Survivorman | PG | for Midknight2501 | Celebrating 5 Ficathon
Evening all - hope this finds you warm and cozy, with a beverage of your choice.
Enjoy.
Title: Survivorman
Author: kymba
Pairing: Mick/Beth
Rating: PG
Count: 2200 and change
Summary: Mick and Beth go for a drive.
It looks like a postcard. The huge snowflakes drift so slowly through the Jeffrey pines that they look suspended in time, and the harsh noon sun above the mountain filtering through the intermittent clouds paints the road in stripes. The vintage Benz rolls carefully down the icy mountain road, and the couple inside is quiet, each lost in their own thoughts.
Sure, it looks like an idyllic scene from the outside, but everybody knows the old saying about appearances. This particular couple isn’t actually a couple, one of the participants not being human. This is no leisurely drive in the country, but a missing persons investigation. And the beautiful snowfall is predicted to whip into a blizzard by afternoon.
Mick wouldn’t ordinarily have taken Beth, but she insisted on riding along making some smartass comment about his talent for getting into trouble without her. He felt sure this was going to be a quick turnaround trip - only a couple hours from city up to the mountains to check out the missing guy’s vacation cabin, and back before the weather turned.
That was the plan. What he wasn’t planning on was this awkward silence between them, and had been going on since Beth had kissed him on the garage rooftop. She had agreed (too quickly) that it was a mistake, and standing so close to her while implanting the chip seemed even more excruciating than it usually was. If he was honest with himself, the tension had been there since she walked back into his life when she splashed through that fountain. When she had found him in the desert, on the brink of eternity and she demanded that he feed from her…well that had just cemented the connection. Now he felt every beat of her heart in his own cold veins, and worse yet a small part of her soul seemed to echo in the vicinity of where a heart used to be. When she had shown up at his house high as a kite, it had taken Mick every bit of restraint he could work up not to give in to her pleas to turn her, and keep her close forever. But, been there done that, and he would never do that Beth, no matter what she (drunkenly) thought. Afterwards, as he stripped her wet dress off her unconscious body, a whole new set temptations ‘arose’. Mick felt frantic, pulled in a thousand directions. He couldn’t decide whether he wanted to turn her and keep her always, drink her dry or molest her in her sleep. Probably all three. After divesting her of underwear, he let himself have one long look even though his damned conscience whispered that he shouldn’t.
Sweet Jesus, that damned voice was right. Her skin was luminous and perfect, moon-kissed. Her hair looked like spun gold even wet, and her smell…murmuring a preemptive apology, Mick bent his head to nuzzle her neck under her ear and sliding to the valley of her beautiful breasts. She was warm, and smelled like something vaguely sweet like honeydew but not perfume. She smelled like this all the time, and Mick remembers tasting a little bit of summer fruit when he licked the blood from his fang marks from her arm. Mick moved his head to the side to bury his nose in her breast. He stopped himself from opening his mouth for a taste, but only just. Her figure was a throwback to the pin-up calendar girls from the 50s when he was still human, his favorite kind of woman. Long neck, beautiful large breasts, cinched waist flaring to rounded hips, silky thighs and a heart-shaped tush…all lush curves.
Mick was so caught up in his little daydream that he didn’t notice, even with his preternatural senses, the fallen pine at the upcoming bend in the road. Evidently Beth was still lost in her own world as well, because it wasn’t until a mere few feet away from the tree that Mick snapped to attention. But it was too late, and he was forced to veer off the road and down the embankment. The surrounding trees immediately punched through the windshield, spraying broken glass on the occupants and the car slid a couple hundred yards down the mountainside before finally coming to a stop sideways against an enormous tree. Mick immediately moved over the console to unbuckle Beth’s belt and pull her back from the dash. She had the beginnings of a massive bruise on her head and her eyes looked glazed, but she seemed to be okay.
“Wha….what happened?” she asked slowly.
“Ah….there was a tree across the road, and I didn’t see it in time. So I turned this way.”
She looked at him quizzically, sensing him not telling her the whole story. But she let it go, and instead pulled out her phone.
“Wonderful. No signal.” She sighed.
Mick looked around the car, and the surrounding forest and advancing afternoon sun.
