Human Error, Chapter 4
Title: Human Error, Ch. 4
Fandom : Moonlight
Characters : Mick, Beth, Josef, Simone
Rating : R
Spoilers: Post "Sonata"
Summary : 8th entry into my post "Sonata" series. Beth has found what she hopes will be a good use for her leftover Black Crystal, and Mick struggles with whether to use Coraline's gift.
BETH
“Beth!” The pounding on the door began not long after I got home from my near-disastrous dinner with Mick. It was Simone, and she sounded desperate.
“I’m coming!” I said, her anxiety practically seeping through the cracks around the door. I hastily unlocked the two bolts and opened it. Simone rushed past me, bedraggled and crying, her mascara running down her cheeks in little rivers.
“Oh, Beth. I gave Josef an ultimatum, and he kicked me out!”
“What? Calm down, Simone. Let’s go sit down. Can I get you something? Tea? Wine?”
“No…no thanks. Oh God, Beth. I’m such an idiot!” I practically pushed her down onto the couch, gripping her hands and looking her in the eyes so she would focus on me and settle down.
“Breath, Simone. Breathe.” She gulped and took a few shaky breaths. When she seemed relatively calm, I squeezed her hands and tried again. “Okay, start from the beginning.”
“I went over to Josef’s to try to explain about the Black Crystal. He was mad, but understanding. I thought everything was going to be alright, but then he told me in no uncertain terms that he would never turn me, so I needed to put the idea out of my mind. Things escalated from there, and I asked him to try to live in my world for a change. Do more human things with me. Stay the night at my place for a change, instead of leaving before dawn. I told him I’d even get a freezer for him.” She sniffled and I handed her the Kleenex box.
“Anyway,” she continued, pausing now and then to wipe her eyes and blow her nose. “He told me I needed to stop living in fantasy land and accept him for what he was, to quit trying to change him. He said his mama died four hundred years ago, and he didn’t need another.” I had to wait a few minutes after that revelation before she was capable of continuing. “Then-then I told him that if he couldn’t compromise with me, we were through. He-he-he said fine, Beth. He said I knew where the door was!” She wailed again and I took her in my arms, patting and rubbing her back while she cried.
“He’s the idiot, Simone. God, why’d we have to fall in love with vampires? Mick and I just had a very similar fight. I don’t understand why they can’t just give us what we want. Can’t they see how logical our arguments are, how they are the ones making things so complicated?” We commiserated in silence awhile, and I finally got up and put the teakettle on. I had a feeling it was going to be a long night.
MICK
I was on my third glass of Scotch when Josef let himself in only half a second after I sensed him at my door.
“She left me, Mick. I told her to leave, and she left me.” He walked directly to the bar where the Scotch was and poured himself a glass, downed it, and re-poured.
“You told her to leave? Why?”
“She said some claptrap about me acting more human. Hey, vampire here. I basically told her she wasn’t my mother and to either accept me as I am or don’t let the door hit her ass on the way out.”
I looked at him in shock and awe. “You said this to her? And you’re surprised she left?”
“Well-yeah. She knows me, how I spout off when I’m pissed. I was bluffing, Mick, and she actually believed me this time.” He gulped his drink and loosened his designer tie. “What the hell’s wrong with this woman?”
I regarded him a moment, wanting to laugh at the irony of our similar, yet dissimilar situations.
“So, you didn’t really want her to leave? Then why are you at my place instead of groveling at hers?”
“Because I don’t grovel Mick. I might change my mind, or choose to forgive her, but I never grovel. I’m simply right, and she’s simply wrong. Those are the facts. Nothing I can do about that. She wants me to be human, do more human things with her if I’m not gonna turn her. Compromise my status as a vamp by lowering my standards in order to please a human. A human, Mick! I shouldn’t have let it get this far. I should have cut her out of my life the minute I started having feelings for her.” He shuddered as if he’d tasted something bitter.
“I think you’re making a big mistake, Josef. Those feelings you’re sneering at are deeper than you’re letting on. I think you’re in love with her, and withholding what she wants is your way of trying to keep yourself in control.”
He stopped pouring his third drink and looked up, his annoyance suddenly directed at me. “Well, that was deep, Dr. Freud. Please, continue the analysis. Come on, I’m genuinely intrigued.” I recognized the very real interest just beneath the sarcasm, so I took him up on his request.
“I understand why you won’t turn her. You’re justly worried it won’t take, given the Sarah situation, though I think it’s highly unlikely that would happen again. Still, you could find some middle ground with Simone. It doesn’t sound like her requests are unreasonable.”
He made a scoffing noise and went to my refrigerator , rooting around for blood to add to his liquor.
