Date:         Thu, 15 Aug 1996 18:26:44 -0400

Disclaimers: The characters in this work are not my own,
they belong to JP & TPTB. I borrowed them to play with for a
while, but I will give them back when I am finished.

There are spoilers for "Ashes to Ashes" and "Last Knight" in
this story. I have assumed that you have seen these episodes
in writing this story. It has been a while since I have
watched these episodes, so if some of the dialog seems to be
off...what can I say, this is fanfic ;)

This work is a sequel to "Choices of the Heart" and
"Revelations" You will probably want to read "Choices" and
"Revelations" before you read this since it continues the
story line. If you need a copy of "Choices of the Heart" or
"Reflections" they available from the FK fanfic WWW site
(thanks Mel!):
     URL http://www.clark.net/pub/moser/fkfanfic.htm
     or feel free to request the stories from me via E-mail
                at Charlyne@fiu.edu.

I would like to thank my beta readers, April, Denise, Kira
and Tim. Thanks for your help!

New Beginnings (1/3)
     by Charlyne L. Walker


<Tracy's apartment after her shift>

Tracy stood up from the couch and closed the blinds to block
out the rising sun. She had been sitting on the couch ever
since she arrived home at the end of her shift. There were
so many confusing thoughts and questions running through her
mind and she did not have an answer for any of them. It had
been quite a night, it is not every day that you find out
that your partner is an 800 year old knight of the crusades
and a vampire.

She was glad that Javier had not put in an appearance. He,
or specifically a relationship with him, was one of the
things that kept her mind occupied tonight.

Tracy lay in bed tossing and turning. She was glad that
Nick's secret was out in the open. At least she wouldn't
have to keep "protecting" him from the stranger elements of
their cases. This train of thought brought their new case to
the forefront of her thoughts. The evidence sounded like a
vampire could be involved. If it was a vampire, it was one
that didn't seem to care about mortals finding out about his
or her existence. Tracy decided to put all of these thoughts
on hold and get some rest...'I have a feeling that tomorrow
is going to be an interesting day' she thought as she rolled
over and closed her eyes.

<Tracy's apartment, as she is getting ready for work>

Tracy had been pondering the possibilities that lay before
her in her relationship with Vachon. She was sure that she
wanted to be involved with him, but did she really wish to
be a vampire? There were certain advantages to be had for
her job, it could be very useful to be unaffected by bullets
and to be able to move faster than any human could. She
thought of Nick and the "miraculous" way that he seemed to
be able to catch perps. Thinking about Nick brought up
another line of thought that he had placed in her mind.

      'Nick clearly believes that vampires are evil. Not
just some vampires, but all vampires.' she thought to
herself. The real question was not about what she would gain
by becoming a vampire but what she might lose. The choice
had eternal repercussions and challenged her faith and her
beliefs in the afterlife. Could vampires really be purely
evil or were they much more like their mortal counterparts,
some evil and some good? What do you define as a "good"
vampire? While pondering these questions, she made herself a
cup of tea to go with her breakfast. Just as she was ready
to turn from the stove and sit at her small breakfast table
she felt someone behind her. She turned quickly and wound up
in Javier's arms.

"Why do you do that to me?" she asked him, for what must
have been the one millionth time.

"Because I can" he replied and gave her his whimsical, little
boy lost smile as he released his hold on her.

Tracy turned to pick up her tea cup and then headed for her
breakfast sitting on the table.

"So, did 'ja miss me, Detective Vetter?" Javier asked as he
sat down next to her.

Tracy grinned and said with an offhand air and replied
"maybe." Then she broke into a large smile. She began to eat
her breakfast. "Have you heard about any of your kind openly
killing mortals and leaving them for the police to find?"

"Someone left a body behind?" he said with a note of
incredulity in his voice. "No, no one that I know of. We are
usually very careful about cleaning up after ourselves."
Javier said as he looked into her eyes. "Our version of law
enforcement officers will not allow someone in the community
to draw that kind of attention to us."

"So, what happens when one of the 'community' does something
like this?"

