Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: This is a follow-on to a story called Descent. I started it a few months ago, but my muse deserted me. I picked it up again, thinking it would be a perfect candidate for the "Unfinished Business" Champagne Challenge. The story's about unfinished business, and it's one of the unfinished fics I had lying around, gathering dust. I hope you enjoy it.
Thanks to PNWgal for reading this and telling me it didn't suck.
Dawn Conversation
Mandy stifled a yawn as she straightened the bar area. It had been a long night, and everyone was tired. She waved and called goodnight to Cherie, who was guiding two sleepy freshies from the private room to the front door. Al the bouncer held the door for the three women, saw them safely into a waiting town car, and then left, locking the door behind him. As she worked, Mandy looked around the club. Everything looked normal; the damage had been quickly repaired, and even the gossip had mostly died down. But the atmosphere had definitely changed.
She thought about the past few days. After the brawl, Steve had been busted down to assistant manager, and told that he was lucky to have a job at all. Mr. Kostan had brought in some guy from New York to manage the place, and he didn’t have a good feel yet for the LA vibe. Everyone in the club was edgy, especially the freshies–and no wonder, since they were now being subjected to weekly hematocrit tests. And everyone was being put through a rigorous background check.
Mandy sighed. I guess that’s what we get for letting things slide, she said to herself. She thought back to the night Mick St. John had swaggered in and charmed her right out of her good sense. A flush rose in her cheeks as she remembered that warm glow she’d felt when Mick leaned against the bar and as much as promised that he’d take her blood if she played that stupid game. How dumb could she be? He’d never had any intention of biting her; why would he, when there were so many younger, prettier girls on the menu? She made a face as she realized she’d been drying the same martini glass for the past minute. She quickly put the rest of the glassware away, wishing that Mick had never come into the club that night.
Dipping a soft cloth into the special crystal polish, she rubbed it into the surface of the bartop, leaning her weight on her hands and singing an ugly little ditty in time with the motion of the cloth: “Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid…” The polish hazed up, dulling the slowly changing colored lights that still illuminated the bar. Then she took a fresh cloth and polished the crystal to a shine, carefully inspected her handiwork, and switched off the bar lights.
Steve stuck his head out of the manager’s office. “You still here?”
Mandy smiled at him. “Yeah, I’m just about done. You heading out?”
Steve entered the bar area, locking the office door behind him. “Yeah. I’ll walk you to your car.”
“Thanks, let me just get my stuff. I’ll be right back.” Stripping off her rubber gloves, Mandy put away the polish and the other cleaning supplies, and headed to the staff bathroom in the back to wash her hands. She grabbed her coat and purse from her locker and was shrugging into her coat when she heard Steve’s voice.
“I don’t know. Wait a minute, I’ll check.” Steve was talking on the phone in the bar area, and he pushed the hold button as Mandy came out. He pointed at the phone. “It’s Mick St. John. He wants to talk to you. I told you I wasn’t sure if you were still here.”
Mandy came to a stop. Damn. Why was he calling? Was he still looking for an easy… well, if he was, the hell with him. She walked up to Steve and held out her hand, a determined expression on her face. “Yeah, I’ll talk to him.”
Steve gave her a skeptical look and handed over the phone, and Mandy punched the blinking line button. “This is Mandy.”
“Man- Amanda?” The voice sounded unsure, nothing like Mick’s normal, suave tone. “It’s Mick. Uh, Mick St. John.”
As if there was another Mick. “Yes, what do you want?”
“I want… I guess I want to apologize. I meant to talk to you that night, but, well…”
Mandy gave a mirthless little laugh. “Yeah, I guess you were a little… tied up.”
She could almost feel Mick cringing over the phone. “Uh, yeah. Look, I know it’s late, but… I was wondering if I could talk to you. Try to explain.”
Mandy rolled her eyes at Steve, who wasn’t even trying to pretend not to eavesdrop. “Look, Mick, there’s no need, really. Besides, I’m about to walk out the door. Maybe another time.”
