*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
FK Fanfic Archivers Note:

  Comments, questions, and feedback on this story can be sent
  to webmistress@fkfanfic.com, where they will be forwarded on
  to the author.  Thank you.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Dreams in TV Land
A Forever Knight short
by Cagey
April 1996

Legalese:  The characters of Forever Knight and Dark Shadows
do not belong to me, but no copyright infringement is
intended.  The story is mine, so please do not repost or
reprint without permission. 
 
Other fanfiction by Cagey may be found at
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/1263/


"Dreams in TV Land"

 
 
"Have you ever watched Dark Shadows?" 
 
"What?" 
 
"You know, Dark Shadows.  Barnabas Collins, Angelique, Julia 
Hoffman."  Natalie Lambert regarded her companion's arched 
brow with a grin.  "It was a soap opera in the late '60s and 70's. 
Great camp.  Surely you've seen it!" 
 
"I doubt it.  Tell me about it."  He pulled her back to the couch, 
his arm resting on her shoulder comfortably. 
 
"In 1795, Barnabas Collins loved Josette DuPres, daughter of a 
Caribbean businessman.  However, at the same time he had an 
affair with Josette's maid, Angelique.  Angelique was beautiful 
and French, but Barnabas was engaged to Josette, so he finally 
broke off the affair," Natalie explained, an odd tone in her 
voice. 
 
"Hmm," the man said noncommittally. 
 
"Unfortunately for Barnabas, Angelique was a witch.  She cast a 
spell on him, saying that he would never rest, for all eternity, 
and that anybody who loved him would die." 
 
"Hardly encouraging." 
 
"Hush.  Barnabas was then attacked by a bat, and became a 
vampire.  What are you muttering?  Oh, come on--it was 
daytime tv.  Anyway, when Josette realized what he had 
become, she ran away from him and fell off a cliff." 
 
"Why didn't he just fly and save her?" 
 
"Hush, I said.  So he had his father chain him into a coffin 
placed in the family mausoleum, where he stayed for one 
hundred seventy years, until a thief--Willie--looking for the 
reputed Collins family treasure found him and released him. 
Then he met a doctor, Julia Hoffman, who tried to find a cure 
for him." 
 
"Let me guess, she fell in love with him." 
 
"Didn't I tell you to be quiet?" she said, covering his mouth 
with a kiss.  He growled, low in his throat, and pulled her 
closer to him.  "Don't you want to hear more about the show?" 
she gasped as he ran his fingers down her spine and she arched 
her back towards him. 
 
"No," he said succinctly. 
 
***** 
 
She was in a cemetery.  That was peculiar.  Natalie had spent 
a lot of time around dead bodies, but generally not in 
cemeteries.  Before her stood a mausoleum, with a heavy wrought- 
iron gate.  In the intricate metalwork was scrawled the name 
"Collins." 
 
Ah, a dream.  It had been a while since she had been this aware 
of a dream.  Well, she would enjoy it.  She stepped forward and 
pushed open the doors, moving through the low doorway to an 
inner room.  In the middle of the floor lay a coffin, heavily 
wrapped in chains.  She started to move towards it, when she 
heard a sound behind her and whirled around. 
 
"Screed!  What are you doing here?" 
 
The lanky vampire twitched a nose at her in a decidedly mousy 
fashion.  "Lookin' for treasure, ain I?"  He jerked his chin 
at the coffin.  "You gonna open it?" 
 
Natalie looked at him dubiously.  "Aren't you supposed to do 
it?" 
 
Just then, a noise came from inside the coffin--a slight tapping 
on wood.  "Hey," said a voice which sounded suspiciously like 
Nick's plaintively.  "Let me out of here." 
 
Screed shook his head.  "What would I want with him?"  He 
looked through another doorway into a dark room beyond 
them.  "Bet there's some good food in there," he said as he 
moved on, eyeing the corners of the room carefully as he went. 
For a moment Natalie was startled when she realized that the 
dead vampire (dead undead? she mused) had grown whiskers, but 
shrugged since it was her dream. 
 
