FIC: Mock-turtle soup [Beth, Mick/Beth]
Title: Mock-turtle soup
Rating: PG
Fandom: Moonlight
Characters or Pairing: Beth, Mick/Beth
Spoilers: Eh, post-16.
Summary: Beth's thoughts on her relationship with Mick.
AN: Will they, won't they, will they, won't they, will they join the dance?
~~
Beth carries a copy of Alice in Wonderland as emotional baggage. It used to belong to her mother and on the front page of the book in small, spiky handwriting is the legend 'Ruth Turner owns me'. She's not sure why it's so important - it's not like her mom read it to her or anything - but it's perhaps the most dog-eared of anything from her mother's shelves and Beth knows her mom loved it. That's reason enough for her to love it.
The faint whiff of irony isn't lost on her; there's many a day when she wonders when she became the cake with the self-applied 'Eat Me' tag; 'Drink Me' perhaps? Mick's a tougher nut than Alice though and there are no floods of tears or pleas when he's backed himself into a corner. That's a new one for her. Of all the relationships she expected to have, her mother would have disapproved of this one the most. It's not just the age difference; Ruth spent her whole life telling Beth not to depend on a man and not to marry one who didn't know the meaning of the word 'compromise'. It's too bad Beth's dad died when she was so young and it's too bad her stepfather wasn't the same sort of man he was.
A little voice in the back of her head tells Beth she should be careful. But Beth, like Alice, is in a wonderland and she is without fear.
"Off with her head," Beth whispers ferociously to herself, to test the effect. There's no reaction in her pulse or her breathing, she feels nothing except a ridiculous little giggle coalescing in her diaphragm. There's no fear, nothing but curious anticipation. It's the same feeling she has when Mick wakes up in the evenings and comes downstairs. She never knows quite what he's thinking or what he'll do, and the delicious frisson of temptation is reason enough not to care.
She's not stupid though. Her financial matters stay in her name and despite the way she feels about Mick, she's determined to make her job at the DA's office work. The career she wanted is buried under all these other emotions for the moment, so this is what she has left. And Beth restrains herself from wondering what she'll do when the topic of 'forever' comes up.
From what Mick says, you bring little into the vampire world. People have tried to set up shell corporations and secrete money away but it doesn't work. New turns don't care about anything except for blood, and it's more difficult than anyone's predicted in the past to disappear for several months, then return to take control of intact finances. Most of the time the corporations are frozen or appropriated. The problem with these plans is that in your indefinite absence people pick your pockets in all the ways they can. The only thing that works is to stuff your pockets with cold, hard cash and pray that your sire remembers what it's like to have a heart. You bring yourself as dowry or offering. Beth's not sure what sort of dowry she is but she knows what kind she'd like to be.
For now, she's sure, as she wiggles her toes into the carpet on either side of Mick's calves, they will take it one day at a time. Just until she's ready to make that decision. Maybe Alice will wake up exclaiming over her wonderful dream, or perhaps she belongs on the other side of the magic mirror after all.
Rating: PG
Fandom: Moonlight
Characters or Pairing: Beth, Mick/Beth
Spoilers: Eh, post-16.
Summary: Beth's thoughts on her relationship with Mick.
AN: Will they, won't they, will they, won't they, will they join the dance?
~~
Beth carries a copy of Alice in Wonderland as emotional baggage. It used to belong to her mother and on the front page of the book in small, spiky handwriting is the legend 'Ruth Turner owns me'. She's not sure why it's so important - it's not like her mom read it to her or anything - but it's perhaps the most dog-eared of anything from her mother's shelves and Beth knows her mom loved it. That's reason enough for her to love it.
The faint whiff of irony isn't lost on her; there's many a day when she wonders when she became the cake with the self-applied 'Eat Me' tag; 'Drink Me' perhaps? Mick's a tougher nut than Alice though and there are no floods of tears or pleas when he's backed himself into a corner. That's a new one for her. Of all the relationships she expected to have, her mother would have disapproved of this one the most. It's not just the age difference; Ruth spent her whole life telling Beth not to depend on a man and not to marry one who didn't know the meaning of the word 'compromise'. It's too bad Beth's dad died when she was so young and it's too bad her stepfather wasn't the same sort of man he was.
A little voice in the back of her head tells Beth she should be careful. But Beth, like Alice, is in a wonderland and she is without fear.
"Off with her head," Beth whispers ferociously to herself, to test the effect. There's no reaction in her pulse or her breathing, she feels nothing except a ridiculous little giggle coalescing in her diaphragm. There's no fear, nothing but curious anticipation. It's the same feeling she has when Mick wakes up in the evenings and comes downstairs. She never knows quite what he's thinking or what he'll do, and the delicious frisson of temptation is reason enough not to care.
She's not stupid though. Her financial matters stay in her name and despite the way she feels about Mick, she's determined to make her job at the DA's office work. The career she wanted is buried under all these other emotions for the moment, so this is what she has left. And Beth restrains herself from wondering what she'll do when the topic of 'forever' comes up.
From what Mick says, you bring little into the vampire world. People have tried to set up shell corporations and secrete money away but it doesn't work. New turns don't care about anything except for blood, and it's more difficult than anyone's predicted in the past to disappear for several months, then return to take control of intact finances. Most of the time the corporations are frozen or appropriated. The problem with these plans is that in your indefinite absence people pick your pockets in all the ways they can. The only thing that works is to stuff your pockets with cold, hard cash and pray that your sire remembers what it's like to have a heart. You bring yourself as dowry or offering. Beth's not sure what sort of dowry she is but she knows what kind she'd like to be.
For now, she's sure, as she wiggles her toes into the carpet on either side of Mick's calves, they will take it one day at a time. Just until she's ready to make that decision. Maybe Alice will wake up exclaiming over her wonderful dream, or perhaps she belongs on the other side of the magic mirror after all.