There was a swallowing sound, and a sigh. “OK, I understand. I’m sorry to trouble you. Sorry for everything.”
Mandy frowned. He didn’t sound good, not good at all. “Look… I’m just on my way out to my car. I’ve got about a half-hour’s drive home. I’ll call you once I’m on the road, okay?”
“Thanks, Amanda. I really appreciate it.” She could hear the little half-smile in his voice.
“Okay, I’ll talk to you in a while. Bye.” She looked at the phone for a few seconds before putting it back into the charging station.
Steve had been watching her the whole time, leaning against the bar. “Well, that was weird.”
Amanda shook her head. “Really weird. He doesn’t sound like himself, does he?”
“Nope. I bet Kostan reamed him good.”
Mandy giggled. “He did. Literally, remember?”
Steve snickered. “Oh yeah, I guess he did. But you know what I mean.”
Mandy nodded. “Yeah. I almost feel sorry for the guy.”
Steve shook his head. “Hell, I don’t. Not after all the trouble he’s caused us. So you ready to go?”
“Definitely.” She picked up her purse and turned toward the door, rummaging for her car keys as Steve walked her out and locked up the club.
“Here, let me,” Steve said, holding out his hand for her bag.
Mandy blushed as Steve shook the big purse, cocked his head, listening, and expertly extracted her keys. “That’s cheating. You used your magic powers.”
Handing her the purse and then the keys, Steve grinned and winked. “You’re just jealous.”
“Am not.” Mandy stuck out her tongue.
“Are too.”
As Mandy got into her car, Steve said, “Now make sure you lock the doors, and whatever you do, don’t let that guy talk you into anything, you promise?”
Mandy dimpled up at him. “You’re such a nag! Don’t worry, I think he just wants to talk. And believe me, I won’t fall for his act again.”
Steve frowned. “You better not. Just in case, I’ll leave my phone turned on. If you need me, you call me. Anytime.”
Mandy reached up and touched his hand where it rested on the top of her car door. “I will, Steve, I promise. But I’ll be fine.” She buckled her seatbelt and Steve shut her door, then knocked on the window with his knuckle.
“Lock up,” he said, loudly enough for her to hear through the glass.
“All right! Go hit the icebox!” Mandy hit the lock button and waved, smiling to herself as she watched Steve walk over to his motorcycle and pull on his helmet. He’d become sort of a big brother to her, and she appreciated it. In some ways, the two of them were in the doghouse together, and they’d become a sort of “two against the world” team. Nothing more than friends, but it was nice to have that sort of relationship with a vamp. Most of them were so… well… cold blooded. She’d always gotten a different impression from Mick, but his behavior the other night had proven that he was a vamp like all vamps. Not exactly the sort of guy who’d be calling a girl at five in the morning to pour out his soul. So which was the real Mick St. John?
“Only one way to find out,” Mandy muttered to herself, and she pulled up Mick’s office number on her cell, made sure the Bluetooth was on, and hit “call” as she pulled out onto the street.
He picked up on the first ring. “Amanda?”
“Yeah. Sorry I didn’t call back right away, I had to help Steve lock up.”
“I thought maybe you’d changed your mind. I wouldn’t blame you if you did...”
“Well, I wouldn’t do that. If I say I’ll do something, I do it.” Mandy’s voice was a little sharp.
There was silence, and then a sigh. “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry about everything. I don’t...” Another silence.
“Well, you ought to be. Do you know how much trouble we’re all in because of you?”
“I did what I could,” Mick said softly. “I talked Josef out of firing Steve. He’s a good guy.”
“He really is. He didn’t deserve what happened to him.”
“Well,” Mick said, “there were some problems that he wasn’t handling well. I’m sorry it happened because of me, but I think he was in over his head. That girl never should have been hired, with her history. And there was another girl whose iron levels were way too low.”