"Nat?" asked the coffin.  No, Nick, in the coffin, she reminded 
herself. 
 
"Just a minute Nick," she said distractedly, trying to see where 
Screed had disappeared to.  She saw the flash of a tail out of 
the corner of her eye, but then it was gone. 
 
When she looked back at the coffin, Janette was lounging on 
top of it.  She was exquisitely dressed, her appearance accented 
with finely polished nails and wicked high heels.  The only thing 
which marred the picture was the fact that her hair was arranged in 
two enormous sausage curls, one on each side of her otherwise 
regal face. 
 
"Let me guess," Nat said somberly, trying not to giggle.  "You're 
Angelique." 
 
"It's your dream," Janette shrugged.  "I do wish that you would 
do something about this dreadful hair, though." 
 
Nat grinned, then did a Samantha-like blink.  Sure enough, 
Janette's hair had transformed to its normally well-coifed 
state. 
 
"Hey, is that you Janette?" Nick asked from inside the pine box. 
"Let me out." 
 
Janette ignored the plea.  "So what am *I* doing here?" she 
addressed Nat. 
 
Natalie shrugged.  "Maybe you are supposed to put a curse on 
him?" she suggested helpfully. 
 
Janette smiled lethally.  "Nicholas needs no help from me in 
making his life a living hell.  If anything, he is dangerous to 
others."  She surveyed the bare room disdainfully.  "Can't you 
dream about anything more interesting?  Or at least something 
with better furniture?"  She slapped her hand on the coffin, 
both to illustrate her complaint and to startle Nick into 
stopping his continual pounding from within the box. 
 
Natalie felt herself growing annoyed.  This was *her* dream, 
dammit.  What was Janette doing here? 
 
"Nat?  Janette?" 
 
"Oh, shut up," they both snapped. 
 
Natalie's face softened.  Of course, Janette was in her dream 
because she had been thinking about the vampire for the last 
few days.  Both of them had unresolved issues with Nick, and 
Natalie had wondered how Janette was doing. 
 
Dreams were odd things.  Here she and Janette were, with 
Nick in the perfect position to actually stay and listen to what 
they had to say to him...but Nat realized that she did not really 
want to worry about it.  What good would it do?  It would be 
like talking to a brick wall. 
 
"Shall we go find something more interesting to do?" she asked 
Janette, holding an arm out to indicate the open door 
beckoning to them.  Janette smiled, and wove her arm through 
Natalie's. 
 
"Yes, let us go," she said. 
 
"Hey?  Is somebody going to let me out of here?" a voice wailed 
behind them in the distance. 
 
 
****** 
 
She awoke reluctantly, knowing that pale sunlight still streamed 
behind the tightly shuttered windows.  She turned a little, and 
flung an arm around her companion.  "Hey," she mumbled into his 
bare back.  "I think Janette's going to come by for a visit soon." 
 
"Huh?" he asked sleepily, rolling to face her.  "Why do you say 
that?" 
 
"I had a dream about it." 
 
He kissed her gently and closed his eyes again, but she after a 
moment she said, "Lucien, do you ever feel guilty about Nick?" 
 
His eyes opened reluctantly and he groaned mildly.  "Guilty? 
Me?"  He looked at her seriously for a moment.  "Nicholas 
made his choices.  He even made a few for you."  He traced his 
finger along her lips.  "Luckily some of his choices could be 
undone." 
 
She smiled, then nipped at his finger with her fangs. 
 
"Were you dreaming about Nicholas?" he asked seriously. 
 
"Actually, I was dreaming about Dark Shadows," she admitted, 
and got the expected arched eyebrow in return. 
 
"Oh really?" 
 
She nodded.  "Nick was Barnabas, Screed was Willie, and 
Janette was Angelique." 
 
"And was I in your dream?" 
 
"Actually," she said thoughtfully, "there was this guy named 
Nicholas Blair in the old show.  A warlock.  Very powerful." 
She pulled him closer.  "And damned sexy." 
 
"Ah," he smiled. 
 
  
*end*