Do my Bidding (Mick/Beth/Talbot/Josef; G) 2009

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Tam
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Do my Bidding (Mick/Beth/Talbot/Josef; G) 2009

Post by Tam »

Rating : G
Spoilers : Ep 1-16 of Moonlight, season 1
Summary : Beth convinces Mick to volunteer at a ‘date auction’ for charity.
First posted : ff.net, April 2009

Disclaimer :
The characters are not mine, no money is being made and no infringement is intended.
Author's note : Josef's lines about fashion are quoted from my own work in another fic, Oscar Wilde ('fashionable is what I wear - what is unfashionable is what other people are wearing', an Ideal Husband, Act II) and Veronica Mars ('They don't know what they really want until I have it', VM s2, ep13 4:50). Both things seemed like something Josef might say.

Do my bidding
"Say, Mick..." Beth said, as she lay on her back watching the stars from the top of the roof.
"Say, Beth..." Mick replied lazily, lying next to her, his head resting on his hands, a satisfied smile on his face. They had just had a lovely dinner - or rather, Beth had, but Mick had picked up some O+ at Guillermo's as a special treat for himself. Beth turned on her side and pushed herself up on her elbow, her fingers tracing the row of buttons on his shirt.

"If I told you that a historical building of great value was about to be destroyed, here in L.A., but there was something we could do to prevent it, what would you say?"
Mick frowned. The question surprised him, and her fingers were distracting him. He turned his head to look at her.
"Uh...I'd say...what building, and how can I help?"

Beth smiled, her eyes glinting mischievously. "Well, it's my old sorority house at the college campus. The rent is going up for all the older buildings because the faculty hopes it will give them an excuse to evict the Greek houses and make room for a new block of flats."

"You were in a sorority?" Mick asked curiously.
"Of course I was. What, you didn't think I am peppy enough?" Beth replied, grinning.
Mick shrugged, but before he could speak, Beth continued: "Anyway, they are organising a fundraiser party, and they've contacted all graduate sisters to help out."

Something told Mick that this wasn't the punch line yet. He looked at her and waited.

"It's a date-auction," Beth said, her eyes gleaming with mirth. "Are you in?"
"A what-?" Mick sputtered. He had a fair idea of what it meant, but a part of him hoped that she wasn't really serious.

"You know, women volunteer to lend their boyfriends and husbands to charity and they are put up for auction, and you can bid on them and buy yourself a date."
"And you 'volunteered' me?" Mick asked incredulously.
"I though I'd ask you first, but yes, that's the general idea."
"And what exactly would this 'date' entail?"
"Well, there'd be a dance after the auction so...dancing, I guess," Beth replied, smiling sweetly.

"Just dancing?"
Beth smirked and batted her eyelids, giving Mick a coy look.

"Do you think I'd let anyone do more than that?" She hooked a finger under the row of buttons on his shirt, drawing small circles on his skin. Mick smiled and closed his eyes, concentrating on her touch.
"So are you in?" Beth asked, continuing her ministrations.

"Mmm...well, I suppose 'just dancing' would be okay," he admitted, his mind more on her fingers than anything else.

"Great! I'll sign you up, then," Beth said, pulling away her hand and sitting up, looking ready for action.
"What? Now?" Mick asked, opening his eyes and looking crestfallen. Couldn't they just lie here a bit longer, enjoying the fact that they'd just started to go into second base?

"Yeah," Beth replied cheerfully, and got up, brushing down the folds of her jeans. "It's next Friday. I'll forward you the email with the time and place."

And with that, she walked back to Mick's apartment. He stared after her. Was she actually skipping a little?

"Hey buddy, are you up for a game of 8-Ball this Friday? I thought about giving you a chance to win back your iPod." Josef's voice sounded cheerfully patronising.

Mick winced. "I can't," he told Josef as he held his cell phone between his shoulder and his chin, one hand balled to a fist and the other pushing the plunger on a syringe of concentrated A+ blood. He sighed as the blood was released into his vein, pulling the needle out and dropping it on his coffee table. He settled back into his sofa and watched the small entry wound heal over.

