Copycat (PG-13) chapter 10 - the end

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francis
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Copycat (PG-13) chapter 10 - the end

Post by francis »

This is the last chapter. Working with Jenna has been a great experience. I hope you like the story as it is.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Mick and Beth returned to his loft. The ‘crime scene’ tape had been removed from the door, but the faint mark where the adhesive was remained. He would get that off later. Inside, they noticed the chalk outline where the body on his carpet had been. At least they had managed to get the blood stains out. Mick didn’t want to have that chalk reminder on his floors. If the chalk didn’t come out completely, he would have the carpet replaced.

Beth stood at his shoulder, and he sensed her tension. She had seen it before he arrived.

“Come on,” he said, smiling and taking her hand. “Prepare to be amazed.”

He led her up the stairs to a door at the end of his hall. He unlocked it and pulled her through to the other upstairs rooms and to the rest of the apartment. Beth was clearly delighted with the options open to them.

While Mick and Beth were pondering the future of their cohabitation, Ryder England was at work clearing up Mick’s calendar and fabricating evidence that provided even more alibis to the vigilante slasher murders.

At Beth’s apartment that had gone largely ignored for days, the Cleaners with their usual quick, silent efficiency, had removed all signs of the violent end of the true vigilante slasher.

Mick and Beth visited Josef to go over the last days and make sure they weren’t forgetting anything.

After about an hour, the details had been covered.

“I really wanted to help Norm, but it didn’t work…“ Mick acknowledged, staring into the amber liquid in his glass.

“Ya think?” Josef asked. “but if you learned something here, then it wasn‘t a total loss… Now that you understand that rogues can‘t be rehabilitated -”

“Now I never said that. What I said was that I tried to help Norm and it didn’t work. That doesn’t mean that something else wouldn’t. We all know that the early days as a vampire are tremendously important. Someday, someone will find a way to bridge that gap for rogues.”

Josef sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Please tell me you aren’t going to try this again.”

Beth rolled her eyes. “Josef is right. You may be an idiot, but you are my idiot.”

The look in her eyes totally took the sting out of her words.


Once Mick promised not to bring the next rogue he encountered home with him, he and Beth turned to go.

“Beth, can I talk to you for a minute?” Josef asked, not looking at the couple.

She looked at Mick and he shrugged. “I’ll get the car and pull it around.”

She nodded and he closed the door as he left.

“I guess this evens things between us,” Josef said.

Beth frowned, not understanding. “How do you figure that?”

“I took care of Dean Foster for you and you protected the tribe by coming to me with the evidence you found on Mick.”

“Which turned out to be bogus,” she said, still visibly relieved. “Actually, we were even when I spotted the vampire bites on Helen Arnaugh's neck and called Mick. You got Guillermo involved instead of another medical examiner. When I came to you about Mick, that was an entirely different matter. I thought he was guilty and that you could convince him to relocate before the police caught on to the carefully planted trail of ‘evidence’ against him. I wasn’t thinking of protecting the Tribe as much as I was protecting Mick. You were the one who told me that it didn’t sound like him. You're responsible for us getting this sorted out, Josef, and I owe you for that. That means I am still in your debt."

“Leading directly into what I wanted to talk to you about. You have been around us long enough to spot the signs of vampire activity and you helped us keep off the police's radar when you called Mick about those bite marks that weren't entirely hidden by the slashes. Your quick thinking kept things from getting even messier than they did. You want a way to even the score?“ he asked. “Keep doing it.”

Beth nodded and walked out into the night. She paused outside the front door of Casa Kostan just enjoying the warm California night. The last week had been so stressful, she had not been enjoying much lately, but at that moment she had one of those ‘God’s-in-His-heaven-and-all’s-right-with-the-world’ moments. Everyone calls it something different, but it was a moment of quiet satisfaction with life. A gardenia bush, the favorite flower of one of Josef‘s freshies, was blooming nearby and she inhaled deeply, enjoying the sweet fragrance. The delicate white flowers were tempting, but she remembered that if you touched one of the lovely blossoms, an ugly brown spot would form from the oils in your hand where you touched it. An apt picture of Norman Caruthers. The lives he touched were damaged or destroyed by his contact, but they were lucky. They would be all right.

