Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 12:17:05 GMT-400 From: POWERS D "Alter Ego" by D. L. Powers "Nick, are you okay?" Natalie asked, as Nick pulled up a chair beside her work bench. He looked like he aged twenty years. And she knew that was impossible. "I am dead on my feet." There was pause as the two contemplated the pun. Natalie finally cracked a forced smile, and turned back to her work. Nick hardly realized he even made a joke. "What's the matter?" "I haven't had a decent days sleep in weeks." "Have you tried warm milk?" "Ewww." Nick wrinkled his nose, half-heartedly. "I see. Well, maybe warm blood." "I don't think it works the same way." "Well, I could give you a sedative." "A sedative? Nat, what are you thinking? What, it's only been three years, have you forgotten already that I'm a supernatural freak of nature?" "My, aren't we in a grumpy mood. I am well aware of your condition. I was thinking of maybe a weak poison, or maybe some souvlaki. The garlic should put you right out in no time." "Thanks for your opinion. Do you think it would work?" "How desperate are you?" "I was thinking of talking to LaCroix..." "I'll stop by today, and we'll try a few things." "Do you dream, Nick?" Natalie measured out bit of poison, mixed secretly with trace amounts of garlic. "Sure, I guess. Why?" "Oh, no reason, I was just ruling out nightmares." "Nightmares?" "Yeah, I was thinking maybe you are trying to stay awake because of unpleasant dreams." "I don't remember." "Oh, come on, you can tell me. Doctors are sworn to secrecy of their patients private life." "I used to dream, before, but now, I just don't remember." "Probably stress," Natalie murmured. "What?" "Oh, nothing. Here, roll up your sleeve." Natalie injected the garlic laced poison, and watched for initial signs of sleep. "How do you feel?" "Hmmm?" Nick's eyes focused on thin air, and then on nothing. He closed his eyes and was out for the count. * * * "Oh, Nick, you're awake, thank god!" "What time is it?" "Almost noon." "NOON!" Nick sat up and leapt off the bed. Dashing around the room, flinging clothes about, he chose a decent outfit and proceeded to dress. When he focused on the woman in the room, he paused. "Jess, you look positively worn out." "The doctors were here for a few days. They said you were in a coma, or something. I thought you were going to die. They said there was nothing for them to do for you unless you woke up." "How long was I asleep?" "Almost three weeks, in and out. Even when you were unconscious, you ate the broth I made. Sometimes you were almost conscious." "I'm awake now, and I FEEL like I slept for three weeks. I won't be going to sleep again for a while. It's okay Jess." Jess snuggled against him. "I've got to get back to work." Nick entered the bank at fifteen minutes to close. Inconspicuously, he walked over to the vacant tellers booth. A young man approached and asked if there was anything he could do for him. "There certainly is sonny." Nick pulled his gun out of his jacket and pointed it at the teller. "You can march right over there and fill one of them bags right up with money and hand it over." The teller's eyes widened and his hand went up. "Put your hands down, but keep 'em where I can see 'em." Nick glanced around to see if anyone noticed. The whole bank was empty. A few minutes later, the teller brought the bag over to him. "Thank you, sonny." Nick grabbed the bag and was out the door before the teller could even say 'have a nice day'. "Wheee!" Jess flung the wads of money up into the air and they fell down on her head. "You ain't never goin' to be poor as long as I'm alive." Nick protectively wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "And we both know I'm not gonna die anytime soon." "Oh, Nick, that's sweet of you, to think of me that way." Nick roughly pulled Jess down onto the bed with him and buried his face in her hair. * * * Nick opened his eyes, slowly. Nat was sitting on the chair, watching him. She sat up when she saw he was conscious. "Nick, you're awake, thank god." "How long..." he paused, waiting for the deja vu to pass. "How long was I out?" "Twenty-four hours." "That all?" "That's a pretty damn long nap." Natalie moved over to sit beside him on the couch. She flashed a light in his eye before he knew it. He grabbed it from her, irritably. "Reflexes normal. What did you dream?" "Nothing." "Of course you did. You talk in your sleep you know." "What did I say?" He asked nervously. "Well, I couldn't make out most of it, but it sounded like you were talking to someone named Jess." "Okay, so I did have a dream. It was so real too. I think Jess was my wife." Natalie raised an eyebrow. "I was different too, I could actually go out in the sun. But, when I did, I robbed a bank." "You robbed a bank?" Natalie stood up and walked around the chair, to stretch her legs. "Yeah, I..." "You what?" Natalie looked over and saw that Nick was