“Well, the weather hasn’t turned yet, and you probably shouldn’t climb that hill with your head…”
Wincing, Beth gingerly touched the goose egg on her forehead, and bobbed her head in agreement.
“Somebody will probably be along soon when they see the tire marks on the road. It shouldn’t be long.”
A few hours later, and the help that they were assuming was coming still hadn’t showed. The temperature had dropped by at least thirty degrees, and the wind and snow were winding up for the big storm front now moving in. With no windshield, and the sun just barely peaking over the mountaintop it was only going to get colder…and darker. Neither of which were problems for Mick, but Beth was shivering uncontrollably, and her rosy skin had taken on a bluish color that he knew wasn’t good. He had tried pulling her onto his lap and wrapping his arms around her, but he didn’t generate enough body heat to keep her warm enough. Mick inwardly cursed himself for not even being able to do this simple thing to help Beth.
She had long ago rested her head on his shoulder, and Mick could feel her getting colder and colder. He could also hear her heart beating more and more slowly. He called her name, trying to rouse her. She didn’t lift her head but only murmured softly in his ear that she wasn’t cold anymore.
Damn. She was definitely hypothermic now, and Mick knew there was virtually no chance that anybody was coming in this full-scale blizzard to help. He had no choice, he was going to have to move her and try to find some sort of shelter. Shedding his own coat, Mick bundled her up as well as he could. Rounding the car, he slid his arms under her knees and easily lifted her. He blinked as the icy snow drove into his face in the looming twilight. He decided moving downhill would keep them in the quasi shelter of the trees and hopefully some sort of shelter.
They had been walking for several hours, and Mick was in a flat out panic. He could barely get any responsiveness from Beth, and her heart was alarmingly slow. He’d caught a whiff of human about ten minutes ago, but it was very faint and the wind’s constant shifting did nothing to help him pin it down. Finally stumbling into a clearing, Mick saw an older cabin in some disrepair. There were no lights, and the human smell was very faint - the owner hadn’t been here in a long time. Didn’t matter. He needed to get Beth inside. Without pausing a step, Mick kicked the front door in and immediately leaned back to close it. The cabin was in complete darkness, but Mick could still see. It was older than he had thought - no electricity. He picked up an ancient kerosene lantern off a rough side table and gave a silent prayer before flicking his Zip to the wick. It had been a while since he refilled it. It flared like the sun, and Mick breathed an audible sigh of relief.
Now able to see Beth clearly, her pallor was frighteningly white and her lips and eyelids blue. Casting a quick glance around the room, he spied a dilapidated woodburning stove in the corner of the room. He laid Beth down in front of it on the rug, and ran back outside remembering he saw firewood stacked against the west wall of the cabin. Loading up his arms, he headed back in to hear Beth moaning softly and shivering violently. He ached to pick her up again but knew the futility of that so he set to build the fire as quickly as possible. In a flash of vampire motion, he had the stove filled and ready. Pulling out his Zip again, he moved to light the kindling underneath. Striking the flint, the flame sputtered and died. Cursing, Mick gave another couple tries to no avail.
“Come on, damn it!” he half shouted, half sobbed. Beth needed this.
The Zig finally gave up a steady flame and Mick nearly choked on his relief. A few minutes later, a respectable fire was starting to spread its warmth into the room. He turned to Beth to see her shivering had subsided somewhat, but she showed no signs of coming around. Mick didn’t know what else to do; he felt completely helpless. All he knew was he needed to be close to her. Throwing another log on the fire, he moved across the room and settled down behind Beth being careful not to block the heat from the fire. In fact, the fire was really starting to get some legs under it and the room was comfortably warm. Mick pulled his own button up shirt off and leaving his henley underneath. Mick laid down, molding his body behind hers. He lowered his head to her exposed neck, listening to her heart steadily pick up a more normal pace. Normal for a human woman. He noticed that her breathing had sped up, and a light sweat had broken out on the nape of her neck. Mick had a sudden flash of that other night, of her wet and unconscious. Taking that cue, He decided to pull her coats off in favor of using them as pillows. Balling one of them up (hers…it was softer, and made of some silk like material), he propped her head and slid it under, making sure her neck wasn’t kinked. He laid down on his own cold leather and slid back into spooning her. He closed his eyes, and let himself drift back, remembering the last time he’d gotten this close to her.
