In memoriam (PG)

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redwinter101
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In memoriam (PG)

Post by redwinter101 »

Title: In memoriam
Author: redwinter101
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own Moonlight or any of its characters
Note: For Memorial Day. An imagined missing scene from What's Left Behind.

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--- In Memoriam ---


“That boy who was kidnapped? He might be my grandson.” His past wasn’t just another country, it was another life, another him, one he’d never really shared with Josef. He expected mockery; he got concern.

“Well. I hope you get the kid back. Your last contribution to the human gene pool.”

“Yeah. I guess he is.” Mick’s voice roughened under the weight of worry.

Josef rolled the purple heart through his fingers, concentrated, intense, mirthless. For once.

"It's a purple heart, Josef. It won't turn into something else, no matter how long you stare at it." Mick reached to grab the medal, uncomfortable at the scrutiny of his past, encapsulated in weave and shine.

“Why do you keep it? And this?” He reached for the silver star. “They’re just-”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. ‘Remnants of my lost humanity.’ Yadda yadda yadda.”

Mick replaced the medals in his foot locker and reached for the lid. Josef’s hand, braced against the gunmetal, stopped him.

“I’m serious, Mick.”

“Since when?” One eyebrow raised, hand on hip, an affectionate challenge.

“Touché. But why hold on to reminders of injury? It’s not like there’s a victory medal in there anywhere.” Josef stepped closer to the foot locker; Mick blocked his path.

“Don’t, Josef. Just... File this under ‘things I don’t understand about humans’, okay?”

“I was only asking. Delving into the mystery that is Mick St. John. C’mon, Mick. Humour me.”

“You really wanna know why I keep this stuff?” Josef nodded. “Okay. It was the first time in my life people counted on me. You have no idea how powerful that is.”

“”That, I understand. Believe me.”

“I’m not talking about employees. I’m talking about... Never mind. It’s all ancient history now.” Mick turned away, stowing the past back in its box.

“And bits of tin help you remember the good times?”

“I swear to God, Josef, just let it go.”

Josef raised his hands in mock surrender. “I’ve been in some battles in my time, mostly involving pitchforks or blunderbusses, and I’d as soon forget them.” He shrugged.

“Were you side by side with your friends? Did you know they were counting on you to do your bit, hoping it was enough? Did you lose-?” Mick broke off, the echo of ‘everything’ loud and harsh.

Josef stepped closer, “No, no, and maybe.”

“I was human, Josef. It was... complicated.” He’d never told Josef much about Ray and Lilah. Especially Lilah. She was still his, untainted. Sepia memories, the past leaking into the future, age-old disappointment rearing up to poke and prod at him, taunting him with precious, dangerous hope. Part of him yearned to share the man he once was with the friend who accepted the vampire he’d become.

“Ah.” Josef nodded and smiled.

“Ah? What does ’Ah’ mean?”

“I always knew there was something, someone, from back then. Your best friend’s wife, huh?”

“She-.” Mick turned away. Of all the things they’d shared, intimacies, pain, joy, friendship, brotherhood, he didn’t know how to tell him about this, her. The call of unburdening was powerful but he didn’t want Lilah to be anything other than his and his alone.

“Let me guess. She was the love of your life. Until Coraline, of course. Or maybe Beth. It’s so hard to keep track.”

Mick squared up; Josef took a pace back. Josef never took a pace back.

“You don’t understand, so just leave it alone, okay?”

Josef nodded, a ghost of a smile playing at his lips. “Some day, my friend, some day I’ll get you to tell me all about her. In the meantime, back to procreation. So to speak. Although unless you and Beth re-write the rules of vampire love and figure out how to... procreate.” Josef moved away toward the door, almost colliding with an incoming Beth. “Hi, Beth. Beth’s here.”

His stage whisper signalled his exit as Mick packed up his foot locker, his quest for DNA successful; his search for hope, ongoing.

He turned to greet Beth; sometimes past, present and future fixed their own, inevitable collision course.
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Re: In memoriam (PG)

Post by francis »

Really great memorial day story. Some memories are so painful and intimate that you can't even share them with best friends. Especially when said friends tend to turn everything into acerbic sarcasm.
Mick squared up; Josef took a pace back. Josef never took a pace back.
I guess Josef realized how serious Mick was about this. This was a great way to convey this without any dialogue.