“It’s unreasonable for her to want to change me in any way. I am what I am-which is just about perfect if you ask me. And love-that’s for the weak. It was that very weakness that let me think I could turn someone into what she wasn’t. It ain’t happenin’ with Simone, Mick. She’ll see very soon what she’s given up. She’ll come crawling back to me, begging me to take her back, seeing the very human error of her ways. You’ll see. I give her one week.”
Two weeks later…
Josef barged into my office. I was doing research on my computer for a missing person case I’d been working, and he immediately picked up his familiar pacing in front of my desk.
“I’m out of my mind, Mick,” he was saying.
“I’ve been telling you that for years,” I said, only half listening to his tired rant. After the first week without Simone, Josef had taken to coming to my office in the late afternoons, generally making a nuisance of himself, stubbornly refusing to call her and put an end to all of our suffering. We were rounding week two and I stopped even trying to reason with him.
Beth and I had tabled our own differences, and things had returned to our version of normal. We went out, or we stayed in. She’d even come with me on an all-night stake out, and we ended up having hot teenage sex in the backseat of my car. I’d missed getting pictures of the cheating husband, but I didn’t regret it. We made love on Saturday nights and spent Sunday mornings curled up together in her bed until I reluctantly left for my necessary cool-down in my freezer. I had been given a reprieve, but I knew I didn’t have much time until I had to make a decision.
In the meantime, I had my best friend to worry about. Or to be annoyed with, whatever the case may be. Today it was the latter.
“I can’t eat or sleep. I’m running my business into the ground. She needs to hurry up and start crawling because this waiting is about to kill me-again.”
I sighed and looked up from my work. Josef was a mess. His tie was askew and didn’t match his suit, or even stylishly clash. His hair hadn’t seen gel in days and looked suspiciously like it hadn’t seen a comb either. He hadn’t shaved in a day or two, and the resulting dirty blonde whiskers were not a good look for him.
“You’re an idiot, Josef. Why would a smart girl like Simone want to come back to an idiot?”
“Well, the problem is how stubborn she is. I mean, why can’t she be more like Beth? Beth is so patient, so sweet so-biddable.”
I barked an involuntary laugh. “Biddable? You gotta be kidding me? You have met Beth, haven’t you? Miss Independence herself? Sometimes I’m more afraid of her than I am of direct sunlight. Biddable? Sheesh.”
He sat down, to my relief, both hands in his messy hair, elbows inelegantly on his knees, head down in depression.
“You do realize you’re going crazy because you’re in love with her, right?” This had been my mantra the past two weeks, and I kept repeating it, hoping it would finally seep into his thick skull. Now how this would change things, I didn’t know. I did know they always said the first step in conquering an addiction was admitting you have a problem. And Josef definitely had a problem.
“Go home, Josef,” I said softly, letting my true worry come through. “Order up a nice freshie, take a cold shower, and spend a long stretch in the freezer. And for God’s sake, do us all a favor and shave!” This was my version of tough love.
“I’ll try. Other freshies haven’t seemed…appetizing lately.” He looked up at me then, his eyes red, face gaunt from malnutrition. “I miss her, Mick,” said Josef softly.
“I know you do, Josef. Go home and call her.”
Another two weeks later…
By all appearances, Josef had pulled himself together. He was once again taking care of his physical self, but I knew him too well. He was by no means pulled together on the inside. When he showed up at my door, he actually knocked, for once. I guess that was a good thing, considering things were starting to get hot and heavy with Beth and me on the couch. I glanced over at the video monitor and reassured myself that it was Josef, despite the fact that I’d smelled him the moment he’d gotten off the elevator on my floor.
Beth and I groaned our frustration, and I helped her put her blouse back on. Then I walked to the door, zipping my jeans on the way. I glanced back at Beth, now presentable, and she nodded. I took a deep breath and let him in.
“Josef,” I said by way of greeting. He smiled his mischievous smile at Beth, and I knew he could smell as well as guess what we’d been up to. It was a little embarrassing, not to mention disgusting. But beneath that elfin grin of his, I saw the strain and the barely contained impatience. Perceptive Beth picked up on it too. She was, of course, privy to the rift between Josef and Simone, and was able to observe things from both perspectives. With that in mind, she made hasty, polite excuses, leaving us guys alone to talk.
I walked her to the door, promising to call her later, kissing her briefly in apology. With whispered “I love you’s,” she went on her way.
“May I mention again what a great girl you’ve got there,” said my friend with undisguised envy.
“Yes. I’m very lucky. What’s up, Josef?”
“I called Simone.” At last, I thought. Finally, this torture will end.
“And?”
“She asked me if I was ready to either change her or change myself.”
“And you told her…?”
“I told her nothing,” Josef replied. “But I know what I need to do now. That’s why I’m here, Mick. I want you to use the cure. On me.”