Mandy frowned. “Well, maybe. But the new guy is really strict. Everyone feels like he’s spying on us.”
“I’m sorry Amanda. And I didn’t mean to criticize Steve. The whole thing was a huge mistake, one I regret for a lot of reasons. But mostly, I regret how I treated you.”
Mandy felt a lump growing in her throat. “I shouldn’t have been so dumb. I should’ve known you didn’t mean any of it.”
“No, please don’t feel that way. I never should have...” Mick’s voice trailed away. Mandy heard him take a breath. “Amanda, I wanted to pick you. I almost did... but some little sane part of my brain kept me from making that mistake.”
Mandy reached for a tissue. “Would it have been that bad? Picking me?”
“Oh, Amanda, no, I didn’t mean it like that. I respect you too much to treat you like– food.”
Mandy sniffed and said in a small voice, “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You know, I made a promise a long time ago, not to feed fresh.”
“Yeah...”
“Well, that night at the club, I came really close to breaking it. And I would hate to associate you with breaking that promise. I like you too much for that.”
“Oh.”
There was a long silence. Then Mick said, in a voice almost too low for Mandy to hear, “Do you know why I stopped?”
“Everybody says you did it for love.”
Mick made a strange, breathy laughing sound. “For love? No. I rescued a child from a monster who wanted to drain her. The monster was my wife.”
Mandy gasped. “Oh, no.”
“And after that night, whenever I looked at freshies, all I could see was that little girl. So I found another way.”
“You poor guy.”
“No. It was my choice. But you see why I don’t want to break that promise?”
Mandy nodded. “Yeah. But if it means that much to you, why...”
“Why did I come to the club? That’s a really long story, one I can’t tell you too much about. But there’s this girl...”
“A girl? You mean a girlfriend?”
“No. Well... it’s complicated. Really complicated. She had a boyfriend. She and I were friends, and maybe growing to be more than friends. A lot more. But she decided to go back and work things out with the guy.”
Mandy sighed. “Oh. That sucks.”
“It gets worse. The day I came to the club, he got shot. I tried to save him, but he bled out. And she asked me... to turn him.”
Mandy’s mouth fell open. “Whoa. Talk about complicated. What did you do?”
Mick’s voice was very low and rough. “I said no. I couldn’t do that to him.”
“Ohhhhh. And she was mad.”
“More than mad. She blamed me for his death. She wouldn’t listen to me... she sent me away. For good, I thought.”
“Well, what did you expect, Mick? She must have felt awful!”
“I know. I handled it wrong. I wasn’t exactly... myself that night.”
Mandy thought for a minute. “So you came to the club after all that?”
“Yes. I thought I’d lost her.” Mick hesitated. “And she was... everything to me.”
“This sounds like a lot more than a friendship to me, Mick.”
She could hear Mick’s wry smile in the tone of his voice. “Well we went through a lot over the last few months. I saved her life, she saved my life... she found out about vampires the hard way, and didn’t run... she fed me her blood in the desert...”
“Hey, wait a minute. I thought you said you didn’t feed fresh.”
“It wasn’t like that. I was dying. She saved my life–again. I told you it was complicated.”
Mandy laughed. “Complicated isn’t a strong enough word. So she’s pretty special, huh?”
“Yeah. Really special.”
“So have you talked to her since then?”
“Yeah.” Mick’s voice sounded lighter, a little excited. “And things are better between us. I think.” Doubt had crept in again.
Mandy shook her head. The guy was definitely not acting like himself. She’d never heard this sort of emotion in his voice. “What do you mean, you think? What happened?”
“Well, she came to see me a couple of days later. She told me that she’d found out her boyfriend was planning to propose. And she realized she wouldn’t have been able to say yes. Her feelings for him had changed.”
“Oh? Well, that’s encouraging.”
“Yeah, well, then my ex barged in, and she left.”
“Your ex?! You are kidding me. You mean the monster wife?”
“Yeah. Uh, she’s another complication. It’s kinda difficult to explain.”