"If it is a new vampire or it is a one time, ...indiscretion,
they are warned and told to leave town. If a member of the
community turns rogue, the enforcers take care of them."

"Does that happen very often, a vampire turning rogue I mean?"

"Not very often, but some cannot adjust to the changes
becoming a vampire brings to your life. Some get lost in the
power. They forget there are rules and some really
frightening vampires that enforce those rules. Others go mad
from grief caused by watching the mortals around them die.
Sometimes you just get bored with living forever, plain and
simple. After centuries of living very few things are new."

As Tracy got ready to ask her next question, her beeper went
off. She checked the number and then called into dispatch.
"Yes. I understand. I'll meet him there." she said just
before she hung up.

"I have to meet Nick at a crime scene. Another body, missing
blood, with a wound on the neck, was found a short time ago.
You are welcome to stay for however long you want" she said
turning to Vachon.  'And you're welcome to be here when I get
home' she thought to herself.

"I have some things I need to take care of tonight, but I'll
spend the day here tomorrow if you don't mind."

"Great. I'll see you when I get home then."

"Tracy....be careful." he said as he leaned over to give her
a kiss and then took off.

Tracy stood still for a few minutes, relishing in the kiss
and the fact that he cared enough to tell her to be careful.
She then put her breakfast dishes in the sink and got ready
to leave.

<later, at the new crime scene>

Tracy walked up to Natalie and Nick just as the coroner was
about to give her preliminary findings. "TOD appears to be
right after sunset. Same MO as before, most of the blood
seems to have been drained and the victim killed at another
location and then brought here. No signs of a struggle and
as far as I can tell. No additional bruising or wounds
beyond the fatal one. I'll know more when I'm able to do a
full examination."

"Thanks Nat" Nick said as she gathered her crime scene kit
together and prepared to leave. Turning to Tracy, Nick
brought her up to speed on what he had found out from the
reporting officer. "A couple out for a late night stroll
called this one in. They didn't see or hear anything that
would help pinpoint a suspect. The assumption is that the
victim knew her assailant and didn't have her guard up when
she was attacked."

Tracy and Nick thoroughly examined the crime scene and
questioned the couple that had found the body. When they had
gathered all they could at the crime scene, they decided to
return to the precinct to find out what they could about the
victim.

<Precinct Building>

"I can't seem to find any connection between the victims,
Nick. They have nothing in common."

"They probably had one thing in common, the person that
killed them. Did you check the profiles of the victims
against the unsolved cases matching this MO?"

"I've pulled the unsolved list, but do you think we are going
to find the killer in those?" she said, giving him a pointed
look.

"It is worth a try. We might also be able to determine a
pattern assuming the killer has done this before in another
city."

Tracy followed the paper trail in the unsolved cases files
and Nick followed up on some leads for another open case for
the remainder of the evening. About an hour before they were
to go off shift, a call came in that another body matching
their perps MO was found. They went out to the new murder
scene and found the circumstances much the same as the
previous murders. Tracy sent Nick home when it became
apparent that they would not be finished before the sunrise.
After she finished the on-scene paper work, Tracy decided to
radio in and book off. Tomorrow was another day in which to
write the field report on the newest case and, if it was a
vampire, nothing would happen between now and sunset.

When Tracy arrived home, she found that Javier had been
busy. He had the shades drawn against the sun and had set
out some things for her breakfast.

She saw that Javier was asleep on her bed when she went in
to change her clothes. He heard her moving around the room
and opened his eyes. "Welcome home. I'm sorry I fell asleep
on you" he said.

"I'm sorry I was so late. There was another body found just
before my shift ended. The paperwork took longer than usual
since I sent Nick home because it was so close to sunrise."

"I'll get up and join you while you eat." he said as he rose
from the bed.

They talked about her evening as she ate her meal. After she
finished eating, they moved to the living room and spent the
next few hours talking. Tracy slept securely in Vachon's
arms for the remainder of the day. Javier thought about
their conversation as he drifted off to sleep.  'I'm glad
that she is willing to consider coming across someday.' he
thought as he fell asleep.

continued in part 2

New Beginnings (2/3)
     by Charlyne L. Walker

That night Tracy found herself at the Raven, bringing
LaCroix in for questioning about a headless body discovered
in his beer freezer. From that moment on Tracy's life began
to take on a nightmarish quality. They had to turn LaCroix
loose due to lack of evidence, however, Tracy could not
shake the feeling that he was somehow involved with the
bodies discovered in the parks. The situation became almost
unbearable when Tracy found Vachon sick and dying in the
church.

