Disclaimer:

The characters that have been invited to play in this construct belong to TPTB.  In case you are reading this story and have never heard of the following television shows; X-Files, Forever Knight, Highlander; I hereby inform you that there is life beyond Baywatch Nights, WWF and VIP.

Also, I did not create any of these characters, and I do not own them.

Superfluous Also, I am in no way profiting from the writing of this story, at least not in any tangible, taxable way.  (So far our government has not yet figured out how to place an enforceable tariff on joy, personal fulfillment, and satisfaction- though grants have been made and studies are in progress.)

This romp through my subconscious includes the usual detritus found in such places; superlative sex, vivid violence, and additional alliterations.  So, young children and those who like to pretend that sex offends them should be sure to change the channel now.  Go on now, git!  Go read something clean and wholesome, something that won’t offend.  I suggest picking up your bible and reading Song of Solomon.

Oh yeah, for those who like abbreviations, this is an N&N Packer, T&V Packer, MSR story- all NoRomo, non-shippers should run.  There is Angst, UST, RST (Lots and lots of RST), BDSM and assorted fluff.  Plot! Yeah, there’s also plot.

You Have Been Warned!

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========


Prologue

Washington DC

2:55 p.m. Friday December 8th

The cell phone in his pocket started ringing.

“Mulder”

“Mulder, it’s me.  Where are you?”

“On my way back to the office now, why?”

“Skinner wants to talk to us.”

“10 minutes, Scully.”  He reviewed everything he had been doing in the last two weeks, trying to figure out what they were in trouble for now.  “Did he sound pissed-off?”

He heard a sigh, then “Not really.  Why, what have you done now?”

“Me?  Nothing Scully.”  He swore he could actually hear her eyes rolling.  “Seriously, Scully- Nothing.  Look, I’ll be right there, ok?”

“Ok.”

She didn’t sound convinced.  “It’s not *always* my fault…” he muttered to himself, as he pulled into the parking garage and looked for a spot.  “No, really…  Damn- I don’t sound very convinced either,” he thought.

Mulder went directly to Skinner’s office, knowing that she wouldn’t wait in their office. When he got there Kimberly, Skinner’s assistant gave him a look of slight annoyance- pursing her lips and narrowing her eyes- and then told him that they were waiting for him.

No need to ask who “they” were.

He entered Skinner’s office to find Scully sitting across from him with a slightly ambivalent look on her face.

“Nice of you to join us Agent Mulder,” Skinner said with his customarily lemony look.

Mulder glanced at his partner and got the “Don’t-piss-him-off” look.  Suppressing a sigh, he turned to AD Skinner and said, “Thank you Sir.”  He sat down next to his partner and put on his best mask of impassivity.  He waited for the other shoe to drop.

Skinner just stared at Mulder for half a beat, then settled back in his chair and addressed his best, and most frustrating, pair of agents.  “There is a conference in Toronto next week.”  He paused waiting to see if there was any response.  When there was none he continued, “I am assigning both of you to attend.”  His tone was flat.  He stopped speaking at that point, and leaned back in his chair, his gaze flicking back and forth between the two.  After a moment the agents seemed to realize that Skinner was done speaking.

Skinner waited with anticipation; he knew what was about to happen.

Mulder and Scully swiveled their heads towards each other about 15 degrees and made brief eye contact.  They then leaned forward to identical positions of uprightness and paused before speaking.  Another brief head swivel and eye contact, again, perfectly timed, and Mulder pursed his lips while Scully spoke.  “Sir, if I may ask, what is this conference about?”

Skinner wondered if they were even aware that they did that- Always.  Every time.  It was as though they rigorously rehearsed the choreography of their movements ahead of time.  The movements were different each time, and they seemed to trade off which one of them would speak, but always, their movements mirrored each other precisely.

Sometimes they really were spooky.

He wiped the almost grin off of his face and answered the question, “You may, Agent Scully.”

Again, the choreographed silent communication.  Identical eyebrows rose.  Skinner broke in before Scully could ask the next question, “The conference is being hosted by the Toronto Metro Homicide department and Coroner’s office.  Kimberly has your itinerary.  A representative from each department will meet you at the airport.  That will be all agents.”

They waited perhaps 2 seconds and then arose as one.  After another pregnant pause, in which Skinner opened and began to peruse a file on his desk, Mulder and Scully walked out of the office and got their itineraries from Skinners secretary.

They walked in silence to the elevators and Mulder pushed the down button.  They got on the next car and rode down locked in silent communication, each trying to determine from the eyes of the other if they knew anything beyond what they already had.  Scully thought she saw something in Mulder’s eyes- a glimmer of interest beyond trying to figure out what was up with Skinner.

They entered their office and she turned on him, asking, “What is it Mulder?  What’s in Toronto that’s got you so excited?”

“Jesus, Scully,” he looked at her, astonished for a moment, “if I didn’t know better I would say you were a mind reader.  I think I had better open up an X-File on you.” He tried to divert her line of questioning, “What do you think about Skinner’s behavior?”

“Very funny Mulder,” she said- allowing him to divert the discussion for now.  She knew he would tell her soon enough.  “I think it’s obvious.”

“Yeah, you’re right.  He wanted us to know that this assignment came from somewhere else, somewhere other than his office,” he said.

“Someone else you mean,” she said quietly.

“Yeah,” he sighed, “Probably.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Toronto Homicide, 96th Precinct

11 p.m.  Friday December 8th

Nick was lost again.  Tracy was sitting at her desk and watching him stare off into space.  Again.  “Nick, pay attention!  I need you to help me finish this report!” Tracy growled at him.

Nick came to, and said, “Sorry Trace, I…”

Tracy saw Nick’s face light up, and he smiled at someone behind her.  “I wonder what Natalie’s doing here,” she muttered, smiling when she was rewarded with Nick’s sudden sharp glance and his look of confusion.

“How did you…” Nick began, but Tracy ignored him and turned around to greet Nat.

“Hey Nat, what are you doing here so early?” Tracy asked.

“Hi Tracy, Captain Reese called for me,” she said with a smile.  “Hello Nick,”

“Hi Nat,” Nick replied, with a silly grin on his face.

Just then they all heard a bellow come from the Captain’s office, “Lambert, Knight!  Get in here!”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========


Chapter 1

Toronto Homicide, 96th Precinct

11:10 p.m.  Friday December 8th

"So let me get this straight," Nick said, his voice raising slightly and taking on a tone best described as exasperated, "You want us to baby-sit a pair of United States federal agents.  For a week!"  Nick practically shouted at the captain.

"Nick, you two were going to have to attend the conference anyway…"

"What about the cases we are working on?"  Nick asked almost resignedly.

"Nick, you and Vetter just completed the Shultz homicide, Klock is in custody and the case is airtight.  Vetter can finish up the paperwork on anything else you guys have left to wrap up…"

"She's going to love that," Nat murmured.

"As I was saying, you have nothing else outstanding right now," continued the captain with a narrow-eyed glance at Nat.  "Look guys, I don't particularly care for this either, but the commissioner was adamant that the two of you were to be put on this.  These two agents are something different- they generally work cases involving 'unexplained phenomenon.' was how he described it to me."

"Captain, I wonder why he wanted me on this as well as Nick," Nat said- looking bemused.

The captain leaned back and laced his fingers behind his head as he regarded her.  "I don't know, Natalie.  One of them,” he paused to flip through the file, “Agent Scully, is a forensic pathologist in addition to being a field agent.  Maybe that’s why." he sat up, leaning forward to thump his open palm on the desktop, "In any case, I don't like it either.  I want you two to let me know if you find out anything that may explain this.  If they let on that they may have a hidden agenda, or that sort of thing- I want to know about it."

"Right Captain."  Nick and Nat said almost simultaneously.

"Come on Nick, I want to hear you give Tracey the good news" said Nat with a smirk on her face.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Flight 3251 to Toronto

4:57 p.m.  Saturday December 9th.

"I don't know, Mulder.  When's the last time you ever heard of a conference being held at night?"  Scully asked with a sigh.  "Look at this schedule…"

"I know, I read it already," Mulder exhaled sharply.  "I think its official now."

Scully’s eyes widened slightly.  "Punishment detail?" she asked.

Mulder raised his eyebrows as if to ask what else it could be.  "That or an elaborate trap of some kind."

"Great.  Just great," she clipped out between clenched teeth.

They sat in companionable silence for a moment, each seemingly lost in thought.

Scully started slightly when Mulder loudly cracked a sunflower seed between his teeth.  Her eyes darted immediately to his mouth and she stared in wonder as his lips twitched while his tongue and teeth worked the meat free from the shell.  She felt a shudder run slowly through her, beginning at her center, and flowing from there down to her toes and up to her scalp.  All of the tiny little hairs on her arms lifted straight up from her skin and her nipples became painfully erect as she imagined those lips moving over them.

"God, how pathetic is this?" she thought to herself.  "He chomps a seed and I'm creaming my panties."  Her mind began playing scenes from selected fantasies- the ones involving his lips on selected portions of her anatomy.  She ruefully gave herself a little shake, "Stop it!  This is your partner.  Your friend.  Its against the rules!!" she almost chuckled out loud at that.  If she believed that he felt for her even half of what she felt for him, she would have stripped him naked and devoured him whole, long ago.  The truth was that she didn’t think he had any desire for her at all.  "I know he loves me- as a friend, a sister even, but not a lover."  Deep down inside she fantasized that that might change someday, but the rational Scully didn't believe it.

Mulder was trying not to look at her.  "Please, think of some thing else, anything else…" ran over and over like a mantra in his head.  "Get a grip, Fox! She is your partner- she doesn't think of you like that!"  He tried to think of baseball, but all he could picture was her; wrapped in his arms, gamely trying to learn how to hit a baseball.  He tried to think of basketball but the picture of her lying up against him, asleep, on his couch while watching college hoops filled his thoughts.  "At least when we have a case I can concentrate on that," he complained to himself, "How the hell am I going to survive being around her for the next 10 days with nothing but some boring conference I don't care about anyway to fill my thoughts.  Images of her sleeping in the hotel room next to him, mere feet away from him began to fill his head and he started to feel stirrings in his groin.  He almost moaned out loud.  Turned toward Scully slightly to see if she might have noticed anything and was shocked to see her staring at him.  "Busted again," he thought as he saw her blush slightly, "I'm surprised she hasn't kicked my ass before for this."

She was slightly startled herself when he turned toward her.  "Great, Busted again," she thought, "I'm surprised he is even willing to sit next to me anymore, as much as I stare at him."

"What?" Mulder blurted out.

Scully felt her face grow hot and tried to think of something to say.  Finally she recalled what she thought she had seen in his eyes during the elevator trip down from Skinner's office.  "Why were you so interested in Toronto, Mulder?"

"Reprieved!" Mulder shouted in his mind.  "Remember when you called me before the meeting?" At her nod he continued, "The gunmen just got back from Toronto a couple of days ago and wanted to show me a nifty little device they got from one of their contacts there.  A Body Scanner."

"Ok Mulder, I'll bite, what's a body scanner?  Some twisted new device to capture porn for the Internet?"  Scully smirked.

"No, although that's not a bad idea," Mulder smiled, "It's a device that detects body heat and heartbeat signature.  They took an IR detector and a hypersensitive microphone and slaved them to a microprocessor that can filter out extraneous noise and heat source to discriminate a human body from its surroundings.  It would be good for search-and-rescue operations and they think they can further tweak the software to not only differentiate humans from their surroundings, but even from one another.  A unique 'fingerprint' so to speak"

"What about that makes Toronto particularly interesting?" Scully asked.

"Isn't that enough?" Mulder said with that classic half-grin on his face.

"For others, surely, but for you?" Scully grinned herself.

"Are you sure you're not psychic Scully?" Mulder was smiling now.

"I assure you Mulder- I am not psychic- though I must be psychotic to hang around you this long," she teased back.

His breath caught slightly and his smile faltered, but he swiftly recovered and continued, "Well, they were telling me about how they were driving around testing it when they came upon someone who didn't seem to register on it."  Scully's eyebrow arched as he continued, "They watched her walk into a club in the warehouse district.  They figured that the thing must be malfunctioning, so they tried it out on some of the people in line for the club, and it worked fine.  They ended up parking across the street from the club and trying it out on everyone in line, you know, just to see if it was an isolated anomaly, and found some disturbing results."  He paused for a moment to gauge her reaction, "They said that it worked on everyone in line, but that the bouncer and several patrons leaving the establishment did not register at all.  Furthermore, patrons entering that were allowed to bypass the line didn't register either."

Scully tried not to let her eyes roll, "And they concluded from this…"

"Well, that's where they seem to disagree," Mulder said.  "Byers thinks they had some sort of shielding or something, Langley thinks they must be some kind of alien hybrids, and Frohike…"

"I can hardly wait to hear what Frohike thinks," Scully muttered.

"Well, Frohike thinks they must be vampires or something."

"Vampires," Scully said flatly.

"Well they said the club was pretty gothic, and Byers thought that was affecting Frohike's judgment.  Frohike said that Byers was just jealous because he didn't figure it out first." Mulder said somewhat sheepishly.

"And you think we should check this club out."  Scully said somewhere between exasperation and resignation.

"Well, can you think of any reason not to?"

"Sure Mulder.  A night at a classy Gothic bar in the Warehouse District.  You sure know how to show a girl a good time." she said, her expression indecipherable, as a sudden mental picture of him showing her a very good time crossed her mind.

Mulder's eyes glazed over a bit at Scully’s words as he suddenly had mental image of himself showing her an extremely good time.  Had they not simultaneously averted their gaze from one another, each would have seen the other blushing furiously.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Terminal 3

Lester B Pearson International Airport

6:02 p.m.  Saturday December 9th.

“They are FBI Agents, Nick.  How hard could it be to recognize them?” Natalie asked.

“Nick looked puzzled, his brows drawing together, “How do you mean, Nat?” he asked at they waited for the passengers to begin departing from the plane.

“Well, they will probably both be tall, conservative looking, and dressed in Brooks Brothers Navy blue suits, carrying briefcases,” Nat said with a giggle.

“I think you’ve been watching too many Cop movies, Nat.” Nick said with a sardonic grin.  “It’s a good thing I brought a sign,” he said, waving the hand-printed Mulder & Scully sign in her face.

Passengers were starting to come out of the jet-way at this point and the two noticed two figures clad in black suits and trench coats exiting and looking about them.  “God, Nick,” Nat whispered. “Look at those two, they dress like you do.”

“Must be a cop thing,” Nick said with a grin.

She playfully punched him on the shoulder and said, “That’s not what I meant and you know it!”

“Well, they are walking this way, maybe they'll let you check their teeth,” Nick whispered in her ear, feeling unusually playful.

Natalie felt her heart beat faster and shivered a little at the feeling of Nick's cool breath on her ear.  She suddenly felt flushed and overheated.  "Get a Grip Nat!" she thought furiously at herself.  "He's just being friendly.  Emphasis on *friend.*  Even If he wanted more than that he would just go see Janet, not seduce you in an airport." she thought, getting angry with herself.

Nick heard the increased heartbeat, smelled and saw the flush of arousal that Natalie was giving off and jerked back as though he had been bitten.  His control was becoming more and more tenuous lately- especially around her.  An idea was hovering around the edge of his consciousness, getting closer and closer every day, but nonetheless eluding him when he focused his attention toward it.  He could feel that it was about Nat, and that it was of extreme importance, and he thought it might have something to do with his quest for mortality as well, but he wasn't sure.  "No time for such musings now," he chastised himself as the two objects of their conversation reached them.

Scully silently appraised the two as Mulder took out his identification and introduced the two of them as Agents Mulder and Scully with the FBI to the pale blond man holding the sign with their names on it and the curvy brunette standing next to him.  She noticed that the woman was blushing and the man seemed slightly lost in thought.  Half a beat later the man spoke up and introduced himself as Detective Nick Knight with Toronto metro homicide, and the woman as Doctor Natalie Lambert of the Toronto Coroner's office.  They each smiled and shook hands with Mulder and herself.  She noticed that Lambert's hand seemed very warm, while Knight's felt quite cool.  Mulder made some inane pleasantries while she quietly studied the two people who were here to shepherd them during this conference.  She couldn't shake the feeling that there was a great deal more to them than there seemed on the surface.  She wondered if they knew why She and Mulder were really here.  Finally she broke her silence, "Well detective, please lead on, we'd like to get checked in and I could really go for something to eat right about now."

Natalie broke in with, "Actually that sounds pretty good.  Why don't you let Nick and I take you out for a meal?  There's a decent café on the way to the Plaza."  She turned to Nick with a smirk and said, "When's the last time you ate, Nick?"

Deciding he wasn't going to win this one, Nick capitulated without a fight, "Fine," he said turning to Mulder and Scully and continuing, "Lets go to the luggage retrieval and get on our way."

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Outside Victoria Café

6:58 p.m.  Saturday December 9th.

The conversation has somehow lapsed into docspeak during the ride, with Mulder and Nick listening, bemused, to Scully and Natalie as though they were speaking Yiddish.  They pulled into a parking slot in the mall lot about halfway between the restaurant and office building beside it along the highway.  As they exited the caddie, Detective Knight suddenly struck a pose, as though he was listening to something far away.  Mulder noticed and began to ask what was going on when he heard Knight mutter under his breath, "Swords?"  He stood there, dumfounded for a moment as Knight took off toward the back of the office building at a dead run, then collected his wits and ran after him.  He could hear Scully and Doctor Lambert running behind him, each calling out their respective partner's name.  As he got closer to where he had seen Knight disappear around the corner of the building, he heard the crash of metal on metal and a shout of 'There can be only one!' followed by a moment of silence.

Nick had come around the edge of the building in time to see a man kneeling before another who was swinging a sword toward his neck.  Before Nick could even ponder the question of whether or not to use his Vampiric speed, the blade hurtled through neck of the kneeling man and his head practically leapt from his shoulders.  He heard Agent Mulder coming around the corner behind him and drew his weapon and pointed it at the battle's victor.  He shouted, "Metro Homicide, drop the sword and put your hands on your head!"  Agent Mulder stopped next to him, his weapon drawn, a question on his breath when his attention was suddenly refocused on the headless corpse, which began to raise off of the ground while lightning began to arc from the neck and into the man standing with his sword raised above his head.

Nat and Agent Scully came around the corner in time to see arcs of electricity blowing sparks off of the transformers on the wall of the building and a headless corpse hitting the ground as though it had been dropped from a height.  A man with a sword in his hand was standing up from the ground and running away on the other side of the showers of sparks coming off of the transformer.  "Nick, what's going on?"  Natalie breathed, hearing similar sentiments echoed by Agent Scully toward her partner.  Both of the men had their guns drawn, but they were pointed to the ground and they each had their mouths hanging open in surprise.  She heard Agent Mulder recover first and say 'Wow!" in a loud exhale.  Nick seemed entirely at a loss for words.

Scully took a moment to try and reconcile what she thought she had seen with anything she might have ever seen before but gave up after a moment.  She would have to think about it later.  Right now there was a headless corpse to look at, and she wanted to be sure she had a chance to make some close up observations before anything could happen to sweep this under the carpet.  She heard Detective Knight tell Doctor Lambert to take a look at the body while he went to go call it in.  Mulder caught up to her as she approached to the body.

"How much did you see, Scully?" he whispered to her.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Mulder explained to her what he thought he had seen.  "Oh, Mulder.  That’s not possible- lightning doesn't come out of people's bodies- you must have seen the arcs coming off of that transformer." she said.

"Scully- I saw the lightening for almost 2 seconds *before* the transformer blew!"  Mulder whispered loudly.  "I'm telling you, Scully- I saw it come out of him," indicating the corpse, "and into the other guy- repeatedly."

Natalie overheard most of the conversation and wondered what Nick would have to say about it, as he had apparently arrived on the scene first.  She examined the corpse and noticed the sword still clutched in the out-flung hand.  She also noticed that the area where the neck had been appeared to be seared and charred as if by high heat.  She would have to check the feet when she did the autopsy to see if there were corresponding burns where the electrical current should have gone out to ground.

Scully walked over and squatted down next to the severed head, examining it for anything unusual, beyond the fact that it was no longer attached to the body.  She wondered about the sword "were they really having some sort of duel to the death?" she asked herself, "what century did they think they were in?"  She noticed Doctor Lambert joining her and asked, "anything interesting on the body?"

Natalie noticed the lack of any burns on the neck of the head and said, "Other than its unnatural lack of height?" she continued, "The burns were obviously made after the decapitation.  We'll have to take a look once we get him out of here to determine cause."

"I'd like to observe the autopsy if you don't mind, Doctor Lambert" Scully said.

"You would have to get permission from my Captain, but I certainly don't mind." Natalie replied.

Just then Nick returned to the scene and told them that more officers should be arriving in a couple of minutes.  He paused for a moment as he looked at the body, at the burns on the neck and remembered the scene as it had unfolded.

Natalie noticed his reverie and asked him what had happened.  He began to describe what he had seen but left out the part about the floating body and the lightening pouring out of the neck and into the other man.  Mulder of course brought it up and asked Nick to confirm what he had seen.

"But that isn't possible, is it Agent Mulder?" Nick asked, somewhat bewildered.  He had never seen anything like that before in his 800 years of life/unlife.

"Impossible or not, it is what happened" Mulder countered.

"Frankly, agent Mulder, I can't be sure what I saw.  I remember it as you said, but I'm not sure I believe it myself,” Nick said softly as the patrol cars and coroner's van arrived on scene.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

International Plaza Hotel and Conference Center

2:28am Sunday December 10th.

It had been after midnight before they were done at the precinct, and Scully had wanted to observe the autopsy.  Mulder had told her he would meet her at the hotel.  Scully was focused on the task at hand and had barely acknowledged him with a glance and a non-committal grunt as she followed Doctor Lambert off to the morgue.  Detective Knight dropped him at the hotel and assured him that 'Nat' would see to it that agent Scully made it to the hotel when the autopsy was completed, and that they would see them at the conference Monday evening.

Mulder's mind was awhirl with what had happened that night.  He was also hungry.  He knew his partner, and the fact that while focused on the autopsy, she would undoubtedly forget her own hunger until she got back to the hotel and then she would immediately be ravenous.  He also knew that he had better be ready to assuage that hunger or she would be extremely unpleasant to be around.  He called the desk and got a number for an all-night Chinese place that would deliver.

He had eaten his fill, and even taken a brief, and cold, shower before he heard her entering the adjoining room.  He immediately knocked on the door and entered bearing gifts to satisfy the hungry Scully, hopefully before she became the crabby Scully.

Scully dragged herself in the door, dropping her bags on the floor immediately in front of the door and wearily walked over to the chair and flopped down- too worn out to even make it all of the way to the bed.  She heard Mulder's knock on the door and turned her head in time to see him enter with so much as a 'by your leave.'

"Oh no! He’s wearing that tight gray T-shirt and jeans," she thought to herself.  The material of the T-shirt was stretched tightly over the frame of his chest and shoulders, causing her mouth to water slightly and she felt herself getting slightly damp between her thighs.  "Oh Mulder, why tonight?" she thought as she silently condemned her traitorous body for reacting so palpably to his mere presence.  "Dammit Mulder, what now?" she said out loud, sublimating her desire into annoyance, hoping that he would misread the tension she was clearly displaying.

"Too late" he muttered under his breath.  "Food, Scully.  I thought you might not have eaten yet and I knew you would be tired and you probably wouldn't want to have to get up and get anything or wait for delivery so…" He was clearly babbling and desperately wanted to shut up but couldn't seem to get his brain on the same wavelength as his mouth.  Finally he noticed that he seemed to have drifted to a stop in the middle of a sentence so he finished with "…so I got you some…  It’s General Tso's Chicken, Scully.  I know you really like General Tso's Chicken…" Damn.  He was babbling again.  This time he just kept his mouth shut.

"God I can be a bitch sometimes," she thought as she saw the wounded puppy look on Mulder's face and listened to him babble.  "Why does he have to be so sweet and understanding, and so damn sexy!" she practically shouted at herself.  She quickly stood up and took the box from him and set it down on the hotel-room table- turning her back on him as she did so before he could see the welling of tears in her eyes.  "Thanks, Mulder." she murmured as she grabbed the box from him.

She looked so small and fragile sometimes.  He had to restrain himself from swiftly closing the distance between them and wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in her hair as he held her tight.  "So much for the effectiveness of cold showers" he thought as he felt himself tighten in his jeans.

"I'm beat Mulder.  Could we discuss the case in the morning?  I really need to get some sleep," she said; even though what she really wanted was for him to sweep her up and throw her on the bed.  She imagined him pounding into her with an animalistic ferocity, while she was shouting his name as he made her cum over an over again.  She was afraid if he didn't leave now she wouldn't be able to keep the feelings that were choking her from spilling out and revealing everything to him.  He didn't feel that way about her and she was afraid that it would destroy their partnership if she told him how she felt.

"She knows.  She knows and it repulses her."  Mulder felt his heart crack a little.  "How can I be such a beast?  She is tired and worn out and hungry and I'm standing here with a hard-on like a geeky high school kid." Mulder berated himself and wondered even more how she could stand to stay partnered with such totally screwed-up freak like him.  "Sure Scully.  Hey, don't worry about getting up early- we need to acclimate ourselves to the nights anyway while we’re here." he said, his voice only wavering a little.

"Ok Mulder.  Good Night," she said as he closed the door behind him.

Neither of them was able to fall asleep for several hours that night.  Each tossed and turned and wished they were in bed with the other.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========


Chapter 2

Nicks Loft

3:10 p.m.  Sunday December 10th

Nick roused from a nightmare and sat up with a gasp, his body dripping in blood-sweat.  He had been stuck in a swirling mishmash of images- images filled with blood and terror, but in them he had seemed to be the observer rather than the instigator.  He tried to sort out the images in his mind as best he could and what he began to see was something that he had never thought of before.  He saw his old partner Schanke being shot, and himself not being able to reach the shooter in time, he saw himself not quite reaching, falling short, showing up just a little too late, failing to save people that he knew he had rescued over the past several years.  He saw a myriad of incidents that he had successfully resolved in reality, but in his dream, he wasn't able to stop the horrors from occurring.  Finally, as he heard a loud roaring in his ears, the images culminated in seeing himself enter that greenhouse where Roger Jamison was going to rape Natalie, but this time he got there just after Roger was done, instead of just before he started.

Natalie was asleep on the couch downstairs.  She and Nick had stayed up until nearly 8 a.m. discussing the extraordinary events of the previous night, including the unusual events surrounding the autopsy.  She woke up to the anguished sound of Nick roaring her name at the top of his lungs.  She rushed up the stairs to his bedroom door.  She heard Nick sobbing and it tore at her heart.  She knocked at the door and opened it, calling his name softly "Nick?  Nick, are you alright?"  The scene in front of her scared her as much as it saddened her- Nick was sitting on his bed, his bare chest covered in a fine sheen of blood, his mouth hanging open, fangs dropped and a high-pitched keening pouring out.  His eyes were glowing red and blood-tears were running down his face and dripping onto his chest and stomach.  He seemed to be lost in thought and didn't even notice her presence.

"Oh Nick…" he heard Nat whisper under her breath as he snapped back to reality.  He looked at her through a haze of red and realized what condition he was in.  He stood up suddenly and walked away into the corner of his room, facing away from her, "Don't look at me, Natalie.  Please.  Give me a moment to put myself together" he said as he wrapped his arms around his chest tightly.  He knew that if she touched him it would be over.  He would sink his teeth into that lovely ivory neck and drain the last drop of her precious life into himself to fill the aching void he was feeling.

She took a half step toward him and heard his tortured whisper "Please Nat, I don't think I could stop…” She just nodded, knowing that he couldn't see her but unable to form any words, and walked out and down the stairs.  She walked to his refrigerator and pulled out the first green bottle she saw and poured a big glass of it for him.  She so desperately wanted to be able to comfort him, but she knew that she wasn't what he needed.  Wasn't *who* he wanted.  She choked down her own sob and determined that she would do whatever she could do, and ignore what she couldn't do, to help.  He needed a friend and she would be that friend, even though she wanted to be so much more.

Nick took a quick shower and tried to put the images from his dream out of his mind.  He knew what had caused his failure in each of those scenes playing out in his mind- he was human.  He was convinced that the Beast in him was trying to poison his desire to be human, trying to get him to give up his quest.  Maybe it was LaCroix.  Maybe LaCroix was sending these images to him to try and…  He tried to ignore the little voice deep inside his head that was telling him that maybe he needed to think about what the consequences of his quest would be if he succeeded.  Negative consequences as well as positive ones.

Nick shook himself out of his reverie and finished drying himself off and getting dressed.  He never once met his own gaze in the mirror as he dried and combed his hair.  He slowly walked down the stairs and saw Natalie sitting at the table, the chair across from her pulled out and a large glass of blood on the table in front of it.  Her eyes were fixed on the glass and she didn't seem willing to look at him as descended and sat at the table.  "Natalie, I…" he started to say.

She interrupted and said, "Drink."  When he hesitated she finally moved her eyes to his and said, "Drink, then talk."

He could smell her blood- like mulled, spiced wine- and it was all he could do to choke down the bovine swill before him.  He did feel a little better for having done so, however.  He looked up at her and saw her patiently waiting for him to speak.  "She is so beautiful," he thought, staring at her face, her mass of brunette curls framing it, her neck like pale ivory, the pulse of her life's blood visible against the soft skin of her throat.  He felt himself becoming aroused, he felt the vampire becoming aroused as well.  He heard his own voice saying, "It was just a nightmare Nat."

She heard his voice, knowing it was a lie the moment it fell out of his mouth.  It was clearly more than just a nightmare.  She also saw his eyes fixed on her throat, caressing it like the lips of a lover.  She noticed tiny flecks of gold starting to form in the green of his eyes.  She also felt the affect his gaze had on her body- her nipples were hardening, and she was starting to feel warm and damp at the juncture of her thighs.  She cursed her body for its betrayal of her desire, knowing his heightened senses could detect it.

Nick Knight had an epiphany.

He realized suddenly and for the first time that Natalie Lambert wanted him.  Not just a little.  Not mildly attracted to him or slightly fond of him but desperately in love with him.  Looking back over the past several years, he realized that she wanted him all along.  In fact, in retrospect he discovered that her desire for him was obvious- obvious to everyone but him.  How could he have been so thickheaded?  He knew that he was very often slow to catch on, but 6 years?  "What a complete moron I am!" he yelled at himself.

"Oh God," Natalie thought to herself.  “I’m going to lose it!”  She had to get out of there.  Now.  She felt that if she failed to leave immediately she was going to collapse and bawl her eyes out.  She plastered her best fake smile on her face and stood up, “Look Nick, I’ve got to go home and clean myself up.  And I’m sure Sidney is waiting to be fed, and I’ll call you later, Ok?  Thanks for letting me crash here last night, I was beat.”  She couldn’t seem to stop the verbal hemorrhaging from her mouth as she swiftly walked to the elevator and got in.

Nick had two other thoughts as he watched her close the door of the elevator and begin the descent to the ground outside.  One was that maybe mortality was not the key to his atonement.  The other was that Natalie would feel betrayed if he told her he didn’t want to be mortal.

He wasn’t looking forward to that conversation at all.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

International Plaza Hotel

3:10 p.m.  Sunday December 10th

Mulder sat at the table slowly sipping his iced tea as he considered what Scully had told him.  The body was in perfect condition.  Not counting the missing head, of course, and the burnt neck- which Scully couldn’t explain, though she still didn’t seem to accept his explanation of events.  But the body, no scars- not even a vaccination scar- no healed injuries, no breakdown of any tissues or organs- a total lack of the normal wear and tear that is part of life as we know it.

“He would have had to have lived with a perfect diet and exercise… no, even then gravity would have had some effect on him,” Scully said, frustrated by her inability to come up with even a theory as to how this could be scientifically explained.  “I suppose you think he was a vampire, Mulder?”

“Well, beheading is one of the given ways to kill a vampire, but nothing else seems to fit.  I’ve never heard of vampires engaging in sword fights, and you didn’t find anything unusual with the teeth, did you?”  Mulder asked.

“No, Mulder.  There was nothing unusual about the teeth, except that there was no evidence of any dental work ever being done.  No caps, bridges, fillings or otherwise.” she answered.

“Do you think it could be a clone, Scully?”  Mulder asked, his voice low and quiet.

“Dammit!  Only Mulder could make that question sound sexy,” Scully thought furiously to herself.  Out loud she said, “If it was a clone, Mulder, it was unlike any other we have seen.”

“Yeah, no gas, no melting into green ooze, etc…” Mulder muttered.  “Is there anything else we can do at this point?

“Well, the DNA results should come back tomorrow or Tuesday, but I don’t seriously expect anything unusual from that.

“Why not?”  Mulder asked.

“The standard forensic tests don’t look for much beyond identification” she replied.

“We should…” Mulder started to say.

Scully interrupted, “Already done, Mulder.  The Gunmen should get the DNA sample by tomorrow morning” she said with a small grin.

Mulder just stared at her for several seconds.  “Maybe she really is psychic,” he thought.

Seeing his widened eyes and unblinking stare, Scully said, “I don’t require psychic powers to know you were going to suggest sending a sample to the Gunmen for a more ‘in depth’ analysis.  Nor do I need it to know that your next thought was going to be some smart comment about my being psychic.”

Mulder calmed down after a moment of near panic and realized that if Scully were psychic she would have been slapping his face approximately every 10 minutes for the past 5 years.  He smiled sheepishly and said, “I don’t think anyone in my whole life has ever known me as well as you do, Scully.”

“Sometimes Mulder, I feel like I don’t know you at all.” she said to herself.  “We have about 24 hours before our first course at the seminar, Mulder.  Any ideas on how to fill that time?”  Scully asked with a raised brow.

That was a loaded question!  “Oh boy, I’m sure glad I wore a loose pair of trousers today,” Mulder thought.  “Actually Scully, I do.”  Mulder said with a leer, “but your going to have to change clothes first.”

Scully’s eyebrow climbed even higher as she said, “Why Agent Mulder, are you propositioning me?  Whatever did you have in mind?”

Mulder managed to reply smoothly, even though his mind was whirling with images of how he would like to proposition her, “I was thinking of spending an evening at a classy Gothic bar in the Warehouse District.”

“Oh no.  The Raven, Mulder?”

“The Raven, Scully.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Natalie’s apartment

4:45 p.m.  Sunday

She had barely made it home without breaking down.  She managed to get the door to her apartment closed behind her and collapsed to her knees on the floor right there in front of her door.  Wracking sobs shook her, and bitter tears of humiliation poured down her face.  She berated herself for her lack of control.  She had made a decision to accept friendship and just be there to comfort him and the moment he looked at her she creamed in her jeans like a sophomore prom date.  And he had to know!  That’s why he just sat there staring at her like she was an idiot.  Pretty soon the humiliation faded and the despair came to the forefront.  She wanted him so badly that it felt like someone had kicked her in the stomach.  She loved him so much and she felt so selfish for being unable to accept the lesser role of friend, rather than lover.

She knew that Nick had brought Janette back across, but she had hoped that after Janette had left in anger over it that Nick might turn to her.  She tried to console herself by remembering that Nick was worried about how LaCroix would react after the fiasco on that long-ago Valentines Day.  However, she also knew that the two of them seemed to have resolved their differences after that child vampire Divia had gone on a rampage, so she didn’t think that was it either.  She had to face the facts: He just didn’t want her anymore- if he ever had at all.  She felt like something was squeezing her heart until it threatened to pop like a grape.

Eventually she was cried out.  There were no more tears to shed or emotions to feel.  She was utterly exhausted and she fell asleep right there on the floor.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Raven

8:45 p.m.  Sunday

They had been in line for about 15 minutes when she noticed a big green Cadillac Convertible drive by and park down the block.  She waited until she saw a familiar blond detective get out and head toward the front entrance to the Raven.  She nudged Mulder and gestured with her chin toward the approaching detective.

Mulder broke off his fantasy about how he could be keeping Scully warm right now and noticed whom she was indicating.  They both watched in silence as Detective Knight walked right up to the doorman, who immediately jumped up from his stool and held the door open without so much as a word or glance from Knight.

“Well.” said Mulder, loading that one word with volumes of meaning.

“Come on Mulder, even if they exist, I hardly think that homicide detective would be the kind of job they would hold down.”  Scully said with more than a bit of sarcasm in her voice.

“I don’t know Scully.  What better way to cover up any ‘indiscretions’ shall we say, that might pop up from the group?”  Mulder said, “It’s too bad I couldn’t persuade the Gunmen to give up their new toy and bring it here myself.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick entered the Raven lost in thought.  He thought LaCroix would be happy that he was giving up his quest, but would he be happy enough to forgive him his debt for Fleur?  On top of that, even if LaCroix allowed him to woo Nat, would she still want him if he gave up on mortality?  He thought so, he was pretty sure she wanted him any way she could get him.  Unfortunately, he was equally sure that he didn’t deserve her under any circumstances.  She would be better off without him, wouldn’t she?  He used to think so, but lately he wasn’t sure.  If vampires were not inherently evil, then would he really be condemning her if he brought her across?  If that’s what she wanted?  He was very confused.  He was paradigm shifting without a clutch, and the gears of his reality were grinding noisily.

He felt sure of two things though.  He thought that he could atone- could be forgiven- and that was much more important than being able to see the sunshine again.  Also he was certain that he loved Natalie with all that he was.  If she would have him, he would be one with her forever.  She was all of the sunshine he would ever need.

He made his way through the crowd to the bar and spoke with Miklos, “Is LaCroix available?”

“He’s just finishing taping his broadcast.  Your usual while you wait?” the bartender asked.

“No.  The house special, please.  And leave the bottle- I’ll wait in his office.”  Nick said, his eyes locked on Miklos’, daring him to say anything.

Miklos merely raised an eyebrow and handed him the bottle and two glasses, saying, “Of course.  I’ll let him know you’re here.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Raven

When Mulder and Scully finally got in, about 20 minutes later, they didn’t see Knight anywhere.

“Where do you think he went?”  Mulder shouted over the loud music.

“I don’t know, Mulder.” she replied “Look, there’s a booth near the back.  It looks like it has a good view of the whole place.”

They made their way back to the booth and sat down just as the table was cleared.  The waitress was a scantily clad and very curvy blonde.  Her skin was extremely pale and her eyes were very blue.  “What can I get you guys?” she said.

Scully was immediately self-conscious thinking how she was definitely Mulder’s type- just like on those videos that he denied owning.  “Just a beer.” she said.

Mulder was looking at Scully, imagining her wearing the same getup this waitress was wearing and having some difficulty breathing.  “Uh, yeah.  A couple of Mooseheads would be great.” he stammered out.

Scully snapped her eyes to his, expecting to see them locked on the waitress’s backside, and was surprised to see them raking her up and down.  “Great, he’s comparing me to her- like that’s any contest.” she thought.

Mulder finally noticed that she was staring at him and he felt himself blush furiously.  He immediately looked away and saw very tall, intense looking man step out of what looked like a broadcast booth and make his way toward a door by the bar.

Scully noticed his focus and turned to see what he was looking at now.  She saw the tall man in the Armani suit walking into what looked like an office, and she saw Detective Knight sitting in there, apparently waiting for him.  “Who was that guy, Mulder” she asked.

“I don’t know.  I saw him walking out of that sound booth,” he gestured to the studio across the bar.  “But I’m pretty sure that was Knight waiting for him in the office.”

“Curiouser and curiouser.”

Just then the waitress returned with their drinks.  “There you go guys.  By the way, my name is Urs, if you need anything else,” she said, while blatantly checking Mulder out.

“Actually, Urs, do you know who that guy who was in the recording booth was?  He looks familiar to me, but I can’t place him.”  Scully said, hoping for a little info.

“Her eyes narrowed slightly but she answered, “That’s Monsieur LaCroix.  He is the owner of the club, and does a radio show called The Nightcrawler from that booth.”  She looked back toward Mulder and dropped her voice about half and octave and said “If there is anything else you need, you just let me know.” and then turned and walked away, swinging her hips just a little bit more than usual.

Scully looked pissed, and he couldn’t figure out what he had done now.  “Look, I’m sorry if I dragged you here against your will, but you have to admit its getting pretty interesting.”

“Lord!  How can I be jealous of a freaking cocktail waitress?”  Scully asked herself.  “I’m surprised you didn’t get her number, Mulder,” she said.  “Jeez, can I get any more catty?” she wondered.  At his look of total confusion she said, “Never mind Mulder.  What do you think about Knight meeting with the club owner?”

“What was that all about?” he wondered.  “I don’t know, Scully.  I can think of several reasons why he might be meeting with this guy.  Some of them aren’t even sinister,” he said.

She chuckled at that and took a long pull of her beer.  She then returned to watching the crowd and trying not to think about her partner sitting across from her, looking damn sexy in his tight black turtleneck and pleated slacks.

He took one last look at his partner in her tight black jeans and black silk blouse, trying not to be obvious about reaching down to adjust his erection to relieve some of the pressure, before returning his gaze to the crowd himself.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Raven

“Nicolas, to what do I owe the honor of your visit?” asked LaCroix.

Nick wasn’t sure how to begin, so he dropped his shields and allowed his feelings to flow along their blood-link.

//fear/anxiety/desire/confusion// washed over LaCroix’s consciousness and he felt his own surprise that Nicolas would allow him access like this.  “It has been so long,” he thought, wistfully.  “Come my son, I feel your trouble.  Tell me what is wrong.”

“Father, I…”

LaCroix’s eyebrows raised at that word

“I don’t know where to begin.  There’s…  There is so much I need to say, to ask.”  Nick began- his voice rough with emotion and his eyes turning golden.

LaCroix suddenly rose from behind his desk and took his son by the arm.  “Come, Nicolas, let us retire to my rooms and discuss this in a less formal setting.”  With that, he led Nick through the back door of the office and up the stairway to his private apartment above the club.  He sat Nick on the couch and sat himself down in the armchair perpendicular to him.  “Now then Nicolas, perhaps you should begin from the beginning.”

Nick didn’t really know where the beginning was, but he knew the thing that he felt most strongly.  “I love her, father.  With all that I am, I love her.”

“Ahh.  We are, of course speaking of the delectable Doctor Lambert, I presume?”

Nick nodded his head sadly.

“Why is that a concern my son?”

Nick shied away from his gaze.  He whispered, “because of our bargain.  My debt to you for Fleur.”

LaCroix smiled.  “That’s right Nicolas.  You owe me the life of a mortal whom you love in recompense for denying me your sister, whom I loved,” he paused for a moment as Nick hung his head, “and you wanted to ask me what I would accept in place of the dear Doctor’s life?”

“Yes father.  I would give you anything, do almost anything…” Nick began.

LaCroix jumped in, “Almost, Nicolas?  What wouldn’t you do?” he asked, wanting to draw this out a bit.

Nick raised his eyes to meet LaCroix’s.  “I will not kill for food, LaCroix.”

“Is that all?”  LaCroix asked with interest.  “You would give up your ridiculous quest for mortality, your ‘humanity’?” he asked in disbelief.

“I still feel the need to atone, father.  I still seek to make up, however I can, for the horrible things I have done.  However, I no longer believe that mortality is the key to that atonement.”

“I see.  You would give up drinking that bovine swill you have been choking down for the past century?”

Nick smiled and indicated the bottle they were sharing now, “I already have.  I had a case of donated blood delivered to the loft this morning.  I dumped the last of the cow before coming over here.”

LaCroix sat back in his chair- Astonished.  “I am so very pleased to hear that Nicolas.”

“Is it enough, my father?  Would you release me from my debt?  Would you let me have the love of my existence?”  Nick asked, plaintively.

“It is not enough, Nicolas.  Nothing could ever be enough to repay that debt.”

Nick broke in, “LaCroix, if you take her, you must take me as well, for her death will be my own.”

“You would fight me over this?”

“No father, but surely on the day of her death I will greet the sunrise with open arms.”

LaCroix sat back in his chair and considered his son.  This was indeed a change in both behavior and attitude.  Nicolas was not trying to be confrontational; he seemed to be genuinely trying to communicate like a dutiful son, showing the proper deference for once.  “Since you destroyed Divia, I have spent a great deal of time in thought; considering many things, including your debt to me,” he paused, waiting for Nicolas to make eye contact with him.  “I knew you loved Natalie, even though you lied about it at the Azure.  I have decided that I should not have sought that bargain from you.  You were right.  I loved your sister for her innocence, and I would have destroyed that goodness then if I had brought her across.  And, I am in your debt for Divia.”  LaCroix stood up and turned to face his son.  He reached out and gently laid his hand on Nicolas’ shoulder.  “I release you of this debt, Nicolas.”

Nicolas fell to his knees before his maker and grasped his hand, pressing his lips to it and shedding his tears on it.  “Thank you father.  I thank you with all my heart for this boon that you have granted me.”  Lapsing into the style of speech from his days as a mortal in the early 13th century- speaking as vassal to Liege-Lord.  “Now I have to convince Natalie,” he said, leaping to his feet and racing out of the apartment- taking the back exit and leaving the Raven to return home.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick’s Loft

10:05 p.m.  Sunday

Natalie entered the loft and wondered where Nick was.  She had noticed that the caddie was gone, but she didn’t remember him having any plans for the evening.

The first thing she noticed was the 5 empty wine bottles sitting by the sink.  She thought he must have gone on a real bender to empty 5 bottles at once.  She once again berated herself for her behavior earlier today.  She had woken up two hours ago stiff and sore from sleeping on the floor.  She had cleaned herself up and gotten dressed and decided to come over to see if she could apologize and maybe get some videos or something.  Even if she couldn’t have him the way she wanted him, she would take what she could get.  Just sitting with him on the couch and enjoying his company was better than moping about her apartment longing for what she could never have.  She knew she couldn’t live without him.

As she approached the bottles, she noticed that they had been carefully rinsed out and set to drain on a towel.  They looked as though they had been dumped, not drank.  She could only think of two reasons why he would dump all of the blood in his refrigerator- all of the cow’s blood.  She didn’t think he had found a cure to vampirism since she left the loft earlier that evening.  That left only one reason.  She reached for the refrigerator door and stopped.  “There has to be another explanation.  He wouldn’t give up on this, would he?” she asked herself.

She closed her eyes and opened the door.  After several seconds she opened her eyes and the image before her matched almost perfectly with what she had been imagining: Wine bottles.  Row after row of green bottles with Raven Cellars labels.  She knew without a doubt that LaCroix would never put the Raven label on a bottle of cow’s blood.

A great crashing wave of despair smote Natalie Lambert like the hand of God wiping out Sodom and Gomorrah.  She crashed to her knees for the second time that night and again hot tears flowed.  “He doesn’t want me for me, and he doesn’t need me for a cure anymore.  There will be nothing left for me.  This is the end.” kept repeating like a mantra over and over in her head.  Finally she dragged herself up and out of the loft, down the elevator and out to her car.  She started driving, not sure where she was going.  She knew she didn’t want to go home to her depressingly empty apartment.  She drove around randomly for about 45 minutes when she noticed that she had reached the Raven.  She sat, parked outside it for several minutes before she thought to herself, “Why not.  I can get drunk there as easily as anywhere else,” and it seemed strangely fitting.

She got out of her car and walked over to the door, ignoring the line.  She walked right up to the bouncer and locked eyes with him, daring him to deny her entrance.

The bouncer recognized Nick Knight’s pet mortal, and while part of him wanted to wipe the smug look of superiority off her face, the majority of his intellect wisely decided that such an action would result in him having to face a very angry Nick Knight.  Others might make jokes about the vampire who would be human; but he had been an unfortunate witness to several altercations between Nick and LaCroix.  The thought of an enraged Nick Knight coming after him left him scared bloodless.  He decided that, at least in this case, discretion was definitely the better part of valor, and opened the door for her without a word.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Raven

11:12 p.m.  Sunday

Scully nudged Mulder, who’s eyes were fixated on the mass of humanity on the dance floor, and pointed to the entrance where Doctor Lambert was just entering, and looking extremely upset about something.  They watched in silence as she made her way to the bar and placed an order.  They continued to watch as the bartender paused for several moments before filling her order.  He then set up 6 shot glasses and took a bottle of what must have been either vodka or gin, something clear anyway, and filled each glass before her.  He then stepped back and waited.  Doctor Lambert didn’t even hesitate before picking up the first and slamming it back.  She only paused long enough to return the first glass- upside down- to the bar before picking up the next and repeating the process until all six were empty and arranged in a small pyramid.  She then asked for and received what looked like some sort of whiskey on ice and wandered over and sat down in a booth across the dance floor from them.

Mulder and Scully looked at one another for a moment before Scully said, “Maybe I should go over and talk to her, Mulder.  You keep watching for vampires, Ok?”

“Sure, Scully.  Let me know if you need any help, right?”

Scully just rolled her eyes and began to make her way across the dance floor.

She approached the booth Doctor Lambert was sitting in and noticed that the alcohol was definitely beginning to take hold.  “May I join you, Doctor Lambert?”  Scully asked.

Natalie whipped her head around and noticed the petite redhead standing there.  “Uh, sure, agent Scully, and please, it’s Natalie, Ok?”

“Ok Natalie.  Please call me Dana.”  Scully replied.

“Ok Dana.”

They sat in silence for several moments.

Suddenly Natalie asked, “What was the first thing you did when you realized you were in love with your partner?”

Scully choked on the swallow of beer she had just taken, and took several seconds to recover her ability to speak.  “What?”

“I mean, it must have been hard, you working together and all, I mean.  Were you worried that he didn’t feel the same way?  Or did he tell you first?”  Natalie began rushing the questions out without waiting for an answer.  “I mean, obviously it worked out, for you guys.  How long were you together before you took it all the way?”

To say that Scully was stunned would be to say that Rush Limbaugh was somewhat conservative in his political views.  She just sat there with her mouth hanging open for several seconds before it shut like a trap.  “Thank God Mulder didn’t decide to join me over here” she thought.  “Uh, Natalie, wha-what makes you think Mulder and I are together.  That way, I mean”

“Oh, I understand that you guys can’t advertise it.  Probably some kind of problem with rules, right?”  Natalie asked, her eyes beginning to glaze from the drink she had consumed already that evening.  “Don’t worry, I won’t tell your secret.  I’m glad for you two.  I know what it’s like to want someone that badly, and *not* be able to have them.”  She started to ramble, “Now that he doesn’t need my help anymore, there’s no need to keep poor pathetic little Natalie hanging around anymore is there?”  The bitterness contained in that statement was enough to choke a horse.

Scully’s head was spinning when Natalie switched topics again, “Where is he anyway?  Your partner, I mean.”

“Uh, he’s watching for vampires,” Scully blurted out, not even noticing how ridiculous that must sound.

“Freaking bloodsuckers, first they want a cure and then they just throw away six years of research and work like you don’t count.  Frankly he doesn’t even deserve me!”  Natalie whispered venomously.

Scully realized that Natalie was well on her way to utter intoxication.  “Uh, Natalie- could I offer you a ride home?”  Scully said in what she hoped was her most soothing voice.

“Don’t worry, Dana, I’ll take a cab or something.  Right now I am just getting warmed up,” Natalie said, her voice almost clear, but filled with anger.  “Actually, If you don’t mind, I would like to be alone right now.  I’ll see you tomorrow night at the conference.”

“Ahh, sure Natalie…  If you say so.”  Scully said softly.  She paused for a moment and then got up and made her way back to Mulder.  Her mind was whirling with what Natalie had said.  “Am I that obvious about my feelings?  Surely Mulder would have noticed by now, and why did she think we were a couple?  Mulder doesn’t think of me that way at all.”

“So, what’s up with her?”  Mulder asked.

“Uh, I’m not sure.  Something about 6 years of research being thrown away, and not mattering and someone not deserving her and, uh, some other stuff.”  Scully broke off as she realized that she needed to think about the other stuff, but not talk about it.  “I thi-I think she was drunk, Mulder.”

“Are you ok, Scully?”  Mulder asked.

“I’m fine, Mulder, why?”

“You’re stuttering.”

“I-I’m what?”

“Stuttering, Scully.”

“I most certainly am not, Mulder!”

“Ok, ok.  Jeez, Scully, Its not just a river in Egypt anymore, huh?”  Mulder trailed off as he turned away.

“What was that, Mulder?”

“Nothing Scully.”

“Look Mulder, this is going nowhere.  Can we get out of here?”

“I wanted to see how long Knight was going to stay in that office.”

“Just ask him tomorrow when we see him.  Seriously Mulder.  What do you suspect him of doing?”  Scully asked when she saw the ‘sad puppy’ look starting to form.  She leaned forward conspiratorially and whispered, “Do you think he’s a Vampire?  A freaking bloodsuck…er…” she trailed off.

Mulder didn’t seem to notice, “Well he’s awfully pale, Scully.” he said, only half-jokingly.

She just stared at him, lost in thought.  Mulder misinterpreted it as annoyance and said, “Ok, Scully.  We’ll go.”

He left some money on the table and they made their way across the dance floor and out onto the street.  The first thing Mulder noticed was that Detective Knight’s car was gone.  “Damn, how did he get past us, Scully?”

“Come on Mulder, If he is a friend of the owner, don’t you think he could have used a back door or something?” she pointed out.  “Obviously he must have.  Or do you think he turned into a vapor and sneaked out with the cigarette haze?” she teased.

Mulder started to smile a little and decided to humor her, “No, he probably turned into a bat and flew out a window.”

“Do you think they license bats to drive in Canada, Mulder?”  Scully asked, “How would they reach the pedals?”

Mulder laughed out loud at that, smiling widely at Scully.

“I would give anything to make him smile at me like that every day for the rest of my life,” Scully thought to herself wistfully.

Sometimes when he looked at her, he was so stricken by her beauty that it felt like his heart would pound its way out of his chest and throw itself at her feet in supplication.  Frankly he wondered how long it would be before he slipped and drove her away.  He wasn’t sure they would still be partners by the end of this conference.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Raven

Natalie watched as the two agents left the club, His hand on the small of her back, guiding her through the crowd and looking down at her with adoration clearly written on his face, and she felt jealous.  “She has someone who loves her and isn’t afraid to show it.  Why can’t I have that?” she thought morosely.  “I’m a good person!  I’ve stuck by him in good times and bad.  I’ve forgiven him when he backslid and encouraged him when he was down, Dammit!”

