This is my first attempt at fiction, so please be kind. 

Okay, anyone still with me?<G> There are spoilers ahead for Last
Knight. 

Nick and Co. are the property of J.P. and Co.. I am only
borrowing them for a little while. I promise to give them back
when I'm done.

Many thanks to those with kind words of encouragement. Special
thanks to Calliope. She graciously allowed me to borrow her idea
of Joe Reese coming to the loft after the events of Last Knight.
It was her story, 'Out There' that made me write this down. I
hope you enjoy. 

Puzzles Part 1/3 
by Kathy Whelton 

"101 Gateway, this must be the place," mumbled Joe Reese as he
looked skeptically at the darkened, factory-like building. The
guys at the precinct had said it was a little off the beaten
path, but this was ridiculous. Reese managed to find a door that
was slightly ajar.

He made his way up the dimly-lit staircase and pushed open a door
at the top of the stairwell. The entrance opened to a large room,
lit only by the embers still glowing in the fireplace. "Knight?"
he called "Nick, are you here?" Reese ventured in slowly. By the
stories he had heard about this place, this looked right, but...
"What the hell??" 

As his eyes became accustomed to the low light, he became aware
of two inert forms lying on the floor in front of the fireplace.
His initial impression, that they were sleeping, passed quickly
as he made his way over to them. Reese was able to see that the
bodies were those of Nick Knight and Natalie Lambert. 

Reese gasped as he made out the form of a large wooden staff
protruding from the chest of the detective. Nick was stone cold
and appeared to be dead. Shifting his attention to Natalie, he
could hear the sounds of her shallow, ragged breathing. He placed
his hand up to her carotid artery to feel for a pulse. His
fingertips met with a sticky, wet substance. He turned her head
and noticed two small puncture wounds on the left side of her
neck. A small trail of blood had run down her neck and formed a
pool under her head.

Blackness. Nick slowly became aware of the fact that someone else
was in the room. He tried to focus, to put aside the searing pain
in his chest. Joe Reese? What the hell was he doing here? He
could see Reese's large form, bent over Natalie's body. Nick
slowly became aware of the rapid, fluttery beating of her heart.

She's not dead--the realization hit him with full force. His
lips struggled to form the words. "She's not dead, Reese. She's
not dead!" came the ragged whisper.

Reese whirled about. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Pull...this...out," Nick whispered.

"Stay calm," said Reese, more to himself than to anyone. "I'm
going to call for an ambulance."

"No." Nick managed a slightly more forceful tone. "No ambulance,
just pull this out." 

Reese stopped dead in his tracks. "Nick, don't be ridiculous, I
can't..." 

"You can and you must. Pull this..thing out of my chest, take
Natalie and go. I'll be fine, there is no other way," he begged
"Please..." 

"What do you mean you'll be fine? How could you be fine?" It was
slowly dawning on Joe Reese that this situation was even more
bizarre than it appeared. Puncture marks on Natalie's neck. What
could only be described as a stake through Knight's chest. Nick's
insistence that Reese leave him here alone, and that he would be
fine. 

Reese staggered backwards, his mind swimming with impossible
thoughts. Then, taking control, he steeled himself. He reached
around to Nick's back and grabbed the end of the shaft. Putting
his considerable weight behind it, Reese pulled mightily. He felt
his stomach churn at the sickly, wet sound of the stake being
withdrawn and the agonized shriek that emanated from Nick's
mouth. It was done. 

A deafening silence descended on the loft once more. An
incredulous Reese looked on as Nick slowly propped himself up on
his hands and knees, swaying unsteadily. Nick kept his head bowed
praying that Reese would not see the yellow glow of his eyes.
"Take her and go," he instructed. "Get her out of here."

Reese swept Natalie up in his arms and fled the loft. Nick
dragged himself to the fridge, he managed to down the better part
of a bottle before he was swept once more into oblivion.

~~~~~~~

Reese's car squealed to a stop, nearly taking out the team from
the emergency room that had gathered to meet them. The scene
inside the ER was pandemonium. There always seemed to be a little
more tension when they were working on one of their own.

Reese stood silently in the doorway to the trauma room, watching
as they worked diligently on Natalie's still form. "Her
hematacrit is nine!" A voiced called across the crowded room.
Apparently her blood loss was far more than what could be
accounted for by the blood on Knight's floor.

"I want four units of emergency release packed cells STAT while
they work on getting her crossmatched." A hurried nurse finally
took note of Reese's presence--the doors were closed, leaving Joe
Reese alone in the waiting area.

It seemed like he should call someone--he just didn't know who.
Natalie didn't have any family that he was aware of and her
closest friend was sitting across town with a hole in his chest.
Reese shook off the thought--he didn't want to go there, not now,
anyway. 

After what seemed like an eternity, a weary looking resident
appeared and approached Reese in the waiting area. "We have her
stabilized and we're moving her to ICU. She lost a *lot* of
blood. We won't know for a while what her long term prognosis is.
A lot depends on how long she was hypotensive. There is the
possibility of long term complications,kidney, brain damage. We
just don't know yet. You said that you found her in an alley?"
queried the resident.

"Yeah, that's right, outside a friend's apartment," Reese
responded unenthusiastically.

"Well, the only injuries we could find on her were those puncture
marks on her neck. Strange," pondered the doctor. "She's a lucky
woman to have made it this far, maybe her luck will hold."

"Yeah, right, lucky."

