From v4s@FKFANFIC.COM Sat Jun 6 19:40:22 1998 Date: Sat, 6 Jun 1998 13:48:04 -0400 From: Virtual Fourth Season To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Subject: V4S: Obsession (06/13) Episode Number: Forever Knight Virtual 4th Season - Episode #15 Episode Title: "Obsession" "Air" Date: June 4, 1998 Author: Carrie Krumtum Part 6 of 13 This story is based on characters and situations created by James Parriott and Barney Cohen and owned by Sony/TriStar. No infringement is intended. Copyright 1998 Carrie Krumtum -------------------------- OBSESSION It became apparent rapidly that she would need a bigger scrapbook. The small one she had found in a bottom drawer of the desk in the den would never do. Immediately, she had gone out and bought another one. This one had black paperboard pages with golden gilded edges and the front of the leather cover had a slip pocket suitable for sliding in a photograph. Now all that remained for her to do was to decide which picture to put on the front. There were so many. Gretchen had had no idea how many times his work had become newsworthy. There were stories about several cases that she remembered hearing about or reading about. Once at the library, it became clear that she should have realized who was involved in the investigations and taken note of him. But then, she reasoned, you can never be too sure when or how someone will be brought into you life. Especially that special someone. On going through the pile of pictures she had available -- most of which she had taken herself -- she was able to narrow the choice for the cover down to three options. She decided to put the rest of the photos and photostats into the scrapbook before making her final choice for the front. Kneeling before her sofa, pictures and articles scattered across the surface of the sofa cushions, the coffee and end tables and the floor around her, she went to work putting the scrapbook together. Lying on the ottoman behind her and to the left was an open telephone book with the listing for a Knight, N. at 101 Gateway Ln. The entry had been circled in red ink at least twenty times. *** Adam had decided that pulling an extra shift was preferable to spending the evening with Kelly and her mother going over wedding plans by the hour. Every little detail they discussed seemed to degenerate into an argument about what was proper or expected, politically correct or socially acceptable, within their budget or beyond their means. They had yet to decide what to do instead of rice. Not that it was an earth shattering decision, but damn it, this was to be their wedding. They would only do this once and if the planning didn't kill him long before he had a chance to take a vow to love, honor and cherish her, Adam would like the opportunity to enjoy the experience. Reese usually frowned on the overtime, but with Alvarez out on vacation and a new case to wrap, the captain didn't seem to be too opposed to the idea. And, Adam had to admit, working on a case with Nick out was refreshing. Not that Adam wasn't finding that working with Nick was okay. As a matter of fact, usually it was better than okay. Nick may have been jinxed where partners were concerned, but he possessed a keen investigative mind. Adam enjoyed the challenge of keeping up with Nick's wit as well. They didn't seem to be so bad for each other. Really, what made him less than enthusiastic about working with Nick now was the moodiness he saw in Nick, especially when they were around Natalie Lambert. Adam wasn't too sure he wanted to know exactly what was going on there. Relationships of all kinds were difficult to keep clear and on an even keel in the best of times. His current troubles with Kelly and her mom were proof enough of that. Still, whatever was happening between his partner and the coroner made him feel lucky that his troubles were confined to disagreements about wedding plans. The level of tension in the room could go up several decibels when Nick and Natalie were near one another. Adam was leaning toward sledgehammer therapy for the both of them. Working alone gave his thoughts the freedom to go where they will and avoid the trap of Nick's melancholy when Natalie was around, or vice versa. The ringing of the phone interrupted his reverie. He picked up the receiver. "Detective Sakai, Homicide." "Um," Gretchen Ferris began, "I'm sorry to bother you, officer. Is Detective Knight there?" Adam groaned. This made the sixth or seventh call to the precinct logged for Nick from this woman. Adam had heard of grateful, but this was getting ridiculous. "No Miss Ferris, he's not. I thought the desk sergeant told you that Nick wasn't on duty tonight?" "Well, I just wanted to be sure." "Are you sure now?" Adam said, a little shorter than he had intended. "Ye... yes, thank you," the woman's voice replied before the line went dead. Pulling the receiver away from his ear and looking at it as if it had said something to confuse him, he hung up. Nick would have to be careful with this one, he thought. Before he could pull his hand away from the phone it rung again. He picked the receiver back up. "Detective Sakai, Homicide." "Hey Adam, how's it going?" his partner asked. "Nick? You're supposed to be off." "Yeah, well, maybe I'm feeling a little guilty that you're there hard at work while I'm taking it easy tonight." "Right, and if I were to believe that, you've got some choice swamp land in Florida to sell me." Nick chuckled and then sobered again. "Really. I'm just curious about the case. Has the final forensics' report come in yet?" Ah, Adam thought to himself. So that was it. "Not yet. I haven't seen Natalie." Nick flushed instantly. He hadn't intended for his inquiry to be that obvious. Although Nick should have known that pumping his own partner for information clandestinely was fraught with pitfalls. Adam would be aware, more than just about anyone else, barring LaCroix, just how difficult his relationship with Natalie had become. "I was asking about the report," he said half-heartedly. "Of course you were," Adam decided to say. He was sure he could hear Nick sigh deeply. Adam decided to change the subject. "You've