Spoilers : Ep 16 of Moonlight, season 1
Summary : Shortly after 'Sonata' - Beth can’t let go of the concept of 'freshies'.
First posted : ff.net, August 2009
Disclaimer: The characters are not mine, no money is being made and no infringement is intended.
How Many
Josef smiled. Mick and Beth were coming up the path that led up to the Hills House. He could already hear them arguing.
"...why won't you just tell me?" Beth asked exasperatedly as she came through the door.
"Because I don't know, Beth - ok? It's not like I've been counting," Mick replied tersely, entering after her.
"Oooh, guessing games, can I play?" Josef chipped in, his eyes glinting naughtily. "How many times has Mick spanked the monkey thinking of Beth? Hmmm, let me see...four...hundred?"
Beth went wide-eyed. "Josef, that is disgusting!" she said, abhorred.
Josef cocked his head and made a show of looking her up and down, making a small appreciative noise in the back of his throat as if to say 'why not? I don't find you disgusting at all'. Mick's eyes flashed silver in warning.
"Actually," Beth said, her face flushed, "I was asking Mick how many freshies he has had."
"And he doesn't know?" asked Josef sardonically.
"Do you?" Mick fired back.
"Well, I-" Josef started, then paused. He smiled sheepishly and shrugged. Mick threw up his hands.
"You see, Beth? Josef doesn't know either!"
"So what, like I am supposed to remember all of them?" Josef asked, frowning. Beth narrowed her eyes.
"How could you not remember people letting you drink their blood?" she asked incredulously, and thought of the day she had fed Mick in the desert. In a few years time, would he have forgotten about her too?
Josef sighed, looking resigned.
"Look Beth, you gotta think of it like this: you're, what, thirty years old?"
"Twenty-seven," she replied prissily.
"Whatever. So, in those twenty-seven years you've lived, can you tell me now, from the top of your head, how many coca cola's you've drunk? Don't calculate, just tell me."
"That's ridiculous, I can't possibly--" Beth started to protest and then broke off. Josef was looking at her smugly, fixing her with those amber eyes that always gave her the feeling he was looking straight into her soul. She understood the point he was making. Simone was right; it might feel intimate to humans, but for vampires, it was nothing...they were just a drink.