Of course she knew the answer- Janette.  “He has loved her for 800 years, and now he’s her master as well as her lover.  How can I compete with that?” she wondered.  The answer, of course, was that she couldn’t.  “I would have made do with his friendship,” she told herself.  She would have died a little to see him with her, but anything to stay in his life.  “God how pathetic is that?” she whispered out loud.  She was rapidly becoming more and more inebriated.

At that moment LaCroix came out from his office and noticed her.  “What’s this?” he thought to himself.  “Surely Nicolas hasn’t spoken to the good doctor already?”  He felt himself becoming angry.  If she could not accept that Nicolas was going to remain a vampire, if she had rejected him after he declared his undying love for her…  He suddenly had a flash vision of Nicolas embracing the dawn.  “Yet, I haven’t felt anything from Nicolas.”  He opened himself to the link with his son and felt him at peace.  He decided to find out what was going on.

“My Good Doctor Lambert, what a delightful surprise to find you here.  What, may I ask, brings you to my humble establishment this evening?”

Natalie slowly raised her eyes to meet his, trying to focus the bleary image before her.  When she figured out who was speaking to her, she felt suddenly furious.  “You.  You son of a bitch.  How dare you even speak to me?!  You are responsible for this, aren’t you?  You finally brow beat him into giving up, didn’t you?  Giving up on humanity, giving up on me!  You couldn’t be happy unless he was miserable, you bastard!”  Natalie hadn’t raised her voice, but the low, venomous tone carried and several of the surrounding patrons turned to stare at the foolish mortal who would speak to the ancient in that tone.

LaCroix grabbed Natalie by the arm and escorted her into his office, firmly closing the door behind them and dropping her unceremoniously into the chair before his desk.  “What, exactly, are you babbling about Doctor?  What has Nicolas said to you?” he demanded in a commanding tone.

Natalie sat upright, well as upright as her intoxicated state allowed, in open defiance and said, “He didn’t have to tell me anything, LaCroix.  I saw it.  I saw the blood in his refrigerator.  It’s clear to me that his return to human blood can only be your doing,” she pointed at him as if daring him to contradict her.  “You have been against him and his search for a cure all along!”

“Interesting,” he thought.  Leaning back in his chair and steepling his fingers before him he said, “And this affects you how, exactly?”

Natalie slumped in her seat a bit and whispered, “He told you he was using me for a cure, remember?  I thought if I could cure him he might want me to be with him,” she sobbed, so lost in her cups that she didn’t even notice that she was breaking down in front of the monster that was ruining her life.  “Now he doesn’t need me anymore.  He’ll just go find Janette, and leave me behind.” she trailed off, tears running down her face as she slowly slipped into unconsciousness.

“Oh Nicolas, why can nothing ever be simple or easy with you?”  LaCroix said to himself as he pondered this latest course of events.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nicks Loft

3:05am Monday

Nick was sitting in his armchair thinking.  Pondering.  How would he broach the subject with Natalie?  He was pretty certain that she would be upset with him, and he wasn’t sure how he would overcome her feelings of betrayal and convince her of the necessity of the situation.  He also was worried about her reaction to the images she would see the first time he drank from her.  He thought if he told her everything first, just so she would be prepared for it, it might help her overcome it.

She already knew in a vague way that he had killed a lot of people, and that he had enjoyed it, reveling in the hunt.  She also knew that that was all in the past- the distant past.  She knew it intellectually, but not emotionally; not viscerally.  He knew that his love for her was stronger than anything he had ever felt in his 800 years of existence.  He was reasonably confidant that his love would overshadow the horror she would feel at his actions in the past.  He also resolved to go as slowly as she needed.  He had waited 800 years to find her and he would wait as long as it took.  But he *would* have her, and it would last forever.

His daydreaming was interrupted by the sound of his elevator activating.  Was she coming to see him?  How utterly perfect that she would arrive now.  Surely this was an omen of good things to come.  Nick’s spirits were soaring!

The door to the elevator opened and Nick’s soaring spirits took a nosedive for the tarmac.  LaCroix stood there with an unconscious Natalie slung over his shoulder.  Nicolas’ first fear was quickly assuaged when he heard her steady heartbeat.  LaCroix gently laid Natalie down on the couch and turned to Nicolas, expecting a torrent of accusations to flow forth.

For once in his life, Nick paused to think for a moment before reacting to what he saw before him.  He believed LaCroix’s sincerity in their earlier conversation.  If LaCroix were going to kill her he would have done so already.  Obviously, something had happened to Natalie, and LaCroix had somehow found out and brought her here.  The proper course of action would probably be to find out what happened.

“What happened, father?”

LaCroix was surprised, almost shocked, that his son was calm and hadn’t attacked him in some misguided belief that he had done harm to his beloved.  “She was at the Raven.  She was drunk, still is in fact.”

“That isn’t like her at all,” Nick said.  “Why would she do that?” he asked rhetorically.

“I might actually be able to answer that for you Nicolas,” LaCroix said as he gently laid her upon the couch.  “The good doctor seems to have become aware that you have given up on your ridiculous quest for mortality.  She has concluded that you no longer need her, as you were only using her to try and gain a cure in the first place.”

Nick was dumbfounded.  “Why would she think that I was using her?”

“Why, my dear boy, because you told me so, as you stood before me with her in your arms.”

“She remembers that Valentine’s Day?”  Nicolas whispered, heavy hearted.

LaCroix sighed.  “It would seem so, my son.  You will have a great deal of explaining to do when she awakes.”

“Yes.  I have a great deal to answer for,” Nick said as he kneeled beside her and cupped her cheek in his palm.  “I hope she can find it in her heart to forgive me,” he whispered.

“Nicolas, I know we have had our differences these last several centuries, but I want you to know that in my heart, you will always be my beloved son.  If you can think of any way in which I may be of assistance, you have but to ask.”

“Thank you, father,” Nick said as he looked up at his master.  “That means a great deal to me.”

“What will you do?”

“I think I will confess everything and throw myself on the mercy of the court,” he answered.

“Will you bring her across?” LaCroix asked with interest.

“If she consents to it, yes.  But not today, I think.  I will not do this on the spur of the moment.  She would need time away from work to acclimatize before she could be around mortals.”  Nick answered.

“Very well, Nicolas,” LaCroix said.  He then steeled his tone; “I will expect to hear from you very soon, my son,” LaCroix commanded and then flew up and through the skylight and away.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick’s loft

8am Monday

Natalie awoke with bleary eyes, a headache, and a serious case of cottonmouth.  She tried to determine where she was; she remembered going to the loft, and then the Raven.  Things got a little hazy after that.  She remembered what she found at the loft, and why she went to the Raven, so she supposed that she had succeeded in drinking herself into oblivion.  The black satin sheets rustled as she tried to sit up, and she instantly realized where she was.  Nick’s Loft.  She wasn’t sure how she got there, but this was definitely Nick’s bedroom.  In a panic, she checked herself to see what state of dress she was in, and was both relieved and disappointed to find herself fully dressed, save for her shoes.

She noticed a glass of water by the bed, and a bottle of aspirin sitting on an envelope on the nightstand by the bed.  She gratefully popped some aspirin and downed the glass of water.  She saw that the envelope was addressed to her.  She opened it and read the letter inside;

“Natalie,

If you would care to take a shower and change into something more comfortable, I would very much like to speak with you before you leave.

Please Natalie.  I have many things I need to tell you.

Nick.”

Natalie noticed the pajama top and robe that were draped over a chair by the door and decided that a shower might help make her feel a little more human before she went down and faced the music.  She wondered if she had come here after her little bender and tried to give Nick a piece of her mind.  “Good Job, Lambert!  If he wasn’t sure about leaving before, that would certainly have helped him make up his mind!”

As she opened the bedroom door and walked to the bathroom, she heard the gentle strains of a Chopin Nocturne drifting up from the piano below.

Nick heard his beloved move into the bathroom and start her shower.  He was so nervous that he had butterflies in his stomach.  He hoped she would let him explain himself before she slapped him and walked out of his life forever.  He began to pour himself into the music.  He poured in his sorrow for the lives he had taken.  He poured in his resolve to make amends, to do right where he had once done wrong.  Finally, he poured in his absolute, unswerving love and devotion for Natalie, the love he had hidden from her, and himself, for so long.

Natalie dried off and put on the silk top and robe.  She walked out of the bathroom and was struck by the music Nick was playing.  It sounded raw and passionate and forceful.  She had always enjoyed Nick’s playing, but it had never sounded like this before.  She made her way down the stairs and walked over to the couch.  She sat down and tucked her legs underneath her and just listened.  She felt at different parts sorrow, pain, strength and joy flowing through the music.  The emotions were almost tangible.  She had never heard music performed like this before.  It was almost as though her heart was an instrument and Nick was playing it like a virtuoso.  The effect became even more pronounced as he built up to the finale.

As he concluded the piece she realized that she had been holding her breath, and exhaled forcefully.  Nick whipped around, startled.  He hadn’t noticed her enter the room and sit down, so focused on the music he had been.

“Natalie!  I-I didn’t hear…  T-Thank you for letting me speak with you,” he said- his nervousness back with full force.

Natalie felt like she was made of glass, and the vibrations she was getting were threatening to shatter her.  “Formality usually means bad news, Nick” she said, “Are you going to give me some bad news?”  Even her voice was brittle now.

“I need to tell you some things, Natalie.  Some of them are bad… horrible,” he said- the pain evident in his voice.  Some of them are good, but they might be hard to understand.”

Natalie felt like a vice was gripping her heart and her breathing was becoming rapid and shallow.  Her voice was high and breathy, like a frightened child, “When you are done telling me these things, will you be leaving?” she asked, the tears in her eyes threatening to overflow.

The iron band tightened around Nick’s own undead heart loosened a little bit at that.  “She wouldn’t have asked that question if she had already decided she didn’t want me,” he thought.  He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.  “Natalie- that will depend on you.  On whether or not you still want me around when I am finished,” he said.

“I get to choose?” she asked, startled.

“Yes, Natalie.  But please, wait until you hear everything I have to say before you make a decision.”

The vice around her heart loosened entirely, and a burgeoning feeling of hope began to grow in its place.  The cynical voice inside her rose up and said “Don’t get your hopes up, Lambert.  Just because he is staying around doesn’t mean he wants you.  He’s probably going to tell you Janette is back and they're moving in together.”

“I know you remember the Azure,” Nick said, his head hung in shame.  “I need to tell you about my sister, Fleur.”  Nick proceeded to explain how LaCroix had fallen in love with his sister and wanted to bring her across.  How he had convinced him that to do so would destroy the very innocence that he loved in her.  How LaCroix had exacted from him a debt in return for releasing his sister- LaCroix would claim a mortal love of Nick’s in recompense.  Nick had bluffed on Valentines Day, hoping that he could convince LaCroix that he was just using her to further his quest.  “I don’t know what I would have done if he had called my bluff, Nat,” he said- meeting her eyes for a moment.  “At that time I thought that being a vampire was to be beyond redemption, to be evil incarnate.”  Nick dropped his gaze and continued, “I owe you an apology Nat, not only for the horrible things I said about you that night, but also for presuming to choose your fate for you, without even asking your opinion.”

“That hurt Nick.  It hurt a lot that you could do that and then just wipe my memory of it like it was nothing,” Natalie said.

“I know, Nat.  I betrayed you that night.  At the time I thought it was the only way to protect you, to save your life.  But it was betrayal nonetheless.  Sorry doesn’t even begin to cover it,” Nick said, shame faced.  “Unfortunately, the other things I am going to tell you aren’t any better.  But I want you to know the truth, Natalie.  The whole truth, with no more secrets between us.”

Nick told her about Janette.  How he had used her for sex and blood because he couldn’t have Natalie without killing her.  He told her about his wife, who he had tried to bring across on their wedding night, and how he had taken too much- killing her; which was why he didn’t trust himself to try Janette’s cure.  He told her about his being married to Janette for nearly a century.  He told her how he had brought Janette back across, rather than let her die in the fire.

“I thought that keeping these secrets was the only way to protect you.  However, by keeping them from you, by not explaining them and allowing you to have some say in the decisions that affected both of us, I was betraying your trust.”  Nick said.  I can never take it back, I can’t undo the pain you feel, Nat.  I can only say that I deeply regret the hurt that I have caused you and that I don’t want any secrets between us in the future.”  Nick fell to his knees before her and asked, “Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?”

“As long as that behavior remains a thing of the past, I can and do forgive you Nick.”

Nick bowed his head, “Thank you Natalie,” he said.  A single blood tear slid down his cheek as he raised his head to meet her gaze.

Even though these were things she had been dying to hear, she was still unsure and worried.  “Why now Nick?  Why are you finally telling me all of this now and not years ago?”

Nick stood up suddenly and began pacing back and forth in front of her, “I’ve come to the realization recently that my goals have been incorrectly defined.  I have been striving for absolution; to atone for my sins.  I thought regaining my mortality was a prerequisite for forgiveness,” he said shaking his head sadly.  “Now I know that it isn’t.  I also know that I am in a better position to help people as I am; to try and repay humanity for the destruction I wrought in centuries past.  I’ve realized that my being a vampire has nothing to do with whether or not I am evil or good.  The demon that possessed me was more evil than I ever was.  And it was the good that was in me that set me free.”

“What about the blood?”  Natalie asked, gesturing to his fridge.

“If I am going to be at my full strength, I must drink human blood.  Cow weakens me.  The blood is all donated- I won’t kill for food, Natalie.  Nor will I drink blood taken by force.” he paused, then added, “Can you accept that Natalie?”

She left that unanswered for the moment.  “What was the second reason?” she said tightly.

“LaCroix.”

“LaCroix?  How…”

“He has released me from my debt, Natalie.  He will not harm you.”

“Are you sure, Nick?” she desperately wanted to believe what she was hearing, but she was afraid of LaCroix.  Afraid of the monster she remembered from the Azure.

“Natalie, LaCroix has changed.  I would not have believed it was possible either, until Divia came back.”

“Who was she, Nick?  I know she was a vampire, and that she went on a killing spree…  I know she tried to kill Vachon and you…”

“Natalie.  I told you that there would be no secrets between us.  But I cannot tell you everything about Divia, because she is a part of LaCroix’s history, and it is not for me to reveal his private life.”  He saw that she was about to protest, and hastily continued, “I can tell you about what happened here, though.  She wanted to hurt LaCroix.  She tried to kill everyone he knew and/or cared about.  If Janette had been around, she would have tried to kill her as well.  She caused Vachon to go insane- he made Tracy stake him, Natalie.”

“Oh Nick, Poor Tracy.  But how…  I thought…  I’ve seen him- I saw him at the Raven, Nick.”

“Tracy pulled out the stake, and once Divia was dead, the madness left him.  He managed to regenerate and claw his way out of the shallow grave that Tracy buried him in.”  Nick smiled at the memory, “He said she took it pretty well, of course, she nearly shot him when he went to her apartment to tell her.”

Natalie giggled a little at that.

“Finally she attacked me and left me for dead.  Then she went after LaCroix.”  Nick’s eyes went unfocused as he lost himself in the memory.

“LaCroix was able to defeat her?”  Natalie asked, interrupting his reverie.

“No, she had beaten him, and was about to kill him when I got there.  I ran her through with a spear as she poised to strike the final blow.”

“You saved his life.”

“Yes, but at a cost.”  Nick whispered.  He then shook his head slightly as if snapping himself out of a trance and continued “It changed him Natalie.  He is much more open to me now.”

“You feel strongly for him, don’t you Nick.”  Natalie asked, softly.

“For all that he has done to me, for all of the bad times we have been through, he is still the only father I have ever known.  When I was mortal, my father was always away.  He was in one war or another, or away at court.”  Nick sighed heavily.  “In every way that matters, both good and bad, LaCroix is my father, Natalie.”  He looked deep into her eyes and asked, “I am a vampire.  LaCroix is my father.  Can you accept that Natalie?”

“Tell me this Nick, are you giving up mortality for LaCroix, or to protect me?”

“No Natalie.  I would have given it up to protect you if he had asked it of me.  But, honestly, I decided to seek my atonement as a vampire, to accept who I am and what I am- and what I am not, Natalie; before I went to discuss with him my feelings for you.”

“I-I thought you wanted to be human, Nick.”

“Do you think that I am evil now, Natalie?  As a vampire, am I beyond forgiveness?”

“No, Nick.  I’ve never thought that.  I just thought you wanted to be human again.  To see the sun again.”  Natalie dropped her gaze and continued softly, “To have a family.”

“I do miss the sun, Natalie.  Especially not being able to spend time in the sun with you.  But honestly- when I get past the guilt and self-loathing, the night is really beautiful.  As a vampire, my senses are acutely tuned to the night.  There is no darkness that I cannot see through.  Everything looks alive, vital, and light.”  Nick responded.  “As for a family…  It’s true that I will never be able to sire a child, and a part of me longs for that, but in truth, I can still have a wife, and if we wanted to, there are other options for having children.  There are human couples that are unable to have children in the traditional manner, and yet they are able to live full happy lives as parents.”  Nick waited until she met his gaze again and continued, “The truth is that Vampirism is a condition, it places restrictions on my life that I have to accept.  However, it can only ruin my life if I let it.  Just as any mortal disease or condition can be overcome to achieve a full, rich life, so I can do the same.  I have spent the last century longing to be human, thinking that it could only happen if I could regain my mortality.  I have finally come to realize, really in the last few weeks, that humanity is an ongoing choice of attitude and lifestyle.  I have seen so many mortals that are as monstrous, if not more so than I ever was.  I now know that mortality is not the key.”  Nick smiled and lightly said, “Besides, unlike mortal handicaps, vampirism has many benefits that I think more than make up for the restrictions.”

“If you have made this decision because it is what you want, Nick, then of course I can accept it.”

“I want you to know that I am deeply grateful for your help all these years Natalie.  I really thought I wanted to be mortal again, and you were there for me constantly.  You sacrificed a great deal of your life for me, and for my quest.  For a long time I wondered why.  Why did you give up so much for me?”

She blushed furiously and refused to meet his gaze.  “I know we are just supposed to be friends, Nick…”

“I love you, Natalie” Nick said.

“…but I can’t help it!  I-I just…” then it dawned on her what he had just said, “you- what?  What did you say?” she stuttered, thinking to herself “No he didn’t.  He did *not* just say he loved me.  Did he?”

“I need for you to know how I feel about you, Natalie.  Words just won’t do, I cannot think of the words to adequately convey the depths of my love for you, Natalie.  There is a way for you to see for yourself.”  Nick took a deep breath and continued, “If I were to taste your blood- from your wrist- you would see everything.  I cannot drain you from your wrist, so the danger to you is minimal.  I have to warn you, though- you will see everything, though it will be jumbled and may not make a lot of sense.  That means you will see images of my past- of the terrible things I have done, Natalie.  Everything.  It will be a lot to swallow at once.”

“Oh, Nick.”  Natalie’s eyes were bright with unshed tears.

“Of course, I will also be able to see your whole life as well.  If there is anything you don’t want me to know, you may not want to do this, because *everything* will be laid bare by the blood link.”

Wordlessly, she pushed up the sleeve of his pajama top and thrust her arm out to him.

Nick smiled and took her hand.  He laid one reverent kiss on her palm and said, “Wait one moment, my love.  I mustn’t be hungry when we do this.”  And with that he whipped around and up off of the couch, literally flying to the refrigerator.  He pulled out the cork with his teeth and downed an entire bottle in one long draught.  He then took a second bottle and brought it and a glass back to the couch.

He set the bottle and the glass on the coffee table and took her hand once again, “Natalie, I-I’m afraid.”

Natalie’s own heart was racing in fear, joy, dread, and anticipation.  She couldn’t believe that this was really happening.  “Of what?” she choked out.

Nick dropped his gaze down to her palm and whispered, “I’m afraid that you will see the things that I have done and be repulsed.  I am afraid that you will leave me.”

Natalie’s heart slowed, and a sense of calm swept over her.  She shivered as a single blood tear fell onto her palm.  “Look at me Nick.” she said in a strong, even voice.  He raised his head and looked into her eyes.  “Trust me.” she said.

“I am, without a doubt, the single most fortunate creature in existence.”  Nick thought.  He slowly grasped the back of her hand in his left hand and brought her wrist to his lips.  He reached out with his right hand and cupped her cheek.  He never broke eye contact as he willed the change- his eyes turning and his fangs dropping.

She felt the sting of his bite and was suddenly swept up into a swirling maelstrom of image and sensation.  She exulted in the hunt.  She savored the hot blood of the kill.  She saw entire villages destroyed, men, women, and children drained of their precious life’s blood.  She felt the horror of realization, what it was like to discover that you were a monster.  She felt the desire for atonement, the constant failures, and the small victories.  She felt herself wrapped in a warm glow of love and adoration- centered on a bright light like a beacon in the night.  As she drew closer to it she felt the warm glow become a burning flame until she was utterly consumed by love, desire, and longing.  It burned her up leaving nothing behind as she finally got close enough to see what was at the center of the light.  When she looked into the light she saw…  Herself.  Through Nick’s eyes she was the most beautiful, desirable, and alluring creature in existence.  Suddenly she was back into herself, opening her eyes and seeing Nick withdraw his fangs from her wrist.

He licked the wounds in her wrist until they stopped bleeding, and savored the sweet, sweet nectar that was his beloved.  He had seen her love and devotion to him, her faith in his salvation and her hope that they could have a future together.  He had also seen her fear that she wasn’t good enough for him, or sufficiently desirable to him.  He saw a huge inferiority complex in her psyche that was centered on the death of her parents at a young age, her grandmother’s indifference and abuse, and, most recently his dalliances with Janette.

“Oh, Natalie.  Janette is my sister, my daughter, she was my wife for a hundred years.  I will always love her.  However, if there is such a thing as a soul mate, you are it, Natalie.  Janette and I are in the past.  You are my future, if you will have me.”

Tears were streaming down Natalie’s face.  Tears of sadness for the horrors she had seen, and tears of joy for the future she could see.  “Oh yes, Nick- I will have you…  Forever, if you will let me.”

“Forever?  Are you sure, Natalie?”

“Absolutely, Nick.  I have never been more certain of anything in my life.”

“I believe you Natalie.  I have to ask, though, what about the sun, what about a family?”

“Nick, when I dreamed about your cure, I dreamed about being in the sun with you.  I dreamed about having *your* child.”  She shook her head and asked, “Don’t you see Nick?  I don’t want to be in the sun if you aren’t there.  I don’t want a child, if it isn’t yours.  I would a thousand times rather be in the night with you than in the day without you.”

“Day or night, Natalie.  I choose to be with you.”

She was so happy that she thought her heart would burst.  She threw her arms around him and drank his mouth like a woman dying of thirst.  He reciprocated with an overwhelming passion of his own, as if the two could become one through mouth contact alone.  When he finally pulled away, he said “Soon Natalie, soon.  But not tonight.”

“Mnhf!  Why Not!?” she whined.

He chuckled lightly.  “Don’t you think your department would miss you if you didn’t show up for the next several weeks?”  He leaned his forehead against hers, cupped her face in his hands and said, “We need a couple of days to make some arrangements, Natalie.  But very soon we will be together forever.”

“You’re right, of course.  I just feel like we have been waiting for so long already, and I am sick of it,” she said.

“Stay here today, Natalie.  Let me hold you in my arms and sleep with you beside me.  That would wonderful,” he said wistfully.

Natalie breathed out, “Yes, beloved.”

With that he wrapped his arms around her and flew them up to his bed.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========


Chapter 3

Toronto Homicide Investigation Innovations Seminar

5:30 p.m.  Monday December 11th

Nick and Natalie met with Mulder and Scully in the lobby of the Plaza and checked out their schedule of events.  All four had the seminar on Interdisciplinary Communication and Cooperation.  Essentially it dealt with the importance of the homicide investigator working closely with the medical examiner in order for both parties to understand the needs of the other in order to facilitate rapid and accurate case solutions.  Mulder made a comment on already realizing the importance of close contact with his medical examiner, and Natalie blushed furiously, Scully only slightly less so.

Scully noticed throughout the conference that Knight and Lambert seemed to touch quite a bit.  She hadn’t noticed that when they had picked Mulder and her up at the airport.  “Hmm, I wonder what happened after we left the Club?” she thought to herself.  “Last night she was jealous of Mulder and I, thinking that we were together, and now she and Knight are sure acting like a couple.

During the break between seminars they decided to eat at the hotel’s restaurant.  Knight declined, mentioning that he had some intense food allergies and was on a special Diet.  He did have a glass of the wine they had ordered, although he only poured about a quarter of a glass.  At some point during the conversation, while Natalie was recounting one of their cases and asking Nick’s clarification on a particular point, Mulder noticed Scully frowning ever so slightly at Knight’s glass.  Mulder glanced over and noticed that Knight’s glass was nearly full, and it seemed to be very slightly darker than everyone else’s wine.  The bottle was across the table by Scully.  Surely he would have noticed if Knight had reached all of the way across the table and retrieved the bottle.  When he looked back to Scully, she was focused on Natalie who was continuing with the anecdote.  He merely filed the discrepancy away for future reference and continued in the conversation.

The second half of the day found them scheduled apart, Natalie and Scully were slated for a seminar on advances in forensic technology, “New product sales pitch session” as Scully called it.  Nick and Mulder were headed for a presentation on computerized criminal demographics profiling.

As Nick and Mulder stood outside the entrance to the auditorium their presentation was to be held in, Mulder was surreptitiously observing his companion.  The paleness, the refusal to eat, the ‘mystery’ of the wine, the way he moves, the sheer presence of him.  He knew Scully would never believe him, but he was pretty sure that Detective Nick Knight was a vampire.  “Now, what the hell do I do about it?” he asked himself.  So far as he could tell, this vampire was unlike what he expected a vampire to act like.  He was catching killers, not killing.  He’d had the gunmen hack the Toronto PD and pull his jacket.  Not only was he clean, he seemed to be a star detective.  He and his partner, Detective Vetter- who was, coincidentally, the daughter of one of the police commissioners- had the highest solve rate of any of the homicide detectives in any precinct in Toronto.  Not what you would expect from someone who lived off of human blood.  As he was pondering this he noticed something through the glass doors that led outside of the hotel.  A face that looked familiar.  It looked like the face he had seen through the shower of sparks behind that office building Saturday night.  He interrupted Nick, who was recounting the steps taken so far in the investigation of the decapitation, “Uh, Detective Knight, I think the perp. is walking toward the door right behind you.”

Nick whirled around and looked out the door.  He saw a medium height man with short black hair and a beard, wearing a brown trench coat.  His skin was suntan brown, and looked well weathered.  It was definitely the same man he saw taking the head of their unidentified victim.

“I think we should follow him,” Mulder said.

“We’ll find out where he is going and then call in for backup” Nick said as they went out the door once the perp had passed.

They split apart immediately, Nick trailing about fifty meters behind, while Mulder crossed the street and paralleled Nick.  After trailing him for about 20 minutes, he crossed over to Mulder’s side of the street and ducked down an alley between two smaller apartment buildings in a rather disreputable neighborhood.  As Mulder came to the corner and looked down the alley, he noticed the perp. disappearing over top of a fire escape onto the top of one of the buildings, 4 stories high.  After whispering a couple of harsh expletives, he took off down the alley and quickly climbed the fire escape.  As he neared the top, he looked down and saw Knight just entering the alley.  He didn’t feel that he could afford to wait for the Detective to catch up, so he jumped over the top and raced across the roof after the perp.

As Mulder ran past one of the large HVAC units on the roof, he was grabbed and thrown back into the side of the unit, striking his head and tearing the skin at his temple.  He fell to his knees, momentarily stunned.  “What the hell are you, man?” the perp asked him.  “I can barely feel you!” he said.

Mulder said, “What?” as he tried to make sense of what the guy was saying, but his thought processes were a bit sluggish.

The perp opened his trench coat and withdrew a short, broad-bladed sword with a plain cross hilt.  He said, “It might be weak, but I’ll take it.”  He raised his sword and said, “There can be only one!”

Suddenly two gunshots rang out and Mulder saw what looked like two puffs of dust bloom from the chest of the perp.  He staggered back several steps and fell by the roof’s parapet.  Mulder looked over his shoulder and saw Detective Knight standing at the other side of the roof, about 30 meters away.  A small part of his brain whispered to him, wondering how he had managed to come up there, when the front of the building didn’t have a fire escape.

Nick quickly ran over to where Mulder was and helped him up.  “Are you alright, Agent Mulder?”

“Yeah, just a little stunned.”  Mulder said, wincing only slightly at the pain in his head.  “Nice shot, by the way,” he said to Knight’s back as he approached the downed perp.  Mulder drew his own weapon to cover Knight, just in case.  The guy definitely looked dead, he wasn’t breathing anyway, and there were a couple of bloody holes in his shirt right in the middle of his chest.

Nick approached the man without fear.  He couldn’t hear a heartbeat or respiration at all.  Suddenly the perp’s eyes shot open and he gasped in a lung-full of air.  He immediately thrust his sword into Nick’s chest and stood up.  Mulder immediately began firing, emptying his entire clip into the perp’s chest.  Each impact caused him to stagger back until he fell over the parapet and down to the ground 4 stories below.  Mulder ran over to Nick, who was sitting with his back against the parapet and the sword sticking out of the right side of his chest.

“Would you like me to call 911?”  Mulder asked, making no move to grab his phone.

“No, just pull it out please,” Nick answered.

“Will you need blood?”  Mulder asked.

“You mean, will I need your blood, Agent Mulder?”  Nick said.

Mulder just nodded his head.

“No.  I have a flask in my coat.”

“Ok.”  Mulder said, and then he grasped the sword hilt in both hands and yanked on it, jerking Knight forward but not making much progress on freeing the sword.  “Sorry” he said.  He then put one foot on Knight’s shoulder to brace him and pulled it free with a sickening wet sound.

Nick said, “thanks” and grabbed his flask from its pocket and drained it in one long swallow.  “You aren’t surprised,” he said, more a statement than a question.

“I have had dealings with vampires before.”  Mulder said.

Just then they heard a clattering from below and watched, dumbfounded as their perp stood up and ran away.

“Was he…” Mulder began.

“One of my kind?”  Knight completed the question.  “No.  Frankly I haven’t seen anything like him before.”

“What are you going to do with that, Detective?”  Mulder asked, as Knight picked up the sword from where Mulder had dropped it.

“Nick locked his gaze on Mulder’s.  He listened for his heartbeat, and asked, “Are you a hunter, Agent Mulder?”

Mulder felt his consciousness falling into the bottomless wells of Knight’s eyes.  “What’s a hunter?” he heard himself say as if from a distance.

“Agent Mulder, there are no such thing as vampires.”

Mulder felt his awareness snap back into his body.  “Oh, that’s funny.  There sure are a lot of people running around with prop fangs and green contact lenses then.”

Dammit!  Either Nick was loosing his touch, or there were a hell of a lot more resistors than there used to be!  “You said you had dealings with us before.  What did you mean?”

“I worked two cases involving vampires in the states.  One involved three of them that were stalking the gothic club scene and killing wannabes.  The other involved a small, rural community that turned out to be entirely populated with them.”  Mulder answered.

“And what did you do with these ‘vampires’ you were dealing with, Agent Mulder” Nick asked.

“Is that what you mean by Hunter?  Are you asking if I Hunted these creatures down and killed them?”  Mulder asked.

“Did you?”

“No.  I am not a Hunter, Detective Knight.  In the first case, one of the three torched the house they were in, killing them all.  In the second case, the entire population disappeared once we uncovered their secret.”

“We?  Am I to take it that Agent Scully knows about us as well?”  Nick asked.  He was beginning to worry about the danger these two could represent to The Community.

Mulder chuckled.  “Scully is a skeptic, Detective Knight.  She wasn’t there for the first case, and didn’t see everything I saw in the second.  She remains unconvinced that vampires exist.  However, she is an extremely sharp observer and medical doctor.  She has already noticed some of your, idiosyncrasies, shall we say?  She won’t automatically reach the conclusion that I did, but she will be suspicious.”

They walked over to the fire escape and began to descend.  Mulder asked, “Why don’t you go down the way you came up?”

Damn the man!  “You didn’t see me come up, Agent.  What makes you think this isn’t the route I took?”

“That’s just it, Detective.  If you came up this way, I would have seen you.  And so would have our perp.”

They reached the alley and Knight stepped in front of Mulder and said, “Please listen to me very carefully, Agent.  The community takes a very dim view of mortals even knowing about us.  It is forbidden.  Our law demands that those who find out be dealt with in one of three ways:  They either have that knowledge removed, they join our ranks, or they die.  There are those among us who would kill not only you, but me as well if they found out that you knew about us.  I cannot urge you strongly enough to keep quiet about this.  Don’t even tell your partner!  If the enforcers were to get wind of this, I couldn’t protect you.

“I will try to keep that in mind, Detective.”  Mulder said tightly.  “What about the sword, we can’t really log it in as evidence, and no one is going to want to hear how we came across it.”

Nick thought about it for a moment and said, “Look, we’ll just keep it to ourselves for now.  We should be able to perform a more detailed investigation anyway.  As you said, the powers that be aren’t going to be able to accept the more unusual aspects of this case anyway.”

“I can accept that,” Mulder said, “but we are going to have to bring Scully into this.  Even if I wanted to keep her out of it, she would figure it out on her own pretty quickly.  Skeptic or no,” Mulder said.

“Look Agent, I can understand that you want to share this with her.  But do you really want to endanger the life of the woman you love like this?”

Mulder stopped short like he had run into a wall, “What!?  What do you mean?”

“As I explained, Agent, knowledge of my kind is dangerous…” Knight started to say.

“No!  the other part!”  Mulder choked out.

“Agent Mulder, you and your partner do not hold a monopoly on observational ability.  That’s why they call it Detective.  We detect.”  Knight said.

“We are just partners, Detective.”  Mulder said tonelessly.

“I can understand that the FBI probably has some kind of rule about fraternization between partners.  You two do a good job of hiding it, really.  However, you have to realize that I can hear your heartbeats speed up when you look at each other, I can see your pupils dilate and your skin flush.  You couldn’t hide your feelings for each other from any one of us.”  Knight said with a grin.  “Don’t worry, Agent.  Your secret is as safe with me as mine is with you.”

“Look, Detective, you have made a mistake here.  We care about each other, yes.  We are partners and have been for nearly seven years.  But that is all.”  Mulder said.

Nick listened to Mulder’s heartbeat and watched his eyes as he spoke.  He realized that Mulder was being honest; at least in-so-far-as the fact that they weren’t together.  “You poor, stupid man,” he thought, comparing Mulder to himself.

“As someone who has only recently done so himself; I advise you to pull your head out of the sand, Agent Mulder.”  Nick said softly.  “I’ll leave it to you to decide whether or not to bring your partner in on this, but please take me seriously when I say that you will be putting her life on the line if you do.  I also think it would be a good idea if you didn’t discuss any aspect of this unless you are absolutely certain that you cannot be overheard by anyone.”  Knight thought for a moment and said, “Why don’t I bring you to my loft tomorrow evening and we will discuss it.  You can take today to decide whether to invite your partner along for the ride.”

Mulder was lost in thought and responded, “yeah, sure.”

They continued walking in silence for a bit when some of the puzzle came together for Mulder and he said, “I’ve been thinking about the fight we saw the other night, Detective.  What if, whatever these guys are, the only thing that can kill them is decapitation?  I mean, being shot several times, and then falling four stories didn’t seem to kill him.  And they both had swords, right?  Maybe that’s the only way they can be killed.”

“He was dead after I shot him the first time.”  Knight said.  “I heard his heart stop and he wasn’t breathing.  I wouldn’t have been so careless about approaching him otherwise.  He was dead, and came back to life.”

“There was a pause between when he hit the ground and when we heard him get up and run away as well.  So they can be killed conventionally, but don’t stay dead unless they lose their head?”  Mulder theorized.

“Well, the guy whose head he severed definitely stayed dead.  Of course, I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t stay dead if they lost their head.”  Nick added.

“That sword didn’t seem to affect you too much.”  Mulder ventured.

“No, steel isn’t really a problem for me.  Wood is a very different story.  But even we can’t come back from decapitation.”  Knight answered reluctantly.  Eager to change the subject he asked Mulder a question, “I heard what he said to you just before I shot him.  What do you think he meant by, ‘It might be weak, but I’ll take it,’  and, ‘There can be only one?’  Only one what?”

“I honestly have no idea, detective.”  Mulder answered.  “Believe me, I have been shot on occasion in the past, and never once did I get up and try to run someone through with a sword immediately afterward.”

“Really.  What did you do?”  Knight asked.

“Mostly I lay on the ground bleeding until someone took me to the hospital.”  Mulder replied, chuckling.

“Hmm, get shot a lot do you, Agent Mulder?”  Nick asked jokingly.

“Look, just call me Mulder, ok?  Nobody calls me by my first name, and I’m not sure I can listen to ‘Agent Mulder’ over and over again.  It reminds me of my Boss.”

“Ok Mulder.  I’m Nick.”

“Oh, by the way, Nick.  Thanks for saving my ass up there tonight.”

“Well, I didn’t feel up to explaining to your partner that I had let you get killed.”

“Right.”

They continued back to the hotel in silence, each lost in their own thoughts about the events of the evening.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

LaRouge Lounge

After listening to blatant sales pitches for questionable products Scully and Natalie decided to skip out at the first break and hang out in the lounge until the guys got out of their presentation.  They talked about some of the challenging cases they had worked on and their medical backgrounds.  They each found the other surprisingly easy to talk to, probably because of their similar situations- a woman in a ‘man’s job’ as it were- both excelling, and working the kinds of cases that most coroners never even heard about.  Helping to catch madmen and serial killers was a normal part of their lives.  Several glasses of burgundy helped the conversation flow as well.  They eventually fell into girl talk.

It felt so nice to sit and chat with another woman, especially one who had such a similar job, and could understand what it felt like to dig through dead bodies looking for clues and solving crimes for a living.  “So, Natalie, what has you so giddy today?”  Scully asked.  “You seem positively giggly.”

Natalie blushed furiously, and looked away.  “Uh, lets just say that Nick and I finally came to an understanding last night.”

“Ahh, I see.” said Scully.

Natalie was still blushing and explained, “We have had a long and often frustrating ‘friendship’ and finally realized that it is time to take it to a new level.  I was so afraid that he didn’t feel the way I felt it was tearing me apart.”

“I know how that feels,” Scully thought to herself.

“I’ll bet you do, Dana.  Was it harder because you are partners?”  Natalie asked.

“Oh, no!  Did I say that out loud?”  Scully thought in horror.  “What do you mean?” she said to Natalie.

“I mean, did it create problems at work?  Does the FBI have any rules against that sort of thing?”

“Uh, Natalie?  I think you might have made a mistake here, Mulder and I are just partners.”

Natalie just stared at Scully for several moments.  “Your aren’t together?” she asked.

Scully slowly shook her head side to side.

Natalie felt extremely embarrassed and could feel her face getting hot, but the words slipped out before she could stop them, “Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure, Natalie” Scully said wryly.

Natalie’s hands flew to her mouth as if to stop her from opening it again.  “Ohmygosh.  I’m sorry.  You guys just seem… that is, I thought…  Uh, sorry.”  She realized that Dana and Mulder were in the same place she and Nick had been until last night.  “Oh no!  It’s got to be eating them up!  You poor, stupid woman,” she thought to herself.

“Look Natalie, It’s complicated.  We have a very unusual partnership because of the kinds of cases we work, and the experiences we have had.  We care about each other a great deal and trust each other absolutely, but those kind of feelings just aren’t there.”

‘It’s complicated.’  How many times had she uttered those very words to describe her relationship with Nick?  “Look Dana, it’s none of my business, but take it from someone who has, up till very recently, been exactly where you are, If you feel that way, you should tell him.  You deserve to know, and so does he.”  She stood up at that point and added, “I’m going to take a cab home and clean up a bit.  I’ll leave word at the desk, but if you see Nick, tell him I’ll see him at his place, Ok?  I’ll see you tomorrow night, Dana.”

Scully was too stunned to think of anything beyond an automatic, “Ok, goodnight Natalie.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Plaza Hotel

“Uh, Mulder?”  Nick asked as they entered the hotel lobby.

“Yeah, Nick?”

“You might want to head back to your room and clean up a bit before we meet the ladies.” he said as tactfully as he could.

Mulder looked down at himself and said, “I guess that rooftop was a little dirty.”

“A little, yes.”  Knight said.  Look, I’m going to go put this in the caddie and change my shirt.  I’ll let your partner know where you are.  You two may have some talking to do.”

“Yeah.  That’s probably a good idea,” Mulder replied.

“I’ll call you tomorrow afternoon when I get up.” and you can let me know what you have decided.”

“Ok,” he said and then headed off toward the elevators.


Scully was still sitting in the lounge, Natalie’s admonition tumbling around in her mind, when Detective Knight walked up to her.

“Agent Scully?” he asked, hesitantly.

Scully slowly regained focus and looked up to see Detective Knight staring down at her.  “Detective?” she asked.

“Your partner went up to his room.  He wanted you to join him when you had a moment.” he said.

Scully was so wrapped in her thoughts that it didn’t even occur to her to ask why he didn’t just come in with the detective.  She just stood up and grabbed her coat and seminar materials.  “Thank you, Detective,” she said.

“Not a problem, Agent Scully.  Uh, where is Doctor Lambert?” he asked.

“Oh, she said to tell you she would see you at your place.  She wanted to go home and clean up,” she answered.

“Oh, Ok.  Well, goodnight Agent Scully.”

“Goodnight Detective” she said and walked away to the elevators.

Nick shook his head and wondered if Mulder and Scully would ever get a clue.  He could sympathize.  Even with his supposedly enhanced senses, it took him six years to see it himself.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========


Chapter 4

Room 1013, International Plaza Hotel

2:26am Tuesday December 12th.

Mulder was sitting on the bed in his room, lost in thought.  He didn’t think he was going to be able to do it.  “How can I *not* tell her that he’s a vampire?” he thought.  Of course, he didn’t imagine that she would believe him anyway.  “This is about her safety!  He’s a vampire!”  Of course, that wasn’t fair- he didn’t think Knight would ever be a threat to Scully.  But she was going to have to know that if she was going to understand the rest of it.  How could he explain about the guy they chased, and how it was that they happened to get the sword, unless he told her everything?  He was so lost in thought that he didn’t hear her unlock and open the door.

She walked into the room to see Mulder lost in thought.  She stopped, almost in shock at the sight, “He is so beautiful,” she thought.  “Can I risk this?  Can I risk driving him away?”

She paused as her heart felt like it was trying to painfully climb up her throat and escape out of her.  “Can I continue on with this farce of an existence knowing that he doesn’t feel like I do?  Can I…”

At that moment Mulder turned fully toward her and she noticed the blood slowly oozing down the side of his face from a ragged-looking cut at his temple.  She was struck suddenly with a surprising anger.  Anger at whoever did that to him, anger that she wasn’t there to protect him… and suddenly it became fury.  Fury at *him*.

He saw her standing there, looking pensive, and then her face changed.  She looked like she was getting really pissed off.  She was looking at him, but not meeting his gaze.  She seemed to be staring at his forehead for some reason.

“Hey Scully” he said.

Something snapped.  How could he sit there with that endearingly goofy grin on his face?  How could he sit there as if he hadn’t gone off and risked his life, again- leaving her behind to pick up the pieces- *again*?  “Dammit Mulder!  What if I had lost you!?” she screamed in her head.

“…Scully?” he said softly, hesitantly.  Her face seemed to be getting red and he imagined that he could almost see steam coming out of her ears.  “What’s wrong?” he whispered.

“What’s wrong?  What’s wrong?” she said, her voice rising as she repeated the words.  “You did it again!  You went off and risked your life- Again!”  She was shouting now.  “You could have died, you inconsiderate bastard!  What was I supposed to do then?”  She threw her hands up and let them fall, spent.

He goggled at her.  “Where did that come from?” he wondered silently.  He was suddenly struck by her appearance.  That smart navy suit she wore, her face flushed and upper chest heaving as she breathed fast and deep.  He was confused and aroused at the same time.

As the blood left his head for parts further south, the centers of higher reasoning in his brain began to shut down.  Unfortunately, it seemed, the areas of the brain that generated untimely witty rejoinders were less swift to cease operations.  He heard, as if from a great distance, the words “Gee Scully, I didn’t know you cared.” fall out of his open mouth.  Instantly he wished that he could retract them.

Mulder blinked one time and when his eyes reopened he saw that all of the color had drained from Scully’s face.  She looked like a ghost- “white as a sheet” was the phrase that seemed to fill his consciousness as time slowed to a crawl.  He blinked one more time and she was gone.

She slammed the door to her room and collapsed on the floor, as though the weight of her feelings were too much for her to carry any further.  “OhGodOhGodOhGodOhMyGod” reverberated through her head like a jackhammer chiseling away at her mind.  She was unable to think.  She felt like she was going to die.  She felt like she was dead already.  The last vestiges of the doctor in her made the clinical observation that she was going into shock.

“He’s right.”  She whispered to herself.  “He doesn’t know.  I never told him…”  “It’s only a cut on the head!” she sternly told herself, “you’ve seen much worse!”  She knew this to be true, but she couldn’t overcome the feeling that he could have died and she had never told him she loved him.  It didn’t matter that he didn’t feel the same way.  It didn’t matter that she would have to watch him fall for some 5’ 10” brunette with long legs and big breasts and a vacuous smile.  It didn’t matter that she would never find anyone who could satisfy her longing like she just knew that he could.  He deserved to know.  She needed him to know.  If he had died and she had never told him it would end her.

The pounding she heard in her ears seemed to be causing her whole body to vibrate.  After several moments she became aware that she was still sitting on the floor leaning against the door to her hotel room.  She then realized that Mulder was pounding on her door and yelling for her to open the door.  She slowly got up off of the floor and turned to the door.  Choking back a sob and taking a few deep breaths to steady herself, she opened the door.

Mulder stood there, one hand raised beside his head as he drew it back to pound forward against the door.  His mouth was open wide as he stopped in the middle of his shouting.  His face looked angry and she silently berated herself for her unforgivable behavior, “was it just moments ago?” in his room.

He took her in.  The sight of her- suit rumpled, hair mussed, eyes red and brimming with unshed tears.  He stood there, unmoving for a moment as she turned and walked into the room.

“Scully, what wrong?  I don’t understand…” he trailed off as she sat on the edge of the bed and gestured for him to sit in the chair facing her.  “Scully, please.  Tell me what’s wrong.”

“You’re bleeding Mulder,” he heard her say as she pointed at the side of his head where he had been struck when that guy- “Guy?  Not a vampire.  Something else?” he thought- had thrown him into the HVAC unit.

“Wait right there, Mulder” she said as she stood up and walked over to the bathroom, “I’ll get a washcloth,” she added.

Scully tried not to look at her disheveled image in the mirror as she saturated the washcloth with hot water and wrung it out.  “Well, its not like I could grow 8 inches and 2 cup sizes in the next thirty seconds anyway.”  She thought to herself.  She hung her jacket on the door and went back out to “face the music.”  She just hoped that today would not mark the end of their partnership.

Mulder waited with a sense of growing dread in the pit of his stomach.  He looked at her as she exited the bathroom, washcloth in hand.  He tried to meet her gaze as she stood before him and slowly, gently wiped the blood away from the side of his head and face.  “Scully, I…” he stopped mid-thought as their eyes met and he caught the resignation in her eyes.

He could read the intent on her countenance- she was going to tell him something she knew he didn’t want to hear.  He had seen the same look on her face just before she told him his mother had committed suicide.  “I’ve finally done it,” he thought to himself.  “She is going to tell me she can’t be my partner anymore.  She is going to tell me it’s over.  Oh God…  Don’t let this be happening.  Please!”

She saw the crestfallen look on his face.  She had seen this before.  “He knows what I’m going to say.”  Her eyes began to brim with tears, “It’s going to drive him away from me.”  She had seen the same look on his face just before she told him that his mother’s death was indeed a suicide- the look that said he knew he was about to hear something he couldn’t accept.  “Can I really be this selfish?” she screamed at herself.  “How can I tell him that I love him knowing it is going to drive him away?”  Seeing his face, she knew their relationship to be over anyway.  The look on his face was enough to give tell her that.  “At least he will know the truth,” she thought.  He deserved that.  Their lives were spent searching for the truth.  No matter how ugly or painful the truth was, the lie would be worse.  It would be a betrayal of his trust, and she couldn’t let herself do that - no matter how much she screamed at herself to back away now.

“Mulder I have to tell you something.  It’s going to be uncomfortable for both of us, but…”

“Scully, I…”

She interrupted him, “No, Mulder!  Just don’t!  I need to do this.  I have to do this.”  She could feel his stare like a crushing weight, begging her not to do this.  She sat down on the edge of the bed and steadfastly refused to meet his gaze.

“She looks so small,” he thought.  He longed to wrap his arms around her and make all of her pain go away.  That desire, of course, was the reason why this was happening.  How could he think she could ever love him?  All the pain she had been through for the last seven years was his fault.  Every wound, every scar, every loss was his doing.  Her sister Melissa, her daughter Emily, her infertility, her cancer, her abduction, Antarctica, that damned chip in her neck- all of it.  “I am poison to her,” he thought.  Everything he touched turned to dust.  She was better off without him, even though it took her seven years to come to her senses and realize it.  And that was his fault too, wasn’t it?  “I should have let her go,” he realized.  His selfishness knew no boundaries.

“But not this time, damn it!” he resolved.  He would take his medicine and then he would leave her- never to darken her path again.  Maybe she would be able to get on with her life.  The life she deserved.  The life his obsession had denied her for so long.  It didn’t matter that it would kill him to let her go.  It didn’t matter that he had just found proof of vampires.  It didn’t matter that there were wackos with swords running around chopping each-other’s heads off and causing lightening storms…

Her words interrupted his self-flagellating reverie.  “Mulder, I know that it’s selfish of me; that it’s not fair to you; but I cannot keep pretending not to feel what I feel.  I just can’t do this anymore,” she sighed tiredly.  “I just can’t.  I have been trying, really trying.  For the sake of our partnership, for the sake of the work- because I know how important it is to you, to us.”

“God, how long has she felt like this?” he wondered.  “She’s known for a while apparently, but she stuck it out even longer for the sake of ‘the work.’  More like my obsession,” he thought bitterly.

“I know you don’t feel for me what I feel for you,” She said.

What?…

“I’m sorry that I couldn’t just get past it and move on.  You don’t deserve to have some hopeless pale little redhead pining away after you like a sappy teenager.

What?…

“I know that I am not the type of woman you find attractive, but I really wish I were.”

“What the…” he said.  “What the hell is she saying?”  Mulder thought.

“I want you to know that I don’t expect anything from you because of this.”

“Scully, wait.  What are you trying to say” Mulder choked out, his mind reeling.

“Oh Mulder, please don’t make me actually say it.  How can you be so cruel?” she thought.  She whispered- almost too low to make out, “I love you Mulder.”

“Scully!  What did you say!?”  Mulder demanded.  This couldn’t be happening.  He couldn’t have heard what he thought…  How could she…

She finally looked up at him, her eyes locking defiantly onto his, “I said, I love you, Mulder.”  Her resolve faltered and her eyes dropped back to her lap.  “I’m sorry, Mulder.  I wish I didn’t, but I do.”  She waited for the rejection she was sure she would hear.

For a moment he headed once more down the path of self pity- “How can she love me after all I have…” he began to think, but then a different feeling stopped him.  Shame so great that the pain of it overwhelmed his soul.  *She* was worried about being selfish, when he had been the one focusing on himself to the exclusion of her.  He had determined that he was unworthy and in doing so had denied her what she felt she needed.  Him.  He had ignored her needs and desires, instead focusing on his feelings of self-loathing and pity.

Her eyes were still locked onto her lap.  He hadn’t moved since she had said it.  It was as though time had stopped.  She knew her heart seemed to have stopped while she waited for his response.  “Mulder, please say something,” she whispered at last, looking up into his eyes.

As though the floodgates had been opened- hot, bitter tears began to flow down his face.  He still felt unworthy- he thought she deserved so much more than he could ever give- but he made an instant decision to spend the rest of his life trying to make up for it.  He dropped to his knees, and leaned forward until his forehead was touching her knees.  Great wracking sobs began to shake his body as he wept freely.  He was suffused with sorrow for what he had done to her and at the same time filled with joy at the gift she had just given him.  He needed to speak, to tell her, but the emotion inside him poured out so fast and furious that he could scarcely breathe, let alone speak.

Scully began to panic, “What have I done?” she whispered to herself.  She could feel his tears like droplets of fire striking her shins and running down her ankles.

“Mulder,” she began and then paused.

No response.

“Mulder,” she said a little louder this time.  “Mulder, I’m sorry…”

Her words, or more accurately the fear he felt from her in them, gripped his heart, slowing the flow of emotion enough to return his ability to speak.  At first all he could get out was a litany without pause, “Scullysosorrysosorrysosorrypleaseforgivemesosorry” over and over until he ran out of breath.  When he was finally able to gasp for air he raised his head to meet her eyes once again.  “Sc-Scully,” took all the breath he had.  He gasped in another lung-full and continued, “I am *so* sorry.”

His pain almost tore her heart from her chest.  “It’s not your fault, Mulder.  You can’t blame yourself for how I feel…”

“Scully, stop,” Mulder said.  If you think you are unattractive, ‘not my type’; if you think of yourself the way you described to me just now then it is my fault.”

