Return-Path: Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 14:24:49 EDT Reply-To: JBejar1989@AOL.COM Sender: Forever Knight TV show stories From: Jill Bejarano Subject: One Of Those Nights (01/01) To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU This is my first attempt at fiction (Physics 201 Lab Reports don't count) so please be kind. The characters depicted herein are the property of James Parriott, Sony/Tristar, Paragon, and the other PTB. This story was inspired by my first visit to the AOL FK Chat Room. To those of you that were there...You have only yourselves to blame for corrupting a newbie. Many thanks to those who read for me...Kelly, Michelle, Suzi, Elena, Lady Angst, Cousin Priscilla and Jennifer. Special thanks to Lori, comma space, and to Cousin Jules, just post the thing already. BTW a scrunchie is a fabric-covered piece of elastic used to hold hair in a ponytail. My husband insisted he could not be the only person on earth who didn't know what one was. Permission granted to archive this at fkfanfic.com and the FTP site. And now, without further ado... One Of Those Nights by Jill K. Bejarano Natalie was running late. Her alarm clock hadn't gone off, and it, along with every other electronic device she owned, was madly blinking away. The power must have been knocked out at some point during the day. She'd have to reset them later...she didn't have time now. Natalie glanced at her watch as she reached into her top drawer for a pair of socks. Six forty-five. She could still make it if she hurried. "Damn!" Her searching had unearthed nothing even remotely resembling one sock, let alone a matched pair. Natalie took a deep breath and exhaled slowly as she turned to face her closet. "You can do this, Lambert," she muttered under her breath as she cautiously reached into the depths of her closet. Natalie grimaced as she pulled out a laundry basket and began to rummage through it in a vain attempt to locate two socks that matched. When several frustrating minutes of searching failed to yield a matched pair, Natalie upended the entire basket on the bed and changed her search parameters. "Don't I even have two of the same color?" She sighed in exasperation. "I bet Lacroix doesn't have this problem," she muttered. His washing machine wouldn't dare eat his socks, she thought. Natalie began to giggle. She could see it quite clearly. He would approach the recalcitrant machine regally...his movements graceful, unhurried...his demeanor calm, yet menacing. Lacroix's voice resounded in her head, soft and smooth as velvet, quietly explaining the consequences of withholding something that belonged to him. Quiet giggles soon turned to hysterical laughter. She pictured him kneeling before the dryer, one arm extended, fingers straining to reach the single sock remaining inside, his eyes glowing gold in the darkness as he purred menacingly "There is nowhere left to run, no place you can hide...You are Mine!" Natalie wiped tears of laughter from her eyes and took a few deep breaths. Right...as if the mighty General would do his own laundry. "I wonder..." She shook her head, dispelling the image of the tall elegant figure dressed in black. No time for speculation now. Wait a minute. That's it...black, all black. Natalie was smiling as she reached for her 'to do' list and quickly jotted down *1. Throw away unmatched socks. *2. Buy New Socks. All Black! Natalie glanced at her watch. Almost seven. Better get a move on. "Ah ha!" She exclaimed triumphantly. "They're not a match, but at least they're both white." She carefully folded the sock on her left leg down until it was the same height as the one on her right. Natalie quickly amended her 'to do' list *Note Be sure they are identical in style After pulling on a pair of jeans and her sneakers, she inspected herself in the mirror. With luck, no one would notice her socks, but her hair ... "It's definitely a scrunchie day." Natalie walked over to the dresser to grab a scrunchie and frowned when she saw that her chest full of hair accessories was missing. At the thought of the chest, a dreamy look came over her face. The sight of it always called to mind memories of golden hair, deep blue eyes, and a charming little boy smile. It was so rare that she could coax him into coming to anything let alone a Christmas party. The department sponsored the party, and Santa Claus was cheerfully passing out gifts to the children. For once, Nick was smiling and laughing happily with everyone, not a hint of sorrow in his beautiful blue eyes. Natalie smiled fondly as she remembered the amused look on his face as wrapping paper flew through the air. She remembered the way the lights from the tree had reflected off his hair. She had longed to push that stray piece back into place, lace her fingers through his curls, and brush her lips against his... Natalie still remembered how surprised she had been when Santa had handed her a brightly wrapped package. Nick had watched, smiling, as she gleefully shredded the paper to reveal a hand-carved wooden chest. It was very old and very beautiful. "Aren't you going to open it and see if there's any treasure inside?" His voice had whispered in her ear. It was full of gold, foil- covered, chocolate coins. She had laughed and dubbed it her treasure chest, chocolate being the most precious substance known to man. Natalie came back to the present with a start. "I'm getting as bad as Nick. Now, where did I ... " She gasped and dashed to the kitchen where she stopped, horrified. She had brought the chest out here yesterday before work. She had been talking to Grace on the phone, trying to decide what to wear. She had set the chest on the table and then forgotten to return it to her room. Now, the chest was lying open and empty on the floor, not a scrunchie or barrette in sight. Someone had not only removed, but also hidden, every single hair accessory she owned. "Sydney...I do not have time for this." Natalie grabbed a broom and began to fish beneath the refrigerator. The cat in question began to rub against her head and purr. She gently batted him away muttering, "I know my hair is a mess. You don't have to rub it in." Natalie gave up on the fridge and started fishing beneath the stove. Sydney sat and watched his owner's antics intently. Natalie glared at him as she climbed back to her feet. Sydney nonchalantly began to groom himself. After moving the microwave cart and digging around in the bottom of the pantry, Natalie sat up and pushed the tangled mass