Moonlightaholics

Pairing: Mick and Beth
Rating: PG13 Occasional language
Spoilers: One could wish it had one…
Beta Thank You: Morbius
Summary: Nothing happens by chance, our decisions direct everything around us


CBS & Paramount owns Moonlight, No copyright infringement is intended.


Tears
a short one shot
By Moonshadow


Beth sat staring. There was no way this could be right. It had to be a bad dream. God no, it was a nightmare. Anger welled through her, swirling and crashing over her, tears filled her eyes and the familiar colors of her bathroom swam. Shit, shit shit, No she screamed. Sliding to the floor she wept bitterly. What am I going to do?

Beth curled in a fetal position on the cold hard tiles the throbbing in her head overwhelming, her echoing scream; What am I going to do? Somewhere in the haze she heard the phone ring. She ignored the summons unable to move from where she lay sobbing.

Breath in, breath out, she thought. Reduce it to this. Slowly the light slid from one palette into another.

Weakly, Beth pulled her knees tighter pressed her palms against the floor and pushed. She’d never make it off the floor. She leaned her head against the wall limply. Eyes closed she sat. Darkness washed over her in a nauseous embrace and in the silence Beth felt the minutes slip by. Forever gone. She barked a short harsh and dry laugh at the irony of the thought.

She slid back to the floor, tears crusting on her face, willing herself into stillness.

The inky darkness held a second shape equally still. The wind riffled the sheers wafting like ghostly banners in the silver bands of moonlight. Shadows danced over the golden strands of Beth’s hair spilt onto the white tile.

The beating of her heart reverberated in the ceramic coldness. He whispered her name as he knelt beside her.

“Go away, before you hate me.”

“What’s happened?”

She lay unmoving. Reaching out he felt the aching coldness of her. He heard it again.

“I don’t know what to do.”

The timbre of his voice caused a single hot tear to course down her face. “I know.”

A soft moan issued from her as he scooped her into his embrace. And she repeated her haunting words yet again.

“Beth, trust me.”

“I’m so sorry.”

Burying her face in his chest she breathed in, and breathed out. Slow, even breaths.

“Do you love me?”

“I do. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“Beth, some things in life are just meant to happen. Josh is gone. This is my chance.” Listening to the new rhythm in her body he smiled, “You’re the one who said; family’s not only about DNA.”

She shuttered, “I never thought I would be in this position. Not like this.”

“Hey, it just means that you are human, alive, and that we have our whole future ahead of us. I love you. I willing to take whatever future we are given. As long as it’s together.”

~~finis~~

awesome, Moonshadow. I really, really like this. I had to think about it, read it twice to be sure I had it right. Yes, the reactions of both are just right. Great job.

Moonshadow, this is truly a masterpiece. You set the mood and I feel with Beth even before I realized what had happened. And then Mick is there, and again I know even before it's clear that it's him. So much is unsaid here, just like Mick and Beth are with each other, and still the reader very much gets what is going on. And the way they both react is so true to the characters, and makes me kind of happy. Well done!!!

This is wonderful. So much unsaid, as francis pointed out, as they so often communicated. Beth horrified, and Mick glad. Yes, I can imagine just those reactions.

Lovely.

francis, starbucksjunkie,
Thank you both for the comments. I really enjoyed writing this piece. I wanted to lay the scene without handing over all the details. I am glad that it worked so well.

I like your writing so much, MoonShadow. It's like a sketch - the "negative space" defines the picture as much as the pencil marks do.

This is a lovely, poignant, hopeful, sweet little scene. I'm very glad you shared it with us.

Alle,
You say the loveliest things! I am so tickled that you saw the structure exactly the way that I wanted to convey it. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I love your writing, Moonshadow, the prose is like poetry. And I love the way you've presented this without ever making a direct statement of what is going on. This is indeed just the way that Mick and Beth communicate; what they don't say sometimes is so much more important than what is spoken.

MoonShadow wrote:The wind riffled the sheers wafting like ghostly banners in the silver bands of moonlight. Shadows danced over the golden strands of Beth’s hair spilt onto the white tile.
The beating of her heart reverberated in the ceramic coldness. He whispered her name as he knelt beside her.

This is such a beautiful reflection of Mick's entrance in Love Lasts Forever, with Beth crying and Mick slipping in past the curtains. Yet what a different scenario then takes place, as Mick takes her into his arms.

Their reactions to this are just perfect. It's so right that Beth would be distressed, thinking that this would hurt Mick, and that Mick would take it in stride and be happy. The little reference to Beth's earlier words about DNA is just perfect.

Having read "The Fallen Ones" also, I couldn't help but imagine what this would mean if the events of both stories were combined. In this one moment Beth would be having a child, and Mick would be having a great-grandchild . . . a fascinating possibility, I think . . .

Moonshadow

This. Is. Fabulous.

The scenario of Beth pregnant with Josh's child after his death from their brief reunion after Sleeping Beauty has occurred, I think, to a lot of us.

Thank you for doing justice to it. I certainly couldn't.

How I have been around this board for almost two years and missed this treasure is both almost beyond belief and a wonderful gift on a sleepy Saturday morning.

But now, upon reading about the other stories, I think I have a lot of additional reading to do.

It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Thank you!

Jenna

jenna

You made my night

Absolutely poetic, I was sheding tears without even knowing the reason why...When he appeared I felt such a relief...What a way to set them both off to a new future!

After the treasures I have discovered over the last couple of days, I am hanging out here for a while and I discovered this treasure again.

The one has occurred to me, but your short story here is perfect! How very Mick! He and Beth are married, the child is raised as his son and so Mick's condition gets a bit of cover. In time, this child will know the truth of his or her parantage, as they will need to be aware of the genetic package that they truly carry.

What a wonderful series could come from this little short piece.

Just sayin'

this piece still makes me so very sad.
Beth is still mourning Josh's death as she should be. But here is such an unexpect twist to her life.
I've often thought of the families left behind in cases of such tragedy and wanted to select a single thread. To give voice, tell the story, of how to living have to do just that!
Go on living.

I'm so happy to be revisiting this beautiful piece. It's as much a poem as a story; your words are so lovely, and so well chosen to suggest without explicitly telling the story. There are many echoes of things we saw on the show, but none of them feel out of place or awkward. They are just perfectly placed little jewels in this perfect little artwork of a story.

And while I understand that it makes you sad, it takes me on a journey through sadness and heartache and yearning, and then to hope and love and the promise of a future. That's what makes it so wonderful, I think--there is such a process here. We move through it all with Beth, suffering with her, being fearful and guilty and heartbroken. And then when Mick comes, and whispers her name, and takes her in his arms, he helps her past the bad and shows her that this is a chance at a beginning for both of them. And also a way for Josh to live on, and for them to honor him.

I get a lump in my throat when I read this, but it's a sort of happy sadness. A very Moonlight sort of story. Because love is never easy in Moonlight, but it's worth the effort.

You are so sweet and kind with your words, Allegrita.
It warms my heart to listen to you talk about Moonlight, and I agree. Love was never easy Moonlight just proved that it was worth the struggle.