sleeping again. "Oh, man, he went from being an insomniac to being narcoleptic. What did I do?" * * * "Jess, there are better, and DRIER ways of waking me up." Nick was sitting in bed with wet blankets over him. Jess, panicked, had poured a jug of water over his head to wake him. Jess guiltily held the jug in her hand, and looked ashamed. She went over and started to dry him of with a towel. "I'm sorry Nick, but you looked dead." "And this is magical water that wakes the dead?" He smiled at her confusion. "Did you try calling my name?" "Oh, Nick, I never thought..." "It's okay, I'm awake now. Today's a good day to be movin' on I think. Where would you like to go?" "I want to go south, to New Orleans." "Good choice." Nick stared at the scenery going by. The train was carrying them to Atlanta, and from there, they could get to New Orleans without being bothered. "Tickets?" Nick glanced up at the conductor. He loomed over him, almost threateningly. "Tickets?" "Yeah, just a minute." Nick dug through his pocket, forgetting where he had put them. Not in his pocket, he flipped through the papers in his attach,. "Jess, where did you put the tickets?" Jess was daydreaming, as they passed a small lake, and didn't respond. "Jess?" She snapped her head up. "What?" "Where are the tickets?" He discretely nodded toward the conductor. He glared at them both. "Oh, I think..." she dug through her little purse, coming up empty handed. "I thought you had them." "I thought you did." They both looked up at the conductor, smiling foolishly. "I think we lost them." "I'm going to have to ask you to come with me." The conductor said. "Wait, I remember," Jess said suddenly, as the conductor was lifting Nick up by the arm. Nick's now pale face relaxed some. "I put them in the suitcase." She stood up to reach for it over her head. The conductor looked suspiciously at her, but she produced the tickets and he was forced to leave them alone. "Jess," Nick said slowly, "Do you know how close we were to being caught?" "No. But I have a feeling you're going to tell me." "Give me the tickets." He stuffed them in his attach,, where they would be safe. "They had tickets?" The federal marshal asked the conductor. "Were they good?" "Yeah, they're good all the way to Atlanta." "Hmmm, I guess I'll just have to be sneaky." The conductor was dismissed, in a way he wasn't particularly pleased about. "Nobody out-matches Sheriff Schanke." * * * "Uh, Captain," Natalie said into the phone, "Nick won't be into work today, he's..." She hung up the phone. "No, that's not going to work. She picked up the phone again, "Captain..." "Natalie?" She was surprised to hear a voice on the other end of the phone. "What are you doing at Nick's? And how did you know it was me, I didn't say anything." "Uh," Natalie thought frantically, "Nick has one of those phones that shows the number." "Right, well, where is Nick? He was supposed to meet Schanke an hour ago." "Well, Nick won't be able to make it I'm afraid." "Why not?" "He's asleep." "Well, try waking him up." "I did, but you don't know how grumpy he gets when he just wakes up. He might accidently shoot someone, or worse, on purpose..." "Nick is a professional, Natalie. Let me talk to him." "Uh, Captain, Nick can't come to the phone right now he's..." a vampire with a sleeping disorder "...sick. His doctor told him to get lots of rest and I was just here to bring him some chicken soup." "Why didn't you say so to begin with?" "Well, Nick's kinda sensitive about who knows about his illnesses. No one else knows right?" "Okay, Nat, I'll make an excuse to Schanke." "Thanks Captain." Natalie hung up the phone, and went to check on Nick again. He stirred as she approached. "Nat?" "Nick, you're awake, great. Did you have the same dream? Never mind, here, have some coffee. Stay awake." "No thanks, I'll just have some..." he stumbled toward the fridge, not making it. He hit the floor without a sound and was asleep again. * * * Nick dozed, but didn't sleep. He knew there was something strange about this train, and he wasn't taking any chances by sleeping through a raid. Looking up once, he saw Jess sitting across from him, but when he looked up again, she was gone. "Jess?" He looked around, but she was no where to be seen. He stood and went up the car he was in. She wasn't in the next car, or the next. He bumped into the conductor, inducing a large grunt from him. "Sorry. Have you seen..." "Watch where you're going!" "I said I was sorry. I was wondering if you might have seen my wife? I can't find her." "Try one car up. I think I saw her there." "Thanks," Nick carefully passed, not making physical contact with him. He was suspicious about the strange smile he was showing though. The next car was empty. No passengers were in the seats, except for two in the front row. The woman had Jess's black hair, and she was sitting very still. The man had his arm around her shoulders. "Jess?" Slowly, she