gotten some calls from another of your admirers." Nick's brows furrowed. "Who?" "Gretchen Ferris. She's made a half-dozen calls to the precinct since yesterday. There are several messages on your desk and I just hung up after talking to her again." This time Nick really did sigh. "I've gotten a few calls on my machine here as well," he informed Adam. "She's just grateful." "Yeah, and I'm the Easter bunny. I'd try to put the kibosh on her gratitude if I were you, partner. The captain's sure to get a burr up his butt if messages and packages addressed to the 'Knight in shining armor' keep arriving." Nick winced at the remark, remembering Natalie's stinging response. He sure as hell hadn't been any kind of a knight in shining armor for her. Not that, even if he had armor, it would shine all that brightly. "I know." "Knowing and doing something about it are two different things, Nick. I'm serious. You should probably say something to this Gretchen. It would be best for her as well." "I know." "That makes me two for two. Now, if you don't mind, since I'm batting a thousand right now, could I get back to work?" Adam remarked only half-jokingly. He really had been enjoying working the shift without his partner. "Yeah, no problem," Nick told him before saying his good-byes and hanging up. Yep, Adam thought. He was lucky, rocky wedding plans and all, no doubt about it. When the phone rang again, he scowled at it before answering it again. "Detective Sakai, Homicide," he grumbled, and was immediately greeted by Kelly's cheerful voice asking to "run something by him." Just keep telling yourself how lucky you are, Adam thought, but he just couldn't help a silent inward groan.... *** Adam was right. He would have to speak to Gretchen Ferris about her gifts before the captain had a conniption. Right now, that seemed like the least of his worries. After hanging up, Nick took a sip of the blood in his glass. Cow blood. Not a protein drink or human blood but a 'middle of the road' compromise, the means by which he controlled his hunger. Barely. He closed his eyes and set the glass down on the piano bench he straddled. What he wanted was to taste Natalie's blood again, to have it sing to him of her love for him, to intoxicate his heart and being, to unite him with her spirit in a oneness that he could experience no other way. What he would settle for was a closeness with her that would afford him the next best thing, an open, honest friendship that wasn't potholed with the mistakes he had made. Natalie had stopped meeting his eyes when they looked at one another. Her disappointment leeched into her voice and tone with every word spoken to him. He had expected change after... what had happened. At first it seemed as if Natalie would get past her justifiable anger and that they could begin to build again. She was asking him for honesty and he had tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to protect her from a truth that threatened to destroy her after what he had done to her failed. Everything he did seemed to be the wrong thing. He didn't trust himself to make the right choices any more. He wasn't even sure he wanted to try. Looking up from the glass on the bench in front of him, his eyes scanned the room and came to rest on the spot in front of the fireplace where what there was left of her blood had pooled. The place where they had stood and he had made the decision that had had the potential to completely destroy what was left of her life. Where he had failed the one person on earth he wished that he could not fail. If the power were to be given to him, he would go back and change that moment. But, like so many other things, changing what had been was far beyond him. He stared and listened as an ancient voice spoke to him from across the room. "When didn't you realize that nothing ever remains the same?" the Nightcrawler's deep baritone oozed from the stereo speakers. "Where does this life's obsession spring from? What is it in you that demands to have it all? Isn't eternity enough? Or is the truth something you are unable to accept? "The truth is that once a choice has been made, once you begin down that road, you can never turn back. I've tried to tell you this time and time again. Eternity is your portion. And what a portion it is. "Change is at the center of time and time can't exist without change. That is the nature of all that is or ever will be. Matter is not the stuff of reality, as modern science would have us believe. Such a view of reality is so ... limiting. "I rather prefer the concepts of change and eternity. For without change, eternity becomes a prison. And time spent in such a prison is nothing less than hell on earth...." (to be continued ...) -------------------------------------------- For more information or to participate in the Forever Knight Virtual 4th Season, write to V4S@fkfanfic.com. From v4s@FKFANFIC.COM Sat Jun 6 19:40:27 1998 Date: Sat, 6 Jun 1998 13:48:36 -0400 From: Virtual Fourth Season To: FKFIC-L@lists.psu.edu Subject: V4S: Obsession (07/13) Episode Number: Forever Knight Virtual 4th Season - Episode #15 Episode Title: "Obsession" "Air" Date: June 4, 1998 Author: Carrie Krumtum Part 7 of 13 This story is based on characters and situations created by James Parriott and Barney Cohen and owned by Sony/TriStar. No infringement is intended. Copyright 1998 Carrie Krumtum -------------------------- OBSESSION Nick stood at the door and waited. In the past three days, Miss Ferris had visited the precinct twice, each time with gifts for him, she had called his apartment and left fourteen messages on his answering machine and she had sent flowers to his home address. Adam had warned him that this gratitude thing could go too far if he didn't nip it in the bud. Nick only hoped he wasn't too late to do so without hurting the lady's feelings too badly. He had done enough damage in that department to last several more lifetimes. He could hear movement inside as footsteps moved closer to the front door followed by a pause and then a small intake of breath as the occupant of the house took a look through the peephole that was housed just above the door