“Please Mulder, you don’t have to…”

“Yes I do have to, Scully.  Not because I am trying to patronize you or pity you.  No.  I have to because you are wrong.  Dead wrong,” he said.  Gripping her hands in his he continued, “I could spend all day telling you how beautiful you are.  God knows I have spent entire days thinking about it.  Cataloguing every look, every aspect, and every nuance that is Dana Scully.  Frankly I am amazed that you didn’t catch me staring at you more often,” he said, shaking his head ruefully.  “I actually used to worry that my career would end with a sexual harassment claim if you ever caught me staring.  If you could have heard some of the things I was trying not to think about, you would have at least slapped me, if not just outright shot me.”  Mulder caught his breath a bit before continuing.  “I could spend the day telling you that, but I won’t.  Because what was admittedly pure lust at first has become the least of what I feel for you.”

“Mulder, please.  You don’t need to say anything just to make me feel better.”

“Don’t I Scully?” he interrupted her.  “I hope what I am going to say makes you feel better.  After all, my stubborn, pigheaded, obsessive selfishness is obviously what has been making you feel bad.”  Mulder looked ready to cry again, “please let me tell you this, Scully.  You told me how you feel, let me tell you how I feel,” he whispered.  “Please Scully”

She could barely bring herself to nod her head.  Speech was utterly beyond her.  She still felt as though she were in the midst of some kind of dream fantasy and was waiting to wake up.  She was so convinced that he was going to reject her that she still expected it to happen.  “He’s just trying to break it to me gently,” she thought miserably.

Mulder settled back onto his heels, still kneeling before her.  He looked down at his hands in his lap and, with a deep breath began speaking.  “When you first joined the X-Files I was certain that you were there to spy on me.  I had been waiting to see who they were going to send to interfere.  I was waiting to see how they were going to do it.  When you were assigned to me I figured that they wanted me to fall for you.  So you could exert your ‘evil influence’ on me.  Frankly I wasn’t worried too much- I wouldn’t let mere physical attraction interfere with my quest.  Besides, how attractive could you be, I thought?”  Mulder looked up from his hands, his eyes traveling steadily up her body to her face- meeting her eyes again.  His voice dropped an octave and he said, “I had no idea, Scully.”

She saw raw emotion and arousal in his eyes.  She was confused.  “Why is he telling me this?” she wondered.

His eyes suddenly dropped back to his hands and he somewhat hesitantly said, “I lied to you, you know.  I told you that I made my parents call me Mulder.  The truth is that I thought that if I made you use my last name, I could keep things strictly professional.  I could avoid developing any feelings for you.  You were the enemy, and I had to keep my guard up.”

“You succeeded, Mulder,” she thought.  “You never let that guard down.  I wish I could have done the same.”

“It just got worse, Scully.  You weren’t just beautiful- you were smart too.  You didn’t take any BS from me, but you also didn’t try to change me.  Even when I could tell that you didn’t believe my theories, you respected the investigation.  You never belittled me for my ‘wild ideas’ even though you obviously disagreed with them.  You adopted the quest for the truth as your own.”  His eyes returned to hers, “I began to trust you, Scully.  You weren’t the enemy any longer.  I realized that you never were.  I know now, that I had already fallen for you at that point, even though I didn’t realize it at the time.”

Wait, back up a minute, did he say…

Mulder continued, “I realized it after Duane Barry.  When you were gone it was as though my life had ended.  If you hadn’t come back- if you had died instead of coming out of that coma…”  The tears started again and he took a deep, shuddering breath, “I’m sorry, Scully.  I would have…  I couldn’t have gone on.”

Her breath caught at the implication.  “Could it be?” she thought.

He squeezed his eyes shut, “I never told you this before…”

“Shhh.  It’s ok, Mulder…”

“No!  I need for you to know, Scully.”  He reached up and cupped her face in his hand, “I was given an opportunity that night- the night before you woke up.  I was told that the men who had done that to you were being sent to search my apartment.  I was told that their lives were mine to take if I wanted them.”  He drew another great, shuddering breath, biting back a sob and dropping his hand he continued, “I said yes, Scully.  I was there waiting for them.  I had my pistol and I was going to kill them.  Then I was going to turn it on myself.”

She gasped, “Mulder…”

He ignored her and continued, “I welcomed it.  I yearned for it.  Finally there was a knock at the door, but it wasn’t them.  It was your sister.  She convinced me that you needed me; that you were going to come back to me if I would be there for you.  So I went.  And you did.  And I was the happiest man alive.  I just wish now that I would have told you then.  That I wasn’t such a coward.”

“Mulder, your not a…”

“Aren’t I, Scully?  When you got cancer did I ever tell you how important you were to me?  When you went into remission did I let you know that I felt like a sixteen-ton weight was lifted off of my chest?  Obviously not or you wouldn’t have thought that I didn’t find you attractive.  You wouldn’t have wasted a second comparing yourself to those other women.  You wouldn’t have believed for a moment that I could ever find them more attractive than I find you.  You wouldn’t have hidden yourself from me so that I never thought in a million years that you were attracted to me at all.”

She looked into his eyes again and saw them darken in emotion.  His smell, his strong, masculine Mulderscent, began to overwhelm her.  She felt her nipples harden and hot moisture begin to pool in her center.

He caught the scent of her arousal and he felt himself begin to stiffen, his erection beginning to show in the slacks he was wearing.  “I thought you didn’t want me, Scully.  I didn’t believe that I could ever be worthy of your desire- of your love.  I blame myself for everything that happened to you while you worked on the X-files.  I am the cause of all of your pain and I don’t know if I can ever forgive myself for it.  I knew I should let you go.  Give you a chance for a life.  A real life.”

“Mulder, I have a life.  A real life,” She said.  “I didn’t stay on the X-files out of duty or obligation.  I stayed because it is my quest too.  And because I love you.”  Tears began to well in her eyes, “There is nothing to forgive, Mulder.”

“Scully, intellectually I know that your abduction, your sister’s death, your cancer and all the rest are not directly my fault.  I know that I didn’t do those things to you, but I cannot help feeling that way.  I wanted you to stay because I was selfish.  Even if that is not the reason you stayed, that is what I feel.”  He sighed, “But, I don’t want to argue about that.  Despite the fact that I think you would have been better off if you never met me, I am still being selfish.  I desperately want you to stay.”

She said, “Mulder, I want to stay.  I value our partnership, our friendship…”

Mulder interrupted her, “God Scully, and you think I’m dense.”  He shook his head sadly; “Let me spell it out for you.  I.  Love.  You.  With all my heart.  With all my soul.  With all that I am.”  He closed his eyes and said, “I still don’t think that I deserve you, but I want to spend the rest of my existence trying to prove myself wrong.  Will you let me try?” he asked her.

She was stunned.  She couldn’t think.  Her mind revolved with, “He wants me?  He loves me?” over and over.

“Please Scully,” he whispered.  His voice became rough and low- dripping with passion “I need you, Scully”

“Oh God, Yes!” she said, her own voice gravelly with need and desire.

Mulder reached up and cupped the side of her face with his hand, slowly guiding her toward his lips for a kiss.  The kiss was light, delicate, his warm soft lips playing over hers for a moment and then traveling all over her face.  Bestowing his adoration to her cheeks, eyes, chin and forehead as her breath began to come in pants and the smell of him began to fill her with an exquisite longing.  Suddenly his mouth was back on hers- and there was nothing gentle about this kiss.  His tongue demanded entrance and it was granted.  As his tongue swirled about her mouth, her tongue danced with his, entering his mouth.

God, he tasted salty and bittersweet- like sunflower seeds and dark chocolate.  She was filled with an overwhelming desire to taste him everywhere.  She broke the kiss and began to work furiously at the buttons of his shirt and before she knew it she had his shirt off and was leaning forward, tasting the warm skin of his chest.

Mulder moaned, his whole body vibrating, “No fair,” he panted huskily, “you’re still dressed.”

“Well,” she mumbled against his chest, “fix it!”

He stood them up and began tearing at the buttons on her blouse, and then, having gotten that off, he reached around to unhook her bra.

She noticed that he seemed to be having trouble with the hooks and pushed him back, down onto the chair by the bed.

He was suddenly hesitant, “Too fast?” he asked.

“Too slow!” she growled back at him, swiftly unhooking and removing the bra, and then before he could do more than gasp she unzipped and shimmied out of her skirt.  She stood before him clad only in a small pair of sodden panties and her sensible pumps, her eyes challenging him, as if to say “Well, Do something!”

“How could she ever think she wasn’t attractive?” he thought, then spoke aloud, “You are perfect, Scully.  Absolutely perfect.”  Then he stood up and toed off his shoes and socks and dropped his slacks to the floor.

As he stepped out of the puddle of clothing on the floor, his boxer shorts tented out from his body, Scully felt the impact of his words and his actions.  She read the sincerity in his admiring gaze and felt a fresh wave of arousal flow to the junction of her thighs.  He swooped down upon her, crushing her lithe body against his hard muscled chest, and kissing her with such soul-searing passion that she felt as though her very spirit was being drawn out through her mouth and into him.  She could feel his erection trapped against her belly as he devoured her.

He laid her down on the bed and broke the kiss, gasping for air, as she did the same.  Mulder looked into her eyes and said, “You own me, Scully.  Body and soul, I belong to you.”

She bit back a sob at his assertion, but before she could answer, the sensation of his mouth on her aching breast robbed her of the ability speak.  She was unable to do more than groan aloud.  As he worked over her nipples with his tongue, lips and teeth, all she could think of was, “Thank God for Sunflower Seeds!  I am going to buy him the biggest bag of seeds I can find.”

Mulder left her breasts behind and began to travel south over her abdomen- licking, sucking and biting his way to her navel.  As he dipped his tongue in, he heard her breath catch and then, “M-Mul-Mulder, I’ve never…  You don’t have too…”

His eyes met hers and he saw her discomfort.  “No one has ever done this for you before?” he asked.

She shook her head, eyes wide and breathing raggedly.  The few others she had been with had been relieved when she didn’t feel comfortable with them going down on her.  She had, for some reason, been shy of a man seeing her that closely.  She worried that she would smell funny, or taste bad.

“Oh Scully, please let me do this for you,” he begged.  “I want to taste you, I need to taste you.  Please, Scully, Please,” he punctuated each word with a kiss to her belly.

How could she deny him when he wanted it so badly?  When he wanted to do it, not out of obligation, or desire for reciprocation, but because *he* wanted it, needed it.  She nodded her head and his face actually brightened.  He smiled at her as though she had done him a favor.  Oral fixation indeed she thought happily.

He slowly slid her panties down and off of her.  As he pulled them over her feet, he kissed his way back up her legs, loving the sensation of her smooth, creamy skin against his lips.  He kissed her right at the junction of her tightly closed thighs and she relaxed allowing him to spread them gently apart.  He glanced up at her from his vantage point between her legs and saw that she was somewhat embarrassed.  She was blushing hotly and her eyes kept darting away from him, as if she was torn between the desire to see his reaction to her, and fear of the reaction she apparently expected to see.  He needed her to understand what she meant to him and how he felt about her.  “I love you so much.  Oh Scully, you are so beautiful.  You’re so wet for me.  Do you know how happy this makes me?” he asked as he gently stroked her with his fingers.  “To know that you are this wet, for me; because of me?  Thank you, Scully.”  And with that, he began to explore with his lips and tongue.

Tears began to flow freely down her cheeks.  Tears of relief, joy, and love.  Scully’s mind began to revolve, “He really loves me.  He’s not just saying it; he doesn’t feel sorry for me.  He doesn’t pity me.  He wants me!  He loves me!”

She began to feel a sensation coiling tightly inside her, like a spring being wound tighter and tighter.  She howled as he suddenly took her clitoris into his mouth, sucking on it while he inserted 2 fingers into her and began to rub them against the roof of her vagina, looking for that spot.  Then he found what he was looking for and she screamed his name as the orgasm crashed down upon her.  Wave after wave of pleasure rolled over her.  She closed her eyes and bright spots of light winked at her behind her eyelids.  She began to feel disoriented and dizzy, and still the orgasm rolled on and on and Mulder continued to stroke that spot inside her and suckle at her clit like a newborn against his mother’s breast.

Mulder was watching her face as she came, and came and came and came.  Her scream had ended in a long, drawn out, shuddering howl as the pleasure kept flowing over her.  The look on her face was agonizingly beautiful.  He was amazed; this had never happened before.  He was overjoyed that he was able to do this for her.  Suddenly he noticed that she had stopped moving entirely.  He rose quickly from her and was near panic until he saw the reassuring rise and fall of her chest- that lovely chest.  He began to feel pretty proud of himself, a little cocky even.

When she came to she saw him standing before her, his boxers tented by his erection and a big, dopey grin on his face- pride and satisfaction practically glowing from him.  “Well, he has darned well earned it this time,” she thought in awe.  “Mulder…” her voice was raspy, “that was…  That was…  That has never…”

The pride on his face softened into adoration for her.  He wiped his mouth with his hand and came down upon her to kiss her reverently.  “Oh Scully, thank you.  Thank you for giving me that.  Thank you for letting me see you cum.  You were so beautiful, Scully.”  Tears began to fall down his cheeks and he leaned in for another kiss.

She loved him more at that moment than she would have ever thought possible.  “Only Mulder,” she thought.  Here he was; still in his underwear; obviously painfully erect from the way he winced when it pressed into her thigh; having just made her cum so hard and so long that she had been rendered unconscious; and he was profusely thanking her for the experience.  He was grateful and she had yet to even touch him.

Well!  It was high time to fix that!

Mulder was slightly shocked when she suddenly rolled them over with her ending up on top.  She broke away from the kiss and began to work her way down his body with her lips and tongue.  She began to lightly stroke him through his underwear as she tongued his nipples.  She felt him twitch in her hand and he suddenly groaned loud and low in his throat.  She tried to continue down toward the elastic of his boxers when suddenly his hands were in her hair, feeling the soft, silky strands, and trying to move her back up to his face.

She broke off from her attentions to his nipples and looked at him.  “What’s wrong Mulder?”

“If you complete that thought you may get an unpleasant surprise, I don’t think I can hold out long.”  He said, somewhat chagrined.

“I want that, Mulder.  I need that right now- I need to make you cum.”

“Tonight I want to be inside you when I cum, Scully,” he whispered.

“Mulder, what makes you think this will be the only time you cum tonight?” she said with a wicked grin on her lips.

Mulder actually began to pant. “OhMyGod, Scully!” he gasped, his chest heaving.

Scully let out a delighted laugh and continued on her original course.  She removed his undershorts and paused a moment in appreciation.  He was so hard that the head was purple and the veins on the sides were throbbing in time with his heartbeat.  She licked her lips and smiled up at him.  His eyes were wide and staring.  She said, “This looks serious, Mulder.  It’s a good thing you’ve got a doctor handy,” and with that she gave it one long lick, from the bottom of the base to the underside of the tip.  She immediately gripped the base, squeezing with her thumb to keep him from cumming.  “Not just yet, Mulder.”

He thought he was going to die.  No scratch that, he thought he was already dead and in heaven.  She would take him into her mouth sliding slowly down him until her nose was buried in his pubic hair.  Then she would make a few short bobs of her head before slowly withdrawing, swirling her tongue around the underside of him as she withdrew.  She would then grip him, cutting off his orgasm while she would lick and suckle his balls.  After what seemed like hours, but was probably only a couple of minutes she took him all the way in again and began bobbing up and down furiously, rubbing her saliva slicked fingers along his perineum, beneath his balls.

He hadn’t stopped groaning since the first lick.  He tried to speak, “Sc-Sc-Scu-ul-ly, I’m… gonna… unh… gonna…” she locked gazes with him as if to let him know that she knew.  She wasn’t stopping, however.  She started moving faster and groaning herself.  The combination of movement and vibration was too much and he came.  “Oh, God!  Oh, Scully,” he shouted over and over as he emptied himself into her.

She felt him cum and she concentrated on not choking.  She wanted this, wanted to do this for him, to show him a little of the happiness he had given her.  She wanted to show him a little of the love she felt for him.  In the end she drank him all down and slowly withdrew, cleaning him with her tongue.  She looked up and saw the awe and joy in his eyes.  She felt a little proud herself for being able to bring him to this.  She made a slow, languorous ascent up his body, tasting and feeling as she went.  When she got to the summit, she stopped to taste his mouth once more.

After a moment she leaned away from him and gave to him the gift he had given to her earlier.  Her voice rough and thick with emotion she said, “I am yours Mulder.  Heart, mind and body, I belong to you.”

“Scully, I...” he began and then trailed off.

“Please Mulder, tell me.  You can tell me anything.” she said, “You do know that don’t you?”

“I believe you Scully.  And I love you.  Oh, God how I love you.  I know it seems like it’s a little late for this, but I need you to know something.  Before we go any further.”

“What Mulder?”  Scully asked, starting to feel a little self-conscious again.

Mulder reached out and cupped her cheek with his right hand and said, “You know how I am Scully.  How I obsess about things and how I can be stubborn about things.”

“Mulder, you are like a terrier with a bone.”  Scully chuckled.

Mulder ducked his head somewhat sheepishly and said, “Yeah I am like that a bit…” He then raised his head and locked his gaze on her eyes, “…If you stay here with me now, if we do what I really, really *really* want to do next…” His eyes were like bottomless pools of arousal now and Scully couldn’t have torn her gaze away from his even if the room were to suddenly erupt into flames.  “…I won’t ever be able to go back.  Not ever.  You and I will be forever and nothing on earth, or from anywhere else will ever drag me away from you.”

Tears were flowing freely now from her eyes as she said, “Mulder, nothing, and I mean it Mulder!  Nothing could make me leave you right now- or ever.  You own me.  Forever.”  And with that she attacked his mouth, seeking to sear on his very soul the love she felt for him.

The kiss lasted until they were both lightheaded from lack of oxygen and broke apart at the same instant, gasping for breath.  Scully was delighted to feel Mulder’s recovered erection pressing into her thigh.  She pulled back enough to look down and see it, and then looked back up at Mulder with a coquettish gaze and said, in her best little girl voice, “Is that for me?”

Mulder rolled them both over and hovered above her for a moment.  He looked at her in all seriousness and said, in a deep gravelly voice, “Every last bit, Scully.  It’s all yours, and only yours.”  In one steady thrust he sunk into her, in to the hilt, “Forever,” he gasped.

He began making long slow strokes, pulling almost all of the way out and then slowly sinking all the way back in so that his balls were nestled in the cradle of her ass.  When he was all the way in, she felt like she had never been so filled in her life, and when he withdrew, she felt empty.  His slow pace was maddening and his whispered endearments in her ear were only adding to the feeling.

“You’re so wet Scully.  You’re so warm Scully.  Is that for me?  Did I make you that wet and warm?” he asked huskily.

“Oh God Yes Mulder, You made me wet, you made me hot and you’re making me insane!” she wanted to scream out, but all she could force out was an inarticulate “Ohgomld!  Unnhhyah!”  She would have been embarrassed except that he seemed to understand, and his eyes softened- the absolute adoration he felt for her expressed clearly.  How could she have ever thought he didn’t want her?”  It was obvious by the look on his face- she hadn’t ever seen that intensity of focus.  It was as if there was nothing and no one else in the universe but she and he, and all the rest didn’t exist.

Mulder was driving himself insane, every instinct in his body was screaming to forget pace and slam into her like a jackhammer until the two became one.  But he wanted this to last.  He never wanted it to end.  He wanted to make her scream his name at the top of her lungs until he occupied every last drop of her consciousness and there was nothing left in her but him, just like he already felt about her.

Suddenly he changed his angle, sliding up so that her face was level with his neck and shoulders, and his shaft dragged across her clit with each stroke.  Almost instantly she was rocked with a powerful orgasm.  It surprised her and she screamed at the suddenness of it.  Her body started to convulse and the muscles that wrapped around him started to contract violently.  It was the last straw for him and he lost any semblance of control and started pounding into her for all he was worth.

The waves of her orgasm were not dissipating, but rather they were crashing down on her faster and harder as Mulder picked up the pace, his shaft grinding against her clit as his strokes became faster and shorter.  She locked her legs around his hips and her arms around his back and sank her teeth into his trapezius muscle, between his neck and shoulder, biting down so hard in her frenzy that she drew blood.

The sudden clutch she put him in and the sharp pain of her bite sent him over the edge.  He roared her name incoherently as he pumped his seed into her.  His own orgasm seemed to last much longer than normal.  He felt like he was draining his entire self into her.  He collapsed onto her and when he made to roll off of her, her grip on him tightened even more and she cried “No!”  She was still shuddering from the force of her orgasm, and the thought of separation from him was more than she could bear in that moment.

“Baby, I don’t want to crush you, that’s all.”  Mulder whispered.  He then expended his last bit of strength and grabbed her and rolled them both over so she was on top of him and they were still joined.  He pulled the sheet over them and promptly fell asleep with his arms wrapped around the love of his life.

A sense of peace and contentment unlike any she had ever known overwhelmed Scully.  Her last conscious thought was, “I wish I could stay like this forever.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick’s Loft

3:30am Tuesday

Natalie had fed Sidney and petted him for a while.  He was less than pleased that his mistress had been gone for so long, but soon forgave her under the gentle attentions of her hands and fingers.  She snickered at the thought of making Nick purr like that with similar stroking.  “Soon!  Soon!” her mind exulted.  She got up and danced her way into the bedroom to pack an overnight bag.  “I should call it an over-day bag, really, I guess,” she thought, smiling.  She really didn’t think she would miss the day that much- not if she got to spend the eternal night with Nick.  She laughed with excitement as she skipped out the door and to her car for the drive over to the Loft.

As she rode the elevator up to the loft, Natalie was truly feeling giddy.  She felt like she hadn’t seen Nick in days, rather than hours.

Nick heard Natalie coming up in the elevator just as he lit the last candle.  He had a bottle of Faiveley Cellars 1995 Clos de Vougeot Burgundy, as well as a bottle Raven reserve label and two glasses on the coffee table and had made a pallet of blankets and cushions on the floor in front of the fireplace.  He flew to the refrigerator and pulled out another bottle of Raven label, his fifth since he got home, and drained it quickly.

Natalie’s eyes lit up as she saw the loft in candlelight, with a fire going strong and the little nest of blankets before it.  “Maybe soon is sooner than I thought!” she thought, joyously.  “Oh, Nick!  It looks beautiful.  Absolutely lovely!” she said as her gaze swept back and forth across the room.  Finally her eyes rested on the visage of her beloved as he stalked across the room with leonine grace toward her.

“All things before mine eyes pale in comparison to thee, beloved.  Thou art radiance above the moon and the stars to me.  A gleaming brilliance in the darkness, penetrating the cold death of night.  You warm my heart.”  Nick said in low resonant tones as he crossed the room, taking her in his arms, “You are my life.”  Then he dipped his head, meeting her lips with his and drinking from his fountain of life.

Natalie dropped her bag and wrapped her arms around him crushing herself against him with all of the strength she possessed, as if she could merge with him into one being.  She finally broke the kiss, gasping for air.  “NOT FAIR!” she thought.  “I’m the only one here who actually needs to breathe!”

Nick chuckled when her eyes flashed in annoyance, instantly realizing what she was thinking.

“I don’t have your gift for poetry, Nick, but I want you to know- my heart is overfilled with joy and it is pouring out and through my entire body.  And, *you* are the cause!”

Nick’s own heart leapt in his chest at her declaration.  “I love you, Natalie Lambert!” he whispered and once again captured her mouth.

This time when she broke the kiss she was panting.  “I thought… we had to… wait…”

“Do you want to wait anymore?” he asked.

“NO!” she shouted.

Nick laughed out loud and swept her off her feet, swinging her around and then carrying her over to the pallet he had built up.  He gently laid her back on the cushions and knelt beside her.  “I still think we should put off bringing you across for a few days, but I think that we can still do this.  I spoke with LaCroix, and he…”

“You discussed this with LaCroix!?”  Natalie was suddenly indignant.

“My love, you must understand that there are really no secrets between a vampire master and his or her progeny.”  Nick said placatingly.  Then he growled, “I didn’t want to wait another moment to have you!”

“Oh.”  She said, pondering the idea briefly.  “Good idea, Nick.”

He gave a low chuckle that caused shivers to run down her spine, and moisture to start collecting in the center of her arousal.  “Anyway, I have satiated my hunger with as much blood as I could drink, and I believe I can control myself sufficiently to take only a little from you.  I have a big bottle of orange juice and some Gatorade in the fridge for afterward.”

“What, no cookies?” she asked, “ You are supposed to get cookies when you donate blood!”

“I have an entire dinner, catered by Bellini’s, keeping warm in the oven.  But that is for after!” and with that he once again bent down to ravish her lips, then making a trail with his lips and tongue to her ear, where he paused for a while, nipping and sucking.  His hands slid over her blouse, down from her shoulders, alongside her breasts- cupping them through the material, and down to the waist of her skirt.  He un-tucked her blouse and began to unbutton it, his lips moving down to her neck and kissing her gently over her pulse point.  Knowing that he would be sinking his teeth into the river of blood he heard flowing just beneath the skin caused his own arousal to soar.  The knowledge that tonight would be the night was sufficient to keep the vampire in check.  It was well sated and willing to be patient.

Natalie was not so patient.  His lips were fire on her skin and she yanked his shirt out of his trousers, and began running her hands inside his shirt, over the bare skin of his chest.  She moaned with pleasure as he kissed her neck, and shivered with delight as he opened her blouse and retraced the path of his hands, this time over bare flesh.  As he slid his hands over her bra-encased breasts toward the front closure, she felt her nipples stiffen against the fabric, as though trying to reach through it to touch the skin of her lover.

Nick opened her bra and leaned back long enough to take in the sight of his beloved’s bare flesh.  He tried to speak and realized that he had stopped breathing entirely and had no air with which to form the words.

Natalie opened her eyes when his touch left her and found him leaning away from her, staring in open awe at her.  She smiled and licked her lips, causing Nick to growl softly.  He slid her blouse and bra down and off of her, and took the opportunity to capture one of her nipples in his mouth.  He rolled his tongue around the edges of it, and stroked the top of it in long licks.  He nipped lightly at it and then ran his tongue around it, soothing the bite.  He stroked the areola round and round, memorizing each bump and wrinkle.  His hand lavished the same sensations on her other nipple, but in a different order.  The intensity of the sensation and its contrapuntal effect caused her arousal to become acute, her Vulva overflowed and ran down the junction of her thighs, saturating her panties.

Suddenly, the smell of Natalie’s arousal overpowered Nick.  As he tried to unzip it the zipper stuck, and he tore the zipper-pull off of the skirt.  He held it up between them and looked at it, like a small boy with a broken toy.

Natalie would have laughed at the look on his face if she hadn’t been even more desperate than he was to get that skirt the hell out of the way.  “Just tear it, Nick!” she growled hungrily.

Nick lost what was left of his composure and tore the skirt in two with a quick pull and a little Vampiric strength.  As the smell of her- even stronger now- assaulted his senses he ripped her panties from her, dropped to his knees and buried his head between her thighs.

Natalie was briefly thankful that she had decided not to wear pantyhose tonight.  Then all rational thought left her mind as Nick began to trace her swollen folds with his tongue before latching on to her clit with his lips and tongue.  He grasped the hood of her clitoris firmly between his lips, squeezing the clitoris itself out and between his teeth, which exerted the barest pressure on it while his tongue swept back and forth across it in slow steady strokes.  She felt the pressure build up and up until she thought she was going to burst.  Suddenly Nick stopped the side-to-side motion and began furiously flicking his tongue up and down over it.  Natalie felt her consciousness shatter.

Nick heard Natalie begin a low, keening wail that got louder and louder.  He changed the motion of his tongue over her clitoris and she suddenly arched her back and grabbed his head, grinding it into her crotch.  She screamed his name loudly enough that he was glad this area of the city was virtually abandoned at night, otherwise he might be getting a visit from the police investigating a report of a woman being murdered.

“Oh!  this is *so* much better,” Natalie thought to herself once her consciousness coalesced.  “So much better than doing it myself!” she muttered as she dropped to her knees in front of him.

Nick was pretty sure she didn’t mean to say that out loud, “Glad to be of service, my Lady!”  He said, chuckling.

Natalie blushed hotly in embarrassment and averted her eyes from his.

“Please don’t be embarrassed, Nat.  You were magnificent!  I felt like a violinist being given the chance to play a Stradivarius,” he said with awe in his voice.  “It was just so wonderful, so extraordinary that I could make you feel that.  I don’t think I could ever get tired of seeing you cum.”

She returned her eyes to his and saw the sincerity in his voice, the arousal in his eyes.  Any sense of shame or embarrassment left her entirely.  She wanted him to know everything- her longing, her desire, her absolute need for him.  The need for him to know her completely was like a physical weight pressing down on her.

“Oh, Nick.  You don’t know how many mornings I have spent touching myself, stroking and caressing myself, imagining it was you.  Wishing it was your hands on me.”  She punctuated her words with her hands, stroking her breasts, teasing her already hard nipples into achingly intense sensitivity.  Her eyes closed and her hands drifted south along her torso, stroking, teasing and touching- until her fingers were tracing the outlines of her vulva, imitating the movements that Nick’s tongue and lips were so recently engaged in.  “Oh Nick, I want you…  I *need* you.”  She dipped the fingers on each hand into the moisture that was flowing steadily again.  One finger she slid up to the hard nub of her clitoris, where she began stroking agonizingly slow circles around the clitoral hood.  The other finger she brought up to her lips, pausing to reach out with her tongue to taste the wetness there before inserting the finger into her mouth and sucking it clean.

She opened her eyes and saw him, his mouth glistening with her juices and hanging open as he panted heavily.  His fangs were fully descended and his eyes, glowing red, were locked on the finger in her mouth.  She could sense that he was holding back out of fear of her reaction to the vampire.  She didn’t want him to hold back.  She laid back, spreading herself open with the one hand, while pulling her other hand from her mouth and sweeping her hair away from her neck as she arched her head back.  “Nick, I need you!” her breath coming in short pants as she began climbing up toward the peak of her arousal.  “I need to feel you inside me.  *Now* Nick!”

She saw Nick blur in motion, and heard the sound of his clothing shredding as he tore it away from himself in Vampiric speed.  In between two blinks of her eyes Nick went from kneeling, fully clothed, between her knees to covering her body with his own naked form.  He thrust himself deep into her with one powerful movement and she knew that this was going to be over in moments.  That was perfectly all right with her, she knew that they had the rest of eternity to savor long, slow lovemaking.  This was about raw need, and she needed it as badly as he did.  She knew exactly what she was doing when she goaded him into this, and she secretly didn’t care if she remained mortal after this or not.  She wanted to be with him, and would joyfully give up any thought of seeing another sunrise to have this for the rest of her existence.

Nick pumped madly within his love.  His need overwhelmed him and after only seconds he plunged his fangs into the sweet essence of life flowing through the smooth column of flesh before him.  The smell of Natalie’s blood had always reminded him of the heavily spiced, mulled wine that he had drunk in the winters before he crossed over.  It was one of the physical pleasures he had missed most after LaCroix had changed him.  He was sure that it had never been this wonderful, though.  Her blood, sweetened by her orgasm, and enriched with the passionate love she felt for him, engulfed his senses.  He felt her desire for him, her absolute need to have him in her, and she in him just like this.  Any guilt he felt for loosing control so quickly was washed away as he felt her pleasure at having driven him to this state.  “You little vixen!” he thought, and felt her laughter and joy.

She felt the sting of his fangs entering her neck and the cool wash of his orgasm inside her and the combination pushed her up and over the peak of her own pleasure.  She once again screamed his name as she felt the whirlwind of sensation and imagery bombard her consciousness.  She laughed with delight when she felt him realize that this had been exactly what she wanted- that she had pushed him to lose control in just this manner.

After several mouthfuls of her blood had slid down his throat, Nick found himself able to stop.  He felt her willingness to continue- to go all the way, but the knowledge that it would happen soon enough, combined with his pleasure at the thought of drawing out the process, taking pleasure with her in this way for a while longer, was enticing as well.  He withdrew his fangs and licked the wounds until the bleeding stopped.

She gave a small cry as she felt his fangs withdraw, and the images and sensations died away slowly.  She gasped in surprise as Nick used his super-human abilities to rise up off the ground, bringing her with him, and rotate in the air so that she was on top of him, while they remained joined as one.  He then came to rest amidst the blankets and cushions with his arms wrapped around her.  She had never felt so content in her life.  She was physically and emotionally satiated.

As Nick lay there with his heart’s desire draped over him like a human blanket, he had a feeling of peace wash over him such as he had never felt in his existence- even before, when he was mortal.  “It was never like this with Janette,” he thought.  He had loved Janette, and still did, but not like this.  This was something he had never even imagined.

Natalie noticed that Nick was lost in thought and said, “Penny for your thoughts, Nick?”

Nick shook himself from his reverie and smiled.  He said, “I was thinking of Janette.”  Instantly he berated himself as he felt her stiffen, “I could have found a better way to say that!”  He tightened his arms around her before she could pull away and quickly continued, “Nat, I was married to her for 97 years, and in all that time, never once did I feel as happy and content as I do right now.”

Natalie felt her heart soften and silently chastised herself for thinking for even a moment that Nick would hurt her like that.  “I should know better.  I should trust him more than that,” she thought.  She had seen herself in his heart while he drank from her, and she knew that there was, and would never again be, anyone but her there.  Instead of apologizing with words, she swept up and locked her mouth on his, drinking him into her.  She felt him stiffening inside her and marveled at the vampire’s recuperative powers.  She felt herself growing increasingly slick at the thought.  “This is going to be wonderful,” she said to herself, imagining what it was going to be like being with a multi-orgasmic man, who could keep up with her own insatiable needs.

Natalie brought her lips to his ear and whispered to him “Some mornings, Nick, I would cum six or even seven times while thinking about you.  Even then, I would only stop because my hands were tired.”

Nick instantly became painfully hard inside her.  He growled back “Satisfaction guaranteed or your next one’s free.”  He reached his hands behind her knees and pulled them forward until she was kneeling astride him, her dripping mound hovering several inches above, and slightly forward of his groin with just the tip of his penis still inside her.  He then told her, “put your hands beside my shoulders.” she complied- her luscious breasts hanging above his chin, then he growled at her, “Now.  Do Not Move!  Understand me?”

Her eyes widened at the command in his tone and she was compelled to obey.  Wordlessly she nodded her head but that wasn’t good enough for him.

“Say it!” he commanded.

“Yes, I understand.” she said breathlessly.

“Good, don’t forget it,” he said as he began moving inside her.  He made long, slow strokes into her, taking as much as three or four seconds to steadily press into her until he was buried entirely within, then holding for a moment and just as slowly sliding out until only the tip of the head of his penis was still inside.  He would then pause and begin again.  After a few such strokes he changed patterns, stoking only a little of the way in, then back out then a little more in and all the way back out- increasing the depth of each stoke until he was fully inside.  He then reversed course coming out in increments until he was almost all the way out again.

She felt like she was going to go insane- the desire to thrust back against him almost overwhelming her until she thought she couldn’t hold out any longer.  Just as she started to give in he grabbed her hips in his iron grip and held her steady.  Not breaking the intricate rhythm of his thrusts, he growled at her again, “I said don’t move!  You can scream or shout or cry all you want, but if you move I will stop!  Do you understand?”

Natalie couldn’t make her voice work.  All she could get out was “Yunghhh” and she just nodded her head vigorously, keeping the rest of her body still.

Nick was relentless, beginning the long thrusts again as he dropped his voice even lower and rougher and said, “Do you want me to stop Natalie?”

She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood and shook her head violently, her hair whipping back and forth.

Nick picked that moment to reach his head up and, without touching her breast or areola, drag his tongue slowly across just the tip of her nipple.

Natalie felt the first orgasm like a firecracker exploding simultaneously in her left nipple and her vagina.  How she managed to keep her body still she would never know.  she threw her head back as she gasped, and she felt the walls of her vagina begin to convulse around Nick, who was keeping his maddening pace, changing between the long slow strokes and the incremental penetrations every minute or so.

It wasn’t until after the second orgasm- when he had treated her right nipple to the same languorous lick as the left- that she noticed each of the rhythms was getting slightly quicker.

After the third and fourth orgasms- he had scraped the tip of one fang along the top of each nipple, drawing a single drop of blood and then licking it off- she wondered to herself, “When did he start doing that rotating thing with his hips?”

She had lost count of the firecracker-like orgasms as his pace had increased to the point where the long strokes were pounding into her so hard that only his grip on her hips kept her from being bucked entirely off of him, and the incremental strokes felt like an air-hammer pistoning inside her.  She was thrashing her head around and moaning so loudly that she sounded like a pack of wolves howling at the moon.  Nick had teased her nipples and areolas in ways that she could never have conceived of and her juices were flowing so heavily that Nick was wet from half-way down his thighs, up almost to his navel.  The cheeks of her ass were dripping and the wetness on the insides of her thighs was running down and saturating the blankets below.  She hadn’t imagined that the human body was even capable of this level of pleasure.

As she reached the point where she thought she would collapse, Nick suddenly slid her up his body slightly, changing the angle of penetration so that the head of his penis stroked against the roof of her vagina, just a couple of inches inside of the opening.  Her last articulate thought was that she hadn’t even known that she possessed a G-spot, then her mind shattered into a million shards.  She didn’t even feel the sting as Nick slid his fangs into her breast.  Several seconds into the longest, most intense orgasm she could have ever imagined she was suddenly thrown into the maelstrom that was the blood-link with Nick.  It was finally too much- her consciousness fled and she collapsed against him.

Nick felt Natalie’s loss of consciousness through the blood link and withdrew himself from her completely.  He licked the wound on her breast until it sealed over, and then held her boneless form against him for a moment.  He was so suffused with pure joy and happiness that he felt as giddy as a schoolgirl.  He also felt an inordinately profound sense of pride and accomplishment that he had been able to pleasure his Lady into this boneless puddle of spent flesh.  He thought he had more than made up for the quickness of his release the first time.  He wondered if Natalie would be sharing this event with her assistant, Grace.  He felt a ridiculous sense of masculine pride at the thought of her bragging about his prowess to her girlfriend.

He stopped that train of thought and gently rolled her off of him onto the blankets next to him.  He immediately became aware of the mess they had made.  He ruefully chuckled when he saw the state of her clothes, the skirt ripped in two and the panties in shreds.  He noticed that his own clothes seemed to have been reduced to tatters in his haste to become naked.

Natalie seemed to have gone into a light sleep.  Nick carefully wiped her off with one of the blankets and then wrapped her in a clean one and laid her on the couch.  He then used his extraordinary speed to quickly clean up the mess.  He flew up to the bathroom and took a one-minute shower to get the worst of the mess off, and then ran a bath for Natalie, pouring in a generous portion of lavender-scented oil.  He lit a few candles and turned out the lights, then went down to collect his beloved.  He decided the food in the oven needed to come out and smiled at the image of him feeding her while in the tub.  “Well, why not?” he thought.  He checked and saw that she was still sleeping lightly then continued his preparations.  A large glass of the juice, followed by a plate festooned with samples of the various items from Bellini’s along with the glass and the bottle of wine from the coffee table.  The tub was filled and everything was set, now to collect his beloved.  He unwrapped the blanket and lifted her into his arms like a baby

Natalie began to wake up in the arms of her beloved as he was carrying her up the stairs.  She instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck and snuggled her head into his chest.  “Mmmm…  What happened, Nick?” she asked.  She could feel of every square millimeter of skin where she was touching him.  It felt like she was hyper-aware of each nerve ending in her body.

“You passed out Natalie,” Nick said with a broad smile.

She became aware of the soreness in her neck where he bit her the first time, the soreness in her left breast where he bit her the second time.  She then became aware of the soreness between her legs- not a surface pain like the bites, but the slow burn from the workout she had received on muscles that hadn’t been used like that since before medical school, she thought languorously.  “Even then, it had never been like this was!” she thought.  “I think I lost count around 10, not including that last one,” she thought.  That last one, which had overshadowed all of the previous ones in both intensity and duration, was a marvel.  She didn’t even know that she had a G-spot, had never really looked for it, but Nick sure seemed to know about it.

As Natalie was musing, they reached the bathroom.  He set her on her feet and offered his hand to help her into the tub.

Natalie felt a bit unsteady and weak in the knees when Nick set her down.  “Whoa!  Nick, where did you learn to do that?  That was not only the best, most incredibly intense sex of my life, it was better than anything I’ve even heard of or imagined was possible!”  She saw his ego swell a little bit at her words, but she didn’t care!  He deserved it for that performance!

“I read about it in the Ananga-Ranga, an ancient Indian text on sacred sex.  Then I just added a little speed,” Nick said as he helped her into the perfumed water.  He then handed her the orange juice and said, “Here, you should drink this, it will help restore some of what I took from you.”

She drank the juice greedily, only now realizing how thirsty vampire sex could make a body.  She chuckled out loud at the humor at that thought.

Nick took the glass and said, “Now, just relax Natalie.  Lay there and let me pamper you a little.”  He took the plate and began feeding her bites of Spinach & Ricotta Gnocchi, Pan Roasted Pheasant Breast, Veal Scaloppini Marsala, and Seared Sea Scallops- alternating each bite with a sip of the burgundy.

“Oh God, Nick.  You’d better be careful, a girl could definitely get used to this.”

Nick chuckled lightly, then dropped his smile and leaned in to softly kiss Natalie on the mouth.  When he pulled back a single blood tear trailed down his left cheek.  “Natalie, I just wanted to show you a tiny little bit of the overwhelming joy and happiness you have given me by loving me and letting me love you.”

She felt her heart break at the thought of how alone Nick must have felt for so long.  Wanting to change who he thought he was, feeling alienated from the humanity he so desperately wanted to rejoin, and from The Community that he never really felt a part of.  At the same time she felt her heart swell up with love and joy, that she made him feel so good, so happy.

She felt an overwhelming need to convey to him just how happy he made her.  “Nick, I am so happy right now.  The sex was amazing and the bath is so sweet of you.  I adore the food and the wine is perfect.  But, in the end, it’s nothing compared to the absolute, pure joy that’s in my heart because I know you love me.”  Quiet tears of happiness began to overflow Natalie’s eyes and pour down her face.  “That’s the best part, Nick.  *You* are the best part.”

Nick reached out to cup the face of the woman he loved.  He slowly drew her face toward his as he leaned forward.  They captured each other’s lips in a passionate, loving kiss.  A kiss not designed to incite sexual desire, but rather to communicate the love and adoration they each felt for the other.  He rested his forehead on hers and breathed out, “I love you, Natalie Lambert.”

As much as anything else he had done to or for her that night, that kiss and that simple declaration of love filled her heart to overflowing.

“I hope you’re not too full for desert, Nat,” Nick said with a boyish grin stealing over his face.

“Hmmm, what did you have in mind, Sir Knight?” she said with a coquettish look on her face.

“Port and Chocolate Truffles”

“Oh really?”  Natalie said, her voice belying her interest, but the look on her face giving her away.

Nick smiled and elaborated, “1985 Fonseca Port wine, and Gianduia Truffles from Vosges”

Natalie smiled and said, “Gianduia Truffles?” in a little girl’s voice.

Nick’s smile broadened and he elaborated further, “Milk chocolate and crunchy praline, dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with more praline pieces.”

Natalie gave up all pretense and excitedly said “Ooooh, you *do* love me!”

“Very much,” he agreed.  “Now, let’s get you dried off and downstairs to where the chocolate is.”

“Yes, by all means, let’s,” she said standing up and stepping out of the tub, and into the large bath sheet Nick was holding up for her.

He wrapped her up and hugged her tightly for a moment, “I will let you dry yourself off and get dressed.  Your bag is…” he let her go and was suddenly gone and back in a heartbeat, “…right here.” he said, handing her the ‘over-day’ bag she had packed.  “I’m going to put on something and meet you downstairs.”  With that he leaned in for a quick kiss and was gone in a flash.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick flew into his bedroom and threw on a pair of black silk pajama bottoms and a black silk robe.  He was nervous.  Very nervous.  Things had not gone as planned tonight, and that was ok- better than OK as it turned out- however; it left him wanting to do what he had planned on holding-off until later in the week- maybe even next week.  Now, he didn’t think he could contain himself that long.  Part of the reason for waiting was that if felt like it was too soon into this very new relationship.  “But, it really isn’t new,” he told himself.  Really, their relationship was deep-rooted.  They were already mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and socially intimate, and had been for years.  Not so long ago, only a few decades, the physical intimacy they had shared tonight would have been reserved for after marriage, not before.  That was certainly the way he had been raised in the late twelfth/early thirteenth century.  Still, he was nervous.  She loved him, but did she want to marry him?  She knew vampirism was forever, and she wanted that, so what could she have against marrying him?

He was driving himself crazy for no reason, he thought.  She would say yes, or she would say no, but either way, he was confident that she would not leave him.  He just wanted to marry her and make it official.  “Marking my territory, I guess… but, it marks me as her territory as well,” he thought to himself- and that is what he wanted.

He set up the table for her, a glass of the port for each of them, his fortified with blood of course, and a plate with 4 truffles and the ring in the center under a small silver dome.  Nick felt light-headed and the anticipation was coursing through his veins like fire.  “I feel like a character in one of those trashy romance novels,” he thought.  “Maybe, but it’s a really, really good trashy romance novel!”  He moved to the window to look out at the stars while awaiting his beloved.  Sunrise was coming soon.  “Was it really only two hours ago that she came in?”  It felt like forever.  Soon enough they would have to discuss the events of the day, and decide on a course of action.  He would speak to her about Mulder and whether or not Scully would be brought in- and he rather thought that Mulder would not leave her out of it.  He wondered if those two would ever realize how they felt about each other.  He hoped so; he himself knew exactly how they felt, and he wouldn’t wish that kind of suffering upon anyone.

He was still lost in thought when he heard Natalie.  He turned around and saw his beloved descending the stairs, wearing a blood-red silk nightgown that hugged her lusciously curved body in all the right places.  He almost felt a little jealous of that gown, wrapping her sensuously like that.  It had spaghetti-straps, a cleavage- enhancing bodice and a long flowing length that was slightly tapered at the waist ended at mid-calf.  Nick thought she looked absolutely ravishing, so he told her so.

Natalie just smiled and asked, “You like the gown?”

“Oh, yeah… the gown is nice too.”  Nick said, with a wide smile

This time she did blush.

Nick walked over and pulled out her chair and helped her get seated before sitting across the corner from her, where he could look at her, and was close enough to reach out and touch her.

She looked at the plate and the arrangement of the truffles.  She raised one eyebrow at the silver dome in the center and asked, “What’s under that, Nick?”

“That, is the piece de resistance, Natalie.  It’s for last.”

“Oooh, a surprise!”  Natalie was almost giddy with excitement at this entire night.  What goody did he have for her under there?  She would have to restrain herself from wolfing down the truffles in order to more quickly uncover her present.

Nick watched the near-rapture on Natalie’s face as she bit into the first truffle.  He sipped at his blood-wine while he silently watched her savor the four truffles.  He heard the automatic shutters begin to close over the window as sunrise approached.  He watched Natalie’s tongue dart out to lick up an errant bit of chocolate from her full lips.  He reached over to her and stroked her cheek as she smiled at him, his nervousness returning slightly as he waited for her to lift the dome.

Natalie leaned into the gentle caress of Nick’s hand, then catching his hand in hers, she brought it around and laid a gentle kiss in his palm, never loosing eye contact until he closed his eyes at the feel of her kiss.  “May I look now?” as she reached out to touch the dome in the center of her plate.

“Yes, my love, my heart, you may look” Nick said, the anticipation threatening to choke him.

Natalie lifted the dome off of the plate and saw a red velvet jeweler’s box underneath.  Her breath caught slightly and she looked at Nick as she lifted the box and just held it for a moment.  “No, it couldn’t be that…  Could it?” she thought to herself.

Nick heard her heart racing and saw the look of shock on her face and he could hardly stand it.  “Open it, Natalie,” he said quietly.

Unable to form a coherent thought, let alone actually speak, she slowly opened the box and inside she found, nestled in the blood-red satin interior was a ring.  It was a flawless one-and-a-half carat brilliant-cut diamond, surrounded by small heart-shaped rubies.  It was exquisite.  She was trembling.

Nick took the box from her and removed the ring.  He took her left hand in his and slid the ring onto the third finger.  He met her gaze, which had been fixed on his eyes since he took the box from her.  Natalie, I think that I began to fall in love with you the night we met, when you refused to believe that I was dead, ‘Just different’ you said.”  Nick smiled at the memory, “The truth, Natalie, is that I was dead inside, and even if I had managed to find mortality at that point, it would have been empty and meaningless.  In the six years you and I have known each other; we have gone through many trials and tribulations together.  Looking back I have only one regret about those times; I regret that I waited six years to tell you that I love you.  Natalie, you are my heart, my soul, and my life.  Without you my existence would be meaningless and unbearable.”  Nick stood out of his chair and dropped to one knee before her, “Natalie Lambert, will you marry me?”

There wasn’t room enough in Natalie’s heart to contain the love and joy she felt.  Her face lit up in a smile so bright that a lesser vampire would have been reduced to ashes at the sight of it.  “Nicolas De Brabant Knight, I love you with all my heart and soul, with all that I am.  I would be honored and delighted to be your wife!” whereupon she pulled him up and jumped into his arms, squeezing as tight as she could and peppering his face with little kisses and laughing out loud with delight.  She finally let go of him and sat down, a little light-headed.

“Careful Nat, you should always remember to take it easy after donating blood.”  Nick said with a smirk.

“Oh Nick,” she said, “It was worth it though!”

“Really?”  Nick said, fishing for complements.

“Yes!  I mean come on, Dinner from Bellini’s and Truffles from Vosges?” she said smirking herself, “That’s worth a pint of blood or two.”  She laughed out loud at the crestfallen look Nick gave her.  “Honestly Nick, for an 800 year old vampire, you’re such a little boy,” she said with a delighted smile on her face.  “I don’t know if I will be able to walk tomorrow but it was definitely worth it!”

Suddenly concerned, Nick asked, “Was it too much, Natalie?  I know it’s probably been a while, and maybe I shouldn’t have taken your challenge so seriously, and…”

“Nick!  It was perfect, it was amazing- I would happily give up ever walking normally again for that kind of ecstasy.”  She said, breaking into his self-recrimination.  She then dropped her gaze and her voice, looking down at her hands in her lap, “It’s just that it’s been about a decade since I’ve had anything other than my fingers down there.” she continued.

“Oh Nat, I’m so sorry.  But, how is that possible?  You are one of the loveliest creatures to grace the face of the earth for the last millennium!  And believe me, I’ve been around  for most of it.”

Natalie blushed fiercely at Nick’s complement- the more so because she could hear the sincerity in his voice.  “I am glad that you think so, Nick.  Let’s just say that others do not share your unique viewpoint.”

Nick instinctively knew that words were not what Natalie needed at this point, so he bent down and swept her up into his arms.  He kissed her hungrily and flew them up to the bedroom.  ‘Their bedroom’ as he now thought of it.  He didn’t think she should ‘donate’ again so soon, so he resolved that this coupling would be for her alone.  And it would be as slow and loving as the last two were fierce and passionate.

He laid her on the bed and began at her feet, gently massaging and softly kissing each foot.  He slowly worked his way up her legs, massaging and kissing, until he had her gown pushed up to her mid-thigh.  “I love your legs, Natalie.  Your calves are lovely and your thighs delight me.”  He leaned down and softly kissed her mouth, before raising her up to a seated position and sliding her gown up and over her head.  He couldn’t help pausing to look at her, lying before him naked and beautiful.

“Natalie felt herself blushing under Nick’s intent gaze and said, “what about you?” indicating the pajama bottoms he was still wearing.

“Hush now, my love.  This one is for you.  Let me convince you how much I adore you.”  With that he began at her neck, kissing, licking and stroking.  He gently kissed the bite-mark on her neck, secretly pleased that it marked her as his and his alone.  He covered her shoulders and arms with soft kisses and caresses.  He carefully laved each breast with his tongue, paying particular attention to the bite-mark on the left, while ignoring for the moment the taught flesh at the peak of each.  He rubbed his smoothly shaved cheeks over her abdomen, pausing to dip his tongue into her navel.

Natalie felt Goosebumps form over her entire body when he did that.  He was deliberately ignoring the primary erogenous zones, nevertheless, she felt intense heat building up inside her.  She felt herself growing slick with anticipation, but she willed herself to be patient and take whatever he would give.

Nick could smell the increase in Natalie’s arousal and had to exert iron control to keep the vampire at bay.  He finally made his way down to the junction of her thighs and nudged them apart with his chin.  He again paused for a moment to appreciate the beauty before him.  The tangle of dark curls covering the outer lips, and surrounding the smooth, pink inner folds.  The apex of those folds with its swollen member peaking out.  He smiled with joy at the sight before him and leaned in to place an open-mouthed kiss upon her lips.  He traced the inner folds with his tongue and suckled them for several minutes before moving upward.

Natalie felt the slow buildup of pleasure inside her as Nick kissed and suckled, below.  He was entirely ignoring her clitoris, and it was all she could do to keep from grabbing his head by the ears and dragging his mouth to where she wanted it.  She kept her hands occupied by stroking and squeezing the nipples that he had ignored earlier, and tried to stifle the moans that kept rising out of her throat.

When he heard Natalie lose control of her moans and she started to buck her hips into his face, he moved up to her clitoris, slowly tracing the hood, and then sucking the hardened nub into his mouth and squeezing it with his lips.

This time her orgasm was not like fireworks or falling off a cliff.  It was slow and languid, the waves of pleasure flowing out from her center to the tips of her extremities and then back.  It filled her with happiness to have such a careful and attentive, not to mention talented, lover.  She felt sleep overtake her and said, “I love you, Nick” as she drifted off.  The last thought on her mind was that she would definitely find a way to repay him for this.

Nick heard her sleepy whisper and smiled.  “I am the happiest man alive,” he thought.  “I am also very hungry” he realized.  He quietly made his way downstairs and to the refrigerator.  It was cold and lacked the richness of his beloved, but it was adequate, “Still, it’s *much* better than Cow!” he thought as he emptied an entire bottle.  The lassitude that daylight brought overcame him and he fled upstairs to join his beloved in a day’s sleep.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========


Chapter 5

Room 1013, International Plaza Hotel

11:26am Tuesday

Scully slowly began to wake up.  She was laying on her side with Mulder spooned against her, his right arm wrapped around her ribcage and his hand on her breast, thumb lightly tracing the contours of her areola and nipple.  His breath was warm on the top of her head and his erection was nestled in the cleft of her ass.  All in all it was a particularly wonderful way to wake up.