They both woke up some hours later, the fire having settled to bed of glowing coals and the room warmly cozy. It was still an hour or so before dawn, and the coals didn’t light the room as brightly as the flames, but Mick could see and sense Beth still asleep. Getting up, he only let the door open a crack to slip out and grab another log. The night had grown still and quiet, the brunt of the storm having passed through. The moon shown down on the fresh snow, casting the mountain in blue light. Mick took a deep breath, inhaling the freezing air. He tilted his face up taking in the starlight, and gave a small thanks to any listening for keeping Beth safe.
As Mick walked backed in, the draft moved Beth’s curls and she stirred awake.
“What time is it?” she asked in a husky voice.
“The darkest hour before dawn. But the sun will be up soon, and the worst of the storm has passed.”
Beth drank him in; his drawn face and tired eyes. He looked like carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.
“You carried me here? And where is here?”
“A few miles away from the car. You were getting so cold, I had to find someplace….anyplace.”
Beth propped herself up on her elbows to face him. “Thank you…it feels like you’re always rescuing me, taking care of me.”
“Not that we’re keeping count, but I think you’re still ahead in the rescue department.” He flashed a grin at her.
“I take it your head feels better?” he asked.
“Yeah, much…although I can feel the headache still there. But overall yeah.”
Mick looked at her with open affection before adding, “Well, at least this time you didn’t wake up in my clothes…that’s an improvement.”
Beth didn’t skip a beat. “That was the best part of the night.”
Mick stared at her, his jaw dropping.
“Made the hangover completely worth it.” she added cheekily.
At dawn they hiked back up to road where they finally flagged down a road crew to call for help. Riding down the mountain later that morning with the tow truck driver, Beth wound her fingers with Mick’s and rested their joined hands on his thigh. About halfway home Beth fell asleep, her head on Mick’s shoulder. Mick thought about how awkward and quiet yesterday’s drive was, and how….comfortable and quiet it was today.
He tipped his head back and closed his eyes, squeezing Beth’s hand.
Enjoy.
Title: Survivorman
Author: kymba
Pairing: Mick/Beth
Rating: PG
Count: 2200 and change
Summary: Mick and Beth go for a drive.
It looks like a postcard. The huge snowflakes drift so slowly through the Jeffrey pines that they look suspended in time, and the harsh noon sun above the mountain filtering through the intermittent clouds paints the road in stripes. The vintage Benz rolls carefully down the icy mountain road, and the couple inside is quiet, each lost in their own thoughts.
Sure, it looks like an idyllic scene from the outside, but everybody knows the old saying about appearances. This particular couple isn’t actually a couple, one of the participants not being human. This is no leisurely drive in the country, but a missing persons investigation. And the beautiful snowfall is predicted to whip into a blizzard by afternoon.
Mick wouldn’t ordinarily have taken Beth, but she insisted on riding along making some smartass comment about his talent for getting into trouble without her. He felt sure this was going to be a quick turnaround trip - only a couple hours from city up to the mountains to check out the missing guy’s vacation cabin, and back before the weather turned.
That was the plan. What he wasn’t planning on was this awkward silence between them, and had been going on since Beth had kissed him on the garage rooftop. She had agreed (too quickly) that it was a mistake, and standing so close to her while implanting the chip seemed even more excruciating than it usually was. If he was honest with himself, the tension had been there since she walked back into his life when she splashed through that fountain. When she had found him in the desert, on the brink of eternity and she demanded that he feed from her…well that had just cemented the connection. Now he felt every beat of her heart in his own cold veins, and worse yet a small part of her soul seemed to echo in the vicinity of where a heart used to be. When she had shown up at his house high as a kite, it had taken Mick every bit of restraint he could work up not to give in to her pleas to turn her, and keep her close forever. But, been there done that, and he would never do that Beth, no matter what she (drunkenly) thought. Afterwards, as he stripped her wet dress off her unconscious body, a whole new set temptations ‘arose’. Mick felt frantic, pulled in a thousand directions. He couldn’t decide whether he wanted to turn her and keep her always, drink her dry or molest her in her sleep. Probably all three. After divesting her of underwear, he let himself have one long look even though his damned conscience whispered that he shouldn’t.