knocker. The door swung open and Gretchen Ferris greeted him with a beaming face. "Detective Knight! Please, come in." Taking a deep breath, Nick hesitated. This would be best done on as formal a basis as possible. "Thank you, but no, Miss Ferris. I won't be here that long." Gretchen's heart had soared on seeing her knight at the front door. She looked down at her clothing and had smoothed out imaginary wrinkles in order to appear her best for him. She hoped she still had on enough lipstick. It had been at least an hour since she had checked it in the mirror. For days she had been dressing in her Sunday best for the time when her knight would come to court her. This was exactly what her mother had told her to expect. Now, his refusal to come inside only confused her. "Wouldn't you be more comfortable inside, sitting down? I could offer you something to drink, non-alcoholic of course," she said in an attempt to make him more comfortable. Mother had always told her that suitors were naturally shy. The best thing to do was to make them feel more physically comfortable. Perhaps her knight was in a hurry because of work... or maybe he was hungry. She brightened at the notion. "Would you like me to fix you something to eat?" Nick shook his head. "No, no thank you, Miss Ferris." She took a step out of her front door to stand directly in front of her knight on the porch. Perhaps there was a decorum that must be followed with this type of encounter that her mother hadn't told her about. Gretchen wasn't sure what to do next. The gifts and calls to say thanks had brought her knight to her and she was sure he would be asking for an opportunity to court her formally now. Normally, this permission would be sought with her father or mother but, since both of them were dead now, he would simply have to ask her. That was probably the difficulty, she decided. All the necessary forms couldn't be followed and her knight was probably a little unsure of how to go about it now. She would just have to try to put him at ease as much as was possible. "All right, we'll just sit out here and chat." Gretchen Ferris gave him a demure smile and moved to a porch swing that was suspended from the roof overhang. The chains creaked from the weight load as she took a seat and then, looking up at him, patted the seat next to her. Nick realized that this was going to be harder than he had thought. "Miss Ferris, I...." "Please, call me Gretchen," she insisted. Nick managed a wan smile. "Miss Ferris," he continued, "I'm very pleased that I was able to help you the other night. As a police officer in this city, there is nothing more gratifying for me than to help one of the citizens I've sworn to protect and serve." Gretchen chose to ignore her knight's refusal to call her by her first name. He was making sure to do this with all the appropriate social customs intact. She would just have to let him do this his way. "And I'm very grateful to you, sir." Nick swallowed and paused. There was something odd about the woman's smile and bearing. She seemed to be out of place and time somehow. Mentally shaking himself, he brought his thoughts back to the issue at hand. "I hope you understand that I only did what any other officer in my place would have done." "Oh," Gretchen told him with a blush, "you shouldn't be so modest. The officers that you work with speak very highly of you." Nick had to will himself not to shuffle his feet. He opted, instead, for shoving his hands into his jacket pockets. This was not going at all like he had planned. Clearing his throat, he began again, this time, taking another tactic. "Miss Ferris, I need to ask you not to send any more gifts to the precinct or to my apartment. It's against departmental regulations for an officer to accept any kind of gratuity for services rendered in the line of duty." This last statement brought a surprised and distressed look to Gretchen's face. "Oh dear. I haven't gotten you in any trouble, have I?" "No," Nick said quickly in an attempt to belay her fears. "Not at all. It's just that my captain has limited patience with this sort of thing." Nick noted the relief spread across her face. "If you were to stop sending me any more gifts and stop calling to leave me messages now, I'm sure that all will be well." Gretchen's face, now, looked stricken. "Not to call you?" she said. "But how am I to talk to you or tell you how grateful I am to you if I'm not to call?" He took a deep breath. "I know you're grateful, Miss Ferris. But there really is no need to thank me. I was only too happy to help." Too happy to help? This didn't make sense. Her knight was duty bound to help, wasn't he? This was beginning to sound very strange. "You mean you don't want me to call again, ever?" "Please, Miss Ferris. If you should have need of the department again, concerning any police matter, I would very much like for you to call the precinct. You don't have to talk to me to have an officer come to assist you. The whole police department is dedicated to keeping you safe and sound." The stricken look on Gretchen's face deepened into a sorrow that was inexplicable to Nick. He wasn't handling this very well. Adam had suggested that this woman might have a crush on him but Nick had shrugged it off, choosing to believe that a woman of her age wouldn't be so inclined. He was beginning to reevaluate that assessment. "But I thought," Gretchen began and then stopped. Her eyes pooled with tears. "I thought you were my knight," she said quietly. This time, it was Nick's turn to be confused. Her knight? Oh boy, Adam was right on the money. After eight hundred years you would think he would have learned.... >>---------> Warwick, England 1551 "I don't believe you," Phyllis insisted angrily. The linens and trappings of her chambers were done in cream colored lace. The look seemed almost too delicate. She sat at the vanity with her back straight and her face full to him. She possessed a full complement of dignity, despite her lack of physical beauty. Nicholas looked down at his hands. Why was he here, anyway? What business was this of his? He had reasoned that this innocent lady would be nothing but