Mandy started to giggle. “I think I need a scorecard. So let me get this straight. You met this girl, you had all sorts of adventures with her, but she had a boyfriend. Right?”
“Right. But they were drifting apart. And she and I... well, we drifted closer. But then the ex showed up.”
“She still got a thing for you?”
Mick didn’t answer for a minute. “Something like that. Anyway... she came back, and–”
“And made the new girl jealous...”
Another little laugh. “Yeah, maybe a little. And a lot of things happened, and I guess the boyfriend looked a lot less dangerous than I did. So she decided to give things one last try with him. But he got on the wrong side of a gang of really bad people. And... he died. And you know what happened after that.”
Mandy drove in silence for a minute. “And the ex? She’s still around, causing trouble?”
“Uh... well, no. It’s over between us. And she’s gone–maybe for good this time. That part’s really complicated, too.” He sounded sad.
“Okay... so the ex is gone, and the girl told you she wouldn’t have said yes when her boyfriend proposed, and now he’s gone...”
“Yeah.”
“So call her.”
“I can’t do that. I have to give her time. She’s been through a lot.”
Mandy got off the freeway and drove through neighborhood streets as the clouds above turned pink. The sun was rising.
“Mick, it’s late. You should be resting. Maybe you should let her know you’re thinking about her. You know... send her flowers or something.”
“No. Not flowers. Not so soon after the funeral.”
“Oh, yeah.” She thought for a minute. “Then text her. Just say something like ‘I miss you.’ Then if she wants to see you, she’ll call.”
Mick chuckled. “I don’t really do the texting thing.”
“Well, maybe you should send her an engraved invitation, then.” Mandy rolled her eyes.
“Hey, I’m not that old school.”
Mandy pulled into her driveway and turned off the engine. “Well, just let her know that you’re thinking about her, okay? No demands, just reach out. Maybe she’s just waiting for a little encouragement.”
Silence, and then Mick said, in a hopeful-sounding voice, “Maybe she is. Okay, I’ll send her a text.”
“Good. And Mick?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t be a stranger, okay? I know it might feel a little weird at first, but you’re welcome at the club.”
Mick snorted. “I’m not sure Steve would feel that way.”
Mandy smiled. “I can talk him around.”
“Well, it might be a while, but I’ll come back. I promise.”
“Good. I’ll buy you a drink.”
“Uh...”
Mandy blushed furiously. “I meant a Scotch.”
“Oh. Of course. That would be great. And Amanda? Thanks. Thanks a lot. For everything.”
“You’re welcome. Hey, one more thing.”
“Yeah?”
“Whatever happened to that little girl?”
There was a tense silence, and Mandy’s eyes got really big. “Oh, my God. She grew up, didn’t she?”
“Look, Amanda, you’ve got to promise me that you won’t say anything about any of this, okay?”
“Okay, I promise. On one condition. Tell me the truth, right now.”
A sigh, then a little laugh. “I told you it was complicated.”
Mandy put her hand over her mouth, but she couldn’t stifle the grin. “You send her a text. Promise?”
“I promise.” Mick sounded almost buoyant.
“Okay. Now go get some rest, you stupid vamp.”
He laughed, the first real, hearty laugh she’d ever heard from him. “Later. I’ve got some things to do first.”
I really like that it wasn't an "easy" conversation. Mandy was very reluctant, at first. She had been mulling over the contradiction that was Mick St. John, and she needed some answers as much as Mick needed to set things right. I love that the road to that place of mutual understanding took place literally on the road as Mandy was driving home. They kind of arrived at a new destination together, and they did so at the beginning of a new day. Just perfect. 
I'd been wanting to go back to this story, because seriously, Mick owed Mandy a very big apology. 
I'd written a rough draft of the beginning part, and then ran out of time, inspiration, whatever... and put it away. This Challenge seemed like the perfect excuse to pick it back up. 
I'm so glad you enjoyed it. 
