This story is dedicated to Soul for her wedding on Aug 9, 1997 Congratulations Laura! May yours last as long as mine. I'm on 19 years and still counting. Needless to say, I don't own Nick or Nat. Sony still has the rights to them the last time I checked. I'll just borrow them one more time and return them a little better off than they left them. Second Thoughts by StormyNite 1997 He watched her from the distance as she walked slowly on the beach carrying her sandals in her right hand and pushing her long brown hair away from her face with the other. She walked in the surf just far enough for the waves to lap over her feet and flip the froth of the sea water on her long skirt that whipped carelessly in the wind. She had been here last night the same as he. He watched her from the pier as he sat waiting and listening. This was the right place and the right time. Every fiber of his being told him that. He continued to watch her and wonder what brought such a lovely young woman out so late at night alone. She walked for miles along the beach and sat quietly on the group of rocks that jutted up on the shore down near the old hotel that was abandoned several years ago. She sat for hours last night and finally walked back to the hotel at the other end of the beach. Tonight she sat again on the rocks as the waves crashed into the shore and something inside compelled him to speak with her. He had learned over a year ago, that life was to short not to go with your feelings. That's why he was here on the beach tonight waiting. -------- As she walked slowly in the surf, letting the ocean tickle her toes, Laura wondered why she was here. It was the night before her wedding and she was walking on the beach, alone with her thoughts. She walked last night and the ocean had such a calming effect that it helped her to think. Maybe that's why she told Frank, she needed to take a walk. It had been a long summer with the war, her job, being listmommy to the NNPack and planning the wedding. So here she was walking on the beach wondering if she was doing the right thing. After all...she'd made it this long without being married. Her life was full and she was happy most of the time....so why get married? She and Frank could just live together. After all this is the 90's. People still did that. Then she let her mind drift to Frank....and she knew why. She loved him beyond all things imaginable, beyond rational thought just like Natalie loved Nick. Odd that would come to mind, Laura thought as she splashed through the surf finally settling on top of the rocks and removing her sandals. Then she saw him walking slowly toward her. Laura thought she should have been scared, here on the beach at 2am in the morning, but there was something familiar about him. It was the way he walked or the way the moon shimmered in his blonde hair that she knew he was a friend. As he drew near and stopped at the foot of the rocks, Laura gasped in recognition. "I'm not going to hurt you." He took her gasp as fear and automatically stepped back a few paces. She dropped her sandals and they fluttered to the beach in front of his feet. When she found her voice, she stuttered slightly. "You're Nick....Nick Knight!" She stared at him in amazement. Nick leaned over and picked up her sandals and handed them back to her. "Have we met?" "Yes....No....Oh,....I mean....sort of." Laura was having a tough time getting the words out. Here was the man she had written about, dreamed about, and started a whole list for, standing right here before her. This couldn't be happening but there he stood in front of her wearing tight blue jeans and that great pink shirt he wore in "Games Vampires Play". Jeez, she loved that shirt. His blue eyes were like diamonds sparkling against the moonlight as his blonde hair ruffled in the wind. He was even better looking in person than on TV. He smiled that boyish smile that always turned her to jelly and climbed up on the rocks beside her. "Well, you for some reason know my name, so how about filling me in on yours." Laura offered her hand to him as she spoke. "Laura McMillian but you can call me Soul. That's what all my friends on the net call me. Sort of like a nickname but...." "....but it fits your eyes and your heart." Nick finished the sentence for her. "Yeah! How'd you know?" "I watched you last night and tonight. Everything about you from the way you walk, to the way you flip that long brown hair in the wind says you have heart. You have soul, yet you are seeking something just like me. What is it you seek.... Soul?" Nick let his voice trail off as he looked out to the ocean and watched the moonlight dance across the breakers as they washed slowly over the reef and up onto the beach. He waited for an answer. Soul turned her attention back to the ocean and watched as well. How could he know what she felt. She didn't even know why she was out here until she finally knew. "Answers, Nick. I'm seeking answers." "I'm getting married tomorrow, here on this beach and I guess I just needed time to...." "Put the doubts behind you." He was getting very good at finishing her sentences. "Yes. I guess that's what I'm doing." She stared at his profile as he