The Mercedes slid to the curb. She waved at Mick and walked quickly to the car

“What was that about?” he asked as she slid into the passenger seat and fastened her seatbelt.

“Josef wants me to keep an eye out for evidence of vampire involvement in crimes and notify either you or him.”

“You told me you were going to do that anyway.”

“I know, but apparently you didn’t say anything to Josef.” she said. “Don’t tell him, okay? We owe him for helping unravel this frame and he said this is how I could repay him.”

Mick laughed. “Next poker night, you have got to come with me!”

xxxxxxxxxx

The D.A.‘s office was closed for a three day weekend and Mick and Beth spent some much needed time alone at one of Josef’s many beach houses. Beth learned that the beach at night had a beauty all of its own that was made even better by being able to share it with Mick. The sand was deliciously warm under her feet as they took a long walk into the night. One night, they stayed out almost until dawn but were still unable to see the stars--the city lights hid them, even out here.

They needed to talk about what had happened.

“Beth? Honey, I understand why you have been so upset, so distant,” he slid an arm under her elbow.

“How can you not be upset?” she asked, turning to face him. “I thought you were the serial killer,” she paused for a breath and then continued on, the words rushing out like a flood. “After all I know about you, after all you have done for me, I doubted you. I thought you were capable of… of that.”

“Beth, I am capable of that. I just don’t happen to choose to go that way”, he said. “I understand. All those pieces of evidence were intended to convince the police that I was responsible for those murders. It might have worked had it not been for you. Had you not taken the evidence to Josef, and covered other evidence pointing to me or another vampire, it probably would have worked. Sweetheart, you are an intelligent investigator who followed a trail that was put there specifically for an investigator to find. We were just very, very lucky it was you who found it and went to Josef.”

“How can you not be mad at me?! I’m angry that I didn’t trust you.”

“Beth, I could tell you were upset about something and when I tried to ask you what it was, you wouldn’t talk to me. I knew you were very conflicted and confused, and while it hurt that you didn’t confide in me, I trusted you to work through whatever it was and you did. I know you Beth. You didn’t want to believe it was me when the evidence mounted up -- and I have to confess, my own secretive behavior was partly to blame for your suspicions -- you did the right thing.“

Mick fell silent as he stared out over the tops of the trees into the distance.

“I was just wondering… what did you think Josef was going to do? You had decided for a moment that I was guilty.”

“I thought Josef would convince you to relocate. Get out of L.A., and start over with a new identity somewhere else.” she said. “I was afraid to talk to you. The evidence I saw painted a picture of someone I didn’t know.”

“If I had stayed with Coraline, I could have become that person. I was for a while but I discovered I liked who I was more when I saved people than I did when I killed them. The truth is, if I had been guilty of those murders, Josef would have killed me. Remember Emma and Jackson? Same thing. Emma threatened to expose the Tribe. The murders left so many clues leading to me I’m not surprised that you got suspicious. Josef would have taken me out because it would be his job to do so. Josef and I are close friends, but don’t ever think that Josef would protect me in a case like that. “

“Then, I almost got you killed,” That did not make Beth feel better.

“No, Beth. No. Josef knew the players here. He knew it was Norm right away, but needed to ask me about the necklace because the evidence was so damning. He recognized most of the details by what you showed him but he was aware of motives you had no knowledge of. When he called me to his office and asked to see my necklace, if I had not been able to produce a very good reason why I was not wearing it, there would have been major trouble. However, he was able to see past the planted evidence and the frame fell apart. Norm knew enough about the way I work to leave details at each murder scene that would lead directly to me. I’m willing to bet that the ‘eyewitnesses’ can’t be located or have ties to him...”