Sweet Jesus, that damned voice was right. Her skin was luminous and perfect, moon-kissed. Her hair looked like spun gold even wet, and her smell…murmuring a preemptive apology, Mick bent his head to nuzzle her neck under her ear and sliding to the valley of her beautiful breasts. She was warm, and smelled like something vaguely sweet like honeydew but not perfume. She smelled like this all the time, and Mick remembers tasting a little bit of summer fruit when he licked the blood from his fang marks from her arm. Mick moved his head to the side to bury his nose in her breast. He stopped himself from opening his mouth for a taste, but only just. Her figure was a throwback to the pin-up calendar girls from the 50s when he was still human, his favorite kind of woman. Long neck, beautiful large breasts, cinched waist flaring to rounded hips, silky thighs and a heart-shaped tush…all lush curves.
Mick was so caught up in his little daydream that he didn’t notice, even with his preternatural senses, the fallen pine at the upcoming bend in the road. Evidently Beth was still lost in her own world as well, because it wasn’t until a mere few feet away from the tree that Mick snapped to attention. But it was too late, and he was forced to veer off the road and down the embankment. The surrounding trees immediately punched through the windshield, spraying broken glass on the occupants and the car slid a couple hundred yards down the mountainside before finally coming to a stop sideways against an enormous tree. Mick immediately moved over the console to unbuckle Beth’s belt and pull her back from the dash. She had the beginnings of a massive bruise on her head and her eyes looked glazed, but she seemed to be okay.
“Wha….what happened?” she asked slowly.
“Ah….there was a tree across the road, and I didn’t see it in time. So I turned this way.”
She looked at him quizzically, sensing him not telling her the whole story. But she let it go, and instead pulled out her phone.
“Wonderful. No signal.” She sighed.
Mick looked around the car, and the surrounding forest and advancing afternoon sun.
“Well, the weather hasn’t turned yet, and you probably shouldn’t climb that hill with your head…”
Wincing, Beth gingerly touched the goose egg on her forehead, and bobbed her head in agreement.
“Somebody will probably be along soon when they see the tire marks on the road. It shouldn’t be long.”
A few hours later, and the help that they were assuming was coming still hadn’t showed. The temperature had dropped by at least thirty degrees, and the wind and snow were winding up for the big storm front now moving in. With no windshield, and the sun just barely peaking over the mountaintop it was only going to get colder…and darker. Neither of which were problems for Mick, but Beth was shivering uncontrollably, and her rosy skin had taken on a bluish color that he knew wasn’t good. He had tried pulling her onto his lap and wrapping his arms around her, but he didn’t generate enough body heat to keep her warm enough. Mick inwardly cursed himself for not even being able to do this simple thing to help Beth.
She had long ago rested her head on his shoulder, and Mick could feel her getting colder and colder. He could also hear her heart beating more and more slowly. He called her name, trying to rouse her. She didn’t lift her head but only murmured softly in his ear that she wasn’t cold anymore.
Damn. She was definitely hypothermic now, and Mick knew there was virtually no chance that anybody was coming in this full-scale blizzard to help. He had no choice, he was going to have to move her and try to find some sort of shelter. Shedding his own coat, Mick bundled her up as well as he could. Rounding the car, he slid his arms under her knees and easily lifted her. He blinked as the icy snow drove into his face in the looming twilight. He decided moving downhill would keep them in the quasi shelter of the trees and hopefully some sort of shelter.
They had been walking for several hours, and Mick was in a flat out panic. He could barely get any responsiveness from Beth, and her heart was alarmingly slow. He’d caught a whiff of human about ten minutes ago, but it was very faint and the wind’s constant shifting did nothing to help him pin it down. Finally stumbling into a clearing, Mick saw an older cabin in some disrepair. There were no lights, and the human smell was very faint - the owner hadn’t been here in a long time. Didn’t matter. He needed to get Beth inside. Without pausing a step, Mick kicked the front door in and immediately leaned back to close it. The cabin was in complete darkness, but Mick could still see. It was older than he had thought - no electricity. He picked up an ancient kerosene lantern off a rough side table and gave a silent prayer before flicking his Zip to the wick. It had been a while since he refilled it. It flared like the sun, and Mick breathed an audible sigh of relief.