"Beth tricked me into attending a fundraiser party for her sorority."
"She's in a sorority?" Josef asked, sounding surprised.
"Yeah. I didn't know either. Anyway, so now I am going to this 'date-auction'..." Mick said as he closed his eyes and felt the fresh blood activate his heart, rejuvenating him. The other end of the line stayed silent.
"You still there?" Mick asked, opening his eyes and taking the phone from his shoulder back into his hand.

"A date-auction?" Josef repeated, and Mick resented the fact that he could just hear the smile on his friend's face. "This I gotta see."

"No, you don't, Josef. I don't want you to come."
"That's never stopped me before."
Mick groaned. "I know." He disconnected the call and rubbed his eyes with his hand. Great. Now he had an audience, as well.

Friday evening came earlier than Mick would have preferred, but a promise was a promise, so he told Beth he'd pick her up and they'd drive to the fundraiser together. He had been unsure of what to wear, but decided that he'd feel even more uncomfortable than he'd probably already feel if he got dressed up, so opted for his regular jeans and one of his favourite shirts. The smile Beth had for him as he picked her up told him it had been a good choice. While they drove to the campus, Beth told him a little about her college time, and how the parties at her sorority were renowned for their raucous extravagance. In all, that didn't do much to take Mick's nerves about this evening.

As they arrived at the campus, Mick looked up at the sorority house. A plaque on the wall stated its name in Greek letters, and under it, it said 'Est. 1972.' Mick raised an eyebrow.

"A historical building, huh?" he commented dryly. Beth had the decency to look slightly abashed. "72! That was like...ages ago. Before I was born! I'd call that historical," she said, looping her arm in his and starting to walk to the entrance, where several people were already waiting to get in. Loud music sounded from inside. Mick bit his tongue to stop himself from making a remark about her age. Vampires did have a different interpretation of the word 'historical'.

At the door, a good-looking woman clasped her hands over her mouth and let out a girlish squeal as she saw Beth. Then she opened her arms and threw them around her friend. Beth grinned and returned the hug.

"You made it! It's so good to see you!" the woman said happily. Then she turned her attention to Mick. "Wow, and who's this?" she said, giving Beth a pointed look.

"Eh...Trina, this is Mick. Mick- Trina, she was in my graduate year," Beth introduced them. Mick offered her a polite smile and shook her hand.

"It's a good thing I saved up all my pennies," Trina told Beth confidentially, keeping hold of Mick's hand a bit longer than necessary and throwing him a naughty look. Mick cleared his throat.
"Shall we go in?" he offered.

Inside, a lively crowd was gathered. The room was decorated with the sorority's banners and party balloons. A small stage was set up in the far corner of the room, and a buffet lined the wall. A large collection box in the shape of a house stood on a pedestal near the stage. Mick looked around, his detective sense automatically surveying the crowd and securing possible exits. Then his eyes fell on a familiar face. What was A.D.A. Talbot doing here? Beth followed his look and smiled. As if he could feel their eyes on him, Benjamin Talbot turned to face them, and smiled back at Beth. He walked up to them.

"Hey Ben, thank you for coming," Beth said cheerfully.

"You're welcome, Beth. I know how important college clubhouses can be. All the memories..." He nodded at Mick in greeting.

"You were in a fraternity, then?" Beth asked eagerly. "Any embarrassing kegger-stories to share?"

Ben grinned. "Your Buzzwire instinct is hard to shake, huh? Still looking for a scoop on a scandal," he said fondly, and Mick couldn't help but feel jealous at the familiar tone they used to each other. "Do you want a drink?" he offered Beth, wanting an excuse to get away from the two of them for a moment. Mick felt locked out of their conversation. He never went to college, and hadn't exactly attended many frat parties, either. And why had Beth asked Talbot there, anyway? But before he had much time to think about it, he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"Not the shirt I would have chosen, but it's a style of its own, I guess," Josef remarked. Mick spun around, looking at his friend, who was standing behind him, a beautiful girl on his arm. Mick looked his friend up and down. He was dressed leisurely, in jeans and a tight-fitting, trendy shirt, his hair casually tousled in a way Mick knew actually took several hair care products and a stylist. He had never understood why people would want to buy a product that made them look like they just got out of bed.
"What's wrong with this shirt?" Mick asked irritably.
"Please, Mick, I remember you buying that shirt in like...1983," Josef said, rolling his eyes. He kept his voice down so only he, Mick, and his freshie could hear. The girl giggled.