hurt by LaCroix's secret plans. Janette planned to take the lord of the manor as her own and the heavens only knew the actual extent of LaCroix's meddling in the affairs of this house. It had seemed to him that there was enough tragedy at hand and that sparing the lady would be one way of helping to minimize the damage, it that were at all possible. "Edward... Lord Leycester loves me. He has told me so himself." "He loves the money and station a marriage to the daughter of the Earl of Warwick would bring him, nothing more." For the first time, Nicholas could see the wounds his words wrought on her heart mirrored on her face. "I know it is a hard thing to hear but my only goal is to protect you from any pain." "Good night, sir." Phyllis turned from him in dismissal. "Lady Phyllis, leave this place," Nicholas urged. "The blessings you want and deserve are not in residence here." "Good night!" It was obvious that no matter what he said, she was not inclined to hear it now. Perhaps what he had said already was enough. He didn't want to take that chance. "Look at me," he intoned as he stepped toward Phyllis. "I said, good night," she replied, continuing to study her own image in the mirror of her vanity. "Look at me," Nicholas repeated drawing nearer. The draw of his deep voice brought her eyes up to meet his. With practiced skill, he drew her will into his mind and bid her, with a look, rise and move to him. "You understand that the planned marriage with Lord Leycester is based on a lie. You will tell your father that you do not wish to go through with it." "I do not wish it," the woman whispered. "Leave this place." "Leave," she continued. "I wish to leave here." "You will tell your father when he arrives tomorrow." "Tomorrow...." When he heft the lady, she was asleep on her bed. Let LaCroix play at his games. This was one casualty, heart or soul, he would not win. <---------<< Adam couldn't help but laugh. Neither could any of the other officers currently in the bullpen. The sight of the captain cussing out the water cooler was just too much. He was imbuing the machine with everything from alien influence to demonic possession. "Hey," Nick said from behind him. Adam looked up to see that his partner had finally arrived to report for his shift and was watching the tail end of the match of the century between the captain and the water cooler. His partner was wearing the same grin that all the other spectators to the event were. "What's up?" "I think it's water cooler two thousand, Reese zero," replied Adam, laughing. Leaning down as he rounded the desk, Nick spoke into his partner's face. "Say that just a little louder and you'll find yourself walking a beat for a month." As if on cue, they heard the captain yell. "Knight! Sakai! My office!" They both turned to watch the captain storm into his office and then looked back at each other. Whatever it was, it was about to hit the fan. (to be continued ...) -------------------------------------------- For more information or to participate in the Forever Knight Virtual 4th Season, write to V4S@fkfanfic.com. From v4s@FKFANFIC.COM Sat Jun 6 19:40:35 1998 Date: Sat, 6 Jun 1998 13:49:19 -0400 From: Virtual Fourth Season To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Subject: V4S: Obsession (08/13) Episode Number: Forever Knight Virtual 4th Season - Episode #15 Episode Title: "Obsession" "Air" Date: June 4, 1998 Author: Carrie Krumtum Part 8 of 13 This story is based on characters and situations created by James Parriott and Barney Cohen and owned by Sony/TriStar. No infringement is intended. Copyright 1998 Carrie Krumtum -------------------------- OBSESSION The flow of tears had stopped. This wasn't getting her anywhere. Knights and princes don't want ladies without backbone. Mother had told her that some princes have to be kissed first to transform them into true princes. Gretchen would just have to prove to her knight that he belonged to her, that was all. After changing her clothes, she grabbed her car keys and headed for the garage. *** "... and just why in the Sam Hill can't I get one single, solitary drop of water from that damn water cooler when all anyone else has to do is push the button?" the captain was saying as he took a seat behind his desk. Both Adam and Nick decided that the best thing to do was to remain standing until the captain's temper cooled down enough for him to get to the point of calling them into the office. Neither of them had any desire to walk a beat for any length of time. Joe Reese took a deep breath and leaned forward on his desk, resting his considerable bulk on his elbows. His two detectives were standing in front of him. "Would you two stop standing there like frightened school boys? Sit down," he ordered testily. His humor may not have improved but he hadn't called them into his office to give them a whipping. Of course, *they* had no way of knowing that. He looked from one of them to the other. It was Knight who spoke first. "Okay, Cap. I'll bite. What did you want us for?" Reese was tempted to grin despite his ill humor. Knight wasn't intimidated by much, including authority. He was respectful, but not unduly cautious. He found that the poorly concealed smile on Knight's face was contagious as well. "I want you to talk to this admirer of yours. The department can't play the role of personal secretary to every officer who saves lonely women and departmental policy prohibits the acceptance of any gratuity by any officer on the force. Clear?" "Already taken care of, Cap. I spoke with her this evening," Nick told him. The look of surprise on Reese's face appeared and then was replaced with studied severity almost as quickly. "Good." "No problem." *** Gretchen pulled up behind the precinct and waited. Perhaps there was a way to find out how best to help her knight by simply watching him at work and, this time, she wouldn't be watching through the lens of a camera. *** "I've got another case for the two of you. The Schultz case is just about wrapped up, right?" Reese asked his detectives. "Yeah, Cap." This time it was Adam's turn. "All we lack is the psych evaluation. The crown prosecutor thinks the