of hair out of her face. "All right, I give up. Where did you hide them this time?" She asked. Sydney regarded her with disdain, gave himself a final lick, and regally sauntered out of the room without answering. Natalie looked at her watch and groaned. "Seven fifteen. I am never going to get there on time." The phone rang as she continued 'The Great Scrunchie Hunt.' Natalie grabbed the cordless phone and began crawling around the living room floor looking under furniture. "Hello?" "Natalie! Hi! It's me, Grace. I'm glad I caught you." "Grace, I'm running a little late here..." "That's okay, we'll wait for you. I just called on the off chance you hadn't left yet." "Nope, I'm still here. What'cha need Grace?" "I forgot to set up my VCR, and I was wondering if you could tape something for me." "Sure. Just tell me what, where, and when." "Promise not to laugh..." "I promise" "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, channel six, from eight to ten. It's the season finale, and I don't want to miss it." Natalie started to laugh so hard she hit her head on the end table she was currently crawling under. "Ouch! Buffy! Grace, I cannot believe you watch that. It is so unbelievable. I mean, a sophomore in high school slaying vampires? Don't you think the school board would disapprove of the librarian spending so much time with the students? Don't you think her mother would get suspicious? Besides, I thought she was a senior in the movie version. Don't you think it would be more believable if she were in college? And the vampires...they don't even fly...They've got the glowing eyes and fangs right but the rest of their teeth don't change and they definitely don't have deformed craniums. They never clean up after themselves, and the enfor...uh...the coroner would surely notice all the blood-drained, fang- marked corpses left lying around..." "Hmmm...for someone who doesn't watch the show you seem pretty familiar with it. You also seem to have put a lot of thought into it. What do you mean, not all their teeth change, only the fangs? Who made you the vampire expert? Natalie, are you there? Nat?" Natalie sat in the middle of the floor, a horrified look on her face, thinking "Yeah, Grace, still here. Familiar, uh... no, just saw an article about it in the TV Guide." "Uh-huh, and Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy live in your building, and..." "Grace..." "And you and Detective Knight are just friends..." "Grace...enough. I'll record it for you before I leave. Gotta run...See you soon." As Natalie hung up the phone, she caught a glimpse of gold amongst the green leaves of the philodendron on the table. With a sense of triumph, she snatched the scrunchie from its hiding place and waved it in Sydney's sleeping face before securely fastening it in her hair. Natalie checked the time as she reached for the remote control. Seven thirty. Just enough time to reset the VCR clock and program the show. It gradually dawned on her that her fingers were encountering nothing but empty air. She looked at the barren coffee table with a sigh. "What else is going to go missing?" She grumbled. Ten minutes later, Natalie was barely able to restrain herself from screaming. She had looked under all the furniture, behind the entertainment center, and checked everywhere else that she could think of, including inside the refrigerator. "This model has all the latest technology. On screen programming with VCR+ capability. It practically programs itself," the salesman had said. "Ha! He forgot to mention that the latest technology is useless without the remote," Natalie growled. Sighing, she threw herself onto the couch. "Wait a minute. What was that noise?" Natalie jumped up off the couch and stuffed her hand between the seat and the arm reaching down as far as it would go. Her fingertips just grazed the remote. Try as she might, she just could not get a grip on the smooth plastic. Exasperated, she straightened up, tipped the couch forward and shook it as hard as she could. She heard a satisfying thump, thump, thump as the remote continued its journey through the couch. She gave the couch a final kick and the remote landed at her feet with a thud. Natalie's grin rivaled that of the Cheshire Cat as she snatched it up, tipped the couch back into place, sat down and started punching numbers. Humming happily to herself, Natalie hit the timer button, checked her hair in the mirror, grabbed her purse and headed for the door. She stopped halfway across the room. "Keys," she groaned. "Keys would be nice." She started to rummage through her purse, threw a glance at the ceiling, muttered, "Oh, what the Hell," and dumped the contents on the coffee table. Sure enough, there they were on the bottom, tangled with a scarf she had tossed in her bag last week. "I have got to get rid of some of this stuff, "she groaned. "Maybe if I had a smaller bag..." Natalie made another addition to her 'to do' list, quickly threw the bare necessities into her purse, grabbed the keys, and headed out the door. Grace was waiting for her in the hospital rec room. The kids were all laughing and having a good time, and they greeted her with smiles and waves. Natalie enjoyed the time she spent volunteering here. "Okay, what game are we playing tonight?" She said as she came in. "It's a word game, Natalie. First, someone chooses a topic, usually a question. Then someone else chooses a word. The object of the game is to tell a story using the chosen word as often as possible," answered David. "Sounds easy enough." "Oh, and you can't use more than fifty words total. The person with the shortest story who uses the chosen word the most wins," said Meg with a big smile. "It's my turn to choose the word," chimed in Timmy. "I chose eat." "Lisa, you chose the topic," said Grace. "Natalie, 'cause she's my favorite doctor," whispered Lisa. "That's not a topic, that's a word," protested David. "How about...Why was Natalie late?" Suggested Grace. "Everybody ready? You have ten minutes...starting now!" "Okay, time's up," Grace announced. "Let's hear what you have." The room dissolved into giggles as the children read their stories. "Okay, Natalie, your turn," said Grace after the last child finished. Natalie glanced down at her sheet of paper and read, "Tree eats power lines, washer eats socks, cat eats scrunchies, couch eats remote control, purse eats keys, Natalie eats..." "Chocolate!" Everyone chimed in as Grace dropped a Hershey Bar into her lap. fin comments to jbejar1989@aol.com