Vachon pled with Tracy to help him die before the madness
overtook him and he killed innocent people. He handed her a
stake and, when she hesitated, he threw himself upon it.
Tracy buried him as deeply as she was able in an unmarked
grave next to Screed. As she prepared to leave Vachon's
grave site, LaCroix joined her. He erased Tracy's memory of
Vachon's death and left her with the memory that Vachon was
the only one of his kind and that he had moved on.

Tracy was very quiet at work the next several days. She was
sad because things didn't work out with Vachon and he had
moved on. However, in the back of her mind she felt as if
she was missing something, but she could not remember what
that might be.

Things reminded pretty much the same for a while. There were
no more leads on the "vampire" killer and no more bodies.
It seemed as if the criminals of Toronto had gotten murder
and mayhem out of their system for a short while at least
and things had settled down to a routine pace. Routine, at
least, until a fateful, life changing night. No one could
explain how a prisoner could be allowed to break free in the
station house or how he could have gotten hold of a gun and
wounded a police officer.

The station house was very somber after the shooting. There
was an air of nervous expectation as everyone waited to find
out Detective Vetter's condition. Everyone had heard the
rumor that she was not expected to survive and everyone was
on edge awaiting the fateful phone call.

<Tracy's hospital room, mid-evening>

Natalie sat next to Tracy Vetter's hospital bed and listened
to the machine noises, the beeping and swishing of life
support equipment. She thought back over the time that she
had known Tracy. Some found Tracy to be annoyingly perky or
thought that she could only have gotten as far as she had
through the influence of her father. Natalie had begun to
see another aspect of Tracy in the few months in which they
had begun to form a friendship. Most didn't get past the
pretty 20 something exterior to find a caring, concerned,
hard working and dedicated police officer. Natalie had to
admire her dedication to Vachon as she understood how hard
it was to love a vampire.

She understood Nick's desire to keep his partner from
finding out what he was, but she felt that Tracy had the
right to know since she already knew the truth about
Vampires. At least he had told her before the shooting. Nick
was a wonderful man but sometimes the 13th century clouded
his judgement in dealing with those around him.  'You can
take the man out of the 13th century, but you can't take the
13th century out of the man' she thought to herself. Natalie
closed her eyes to rest for a little while.

<Nick's loft, about the same time>

Nick sat on his couch looking out the window at the starless
night thinking about those that had been lost so recently.
First Scanke and Cohen, both too young to be so violently
taken from this world. Then the fever and Screed as well as
a number of others in the community. Just when he had begun
to think that the death was over for a moment Divia killed
Urs and Vachon, and now Tracy hovered so close to death
with so little hope. He had begun to think that hope would
never again be part of his life. His relationship with
Natalie was so strained and with the death of her friend it
seemed as if her hope had been siphoned off as well.

As he sat there, he felt the presence of another vampire
approaching the loft. It didn't feel like LaCroix and he
puzzled at who would be seeking him out. Most of the
vampires that he knew either were dead or had moved on. He
rose to meet his visitor has he heard the elevator engage.

As Nick opened the grate to the elevator and identified the
occupant he felt as if he were hallucinating. He blinked
once, twice, shook his head as if to clear up his vision
and stared open mouthed at this visitor.

"Are you going to ask me in or are we going to stand in the
elevator all night?" the visitor said with a touch of irony
in his voice.
"O...O...Of course you are welcome." Nick replied as he
stepped aside. "How, um, I mean, I thought you were dead. I
watched Tracy bury you near the docks by Screed."

"I remember the feeling of the stake and the incredible
pain that goes along with it. I thought for sure that I was
dead, but I guess that Tracy removed the stake before I
actually died. I lost consciousness and I don't remember
anything until I woke up underground. I was able to dig my
way out of the damp and loosely packed soil." Vachon said as
he moved into the room.

