Cold-- December Champagne Challenge Rated G

[MoonShadow]

Pairing: Beth and Mick
Rating: G
Spoilers: I wish it had a spoiler
Summary: Nothing happens by chance, always remember

CBS & Paramount owns Moonlight, No copyright infringement is intended.

Cold
By Moonshadow

A wisp of smoke rolled from her lips as she breathed out, fighting to control the shiver that ran down her spine. Blankets of fog had rolled in from the bay and they carried with them the scent of distant dreams. Turning and pulling her jacket closer she stepped away from the sleek black and chrome door looking towards the shadowed mist with anticipation. The ghostly shapes of stone and tree formed a macabre still life in the silver light of the full moon. The slightest whisper of fabric behind her caused her heart to hammer.

“There’s nothing here.” His face was wrapped in shadow but the blackness of his sorrow burned like fire. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You didn’t have to come with me. There’s nothing here, just memories.”

“I’m sorry Mick, I didn’t mean to intrude. It’s just”

“Beth, this wasn’t the anniversary of your war.” He breathed deep before the words came. “These were my friends. This was my time.” Pain laced every word as it slipped into the darkness like the tendrils of fog.”

“You come here every year?”

A cross between a snort and sigh of impatience spoke volumes.

“Yeah, every year. I come here every year. To stand above them. To remember what they gave me. I don’t know how to make you understand what all this,” he gestured across the rolling hills marked with marble, faded greens and browns, and limp miniature flags hanging in the darkness. His empty hand turned palm up, before it fell to his side, “What this means to me.”

Beth turned away searching the darkness. “You’re right. I didn’t live through this. I don’t know what it must have meant to the families, the mothers and fathers, the wives and sisters.” “Honestly Mick,” she added with another shiver and shake of her head, “I don’t even want to imagine what the waiting and the agony must have felt like.”

Mick’s shoulders shrugged up and he tipped his head back blinking in the caress of moonlight. “You’re freezing. Let’s get you warmed up.”

“Are you ready?” she asked in a whisper.

“No.” “Yes.” “My friends lie cold in their graves.” He reached out cupping her cheek. “and I’ve been given another chance.” His thumb brushed tenderly across her brow. “I’m not about to throw that away.


In memory of those who gave their lives on December 7th 1941

[francis]

Very touching, Moonshadow. I could see the cold. But Mick has taken the second chance he had.

[MoonShadow]

Thank You!

It just popped into my head...

[redwinter101]

Wonderful, honey. Super imagery and beautifully touching.

Red

[wpgrace]

Ohhhh... this is just lovely. Sad, lonely, cold, all come to mind. But also gratitude, courage, hope, and grace. All evoked by your words here. Lovely.

[jen]

Moonshadow

This is lovely. Simply lovely.

While Mick once said to 'not get too used to anything, because it is going to change,' it stands to reason that the time before he was Turned has special meaning, and the experiences tied to those years are cherished. Like a flower pressed between the pages of a book, to be taken out and savored on rare occasions.

This is a brief look at one of those occasions.

How lovely that Beth elected to share it with him. While she may not understand, she chose to be there with him.

If it is important to Mick, it is important to her.

Thank you!

Jenna

[MoonShadow]

Jen, Red, and Grace,
thank you so much for the comments.

It just seems that Mick holds the memories of his time before he was turned in a special place. Something that is separate and different from the time after his turning. I love that Beth comes from a different perspective in history. She's lived through some very tramatic American times, but she had different responses to them inpart due to the influence of media.
I also love to touch on the angst that haunts Mick. It's always there. Even when he choses to move ahead.

[allegrita]

Oh, MoonShadow... what I like most about this story is the way that it acknowledges the huge gulf between Mick and Beth, a gap they can't bridge easily, because they are so different. People of different eras, a vampire and a human, a secret-keeper and a curious reporter, a man who spends most of his time looking back at his lost past, and a woman who always looks forward (maybe because she can't stand to really examine what's behind her).