turned her head toward him. She was crying. "Jess what's wrong, has he hurt you?" Nick walked angrily toward the front of the car. "No, Nick, go back, it's a trick..." the man pushed her away from him and suddenly there was a gun pointed at Nick's head. "Well 'Nick' I finally caught you. Thought you could keep your little secret forever?" Nick didn't move or say anything. He just looked at Jess, who sat very still in the corner. They communicated through that look. Very quickly, Jess was on her feet and tackling the marshal. Nick went forward, and a loud report was heard by the conductor two cars down. Running to the first car, he saw Jess leaning over Nick, sobbing loudly, and the marshal was standing over them. "Is there a doctor on this train?" * * * Nick woke with a jolt, he was on the floor, surrounded by soft pillows and blankets. Natalie was leaning over him. "Jess?" he mumbled. "Nick, do you know who you are?" "Nick Knight, Metro Homicide Detective..." "Good enough. Do you know where you are?" "I think I'm on the floor." "Well, that's only because I couldn't get you to the couch, so I brought some blankets over here, and..." "Jess, stop it." He tried to sit up, and was semi- successful. Natalie helped him get to the couch." "Nick, it's Natalie. Your doctor. Don't you remember?" "You're not Jess." He looked at her, confused for a moment. "No, I'm not. Who am I?" "Nat, I know who you are." "Good, do you what you are?" "Besides a detective?" Natalie looked at him carefully. "Don't worry Nat, I know how old I am." "How old?" Natalie was ever-suspicious. "Twenty four." He smiled at her. "In vampire years." "Great, how do you feel?" "Like I just slept through the 'hundred years' war." "It's only been two days, with a few minutes of consciousness in between. I told the Captain you were sick, and wouldn't be in for a few days." "Good, there are a few things I'd like to do first anyway." * * * Nick woke up in a tiny room, with a little sunlight coming in a tiny window. He saw the sun, and tried to move out of it's path, out of habit. However, he discovered that he was unable to move a finger. In horror, he watched the sun creep up over the top of the bed and it caressed the blankets on the bed. But the horror diminished as he realized there was no pain accompanying the light. He looked around the room. It looked like an old hospital, right out of one of his vivid memory flashes. A woman walked in, wearing a long dress, and a paper nurses cap. She smiled. "Hello. And how are we today?" "What happened? Where am I? Why can't I move?" "Well, sir, you know your spine was shattered in that shooting. You're in a mental hospital. It's the only one where there's any security. Besides, you'll be close to your wife here." "My wife?" "Jessica. She is allowed to come in and visit once a week. If the doctors think it's okay. She's not really well you know, in her head I mean." The sun began to move closer to Nick's face. He could feel the heat of it on his hands, and they started to turn red and blister. "Close the curtains," Nick ordered, moving his hands, slowly out of the beam of light. His hands felt strangly numb, and they didn't move as quick as they used to. The nurse looked curiously at the phenomenon, but simply moved to window and closed the curtains, plunging them into darkness. The blistering stopped and Nick tried to flex his hands, not being very successful. "Where's Natalie. I want to talk to Dr. Lambert." "Who? There's no Dr. Lambert at this hospital." "Natalie Lambert. She's a medical doctor in Toronto. I'm a homicide detective from there." "Homicide?" "Call them up. They can confirm this. I'm telling you the truth. Just call them." "Calm down sir, there's no Dr. Lambert. We have our own doctors here and they are quite capable of taking care of you." "Oh really? Can you explain what happened to my hands, why the sun caused them to burn?" "No, actually, I don't really understand..." "It's because I'm a vampire." Nick looked intensely at her. "I think you should call Toronto now and have them look for a Dr. Lambert." "I think you need to eat something, and then, I'll call Dr. Richard. He'll take care of you." The nurse stopped talking and wheeled afood tray up to his bed, and prepared to feed it to him. Nick blanched at the sight of mortal food. * * * "Man, I love being a cop," Nick said to Janette. They were in the back room with plenty of privacy. Nick plucked absently at her dress. She purred, encouraging him. "Oh, why is that?" She rolled her fingers through his hair. "It means that I can do anything I want to and get away with it. And being a vampire only enhances those privileges." "I'm sure LaCroix will be more than pleased to hear of this change in attitude. Let's tell him." "Let's do it later, I'm busy." Nick felt the sensation of blood lust and fangs protruding as if for the first time, and it may have been. He never wanted it to end. The end....