"We thought you were dead. Divia's poison killed Urs and you
were staked."

"I thought that I was not going to come back either but my
body did begin to heal."

"LaCroix  'fixed' Tracy's memory of the events so that she
thinks it was your time to leave rather than remembering
that you died. She took your depar...." Nick broke off as he
remembered where his partner was and what had happened to
her.

Vachon noticed the look that passed over Nick's face and how
abruptly he ended his explanation. "Has something happened
to Tracy?" he said with a trace of panic in his voice.

"She was involved in a shooting. She was trying to subdue a
maniac that had broken loose in the station house. He
grabbed a gun and shot her before we could bring him down"

"But she is all right now, right? She's not...you know?"

"She is not dead but things don't look good at this moment.
Natalie is with her at the hospital now. The doctors don't
hold out much hope."

As soon as Vachon heard those words he took off, flying
straight up through the skylight. Nick called out the
hospital name and room number after him and watched as he
disappeared, swallowed up by the night. After Vachon's
departure, Nick returned to the couch and pondered his
decision to leave this life and begin a new one with LaCroix.

<moments later, at the hospital>

Natalie awoke with a start as she felt another presence in
the room. She looked up into the concerned face of Javier
Vachon. "You're alive" was all that she said as she pinched
herself to make sure that he was not a figment of her
imagination.

"How is she?" Javier asked as he spared a glance from
Tracy's still form to look at Natalie. "She looks so still
and broken"

"She is as well as can be expected, however, the doctors are
not holding out much hope of recovery. She has some serious
injuries. If she did not have such a strong will to survive,
I don't think she would be with us even now."

Javier looked from Natalie's concerned face to the still
form of the woman he loved so much. "Dr. Lambert, will you
help me to save her? I can bring her across. I don't think I
can bear to lose her again after my second chance at being
with her."

"Are you sure that she would choose the life of darkness? Do
you want to do this for her sake or your own?" Natalie asked
him in response.

"I think Tracy would choose to live. We had been talking
about our choices before Divia...before I died. She was not
ready to leave the light just yet because there were so many
things in this life that she wished to experience, but I
think that she would rather live in the darkness than give
up her life." Vachon replied.

"And if she becomes dangerous to herself and others if she
is brought across, if she is not the Tracy you knew when she
wakes up, what then?" Natalie added thinking of the
disastrous consequences of the attempt to keep Richard from
dying.

"We will cross that bridge if it comes, however, one thing
Tracy has given me is faith. Faith in our love, faith in her
strength and faith in myself."

"Very well, I will make sure that you are not interrupted.
I'll distract the nurse and give you as much time as
possible. What do we do after she is brought across? How are
we going to explain this miracle?"

"We don't. We should know relatively soon after I bring her
across if everything is all right. She will have to 'die' to
this life...to this world. I will take her away with me and
teach her to adjust to her new life."

"And if she is not fine, if she becomes something dangerous?"

Vachon looked around the sparse hospital room for a moment.
He opened the closet and found what he was looking for.
Carefully and quietly as possible he pulled the wooden
clothing rod from the closet. "Then Tracy Vetter will indeed
die tonight" was his toneless reply.

Natalie left the room with one last look at Tracy on the
hospital bed. Her final words to Vachon as she left were
"I'll distract the nurse, but she will be over here
immediately when she hears the alarm. Let's hope she is not
a resister."

Natalie began a discussion with the nurse at the critical
care station just a moment later. Vachon waited until he
heard the nurse begin a conversation with Natalie and then
moved beside Tracy once more. He lowered the guard rail to
gain better access to the still woman on the bed. He said
the closest thing to a prayer that he had come to in a very
long while. Then, as he leaned over Tracy, he said very
softly "I hope you can forgive me this, if it is truly not
what you want. I just can't bear to lose you, Cara" Javier
tenderly kissed Tracy's mouth and softly stroked her hair
with one hand. He lifted her up with an arm under her
shoulders and tenderly turned her so that her back was
leaning against his chest with her shoulders parallel to
his own. He then tilted her chin and rested her head on his
left shoulder. He took a deep breath and loosed the vampire
within him. He carefully sank his fangs in Tracy's neck and
began to drink of her blood.