"You can't beat this quality! It's as good as new!" Mick protested.
"Well, I guess if you keep it long enough, it'll come back in fashion," Josef replied.

Mick shook his head. "Just because I don't run with every whim of some flipped out designer doesn't make me uncool," he said stubbornly.

"My understanding of fashion is simple," Josef replied, "fashionable is what I wear - what is unfashionable is what other people are wearing. They don't know what they really want until I have it." He winked at his friend and then turned to his freshie. "Let's go get a drink." His eyes glinted mischievously, and Mick could hear the flare of excitement in the girl's heartbeat.

"Okay everyone," Beth's friend Trina announced into her microphone. "It's time we got this auction started. Can I ask all the volunteers to come up to the front and line up?"
Mick, who had joined Beth and Talbot again after Josef and his freshie had vanished to a more private corner of the sorority house, gave her hand a nervous squeeze and walked up to the stage, where a group of men of all shapes and sizes were waiting to be 'auctioned off'.

"Now, for those of you unfamiliar with this system," Trina continued, "This little box needs to filled up by tonight!" She pointed at the collection box. "We take cheque," she added cheekily. "Now, as so many volunteers signed up, we will auction them off in pairs. That means you can use the coloured signs we have distributed-" Trina held up a green and a red card, "to signify for which item you are bidding."

Mick raised his eyebrow at her choice of words. He was an 'item'?

"The highest bid wins, and if you can pay cash or cheque, you can claim your prize right away and he's yours for the remainder of the night."

Several women cheered, clapped and a few wolf-whistles sounded through the room.
"May I ask the first two gentlemen to step up the stage?" Trina said, and two men climbed up the stage. Trina assigned them a colour, and set the starting bid at ten dollars. Two cards went up. She asked for a higher bid, and several other cards went up. The closing bids went up to 60 and 65 dollars, and the two women who had won came to the front to pay up and collect their dates. While he waited for his turn, Mick looked at the women in the crowd, trying to imagine which of them could bid for him. He sincerely hoped Beth had brought enough cash.

Prices started rising, and Mick got the sneaky suspicion Trina was singling him out for the last round. Finally, there were only two men left. Mick glanced over at Benjamin Talbot, and received a smirk in return. As they stepped onto the stage, Mick could hear shreds of conversations around the room, the women's voices buzzing animatedly - he eyed one group who were whispering among themselves, making a deal to put all of their left-over money together, and share. They smelled of alcohol and lust.

"Alright girls," Trina announced, "Let's hope you've been holding on to your lunch money, because our final volunteers of this evening are really something special." She walked up to Mick with the microphone.

"What's your name, honey?" she asked, thrusting the microphone under his nose. Mick looked into the audience nervously. Several women were eyeing him hungrily, clutching their bidding cards.

"Mick," he replied, wincing at the sound of his magnified voice.
"And what do you do?" Trina gave him a lewd look. Not sure what she wanted to hear, Mick said:
"I'm a private investigator."
"Ooooh, a private eye!" Trina cooed. "Do you carry a gun?"
"Uh...I do."
Several women jittered.
"What about... handcuffs?" A ripple of laughter went through the crowd.
"No... I'm not a cop." Mick shot Beth an angry look. He felt really awkward, being gawked at by a large throng of intoxicated women. From the corner of his eye, he could see Talbot chuckling. Trina moved over to him.

"What about you, handsome?" she asked seductively.
"I'm Assistant District Attorney," Talbot replied confidently.
"How much for a 'get out of jail free' card from you?"

Talbot laughed.
"Come on girls, bidding starts at 50 dollars!"