gazed longingly out to sea and then she realized something. "You're waiting, aren't you Nick....Waiting for Natalie?" Sadness washed over his face as she said Natalie’s name and she knew. A single tear escaped his eye and slid silently down his face as he spoke. "Over a year ago, she asked me to have faith in myself and in her....but I had doubts. We had been through so much, and I was scared of hurting her worse than I already had. When my partner, died I knew I couldn't stay any longer or I would end of destroying both her and myself. She wouldn't let me go. She loved me enough to risk everything for us to be together. She ask me to make love to her that night, to be one with her and share everything that she felt....everything that I was. I loved her beyond anything I had ever known, but doubt gripped my heart and crippled me. I was afraid if she saw the real me, she would run screaming the other way." His voice faded slightly and another tear escaped his eyes as he relived that night all over again. "She had faith....faith in me, faith in our love, faith in God! Something I thought I'd lost long ago." Nick rested his head on his hands as they sat on top of his knees in front of him. "....but, when you tasted her blood, you knew. You knew she loved you for the man you are now, not what you were, and that none of what happened in the past mattered." Soul touched the tear that slid down his cheek and rubbed it gently on her skirt. They were the clear tears of loss and pain, not that of a vampire any longer. "All my doubts disappeared with the first taste of her blood. Her love washed over me and through me to the point that nothing else mattered after that. We were one then...as we shall be forever. I made a choice that night for both of us. One that it has taken me over a year to come to terms with. I chose to be with her forever in the light, but LaCroix would not let that be. I asked him to end the darkness and let me walk into the light but he couldn't do it. For the first 6 months, I tried walking into the sun everyday. Everyday he would stop me until the pain was so unbearable that I was sure I was already dead until finally....I knew." Nick turned his clear blue eyes to Soul's. "I knew that the doubts that I had were normal. They made me look at my choices, the whole picture. If I hadn't had doubts then I couldn't have seen the answer. Love is....both the question and the answer. It's what makes us mortal. Love can conquer anything, anyplace, anytime. I know that so I have waited." Nick turned back to the ocean watching the far breakers as the waves hit the reef and a mist sprayed up softly into the night air bringing a smile to his face. Soul watched the breaker and saw a form rise out of the mist and walk toward the shore. Nick rose quickly as she walked slowly out of the crashing waves. Her hair was a mass of chestnut curls blowing gently around her face as the mist from the sea dampened the long flowing gown that she wore. When the moonlight touched her face a radiant smile crossed her lips and the light of love danced in her eyes. Nick turned quickly. "Goodbye, Soul...remember us." Nick leaned over and kissed Soul's cheek and whispered. "Love is...both the question and the answer." Nick jumped down from the rocks and ran toward the figure. When he reached her their eyes, lips and bodies meshed as one. Two lovers embracing in the surf filled with love and passion for all eternity. Soul sighed with happiness as Frank touched her shoulder from the side. "Laura?" Soul turned to see her fiance' standing by the rocks. She reached her hand toward his and he helped her down. She wrapped her arms around his neck and then kissed him deeply. When she released his lips, she placed her head on his shoulder and let his warm embrace cradle her in his love as they stood silently on the beach. "You're having second thoughts?" He said softly as he held her tight and buried his head in her hair. "It's a big step and I...." Soul pulled her head off his shoulder, touched her finger to his lips and then replaced them with hers. When she broke the kiss, she smiled up into his beautiful face. "I love you, Frank. Any seconds thoughts I had are all washed away...now....and forever." Frank smiled with relief and kissed her once again. "Let's go back to the hotel and continue this further." Soul locked her arm around his waist and smiled wickedly. Frank pulled her closer as Soul glanced over her shoulder to the beach...to find it empty once again. The End Congratulations Soul!!! May your wedding be as beautiful as your spirit and the light of love that shines in your heart!!! All comments to: StormyNite**nitewind@www.plantnet.com** ***Defender of the Eternal Flame of Hope***Light Cousin**** ****NN Packer to the End and Hopelessly Hopeful Romantic**** ***Only Love is Forever and Death Shall Have No Dominion*** ***If I start talking about wellness and unwellness love***shoot me.*** >http://www.geocities.com/Area51/2012 FK SciFi Window >http://www.geocities.com/Area51/2012/Fiction.html StormyNite Fiction >http://www.geocities.com/Area51/2012/SciFi.html StormyNite Cool Page >http://www.geocities.com/Area51/7160/HTML.html HTML Beginners Guide