continued in part 3

New Beginnings (3/3)
     by Charlyne L. Walker

The essence of Tracy began to fill Vachon's veins.  'I was
right my love, you do taste of apricots' he thought to
himself. When he had taken enough, he gently and carefully
laid Tracy back on the pillow and raised his own wrist to
his fangs. He tore a wound in his wrist and then gently
placed his wrist on Tracy's mouth. At first she just lay
there so still and lifeless as the blood dripped from his
wounded wrist into her unprotesting mouth. As his blood
started to fill her and work its particular brand of magic,
he noticed that she began to actively draw from the wound
and swallow. When he had given Tracy enough blood as he
safely could spare, he removed his wrist from her mouth and
took her hand in his. 'Now we wait' he thought to himself.

As the last heart beats of Tracy's mortal life faded, the
monitors went off at the nurses station. Due to the lateness
of the hour and the low patient census there was only one
nurse on duty at the time. She turned from Natalie and saw
the flat EKG line from Tracy's monitor. Natalie quickly
said, "go check on the patient, I will call the code blue."
The nurse nodded her head and rushed toward the patient's
room, knowing that Natalie was capable of summoning the
emergency help having established that she was a doctor.
Natalie picked up the phone as if to page the code blue
and then reached over and turned off the monitor. She
replaced the phone on its cradle and followed after the
nurse.

Just as Vachon began to feed Tracy from his wrist, the nurse
opened the curtain which divided Tracy's room from the main
ICU floor and rushed in. Vachon caught her eye as she
stopped short, staring wide-eyed at Tracy drinking from
Javier's wrist. He 'suggested' to her that there was nothing
wrong. He also 'suggested' that she had never seen him here
tonight. The nurse walked past Natalie with a dazed
expression on her face and returned to monitoring the other
patients.

Natalie pulled the curtain shut again and moved to the side
of the bed opposite Vachon. He looked at Natalie. "Could you
find some fresh blood? We will need it soon. It should not
be much longer."

Natalie left the ICU and using her knowledge of hospitals
obtained several units of whole blood. She brought the blood
back to Tracy's room. As Natalie walked in, Tracy opened her
eyes for the first time in her new unlife. Her eyes were
green with the first hunger and she looked around in awe at
the sights made plain by her now vampiricly enhanced vision.
Vachon motioned to Natalie for the blood. He helped Tracy
finish three units of blood before the hunger was slacked
and she was able to concentrate on something other than the
need to feed.

Tracy very quietly asked "What happened to me?"

"You were about to die from a gun shot wound Trace. I
couldn't let you die so I brought you across." Vachon
replied. He stayed very still, waiting to see what her
reaction would be.

"Thank you for  bringing me across."

"Tracy, honey, we are going to have to move fast to get you
out of here.  You are going to have to play dead and Natalie
will get you out of the morgue as soon as the coast is
clear. You are going to have to leave the life that you
know behind. I will go with you and help you adjust to your
new life. I'm sorry that you have to leave everything
behind, but there would be no way to explain away your
miraculous recovery."

"I understand. I'm feeling rather tired so playing dead
shouldn't be too hard." she said with a trace of her natural
sense of humor. With those words, Tracy laid down again and
closed her eyes.

Vachon left quickly to wait for Natalie and Tracy outside
the hospital. On his way out he turned Tracy's monitor on.
The ICU nurse heard the alarm and called a code blue.
Natalie backed out of the room as the emergency team rushed
into the room. After working on Tracy for a number of
minutes they were not able to revive her. The doctor of
record pronounced her dead. Natalie followed the gurney
carrying Tracy's body to the hospital morgue. She finally
caught a break and knew the tech on duty. She was able to
get a few minutes alone with Tracy "to say goodbye." As
soon as the tech left she whispered to Tracy "you can get
up now" Tracy rose from the gurney. As she got up, Natalie
started to look through the body drawers.

"Natalie, can I ask what you are doing?"