As soon as he felt her stirring he said “Good morning, beautiful.” and moved his hand down her torso and between her legs.

Scully was slightly chagrined to realize that she was already wet.  She had woken up wet.  She felt wanton, needing him again already, wondering if she could ever get enough of him.  “Yep, I’m definitely addicted.”

“Oh baby, you are so hot and ready.  I need you so badly” Mulder whispered huskily in her ear, reaching his head down to nip at her earlobe.  “You are like a drug, Scully, I am hopelessly addicted to you.  I can’t get enough of you” he practically moaned in her ear.

“Oh God,” she said to herself as his words mirrored her thoughts, “Thank You *so* much!!!”  Out loud she said, “Time for your fix, then Mulder.  I want you inside me, Now!” her tone demanding instant obedience.

Mulder lifted her right leg slightly and she moved her hand down to guide him.  He slipped inside her like he was made to fit there, and began steadily thrusting into her.  After several minutes he began nibbling on her ear again and whispering to her, “I finally figured it out, Scully.”

“Oh…  What’s…  That…  Mulder?” she panted out between thrusts.

“The reason I exist.  Why I was born.”  Mulder crooned to her.

“W-w-why-y-y” she stuttered out as he increased his pace.

“This, Scully.  To be inside you.  To make love to you.  To be in love with you.”

She wanted to say that she loved him too, but he chose that moment to begin grinding his fingers in tight circles over her clit.  Her orgasm washed over her in slow lapping waves,  “Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-ohhh, Yes!  Yes, Mulder, Yes!” she shouted.

Mulder paused inside her and lightened the pressure of his fingers against her, gently stroking as she rode it out.  He was close himself when he suddenly felt Scully tightening around him in a wave, starting at the base of his penis and moving up to the tip.  “Oh God!  What did you just do, Scully?”  She brought his hand up to her mouth and sucked his wet fingers into her mouth.  Then she did it again and Mulder felt a warm tingling beginning to build in his groin.

She smiled around his fingers as she heard him start to moan.  She gripped him again inside her, and again- like she was milking him.  “Which, I suppose I am, in a way,” she thought.  She heard him hoarsely whisper that he was going to cum, and she gave out her own low throaty moan, encouraging him to do just that.

It was too much for him to bear.  What she was doing to him inside her was making him nuts, and then when he told her he was going to cum, she made that moan like he was doing *her* a favor.  He exploded inside her, the feeling of his orgasm traveled like an electric shock from his balls to his brain and he saw stars as he closed his eyes.  It felt like he pumped himself into her for hours, though it was probably only a few seconds.  “That’s it, its over,” he rasped.  “Hi, my name is Fox Mulder, and I’m a Scullyholic.”

Scully laughed in delight.

“Yep, I’ve got it bad,” he said.  “Crack addicts are going to see me, and say, ‘Damn, junky- you better get your ass to rehab!  You’re outta control!”

Scully was laughing so hard that tears were running down her face.  “Enough, Mulder!  I think we need a shower, as in right now,” she said with a wide smile on her face.  “We’re sticky.”

Mulder grabbed on tight and rolled her over the top of him and into a seated position on the edge of the bed.  Then he stood up, looked her in the eye and said, “Never let it be said that Fox Mulder isn’t his lady’s obedient love slave.”

Before she could respond to that he suddenly pulled her to her feet while bending down towards her.  The next thing she saw was the world invert itself and she found herself slung over Mulder’s shoulder, being carried through to the adjoining door to her room and into the bathroom.

He gently set her down and said “Go ahead and start it, I will join you momentarily,” leaving her to take care of her morning needs while he went back next door to do the same.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

While watching him wash his hair she had noticed the wound on his temple and asked him about it.  He had said it was a long story and after the shower he would order some room service and tell her all about it.

As they sat at her table, drinking coffee, having just finished breakfast, Mulder was uncomfortably silent.  Scully looked at her partner, now her lover, and wondered what had him looking so pensive.  “Well, Mulder?”

He told her about him and Knight seeing the swordsman from the other night and deciding to follow him, “We were just going to see where he went, and then call for backup, Scully” he said when her eyes narrowed at him.  He then went on to tell her about being spotted, the alley and the fire escape.  He got to the point where the guy was standing over him with the sword, and the cryptic words he said just before Nick popped up across the roof and shot him.

Scully was confused at this point “But If Detective Knight was clear across the roof and behind you, why didn’t this guy see him and duck behind the air conditioner?  Why just stand there and get shot?” she asked.  “And where is the body?”

“Well, I have a theory on the first part, but you’re not going to like it.”  Mulder sheepishly said.

“Oh Mulder, not the vampire thing again?” she sighed.

He just nodded.  “It gets better  m b, Scully” he said.

“What, the perp. was a vampire too?  And let me guess, he turned to dust and blew away, right?” she said, exasperated.

“Uh, good guess, but… no.”  He then went on to tell her about the guy coming to, impaling Nick and taking a dive when Mulder shot him.

“So he was wearing a vest, Mulder.”  Knight should have been more careful.  Besides the wound couldn’t have been that bad, I saw him last night and he looked fine.”  Scully was still in denial about the vampire thing.  “Anyway, what happened to the body?”

Mulder responded to the first part again, “Scully, I had to pull the sword out of his chest.”

Scully just sat there with her mouth open.  She knew Mulder would not lie to her, even when they disagreed on things, she usually just felt that his belief in the supernatural and aliens skewed his interpretation of things.  “As in what, Mulder?  The tip was caught under the skin…”

“As in he was sitting upright with his back against the parapet, the sword sticking straight out from his body.”  He shook his head slightly, remembering his excitement at living (as it were) proof of the supernatural, combined with the fear that his ‘proof’ might take that opportunity to ‘get supernaturally medieval on his ass’.  “I had to use both hands, Scully.  I ended up having to put one foot on his shoulder to keep him from coming forward before I could get it out.”

“Mulder, I…” there had to be an explanation, and she would find it.  Maybe Knight was wearing a vest and it was stuck in that.  Whatever it was she would leave it for now.  “What about the body Mulder?”

“You mean what happened to the guy Knight shot three times, and I emptied an entire clip into, knocking him off of the top of a 4 story building, where he landed on the concrete in the alley below?  That body?”

“Yes Mulder, what happened to it?” she asked, getting impatient.

“After I pulled the sword out of Nick and gave him his flask of blood to drink, I looked over the edge of the building and watched our perp get up and run away.”

She was stunned.  “Not possible, Mulder.”

“Tell me about it, Scully,” he said.

“But how…”

“I have a theory about that too.  Do you want to hear it?

“He’s a vampire too?”

“Nick says no.  Besides, if he was, why climb the fire escape?  Nick didn’t.  And why the sword?  They aren’t very deadly to vampires, unless you cut off their heads, but a good sharp wooden stake would be better in a fight, more debilitating.”  Mulder smiled, “at least the sword didn’t seem to bother Nick much once I pulled it out.  He didn’t look like he was in a lot of pain, and once he downed the blood the wound healed almost instantly.”

Scully looked like she was about to choke

Mulder pressed on, “I don’t know what he is, but based on last night and Saturday night, I would say that whatever he is, there are more of them out there, and appears that the only way of killing them permanently is by decapitation.  Nick said that the guy was dead after he shot him.  He said that he could hear the heartbeat stop.  It was like the guy woke up from death; one moment he is dead, the next he gasped for air and came back to life.  That surprised Nick long enough that the guy was able to stab him before he could react.  There was also a pause of several seconds between when he hit the ground, and when we saw him run off.”

Scully was having a hard time digesting all of this.

“Look, Scully.  Nick said it was up to me whether or not to tell you about him.  He said it would be dangerous if you knew, that there are those in his ‘community’ whose job it is to keep knowledge about vampires out of mortal hands.  We would be targeted for death if they found out that we knew.  I didn’t want to tell you Scully.”

“Mulder,” she began.

He lowered his eyes to his lap and interrupted, “I know you don’t want me to ‘protect’ you from danger, Scully… I can’t help wanting to anyway.”  He looked once more into her eyes and continued, “But, I knew you were going to find out eventually and if you knew that I kept it from you, you’d kick my ass.” he said with a smile.

“Mulder, please don’t take this the wrong way- I believe that you believe these things…”

“But you need proof, right Scully?”  Mulder interrupted.  “It’s OK Scully.  I am a believer, but if someone brought this to me, I would want to see proof too.”

“I don’t know what to think, Mulder.  I trust you, and if you say you saw it happen, then I believe that you did.  I just don’t know that there aren’t other explanations that might be applied.”  Scully said, almost apologetically.

Mulder wondered for a moment at her apologetic tone.  She didn’t usually say it like that when she thought his theories were crazy.  Then it came to him that she must believe that he would be mad at her for not conforming to his beliefs now that they had advanced their ‘relationship.’  He shook his head ruefully.  He was a lucky man to have a woman that would be so solicitous, without taking the easy way out by giving in to the desire to humor her lover.

He wanted to reassure her, “It’s ok, Scully.  I love you!  I love the Dana Scully who clings to scientific explanation as firmly as I believe that some things are beyond science.  I love the Dana Scully who makes me come up with evidence to back up my beliefs.  The woman that challenges me to look beyond what I want to see, and find out what the truth is.  I love the person who is willing to respect the journey, even if she doesn’t always agree on the destination.”  He reached across the table and grasped her small hand in his large one, lacing their fingers together.  “I don’t want you to change who you are, any more that I am going to change who I am or what I believe.  I want *my* Dana Scully, not some pale reflection of me.”

Scully didn’t think it was possible for her to love Mulder any more than she already did, but once again his belief in ‘extreme possibilities’ won out.  “Sometimes I think you are crazy, Mulder.  Other times I know it for a fact,” she said with a teeth-baring grin.  “However, you are also, without a doubt, the man I love more than life itself.”

Mulder squeezed her hand and placed a sensual kiss on her palm.  “Nick said he would call this afternoon and we could discuss it at his place.  You can see if he will let you examine him enough to prove it to yourself.  If he is running an elaborate hoax on me, you will have a great opportunity to prove how gullible I am.”  He smiled and changed the subject, for now, “Why don’t you tell me how your second seminar was?”

She recognized the tactic for what it was, but went along anyway and told him about what was going on with her while he was out gallivanting with vampires and unkillable headhunters.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick’s Loft

1 p.m. Tuesday.

Nick didn’t have nearly the trouble telling Natalie about the events on the apartment roof that Mulder did with Scully.  They were lounging at the dining table in their robes.  She just listened; gasping appropriately when he told her the perp. had come back to life and stabbed him with a sword, and shaking her head in wonder when he described the fall, and subsequent recovery and escape.

She was concerned when he told her about Mulder knowing about vampires, and possibly involving his partner.  “Won’t they be in terrible danger, Nick?”

“Possibly, but Mulder already knew a little bit about vampires, as he had had encountered them before, and I was unable to remove the memory from him.”

Natalie thought she heard him mutter “damn resistors,” but chose to ignore it.  “Aren’t you concerned that he will report you to the FBI?” she asked.

I don’t think he will report me personally, and his previous reports about vampires have been ignored.”  Nick thought for a moment, “I think he’s kind of like the reporters who write for those tabloid magazines, they report about vampire attacks all of the time.  I know that some of those reports are accurate, because I was aware of the events before the report was published.  However, the Enforcers don’t get involved because no one credible pays attention to tabloids.  If every time the National inquirer reported about a vampire attack the reporter turned up dead or missing, well, credible news agencies might actually start sniffing around.”

“So they take no action in those cases?”  Natalie asked.

“The vampire that was careless enough to get caught usually gets ‘disappeared,” but that’s about it,” Nick replied.

“Meaning that we would be in danger, right Nick?”  Natalie was concerned with Nick’s seemingly careless attitude about this situation.  “You won’t tell your own partner, but you’ll bring these FBI Agents in on it?”

Nick realized that he had sounded pretty cavalier about the whole situation, but that wasn’t the case at all.  He was madly trying to think of ways to keep the lid on this situation.  “Nat, I’m glad to see that you appreciate the gravity of this situation.  It is serious, and I am concerned.”  Nick took his beloved’s hand in his own and said “Mulder already knows.  I didn’t tell him, and my denials were meaningless once I had to ask him to pull the sword out.  I tried to whammy him, and failed.  He is a resistor.  My only other options are to kill him, or try to convince him to keep his mouth shut; I presume that you would agree that killing him is not acceptable?”

“Of course you can’t kill him, Nick…”

He interrupted, “The Code demands it Natalie!  We already face death for allowing him to live with the knowledge he has.”  His face softened at the resignation on her face.  “As for his partner, I advised him not to tell her.  I was completely candid about the danger, but I know that he will.  I can’t really blame him for doing so, either.  It would be difficult to keep something like that from someone you are so close to, and work with so closely.  It would be like keeping you in the dark if I had found out that Tracy was a spy for a foreign government, or something.  It would be a violation of trust.”

“You are right, of course, Nick.  I am just concerned about endangering them and ourselves.  Besides, I kind of like Dana.  I empathize with her.”  Natalie sighed.

Nick smiled and said, “You mean because she and Mulder remind you of us for the past six years?”

Natalie laughed and said, “Do you think that everyone who saw us realized how hopelessly in love we were with each other?  In retrospect I feel so blind for missing all of the little clues you were leaving for me.”

“No more than I feel, Nat.  I’m supposed to be a crack detective, and I couldn’t see the evidence that was right before my eyes.”  He ruefully shook his head.  “Speaking of our two clueless FBI agents, we’re probably going to need their help to solve this case.  We can’t really use our normal contacts on this one, and they have a pretty good reputation for solving ‘paranormal’ cases.  We will just have to impress on them both the importance of discretion in this matter.”

They sat in silence for a moment.

“You know, Natalie, you brought up my keeping this secret from Tracy.  I think we may need to consider bringing her in on this.”

“Why now Nick?  I mean, I think she deserves to know, but why change your mind now?”

“There are several reasons, Nat.  First, she is already in danger just because she knows about vampires at all, and she is too nosey to keep from looking where she doesn’t belong, and asking questions she shouldn’t ask.  Second, I worry about her getting hurt if she tries to ‘cover my back’ when it isn’t necessary.  Third, I am getting the impression that she and Vachon are getting very close.  She may not be among the ranks of the living for long,” Nick mused.  “I think Vachon would be pushing for it himself if it wasn’t for me threatening him.”  Nick chuckled.

“You threatened him, Nick?  Why?”  Natalie asked.

“When Tracy discovered Vachon after the plane crash, and he couldn’t make her forget, I was concerned that he might hurt her.  You have to remember, Natalie; Vachon was not like me at all.  He thrived on being a vampire, and casual killing was nothing to him.  I let him know that Tracy was his responsibility and that if he hurt her, or allowed her to be hurt, he would have to answer to me.”

Natalie laughed, picturing Vachon’s face when Nick told him that.

“Yes, he wasn’t pleased, to say the least.”  Nick laughed.  “Anyway, I’m going to give Mulder a call and I’d like you to pick them up if that is ok, Nat?”

“You mean I get to drive the Nick-mobile all by myself?  Are you sure the sexual tension hasn’t addled your brain?”

“Hmm, you’re diagnoses sounds serious, doctor, what would you prescribe for this terrible, terrible condition?” he asked, kidding around.

Natalie blushed lightly, but kept a straight face when she replied, “There is no cure, Nick.  However, with rigorous exercise, and intense therapy sessions, there is no reason you couldn’t lead a normal, healthy life.”

Nick chuckled and picked up the phone to call the plaza.  He told Mulder that Natalie would have the desk call them when she got there to pick them up.  As he hung up the phone and turned around to make a comment to Natalie, he froze, his mouth hanging open at the sight before him.  Natalie had dropped her robe to the ground and stood before him, naked.  She kneeled before him and pulled open his robe, grasping his penis, already half-erect just at the sight of her nude form.

“Wha-What are you doing, Nat?”

“It’s important that you not miss your therapy sessions Nick,” she said, and then lifted his penis and gave it a long lick from the base to the underside of the head.

Nick groaned and said, “Yes, doctor.”

Natalie began a relentless assault on Nick’s member.  “Never let it be said that I am not goal-oriented,” she thought.  She varied between taking him deep into her throat in long strokes, sucking as hard as she could as she slid onto and off of him; and short bobs of the head, vigorously rubbing her tongue side-to-side on the sensitive underside of the head, while stroking the shaft with her hand.  Her other hand stroked his balls, focusing on the underside and perineum.  When she felt him getting close, she let go of his balls and thrust her wrist up to his face for him to sink his teeth into, while she took his penis deep into her throat and began humming with delight at the incredible gasps and moans she was eliciting.

Nick took his beloved’s proffered wrist and tried to pull away before biting, but she was locked to his groin, and not letting go.  “I am the luckiest man in the history of the earth,” was his thought as he bit down and felt the warm blood fill his mouth.

Natalie concentrated on the joy she felt and repeated, “IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou,” in her mind as he bit down.  She wanted him to know the depth of her feelings, and the pleasure she felt from doing this for him.

Nick was assaulted with Natalie’s love and was surprised at just how much pleasure she felt, performing this act on him.  “If this is your idea of therapy, I may need daily sessions,” he thought to her through the bloodlink.

Natalie withdrew from him with a popping sound as he withdrew his fangs from her wrist.  She chuckled and said “Daily?  I’m afraid your condition may require more frequent treatment than that.”

“Once you come across, Natalie, we will be able to share blood a lot more often- and for a much longer time,” Nick said with naked desire in his eyes.

“Soon, beloved!” she replied with a thrill running through her.  “I’ll call tonight and arrange for vacation as soon as possible.  Will you have any trouble getting time off?”

“I never use it, so I don’t think it should be a problem.  Besides, I have an idea.”  Nick answered.

“Really?  What?”  Natalie asked

“What would you say to a very short engagement, followed by a long honeymoon?”  Nick asked.

“Wow.  Exquisite looks and devastating intellect- in one package; I’m such a lucky girl!”  Natalie said with a smirk on her face.

“Why don’t you get dressed and pick up our intrepid Feds?  Maybe later I’ll show just what a lucky girl you really are.”  Nick said, smirking right back.

“What are you going to do while I’m gone?”

“I need to call LaCroix.  We will probably need to see him before the night is out, and he might even be helpful on this case.”  Nick said.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Room 1013, International Plaza Hotel

2:26 p.m. Tuesday

“Natalie?  Why is Natalie picking us up, Mulder?”  Scully asked after he had explained the phone call to her.

Mulder tilted his head toward the window and raised his eyebrows with a slight grin on his face.

Scully looked out the window for a moment trying to figure out what was out there that would prevent…  “Oh” she said, frowning slightly at him and turning toward the window to collect her thoughts.

Mulder watched her for several minutes before he walked up behind her.  He paused for a moment before he wrapped his arms around her, just below her breasts, pulling her tightly up against his body, chuckling lightly at his own hesitation.

“What’s funny, Mulder?”  Scully asked somewhat snappishly, thinking he was laughing at her skepticism.

“I stood there for a moment, wanting you, wishing I could put my arms around you,” Mulder said, still laughing at himself.  “I am so used to pining after you like a love-sick teenager, that I forgot for a moment that it’s OK now.” he said.

She smiled at that.  “What a sweet adorable man I have,” she thought.  She leaned her head back against his chest, molding herself to him.  “It’s more than ok, Mulder,” she purred at him.  “However…” she began, feeling Mulder start to swell against her lower back, “You’d better put that thing away.  We have to go see your ‘vampire cop,’ remember?” she teased.

She turned around in his arms and draped her arms around his neck, and saw him try to stifle a grimace when her arm hit the wound she had made on his neck last night.  She was instantly solicitous, “Oh, Mulder.  I’m so sorry about that…” she said, blushing at the memory of it, of how out of control she had been.”

Mulder tightened his grip when Scully began to pull away.  “Don’t be, Scully.  I love it,” he said sincerely.  When he registered the skeptical look on her face he continued, “I think it’s damn sexy, and yes it is sore.  However, every time I feel it I remember what led up to it, what I was doing, how you were responding.”  He chuckled at his next thought, and decided to say it out loud, “It’s like a merit badge or something- I finally got my ‘Scully Orgasm’ medal.  I hope it never heals.”

Scully laughed indulgently.  “Mulder- you are such a dope!” she said snuggling her head into his chest and hearing his soft, “yeah, but I’m your dope.”

“Uh, Mulder?”

“Yeah, Scully?”

“Have you given any, ah, thought to what we do when we get back to DC?”

“You mean how do we handle our new status at work?  Or in public?”

“Yeah, either… both.  I guess?”  Scully sighed heavily, “What is our new status, exactly?  I mean- I don’t want Skinner to separate us, but I don’t want to hide either, but I’m worried that *they* might use it against us, but…”

“Scully, I think they already know.  Everyone thinks we have been sleeping together for years, even Skinner thinks we are together.”

“What?!” she yelped.  “Skinner thinks we have been sleeping together?”

Mulder laughed, “I don’t know if he specifically thinks that, but I’m pretty sure that he thinks we are ‘together’.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Remember the last budget meeting, after we walked out I had to go back in because I forgot my pen?”  Mulder asked.

“What about it?”  Scully asked back.

“I overheard the tail end of a discussion between Hoynes and Skinner.  Hoynes had said something about you, and Skinner was telling him to keep it to himself.  Just before they walked out the door Hoynes asked him why and Skinner said that if I had overheard it I would have torn out his tongue and… lets just say ‘reinserted it, rectally’.”

Scully absorbed that for a moment and then asked, “What did Hoynes say, Mulder?”

“Nothing,” Mulder said.  “That’s when they saw me and they both just shut up.  I explained that I had forgotten my pen and when I got back out of Skinner’s office, Hoynes was gone.”

“No Mulder, what did he say to Skinner in the first place?”

“Oh.”  Mulder smiled, “He said your ass looked good enough to lick.”

Scully blushed slightly and said, “What a jerk!”

“Mulder smiled even wider and said, “Actually Scully, I agree with him, though I certainly would never share it with Skinner.”

Scully blushed even harder.

Mulder added, “But you’re right, he is a Jerk.”  Mulder slid his hands up her back to her shoulders, and down her arms until he was holding both of her hands in his, “I don’t want to hide either.  There isn’t really any policy that forbids us from seeing each other.  They can only separate us if it becomes an issue, if our performance suffers of if they caught us ‘in flagrante delicto’.  What do *you* want to do, Scully?”

“We just won’t say anything about it.  At work we should behave like we always do.  What we do on our own time is none of their business.”  She gave Mulder’s hands a squeeze and looked up at his eyes.  “Ok?”

“So long as you agree that while we are on the road, time in our hotel rooms constitutes ‘our own time’, I think I could abide by that,” Mulder said with a grin.

“And lunch!  Lunch time is definitely our own time,” Scully growled suddenly, as though someone was going to contradict her.

Mulder laughed out loud, wrapped his arms around her waist and picked her up, spinning them both around.  He set her down and said, “Agreed, Agent Scully.”  Then he kissed her soundly and held her tight to him.  She wrapped her arms around his waist and snuggled against his chest.

They stood like that- swaying slightly, as if dancing to music that only they could hear, until the phone rang.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick’s Loft

2:46 p.m. Tuesday.

Nick phoned the Raven right after Natalie left to get Mulder and Scully.  He was a little nervous because his newly found happiness was so different from his life for the last several centuries.  There was still a small part of him that believed that it was all going to end, suddenly and badly.  He put that thought out of his head and focused on his reconciliation with his father, and his overwhelming love for his betrothed.

“Nicolas.”  LaCroix said.  “What is it that could not wait for nightfall, my son?”

Nick still wasn’t used to hearing LaCroix call him ‘son’ either.  “I wanted… that is, I didn’t want…  I want to come by tonight, but I can’t until late.”

“Certainly, Nicolas, but you do not need my permission for that.  You may visit as late as you wish.”  LaCroix said, wondering what had come over his son now.

“I would like to bring Natalie with me, father,” Nick said.

“Ah, I see.  Things went well then, I presume?”  He would have thought he would feel it if Nicolas had brought her across, “Is she mortal still, Nicolas?”

“For now, Yes.  Things went very well, father.” Nicolas said.

“By all means, Nicolas.  Bring the good doctor along.  I would like an opportunity to speak to her.”  LaCroix wondered if his son was still hesitant about trying to bring her across.  “Do you need my help with her transformation, Nicolas?”

“Thank you father, but I am not worried about that.  I need your advice on an unrelated matter, however.”  Nick said.  “I had an unusual encounter Saturday night.”  Nick went on to explain the events on the way back from the airport.  “The presence of the Agents kept me from using any extraordinary measures to apprehend the individual,” he said at the end.

“Most unusual, Nicolas.  I cannot say that I have ever seen such an event before."

Nick knew that LaCroix would eventually find out about the rest, so he told him up front.  “There is more.”  He told LaCroix about last night, and the two agents coming over as they spoke.

“You realize the danger you place them in by revealing yourself, Nicolas?  Not to mention the danger you face yourself if the enforcers ever found out.”  LaCroix shook his head at his impetuous progeny.

“He already knew about The Community, LaCroix.  He has met our kind twice before.”  Nick sighed, “Also, he is a resistor.  I hardly think that killing him would be in the best interest of The Community.  The death of an FBI agent would lead to quite an investigation.”

“What will you do then Nicolas?”

“I will just have to persuade them to remain silent.  Either one would be resistant to such a suggestion; however, there is another factor that will help our case significantly.”  Nick said.

“And what is that?” LaCroix asked.

“They are deeply in love with each other, though each is trying to hide it from the other.”  Nick replied.  “They will do anything to protect the other from harm.  I think I can impress on them exactly how much danger their knowledge places them in.  They will keep silent out of fear for the other’s safety, where they would not for their own.”

LaCroix laughed.

Nick knew why he was laughing and grinned ruefully.  “Yes, they remind me of Nat and myself.  It is obvious to everyone but them.”

LaCroix said, “I often wonder how the human race even manages to continue, in the face of their own folly.”

Nicolas returned to the matter at hand, “Would you make some discrete inquiry regarding this man who attacked me last night?  Mulder postulated that beheading them would render them permanently dead, but that is based on a single, as yet unexplained, incident.  I am concerned at what kind of creature I am facing, and how many of them there might be.”

“If I have not heard of their kind in 2000 years of existence, I doubt that any inquiry I could make would be helpful; however, I shall look into the matter.”

“Thank you Father.  I will be by with Natalie sometime after the Raven closes.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Caddie

Natalie seemed somewhat withdrawn, Mulder thought, as they drove back to Nick’s place.  Not unhappy, she was smiling most of the time, but it was as if her focus was inward.  He looked at Scully in the seat next to him, “This car is big enough for at least 3 in the front,” he thought while watching her.  She was quiet also, stealing glances at Natalie, but not commenting.

Mulder thought the tension needed to be broken, so he said, “So, the sunlight part is true, huh?  What other myths are true?  Which ones aren’t?”

Natalie was having pleasant thoughts about her upcoming wedding and especially the honeymoon when Mulder’s question snapped her out of her daydream as though she had been slapped.  She floundered for a bit, not really feeling that it was her place to discuss this with them.  She said, “I see you chose to disregard Nick’s warning, agent Mulder.”  She glanced at him and then Scully for a moment before continuing, “He wasn’t joking you know.  This is extremely dangerous for you both- if anyone found out…” she sighed, “you should save your questions for Nick.”

Scully finally spoke, “You really believe that Detective Knight is…”

“If it is OK with Nick, I would be happy to discuss the symptomology with you Dana, but why don’t we just wait until we get to the loft.  I would feel a lot more comfortable talking about it there- if you don’t mind.”

Scully shrugged her shoulders and said, “Ok”.

Mulder just shrugged and thought, with some amusement, of the look he was sure he was going to see on her face when the question of the existence of vampires was proven to her satisfaction.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

They arrived at the loft approximately 15 minutes later.  The rest of the trip had been quiet, each of them lost in their own thoughts.

Natalie punched in the code and escorted them into the elevator.  As they rode up Mulder asked, “You live in a warehouse?”

Natalie said, “Uh, I don’t exactly live… that is, I have an apartment…  Um, Nick’s been here for about 6 years.” she finished, blushing.

“Oh, sorry.  I thought you guys were…” Mulder gestured to her ring.  “Um, how long have you known him?”

“About 6 years, and we are, uh, together- he’s my fiancé.”

“Oh, how long have you been engaged?”  Mulder asked, curious about what had to be a very unusual relationship.  “If you don’t mind my asking, that is,” he added when she hesitated.

“Uh, for about,” Natalie’s eyes dropped down her watch, “eleven hours I guess.”

Suddenly Scully burst out laughing.  She remembered Natalie’s parting shot at the bar last night.  “So that’s what you meant.”

Natalie just stared at her.

Scully replied to Natalie’s look of confusion, “Last night... at the lounge?  Remember what you said to me?”

Comprehension slowly dawned on Natalie just as the elevator reached the 3rd floor.  As she opened the door she asked, “And did you take my advice?”

Just for a moment all thoughts of vampires and unkillable sword-fighters left their minds and they were two women newly, and madly, in love.  Scully’s smile lit up the elevator and Natalie said, “I see that you did.  Oh, Dana, I am so happy for you!”

Mulder was bewildered by this sudden turn of events.  He swore he could hear Rod Serling whispering in his mind, “Submitted for your approval…” He looked out of the elevator and noticed Nick approaching.  He shrugged at the questioning look in Nick’s eyes at the antics of the ladies who were now laughing at the expression on Mulder’s face.

Nick said, “Mulder, Agent Scully, welcome.”  He gestured at the couch by the fireplace and said, “Please have a seat.  Would you like something to drink?  I have orange juice, Gatorade… uh, water,” he trailed off.  “I have a very nice port that we didn’t finish this morning if you would prefer a glass of wine.”

“Ah, whatever you’re having is fine,” Scully said.

Mulder just laughed, as did Natalie.  Scully blushed as she realized why.

Nick jumped in quickly, “A glass of wine then?”  He turned away towards the kitchen at her nod, Natalie joining him.

Mulder and Scully went over to the couch, looking over the enormous room that was the loft as they went.  The sat down closely together and Scully, who was feeling somewhat chagrined, whispered in Mulder’s ear, “No coffins Mulder.”

Nick, of course, heard Scully’s comment and laughed out loud.  He repeated it for Natalie’s benefit and she laughed as well.  This was certainly going to be an interesting afternoon; much better than a boring conference.

Nick and Nat sat down in the chairs facing the couch, after placing two glasses of port on the coffee table for Mulder and Scully.  “Agent Scully, we don’t sleep in coffins,” Nick began.

Scully blushed furiously.

“Nor do we require dirt from our graves,” Nick mused.  We don’t turn into bats or vapors.  A bite, or three, will not make you a vampire.  Crosses, garlic, and holy water do work, to a degree, depending on the individual.  Sunlight and stakes will kill us, as will decapitation.  Our senses are heightened, strength and speed increased, and, yes we can fly.  Any other questions?”  Nick said with a smile.

Mulder of course was brimming over with questions but deferred to Scully.  She was the one who needed proof positive.

“Detective Knight, I have to admit that I have seen things, extraordinary things, in my life that many people would find difficult to believe.  I hope you won’t take this as an insult, but I don’t believe in vampires.”  Scully said.

Nick laughed out loud at that.  “Agent Scully, I apologize for laughing, but you have to understand that this entire conversation is entirely the opposite of the normal course of events.  I would normally be trying to convince you that there are no such things as vampires, and that I certainly am not one myself.”  Nick shook his head as his laughter subsided.  “What do you need to convince yourself?  Short of a full autopsy that is.”

Scully was starting to hear the voice of Rod Serling herself.  “This is ridiculous,” she thought.  Out loud she said, “I don’t know detective, I feel silly even having this conversation.”

“The whole package then,” Nick said.  He downed his glass of blood in a swallow and set it down on the table.  He willed his eyes to change, then bared his teeth and let his fangs drop.  He saw Scully’s eyes widen, heard her heart start to race.  He slowly stood up out of his chair and then rose slowly into the air.

Scully felt her heart pounding in her chest as she saw Detective Knight’s eyes change and his fangs descend.  She felt like a sparrow caught in a serpent’s gaze and had to restrain herself from drawing her sidearm and shooting.  She tasted the bitterness in her mouth from the adrenaline as the fight or flight response kicked in.  When he rose up into the air she began to look for the wires, like she was watching a circus magician and trying to figure out the trick.  She began to calm down with that thought.  “It’s like a parlor trick,” she told herself- even though it was obvious that this was no trick.  She looked over at Mulder and he had a smile of childlike joy on his face- as though he was a kid who caught Santa in the act as he came down the chimney.

It was at that point that Nick let go- unleashing the power and sheer presence that a vampire of his age had at his command.

Natalie was trying to keep her eyes off of her lover floating about the room.  She wanted to keep watch on Dana to make sure she didn’t freak out.  She succeeded until she felt the power washing over her.  She had never felt that from Nick before.  Of course, she had never actually seen him doing ‘the whole package’ as he called it.  It was awesome.  It was breathtaking.  It felt like each cell in her body was being individually filled with the awareness of Nicolas de Brabant, Master Vampire.  She actually got one word out, “Wow!”

Mulder and Scully were rooted in place.  A nuclear explosion could not have moved them while under the onslaught of that presence.

Nick smiled and reined it in, releasing them from the spell.

Natalie saw Scully’s fright begin to subside and started talking, “I have thought of it as a virus- it acts like a virus, even though it isn’t really that.  The vampire factor, as it were, acts like an RNA messenger and makes a small change to the genetic coding.  The factor itself is only visible under an electron-tunneling microscope.  The effected blood cells are visibly unique under a normal microscope, and their effect can be seen when brought into contact with unaffected blood cells- they attack and consume them.”

“How long have you been researching it, Natalie?” Scully asked.

“Since I met Nick.  He was a patient of mine- first time I ever gained one on the table,” she said lightly.

Scully snickered a little.  In response to Mulder’s inquisitive look she said, “Coroner humor.”

Nick returned to his seat and changed back to ‘normal’, as Mulder asked, “Why?  Why the research, Natalie?”

Natalie glanced at Nick, clearly wanting him to field that question.

Nick thought for a moment on how best to put it.  “I have regrets Mulder.  There was a time when I reveled in the role of predator, and I have a lot to make up for.  For a time, I was convinced that I would only be able to atone if I were able to regain my mortality.  I sought a cure for my condition.”

Natalie said, “I thought it was a purely physical condition, and that I could come up with a way to reverse it.”  Natalie shook her head at her own state of denial, “It has physical manifestations, but obviously, there is a metaphysical aspect as well that, as a scientist, I had refused to consider.”

“What do you mean?”  Scully asked.

“Nick was convinced that he was infected with evil- that vampirism was inherently equivalent to damnation.  I know that that isn’t true, but there are aspects that defy scientific explanation- crosses, holy water, flying, that ‘thing’ he just did, etc…”

“You don’t think vampires are evil, then?”  Mulder asked.

Natalie shook her head, “Nick is not evil, Agent Mulder.  He did terrible things in the distant past, but that person is not the same person who is here with us today.  I have met many vampires and some are evil- truly horrifying.”  She thought of Vachon, Screed, and Urs and said, “I have met several that are very nice people, living relatively normal lives.”  Then she thought of LaCroix and said, “Some, I’m not sure about.  Vampires run the gamut just as mortals do.”

“Detective Knight, I don’t mean to sound prejudiced, but…” Scully began, not sure exactly how to put it delicately.  “You drink human blood, don’t you?”

Nick actually laughed out loud at that.  “First, please call me Nick.  I don’t think I can listen to ‘Detective Knight’ all night.  Second, yes I drink human blood.  I have recently returned to it, in fact.  I subsisted on cow for the last 90 years or so, and let me tell you, it wasn’t pleasant.”  Scully and Mulder’s eyes widened at that.  Nick continued; “Think of it like this, you could live on bread and water, right?  However, it would not be a very healthy diet, and you certainly wouldn’t be at your best, right?”

Scully remained silent- her mind whirling.

“Agent Scully…” Nick began again.

Scully’s response was automatic, “Dana’s fine…” she whispered.

Nick paused and started again “Dana, Mulder, what I drink is donated.  We are able to get blood that has been donated and has expired.  It is no longer useful for transfusions, and would otherwise be destroyed.”  He looked them both in the eye for a moment before continuing.  “I have not killed for food in a century.  Even before that I only hunted criminals and killers- not that that is any excuse.”  He dropped his gaze and continued, “I won’t lie to you- most in The Community do not share my reverence for human life.  However, even those of us who are so inclined rarely hunt these days.  It is far too dangerous in this day and age, and not just because of the human authorities.  Careless vampires that cause attention to be turned toward The Community face action by the enforcers.  Bottled blood is the norm these days.”

“Enforcers.  They are what you were warning me about last night.”  Mulder began, seeking more information.

Nick said, “The community has a code, Mulder.  Part of it requires that we live in secret, not allowing mortal society to know of our existence.  Those mortals who do discover our secret must be dealt with in one of three ways.  The knowledge is removed from them, they join The Community permanently, or they die.  There are exceptions, but they are rare.”

Scully turned to Natalie, “You have survived, Natalie.  You said you have known about Nick for six years.”

Natalie dropped her eyes and blushed heavily- clearly embarrassed.

Nick explained, “Yes, Natalie is an exception.  At first we just kept secret the fact that she knew.  By the time the enforcers became aware of her knowledge, she had already proven valuable to The Community.”

Mulder thought he knew what that entailed, and was somewhat concerned, “You covered up things…”

“I left justice in those specific cases to the proper ‘community’ authorities.  Nothing would have been served by exposing The Community except to cause more deaths.”  Natalie defended her actions, “It was not in anyone’s best interest to initiate a witch-hunt.”

“Those cases were rare in any case.  Her value was more for her service as a doctor, believe it or not.”  Nick added.

Scully was intrigued, “What medical services do vampires need?  Mulder told me about the sword, and he said you healed automatically.”

Natalie chuckled at that.  “I could probably make a practice out of just Nick- ‘Natalie Lambert, Foreign Object Removal Specialist; bullets and shrapnel are my specialty.’”

Nick laughed at that and Natalie confided, “Nick seems to get shot or blown up inordinately often.”

Nick sobered, “Even with all that, it wouldn’t have been long before the enforcers compelled a decision.  In another five or ten years I will have to move on; and Natalie would have faced the three options.  As she is a resistor, it would have been narrowed down to two options.”

Mulder and Scully spoke simultaneously, “A resistor?” said Scully; “Would have?” said Mulder.

Nick and Natalie both smiled.  “Not everyone is susceptible to a vampire’s mental persuasion,” Nick said, answering Scully’s question.

Natalie answered Mulder’s question, “I have made my choice already, Agent Mulder”

“Just Mulder, please.”

Natalie had a question of her own, “Why does everyone use your last name?  Dana even calls you that,” Natalie was clearly bewildered, “and why do you call her Scully?”

Scully laughed out loud at that and said, “It’s complicated.  Besides, Mulder doesn’t like his first name.”

Nick laughed at that, “I guess it would be hard growing up with the name Fox.”

Mulder changed the subject, “Nick, if you don’t mind my asking, how long ago were you, ah I don’t know, turned, I guess…  When did you ‘join The Community’ as you put it?”

Nick laughed lightly at that, “Brought across.  That’s how we refer to it.  I was brought across in 1228.  I was on my way back to my family holdings in what is now Belgium, from the crusades in Palestine.”

“That makes you, what 772 years old?”  Mulder mused.

“I have been a vampire for 772 years, I have been ‘around’ for over 800.”

“Nick is one of the eldest vampires in the Toronto community.  That’s another reason I survived, I think.  Others may not have thought much of his trying for a cure, but none wanted to challenge him over it,” Natalie added.

Scully was nearly in shock at the thought of this man sitting before her having been around during the time of the crusades when Natalie’s comment sank in, “One of?  There are people older than you?” she choked out.

Nick looked at her for a moment, “I am old, certainly, by community standards, but hardly ancient.  There are in this world many vampires that are older than I am, Dana.  In Toronto, however there were only two, now there is only one.”

Mulder asked, “I take it then that the older the vampire, the more powerful they are?”

“In many ways that is true.  However, age alone is not always the defining factor.  Bloodline and training can make a significant difference as well.”  Nick answered.

Nick suddenly looked back and forth between the two agents and leaned back into his chair.  He wasn’t sure why he was in such a sharing mood.  Natalie knew most of this, but it had taken her 6 years to find out.  She had never really asked about some of it, and he had been reticent to discuss it.  “If there are no more pressing questions about me, let us discuss this man Mulder and I encountered last night.”

They settled down into discussion and speculation as to what manner of men, or creatures, it was that they had stumbled onto.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========


Chapter 6

The Raven

12:00 a.m.  Wednesday, December 13th.

LaCroix had just completed his monologue for the night and was looking out at the crowd in the Raven when he saw a face in the shadows of a back booth that struck him.  He left the broadcast booth and walked out into the cacophony that was Wednesday night at the Raven.  He wandered over to the bar where he could get a better look at the man in the back.

As he drank his bloodwine and observed the man he suddenly remembered, “I know where I’ve seen him before!”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Gaul

August 24, 74 AD.

Roman might and discipline had, once again, won the day.  General Lucius looked out over the aftermath of the battle with satisfaction.  The broken bodies of nearly one hundred score of barbarian vermin who had sought to defy Rome’s conquest lay about the base of the hill on which he stood.

This scum had harried his legion for weeks as they marched.  They would attack in small groups and at night, striking and retreating like a cowardly dog nipping at the heels of its master.  At last they had captured two of their scouts and tortured the location of their village from them.  His legion had swept over them like the tide, burning and killing every living thing until only the leader of this pitiful band remained.

Lucius had had him crucified on the apex of the hill so he could see what his rebellion had wrought.  He turned and looked up at this barbarian chieftain, memorizing his face so that he could remember this small, but sweet, victory.  He had to admit that there was something to admire in the way this enemy stoically accepted his pain, and stared his hatred towards the Roman General.

“We will meet again,” the crucified man gasped out.

“In hell perhaps,” the General said, spurring his horse down the hill toward his troops.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Raven

12:10 a.m.  Wednesday, December 13th.

Methos was hunting.  He rarely participated in ‘The Game’ any more, 5000 years of life, most of it spent in violent times, had taught him that the sidelines were a much safer and happier place to be.  There were, however, exceptions.

He had come to Toronto to meet an old friend.  He hadn’t seen Scott in nearly 175 years, and had looked forward to surprising him when he found out he had relocated here from South Africa.

Unfortunately he arrived here just in time to find out that the reason Scott had relocated, a headhunter with the unlikely name of Phineas Froag, had followed. Methos had used his Watcher connections to find out about him.  Froag lived for the Quickening. He was like a junkie and once he latched onto a target, he followed until he got what he wanted.

Methos knew that this was just the type of club Froag was likely to hang out at.  He would spend his nights here, and at the two or three other similar clubs until he caught sight of him- or until he got word that he had been spotted by a watcher in another city.  He liked Scott, and wanted to make sure that his killer wasn’t allowed to keep his Quickening.

Gazing around the bar was silly, he knew.  He would know it the moment another immortal entered the front door, but he did it anyway.  “It’s not like I have anything else to look at,” he thought.  Suddenly he noticed a man at the bar staring directly at him.  At first he didn’t recognize him- tall, imposing even, blond crew cut, black Armani suit.  “Where do I know you from, hmm?” he thought.

Then he remembered.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Gaul

August 24, 74 AD.

“Damned Romans,” Methos thought as he looked out over the aftermath of the slaughter.  The broken bodies of nearly 800 of his warriors, along with their wives and children, lay about the base of the hill on which he stood.

He had settled in this village 10 years ago as he was wandering the world.  He had met a fine woman and had decided to stay a while- he had nothing else to do, no obligations or interests to interfere, so why not.

He and his men had harried the legion for weeks as they marched, hoping to divert them from overrunning the area they called home.  They would attack in small groups and at night, striking hard, killing 20 or 30 and then pulling back, while another group would attack from another front.  In this manner they killed hundreds at first, but the Roman General swiftly countered.  He would cease his march earlier in the day, giving up distance for the time it took to dig in and make a fortified camp.

Suddenly Methos began loosing more men than they were killing.  He had pulled back to their village to plan their next course of action.  He never knew how they had found him.  One day he woke up to the sounds of the Roman charge.  The legion had swept over them like the tide, burning and killing every living thing they could get their hands on and their swords into.  He had been killed twice before waking up to find himself being nailed to a hastily constructed cross on the watch-post hill overlooking the remains of his village.

He looked down at the face of the General whose troops had done this to his villagers and gasped out through his agony, “We will meet again,”

“In hell perhaps,” the General had said, while riding away.

“Maybe sooner than that” was Methos’ final thought before he died, again.

Some of his villagers had escaped into the woods and returned to burn the dead.  They pulled him down from the cross and threw his body into a pile with the others.  Fortunately he woke up while they were gathering fuel for the fire and fled into the woods himself.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Raven

12:15 a.m.  Wednesday, December 13th.

Methos remembered that he had sworn vengeance on the General who had crucified him, but as the years wore on, he had stopped thinking about the matter.  By the time Rome was sacked in 455 by Gaiseric, king of the Vandals, he had forgotten it entirely.

He remembered that in 1453 he had been toasting the death of Emperor Constantine XI and the end of the last vestiges of the Roman Empire when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks nearly a thousand years after the sack of Rome.

But surely that couldn’t be the same man; he hadn’t felt any Quickening…

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

He certainly wasn’t a vampire.  LaCroix could see his pulse beating in his neck from here.  In fact, his pulse rate seemed to have significantly increased several moments after noticing LaCroix’s attention on him.  He might have dismissed it as patently impossible except for two things; first, LaCroix could see recognition on the man’s face, and second, his son had just this evening described a man who survived gunshots and a forty-foot fall, seemingly unscathed.  “Perhaps such a man could live for two thousand years,” he mused.

He turned to the bartender, “Miklos.”

“Yes, General.”

“The man by himself in the back booth…”

“Yes, I see him.” Miklos said, barely glancing back for a moment.

“If he leaves, I want him followed,” LaCroix locked gazes with Miklos and continued, “Very discretely, Miklos.  He is absolutely not to know that he is being followed.  Choose someone reliable.  I want to know where he goes.”

“Certainly, General.”

LaCroix pondered for a moment and then decided, “Put his tab on the house as well, Miklos.”

“Anything else, sir?”  Miklos asked.

“That will do for now.  I expect my son will be here soon.  Please have him and whomever he has accompanying him join me directly.  And send in 2 bottles of the House Special and two of the plain Bordeaux.”  LaCroix said as he walked away from the bar and towards his office.  He had a phone call to place.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nicks Loft

12:20 a.m. Wednesday

One thing had led to another; the conversation had transitioned from speculation about the swordsman to a variety of topics.  Anecdotes and stories about strange and unusual cases led to personal stories as similar experiences were shared.  Each of them was surprised during the evening not only by what they learned about their new friends, but also by what they learned about their respective partners.  It was obvious that none of them were normally very talkative about themselves, but somehow this evening, which began with such a startling revelation, turned into something none of them had ever experienced before; a couple’s night out.  Dinner was ordered and eaten (and drank), beverages were consumed, and fun was had.

Nick excused himself as the phone rang.  Natalie was still laughing at Scully’s story about Mulder singing the theme from shaft to her as he lay on the floor of the hotel after a near miss with a vampire pizza delivery guy.  Mulder, of course, vehemently denied that any such incident had occurred, but even he was laughing about it.

Natalie said, “I have to say that I have not had this much fun in years.  I am already going to miss you guys when you leave this weekend,” as she wiped away the tears of laughter that were running down her face.

Nick smiled indulgently at his betrothed, overjoyed to see her so happy.  He picked up the phone and answered “Knight.”

“Nicolas.”

“LaCroix, I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon, is something wrong?”

“Not at all Nicolas.  However, there is something I think you need to see.  Why don’t you come to the Raven now?”

“Of course.  I will be right over.”

“Oh, Nicolas, you are entertaining guests,” LaCroix said, hearing the conversation in the background.  “Is that the two FBI agents you mentioned that I hear?”

Nicolas was suddenly worried, “Yes…”

“Bring them with you.  And Natalie of course.”

Nick was now very worried, but he knew that he couldn’t really refuse, and he didn’t think that now was the time to jeopardize his fragile reconciliation with his father.  “Of course, father,” he whispered.

“Do not fret so, Nicolas,” LaCroix said.  “There need not be any permanent, life altering decisions made this night.  I merely wish to meet these strangers with whom you have decided to share our secret.”  LaCroix said.

“Very well.  We shall be there, LaCroix.”  Nick said, hanging up the phone.

Natalie had caught the whisper and the look of trepidation on her fiancée’s face and her expression suddenly sobered.  Mulder and Scully caught the change and turned to face Nick as he hung up the phone.

“LaCroix has requested that we join him.  He has something he wants me to see.”  Nick said quietly.

Natalie’s eyes widened slightly and she said, “We as in you and I, Nick?”

Nick turned to Mulder and Scully.  “He wants to meet you two as well.”

Natalie’s hands flew to her mouth involuntarily.  Despite what Nick had said about the changes in his master, LaCroix was still her own personal boogey-man; he had been ever since the events at the Azure several years ago.

“Mulder looked back and forth between Nick and Natalie, waiting for further explanation.  Finally he asked, “Who is LaCroix?”

Scully added, “Is he one of these ‘enforcers’ you mentioned?”

Natalie snapped out of her thoughts and said, “No, it’s not that bad.  LaCroix is, well, you remember that Nick is the second oldest in the Toronto community?”

“LaCroix is the eldest, I take it,” Scully answered.

Natalie nodded her head.

“How much older?”  Scully asked.  “Nine hundred?  A thousand?” she asked, still incredulous at Nick’s incredible age

Nick was lost in thought, but responded “LaCroix watched Vesuvius swallow his home in Pompeii,” Nick said softly.

Scully was shocked again, her mouth just hung open.

Mulder had been watching Nick during the entire conversation.  “There is more, isn’t there.  What is it, Nick?”  Mulder asked, concerned.

“LaCroix is my Father.”

Scully looked at Natalie, “That’s bad news?”  she asked.

Natalie and Nick said simultaneously, “It’s complicated.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Raven

1:15 a.m. Wednesday

Freddie was kicking back at the bar, checking out the crowd.  “This Raven ain’t a bad place,” he thought.  “Plenty of likely victims on the dance floor, and enough vamps around if I want my own for company.”  Freddie had rolled into Toronto after nearly getting caught in Buffalo.  He had grown careless about where he took his meals, and had left a trail even the mortal cops could follow, right to the apartment of his last meal, while her drained corpse had lay cooling on the floor and he was taking a shower to wash off the remains.  He had blown out the window, naked, and flew right across the lake and into the outskirts of Toronto.

“Good thing we don’t feel the cold!” he laughed to himself.  He had found this place a couple of nights ago and was presently in the process of selecting his next ‘meal’ from the dancers on the floor.  Bottled blood had never really satisfied him- he preferred it ‘straight from the tap’ as it were.

None of the writhing dancers had really stood out to him and he was about to resort to enie, meanie, minie, moe; when he saw one vamp and three mortals walk into the club.  “Oh man!  That little red-head looks delicious!” he whispered to himself.  He watched as they walked across the club and straight to a door near the end of the bar.  “I may wait a little longer,” he thought.  “Better to sharpen the appetite,” he thought, smiling to himself.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick led the others directly to LaCroix’s office, ignoring the surreptitious glances from the vampires all around.  He felt slightly uncomfortable.  Even though he had long ago ceased caring about The Community’s opinion of him, his recent change of heart about himself and his kind had began to rekindle a desire for ties to The Community.  However, he still didn’t think that it was OK to treat mortals as cattle- nothing more than food.  He wasn’t sure how he was going to reconcile his desire for atonement with his burgeoning desire to belong once again to The Community he had despised for so long.  “Better to concentrate on the present, and worry about that later,” he decided.

Natalie was worried about her new friends.  She still didn’t really trust LaCroix- not 100% any way.

Scully’s thoughts were chaotic and whirling with the stunning impact that tonight’s revelations had struck upon her.  Not even 12 hours ago, she would have sworn under oath that there were no such things as vampires- they were a myth and whatever Mulder had seen, it wasn’t supernatural.  Science would be able to explain it, somehow.  Now, she not only accepted their existence, she had made friends with an 800 year old vampire and was about to meet one who had been alive when the New Testament was written.  “Oh yeah, and he might just kill us tonight, too.” she added.  The impact of that thought suddenly centered her and allowed her to focus on this encounter, which just might be her last.

Mulder was thinking how cool it was that he was walking into a bar full of vampires for a meeting with a guy who was about 2000 years old, to talk about guys who only died when you cut off their heads.  It was all he could do not to laugh out loud.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

LaCroix could feel his son’s trepidation as he entered the club.  He smiled and thought of how he would have, not long ago, used this to torment Nicolas.  He thought of the two mortals his son was bringing in with him and his smile was replaced with a slight frown.  If he felt it was necessary, he would erase these agents knowledge, or kill them.  He knew that doing so would erase the tentative reconciliation he had found with his son, and he hoped that it would not become necessary.  He would have to see if Nicolas had, for once, chosen wisely with his trust.

Nick stopped outside the door to the office and reminded Mulder and Scully one last time, “Remember- don’t lose your temper.  Your reactions will decide all of our lives tonight.”  He knocked on the door and heard his master bid him enter.  He then opened the door and led them into the office.

LaCroix had decided on playing the master vampire.  He hoped his son’s estimation of the agent’s concern for each other was accurate.  If so, he thought he could use their fear of the other’s safety to guaranty their silence.  He allowed his not inconsiderable power and presence to flow outward from him like the tide- washing over these puny mortals like the surf against the rocks.