And yet... they do reach across that gulf. Especially Beth. She somehow manages to impose herself on Mick without invading his space too much. And she cuts through his sadness and fills his cold with her warmth. Not just because she's human, but because she's such a vital person.

Beth acknowledges that she can't possibly understand what Mick went through so long ago. But she can sympathize. She can love him, and care about his sadness, and hold his hand so he's not alone. And Mick responds to that warmth, appreciates that vitality. He realizes that the past is gone, and the future is where whatever happiness he can snatch lies. The future, and Beth.

This is a lovely story, and a true depiction of the fundamental characters of Mick and Beth. Thank you.

[Luxe de Luxe]

This is fantastic, Moonshadow. You totally had me from the very first line -- so incredibly atmospheric and even a little scary...

The ghostly shapes of stone and tree formed a macabre still life in the silver light of the full moon. The slightest whisper of fabric behind her caused her heart to hammer.

.. at least in the beginning. A wonderful and touching little vignette.

[cassysj]

Very nice. Mick was part of the Greatest Generation in American history that will always be a part of him. What you said in one of your responses about Beth is very true that her life was influenced greatly by media. I'm about twelve years older then Beth and I saw the hostages in Iran be released, Ronald Reagan be shot, the space shuttle Challenger and of course 9/11 on my television screen. My mother was nine years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked. She said she remembered her parents calling her into the house because they heard the news on the radio She was scared New York was going to be bombed not having a geographical sense of how far Hawaii was.

Mick would have suffered through the depression as a child and as the light finally started to clear on that front the country was at war. Mick does have to live on to represent those fine people who lived and died.

[MoonShadow]

Allegrita, Luxe, and Cassysj,

Thank you for the wonderful comments. I love hearing from the folks who read these stories, and they help me become a better writer.
Luxe, I find graveyards are creepy places at night. I get very jumpy and I thought they would do the same thing to Beth.

MS

[Lucy]

Old soldiers can be 30 years old......(you've caught it all)
Thanks for working the challenge to a deeply moving subject of heroism and Mick's feelings of what could be seen as survivor's guilt.

[jmc]

Beautiful, MS.
Mick is from my mom's generation. She remembers the radio broadcast that Sunday and how the next day all the boys went down to enlist. Most traumatic for her was the death of FDR because he'd been in office for so long. He was the only political leader she'd known as she was growing up. Soon Mick will be the only person left with living memory of the time before Pearl Harbor Day was in the history books, as Josef is for his time and place. So glad he has found Beth to link him into this time and place and give him a future to look forward to.

[darkstarrising]

This is quite stirring, Moonshadow, and beautifully written.

A wisp of smoke rolled from her lips as she breathed out, fighting to control the shiver that ran down her spine. Blankets of fog had rolled in from the bay and they carried with them the scent of distant dreams. Turning and pulling her jacket closer she stepped away from the sleek black and chrome door looking towards the shadowed mist with anticipation. The ghostly shapes of stone and tree formed a macabre still life in the silver light of the full moon. The slightest whisper of fabric behind her caused her heart to hammer.

This opening paragraph puts the reader in the moment, one of remembrance of a time long past, one that is for most, a moment in history they didn't live through. Mick, however, did, and for him, it's not just a date and a horrible event, it's a time when his world was turned upside down and he lost people he knew and loved. For Beth, it's a chance to feel the pain of one who did live through it.

Yet you end on a note of hope, one we should all keep in mind.

“My friends lie cold in their graves.” He reached out cupping her cheek. “and I’ve been given another chance.” His thumb brushed tenderly across her brow. “I’m not about to throw that away.

[Shadow]

Wow, Moonshadow, you can put so much into a very few words. The cold of that night, Beth's nerves in that dark cemetery, Mick's memories . . . they all seem to hover here in the air. I love the strong sense that Mick and Beth are a couple who are very much separated by the times in which they've lived. Mick's world for much of his life was such a totally different one from Beth's; she can be there for Mick, but she can't really understand what he is feeling on this night. Very beautiful!