Rated PG
A/N: Just playing around and re-imagining. Thank you PNWgal for the read through!
What If – There’s a Lab for That
“For professional purposes only, of course.”
I protest, but the scent of fresh blood is so close and so strong… and with Simone nodding her assent, I figure what could a small taste hurt? I pull Simone’s arm towards me and lick up the drips before closing my mouth over Josef’s bite marks. Yep, B-negative. The freshness is intoxicating and I linger over the wound longer than I intended. Too long, I realize as my door opens and in walks Beth. To say she looks stunned is putting it mildly. I quickly release Simone’s arm and wipe my mouth as Josef’s and my eyes return to their normal color. I avoid looking at Beth, however.
“Hi, Beth. We were just having drinks.” Josef, ever the smart ass.
“I can see that,” Beth says. Did it just get colder in here? I need damage control, and fast.
“Beth, we were not ‘having drinks.’ The police found blood on Dominic’s body and I was just making sure it wasn’t Simone’s.”
“They have laboratories for that.” Wait, what? I can’t believe she just said that. Damage control be damned. I’m getting pissed.
“What did you just say?” Now I’m the one with the icy voice.
“I said that they have laboratories to test blood type. This…” she waves her arm towards us, “… is totally unnecessary." There is a hint of defiance in her voice.
“You can’t have it both ways, Beth.”
“What do you mean?”
Josef has been looking between Beth and me as if he were watching a tennis match. And loving every minute of it. Fortunately, Simone can read the danger signs. She grabs Josef’s arm.
“We should go.”
“But this is so awkward. I love awkward.” Did I mention that Josef is a smart ass?
“I know. But we’re going.” As Simone leads Josef out of my loft, neither Beth nor I pay any attention to their leaving. We are too busy staring each other down.
“What did you mean, I can’t have it both ways?”
“You don’t get to pick and choose what parts of vampireness you want or don’t want according to your moods or whims.”
“My moods or whims?”
“When we were examining Jacob’s bedroom the other day you were more than happy to have a ‘mobile vampire lab’ with you.”
“That was different.”
“How so?”
“That didn’t involve… you know…” I remain silent, forcing her to continue. “That. Feeding.”
“I wasn’t feeding on Simone.”
“Could have fooled me. Looked to me like you were making out with her.”
“We were not making out.” I begin to pace; Beth stands rooted to the floor. I sigh. “I’m a vampire, Beth. The hearing, the scenting, the ‘jumping thing’ as you call it, and the blood drinking - it’s a package deal. You can’t decide it’s okay some of the time – when it suits you – but not other times.”
She looks at her shoes. “But the other times you weren’t feeding on Simone.”
“I told you! I wasn’t…”
“…Feeding on Simone, I know.” She looks up. “But you were drinking her blood. Even if it was only a little bit. And you were enjoying it. I could tell.”
She had me there.
“It should have been me.” Said so softly, I needed my vampire hearing. She looks up to meet my eyes.
“What?” I manage to stammer.
“It should have been me,” she says, stronger this time. “In the desert, you didn’t want to feed from me. ‘Not like this,’ you said. But you did anyway, as a matter of survival. I want you to feed from me again. I want you to feed from me and look the way I just saw you look now, with Simone.”
I’m dumbfounded. She wants me to feed from her? I thought she’d never want to feel fang on flesh again. She’s a bundle of contradictions, that’s for sure. I look into her eyes and see she’s not angry any more. I see desire, and just a hint of sadness. I had no idea. She’s waiting for me to say something, so I take a page out of Josef’s book.
“It would never have worked between us.” Before that crestfallen look goes any further, I quickly continue. “Tasting your blood just now would not have told me what blood type Simone has.” I smile at her. It hits her and she smiles back.
“Very funny.”
I reach out and take her hand, pulling her into an embrace. “And just to be clear,” I whisper into her hair, “I only want to make out with you.”
The End.
Everything about it is perfect. I love that we're getting Mick's perspective here -- and not just guilty puppy dog Mick we saw in the episode. We see him hesitate and then give in, as we did in the show, but we also see him stand up for himself, gain new insight into Beth and then make peace playfully. This is 3-dimensional Mick and I adore seeing him switch gears like this. 
And ooh, I love how you've gotten us here. This makes so much more sense in terms of Mick and Beth than the scene we saw. This gets to the heart of their problems, and their struggle. And their love.
