Adrift in the Dark (In Between 4 and 5, PG)

[Shadow]

Wonderful!!! Inspired!!! I love it. How you mix the flashback to that scene in the bathroom into the story, is great. And Elaine wondering about all of it, compared to her own situation. Mick thinking about fate, sleeping for a week, needing blood urgently and stumbling over Josh and Beth. It all makes sense when the episodes seemed to have no connection at all. Lovely!!!

Oh, but I am glad that the episode connection here has made sense .... I thought 4 to 5 was the most startling of the mood swings between episodes. (Though the change between 8 and 9 is pretty close competition. ) Thanks so much, francis!

[Shadow]

Oh another marvelous chapter!

I LOVE the details you provide about the motel, their recovery in the bathroom and in the car... that long ride home, awkward but lovely all at the same time.
And the whole Elaine thing is just a wonderful addition, creating a depth of experience for Mick that of course he must have had given all those years...
And you're slowly but surely unveiling just what that experience, what this relationship, between these two vamps was...

Soooo, I am just loving this... and looking forward to more of the In Betweens, but also more backstory with Mick and Elaine. She's a wonderful OC!

I suppose the motel and car scenes weren't exactly in between episodes, but they were such a black hole they seemed to belong in this story ....
Oh yes, there must be so much more in Mick's past we never learned - all those years! I'll have lots more of Elaine's backstory coming up.
thanks Grace!!

[Shadow]

I have to add my voice to the chorus: absolutely amazing! Your interludes are just flawless! Can't wait for the next one! Just loved Leni's comment about the girlfriend issue!

Thank you so much for reading, and your comment will sure help me get going with the next one! I'm glad you liked that bit from Leni ....

[Shadow]

This is wonderful and brilliant! You've filled in those "spaces" with Mick's thoughts that we've all been longing to hear. The beginning and the endings match up perfectly. I loved the scene with Mick and Beth embracing in the back of the Prius. It made total sense, Beth being cold, Mick being hot. They were perfect for each other in that moment. They even dreamed together!

Poor Mick! We can really sense his torn-ness loving Beth! He almost made a breakthrough at the end but then fate stepped in in the beggininng of episode 5

I love Elaine, too. So Mick did turn her. She is another voice through which we can hear Mick speak his longings and frustrations.

Just beautiful! I know I will want to read this again. It was so emotionally touching. Your story is bringing me closer to Mick.....which is where I love to be, cuz I really kind of lurve the guy!

What a lovely comment, helloeeze .... you're really going to have me motivated to work on the next one!
(Ah, closer to Mick ... there's just no better place to be.)

[redwinter101]

I thought 4 to 5 was going to be a challenge but this is simply magnificent. Like so many others, it was the motel bathtub scene that sealed the deal for me in terms of my love both for the show and for Mick and Beth and they way you have given that an emotional backdrop is stunning. Stunning, my friend.

Mick remembering, his pain and his fear, are so vivid they twist my poor little heart:

But he was connected to her, and he’d been sure, somewhere in his mind, that with her he would be safe.

And she couldn’t have borne it if he’d died. Not when she had the power to save him.

He put his hand to her head, very gently, and stroked the soft waves of her hair. She sighed and nestled against him, her eyes closed. He leaned over, tears falling, and kissed her forehead. I love you.

There it is - all of it summed up in a few beautiful lines. Amazing.

And we finally find out Elaine's connection to Mick. Her sorrow at Mick's joy is heartbreaking for both of them. He found understanding, caring and love by showing himself to Beth. Elaine found only fear and pain with Kevin. So sad.

Beautiful, Shadow.

Red

[Shadow]

Oh, it was a challenge, believe me.

Thank you, Red. What an amazing (and motivating) comment ....

The bathtub scene got to me the same way - as if I'd only thought I was I love with the show and the characters before - and then the scene at the end did the same thing all over again. (And here I was trying not to get too attached, since I was afraid the show was going to disappear at any moment. I guess that had about as much hope as Mick staying away from Beth!)

[moonlightlover60]

Shadow another beautiful chapter. You have seamlessly woven all of this together, it's amazing the writers of the show couldn't have done a better job.
I loved how we got to look into what happened in the bathroom after Mick took her blood and why they were in there for so long, how Leni drove them back and Mick had to keep Beth warm. The poor man is so tortured and he truly loves her but he doesn't want to take any chance of happiness away from her that she could have with a normal human life. But fate kept happening in the end there stalling him just enough so he would meet her again.
I also see we are having the question answered that Beth asked Mick in Sonata. What about you, Have you ever turned anyone? It seems that Mick is Elaine's sire but why and how this all came about we don't know yet. Mick is even feeling guilty about that, wondering if his self-loathing anti-vampire beliefs have transfered down to Elaine. I can't say enough how wonderful this is to look between and behind the scenes at what happened. You are doing an amazing job, and all of this is so very believable because you stay so true to their characters. Shadow

[Shadow]

Thank you SO much, moonlightlover60 ... what an absolutely beautiful comment!

Oh yes - that question from Sonata -- the look on Mick's face, when Beth asks the question, has always haunted me. The answer had to be yes, but given Mick's sensibilities it was hard to imagine how or why it had happened. Like so many of the other big questions, it really seemed to beg for explanations. It's not exactly something that got lost between the episodes, but it has the same sort of feel to it. (Kind of like those motel and car scenes .... )

[jen]

Oh, Shadow!