Now able to see Beth clearly, her pallor was frighteningly white and her lips and eyelids blue. Casting a quick glance around the room, he spied a dilapidated woodburning stove in the corner of the room. He laid Beth down in front of it on the rug, and ran back outside remembering he saw firewood stacked against the west wall of the cabin. Loading up his arms, he headed back in to hear Beth moaning softly and shivering violently. He ached to pick her up again but knew the futility of that so he set to build the fire as quickly as possible. In a flash of vampire motion, he had the stove filled and ready. Pulling out his Zip again, he moved to light the kindling underneath. Striking the flint, the flame sputtered and died. Cursing, Mick gave another couple tries to no avail.
“Come on, damn it!” he half shouted, half sobbed. Beth needed this.
The Zig finally gave up a steady flame and Mick nearly choked on his relief. A few minutes later, a respectable fire was starting to spread its warmth into the room. He turned to Beth to see her shivering had subsided somewhat, but she showed no signs of coming around. Mick didn’t know what else to do; he felt completely helpless. All he knew was he needed to be close to her. Throwing another log on the fire, he moved across the room and settled down behind Beth being careful not to block the heat from the fire. In fact, the fire was really starting to get some legs under it and the room was comfortably warm. Mick pulled his own button up shirt off and leaving his henley underneath. Mick laid down, molding his body behind hers. He lowered his head to her exposed neck, listening to her heart steadily pick up a more normal pace. Normal for a human woman. He noticed that her breathing had sped up, and a light sweat had broken out on the nape of her neck. Mick had a sudden flash of that other night, of her wet and unconscious. Taking that cue, He decided to pull her coats off in favor of using them as pillows. Balling one of them up (hers…it was softer, and made of some silk like material), he propped her head and slid it under, making sure her neck wasn’t kinked. He laid down on his own cold leather and slid back into spooning her. He closed his eyes, and let himself drift back, remembering the last time he’d gotten this close to her.
They both woke up some hours later, the fire having settled to bed of glowing coals and the room warmly cozy. It was still an hour or so before dawn, and the coals didn’t light the room as brightly as the flames, but Mick could see and sense Beth still asleep. Getting up, he only let the door open a crack to slip out and grab another log. The night had grown still and quiet, the brunt of the storm having passed through. The moon shown down on the fresh snow, casting the mountain in blue light. Mick took a deep breath, inhaling the freezing air. He tilted his face up taking in the starlight, and gave a small thanks to any listening for keeping Beth safe.
As Mick walked backed in, the draft moved Beth’s curls and she stirred awake.
“What time is it?” she asked in a husky voice.
“The darkest hour before dawn. But the sun will be up soon, and the worst of the storm has passed.”
Beth drank him in; his drawn face and tired eyes. He looked like carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.
“You carried me here? And where is here?”
“A few miles away from the car. You were getting so cold, I had to find someplace….anyplace.”
Beth propped herself up on her elbows to face him. “Thank you…it feels like you’re always rescuing me, taking care of me.”
“Not that we’re keeping count, but I think you’re still ahead in the rescue department.” He flashed a grin at her.
“I take it your head feels better?” he asked.
“Yeah, much…although I can feel the headache still there. But overall yeah.”
Mick looked at her with open affection before adding, “Well, at least this time you didn’t wake up in my clothes…that’s an improvement.”
Beth didn’t skip a beat. “That was the best part of the night.”
Mick stared at her, his jaw dropping.
“Made the hangover completely worth it.” she added cheekily.
At dawn they hiked back up to road where they finally flagged down a road crew to call for help. Riding down the mountain later that morning with the tow truck driver, Beth wound her fingers with Mick’s and rested their joined hands on his thigh. About halfway home Beth fell asleep, her head on Mick’s shoulder. Mick thought about how awkward and quiet yesterday’s drive was, and how….comfortable and quiet it was today.
He tipped his head back and closed his eyes, squeezing Beth’s hand.