Fifty dollars? Mick was impressed despite himself. Apparently, Trina expected a lot of them. Several women raised their cards, including, Mick was surprised to see, Josef's girl, who had re-joined the crowd while one of the previous pairs were being auctioned. He looked over at Josef, who was watching from the sideline by the buffet, an amused smile on his lips. The bids had gone up to 100 dollars by now. Trina was taking down bids in a rush of words, no sooner having voiced a number as a new bid was made, going up in steps of 20 dollars. At some point, she motioned the women to hold their cards.

"I think..." she said slowly, looking back over her should at the two men, "we can do better than that. What do you think, guys?" Talbot grinned. Mick shrugged.
"I say, shirts off! Right girls?" Trina said loudly, and the women cheered loudly. Mick could swear he heard someone whistle shrilly, but as he glared over at Josef, his friend was giving him an innocent look. Talbot was already taking of his shirt, exposing a very well-trained chest and strong arms. Women went crazy, waving their cards in the air and jeering. Trina walked up to him.
"Oh my," she said, pretending to fan herself with her hand, "Look at you. What happened there?" She pointed at a jagged scar than ran down the side of Talbot's rippled abdomen.
"Surfing accident," Talbot replied, his voice smooth.

"Can I touch it?" Trina asked breathlessly.

"Only when you outbid the others..." Talbot replied, and the calls and whistles from the crowd were deafening. Then, Trina turned to Mick expectantly. Mick took a deep breath, resigned to his fate, and started buttoning down his shirt. Trina encouraged him by humming a striptease song into the microphone, which was quickly picked up by the audience, which started clapping along, driving up the pace more and more as Mick's fingers reached the last buttons. As he shrugged the open shirt off his shoulders, he squared his jaw and looked straight ahead into the crowd. For a moment, there was complete silence. The women forgot their clapping. Then, a loud cheering went up, and several women raised their bidding cards as one.

"150!"

"200!"

"300!"

"350!"

Mick followed the exchange with his eyes. He blanched as he realised Beth - his own Beth - was not holding up the green card to bid for him...but she was actually bidding for Talbot?!

Cards were thrust in the air - soon the bid for Talbot was up to 400 dollars, and Mick's to 450. Mick studied the two women still holding up green cards. Neither of them were really unattractive, but they just weren't Beth. He checked the red cards. Beth was still in the running, but much to his satisfaction, gave up as the group of women who had put their money together bid 500 dollars. So the A.D.A. wasn't worth that to her, huh? Good. He focused back on the women bidding for himself. It was now going up at 50 dollars per bid.

One of them waved her card. "550!"

"600!" The other signified with her card.

"One thousand dollars," a female voice called out clearly. All eyes turned to her, including Mick's. It was Josef's freshie.

"Do I hear 1050?" Trina offered, but the other women holding the last green cards shrugged and shook their heads. "Sold!" The girl tore a cheque off her cheque book and held it out. A sorority sister collected it and put it in the box.

"Alright, ladies, that closes our auction for tonight! And with that spectacular bid, I am pleased to announce we have saved our sorority house!!"

The crowd applauded. Mick picked up his shirt, quickly putting it back on, and climbed off the stage, his face flushed. Talbot was still shirtless, standing among the group of women who had won him, clearly enjoying their attention. Mick's eyes sought out Josef's freshie, and walked up to her. Josef was standing by her side, his eyes slightly narrowed an glaring at him. Josef did realise that this was all for charity, right?

"So, um..." Mick said, hesitatingly. Now what? The girl smiled at him encouragingly. "Can I...get you something to drink?" Mick offered, avoiding Josef's eyes. If she paid 1000 dollars for one date, he might as well try and make it worth her while. Then, his friend couldn't contain himself any longer, and laughed, taking the green card from his girl's hand and waving it under Mick's nose. "Actually, you can get me one, Mick."

Mick raised his eyebrows, realisation dawning on him. "You made her bid for you?" he asked incredulously.

"I'll take a glass of punch, please," Josef replied, smirking.

"You don't drink punch," Mick growled.

"That's true, but I paid good money for the privilege to boss you around. So be a good boy, Mick. I'm not sure I got warranty on you."