Beth was not ready to let herself off the hook yet. She was ashamed of herself for doubting Mick, regardless of his obvious forgiveness.

“I didn’t want you to be guilty. I can’t tell you how much I didn’t want you to be responsible but with the evidence I had, I didn’t see any other explanation. I knew that Josef didn’t view killing humans as I do and as you were close friends, I didn’t expect he would hurt you in any way. I thought he would convince you to relocate to another city with a new identity. I have realized that a vampire that endangers the security of the Community is an unacceptable risk. I just never thought he would do that to you.”

Mick nodded. “You wanted to think that way, but you know how things work now. You called it --unacceptable risk. Emma and Jackson were our friends. You need to be absolutely clear on this. No one gets a free pass here.”

“I can’t believe you are so calm about it. I almost got you killed!”

“No, you didn’t. I wasn’t guilty. Oh, it was a good setup and it would have fooled the police in a heartbeat, but it wouldn’t have fooled vampires for long. His game was to force us to react without taking time to sort out the truth from the lies.”

“Are you going to tell me that if you came on a crime scene with a dead body clutching my necklace in his cold, dead fist; long blond hairs on his jacket and several Ghinnelli dark chocolate wrappers littering the ground you wouldn’t think it was me?”

“Nah. If that was all they had it wouldn’t be enough,” he grinned at her and tapped the side of his nose with his index finger. “Mobile vampire lab, remember?”

“I still feel like a traitor,” she said.

Mick chuckled. “Give yourself a little credit. You bought into the carefully misleading evidence and came to the conclusion he intended you to, but he didn’t plan on you altering evidence and covering it up to protect me and the Community. Honey, I am a proponent of ‘trust, but verify.’ The reason I am not a monster is because I don’t want to be one. In a way, when I saved you, you saved me from being that monster. Had my marriage to Coraline not ended that night, I may have become someone that commit murders like that.”

“What happened to Norman?”

“You don’t want to know,” he said. “In the next few days, Josef should have evidence planted to implicate the real guilty party--he’ll just never be found. You think you could stall the investigation while we get the details in place?”

“For a couple of days? Probably.” she said.

“Something is still bothering you. What is it?”

“This won’t make much sense, being out here with the sounds of the waves pounding on the surf I thought about a poem I read back in junior high school, Matthew Arnold’s poem, Dover Beach. Have you ever read it?”

He grinned. “Actually, I have. I didn’t discover it until later, though.” he wrapped his arms around her from behind and held her close. She heard the deep velvet of his voice recite the words that had been playing in her mind.

“The sea is calm tonight.
The sea is calm tonight,
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Agean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.”

Mick blushed. “I can’t remember the next part.”

Beth smiled and continued.

“The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.”

Mick fell in again:

“Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Did you learn that at school like I did?“ he asked, his lips against her ear.

“Yes, and I loved it since,” she said. “We almost didn’t make it, you know.”

“I know. But we did. You have called me your guardian angel, but the more I think about it, maybe we are each other’s guardian angels.”

Beth wrapped her arms around his that were around her waist. “So you really forgive me?”

“Yeah--but if you really want to make it up to me I’d let you spoil me for a few months.”

“Sounds like fun,” she smiled.

“So, all’s well that ends well?”

Beth frowned. “You are being awfully chipper about this whole unpleasant affair.”

“You think so?” Mick asked. “You may be right, but because of the severity of your failure to trust, I’ve been thinking that you will probably work hard to make it up to me for what…about six months?”

“One month.”

“Four months.”

“Don’t push it, Buster,” Beth said. “Three months and that is my final offer.”

“Then I’ll take it.”

Beth reached out and pulled Mick toward her by the lapels of his duster and kissed him.

finis
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Re: Copycat (PG-13) chapter 10 - the end

Post by jen »

Lovely ending, Francis!

Thank you!