Scully remembered the power she felt from Nick this afternoon.  At the time she thought it was the most impressive thing she could ever have conceived.  What she felt now snuffed that thought like a candle.  She felt as though this man seated behind the massive antique desk could crush her with a thought.  It took every ounce of willpower she had just to stand upright, and she couldn’t have met his gaze if her life depended on it.

Mulder’s cavalier attitude about this meeting was erased in an instant.  He was suddenly worried for Scully’s life.  His own he would gladly forfeit to spare his beloved from the wrath of this vampire.  He would have offered to do just that but he couldn’t breathe, let alone speak.

Natalie was stunned.  She was reminded about how much she didn’t know about The Community she was planning on joining.  She could tell that this display was not for her benefit, but still found that she was silently chastising herself for defying this creature, and endangering Nick in the process, for the last six years.  Her sympathy for the years Nick had had to endure this man’s domination nearly overwhelmed her.  If this was the changed LaCroix, she couldn’t imagine what hell Nick had gone through before.

Nick understood what his father was trying to do, but felt that much more and his newfound friends would break.  “Father, please.  I am certain that they understand your point,” he said, respectfully.  He dropped his barriers on the bloodlink to let LaCroix know that he wasn’t challenging him; he was just concerned for his friends.

LaCroix was satisfied that these mortals had been properly cowed.  He slowly reeled in his power, not withdrawing entirely, but reducing it to less intimidating proportions.  He gestured for Nicolas to make introductions.

“Father, these are Special Agents Dana Scully, and Fox Mulder of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Agents, this is Lucien LaCroix, my maker.”

“Agents, I understand that my son has shared with you the knowledge of our community.”  LaCroix said.

“Yes Sir.” Mulder and Scully said in unison.

“And he has told you the consequences of such knowledge.”

Mulder and Scully glanced at each other briefly, and softly said “Yes Sir.”

“We will discuss that later.”  He turned to Nicolas, “I saw someone tonight that might be the person you encountered last night.”  LaCroix turned and opened the armoire behind his desk, revealing a CCTV monitor and control system.  He pushed the playback on the recorder they saw a man sitting alone at a booth in the club.

Mulder and Nick both leaned forward and simultaneously said, “That’s not him.”

LaCroix looked surprised.

Nick said, “Why did you think that was the man?”

LaCroix leaned back in his chair and steepled his hands thoughtfully.  “I met this man a long time ago.”

“He isn’t a vampire?”  Mulder asked.

“I could clearly see his pulse and hear his heartbeat.”  LaCroix answered.

“How do you know him?”  Nick asked.

“I killed him once, a long time ago” LaCroix answered softly.

“Did you… drink from him, I guess?  Is he a hybrid of some kind, perhaps?” Mulder asked.

“No, agent Mulder, I didn’t *drain* him.”  LaCroix mused.

“Can you tell us about it?”  Scully asked.

“Are you sure you want to hear about it?  It was quite barbaric, I assure you.”  LaCroix sneered slightly at the diminutive redhead.

“How long ago, LaCroix?”  Natalie asked.  “Are you sure it is the same man?”

LaCroix didn’t really want to go into details with these strangers.  He said, “He was a chieftain of a tribe in Gaul.  I led Caesar’s legions into Gaul.  I had him crucified, after I wiped out his tribe.  It was before I had been brought across.”

Mulder’s photographic memory kicked in and he remembered studying Roman history.  Actually he had been more interested in impressing the devastatingly beautiful grad student who helped the professor teach the course.  In an attempt to impress her, he had memorized just about every text in the library dealing with Roman Military Conquest- that being the subject of her doctoral thesis.  In the end, he found out she was doing the professor, and had no interest in him, but he did learn a lot about Roman History.  “Lucian LaCroix.  You were General Lucius the Crucifier?” he asked, entirely forgetting the threat this man posed to him and Scully.  “Wow!” he said, amazed at the thought of a piece of living history sitting before him.

LaCroix was startled momentarily.  “It has been a very long time since I heard that particular description.”  A slow smile grew on his face and he continued, “You must have a fascination with arcane historical trivia to know that name.”  He changed the subject and said, “In any case, I am quite certain that this is indeed the same man I crucified in 74 AD.  He survived crucifixion and lived another 1,926 years, and he is definitely not a vampire.  I would say that that puts him squarely in the camp of the man you and my son met on the rooftop last night.”

“Where is he now, Father?”  Nick asked.

“He left.  However, he is being followed.  We shall find out where he is going and perhaps tomorrow night you might visit him in your capacity of a homicide detective investigating a rather unusual death.”

“That is an excellent idea, father.”  Nick said with a smile.

“Doctor Lambert, you and I need to have a conversation.”  LaCroix said.  He felt his son’s sudden rush of concern through their bloodlink.  He turned to Nicolas and in a very decisive tone of voice suggested, “Why don’t you and your friends go out and have a drink while you wait.  This shouldn’t take too long.

Nick wanted to protest, but caught the tone in LaCroix’s voice and knew he would only make things worse for Natalie if he reacted.  He leaned in to Natalie and whispered in her ear, “It’ll be alright.  I love you.  I’ll be right outside.”  He then opened the door and indicated to Mulder and Scully that they should precede him.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Freddie was still sitting at the bar when the three exited the office.  He watched as the vampire led them to a booth overlooking the bar and the office.  He wasn’t going to do anything until he could get the redhead alone.  He wasn’t afraid of the other vampire, after all he was 250 years old, and he didn’t think anyone else in here could match that.  He just didn’t want to make a scene; that’s all.  He ordered another bloodwine and sat back to wait for his opportunity.

Nick was distracted by the thought of Natalie in there alone with LaCroix and didn’t notice the vamp at the bar who watched as they left the office and took a booth to wait.

Mulder and Scully exchanged glances, concerned for their new friends.  “Will she be alright, Nick?”  Scully asked.

“What is going to happen?” Mulder added.

“He won’t hurt her,” Nick said- almost 90% sure he was speaking the truth.  “I think he wants to test her resolve.  She has spent the last 6 years trying to ‘cure’ me after all,” Nick said quietly.  “He probably wants to make sure she is really willing to give that up.”

“Is she?”  Scully asked.

“There was a time when she wanted me to be mortal, almost as much as I wanted it.  She thought of marriage, family, that sort of thing.”  He sighed.  “I really didn’t want her to have to give up the sun, the daylight.  However, she wants me more than she wants the sun.  And, even though I know I am being thoroughly selfish, I’m glad.  I want her to be with me forever- no matter what.  I would rather have her as a vampire than to lose her to old age and death.”

Mulder understood exactly how Nick felt.  “But you feel guilty about what she is giving up, don’t you,” Mulder said.  It was a statement, not a question.

“Yes.”  Nick sighed.

Scully got mad, she knew that Mulder was speaking for himself, thinking that he was bad for her, that she deserved ‘better’ than him.  “What is it that makes you guys think that we are unable to decide what is best for us?”  She shot them both a withering glare.  “You put us on a pedestal and think you’re looking out for our best interests; but don’t you see?  It’s lonely up on that pedestal!”  She was almost overcome with emotion and actually had to choke back a sob, “I want you, not some idealized man, 2.5 kids and a white picket fence,” she said directly to Mulder and then turned to Nick and continued, “and I imagine that Natalie feels the same way!”  She abruptly stood up and said, “Now, where is the restroom?”

Nick silently pointed toward the back of the club, his eyes wide at her outburst.

Scully looked back where he had pointed and said, “When I get back I don’t want to hear any more ‘I’m not worthy’ crap out of either of you, Ok?”  She looked back and forth between the two men, both sitting slack-jawed and looking up at her with wide eyes.  “Otherwise I am going to find a nice chair leg for you,” she said- pointing at Nick, “And you, I’m going to shoot.  *Again*” she said- pointing at Mulder.  She then walked off, head held high.

Mulder and Nick sat silently for a moment before they both began to smile.  “Again?”  Nick asked with a slight smirk.

“Long Story” Mulder replied with a teeth-baring smile of his own.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Scully dried her hands and checked her makeup.  The tears that had threatened to flow she dabbed at lightly with a paper towel.  She took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself as she marveled at the stupidity of men in general and her man specifically.  She idolized Mulder.  There was no one else on the planet she could possibly want to be with.  He had totally ruined her for other men ever- and that was before last night’s mind-blowing sex- yet he felt inadequate.  She was the one who was inadequate- Mulder could have any woman he wanted at the drop of a hat.  She was sure that that little blond waitress was out there even now chatting him up.  She was glad that she knew her man well enough to know he wouldn’t even notice.  She might feel inadequate, but also knew her partner.  Though she wasn’t sure that she deserved it, she knew he loved her and only her.  As long as he knew that she wanted him, he wouldn’t even look at another woman.

She was walking out the door thinking of exactly how she was going to demonstrate just how much she wanted him when she got him back to the hotel this morning.  It was at that moment that she felt herself grabbed from behind- one hand around her waist, the other over her mouth as she was swiftly pulled out of the club through the back door and into the alley.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Natalie stood before LaCroix.  She was nervous and cursed her heart for giving it away.  She determined that she would not outwardly show her fear, even though she knew he would detect it from her heart rate.

LaCroix observed her for a moment.  He heard the fear that her heart betrayed, but admired her poise, as she outwardly gave no indication of her feelings.  He briefly considered toying with her for a bit, to see how far he could push before she would give, but decided against it.  He would test her resolve, no doubt about it, but he would avoid doing anything to anger his son.  So long as Nicolas was content to return to the fold, LaCroix would not be the one to break the peace.

“May I call you Natalie?” he started with.  “Doctor Lambert seems so formal.”

“Yes Sir” Natalie said stiffly.  She remembered the power emanating from him earlier.  She did not want to do anything to provoke him if she could avoid it.

“Sit down, Natalie,” LaCroix chuckled lightly.  “Relax.  I am no longer a general, and this is no army.  You need not stand at attention.”

Natalie took a seat across from him and tried to relax.  It didn’t work.  She was worried about Dana and Mulder… and Nick… and herself… and Nick and herself… and…

LaCroix broke her reverie.  “Do you not feel as though you have been betrayed, Natalie?  Nicolas has decided to throw away 6 years of your work as though it was nothing.”

Natalie decided that the only way she would make it through this was by being brutally honest, both with LaCroix and with herself.  “Nick wanted to be human.  I wanted Nick, any way I could have him.  So, no, I don’t feel betrayed.  As long as he is satisfied with the way he is, so am I.”

“Truly?  You would not prefer him as a human?”  LaCroix pressed.  “You do not long for children?  To see the sun rise, to feel its warmth on your face?”

“To grow old, to break down and die?” she countered.  “Each state of being has advantages and limitations, sir.  Either one would be satisfactory so long as I could be with Nick.  Neither one is acceptable without him.”

“You care for him that much?”  LaCroix asked, somewhat surprised, doubtful that this mortal could love Nicolas as much as Nicolas did her.

“He is my life.  My heart.”  She replied.

“Easy to say, but you have no real concept of forever, child.  How do I know that you won’t tire of my son after a few decades or a century and leave him?”

Natalie had an epiphany.  Right there and then she finally understood Lucien LaCroix.  She had always thought him to be evil and full of hatred toward Nick.  Suddenly she realized that it wasn’t hatred, but rather desperation.  LaCroix loved Nick, needed him powerfully and when he couldn’t have him he lashed out at whatever he perceived as separating him from his beloved son.  “Ohhh,” she said, sympathizing with LaCroix’s need to have Nick in his life.  She felt exactly the same way.  Wordlessly she stood up and offered this master vampire her wrist.

LaCroix was taken aback by her offer.  “Why?” he asked.

“You need to know, I need for you to know,” she said simply.

LaCroix took her wrist and brought it to his mouth, looking into Natalie’s eyes for any indecision.  He saw that she was afraid, but resolute.  He bit down and tasted the hot, spiced wine that ran through the veins of his son’s lover.  He felt her devotion and love.  He saw her conviction.  He knew her understanding of not only his son, but of his own need for Nicolas.

She spoke to him through the link and with her voice simultaneously, “So long as you don’t hurt him or me, I will make sure he never leaves you again.”

He immediately withdrew from her and broke the link.  “Why would you do that?” he asked, confused.

“Because he needs you too.  As much as you need him.  He just doesn’t know it,” she replied.

“For once in his life, my son has chosen wisely.”  LaCroix said.  “I will gladly have you for a grand-daughter, Natalie.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Freddie dragged his catch out into the alley, thinking about how much he was going to enjoy this when he felt her stamp on his instep.  It surprised him more than it hurt him but he loosened his grip enough for her to spin around in his grasp and ram her knee into his groin with a great deal of force.  “What a little firebrand,” he thought just as she snap-kicked him in the nose, breaking it and causing blood to flow momentarily as it healed.

Scully figured out that she was dealing with a vampire and hoped that she could hurt him enough quickly enough to get back inside and…

Interrupting her thought process was the back of his hand across her face, sending her flying down the alley and into a stack of pallets next to the dumpster.  She was almost unconscious when she felt the bite on her neck.  She reached out beside her trying to find something to hit him with.

Freddie was enjoying the wonderful flavor of this delectable morsel, reveling in the images of her life and the fear he tasted in her blood.  Her heart was slowing almost to a stop when he felt an incredible pain in his neck.  He reared back was horrified as the slender shard of wood she had stabbed into his neck, tore his throat out as he pulled away.  His blood, mingled with hers sprayed out of his near fatal wounds and poured down on her face, and into her mouth.  Her last act before she blacked out was to convulsively swallow.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Natalie came out of the office walked over to where Nick and Mulder where sitting in comfortable silence.  They both got sheepish looks on their faces when she approached and she wondered what was going on.  “Where’s Dana?” she asked.  Mulder answered, “She had to go powder her nose.”

Natalie snorted at the thought and Nick said, “Yeah, she worked up a sweat explaining to Mulder that he was an idiot and that I should pull my head out of my…”

“Nice visual, Nick.”  Natalie interrupted.  “I’ll go check on her.”  Natalie went back to the restroom, but couldn’t find Dana there.  She walked out and across to the alley door just in case Dana had stepped out for a breather.  She opened the door and looked out just as Freddie was taking a bite on Dana’s neck.  She screamed, “NICK!”

Mulder heard the echo of Natalie’s scream and when he looked over, Nick was already there by Natalie’s side.  He felt the blood leave his face and got up and ran through the crowd on the dance floor to the alley door.  By the time he got there, and into the alley, Nick and Natalie were crouched over the broken body of a petite redheaded woman.  There was blood all over the woman’s face.  LaCroix was standing over the body of a large man who looked like his throat had been ripped out.  “Where the hell did he come from?”  Mulder thought.  His brain was rejecting the image of the woman on the ground.  He couldn’t even notice her.  He just stared at the body of the man with the torn throat- watching in horrified fascination as the flesh slowly re-knit it self.

It wasn’t until Natalie sobbed his name that his mind grasped the fact that the bloodied and broken body lying in the alley was his Scully.  He went into shock.  He fell to his knees, his eyes locked onto the face of his beloved Scully.  It felt as if his heart had stopped beating.

LaCroix quickly assessed the situation.  “Nicolas, she has ingested his blood, you must take her quickly to my quarters.  Natalie, go tell Miklos about this,” he kicked the slowly regenerating body of the vampire that had assaulted Scully.  “Tell him to have it chained in the caves, but not killed yet.  Then tell him to deliver a case of uncut blood to my quarters at once.”

Natalie reacted instantly to his command, racing into the club to get Miklos.

“Come Nicolas, I will bring Agent Mulder,” he said, picking up the silent man and flying him up to the roof.  Nick scooped Dana up and followed.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

“It must be you, Nicolas.  I doubt that she would come back for me, and certainly not for that creature that did this to her.”  LaCroix explained.

Nick took one look at Natalie, who had raced up the stairs and was panting heavily.  She just nodded her head.  She was unwilling to give up on her friend so soon.  Besides it might be fun having a sister.

Nick bit his wrist open and held it to Dana’s mouth waiting, praying even that she would drink.

LaCroix turned to the other agent, who was still in shock.  He captured Mulder’s eyes with his own gaze and explained to him that Dana might yet live, but that Mulder would have to call her back.

Mulder was wrapped in a cocoon of agony.  Every breath hurt and all he could think was “She’s gone.  She’s gone.” over and over.  When LaCroix’s words of hope broke through, it was as though a switch had been thrown, shocking him out of his stupor.  “What do I do?!  Tell me how to bring her back!”

“Go.  Hold her and call her back to you.  She stands at the doorway and must choose either to go into the light, or come back across to you.

Mulder stood up and unsteadily crossed the room to Scully’s side where Nick was drizzling blood into her mouth.  He swallowed his fear and agony and started to stroke her forehead.  He took her hand in his own and began calling her, “Scully. Scully, please come back to me.  I love you.  I *need* you.”  He repeated that over and over, tears pouring down his face and dripping onto hers.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

She looked around her.  She was standing on an arid plain.  It was dry, flat and featureless in all directions.  “Where am I?” she whispered to herself.  “WHERE AM I?” she screamed out.

“Where do you think you are?”  a voice said behind her.

Scully whirled around to see a doorway standing in the open plain.  The door was open and a bright light silhouetted a figure from behind.  She just stared at it for a moment before walking up to the figure.  “Am I dead?” she asked, suddenly remembering the attack.

The figure laughed melodiously, “Not quite yet, little sister.”

Then Scully could make out the face.  “Missy?” she asked in a whisper.  She ran up and hugged her, “Oh Missy.  I’m so glad to see you.”  Suddenly she broke off the hug and stepped back.  “Oh Missy.  I’m so sorry.”

“For what, Dana?”  Melissa asked.

“You died in my place.  It’s my fault.”  Scully cried.

“Don’t you mean Fox’s fault?”  Melissa asked.

“Oh, no Missy!  It isn’t Mulder’s fault, he couldn’t have known…”

“And you could have?”  Melissa asked her sister with a frown.

“I should have!”  Scully cried.

“Dana, the only one to blame for my death is the man who killed me, and the man who sent him to kill you.”  Melissa said firmly.  “If you take any blame for it, you have to share it with Fox.  I don’t think either of you’re to blame.”

Scully realized how surreal this conversation was.  “Missy, where are we?  You’re dead, but you said I wasn’t.  What did you mean?”  Scully was confused.

“You must choose, Dana.  You can come in to the light, with me.  Or, you can go back.”

“What do you mean, I can go back?”  Scully asked.  She thought of Mulder, of how much she loved him and it was almost as if she could hear him, calling her.  Telling her he loved and needed her.

“You can go back to your beloved Mulder, Dana.  However, I must warn you- you won’t be the same.”  Melissa said.

“You mean I’ll be a…” Scully began.

“Vampire, Dana.  Say it with me- Vam-pi-er,” Melissa teased.  “You will give up the sun, you will have to drink blood to live, and you will have to face the hunger.  The desire to kill for food is difficult to overcome.”  The light in the doorway seemed to dim.

Scully’s choice was already made, however.  “I can’t leave him, Missy.  I love him.”  Her voice was full of longing, and she heard Mulder’s call more strongly.  The light on the plain in general seemed to dim, as though night were falling.

“I know, little sister.  Take care of him.  He needs you.”  Melissa said as the light, the doorway and the plain around Scully went dark entirely.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Mulder was sobbing out Scully’s name, and the blood Nick was giving her was about to run out the sides of her mouth when she finally swallowed.  She instinctively latched on to Nick’s wrist and began to suck furiously.  Nick was so happy that she had come back that he made no move to pull away.  Finally it was LaCroix who had to come over and yank him arm away from her.

Nick stood up, dizzy from the blood loss as Scully dropped her head back down to the floor and slept.

LaCroix was angry with his son.  He grabbed a bottle of blood and shoved it into his hands.  “Were you going to let her drain you?”  He demanded.

“Nick, are you alright?” Natalie asked; her concern clear in her voice.

“Yes.  I’m all right.  No.  I wasn’t planning on letting her drain me, I was just happy and relieved that she came back, and wasn’t really paying attention.”  Nick said, somewhat chagrined.

LaCroix looked sternly at his son, and then said to Natalie, “My dear, it would be in your best interests if you allowed me to supervise when my ‘inattentive’ son brings you across.”

Suddenly Mulder broke in, “Uh, Nick, is she going to be ok?” he said, gesturing at Scully, lying on the floor, not breathing, no pulse.  Mulder was still a little shocky.  His joy at her response was tempered by how she responded.  On the whole, however, he would take Scully any way he could get her.

Nick was abashed at his insensitivity.  “Sorry, Mulder.  Yes she is going to be ok.”  He was suddenly struck with a thought, “You do realize, Mulder that she is now a vampire, don’t you?”

Mulder chuckled a little at that, “Yeah, Nick.  I think I had that figured when she started sucking you dry.”  He sobered and looked at her, covered in blood and laying dead- “Ok, Undead,” he thought- on the floor.  In a small voice he said, “Scully *is* my life, Nick.  Mortal, vampire, alien hybrid, whatever- I love her with all that I am.”  He sighed and looked at Nick, “I could no more do with out her than I could do with out my arms and legs.”  Mulder closed his eyes and continued, “When I thought she was dead, I…”

Nick and Natalie actually took a step back as they saw the change come over his face.  He opened his eyes and the hatred they saw there made Natalie gasp.

Mulder quickly schooled his features and asked, as calmly as he could, “Where is the thing that did this to her?”  He turned to LaCroix.  “Is it alive?”

LaCroix smiled at agent Mulder.  He couldn’t help but understand the desire for vengeance that he saw in Mulder’s eyes.  “For now, Agent Mulder.  Why, did you have something in mind?”

“Are you planning on letting it live?”  Mulder couldn’t keep the question from coming out in a low growl.

“I was planning on staking him out on the roof and allowing the sun to finish him.”  LaCroix said.

“Can I help?”  Mulder asked.  He looked at Natalie and Nick, silently begging them to understand.

Nat looked a bit green around the gills, but said nothing.  Nick just looked away and said, “You need to be out of here when she wakes up anyway.”

Mulder began to reply, but Nick overrode his protest, “Listen to me, Mulder.  When a vampire first wakes up after the change… Well, we call it first hunger and every vampire remembers it, because it is the most powerful and overriding feeling we will ever have.  A man would drain his own wife, a woman her own children.  When we first wake, we are purely the beast.”  He reached up and gently laid his hand on Mulder’s shoulder.  “It would be better if you missed that.  You can see her as soon as she slakes that thirst.”

Mulder was visibly concerned about that.

Nick saw Mulder’s look of worry and said, “This is all donated blood, Mulder.  I won’t let your woman turn into a monster, but you must let me train her my way, and you must respect my requests in order for me to be successful.  This is going to be a stressful, difficult time for you both, and if you want ‘your Scully’ back, you will have to trust me.”

When he put it that way, Mulder had no choice.  “I will do anything to have her back,” he said while looking sadly at his beloved.  “*Anything!*”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========


Chapter 7

The Raven

8 a.m. Wednesday December 13th

Natalie stood near the top of the stairs to the roof above LaCroix’s quarters.  She was waiting for Mulder to come down.  Her feelings were in turmoil.  Nick had brought Dana across.  He was Dana’s master.  There was a level of intimacy there that she was uncomfortable with.  She wasn’t jealous per se, but she was new to her intimate relationship with Nick, and didn’t really want to share him.  On the other hand, she really liked Dana, and wasn’t entirely displeased with the thought of closer ties to her, and to Mulder.

Mulder was the reason she was standing here.  First thirst had come and gone without incident, and Mulder had been allowed to see Dana afterwards.  That had been several hours ago and when Dana went back to sleep, Mulder had gone off with LaCroix to deal with ‘him’.  She was uncomfortable with what Mulder was doing right now.  She had heard the screams as the sun rose about 10 minutes ago.  She was somewhat concerned that Mulder- a cop essentially- was an active participant in a murder.  Sort of.  This was vampire justice, and she knew when she had discovered vampire kills in the past, that this was the justice meted out to those offenders.  Not for the killing, but for being caught.

This was The Community she wanted to join.  Not for the first time she wondered what she was getting herself into.  In the end, however, she knew that one couldn’t judge all vampires by the actions of a few.  And the harsh Code that governed them wasn’t really the final authority on what a vampire’s life was like- God gave free will to mortals and vampires alike.

Her musings were interrupted when the door opened and Mulder came down the stairs.  “Feel better?” she asked, somewhat more sharply than she had intended.

Mulder looked at her for a moment.  He saw the uncertainty in her eyes, the chagrin at her tone towards him.  “If a hunter killed Nick, and I put you in a room with the hunter chained up, handed you a knife and shut the door, what would I find when I opened the door again?”

“I’m sorry, Mulder.  That was unfair of me.”  Natalie said, head hanging.

“If it is any consolation, I don’t feel good.  But, I have to admit- I do feel better.”

Natalie changed the subject, “Nick asked me to talk to you a little about this whole thing.  I know you believed in vampires before, but it’s a little different to find out that your partner, the woman you love, is suddenly one.”  She stared at him while she continued, “Then there is the whole master/fledgling relationship.”

“Explain that to me.”  Mulder said, suddenly wary.

Natalie led Mulder down the stairs and into the now-silent club.  She sat down in a chair at one of the tables and took a deep breath.  “First, Mulder, let me tell you that Nick is not like other vampires.  When Dana is adequately trained, he will release her to do as she sees fit.  He will not stand between the two of you.  However, you will not be able to see her without him present for at least a week, maybe two, depending on how quick a study she is,” Natalie took another deep breath and rushed ahead, “and, frankly, on how much you interfere.”

“Why would I interfere?” Mulder said, darkly.  “What is going to happen that would make me want to?”

“This is difficult for me as well, Mulder.  Honestly, I don’t like the thought of sharing Nick with anybody.  Even Dana.”

“What do you mean ‘sharing’,” Mulder asked with a dangerous look in his eyes.

“When Nick brought her across he formed a link with her.  In order to strengthen that link, which will be necessary for him to train her quickly, they will have to exchange blood.  They call it a bloodkiss, and while not inherently sexual, it is very intimate. Nick said he could feel her intense loyalty to you as well as her love for you when he brought her across.  If Dana feels that you’re jealous, she may resist the exchange and that could have serious, negative repercussions on her training, and therefore her ability to integrate into The Community and human society as well.”

Mulder wasn’t too happy at the thought of Knight and Scully in a ‘bloodkiss’ whether it was overtly sexual or not.

Natalie saw the emotion play on his face and quickly continued.  There is good news, Mulder.  Nick says she seems remarkably well adjusted to the change, especially given the complications of dual masters and her inherent skepticism.

Mulder smiled at that.  “I imagine what she would have said last week if I had told her that not only are vampires real, but by this time next week, you will have joined their ranks.”

“Two weeks won’t last forever, Mulder.”

“No, it will just seem like forever.”

“It will be worth the wait, I guarantee you.”

“What do you mean by that, Natalie?”  Mulder asked.

Natalie blushed slightly, “Well… When I said the bloodkiss wasn’t inherently sexual…”

Mulder growled, “Yes?”

“Well, it isn’t.  But when it is done between two people who love each other, during…  Well…”

Natalie’s blush deepened to the point that Mulder could almost feel the heat rolling off of her.  “That good, huh?” he asked, grinning madly.

“Whew, Definitely!” she responded.

“Is it dangerous?  What do I need to, you know, do- like, anything special?”  Mulder asked, clearly unsure of how to broach the subject.

“Just make sure she is very well fed beforehand so she doesn’t drain you.”  Natalie looked at her watch, “Look, you should go back to the hotel and get some sleep.  She isn’t going to wake up before sundown, and would probably appreciate some clean clothes when she does.  I’ll call you a Cab, ok?”

“Yeah, I’ll be back tonight before sundown.  We need to try and see that guy that was in the bar tonight anyway.”

“I’d almost forgotten all about the case.  We may want to bring Nick’s partner in on this.  Nick is going to be kind of tied up with Dana for a while.”  Natalie said.

“Does she know?”  Mulder asked.

“She knows about vampires, she is dating one in fact.  She doesn’t know about Nick specifically, however.”  Natalie smiled.  “I don’t envy Nick when he tells her.  She is going to be pissed!”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Raven

4:10 p.m. Wednesday

Mulder had brought Scully’s luggage with him when he returned, about an hour before sunset.  He had just finished lugging it up to the room Scully was staying in.  He went back down to the club, where Nick, Natalie, and LaCroix were lounging as Miklos, Alma and a few others were setting up the place for opening at 8 p.m.

Mulder joined the trio and asked what they had been discussing.

“We were considering how best to approach our ‘mystery guest’ from last night.” Nick said.  “I think Natalie is right, we should bring Tracy in on this.”  Nick hung his head as he thought of the coming confrontation.

“It is high time she joined us in any case.  Certain people in high places were becoming aware of the Spaniard’s indiscretion.  Decision time is nearly upon her.”  LaCroix said.

“They would force her to come across?”  Natalie asked, somewhat shocked.

“She will be given the standard three choices, Natalie.”  LaCroix said.  “When the elders gather here for the solstice next year, all such mortal confidants in the Toronto area will be given the choice.”  LaCroix met her gaze and said, “It would be better for all concerned if she made the choice before then.”

“Conlectio Cruoris is in Toronto this time?”  Nick repeated, surprised.  “Does Vachon know?”

“Not so far as I am aware,” LaCroix answered.  “You should speak to him; perhaps have him bring his pet to us for a formal introduction.”  LaCroix smiled at the thought.

“I think you might want to tell her that you’re a vampire, first, Nick.”  Natalie said.  “She is going to be pissed off as it is, and you don’t want her reacting during a ‘formal introduction’ to the elder of Toronto,” she continued, wryly.

“Yes.  Tonight, I think.”  Nick said.

Mulder had remained silent during all of this.  He was suddenly less concerned with solving the mystery of the swordfighters than he was concerned about Scully.  He had only been able to speak to her briefly last night after her change, but she had been somewhat withdrawn from him.  He refused to allow this change to separate them.

He would gladly become a vampire if that’s what it took.  They would have to leave the FBI, but they would survive.  He had quite a bit of money from his inheritance when his mother had died, plus several houses he could sell.  They wouldn’t suffer for money.

More than anything, he wanted to be with Scully.  Everything else came second- including his quest for the truth about his sister.  She was his past, and he wanted to know the truth, but Scully was his present and his future.  “Scully comes first.  Now and always,” he thought with resolve.  “Now, how to convince her of that?” he wondered.

He was startled out of his reverie when Nick laid his hand on Mulder’s arm, “She is starting to wake up, Mulder.  Do you want to go see her?”  Nick asked.

“Can I?”  Mulder asked.  He was worried, not for his safety but for her emotional state if she attacked him in hunger.

Nick reassured him, “You can bring her breakfast, Mulder.  I will remain right outside the door in case there is any problem.”

Mulder was suddenly struck with how much these two were giving up to help him and Scully.  This should have been Natalie that Nick was caring for and training.  Their own lives were put on hold so that they could take care of Scully.  “Nick, Natalie.  I’m sorry that I didn’t say thank you last night.  I know you guys are giving up a lot to help us out here, and I want you to know how much I appreciate it.  I can’t thank you enough.”  Mulder turned to LaCroix, “And to you, Sir.  Thank you for generously sharing your home with Scully and myself.  And thank you for this morning.”  He bowed his head slightly toward the master vampire.

LaCroix liked this young man.  His woman as well.  “They will make fine additions to my extended family,” he thought.  He even toyed with the thought of bringing Mulder across himself.  He was thinking that it might serve to further bind his son to him if he could give him a brother to be the mate of Nick’s new childé. “It bears contemplation,” he said to himself.  In response to Mulder’s thanks he merely inclined his head slightly.

“Come on, Mulder,” Nick said, getting up and walking toward the stairs with him following close behind.

Natalie has watched the exchange between Mulder and LaCroix with narrowed eyes.  She waited until the two men had gone up the stairs before commenting.  “You’re considering bringing him across yourself, aren’t you?” she saw confirmation in the slight look of surprise on his face.  “I hope you will let him choose for himself,” she said softly as she got up and followed her fiancée and Mulder.

“Yes, she will make an excellent grandchild.”  LaCroix said to himself.  “If Dana has even half of her potential, my family is going to be a force to be reckoned with,” he thought with satisfaction.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Scully woke up alone.  She stretched out on the bed and thought for a moment, trying to figure out where she was.  Just as the thirst hit her, all the memories came crashing down.  “I’m a vampire,” she whispered out loud.  She could hear whispering outside of her door as clearly as if they had been shouting.  Nick was telling someone to speak softly, explaining about her heightened senses, and that he should be careful of over-stimulation.  She could hear one heartbeat outside the door, and suddenly knew that it must be Mulder.  Ohhh, she was hungry.  But this time it wasn’t quite as consuming as when she had awakened after the change last night.  At that point she would have already been up and through the door, her teeth at Mulder’s throat.

There was a hesitant knock at the door, and she said, “Come in, Mulder.”

He came in wearing a shy smile and carrying three bottles.  He handed her one and the smell of blood coming out of it was overpowering.  Any thought of moderation or politeness was wiped away as she tipped up the bottle and downed it in one long draught.  The second bottle quickly followed and she was part way through the third before she was able to slow down long enough for speech.  “Sorry about that,” she said, embarrassed by her behavior.

“Nick says that it’s normal for a new fledgling to do that.  He said it would pass quickly and you will gain control over your hunger.”  Mulder said quietly.

“Oh.  That’s something to look forward to, I guess.”  Scully felt herself withdraw a little.

Mulder could see the walls between them being rebuilt after only so recently being torn down.  It felt like a boulder was dropped on his chest, and his heart was being crushed.  He dropped to his knees before the woman he loved with every fiber of his being. “Please, Scully!  Don’t do this.  I’ll die if you leave me again.”  Mulder choked back a sob, “I love you Scully.  I need you.  Please don’t shut me out.”

Scully felt like glass.  She didn’t believe he could still love her like this.  She wasn’t the same person she had been when she woke up in his arms yesterday.  “How can you love me, Mulder?  I’m not even human anymore,” she said, her voice brittle.

Nick came in at that moment.  He was angry with her for thinking that, mostly because it was the same addle-brained sentiment he had foolishly lived under for centuries.  Miserable centuries.  His anger lashed out at her through their link and snapped her out of her despair.  “I lived like that for centuries, Dana, and I have finally given up on my self-pity.  I’ll be damned if I will allow my childé to wallow in wretched misery!”  He fairly roared in anger.  “I want this fixed now!  I won’t train a depressed, moody vampire!”

Scully shrank back at the anger she felt in her mind from Nick.  From her master.  She was getting an instant education in the meaning of the word master.  To say that she was cowed was an understatement.  All of that power she had only glimpsed yesterday was back and was whipping her down like an errant school child.  She dropped to her knees next to Mulder, facing Nick, “How, Sir?” she whispered, eyes down.

Nick instantly cooled.  He would not act like his master had, and he would make sure his childé would not act like he had been forced to.  “Stand up Dana,” he said.

She jumped to her feet, but kept her eyes down, looking at Mulder who was shocked at her submissiveness.

“Look at me Dana,” Nick commanded.  Meeting her gaze he said, “I am your maker.  I will be your teacher.  It is important that you obey me while we are conducting your training.  However, you’re not my slave.  You’re a student and you have much to learn, but I would prefer your respect, not fear.  And call me Nick.”

Scully relaxed ever so slightly, “Ok, Nick.”

“Now then, lets get rid of this attitude you have developed- you’re still human, Dana, just not mortal any longer.  You will only give up your humanity and become a monster if you choose to do so.  I don’t see you doing that, any more than you would have if you had remained mortal.  The only inherent changes you have made are the sensitivity to sunlight, garlic, and a change in diet.  Think of it like a severe allergy, not an infection of evil.  And, there are compensations for these deficiencies, I assure you.”

Scully didn’t look convinced, but neither was she retreating into her shell of despondency.

Mulder stood up as Nick asked him, “Do you still love her?”

Mulder answered without hesitation.  “More than anything or anyone else, ever.”

Nick continued, “Do you trust her?”

“Absolutely” Mulder said.

Nick looked at Scully.  “Do you love him?”

She dropped her eyes and whispered, “Yes.”

Nick continued, “But you don’t believe that he can still love you as you are, correct?”

She just nodded her head slowly.

Mulder groaned, “Oh, Scully.”

Nick stopped him short, “Words won’t do, Mulder.  Are you willing to do what it takes to prove it to her, and at the same time prove to yourself that she still loves you?”

Again, Mulder didn’t hesitate, “Anything.  I already told you, Nick.  I will do *anything* to have her in my life.”

“Go get me 3 more bottles, Mulder.  Now.”

Mulder hurried downstairs to get more blood.  Nick turned to Scully and said, “Drink the rest of that one,” indicating the bottle she held in her hand.

She finished off the bottle and asked, “What will you make him do?”

“This is one of those times that I will require your obedience.  You will have to trust me to help you.”  Nick said.

Mulder returned with the bottles, out of breath as he had run both ways.

Nick commanded Scully, “Drink them all.  Now.”  He then watched as she downed each of them, one right after the other.  Nick then said to Mulder, “Give me your hand.”

Mulder blinked once and then stuck out his arm toward Nick.

Nick turned to Scully, “Now, bite his wrist, and drink from him and you will each have the knowledge you need.”  When Scully hesitated he said, “If necessary, I will make sure you stop before you take too much Dana.”  He then said with a strong tone of command, “Do it now.”

Scully moved over to Mulder’s wrist, gently taking his hand from Nick.  She could sense the flow of his blood beneath the thin skin on the inside of his wrist.  The colors around her began to gain a green luminescence and she could hear the rapid beating of Mulder’s heart.  She could smell his blood now; it perfumed the air before her.  She looked into Mulder’s eyes, seeking permission.  She saw love and trust in his eyes.  “You smell like cardamom, Mulder,” she whispered softly, returning her eyes to his wrist.  She felt an ache in her gums as her fangs descended fully for the first time.

“Do it!” Nick commanded through their link.

Despite all of the blood she had ingested moments ago, she felt a fresh hunger spring up in her then.  She quickly pulled his wrist to her mouth and bit down.  Her first thought was that it was like biting into a ripe peach, his blood came quicker than she expected and a little bit came out around her lips and dripped down her chin.  Then the taste of his blood filled her senses, deliciously warm, incredibly rich, and heady with the perfume of cardamom.  As she swallowed the first mouthful the link was established.  What she felt next wiped out any doubts she could have ever had.

Mulder felt the sharp sting of Scully’s fangs in his wrist and was almost immediately overcome with a surge of emotion.  Scully’s emotion.  She loved him desperately, needed him, adored him and cherished him.  She was terrified that he would leave her now, repulsed by what she had become.  His own fear and despair that she would move on, leaving him behind now that she had become so much more, seemed silly to him now.  She could never leave him as long as he wanted her.  He felt a sense of relief and joy that flooded through him like standing in a warm shower after being out in the icy cold for too long- almost painful in its overpowering pleasure.  He also began to feel just a bit light headed, whether from relief or blood-loss, he wasn’t sure.

“Stupid, I am so stupid!”  Scully thought as the link was established.  She had really expected to find rejection in Mulder’s blood.  Well, she wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from this experience, really, but she had convinced herself that she was unlovable as a vampire.  She had been so afraid that he didn’t want her anymore that she momentarily thought it was her own fear flooding her mouth.  She quickly realized that it was Mulder’s fear she tasted.  He was worried that she didn’t need him any more, now that she was ‘so much more’ than she had been.  “Oh Mulder, I could never leave you,” she thought.  “There is no ‘me’ apart from you.”

Nick was about to intervene when Scully felt Mulder’s weakness.  She pulled away from his wrist so abruptly that more blood dripped down her face, staining the blouse LaCroix had loaned her.  His daughter’s, he’d told her.

Through their link Nick gently instructed her on what to do, and Scully carefully licked the wounds on Mulder’s wrist until they scabbed over.  Her heart was full of the love Mulder had for her.  She was filled with joy and tears were running down her face.

Mulder opened his eyes- he hadn’t even realized that he had closed them- and looked at the face of the woman he loved.  Her mouth and chin were covered in his blood and tracks of blood ran down her face from her eyes, which were still luminous green.  Her lips were parted and he could see a little of her fangs.  It was the sweetest, most beautiful, and downright sexy sight he had ever laid eyes on.  He swept her up into his embrace and captured her mouth with his own.  Kissing her thoroughly.  The taste of his own blood did nothing to calm his ardor.

This time Nick did intervene.  “Enough, you two!  Mulder, you’re not quite ready to donate again.  Scully, you need more control before you’re ready for that.”  He looked sternly at them as they separated slightly.  “Don’t push this too far, too fast, or you will have a tragedy on your hands.”  He shook his head, “Two weeks at most, I promise.  Less if you diligently apply yourself, Dana.”

Mulder looked down at Scully and smiled.  “We waited 7 years…”

“We can make it two weeks,” Scully finished, smiling up at him.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick’s Loft

8 p.m. Wednesday

They had decided that Scully wasn’t really ready for the Raven when it was packed with mortals, so the four of them went back to Nick’s loft.  LaCroix was going to speak to Vachon about the Tracy situation when he got in that night.  Nick had called Tracy and invited her over to discuss the case; of course he was going to be covering a lot more than that.  He wasn’t looking forward to her reaction.  He had asked LaCroix if he would send Vachon over after speaking with him.  He and Tracy had some decisions to make.

“So what are we going to do about the headhunter thing, Nick?”  Natalie asked, interrupting his thoughts.

“I thought you and Mulder and Tracy could go look up the guy from the bar.  You could take Vachon as backup, and LaCroix has one of his bouncers watching him as well.  It should be safe enough.”  Nick said.

“You aren’t coming?”  Natalie asked.

“Dana needs to start her training.  We cannot put it off, even for this.”  Nick turned from his fiancée to his new childé and continued, “You have a lot of potential, Dana.  Really.  Most new fledglings are unable to even see a mortal this soon, let alone be in their close proximity for an extended period of time.”  He fixed his gaze firmly on hers and continued sternly, “However, if we put off your training, you will not survive.  Even now, you feel the pull to hunt, don’t you?”

Scully dropped her head in shame and nodded.

“Don’t be ashamed of it, Dana, be aware of it.  We will work together and you will learn to control it.  Even now, you feel it, but you obviously don’t feel compelled to act on it.  That’s what I mean by potential.  A normal fledgling would be unable to keep from doing so.”  Nick said.

Scully looked hopeful.

“You still need training, though.  If you were dropped into the middle of a crowd right now, or if something happened to make you feel threatened, or even if you just got a little too hungry, you would be tearing into the nearest mortal you could get your hands on- even Mulder.”  Nick said seriously.

The other three all blanched at that.

“So,” he continued, “be patient.  Be diligent.”

Just then the sound of the lift engaging rang out.  Nick went from Master Vampire, to a scared little boy as he realized Tracy was on her way up.  Natalie chuckled at the look on his face and got up to get everyone a drink.

“Bring a bottle for my daughter, if you would dear.”  Nick said just for the humorous effect.

Natalie and Mulder laughed and Scully stuck her tongue out at him.  “Gee thanks, Dad,” she said, causing Mulder and Natalie to laugh out loud, and even Nick smiled.

Tracy came bouncing in as she always did (if you look up ‘perky’ in the dictionary you will find the definition followed by ‘See Vetter, Tracy), and said, “What’s up, Nick?  How come you guys aren’t at the conference?”

“Sit down Tracy; I have a lot to tell you.”  Nick sighed heavily as she sat at the table.  “You remember Agents Mulder and Scully from the FBI?”

“Yes, we met briefly Saturday night.”  She looked at the two agents; they looked a little worn out.  Agent Scully looked even paler than she had the other night.  “Please, call me Tracy,” she said as they both welcomed her by her title.

“I’m Dana” Scully said.

“Actually, everyone just calls me Mulder,” Mulder said.

“Is this about that decapitated corpse, Nick?”  Tracy asked.  “Because, we’re still nowhere on that.  No ID, no leads.”

“Yes, Tracy.  This is about that.  We have a couple of leads actually, but before we can discus them there is something… well… something kind of awkward that I need to tell you.”  Nick said.

“What is it Nick?”  Tracy asked.

Nick couldn’t really think of a good way to broach the subject gently or easily so he decided on the direct approach.  He looked her straight in the eye and said, “Tracy, I am a vampire.”

Tracy paused for a second, “What does that have to do with the decapitation?” she asked.

Nick was stunned.  He just sat there, slack-jawed.  Of all the possible reactions he had imagined, this wasn’t even close to being one of them.  “Huh?  How…”

Tracy looked at the four of them; they were all a bit stunned, but especially Nick.  God, he could be clueless sometimes.  She looked at Natalie and said, “Honestly Natalie, how do you put up with him?”  She looked back at Nick, still gaping like a fish out of water, “Well, Duh! Nick.  I’m a de-tec-tive, I de-tect.”  They didn’t give me the badge because I’m perky!”

Natalie immediately began screaming in laughter, tears pouring down her face.  Mulder was laughing out loud as well.  Scully had her hands over her mouth trying not to laugh at her master, given that she could feel his annoyance through their link, and didn’t quite feel brave enough to exacerbate it.

If Nick could have blushed, his face would be on fire.  “How long…”

“That whole sun allergy thing was pretty fishy before I knew about vampires.  After I met Vachon… well it was pretty obvious.”  She paused, “You two do know each other, don’t you?  I mean how could you not, right?  How many vampires are there in Toronto anyway?  Vachon would never talk to me about them.  And don’t think I’m not going to pay him back for not telling me about you, even though I already figured it out, I mean…” Tracy started chattering.

“Enough Trace!”  Nick broke through the steady stream-of-consciousness pouring forth.  “I get the point.”  Nick chuckled at his own cluelessness and looked at the other three.  Mulder was wiping the tears from his eyes, Natalie had her head down between her knees trying to catch her breath; she had laughed so hard.  His ‘daughter’ still had her hands clasped firmly over her mouth, unshed bloodtears welling in her eyes.  He felt through their link and saw that it was only the fact that she was refusing to breath at all that was keeping her from joining Natalie in her hysterics.

“So what is the deal then, Nick?”  Tracy asked.  “Is the killer a vampire or what?”

Nick went on to explain what they had really seen in the alley, including the facts that didn’t make the official report.  He told her about the fight on the rooftop, and the guy at the bar.  He left off the part about LaCroix and just said a vamp had killed him a long time ago, and he was still alive and not a vampire.

“So you think this guy you saw in the Raven might be like the guy you fought on the roof?”  Tracy asked.

“It is a possibility, yes.”  Nick replied.

“And you want us to go talk to him, right?”

“Well… you, Mulder and Nat, anyway.”  Nick replied.

Tracy raised an eyebrow at that, “You’re not coming?  You want us to go see a potentially unkillable, sword-swinging homicidal maniac- but you and Dana aren’t joining us?”  Tracy threw her hands up in the air, “Why not?”

Nick looked at Scully, “Up to you,” he said through the link.

Scully looked a bit sheepish, “Ahh, I’m not exactly allowed out in public… not just yet anyway,” she said, glancing at Nick the entire time.

It only took Tracy a moment to figure out what she meant by that, “You brought an FBI Agent across?!  Nick! What were you thinking?”  She was exasperated.  “I thought the point of the code was *not* to bring attention to The Community!”

“Vachon told you about the code?  Good.  That leads us to the next topic.  Vachon should be here anytime now.  You and he have something to discuss.  Something important.”  Nick said.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Outside The Raven

The subject of their discussion was just leaving the Raven.  Javier Vachon was more afraid right now than he had been since he was brought across, almost 470 years ago.  Not long ago he would have cut and run, rather than let himself get involved with a Code conflict and the Conlectio Cruoris of the Council of Elders.  “Tracy is worth it.” he told himself.  He knew he was hopelessly in love with her, but he didn’t know how she felt.  Frankly he didn’t think she knew either.  One didn’t usually see a lot of perky, upbeat vampires running around, but he was sure that Tracy wouldn’t lose that just because she came across.  Now he had to convince her of it.

When LaCroix told him that Tracy would have to choose, and soon, or face death; he felt like he had been staked in the gut.  The fact that his own life was on the line didn’t even enter into his thoughts.  If she chose not to come across, she would die.  Would he even want to live beyond that day?  It wasn’t a subject he had ever considered.  The end of his own existence.  “Wow,” he thought.  He would just have to convince her that the nightlife was better than no-life.  He took off for the Loft at top speed.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========


Chapter 8

Terminal 3

Lester B Pearson International Airport

8:02 p.m.  Wednesday December 13th.

Methos was waiting.  “Bloody plane is 2 bloody hours late.” he thought sourly.  “5,000 years of progress and we still can’t schedule traffic any better than we could with Bloody donkeys and carts.”

An announcement came across the public address system, “Flight 1013 From Seattle Washington Now Arriving At Gate B10.”

“About Bloody Time!!” Methos said while jumping up off of his stool at the bar.  He threw down a $50 and took off for the gate.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Gate B10

Duncan MacLeod was pissed off.  He had been woken up at 6 a.m. and had to pack and get to the airport for an 11 a.m. flight across the country and into Canada.  With a sword.  Across international boarders with a three-and-a-half bloody foot-long sword.  Not an easy task when one plans ahead.  Short notice; customs; sword.  And no explanation why other than ‘It’s important, Duncan.’  “That SOB *owes* me for this one,” he thought.

He felt the quickening as soon as he stepped off the plane.  “Hullo Mac!” he heard from off to his left.  He turned to find a grinning Methos standing there looking entirely too happy to see him.

“Alright, Why the hell am I here, Methos?”  Mac said without preamble.

“What…  No ‘Hello’; No ‘Long time, no see’;  Not even a ‘How’s it going’ for your old pal?”  Methos teased.

“How about a ‘what-the-hell’s-going-on?’”  Mac said sourly.

Methos picked up the carryon bag that Mac had dropped and hooked his free arm in Mac’s, pulling him close and whispering, “In the car.  I have the feeling I’m being watched.” and then walked toward the terminal, dragging Mac along.

Mac quickly surveyed the 150 or so people in sight and kept pace with Methos.

As they entered the parking structure, Mac thought he had the tail spotted.  He was very good, blending in with the crowd, never looking directly at them, or evenly matching their pace of movement.  However, he wasn’t with anyone, wasn’t carrying a bag, and Mac didn’t recognize him from the flight, so why would he be in the group of people heading toward baggage claim?  If he didn’t stop and pick up a bag at the claim, Mac would be sure- since he himself only had carry-on bags and wouldn’t be stopping.

As they came around a bend Mac broke off and gestured for Methos to keep going while he hid behind a concrete support and waited for their tail to show.

Carter knew it was a trap before he even entered.  However, there was no way around, and if he doubled back, he might lose the target.  Either he was already made or they were just being cautious.  All he could do was move through it and either balls it out or fight through and wait on the other side for them to come out.

He could hear the heartbeat of the mortal behind the pillar, and of his target up ahead.  He never broke stride as he passed the first, but the silly mortal whipped out a sword and held it to his neck.  “Nice blade” he thought.  If he had to kill the guy, at least he would get a nice souvenir out of it.  “What’s your problem, man?” he said out loud, trying to balls it out.

“Nice try, but you forgot your bags.” MacLeod rasped out.

“Fight it out, I guess” Carter thought as he saw the target coming back with another sword drawn.

Methos came into sight of MacLeod holding a small young man at bay with his sword against the kid’s neck.  He was going to say “Aren’t you a little short to be a thug?” when the kid moved.  It was almost too fast for the eye to see.  The kid leaned back at an impossible angle away from Mac’s sword then batted it up with one hand while striking a back-fist against Mac's chest, caving it in with a sickening crunch.  Before he could even blink, he felt something strike his chest with a force like being shot with a rifle.  He flew several meters down the ramp they were on and landed on his back.  He was pretty sure he had at least several broken ribs.

As Carter flew away he chastised himself for not pulling his punches more.  He was pretty sure the target survived, but the other one was almost certainly dead.  If not, he would be soon, as Carter felt the ribs give way when he struck, penetrating the lungs and heart.  Miklos was not going to be pleased.  He wasn’t even going to think of how the general would react.

To say that he was surprised when he observed both of them walking into the parking lot not two minutes later was an understatement.  Neither moved as though they were injured at all.  He waited until they were in the car and then pulled out his phone and placed a call before leaping into the air after them.

MacLeod waited until they were in the car before he said a word.  Methos turned toward him and started to speak, but Mac cut him off.

“Short notice, customs, sword, no explanation,” he was ticking each point off of the fingers of his right hand as if counting from 1 to 5, but on 5 he made a fist and shook it at Methos.  “And dead from a bloody crushed chest- not the most pleasant way to go, by the way.”

Methos took a quick breath as if to say something when Mac jumped in again, “And what the hell was that?  I’ve been hit by cars with less damage!”  Mac complained.

Methos just started the car and began driving off.  He waited for MacLeod to stop ranting before even trying to get a word in.  Finally Mac wound down and Methos said, “I don’t know what it was MacLeod.  I was in a club looking for Froag last night when I saw this guy.”

MacLeod jumped once more, “You mean the guy that just kicked out butts?  And why are you looking for Phineas Froag?”

“Maybe if you would let me finish a sentence, I could explain?”  Methos said, exasperated.

“Well by all means, please do go on,” MacLeod said sarcastically.

“Thank you,” Methos said just as sarcastically.  “I saw a guy in the club that I recognized from a long time ago.  But, there was no quickening.  I’m sure it was the same guy, and he recognized me as well, even put my drinks on the house tab.”  Methos shot a quick glance at Mac to gauge his reaction, before continuing.  “Any way, ever since I left the club, I felt like I was being followed.  I never could find the guy, no matter how many times I doubled back or walked in circles.  That’s why I called you this morning.”

“So the thing that attacked us wasn’t the guy from the club?  Are you sure you were close enough to feel the quickening?”  Mac asked.

“No and Yes, respectively.”  Methos replied.

“How do you know the guy from the club?”  Mac asked.

“He had me crucified in Gaul in 74 AD.”  Methos responded.

“Why?”

“He was a Roman General.  He wiped out a tribe I had been living with for a decade or so.”  Methos said.