case is pretty straightforward. The forensics' report shows that it's the boyfriend's fingerprints on the gun and the neighbor's statement corroborates a pattern of abuse. I was able to find two prior complaints sworn out against the boyfriend by the victim, both for assault. Both times the victim dropped the charges. It looks pretty clean from this end." Reese sat back and nodded. "Okay, then this new one is yours. The M.E. is on the way to the scene." "Do we know what it is yet?" asked Nick. "Would you believe?" the captain told them, obviously disgusted. "Another domestic." *** She had just about decided to go inside the building when Gretchen spotted her knight and the officer he worked with leave the building. This was perfect. *** There was no doubt in her mind that she would see Nick at this one. The location was in the center of the ninety- sixth and she knew for a fact that there were no new cases pending for the precinct. Natalie had finished the paperwork on the last one two days ago. As she drove to the scene of Toronto's newest murder, Natalie's thoughts were far from the practices of forensic pathology. The last time she had spoken to Nick she had delivered a pretty severe parting shot and she had regretted it almost immediately. From the beginning, the situation with Nick had begun to overwhelm her. Not just emotionally but physically as well. She had been changed as a result of his bite and those changes had fundamentally transformed her world. The first reaction Natalie experienced had been fear, terrible fear. What came after the fear had waned was an anger and bitterness that seemed to strangle everything else, although the fear itself had never really left her. Perhaps it was the very fact that she remained afraid, each and every day of her life, that she had had such a hard time getting beyond her anger. No matter how Natalie had tried to reason through her emotions, when she allowed herself the opportunity to acknowledge the emotions at all, she had been unable to understand Nick's decision. Oh, she knew that the decisions Nick had made that night hadn't been easy or without cost on Nick's behalf. This was where Vachon had helped her to recognize some things. Vachon had a way of seeing things in terms of their lowest common denominator. Natalie wished she could be more like him in that respect. That fact didn't make it any easier for her to comprehend it all. That was, until now. Come on, girl, Natalie chided herself. How long are you going to cry over spilled milk? She wished it were that simple. Despite all the internal and external struggle she went through, Natalie couldn't get over one plain and simple fact. She loved Nick. All the anger and the bitterness in the world weren't going to change that fact. She had tried dismissing him in her mind but her heart simply wasn't paying any attention to what her thoughts on the subject had to say. This wasn't a matter of academics or forensics or scientific fascination with his condition. The love she felt for Nick was spawned as much by her need for him as his need for her. And Nick did need her. He had had ample opportunity to leave her and hadn't done it. As a matter of fact, he had wanted to leave that night. *She* hadn't wanted that to happen. Could Natalie say, with absolute certainty, that if she had been in Nick's place that night she wouldn't have made the same choices? Broken the same promises? What had been Nick's options, anyway? She had insisted that he either bring her across or share a suicide pact with her. Some choice, she thought darkly. Nick was already feeling enough guilt to choke a herd of horses. What she had offered him amounted to nothing more than a lose-lose situation. As she drove, Natalie found her anger was now directed inward. She was guilty of the very same fault she attributed to Nick so often. Her own selfishness astonished her. The more Natalie thought about this rationally, the more she realized that the choice Nick had made to allow her to die was the only choice imbued with any semblance of hope in his mind. Underneath everything, Nick still possessed a thirteenth century crusader's view of eternity, requite with divine reward for goodness and damnation for evil. Nick had thought, and still did think, of the vampiric state, especially his own, as evil. He felt that bringing her across to such a state was wrong. Doing so would be, for Nick at least, as much a betrayal of his love for her as she accused him of for the choice he had made. The choice he had made, to allow her to die, was only marginally better. Nick believed in a heaven and a hell and had wanted, if it were necessary, for her soul to face eternity without the weight of his darkness. He had, in a strange way, been trying to save her. When Nick believed he had killed her he had longed for death. Again, his faith had prevented him from fulfilling his promises. The theology of the average medieval knight held that suicide was punishable with hell's flame. Instead of taking his own life, he placed his trust in the hands of someone he thought of, in that instant, as a friend. LaCroix. She had been thinking a lot about what the Nightcrawler had said about change. Although she didn't always enjoy the little pearls of wisdom this alter ego of LaCroix's dolled out, there always seemed to be a hint of truth in the message. But... just a hint. Natalie had been spending so much time and energy worrying about what Nick had or had not done, she hadn't stopped to give much thought to *why* Nick had made the choices that he did. Vachon had admonished her, encouraging introspection. Doing so had begun to change, substantially, many of the feelings she had given herself permission to feel. It ended some of her bitterness and opened the door to many more emotions with which she'd just as soon not deal. But then, just because she didn't want to deal with those feelings didn't mean that she wouldn't have to, sooner or late. And, it seemed, sooner was a more likely option. Maybe it was time to deal with everything loving Nick brought to her. Natalie turned the corner in her car and was confronted by the hustle and bustle of the