This is so amazing!!! You have so beautifully captured the feel of these episodes and filled in the blanks between them so credibly! So in keeping with the tone set in them.

Fabulous!

[Shadow]

For this one in particular it was hard to come up with a transition that really made sense ...
so it's really great it came across as believable! Thank you, jen.

[redwinter101]

Maybe I'm just having one of those days. or maybe it's that stories this good remind me of everything I love and miss about Moonlight, but on reading this in advance of AD tonight, I got all teary. It's just so beautiful.

The longing, the regret, the fear, the pain and most of all, the love in this story is amazing. Truly amazing. I didn't think I could love Mick any more, but your stories always push me that little bit further.

Red

[Shadow]

Maybe I'm just having one of those days. or maybe it's that stories this good remind me of everything I love and miss about Moonlight, but on reading this in advance of AD tonight, I got all teary. It's just so beautiful.

The longing, the regret, the fear, the pain and most of all, the love in this story is amazing. Truly amazing. I didn't think I could love Mick any more, but your stories always push me that little bit further.

Red

Ohh, you do my heart good, Red ....
This has probably been my favorite one to do in the series so far . . . so I'm extra glad it could touch you that way.
And how I adore knowing that you're re-reading these along with the episodes!

[darkstarrising]

Shadow, I've read this chapter twice, as there was so much going on I had to re-read. You're doing far more than just filling in the time gaps between episodes - you're allowing us to witness all of the major characters' unseen emotion and thoughts as they progress from one encounter to the next. In parallel, you have developed Elaine's story, which to some degree seems to mirror Mick's own. She, too, has fallen in love with a human, unfortunately, one who can't accept her for what she is. If I'm reading between the lines correctly, you've told us who her sire is....perhaps adding to Mick's fear of letting Beth get too close to him.

I think I used the phrase 'tapestry' before in commenting on your earlier chapters, and I can see the pattern begin to take shape. The dimension you're giving the characters truly adds to what we were shown in the series. In this chapter in particular, after the encounter in the desert, you paint an image of Mick, a man torn between his vampiric needs as he burned with fever and his human need for love. He can keep telling himself that his relationship with Beth 'has to stop', but in the end, he knows it can't. Neither he nor Beth fully understand their connection, but as time goes by, little by little, they understand a little more and move inexorably closer.

The conversation between Elaine and Mick was revealing....at first, I could see Mick looking at her and seeing how her relationship with her dying husband was a foreshadowing of his own with Beth, should he allow her to fall in love with him and remain human. Then, I saw another reflection...how Mick might have responded to Coraline had she told him what she was rather than just turning him.

You're developing a story within a story, and an intricate one at that.

Off to the next chapter!!

[Shadow]

Shadow, I've read this chapter twice, as there was so much going on I had to re-read. You're doing far more than just filling in the time gaps between episodes - you're allowing us to witness all of the major characters' unseen emotion and thoughts as they progress from one encounter to the next. In parallel, you have developed Elaine's story, which to some degree seems to mirror Mick's own. She, too, has fallen in love with a human, unfortunately, one who can't accept her for what she is. If I'm reading between the lines correctly, you've told us who her sire is....perhaps adding to Mick's fear of letting Beth get too close to him.

I think I used the phrase 'tapestry' before in commenting on your earlier chapters, and I can see the pattern begin to take shape. The dimension you're giving the characters truly adds to what we were shown in the series. In this chapter in particular, after the encounter in the desert, you paint an image of Mick, a man torn between his vampiric needs as he burned with fever and his human need for love. He can keep telling himself that his relationship with Beth 'has to stop', but in the end, he knows it can't. Neither he nor Beth fully understand their connection, but as time goes by, little by little, they understand a little more and move inexorably closer.

The conversation between Elaine and Mick was revealing....at first, I could see Mick looking at her and seeing how her relationship with her dying husband was a foreshadowing of his own with Beth, should he allow her to fall in love with him and remain human. Then, I saw another reflection...how Mick might have responded to Coraline had she told him what she was rather than just turning him.

You're developing a story within a story, and an intricate one at that.

Off to the next chapter!!

How I love that you see these stories as doing more than just filling in the gaps between the episodes! I did very much want to not only link the episodes together, but also to fit together the in-between stories themselves. Elaine's story was one way to make them more cohesive, and it does have a lot of parallels with Mick's. She is meant to be a mirror - and it's wonderful that you can see more than one reflection there, too. I think all of those things would indeed come to Mick's mind.

It's so lovely that you're continuing to read these, and thank you so much for the awesome comments!

[jen]

Shadow

This popped back up on Active Topics and I read it again.

Splendid is a good word for it! 'Lovely' works, too.

I adore the ambiance of this piece. Mick is pulled in two directions, as he often is--powerfully drawn to Beth because of the enormity of the change that took place in his life as a result of rescuing her as a child; and also as a beautiful woman who is clearly drawn to him. Against this powerful attraction are all the reasons that warn him that it won't work. He shouldn't even try. And Beth is in a relationship with a great guy, she shouldn't be attracted to this enigmatic stranger...

This reminds me why I miss Moonlight and Mick so much.

Wonderful, wonderful job!

Thank you!

Jenna