From: Abby Subject: dtd: welcome back, knight ok, here's mine... i guess. Thanks Lisa for letting me use you! Nick slammed the refridgerator door behind him as he finished off the bag of blood. His old loft was exactly how he left it three years before. Except... Something _was_ different. He turned around slowly, surveying everything. The room, it was cleaner than he had left it. Even the scorch marks that LaCroix had caused long ago were gone. The elevator door opened and shut, but no one was there to say hi. Not even Nat. "What is going on here?" Nick asked the walls. The mess he had left when he had rushed his packing was gone. The empty bottles he had strewn about as he had used them up were stacked artistically into a pyramid in the corner. "The apartment is clean, that's what is going on here," a female voice said from his old bedroom. "And, I'll tell you it wasn't easy. I would have thought that someone who had lived 800 years would know what to do with a vacuum cleaner, or at least a broom! It took me nearly a year just to get all of the gunk collecting in the corners." Nick flew up to the second floor, so he wouldn't make any noise. He alighted right in front of his bedroom in time to see a girl standing on his bed, painting his walls. She looked familiar, but he couldn't place where he'd seen her before. Moving slightly to catch he attention, Nick watched as she brushed an off-white paint onto his drab walls. Unfortunately, when he moved, he caused a dark shadow to cross the wall which scared the girl, making her, and her paint tray, slip on the plastic mat covering the bed. "Great! Now look at what you've done!" Standing up, she showed Nick the paint that had fallen in her thick, brown hair. "Do you know what it takes to get paint out of my hair?" "I... I have absolutely no idea," he replied, dumfounded at her attitude, and still not sure who she was. "Yeah, well, I'll be back in a sec." The mystery girl went straight to his bathroom sink and tried to rinse as much paint as she could from her hair. "Why don't you try the shower?" "You might like the wet T-shirt look. But trust me, I don't." She replied curtly. She looked into the mirror, her brown eyes meeting his blue. "You still haven't figured out who I am, have you?" "Uh, sure I know who you are! How are you doing?" Nick asked, hoping that she'd give out a little information about herself so he could really figure out who she was. Choosing to ignore his last comment, she continued, "Well, I suppose you might not recognize me. I mean, the last couple of times we've met I was usually pretty hammered. But, I'm much better now!" She waited, but he still didn't seem to recognize her. "I'm Lisa. Lisa McDavid." He stepped back. "You're a Cousin." "You say that as if it's a bad thing, Nicky." His expression at the use of his name caused her to change tracks. "Ok, you don't like being called Nicky. I can live with that. It won't be a fun life, but oh well." She looked up at him again. He still wasn't smiling. She came back into the bedroom, toweling off her hair with a mauve towel. "What? What is that?" "It's a towel. You know, you dry wet body parts with it... At least, I hope _you_ do." "I _know_ what a towel is! But, why is it here? And why are you here?" Nick asked impatiently. "I'm painting your room... Sheesh. Silly question." She looked up at him through her wet hair, apparently he wasn't buying this line either. Lisa sighed heavily, "Look, Nat and I are friends. She asked me to keep an eye on your place while I took some classes up here. And then, after I decided to stay in town for a while, she said I could live here. She said she didn't have the heart to watch this place after you left... There were too many memories." Nick sat down heavily on the bed next to Lisa. "So..." He looked at her seriously. "Is Nat ok?" "You know she is! Everyone knows you've had your little Knighties and NatPackers watching her." "You say Knightie as if it were a bad thing," Nick said, almost smiling. Lisa relaxed a little. "Yes, she's fine. She just didn't think you'd be coming back until next week... And she wasn't even sure you'd come back then. After the way you two left..." Nick nodded, his head turned away so Lisa couldn't see the bloody tears rolling down his face. *Great! I've sent him off into another flashback!* Lisa's mind reeled at her unfortunatness. ********************************************************** Three years back Nick rushed around his apartment throwing what was probably very valuable artifacts into cardboard boxes littering his living room. He wasn't going to take everything. His piano would be better used by Natalie. It had never occurred to him to ask her if she could play. He thought she would have told him. But, it took him coming home early one night and sneaking up on her with his piano for her to come out with the truth. The truth that she had always loved playing, but her parents made her stop and go into a 'real profession.' Well... It explained why she insisted on having keys to his apartment. The front door slammed open, but Nick didn't hear it. His mind was on other things, like what to do with all the left-over blood. It wouldn't keep while he was gone, and while he knew some vampires who would appreciate the bag lunches, Nick didn't know anyone that wanted the cow's blood. Turning around to dump some original Shakespeare into a box, he finally saw Natalie standing in the doorway, crying. "Nat," he began. "Don't 'Nat' me! You were going to leave without... Without, me!" She stared at him, her eyes swollen red. "We discussed this already. I have to go. Alone. I started this long before I met you, and I have to finish this before we can make something together." "You are naive, Nick. Stay. We can work around any unfinished business from your past," Natalie reasoned. "No. I'm a big boy, in case you hadn't noticed. I need to deal with this on my own. I have to find out why Janette, Schanke, and Cohen disappeared without a trace!" Nick grabbed his suitcase from next to the piano and headed towards the door. Nick's last glimpse of Nat was of her crying in the middle of his living room. ************************************************************ Present Lisa brushed through her now dry hair. "Are you done yet?" "Huh?" Lisa grabbed him by his hand and led him to the second floor balcony. Pointing down she said, "Nick, I present Miss.