“So why single you out for special treatment?”

“I had been leading raids against his troops for a couple of weeks before they got to our village.  I never did figure out how they found us- we always escaped away from the direction of the village when we retreated from our raids.  I left tails and we were never followed even in the wrong direction, let alone all the way to the village.”  Methos shook his head slowly.  “Any way, I was thinking of going back tonight…”

“And you wanted me as backup?”  Mac asked, incredulously.

“Yeah, fat lot of good you did so far.”  Methos teased.

“I didn’t see you get any good strikes in, and *you* had time- he attacked me first!”  Mac complained.

“So, you want to go with me?”  Methos asked.

“Well, I haven’t been killed in at least…” Mac looked at his watch, “10 minutes or so.  Why not?”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick’s Loft

8:30 p.m. Wednesday

Vachon landed on the roof of the loft and looked in the skylight.  He saw Trace, Nick, Natalie, and a Vampire and a mortal that he didn’t know.  He was about to jump off the roof and come in the conventional way- since he didn’t know if Tracy knew about Nick being a vamp, and he didn’t know about the other mortal at all- when Nick looked up and gestured for him to enter.  “He must have told Tracy.  I’m sorry I missed that!” he thought.

Natalie, Tracy and Mulder all started slightly when they heard the skylight open and saw Vachon jump down.  Mulder was like a kid in a candy store, seeing all of the X-Files fodder around and for once being able to share it with Scully.  “She can’t ‘scientific explanation’ it all away this time!” he thought, somewhat uncharitably.  He loved her more than life itself, “but damn!  I get tired of being the only one to see it every time!”  he thought, remembering all of the supernatural and/or alien phenomena he had witnessed while Scully was unconscious, missing, or just plain looking the wrong way.

“Hey Trace,” Vachon said.

Tracy promptly stood up and hugged him.  Then she pulled back and punched him in the arm as hard as she could.

“Ouch!  What was that for?” he asked the madwomen who had just assaulted him.

“That’s for not telling me about Nick!”  Tracy said, looking fiercely at him.

Natalie and Nick laughed at the ‘little boy caught red-handed’ look.  Scully had finally calmed down enough to start breathing again when she caught Nick’s ‘whipped’ comment through the link and started laughing.  “Better not let Natalie hear you say that,” she thought to him.

Again, if Nick could have blushed, he would have.  As it was, Natalie seemed to pick up on the exchange and elbowed Nick in the ribs, just in case.

Tracy transitioned back to perky and introduced Mulder and Scully to Vachon.  Upon hearing the titles, Vachon commented, “How does one of us get into the FBI?  Don’t they make you take all kinds of physical tests and such?”

Mulder chuckled at Scully’s sheepish look and answered for her, “She only recently, Ahh… joined your ranks.”

By that time Vachon had detected Knight’s scent on her.  He spun around toward him saying, “You brought across an FBI Agent?!  What were you thinking?”

Inexplicably, Tracy blushed at the comment and the rest laughed.  Vachon was slightly nonplussed at the reaction and Tracy forged ahead, “Nick said we needed to talk, Vachon.  So… Talk.”

Vachon told her what LaCroix had told him.  Tracy paled and looked at Nick.  “The Nightcrawler?  Why would he be involved at all, and why is he giving my Boyfriend instructions on my life?”  Tracy practically shouted.

Vachon thought “Well that answers one question.”  He noticed that she was looking back and forth between Knight, Natalie and himself, trying to figure out why they were all smiling at her.

Tracy suddenly blushed when she realized she had slipped.  Before she could protest, Vachon answered her question.

“LaCroix is the oldest vampire in Toronto, Tracy.  He was doing Knight a favor by telling me before the choice was forced on you.”

Tracy was overwhelmed with the influx of new information and the seriousness of the situation that she was in.  “Why would the oldest vampire in Toronto do me any favors, Nick?”

“Because you’re my partner, Tracy.  He knows that I care about you.”  Nick told her the rest, “He’s my Father Tracy.”

“Your Father?”

“Father, Maker, Master- how ever you choose to describe it.”  Nick said.

Tracy was clearly overwhelmed.  “Oh,” she said.

Nick looked at Mulder and said, “Why don’t you four go see our ‘suspect?’  I’ve got the address of the place where he is apparently staying from LaCroix.  Nat can drive while you explain the situation to Vachon, and then Tracy and Vachon can talk on the way?”

“Yeah.  I’d like to figure out what these guys are.”  Mulder said.  “Plus,” he thought to himself, “The sooner he trains Scully, the sooner we can be together again.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Raven

9:35 p.m.

“Irony,” was the one word Carter thought of to describe this situation.  He was watching the target for Miklos, for when the General was ready to find him; however, it seemed that the target was ready to find the General first.  Carter pulled out his phone.

MacLeod and Methos stood in line at the Raven for about 20 minutes when someone opened the door and the Bouncer stuck his head into the club for a moment.  When he came back, he immediately opened the rope line and let everyone in front of them in until they themselves got in.  Mac noticed that they were the last ones allowed in before the bouncer closed the line again.

Methos and Mac shared a look.  “Quite a coincidence,” they both thought as they went to find a table.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

LaCroix’s Office

LaCroix was intrigued.  First Miklos informed him of the incident at the airport, and now this man and his companion had come straight to him.  He made sure they got in immediately, but winced when he noticed that his incompetent bouncer had been so obvious about it.

LaCroix reviewed the facts, such as he had, “They are both like the one Nicolas and Agent Mulder encountered the other night.  They can be killed but they don’t stay dead.  Unless you take their head, perhaps?”  he thought, remembering Nicolas’ description of the first encounter on Saturday night.  “There are at least three of them in the city.  At least one of them is as old as I am, perhaps older.”

LaCroix watched them on the CCTV system for a bit, considering his next course of action.  He was in no particular hurry.  They would not be allowed to leave until he was ready for them to do so.  “If that time should come,” he murmured.  He thought it might be amusing to allow Nick to approach them in his capacity as a member of ‘Toronto’s Finest’ and see what their reaction was.  Eventually he reached for the phone.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick’s Loft

Nick had decided that quick instruction was needed for a variety of reasons.  He knew Dana wanted strongly to be with Mulder again- soon.  He himself wanted to bring Natalie across and he didn’t want to wait any longer than necessary.

Fortunately there was a way to facilitate the training.  Unfortunately it involved a level of intimacy that was rather uncomfortable to consider.  He would have to be as intimate with Dana as he was with Natalie.  Not physically, but in every other way.  He thought Natalie would understand once she came across, but might have a more difficult time from a purely mortal perspective.  That Dana might resist such intimacy was also a consideration.  He would have to convince her.

Scully watched Nick as he considered her.  She didn’t care for the new relationship that she had with this man.  He was her master.  She had the impression that he didn’t really think of her as a slave, but she could feel the power he wielded over her and, by any other name, she felt like a slave just the same.  She tried not to resent him; he had saved her life, after all.  It wasn’t his choice that made her what she was, it was hers.  She could have gone on, not crossed back over.  She thought of Mulder, and realized that whatever she would have to do, it would be worth it.

Nick felt his new fledgling’s turmoil and resolve.  He decided that it was foolish to wait, and that it was equally foolish to try and reason and cajole her into what had to be done.  He would play the part of master to the hilt, demanding what was necessary, and then releasing her once it was complete.  They would always share a bond, but one not nearly as strong as the link between him and his own master.  He would train her and then let her go her own way as she chose.

Scully was becoming uncomfortable as Nick continued to stare at her intently.  He had closed off their link and she couldn’t feel what he was thinking.  Suddenly he seemed to come to a decision.

Nick focused on Dana and spoke, “This is going to be uncomfortably intimate for both of us, but it is the quickest way to cover the basics and significantly reduce the time we will need to accomplish your training,” Nick sighed.  He then continued with a tone that bore no argument, “I expect that you will obey me, Dana.  You will feel the impulse to resist once the link is initiated.  That is normal.  I will beat down your resistance and completely possess you.  It won’t last long, but it will feel as though it does.  The more you’re able to relax and allow it to happen, the easier and quicker it will be.”

Before she could even comment, Nick struck.  He had her in his arms and his teeth buried in her throat in less than an eye blink.  She felt compelled to bite him as well, so she did.  Intimate didn’t begin to describe it.  Her instinctive resistance to this… Violation seemed to come the closest… was quashed immediately and she felt herself being erased and replaced with him.  S/He was being taught by LaCroix.  S/He experienced every agonizing moment- being repeatedly thrown off of a cliff until S/He grasped the concept of flight.  Being abandoned in a maze and forced to focus on the link with her/his master and find him where he was hidden.

Then the killing came through.  S/He was hunting.  Hunting humans, reveling in the blood and death.  S/He was a killing machine, draining and destroying wherever she went.  S/He gloried in the power of the vampire.  Suddenly the guilt began.  S/He began to feel the crushing remorse that came from realizing that S/He was a monster, and damned for all eternity.  Finally S/He found forgiveness and the chance for redemption.

Scully slowly came to an awareness of herself as a separate entity.  She felt the bloodtears dried on her face, and the rawness and hypersensitivity of her flesh.  She also felt gnawing hunger as though she hadn’t eaten in days.

As soon as he felt that she wouldn’t collapse, he flew to the fridge and grabbed several bottles.  He tore the cork out of one and handed it to her, while biting the cork out of another for himself.  After they each finished several bottles he reached through their link and compelled her to follow him.  He took off into the air and through the skylight into the night.

Scully didn’t even stop to think but took off after him into the sky.  She had been chasing him for several minutes before she realized what she was doing.  “Wow!” she thought.  The night was nearly as bright as it would be during daylight.  Everything was crystal clear, and the colors were intense!  She was slightly lost in the intensity of the experience when she heard “Find me” and realized that she no longer saw Nick anywhere near her.

She remembered finding LaCroix this way, “I mean, I remember Nick finding LaCroix…” Either way, she knew what to do.  It seemed like only moments later that she came upon Nick hiding in a mausoleum in a graveyard on the outskirts of the city.

“Cliché, I know,” he said.  Then he was gone again.

This time she couldn’t hear him calling her.  This too, she remembered.  She extended her senses, envisioning a cloud around herself that defined her awareness.  She pictured that cloud growing larger in all directions.  She could hear the heartbeats of the small mammals in the cemetery all around her.  She could feel the movement of the trees as the breeze blew through the leaves.  She felt the still coldness of the reptiles below the surface, hibernating through the winter months.  Finally as she expanded her awareness to the limits of her ability she felt him.  He was about 65 meters away from her in a tree.  She laughed as she focused her attention toward him.  He was hanging by his toes from a branch in a tall oak.  “More Cliché, Master?” she thought toward him as hard as she could.  She could hear him laughing with her ears, though he managed to keep the link shut to her.

He whispered to her from across the distance, “to the loft.” and then disappeared again.

She laughed again, reveling in the freedom of flight, now that she wasn’t focused on following or finding.  “I can’t wait to bring Mulder for a ride!” she thought.  She flew back to the loft, filled with excitement and wonder, “Yesterday Vampires were a myth.  Something Mulder believed in, but didn’t really exist,” she thought ruefully.  “Poor Mulder.  I owe him an apology.”  She smiled again as she thought of how she would show her repentance, and seek his forgiveness.

She hadn’t even noticed that the link was open again until she felt Nick chuckle and say to her, “You’re not quite ready for that yet, Dana.”

She didn’t miss the ability to blush, she thought, chagrined.

“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about Dana,” Nick said to her as she re-entered the loft.  “You just need to know a couple of things about sex between mortals and vampires.”

She couldn’t meet his gaze as he continued.  She felt exactly like she had at age 10 when her mother gave her ‘the birds and the bees’ talk.

“Except this is more like the bats and the bees, I guess,” Nick answered her train of thought.  The important thing to remember is that carelessness on your part could lead to his death, Dana.  That’s why it is important to wait a bit until your control is even better.”

“I thought you said I had good control now,” she complained.

“You do, Dana. You remember how wonderful it felt when you drank from him last night?”  he asked.

Scully nodded.

“It is even more intense when you drink from here,” he said, gesturing toward his throat.  “It is closer to the heart and mind, and the imagery, the link, will be deeper, as you discovered with our bloodkiss not an hour ago.”

Scully looked at her watch as though her head was being pulled on a string down toward it.  “Has it only been an hour?” she asked, incredulously.

“The kiss only lasted a few minutes,” Nick smiled.  “I told you it would seem longer.”  He continued, “The point is, you could easily get lost, and Mulder cannot sustain a significant blood loss, like one of us can.”

“Can’t I do it without biting?” Scully asked.

“Technically, yes.  However, you cannot personally… well… finish, I guess, without biting.  Even if you just try to ‘be there for him’ you will have an almost irresistible urge to bite.”  Nick shook his head ruefully, “Dana, I am 800 years old.  Even I need to make sure I am well full before Nat and I, well, you know.”

“What if Mulder wants to, you know… come across,” Scully asked softly.

“I would strongly recommend that if the two of you make that choice, you wait a while- like a year or more- or you get someone else to do it.”  He continued on over her protest, “Dana, you will have the basics down pretty quickly, but you’re not ready for a childé of you own, you won’t be for a while.  You could effect the physical change, any of us could, but it requires a great deal of strength to control a fledgling.  That kind of strength takes some time to develop.”

Scully looked crestfallen.

“Dana, even in a year, you would need my help to adequately train a fledgling, especially a strong-willed creature like your partner,” he returned Scully’s smile at that comment.  “Frankly, I plan on having my hands full with my wife.  If you really want to go that route, I would help you find a suitable master to bring him across.  In any case it is hardly a decision that needs to be made tonight.”

At that moment the phone rang.

“Nick Knight,” he answered.

“Nicolas, our friend is back, and he has secured reinforcements.”  LaCroix said and then went on to describe the incident at the airport and them showing up at the raven again.

Nick told him he would send Tracy, Vachon, Mulder and Natalie.  LaCroix, of course, understood why Nick would not be attending.  He inquired as to how the training was going.

“We did it the hard way,” Nick said.

“You always were impatient, Nicolas,” LaCroix said in an indulgent, though slightly disapproving tone.  “Bring my granddaughter to me tonight after closing,” he commanded and then hung up the phone.

Scully, of course, heard the entire discussion.  “Is there a problem?” she asked, somewhat worried.  LaCroix intimidated the hell out of her.

“No.  This method is somewhat frowned upon because weaker individuals can be entirely overwhelmed and crack under the pressure.  Such creatures are usually destroyed.”  Nick answered the look on her face, “I had no concerns of that sort whatsoever with you Dana.  You’re anything but weak.”

Scully shut her open mouth with an audible- even to non-vampires- snap.

Nick said, “I’m going to call Nat and tell her what’s up.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Caddie

Natalie closed her cell phone with a snap.  “He said that this guy and another guy like him are at the Raven right now.”

“What do you mean ‘like him’?” Mulder asked.

“Nick said the one they had following him had to fight them when he was detected.  He killed our target’s partner and seriously damaged our target.  Then not two minutes later they walked away like nothing happened.”  Natalie answered.

“You’ve never heard of these people before, Vachon?” Tracy asked.

“No.  But think about it, they don’t really stand out, you know?  The General only recognized the guy we are looking for because he had seen him before.  A long time ago.  Otherwise he would have never known.” Vachon answered.

“I couldn’t tell anything out of the ordinary when Nick and I fought that guy on the roof, either.”  Mulder paused and then gave a dry chuckle, “At least not until he got up after Nick shot him several times.  That was a little unusual.”  He said wryly.

“Yeah, I guess that would have been strange.  Kind of like finding a guy walking around holding his right hand in his left hand,” Tracy said.

Natalie and Vachon laughed, Mulder looked confused.

Vachon explained, “I was on a plane that crashed.  I lost my right hand and was looking for it when Tracy found me.  I had just found it and picked it up when she told me to put my hands up.” He started laughing when he remembered the look on her face when he did as she asked.

“*Not* Funny Vachon!”  Tracy complained, hitting him on the arm, again.

Mulder laughed as he imagined the scene.

Tracy pouted for a moment, as everyone laughed at her expense.  She decided to change the subject, kicking herself for having brought it up in the first place.  “Should we go to the Raven?”

Natalie was about to answer yes, when Mulder interrupted her.  “How far are we from the apartment where this guy is staying?”

Natalie said, “About 2 blocks.  Why?”

“Well,” Mulder began, “If we know this guy is at the Raven, it seems like this might be an excellent opportunity to check out his place, you know- see if any useful information might turn up.”

“We can’t do that, Mulder!  It would ruin any case we might…” Tracy began.

“It’s not like we can take this case to court, Trace.  Even if this guy is involved in the death you’re investigating.  This can’t go to trial any more than a vampire kill could,” Vachon interrupted- rather liking Mulder’s suggestion.

“I don’t like it,” Tracy said.

“Look, it would be rather suspicious for all of us to go.  Why don’t I go and you guys can talk about LaCroix’s ultimatum while I check it out.”  Mulder said.

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” Natalie said.

“If this guy is at the club, there’s no danger, right?”  Mulder began, “What’s to worry about?  I’ll go in, see if there is anything worth further investigation, and then go out.”

Natalie looked at the others.  No one had a better idea to bring up, so she just shrugged and looked for a parking spot.

She was forced to park around the corner and halfway down the next street.  Mulder Jumped out of the car and said, “Back in a few,” and then drew his coat tightly about him and briskly walked off.

Natalie watched him in the rear view until he rounded the corner.  She turned in her seat and looked at the two in the back.  “So... What are you going to do Tracy?”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Outside 3232 Tableau Ave., Apartment C

Jimson had been watching the door to the run-down looking brownstone for almost 2 hours.   Pretty soon it would be Sonny’s turn and he could get a nap.  “God, I’m tired” he thought.  “I wish this freak would show up so we can get this over with!”

He felt his eyelids beginning to droop.  As he forced them back open for what must have been the hundredth time, he saw a man in a black trench coat entering the door he had been staring at.  Frantically, he looked at his watch, “How long was I…  Damn!  almost 10 minutes!”  he whispered.  He looked over at Sonny, who was in the back of the van sawing logs.

“Sonny!  Sonny!  Wake up!”  Jimson shouted softly.

“What?!” Sonny said blinking the sleep out of his eyes.  “Is it my turn already?  Man!  I was having this incredible dream…”

“Shut up, Sonny.  He’s here!”

“What?  Who’s here?”  Sonny was still a little groggy.

“The freak we’ve been waiting for, you idiot!  Let’s just grab him and get him to Perone.  I want to see him chop this guy’s head off.”

“How do you know it’s the guy?”  Sonny asked.

Jimson looked at Sonny like a monkey trying to solve a math problem.  “Well, let’s see, He has short hair, a long black trench coat, and… Oh yeah!  He’s the only guy who walked into the apartment we have been watching for the last twelve hours!  I think that’s what clued me in!”

“Ok, ok!  Sheesh!  You don’t have to bite my head off.”  Sonny whined.

“How did you ever make it into the Watchers?”  Jimson asked, incredulous.

“Hey, Fu…” Sonny began.

“Shut Up!”  Jimson interrupted, looking back over at the door.  “He’s coming back out.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

“Well… that was a waste of time,” Mulder thought.  The place was entirely empty except for a mattress and blankets on the floor, and next to it a single wooden chair.  “Talk about traveling light.” Mulder mumbled as he pulled his coat tightly around him and walked out into the night.  He pulled out his cell phone to call Natalie and let her know he was on his way back.  “Just don’t want her to worry” he thought.

As the phone rang he heard the sound of a car starting down the street behind him.  He started to turn around when she answered.  “Hey Natalie, the place was empty.  Yeah, there was a mattress and a chair and that’s it.  I’m heading back your…”  Mulder never finished the sentence because the car he had heard starting drove right into him on the sidewalk.  Blissfully, he was rendered unconscious.  Had he remained conscious he would have felt the pain of his broken legs, torn back muscles, and cracked skull.

“What the hell did you do that for?”  Sonny yelled at Jimson.  “He’s no good to us dead!”

“You really are an idiot, Sonny.  He’s *immortal* remember?  This just gives us time to get him secured.  Now, get him cuffed and put him in the trunk!”

Sonny scrambled to obey.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Caddie

Natalie had been listening to Tracy and Vachon discussing the pros and cons of him bringing her across when the phone rang.  She shook her head at the two, as they were dancing around the subject of their feelings for each other.  “Are we really all so clueless?”  she thought, remembering the tension between herself and Nick, as well as between Mulder and Dana.  She listened to Mulder tell her there was nothing there and start to say he was coming back when suddenly she heard the screech of tires through the phone.  “Mulder?  Mulder, are you still there?”  She could still hear sounds through the phone, but Mulder wasn’t answering.

Vachon heard everything through the phone as well.  He said, “I’ll go check it out,” and just like that he was gone.

Tracy said, “I hate it when he does that!”

Natalie smiled in response.

Suddenly she heard Vachon’s voice through the phone.

“Natalie- I think somebody hit your friend with a car- his blood is on the ground and his phone was about 15 feet away from the blood, lying in a flowerbed.  I saw a car spinning off around the corner- I’m going to follow it.  You go to the Raven.  I’ll call when I find him.”

Damn.  When it rains it pours.  Natalie started the car and pulled away from the curb.

“What happened?  Where are we going?”  Tracy asked.

“Let me call Nick and you can both hear it at the same time.”  Natalie replied, hitting the speed dial and pointing the car towards the Raven.

When Nick answered she explained what happened, and where they were going, and that she would call back as soon as she heard from Vachon.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick’s Loft

“Stop right there, Dana.”  Nick said as soon as he hung up the phone.  “We will wait right here until we hear anything.  You’re not ready to go out there right now, especially in your current state of control.”

This was her master speaking with all of the power and authority he could project.  Scully sat down abruptly on the couch.  She had heard the entire thing and the words ‘hit Mulder with a car’ had her ready to go out and destroy whoever had the temerity to harm her lover.  Once Nick made her stop, she began to think rationally again.  “Where was I going to go?”  She wondered.  I don’t even know where they are.

“You and I are going to practice, and you’re going to focus on the task at hand.  We cannot do anything until we know where they have taken him.”  Nick said sternly.  “Now, Find Me!”  With that, he disappeared out through the skylight again.

Scully sighed, as she felt that he had closed the link again.  She flew up and out, once again trying to expand her senses.

Scully was hovering about 200 feet in the air, trying to focus her newfound senses outward, trying to find her master.  “Funny how ‘master’, odious as it is, seems easier than ‘father’,” she thought.  Nick called his master ‘father’, and she heard LaCroix refer to her as his granddaughter, but she still found the concept difficult to wrap her mind around.  Ahab was her father- no one could ever replace him.

Not to mention she was having difficulty focusing on anything right now.  She was terribly worried about Mulder.  “Why is this happening to us?  How many times can I lose him, when I just found him after 7 years of denial?”

Just then she noticed a shadow flit across the sky in the distance, landing on a building about 1500 meters away.  “She couldn’t reach that far with her vampire senses, but her eyes still worked just fine.  “Who else could it be?” she thought as she took off toward him.

“Talk about dumb luck” Vachon thought.  He was following the car when it pulled in to a warehouse garage, not even a mile from Nick’s loft.  He settled on the roof across the alley from where the car pulled in.  He could sense about a dozen heartbeats, including one that seemed thready, unhealthy.  “Probably Mulder,” he thought.  “I feel sorry for those guys if Knight’s childé gets a hold of them.”  Actually he didn’t feel sorry for them at all.  He pulled out Mulder’s cell phone to call Natalie.

As Scully got closer, she realized that it was Vachon, not Nick.  He was talking on a cell phone, though she was just a little too far away to hear what he was saying.  Her undead heart beat twice in succession, “Mulder must be in there!” she thought, looking at the warehouse Vachon was focused on.  Nick’s admonishment fled her mind as she thought of Mulder injured and hurt in there.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Sam and Sullie’s Auto Parts

Perone was not impressed when Jimson and Sonny showed up claiming to have captured the immortal and opened the trunk to reveal their prize.

Mulder lay groaning in the trunk.  He was barely conscious, and wracked with pain.  He was also still bleeding steadily from the wound on the back of his head.

Jimson and Sonny pulled him from the trunk and sat him on a chair in front of Perone and the others.  “What makes you think that this is the one I sent you to find?”  Perone asked disdainfully.

Jimson realized something was wrong when their quarry was still out of it.  Sonny forged ahead “We caught him coming out of the apartment you sent us to.  We hit him with the car and brought him straight here!” he said excitedly.

“If this is an immortal, why is he still *bleeding?*” Perone asked in clipped tones.  “Get rid of it him, you idiots!”

Scully landed in front of a dirty window and peered in just in time to see a group of men standing around Mulder, who was propped up in a chair.  Her heart broke to see him, he looked beat to hell, and she could smell and see his blood covering his face and clothes.

Natalie was on the phone with Vachon when she heard him say “Uh oh!”

“What is it, Vachon?”  she asked.

“Knight’s daughter just landed in front of the warehouse.” Vachon answered.

“Where’s Nick?” Natalie asked.

“I don’t know.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick was becoming concerned.  He had felt his daughter when she thought she had him located, but she had flown the wrong direction.  He popped up into the air and began looking for her.

His cell phone rang and he stopped to answer it.

“Nick where the hell are you!?”  Natalie practically screamed at him.

“What’s wrong Nat?”

Natalie began speaking rapidly, “Vachon followed them to a warehouse about a mile down the road from you, and he just told me Dana is there now!”

“Damn!  She must have seen Vachon, and thought it was me.  I’m on my way now.” he said and then closed the phone and took off toward the loft and past it.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nat called Vachon right back.  She told him Nick was on the way, so he popped up into the air to look and saw him in the distance.  Just then he heard gunfire and then an inhuman scream that sent chills down his spine.  It was loud enough that Natalie even heard it over the phone.

“What was that?!” she demanded.

“I think they just killed your friend,” he said, stunned.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick felt a wave of despair/anguish/anger/hatred through his link with his daughter at the same time he heard the gunshot and her scream.

“Oh, no!” he cried.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Scully stood frozen as she watched one of the men pull a pistol and fire in one smooth motion.  It was as if time came to a near-standstill.  She saw the bullet impact Mulder’s chest directly over his heart.  She saw the weak spray of blood as his heart gave one last contraction and stopped.  She waited for a second beat, and when it didn’t come she felt her world end.  Suddenly her vision was red, and her throat was raw and bleeding from the scream that tore out of her as if of its own volition.

Her body reacted without any direction from her mind, which was focused on Mulder.  The words, “He’s dead, they killed him” reverberated in her mind as her body flung itself through the glass in front of her and began to rend and destroy.

When Nick and Vachon arrived only moments later, it was already over.  The only intact bodies in the room were the corpse of Mulder, who was hand and foot cuffed in a chair; and the body Dana was just finishing draining.  The others were in various pieces, strewn all over the room.  Blood was sprayed all over the room and Dana was completely soaked.  There wasn’t a square inch of her that wasn’t saturated in human blood.

Nick hoped she could calm down quickly.  He really didn’t want to have to destroy this childé too.  He was about to say something to her when his attention was drawn back to Mulder.

Scully returned to herself just as she finished draining Perone.  She knew his name; she knew all of their names.  She had all of his memories, she remembered Perone instructing the one called Jimson to kill Mulder.  “Oh, Mulder!” she thought.  She was suddenly aware of Nick and Vachon in the room.  She was horrified and embarrassed at what she had done.  She was not sorry that these monsters were dead, but she was ashamed that she had done it.  She felt her master’s sadness and concern.  He wasn’t angry, just disappointed and… “Wondering if he had to destroy her?”  Her tears began to flow.  “Am I a monster?”  She didn’t really care if she lived or died at that moment.  Mulder was gone, and her life was over anyway.  Just as the overwhelming sorrow threatened to drag her back down into insanity, she heard a loud Gasp.

Mulder’s last memory was one of pain.  He had been in intense pain already when the bullet ripped through his heart.  His last thought had been worry about Scully.  He hoped she would be able to overcome the pain and live.  He didn’t think he could be that strong if the positions were reversed, and he just hoped she was stronger than he was.  Then blackness…  Until now.  He gasped and began breathing raggedly.

As he opened his eyes he saw Scully, Nick and Vachon all standing there, gaping at him.  He noticed Scully was completely bathed in blood.  “My blood?” he wondered.  Then he noticed the pile of body parts around him.  He remembered the group of men standing around him before they shot him.

“Scully?  Are you ok?  Did they hurt you?”  Mulder asked.  He went to stand up and reach for her when he discovered his hands were cuffed behind his back.  He took a step towards her and discovered that his feet were similarly cuffed.

When he started to fall, Scully was snapped out of her stupor.  She was instantly by his side to catch him.

“Scully, I’m sorry.  I’m so sorry I let them do this.  Please tell me you’re ok, Scully.  I was worried about you.”

Scully didn’t even know that she had felt crushed until the weight lifted off of her.  Mulder’s death had been like the weight of the entire world focused into a point pressing against her heart.  Now that it was gone she felt exultant.  She didn’t even realize she was floating in the air until Mulder’s head softly struck the ceiling.

Mulder still didn’t realize they were flying.  He was so focused on the eyes of his love before him that the blood she was covered in disappeared from his perception.  All he could do was kiss her thoroughly.  He ran his tongue over her fangs and she moaned in delight.

Vachon was still gaping at the pair.  He was sure that they were about to have sex floating 20 feet in the air above.  He began to laugh at their antics.  It was either laugh or… “Hell, I don’t even know!” he thought.

Nick was glad to feel Dana’s sanity return with the return of Mulder.  That return bothered him though.  It was apparent that Mulder was like the others in which they were interested. “And he didn’t know it?” he wondered.  This needed to be resolved.  He cleared his throat, loudly; reinforcing the gesture through his link with his daughter.

Scully felt the tug and broke off her kiss with Mulder.  She looked down and couldn’t restrain a giggle.

Mulder felt a wave of disappointment when she broke the kiss.  When he looked down, he gasped again and tried to grab on to Scully, but was, of course, stopped again by the cuffs.  “Scully, why are we up here?” he asked.

She grinned at him and said, “I was just really, really happy to see you, Mulder.”

“Can we go down now?  I’d really like to get these cuffs off.”

“Sure.”

They slowly floated to the floor and Scully reached around for Mulder’s cuffed hands, tearing the chain apart and bringing them around between him and her.  She pulled apart the bracelets on each hand, and then kneeled down and did the same for his ankles.

“Wow…  Thanks,” was all Mulder said.

Suddenly the situation came crashing back down on her.  Mulder could see it in her eyes when they started darting around at the body parts on the floor.  He remembered how he felt when he had witnessed the vamp who attacked Scully burn in the morning sun.  Guilty.  Not because of pity for the vampire, but because he enjoyed it.  He decided that now would be a good time to share that with Scully.

“Did Nick tell you what we did with Freddie?”  Mulder asked, derailing Scully’s obviously self-recriminating train of thought.

“Who?” she asked, suddenly confused.

“The one who attacked you…”

“Oh.  No, he didn’t.”  Scully looked at Nick.

“LaCroix let me stake him to the roof.  I watched him writhe in agony for hours.  Then the sun came up.  That’s when the screaming began.  It was like playing a blowtorch over his entire body.  It started to smoke and turn black, then flames leapt through his skin, as though he was burning up from the inside.  After a while there was nothing left but ash, and I watched that blow away in the breeze.”  Mulder’s tone had been flat, emotionless; as he continued she could hear passion rising up in him, “I enjoyed it, Scully.  I only wished I could hurt him more, make it last longer.  He had attacked you, threatened to take you away from me.  He failed, but still, he tried.”

Scully felt compelled to respond, “Mulder, I…”

“Afterwards,” Mulder interrupted her, “the only thing that I felt bad about, was that I didn’t feel bad about it at all.”  Mulder locked his gaze on hers, “I don’t feel the urge to do that sort of thing, except when it comes to someone hurting you. I’m not a monster Scully, am I?”  Mulder asked.

Scully felt relieved.  He understood exactly how she felt.  “No Mulder.  You’re not a monster.  Neither am I.”

Nick broke in at that point.  “You need to go take a shower.  Both of you,” he said, gesturing at their blood-soaked bodies.

“I know what they are, Nick.” Scully said.

Nick blinked at the segue.  “What who are?”

“The guy you fought on the rooftop.  Like the one LaCroix showed us at the bar.  Like Mulder.” she answered.

“It was in their blood, Nick.  They belong to a group called the watchers.  They watch ‘Immortals,’ they record their history, their lives, and their battles.”  She continued angrily, “some of them do more than watch.  Some of them think immortals are an abomination.  They hunt them.”

“How is it that Mulder didn’t know he was an immortal?”  Nick asked.

“It doesn’t seem to kick in until their first death.  Before that, they are just like mortals in every way.  I can tell you from experience that Mulder has spent plenty of time in hospitals recovering from beatings, stabbing, and shootings.”  Scully shook her head and looked at Mulder, “I have spent so many nights worrying about you dying…  If I had known, I would have killed you six years ago.”

“Aw, honey, that’s the nicest thing you have ever said to me,” Mulder laughed.

“What about the lightening show?” Nick asked.

“It’s called a quickening.  It’s their life force.  When one of them takes another’s head, they receive the quickening that is released, increasing their power.  The more heads, the more power they have.  They call it ‘The Game.’  In the end, there can be only one.  They fight until there is only one left, and that one gets ‘The Prize’ whatever that is.  These mooks didn’t know anyway,” Scully said.

“That’s why they cuffed me after they ran me down with the car?  They thought I would heal quickly.”  He realized that these guys were after the same man they were tailing, but didn’t know what he looked like.

“Anything else we need to know?”  Nick asked.  “No?  Then you two go take a shower.  You can keep yourself occupied until 2.  Then come to the Raven.  We will keep the ‘immortals’ occupied.

“Wait, Nick.”  Why do we need to keep them occupied at all?  We know what’s going on already.  Don’t we?”  Scully asked.

“We still don’t know why they are here, and if it is just for this ‘Game’…  Well, frankly, as a policeman in this city I don’t particularly like cleaning up after them.  They can take it elsewhere.”  Nick said.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========


Chapter 9

Nick’s Loft

10:20 p.m.  Wednesday December 13th

Scully stood in the shower with Mulder, washing the blood off of both of their bodies.  Mulder looked like the victim in a slasher film.  Scully looked like that scene in Carrie.  When she had seen herself in the mirror she had almost fainted.  “Can Vampires faint?” she wondered.  “They have almost no blood pressure as it is, not to mention…”  She broke her own train of thought.  ‘They.’  Vampires weren’t a ‘they’ anymore.  “We.”  She thought.  “Better get used to it.”

“I love you, Scully.  No matter what.  Vampire, werewolf, zombie, whatever.  It wouldn’t change the way I feel about you.”  Mulder said.  “Well, maybe not as a zombie…” he joked

Scully blinked at that for a moment.  “What was that, Mulder?”  she asked.

“You were getting that ‘I’m a freak’ look.”  Mulder was emotionally exhausted by the events of the evening, and his heart was on his sleeve.  “Please don’t ever think it matters to me Scully.  I love you so much it hurts.  I really can’t even fathom existence without you.  Especially immortal existence.”  His voice dropped to a whisper as every last insecurity he’d ever had ran gibbering through his mind simultaneously, “please don’t leave me.  *please*”

As hard a day as she’d had, she knew it had been no picnic for Mulder either.  She was worried about losing him, and she had allowed that feeling to make her mentally push him away.  “Enough, Dammit!” she shouted.  “I’m a blood-sucking vampire, and you’re a head-hunting immortal.  I refuse to allow little things like that to come between us anymore!”

Mulder, at first stunned at her outburst, began laughing hysterically.  He wrapped his blood-sucking girlfriend in his arms and laid into her lips with a searing kiss, not coming up for air until he began to feel light headed.

Scully smiled impishly and said, “I don’t need to breathe anymore Mulder.”

Mulder waggled his eyebrows and said, “That could come in very handy,” while pressing his erection into her stomach.

Scully lost her smile for a moment and said, “I’m not sure we should, Mulder.  Nick said it could be difficult for me to stop once I started.”

Mulder’s smile grew large, “I’m OK with that,” he said.

Scully rolled her eyes, “I meant drinking from you, Mulder.  Apparently I have to bite to… you know.”

“Actually, no.  I don’t know.  You have to bite me to… what?”  Mulder said with a smirk.

“Arggh!” she thought.  Mulder could be so exasperating.  “To Cum, Mulder.  Ok?  I meant that I would have trouble stopping drinking from you because I have to bite you to cum.”

“I meant it too, Scully.  I’m OK with that.  Drain me.  Let me be in you as long as possible, be one with you until the last drop.”  Mulder said sincerely.

“Mulder!”  Scully said, shocked.

“I’ll just come right back, Scully.  Remember?  I’m immortal.”

“Oh yeah,” Scully said, sheepishly.  “I forgot.  It’s going to take a while to get used to that.”  Then she smiled and levitated up for another kiss.  “Oh yeah!  This is going to require some serious exploration,” she said.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Raven

11:00 p.m. Wednesday

MacLeod was bored.  “Methos, we’ve been sitting here for 2 hours…”

“Hour and a half, tops.”  Methos replied

“My point, Methos, is that in the space of that time, we have yet to see your mystery ‘not mortal’ anywhere.”  MacLeod said with a smirk.

“Well, perhaps you’ve forgotten, Hmm?  Airport, Crushed rib cage?  Aren’t you even curious?”  Methos shook his head.  “In my *entire* life I have never actually met or seen one.  I always thought they were a myth.  Hell, I still kind of think that they’re a myth.”

“Don’t you think if there really were such thing you would have seen them before.  I mean, you have been around the block a few… thousand… times.”  MacLeod said.

“Did you notice anything strange about that young man tonight?  Before the obvious, I mean.”  Methos said.

“Not really.”  MacLeod thought for a moment.  “He was awfully pale…  I thought it was the sword at his throat.  I guess it wasn’t.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Caddie

Natalie and Tracy were still sitting in Nick’s caddie, waiting for word on Mulder and Scully.  They had been discussing the ultimatum regarding Tracy’s future.

“I think I am in love with Vachon.”  Tracy said, suddenly; as if the words had been building up and she could no longer contain them.  She seemed almost as surprised by it as Natalie was.

“Did you just figure that out, Tracy?  The rest of us already knew that.”  Natalie said with a chuckle.

Tracy was a little indignant at Natalie’s amusement.  “Oh, you mean like you and Nick?” she said; waiting for Natalie’s ‘just friends’ protest.

Natalie smiled at that, knowing what Tracy was probably expecting.  “Yes Tracy.  Exactly like Nick and I.”  she laughed again.  “Remember when I told you it was complicated?”  Natalie asked, seeing Tracy’s jaw drop.

Tracy still couldn’t speak, she just nodded her head.

“Well, it recently got uncomplicated,” Natalie smiled widely and glanced at the ring she was wearing.

Tracy’s eyes followed Natalie’s glance and she noticed for the first time tonight the ring on Natalie’s finger.  “Oh My God!” she squealed.  “When…  How…  Does this mean you’re coming across?”

Natalie’s smile grew impossibly larger.  “Yes.  Soon!”  she breathed, excited and aroused at the thought.

Tracy noticed Natalie’s arousal and giggled a little, “I take it, then, that the dry spell has ended?”  she asked.

Natalie blushed furiously, “Oh yeah, Big time!”

Tracy sighed, “Vachon and I haven’t…”

Natalie sobered a bit, “It is dangerous Tracy.  Seriously.  We didn’t until we had decided that I was definitely coming across.  Every time could be the last.  You should be aware of that,” Natalie said seriously.

“It would appear that that is inevitable, anyway,” Tracy said.

“How do you feel about that?”  Natalie asked.

“I think I was leaning in that direction anyway.  I love him.  I’m pretty sure he loves me.  I want to be with him, and this is the only way to do it.”  There was no need to explain who ‘him’ was.  “I just think it sucks that the choice has been made for me!  I was no threat to The Community!”  Tracy said, offended at the thought.

Natalie sympathized.  “How would I feel if I had known there was no choice before I chose to do it?” she wondered.  She suspected that the answer was ‘pretty pissed off’.

The phone interrupted their introspection.  It was Nick.  He explained to Natalie for several minutes about the events at the warehouse, and told her that he and Vachon were on the way.

“Ok Nick.  We are sitting in the caddie in the back alley.”  Natalie said.

“We’ll be there in a couple minutes.  I love you Natalie.”  Nick said.

Natalie’s radiant smile lit up the interior of the car, “I love you too, Nick,” she replied.

“What happened!?”  Tracy asked.

“Dana found Mulder.”

“Oh God, is he alright?”  Tracy asked.

“There were about a dozen men, they killed Mulder.”  Natalie said, still digesting the fantastic story.

Tracy let out a strangled cry, “Oh no, poor Dana.  What did she do?”

“Oh no, Mulder’s ok.”  Natalie reassured Tracy.

“What?  I thought you said…”

Natalie explained about immortals.

“Mulder’s Immortal?”  Tracy was beside herself, “Why didn’t he tell us!?”

“Apparently, he didn’t know.  I guess it doesn’t kick in until they die the first time.”  Natalie said in wonder.  “Hell of a coincidence…” she thought.

“It takes a little bit though, right?”  Tracy said, remembering Mulder and Nick’s encounter on the roof.  “I bet Dana was beside herself.”

“Uh, yeah.  Nick said she kinda lost it for a minute…”  Natalie trailer off.

“Lost it how?”  Tracy asked.

“Nick didn’t really go into it, but he said he was going to have to clean up, so I don’t think we will be having to worry about the men who took Mulder anymore.”  Natalie said.

“Oh,” Tracy whispered, the implication sinking in.

“Yeah,” Natalie replied, pondering the implications as well.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Raven

LaCroix digested the news Nicolas gave him for a moment.  “Immortals.  How very interesting.”

“Vachon and I are on the way, father,” Nick said.  “I had a check done on the apartment.  The name of your ‘old’ adversary is Adam Pierson- at least that is what he is using presently.”

“I will call Aristotle and have him see what else he can discover.”  LaCroix said.  “Why don’t you and your partner approach conventionally, while Natalie and the Spaniard wait in my office,” he suggested.

“As you wish.  Would you like to speak with him at all?”  Nick asked.

“We shall see.”  LaCroix responded, swiveling his chair back to the monitors and watching his two guests.  “This may prove to be an entertaining diversion,” he thought to himself.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick and Vachon landed on either side of the caddie.  They smiled at each other as they knocked on the windows, knowing the reaction they were going to get.  They were not disappointed.

Natalie and Tracy looked at each other after screaming, annoyed with the antics of their men.  “I hate it when he does that,” they said simultaneously.

Nick opened the door on his side of the caddie and swept Natalie out and into his embrace.  He kissed her thoroughly and then said, “Forgive me?”

Natalie laughed, “Maybe.  Maybe not.  I may need more encouragement.”

Nick moved his lips close to Natalie’s ear and softly whispered, “I think I can arrange that.”  He then sucked her earlobe into his mouth and gently scraped it with one of his fangs, causing her to shiver with delight.

“Hey you two, get a room!”  Tracy said with mock severity as she rose up out of the car.

Vachon grasped her hand and laid a single kiss on her palm.  “Querida, you and I must speak before this night is over.”

Tracy shivered a little herself.  “How about now?”

“You and I have a couple of immortals to speak to, partner” Nick interrupted.

“Oh.  Yeah.  Them.  Well, lets get to it then, *partner*,” Tracy said, obviously distracted.

“Nat, you and Vachon should go in and head for LaCroix’s office.  We are going to approach them in our ‘official’ capacity.  Depending on how far LaCroix wants to play this, we might even see if they could identify our decapitation victim.”  Nick said.

Natalie was worried about one issue that had nothing to do with immortals, at least not that kind of immortal, “Uh, Nick- what about…” she said, holding up her left hand and wiggling her ring finger.  “What is LaCroix going to say?”

Nick smiled.  “I don’t know exactly what he will say, but he knows me.  He knows that if I were going to bring you across, I would want you to be mine; forever.  I don’t know that he would approve of the institution, but I think he approves of you, especially you coming across.  He isn’t going to be surprised, and he isn’t going to be angry.  So, don’t worry.”

“Nick!  You have had 800 years to get over being intimidated by LaCroix.  I get to tell a 2000 year old vampire that I am about to become his granddaughter *and* daughter-in-law.  I’m stealing away his favorite son, and he doesn’t really like me anyway!”

Tracy snickered and said, “So what’s wrong?  Sounds like a perfectly normal trailer park wedding to me.”

“Ok, Tracy.  You’re not helping here,” Natalie said, exasperated.

“Natalie, don’t worry.  LaCroix doesn’t bi…” Nick began.

Tracy and Vachon began laughing as Natalie waggled her finger in Nick’s face, “Don’t you dare!”

“Besides,” Nick added, “he didn’t even mention it last night, did he?”

“Last night is slipped it off and into my pocked as we went into his office,” she answered.

“It will be ok.  I promise.”  Nick said, laughing himself.

“It had better be…” Natalie warned.

“Come on Natalie.  Let’s go in first,” Vachon said.  Turning to Tracy he said, “Don’t be all night.”

With that, Natalie and Vachon walked in through the alley exit.

Nick and Tracy walked around to the front.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Natalie and Vachon had to walk within 10 feet of Mac and Methos on their way to the office.  They pretended to ignore them as they passed, but noticed that conversation stopped as they passed.

MacLeod and Methos’ eyes followed the pair as they went by, and stayed on them all of the way to the office door.  They observed them stop, knock and after a moment enter the office.  During the brief moment when the door was open enough to see the occupant of the office Methos recognized the Roman General.

Waiting until the door closed, Methos said, “Did you see him MacLeod?”

“Those two?” he asked

“No, well yes, them as well, but I meant the man in the office.”  Methos clarified.

“What about him?”

“That was the bloody Roman I told you about.”  Methos said.

“Ah.  Did you feel what I felt when those…” MacLeod began.

“Yes.  One of them any way.”  Methos returned his gaze to his young friend.  “You didn’t really have anything better to do anyway, did you?”

MacLeod looked sourly at his old friend and sighed heavily.  “What are you going to do about the Roman?”

“He looked right at me.  Smiling.”  Methos said, warily.

“So he smiled at you.”  MacLeod chuckled.  “Maybe he’s reminiscing.”

“Very funny.”  Methos replied.

“Uh oh, what have you done now?”  MacLeod asked, noticing two official looking individuals approaching them.

Methos turned toward the front doors and saw a tall, slender blond woman and a medium height medium build blond man approaching them.  Both wore matching styled trench coats- hers gray, his black.  “No quickening.  They look like cops,” he commented.

Nick suppressed a smile when he heard the shorter one’s comments.  “Gotta love that vampiricly enhanced auditory acuity,” he thought, remembering seeing Natalie write that in her journal when she was trying to develop a cure for him.  “What a long way we have come since then,” he mused.

“Adam Pierson?”  Tracy asked.  At the blank stare she received, she withdrew her badge and credentials and stated “I’m Detective Vetter.  This is Detective Knight.  We are with Toronto Metro Homicide.  Are you Adam Pierson?”

Methos looked at MacLeod for half a beat and then back at the Detectives.  “That’s me.  Is there a problem?”

“Would you mind if we went someplace a bit quieter?  We would like to ask you a few questions, if you don’t mind,”  Nick said.

Methos and MacLeod looked at each other, as if seeking one another’s advice.  MacLeod shrugged and Methos nodded.  “Certainly, detectives.  Lead the way.”

To Methos surprise, the detective led them not out the door, but into a back room which was unoccupied and slightly insulated from the music blaring in the main club.  Detective Vetter trailed the group.

Nick gestured to a table and indicated that the two immortals should sit.  As they did, he began his questions.  “What can you tell me about a swordfight that took place Saturday night behind an office building next to the Victoria Café?”

Methos very briefly showed surprise before schooling his features and saying, “A sword-fight?  Surely not in this day and age?”

Nick continued, “Yes, a sword-fight.  What can you tell me about it?”

“Nothing, detective.  I didn’t even arrive in town until Sunday.”  Methos said.

Nick decided that there was really no reason to adhere to rules of evidence, as this interview would never be documented in a report.  “I didn’t ask you when you arrived, Mr. Pierson, I asked you what you could tell me about the sword-fight that happened on Saturday night.”

“I told you, Detective.  Nothing.  I can tell you nothing about a sword-fight on Saturday night.”

Nick pulled out a picture of the victim and laid it out on the table.  He could hear Pierson’s heart speed up significantly.  He captured that beat and spoke hypnotically, “What is his name?”

Methos was caught in the Mesmer for just long enough to mutter “Scott Santeramo.”  Then he caught himself- “He looks almost exactly like someone I used to know,” Methos said.  “What the hell was that?!” he thought furiously at himself.

Nick got the feeling that Pierson and Santeramo were friends.  He decided to play on that.  “I saw him.  I got there just in time to watch him die.  I saw the man who cut off his head.”  When Nick heard Pierson’s heart begin to pound he caught it again and tried to mesmerize him once again, saying, “What was his name?  Who killed Scott?”

“Froag.  That son of…”  Methos once again caught himself spilling the details that he must not share.  “What is happening to me?!” he screamed at himself.

Nick sensed Pierson tense, and changed tactics.  “Were you aware that your apartment was broken into tonight, Mr. Pierson?”

“What?”  Methos asked, disoriented.

“The man who broke in was struck by a car, right on the sidewalk outside your apartment as he exited.”  Nick paused for a moment and then, “The men who ran him down then got out and put wrist and ankle restraints on him and loaded him into the trunk.”  He cocked his head at Pierson and asked, “Why would they do that, Mr. Pierson?”

“I have no…” Methos began.

“They were waiting for you Mr. Pierson.  You were their target.”

“No, I…” he began.

“They took him to a warehouse and gave him to a group of men.  He was nearly dead already, and certainly would have bled to death, but they left him in the restraints and took the time to shoot him.  Why would they do that?”

“How the hell should I know?  I was here all night!”  Methos nearly shouted.

Tracy was admiring the way Nick was playing this guy.  If this had been a real interrogation, this would have been her time to jump in, “Well, why not?” she thought.

“Mr. Pierson, no one is accusing you of anything.  We are trying to solve a murder, and it is apparent that you have information we need.”  Tracy said.

“Look I really can’t help you…” Methos began.

“We are willing to overlook the concealed weapons charges against both of you if you will cooperate with us.”  Nick said, interrupting him again.

“What?!”  Methos said, his train of thought once again derailed.

“Your swords, Mr. Pierson.  The ones you have sewn into your coats.”  Nick said, smiling.

Methos and MacLeod both swiftly glanced at both detectives’ wrists, and then at each other.

Nick caught the glance and remembered the tattoos that the watchers had sported on their wrists.  “No, Mr. Pierson.  We aren’t here to *watch* you.  Although I think there is a group of such individuals in a warehouse over on Gateway lane.

Both Methos and MacLeod visibly paled at Nick’s not-so-subtle emphasis on the word ‘watch’.  Neither said anything.

“Come now gentlemen.”  Tracy said.  “Not all of us can afford to sit here *forever*”

MacLeod spoke for the first time, “Who the hell are you people?”

Nick laughed, “Isn’t that supposed to be our line?”  He shook his head, “We are Toronto Homicide detectives, just as we said we were.”

“If you know what you’re talking about, then you have to know that you can’t take this case to court.  Let us handle it.  Your killer will not cause any further problems.”  MacLeod said.

“What is his name?”  Nick pressed.  “For that matter, what is yours?”

“I am Duncan MacLeod.  The man we are looking for is called Phineas Froag, believe it or not.  And trust me when I tell you that you cannot handle him alone.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

LaCroix laughed at that.  He, Vachon and Natalie had been observing and listening to the interrogation.

Natalie wondered aloud if all immortals were resistors.

LaCroix asked, “Why do you say that?”

Natalie was momentarily startled.  She hadn’t realized that she had spoken out loud.  “Unh, well…  I mean Mulder was a resistor too, and now this Pierson seems to be.  I just wondered if it was maybe normal for them.”

LaCroix thought for a moment.  “Resistors are usually those with very strong minds- a very strong sense of self.  I imagine that even if not all immortals are resistors, those who are very old would probably be.”

Vachon asked, “Do you think they get stronger with age?”

“Certainly not on our level at least.  After all, this Pierson fellow is as old as I am, or older, and Carter was able to take both of them out quite easily.”  LaCroix shook his head.  “In any case, I was not thinking of them becoming more powerful with age, but rather that only those with very strong minds could survive as long as this one has.  Even among our kind, few are strong enough to last longer than a century or two before dying or going mad.”

LaCroix had been noticing that Natalie had kept Vachon between her and himself since entering.  She also refused to meet his gaze, and kept her hands in her lap, out of his sight.  Her heart rate increased markedly whenever he spoke or looked at her and her breathing was shallow and rapid.  Clearly she was very nervous.  Nervous about him.  “Natalie.  Child, look at me.”

Natalie almost gasped.  Her heart was in her throat and she thought, “Oh, God!  Here we go.”  She gulped and looked into the face of the master vampire.

LaCroix turned to Vachon, “Go out and join our friends.  Natalie and I will be along presently.”

Vachon merely nodded and left the office, happy to be out of this discussion.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick’s Loft

12:30 a.m.  Thursday

Scully and Mulder had stayed in the shower, making out, until the water turned cold.  Mulder thought the art of making out didn’t receive the respect that it should.  The anticipation of what was going to come next had both of them panting, even if Scully didn’t need to breathe.

They gently toweled one another off and Scully said, “Nick said that I could use the guest bedroom.”

“Nick’s a great guy.”  Mulder responded.  “Where is it?”

“Right this way,” Scully said, grabbing Mulder’s hand and fairly dragging him behind her.

Mulder only held back at all because he really liked the view he got following a naked, excited Scully.  He noticed that the wetness between her thighs was red.  Concerned, he asked, “Scully?  Are you alright?”

They were almost to the bedroom door when she heard his question.  Sensing the concern in his voice, she turned around, “I’m fine, Mulder, why?”

“I just noticed that you…” he trailed off, gesturing toward the blood smeared between her thighs.