crime scene. A complete three-ring circus, she thought as she watched the news van pull up to the curb across the street from the house where the victim awaited her attention. The area around the front door of the house was roped off with yellow tape and officers were milling around collecting evidence, talking with witnesses and neighbors, trying to keep the gawkers from destroying any potential evidence that might exist around the actual murder site. She looked out over the corral of parked police vehicles and didn't spot the one car that was the telltale sign of Nick's presence. The Caddy wasn't there yet. She had beaten Nick to the scene. Good, she would have a chance to be well into her work by the time he arrived... if she hurried. (to be continued ...) -------------------------------------------- For more information or to participate in the Forever Knight Virtual 4th Season, write to V4S@fkfanfic.com. From v4s@FKFANFIC.COM Sat Jun 6 19:40:48 1998 Date: Sat, 6 Jun 1998 13:49:38 -0400 From: Virtual Fourth Season To: FKFIC-L@lists.psu.edu Subject: V4S: Obsession (09/13) Episode Number: Forever Knight Virtual 4th Season - Episode #15 Episode Title: "Obsession" "Air" Date: June 4, 1998 Author: Carrie Krumtum Part 9 of 13 This story is based on characters and situations created by James Parriott and Barney Cohen and owned by Sony/TriStar. No infringement is intended. Copyright 1998 Carrie Krumtum -------------------------- OBSESSION The scene had all the earmarks of being a humdinger. The house was in an affluent neighborhood and the victim was the wife of a prominent Toronto businessman. Neither Nick nor Adam noticed the burgundy Plymouth that pulled up to the curb less than a block down from the crime scene. "So you've worked it out," Nick was saying as he stepped out of the car. "Yeah," Adam told him, closing the passenger door and turning to survey the newest field of battle. "I've agreed to try and give some input into the decisions she thinks are important and Kelly's agreed to make the final decision about the plans for the wedding. I finally just told her that all I really wanted was to enjoy the wedding, not spend the whole time worrying about the details. I was marrying her, not the ceremony." "And the birds?" "What?" Adam asked as he turned his attention back to his partner. The reference dawned on him and he continued. "Oh, that. We decide to have the guests throw birdseed." "Birdseed?" Nick asked with a smile as he walked around the front of the Caddy. "Yeah, birdseed," explained Adam as he fell into step and headed toward the front door of the house. "See, Kelly's mother said they could make these little packets for the birdseed out of fabric, making sure that the color matched the dresses, of course, and tie each one up with a little ribbon...." Nick listened as his partner continue to describe the birdseed packets and how he and Kelly had decided to stop arguing about the circumstances that weren't big enough to warrant the energy. He found himself wondering what he should do about Natalie, if anything. They moved through the front door of the house and entered the living room where the body of the victim lay, face down, on the sofa. Nick swallowed as the stench of dried blood, lots of it, assaulted him. The woman had been stabbed in the back. The knife was still sticking up from the wound. She had apparently fallen forward onto the sofa and the blood from the wound had spilled down her sides over the surface of the sofa and then down onto the floor. He caught sight of Natalie kneeling in front of the sofa. He wondered if she was okay with all the blood when he noticed that she had her gloves on and was inspecting the fingernails of the victim's right hand. Natalie could sense Nick's arrival. Instead of the dread and fear that recently accompanied the sensation, she found that she was anxious to see him. Although she didn't feel like she was ready to really talk with Nick, she did want to tell him that she was sorry for her last remark. Hurting Nick had never been her objective. She really did want to help him regain his mortality. What Nick needed right now was a good reason to want that too. "Nat?" she heard his quiet voice behind her. This time, she didn't jump. Natalie looked up at Nick and Adam. She didn't avoid his eyes this time and gave both of them a small smile. "I'm afraid it isn't very pretty." "It doesn't look that way," Adam remarked. "Anything?" Nick asked as he nodded toward the hand of the victim that Natalie had been examining. For the first time in what seemed like forever, Nick didn't sense immediate anger from Natalie at his proximity or the sound of his voice. "There's some skin under the nails," she told them as she looked back down at the hand one more time before releasing it. "There's some bruising. Looks like she may have put up a fight. I'll be able to tell you more once we get her rolled over." When Natalie moved to get up off her knees, Nick leaned over to offer her his hand. Adam watched as she paused for a moment, considering, and then took Nick's hand and let him help raise her to her feet. This encounter between them was the first time in several weeks that Adam didn't feel the air was charged with hostility or a deep winter's freeze. He nodded. Perhaps the spirit of reconciliation was contagious. He headed away from them to talk to the first officers on the scene. He and Kelly had worked things out; Nick and Natalie were doing the same, or at least starting to do the same. Now if he could only convince the water cooler to give the captain a drink.... "Are you okay?" Nick asked Natalie, hesitating a little longer than necessary before pulling his hands away from around her elbow and hand. Just being close to Natalie, to the warmth of her flesh, to the sound of her heart's song, to the smell of her hair... brought images of a lost world to Nick. He resisted pulling away from the feel of her next to him. But with the closeness came the sharp and pang- filled memory of the taste of her... the intimacy that drinking from her brought to him. When Nick felt the lust for that intimacy begin to rise, he pulled away and took a small