Moonlightaholics

Rating : G
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.

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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.

Well, most humans might be just a drink, but then there's this one special occasion... you know, like you don't remember every steak you ever ate, but when it was for a special occasion or in a special place...
And Mick sure will always remember the one time he drank from Beth. He should tell her.
I love the righteous indignance of Beth. So in character.

Excellent, Tam!

This is one of those misunderstandings that, I feel, would have been worked out if they just communicated more. Josef has a way to defusing things here.

Thanks

Yeah!! So simple!

Still, it hurts somehow and I don't think even Josef would say that, if one of his freshies was there...

And, of course, the difference is that the soda, or the steak, or whatever, isn't a willing participant, whereas the freshie is. But still, it isn't fair to expect Mick to remember every meal, and it's ludicrous to expect it of someone as old as Josef.

I agree that Beth's main problem is that she's equating the experience of feeding Mick her blood to a typical vampire-freshie "transaction." Mick needs to get over his embarrassment, explain that relationship to her, and prove to her that she is not just food to him. (Even if, strictly speaking, she did feed him that one time, it was more like doing CPR than offering him a snack!)

Just read this again and think we would have seen a conversation like this on screen.

This is just one of the many things that seem insignificant on the face of it and yet point to the fact that vampires and humans are very different.

Great job!

Thank you!

Jenna