The characters of Forever Knight was created by Parriott, Cohen, et al., and is owned
and copyrighted by Sony/Tristar.
************************************************************************
Two Thousand Midnights
Copyright 1997
by Bonnie Rutledge
Two thousand midnights
are not so many,
A small sum to share
when a hundred-fold
fettered black with despair
have soldiered past.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"What the hell?"
Those were the first words Nick ever heard her say. Not a very auspicious beginning to
say the least. A dropped phone, a startled exclamation, and they were on a roll.
He remembered cupping her jaw with a smoke-stained hand, her skin soft and fragile
beneath his touch. Her eyes were wide, but not with fear. Somehow he knew this woman
wasn't afraid of what he was, and the thought pulled on Nick like the moon pulling the
tides.
He told her to forget. Maybe it was his voice cracking as he spoke, or maybe there was
something intrinsic to his tone that said, "I do not want to go." Perhaps it was just his luck
that she was a resistor.
Bad luck, good luck - Nick still didn't know - but as he ran from the Coroner's Office
into the shadows once more, he had known he would see her again.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Two thousand dawns
are meaningless to count
if each ends the same:
dark swims with light -
no need to name
the stone without exception.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The next night he was there, observing her movements. He argued with his conscience,
swearing that he only intended to find if there was any sign that she recalled a vampire
gracing her morgue the night before.
His conscience knew better. He wanted to see her bravery again. He wanted to see her
challenge the dead, asking who they were and how they came to be there. Nick wanted to
witness the fascination and the thrill of discovery light up her face.
The bodies came, the bodies went, and she opened each black bag with the
determination of a general. Her fingers moved swiftly between her instruments and notes,
pausing now and then to the brim of the white baseball cap that kept her hair restrained.
She would stop and stretch, her arms pulling at each other, yet never take her eyes from
her work.
She had visitors from time to time - live ones - or the phone would ring, and her face
would spark in greeting and seem to light the room. Her laughter was a bright sound, and
she laughed often when she wasn't alone.
He watched her for hours, and if she knew then, she gave no sign.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Two thousand sunsets
are overwhelming much
rising alone to greet
a deserted loft,
shadowed without the sweet
bright smile of welcome.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Sometimes Nick wondered what would have become of him had he never caught that
pipe bomb, never opened his eyes to the sight of her honey hair framed by blue tiles. If he
never approached her again, brushing her sleeve and catching her eye as he walked past,
would they have shared a fate anyway?
The second time she spoke to him, her words were, "You're testing me
to see if I've forgotten."
The truth was he tested himself to see if he could forget - but she hadn't known that.
Instead she offered him help coupled with her science and force of will. Presented with
another chance at a cure, it tempted him and made him wary.
He had attempted this quest before, and it had always cost him dearly. While he
tentatively accepted her aid, he wondered what the price would be. Then she introduced
herself, and he said her name for the very first time.
"Hello, Natalie. I'm Nick...Nick Knight."
Sometimes Nick wondered what the future could have held if he had refused her rescue
and turned away. Would he have found her again despite the difference? Softly and with
certainty, his heart answered in a firm 'yes'.
Those were the times Nick remembered he still had faith and a soul.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Two thousand evenings
are too few an amount,
when the first sight
of your angel brilliant eyes
streaming my way in delight
makes warmth cloister this hollow heart.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Nick! What are you doing here already?" Natalie wiped her gloves on her apron
before moving to take them off. "I thought you didn't start at the Twenty-Seventh until
next week?"
"You're right, Nat, I don't. I have a problem - a new problem. I was moving a few
things into that loft space I bought, and I found this." Nick lifted a tiny object from his
coat pocket. It was covered in gray fur and curled up to lie comfortably in his palm,
making small sounds of protest when exposed to the morgue's fluorescent lighting. "I
couldn't find a mother cat. I don't know what to do."
She was instantly concerned, examining the kitten with gentle fingers before answering
Nick's questioning stare. "His eyes aren't open yet. We should keep him warm and feed
him. I bet I could rustle up something around here to make a nest, and I have a friend with
Animal Health that I can call."
Natalie found the bottom of a cardboard box that had carried her takeout dinner and
lined it with a towel, then wrapped the ends loosely over the tiny mewling form. Once it
was cocooned in darkness again, the infant drifted off to sleep.
Within an hour, Natalie had a technician bringing her cans of formula, droppers, and
more. A few minutes more had Nick performing the bottle-feeding as Natalie showed him
how to transform two weeks' worth of kitten into a pet named Sidney.
That was when he first believed she could bring him back to life.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Two thousand days
are too numerous apart,
for the yearning, the call
of mortal confection.
A newfound soul in its thrall
is still a prisoner to the sun.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The kernels flew through the air, pelting his face and chest.
"Stop it!" Natalie ordered, her voice muffled by a mouthful of popcorn.
He grinned while she swallowed and cleared her throat.
"Just for that, you have to watch 'The Wizard of Oz' with me. I'm not kidding,"
Natalie insisted when Nick grinned even wider.
"I believe you. It's just that I *like* 'The Wizard of Oz'. I feel like the Tin Man."
She smiled softly. "The Tin Man didn't need a wizard to grant him a heart - he had one
all along."
Nick picked up a couple pieces of popcorn scattered on the sofa cushions and
irreverently tossed them back at Natalie. "I know."
That's when he knew that he loved her.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Two thousand nights
are shy of six years
and what I seek:
Forever, but not forever.
Your hope pure, your doubt weak,
I wrap my arms about you.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"An apple a day keeps the coroner away."
"Why would I want to do that?"
He'd been empty, a blank slate, yet drawn to her all over again. Didn't that speak
volumes for Fate?
Anytime he had threatened to leave, Nick had simply been lying to himself. He would
have come back - to lose his fingers through the curls of her hair or to savor her radiating
warmth as he held her tight. He wouldn't stay away if he could taste the sweet home held
within her lips once more.
He hadn't a choice. He hadn't a chance.
Natalie had been crushed when they didn't achieve a cure during that attempt. She
tried to hide her disappointment and act as though nothing had changed, but Natalie was
changing. She was growing tired. The distance between her smiles became far and few in
between.
For eight centuries, he had existed on borrowed time, and time was running out.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Two thousand midnights
are dwindling to none.
Kissed softly to slumber
we're a broken crusade
It is over, but not over -
what is Time to Eternity?
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Have you ever had faith in anything but yourself?" he says.
Natalie lies silent and pale before him, fading quickly away, and he thinks again in this
moment about her first words, her first smile, their first kiss. Two thousand nights still
hum through his veins, replaying each scene from start to finish. It was too much. It
wasn't enough. There would never be enough.
Nick feels the tears press at his eyes when he leans over her again. Natalie's scent still
lingers, and he breathes it in deeply as his lips brush another kiss against her cooling
cheek. He stands straight once more, his body shaken, but his will certain. There will be
more for them - this thought rings in his head and soothes his soul.
He turned his gaze from her body, looking instead at a staff carved from wood that
leaned against the wall. Moving to pick it up, he noted the tapered end with grave
acceptance.
Nick knew he would be with Natalie forever.
******************************************************************
End
(
geocities.com/~br1035)