step back, dropping his hold on her and breaking eye contact. Assistance was one thing, intrusion another. Although every signal Natalie had given him indicated that her recent anger might have waned, Nick was inclined to proceed with great care. Natalie was just too precious a resource of life, all of life, for him to risk further alienation. How many times had he been convinced that no matter what he did he would wind up hurting her? Distance seemed the only answer but the separation from her was a simple and devastatingly destructive force. It tore at the core of his being, diminishing him in ways he had once thought impossible as long as he lived in his self-imposed darkness. Was she okay? Natalie knew that the question wasn't meant as an inquiry of her physical status. Nick was asking about what she felt about them. For the brief moment that Nick had hold of her, the world around them had receded, pulling back and giving her time to remember what the feelings of love and trust for Nick had been like. As Nick stepped back and looked away from her, Natalie felt an instant of profound loss. She wanted to shout, "No, don't go!" Was she okay? Natalie asked as she looked back at the victim's hand. Not exactly. She knew that what she felt when she looked at Nick wasn't everything she wanted. What Natalie felt was a kind of hope. Hope that there may be, after everything that had happened between them, a way back to that sense of safety she had once felt in Nick's presence. In his presence, hell. She'd rather be in his arms. *** This case wasn't going to be nearly as open and shut as the last two investigations had been. The husband was denying any wrongdoing and did seem genuinely broken up about the loss of his wife. Neighbors in this neck of the woods were a lot less forthcoming with details about the couple's relationship. There did seem to be a reasonable chance that the premises were being robbed when the wife came home from work that evening and the husband did have a plausible, but not air-tight, alibi. The media was already spreading the theory of a murderous burglary ring and the story would inhabit top billing on the late night newscast. None of this is going to make the captain very pleased, Adam thought. The body had been tagged and bagged and was on its way to the morgue. Natalie had said she would get the preliminary report out as fast as was humanly possible. Nick was busy with the on site forensics team coordinating the gathering of other evidence. Adam was stuck talking to the neighbor from across the street who had more complaints about the news crew stepping on her geraniums than actual information to offer. Mrs. Southern was insisting that Adam do something about her prize geraniums when they both heard the loud gunning of an engine and looked up just in time to see a Plymouth pull away down the street. "Kids," Mrs. Southern said disdainfully. "They run up and down this street like they own it." Adam turned back to his notebook and figured that with Natalie's departure just seconds before the local teen population would find the humdrum aspect of a murder investigation just that, humdrum. If he'd had the opportunity, he'd have been out of there as well. "Now, young man," Mrs. Southern told him, "about my flower beds..." *** "The T-6 spinous process has been completely severed with posteriolateral herniation of columnar material noted. The wound penetrates 6 centimeters below the superior margin and transverses the parietal pleura, dissecting the diaphragm and the pericardial sack. The tip of the blade extended into the apex of the left ventricle. Estimated blood loss is forty-five hundred milliliters." Natalie clicked off the microrecorder and set it down on her desk. Leaning forward, she rested her head in her hands and ran her fingers up into her hairline. This was a bad way to die, she thought. The blow to the spine immobilized the victim long enough for the exsanguination to do the rest. Paralyzed and weak yet fully conscious, the woman probably felt her life slipping away. No instant darkness for this unfortunate. Closing her eyes, Natalie remembered what the last few moments of consciousness had been like for her. In what seemed like an instant, her senses had been bombarded with images and sounds, memories and desires that had been Nick's. The flood of faces and voices, longings and fears had blinded her to the world around her. She had been blinded to everything but him; Nick and the overpowering force of his feelings... of his love. She took in her breath and sat back quickly. Swallowing, Natalie tried to bring her pounding heart under control. The force of the memory she had experienced was, at once, overwhelming and excruciating in detail. This last was the center of all the turmoil she had felt since that night. There was a deep love in Nick that seemed to swallow her with its intensity. It had threatened to engulf her soul that night. She had wanted that, more than anything ... more than life. She had wanted that joining and it had been denied her. Even the knowledge of the depth of Nick's love hadn't helped to ease the pain of rejection she felt. Raising her hand to allow her fingers to lightly stroke the side of her neck, Natalie found herself longing for the sensation of his love again. It would be enough to feel that again. At least, right now Natalie hoped it would be enough. (to be continued ...) -------------------------------------------- For more information or to participate in the Forever Knight Virtual 4th Season, write to V4S@fkfanfic.com. From v4s@FKFANFIC.COM Sat Jun 6 19:40:56 1998 Date: Sat, 6 Jun 1998 13:49:55 -0400 From: Virtual Fourth Season To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Subject: V4S: Obsession (10/13) Episode Number: Forever Knight Virtual 4th Season - Episode #15 Episode Title: "Obsession" "Air" Date: June 4, 1998 Author: Carrie Krumtum Part 10 of 13 This story is based on characters and situations created by James Parriott and Barney Cohen and owned by Sony/TriStar. No infringement is intended. Copyright 1998 Carrie Krumtum -------------------------- OBSESSION Dr. Natalie Lambert. That was the