~~~

Reese slumped in a chair in Natalie's room. He had made the right
calls, said the right things--now he just had to decide what the
right thing was. Everything he knew about Nick Knight swam in his
head. His "allergy" to sunlight. His eccentric, sometimes erratic
approach to cases. That had been particularly true in the last
few months. Had he ever seen Nick eating or drinking anything?
Not that he could recall. Nick certainly never joined in when the
night shift went out for breakfast, or met the guys for a few
drinks on their night off.

"It just cannot be." His mind rebelled. "Vampires just don't
exist,pure and simple. Certainly not in Toronto in 1996." And why
a cop? Reese thought of the good things that Nick was responsible
for. Nick had saved his life the night that Vudu blew up the
police stations.  Come to think of it, hadn't Knight said he
*flew* to the station that night? It was Nick that Reese had
turned to for help with that Jordan Manning mess a couple of
months ago, and Nick had been there for him.

No, none of this fit, none of the pieces of the puzzle seemed to
fit together. Where did Natalie Lambert come into this? Nick and
Natalie's long term relationship had been the subject of much
speculation for the department rumor mill. Did they or didn't
they? Who cares--that had always been his attitude on the matter.
Now perhaps he needed to think about it a bit more.

Nick had nearly killed her. She certainly would have died if he
hadn't arrived when he did. Did she figure out the truth about
him? Could it possibly have been Natalie that had driven the
stake into Nick Knight's chest? Reese shifted uncomfortably in
his seat. Perhaps he had made a mistake in saving Knight. If he
could do this to Natalie after all their years of friendship,
what else might he be capable of? What might he do to keep his
secret? Reese glanced outside, the shadows against the side of
the building were getting longer.

~~~~~~~

Reese's Baptist upbringing had not placed much importance on
religious symbols. He was suddenly feeling the need to expand his
horizons. Reese found the hospital chapel without too much
difficulty. Fortunately, the place was deserted. He just wasn't
up to inventing any more stories. A cross, holy water, what else?
He suddenly wished he had paid more attention to those horror
movies that his kids watched.

He glanced outside as he resumed his watch over Natalie Lambert.
It was starting to get dark out there and he had been up for the
better part of thirty-six hours. He wasn't getting any younger
as Denise liked to remind him. He could feel a weariness in him
that seeped right through to his bones.

The strain of the last two days was beginning to tell on Joe
Reese. Despite his growing sense of dread, he was starting to
have trouble keeping his eyes open. He found himself drawn into
the rhythmic beeping of the monitors and Natalie's steady
breathing. Ten PM--what was he still doing here? Perhaps it was
the feeling that Natalie Lambert deserved more than she had
gotten, that she needed him. Regardless, sooner or later he was
going to have to leave, to go home and get some sleep and hope
that all this would have gone away when he woke up. Slowly he
fingered the cross he had taken from the hospital chapel.


Reese's eyes flew open. He looked at the clock--eleven-thirty PM.
He had fallen asleep. Suddenly, he became aware that someone was
standing behind him. Reese jumped to his feet. The crucifix that
he had been holding clattered to the floor and skittered halfway
across it.

In the doorway, silhouetted by the light from the hall, stood a
tall figure dressed in black. Nicholas Knight stepped into the
room, the soft glow of light from the monitors illuminated his
impassive features. "Ah...you won't be needing that, Captain,"
Nick stated softly, indicating the fallen crucifix with a nod of
his head. "This is already beginning to play a bit too much like
a bad B-movie for my taste."

"Knight...I..." 

In the bed across the room, Natalie stirred. For some time, she
had been drifting in and out of consciousness, vaguely aware that
Joe Reese was keeping watch at her bedside. The sound of voices
finally summoned her from her sleep. "Nick, is that you?" she
whispered hoarsely. Weakly she lifted her hand out to him.

"I'm here, Nat." Nick quickly skirted Reese and the cross. He
grabbed her hand and held it tight. His cold hand in her warm
one.

Dropping down on one knee, he brushed his lips against the back
of her hand. He started slowly. "I... am... so... sorry, I just
couldn't stop myself."

"Shush, don't, I know," murmured Natalie as she brushed her hand
against his cheek. "Don't blame yourself, it was my decision too.
I asked you to make love to me." Natalie dropped her voice even
lower. "What is Joe Reese doing here?"

"More has happened than you probably realize. Reese saved your
life, both our lives, really. I think he's here to protect
you...from me. I can hardly fault him for that, now can I, given
the circumstances."

Reese stepped back. The pieces of the puzzle were beginning to
fall into place. What he saw were two people very much in love.
Two people with a big problem. 

"Peaches!" Natalie suddenly exclaimed. "Life is like a ripe
peach." 

"So I've been told."

Nick spun suddenly and in a flash was face-to-face with Joe
Reese. He could hear the rapid beating of the Captain's heart. "I
appreciate all that you've done for us, but you *will* forget all
you have seen and heard." 

Joe Reese's eyes wavered for a minute but then cleared. Nick
groaned inwardly, not another one.

"I almost did forget what I came to tell you last night--Tracy
Vetter isn't dead."

The End


Comments welcome
Kathy 
103045.2473@Compuserve.com