Jenna

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Re: Copycat (PG-13) chapter 10 - the end

Post by allegrita »

Awwwww.... :hearts: :rose: :flowers:

Just... awwww. Nice wrap-up, ladies. A thoroughly satisfying story. :hug:
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Re: Copycat (PG-13) chapter 10 - the end

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Three months of pampering. :hug:

Fantastic job ladies. :clapping: :clapping: :clapping: Thank you. :flowers:
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Re: Copycat (PG-13) chapter 10 - the end

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A wonderful ending to a terrific story! You two will have to collaborate again for us!

Thank you both so much! :flowers:
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Re: Copycat (PG-13) chapter 10 - the end

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jen wrote:Lovely ending, Francis!

Thank you!

Jenna

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It was a pleasure to work with you. You gave me so much great input!
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Re: Copycat (PG-13) chapter 10 - the end

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allegrita wrote:Awwwww.... :hearts: :rose: :flowers:

Just... awwww. Nice wrap-up, ladies. A thoroughly satisfying story. :hug:
Thank you, allegrita! :hearts:
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Re: Copycat (PG-13) chapter 10 - the end

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Kara wrote:Three months of pampering. :hug:

Fantastic job ladies. :clapping: :clapping: :clapping: Thank you. :flowers:
I guess the pampering won't be such a hardship if it's Mick you can pamper.
They might use every available surface and scare the workers who decorate the new rooms. :rolling:
Thank you for reading. :rose:
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Re: Copycat (PG-13) chapter 10 - the end

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MickLifeCrisis wrote:A wonderful ending to a terrific story! You two will have to collaborate again for us!

Thank you both so much! :flowers:
Thank you, MLC! We'll see if Jen has the courage and patience to work with me again. :winky:
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Re: Copycat (PG-13) chapter 10 - the end

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It was an end that I have definitely been looking forward to....clear thoughts and feelings up for both of them...and you have both been so kind to Beth, I wouldn't...but then again. ..she is his Beth and she can be forgiven for a moment of doubt...You have painted the perfect Mick here, ladies, gentle and understanding and forgiving , as only he can be towards the woman he loved...What the heck , he gave Coraline so many chances...you 'd bet he would be kind with his Beth...his reason of living!

Thank you , Francis :flowers: and Jenna :flowers: , it has been a real pleasure reading your story and expecting it day by day...if the two of you have more to come...it will be more than welcome. :smooch: :smooch:
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Re: Copycat (PG-13) chapter 10 - the end

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Just had to read this again.

The intensity of doubts, regrets, and pain is in the past (for now) and everyone deserves a moment of peace before the next challenge.

Jenna

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Re: Copycat (PG-13) chapter 10 - the end

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Hey, there, Jenna, are you referring to Mick and Beth, or...to you and Francis here? :snicker:

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Re: Copycat (PG-13) chapter 10 - the end

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maggatha3 wrote:Hey, there, Jenna, are you referring to Mick and Beth, or...to you and Francis here? :snicker:

:hearts: :hearts: :flowers: :flowers:
:rolling: :rolling: :rolling:
Maybe both, but I doubt Jen and I had as much trouble as Mick and Beth.
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Re: Copycat (PG-13) chapter 10 - the end

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Um,

Actually, I was referring to Mick and Beth.

Life tends to proceed a bit more smoothly for me than it does for them.
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Re: Copycat (PG-13) chapter 10 - the end

Post by redwinter101 »

francis wrote:The delicate white flowers were tempting, but she remembered that if you touched one of the lovely blossoms, an ugly brown spot would form from the oils in your hand where you touched it. An apt picture of Norman Caruthers. The lives he touched were damaged or destroyed by his contact, but they were lucky. They would be all right.
That's really good, francis - fabulous metaphor and a wonderful visual.

I loved the wrap up, although I still think Mick took Beth's mistrust a little too easily. I have a feeling this might come back to haunt them in the future.

The conclusion with the Arnold poem was beautiful. Really beautiful.

A great collaboration, ladies. Well done to you both. :clapping: :clapping:

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