name of the person who inhabited the pathology office on the third floor of the Coroner's Building at 23 Grenville. That was the usurper's name, Gretchen thought. *** "You should go home," Adam was saying to his partner. "I can finish up the shift reports." Nick looked up from the report in front of him. The truth was, he had been staring at the blank section seven on the form for ten minutes. The pencil he held in his hand had done more tapping the desk blotter than writing any information down. Nick was beyond distracted. His thoughts were not on the report. They weren't even close to the case. "Why don't you stop by the morgue and see how the preliminary report is coming?" asked Adam, a small but definite grin on his face. The sight of his partner's grin encouraged a smile on Nick's face. "You think I should?" "I think I'll get the reports done and the case wrapped up more quickly if you stop staring at the paperwork. I think the captain will be pleased if there is some progress on the investigation reported. I think both our lives will be much easier if you can keep your mind on the work. *And*, I think all of that would be better served if you checked on the coroner's report tonight." Nick watched as his partner leaned back in his chair with crossed arms, daring Nick to disagree. It was evident that Adam understood exactly where Nick's thoughts had been since leaving the crime scene. "You think?" asked Nick, his smile broadening. "Yes, I think," Adam told his preoccupied partner. "Go on, get out of here and let a real detective do some work." Nick dropped his pencil and glared in mock anger at the jibe. "Who's a real detective?" "Not either of you," Ed Rhoades said as he passed by their workstations on the way to the water cooler, cup in hand. "Deadbeats, both of ya." "Yeah," Adam said over his shoulder, "like robbery is the happenin' place for the detective on the rise." Rhoades picked up a pencil from a nearby desk and tossed it at Sakai. The night was slow in robbery and he had been given some prelims on the case Knight and Sakai had been working on. The murder may have been secondary to burglary and that would make the case joint territory. Rhoades would like a chance to work on the case because it would give him an opportunity to work with the rising stars of the precinct. Doing so couldn't help but look good in his duty file. "That's right, death detail boy. You guys should move over to robbery. We'd teach you the real meaning of detective work." "Would ya?" Adam asked with as much playful sarcasm as he could muster. "Please?" Rhoades nodded and continued toward the water cooler. Adam liked the robbery detective. As a matter of fact, he liked just about everyone at this precinct, including his partner, who obviously needed some time with a certain lady coroner. Turning back to Nick he shrugged. "You see what I have to put up with now that you're my partner? I think you need to get out of here so I can get the respect I deserve." Nick chuckled. "Yeah," he said as he planted his hands and the top of his desk and pushed himself up to a standing position. "I'll go check on the report. Just remember what section you're working in, okay?" "Oh sure, like I'm going to forget the I share a ride in the ugliest car in the department." "Hey, don't knock my ride," Nick pointed his finger at his partner and gave him a stern look. "Ya see? No respect," Adam repeated. As he reached over to take the unfinished report off of Nick's desk and pull it onto his own he nodded. "Give my best to Natalie." Nick smiled a three star smile. "Yeah, I'll do that." With another nod of thanks, Nick left the workstation and his partner behind. Lots of things seemed to have changed for him recently. He had begun to feel comfortable with another partner, something he had told himself he would never do again, and he felt that there had been a change in the way Natalie was feeling about their relationship. Nick just might be building friendships again. Mortal friendships. If he were ever to become human again, he would have to continue to struggle across this bridge. It was the only one that would lead him back across. *** The lights were out in the lab as he pushed open the door. She had already gone home. Stepping into the room, he allowed the door to swing quietly shut behind him. He slowly made his way around the examining table that had been the first place he had looked up from to see her face. Rounding the far end of the table, he swung round to walk behind her desk. Third drawer down on the left, under the odd papers that were placed there to make it less conspicuous, was the journal she had kept for chronicling their efforts. He had dared to open the cover of that journal only once before. The cold tone of the handwritten lines had wounded him. As a matter of fact, he had felt a bit embittered by them. Hadn't he even accused her of using him as some sort of guinea pig? He tapped the top of the desk with two pale, cold fingers and then moved to leave the lab. Her notes didn't belong to him, though he may be the subject. They, and the thoughts they reflected, belonged to her. He would leave them to her heart and hope that, one day, she would feel free to share them with him. *** Adam donned his jacket and picked up the file that contained the completed scene and shift reports. Dropping them on the captain's desk, he headed out of the captain's office on his way home. Nick had been gone for over an hour and it was his turn to face a pretty face. In his case, Kelly's. The thought made him smile. "Detective Sakai?" Turning, Adam came face to face with Arthur Michaels, one of the department's forensic scientists. Arthur's specialty was location examination. One of the things Nick had taught Adam since his arrival at the ninety-sixth was to trust the instincts of this particular forensic. "Hi, Arthur. What's up?" "I think there's something you should look at, Detective," replied Arthur as he pushed at the bridge of his glasses. (to be continued ...) -------------------------------------------- For more information or to participate in the Forever Knight Virtual 4th Season, write to V4S@fkfanfic.com.