Mick sighed. This was going to be a very long night.
Last edited by Tam on Fri Mar 12, 2010 8:00 am, edited 2 times in total.
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francis
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Re: Do my Bidding (Mick/Beth/Talbot/Josef; G) 2009

Post by francis »

:hearts: :rolling: :rolling: :rolling: :hearts:
This is great. Ben is so taking this in stride and Mick is his usual repressed self. When the shirt came off and the biddings grew higher I laughed out loud. Now what will Josef do with his date? And doesn't that mean that Mick has blackmail material now - what would Josef do to prevent Mick from spilling this incident? Because you could turn it either way... :snicker:
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Re: Do my Bidding (Mick/Beth/Talbot/Josef; G) 2009

Post by LadyAilith »

Oh, what fun! I'd have paid good money to see this story as an episode. Heck, I can see it playing out in my mind...

Thanks so much for the chuckle Tam!

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Tam
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Re: Do my Bidding (Mick/Beth/Talbot/Josef; G) 2009

Post by Tam »

LadyAilith wrote:Thanks so much for the chuckle Tam!
You're welcome!! *giggle* At first I thought of having Josef enter (simply for the voyeuristic pleasure of having him strip in public) but then I realised...he'd like that far too much ;) So it became the charming awkwardness of Mick.
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Re: Do my Bidding (Mick/Beth/Talbot/Josef; G) 2009

Post by jmc »

Somehow, I just knew Josef was up to no good. :giggle: I bet there were a few women who hit the floor with a :thud: when Mick oh so reluctantly peeled that shirt off.


:reading: Cute one, Tam!
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helloeeze
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Re: Do my Bidding (Mick/Beth/Talbot/Josef; G) 2009

Post by helloeeze »

Fun story! Good thing I wasn't in this story because I would have outbid Josef!
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Re: Do my Bidding (Mick/Beth/Talbot/Josef; G) 2009

Post by wollstonecraft61 »

:rolling: :rolling: :rolling: :rolling: :clapping: :clapping: :clapping:

I would have paid any amount of money to see the three of those delicious men with OR without their shirts!!! :devil:
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Re: Do my Bidding (Mick/Beth/Talbot/Josef; G) 2009

Post by Albra »

:rolling: :rolling: :rolling:
Good one !
I need a lot of fun today ...
Thank you, Tam
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Re: Do my Bidding (Mick/Beth/Talbot/Josef; G) 2009

Post by moonlightlover60 »

:rolling: :rolling: :rolling: Ah...........Josef, ya just gotta love that evil genius. But Beth bidding on Talbot :gasp: I think she's got some explaining to do to Mick. This was funny, thanks Tam.
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Re: Do my Bidding (Mick/Beth/Talbot/Josef; G) 2009

Post by francis »

I guess Beth knew she could have Mick for free if she made him a bit jealous. :snicker:
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Re: Do my Bidding (Mick/Beth/Talbot/Josef; G) 2009

Post by Tam »

francis wrote:I guess Beth knew she could have Mick for free if she made him a bit jealous. :snicker:
Bingo!! :highfive:
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Re: Do my Bidding (Mick/Beth/Talbot/Josef; G) 2009

Post by wingz »

tehe I loved the ending! Very nice...
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Re: Do my Bidding (Mick/Beth/Talbot/Josef; G) 2009

Post by allegrita »

This is very cute. Poor Mick. One thing I can't believe, though... that Beth would get up from lying on the roof with Mick, looking at the stars and playing with his Henley buttons. No way! :melts: :melts: :melts: :melts:

As for the auction, yeah, I think it's probably just as well that it didn't really happen, or we'd all be broke. :snicker:
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Re: Do my Bidding (Mick/Beth/Talbot/Josef; G) 2009

Post by Tam »

allegrita wrote:One thing I can't believe, though... that Beth would get up from lying on the roof with Mick, looking at the stars and playing with his Henley buttons. No way! :melts: :melts: :melts: :melts:
:snicker: I know, totally unrealistic! But it's fiction, after all...!
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