And I'm in love with the last sentence. :hearts:
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Re: In memoriam (PG)

Post by coco »

“She-.” Mick turned away. Of all the things they’d shared, intimacies, pain, joy, friendship, brotherhood, he didn’t know how to tell him about this, her. The call of unburdening was powerful but he didn’t want Lilah to be anything other than his and his alone.
This is just lovely, Red. The emotions and memories from his past still strong and haunting. I agree with francis that some memories are impossible to share with best friends. You've touched on that beautifully here. :hearts:
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Re: In memoriam (PG)

Post by redwinter101 »

francis, coco, thank you both. :flowers: :flowers:

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Re: In memoriam (PG)

Post by maggatha3 »

Amazing, just amazing how perfectly that already beautiful moonlight scene could be filled! Josef trying to understand and Mick avoiding to share his most intimate...And that phrase at the end, so characterising of Mick's way of thinking and living and choosing his paths in life ,"the inevitable collision course of past, present and future'' , nets that you can neither break nor avoid, things that define you and by no means can you define them..
Thanks red, for one more wonderful piece of writing :rose:
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Re: In memoriam (PG)

Post by allegrita »

Oh, Red, what a lovely, painful story. I would like to tie up everything maggatha said and tie a bow around it to make it mine, because she said exactly what I feel.
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Re: In memoriam (PG)

Post by redwinter101 »

maggatha3 wrote:nets that you can neither break nor avoid, things that define you and by no means can you define them..
Thanks, maggatha - that's such a perfect description of Mick's life that I think I'll frame it.

:smooch: for alle. :thanks2:

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Re: In memoriam (PG)

Post by PNWgal »

Oh Red.... :cloud9:

I'm very much in love with a great Mick/Josef exchange, and this is just so great. Mick, caught up in the past of his humanity and the present possibility of having a family, is reluctant to share that with Josef, who's been vampire for a VERY long time.
redwinter101 wrote:“Don’t, Josef. Just... File this under ‘things I don’t understand about humans’, okay?”
That made me :laugh: .

But it's not just the memories of the War Mick doesn't want to share, it's the memory of Lilah, something that's just his, something Josef doesn't know about.
redwinter101 wrote:Part of him yearned to share the man he once was with the friend who accepted the vampire he’d become.
The Mick/Josef dynamic in a sentence. Well done. :smooch:
redwinter101 wrote:“She-.” Mick turned away. Of all the things they’d shared, intimacies, pain, joy, friendship, brotherhood, he didn’t know how to tell him about this, her. The call of unburdening was powerful but he didn’t want Lilah to be anything other than his and his alone.
I just love this...the one thing Mick wants to hold close to him, and the one thing Josef is determined to get out of him.

But Josef isn't going to succeed, not this time around, and this is telling:
redwinter101 wrote:Mick squared up; Josef took a pace back. Josef never took a pace back.
Mick's coming into his own. :teeth:

Wonderful, Red, and a fitting tribute on the day we set aside to honor our soldiers.

:heart:
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Re: In memoriam (PG)

Post by maggatha3 »

:heart: red
:heart: alle
I am deeply honoured that either of you might even consider using a word of mine :blushing: in any way... :curtsey:
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Re: In memoriam (PG)

Post by redwinter101 »

:cloud9: :cloud9:

Thanks so much, PNWgal. I loved WLB in so many ways but what always intrigued me the most was that Mick had never, in all those years, told Josef about Lilah. It makes me wonder how much of his pre-vampire life he told Josef. Maybe Josef was only concerned with what came next rather than the past, especially the human parts of it, but I think that must have been really hard for Mick. But then again, this is all stuff Josef could have easily found out if he was so inclined.

And so I'm thinking about their first meeting all over again. So many possibilities. :happysigh: :happysigh: :happysigh:

Such a super, thought-provoking comment. Thank you. :hearts:

maggatha - they are beautiful words, honey. Beautiful. :happysigh:

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Re: In memoriam (PG)

Post by PNWgal »

I agree...there was so SO much to love about WLB. This is just one more thing. :cloud9:
redwinter101 wrote:And so I'm thinking about their first meeting all over again. So many possibilities. :happysigh: :happysigh: :happysigh:
This makes me very happy.

:teeth:
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Re: In memoriam (PG)

Post by redwinter101 »

PNWgal wrote:I agree...there was so SO much to love about WLB. This is just one more thing. :cloud9:
redwinter101 wrote:And so I'm thinking about their first meeting all over again. So many possibilities. :happysigh: :happysigh: :happysigh:
This makes me very happy.

:teeth:
You're too kind. I've already written it once (and you know how that goes - it kinda becomes personal canon) - but maybe it's time for something different. I shall mull.

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Re: In memoriam (PG)

Post by jen »

Fabulous story, Red.

The importance of these events, of Ray and Lilah--friendship, love, sacrifice and perceived betrayal were huge events in the life of human Mick, and he doubts his ability to adequately explain their importance to Josef.

Maggatha put it so beautifully

"nets that you can neither break nor avoid, things that define you and by no means can you define them..."

Superb story of the importance of cherished and pivotal memories. Quite appropriate for Memorial Day.

Thank you

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Re: In memoriam (PG)

Post by redwinter101 »

jen wrote:The importance of these events, of Ray and Lilah--friendship, love, sacrifice and perceived betrayal were huge events in the life of human Mick, and he doubts his ability to adequately explain their importance to Josef.
I completely agree. Although I think his experiences of seeing Josef with Sarah should have given him a little more courage to bite the bullet. But those old wounds, man... :Mickangel:

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Re: In memoriam (PG)

Post by jen »

"...sometimes they still ache."
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