Scully looked down and was suddenly embarrassed.  “Oh, uh…  I kinda forgot to mention that…”

“What, Scully?  Are you Ok?”

“Yeah, really I’m just fine, Mulder.  Uh…  Well…  It seems that blood is the only body fluid that vampires have,” she continued quietly.

“Oh.”  Mulder said.  He could see that this embarrassed her.  He didn’t mind at all, but had been concerned that she might be injured.  “I don’t mind Scully, really!  I just thought you might be hurt.”  He could see that she was still uncomfortable and decided that actions would speak louder than words.

Scully was momentarily surprised when Mulder swept her up in his arms and carried her through the door.  He threw her onto the bed and immediately kneeled between her legs.  Throwing one leg over each shoulder he dove into her with his mouth and tongue.  Any concern she might have had about Mulder being turned off by her new condition was erased by the waves of pleasure that poured over her.

Mulder was not at all put off by the taste of Scully.  Slightly metallic, the blood quickly became his new favorite flavor.  The sounds, the little moans and gasps she made, they were all the encouragement he needed.  Soon she was crying his name out and when he looked up he saw that she had changed.  Her eyes were blood red and her fangs were fully extended.  She seemed on the edge of orgasm, but would not tip over.

“Mulder!  Oh, Mulder!  I need…  I need to…” Scully shouted.

Mulder suddenly remembered that she would need to bite him to cum.  He stuck his hand toward her, offering his wrist.  She grabbed his hand and bit into his wrist, sucking strongly.

The link between the two was re-established and the love and concern they felt for one another rolled into her orgasm.  Mulder felt her tip over the edge and felt himself follow her.

After a few swallows she released him, momentarily spent.  He was spent as well, and somewhat embarrassed to have cum so prematurely.  “Apparently the link works both ways,” he said.

She chuckled at his discomfiture.  I’m sure you will be able to make a comeback, Mulder.

Mulder crawled up onto the bed next to her and took her in his arms.  “I love you so much, Scully,” he whispered into her ear, kissing the lobe and the area of her neck below it.

Mulder’s lips on her neck were like an instant injection of fire throughout her body.  She was suddenly ready for round two in a big way.

Mulder noticed the instant arousal and thought to himself, “Ok, the neck is apparently vampire erogenous zone number one.”  he was about to be disappointed that he couldn’t respond as rapidly as he would have liked to, when he noticed that he too was suddenly and overwhelming ready for the second round.

Scully felt Mulder’s raging erection pressing into her side and laughed.  “Ahh, the unspoken benefits of immortality, revealed!”

Mulder captured her mouth in a searing kiss and then said, “I think I just figured out what we are going to do with the next century, or ten.”

Scully smiled at him and decided to test his newfound stamina and show off her own apparently infinite ability to hold her breath.

Thirty minutes and three orgasms later, during which Scully had kept him in her mouth the entire time, Mulder decided that he now knew what heaven must be like.  His recovery time was measured in seconds, not minutes.  “This is definitely worth getting run over and shot!” he said after screaming out Scully’s name for the third time.

Scully had waited long enough.  She continued her oral assault until she felt him harden in her throat once again, then she pulled away from him and crawled up his body, dragging every inch of herself across his erect member as she went.  She captured his mouth in a searing kiss and then impaled her self on him.  She rode slowly at first and then built up speed until she was pounding him down into the mattress like a jackhammer.  His hands on her breasts were tentative at first until she guided him with her own hands on his.  Soft and sweet would come soon enough.  This session was to be strong, hard and fast.  Soon he was torturing her nipples, squeezing and pulling, rolling them between his finger and thumb.  He screamed out her name until his voice was raw, trying to restrain himself until she reached the point of no return.

Finally she had built up the pleasure in herself until she thought she would go insane with need.  Mulder arched his head back, baring his neck, instinctively knowing what she needed.  She could resist no longer.  She plunged her fangs into his throat and drank the hot rush of blood in huge gulps.  Through the link she felt his encouragement and this time she didn’t stop.  She felt Mulder release inside of her both physically and through the link.  Her own orgasm rolled through them both.  She felt his love and adoration pouring out for her in his blood.  She felt his need so strongly that it made her cry, even as she drank.

Mulder’s last thoughts as he died were filled with the incredible, absolute love he felt from Scully.  Love for him alone.  “I am going to really really *really* enjoy living forever,” he thought as his consciousness faded away.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Raven

1 a.m. Thursday

Nat and LaCroix sat silently in his office for a bit.  “I thought we had an understanding, Natalie,”  LaCroix said.  “Why are you so unnerved by my presence?”

Natalie couldn’t get her vocal cords to cooperate with her, so she just lifted her hands out of her lap and presented her left hand to him, palm down.

LaCroix saw the ring and immediately understood its significance.  “Ahh, I see.”  he shook his head, “Nicolas is an impetuous child.  He knows that marriage ceremonies are not generally practiced among our kind.  Yet Nicolas is not one to conform to the mores of our society.”  He caught Natalie’s gaze and continued, “Did you think that I would be angry with you, child?”

“No…  Yes…  I don’t know…”  She sighed heavily.  “I guess that I was just worried that you might think I was trying to take him away from you.” she said in a descending voice, ending in a whisper.  “I’m not, you know.”

LaCroix considered her for a moment.  “While the institution of marriage is not commonly accepted in The Community, we do recognize mates when we see them.  You must realize Natalie that monogamy has a different meaning among us.  The bloodkiss is the height of intimacy among our kind, but it is not seen in the same way as physical sex.  Bloodkiss is shared among males and females alike with no thought to gender.  You and Nicolas may remain monogamous, sexually, but I will still expect you to share him with me in the bloodkiss.  You will find that, sharing the bloodkiss is quite common, especially between master and childé.”

“You’re telling me that I shouldn’t be jealous of Dana.”  Natalie responded.

LaCroix nodded his head.  “But not only Dana,” LaCroix said.  “Nicolas has more than one childé, you know.”

Natalie remained in denial for a moment, “He hasn’t seen Serena in years, and they were hardly close then.” she said.

LaCroix merely smiled and waited.

The thought struck her suddenly.  She knew he had brought her back across, but she still thought of Janette as his sister/ex-lover.  “I guess I still think of her as your childé.” she said with a sigh.

“As do I child.  However, we must both face the fact that she is not.  Nicolas is Janette’s master now.”  LaCroix said.

“If she will ever forgive him,” Natalie added.

“Oh she will… eventually.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Methos was confused and a little angry.  Something about this policeman was getting to him.  He knew far too much and seemed able to make him say things he didn’t want to say.  In 5000 years he didn’t remember ever encountering someone quite like this.  He seemed to have presence like an immortal, but there was no quickening at all, not even what he would expect to feel from a pre-immortal.

Speaking of which, he felt MacLeod nudge him and indicate the approaching figure with his chin.  It was the longhaired man that had gone into the office where the roman was.  This time he didn’t feel anything at all.

“Excuse us for a moment,” Nick said as he and Tracy stood up and walked several feet away to speak with Vachon.

Mac leaned in close to Methos and whispered, “I don’t feel it; do you?”

“No.  It must have been the woman.”  Methos whispered back.

Vachon had just told him that LaCroix and Natalie were going to be joining them when he heard the whispered exchange behind him.  Unthinkingly he whipped around and returned to the table in the blink of an eye.  “What?!  What about her, what did you feel?”  He exerted every ounce of power he had, enthralling Pierson beyond even his ability to break lose.

The speed and ferocity of the Detective’s approach stunned MacLeod.  “He’s just like the guy in the airport,” was the first thought to pop into his head.  It wasn’t a quickening, but he could feel the tendrils of power emanating from this creature like a heavy fog of electricity sizzling his skin.  He was about to go for his sword when he discovered that the longhaired man was holding him from behind.  “Damn, I didn’t even see him move,” he thought.  He struggled briefly, but it was as if he was held in place by iron bands.  He couldn’t move at all.  He heard a whisper in his ear.

“Relax.  We have no intention of hurting you.”  Vachon said.

“Yeah?  Well you have a bloody funny way of showing it.”  MacLeod responded.

Suddenly another voice startled them all.

“If we had wanted you harmed, Mr. MacLeod, you would be harmed already.”  LaCroix looked at his son, “Nicolas, I think you might have to relax your hold slightly.  I do not think that he is able speak at the moment.”

Everyone turned to look at the Man and Woman standing at the entrance to the room they were in.  MacLeod felt once again the gentle wash of energy that was the quickening of a pre-immortal; so much quieter and more subtle than the real thing.

Methos shook off the cobwebs of his mind, released when Nicolas turned to look at the newcomers.  He was angry.  He had been absolutely at this man’s mercy.  If Knight had drawn a sword Methos would have been unable to do more than watch as the blade swung at his neck and took his head.  “Not a pleasant feeling!” he thought.  Then he saw him.  He still felt nothing, “Wait a minute, what’s…” he began thinking.  Then he saw the woman from earlier and realized that the feeling he had was from her.

“Well…  You look different.  Cleaner.”  LaCroix jibed.  “Short hair works for you, I think.”

Methos resigned himself to the encounter.  He drew himself upright and looked around somewhat theatrically.  “What, no cross?  I won’t know how to act,” he quipped.

LaCroix smiled at this man’s bravado.  “I suppose something could be arranged if you wish.”

“Quite alright, young man.  I think we can do without.”

LaCroix raised a brow at being described as a young man.

Nick became slightly impatient and repeated his question.  “What did you mean about her?” he said gesturing at Natalie.

Methos refused to meet Knight’s gaze.

“I don’t need to see your eyes Pierson, it just makes it easier.”  Nick said.

MacLeod jumped in, “What do you know about us?”

“We know what the watchers knew.”  Nick answered, as he gestured for Vachon to let him go.

“She is like us,” MacLeod said.

“She will be, anyway.  Someday,” Methos said.

Tracy asked, “How do you know?”

Nick turned to Natalie, “Mulder didn’t know he was immortal,” He turned back to Pierson and MacLeod, “How can you tell?”

“We can feel each other,” Methos began, still not sure exactly what they knew and didn’t know.

“Yes, the quickening- the lightning I saw after the beheading, but… you can feel that even before the first death?”

“We can feel the potential quickening.  It isn’t as strong, and we need to be closer, say 3 or 4 meters, compared to about 30 meters for the real deal,” Methos said.

Natalie was floored by the news.  She looked at Nick, “But what about…”

“I don’t know.  We will find out soon.”  Nick said, walking over to wrap his arms around her.

MacLeod looked at the collection of people around him and voiced the question that was on his mind, and he assumed Methos’ as well, “Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but are you all vampires?”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick’s Loft

1:30 a.m. Thursday

Mulder and Scully had just finished cleaning up, again, and Mulder was drinking heavily- Gatorade.

Scully was feeling somewhat guilty, “I’m really sorry, Mulder” she said.

Mulder finished a half-gallon container of Fierce Lime and turned to Scully, “I’m not.”  He walked over to her and wrapped her in a tight embrace.  “I would be more than willing to wake up thirsty every day for the rest of my life in return for what you gave me tonight.”

Scully gave him a smile that lit up the room.  “You’re a hopeless romantic, Mulder.”  Scully’s smile dimmed as she thought of something.  It’s Thursday, Mulder.  We’re supposed to fly back to Washington tomorrow.”  She had a brief moment of panic.  “What are we going to do?”

“I don’t think we should make any decisions immediately, Scully.  I’ll call Skinner and arrange time off.  We can talk to Nick and see what he thinks.  Maybe we will even talk to these immortals, if they turn out ok.  We could at least see how things work for them.”  Mulder said as he looked down at the woman in his arms.

Scully looked up into Mulder’s eyes and saw concern.  Suddenly he looked down at her and a look of wonder crossed his features.  “What?” she asked.

“I was just thinking about what you were saying, how we handle Skinner, the FBI, going back; how do we integrate our new situations into our old.”  His smile got wider, “Then I remembered how difficult it was, going to work with you every day.  I was so in love with you, and so afraid of loosing you.  Loosing you to the job, loosing you because I would give myself away and you wouldn’t want me.  I was so desperate for you, and so full of fear,”

“Was… and now?” Scully asked.

Mulder’s smile softened an his eyes were so dilated that they were almost entirely black.  “And now; you’re standing in my arms, and holding me.  And, I know that you love me more than I could have ever thought possible.  I’m happy Scully.  Deliriously happy, and I am looking forward to being with you, not for twenty or thirty years, like I used to fantasize about, but rather twenty or thirty centuries, or more!”

Scully graced him with another of her thousand-watt smiles and his heart just melted.

“You fantasized about growing old with me?”  Scully pulled his head down for a long, lingering kiss.  She broke the kiss and hugged herself tight to his chest.  “That’s so sweet Mulder!”

He laughed.  “Well, that wasn’t the only fantasy I had about you Scully.”  He leered at her lecherously.

“Well,” she chuckled, “Tell me the rest later, were going to be late to the Raven as it is.”

“Ah, we mustn’t disappoint your master.”  Mulder said dryly.

Scully was immediately worried, “Mulder, please tell me you aren’t jealous of Nick.”  Scully searched his face for signs of anger.  “I need him to train me and get me used to this life, not to mention the fact that I owe him my life.”

Mulder felt bad about teasing her, “Scully, I was only kidding.  I don’t understand this thing with you and Nick, but I know it is important to you.  And, I know that you love me, not him.”

Scully felt a little relief, but wasn’t fully reassured.  “Mulder, you’re right.  You don’t understand, and I need you to understand.  Our lives do depend on my standing in the vampire community, unfair as that is.  The enforcers would have demanded that you either be brought across, or die.  Since the former is impossible, we will need his and LaCroix’s protection to keep the later from happening.”

“How do you know that, Scully?”  Mulder asked.

“Let me show you Mulder.”  Scully reached up and stroked his neck, seeking permission.

Mulder understood what she wanted.  He would never deny her this, “Show me, Scully.”

She lifted up into the air and kissed his neck tenderly.  Then she willed the change, dropping her fangs.  She slowly sank her teeth into his neck, savoring the rich taste, the cardamom perfume.  She knew she was only a day old, but she didn’t see herself ever tiring of this.  She poured everything she had learned from Nick into the link.  She knew it wasn’t as strong as the twin bloodlink she and her master shared, but she was pretty sure he would get most of it.  She finished with images of the Nick of now, to counteract the images of his violent past; and finally ended with her undying love for Mulder and desperate need for him to be in her life.

She pulled away, reluctantly.  She watched in fascination as tiny electrical currents played across the wound, closing it almost instantly.

Mulder thought he felt her reluctance, and then a flash of wonder.

She felt surprise, and wondered why she was surprised until she realized that it wasn’t her that was surprised.  “Mulder?”

“I can still feel you, Scully.  Barely, but it’s there.”  He opened his eyes, which, once again, he didn’t remember shutting and looked down with love at the face of his soul mate.  He laughed with pure joy at the sight.

Scully realized that she hadn’t retracted her fangs or changed her eyes back and was slightly embarrassed.  Then she felt a wave of reassurance and delight from Mulder.  “Oh my,” she whispered.  she couldn’t sense his actual thoughts, but the emotions seemed to be coming through pretty clearly.

“Are you OK with this, Scully?”  Mulder asked, suddenly concerned.

She felt his concern and responded hesitantly, “Are you?”

Mulder understood that her hesitation was for him, not her.  She was worried that he would think it an invasion of his privacy because it was caused by her power.  “Scully, I am one hundred percent delighted.”

She could feel the truth in his words, the delight in his heart and once again thanked God for the glorious gift that He had seen fit to give her.  “I love you Mulder.  More and more with each passing moment.”

“Yeah?  Feel up to a short flight?  Wouldn’t want your master to get anxious.”  Mulder said.

This time she could tell that he was teasing.  “Hold on tight!” she said, and leapt up into the air.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Raven

2 a.m. Thursday

The last patron left the club, assisted by the bouncer as he could barely stand upright.  He was put into a cab and sent on his way.

The only ones left in the club were Miklos, Alma, and the party in the back room.

Everyone had ignored MacLeod’s question.  Nick had remembered what Froag said to Mulder when he was about to chop his head off.  “That’s what he meant.  He said it was small, but he would take it.  He could feel Mulder’s pre-immortal quickening.”  Turning back to Pierson he asked, “What would have happened if a pre-immortal were beheaded?

“I don’t know, why do you ask?”  Methos asked.

Nick paused a moment, unsure of how much to reveal to this virtual stranger.

“Look, I think we’ve been more than helpful here.  You come up to us, claiming to be police detectives, drag us back into this room, assault us mentally and physically, and then demand a bunch of answers from us about a subject we don’t normally discuss with anyone, and then you refuse to explain what the hell is going on!”

LaCroix was vastly amused at this man’s outburst.  “Come, now.  It could be worse.  So far no one has been hurt here.  And you did come into my club, looking for me.  You even went to the trouble of flying in backup from the other side of the continent.” he said, indicating MacLeod.

MacLeod was as annoyed as Methos, “Look, how do you know so much about us?  Who the hell are you people?”

“Well it’s obvious, isn’t it?  We know your movements because I had Mr. Pierson followed since he appeared in my club the other night.  I know where you came from because my agent saw you come off of a direct flight from Seattle Washington, we know you’re immortal because that same man crushed your rib cage earlier this evening, yet you sit here sipping scotch as we speak.”  Turning to Pierson he said, “I had you crucified over 1900 years ago.  The very fact that you’re here at all is a testament to your immortality.  We know about immortals at all, thanks to your Mr. Froag.  He attacked Nicolas and an associate of his several nights ago and returned to life twice after being shot several times and thrown off of a building.”  LaCroix said.  “As for who we are, you’ve already guessed that.”

“This associate is the Mulder that you mentioned?”  MacLeod asked Knight, “What makes you think that he is pre-immortal?”

“Was.”  Nick said.

“Oh…  How did it happen?”  MacLeod asked.

“Remember that group of watchers I mentioned?”  Nick continued when Pierson and MacLeod nodded their heads, “They thought he was you.” he said, gesturing toward Pierson.

“Why would they think that?”  Methos asked, believing he knew the answer already.  “Let me guess, they saw him go into my apartment.”

Nick nodded his head.  “When he came out, two men ran him down with a car, trussed him and threw him in the trunk.  They took him to a warehouse where they discovered he was not immortal and shot him in the heart.  Of course, he was nearly dead anyway from the car hitting him.”

“And you saw all of this?”  Methos asked.  “Why didn’t you stop them?”

“No.  I didn’t see any of it.  Vachon got there after they took off, and he followed the car.”

Just then Nick felt his daughter approaching, in flight no less!  And from the emotion he could feel, he determined that she must be carrying Mulder.  “Brash, impetuous childé!”  he thought.  She is going to wear herself out quickly, and be hungry when she gets here.  “Vachon, could you ask Alma to bring us some beverages?  and bring several bottles of uncut as well.”

As Mulder and Scully landed outside the door to the club, MacLeod and Methos both stood up, their hands going to their swords in their coats.

“Relax, gentlemen.  It is just Mulder.”  Nick reassured them.

“How do you know that?”  MacLeod asked, not at all reassured.

“He is with my daughter.”  Nick said.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

When she set him down, Mulder was struck by an intense sensation, unlike anything he had ever felt before.

Scully caught part of it through her link and immediately changed.  “What the hell ish that?” she lisped out through her fangs.

“I don’t know!”  Mulder said.  Slowly the feeling became more bearable, until it was like a hum in the back of his mind- he was aware of it, but not distracted by it.

Scully figured out that it must be the quickening that the watcher memories had referred to.  “It’s the quickening, Mulder.  It tells you when other immortals are near.”

“Early warning radar, huh?”  he responded.  “Well that’s just about the weirdest thing I’ve ever felt before. Must be Pierson and his partner.”  Mulder said.

Scully felt her master reach out to her through the link.  “Nick and the others are with them,” she informed Mulder.  “He’s mad at me for flying you here.  I’m not tired, why would he think that?” she trailed off, her eyes unfocused as she silently communicated with her master.

When her focus returned, Mulder asked, “So, he’s mad at you?”

“He thinks I overexerted myself by bringing you all the way here by air.”  Scully said.

“Did you?”  Mulder asked, concerned.

“No!  I’m not tired at all.  In fact I’m not even extremely hungry.  He seemed to think I would be.”  she said.

“Well, lets go in and face the music.  Why do I feel like a teenager that is bringing back his date to her father past curfew?”  Mulder asked her.

Scully laughed, but felt not dissimilar at all.  Bracing herself she entered the Raven, Mulder in tow.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

“Your daughter?”  Methos asked.  Knight didn’t look old enough to have a daughter of sufficient age to be running about by herself.  He couldn’t picture vampires having children, “but what do I know?” he thought

“Yes.  Her name is Dana Scully.”  Nick said just as she and Mulder walked into the room, Alma in tow, carrying a tray of glasses and several bottles.  “Dana, Mulder, this is Adam Pierson and Duncan MacLeod.”

Hello’s were exchanged and Methos turned back to Knight wanting to press him to continue the story.

Nick watched as Dana took a glass of the uncut blood and sipped at it.  He pressed into the link they had looking for fatigue, hunger, and making sure she was in control around these mortals “Well, non-vampires, anyway” he thought.  He found that she was just fine.  “Are you sure you really flew yourself and Mulder all the way here?” he asked through the link.

Dana was surprised by the question.  “Yes, of course I’m sure!  Do you think I am lying?”

“You should be exhausted by such a trip.  You’re only a day old, Dana!” he practically shouted at her through the link.  “Don’t be in such a hurry to exercise your powers until you and I spend more time together on them.” he rebuked.

“Well, I feel fine.  But, I will do as you say.” she responded, somewhat irked.

Methos and MacLeod watched the silent exchange with curiosity.  Mulder was catching all Scully’s emotions, as well as some of Nick’s.  The others watched in varying degrees of amusement.

Nick realized everyone was watching him.  “Well,” he said turning back to Methos and MacLeod, “as I was saying, these watchers had Mulder chained up in the trunk, Vachon had followed them to a warehouse not far from where I live.  By chance Dana and I were outside and she saw Vachon.  She went to the warehouse and got there in time to see them shoot Mulder.”

MacLeod and Methos noticed that Dana had her head down, observing her hands while Mulder had one arm wrapped around her and his other caressing her arm.

“Anyway,” Nick continued, “When Mulder came back we knew he was like the man we had fought on the rooftop.  Your Phineas Froag.”

Mulder choked a bit at the name, “Phineas Froag?  What the hell kind of name is that?” he asked.

“South African.”  Methos mumbled.

MacLeod still didn’t think things added up, “That doesn’t explain how you knew about watchers, quickening, and the game.”

LaCroix smiled widely and commented, “Actually, as I understand it, my Granddaughter extracted that information,” he said, indicating Dana.

MacLeod asked, “How exactly do you mean that?  Your granddaughter; can vampires have children?”

“Nicolas is my Childé.  Dana is Nicolas’ Childé, my granddaughter.”  LaCroix answered.

“Well, that’s as clear as mud.”  MacLeod said.

“Nick made me a vampire.”  Scully said.  “He’s my maker.”

The two immortals absorbed that information for a moment.

“How did you persuade the hunters to tell you about us?”  Methos asked her.  “And what did you do with them?”

Scully dropped her head into her hands.  She was embarrassed.  She was annoyed with herself for being embarrassed.  “I viciously killed a dozen men, and I’m embarrassed!” she thought.

LaCroix was proud of his granddaughter’s instincts and abilities, “One day old, and she has both power and control.  She may have been made by chance, but she was a worthy addition to his family.  Far better than that whelp Serena, whom Nicolas had made through a foolish misunderstanding,” he thought.  If Natalie had even half of Dana’s potential, his family would be one of the most potent in The Community.  “Yes, Dana,” he said aloud.  “Tell us what happened, I have only heard third-hand accounts.”

It may have been said with humor, but she heard the command behind the banter.  She looked at Nick and saw resignation on his face.  “Go ahead” she heard through her link.

“I… I don’t really…  I didn’t really think at the time.”  She ran her hands over her face, rubbing her eyes, and then up over her head, through her hair.  She decided to approach it clinically, the same way she would describe an autopsy, divorcing her feelings from the horror of the situation.  “I had just landed outside the window.  I saw Mulder, propped up in a chair.  He was severely injured, barely alive.  Then one of them, Jimson, shot him in the chest.  The one who gave the order, was named Perone…  Anyway, I saw them shoot Mulder and I lost it.  I went through the window and…”  She paused and had to take a deep breath.  She felt Mulder’s reassurance through their burgeoning link.  She also felt Nick’s compassion and understanding.  “I…  tore them up, I guess.  Perone was the only one I drained.  That’s how I knew about immortals, from his memories.”

MacLeod looked at this little slip of a girl before him.  She was dwarfed by her lover, in whose arms she was wrapped.  He had a hard time picturing her killing a dozen men with her bare hands.  “You killed them all?  Why didn’t they shoot you?”

Nick was himself torn between paternal pride that his childé was so powerful, and concern over her loss of control.  Of course the cause in this case was completely understandable.  If Natalie had been attacked so, he knew without a doubt that he would tear through a hundred men if necessary.  He responded to MacLeod’s question, “They didn’t have time, Mr. MacLeod.  I believe you have seen for yourself the speed at which we can move when necessary.”

LaCroix decided to change the subject, “You called me ‘young man’ Mr. Pierson.  May I ask why that particular appellation?”

“Unless the legends are wrong, your kind cannot go out in the daylight.  It was daylight when we last met, so I assumed that you were not yet a vampire at that time.”  He waited for LaCroix’s confirming nod and continued, “That would make you, what, not quite 2000 years old?”

“Whereas you would be…”  LaCroix began.

“Older.  Let’s just say I was around a long while before that.”

Mulder asked, “Do we become stronger with age, like vampires?”

“No.  The more quickenings we absorb, the stronger we become.  Age of itself is meaningless.” Methos explained.  “One can develop more skill and experience with age, but it is not automatic.  MacLeod could defeat me in a fight because I have only infrequently engaged in combat.  In fact, up until the last several years, I had not been in the game for over 2 centuries.”

“How old are you, Mr. MacLeod, if I might ask?”  Tracy said, curious.

“I was born in 1591,” he said.  “AD.” he added.  Then he asked the group, “How much stronger do vampires get as they age?”

LaCroix said, “It depends on the individual, but large differences in age usually indicate large differences in strength and ability.  So Nicolas, who is 8 centuries old, is much stronger than Vachon, who is not quite 5.  A new fledgling is virtually powerless- quite vulnerable under most circumstances.”

“Mulder, if I might ask, How is it you became involved in this group?  If you just tonight realized that you are immortal… how long have you been together?”  he asked, indicating his arm around Dana.

“Scully and I work together.  We’ve been partners for 7 years.”  Mulder answered.

“You’re cops too?  Toronto PD has a large vampire contingent, does it?”  Methos asked, wryly.

Scully responded, “Actually, Mulder and I are agents of the FBI.”

Mulder added, “We came here for a conference this week.”

“But you’re Nick’s childé?  so you knew…”  MacLeod began.

“It’s a long story, but the short version is that I have been a vampire for,” she looked at her watch, “almost exactly 24 hours.”

Mulder added, “We only met everybody here this past week.”

“Fickle fate has brought us all together here today,” LaCroix said.

MacLeod looked at Tracy, “How long have you…”

“I’m still mortal, for now,” Tracy answered his unfinished question.  “Mortals aren’t allowed to know about Vampires.  Those who find out are made to forget.  Those who cannot be made to forget either join or die,” she said, this time answering his unspoken question.

He turned to Natalie, “What about you?  You’re mortal.”

She answered, “I was planning on coming across very soon.  We will have to see what happens when we try,” she said reaching for Nick’s hand.

“Apparently those who have already gone through their first death cannot be brought across.”  Nick added.

“How do you know that?” MacLeod asked.

Scully couldn’t blush anymore, but that wasn’t true of Mulder.  Nick took one look at him and shouted for Alma, “Alma, could you bring Agent Mulder a glass of Orange Juice?  Better make it a double.”  He looked at Scully and whispered, “How much did you take?”

If she could have blushed, she would have been scarlet now.  “Uh, all of it…  I think.”

Mulder stepped in to defend her, “I asked her to.  It was the most incredible experience of my life.” he said with a smile.

Natalie looked at the two of them, so obviously in love, and was filled with joyous anticipation for her own transformation, “Either way, we will have forever, Nick.” she said looking into his eyes for acceptance.

Nick looked back into Natalie’s eyes and answered her unspoken plea, “Either way, I will love you forever Natalie.”

“Not to intrude,” MacLeod began, “but you will need to find a mentor to train you, Mulder.  You’re in the game now, whether you want to be or not.  Unless you plan to spend the next thousand years on holy ground, you will have to fight to survive.”

“Holy ground?”  Mulder asked.

MacLeod looked pointedly at Scully, waiting to see if she knew the answer.

“Uh… the memories are almost gone.”  She said, discovering it for the first time herself.  Concentrating on the fading memories she had taken from Perone, she said, “Immortals do not fight on consecrated ground.”  She thought for a moment more and added, “I don’t know why not, but they don’t.”  She looked at MacLeod and asked, “Why not?”

Methos answered, “We don’t really know what will happen if that rule is broken, legends say that the last time two immortals fought on holy ground was in the oracle’s cave south of Herculaneum in 79AD.  No one knows if it is true, but I have yet to find an immortal that will break that rule, even those who break all of the others.”

LaCroix broke in, “Are you saying that an immortal battle on consecrated earth caused Vesuvius to erupt?!”  He demanded.

“No, I’m saying it is a legend among us.  That’s all.”  Methos answered.

“There are rules to immortality?”  Mulder asked, still thinking about Methos earlier statement.

It was MacLeod who answered, “There are a few, and adherence to them is demanded by honor, but there are as many dishonorable individuals among immortals as there are among mortals.”  He paused for a moment before offering, “I would be willing to get you started until a mentor can be found, but I’m not certain that I am willing to take on a student right now.”  He continued before anyone could question him, “We may need to find someone for Natalie as well, depending.”

Methos saw Mulder about to protest and added, “There are those who hunt the young because they are easy kills.  Their quickening is not as strong, but they can get more of them.  The good news is that those people are not very skilled, because they don’t have to be.  You will need training if you want to survive.”

Tracy was slightly appalled by this attitude, “Is that what you all do?  Go around hunting each other?”

“Not at all, Tracy.”  MacLeod answered.  “As Adam mentioned, he has not been in the game for centuries, preferring to avoid conflict and spend his time studying and doing research.  I only fight when challenged, or in rare cases when I feel that an immortal is presenting a threat to my friends or community.”  MacLeod chose not to elaborate on that issue.  “Many of us have lives we enjoy, we exist within a segment mortal society for a decade or so and then move on before it becomes obvious that we are not aging.”

Tracy was not reassured, “But you said you were looking for this Froag person, and you didn’t sound like you were looking to sit and have a pint with him,” she pressed.

“Scott was my friend.  Froag hunted him down all the way from South Africa, just because he wanted his quickening.  If someone killed your friend, wouldn’t you want him or her to pay?”  When he saw she was going to protest, he added, “Froag is immortal, the courts cannot dispense justice to such as him.  Even if he was convicted, all he has to do is commit suicide, and he is out.  I imagine it is the same in the vampire community- justice among immortals is handled by immortals.”

Tracy, having participated- indirectly- in vampire justice, could’nt say anything to that.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

By about 4 a.m. Methos and MacLeod could no longer hide their yawns.  LaCroix suggested that they should call it a day.

Mulder looked at MacLeod and Pierson and said, “Scully and I have a couple rooms at the Plaza that we won’t be using.  I’ll get our stuff packed up if you two want them.  They are paid through Friday.”

“I have a place,” Methos began.

Mulder interrupted, “Yeah, I’ve seen it, remember?”

MacLeod laughed, imagining Methos’ rather spare style.  “Let me guess, a bed and a chair?”  at Methos’ annoyed look he continued, “I’ll take the Plaza.”

Nick said, “Natalie and I will take Dana back to the loft, you can meet us there, Mulder.”

Mulder wanted to protest, but felt Scully willing him not to, and swallowed it back down.  “Ok.  I won’t be long,” he said to her, sweeping her up into his arms and planting a deep kiss on her mouth, leaving her anticipating his return.

Vachon grabbed Tracy’s hand and placed a sensual kiss on her palm.  “Come home with me?” he whispered to her.

Tracy shivered with anticipation; the feel of his cool lips on her hot palm were like the sensation of fire and ice.  “I- I have to go back to the precinct and sign out.  I’ll meet you at the church.”

Vachon leaned in close to her ear and said, “Why don’t you see if you can arrange some time off.  I think you and I have some things to discuss.  Depending on what you decide, you might want to think about taking a vacation.” he growled in her ear.

Tracy turned beet-red and felt a shock of electricity shoot straight out from her center to her extremities.  Her fingers, toes and scalp were tingling and she was suddenly sweating.  “I’ll be there as soon as I can, Javier,” she whispered back, not trusting her voice.  Her decision was already made, and it only remained to be seen if Vachon felt the same for her.  If this behavior was any indication, she was pretty confident that he did.

LaCroix watched Vachon and Tracy’s behavior and guessed that The Community would have another addition as early as tonight.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========


Chapter 10

4:15 a.m. Thursday December 14th

Nick and Natalie were in the front of the caddie while Scully was in the back.  If Nick was trying to reinforce the whole parent/child feeling, he was accomplishing it handily.  She felt like a twelve-year-old child.  She had to keep herself from reacting like one.  “Nick, why were you upset that I flew to the Raven with Mulder?”  She asked.

“Dana, a fledgling vampire shouldn’t be able to do what you did.  It should have exhausted you, and I was concerned that you would lose control and have to be restrained.”  He looked at her in the rearview mirror for a moment.  She still looked small and fragile, but he knew that was a mistake, she was very strong for her size and age.  “The only thing I can guess that might explain it is Mulder.  You said you drained him?”

She was still embarrassed by this subject matter, but she answered.  “Yes.”

“Had you consumed that much vampire blood you would have been similarly strengthened.  His Immortal blood must have fortified you beyond what a mortal’s would have,” Nick said.

Scully smiled, “Well, if he has anything to say about it, I’ll be enjoying a meal like that on a daily basis.”

Natalie laughed, “I know how he feels.  Vampire stamina is a wonderful thing.” She said cattily.

Scully laughed at the embarrassment she felt from her master.  “Now you know how I felt,” she thought to him.  Out loud she said, “I have found that immortals have pretty amazing stamina as well.”

“Oh?” Natalie asked, clearly wanting more detail.

“Let’s just say that his ability to come back from the dead in seconds carries over to all aspects of his life now.”  Scully said with a leer.

Natalie choked with surprise and laughter.

Nick said, “Alright girls, you’re going to make me blush here!”

Natalie and Scully laughed the rest of the way to the loft.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Mulder paid the cabbie an extra $50 to get him there fast.  He quickly packed up his and Scully’s things and went back down to the cab.  He stopped in the lobby and gave the keys to Pierson and MacLeod.

“Duncan, I appreciate your offer- training, I mean.  If you don’t want to take on a student though, I don’t want to impose…” Mulder began.

“I don’t want you to be alone while Froag is about.  I will get you started, and then we’ll see.”  MacLeod smiled and added, “I’ve never lived in Toronto before.”

That comment stopped Mulder dead in his tracks.  “Uh… How long does it usually take?”

“What, training?”  MacLeod asked.

“Yeah.”

“Well the basics can be covered in eight months to a year.  True proficiency can take several years,” MacLeod said.

“Oh.  Ahh… I still have a job in DC…”

“You have to leave that life behind.”  MacLeod said gently.

“Why?  No one knows I died.”  Mulder said.

Methos laughed, “No one living, you mean.”

“That’s true.  I have actually never encountered someone who died in such a way that no-one knew they had died.”  MacLeod thought for a moment.  “You have some decisions to make, Mulder.  You will be very vulnerable in such a high-profile profession.  And, it will be virtually impossible for you to be adequately trained while working.”

“Scully and I need to talk.  We don’t know how it’s going to work with her condition either.  It will be difficult to work as a field agent when she cannot go out in the daylight.”  Mulder said.

“Why don’t you think about it for a couple of days.  We will meet you at the Raven on Sunday, and you can let me know what you have decided.  We can look into some options in the mean time.”  MacLeod added, “If you see Froag, don’t think you can take him, get the hell away from him and call us.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll save him for you two.” Mulder said with a smile.  He didn’t think he had to worry with Scully around.  She would eat him for lunch. “literally” he thought.

As he turned away to leave Methos asked him one last question.  “By the way Mulder, why did you have 2 rooms?” Methos asked.

“We still needed 2 rooms when we got here.”  Mulder said enigmatically, and left.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Toronto Homicide, 96th Precinct

The first thing she heard when she went in to the precinct was the voice of Captain Reece shouting, “Vetter!  Where the hell have you been?”

“I had to hunt down a couple of sources, captain, but I think we may be able to ID the decapitation victim.”  Tracy said as she breezed into his office, closing the door behind her.

“That’s not your case…” Reece started to say, raising his eyebrows at the closed door.

“I know captain, but I already wrapped up all of my paperwork, and with Nick at the conference we don’t have any outstanding cases.”  Without stopping for breath Tracy pressed on, “Actually, captain, I was hoping to take some vacation, seeing as how things are kind of slow, and I don’t have anything else going on.  Plus, I think Nick is going to be asking for some time pretty soon as well so now would be perfect.”

“Vetter.  Vetter!  Breathe, dammit!  I can’t get a word in edgewise with you.”  Reece said, annoyed.  “What makes you think Nick will be asking for time off?”

Tracy smiled conspiratorially, “Well, you didn’t hear it from me, but I noticed that Natalie is wearing some new jewelry,” she said while holding up her left hand and waggling her ring finger.

Reece leaned back in his chair, “No.  You’re kidding me,” he said.

“Nope.  Serious as a heart attack, cap,” she said with a giant grin on her face.

“Finally pulled his head out, huh?”  Reece mumbled.  “I wonder who won the pool?”

“We shouldn’t say anything until he goes public, He’d kill me if he knew I told you.”  Tracy said, only half joking.

“All right, I’ll see you a week from Monday.  Now get out of here!”  Reece blustered.

Tracy snapped to attention, “Yes Sir!” she said, and then took off whistling, ‘Get Me to the Church on Time’ from ‘My Fair Lady’.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick’s Loft

The cabbie broke a few more traffic laws on his way to the loft.  Mulder felt like a giddy schoolboy.  He couldn’t wait to hold Scully in his arms again.  His career might be over, the X-files might end up officially closed down, and his girlfriend might never be able see the sun again, but he couldn’t help thinking in that moment that life was sweeter than he had ever imagined would be possible.  He decided right then to dedicate the rest of his long, long life trying to make her as happy as she made him.

Scully could actually feel Mulder getting closer.  There was an almost overwhelming sense of joy saturating their link.  Even Nick could feel it.

He was shocked.  “You have a link with Mulder?” he asked, interrupting her in the middle of her description of flukeman to Natalie.

Natalie had wondered why Dana was getting a broad, goofy smile on her face as she was describing the genetic mutation that led to a human/fluke worm cross that was killing sewer workers and implanting them with parasitic larvae.

Scully was startled by the abrupt question.  “Was I not supposed to do that?” she said, bewildered.

Natalie laughed, Dana looked exactly like a guilty teenager who was caught by her father kissing a boy.

Nick was irked by his own reaction.  “Sorry, Dana.  No, of course you didn’t do anything wrong.  It’s just not supposed to be possible.  Even if Mulder were another vampire, you shouldn’t be able to establish a bloodlink with him, except when you are actually exchanging blood.  Especially in one day!”

Well, it isn’t like ours, Nick.  It’s mostly just feelings, not actually thoughts.”  Scully said.

Nick continued, “Such links usually only exist within bloodlines, and take time to develop after sharing the bloodkiss many times.  You haven’t exchanged blood with Mulder…  Have you?”  Nick asked suddenly curious.

Scully definitely liked one aspect of vampirism.  Her childhood curse of blushing at the drop of a hat was erased forever.  “Not really,” she said.  “Not like you and I have, if that is what you mean.”

“What do you mean not really?”  Nick asked, clueless.  “Either he has consumed your blood, or he hasn’t.”  Nick said.

Scully was mortified.  Imagine trying to explain to your father how your boyfriend went down on you and ‘performed cunnilingus’ and you might have the idea.

Natalie actually thought she saw a very brief blush on Dana’s cheeks.  She too was baffled as to what could be so emb… “Oh, I get it.”  She thought to herself.

“Nick, remember when you told me that vampires only bodily fluid was blood?”  Natalie asked.

“Yes, so?”

Natalie arched her eyebrows and waited for comprehension to sink in.

It finally did.  “Oh… Sorry.  Uh, I wonder if a, uh, more conventional exchange, might strengthen it.”

“But Mulder isn’t a vampire,” Natalie said.  “What if he, I mean, uh…” she trailed off.  There wasn’t really any polite way to ask whether Mulder would enjoy the taste of blood, especially given that he had already indulged, so to speak.  “Never mind.”

Just then Mulder came in from the elevator, carrying an armload of luggage.  He dropped the bags and swept Scully into his arms, kissing her soundly.  “Hi.” He said.

Scully found herself matching Mulder’s exuberance.  “Hi,” she said breathlessly.

Natalie was feeling a little ‘exuberant’ herself.  “You know, Nick, I think Dana can broach the subject.  You and I have some very important issues to discuss.  Upstairs.  NOW!”

Nick turned to Mulder and Scully and said, “You kids have fun.  See you in the afternoon.”  Then he grabbed Natalie, tossed her over her shoulder and flew upstairs, with Natalie screaming in delight.

Scully held her hand up, interrupting Mulder before he could say a word.  “Mulder, in less than an hour the sun will rise.  I will be out like a light until sunset.  We can talk or we can…” she trailed off with a smile.

Mulder smiled, leaned in for a soft tender kiss, and then followed Nick’s example- running rather than flying.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

International Plaza Hotel

6:30 a.m. Thursday.

Methos and MacLeod decided that they would hit the mini-bar and decompress a bit before crashing for the morning.

“I wonder what I will find out about the world in another five millennia.” Methos commented.

MacLeod chuckled and said, “Well, they say it is the information age.”

“No, I am quite serious.  I had always thought of myself as a rather cosmopolitan fellow.  I’ve been everywhere, seen everything.”  He sighed, “It’s one thing, MacLeod, to see new inventions and innovations, those have come on and off for my whole life.  It is another thing entirely to find out about an entire race of beings that has been here for at least as long as I have and I never knew it.  Not just a couple of individuals, but an entire race.  How many other myths are true?  Will I be shocked if we meet a werewolf or, I don’t know, a Mummy?”

“Come on, Methos.  Do you really think werewolves and animated mummies really exist?”  MacLeod scoffed.

“Of course not!  But, that’s the point, isn’t it?  A week ago I would have given you the same answer about vampires.  I would have laughed at you for even asking the question.”  Methos answered, standing up and saying “I’m going to go try to sleep.”  With that he headed for the door connecting their rooms.

“Well, you will just have to take comfort in the fact that they apparently didn’t know about us, either.”  MacLeod tried to cheer up his friend.

Methos paused for a moment and looked back, sadly, at his young friend, “The difference, MacLeod, is that they didn’t discover a race of beings, any one of whom, could kill them without breaking a sweat…  We did.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick’s Loft

“You want to try what!?”  Mulder demanded.

He and Scully had worked out their initial sexual tension in a fast and furious bout that took advantage of the rapid healing properties of both of them, generating enough force that, had either been mortal, a visit to the emergency room might have been called for.  Scully had been able to keep from entirely draining Mulder only because in the ferocity of his movements he had torn himself away from her mouth after only a few gulps.  Scully had watched the wound on his neck close itself with a blue spark and brought up the subject she and Nick had discussed.

“I want to exchange blood with you Mulder.  Like vampires do.” She answered.

“But, but…”  Mulder began.  He stopped and thought for a moment.  The concept wasn’t repulsive to him, he had already tasted her blood and didn’t mind it at all.  He was confused as to the reason, however.  “Why, Scully?  Do you think it will bring me across?”

Actually she hadn’t really considered that possibility, and Nick didn’t mention it either.  “I don’t know Mulder.  I didn’t really think about that.”  She took a moment to do so.  “I don’t think it could, if it hasn’t already.  Nick thinks it could strengthen the bond between us.  Maybe we could actually communicate ideas as well as emotions.”

Mulder slowly smiled, looking at her peculiarly until she said, “What?!”

“Trying to get into my head, Scully?  Figure out what’s going on in there?”  he asked with a devilish grin.

“I’m hardly that optimistic, Mulder.  If you can’t figure it out, how could I ever hope to?”  She retorted smartly.

Mulder mulled over the possibilities.  Not only would she have access to his deepest feelings and emotions, but his fears as well.  “Of course I would have the same access to her,” he thought.  He knew that she loved him, he drowned himself in it every time she bit him.  Nevertheless, he had a couple of deep dark secrets that he was afraid would hurt her.  The old Mulder would have allowed that to stop him.  The new Mulder was determined to overcome any obstacle to have Scully.  A couple of skeletons in the closet weren’t going to stop him from doing this.

Scully watched her lover’s face with trepidation.  She was nervous herself; the thought of anyone, even Mulder, seeing into her deepest secret places was inherently frightening.  In the end, though, her deepest secret was her feelings for Mulder.  It couldn’t hurt to have him see that, could it?  Then she remembered Ed Jerse.  She hadn’t actually had sex with him, but it was only because he had been unable to perform.  She had wanted to; if only to prove to herself that she didn’t need Mulder in her life.  What she had proven was that she could do something stupid and self destructive in a futile effort to convince herself that she didn’t need him, when it was so obvious that she did.  It would have been like tearing her heart out to prove that she was strong enough to live without a functioning cardiopulmonary system.  “Talk about short-sighted,” she thought.

She saw on Mulder’s face that he had come to a decision.  She wanted to rescind the offer before he could tell her no, but he beat her to the punch.

“I want to Scully.  I want to be one with you in every way possible.  Before we do, though, I need to tell you something.  I, I…” he started, suddenly choking back a sob.  “I betrayed you once Scully.”  He looked at her and quickly dropped his eyes.  “It was while you were… gone.”

No need for him to explain that reference.  She knew he was talking about the months she was missing after she had been abducted.

“She was involved in a case…” He laughed mirthlessly, “It was the first experience I had with vampires, actually.  Kristen;  she was a target to be turned by a trio of vampires who were killing people very publicly.”  He reached out to touch her, but pulled back suddenly and dropped his shoulders in defeat.  “I’m sorry Scully.  I was lonely and desperate, and I didn’t know if you were ever… I know that doesn’t come anywhere close to making it ok, but I’m sorry.  Sorry it happened, sorry I never told you…”

Scully realized that Mulder was really torn up over this, and that telling him it was alright wouldn’t help.  He needed her forgiveness, even if she thought there was nothing to forgive.  “Shh, Mulder.  I will forgive you, if you will forgive me.”

“For what?” he said, startled out of his self-recrimination.

“Ed Jerse,” Scully said, simply.

He looked at her like she had grown a second head.  “How can I forgive you for that?  I caused it!  I treated you like a piece of furniture and drove you away from me, right into his arms.” He responded.

Scully stared at him, jaw dropped.  She had told herself that very thing after it had happened.  “I was wrong then, and he’s wrong now,” she reflected.  “Mulder, I think you and I would have fewer misunderstandings if we both just shut up and stopped taking the blame for everything that has ever gone wrong between us.  Let’s do this and eliminate the need for words, because neither of us seems to be very good at them.”

Mulder smiled at Scully’s highly accurate assessment of their relationship.  “I agree,” he said simply.

Scully dragged one sharp fingernail along her throat, slicing it open and guiding Mulder’s head to her neck while she bit down on his shoulder.

Mulder choked a bit at the sensation of Scully’s cool, thick blood filling his mouth, but convulsively swallowed as he felt the sting of her fangs in his shoulder.  Suddenly his sense of self was ripped away and replaced with the maelstrom of Scully’s thoughts and memories.  It was like the previous times she had bitten him, except immeasurably more intense.  “If this is how it feels, no wonder I can’t stop,” they thought together in a weird sort of simultaneous thought.

Finally, when Mulder’s heart stopped beating and the last spark of consciousness faded out, the link was broken.  Scully felt like she had died again, except this time there was no plain, no doorway and certainly no Melissa.  She finally returned to full self-awareness and opened her eyes, “When did I close them?” she wondered.  She looked down at the face of her love and patiently waited for him to return.  She would have gone to get him some juice, but the sun was coming up and a deep feeling of lethargy was stealing her away.  She lost consciousness just as Mulder gasped awake.

Mulder gasped awake.  He immediately focused on Scully, Visually and through their link.  He noticed that she was asleep; he could feel peace, contentment, but no thoughts, no ideas.  “Oh well, either it didn’t work, or it takes more than once,” he thought.  Either way, he planned to do it as often as possible- for in that moment, the two truly were one.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Vachon’s Church

Tracy was breathless with anticipation.  She had definitely made her decision.  She was hoping to make this her last night as a mortal.  When she was promoted to detective and assigned to the graveyard shift it had taken a little while to get used to the change in sleeping patterns.  She had stopped missing the daylight after a while, enjoying the difference in pace and culture that the night offered.

That was before she even knew about vampires.

She knew that she would not miss the sun.  Even when she had days off and could spend time in the sun, she didn’t anymore.  Those occasions when she was forced to meet her father somewhere during the day were more annoying than pleasurable.  Part of that, “Ok, most of it”, she added silently, was due to annoyance with her father, but even when it wasn’t to meet him somewhere, she found daylight to be bothersome.  Always fair-skinned, she had a tendency to burn unless she slathered on the sunscreen.  While she had done so in her younger days just to spend time on the beach in a bikini, lately she could rarely bother to remember, and often burned.  “Now at least I’ll have a reason,” she thought.

Since meeting Vachon, she had grown to love the night, and she had grown to love Vachon.  He could be maddeningly cavalier at times, but she loved that he felt beholden to no one; he wasn’t involved in any political games and he didn’t try to use her for any hidden agendas.  Vachon was, in many ways, the ultimate hedonist.  He didn’t do anything unless he enjoyed it.  He spent time with her because he liked her, and liked being with her.  He put up with her quirks and foibles and never tried to change her.  He seemed to genuinely care for her.   At first she had thought of him as a slacker, and definitely too scruffy- although she had enjoyed watching him from the beginning, especially when he was walking away from her.  Eventually she found that he was a wonderfully caring soul, even if he was emotionally immature at times.  She was definitely in love with him.  What she wasn’t sure of was if he felt the same way about her.  She thought that he did, but her innate insecurity reared its ugly head- after all, Vachon was seriously hot- he could have almost any woman he wanted at will.

As she entered the church, her heart was beating wildly and she was somewhat embarrassed because she imagined that Vachon could probably smell her excitement.  She was really looking forward to tonight.

Vachon heard her practically running up the steps.  Soon the scent of her blood washed across his senses- Apricots and lilies- like sweet perfume on his pallet.  As she got closer he could feel his fangs begin to ache as her other scent, warm and musky, became apparent.  Though he always delighted in sneaking up on her and startling her, tonight he decided that a more direct, and seductive, approach might be in order.  As she stopped in his ‘living room’ amidst the dozens of lit candles, he approached her through the doorway in front of her, pausing after entering to rake his eyes up and down her slender, sexy form.

Tracy saw the hunger in his eyes, as they slowly perused her- as though he were a man who hadn’t eaten in days, and she was the buffet.

He decided that the one thing he would miss about her mortality was the delicious blush that covered her entire body when he looked at her like that.  He did it again just so he could savor it once more before proceeding.

As she watched his eyes turn luminous she knew she had the answer to her question, he definitely thought of her that way.  “You said we needed to talk,” she whispered.

“Do you really want to spend a lot of time talking right now?”  Vachon asked.

“No.  But, it might be good to go over a few things before we do this,” she answered.

Vachon smiled predatorily, “Tell me what you want, Tracy” he slowly strolled towards her, letting slip his personal presence, enveloping her in his power, not to threaten, but to entice.

Tracy’s mouth went dry.  Other parts of her suffered the opposite reaction.  She had to lick her lips before she could form the words, “I want you, Javier.  I want to be with you.” She paused as he came within millimeters of her before stopping.  Her voice dropped to a husky growl, “I want to be like you.”  She slowly wrapped her arms around him and drew his head down for a kiss, “Give me the night, Javier.”  Then she put her mouth on his and began a slow burning kiss.

Vachon felt himself stirring at Tracy’s demand.  As he opened his mouth to allow her questing tongue access to his fangs, he felt himself become fully erect.  He pulled his head back enough to look into her eyes, “Last chance Tracy, tell me now that you aren’t ready or you will never see the sun again.”

“Is that a threat?” she asked with a smile.

“It’s a promise.  Once I start, I won’t be able to stop before it is time to bring you across.”  Vachon said seriously.

Tracy locked eyes with him and replied, just as seriously, “Bring me across, Javier.  That is what I want.”

Vachon smiled broadly and said, “Then that is what you will have!”  And, saying that, he swept her up into his arms and flew her into his bedroom.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick’s Loft

The sun was up, but Nick wasn’t sleepy yet.  He was so excited by his fiancée that he couldn’t wipe the goofy grin off of his face.  After satiating their sexual desires- several times- they had decided to talk about their wedding.  Each had a great deal of time off coming to them and they couldn’t decide to get married before trying to bring Natalie across, or waiting until after the transformation and initial training had ended.  Of course, there was the added uncertainty of Natalie’s immortality.  Whether she would actually cross over, or just become immortal, or?

In any case, Nick was still deliriously happy.  Natalie would be his forever, in darkness, light, or in between.  Not to mention the little fact that every time they had sex was just as, if not more exciting than the last.  Nick was looking forward to some of the kinkier games they could play as soon as the change (whichever it was) was made.

“Nicolas Knight!!!”  Natalie yelled at him, startling him out of his self-absorption.  “You haven’t heard a word I have said for the last five minutes!”  She complained.  “Where were you this time?”

