Hello detectives,” Nat flips open the file in front of Nick and points with her pen, “Sign there and, “She flips a page, “Initial here.” I’m not really paying any attention, but for some reason I look up. Nat’s staring at me with this odd look… “Isn’t that what you were wearing yesterday?” She asks, looking genuinely confused. I feel myself blush. Okay, there are only so many reasons a woman would were the same clothes two days in a row. One, she’s been working straight through and hasn’t gone home to change. Two, huge fire has destroyed her home and all her clothes. Three, she didn’t sleep at home last night. Well, I wasn’t working and I don’t play with matches… “I, uh, um.” I stammer, then blush some more. I watch Nick’s eyebrows go up as suddenly it dawns on him just what kind of craziness my personal life has acquired lately. He gives me a knowing look, and what do you know, that old familiar urge to hit him has returned. I have to fight myself hard not to at least glare at him. But all that’s wiped out of my head when I suddenly realize –why- Nat remembers that I was wearing this periwinkle turtleneck last night. Because she saw me pull down the neck to scratch the bite marks yesterday. Bite marks she knew very well were not spider bites. My eyes widen as I look from Nat to Nick and then back again. And she –knew- it was a bite mark because she knows what Nick is! I get the sudden urge to drag Nat into the ladies’ room and demand answers. She’s not a vampire too, is she? I eye her, but the jelly stain on her skirt pretty much means she’s not on a protein diet. So, she knows Nick’s a vampire. Knows I was bitten by one yesterday, but judging from the clueless look on my partner’s face, she hasn’t told him about that… yet. I glance at the clock, still five hours left on my shift. Damn! “I, uh,” I look back at Nick, “You know partner, I think I must have caught that bug you had last night… I’m not feelin’ too good.” You know, I was a top student in high school, graduated with honors from college, I should be able to come up with a solution to all this that doesn’t involve playing sick. But what do you know? I can’t. I quickly mumble through the required speech about my head aching and a possible fever, then shuffle my way past Nick and Nat, who aren’t buying this for a second, and make for the door. Well, so they think I’m sneaking off to see some hot, young stud. I wish I was, but even if I were, he’s not going to be off work for hours yet and that’s if he comes over at all. Damn. I slink out of the precinct like a beaten dog. It seems like my whole world is crumbling around me. Nat’s involved some way with vampires, but I’m not sure how. Nick, my untrusted partner, -is- a vampire who may or may not want me dead if he finds out I know. And to top it off I many have ruined my chances with my own undead boy toy by freaking out and telling him I love him after only two days and oh God what am I going to do? I drive to my apartment and trudge into the elevator. This day is not going well. I might get in trouble for leaving work early, but there was no case and the paperwork’s mostly caught up and my partner drinks the blood of the living so Reese really should cut me some slack! I glare at the numbers lighting up above the door, the elevator is much too slow. I could probably walk up the stairs twice as fast… but then, hey, what would I glare at? I sigh, feeling quite put upon and let myself into my apartment. The lights are out, but I get the feeling almost immediately that something’s not right. I pull my gun. It’s only about a half a step to the light switch, but that switch just turns on the light directly over the door. Effectively blinding me and giving whoever might be lying in wait further in a nice spotlight on who to kill. So, I crouch a bit and make my way to the kitchen lights. I don’t step so much as slide my feet forward and shift my weight. I’m nearly soundless, but the hairs on the back of my neck are standing straight up. I’m not alone. There’s a shadow against the far wall that’s never been there before, something or someone is over there. I flip the switch and point my gun. “Freeze!” Miklos is standing there, looking a bit amused and maybe a little relieved. I lower my gun as he raises his hands a bit and smiles. “What are you doing here?” I ask, my voice not so much ‘in-charge of a situation’ as ‘confused and maybe a bit slow on the uptake.’ He doesn’t say anything at first, just moves toward me. He takes normal steps, but if anything he moves even more silently than I did when I was –trying- to be stealthy. He comes to stand directly in front of me, and if he’d been anyone other than my sorta boyfriend I would have said he was too close. There’s such a thing as personal space and he is definitely in mine. He takes my gun, and I let him. I watch him put it on the counter. He next moves to my side, no, all the way around so he’s standing behind me, really close. I can feel the heat of him radiating. Maybe vampires aren’t as warm as us, but he’s more than room temperature that’s for sure. “You said to come,” He moves my hair aside and presses a kiss into the side of my throat. I nearly melt. “After work though,” I somehow manage to get out. “The Raven doesn’t close for hours.” Suddenly I realize he was here before I was. Meaning he left work even earlier than I did. He’s quiet for a while, as if trying to figure out how to say what he’s about to. “I needed to see you.” He says finally, then wraps his arms around me and just holds me. I lean back a moment before turning in his arms and burying myself in his not-so-warm chest. We still need to talk, but this seems much more important now. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Comments are welcomed at anteros@juno.com http://www.geocities.com/cousin_mary1228/