"I'm trying to find a body that is roughly your size with
your hair coloring so they won't notice that you are
missing until long after we have left. I don't want anyone
to think this is anything other than a mixup that resulted
in a body being lost. "

Again the fates were with them. There was one body that was
about the same size with the same color hair.  They put the
body on the gurney where Tracy should be, put Tracy's toe
tag on the body and covered it up. Natalie walked out by the
tech and thanked him for letting her say goodbye. While she
distracted him, Tracy slipped out into the hallway. Natalie
joined her and they made a very hasty exit to the rear of
the hospital where Vachon waited with Natalie's car.

Natalie dropped Tracy and Vachon off at the church. She went
home to rest and think about everything that had just
happened.

The next evening Natalie decided to call in sick and avoid
the dark mood that was sure to be hanging over the station
house with the news of Tracy's "death." She decided to visit
Nick and bring him up to date with the events of the
previous night.

<Nick's loft>

Natalie had explained everything that transpired the evening
before. She waited for his reaction and watched Nick closely
to see if she could figure out what was going through his
mind.

When he didn't say anything after a while, Natalie decided
to bring up the subject that had been preying on her mind
all day long. "Nick.  I want us to be together."

"Natalie, you know why that is impossible. I will not bring
you into my world and I don't want to take the chance of
losing you."

"I have faith Nick. Faith that you can stop before you take
too much. I also have faith that no matter what happens we
will be together, in this world or the next."

Nick carefully weighed Natalie's words. "I hope I can live
up to your faith in me." Nick tenderly cupped Natalie's
face. He leaned forward and gently began to kiss her lips.
As he took her into his arms, the vampire within began to
grow. He felt his fangs descend and the need to taste
Natalie's blood became more than he could bear. He tried to
hold back, but it had been to long since he had allowed
himself the heady taste of human blood. He began to drink of
Natalie and could not stop himself. When at last he pulled
away it was almost too late. There was only a slight spark
of life left in Natalie as LaCroix landed behind Nicholas.

"Nicholas, I see you have solved your problem. The small
spark of life will fade soon and be no more. Are you ready
to move on with me right now?"

"LaCroix, I cannot. I have one last favor to ask of you."
Nicholas replied as he moved toward a large, sharp walking
staff next to the fireplace. "I have taken Natalie's life.
She had faith that we would be together and I cannot bring
her across. I have faith in her and in our love. I wish to
join her."

"What a monster you must think of me, Nicholas. How can I
kill my own son? You must truly see me as your greatest
enemy."

"No LaCroix, you are my greatest friend."

Nicholas knelt beside Natalie, holding her hand, as LaCroix
raised the stake to strike it through his beloved son's
heart. As he began to swing the walking staff, Vachon and
Tracy burst into the room. Tracy knocked LaCroix off balance
as Vachon rushed to Natalie's side tearing open his wrist
as he went.

Tracy and Vachon had come to say goodbye to Nick. They
reached the elevator just as LaCroix arrived. Tracy kept
LaCroix from killing Nick while Vachon brought Natalie
across.

Vachon knelt beside Natalie and pressed his wrist to her
mouth. When Nick tried to dislodge him from his task Vachon
give Nick a warning glare. After a few moments Natalie had
taken the nourishment that she needed. Vachon sat back and
watched her still form. He was not the only one, LaCroix
and Nick watched in anticipation as well. Tracy remembered
that Nick only had bovine blood available and dashed out to
the bike to retrieve the bottles she and Vachon had packed
for their journey.

When she returned, Natalie was sitting up and ready for her
first meal as a newly created vampire. After Natalie
quenched her first hunger the vampires, young and old, began
to plan. They decided that Natalie should stay with Vachon
and Tracy for a while since the bond was so new. Nick and
LaCroix would travel together and renew their relationship
in light of present developments. They planned to meet up
again, but they did not set a specific time. As LaCroix
said, "When the time is right our paths will cross again."

*******************************************************
Thanks for taking the time to read this...As always, flames, virtual chocolate
 and virtual ribena
can be sent to Charlyne@fiu.edu. I would love to hear your comments...