“Sorry, Nat.  I was just thinking how wonderful things are right now.  I was so obsessed with you for so long, and so desperately lonely, thinking that you and I could never be.  I was despondent, thinking that I could never be forgiven, thinking that I was the epitome of evil just because I was a vampire.

Natalie looked at him with sad eyes, knowing intimately from the blood link the sorrow, guilt and despair that Nick had felt.  Added to the fact that she had shared his loneliness and torment in many ways.

Nick continued, “And now, all that has changed!  I have you, I am happy with my vampirism, I have reconciled with my father, I have a childé who is showing herself to be an excellent addition to the family, and She and I both have the loves of our lives forever, whether vampire or not.”  Nick drew his naked and sexy woman into his lap, kissing her soundly.  He drew his head back and said, “I love you so much, and I am so looking forward to living forever with you.”

“So am I, Nick.  What do you say we figure out what we are going to do for the next few weeks first?” she said with a smirk.

Nick smiled back at his lovely bride-to-be.  “You’re right, Nat.  I don’t know if it is the immortal blood, but whatever the cause, Dana is learning at a very rapid rate.  I think she will have enough of the basics to be on her own within a couple of days.  She will need to spend time with me off and on for years to master everything, but that won’t require constant contact.”

“What about my change, Nick,” Natalie asked.  “When do you think we should try?”  She was concerned and eager at the same time.  She wanted to know what was going to happen.

Nick felt Natalie’s impatience and wondered what would result from their attempt.  He had to admit that he wanted her to be a vampire.  He felt guilty that his desire meant no more sunshine for his beloved, but he knew that she also wanted it before they knew about her incipient immortality.  “Nat, I want you any way I can get you.  I hope you won’t be upset if I tell you that I would really like to see you in fangs.”

“Oh, Nick, me too.  I really don’t think I want to spend eternity chopping heads off.”  Natalie said.

“What if that is what happens?”  Nick asked, suddenly picturing his beloved in a sword fight, “Will you fight?”

Natalie thought about it for a moment.  “I don’t like the thought of killing, Nick.  I may not have live patients, but I am still a doctor.”  She stopped speaking for a moment and looked at her love, considering him.  “I couldn’t let someone take me away from you.  I won’t look for a fight, but I won’t lie down and die, either.”  She smiled, trying to lighten the mood, “Maybe you can train me Nick, how long has it been since you swung a sword?”

“It’s like riding a bike, Nat.  You never forget.”  Nick said with a broad smile.  “As to your question, I think we should do it this weekend.  Saturday night, maybe.  We can plan a wedding for a couple of weeks after that?  And maybe a honeymoon trip after that.  What do you think?”

Natalie slowly smiled until her teeth showed.  She pulled herself closer to Nick and said, “Here’s to fangs!” grabbing the back of his head and smashing her mouth against his.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Vachon’s Church

6:30 a.m. Thursday

Vachon had removed all of Tracy’s clothes and laid her on her back, on his bed.  Shedding his own clothes, he had laid beside her on his side, facing her.  He had stopped her as she tried to roll towards him, saying, “Patience Querida, lie back and relax.  I will tell you what to do.”  He then proceeded to stroke her body with his free hand, using the backs of his nails, fingers curled under, alternated with his whole palm.  His touch was very light, and entirely avoided the primary erogenous points.  

He stroked her belly, circling her navel, up to her breasts, covering every inch except the nipples.  He stroked her face, ears, and neck- avoiding her lips.  He stroked her thighs and inner thighs up to her stomach, while avoiding the place she really wanted him.

Tracy was quivering.  Her nipples were rock hard, she was dripping wet and her lips ached to have his kiss.  She had promised herself that she wouldn’t beg, but had since thrown that decision to the wind.  She was moaning and begging him to stop teasing her, to touch her where she needed to be touched.  She had no idea how much time had elapsed, but it seemed like forever.  She was going crazy with need.

Vachon decided that she was finally ready, and moved his head to her breast, gently scraping one fang across the tip of her nipple.

The sudden sensation against the area where she had desperately wanted to feel him sent her over the edge, causing the roiling feelings in her to boil over into orgasm.  The feeling increased as Vachon treated her other nipple to the same sensation.  She felt him enter her and screamed her release as the orgasm got stronger, causing her whole frame to shudder and shake.  His movement within her was like being attached to an electrode- overwhelming sensation of pleasure assaulted her senses, rendering her almost unconscious.

Vachon slipped his fangs into her neck as she was delirious with sensation.  As the heat of her blood filled his mouth, the link was established and her earth-shattering orgasm initiated his own.  He was swallowed up in the images and memories pouring forth from Tracy.  Her hopes and dreams, her fears and concerns- they all washed over him like a flood.  He felt her recently discovered love for him- her desire to love him with all of her heart, tempered by her fear of rejection, her uncertainty about her own desirability and worthiness to be loved.

Tracy became lost in a sea of sight and sound, realizing at last that she was seeing Vachon’s life as he remembered it.  She also felt how he cherished and adored her.  She saw how, in his eyes, she was desirable, how he lusted after her body while he had fallen in love with the person inhabiting it.  She felt his reassurance that he would be there, waiting for her to return from the crossroads.  Eventually everything else faded out and she found herself standing on an open plain.  She thought it was a memory of Vachon’s until she realized she couldn’t feel him anymore.

“Where am I,” she whispered, not expecting an answer.

She got one anyway.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Vachon felt the moment that her heart stopped and consciousness fled.  Acting quickly, he bit into his wrist and put it to her mouth.  “Come back to me Tracy.” He whispered in her ear.  “Querida, I love you.  I need you.  Come back to me.”  He felt her latch onto his wrist almost immediately, sucking for all she was worth.  Finally, when he started to feel light headed he pulled his wrist from her mouth.

Before consciousness left her once again, he heard her say, “I love you too, Vachon.”

Vachon smiled down at the angelic face of his new Childé, “Welcome to the night, Trace.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========


Chapter 11

Nick’s Loft

12:00 p.m. Thursday December 14th

He had slept all of four hours.  He spent another thirty minutes watching his Scully sleeping.  Of course there wasn’t much to see.  She didn’t breathe, she didn’t move.  If it wasn’t for the slight link they had, he might have thought she was dead.  He reflected on the way their lives had changed in less than a week.  Last week he was an FBI agent obsessed with aliens, conspiracies, the supernatural and the occult.  Today he was supernatural- an immortal that was shacking up with a vampire.

In the end, the whole immortality/vampirism thing was minor.  More importantly, last week he was desperate, alone, and hopelessly in love with his partner- with no real hope of ever being with her.  Today they were one in more ways than he could ever have imagined.  “Life is sweet.  Weird, but sweet,” he whispered to himself.

Mulder still hadn’t decided exactly what to say to Skinner, yet.  It depended on how difficult he was going to be about this.  It also depended on why he and Scully had been sent up here in the first place.  Other things had occupied his thoughts and kept him from wondering why they were really there.

As Kimberly answered the phone, Mulder reflected that maybe he should have spent a little more time wondering about these things *before* calling his boss, “Hi Kimberly.  It’s Mulder, is he in?”

“One minute, I’ll see if he is available,” she said, putting him on hold.  She came back on after a few seconds, “Ok, Agent Mulder.  I’m transferring you now.”

“What is it, Mulder?”  Skinner sounded slightly annoyed.  “What could have possibly happened at a simple conference, for Pete’s sake?” he asked, rhetorically.

Mulder’s mind was filled with a few dozen different scenarios where he answered that question honestly- none of them worked out in his head so he said, “Uh, nothing… that is nothing to be worried about with the conference.”

“What did you need to speak to me about then?” Skinner asked.

“Well, uh, that is I want to request some vacation time.  Actually we need to request a couple weeks, Scully and I.” Mulder said, stumbling through the answer.

“Fine.  Email a request in and I will approve it.  Anything else?”  Skinner replied brusquely.

Mulder could not have possibly imagined it would go that easily.  “Uh… No sir.”  Something was definitely up, but he was going to take advantage of it while he could.  “Thank you,” he said.

Skinner replied, “You’re welcome Agent,” and hung up.

“That was too easy.” Mulder muttered to himself

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Natalie woke up feeling extremely thirsty and very sore.  However, it was definitely the good kind of sore.  She had received more physical gratification in the last 5 days than she had in the rest of her life combined.  “Of course, that isn’t saying much” she reflected.

Even without the knowledge that came from the link when Nick drank from her, she would have had no doubt that she was beautiful in Nick’s eyes.  It was as though he had worshiped her body.  He had touched and stroked and kissed every square inch of her body this morning.  She looked like she had been wrestling with a thorn bush, there were little scratches and bite marks spread over her entire body.  “As if he was marking his territory,” she thought with amusement.  She unequivocally did not mind being marked as his.  He could put a big sign on her back that said ‘Property of Nicolas Knight’ as far as she was concerned.  She belonged to him, just as he belonged to her.  Feeling wanton and decadent, she covered herself in nothing but a silk robe and went downstairs to get something to drink.

As she left the bedroom she heard the television.  “Mulder must be up.  No way it’s Dana,” she thought.  She was no expert on vampires, but it was hard enough to get Nick up and out of bed before sundown, she didn’t think a fledgling would be anything less than dead to the world.  She saw him sprawled out on the couch surfing through the channels, not landing on one for more than a few seconds before moving on.  “Definitely a guy thing,” she thought.  “Nick does the same thing, when he watches TV at all.”

Mulder heard her coming down the stairs and stopped surfing for a moment, “Hey, Natalie.  Good Morning?” he asked.

“I think we have to go with ‘good afternoon’ Mulder.  How long have you been up?”

Mulder resumed surfing, “About an hour or so.”

“What’s the matter, Mulder?  Nothing worth watching?” she asked as she walked to refrigerator.

“Mostly soaps.  I have enough intrigue, tragedy and suffering in my life without watching that crap,” Mulder responded.  He noticed her destination and asked, “Hey Natalie, could I impose on you to bring me a bottle of whatever you’re having?”  He smiled, slightly embarrassed at her knowing look.

“Oh?  Are you thirsty, Mulder?  Feeling a bit… drained?” she teased as she collapsed into the chair facing the couch Mulder was sprawled out on.

Mulder noticed that her legs looked like they had lost a fight with a dull razor, “I’m lucky, I guess.  Mine all healed,” he said, gesturing toward her legs.

It was Natalie’s turn to blush as she handed Mulder his bottle of orange juice.  She had brought herself a glass to go with her bottle.  She got tired of refilling it after the 3rd time and joined Mulder in drinking straight from the bottle, upending it and not putting it down until it was empty.  “Wow.  I was really thirsty!”

Mulder smirked at Natalie and said, “I hope you two weren’t planning on waiting very long before you come across.  It doesn’t appear that you’ll be able to hold out much longer.”

Natalie blushed furiously at that, but all the same, she was quite happy that she and Mulder could tease each other like that.  She hadn’t had a close friend outside of Grace and Nick in what felt like ages, and for her and Nick to have another couple so close, and not have to hide anything at all, “Well, it feels wonderful!” she mused.  “I hope you and Dana hang around for a while, Mulder.  I really like you guys.”

Mulder’s smile faltered slightly at that.

Instantly concerned, Natalie leaned toward him asked, “Mulder?  What’s wrong?”

Mulder sat up and put his face in his hands, resting his elbows on his knees, “I don’t know what we are going to do, Natalie.  For the last seven years, the X-Files were my whole life.  Scully’s too.  I have spent years searching for the answers to certain questions.  There are conspiracies that we have been trying to crack for just as long.  I am not sure how I feel about giving up on that, even for a year or two that Duncan says I would need to take to train.  Not to mention that Scully has a whole new life that she needs to prepare for as well.”  He leaned back into the couch and sighed heavily.  “On the other hand, I’ve spent most of the last 7 years pining away after my partner too.  If I had to choose between the two, Scully would win hands down every time.”

Natalie nodded her head.  “I always knew Nick would have to leave someday.  He can’t stay in one place for more than a decade or maybe fifteen years at the outside before people notice that he isn’t getting any older.  I dreaded that time, not knowing where our relationship would be when it came.”

She stopped for a moment and smiled, wistfully.  “I will miss my career, and my friends.  In the end though, being with Nick is more important than being the youngest coroner in Toronto history, not to mention being one of the best despite the ‘handicap’ of being a woman.”  She stood up and went to the refrigerator to grab two more bottles of OJ and returned to the chair, passing one bottle to Mulder.  After draining it in two long pulls, she said, “You know, Mulder- I can be a coroner anywhere I go.  Just because you leave the FBI, if that is what you decide, that doesn’t mean you can’t continue your search for the Truth.  You already have resources outside of the normal channels, and now you have a couple of key advantages, especially with Dana’s newfound skills and abilities.  The two of you could investigate people and places you could never touch before.

“I hadn’t really thought of it like that,” Mulder said in wonder.

“How do you think Nick managed to have the highest solve rate in Department history?”  Natalie smirked.  “He’s a very good cop, but being essentially impervious to bullets, being able to hypnotize suspects and witnesses, and preternaturally acute senses all stack the deck in your favor.”  She laughed, “If I had a dollar for every bullet I’ve removed from Nick in the years I’ve known him, I would be almost as rich as he is.”

“Well, that’s definitely one more thing to consider,” Mulder said.  “When Scully and Nick wake up we need to talk.”  Mulder closed his eyes and clasped his hands on top of his head, sinking down into the couch, “I need to figure out what I am going to do about my new status.  I am not sure I want to spend eternity going around chopping off people’s heads.  I know I don’t want to spend eternity on holy ground, not to mention it might be a bit painful for Scully.”  He opened his eyes and smiled at Natalie, “I do know that despite all of the uncertainty regarding our changes, I am happy… content.  You have no idea how big of a change that is for me.  I haven’t been at peace like this since I was a young boy.  I am happier right now than I have ever been in my life.  However we move forward, so long as it is together, I will adjust to whatever else comes.

Natalie felt almost exactly the same way.  Definitely content, whatever may come.  She was suddenly struck with a thought, “Aren’t you supposed to be flying back tomorrow?” she asked.

“I called our boss and arranged a couple of weeks off,” he responded.

“I need to do that, too.  Nick suggested a couple of months,” she said.

Mulder raised his brows at that, “Can you get that much?” he asked, surprised.

Natalie smiled, “We both have tons of leave accrued.  We never really take any,” she said.  “Besides, we have a good excuse,” she said, waggling her left ring finger at him.

“Yeah?  When are you guys tying the knot?” Mulder asked.

“We were thinking about the weekend before New Years,” she answered.

“What about the… other event?”  Mulder asked slyly.

Natalie blushed slightly, “Saturday… I can’t wait!” she confessed, sounding like a little kid two days before Christmas.

Mulder laughed out loud.  “Well, I don’t know about you, but I am starved.  How about I buy you breakfast to celebrate your impending immortality?”  He added, “It’s not as if our significant others will feel left out.”

“Ok, let me leave a note, Nick might actually wake up,” Natalie said getting out a piece of paper and a pen from a kitchen drawer and scrawling a few words.  “Ok, let’s go.”

“Uh Natalie?  You going in that?” he asked, gesturing at her robe.

“Oh…  I guess I’m a little distracted,” she said, blushing again.  “Let me go throw something on,” she said running up the stairs.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick slowly achieved consciousness.  He could feel that the sun was still up, and wondered what had awoken him.  He rolled over to look at Natalie and saw that she wasn’t there.  “That must have been it,” he thought.  Remembering that they had guests, he put on both the top and pants of his pajamas.  He was about to head out of the bedroom when he heard Natalie running up the stairs.  She swooped into the room and suddenly stopped short when she saw him up and dressed, sort of.

“Oh, Nick!  I didn’t think you would be up already,” she said.

“What’s the matter, Nat?” Nick asked, concerned.

Natalie went over to her bag and took out a pair of jeans and a sweater, as well as a bra and panties, and began getting dressed.  “Nothing’s wrong, Nick.  Mulder and I were going to go grab some breakfast.  Want to join us?” she asked, pausing with her arms crossed above her head, about to pull her sweater over her head, and looked at him for a response.

Nick stared at Natalie, clad in jeans and a bra with her hands semi-confined above her head and started to get some ideas he wanted to explore Saturday night prior to her conversion.

Natalie noticed the predatory look he was laying on her and blushed head to toe, “Nick… Breakfast?”

“Thanks Nat- I’m tempted, but I think you had better eat something first.  I don’t want you getting anemic!” he replied, deliberately misconstruing her question.

She blushed even harder and pulled her sweater on.  “Nicolas de Brabant!  You are incorrigible!”

“Nat, after you guys eat, why don’t you go in to the morgue and see if you can arrange that time off.  If you can keep Mulder out of Dana’s and my hair until about midnight, I think we can complete the preliminary stuff and she would be able to move out and among mortals without me babysitting her.” Nick suggested.

“Isn’t that awfully fast?  Just a couple of days and she is good to go?” Natalie asked, concerned.

“I don’t know what it is, Nat.  Maybe it’s the immortal blood she is feeding on, but she’s advancing faster than I’ve ever heard of.  Even with the deep link training I’m using, it should take a several days for the basics, and she had them mastered the first night.”  Nick shook his head in wonder.  We just need to cover a couple of things and practice them a little and she should be ok.”

“And that’s it?” Natalie asked.

“No, she will still need time and practice to master some of the more challenging skills, but she won’t need to be attached to my hip.  First of all, those lessons will be intermittent, and second, those lessons can wait. Until we get you caught up to her level.”  Nick smiled tenderly at the love of his life.  “If things go normally, it won’t take more than two or three weeks at the outside, and who knows?  Being filled with your very own supply of immortal blood may accelerate your progress as well.”

“Or I might not come across at all,” Natalie said, somewhat glumly.

Nick refused to let the possibility bring him down, “Then sword lessons for you, young lady!  Now, go.  Eat.  Keep Mulder occupied.  I’ll see you tonight.”  Nick laid into her with a searing kiss, giving her a taste of just what he had in store for her tonight.

Natalie kissed him back just as thoroughly, letting him know she was more than ready for whatever he had for her tonight.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Natalie and Mulder had each consumed 2 entrees and about a gallon of orange juice before they felt sated.  The bemused waitress had stopped even asking if there was anything else she could get them, and just brought them a pitcher of juice.

Mulder was laughing at Natalie’s stories, sharing things with her that he had only shared with Scully.  He was suddenly struck by the fact that he hadn’t sat and talked with a friend, about nothing special, for… “I can’t remember doing this since I joined the FBI.”  No conspiracies, no aliens, no work at all.  It was almost like he was exhaling after holding his breath for years.  No angst, no emotional investment, just a nice chat with a friendly person who had no political interest or reason for betrayal.

Natalie noticed Mulder drifting off into another world and smiled at him.  He looked relaxed.  “I think this is the first time I’ve seen you relax this week, Mulder,” she observed.

That was exactly it.  He felt relaxed.  In his anal-retentive obsessiveness, now that he could put a name on it, he could quit thinking about it.  “Yeah,” he said with a kind of satisfied sigh.  “Actually, I think it’s been quite a while longer than a week.”

Natalie leaned back and smiled at Mulder.  Outside the sun was setting, and she could see part of the sunset between the buildings.  She was enjoying the peaceful companionship.  She suddenly started at the look of utter shock on Mulder’s face.  He looked like he had sat on a tack, or been touched by a live wire.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick’s Loft

4:45 p.m. Thursday December 14th

Scully came back to life with the setting of the sun.  She could feel it slipping over the horizon with her newfound senses, “That’s strange,” she thought, she felt as though she had just lain down.  She remembered the last thing she had done before falling asleep- drinking Mulder’s hot life’s-blood as she rode out her own orgasm and, through the link, felt his as well.  “That’s definitely the way I want to fall asleep from now on!” she thought.

[*That* can be arranged] she heard Mulder say.  She rolled over to look at her lover when she noticed she was alone in bed.  She immediately sat up and looked around for him, but he was nowhere in sight.  “Mulder! Where are you?” she asked out loud.

[Actually Scully, I am downtown having breakfast with Natalie.]

“What?!” she almost shouted.  She suddenly realized that she wasn’t hearing him with her ears, but rather in her head.  She closed her eyes and saw a table full of empty dishes in front of her and a very concerned looking Natalie leaning forward and asking her ‘what’s wrong, Mulder?’

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Mulder answered Natalie’s question, “Nothing, Natalie.  Scully just woke up, that’s all.”

[Tell her that her theory of the blood exchange was apparently right] Scully thought to Mulder with a sense of wonder at this new sensation.

“Scully says your theory was right.  What theory was that?”  Mulder asked.

Natalie’s train of thought was completely derailed.  “You… She???”  Natalie paused and scrubbed at her face with her hands and swept them up and through her hair, taking a moment to put her thoughts together.  “You can hear her?” she asked, still trying to reorganize mentally.

Mulder was starting to feel very hungry suddenly.  *Very* hungry.  He closed his eyes and groaned at the hunger pangs.  As his eyes closed he suddenly found himself in Nick’s guest bedroom, but only for a moment and then the scenery whizzed by and he found himself, not half a second later, wrenching the refrigerator door open, grabbing a bottle, tearing the cork out and chugging it down.

[Sorry, that was me.] Scully thought.  [I felt how full you were and my own hunger didn’t hit me for a moment.]

Mulder was momentarily lost in the sensation that came from the blood.  He had a faint impression of a young man laying on a table at the Red Cross, donating for his school’s blood drive.  As he opened his eyes he came back to himself and noticed that Natalie was looking a little green, “Actually, everything looks a little green,” he thought.

Natalie was about to ask Mulder what was wrong when he opened his eyes and she saw that they had changed to the green/gold of a vampire.  Her hands flew to cover her mouth as she gasped out loud.  “Mulder! Your eyes!” she whispered loudly, looking around to see if anyone else noticed.

“What?” he said, blinking rapidly until the greenish tinge everything had was gone.  “What just happened?” he demanded in a harsh whisper.  He focused on Natalie who was still staring at him, stunned.  Abruptly he stood up and pulled out his wallet. Throwing two fifties on the table he said, “Come on, let’s get out of here.” He growled.

Natalie silently stood up, grabbed her stuff and walked out with Mulder.  As they got outside she explained what she had seen.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Scully had her eyes closed, listening in, but not commenting.  She didn’t know what to think- Mulder’s eyes vamping out?  Was it an echo of her, or was he changing?  What did it mean?  Suddenly she felt something she had never felt before- like fire in her head and a buzzing in her ears.

[Oh, no.  Not now!] she heard Mulder think.

She saw through his eyes an intense man striding through the parking lot towards Mulder and Natalie with violence written all over him.

[It’s not Froag.  I don’t know who it is.] she heard Mulder tell Natalie.  [Go get in the car, get it running and I’ll jump in.]

She heard Natalie answer ask him what he was going to do without a sword.

[I don’t think he will try anything here, it’s pretty public.  Just go!]

Scully saw him pull a sword from his coat and felt Mulder’s fear blossom.  “NO!” she screamed.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Natalie jumped into the driver’s seat of the Caddie and started it up.  She pulled out of the parking spot and dropped it into drive with her shaking hand.  She headed to where Mulder was and saw the immortal cocking a sword back over his shoulder, getting ready to swing it at Mulder.  What she saw next almost caused her to wreck the car.

Mulder moved faster than the eye could see- he struck the other immortal in the neck with the edge of his hand like he was trying to crush his larynx, but he struck with such force that he took his head almost entirely off.  It remained connected by only a little bit of skin and muscle on the right side of the neck.  Apparently it was enough, because within several seconds of the body hitting the ground, the light show began.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Nick was drying off when he heard, and felt, Dana’s angry/fearful yell.  He had the impression through the link that she felt threatened with deadly force, but he couldn’t sense anyone else- vampire or mortal.  That didn’t stop him from flying down the stairs at top speed.  He was just in time to see Dana floating, bathed in a crackling blue aura and screaming like to tear out her throat.  He tried to reach through their link and it felt like he was opening his mind to an electric current.  He immediately clamped down on the link and watched, helplessly, as she convulsed in… actually she didn’t look like she was in pain anymore, and suddenly the aura collapsed and she crashed to the ground.

“Dana?  Are you alright?” Nick asked softly.  He gingerly reopened the link between them and felt…  He smiled at the feeling.  “Dana, do you need a cigarette?”

Scully sat up and looked at Nick, confusion written on her face, “Nick, you know I don’t smo…” she suddenly caught the almost smile on his face and the humor through their link.

Nick suddenly laughed out loud, “Now there is something you won’t see again anytime soon.  A vampire blushing!” he crowed.  Suddenly he got serious again.  “What just happened, Dana?”

In the afterglow of the quickening Scully had momentarily forgotten herself.  She pressed into the link with Mulder and saw him tossing the body into the trunk of the caddie and yelling at Natalie to drive.  He was looking around for any witnesses but didn’t see anyone.  Natalie gunned the engine and squealed the tires as they left the parking lot, on their way back to the loft.

Nick only caught about a third of all of that through his link with Dana, but he could tell that she was completely immersed.  “Wow, Dana.  Wow.  I mean… Wow.”  Nick was shaking his head in amazement.  “I’ve never heard of a link like that, not even legends.  The master/childé link is usually as strong as it gets, but it’s never like this.  Never like becoming the other.”  He sat down at the table and just stared at his childé.  “It’s like you are in a bloodkiss.  Total immersion!”

Scully just said, “We tried out your suggestion.”

“Well I’d say it worked,” Nick said with a loud exhale.  “So I take it Mulder took his first head?  Was it Froag?  How did he do it?  He doesn’t even have a sword… Does he?”

Scully levitated herself up off of the floor and went over to the fridge and pulled out a couple of bottles.  “That really made me hungry,” she explained at Nick’s raised eyebrows.

“Tell me what happened, Dana,” Nick said.

Scully drained about half of a bottle and began, “Well, I woke up and was talking to Mulder when I noticed that he wasn’t in the room,” she began.  She recounted all of the events up until the feeling of the quickening and seeing the unknown immortal.

“Who was it?” Nick interrupted.  How did Mulder beat him without a sword?

“We don’t know who.  As to how… I’m not sure, Nick.  It’s almost like when I… That night, when I watched Mulder get shot- it was like that.  I was seeing through Mulder’s eyes, and everything around him slowed to a crawl and we hit him in the throat… but it was too fast.  Our hand didn’t crush his larynx, it went through his neck…”  She looked up at Nick with worry in her eyes.  “Mulder shouldn’t be able to move that fast!  It’s not possible, is it?”

“What’s not possible, Dana?”  Nick asked.

“He can’t have come across?  He ate Pancakes!  I could taste them.  And he was in the sun, I could feel it and it didn’t burn at all!  He can’t be a vampire.  Can he?”  She asked, ranting and throwing her hands in the air.

Nick replied honestly, “Calm down, Dana.  This is new to all of us.  We will figure it out.”  Nick reached over and took her hand, “The important thing for now is that Mulder is alive.  Focus on the positive, Dana.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

They had driven about 5 minutes when Natalie finally asked the question.  “Ok Mulder, you want to explain what just happened?”  She continued to stare straight ahead, made sure she had both hands on the wheel and tried very, very, hard to keep her voice calm and even.  It was the only way to keep from falling into a complete panic.

Mulder started to laugh, becoming a bit manic before he shut himself up.  He could feel a nagging little thread of panic itching to break free.  “Sorry Natalie.  I would really like to tell you.  I really would.  But I don’t have a clue.  I don’t know if that was Scully acting through me, or if I somehow took some of her attributes, or…  I don’t even know where to begin.”  Mulder paused for a moment as if waiting for an answer and then said, “Nick and Scully don’t have a clue either.”

Natalie gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, and her voice was just a little more brittle as she asked, “You can hear Nick too?”

“Yeah… I mean I can’t hear him, but Scully can and I kinda hear what she hears.”  Mulder started to notice that Natalie was more than a little freaked out and hastened to clarify, “I don’t have a link with him if that is what you’re asking.  I mean that I can hear him with Scully’s ears.  They are talking.  Out loud, I mean.”  Suddenly he sobered as both the topic of Nick and Scully’s discussion, and the memories that he could sense Scully recalling came through, “She caught part of the quickening.”

“Natalie was distracted from the weirdness of the situation by the thought of an innocent bystander being injured, “Innocent?  Bystander?” she wondered.  “Maybe kind of ‘not directly involved’, ‘semi-bystander.’  Maybe.” she thought.  “Is she ok?” she asked Mulder.

“Yes.  Nick is razzing her about the…  Well, it kind of starts off really painful, but it ends… Well…  Let’s just say I can see how someone might get addicted to headhunting,” he said, blushing.

Natalie saw the blush creep up his face out of the corner of her eye and barked out a short, but genuinely amused laugh.  “Do you need a cigarette Mulder?”

Mulder stared at her goggle eyed for a second, “Do you and Nick have a link, Natalie?”

Confused by the apparent non sequitur, Natalie just gave Mulder a puzzled look.

Mulder said, “That is exactly the same question Nick asked Scully.”

Now Natalie began to laugh out loud, dispelling all of her tension in a virtual celebration of the ridiculousness of the entire situation.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Room 1013, Plaza Hotel

Methos was standing on the deck outside the sliding glass door of the hotel room Mulder had ‘loaned’ him when he saw the quickening in the distance.  He focused on where he could see it, about a quarter mile away.  As soon as he thought he had the landmarks committed to memory he ran back into his room and through the door to Mac’s room.  He saw him coming out of the bathroom, pants on and sword in hand- his hair still damp from the shower.

“What the bloody hell?” Mac demanded.  “Methos, I told you I would be over when I was ready!”

Methos interrupted him, saying, “I just saw a quickening, MacLeod.  Not a quarter mile south of us.”

MacLeod didn’t even pause, “One minute” was all he said as he quickly finished getting dressed.

They were in the car and on the road within 5 minutes.  They both knew whoever was involved would be long gone, but if it was Froag, he might leave the body behind.  At least they might be able to tell if it was Mulder who was involved.  Maybe there would be witnesses from whom they could find out something.

“Here Mac, I’m sure it was here,” Methos said, indicating the parking lot beside a little diner.

They parked and began to walk around the parking lot, looking for anything.  Strangely, there was no one milling about; no police cars, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.  If this was the place, there must not have been any witnesses.

“Methos.”  Mac called.  “Look here.”

Methos went over to where Mac was standing and looked down at the large blood puddle at his feet.  “Someone or something died here.”  Mac said.

“I see a few scorch marks, but no broken glass,” Methos added.  He noticed something lying between two cars across the drive aisle and went over to it.  “Somebody lost their blade,” he said, bending down to pick up the short, broadsword.

“Froag’s?”  Mac asked.

“Could be, I know he uses a broadsword, but I’ve never seen it.  The question is who else is in town?”  Methos frowned.  “Froag is a prick, but he’s pretty darned good.  If someone took him they had to have done it quickly- you would think the sounds of a prolonged sword fight would bring someone else out of the diner.”

“We can’t be positive, Methos.  He could have lost his sword and had to leave quickly,” Mac said.

“But he had time to grab the body?”  Methos answered.  “Not bloody likely.”

MacLeod thought about it for a moment, “Well, Somebody had time to grab the body and leave the sword.  We shouldn’t assume who it was.  We need to try and find out.”

“Yeah.  I’ll see if his watcher has caught up with him yet.”  Methos said, resignedly.

“I have to run an errand across the border.  There’s a dealer who claims to have a 13th century kogarasu-zukuri,” MacLeod began.

Methos started laughing, “You were going to come out here anyway!  And you want me to feel guilty about ‘dragging you across the continent!’ you…”

“I didn’t plan on dragging myself out of bed and rushing to the airport to catch a plane!  I was going to fly in this weekend.”  MacLeod said, indignantly.

“Sure, right, whatever.” Methos dismissed MacLeod’s protest.  “When will you be back?”

“I told Mulder I would meet him Sunday night at the Raven,” he answered.  “I’ll be there about ten or so.”

Methos said “Ok,” and walked away.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Halfway to the loft Mulder said, “Nick wants you to call him.”

Natalie wasn’t angry, but she was getting a little tired of this silent communication.  “Alright Kreskin, it’s getting a little old already,” she said as she hit the speed dial.

“Yes Nick?  The Amazing Kreskin said you wanted me to call?”

“Actually, I was telling Dana that I should call you.  Apparently speaking to one, is the same as speaking to both,” he said as he shot Scully a dirty look.

She shrugged her shoulders and smiled impishly back at him.

Natalie shot Mulder a dirty look and received the same impish grin.  “Why were you going to call me?”

Nick said, “Dana said that you’re coming back to the loft?”

“Yeah, why?” Natalie asked.

“I think you should go ahead to the morgue, try and get the vacation.  I want to wrap up Dana’s training and…” Nick began

“Nick- there’s our passenger to think about… Remember, he can’t stay long.”

As macabre as it was, Mulder couldn’t help but laugh at Natalie’s delicate description.  Of course, that set Scully off and both Nick and Natalie had to listen to laughter in person, and over the phone.

Nick sighed at the ‘children’s’ antics.  “Natalie, go to the Raven.  I’ll call LaCroix and tell him you’re coming.”  Nick added, “Be back here at Midnight and I’ll take you for a ride,” he said suggestively.

This, of course, caused Natalie to blush, while Scully laughed at the suggestion, and Mulder laughed at Natalie, and then Mulder and Scully each laughed even harder at what each other was hearing and seeing.  After a few moments they settled down, wiping the tears from their eyes.

“All right Nick,” Natalie said.  “I think in the future we will have to avoid phone conversations in these two’s presence.  It’s distracting.”

“Absolutely,” Nick agreed.  “I will see you at Midnight, Love.”

“I can’t wait!” Natalie replied and then disconnected the call.  She found the next turn and headed toward the Raven.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

They drove for about 10 minutes before getting to the alley behind the Raven.  As they stepped out of the car they were almost simultaneously struck by the situation.

“I never thought I would be doing something like this,” Mulder began, quietly.

Natalie agreed, saying, “I handle bodies all of the time, but this is definitely different.  I’m usually trying to catch a murderer, not helping cover one up and disposing of the body.”

“I didn’t really think of it as a murder, Natalie.” Mulder said somewhat defensively.

“Mulder, ritual combat is still murder in the eyes of the law,” she began, but then relented at the hurt look on his face.  “I know you would have avoided this if it were possible, Mulder.  But you have to accept that your life now includes behavior that civilized society calls murder.  Two hundred years ago duels might have been an accepted and even celebrated activity.  Today, they are considered murder.

Times change, but it seems that immortals don’t.”  She heaved a big sigh, “It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person Mulder.  If things don’t go the way I want them to, I will be joining you in this ‘game.’  Don’t think for a moment that I won’t take someone’s head if it comes down to them or me, but it is still murder in the eyes of the law, and I have always been on the other side of the fence.”

Mulder sighed himself.  “Yeah.  I don’t think I can live like this and stay in the Bureau.  I don’t think they would look kindly on having a head-chopping agent in their employ,” he said leaning against the car and scrubbing at his face with both hands.  “Not to mention a mass murderer with a literal taste for blood,” he added with a smile.

[Hey!]

“Sorry, Scully, but you did kill a dozen men.  It doesn’t make you a bad person.” He said, quoting Natalie and chuckling.  He looked at Natalie and saw the worried look on her face.  “Don’t worry Natalie.  I’m not loosing it, at least I don’t think so.  I am just trying to accept my new reality.  Scully and I are murderers.  We didn’t do it out of malice, or because we are evil, but because it was all we could do under the circumstances we were in.  And, we will both kill again, for the same reasons.   So will you.  Watchers, Hunters, the ‘Game’; to protect ourselves- and our friends- in our new reality, we will kill.  I think I will be better able to accept that if I don’t try to deny it or dismiss it.  I will kill to live, but I don’t have to live for the kill.”

[Boy, talk about ‘paradigm shift’.] Scully added.  [Whoops!  Got to go, Mulder.  Nick’s going to try and block our link so we can finish training.  Don’t worry if you don’t hear from me for a while, Ok?]

“Ok Scully,” Mulder said and then felt their link quiet down almost to nothing.

“Ok, Mulder.  I’d just like to go on record saying that this whole ‘mental conversation’ thing you’ve got going with Dana is starting to be really exasperating,” Natalie said, facing him with her hands on her hips and giving him an annoyed look.  “Come on, let’s get LaCroix and get this over with.  I’ve got to get to the morgue and arrange time off,” she said, heading toward the door to the club.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========


Chapter 12

Toronto Homicide, 96th Precinct.

7:00 p.m. Thursday

After Nick had Scully practice her ‘Whammy’ on a few of the homeless denizens of the street he took her with him to the precinct so that he could talk to the captain about some time off.

As Nick was in the captain’s office, she sat at his desk and looked around the precinct.  She wondered how many times she had been in homicide departments, similar to this one, working on a case, or following one of Mulder’s far-fetched leads.  “Three hundred and thirty seven,” she suddenly realized as her newly found perfect memory quickly shunted through each and every one of them in a blur of images.

“You forgot to mention perfect recall, Nick,” she thought.  She had always envied Mulder’s ability to remember everything; whereas he had thought of it almost as a curse.  Thinking back on Nick’s memories of the horrors he had committed in his immortal youth, she could see Mulder’s point.  She herself could remember in exact detail her own recent murderous behavior.  “You were right Mulder.  No matter how we dress it up in circumstance, it is still murder,” she thought.

She closed her eyes and leaned back in Nick’s chair.  He was still blocking her link with Mulder, and all she saw was the insides of her eyelids.  The rest of her senses, however, were almost overloaded with the activity around her.  She could hear the heartbeats of the detectives working around her.  She could smell the perfume of their blood singing in their veins.  Even though it called out to the vampire in her, she found that she could easily control it.  She had fed well before she and Nick had flown here, “Plus, when you have filet mignon waiting at home, you don’t find ground chuck all that tempting,” she thought.

“What do you mean by that?” Nick asked her as he approached the desk, questioning her unspoken comment.

Scully opened her eyes and regarded her ‘master’ for a moment before answering.  “The stuff in the bottle satisfies the hunger, but it is not as good as it is ‘straight from the tap’ as it were,” she evaded.

“That’s true, but you weren’t thinking of the bottled product, were you?” Nick asked as he stood in front of her, arms folded across his chest.

“Even from the source, I can’t imagine regular human blood coming close to Mulder’s,” she mused with a sigh, the wonder and desire evident in her voice.  “When I drink from him, it’s like fire running through my soul.  He burns into me and it’s as though I can feel him in each individual cell in my body.”  She shivered slightly as her perfect memory replayed their last encounter for her.  “I don’t know if it’s his love, his immortality, or both; but I think Mulder has spoiled me for anything or anyone else; even your blood, Nick.  I know when I drink from you that it is the blood of my maker, and I can tell that it’s different, certainly better than human, but it’s just not like Mulder.”

Nick could feel the pleasure/desire emanating from her.  He was awed at the strength of the bond Dana had with her lover.  He hoped that he and Natalie would have something similar.

Scully shook herself out of her reverie, “Did you get your vacation squared away Nick?” she asked as she stood before her Father in Darkness.  She giggled at that thought, ‘Father in Darkness,’  “Dark Daddy.” She thought to him.

“Impudent Childé!” he thought back to her with a mock growl.  He couldn’t keep the grin off of his face entirely, though.  He was relieved that she and Mulder had so quickly accepted some of the darker aspects of their new reality without falling into the despondency that had haunted him for so long.

Scully sobered slightly, saying, “I think the difference might be that Mulder and I have each other to remind us that we aren’t monsters.  At that time, LaCroix wanted you to act like a monster, and you didn’t have anyone to tell you differently.”

“Never forget, Dana, that we have that monster inside us and we must keep it under tight control, or it will dominate us,” Nick whispered.

“We had that darkness in us even before we were changed, Nick.  I know it has been so long ago, but surely you remember having to fight the darkness in your soul, even before you changed.” Scully said.

“Yes, that’s true, it’s just more powerful now.” He replied.

“You’re right, Nick.  But now we are more powerful as well,” she replied.

Nick changed the subject, “Anyway, to answer your question, Yes.  I got the vacation.  Now we need to see if Nat can get hers, and we will be set.”

“What did you tell your captain?” Scully asked.

“I didn’t have to tell him anything, Tracy was there first,” he said deadpan.

Scully chortled at that.  “I take it she doesn’t keep secrets well?” she said as they stopped and looked around to be sure no one was watching.

“Oh, she can keep a secret when she thinks it is important, like the truth about vampires.  But for everything else, she is an inveterate gossip,” he replied, smiling down at her.

Scully suddenly realized how close they were to one another, and how their low conversation and continuous eye contact must appear to everyone else around them.  She could hear their increased pulse-rates, and she could feel everyone in the precinct staring at them.

Nick heard the sudden lull in conversation around them and realized that he and Dana were standing in each other’s personal space, carrying on an intimate conversation.  He closed his eyes and groaned softly, “I can hear the rumor mill gearing up now, Dana.”

Scully laughed and said, “Oh come on, Daddy, lets have some fun with them.  It’s not as if Natalie is going to have a problem with it,” she said as she stepped closer to him, until they were almost touching.  She wrapped her arm around his waist and tried to lead him out.

Nick stood there, staring down at his daughter.  “Oh you are a brash, impetuous childé.”  He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and allowed her to tug him out of the precinct.  It was all he could do not to laugh out-loud at the whispers he heard starting up behind them as they left.

Scully didn’t restrain herself.  She heard some of the comments and laughed out loud.  When he looked at her with eyebrows raised, she said, “No offense intended Nick- Natalie is a lovely woman, but the thought of having sex with her doesn’t do anything for me at all; and the idea of sex with you seems almost incestuous- let alone having you both at once!”

Nick did laugh at that.  He then paused for a moment, as if trying to come to a decision.  He had his arms crossed, with his left hand against his mouth like ‘The Thinker’.  After a minute, he seemed to come to a decision.  He said, “Now, we are going to practice something important; something very dangerous as well.  You will need to exercise an enormous amount of control over your hunger, and your bloodlust.”

Scully was intrigued, “What are we going to do?”

As he took to the sky, Nick answered her question, “Hunt.”

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Toronto Coroner’s Office, Morgue.

7:00 p.m. Thursday

Natalie snuck up on Grace as she was intently looking at some sample slides.  “Evening Grace,” Natalie whispered in her ear.

“Good Lord, Girl!” Grace said after jumping halfway out of her seat.  “You like to have frightened a year off my life!”  She stood up and turned around, hands on her hips and mock glaring at the unrepentant woman in front of her.  She then noticed the tall good-looking man with Natalie.  “Who’s this fine young man?  You finally get tired of waiting for Detective Knight to come to his senses?”

Mulder guffawed at that, and at seeing Natalie’s blush.  “No Ma’am, just keeping Nick’s fiancé company while she takes care of a few things,” he said, waiting for the look of shock and surprise that he expected after Natalie’s briefing on Grace during their ride from the Raven.  He wasn’t disappointed.

“What did he just call you?!” Grace practically shouted, gripping her shoulders and turning Natalie to face her.

Natalie couldn’t keep the big, goofy grin off of her face as she lifted her left hand up for Grace’s inspection.  “He finally came to his senses,” She replied.

Grace grabbed Natalie's hand and brought the ring up for a closer inspection.  “Good Lord, girl.  That man don’t do anything by halves, does he?” she said as she brought her eyes up from the ring to Natalie’s face.

Even though slightly embarrassed she couldn’t help but say, “No, he does *everything* over-the-top.”

Grace laughed at that.  “When’s the wedding, dear?”

Still bearing that goofy, tooth-baring grin, Natalie replied, “December 30th, two weeks from Saturday.”

“Lord above, Girl!  That’s awfully fast, isn’t it?  Can you plan a wedding in 2 weeks?” Grace asked, stunned.

“Well, it’s not going to be formal, we will just have a few friends and some extended family, not a big church wedding.”  Natalie’s smile turned into a sly grin, “besides, now that he’s pulled his head out, I’m not letting him change his mind!”

Mulder laughed out loud at that, and Grace joined him.

Natalie realized that she hadn’t even introduced Mulder to Grace.  “I’m sorry; Grace, this is Agent Mulder with the FBI; Mulder, this is Grace Balthazar, my assistant.”

“Oh? Is there a new case you guys are working on?  I hadn’t heard anything.”  Grace began.

“No, my partner and I are actually on vacation.”  Mulder answered.  We’re going to stick around for the wedding.”

“Friends or extended family?” Grace wondered aloud, arching her brow, clearly interested in this faucet of Natalie’s life that she was previously unaware of.

Natalie jumped in, afraid of what Mulder might say, “Would you like the hot lights and rubber hose now, Grace?  Or are you waiting for a more opportune point in the interrogation?” she said with a smile and a laugh.  “Dana, Mulder’s partner, is related to Nick.  Kind of like a distant niece.”

Grace gave Natalie a look, like she was humoring her by dropping it for now, but would be back to revisit the subject later, “Mm Hmm.  What are you doing in tonight, Natalie?  I didn’t expect you back yet.”

“I just came in to get some vacation arranged.  We’ve got plans to make, and a honeymoon to enjoy afterward.” Natalie said; her goofy grin back in place.  Plus she knew that nothing would sidetrack her assistant like sexual innuendo.

Grace smiled openly and teased, “I bet you’re not waiting for the honeymoon!”

Natalie put on a straight face and deadpanned, “Well, practice makes perfect.”

“I heard that!” Grace said, ever the relationship cheerleader.  “You get yourself situated and be sure I get an invite when you figure out where you’re having it!  The wedding, I mean.  You can just tape the honeymoon.”

Mulder cackled at that, not able to contain himself at the look on Natalie’s face.

Natalie rolled her eyes at Mulder’s antics and said, “Oh, you are *bad* Grace!”

“You know it!” she agreed.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Ontario Watcher Chapterhouse

8:45 p.m. Thursday

Methos was checking the database, trying to figure out who might have been involved in the fight from which he had seen the quickening.  There were actually several in the province besides himself, Mac, and Froag.  As he was perusing the db, an update on one Willy Williams came through.  His watcher, Ken Baker, was relatively new to the group and this was only his second charge.  His first had been a very young one, only a couple of years as an immortal.  He died in the first 6 months and Baker had been reassigned to Williams.  Willy was about 250 years old, and was a real piece of work.  He had been an indentured servant brought over from England in the 1750s.  He was a thief and a scoundrel and only came to America to escape the hangman’s noose at home.  Methos wondered how this guy had survived two years, let alone over two centuries as an immortal.  He attacked any immortal he came across, in public or not.  If he found one who was his better, he would find a way to escape the fight and run away.  He was apparently in Toronto after being chased out of Buffalo, NY by just such a circumstance.

“I guess he learned his lesson at last,” Methos thought as he read the narrative of the battle that ended Willy Williams’ tenure among the Immortals.  As he continued to read, he began to get a feeling that this was not entirely right.  The description of the fight seemed pretty routine, but some of the details didn’t fit.  By the time he had gotten to the part about the woman with long curly black hair in a green Cadillac; and the two taking the body and head with them, Methos began to think that this entire narrative was a sham.  He reread the vague description of the immortal that took Williams’ head and thought of a new immortal that fit that description perfectly.  “That would make the longhaired woman Natalie Lambert,” he thought.  “That can’t be right, Mulder doesn’t even have a sword, does he?” he asked himself.  Methos ran a quick check to find out where Baker was staying, and took off, deciding to go speak to him face to face.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

Vachon’s Church

9:00 p.m. Thursday.

Tracy sinuously stretched her lissom nude form out on the bed, savoring the sensations she had been experiencing.  She had awoken at sunset with a ravenous hunger, quickly satiated by the four and a half bottles of blood Vachon had handed her, one after the other, chuckling as she downed them as fast as she could.

Halfway through the fifth bottle, her stomach appeased, a new hunger overtook her.  Through their newly forged link, Tracy could feel Vachon’s desire.  His need to possess her ignited her own yearning.  What had followed was the most intense four hours in her life.  They had made vigorous, ardent love- varying between furious bouts of physical prowess; and long, slow, languid sex that drove her insane with need and desire as he teased and tormented her before allowing her release.

Vachon watched Tracy stretching out on the sheets like a cat waking from a nap.  The sweet taste of her blood still lingered in his mouth and he savored it like the finest wine.  “Thank God for vampiric stamina,” he thought.  Tracy had been an insatiable sexual monster, seemingly intent on draining every last ounce of life out of him.

Tracy giggled as she caught that thought from her lover.  “You make it sound as though I was taking you against your will, Javier,” she said, laughing.

“Not at all Querida,” he replied.  “I just thought we might want to get out of bed while it is still night,” he joked.  “Seriously Trace, We need to get some basics covered if you want to be able to go back to work in a week.”

“Seriously?  When have you ever taken anything seriously, Vachon?” she pouted, clearly wanting to lie about for a while longer.

Vachon realized that they seemed to have switched roles.  Tracy was usually the overly controlled one, driven by duty and responsibility; whereas he was the one who was usually carefree and easygoing.

“I take you seriously, Tracy.  I love you,” he answered.  “I want you to be happy, and I know you want to keep working as a cop.”  He reached out and tenderly stroked her face, “In order to do that, you need to get the basics down and be able to control the blood lust.”  He leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her lips, then moved down to her ear and whispered, “If you’re a good girl, and learn fast, I might be persuaded to give you a treat,” then he pierced the lobe of her ear with a single fang, nearly causing her to have an orgasm just from that.

Her every nerve ending was hypersensitive to sexual stimulation.  Tracy quivered as Vachon pulled away, stood up and walked away toward the shower.  “Oh you fight dirty, Javier!” she moaned, watching his delicious butt, actually licking her lips at the thought of sinking her teeth into it.

Vachon felt the desires and emotions running rampant through his childé, stirring his own, and relented slightly.  He looked back over his shoulder and smiled at her when he saw her eyes fixed on his backside, “Aren’t you going to join me?” he asked.

She leapt out of bed and attacked his mouth with a searing kiss, stroking his fangs with her tongue and digging her nails into the object of her attention.  She didn’t know what it was about this man, but somehow he inflamed her desire like no one else had ever before.  Even in her most erotic fantasies she hadn’t imagined being so eager and hungry for sex.  While she wasn’t a prude, she hadn’t really been a particularly sexual creature.  She slept with her boyfriends in the past more for their benefit than hers.  When she did orgasm it was usually at her own hand.  Typically, it was brief and, while pleasant enough, certainly nothing to write home about.

With Vachon, she *was* sex: hot, steamy, and wet.  When she came, it was like she was on fire, burning from the inside out.  No one had ever made her feel like that, and she was very rapidly becoming addicted.  These feelings and desires made her want to do things that she had never wanted to do before.

She had never been especially fond of oral sex, usually reserving it for birthdays and Christmas, if she was in a relationship at the time.  It wasn’t that she found it especially distasteful, just that she didn’t take much pleasure in it.  With Vachon she was learning that it could be just as pleasurable to give head as to receive it.

Vachon felt Tracy slide down the length of his body, dragging her erect nipples down his torso, and licking and sucking his skin as she went.  She scraped her fangs across his abdomen and licked the droplets of blood from him, causing him to moan.  “I have a feeling that we aren’t going to make it to the shower,” he rasped out just as she closed her mouth over his stiff member.

Vachon heard her respond through their link; “Hmm, do you care?”

“Nuh Ohhhh,” was all he could reply as she took him all the way into her throat and began to lave his balls with her tongue.  Not having to breathe certainly made an already good thing even more enjoyable.  She refused to slide more than halfway off of him before gobbling him back down, increasing her pace, and grabbing his ass to encourage his thrusts.  Vachon was wracked by guilt and desire.  If he had initiated this activity, or even suggested it he would have fully expected to be slapped for being a misogynist pig; especially with a ‘modern’ woman like Tracy.  This was, however, absolutely the hottest, sexiest thing any woman had ever done for him in nearly 500 years of life.  He had absolutely no control, and couldn’t have stopped if someone rammed a wooden stake through his heart.  When she offered her left wrist so he could cum, her other hand busy driving herself toward orgasm, he thought he would explode.

She felt like a harlot, but she found his reaction to her attentions so stimulating that she couldn’t help herself.  She was enjoying this almost as much as he was.  As Vachon bit down on her wrist, Tracy pulled back so that he came right in her mouth, the combination of his blood ejaculate and her own ministrations brought her to powerful orgasm of her own.

Vachon fell back against the doorframe, utterly spent.  Tracy carefully licked him clean and said, “You can return the favor in the shower.”  With that she bounced to her feet and sauntered off to the bathroom.

“Woman, You’re going to kill me yet,” Vachon thought as he staggered off after her, waiting for the vampire’s recuperative powers to kick in.

It was after 11 by the time the couple made it outside of the church to begin Tracy’s training.

========== X-FILES ========== FOREVER KNIGHT ========== HIGHLANDER ==========

The Dirty Mick bar and grille

10:00 p.m.

She had done it.  It was very hard to stop in time, and she could tell that Nick was just about to pull her off forcefully, but she managed to stop.  She could still hear his heart beating rapidly in fear, even though he was unconscious.  “Good!  The bastard should be afraid!” she said.

Nick chuckled, “I almost thought you weren’t going to stop there for a moment, Dana.”

“I think it was more rage than hunger, Nick.  I was so pissed off that he thought he could do that to me!” she answered.

Nick had taken her to what he described as the seediest bar in Toronto.  “I thought we were going hunting Nick,” she had protested upon seeing the dive he was leading her into.  She was still leery about the very idea, but he would only say ‘trust me’ when she tried to question him.  In the end, she decided that she did trust him.  She knew he didn’t kill for food, and hadn’t in over a century.  She didn’t think he would make her kill.

“You are hunting, Dana.  I would never teach you to hunt innocents, and we are not here to kill anyone.  However, you will, essentially, be committing assault and battery.  Therefore, we will be choosing prey that warrants such treatment, or rather, you will be letting your prey choose you.

“What do you mean?” Scully asked.

“Sexual predators are plentiful, easy to find, and who better to suffer a little turnabout?  All you have to do is hang out for a while, be seen; be seen to be alone and ‘vulnerable’