4. Starve a Fever - PG13

[Lilly]

A/N: Good grief! It's been 2 years?? Soooo, this it the fourth installment in my series of sixteen dialogues between Mick and Josef set after each episode of Moonlight. (My original explanation is here: viewtopic.php?f=865&t=9996)

Disclaimer: I do not own Moonlight or any of its characters. Occasionally one or two of them speak to me and I take dictation. No disrespect or copyright infringement is ever intended.


3. Starve a Fever


“Moping. How unexpected. What it lacks in originality, it makes up for in intensity.”

“Go away, Josef.”

“What? And miss this week’s episode of ‘The Young and the Stupid’?”

“I’m not in the mood.”

“Yeah – and right there’s your problem. You know, if you would just–”

“I bit her, dammit.”

“Well, until evolution starts packaging humans with convenient screw tops, that’s how we do it, pal.”

“I drank her blood – Beth’s blood.”

“Gee, Mick, call me crazy, but you get shot, almost incinerated, hike the Victorville trail to hell, hide out in a flea-bag motel – all before being saved by a beautiful blonde who offers herself to you on a linoleum platter. It could've been worse, pal. A lot worse.”

“I swore – I swore I would always protect her. Always.”

“Look... fate is not the vampire’s friend.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“You’d be surprised. … Hey, I get it. You just drank from the Holy Grail – the girl you rescued from Coraline. You saved her from being the ultimate donor twenty-two years ago. Now you just went ahead and did what you stopped Coraline from doing. So – what? – that makes you as bad as the ex? Blondie offered, Mick. Hell, it sounds like she insisted.”

“Beth! Her name is Beth.”

“Look, all I'm saying is – it’s not the same thing.”

“If you could’ve seen her face, Josef… afterwards.”

“You know, the view’s not exactly 20-20 when you’re looking through the lens of regret. You both did what you had to do. You can’t change what happened. You deal with it and you move on.”

“I can’t be near her. I can’t see her again.”

“She knows what you are – she’s known for weeks. The fact that she was willing to open the tap means that she’s accepted it. Why the hell can’t you?”

“It's not safe.”

“Ohhhh. Now I get it. It’s not that you tasted the forbidden fruit – it’s that you liked what you tasted...”

“No.”

“You’re afraid you’re gonna want more.”

“No!”

“Exactly who is the danger to whom? You’re not afraid of hurting her. You’re afraid she’s going to make you compromise your lofty morals.”

"You don't understand...”

“Yeah. I do. And my advice to you, my friend, is that you need to stop thinking about Beth as Little Girl Lost, the one you saved all those years ago, and start thinking about her as a grown woman. She’s a reporter. A professional. She can make her own decisions. Jeez – I can’t believe I’m saying this – but you need to think of her as a – friend. Not as your responsibility.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“It never is. Look – she may be a human, but as far as I’m concerned, she’s proven herself. Now it’s your turn.”

[Ella713]

Lilly I love this! Josef calls it as he sees it and Mick needed to listed to reason!

[allegrita]

Oh, Lilly--you've so perfectly captured Mick's despair at the end of "Fever"...and best of all, you have given us Josef, who was sorely lacking in the episode! (The only real lack--other than actually believable ice, that is--in this, my very favorite Moonlight episode.)

Once again, you've captured not only the speech rhythms and styles of our two vampires, but also the mood at the end of the episode. Thank you for giving us a much-needed new "listen" into what must have happened after the screen faded to black. Mick, in the darkest depths of regret and self-blame (or "moping," as Josef so succinctly puts it ). And Josef, determined not just to snap his friend out of his pity party, but to make him see that he needs to change his attitude toward Beth. To see her as what she is now, rather than an extension of the baby who saved him as much as he saved her, all those years ago.

I love Josef's snarky lines, all of them--but my favorite parts in this conversation are the places where he gives Beth props for being accepting of Mick's true nature (more accepting than Mick is himself). And the last line is a killer:

Look – she may be a human, but as far as I’m concerned, she’s proven herself. Now it’s your turn.

Josef sees in Beth a whole lot of potential, and I think he sees in her the key that might unlock Mick's true potential as a vampire. (Good thing Josef has a long view, 'cause that's not going to happen overnight!)

Oh--and, once again, the title is fabulous.

[Lilly]

Thanks, Ella! Josef definitely calls it as he sees it.

Alle, thank you so much, as always, for looking this over before I posted, and especially for your awesome comments here!

[cassysj]

I love this and Josef hits the nail on the head. Mick liked what he tasted. It is hard for Mick in these early episodes to hit the switch of Little Girl Lost to Desirable Woman but Josef is telling it to him straight.

[Ella713]

You know, as much as love Hawaii Five-0 I still keep wondering what Moonlight would have been like had it not been cancelled. I can see so many of these stories in that scenario! What a grand group of talent we have on Moonlightaholics!

[choccyterri]

Oh Lilly thank you for this next serving of your series!!

What I love about these is the way that you have the ability to march the characters right into my brain. I can still hear Josef's voice, and Mick's surly tones when I read your work, and it's just wonderful to me honey.

Thank you so much for sharing.

I love your inspiration!!

[Lilly]

Thanks, Carol -- I'm glad you liked.

Thank you so much, choccyterri!

What I love about these is the way that you have the ability to march the characters right into my brain.

That just means the world to me!

[Shadow]

I found this a little while ago, when I didn't have the time to leave a comment, and was so excited to see another chapter in the Vampire Dialogues! This is just the perfect conversation, one that I had been so disappointed to miss out on in the show. I remember feeling a bit cheated in A.D. when Josef already knew about everything that had happened in the desert when we first saw him .... This is the dialog that Mick and Josef simply must have had, sometime off-screen between Fever and A.D., and how wonderful that we finally get to see it! I love how Josef stays so utterly true to himself here, snark and all, while working to dig Mick out of his depression with the deepest support a friend could give. He has so much gentle wisdom to offer, especially about getting Beth off the pedestal Mick has put her on, and seeing her as a strong grown woman who could make her own decisions.

And how I love his choice of words, especially:

“Well, until evolution starts packaging humans with convenient screw tops, that’s how we do it, pal.”

And "Blondie" and all, Josef gives Beth so much respect here.

“It never is. Look – she may be a human, but as far as I’m concerned, she’s proven herself. Now it’s your turn.”

I should also mention how fabulous the title is (and how great all of them have been.) It's amazing how you have been able to tweak the episode titles and make them fit your series so well.

[Lilly]

Oh, Shadow - thank you so much for coming back to leave a note! I truly treasure your comments. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to respond.

Even though this was a much-needed conversation, it was a bit tricky bringing it back around to the one we saw in Josef's office in Episode 5. At that point in the show, Josef made sure to tweak Mick about his "reporter friend" and ask again, "What's her name?" I just had to address those questions here or there would have been a serious disconnect - especially since, in my world, Josef knew who Beth was all along. I'm so glad you think it worked here.